Grail of Stars (8 page)

Gareth grimaced. “I know what I saw. There’s magic at work in these mists, and it’s not your fairy friend working it.”

“What do you mean?” Rhianna demanded. “Do you know what’s happened to Elphin, because if you do…” Her hand dropped to Excalibur’s hilt.

“Steady!” Gareth raised his hands with a nervous laugh. “I can’t be killed twice, you know. I haven’t seen your fairy friend, but if he’s gone across to the Tor then he’d better
watch out for dark magic, that’s all I’m saying.”

“We’re going there right after we find the Grail,” Rhianna said. “So we’ll soon find out if you’re telling the truth or not.”

Gareth shrugged. “I don’t care if you don’t believe me – the dark knight can’t hurt me now. Pass me a drink, I want to try something.”

Arianrhod held a cup for him. The squire slurped it down, grinned at them and belched loudly. The maid shuddered as the fizz fountained from Gareth’s ghostly body.

Sir Galahad watched them with a strange look in his eye. Rhianna wondered if he missed the taste and offered him her cup, suddenly not thirsty any more. The ghost shook his head.

“Be careful what you drink when we reach the Grail Castle, Princess,” was all he said.

Night fell, and water hissed under the
hull as they picked up speed. The ship glided smoothly through the mist, its sails glowing eerily blue. Alba and Evenstar trotted steadily behind it, too weary now to jump at shadows. Even more worried about Elphin after Gareth’s tale of bloodbeards on the Tor, Rhianna tossed some apples into the water for them. Alba picked one up without breaking stride and crunched happily.

Nearly as sweet as Avalon apples!
the mare said in surprise.

“Don’t get left behind,” Rhianna warned the two horses. “I’m going to wear my crown now. If Evenstar hears Elphin, wake me up at once.”

I will listen for Elphin too
, Alba said.

“Good girl.”

Arianrhod was already curled up on the
deck, using her pack as a pillow. Sir Galahad reclined at the stern, steering with one ghostly foot on the tiller. Gareth was attempting to climb the mast, giggling when he fell back down. Rhianna frowned at the squire. Had he really seen Mordred’s ghost on the Tor, or was he just trying to scare them?

She lay down on the deck next to her maid. Trying not to think of the promise she’d made Elphin, she slid the Crown of Dreams out of her pack.

Its jewels glittered in the dark, and she peered anxiously across the deck. But Sir Galahad was still watching Gareth’s antics, and Arianrhod had gone to sleep. Rhianna laid Excalibur at her side. She took a deep breath and slipped the Crown of Dreams on to her head, pulling the cloak over it to hide the magic.

She lay listening to the hiss of water under the hull, and the snorts of the mist horses as they crunched the final few apples. She kept thinking of Evenstar’s empty saddle and the little horse’s claim that a dragon had chased him.

“Show me,” she whispered.

But try as she might, the Crown remained cool. She couldn’t even make it show her mist and water this time, though plenty of both swirled around them.

“It’s not your fault, daughter,”
a voice whispered in her ear.
“There is strong magic working against you. But I’m glad you chose to continue your quest.”

She held her breath in sudden hope. King Arthur’s ghost knelt beside her, his eyes very blue as they reflected the glow from the sails.

“Father!” she said. “Are you ready to return to your body now?”

“Not quite yet,”
said the ghost. “
I don’t want Galahad to see me. I’m not supposed to be on this ship, but you’ll need your friends when you get to the Grail Castle. Listen
.”

At first Rhianna could hear nothing but the flap of sails as the wind changed. Then she heard music playing faintly in the night… the tinkle of a harp.

“Rhia! My lady! Lady Rhia, wake up!”

Arianrhod was shaking her. The maid sounded excited. Rhianna sat up with a start. The Crown of Dreams rolled off her head, its jewels glittering in a luminous dawn.

“I thought you’d left that crown at Camelot,”
Arianrhod said, picking it up before it could fall into the sea.

It took Rhianna a moment to remember where she was. Then she saw the white sails of the ghost ship flapping above her. She looked round quickly for her father’s ghost. It had gone, though – just a dream, after all. Her head throbbed from wearing the third Light.

“Why did you wake me?” she said. “I was trying to find out what happened to the others.”

