Children of Avalon Read online

  I gave her a quick, hopefully reassuring smile even as I noticed Sir Dagonet unsheathing his sword in my peripheral vision. I was glad the old knight was prepared because the unicorn had spotted Bridget out of the corner of its eye and was lowering its horn in a menacing way I didn’t like at all.

  “And where,” Scai asked, “did the innkeeper get the book?” She began to back away, very slowly.

  Sir Dagonet shook his head. “He said that a priest had left it there yesterday.”

  I didn’t dare take his attention away from the unicorn, as it had now begun to advance on Bridget. “A priest?”

  “What did he look like?” Bridget asked. I’d never seen her so still before.

  “Said he was an older fellow. One of those austere types, just wearing a plain brown robe and carrying a simple bag. He figured the man had meant to put the book back into his bag but forgot—done the same thing myself, don’t you know? Hard getting old, wot?” The knight chuckled just before he advanced on the unicorn.

  That was when the dragon slipped from between the pages.

  It was a full seven feet tall within moments. I drew my sword, but had no idea how to even begin to fight the creature.

  Light shimmered along the iridescent scales of the dragon’s long neck as it arched toward Scai. She backed away toward the dock behind her, her hands held out to ward it off.

  “Lady Nimuë!” she said, as exactly the same thought ran through my mind.

  Lady Nimuë was known to take on the form of a priest.

  I didn’t like this at all—not the dragon, nor the idea that Nimuë had planted that book for us and was now coming much too close to success in her quest to kill me, Scai, and Bridget.

  I moved into action, hopping over the wide, powerful tail of the dragon to get within striking range of the beast. I swung my sword at the oversized lizard, but it slid harmlessly off of the creature’s thick scales. The dragon didn’t even notice.

  Bridget screamed. I swung around toward her. Sir Dagonet was already on it, though, sword raised high as the old knight charged the unicorn.

  I was about to turn back to the dragon, when a griffin bounded out of the book, growing to full size even as it leapt toward me so fast I hardly had time to raise my sword. I managed to deflect its pointed beak, but the griffin caught my arm with its sharp talons. The pain only drove me to fight harder, faster. I slashed out at the animal, my sword coming within inches of its breast.

  It took another swipe at me—only, this time I was ready, and kept a safer distance. It advanced. I attacked, jabbing with my sword. The creature dodged my weapon, still moving forward. I didn’t know how much room I had behind me before I backed into the dragon or tripped over its tail, and I didn’t have time for a prolonged fight.

  I went on the offensive. The beast towered above me, so I thrust my sword up and pivoted my body at the same time to avoid the animal’s beak. This time, the point of my weapon caught the animal’s breast. It reared up in anger, lashing out with its talons once again. It missed, but as it came down onto its feet, I swung my sword with all of my strength and decapitated the creature in one blow. I recoiled as I was hit with a blast of cool air and a musty, moldy smell as the creature dropped.

  Scai was doing her best to fend off the dragon. She swung a large stick at it valiantly, but it advanced on her, easily dodging her blows. Slowly, she was forced back toward the edge of the dock.

  A ball of fire hit the dragon’s shimmering flank with a burst of sparks. Bridget was throwing her spheres of magical fire at a multi–headed serpent. She didn’t have the best aim, but when she missed, she hit the dragon. It would have been helpful if the dragon even noticed. At least she didn’t hit me.

  Over on my other side, Sir Dagonet was battling a three–headed chimera. Its lion head snapped at him, while the dragon head spewed fire from its mouth. The old knight was cleverly using the sharp angle of the hill that separated the shore from the town to gain an advantage over the enormous beast.

  Scai seemed to be holding her own with the dragon for the moment. She was really beautiful when she was in battle. Her eyes became an even more intense blue and her face glowed as she seemed to revel in the challenge. She didn’t need me, so I ran to help Sir Dagonet.

  Lady Nimuë was definitely becoming more creative in the way she was trying to kill us. Scai, Bridget, and I were the Children of Avalon, destined through Merlin’s prophecy to save our people, the Vallen, unless Nimuë killed us first. Unfortunately, right now she was doing a better job at fulfilling her destiny than we were. But I wasn’t ready to give up yet.

