Infamous Reign (8 page)

I sent a ram of hardened air smashing into him, but he’d hastily created a shield of his own, pushing my magic aside and sending it crashing into a nearby building.

The move protected him from my magic, but it left him wide open to a physical attack. I ran at him, picking him up off his feet and dumping him head-first on the stone-littered ground.

I kicked him in the face as he tried to roll away, but he grabbed my leg and dragged me over him, pulling me off balance and using his own air magic to blast me in the chest, sending me flying back against a stone wall. For a moment, I lost the ability to take a breathe and watched in horror as Mordred used the time to gather his senses and run toward the boats I’d seen docked nearby.

I was about to give chase when a soldier emerged from a nearby house and raised his bow, aiming toward Thomas. I ignored Mordred, he would wait, he always did, and ran toward the archer. He saw me coming at the last minute and swung the bow toward me instead, letting me see the arrow clearly for the first time. Silver.

With the distance between us closed, I used a blade of fire to cleave through the wooden bow and string, before burying it in the archer’s throat. I caught the arrow as it fell from his lifeless fingers and, after placing it in my belt, glanced over at Thomas, who was fending off the last of the soldiers with ease. I left my friend to his task and ran after Mordred who stood at the very end of a small wooden pier, looking out to the ocean beyond.

“No more running, Mordred,” I said, and he turned to face me.

“You’ll notice I wasn’t running. I was waiting for you. I wanted you to know that those boys are already on that ship. They’re going to die before they reach France. As will anyone else unfortunate enough to be aboard with them.”

“Why? What do you want from all this? The boys aren’t in line to the throne anymore.”

“I promised Merlin that there would never be another of Arthur’s blood to sit on the throne of England. I keep my promises.”

“They were renounced,” I told him again. “They will never sit on the throne.”

“Merlin takes my threats seriously, I see.”

I shook my head. “All of Arthur’s descendants are removed from any kind of life in royalty.”

“Yet, their mother was allowed to marry a king and create them. I plan on ending them. Arthur’s line will never see power.”

“That’s why Richard is king, that’s why they were renounced as soon as possible.”

“Not quickly enough to stop one of them being made king!” Mordred screamed.

There clearly was no use arguing with Mordred about the princes. He’d sworn that none of Arthur’s kin would rule after he’d attacked Arthur centuries earlier. Merlin had always been careful to keep Arthur’s bloodline safe, but Mordred’s threat had given him extra incentive. For some reason Merlin had neglected to hide the boys when they were born, maybe feeling that enough time had passed, or waiting to see what happened. Either way, Avalon was too slow and one of them had been crowned.

“I’m going to take them away from here,” I told Mordred. “I’d prefer to go through you to get to them.”

Mordred smiled. “A re-match already.”

“Where’s Ivy?” I demanded.

“The psychic girl?” He placed a finger to his temple. “You know, I often forget where I put her. She’s quite easy to misplace.”

“You will tell me everything I need to know,” I promised.

“We’ll see, ‘old friend’.”

I threw a plume of fire at Mordred, who responded by creating another shield of air and diverting the flame into the sea beneath us.

“Do you really think that magic is going to beat me?”

“Your choice,” I said and sprinted forward.

He launched a kick where he thought my head would be, but I’d already stepped aside, grabbing his trousers with one hand and dragging him off balance, punching him in the jaw as he fell.

Mordred’s head snapped aside, but he regained his balance more quickly than I’d expected and caught me in the knee with his foot. All my weight crashed down on a no longer usable limb, and I dropped to the wooden pier, landing on my knees with a crack. Mordred continued the attack, slamming his foot into the side of my head, knocking me down and then stamping on my ribs.

I rolled aside, catching a stinging blow to my elbow and kicked out at Mordred’s knee, but he stepped back, putting distance between us.

I got back to my feet, blood dripping slowly from my nose. “You need to try harder,” I said.

“You’re the one bleeding,” Mordred pointed out. He quickly stepped forward and feinted with a kick, before trying to catch me in the head with a vicious elbow. Fortunately I saw it coming and blocked it, slamming my own elbow into his nose, which crunched from the force of the blow.

