Ruins of Camelot (43 page)

"You still do not know who I really am then, do you?" he said quietly, a small smile curling his lip.  "I am somewhat surprised.  I had come to believe that you were rather intelligent, for a human."

Gabriella shook her head.  "If I had met a beast like you, I would remember it."

"Alas," the man hissed, drawing close to her, "we did not meet.  But our paths have indeed crossed, and very importantly.  Why, I daresay, if it were not for me, Queen… you would not be alive to stand here with me this night."

Gabriella's eyes widened slowly.  She raised her bloody hand, touching her fingers to the sigil at her throat.

"Yes," the man went on, circling behind her.  "It was I.  My fellows were with me that night when you were but a small child, but it was I who entered your winter cottage.  It was by my art that the invading werewolf was chased away.  And it was by my choice that I left my marker for your people to find.  I did not know then how very useful that marker would be, but I had an inkling.  You do not know me, Queen, but I once saved your young life.  And since then, I have watched you.  Faintly, yes, divined through the vaguest of hazes, broadcast through the magic of my own distant marker, but watch you I have.  And with the greatest of interest."

"But why?" Gabriella rasped, wonder and horror mingling inside her.

"Because I choose my tools well," the man declared proudly, moving around her, fingering his wand.  "I chose Merodach when he was a young man because I recognised his usefulness.  But I also knew that his time of usefulness would someday come to an end.  When his purpose had been served, he would need to be destroyed.  I could have done so myself, of course, but this way—using you—was so much more…
elegant
."

Gabriella's knees grew weak as realisation flooded her.  The monstrous wizard had planned it all.  She, Gabriella, had reviled Merodach for doing this beast's dirty work, and yet she herself had done the same.  She had killed on his behalf without even knowing it.  He had used her, ultimately, like a puppet.

"Do not be too hard on yourself, Queen," the horrible wizard said, moving alongside her again.  "It was only natural that you would seek to kill he who had destroyed your love.  But had it not been for my own magic, you never would have succeeded.  I expect that you believed the magic of the sigil was your own, but surely, you see now how foolish that was.  You may have borrowed it for a time, and it may even have come to reflect you, but let me assure you… the magic never forgot me, its
true
master."

He looked down at her, eyes narrowed, and she refused to meet his gaze.  "And now, here you stand," he mused darkly, "the last queen
of the last true human kingdom…
"  He fingered his black wand, and she watched it hopelessly.

"Fear not," he said soothingly, lifting his wand, "I have wasted enough magic on such as yourself."

He tucked the wand back into his robes.  When he withdrew his hand, a long, curved dagger protruded from his fist.  He stabbed her with it.

Gabriella felt the blade bury itself up to the hilt into her side and was at first too stunned to respond.  Her eyes flew open, staring blankly into the darkness of the black candle.  It did not so much hurt as simply sap her strength.  Hot liquid poured down her side, wetting her tunic and pattering to the floor at her feet.  The man studied her face grimly, his nose barely six inches from hers.  Then, with a jerk, he pulled the dagger
from between her ribs
.

Gabriella sank to her knees as weakness overtook her.  She watched, dumbfounded, as the dark figure stood over her, the blade dripping her blood from his right hand.

"The time has come," he declared in a low, merciless voice.  "
With your death,
I shall ascend to the throne, unchallenged and unstoppable."

Gabriella struggled to draw a breath.  It hurt monumentally, and she crumpled to her side on the cold stone.  The enemy stood over her.  Then he bent down slightly.  His hand reached for her, touched her neck.  She tried to bat him away but could not muster the energy.  He gripped the falcon sigil in his fingers, then, almost lovingly, he withdrew it from around her neck.  He stepped back from her, watching with interest as she bled to death before him.  He began to raise the falcon sigil, to lower it around his own neck.  As he did so, Gabriella saw its mate, the dragon with its glinting green eye, already hanging there, Darrick’s half of their royal wedding gift.  Merodach had given it to him of course, having stolen it from the body of her dead husband.

"And now," the enemy breathed, draping the falcon sigil next to its matching half, "as a sign of my triumph, the magic that accompanied you returns to me, its ultimate master.  What you believed to be a symbol of your love is rejoined now upon my neck, reverting to its ultimate form.  Die knowing this, Queen… and despair."

Beneath the wizard's pointed chin, the falcon and dragon sigils touched.  There was a flash of green light, and the halves joined together, snapping into place like two magnets.  The emerald eyes glowed.

Gabriella fell back, her hand clutched uselessly to her bleeding side.  She heard the wizard turn his back on her.  He began to walk away.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, he let out a tiny hiss.  His footsteps ceased.

Gabriella slitted her eyes open.  The dark figure's back was turned to her, framed against the fire.  He brushed something off of his robes, then shook his hand.  Gabriella's gaze drifted towards the floor at the wizard's feet.  A small spider scuttled on the floor where it had fallen.  The wizard lifted a foot patiently and stepped on it.

Another spider skittered out of the shadows, casting a long shadow in the firelight.  It disappeared under the wizard's robes.  A moment later, he jerked and hissed in pain.  More tiny shapes began to dart from the shadows, converging silently on the robed figure.

"Back to your hovels, creeping things," the wizard rasped.  He drew his wand, but the spiders took no notice.  There was a tiny flash as the wizard flicked a spell.  Several spiders tumbled away, their legs convulsing.  Then a larger shape darted along the line of the fireplace.  Gabriella saw it and shuddered even in spite of her pain.  It was a fat, bedraggled rat.  It skirted the wizard, then scampered forwards into his shadow.

