The Seven Swords (20 page)

30 - HOW THE RENDEZVOUS IS RIDICULOUSLY UNFUN

Artie and Kay simultaneously vaulted
over the edge of the dune and ran toward Kynder, the rest of the knights on their heels. The siblings should have been thinking of Merlin and that awful look he gave them, but all they wanted was to know if their father was okay.

As they made their way across the beach, Merlin looked at the arrowhead that had entered through his back and was now sticking out of his chest. He put a hand around the shaft and pulled it out. A dark jet of blood shot from his chest before he healed himself.

Artie and Kay ignored this, passing Merlin and continuing headlong for Kynder. But Thumb found it impossible to ignore his old friend Merlin. When he reached the bloodied wizard, he skidded to a halt and yelled, “Why?”

Merlin sounded pretty unconvincing when he pleaded, “It's not how it looks! Let me explain!”

But there wouldn't be any time for that. The rain finally began to fall in heavy, drenching drops. The wind gusted. A web of lightning shattered the clouds.

Morgaine had arrived.

Merlin said nothing more and flew away from the knights toward the source of the storm, toward Lordess Morgaine. The knights and fairies, unsure what to do, waited in the middle of the beach as Artie and Kay sprinted past Tiberius, who was badly dazed and possibly wounded, and threw themselves into the sand next to Kynder. Dropping Cleomede, Kay vigorously shook Kynder's arm while Artie took his face in both hands. Kynder's huge, square eyeglasses from 1985 lay across his face at an angle.

“Artie, look!” Kay exclaimed. She stared at Kynder's leg, which was bent completely backward. Bones on both sides of the break stuck out. His shoe and sock had somehow come off, and his foot was the color of the gray sky overhead.

Artie screamed, “Dad! Can you hear me?”

Kynder's eyes fluttered and his lips moved, but there was no voice. Kay let go of his arm as Artie tried to wipe the rain from Kynder's glasses and put them back in place. He ripped off the scabbard and laid it across his dad's chest, but it didn't seem to have any effect.

“Is it working, Artie?” Kay asked desperately.

“I-I don't think so,” Artie answered weakly.

“Why not?” Kay shouted.

“I don't know.” Artie gazed up at his sister. “I don't know what to do, Kay!”

Kynder tried to speak again.

“What's that, Dad?” Artie asked, leaning close to his father's mouth. It was difficult to hear over the rain as it began to hiss across the beach.

A bare whisper passed Kynder's lips: “Ex . . . Ex . . .”

“Excalibur?” Artie asked. As he named his sword, he felt again that it was close, and that it wanted to be reunited with him as soon as possible. Kynder nodded ever so slightly. “What about it?” Artie asked.

“It . . . You . . . Mer . . .”

But it was too much; his injuries were too great. It wasn't just his leg. Getting zapped by Merlin was obviously no fun. Merlin's magic must have been why the scabbard wasn't working.

“I'm going to kill that wizard,” Kay said seriously.

“All right, Dad, hang in there,” Artie urged, ignoring Kay. “Let me get everyone and we'll
lunae lumen
back to Shadyside. We'll get you to a hospital, okay?”

Kynder smiled weakly. Thunder rumbled behind them. Kay looked back in the direction they'd come from and said, “Oh, this is just wonderful.”

Artie looked too. The dune they had just been on was now dotted with a dozen soldiers like the ones they'd fought in Surmik. More were coming too. They were getting ready.

Only this time, they weren't just foot soldiers.

They were bear soldiers.

Kay looked at her brother. Her mismatched eyes were lit with purpose. “Art, take Dad and get out of here.”

“No way! I would never leave you here!”

“Do it!”

“No!”

“Ugh!” Kay cried in frustration. She grabbed Cleomede and stood.

And just then Kynder's body began to shake. “Wait—what's happening?” Artie squealed.

They watched as Kynder's eyes closed and his body went limp. Artie shook Kynder's rain-spattered face. He pounded his chest. He pushed the healing scabbard hard into his father and yelled his name. Kay screamed his name too. But there was nothing. No breath. No life. Rain lashed their bodies and made their hands go cold.