Mordred staggered back slightly, before snapping forward, his hand covered in dark glyphs as his blood magic activated. He tried to touch me, but I stepped back and drove the arrow I’d been holding into his forearm, causing his concentration to vanish, along with the blood magic he was wielding.

I kicked Mordred in the chest as hard as I could, sending him flailing back across the pier. He tried to scramble away, but I wrapped tendrils of air around his legs and pulled back with everything I had. Mordred flew across the pier, colliding with one of the docked boats, where I held him in place, hardening the air wrapped around him, as I stalked closer.

“That silver is making it difficult to use your magic,” I said. “You should practice more with normal magic and less with your blood magic.”

He reached over to the arrow and wrapped his fingers around it as I reached him. “Are you going to pull it out?” I asked. “Here let me help.”

I tore the arrow from his forearm and then plunged it into the side of his knee, making him scream.

“Where’s Ivy?” I asked. “You escaped with her in France, it won’t happen again.”

“Fuck you, Nathaniel. Fuck you and Avalon and Merlin and anyone else who thinks they can tell me what to do.”

I was about to say something when a huge crash came from the ocean, and I turned to see a massive creature emerge from the depths near the now visible ship. Its appearance was close to that of a giant reptile. It was sixty or seventy feet long with a massive head and a mouth that could easily swallow a man whole. Its roar reverberated as if I were standing next to it, which, I was certain, would have been the worst place on earth to be. A massive tail whipped across the ocean causing huge waves and it swiped the air with its long arms, each one tipped with a massive claw half as tall as a man. It roared once again and smashed its arm down on the bow of the ship.

“Leviathan,” I whispered and heard the shock in my voice. I knew Alan was powerful, and touched in the head, but I hadn’t thought he was powerful or crazy enough to summon one of the true giants of the ocean.

My attention had turned away for just over a second, maybe two, but it was enough. I turned back to Mordred as he sprung to his feet and plunged a dagger of blood magic just under my ribs. I forgot how to breathe, stumbling back as pain exploded all over my body. It forced me away from Mordred and I crashed onto the pier. He smiled and showed me the blade of blood magic that he’d created in his hand. A second later the expression changed to one of shock as he coughed up blood and immediately slumped to his knees. I raised my hand to show Mordred the blade of air, covered in his blood, which stretched out from the back of my hand.

I removed the blade and placed a hand to my ribs, igniting my fire magic, searing the flesh to stop the bleeding. I screamed out in pain.

Mordred laughed and coughed up more blood. “You know I’ll live though, yes?”

“Yes, but I also know it hurts like hell. I’ll take the little moments of happiness when I can get them.”

“I really do fucking hate you, you know that.”

“It’s come up before,” I pointed out.

“Your summoner friend is insane for bringing a leviathan here. There aren’t many of them left. They’re as rare as dragons.”

I couldn’t disagree with him.

“It’s tearing that French ship apart. There are blood magic curse marks on the timber, I can feel them being torn apart.”

“The marks or the people?”

Mordred was silent for a second. “Both. Their blood washes over my marks.”

I glanced over at the monster which was tearing into the ship as if it were made of nothing more than straw. It grabbed something in its massive hand, raised it to its maw and dropped it in. “Soldiers,” I said. “They shouldn’t be here in the first place.”

“Ah, no sympathy for the enemy, is that how it is, Nathaniel?”

“If Alan hadn’t summoned a leviathan, they would have died at your hands anyway. I assume your way would have been much less pleasant.”

“Than being eaten alive?” Mordred looked thoughtful for a second. “Yes, my way would have hurt much more.”

We sat in silence for a short time. Neither of us able to do anything but bleed and hurt. It was probably the first time in eight hundred years we weren’t trying to kill each other for being in such close proximity. If you didn’t count the fact that we had been at each others throats a few minutes earlier, anyway.

“What are you going to do, Mordred?” I asked. “When those princes are safe, are you still going to try to kill them, or are you going to run away?”

