Knight of Darkness (10 page)

Like the trees around him, it’d had sharply defined black bark and brittle black-and-silver leaves. Emrys had said the trees had been created to be a source of light in the darkness. That they were symbolic of benevolent strength, dignity, and rebirth, which was why he’d given one to Arthur. Emrys had believed their fire was cleansing for the soul, and that any person who’d been exposed to it would be able to repent their past and find a new future.

Varian didn’t know about that, but he’d been captivated by the tree as a child. He’d stared at it for hours, trying to understand the source of the orange flame. Not even Merlin had been able to adequately explain it to him.

As Varian started away from the tree, he felt something cold brush against his neck. It was a whispered touch. Gentle and quiet. Like a fey woman’s…

“Why are you here?” The question was spoken in a delicate tone, but the source of it remained invisible.

Even so, Varian knew instantly who was speaking to him. There was only one creature with a
touch like that. “We come seeking refuge, Mother Sylph.”

The trees belched more fire that danced and entwined ten feet above them. Varian looked up as the flames formed into the image of a young, beautiful woman. Every part of her from her flowing gown, to her facial features, to her limbs were made by the flames’ spirals. She stared down at them with a blank expression as her flame hair danced around her body.

Her visage turned to anger.

“Refuge? Since when does a son of the Adoni seek anything but violence and turmoil?” She turned her burning gaze toward Blaise. She cocked her head curiously. “You’re a son of Emrys Penmerlin?”

“I am.”

Her anger seemed to mount as the flames moved even faster. Their temperature increased to a point that Varian was beginning to sweat from it. “Why are you in my valley, mandrake, when your kind doesn’t venture here?”

“I’m friend to the Adoni warrior.”

Varian had to stop himself from showing his surprise at Blaise’s declaration. Though they’d known each other for centuries, they’d never been friends.

Her lips curled. “While your devotion to him is admirable, Emrys is no friend to the Conifer Sylphs of this valley. Kill them!”

“Oh bloody good choice, Blaise,” Varian snarled,
as all the trees around them burst into flames. No wonder he profaned friendship.

Look at what it got him.

The trees began shooting balls of fire at them. Varian ducked the blasts.

Blaise cursed as he struggled desperately to keep either himself or Merewyn from being struck. “I take it back. I’m fatherless. I swear it!”

“I concur. He’s a total bastard.” When they didn’t slow their attack, Varian snarled at him. “You had to be honest, didn’t you? See why you should never answer a question until you know why someone’s asking it?” He deflected balls with his sword, trying to cover Blaise’s retreat.

“Well it’s not like she liked you either.”

A vine from one tree shot out, tripping Blaise. He and Merewyn rolled to the ground. Varian stood between them and the trees, which shot blast after blast at him. He deflected them, but even so the heat from the fire was scorching.

“Go, Blaise,” he said. “Get Merewyn out of here.”

Blaise nodded before he crawled to Merewyn under the barrage.

“Hold!”

The blasts stopped as the three of them froze into place.

Again the woman appeared in the fire to stare at them maliciously. “What is it you do?”

“I’m crawling,” Blaise answered.

“Not you.” Her tone was irritable as she turned
her gaze toward Varian. “Why are you protecting the woman?”

Yeah right, like he was going to answer that and get screwed again? How stupid did she think he was? “Why do you want to know?”

She shot a blast at him, but he deftly ducked it. Or so he thought. Instead of flying off, the fireball curled back and knocked him off his feet. He tried to rise, only to have another blast pin him to the ground and hold him there on his back. The fire burned on his armor but didn’t scorch or burn him. It merely held him in place.

“Why do they protect you?” she asked Merewyn.

“Because they gave me their word that they would do so, my lady. We’re fleeing from Morgen and her army.”

“An Adoni’s promise is worthless,” the Sylph queen spat at Merewyn.

Merewyn shook her head. “Varian’s isn’t, as you have seen for yourself. He has protected me, as he promised, even when it would have been best for him to abandon me.”

The fire petered out on his chest. Then another bit of it curled around him and lifted him to his feet. It did the same for Merewyn and Blaise. The only difference was that in the case of Merewyn, the fire coated her entire body yet didn’t burn or singe her.

