Song of the Sword (17 page)

And he didn’t. Whatever risk he ran by helping Ariane seemed minor compared to the risk of never seeing her again if she ran away. Wally had always thought he was happy as a loner, but he didn’t want to be one anymore. Ariane was his friend, and he didn’t intend to lose her. “And anyway, the same thing applies to me. Rex Major won’t leave me
or
Aunt Phyllis alone just because you run away. We’ll still be in danger, and you’ll just be in
more
danger.”

Ariane closed her eyes. “You’re right. I know you’re right. It’s just...I didn’t mean to get Aunt Phyllis involved. But there’s no getting out of it, is there? She...and you...and I...are all at risk until we have Excalibur and Merlin doesn’t.”

“Or until he has it!”

Ariane stared at him.

“I mean it, Ariane! Why not just
let him have it?
Take his warning. Forget about the whole thing.” Wally surprised himself with his vehemence.
What about the quest?
a part of him protested, but he ignored it.
Screw the quest.
“Don’t look at me that way. This is getting serious! At first it was kind of fun, like a movie or a video game or playing make-believe – a little adventure you can quit when Mom calls you for dinner. But someone tried to kidnap you – or worse. And now you’re talking about running away from home. Let Merlin have the stupid sword. We didn’t ask for any of this! It’s none of our business.”

Ariane was silent for a moment. “I can’t,” she finally said. She looked down into her coffee cup. “I just can’t.”

“Why?” Wally said. “So Merlin wants to be king of the world. So what? Maybe we should let him! Maybe that’s what we need on this stupid planet. Maybe he could put an end to the wars in the Middle East and Africa and wherever else we’re killing each other this week. Heck, he’s a sorcerer. Maybe he could put an end to famine and poverty and disease while he’s at it.” He recalled what else had occurred to him. “Jeez, Ariane...did you ever think that maybe we’re on the wrong side? Maybe
Merlin
is the good guy. Maybe the Lady of the Lake is the villain in this story we’ve been sucked into, and we’re just...pawns.”

Ariane shook her head furiously. “No! Merlin would be a dictator, Wally. We might have peace and food and health –
might
, because we don’t know if Merlin has that much power – but we’d also have secret police and show trials and political prisoners...and there’d be no Amnesty International to complain to, either, because no one would be allowed to criticize the High King. Wally, you’re the history buff. What did the old-time kings do to anyone who posed the slightest threat to their kingship?”

“They executed them,” Wally said impatiently. “But Merlin is a sorcerer! No one could seriously threaten his kingship except...” He suddenly saw what she was getting at. “Oh,” he finished in a small voice.

Ariane nodded. “
Oh
. Except someone else with magical powers. And the only person we know of besides Merlin who has magical powers is...
me
.”

The cinnamon bun he’d already eaten congealed into a solid lump of indigestible dough in Wally’s stomach. “He’ll kill you.”

“Probably.”

“Then...” Wally swallowed. “That man who grabbed you – he didn’t want to just kidnap you, he wanted to...” his voice trailed off.

Ariane frowned. “I don’t know, Wally. He said he wouldn’t hurt me. He might have been lying, of course, but...I think – I hope – that maybe there’s some reason Major doesn’t want to kill me yet. Maybe he needs something from me.” She shook her head. “But even putting aside what Major – Merlin – might do with Excalibur…I can’t give up the quest, Wally. Not now that I have the Lady’s power. Excalibur is...” She broke off. “It’s hard to explain,” she said after a minute. “But I can’t let him have it. I
can’t
.”

Wally pushed away the remains of Ariane’s cinnamon bun. It no longer looked appetizing. “Major has been up at the Thunderhill Diamond Mine since yesterday. He may already have the first shard.”

“He doesn’t. I’d know it if he did.” Ariane paused, looking a little puzzled. “I don’t know
how
I’d know. But I know I would. I need to get up there. I need to get up there
today
.”

