The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp (33 page)

He launched himself at me with a terrible roar. I raised my black sword just in time to block the downward arc of Excalibur, and the impact made my ears ring with pain. Mogart's eyes glittered with rage as he swung at me, so fast, Excalibur was just a silvery blur.

As Mogart swung furiously at me, I backed up until I ran out of room and smacked into the wall behind me. Now I was left with two choices: Stand up and fight, or give up and die.

I was moving on just instinct, holding the sword in both hands as Mogart's shoulders dipped and hunched and swiveled, and the sound of our swords meeting was an awful screech of metal striking metal. I could feel the jagged teeth of the wall behind me cutting through the gray cloak, taking nibbles from my back.

I screamed Bennacio's name as loud as I could. This only made Mogart angrier, and he slammed his left hand against my right shoulder. The force of the blow jarred the sword from my hand, and the blade clattered to the floor.

Mogart pressed his forearm against my neck, and as I struggled to breathe against the pressure, I knew the fight was over.

“The heir to Samson!” he hissed into my face. I felt the tip of Excalibur pressing into my stomach, penetrating the cloak and tearing slowly into the shirt under it. “The heir to Lancelot! The reason for my exile! How things have come full circle, Alfred Kropp!”

“Please,” I whispered. “Please, Mr. Mogart . . .” I wasn't sure exactly what I was begging him to do. Or not do.

“Did noble Bennacio tell you how your father met his fate? Did anyone tell you, Alfred Kropp, how Daddy died?”

I felt the steel tip pierce my skin, and the sickening warmth of my own blood trickle down my stomach.

“Please,” I whispered. “Please.”

“I tortured him. I cut him a thousand times, until upon his knees he begged me to finish it, to end his miserable life. Just as you are begging now.”

His arm moved forward. The blade sank deeper into my body, maybe four or five inches, and I could taste blood in my mouth.

“And when he had no more breath for begging, I lopped off his miserable head.”

His right arm jerked forward, harder this time, and now my mouth was full of my own blood.

His face was fading and his voice was growing fainter.

“And then I took Bernard Samson's head and mounted it on a steel pike. I placed his head at the entrance to my keep, where the carrion fed upon it, where the crows feasted on his eyes and tongue. And so you see we have indeed come full circle, Mr. Kropp. The time has come for our parting. The time has come for you to leave me and join your father.”

And with that he slammed the Sword all the way into my body, up to the hilt, and I heard the cloak rip as the tip passed out through my back and bit into the stone wall behind me as easily as if the rock were sand.

Mogart let go and backed away. His smile came back.

“Now,” he said. “
Die,
Alfred Kropp.”

I'll never be sure, but I think when he said that, I did.

50

I saw some things after I died.

First, I was floating near the cave's roof, looking down at myself impaled against the wall. Mogart had both hands wrapped around the hilt of the Sword, pulling with all his strength, his face contorted with the effort. His roars of rage and frustration echoed against the walls of the cavern.

He pulled and pulled, but he couldn't pull the Sword from the stone.

He staggered backwards, then turned and found the two-foot dagger he had dropped when he dived for the Sword. I guess he was going to cut my body away from the Sword because you can't get much leverage against a human body— it's too soft—and then that faded.

There was silence, and then the sound the wind makes whispering through leaves.

Suddenly, I was sitting beside Mom's bed in the hospital and she was saying,
Take it away. Please take the pain away.

I couldn't take that, so I turned away and Uncle Farrell was on the sofa and the Sword was in his gut, and I watched as he pulled it out and held it toward me.
Take it, Al. Take it
away.

I turned away from Uncle Farrell, and Bernard Samson, my father, was beside me, saying,
They are part of an ancient
and secret Order, bound by a sacred vow to keep safe the
Sword until its Master comes to claim it.

I turned again, and saw Bennacio. I heard us speak, but it was more like I was remembering hearing us speak.

Who is the master if Arthur's dead?

The master is the one who claims it.

And who would that be?

The master of the Sword.

Then Bennacio turned away and I was sad to see him turn away, because I think I missed him most of all.