  Just as I got over to Sir Dagonet, the knight succeeded in decapitating the lion head and then, with a quick parry, plunged his sword into the creature’s breast.

  “Not my favorite way to start a morning, wot, wot?” The old man laughed, before coming down the hill and diving straight into attacking yet another unicorn that had appeared from nowhere.

  I gave a little laugh and went back to help Scai. As I passed by the book, though, I saw something else begin to slide from between its pages.

  In one leap, I jumped onto the book, slammed closed the cover, and rammed my sword straight through it. The creature that was attempting to make its escape screamed in agony, and once again I was hit with a waft of cold, dank air.

  At least now there would be nothing more coming out to attack us.

  It took a great heave to pull my sword out of the book and the ground underneath it. When I turned, though, I froze—Scai had been pushed all the way to the end of the dock. I knew that she couldn’t swim. If she was forced into the water, I would have to abandon the fight and go after her before she drowned, leaving Sir Dagonet to deal with the dragon as well as the other creatures.

  “Hey!” I ran onto the dock toward the dragon. I jabbed at the enormous lizard and managed to slip my sword up between its scales. The creature stopped its pursuit of Scai and turned to pay attention to me instead.

  Fire burst from its snout as it turned. I ducked just in time, withdrawing my sword, but the acrid smell of my burning hair made me pause for a minute.

  Scai darted around me and took refuge at my back. I could feel her there and heard her breath coming in pants. Her presence sent a surge of strength and energy through me.

  “Thanks,” she said. “That was getting close.”

  “Are you all right?” I swung my sword at the creature once again. It glanced off of a scale, but at least Scai was safe. Now all I had to do was kill the creature... if only I could figure out how.

  “I will be... Oh no, Bridget!” And with that she was gone. Typical Scai, running off to help another the moment she, herself was safe. My heart plummeted into my stomach, but I reminded myself that she was a powerful Vallen. She would be fine. I, on the other hand, still had to figure out how to kill this creature.

  I thrust at the dragon again and again, but I wasn’t high enough up to make a killing stroke. I could hardly even make contact, frequently missing altogether as I tried to stay out of range of the dragon’s fire. If I could just back the monster into the sea as it had nearly done to Scai. . .

  Ignoring the burning ache in my arms, I thrust upward, straight at the creature’s chest, with all of my strength. The angle missed getting under the scales as I’d intended, and instead my sword broke with a loud snap.

  I clamped my mouth down and ground my teeth together as anger and frustration deluged me. I took one look at the edge of the broken sword still in my hand and then threw it with all of my might at the beast, which was yet again beginning to advance on me. My sword hilt bounced off the dragon’s hide, not even causing the creature to pause for a moment.

  I was weaponless. There was nothing I could do. With a glance behind me, I saw a hawk circling around three heads of the serpent and knew it was Scai who had transformed herself into a bird. Bridget was busy with the other two heads, alternately throwing fire and ice at them, and I assumed that Sir Dagonet was still busy with his unicorn.
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  There was no help coming my way from anywhere.

  I was lost. I was going to die. We all were, and there was nothing I could do about it.

  No! It couldn’t end this way; I wouldn’t let it. And yet... the dragon advanced on me, slowly backing me toward the shore.

  The sea crashed up against the dock, spraying my legs with icy water. Its violence reflected the surging anger within me, and within a moment I knew it was all I could hope for. This was my last resort. If this failed, then we all failed.

  I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and threw forward all of my magic with a great sweep of my arms. I pulled the water out of the sea and hurled it across the dock. It slammed straight into the dragon’s side, knocking it off balance.

  As the water hit it, the creature cried out as if it were in great pain. I watched in amazement as the dragon melted and began to disappear! Before my eyes it was fading away—its lines running as if... as if it were made of ink. Excitement poured into my tired body.

