Sword of Light by KATHERINE ROBERTS Read Free Book Online

Roman way,
    To Camelot where King Arthur was crowned
    By his finest knights at a table round.
    W arily, Rhianna lifted the edge of the shield and peered out into the night. Strange lights flickered over the marsh and a rotten smell hung in the air. For a heartbeatshe saw a black tower on the crest of the Tor, silhouetted against purple storm clouds and with black wings flapping around it. Then the lights faded and the tower vanished.
    Alba whinnied to her.
I need help
.
    She picked herself up and hurried to the mare, whose lead rope had become tangled with those of the other horses. By the time she had sorted them out and soothed the trembling mist horses, Elphin and Cai had emerged from beneath the collapsed shelter and the knights had stopped fighting.
    “Geroff me, you great oafs!” Sir Bedivere spluttered.
    Shamefaced, Sir Agravaine and Sir Bors sheathed their swords and let their friend get up out of the mud. There had been no enemy in the trees, after all. In their confusion and theshadows, they had been fighting each other.
    Sir Bedivere retrieved his sword, wiped wet leaves from the blade and glared at them. “What were you trying to do? Are you blind, or something?”
    “You nearly took my hand off,” Sir Agravaine said.
    “Well, what do you expect? Jumping me out of the dark like that… you should watch it. I might have killed you.”
    “Ha! That’ll be the day. Soft Hands Bedivere, killing somebody.”
    “That’s enough, you two,” Sir Bors snapped. “You’re forgetting our charges. Are you all right, Princess Rhianna?”
    Rhianna didn’t feel much like a princess with soggy leaves all down her front and mud on her face. She almost giggled. Then sheremembered Lord Avallach’s warning about Mordred hunting her, and the smile died on her lips. She nodded. “I’m fine.”
    “What
was
that thing?” Cai stared at their fallen shelter. The canvas glittered with ice crystals and bore the marks of large claws.
    “A dragon?” Sir Bedivere suggested. “Like the one that stole Arthur’s crown?”
    Sir Bors frowned into the mist, paling now with the dawn. “There ain’t supposed to be no dragons left in these parts. Looked like it came over from the Tor, which is bad news if that’s where Merlin went.”
    Elphin glanced up from checking his harp. “I think it was a shadrake from Annwn,” he said quietly. “They’re supposed to be related to dragons, except they breathe ice instead of fire. I’ve never seen one before, but the mistsbetween worlds are thin here… it must have slipped through when Merlin opened the way.”
    Rhianna turned cold all over. Annwn… the land of shadow, where the Wild Hunt took the souls of the dead that had nowhere else to go. She could only imagine what horrors might live there, because whenever the Avalonians sang about Annwn, the crystal walls of Lord Avallach’s palace turned black.
    The knights glanced uneasily at one another. Cai made the sign of a cross over his chest. Rhianna wondered what it meant, but was more worried about how they were going to find Excalibur without Merlin’s help.
    “Right,” Sir Bors broke the frightened silence. “It obviously ain’t safe for us to stay here. We can’t wait for Merlin no longer. I vote weescort Damsel Rhianna and her fairy friend to Camelot, where we can at least protect them properly while we decide what to do next. Merlin’s bound to realise we’ve gone there, and if he don’t turn up we can always try using the Round Table to contact him, like Arthur used to do when he was off on his druid business.”
    “I don’t need protecting…” Rhianna began, but closed her mouth when she caught Elphin’s warning glance. His eyes were deep purple with agitation.
    “Just wait till you see King Arthur’s famous table!” Cai said, brightening. “There’s none like it in the whole world. It almost fills the Great Hall, which is bigger than anybody else’s. Then there’s the jousting court, where