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“I care about nothing but myself at this juncture,” Merlin said clearly and distinctly. “The temple has fallen. Camelot will soon fall.”
“Don’t say that,” my brother snapped. “Pendrath triumphs.” He glanced back at the men behind him. “Step out into the corridor and wait for us there.”
I caught Fenyx nodding to the soldiers as if to confirm the king’s command. Then he pulled the chamber door shut behind them himself.
“You are a weak and pitiful king, Arthur,” Merlin said disdainfully, ignoring my brother as he flushed with fury. “A weak man who surrounds himself with fools.” I supposed that dig was meant for Fenyx. But the blond man remained serene. Evidently, he was not as easily riled as Arthur. “But I’m prepared to bargain for my comforts. I shan’t submit to torture. A simple cell shall suffice. Preferably with some books.”
The two men exchanged glances.
“She’s gone mad,” I caught Arthur murmur quietly. “The old hag.”
“Yet you won’t tell us how to free Lady Morgan, you say,” Fenyx said, more loudly.
Merlin smiled cryptically. “Oh, in time, perhaps. When I have your word that I shan’t be harmed in any way.”
Fenyx smiled. The smile of a charming wolf preparing to devour a sheep. “Of course.”
He turned to my brother. “If I can free your sister, do we really need the priestess?”
“Her babbling bores me,” Arthur said coolly. “What is your plan?”
Fenyx turned back to Merlin. “Where is Guinevere? Begin your bargain with that, and we shall honor the rest, good lady.”
“She slipped out into the city, poor little doe. She’s in a panic. She’s out of place. I’m sure she won’t be hard to find.” Merlin’s voice was infuriatingly untroubled, as if she were not just handing Guinevere’s life over to a sadistic monster.
I prayed she knew what she was doing. That Guinevere and Galahad were long gone. That they were safe.
“We’ll find her easily,” Fenyx said in a low voice to my brother. “She’ll tell us nothing more. Whereas who knows how long your sister has been kept in this miserable state.”
My brother nodded, glancing at me briefly. I doubted he cared how long I had been held frozen. Fenyx was acting as if he cared, but I suspected it was simply another way he thought he could insinuate himself into my brother’s favor.
Still...
“She truly is lovely,” Fenyx murmured again, looking at me. This time, his eyes moved down my body in a way I found distinctly unnerving.
Arthur cleared his throat imperiously. “If you like her that much, perhaps an arrangement can be made. She is a king’s daughter, after all. Though you should be warned, she’s not assimpleas she may look.”
Fenyx grinned. It was a radiant smile that must have charmed many of the ladies in my brother’s court. “Oh, I’ve heard Agravaine’s blathering. She murdered his son and somehow hid the body without anyone the wiser, did she? I must say, she doesn’t look the type.”
My brother followed his general’s gaze. “You may be right. It is a tall tale.” His eyes lingered on my face. “Perhaps I misjudged her when I believed her capable of greater manipulation.” I wondered if he was thinking of the hunters in the woods. “Perhaps stupidity was her only sin.”
“For women it often is,” Fenyx said so serenely that I wanted to punch the serenity right out of him.
“Can she hear us, Merlin?” Arthur suddenly demanded.
If I could have rolled my eyes, I would have. Finally, a halfway intelligent question.
But Merlin simply shrugged. “Who is to say? I’ve never released her to ask.”
“You’re crueler than you look,” my brother observed. “So much for the mask of piety and kindness. Why, you’re no better than—”
“A Pendragon king?” Merlin finished. “What a high compliment.”
My brother flushed furiously. “That was not what I—”
“Do you wish to have your sister back now, Your Highness? Let this decrepit priestess cease to trouble you with her prattle any longer,” Fenyx interrupted.
My brother nodded tightly. “Proceed.”