Mordred continued to watch the leviathan destroy the French ship and crew and didn’t answer. But a short time later the monster vanished back under the waves with a colossal wave that magically dissipated. A substantially smaller wave rushed over the end of the pier. When it was gone, two young boys stood, wet and scared. A smaller version of the leviathan stood behind them. It nodded to me and then dove back into the ocean. The two princes had been delivered to the pier by a young leviathan. Alan’s power astonished me, but my thoughts quickly turned to Mordred, who was watching the two princes like a wolf watches a farmer’s sheep.

“You know what you asked me earlier?” Mordred said. “I can do both.”

He sprang to his feet and darted forward, but I managed to get in front of him, blocking his path several feet short of the princes and driving a blade of fire into his stomach. “Now this
is
going to hurt,” I whispered and tore the dagger out of him, turning it into a whip of fire as it moved, almost cleaving Mordred horizontally in half.

He dropped to his knees and tried to hold his insides in as his blood quickly drenched both himself and the pier. Blood magic glyphs lit up over his arms and while part of me wanted to finish the job, to stop whatever healing he was trying to perform, I had more important matters. Mordred wasn’t going anywhere until he’d managed to heal himself.

I turned to the two boys. The youngest, Richard, was scared and tired looking, while his older brother, Edward, wore a look of defiance.

“Who are you?” Edward demanded.

“Nathaniel Garrett,” I told him. “I’m here to take you to safety.”

“Buckingham lied to me and took us by force. He was going to kill us to start a war.”

“I know,” I said. “Was he on the ship?”

Edward shook his head. “He left to go alone several days ago. What was it that attacked the ship and brought us here?”

I saw no reason to hide the truth. “A leviathan. They’re intelligent creatures, more related to dragons. It would be best if you didn’t mention them ever again.”

“A dragon saved me from a ship and its child brought me and my brother to shore inside a wave.” Edward chuckled, but there was no humor in it. “I don’t believe I’ll be mentioning it to anyone.”

He glanced behind me at Mordred. “Did you hurt him?” Edward’s eyes hardened, and I wondered what Mordred had done during his time holding the boys captive.

I nodded.

“Can we leave now?” Richard asked softly.

“Yes, we’ll take you to Brighton for a few days; you can rest up until Avalon arrives to take you to safety.”

“Avalon. I was told about them before I took the crown,” Edward said. “I assume I won’t be returning to my kingship.”

“No, you’ll be taken somewhere safe to live out your lives in whatever matter you see fit. You’ll live good, long, happy lives, but you will never rule anyone.”

“And our mother?”

“She’ll be informed that you’re safe and well,” I explained. “And she’ll be able to come see you both when you’re settled.”

I led the boys off the pier, meeting Thomas who was bloody, but in human form. “We won then,” he said.

“Something along those lines, yes,” I told him. “Take Edward and Richard somewhere safe in the village; I’ll go finish with Mordred.”

“Enjoy,” Thomas said and signaled the two boys to follow him.

I watched them walk off and then slowly made my way back to Mordred, who was leaning up against another wooden post near the end of the pier.

“So, you’re going to kill me?” he called out.

“Yes, Mordred. I’m going to end you once and for all. But first, I’m going to make you tell me where Ivy is.”

I was about ten feet from him when the ocean exploded up around the end of the pier and the young leviathan leapt onto the wooden boards next to Mordred, grabbing the injured man and dragging him into the waves before I could stop him.

“Alan,” I screamed. “You bastard.”

Alan appeared just beside the pier, his entire body made of the same water he stood upon.

“I’ll kill you for this,” I said.

“Sorry, Nathaniel, but you never mentioned that it was Mordred you were going up against. If you had, I’d have never joined you. I owe Mordred, and, quite frankly, I’m a lot more scared of him than I am of you.” With that he vanished back into the waves, leaving me raging and bloody on the pier.

It took weeks to get the boys settled in at Avalon and to sort out the mess that Mordred and Buckingham had created. The entire contents of Alan’s house had vanished, although he left the crowns behind, which I melted down to nothing when I burned his home to the ground.

By the time I got around to getting back to London, Richard had executed Buckingham and then been killed in the battle at Bosworth Field. Merlin explained that he’d allowed Richard to die, since Henry, who had just been crowned, was a better long-term prospect. Even so, I requested that I be the one to give the new king his welcome to the world he now found himself in.