“Why is Morgan sending her ravens to you?”
“To tell me Guinevere has been captured.” He eyed me then. “The same information I assume you were soon going to tell me?”
I nodded. “How did Morgan know?”
“How does Morgan know anything?” He shook his head. “Morgan has eyes I cannot account for.” Then he picked up a small orb of clear glass from beneath the star charts and set it on the surface between us. Almost immediately, the globe filled with mist that soon gave way to a series of images. They wove themselves together to reveal the woman with raven hair and emerald green eyes.
When I’d first encountered her at Camelot, Morgan le Fay had been the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Well, that was until I’d met Guinevere. But, unlike Guin, Morgan was dangerous to a man’s soul.
“She is already traveling,” Merlin continued, gesturing toward the glass orb. The mist shifted and parted inside it like curtain folds drawn back, and the image that replaced Morgan’s face revealed riders cutting through a dense woodland, their cloaks dark against the pale trunks of silver birch. The horses were moving at a hard, urgent pace. “The founders of the rebellion ride with her. They will arrive here within three days. Perhaps four, depending on the weather in the passes.” He let the orb settle back into its quiet, clouded stillness, then folded his hands together on the table and lifted his gaze to meet mine. “She has called for a council.”
“A council.” The words came out flat. “They want to sit around a table and deliberate while Guin rots in Arthur’s dungeon.”
The shadows in the corners of the room began to recoil. Merlin turned to face them before looking at me with his furry eyebrows raised. I breathed in deeply, and the shadows rescinded.
“Together we are stronger than we are alone, Corvin.”
“We don’t have time to deliberate.”
“Rushing in will do no one any favors.”
“And waiting might mean Guin’s death.”
“Arthur will not kill her,” Merlin said as he shook his head. “Not when he realizes he has something of value to me. He will keep her alive as pure leverage alone.”
“Do you even want her rescued if you believe she’s meant to house the dragon?”
He frowned at me. “Of course. Her destiny is a fragile thing that must be handled as such. Her imprisonment does no one any favors.”
“I don’t even know what you mean by that.”
“And neither do you need to at the moment.”
I could only hope that Guin’sdestiny, as he’d termed it, didn’t find him as my enemy. Gods knew I already had enough enemies as it was.
CHAPTERFOUR
-GUIN-
At the sound of the door screeching open at the end of the hall, followed by footsteps, I was on my feet before anyone reached my cell, instinct driving me forward.
Very soon, Arthur appeared in front of the bars.
He filled the doorway like the architecture had been designed around him. There were no guards at his shoulder, no Mordred. The king had come on his own and now stood there with one hand braced against the iron bars.
And that vibration within me that remained nameless lurched toward him just as it always did.
“How were you reporting to Merlin?”
No greeting, no preamble. I didn’t respond, just watched as he produced a ring of keys he must have taken from the guard on duty. He unlocked my cage, stepped inside, and the door swung shut behind him. The cell became half the size it had been a moment ago. He looked at me then and raised his eyebrows in a silent rendition of:why the hell haven’t you responded yet?
“Is that any way to greet your most valued prisoner?”
I didn’t know why I said it. The words had simply come outand were edged with something that was equal parts defiance and threat. There was no performance behind them and no careful calibration. Perhaps that was because the moment Arthur had learned what I truly was, the part I’d spent months playing: the obedient knight, the eager newcomer, the loyal servant wearing another man’s name, had fallen away like a shed skin. There was no more Sir Lioran to hide behind. Now it was just me, and that was the person he was going to get from here forward.
His expression revealed that he was taken aback by my comment. But the surprise was only momentary, and he quickly recovered. “Why would you assume yourself to be my most valued prisoner?”
“What else would you call me?”
