Twist of the Blade (28 page)

The room beyond was tiny by Canadian hotel standards and had a faded look, as though far too long had passed since it was last renovated. The light-blue wall
paper and darker-blue rug both bore noticeable stains. There were two narrow beds, separated by a scarred night table with an old black telephone on it. A tiny TV sat on the dresser at the foot of the beds. Luxurious it wasn’t, but it did have one thing Ariane wanted more than anything else, right at that moment: a bathroom with a shower. “I need to get cleaned up,” she said. She searched the closet and found a rather threadbare bathrobe. When she opened the door to the tiny bathroom, she hesitated. There was barely room to turn around in there – it would be an awful struggle undressing. “Turn your back,” she said to Wally. “Look out the window.”

Wally’s grin flickered across his face again. “Yes, my lady,” he said. While he stared at the street outside, Ariane stripped off her filthy clothes and took off the tensor bandage holding the two shards of Excalibur to her skin. She tossed them on the bed, rubbed the red marks they’d left on her flanks, and then pulled on the bathrobe and cinched it up.

As she glanced at the back of Wally’s head and the darkening sky beyond the window, she wondered just how reflective that glass was. She decided not to ask. “Okay, you can turn around.”

Wally turned, and his eyes went at once to the two pieces of metal lying on the bed. He walked over and reached out for them, then stopped and glanced at her. “May I hold them?”

“Of course,” Ariane said.

He picked up the two shards. “Do they really fit together?”

“Yes and no,” Ariane said. He gave her a puzzled look. “They fit together physically. But magically...something’s not quite right. I can use either one as a...a magical battery, but I can’t use them at the same time.” She shook her head. “My guess is that the whole sword needs to be re-forged before they’ll work together. And how exactly we’re supposed to make that happen I have no idea. Know anything about blacksmithing?” She closed her eyes, focusing on her inner sense of the two bits of blade. “It’s like they’re two singers singing the same song side by side, but one is a quarter-step flat...” Her breath exploded out of her in surprise as suddenly, without warning, the discord vanished. For one glorious instant the two songs merged in perfect harmony, and for that instant she felt an enormous surge of power…but then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it was gone. “What...?” She opened her eyes.

Wally was just separating the two pieces of the sword, one in each hand. “What’s wrong?” he said.

Ariane stared at him. “Wally, when you put the two pieces together...suddenly they were singing in harmony. It was beautiful!” She inhaled deeply. “Literally breathtaking. How did you...?”

“Beats me,” Wally said. “I’m the non-magical half of this duo.” The bitterness in his voice surprised her.

“But still important,” Ariane said, guiltily aware that not that long ago she’d been thinking of him as useless and in the way.

She reached out for the two shards, put them together herself, and instantly jerked them apart again. After hearing that perfect meshing of their songs a moment ago, the discord when
she
tried to put them together was even harder to take.

She sighed. “Weird.” Then she yawned and rubbed her tired eyes. “Okay, time to get in the shower,” she said. She looked down at her scraped hands and her lacerated knees, showing under the hem of the rather short gown. “I don’t think I’m going to enjoy the soap much,” she added ruefully. “Once I’m finished...I lost all my euros in the cave.
Do you have enough for us to get something to eat?”

Wally, staring at the shards, nodded without looking up.

“Good.” Ariane went into the bathroom, closed the door firmly behind her, and a moment later was luxuriating in hot water. As she’d suspected, the sting of shampoo on her scraped palms brought tears to her eyes. But the sting quickly faded, leaving her with the simple joy of being clean again.

Next, food
, she thought.
And then sleep. And then...home.

Home with two shards in her grasp. How long before she heard the call of the third?

Finished shampooing, she leaned both hands against the wall of the shower and let the water rinse her hair, suds running down her bare skin, stinging her knees and elbows anew, and swirling dirt and dried blood down the drain.

Soon, I hope
, she thought.
The quicker we get this quest over the sooner we can go back to normal life. And if we succeed and I have Excalibur...maybe then I’ll have enough power to do what I really want to do: find Mom.

She closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of the water, even as she felt it calling her to follow it down the drain, follow it anywhere.

Not while I’m naked
, thanks, she thought, picturing herself suddenly erupting in Wascana Lake in November with no clothes on. The very thought made her shiver. She’d be one big goose pimple.

She laughed and turned off the water. Once dry, she pulled on her bathrobe and swung open the bathroom door, letting the hot, moist air flood out. “I think I almost feel human again,” she said cheerfully as she stepped out into the room. “And I bet I’ll feel completely human once we’ve had something to –”

She stopped, staring around the room. Wally was gone.

And then her gaze dropped to the bed.

