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Setting my course to the northeast, I began to skirt carefully around the village and through the rocky hills that led to the coast.
I would not be returning to Camelot.
Let them call me a deserter. Let them hunt me and hang me.
I rode for Brightwind and the court of King Mark.
Iwoke up heaving andretching, the smoke from the burning village still stinging my eyes and tasting bitter in my throat.
Leaning over the side of the bed, I managed to reach for a wastebasket just in time.
Vaguely I felt the bed shift. Draven was still there.
“What the hell?” I heard him mutter. The bed moved again. He must have been getting up.
I clutched the basket tighter to my chest, hardly able to believe I was back in the palace.
The dream. It had been so real. My horse. The smoke. The darkness. The terror.
“I have to go back,” I mumbled. “I have to stop it.”
Draven’s hand touched my shoulder. “Was it something you ate? Shall I call a healer?”
I met his gaze, still too numb to care that he was staring at me over a bucket of my own puke.
“I have to go back,” I said, enunciating more clearly. “They’re at war. I saw it. Arthur... It’s horrible. He’s destroying everything in his path. Killing innocent people. Children. Priestesses.”
“You had a nightmare,” Draven said. He tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear with the rare gentleness that had always shocked me. But this time, I wouldn’t be brushed aside.
“It was real,” I said stubbornly. “I’ve been having dreams. I don’t know how it happened but I could see it all as clear as day. I was on horseback, overlooking a village as it was...” I gulped. “Completely wiped out. They killed everyone. There was a pyre set up. For the girls from the temple.” I felt tears pricking the corners of my eyes and blinked rapidly. “They did it because their king had told them to, Draven.This. This is how my brother is waging his war.”
“Are you really surprised if that is the case?” Draven asked quietly. “You know better than anyone what’s lurked in him all of this time. For many men, war is simply an excuse for unrestrained evil with few consequences.”
“Surprised, no. What’sunacceptable, however, is that my people are there and I am here. Trapped here with you. Because of you,” I tried to keep my voice level, but it was difficult. “This is unbearable. I have to go home. I have to do something.”
“You will return. And when you do, you’ll have my army at your back. Nothing will stand in your way.”
I shook my head. “No. I know what we talked about but it’s not enough. It’s not soon enough. We must go now. Unseat Arthur, raise Kaye up.”
I saw his eyebrows go up. “Kaye?”
“Of course, Kaye!”
He looked back at me levelly. “Some would say there is a woman who has a stronger claim to the throne.”
My jaw dropped. “I don’t want it. Do you really think that’s what this is about?”
“Kaye won’t want it either, Morgan.”
He was right.
“No, but he’ll accept it and he’ll help me stop all of this. Don’t tell me your plan is to try to raise me up in some foolish gesture to place an ally on the throne of Pendrath. Is that your plan?”
Draven made a dismissive sound. “I have no need of allies in Pendrath. But when you return to stop your elder brother, I want your victory to be sweeping and decisive. Right now, you would return alone, Morgan. I cannot leave my people–as much as I may wish to go with you.”
My mouth felt dry. He wanted to go with me?
He sighed and ran a hand over his face. “Moreover, and though I know you don’t wish to hear this said again... It was a dream, Morgan. A dream, and nothing more. Take comfort in that.”