Arianrhod’s face lit up. “It’s Elphin’s harp!” she said. “We’ve found them, Lady Rhia!”

Rhianna’s heart quickened when she realised she could still hear the faint sound of a harp. But the music had no magic in it. “That’s not Elphin playing,” she said, frowning. “And it’s out of tune, can’t you hear?”

Arianrhod listened a moment, one hand
pressed to her scarred cheek. “It still sounds like his harp, though…”

Sir Galahad had heard the harp as well. He raised a ghostly eyebrow at Rhianna. “I suppose this is your doing, Princess. This ship never normally passes within sight or sound of shore, unless it’s on Grail business. First a drowned squire, then a fairy horse, and now a ghostly harpist. Whatever next?”

“Mordred and his bloodbeards, maybe?” Gareth said, rippling into view again.

Rhianna scowled at the squire.

“We need to land,” she said, getting to her feet and strapping Excalibur back around her waist. She rested a hand on the sword’s hilt. “
Now
.”

Galahad sighed. “I knew you would be trouble the first time I saw you – a damsel
carrying the Sword of Light! I thought I’d explained? Only the dead and those on a Grail Quest can come aboard this ship.”

Rhianna drew Excalibur and sprang across the deck. She set the shining blade to Galahad’s throat. “Land!” she commanded. “That’s an order, sir knight.”

Arianrhod sucked in her breath. She clutched Rhianna’s pack with the Crown now safely inside, and stared from one ghost to the other.

Galahad smiled. “I’m already dead, Princess. Your blade can’t command me.”

“But
this
can,” Rhianna said, concentrating on Excalibur’s white jewel. After her practice commanding Sir Lancelot’s spirit earlier, it was easier to control the magic this time.

Galahad stiffened and his hand jerked the
tiller over. The sails flapped as the ship turned towards the music on the shore. Arianrhod ducked as the boom swung across, nearly knocking her into the sea. Gareth grinned as it passed harmlessly through his ghostly body.

Galahad glared at Rhianna. “You’ll have us over, you crazy girl! All right, you win. We’ll go and see who is playing that harp so badly out there in the mist. But I’m not breaking the rules for you, King Arthur’s daughter or no. I’m forbidden to take just anyone to the Grail Castle.”

Rhianna nodded. But she kept Excalibur unsheathed as a grey line of beach showed ahead, wary of what they might find.

Their prow crunched on pebbles. Damp figures curled in their cloaks around a smouldering fire. A smaller figure, sitting on
a rock at the edge of the shore, cradled the harp they had heard. He was plucking its strings between muffled sobs, and every so often a broken one twanged.

“It’s Cai!” she said. Her heart gave a thud of relief, mixed with worry.

Further along the beach, Sir Bors and Sir Bedivere were pointing into the mist and arguing. Their horses, tethered under the trees, noticed the ship first. Sir Bors’ stallion whinnied. Alba whinnied back. Evenstar gave a hopeful snort.

Startled, the two knights spun round. They drew their swords and came running back along the beach, shouting a warning to the others. The sleeping squires scrambled to their feet and groped for their weapons. They stared in confusion at the two riderless mist horses as
they cantered out of the mist on to dry land.

Cai dropped the harp and ran to grab Alba’s reins. “What have you done with Damsel Rhianna?” he shouted at the mare. “What were you doing galloping about out there with Evenstar? Where’s Elphin?”

Rhianna couldn’t help a smile. None of them had noticed the enchanted ship yet. “I’m up here, Cai!” she called, vaulting over the rail with Excalibur to land lightly beside him. “More to the point, what are you doing with Elphin’s harp? Were you with him when he fell off? Is he all right?”

Cai sucked in his breath and blinked at her in surprise. “Damsel Rhianna! Where did you spring from?” He stared up at the curving prow of the ship, saw Arianrhod leaning over the rail with Gareth’s ghost beside her, and blinked
again. The other squires were staring up at the ship, too. One of them poked the glittering prow with a stick to see if it was real.

“I wouldn’t do that unless you want to lose your fingers, boy!” Sir Galahad called down. The boy leaped back in alarm as he noticed the ghostly knight.

