Camelot's Crow | ✓ [BOOK 3]

~ 12 ~

THOUGH THE THUNDER CAME, Connor never followed that day. Perhaps it was only paranoia they'd felt, but Chalice knew they felt something. They could feel that dread that was always followed by the King, and it was unmistakable. But Calnor was saved another day. Chalice had stood guard clear until the sun had set, and even longer yet. They didn't rest until the rain was gone and Patricia urged them inside.

"We need to prepare them," Chalice told her that night, nursing a warm cup of tea. "Do you have weapons still? Or did they all go with your soldiers and tradesmen?"

"We're a farming village," said Patricia with a mischievous grin. "We've got weapons to make men tremble."

"I want to see them."

Patricia placed a hand over theirs. "You will. In the morning. Get some rest, Chalice."

Despite all their best efforts, rest didn't come for them that night. Instead, they meditated, hoping to find any clarity at all but finding nothing. They missed Eurion, and they missed Fells, and they missed all their other friends. Hell, they even missed Morgana. They didn't think they would, but there was a certain comfort to his passion that they longed for.

One eye cracked open when they felt someone sitting next to them. It was Lionel, who had a small smile on his face. "Hi," he said.

Chalice couldn't help but smile back. "Can I help you?"

"Just wanted to join you." He squeezed his eyes shut and held his hands out like Chalice did, taking deep, methodic breaths.

"Who you talking to?" they asked.

He shrugged. "No one. Just relaxing."

Chalice ruffled his hair, and he squealed in protest. "Let me show you something," they told him. "I think you'll like it."

Lionel watched closely, nodding along as the druid explained something to him. It was a spell, a little one they taught children in Fells. They set a small fruit into his hand.

"This fruit was alive once," they said. "It had a past. Do the same thing you do with the Gods, where you think of nothing, but think about this fruit instead. Ask it where it came from."

The boy chuckled a little, but he did as he was told, concentrating hard on the little fruit for several moments. Chalice watched the expression on his face change and shift as the spell worked, and finally, several minutes later, his eyes opened.

"Whoa," he gasped. "That's so cool."

"What'd you see?" they asked.

Lionel looked down at the fruit, still amazed. "I watched it grow, then I watched Seymour pick it, then throw it in a barrel. Then I watched him wash it and put it in a bowl with the others and bring it inside. I didn't know I could do that."

"You can do that with almost anything that has a life, or used to have one," Chalice explained. "The more complex the life, the harder, but fruit is easy."

His mouth split apart in a grin. "Show me another one!"

"Okay, okay, hmm... I can show you about the future," they said, then held up a hand when he got excited. "It's not as fun as the past, though. The past is written. When you look at the future of something, it isn't very long, and it's only one possible future. You could very well see something different every time, though it doesn't happen often."

"That's how you're so fast," Lionel observed. "You know what people will do before they do it, so you know how to move. Can you show me that?"

"Soon," Chalice told him. "It's hard to get the hang of that. It requires a lot of practice and making it a habit if you don't want to have to think about it. But I'll show you the first step, how's that?"