LANCE OF TRUTH (6 page)

N
ine days after the knights had ridden north with her sword, Rhianna sat astride Alba in the courtyard impatiently waiting for the guards to open the gates.

Merlin perched on her wrist, wearing
a hood like the other hawks and gripping tightly with his claws. He’d flown back into her room yesterday as if nothing had happened. She couldn’t talk to him without Excalibur’s magic. But it was obvious the silly bird had been roaming free in the woods, while she’d been escorted about Camelot like a prisoner, having nightmares about what her cousin Mordred might be doing to her mother.

“Ow,” she muttered. “Don’t hold on so tight. I won’t drop you.”

To her frustration, their ‘picnic’ had turned into a major outing. When they’d heard about it, all the squires and damsels wanted to come, and Sir Bedivere had to find extra men to escort them. With so many hungry mouths to feed, the cooks had to pack extra food and drink, and that meant they needed ponies to carry it all.
And then Sir Bedivere insisted they should take King Arthur’s pavilion, too, in case it rained. The poles and folded canvas travelled in a wagon drawn by two oxen, which was sure to slow them down still further.

“I don’t mind getting wet,” Rhianna said, scowling at the cart. “We got wet enough on our way here from Avalon. Anyway, it’s not going to rain.”

For once, the sky looked cloudless and the sun felt warm on her arms, making her even more impatient to get out of this courtyard. If she had to spend one more day trapped behind walls, she would scream.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Rhia,” Elphin said. He sat calmly beside her on Evenstar, his harp in its bag slung across his back. “Weather in the world of men seems
very unpredictable. Let them bring the tent. We might need it.”

“Why?” Rhianna said. “We haven’t time to camp, or we’ll never catch up with the knights.”

“Shh.” Elphin glanced at Arianrhod, who rode in the wagon with the other damsels. “It’s all taken care of, I promise. Trust me.”

Rhianna scowled again. “You’ve been saying that for nine days already!” But she held her tongue. The last thing she wanted to do was to make her guards suspicious and have them lock her back in her room.

Without Excalibur, she felt undressed. At least she had been allowed to wear her armour and bring her father’s shield. Sir Bedivere had actually told her to, in case of Saxon trouble. But he wouldn’t give her a replacement sword as well. She saw Gareth – who did carry
a sword – smirking at her, and set her jaw.

At last the gates opened, and Sir Bedivere led them out into the spring sunshine. Alba gave a little buck of excitement, nearly unseating Merlin from her wrist.

Let us gallop on the river and leave the humans behind!
the mare said.

Rhianna smiled. It was very tempting. Let Sir Bedivere and her guards and the squires and the stupid cart try to follow them! With their enchanted horseshoes that allowed their mist horses to gallop across the surface of water, she and Elphin could be away into the hills long before the others reached the bridge.

Elphin must have read her thoughts, because his hand closed on her rein. “Not yet, Rhia,” he said. “Wait until we get to the stone circle.” He fingered the druid spiral as he rode,
and again she got the feeling he was hiding something from her.

But with the sun shining and Alba prancing under her, it was difficult to stay angry for long. They crossed the bridge and turned on to the Roman road. The damsels and squires laughed and chattered as they rode through meadows full of wildflowers. They passed a village, where the people paused in their work to stare at her. “Princess Rhianna!” they called. “It’s the princess!”

She began to feel hot under her armour and thought about taking it off. But after a glance at Gareth and his friends, she changed her mind. If they were attacked, it wouldn’t be much use folded across her saddle.

Soon they reached the stone circle where they’d camped last year. Then it had been
winter and dark, and a dragon had been chasing them. Today, with the sun shining, it seemed a different place. The air between the stones sparkled slightly, like the air in Avalon. Rhianna’s neck prickled as she thought she saw her father’s ghost in the centre, beckoning to them. Alba pricked her white ears with interest.

Sir Bedivere ordered the pavilion to be set up inside the circle. The damsels unloaded the food, while the squires took the bridles off their ponies and turned them loose to graze. Then everyone raced off to fly their hawks. The men took up guard positions around the circle.

Elphin had been studying the stones. He glanced at the merlin on Rhianna’s wrist and nodded. “Let’s ride that way.” He headed Evenstar around the hill.

As they passed the stones, the wind dropped and the laughter of the others faded. Rhianna felt dizzy and shook her head to clear it. “Come on, Elphin,” she called. “It’s about time you told me what the plan is. I’ve been going half crazy stuck up in my room!”

“I know, Rhia. I’m really sorry we couldn’t get you out before, but things took a bit longer than we thought. Arianrhod should be here soon. Ah, here she is…”

The dark-haired girl stepped out from behind a stone so suddenly that Alba
misted
in surprise. Rhianna found herself sitting in the grass, blinking up at her mare’s sparkling tail. Merlin, still leashed to her wrist, beat his wings against the ground and screeched at her.

Alba trotted back and sniffed her anxiously.
I am sorry! I thought you could stay on me now.

“That’s only when I’m carrying Excalibur, silly,” Rhianna muttered. But she wasn’t hurt, just embarrassed.

