Twist of the Blade (27 page)

Wally looked past Dr. Beaudry at Major, who was staring off into space, fingering the ruby stud in his ear.
Maybe I’m immune to his power now. Maybe that’s one of those special abilities he’s hinted at.
He felt a little thrill at the thought.

Dr. Beaudry took them back to the entrance of the cave, where the guards met them. Major looked at them and at Dr. Beaudry and said, his voice a little deeper and more resonant than usual, maybe, but otherwise perfectly normal, “Forget this boy was ever here.”

It was as if Wally had suddenly donned an invisibility cloak. Beaudry’s gaze slid past him as though he didn’t exist. He didn’t even seem to notice Wally removing his jumpsuit and tossing it on one of the camp beds. The guards behaved in the same blind manner.

Major and Wally trudged back up the cliff to the
waiting Mercedes, climbed in and drove away.

The drive passed in silence. Rex Major didn’t seem inclined to talk, and that suited Wally. With his head pressed against the cool glass of the window, watching the scenery flash by, Wally touched the bandage on his cheek, blood already soaking through it, the wound beneath burning like hot iron laid against his skin. He still couldn’t believe Ariane had done that to him. The blade had cut him only a little, but what if it had caught him in the throat? Even worse, she hadn’t even checked to see if he was all right, simply vanishing the moment she had the shard, leaving him to the mercy of the man she claimed to believe was evil incarnate.

And if she
really
believed that, she wouldn’t have dared leave me at all, would she?
he thought darkly.
Even
she
doesn’t fully believe what the Lady told us about Merlin. But she’s doing the Lady’s bidding all the same.

But not him. Not anymore.

Wally thought Rex Major had fallen asleep, but as the Mercedes turned onto the busy highway that would take them the last few kilometres into Lyon, he straightened and said to Wally, “Once we have had a doctor look at your wound, I think you should return to your own hotel. If Ariane comes looking for you, she will come there.”

“Won’t she just take the shard and head home?” Wally said. “If she were at all worried about
me
she wouldn’t have left me like that in the cavern.” He raised his hand to his cheek, wondering if he’d have a scar to match the one he’d probably have on his forehead.
Well
, he thought,
at least it won’t change how girls look at you, since they mostly don’t.

“I don’t think you’re being fair,” Merlin said, and that startled Wally so much he turned and looked directly at the sorcerer.

“You’re
defending
her?”

Major shrugged. “In a way. She’s becoming the Lady of the Lake...as cold, heartless, and selfishly single-minded as my ‘beloved’ sister. But she is not that
yet
. I think there’s still quite a bit of the girl she was just a few short weeks ago.” He paused. “Perhaps you didn’t notice, but just before she vanished, she had formed the water into a blade of ice: a blade in the shape of Excalibur. I think the shards wanted her to kill me with it. But she didn’t. There is
enough of Ariane left that she didn’t want to commit mur
der. And if that much of her remains, then, yes, I think she’ll go to your hotel and wait for you. I suspect she’ll want to apologize.”

Despite his anger at Ariane, despite his conviction they should be helping Merlin, not the Lady, Wally felt a chill. “You want me to accept her apology...and then steal the shard?”

“Wally,” Major said. “First of all, it isn’t stealing: the shard no more belongs to her than to anyone else. If anything, it belongs to the rightful heir of King Arthur. That means...” He paused. “Well, anyway, it doesn’t ‘belong’ to her, she just happens to have it. Second, we talked about this. This is for her own good.”

“And yours,” Wally pointed out.

Major smiled a little. “And mine, of course. Have I ever denied it? If the shards weren’t something I needed I wouldn’t even be here. But it will still benefit Ariane.” He leaned closer, his eyes on Wally’s, his voice warm and earnest. “You’ll not only be helping me get closer to my dream of a better world – a dream I know you share – you’ll also be helping save Ariane from being swallowed alive by the power of the Lady.”

Oh, you’re smooth
, Wally thought. But he didn’t disagree. He couldn’t. Ariane
wasn’t
the same as she had been. The way she’d hurt Flish, the way she’d hurt him...

He hated to think of Ariane transformed into something both more and less than human. That transformation had already begun. But maybe, by helping Major, he could slow or even stop it.

You’re supposed to be the loyal sidekick!
an inner voice yelled.
How can you throw in with the enemy?

Because he’s not really the enemy,
Wally snapped back.
The Lady of the Lake is. Sometimes the sidekick has to stop the heroine from making a terrible mistake. And that’s what I’m doing.

But there was still one thing he wanted to know for certain. “Why not just
order
me to do it, like you ordered Dr. Beaudry? I know you can, even without the shard.”

“Because I wanted a willing ally, not a slave.”

“What difference does it make to you, as long as you get the shard?”

Major looked at him silently for a moment, then glanced out the window as if debating what he should say. Finally, he turned. “The truth is, Wally, I can’t Command you. You, alone of everyone I have met in this present age, are impervious to that particular power.”

Wally felt another surge of excitement at hearing his suspicion confirmed. “Why?”

“As I told you earlier, I think there is more to you than meets the eye...much more. But until I can test my theory, I’d rather not say what it is. And to test it, I need the shards.” He shrugged. “But whatever the reason, that is the truth, Wally. And it doesn’t matter. Even if I could Command you, I wouldn’t. I want to guide you to the correct path, not force you along it. I want you to choose what is best for all of us – not just me and you, but Ariane, too. But I want you to choose it of your own free will.” He spread his hands. “I told you before, Wally. If you don’t feel you can trust me, you are free to go. I won’t stop you.”

