The Book of Mordred (12 page)

No one was in the Hall. Not exactly.

But she had, she saw, taken an incredible risk.

She turned around and hastily raised her hands, motioning frantically lest the others make any noise. She walked on tiptoe to join them.

Before any of them had a chance to offer complaint of her actions, she said, in a whisper, "There are stairs at the far end, and a second floor balcony. Someone is sitting up there, in front of a closed door. I don't think he saw me."

Halbert closed his eyes and clutched at the red pendant on his chest. "Fifth door?" he asked.

She nodded, then realized his eyes were still shut. "Yes."

"That is where she is. I can see her there. Sleeping."

It made sense. Why else would someone be guarding the room? But still Alayna felt tingly all over, just as she used to when Toland would have one of his sudden insights. She said, "We can't rush at him: He would see us the whole length of the hall, up the stairs, and down the corridor. And have time to wake up the entire household before we got there." The thought of Kiera being so close made her clench her fists in frustration.

Halbert smiled. "The guard is sleeping."

Alayna shook her head. Obviously bored with the night duty of guarding a child's room, he had been trying to balance a knife on his fingertip. "No. I saw him."

Halbert said, "Look again. He
is
asleep now."

Despite the chill this casual use of magic sent up her spine, Alayna tiptoed back to her vantage point and saw that the man's chin was resting deep in his chest.

Directly behind her, Mordred asked, "Will he sleep through anything?" and that was the first she was aware that her companions had followed close on her heels this time.

Halbert said, "Don't concern yourselves with the guard. You and Galen watch this door in case Worthington, or Payne, or whoever that was who left, chooses now to return. Lady Alayna and I will go upstairs."

Mordred's eyes narrowed, then slid to Alayna's for confirmation: He was concerned, she saw, despite all the bickering. But it made sense this way. If Halbert could magically keep the man in front of the door asleep, then best that Galen and Mordred guard their backs from any of the castle inhabitants who weren't asleep.

She nodded reassurance, that she was satisfied with the plan, then she headed for the stairs.
Easy,
she told herself, forcing caution into her steps.
Slow and easy.
She didn't know how strong Halbert's magic was, whether it could keep a man asleep despite any mistakes she might make. She held her breath, as if that could make a difference, until she and the wizard were by the sleeping guard.

Halbert whispered a charm, gently touching the man's throat. Alayna cringed, expecting the man to jump at the touch, but he didn't.

With her hand on the door, Alayna was barely able to control her impatience.

Then the wizard reached into his large sleeve and pulled out a knife, which he plunged into the man's chest.

Alayna's breath escaped in a hiss.

Halbert watched her as he wiped the knife on the man's shirt. "The spell," he whispered, "was so he wouldn't cry out."

Alayna was having trouble breathing quietly, and then she realized that she no longer had to be concerned by that.

Halbert said, "Mordred, I think, underestimates the power of magic. You have a tendency to overestimate."

Alayna shook her head. "Wait here so you don't frighten Kiera," she whispered. Silently she opened the door.

Somehow, seeing Kiera every day, she had forgotten how much of Toland was in their daughter's pale and round face. After an absence of four days, she could see it anew, and her heart ached. She brushed the reddish brown hair off Kiera's forehead and bent down close. "Kiera." It was half whisper, half kiss.

Kiera's eyes opened immediately. "Momma." Either she was responding to Alayna's lowered voice, or she had guessed to whisper. She said, "I knew you were coming."

"Of course I came." Alayna ended their hug sooner than she would have wanted. "We must be quick, now. Where are your clothes?"

Kiera kicked off the blanket and Alayna realized she already was dressed, down to her shoes. "I
knew
you were coming," she repeated. "But I fell asleep."

A familiar cold spot started in Alayna's spine, about midway up, and quickly spread. What had been disconcerting in Toland, and now in Halbert, still somehow seemed a perversion in her own little child. Still, "Good," she said, for it would save time. "Come."

Just then there was a tap on the door. "My Lady," Halbert's voice urged.

"That's a friend," Alayna explained as Kiera stiffened. "His name is Halbert, and he's a wizard—the way your papa was—and he helped me find you. Don't be afraid."

Alayna opened the door and Halbert took the time to smile down at Kiera. "Hello, Kiera," he said in a calm and gentle voice.

Kiera clung to Alayna's hand and tried to move behind her leg, choosing—Alayna thought impatiently—the worst time to become timid of strangers.

"Let me carry her," the wizard offered.

"I can walk," Kiera mumbled into Alayna's thigh.

Halbert continued to smile as he reached down for her. "It will be faster," he said.

"Not if I kick and scream."

Halbert froze, obviously weighing how seriously to take the threat of noise.

Annoyed and embarrassed, Alayna said, "I'm sorry. She is not usually like this."

Halbert's smile was gone. "The strain, no doubt," he said in the tone of someone who has never raised children but is confident he would be better at it than most. He gave a mock bow and indicated for Kiera to go ahead with her mother.

"
I'll
carry you," Alayna said, and was relieved when Kiera didn't protest. Alayna picked her up and held her so that she wouldn't see the dead man slumped in his chair by the door.

Kiera let herself be carried down the stairs, but when they got to the bottom, Kiera's fingers tightened in Alayna's hair. In a shaking voice, she whispered, "Who's that?"

Alayna whipped around, her hand going to her sword, recognizing simultaneously both that there was no time to put Kiera down and that, by holding Kiera, she could well be—all unintentionally—using her child as a shield between herself and danger. But it was only Galen and Mordred, Galen standing with his back to them, guarding the corridor to the entrance, Mordred facing them, watching to make sure nobody came out of any of the doors that opened onto the balcony overlooking the Hall.

