And stared in horror as they vanished like smoke on the wind.
Deception.Shadows.The oldest fucking trick in the book."Back to the castle!"he bellowed, even as he heard the roar of another large beast and alerts flared from Arthur, Kay, and Percival.
"I—I know that cry," Tristan said, voice shaking."That's the questing beast.But I killed it ages ago."His friend and rival Palamedes, who had been cursed by Maleagant, turned forever into a terrible monster, a dark and twisted chimaera.The same twisted fate Kinborough had cursed herself with in her desperation to best Mordred.Except Palamedes hadn't had a choice, and Tristan had slain him to grant the only peace left to him.
"A paltry imitation to shake us," Lancelot said, and then they were racing back to the castle.The water, the fucking water.Maleagant had distracted them with battle and snuck in via the water.Damn it, he was so fuckingstupid.
He heard Arthur and Percival scream as he reached the keep.An alert flashed at the corner of his eye, but he ignored it because he was almost there—
Shadow ripped through them as they entered the great hall, pain like a thousand knives, bitterly cold and searingly hot all at once, making him sick and dizzy.Lancelot collapsed, even as he tried to fight it, but he was a fly fighting a spider's web.
Lifting his head took so much effort he nearly passed out.
Arthur.Percival.Guinevere.Elaine.Iseult.Bertilak.All lying unconscious.Where was Kay?
Lancelot puked, only barely noticing the blood in it, then tried to focus again.
The great hall was a mess.The tables and chairs were nothing but ashes and soot.All the tapestries and more were gone, glass in rainbow pieces across the floor, digging into his hands and legs, which explained some of the pain.
As he watched, unable to move, everyone equally trapped around him, the thrones shifted, darkened, turned into black marble with veins of purple and red.Down the length of either side of the hall, fourteen additional marble seats rose from the floor.
That was why Maleagant hadn't wanted to kill them.He needed them for something.
Sixteen chairs, though.That wasn't right.There should only be fifteen.
His heart skipped, then started pounding faster than ever, as Merlin's words came back to him.
I sense some greater force has interfered where they can.
Standing in front of the thrones, dressed in his finery of old, like a king preparing for his coronation, Maleagant laughed, the sound filled with cruelty and smug satisfaction.Beside him, sword drawn, ready to defend, was Galehaut.Lancelot bit back a sob.
Bran, still very much possessed, went around the room gathering each of them one by one.Arthur and Guinevere to their thrones, where they were promptly bound in faintly glowing, red-black chains.
Eventually, they were all in their chairs.Only then did Maleagant finally turn on Bran and Galehaut, striking them with the same terrible, incapacitating shadow magic.They screamed in agony, and Lancelot would have sobbed to hear Galehaut, to hear all of them, in so much pain, but he could barely stay awake.
Maleagant's smug expression dropped from his face as he finally noticed the problem that Lancelot had noted immediately."This isn't right.There's only fifteen of them.That was the bargain struck, that was the number of sacrifices required.Why is there an extra chair?"He bellowed with fury, shaking the very stones of the hall.His eyes blazed with hate as he turned to Arthur."What did you do, you stupid fucking son of a bitch?"Snarling, he climbed the steps of the dais and grabbed the scruff of Arthur's tunic.
Arthur smirked, golden and shining, despite the pain he was in, the blood that covered him."Fuck you."
Maleagant screamed again and drew his sword, but they all knew that though he could torture everyone in that room, he could not kill them.
Also, that he had gambledeverythingfor his feint to work.He was at the end of his power, had risked it all on the surety of his victory.If he could not find and secure Kay, it was over for him.
Thoroughly distracted by Arthur and his talent for being infuriating, Maleagant didn't notice the figure that slipped quietly into the room and up to Lancelot's chair.Picking up Arondight where it had fallen from his hand as he was dropped in the chair, Kay used it to slice through the chains.
"Hide again, get the others out as soon as I have him distracted.Free Galehaut first, he's the most vulnerable to the water I'm going to unleash," Lancelot said quietly as he pulled free and stood up, taking back Arondight, drawing upon its strength to restore some of his own.Reaching out to the lake, to the dregs of it remaining on the battlefield, he called it to him."Send me an alert each time someone makes it out of the throne room."
Maleagant stopped, let go of Arthur, who was now beaten black and blue, Guinevere in nearly as bad a shape beside him.Not once, despite their excruciating beatings, had either made a sound.Turning around slowly, Maleagant narrowed his eyes as he took in Lancelot."The Greatest Knight, I should have known you'd try to be a problem one last time."He banished his fine clothes, recalling his armor and sword, and walked slowly down the dais, shadows coming to him, heeding his call as the water heeded Lancelot.
"I am King of the Distant Isles, rightful King of Camelot, and I have bested all of you yet again," Maleagant said."If the mighty King Arthur himself could not best me in all his golden glory, no one can.You can barely stand, Captain of the Knights of Failure.You're pathetic.What do you really think you can do, Sir Lancelot du Lac, at this final hour when the victory is already mine?"
Water began to cover the floor of the great hall, moving slowly, quietly.
Lancelot wiped the blood from his face and then let his arm fall to his side.Blood dripped from his gloves to land in the water, swirling and spreading.
Do not forget where you come from, who you are, what you are, and all that means.
"I serve the King of Camelot, but do you think that means I have forsaken my homeland and surrendered to the earth?I am the son of the Lady of the Lake, the Queen of the Waters, beloved of her and granted in that love all her might and power."Water came crashing through the open doors, the shattered windows, flooding the great hall up to his knees, restoring his health and strength, breaking and diluting the shadows.