“Then you’d better carry your sword, my lady.” Smiling, Arianrhod held out a long bundle wrapped inside an old sack.

Rhianna saw something glitter in its folds. She stopped brushing grass off her backside and stared at the sack in disbelief. “Is that…?”

Arianrhod took the merlin and passed the bundle to Rhianna, who unwrapped it quickly. She sucked in her breath as Excalibur’s white jewel blazed in the sunlight. The hilt warmed her hand, familiar and comforting. Hope filled her, and her dizziness vanished.

“Cai and Elphin swapped it for an ordinary one the night before Sir Bors’ party rode out,” the girl explained. “Cai’ll keep the secret as long
as he can. By the time they unwrap the sword to check, it’ll be too late.”

Rhianna let out her breath. She didn’t know whether to be angry with her friends, or hug them. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“We couldn’t tell you, Rhia,” Elphin said. “You’d have given us away, and then Sir Bedivere would have sent someone after Sir Bors with the real Excalibur. You had to be convincing.”

“Oh, I was convincing all right. My guards nearly locked me in the dungeons!”

“I know. They said you were the most stubborn damsel they’d ever had to guard.” Arianrhod giggled. “But we’d have got you out again.”

Rhianna forgave them. She vaulted back into Alba’s saddle, thinking fast. “The knights might not notice if Cai keeps it wrapped up,
but the wrong sword won’t fool Mordred for long… we’ve got to go after them, quickly! How long will it take to get to the North Wall? Arianrhod, you’d best tell Sir Bedivere we’re flying my merlin down in the trees. That’ll give us a head start…”

“Wait, Rhia!” Elphin caught her reins to stop her galloping off. “We don’t have to gallop all the way to the North Wall, silly! Besides, you made Sir Bors a promise, so we can’t ride north.”

Rhianna frowned. She rested her hand on Excalibur’s hilt. “My mother’s more important than a stupid promise. Let go of my reins!”

“We’re not going to ride north after the knights,” Elphin continued calmly, “we’re going to get there ahead of them. Remember how Merlin brought us through the mists from Avalon?”

“A spiral path,” she breathed, realising at last what her friend meant. “And you’ve got Merlin’s pathfinder…”

“Exactly.” Elphin smiled. “Merlin tells me the druids used these stone circles to travel secretly in the world of men. There’s still power in this one – see how Excalibur shines here? We just need to find a way through the mists to another circle near the North Wall, but we don’t want everyone following us, and Merlin’s not sure he can close the path in the body of a bird. So after we’ve eaten and everyone’s dozing in the sun, I’ll play my harp to make sure they doze a bit deeper. Better keep Excalibur hidden until then.”

Rhianna re-wrapped the sword and strapped it to Alba’s saddle, next to her father’s dragon shield. She thought of the knights’ faces when
they got to the North Wall to find her waiting for them with Excalibur, and grinned.

The plan went well enough at first. Nobody objected to Elphin’s harp, and that afternoon sweet Avalonian music rippled across the hillside. Maybe because of the stones around them, the magic worked more quickly than usual. Soon, the squires and damsels were asleep on cushions and rugs in the shade of the Pendragon’s pavilion. The sentries rested their backs against the stones and dozed off as well. Sir Bedivere, who had been talking to one of them, yawned.

As Elphin’s magic filled her head, Rhianna’s eyelids started to droop, too.

She saw her father sitting in the pavilion among the sleepers, holding something in his
strong hands. As she tried to see what it was, a bright white light surrounded him, and it turned into the splintered head of a lance.

He looked straight at her. “
Mend the Lance of Truth and you’ll free Guinevere
,” he said.

“Wake up, Rhianna Pendragon!” Merlin’s voice snapped. “Do you want to be left behind again? Let me loose, quickly.”

She jumped alert as the merlin pecked her wrist. It had grown cooler. Long shadows from the stones fell across the sleeping sentries. Her father’s ghost had gone. Alba waited next to Evenstar, pawing the ground. Elphin was already mounted, playing his harp one-handed, the reins lying loose on his mist horse’s neck. The spiral around his neck glittered like a star.

Alba whinnied to her in excitement.
Are we going home now?

“No, we’re going to find the Lance of Truth and rescue my mother,” Rhianna told the mare, excited now too. She checked that Excalibur was safe and mounted quickly.

Arianrhod came running over, leading the pack pony. Merlin flew ahead around the circle of stones, following the sun. Arianrhod followed him with a determined expression, whispering to the pony. Rhianna pushed Alba into a trot.

They moved slowly to start with, until they’d completed three circles. Then Elphin slipped his harp back into its bag and urged Evenstar into a canter after Merlin, who had sped up. The sentries stirred as they passed. Squire Gareth woke up and blinked after them in confusion.

“Keep up, keep up,” Merlin called. Arianrhod was running now, dragging the reluctant pony. The air around them blurred, and the pavilion
with its sleeping squires and sentries disappeared into a sparkling mist. Rhianna clung to Alba’s mane and eyed the sky warily, remembering the last time they had followed Merlin through the mists, coming over from Avalon when the shadrake had attacked them.