“No! Dad! No!” Artie yelled desperately. He just wanted all this to end. He wanted to be home, to be safe, to never have heard of the Otherworld or been burdened with its problems. He wanted to be playing video games, and sneaking cans of Mountain Dew into the house, and even going to school. He didn't want to have to fight a witch or bear soldiers, or find his long-lost magical sword. He didn't want to be king of anything, least of all some whacked-out fairy world where anything could happen.

Where fathers could die.

Artie lifted his head, squinting his eyes against the rain and tears, when Kynder's body shuddered again and his breathing resumed. Artie was shocked, ecstatic, whooping with joy as Kynder looked Artie square in the eye and hissed, “Get to Avalon!” But then he lost consciousness again, his breath short and labored—but at least present.

Artie had a hard time dealing with the adrenaline shooting through his every fiber. This was all his fault. This was all his fault. Artie Kingfisher had almost killed the person he loved more than anyone in the world.

This was all his fault.

“Artie, what do we do?” Kay asked helplessly.

“Hmmmph,” Tiberius said before Artie had a chance to answer. “Hmmmmmmmph!” the dragon said again more forcefully.

Tiberius didn't look so hot, either. When he'd careened into the ground, he'd been dragged across a sharp spur of rock jutting from the sand, and now golden blood flowed freely from a two-foot gash on his neck. “His life force fades,” Tiberius murmured.

“Do something, Tiberius! Please!” Kay pleaded.

“Move, Kingfishers,” the dragon crooned as he trained his rainbow eyes on Kynder. Black, crinkly smoke began to rise from Tiberius's nostrils. “Move!” he repeated.

And then someone they didn't expect appeared to step right out of the dragon's body. “Numinae?” Kay asked, her head spinning with confusion.

The forest lord stood at full height and said, “Arthur Pendragon, Tiberius can keep your father from dying, and preserve his mind before the wizard's amnesia spell can take root. Please move.”

Artie wiped his arm across his eyes and pulled Kay toward Numinae. Tiberius struggled to lift his head and then breathed a jet of black smoke on Kynder's broken body. Quickly, the black stone unfolded around their dad in the shape of an elongated egg, encasing him like Han Solo in carbonite.

Tiberius let out a long and exhausted, “Hmmmmph,” and then closed his eyes.

Numinae put a hand on his dragon's neck and whispered something in his ear. Then Tiberius shook as muffled snapping noises came from inside his body, and spots all over his brilliant green skin began to turn black. The spots grew and hardened, and in a matter of seconds Tiberius became like the black stone that he'd just breathed on Kynder, although not in the shape of an egg. Instead he'd been transformed into a statue.

“Is he preserved, too?” Kay asked.

“No,” Numinae said. “Tiberius used his last bit of energy to save your father.”

“You mean Tiberius is dead?” Kay asked in a wavering voice, tears streaming down her cheeks. Her stomach was a twitchy mess and she felt like she was going to vomit.

“Yes. But if you can get to Avalon,” Numinae said sternly, “you may be able to revive Tiberius. You'll know better than me once you arrive at your castle.”

“And Kynder?” Artie asked.

“Nothing can hurt him now. He is alive in there, but barely. Since we can no longer rely on the wizard, we will have to find the Grail to ensure that he will be fully revived,” he said.

“The Grail? You mean the
Holy Grail
?” Artie asked.

Numinae nodded.

Kay wiped tears from her eyes and asked, “You sure we can get our dad back?”

“I swear it to you,” Numinae said. “He is my friend. I will not rest until he is back in your arms, alive and well.”

Artie rubbed his tear-filled eyes. Numinae placed a gnarled hand on his shoulder. “You have to be strong now, Arthur. You too, Kay.”

“I know,” Artie responded weakly. Kay said nothing.

They stood in silence for a few moments, and then they heard Thumb and Lance cry, “Take cover!” The knights were scrambling for a place to hide, but since they were on a beach, there wasn't one.

Which sucked.

Because the air was not just full of rain, but also a ton of arrows.

The projectiles arced up against the deluge and were about to make the turn back to earth, where they would kill or maim as many of Artie's knights as possible. The knights stood together and waved their weapons over their heads, hoping to deflect whatever arrows might fall down on them.