Wally turned away to stare out the window again. He
wanted
to believe Major. Which was exactly why he didn’t quite dare to – not completely. What Major wanted him to think was the correct path was also the easiest one. Give in, let Major take charge, let a grown-up start making the decisions so he could go back to just being a teenager. It was tempting, a return to the easier years of childhood when his parents had taken care of everything….

But that didn’t mean it was right.

Didn’t mean it was wrong, either, though, and there was one thing Major wanted he
knew
he agreed with: they had to get the shards away from Ariane, before they destroyed her. And so….

He swallowed hard, then turned back to Major. “All right, I’ll do it. I’ll get the shard for you...
if
Ariane shows up at the hotel like you think she will. What if she doesn’t?”

“Then we will get it some other way,” Major said. “It might even be easier back in Canada. But if we can seize it here, we will.” He paused. “There’s something else you must know. Something about the shard. Something I don’t want Ariane to know. I hope you will take my telling it to you as another sign you can trust me.”

“What is it?” Wally said, intrigued.

Major leaned forward. “I can’t take the shard from her by force. She must give it away willingly. That’s why I took you hostage at the diamond mine instead of simply attacking her: once she had it, the only way I could get it was to convince her to give it to me. And that means you must ask her if you can hold the shard, and she must agree. Then you can give it to me. It’s the only way to preserve its power for my use instead of the Lady’s.”

Wally said nothing. The inner voice was shouting at him again.
How can you trick her like that? How can you lie to her like that?

But he shoved its misgivings and accusations aside. His mind was finally made up. For her own good, he would find Ariane...and he would get the shard for Merlin.

~~~

Ariane made it to Lyon without difficulty, emerging from a river under a bridge where no one would see her sudden appearance. She dried, then climbed up the bank to a road and went in search of a map.

Without money the only way she could get to the hotel was on foot, and the scale of the map she found at a nearby gas station proved to be deceiving. It had still been morning when she’d reached the city, though just barely, but it was late afternoon by the time she stood outside the Cœur de Lyon Hotel, which looked considerably grubbier than it had in the photos Aunt Phyllis had found in a travel magazine.

She walked past the front of the hotel, down the alley that ran beside it and the one that ran behind it, past dumpsters and the loading dock, listening to the water singing within the hotel...but there was nowhere in there she could materialize.

Across from the hotel, an ornamental fountain gurgled and splashed inside a small park. Ariane sat on a bench near the fountain so she would have a weapon close to hand if needed, and waited to see if Major would show up, with or without Wally.

And if he doesn’t?
she thought.

She looked up at the cloudless sky.
Then I’ll pray for rain
, she thought.
Or at least overcast...and figure out some other way to rescue Wally, back in Canada.

But just an hour later a smallish red-haired figure carrying a backpack strode into sight on the other side of the road. Ariane jumped up in disbelief. She looked both ways. There was no sign of Rex Major.

“Wally!” she shouted, and dashed across the street to join him, cutting
way
too close in front of a tiny three-wheeled delivery van and earning herself a honk (and a shout she didn’t understand and figured she was better off
not
understanding) from the fist-shaking driver.

Wally stopped when she yelled. Ariane wanted to throw her arms around him and give him a hug...but didn’t. There was no welcoming smile on his pale, drawn face. She skidded to a halt, suddenly feeling awkward. “How did you get away from...” Her question died in her throat as she spotted the square of gauze covering most of his left cheek. “Oh no! Did I do that?”

“Yeah,” Wally said. “The second shard cut me as it went past.” His voice sounded oddly strained.

Ariane felt a little sick. “Wally, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean....”

“I know you didn’t,” Wally said. He hitched his backpack a little higher onto his shoulders. “I was just in the way, that’s all.”

“Wally....”

“Never mind. It’s over.” He took a deep breath. “The important thing is you have the second shard.”

“And Major doesn’t,” Ariane said, relieved he understood. “How did you get away?”

“He took me to a hospital for stitches,” Wally said. He touched the gauze pad. “That makes twelve. Five on my forehead and seven on my cheek. I wonder how many more I can collect? Anyway, after the doctor left, I sneaked out a back door.” He looked up and down the street. “Let’s get inside. I don’t think Rex Major knows where we’re staying, but he could be checking out all the likely hotels. He might drive by at any minute.”

“And I desperately need to rest. And wash. And eat,” Ariane said. Her stomach grumbled. “I’m starving, I’m filthy, and I’m so exhausted I don’t think I could get home now even with
both
shards to draw on. Not that I’d go off and leave you to Major’s tender mercies,” she added hastily.
Not
again,
anyway
, remarked a snide voice inside her.

“We’re checked in,” Wally said. He didn’t seem to have heard what she’d said.
Or else he’s ignoring me
, Ariane thought. He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out an old-fashioned brass key. “But I haven’t actually been to the room.” A flicker of the old Wally grin flashed across his face. “Wait’ll I tell the guys back home I shared a room in France with a girl.”

Ariane laughed, relieved to hear him joke. “They’d never believe you.”

Wally’s grin faded. “No,” he said. “They wouldn’t.”

They went into the small dark lobby and straight to the elevators. Nobody at the front desk took any notice of them, although they were neither exactly at their best. Wally at least had worn overalls over his jeans and T-shirt while in the cavern, but Ariane...it didn’t seem fair to her that when she used the Lady’s power to transport herself through fresh water, the dirt in her clothes came along for the ride. Although at least the dirt hid the bloodstains. But her hair was stiff and lifeless, and she suspected she didn’t smell very good either, although she wasn’t going to ask Wally
his
opinion.

Wally led her to room 404. He put in the key and tried to turn it. At first it resisted, then it gave with a bang. Wally pulled it out, turned the knob and swung the door open.