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“I spent quite a long time well out of your way.”
Mordred sighed. “Yes, I know. Who do you think arranged that? It was so much easier to take down Arthur when he didn’t have your help. But you were there. I knew you were there. At any moment, you might have come back, and I was never sure I was ready for it.” Mordred looked like he was maybe about sixty, but right now he sounded like a petulant kid complaining that he knew his brother was looking at him. “And then I felt I was ready for it, and I wanted to sleep at night without dreaming about you returning and taking everything away from me.”
“And so you arranged for me to come back, hoping your proxy could defeat me and get me out of your way for good.”
“I may have miscalculated somewhat. But here you are now.”
“I’m not alone.” Merlin gestured at his people and the army of former frogs.
“Neither am I,” Mordred said, now with that smug “you’re caught in my trap” smile I’d been expecting from the start. “I set it for Roger, but it will work just as well for you.”
Apparently, the torches had just been for effect, to create deep, dark shadows, for out of those shadows stepped knights in somewhat dented armor. I wasn’t sure I wanted to see what was inside those suits. I knew they couldn’t have really been from the Camelot era, since armor like that didn’t come along until much later (I’d once been chased by a museum display, and you don’t forget that sort of detail), but they still fit the aesthetic of the room. And they were scary—menacing automatons unlikely to show mercy.
The knights clanked toward us, surrounding us and closing the circle, pressing us closer to the table. I edged nearer to Owen and wished I had something I could have used as a weapon, though I wasn’t sure what good it would have done against that armor, and probably also against magic. I regretted once more leaving my shoes behind. Heels made a decent weapon, in a pinch. On the upside, I was probably more mobile this way if I had a chance to run for it.
Owen and Merlin exchanged a glance, then acted simultaneously, throwing up a shield around us all that slowly pushed the knights back away from us. Meanwhile, Sam took to the air, flying to near the top of the room with a few other gargoyles. They threw magical firebombs at the knights, who did nothing to dodge them. The livery over the armor went up in flames without the knights moving. If they weren’t already dead inside those suits, they would be soon.
Mordred laughed and clapped his hands. “Nice work. Yes, the knights are just for show, but you have to admit that they’re a good show. That usually has the would-be usurpers begging for mercy. Not that they get it.”
“I’m quite familiar with your tricks, Mordred,” Merlin said, “though the more advanced armor does make that one more effective. It’s not quite the same with just leather, though that did create a stir on the battlefield.” He pulled out one of the chairs and took a seat. “So, you’ve achieved your goal of power, and what are you doing with it? You’re shaking down small businesses and taking over larger ones. That must not be very satisfying. What were you going to do after disposing of me?”
This seemed like rather an odd time to sit down and have a little chat. I glanced at Owen to see if he knew what Merlin was up to, but he shook his head slightly. He still seemed a little disoriented, and I could hardly blame him. One minute he must have been on his way home, and then something had knocked him out, he must have been questioned or threatened, was knocked out again, then he woke up in a strange office in the middle of a fight, and now he’d been transported to a dungeon-like space, only to be confronted with Mordred.
Come to think of it, I was a little disoriented, and I hadn’t even gone through the sleeping spell and frog experience.
“Can we get out of here?” I whispered to Owen.
“Why? We can’t just let him go. We’ll have to deal with him sooner or later, and it might as well be now.”
“But I think we’ll have a better chance of dealing with him on our turf. He’s bound to have this place booby-trapped, and if it’s the magic here that’s keeping him alive, getting him out of here may make him weaker.”
“But if we can’t overpower him, how will we get him out of here?”
“We’ve got the beacon for Roger’s office, right? We could go back there to start.” My mind raced furiously. There were a lot of moving parts involved here, and I was trying to put them all together.
For one thing, I wondered how much of the Collegium knew who they were really working for and what he was up to. Then there was Roger’s plan. He definitely didn’t know who his boss was or that he’d been set up. We might be able to use that. Meanwhile, Roger had all those harpies and skeletons gathering, ready for an assault on MSI. There was a potential plan in there, but I couldn’t quite manage to fit it all together. I just felt like if we somehow got all the players into one spot, something was bound to happen.
“Merlin’s buying us time, so we need to do something,” I whispered.
“Okay, it’s worth a shot,” Owen said. He edged over to Rod and whispered, “Do you have one of the beacon stones?”
“Yes, why?”
“Do you think you can get us out of here and back to Roger’s office?”
“All of us, or just some of us?”
“Katie thinks it might be a good idea to get Mordred out of here.”
Rod raised an eyebrow. “Oh, good idea. The boss has one, too. It would probably help if we could coordinate.”
He moved around the table until he was standing right behind Merlin. Owen hurried in his wake, but I hung back. I knew it would take extra power to take me out with them, and if Mordred put up a fight, they’d need all the power they had.
Merlin gave a slight glance to Rod, then leaned back in his chair, casually easing his hand into his pocket. A second later, I felt a burst of magic that immediately dissipated.
Mordred laughed. “Did you really think you could get me out of here that way, using my spell? That will never happen, and you won’t be able to get out that way, either, not unless I let you.” He glanced at his watch. “But you might want to start thinking of how to do it. I understand that Roger contracted with some friends to raid your little company. I would have hated to disappoint his friends, so I made sure they got paid and got their assignment, as well as what they need to get in. You’ve got about an hour before your company comes under attack, and it looks like your best people are all here.”
Owen backed slowly toward me. Mordred was so focused on Merlin that he didn’t notice. “What’s he talking about?” Owen whispered when he reached me.