  “Scai, Bridget, Sir Dagonet, move away!” I shouted at the top of my lungs as I spun around to face my friends. Using all of my new surge of strength, I lifted my arms drawing the water straight up from the sea.

  They were all still fighting hard, but at my words and with a glance in my direction, Bridget and Sir Dagonet turned and ran toward the hill, with Scai flying up and out of the way. As soon as they were far enough, I threw the water toward the shore, washing the creatures away.

  “What?”

  “How did...?”

  Scai landed on her own feet, her face awash in amazement.

  “I don’t believe it! They just... just melted,” she said, looking around as my friends all slowly came back toward me.

  For my part, I could barely stand, I was so exhausted. Between the fighting and then using such powerful magic to pull the water from the sea, I was spent. I let my legs collapse from under me and dropped down into a puddle on the ground.

  Chapter 2

  Scai ran over and knelt next to me, putting her arms around my shoulders. “Dylan! Are you all right?”

  “I will be,” I whispered, allowing my body to sink toward her. She was soft and smelled like a warm spring breeze.

  Scai held me, supporting my weight against her chest while I rested my head on her shoulder and tried to catch my breath. For some reason, it was more difficult than I had anticipated, but it felt really good to be held by Scai. Every muscle in my body wanted to relax, all at once, except my arms, which held her closer.

  “You did it!” Bridget said, running toward me. “You did it!”

  “Indeed, you did. Good work, I say, good work.” Sir Dagonet joined in. He was only a trifle less enthusiastic than Bridget, but a big grin scrunched together all the wrinkles on his face.

  I blinked. Sir Dagonet thought I’d done well? High praise indeed. I struggled to sit up. “Do you think so, sir? I know my swordsmanship was sloppy, but I’ve never fought a dragon before. I wasn’t certain how to go about doing it. To be honest, I’m grateful the water worked, otherwise I don’t know what I would have done.”

  Scai laughed and gave my shoulder a squeeze. “That was very clever of you to wash them away. I would never have thought of it. I didn’t even think of trying to bring up the wind to blow them away.”

  “It was very clever, Dylan. Very clever, wot, wot?” Sir Dagonet agreed. “Made out of ink! Of course they’d wash away, and here we were fighting them with all that we had.” He paused and then added in a gentle voice, “And really, couldn’t care less about your technique. What’s important is that you defeat the foe, wot?” Sir Dagonet made a shooing motion with his hand, brushing aside my concerns.

  But when I had been studying how to be a knight, perfect swordsmanship was all that my foster brother had ever cared about. Or at least, it was only for that that he’d criticized me. It made sense that it wouldn’t matter, and Sir Dagonet was much more experienced and knowledgeable than Patric, but...

  Bridget knelt in front of me, interrupting my thoughts. “You’re hurt!”

  I allowed Bridget to examine my injured arm. There was a nasty, ragged gash where the griffin had cut me with its talon. It had mostly stopped bleeding, though, and I wouldn’t have even remembered it if Bridget hadn’t pointed it out. “It’s nothing.” I shrugged.

  “Well, it will be nothing when I’m through with it.” She gently placed her hand over the wound and then closed her eyes and concentrated. It burned for a moment, but when Bridget removed her hand, the skin was whole, as if I’d never been injured.

  “Well, now, ready to go to Avalon?” Sir Dagonet asked, extending a hand down to me.

  Normally I wouldn’t have accepted help from a man over two hundred years old, but just at the moment I was still feeling drained and shaky. I grasped on to Sir Dagonet’s hand and allowed the old knight to pull me from the comfort of Scai’s arms.

  A surge of anger washed through me when I saw the book lying on the ground. Grabbing it, I threw the book as far into the sea as my tired arm could manage.

  “Good riddance,” Bridget said.

  “That’s never going to hurt anyone ever again,” Scai added.

  It felt good to have friends who thought the way I did. I wished getting rid of Nimuë would be that easy. She always seemed to be somewhere close by, ready to attack us, and yet we couldn’t find her. It seemed like nothing we came into contact with was safe from her taint. She had nearly gotten the better of us with that book. We really needed to be on our guard, but when you didn’t know from which direction the next attack would come...

