There were a few dozen bodies scattered in the dirt, most wearing the plain brown that identified them as Saxons.
Sliding down from my saddle, I examined the area. I could see how the skirmish had started. Saxons must have come down from above, right on top of Arthur and the men.
They had fought—and then it seemed as if their steps had stopped. Even I knew that a high-level of magic had occurred. I could feel it still sizzling in the air.
Morgana was rumored to be a sorceress, but how had she gained this level of power?
Shoving my thoughts aside, I pulled my chisel and hammer out of Evefir’s saddlebags and set out to find the stones that Guinevere had described.
They must have been large in order to trap a fully grown man, but no such stones existed in the clearing I was standing in.
An idea came to me as I glanced up at the high walls surrounding me. There must have been some way for the Saxons to get up there and I doubted they had scaled the walls.
Carefully traversing the length of the cliffs I eventually found it: a thin, switchback path that zigzagged up the wall until it reached the top. This must have been it.
Making my way carefully to the top, I came upon a craggy cliff and what looked to be two flat stones that were pointing to the sky.
The full moon overhead illuminated the space in an eerie light, making the rocks seem dangerous and the thin, scrawled runes covering them felt ominous as they glowed underneath the moonlight.
There must have been hundreds of them etched into the sides of the stone.
“Merlin,” I said softly as I approached the stone. “Can you hear me?”
There was no answer. This was not the sort of trap that was built for a typical man—no it was built for a being created by magic as Merlin was.
I needed to get to work as the night was growing late and my worries of Guinevere’s fate were growing more dire by the hour.
Cradling the chisel in the crook of my elbow, I awkwardly began to systematically break away the seals.
As the first one cracked off, nothing happened as the sliver fell to the ground and the seal continued to glow.
Frowning at it, I stood a step back and wound the hammer back, bringing it down on the seal and cracking it in half. The glowing ceased, adding another layer to my task. Each seal would not only need to be broken off of the rock face, but would also have to be destroyed entirely for any hope that this would work.
It was a struggle, as if the seals were resisting me each step of the way as I hammered at them. It felt as if hours passed as I continued to break the seals off and destroy them with the hammer.
By the time nearly every single seal was cracked off of the surface of the rock, I was losing faith. The trap still held tight and I was growing exhausted after getting hardly any rest over the past two days.
“Merlin,” I finally tried as I leaned against the rock, sweat pouring down my forehead. “If you can hear me, Guinevere needs you. I have broken most of the seals on this trap, but I fear I am working in vain.”
Silence.
Frustration grew in my chest as I took my fist and pounded on the stone. “Merlin! You are as much a pack member as the rest of us—will you truly be able to live with yourself if she’s hurt? Arthur is out of his mind with that witch’s spell. He’s bruised her, Merlin. She’s locked away alone and in heat.”
Again, silence met my ears.
This was a useless venture, I realized as I straightened and stared at the trap again. Merlin was not coming out and we could not rely on him to help us—I needed to go and meet Gawain and King Leodegrance for the best chance at saving Guinevere and the rest of Camelot.
Turning away from the rock, I began to stride away when a strange noise stopped me. It was the sound of a distant rumble that grew closer and closer until the very ground beneath my feet began to shake.
Then, although there was not a cloud in the night sky, a bright flash followed by the sound of a largecrackfilled my ears, making me duck to avoid whatever was coming from above.
Behind me, the rocks split in two and crumbled to the ground in many pieces as Merlin, who had been standing with his arms raised, gasped.
Whirling around, I faced the man with my mouth agape. “You freed yourself.”
Merlin, despite his disoriented expression and pale face, shook his head. “No, you freed me, Bedivere. Now shall we defy fate and go save our pack?”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
