“It won’t be that easy,” Nash says, agreeing with my silent musings. “If we are correct about him not being the chosen one, he will see our presence and questioning of his credibility as a threat to his throne. He will try to remove the key to any of our ascension.”
“Which is?” Malachi asks.
“Daphne,” Hart grumbles. “Always Daphne.”
“I refuse to accept that your troubles are always my fault. You didn’t know I existed until this annus, so any mishaps, misdeeds, and miscommunications prior to our meeting could not have been my fault.”
They are quiet for a tempo as they absorb my words, and I keep my eyes closed and smile. I rendered them speechless. I enjoy that immensely.
“We should watch Arthur in shifts,” Theo decides. “If he is hiding anything, and we’ve threatened his position, he will be stupid enough to check on it.”
“I’ll move the horses to our private stables,” Hart decides. “I don’t trust him not to do something.”
“He can’t have my horses,” I say, flicking my eyes open.
Nash chuckles. “Your horses? The ones you are terrified of and believe are going to eat your face?”
“That was before I realized they worship females and are the smartest creatures in the realm.”
Hart pulls his feet free of the water, and I watch him stalk back into their private quarters.
“I will make arrangements for a gown for Daphne,” Malachi decides as he too leaves. I screw my face up at the thought of being stuffed inside a tight gown where breathing is optional. But I don’t want to stand out this evening, so I resolve to attend for the shortest possible time. The rest I’ll spend inside this bathing pool.
“If it turns out he is not your father, nor the worthy knight, what will you do?” I ask. “Because if you kill him, that leaves a throne free, and you said that was bad news.”
Nash’s shoulder grazes mine as he too leans back. “I’m not sure yet.”
“I could eat him,” Theo suggests as he runs his tongue over his teeth like he’s already picking out his father’s bones. I suspect Arthur tastes like shit. Better to swallow him down whole.
“Eating will result in death,” I point out. “We need a way to contain him while we figure out a workaround, so Theo and I don’t end up dying.”
Nash shakes his head. “We are missing something.”
“Like?” Theo asks.
“We’re coming at this from the knights and King Arthur legends.”
“Because that is the link between all the elements,” I remind him. Maybe he swapped his big brain for his small one to lighten the load on his horse. That’s okay; I will brain for him.
“Wrong. You are the link.”
I groan and sit up to rub my hands down my face. “How in the Blazes do you reason I am the link? Apart from being kidnapped from my chambers and posed as a damsel, that storyline has nothing to do with me.”
“Wrong again,” Nash says. “You are the only damsel to be taken by the dragon and returned. You are the only damsel to have tamed his beast. You might look at him and see Theo, but make no mistake, Theo may house the dragon within, but he does not control it.”
Theo nods. “That’s true. I normally have to make a deal with him about how many bunkums we can eat after we drop the damsel at the village. With you, there was no deal. He wouldn’t listen. You were his. Simple in his thick skull.”
“I’m a dragon tamer?” I whisper. They should fashion me the best crown in the realm. Is there a creature I can’t conquer? A flash of memory from the first time I met Nash in the library hits me. “Like the girl in the book we saw?”
“Of a fashion,” Theo agrees. “And I have plenty of worthy crowns back at my cave. Take your pick.”
“I wonder if Daphne is the key,” Nash says. “We are busy pulling apart our narrative and looking for the weakest link, but we have in our hands a chaotic maiden who has stumbled into several sacred storylines and become the main character. Perhaps instead of thinking of it as the Arthurian legend, we should try to understand it from the Lady of the Lake and damsel in distress perspectives, since they’ve converged. We would be stupid to ignore the opportunity to approach this differently.”
“Why are they sacred?” I ask.
“Because they are written as such,” Theo answers with a frown.
“Who says?” I challenge.