Sir Bors and Sir Bedivere arrived out of breath and stared at the ghosts, too.

“Gareth…?” Sir Bedivere said, his face breaking into a smile. “Is that really you up there, lad?”

“He’s just a ghost,” Rhianna said impatiently. “He drowned, remember. What happened to Elphin? Where did you lose him?”

Cai picked up the harp and gave her a stricken look. “He’s gone, Damsel Rhianna. As soon as we got here, he galloped off across
the water with your merlin and vanished into the mist. We tried to stop him but he was worried about his family, and our horses couldn’t follow Evenstar across the water. Then the mist turned green with all these flashing lights, like when Merlin does magic, and now we can’t find the Lonely Tor either! We made camp here to wait for him, but he never came back. I found his harp washed up on the beach last night…” He held it out to her. “A string’s broken,” he whispered.

Rhianna’s blood turned cold as he spoke. Evenstar sniffed the harp sadly.

He say the music not work any more,
Alba reported.

She took the harp from Cai, pushed Evenstar’s nose away and touched the broken string. It twanged mournfully across the water.

“I’m sorry, Damsel Rhianna,” Sir Bors said gruffly, frowning at Evenstar’s empty saddle. “When the fairy lad opened the spiral path, we think some magic stopped him from getting back again. He’s probably already in Avalon. I expect that’s why the Lonely Tor disappeared.”

“Yes, that must be it,” Sir Bedivere said with forced cheerfulness. “I’m sure Elphin’s just fine, Damsel Rhianna. Merlin’s probably with him, wherever they are.”

Rhianna shook her head. She thought of how Morgan Le Fay had ambushed them on this same stretch of water when she and Elphin had ridden out of Avalon at the start of her quest. “Gareth says the bloodbeards who drowned him attacked the Lonely Tor,” she admitted. “He claims he saw Mordred’s ghost over there, too.”

“I know what I saw,” Gareth said.

Everyone avoided looking at Rhianna. The knights glanced at each other, grave-faced. Gareth’s friends shuffled their feet in the pebbles.

“So what do we do now?” Cai said.

Sir Bors looked at the ship. “Galahad can take us all over to the Tor, of course. It must be out there somewhere. A dirty great hill like that don’t just disappear into thin air! Cai, go fetch your magic lance – if Damsel Rhianna’s right, we might need it when we get over there. Keep your swords handy, boys. I don’t like the look of them green mists.”

Now Sir Bors was acting as if he commanded the ship. Although desperately worried about her friend, Rhianna shook her head again. If Mordred’s ghost
was
on the Tor working
some dark magic, she knew they couldn’t risk going over there until she had found the Grail, no matter what trouble Elphin might be in.

She took a deep breath, thinking of her father. “We can’t go looking for the Tor now,” she said. “We’re on our way to find the Grail of Stars.”

“We can look for that thing after we’ve sorted out those bloodbeards who drowned Gareth,” Sir Bors said firmly. “The queen ordered us to look into his death, and a knight must complete his duty.”

Gareth looked smug. His friends nodded.

“That’s
your
duty,” Rhianna pointed out, resting her hand on Excalibur’s hilt. “Not mine.”

“Now be reasonable, Rhianna,” Sir Bedivere
said. “Don’t you want to find out what happened to your fairy friend?”

“Of course I do!” she said, her heart twisting. “But I need the Grail to wake my father. When we’ve got all four Lights, we’ll be able to help those on the Tor as well as find Elphin more easily.”

They would have to find Elphin eventually, because without the spiral pathfinder he wore, none of them could get back to Avalon. She just wished she could be in two places at once.

The knights began to argue about the power of the Lights, and whether Merlin would be of any help to the monks in his falcon body. But Sir Galahad interrupted them. “This ship sails on Grail duty,” he reminded them. “I am forbidden to take anyone on board who is not on a Grail Quest.”

Sir Bors scowled at him. “I’ve already seen your precious castle, don’t forget. I went there with your father, Lancelot, before you were even born.”

Galahad nodded. “Yes, I know, and you’re welcome to escort the princess if you wish. I’m permitted to take her maid, too. But not you, Bedivere, I’m afraid. And none of your squires, except the dead lad. Ghosts are always welcome on this ship.”