“And you think you know how? That’s what ‘it worked’ meant in your email?”

“Yeah. But I warn you, it’s pretty weird...”

Wally snorted. “Weirder than everything else that has happened?”

Ariane smiled a little. “I guess not.”

But as he listened to what she had done, Wally thought she’d guessed wrong. “Let me get this straight,” he said. “You stuck your hands into the water, and you...dissolved? Went down the drain?”

“Yeah,” Ariane said. “I guess so.”

“But to...um, pull yourself together, you had to be somewhere with enough water to cover you.”

“Yeah...”

“Why?” Wally said. He laughed at her startled look. “Well,
why
? If you’re already violating the law of conservation of mass and energy, why can’t you do whatever you want? This is magic, right? No rules!”

“There are rules,” Ariane said. “They’re just not the ones we’re used to.”

“But what are they?” Wally scratched his head. “I mean, there has to be a cost. TANSTAAFL.”

“TAN-what? Speak English.”

“TANSTAAFL. There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.” Ariane frowned, and he hurried on. “Never mind. So this water-teleporting, or whatever, works for you. The question is, can you take me with you?”

Ariane looked out the window into the cold gray street. “I think I can. I don’t think I should.”

“What?” Wally stared at her. “Why?”

She turned her gaze back to him. “Because this is dangerous, Wally. Even if Major needs me alive for some reason, he doesn’t need you.”

“But you do!” Wally shot back.
She’s offering you an out
, a cowardly part of him noted.
You could agree with her, forget this whole thing, stay safe...

Forget? Forget meeting the Lady of the Lake? Forget that Rex Major is Merlin, that Excalibur is out there, that Ariane is trying to find it? Are you
nuts
?

“You need me,” he said, his voice low and intense. “To talk to. To carry things. To Google stuff. To whack the bad guys with hockey sticks. To...I don’t know what else. And neither do you. You can’t do this alone, Ariane!”

Her lower lip trembled and for a horrible moment he thought he had made her cry. But when she spoke, her voice was steady. “I know. I just...I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Well, there’s something we agree on, anyway,” he said, and was rewarded with a small smile. “So. No more argument. I’m coming with you...” He paused. “Um...if you really can take me along, that is.”

“It seems like I should be able to.” Ariane’s uncertain tone didn’t exactly fill him with confidence. “But until we try it, I won’t know for sure.”

“Your clothes went with you?”

“What – oh! I see what you mean. If my clothes went with me, then maybe I can take anything I’m touching.” She nodded. “Yes, they went with me.”

An intriguing vista of interesting possibilities vanished from Wally’s imagination. “Oh, well…” Ariane raised an eyebrow at him, and he hurried on. “Logically, it should work, then. Except, of course, we’re talking magic, so logic may not have anything to do with it.” Oddly, the cinnamon bun looked appetizing again. He pulled it back toward his side of the table, picked it up, and took a huge bite out of it. “S’whedyawanuryt?”

Ariane gave him a puzzled (and slightly disgusted) look. He hastily chewed and swallowed. “Sorry. Where do you want to try it?”

“I’m not sure. It has to be somewhere private, and Aunt Phyllis is home – we can’t do it there. And we need a large body of water to materialize in when we return. Large enough to submerge both of us. I don’t think a bathtub will do it – not for two of us.”

Wally nodded. “My house, then. You probably didn’t notice the indoor pool –”

“You have an indoor pool?” Ariane’s voice implied she had never expected to be friends with someone who had his own swimming pool. Wally felt embarrassed.

“Yeah, just a little one, but big enough for both of us to, um, materialize in.”
I feel like I’ve fallen into
Star Trek, Wally thought. “Better yet, Ms. Carson is at church, and Felicia won’t crawl out of bed for hours yet.” Wally stuffed the rest of the cinnamon bun in his mouth. “Tinfinitynbond!”