"Argh!" the wizard exclaimed, leaping backwards.  His toe was bleeding.  He spun, fired a bolt of green at the rat, but it dodged away.  It circled around a chair, then darted forwards again.

More shapes began to trickle forth.  Spiders dripped from the ceiling on threads of web, descending on the wizard as he turned and flailed, batting at them.  Rats and mice poured from the dim corners, circling the man's feet and then battening onto his robes, climbing him, squeaking audibly.

"What is this?" the wizard demanded angrily, stamping and flailing as the creatures collapsed upon him.  "How dare you…?!"  Jets of green light sprayed all around as the wizard attempted to quell the creeping rebellion.  It was no use, however, since the number of his attackers seemed to grow every moment.  He backed away from them, shaking them violently from his robes.

Suddenly, Gabriella heard a muffled bellow from below.  There was a thump, a clatter of breaking wood.  Then, seconds later, a furious scratching noise welled up the outer stairs.

A river of creatures poured into the room.  In the lead, gnashing its teeth viciously, was a fat, grey hedgehog.  It spied the writhing wizard, snarled, and leapt forwards.  The wizard saw it coming and spun towards it, raising his wand.  There was a green flash, and the hedgehog flew backwards, dead in mid-air.  A dozen more creatures darted forwards in its place, however, eyes flashing in the firelight, jaws parted and lips pulled back.  There were squirrels and opossums, badgers and foxes, beavers and wild dogs.  Snakes dripped through the room's arrow slits, dropping to the floor in alert coils and slithering swiftly towards their prey.  A huge timber wolf leapt through the double doors and onto one of the plotting tables.  It spied the wizard and bared its yellow fangs, snarling furiously.  With a scratch of its claws and a blur of grey fur, it launched towards him and landed on his back, driving him to his knees.

More flashes of green lit the room, and the wizard's exclamations grew to screams of fury.  He fought back against the creatures, kicking and flailing, hexing everything in sight.

And then, at the height of the fracas, a shuddering boom shook the entire hall.  Dust and grit showered from the ceiling.  Tools clattered from tables.  Gabriella watched, strangely calm, as the wizard fought to his feet, his eyes hectic, his face covered in scratches.  He looked around wildly.

Another boom ripped through the hall, and finally, the smaller creatures began to scatter.  They darted away in every direction, making way for the newest arrival.  The wizard spun on the spot, waving his wand.

A shuddering explosion ripped through the citadel wall behind him, destroying the fireplace.  Bricks and stone flew across the room, smashing furniture and burying the small stage and its enchanted musical instruments.  Dust filled the air.  As it began to clear, a pair of enormous, orange eyes opened in the darkness.

The wizard saw this and began to back away, raising his wand.

A huge, scaly head pushed in through the broken wall.  A long, snake-like neck followed it, and then a massive, clawed foot.  Lengths of shredded net still clung to the creature.  The beast seemed to grow even larger as it shouldered its way into the hall, casting the entire room into its shadow.  It kicked the stony debris away effortlessly.  Deeply, lividly, the dragon began to growl.

The wizard fired at it with his wand, but the green spells merely exploded against it with no effect.  The dragon stalked forwards, its nostrils smoking, its jaw creaking open viciously.  Its eyes never left the wizard.  It began to coil, to lower itself in preparation to pounce.

The wizard transformed.  Gabriella watched from where she lay in her own blood, dying and too weak to move.  The awful man dropped away, growing small and sprouting wings.  Beyond him, the dragon pounced.  It hurtled through the darkness, bashing the chandelier aside and crashing heavily to the floor.  Its great tail swept a gout of debris into the air, but the wizard was no longer there.  Instead, a small, winged shape fluttered up, screeching angrily and darting into the cloud of bats that still scattered throughout the room's upper reaches.  The dragon saw this and lunged after it, snapping its jaws, but to no avail.  There were too many of the bats.  It was impossible to know which one was the villain in disguise.

But then, silently, one more shape swooped in through the broken remains of the wall.  Gabriella saw it and smiled wanly.

"Featherbolt," she breathed.

The falcon arced into the air, circled the dragon's lunging neck, and homed in on one of the swirling bats.  In an instant, the two became fluttering streaks, swooping wildly around the room, screeching and squeaking furiously.  Finally, Featherbolt dipped his talons, thrust forwards, and caught the bat.

The awful creature began to transform again in mid-air.  Featherbolt seemed to sense this.  He carried the struggling bat-thing higher, dragging it up into the rafters even as it bulged and writhed in his talons.  Reaching the apex, Featherbolt turned, clapped his wings, and gave his talons a mighty, decisive
twist
.  The bat-thing was ripped in two.  Black guts exploded from between the halves and rained wetly towards the floor far below.  With a flap of his wings, Featherbolt released the torn body parts.  They fell, still writhing and transforming, and as they did, the dragon lunged upwards once more.

Gabriella squinted as the entire room was filled with a torrent of blue light.  The roar of the dragon was deafening in the enclosed space, and the heat of its breath raised the temperature to an almost unbearable level.  A long moment later, darkness fell once more, along with a sudden, unexpected silence.

When Gabriella looked up, there was nothing left of the wizard but a caul of black smoke and sifting ash.  The dragon watched this, its orange eyes narrowed.  Featherbolt perched on one of the rafters and peered down, blinking his gold-ringed eyes.

There was a heavy clink as something fell to the stone floor in front of Gabriella.  She saw what it was but was too weak even to reach for it.