The Sylph lowered herself from the top of the trees, down to the ground so that she could ap
proach them. She passed a look first to Blaise, then pinned her fiery gaze on Varian. “You men owe your lives to a woman. I want you to remember that.”

“All men owe their lives to a woman,” Blaise said sincerely. “It’s only through our mothers that we’re born.”

The Sylph nodded in approval. “And it’s a wise man who realizes that.” She jerked her chin toward the path that led deeper into the valley. “Go in peace and remember to avoid still water.”

Before Varian could question her about that, she vanished. The fire around Merewyn went out completely. To his surprise, she remained on her feet.

Retrieving his sword and sheathing it, he went to her side. “Can you walk?”

Merewyn took a breath as she felt some of her queasiness subside. “My legs are still shaky, but they seem able to hold me now. I think she repaired my body.”

It was what Varian did next that shocked her even more than when he’d carried her. He held his arm out for her. Without thinking, she tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow. He placed his strong, callused hand over hers. That gesture sent a wave of heat over her. No one had ever treated her with such regard. No one.

“Are you ready, Blaise?” he asked over his shoulder.

“I think so.”

Helping her walk, Varian again renewed their journey down the small path.

How very strange to her. She’d never walked like this with any man except for her father. There was something unsettling and at the same time invigorating about the sensation of having his subdued power beside her. There was really no reason for him to help her. Aye, he’d given her his word, but so few people followed through with their promises that she found his honor refreshing and precious.

An unfamiliar tenderness swept through her. It made her want to hug him close for being like this, but she knew better than to even try. Varian wasn’t the kind of man to be so emotional around. Even though he was an Adoni, he was extremely standoffish, which was another reason she was surprised he allowed her to touch him.

She glanced back to see Blaise trailing after them. He looked as tired as she felt, and his face was still swollen from their rough landing. Unable to believe what these two men had been through for her, she stopped.

Varian faced her with an arch stare. “Is something wrong?”

She shook her head as gratitude choked her. “Thank you, Varian.” She rose up on her tiptoes to kiss him on his grizzled cheek. Then she turned and did the same for Blaise. “And thank you, too. I owe you both everything.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Varian said, as if her grati
tude made him uncomfortable. “We’re not out of the woods yet. Literally.”

Blaise snorted at his bad pun before he started singing, “Ain’t no valley low enough…”

Varian let out an anguished cry as he covered his ears. “Stop! Not that song. It’ll be going through my head for the rest of the day, and, no offense, I’d rather be chained to the wall and tortured by Morgen.”

When Blaise broke into another chorus of it, Varian shot his hand out. He grimaced as he realized it was futile. “I really resent the loss of my magick.”

Merewyn laughed at his childlike pout. “I’m sure Blaise doesn’t.”

“I’m sure he doesn’t, too,” Blaise said with a wicked smile. “Kind of damned glad he can’t blast me.”

“I could still skewer you though. Especially now that you’re worthless to me.”

Blaise threw his hand up to his heart. “Oh the pain of those words, you wound me, V.”

Varian scoffed. “I haven’t yet, but the day’s still young.”

Merewyn shook her head at their good-natured play.

As Varian started on his way, Merewyn returned to his side and placed her hand again on his arm. He didn’t protest as he led the way through the forest.

There was such an odd camaraderie between
them. It’d been countless centuries since she last felt this kind of friendship. Since she’d seen people tease each other without malice or cruelty.

It was absolutely endearing.

They walked on for several hours without speaking while passing more of the black trees, some of which would erupt into flames without warning and for no apparent reason. But the eeriest part about the valley was that there were no animal sounds. It was so quiet that it was oppressive against her ears.

The path turned sharply to the right. She and Varian had only taken three steps when Blaise called out. “Wait. There’s water here.”

Varian released her arm to investigate it. It was a small pond with black water that didn’t ripple even though there was a fair breeze stirring around them.

“It’s still. We’d best leave it alone.”