  “Let’s get to Avalon,” Sir Dagonet said again, clapping a hand onto my shoulder. He began walking toward the fishing boats farther down the shore.

  “Lady Morgan le Fey will be able to help us, won’t she, sir?” I asked, following in his wake. She was the only hope we had that we would be able to defeat Nimuë the next time she attacked. It seemed as if each time she did so, she got a little bit closer to killing us. The prophecy had said that together Bridget, Scai, and I would be able to defeat her, but so far we hadn’t been able to do it. On the other hand, we hadn’t yet tried to use the immensely powerful chalice Merlin had left us.

  “I imagine Lady Morgan will do everything she can to help us,” Sir Dagonet said, but he didn’t sound quite as reassuring as I would have liked. “We’ll certainly be safe from Lady Nimuë on Avalon,” he added.

  As we got closer to the fishing boats, I nearly walked into Scai when she came to a stop directly in front of me. “Which one do you think it is?” she asked. Spinning around, her long, straight blond hair whipped across my neck like a tingly breeze.

  “Oh!” The sound that escaped from her mouth was barely a whisper.

  I attempted to answer, but my voice had somehow gotten caught in my throat, too. She was standing so close. Too close for me to even breathe properly. It would be so easy for me to just lean down and... but no. I nearly groaned in frustration.

  Sir Dagonet coughed and shifted his armor loudly.

  Damn! Why had I ever agreed to just remain friends with Scai? It could be months before we managed to kill Nimuë! How was I going to keep my hands off of Scai for that long—especially when she put herself so close to me?

  Scai’s face flushed bright pink as if she knew exactly what I was thinking. I was glad when she took a step back away from me—I wasn’t sure I had the strength of will to do so.

  One of the reasons for our agreement to not become involved with each other sighed loudly and dramatically just next to me. “I guess we’ll have to ask them to find out,” Bridget said. Without waiting for even a moment, she started toward the closest fisherman, but I reached around Scai and grabbed Bridget’s arm before she could get far.

  “You can’t just go and speak to a strange man; you’re a girl.”

  Bridget didn’t say anything, but the sparks flaring from her cold blue eyes said enough.

  “Not a safe thing to do, Bridget, wot, wot?” Sir Da
gonet said, before she could do or say anything.

  “Would you do it, then, Dylan?” Scai asked, putting her hand on top of mine, still holding on to Bridget’s arm. Tingles shot through me.

  “Yes, of course,” I said. I released Bridget’s arm, even though it meant that Scai would release her hold on me.

  With an inward sigh of resignation, I walked down to the closest fisherman. The man seemed to be mending a net, but he put down his work and stood up as I approached.

  “Excuse me. The innkeeper told us we would find a boat here to take my friends and me across to the island. Would that be you?” I asked.

  The man bowed. “Yes, sir. I was just about to send word up to the inn. Wonderin’ where you were.”

  “Oh, well, we’re here now. Sorry for the delay.” I motioned to the others to join me.

  As they approached the boat, Scai stopped and put a hand on my arm sending those tingles flooding back once more. “Your sword. You’re not wearing it. Did you leave it by the other dock?”

  The thought of my sword made me grit my teeth for a moment, but then I firmly pressed my emotions back behind the dam in my mind. “No. It broke during the fight.”

  “Oh, no!”

  “It’s the third one to break on me,” I said as evenly as I could. I took a deep calming breath.

  “Not very well made, I suppose,” Sir Dagonet said.

  “No, I suppose not. I took it from a knight when we saved that girl from burning at the stake near Gloucester.”

  “Ah. Best to have your own weapon made, that way you can be sure of the quality.” Sir Dagonet nodded and indicated his own sword. “Had this one made when King Arthur named me a knight of the round table.”

  “Really? And it’s been with you for nearly two hundred years?” Scai asked, clearly impressed.

  “Absolutely.”

  “Wasn’t it the priestesses on Avalon who made Excalibur?” Bridget asked.