Sword of Light (11 page)

Elphin smiled. “Try telling Rhia that. I think she enjoys scaring us.”

Rhianna laughed in relief and slipped the
sword under her saddle flap so it wouldn’t accidentally cut anyone. “Cai! Are we glad to see you. What took you so long?”

Explaining breathlessly how they’d come across Mordred’s broken standard and chased his scattered men through the wood, Cai led them back to the path, where they found the three knights with their rescued property. Two of Mordred’s bloodbeards lay dead in the mud. Groaning on his knees at the sharp end of Sir Agravaine’s lance, a third nursed a broken arm. The others, including the bloodbeard captain with the dark fist, must have got away.

Sir Bors looked to be fully recovered. He strode across to Rhianna and seized her by the arm. “You idiot girl! You little fool!
What did you think you were doing, going off alone like that?”

Furious tears sprang to Rhianna’s eyes. She tried to tug out Excalibur to show him. But the big knight gripped her wrist and shook her hard.

“Never do that again!” His glare included Elphin.

“We rescued you from the Saxon camp!” Rhianna yelled back, her eyes flashing just as dangerously as the knight’s. “If it hadn’t been for us, you’d still be back there in the hands of Mordred’s bloodbeards! Besides, you were asleep. We couldn’t ask you to show us where you threw away the sword, could we?”

“She has a point, Bors,” Sir Bedivere said, fighting a smile. “I did tell her to wait until you woke up, but you know the young. Impatient as always.”

“You could have been killed,” the knight said in a choked tone, unexpectedly putting his big arm around Rhianna and crushing her in an awkward hug. “Then what would I have told Merlin when he turns up?”

Rhianna eyed Elphin over his shoulder, wondering if any of them would ever see Merlin again.

Sir Bors let her go and examined her for damage. “By some miracle you seem to be in one piece,” he muttered. “But from now on, I’m not letting you out of my sight. This…” he held up Elphin’s harp bag, “… stays with me until we’re safely inside the walls of Camelot.”

Elphin did not look happy, but Rhianna guessed his fingers would not be up to playing much magic for a while, anyway.

“Elphin won’t use it on you again, Sir Bors,”
she said sweetly. “He won’t have to, not now I’ve got Excalibur.”

Sir Bors went very still. The other two knights glanced at each other. Cai smiled. He’d seen the sword shining in the woods, but said nothing.

“How do you think I rescued Elphin from Mordred’s men?” she said just as sweetly, wriggling out of Sir Bors’ hug and lifting her saddle flap. Silver light shone across the path.

Sir Agravaine examined the sword, careful not to touch it. “It’s Excalibur all right,” he confirmed, looking at Rhianna differently.

Sir Bedivere smiled at her. “I thought those bloodbeards looked as if they’d seen a ghost. Well done, Damsel Rhianna.”

Sir Bors blinked at her and shook himself. “Right,” he grunted. “Wrap that sword back up,
and get this piece of filth on a horse. We’re taking the lot of you up to camp before anything else happens.”

As they rode, Rhianna straightened her armour over the sack-dress, which was at least cleaner after its dip in the lake, and tried to do something about her hair. This proved impossible without a brush. She settled for tying it into a frizzy ponytail with a length of ivy. She kept an eye on the trees, hoping for another glimpse of her father’s ghost, but saw only small birds and squirrels.

Towards evening, they passed a sentry with a muttered password, and saw fires glimmering ahead of them in the dusk. Soon they made out the dark shapes of tents. Lines of tall, strong
horses dozed nearby. They smelled smoke and roast boar, and heard men’s voices interrupted by angry shouts as tussles broke out. At Sir Bors’ command, two men dragged the prisoner off his horse and into a tent. “He might know where Mordred’s hiding out,” Sir Bors said. “Keep him alive.”