Blaise looked doubtful. “I don’t know…do you really trust a woman who lives in a tree…one who tried to kill us? Maybe she was lying so that we’d die of thirst.”

“Maybe.” Varian picked up a stone from the side of the path and tossed it into the water. It exploded with a sound so loud that Merewyn had to bite back a shriek.

The rock rained down on them in a fine ash.

Varian gave him a smug look. “Or maybe she told us the truth, huh?”

Blaise brushed the ash from his hair and clothes.
“Note to self, listen to women who live in trees, even if they do try to kill me.”

Merewyn stared at the water, which still hadn’t rippled even the slightest bit. The rock had never broken the surface. As soon as it’d touched the black water, it had violently disintegrated. “What do you think caused it to do that?”

Varian shrugged. “Most likely it was someone’s idea of a sick joke.”

She agreed completely. “That probably explains the lack of animals here.”

“Yeah,” Varian said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. “Dipping your head down for a drink is one quick way to ruin Bambi’s day.”

Blaise frowned as he looked at them. “So what are
we
going to do for water?”

“Hope to find water that moves,” Merewyn said.

That didn’t placate the mandrake. “And if we don’t?”

It was Varian who answered. “We probably will die, but that’s not something I want to think about right now, Mary Sunshine. Shall we continue on our way?”

Blaise mocked him before he sobered and gave a heavy sigh. “How did I get myself into this? Oh wait, I didn’t. Merewyn dragged me into it. I was minding my own business when she popped into my room and asked me for a favor.”

She pretended to be miffed at his teasing. “You could have said no.”

“And well I should have.”

Her mirth died as she heard something in the woods. “Sh…what’s that sound?”

They grew quiet to listen. It was a faint, almost indiscernible bell-like sound.

Varian pulled his sword out again as he cocked his head to listen for a moment. But it was Blaise who caught the direction and headed for it.

Merewyn held the hem of her gown up as she followed after him, with Varian only one step behind.

Blaise drew up so short that she actually walked into him. Frowning, she opened her mouth to ask why he’d stopped, then slammed it shut as she saw the obvious answer.

Hanging in the trees were the remains of several knights. It was the spur of one who was swinging against a tree that accounted for the small metallic sound.

Bile rose in Merewyn’s throat as she stumbled away from the ghastly sight. She’d never seen anything more revolting or disturbing. Varian caught her in his arms as she shuddered in horror.

“Cut them down,” Varian said in a thick voice.

Blaise hesitated. “I think we should leave them until we figure out what put them there, lest we join them.”

Releasing her, Varian stepped forward with a look of grim anger on his handsome face. “You don’t disrespect the dead. Cut them down or you
will
join them.”

Blaise exchanged a confused look with her before he moved to help Varian cut down the bodies. She held her hand to her nose in an effort to quell her queasiness. Some of the bodies were nothing more than bones, while others were still decomposing. She didn’t understand how Varian and Blaise could go near them without vomiting.

“Who were they?” she asked, trying not to look at the bodies for fear of being sick.

“There’s no telling,” Blaise said in a tone that told her he was having to fight his own nausea. “I don’t recognize the arms on any of them.”

Varian didn’t speak at all as he freed the men, then piled their bodies reverently for a pyre. There were sixteen of them in all.

“Do you think any of them were grail knights?” Merewyn asked.

Blaise caught one of the bodies that Varian cut down, then took him to the others. “I think some of the older ones might have been the original group who quested for it. But the newer ones…There’s no telling. Maybe they’re Morgen’s lovers.”

“Whoever they were, they were damned unfortunate,” Varian said.

Merewyn agreed. Poor men to be killed, then left to hang like this.

Blaise stood back as Varian added the last body to the pile. “You know we can’t bury them, V.”

“I know,” he said, his voice heavy with emotion. Varian went to one of the fyrebaums and broke a branch off.

She walked over to Blaise and together they stared at Varian, who appeared sad and tormented by the company of knights he’d freed from the oak trees. “Is he all right?” she asked Blaise in a low tone.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen him like this before. Something about it disturbs him a lot more than it should. I mean, it’s gross, no doubt, and I feel sorry for the poor men. But there’s more to his mood than that.”