Then I saw the Lady in White sitting beneath the yew tree, and I felt no wind, but her dark hair was flowing behind her and the folds of her white robe were rippling like waves.

She didn't look at me as I stopped under the tree beside her. Her cheeks were wet.

“Am I dead?” I asked.

Do you wish to be?

“I think so. I'm awfully tired.” More than anything, I wanted to lie down with my head in her lap and feel her stroke my brow.

A tear rolled down her cheek and I said, “Please don't. It's not like I didn't try. From the beginning I did what anybody asked. Uncle Farrell asked me to help him get the Sword, and I did. Bennacio asked me to help him get it back, and I did. Mogart asked me to bring it to him, and I did. But every time I did what they asked, somebody got killed. Uncle Farrell, Bennacio, and now Natalia. So, you see, Lady, there's nobody left now. Nobody left for to me help and nobody left to die because I tried. There's no reason for me to go back.”

I turned away because I couldn't bear to see her cry. She was still there, only I couldn't see her, but I could see the memory of her and the memory of the yew and the long grasses and the glittering shards like teeth in the slag heap below. And, over my head, the butterflies.

The hour has come. Do you remember, now, Alfred
Kropp, what has been forgotten?

Then there was nothing. Even the blackness wasn't black, because my memory of
black
was gone. No light, no sound, no sensation or memory—there wasn't even any
me
anymore. Alfred Kropp was gone.

And when the last of me was gone, I remembered what I had forgotten.

I reached into the yew tree and pulled a silver pin from the body of a butterfly. Freed, it burst into flight, black and red and gold against the bright blue sky, soaring higher and higher, until it was gone.

Darkness came back, but this time only because my eyes were closed.

So I opened them.

I was back in Merlin's cave, with the silver Sword of Kings jutting from my stomach.

And I knew, I finally knew, who the master of the Sword was.

51

Mogart came toward me, the black dagger in his hand, but he stopped when he heard the sound of my voice.

“The master . . .” I gasped. “The master of the Sword is . . . the one . . .” I coughed and blood filled my mouth and ran down my chin. “The one . . .
who claims it
.”

I brought my hands up and wrapped my fingers around the hilt. Behind me, metal screeched against the rock as I pulled the Sword from my body. Mogart was opening his mouth to either scream or say something, I'll never know, because I was free of the Sword now—or it was free of me— and, free, I swung the Sword around in one gigantic arc, my own blood flying from the blade, and I cut off his goddamned head.

I dropped to the cold stone floor. I realized I might die again, but I had already died once and I wasn't worried about it anymore, at least not once I finished what I had started.

I started to crawl toward Natalia, but my arms gave out and I flopped onto my belly on the cold stone. I let go of the Sword; I needed both my hands to push myself along the floor.

There was a soft white glow surrounding her and through my tears, in the trick of the light, I thought I saw a shadow hovering over her and the shape of wings.

My head felt hollow and black stars began to bloom before my eyes. I would never make it to her in time, but I told myself I could go one more inch. One more inch, Kropp, I told myself. One more inch. And after that inch, another inch.

My teeth chattered and I was very cold, colder than I ever remember being. The soft light around her burned my eyes to look at, so I closed my eyes and felt something warm around me, as if someone had wrapped me in a blanket.

There was a rushing sound and I thought of a great river running to the sea. Hundreds of years, thousands, whole centuries passed, and I still didn't know how close I was or if I was even close at all.

Then I breathed in the scent of peaches.

I opened my eyes and saw the face of the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.

I whispered in her ear, “By the power of the Sword, Natalia . . . in the name of the Archangel Michael . . .”

Dipping my fingers into the wound in my stomach, I brought the blood to her side where Mogart had stabbed her.

I bathed her wound in my blood, whispering in her ear, “See, I remembered. I remembered what I had forgotten. I was going to stay dead, mostly because I was just so darned tired, but then I remembered what I'd forgotten, which is
the
power to heal as well as to rend
. . . so get up, Natalia, get up, because I am the master now and you have to do what I say.”