But if that part of Merlin’s prophecy was true, then did that mean the rest was as well? Her cunning voice echoed in my mind.
When he comes, you will know that the time for the Grail is near. The last is the Siege Perilous. It is death to all but the one for which it is made—the best of them all—the one who shall come at the moment of direst need.
Morgause had heard the prophecy and decided that her son would be the one to fulfill it. If I believed that we had any choice in such things at all.
I did not know what I believed.
But I was spared the decision. A flash of silver moved over my shoulder. I moved by instinct, digging in to find more force within myself to push away Mordred and his hatchet, then to spin and meet the blade with my own. I caught the female’s forearm with my other hand and swung her up over my head, bringing her down with as much force as I could manage. Thesound of her neck snapping as she hit the second level echoed through the Pit.
Everything around me came to a standstill. Far above, outside of my consciousness, I heard Morgause’s voice give the next command: “Descend.”
I leapt down to the second level of the Pit, my feet crunching on the broken body of the female I’d thrown down moments before.
41
ARRAN
I shifted. There was no way I could control myself, not with Veyka in such endless danger. She was formidable. She was one of the best fighters I’d ever seen, in any kingdom. I’d only ever seen her defeated by two—Gwen, and myself.
But still, I shifted.
My beast was faster. Even with the huge trees and ivy laden walls inside the fortress, my beast was faster.
“You cannot interfere,” Morgause purred as I paced the edge of the Pit.
I did not need her to tell me. I’d fought in the Pit dozens of times over the centuries. Sometimes over real things—a female who’d used my mother’s name in dishonor. Other times for less noble reasons, like the fact that my beast had not killed in a few weeks and was hungry for blood.
Logic deserted me as I paced back and forth around the circular Pit. Terrestrial spectators backed out of my way, edging back into place once I was several yards away. I did not notice any of them, my attention focused on the flashes of white as Veyka fought her way around the Pit. The first level was only ten feet wide. The next level narrower still.
Her knife locked with Mordred’s hatchet. My beast threw his head up toward the sky and howled his displeasure. I had no feelings that I could parse. Not like this, with the wolf fully in control.
But as quickly as the stalemate occurred, it ended as Veyka spun to bring down another attacker. The herd had thinned. It was time for next level. But Morgause did not move.
I snarled, bounding along the edge of the Pit. I was before her in a second, saliva dripping from my fangs, bared and brutal. I would rip out Morgause’s throat and deal with the fallout later.
I shifted only long enough to snarl— “Call them down to the next level.”
I punctuated the command with another snarl from the jaws of my wolf.
Every second that the fighting in the Pit continued, Veyka was vulnerable. She could not bleed, that was true. But there were other ways to kill her. If that was Morgause’s plan—to eliminate Veyka in a way that absolved her from any blame, she was a fool. She did not understand me at all.
Morgause’s eye twitched, but she didn’t delay any longer. She called down into the Pit: “Descend.”
Mordred jumped. So did Veyka and a half dozen others.
Mordred turned away from Veyka and engaged the female shifter on his left.
Veyka kept her back to the wall, limiting her opponents’ angles of attack. She’d always been formidable, but she’d spent these last months getting even better. I recognized techniques from Gwen’s arsenal as well as my own. Even a particular twist and kick combination that Barkke had patented when we were young together in Eilean Gayl.
But she’d already fought today. And no matter how good she was, she was not invincible.
A male I did not recognize, who’d eschewed his shifted form in favor of a brutal set of claw-like metal knives protruding from a gauntlet across his knuckles, landed a swipe across her abdomen that would have gutted her if she hadn’t danced back just in time. As it was, she should have bled. Her bodice was in tatters. But the scabbards kept the blades from even breaking the skin.
She spun, burying her dagger to the hilt in the center of a huge female’s chest. She did not pause to pull it out, her other hand already flicking her other knife toward the male who’d swiped at her stomach.
Mistake.
I realized it a second too late.Mistake! Veyka!My beast roared. But she was already crumpling.