When the prisoner had gone, Rhianna quietly strapped the dragon shield to her arm and untied the wrappings about Excalibur. She slipped the golden torque she’d stolen from the Saxon chief round her neck. Then she gathered up her loose reins and lifted her chin. “Look regal, Alba,” she whispered.

I am too tired
, the mare complained.

“So am I, but this is important. Do you want those stallions over there to think you’re a scruffy Saxon pony?”

That did the trick. The little mare snorted, arched her neck and pranced obediently between the knights’ big horses. Sir Bedivere waved to his friends in the camp, while Sir Agravaine glared about him with a surly expression. Several of the men called after Sir Bors, demanding to know what he’d done with King Arthur’s body. Soon they had gathered quite a crowd, but they saw no women or girls. Battle-scarred men and a few older squires stared sullenly at Rhianna and the two mist horses.

“Who’s the damsel, Bors?” someone called, and there were one or two wolf whistles from the older squires. Sir Bors kicked away a lad who tried to take Alba’s rein. Elphin kept them away from her other side, his eyes purple and wary. Cai scowled dangerously at the boys in the crowd.

Rhianna clenched her jaw. She squeezed
Alba past the knights’ big horses and trotted to the front. She raised Excalibur over her head until the flames of the campfires reflected in the blade and made the white jewel glow. A little of her energy returned, though nothing like as fiercely as when she’d attacked the bloodbeards in the wood.

“I am Rhianna Pendragon!” she announced in her loudest voice. “And this is my father’s sword Excalibur, which the Lady of the Lake has given back to me!”

Silence fell over the clearing. The campfires crackled and spat sparks. Excalibur had brightened at the sound of her voice, but now looked like an ordinary sword again, its jewel dull in the gloom. People eyed it, muttering uneasily, “Can’t be Excalibur… I thought only Arthur could carry the Sword of Light…”
until even Rhianna began to doubt the sword’s magic. Her arm trembled with weariness, and she lowered the blade.

The men took this as a signal to grumble among themselves:

“
Who
did she say she was?”

“King Arthur’s dead, he ain’t coming back.”

“We’re finished. Nobody’s goin’ to drive the Saxons out now Arthur’s gone.”

“Mordred’s lot will be in Camelot come spring. We were better off under the Roman eagle, if you ask me.”

Rhianna clenched her fists. This wasn’t what she had imagined at all. Where were the proud banners, flashing armour and glittering lances she’d seen in Merlin’s song-pictures? These men looked like surly beaten villagers, not King Arthur’s great knights.

“I
am
Rhianna Pendragon,” she said again. “And my father is not dead. He’s sleeping in Avalon, waiting for me to take him his sword so he can return to lead you all again.”

The knights muttered uneasily. A few people laughed.

“Prove it,” somebody called.

“Yeah, what are you up to, Bors? Trying to tell us this is some daughter of Arthur’s? The king never had no daughter. We’d have known.”

“Maybe we wouldn’t, if Merlin had anything to do with it,” someone muttered, but she couldn’t see who had spoken.

“My mother’s trapped in Camelot by the Saxons,” Rhianna said, trying a new approach. “Even if you don’t believe who I am, your queen needs you.”

This raised another smattering of laughs.
“The queen don’t need us!” someone said. “Not when she’s got the brave Sir Lancelot to look after her.”

Rhianna frowned. She wondered who Lancelot was, but there was no time to think about that now.

“Shut up, you fool!” hissed another. “That’s Excalibur she’s holding, all right. What if the girl really is Arthur’s daughter? That means she’s heir to the Pendragon throne, don’t it?”

“She speaks the truth.” Elphin rode his horse up beside Alba and spread his blistered fingers so they could all see the extra ones. “I am Prince Elphin of Avalon, and I can confirm Damsel Rhianna is King Arthur’s daughter, brought to Avalon as a baby and raised there as my own sister.” He put magic in his voice, but without his harp it did not
reach very far through the suspicious crowd.

