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“I’m sure once things have settled down, your brother will be highly pleased with the results of our first test.”
“Test? That’s all this was to you? Why not test Excalibur some other way?” I said furiously. “Preferably without threatening the lives of Camelot’s people.”
His eyes grew shrewd. “You mean like you did? I’m told the blade nearly killed you when you first touched it, and this was why you could not carry it back to your brother.”
My eyes narrowed. “What were you told exactly?”
He smirked. “Queen Belisent told Arthur that she found you with the sword in Meridium. She picked up the blade believing you were dead, but when she turned back, you were simply gone.”
I tried to keep my face clear. It was close enough to the truth from Orcades’ perspective, I supposed. I wondered if she had really gone back to see if I was dead.
“The blade has great power,” Fenyx continued. “Once we’ve shown the sword who its true master is, we’ll end this war.”
“Oh, yes? It’ll be that easy, will it?”
“Certainly. Ideally, we’ll learn to do precisely what that prisoner did just now.”
I felt myself pale.“Level entire battlefields, you mean.”
Fenyx smiled. “Or cities. Oh, it may take some sacrifice. Evidently, the ones who wield the blade will face some... resistance.”
“That’s certainly one way of putting it.”
Fenyx’s eyes were fixed on the scorch marks in the sand. “But there are many who would willingly give up their lives for Pendrath. Or for the sake of their families.”
I swallowed. Trying not to let the disgust show on my face. Trying to remember who and what I was supposed to be.
“I eagerly await my brother’s triumph,” I said with as much sincerity as I could feign. “What a blessing it will be to have this war finally over.”
“Of course, in the meantime, we must rid ourselves of the filth that has corrupted our fair land,” Fenyx said. “Purging the court and Camelot of all traitors.”
“Is that what you consider prisoners of war to be?” I couldn’t help but ask.
He shrugged. “This was just another battlefield on which they gave their lives for their homelands. If we’d freed them and sent them back to their lands, they’d soon have returned once more to face us.”
His cruel logic went against all the rules of wartime that I knew, but I forced myself to remain silent.
“But no, Lady Morgan, the true traitorous filth are the ones like your former friend,” he continued.
My heart sped up. “Lancelet de Troyes, you mean?”
“The very one.” He looked at me with a glint in his eyes. “Since you’re such a true supporter of the king, you’ll be pleased to know that he has a mass execution planned for a few days from now in Bevitt Square.”
He listed the largest square in the city, named for Dame Danielle Bevitt, a famous knight who had married a Pendragon king.
I stared at him in disbelief. “You’re saying Lancelet will be executed then?”
Fenyx nodded. “The dungeons overflow with her and her ilk. She cannot fester there forever. We need the room. After her betrayal, you must be eager to see her gone.” His eyes glowed as he watched me, evidently hoping to spot signs of bloodlust that would match his own.
I forced a cruel smile to form on my lips. “Of course I am. But so soon? I’m simply surprised.” I shook my head. “It seems too easy.”
Fenyx raised his golden brows. “Easy?”
“Yes, to simply execute her with all the other common traitors.” I shrugged. “I’m surprised my brother is giving her such a merciful death.”
“How exactly wouldyouhave us kill her?” Fenyx sounded morbidly curious.
“Let her be part of the spectacle.” I turned my face up to his and hoped it reflected something of his own dark and twisted soul to him. “Let her die for my brother’s cause at least. Use her like you used these prisoners. Give her a chance to wield Excalibur and serve her king.”