Back to being a faithful sidekick
, he thought a few minutes later as they left the Human Bean. He couldn’t argue with Ariane’s logic. If Merlin succeeded in setting himself up as King of the World, Ariane would be a threat to his power. He might need her alive now for some magical reason, but after he’d won...he would kill her. Or at least imprison her. No question. Abandoning the quest would only buy her a brief reprieve, not a full pardon.

But in the back of his mind, a little seed of doubt still lingered.

How do we know we can trust the Lady of the Lake any more than we can trust Rex Major?

Another phrase from Tolkien came to mind:
Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards...

He snorted.
Good advice. But it looks like we don’t have a choice.

~ • ~

Half an hour after leaving the Human Bean, Ariane and Wally stood on the edge of the Knights’ swimming pool, about to try something that, even though she knew she had done it the night before, seemed completely nuts in the cold light of morning.

But, like the Queen in
Alice in Wonderland
, she was getting used to believing several impossible things before breakfast...or just slightly after breakfast, in this case.

As promised, Ms. Carson was at church and Felicia still asleep. They’d crept through the house silent as mice to ensure she stayed that way. Now Wally looked around the cedar-walled room, dimly lit by the blue-green glow of the submerged lights around the edges of the pool. “So what do we do?”

“Jump in,” Ariane said.

“With our clothes on?”

Ariane gave him an over-sweet smile. “Well, I’m keeping mine on. I guess you can take yours off if you want to...”

He blushed. “Uh, no.”

“All right then.” She looked at the water. “On three. One...two...three!”

They splashed into the water simultaneously. It came up to Ariane’s chest, and almost to Wally’s shoulders. “I just feel silly,” Wally said. He pushed wet hair out of his face. “Now what?”

“Just...be quiet.” Ariane closed her eyes, listening to the song of the water, urging her to join in, to flow and frolic with it to river, lake, and sea. And mixed in with it...yes, there it was. Distant, faint, but unmistakable and exciting: the song of the sword. Keeping her eyes closed, she reached out to Wally. “Hold on,” she said.

Wally said something as he took her hand, but it was lost in the sudden whirling surge of water as she gave herself over to its call and let it carry her away...

...no, not just her, both of them. She could feel another presence with her in the rush and tumble of the water, holding on to her for dear life, and for a moment she resented it. She didn’t
want
to share the water with anyone else. She wanted to brush off the offending presence, let it swirl away into nothingness, but faint alarm bells rang in her mind at the thought.
That’s Wally...it worked...he’s
supposed to
be here...
What would happen if she did break loose from him? Would he materialize somewhere or would he simply dissolve, never to be seen again?

That horrifying thought snapped her back to her senses. They had been rushing along with the water with no aim or control. Now she cast around for some clue as to their whereabouts, and with some strange sense she had no name for – not quite sight, not quite smell, not quite hearing, and yet with elements of all three – she knew they were in the same lake she’d materialized in the night before, and realized it must be Buffalo Pound Lake, the reservoir that provided Regina’s drinking water.

Farther
, she thought.
Let’s see how far we can go...

Onward. She found the Qu’Appelle River outlet on the other side of the dam, and took it, following the water from river to river to river, over rocks, over waterfalls, through the great inland freshwater sea that was Lake Winnipeg, out into the Nelson River. The song of the sword began to grow too, as they moved north, but she still couldn’t quite pinpoint its source. She exerted more power. They streaked
through the water like twin meteors crossing the night sky. Swirling currents, waterfalls, rapids, all meant nothing to the power of the Lady of the Lake...they sped through them as if they weren’t there. North...north...north, the sword calling to her...and then she sensed that it was no longer just north, but off to the northwest...

...and then they hit Hudson Bay.

Once when Ariane was ten years old and dashing down a sidewalk she had turned her head at the wrong moment and run into a telephone pole. More than the pain, she remembered the shock – the instant change from moving full flight to sitting motionless and bleeding on the sidewalk.