But then Merlin, who was closer to Morgaine's army amassing on the crest of the dune, raised the owl-headed cane and all the arrows quickly changed course, like a school of fish dodging a predator. He waved the cane again, and the shafts scattered in all directions, a few even turning back on the Fenlandian soldiers and striking them down.

“What is going
on
?” Kay exclaimed. “Is he on our side or not?”

“He's on
his
side,” said Numinae as a bolt of lightning arced from the swamp into the sky, accompanied by a long, gut-wrenching wail.

“Was that . . . ?” Artie trailed off.

Numinae nodded. “Morgaine. She is here.” Then he held up his maul-arm and said, “Arthur Pendragon, we must fight!”

“What? No! Let's just gate out of here!” Kay said, her eyes bloodshot and glassy. It was maybe the first time in her life she'd ever wanted to run from a fight.

“If you run now, it will mean leaving Kynder here,” Numinae said.

Artie swallowed hard. “He's right. We couldn't carry him through the gate.”

“What about that other dragon?” Kay asked. “He's strong.”

“Fallown could pick him up, but a moongate is not big enough for a dragon,” Numinae said. “The only way Kynder gets off this beach is if you open the gate to Avalon while you're standing around him.”

“How the heck are we going to do that, Numinae? We've only got four of the swords!” Kay's voice shook with fear. “Artie—let's stick to the plan. Let's go down there and get the others, gate to the witch's castle, get the missing swords, gate back here, and then jet to Avalon with Kynder!”

“No,” Artie said.

“What do you mean, ‘No'?” Kay demanded, spittle flying from her lips.

“Excalibur isn't at the Castel anymore.” Artie pointed Flixith at the dune. More soldiers had lined up along it. “It's near. It's not with the witch, I can feel that much, but it is near.”

Kay's shoulders slumped, while Artie's straightened. “Kay, I need you. We're going to fight for Kynder. Here. Now. We'll worry about Merlin later. We're going to fight, get my sword, and then find a way to get the other two. I need you to be strong, Kay. Be strong for Kynder, Kay Kingfisher!”

Kay ran a hand through her short hair and looked at her brother. “All right,” she said. She whisked Cleomede through the air. “All right!” she repeated with conviction.

“That's my girl,” Artie said.

“I will fight with you too, sire,” Numinae said reverently.

“You better!” Artie said, slapping the Sylvanian lord on the back.

“As will the golden dragon,” Numinae said.

At this point the other knights came running down the beach, their faces creased with confusion, fear, and excitement. As they arrived, Numinae pointed his face to the sky and made a low, lumbering sound. Fallown swooped from the clouds, picked him up, and threw him onto his back.

“That's Numinae, isn't it?” Lance asked in awe.

“Yeah,” Artie said. “He's with us.”

“How's Kynder?” Thumb asked, placing his hand on the oblong stone that contained Artie and Kay's father. “And Tiberius?”

But before Artie could answer, the unseen archers launched another volley. Merlin was still in place farther down the beach, and the knights watched him cast another spell. This time the arrows never slowed or changed trajectory. They just kept rising into the air and vanished in the clouds.

But not a moment later they returned, heading right back for the dune. They disappeared behind the line of bear soldiers, and Artie and Kay could hear the faint cries of dozens of men.

“I still don't understand what Merlin's doing!” Artie said. “Is he fighting for us or what?”

“I don't know,” Thumb said.

“And I don't care,” Kay said. “I still want to kill him.”

“Artie, is your dad in that
rock
?” Qwon asked.

“Yeah. He's alive in there . . . kind of.”

“So, what now, dude?” Lance asked, more concerned with the fight at hand.

“Yes, what now, lad?”

Before Artie could answer, there was a great flapping sound, followed by a high screech.

They watched as a purple-skinned dragon rose from the swamp behind the dune. Its green-feathered wings pushed hard at the air. For a moment the knights were reduced to spectators as it wailed again and then breathed a jet of black liquid at Merlin. The wizard casually held up his cane, and the dragon's breath attack formed a ball around him and fell away.

The wizard was fine, rising slowly into the air.

Lightning jumped from the back of the dragon's neck, which held a saddle and rider.

“Morgaine,” Thumb said bitterly.

“On Scarm, no less,” Shallot added.