“The maid speaks the truth,” Sir Bors growled, dismounting. “And anyone who don’t believe it fights me, here and now!” He drew his sword. Sir Agravaine quickly planted his lance in the ground and joined him. Sir Bedivere, rolling his eyes in despair, drew his sword as well and stood with the other two knights.

Cai looked worried. “Please, Damsel Rhianna,” he said. “Don’t let ’em fight! Someone always gets hurt, and we squires are the ones who have to clean up after them.”

Rhianna glanced at Elphin. He quietly freed his harp from Sir Bors’ saddle. Wincing a bit, he strummed the strings. The Avalonian music rippled through the camp, making Excalibur shine again. The men at the front stood up straighter and smiled.

But Elphin’s fingers were obviously still too sore to work the magic properly. He shook his head and said, “Sorry, Rhia. You’ll have to think of something else.”

Rhianna eyed his mist horse and had an idea. “Can I borrow Evenstar?”

Her friend gave her a puzzled look, but dismounted and passed her the reins.

She urged Alba into the thickest part of the crowd, leading Evenstar on a long rein beside her. As she’d hoped, Elphin’s little horse misted a few times to avoid trampling people, making them blink and whisper uneasily.

“I’m sure my father wouldn’t want you to kill each other,” she said. “If any of you don’t believe I can use Excalibur and was raised in Avalon, then they can mount my friend’s horse and duel with me the Avalonian way.” She held Excalibur
in a fighting stance, hoping no one would take up her challenge or know enough about Lord Avallach’s people to realise nobody ever duelled there. “Well?” she demanded. “Any of you brave knights want to call me a liar?”

A few of the men looked sideways at Evenstar and muttered about fairy horses and their tricks. Others dropped their hands towards their swords, but did not draw them. As the red light reflected in her blade, a ghost moved in the corner of Rhianna’s eye. She couldn’t risk turning her head to look at it, but she grinned. Her father had not abandoned her.

“Crazy girl’s just like Arthur was as a boy!” a grizzled old knight muttered, breaking the tension. “Ready to fight us all, before he’d even had a day of training.”

“She does have Excalibur, though!”

“And a prince of Avalon to do magic for her. Let’s just hope he’s better at it than old Merlin was… ah, what’s the harm? I’ll believe the maid is who she says she is till someone tells me different.” He creaked down on one knee.

The others glanced at one another. “It’s Excalibur we serve, isn’t it?” someone else said, joining him. “I’ve not forgotten my oath to my king.”

One by one, the knights bent their knees to Rhianna. She stared at their bowed heads, seeing their greasy, tangled hair, but also seeing muscles bulging in the firelight, battle scars, well-oiled swords, and the occasional glint of gold around their necks under their ragged tunics. These men were more than villagers in rusty armour. They had fought many battles with her father, and – if the songs were true –
won all except the last one against her cousin Mordred.

She felt a bit embarrassed. “Oh, please get up,” she said. “I want you to fight the Saxons for me, not bow to me. King Arthur mightn’t be here to lead you, but his spirit is still in this sword. You’re going to win the next battle, I promise!” She reached for the stars with Excalibur, and the white jewel flamed with the energy of her voice.

It was the right thing to say. The knights cheered. Suddenly, men were slapping Sir Bors and Sir Agravaine and Sir Bedivere on the shoulders, congratulating the three knights on bringing Excalibur and Arthur’s daughter back to them. Even Cai got his arm gripped by the other squires, who all wanted to know what it had been like in Fairyland. Cai went off happily
to tell them wild stories over supper that Rhianna knew couldn’t be true.

“
Well done, daughter
,” a voice said in her ear.

Though she couldn’t see anything when she turned, a warm glow spread through her. It would be all right. As soon as they found Merlin they would take Excalibur back to Avalon, where it would be safe from Mordred until her father’s body healed. Then they would return together to deal with the dark knight, and no one would be able to say she was not King Arthur’s daughter.