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“For the moment, I have matters well in hand,” Orcades replied. “There is a prophecy...” She paused. “But no, you don’t need to know about that for now.”
“Do you mean the prophecy written on the stone I pulled Excalibur from?” I asked quickly. “The sword, the grail, the spear. All of that? I remember it.”
Orcades rolled her eyes. “The pieces of power. Thank Vela your brother will never actually wield one.”
My heart soared. “He won’t?”
“He and his Lord General are playing at things they know nothing about. Did they tell you of their silly tournament?”
“I’ve heard it mentioned, yes.”
“The entire thing is a pathetic attempt to use the sword. Your brother has no idea how to wield it.” She shrugged innocently. “Since I’m a mere mortal woman who chanced to find it and bring it to him, I can be of no help, of course. So instead, he’ll conduct these ridiculous experiments.”
“Experiments?”
“Oh, undoubtedly they’ll be called entertainments. You and I will be expected to watch them and yawn and clap.”
“And then what will happen exactly?”
“Mortals will try to wield the sword. They will fail and they will die.” Orcades shrugged. “What happens in any tournament?”
I stared at her. “Knights on horseback charge one another with lances made of wood. Sometimes they fall off.”
“Off the horses?” Orcades looked disgusted. “How utterly ridiculous.”
“Perhaps less foolish than letting Arthur play around with an incredibly powerful weapon and getting innocent people killed,” I snapped back.
“Death is unavoidable for us all in the end, mortal and fae. Many men do not avoid death but run towards it eagerly.” She tilted her beautiful head. “Women, too, some of the time. If they are brave.”
“Is that what you did?” I burst out. “Weren’t you our father’s best warrior? Yet now you wish to destroy him. Just what did you do for him to imprison you, anyhow? And why the sudden change of heart? You sound just like Arthur. What’s the point of another war?”
Orcades’ expression became glacial. “Like Arthur, you have no conception of what you speak. Either I must destroy Gorlois le Fay or he will destroy us all. You really have no idea what he’s done, do you?”
“Why don’t you tell me?” I challenged her.
She sniffed disdainfully. “Honestly, Sister, you’ve forgotten so much. It’s as if you aren’t really fae at all.”
I flinched but forced myself to say, “Pardon me if I don’t consider that much of an insult. Neither race seems to have much to offer over the other.”
“That may be true,” she said thoughtfully. “Though there is something to be said for being vastly more powerful and longer-lived.” She walked over to a purple velvet chaise and sank down onto it, then patted the spot beside her. “Come, sit here beside me. We need not be enemies. I left, but you lived. It all worked out in the end. Let us not fight.”
“Has it? Worked out?” Gingerly, I took a seat on the chaise a few feet away from her, eyeing her protruding belly.
“Why didn’t you just take the sword and kill your—our—father with it if you want to do it this badly?” I asked once she had settled herself.
I watched as she placed her hands once again over the swell of her stomach. Could she feel Arthur’s child moving inside?
“The sword would not have been enough. Not for me, in any case.” Orcades looked down at her belly. “So I thought of something much better to wield.”
I froze. “Please tell me you aren’t talking about your baby. Are you speaking of your unborn child as... what? Some sort of aweapon?”
“Why do you thinkyouwere conceived?” Orcades asked cuttingly, her violet eyes slicing over me like a knife. “Why do you think you were born into this world again at all?”
I swallowed. “I still don’t quite... understand... that part.”
“Yes, your mother made sure of that. Stealing you away. Fogging your memories. Hiding who you really were. Perhaps she expected you to have an ordinary mortal life.” Orcades sounded contemptuous of the prospect.
“Yet she left these markings on me.” I pulled up the sleeves of the gown I wore. “They’re not exactly ordinary. And they are magical, aren’t they?”