"That's Sir Mordred," she explained as she put Kiera down. Much, much safer that way. "Another friend." She tugged on Kiera's hand, but Kiera wouldn't budge. She was probably afraid because of the naked sword in Mordred's hand. Across the room, Mordred moved the blade slightly to the side, which could have been to greet or reassure Kiera, or an indication of impatience.

"No," Kiera said, "not that one. Behind."

"That's Galen. Don't you recognize Uncle Galen?"

"No."

Alayna's patience snapped. "Well, come along anyway."

Galen had turned to see what the delay was, but now from behind him came a loud, surprised "Hey!" Quickly followed by, "Sir Edgar! Ho, Osric!"

After being so close to succeeding, the shout left Alayna too stunned to move. The man who had left the castle ... Mordred's prediction that he was sure to return at the worst possible moment had come true.

Galen disappeared around the corner to deal with the returning knight; Mordred dashed into the Hall to face whoever came to answer the man's shout. He sped by Alayna, Halbert, and Kiera, and took the stairs two at a time.

A man—from Halbert's description of beard and pocks it had to be Sir Edgar—stepped out of a bedroom. He wore only an ankle-length nightshirt, but he was carrying a long unsheathed sword. He looked them over appraisingly, then gave a smile that looked more like an impression of a smile than any real thing.

Alayna finally pulled loose from Kiera's grasp, and belatedly drew her own sword. She pushed Kiera to Halbert to keep her out of harm's way. Surely the greatest danger was from upstairs, where the whole household must be roused by now. It was only a matter of time before they all converged with drawn weapons on the landing.

In fact, Alayna had made it only halfway up the stairs when the door closest to the stairs burst open. This was a house guard, who had taken the time to get not only his sword, but also a shield. He looked from his right, where his lord was fighting Mordred, to his left, to Alayna.

He came toward her: an ugly man, with a big nose, pocked skin, and dark hair. The man who had been with the knights who had attacked her.

Alayna was barely able to make it to the landing before the man thrust to her left with his sword, and simultaneously butted her right shoulder with his shield. The realization that his strategy was to drive her closer to the stairs edge didn't help Alayna, who was forced to take a step back anyway.

Beyond, she was aware of Edgar dropping to the floor with a groan, but now his cousin Osric came at Mordred from the other end of the upstairs hallway.

From behind, Alayna could hear Galen running up the stairs.

The guard she was fighting took a step back and tripped over the body of Edgar.

Alayna hesitated an instant, and in that instant Galen lunged up the final stair and slashed his sword across the man's throat. Alayna watched in fascinated horror as blood spurted. The man dropped his sword, frantically holding both hands to his throat in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding, and looked up at her—
her
—in bewildered pain and surprise before he slumped to the floor.

Beyond the dying man, Sir Osric dropped his sword and fell to his knees. "Mercy!" he cried.

Mordred wavered, undoubtedly wary of a trick, and Osric, still on his knees, sidled up and grabbed his hand. "I don't know what he has told you. But he was behind all this. It was his plan, I swear."

"What?" Mordred demanded, his eyes narrowing. "He?"

Osric looked around the room wildly, finally settling his gaze on Halbert. "Him. He told us to get the child, but Edgar said we could use her, so we said there had been no chance, that we hadn't pulled it off."

Alayna's mind sluggishly refused to sort out this jumble of accusations.

Galen, however, cried, "Liar!" and drove his sword into the man's back.

Still Alayna's mind seemed to lag behind. She stared, unable to react—unable to move, or to think beyond,
Galen killed that man.

Mordred did not have the same trouble. "He had yielded," he said huskily, thin-lipped and nearly shaking with anger.

"He was a treacherous liar and he would have taken the first opportunity to come at us from behind," Galen countered.

Which was certainly true.

But still it seemed a distorted replaying of the scene in the wizard's castle, when Mordred had scoffed at chivalry and Galen had been angry with him. Nothing was right anymore. Alayna could make no sense of it.
I must go back home,
she thought. She needed to take Kiera away from this, return home and try to put all this behind her. The servants of Bel Bois apparently knew better than to come out, so everything was over. It didn't make any difference whether things made sense or not. She turned to get Kiera.

And saw Halbert, his hand over Kiera's mouth, dragging her to the door.

"Kiera!" Alayna cried.

"Rest easy," the wizard said soothingly. "I am simply taking her to safety, away from these sights unbecoming for a child to see." He was trying to get Kiera under his right arm, to carry her, but his left hand fingered his red pendant, a gesture Alayna remembered and found sudden overwhelming comfort in.

Yes,
she thought.
Get Kiera away.
That had been her thought, too. The ruby seemed to glow, even in the erratic candle and torch light, and to show a dizzying depth she hadn't noticed before. Somehow that seemed to be of more importance than anything else in the world.

"Relax," Halbert cooed. "No harm."

"No harm," Alayna repeated.

"Alayna!" Mordred spoke sharply from behind. She heard a scuffle, and knew Galen had prevented him from moving to her side. She wished that they would be quiet, stop their incessant bickering, so that she could concentrate on the beautiful ruby which, even as Halbert stepped away from her, seemed to enlarge and fill more of her vision.

Kiera twisted her mouth away from Halbert's hand, though she couldn't break the wizard's grasp entirely. "Momma!"

Distracted, Alayna assured her, "Hush, all is well."

From behind she heard Mordred cry, "Galen, let go of me. Can't you see—Alayna, don't look at him."

Halbert said, "Gently, Galen."

Alayna could hear and understand his words; she knew that something was terribly wrong—with her, with Galen—but somehow the energy required to be troubled was too far away to summon.

"Try not to harm our young friend," the wizard was saying. "I see an illustrious future possible for our Mordred, one whose purposes run parallel to my own."

"Not likely," Mordred spat.