So was the second shard of Excalibur.

~~~

Wally stared down at the two shards, lying side by side on the dark green bedspread.
I can’t believe how easy she’s made it
, he thought as he heard the shower start up in the bathroom. She’d just accepted his story about escaping from Major, without question.

Despite his anger at Ariane, or at least at what the Lady of the Lake had made her do, despite his determination to help Rex Major, he felt a little sick: he knew that the reason Ariane had made it so easy for him was that she still trusted him. If he took the shards to Major, she’d never trust him again.

She’d never be his friend again.

But if I don’t take them
, he thought,
if I leave them to her, soon enough she’s not going to be the Ariane I know at all. Excalibur is eating her alive...bit by bit, she’s turning into someone...some
thing
else, something that won’t be my friend anyway.

He touched the bandage on his cheek. Then he reached for the shards.

But just as he was about to put them both into his backpack, he paused.

Ariane had no passport, no money, and no plane ticket. She’d made it clear she’d needed the extra power of the first shard to travel through the clouds across the Atlantic. If he took both shards, he would be stranding her in a foreign country with no resources.

Major wanted both shards. And it was risky leaving even the first one with Ariane, given the way it had already changed her. But he didn’t see that he had any choice. And the thought did just cross his mind that, if it turned out he was wrong about Major after all, he might be very glad that
Ariane still had the power of the first shard to draw on.

Wally closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Ariane wouldn’t be in the shower forever. He had to decide
now
.

He snapped his eyes open and convulsively flung the first shard of Excalibur back on the bed. Then he stuffed the second in his backpack. He opened the door, then hesitated again. Ariane didn’t even have any money, and he knew she was starving. And the money
he
had belonged to Aunt Phyllis anyway.

He hurried back to the bed, opened his backpack, took all the euros out of his wallet and tossed the bills onto the bed next to the first shard. Then he rushed out into the hallway. The door, as it closed behind him, shut out the sound of the shower.

A few minutes later he strode down the darkening street, retracing the path he had followed to the hotel. Just around the first corner, the big black Mercedes waited. Rex Major glanced up from his phone as Wally, slipping his backpack off his arms, slid into the seat beside him. “Well?” he said.

Wally unzipped the backpack. “I couldn’t get the first one,” he said. “But....” He pulled out the second shard of Excalibur. “Take it,” he said. “It’s yours.”

Major snatched it from his hand, and as he touched it, just for an instant, his face changed – not his expression,
his whole face
, into something cold and alien and ancient, a skull covered by only the thinnest layer of skin and flesh. The impression only lasted a second, but Wally couldn’t help but stare. He’d never seen anything like it outside of a horror movie.

Still sure you made the right decision?

Major tucked the shard away inside his coat, and tapped the chauffeur on the shoulder. “À l’aéroport, s’il vous plaît.” The driver nodded and pulled the car away from the curb.

Major looked at Wally. Something of the shock he’d felt upon seeing Major’s brief change in appearance must have still registered on his face, because Major said soothingly, “You did the right thing, Wally. With one shard in my possession, the third will be easier to find, and then the fourth. Once I have three, I can take the one Ariane carries, and then she will be free of her quest and the Lady’s power. She can go back to being an ordinary girl, and I can set about healing the planet.” He smiled at Wally. “With your help, I hope.”

Wally snorted. “My help?” He pointed at the stitches on his forehead. “I can’t even get home from school without hurting myself.”

“How many times must I tell you, Wally? You’re more special than you think.”

Wally sighed. “Yeah, you keep saying that, but you still haven’t told me
how
.”

“I will,” Major said. “When I am sure of my facts. And now that I have one shard, I can test my theory. But for now...I will say that I don’t think it was coincidence that you and Ariane met, nor was it coincidence you were present when the Lady called her into the lake. Your lives, and the lives of your families...for
centuries
, Wally...have been shaped by the magic of Excalibur. The sword
wants
to be reforged. Its fragments have been calling out to each other down through the ages. And as they have called to each other, they have enmeshed within their web those who are sensitive to their call.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call me sensitive,” Wally said. “I didn’t even cry at the end of
Old Yeller
.”

Major laughed. “Trust me, Wally. Your role in all of this is, I think, greater than even the Lady suspects.”

Despite himself, Wally felt a thrill of excitement. Could it be true? Could he be as special as Ariane?
“
I wish you’d just tell me instead of dropping dark hints,” he said.

“Not until I’m sure,” Major repeated. “But once we’re back in Toronto, I can –”

“Wait a minute,” Wally said. “Toronto? Aunt Phyllis...”
someone else who will never forgive me
, he thought with a genuine pang of regret, not least because it meant no more chocolate-chip macaroons, “...arranged for me to miss a
week of school, but I have to be back next Monday.”

“Wally,” said Major. “I’m the most powerful sorcerer the world has ever known
and
one of its richest men. Trust me when I say I will make things right with your school – and your parents.”

“As if
they’ll
care,” Wally muttered.

“You’ll stay with me in Toronto. I can bring in a tutor to ensure you keep up with your studies, so when you do go back to school, you won’t fall behind. But until this whole thing is settled and Excalibur is in my possession, you must stay with me.” His voice grew grim. “Ariane will be angry when she discovers the shard is missing. And if she is too far gone into the mindset of the Lady, I’m afraid she might take revenge.”

Wally wanted to say,
Ariane would never hurt me
, but of course, Ariane already
had
. He had the stitches in his cheek and a sister in the hospital to prove it.

“Someday, Ariane will see that you acted in her best interest and in the best interest of everyone else on Earth, and in Faerie,” Major continued. “But until then, you’re safest with me.”

Wally said nothing. The initial shock over, he found he liked the idea of living in Toronto. Nobody would miss him at school except maybe Coach Mueller. Too bad, but maybe he could still study fencing in Toronto.

He certainly wouldn’t miss school any more than it would miss him. He didn’t really have any close friends, just fellow geeks with whom he argued the finer points of
Star Wars
...and wouldn’t
they
be green with envy when they found out he was living with Rex Major, a not-so-minor god in the pantheon of computer geekdom! His parents...well, since they didn’t seem too concerned about how much he missed
them
, why should he worry how much they missed him?
Because they won’t
, he thought.
They’ll just be glad Rex Major has taken me off their hands.

He snorted.
Mrs. Carson might miss me
, he thought,
but only because without me she’s out of a job.