The Dark Rider Book One: Snow, Time, Bones

Part 14

Right of the stone shaped like a big dog sitting on its haunches, Warren and Morgan heard a low murmur of conversation and a hammer thwacking at something. The sounds became louder and clearer and they walked into a camp-site. In-between the gigantic trees, battered and bruised warriors with half their armour missing were erecting tents or cooking rabbits over small fires. They looked like tiny insects in the distance, beneath the trees.

"These must be the enemy," Morgan breathed. "I recognise some of these as King Yder's men. Do you see Uhrience?"

"No," Warren said, without making the effort to see him. "I have to find Merlyn. If I don't, I won't get back home."

He strode between the tents, mile upon mile of them, until the mere pencil in the distance became a stone fortress on a steep hill, surrounded by a high outer wall. Morgan followed at a half-run. They reached the wall and walked around it. There was no gate.

"It can't be," Warren said. He ran around the wall twice until he had to stop for breath.

"There isn't a way in," Morgan said. "What now, peasant?"

There was a scream from the sky, a dreadful shadow cloaking the landscape. A sharp tug at Warren's back and something lifted him. Morgan shrieked as she also rose, lifted by a massive scaly claw, and the sky-creature carried them over the top of the fortress wall.

Warren looked up. A golden feathery belly, a sharp beak, and sharper eyes looked down at him for a moment.

"This is it," Morgan said, her face whiter but otherwise unmoved. "We're going to be pulled apart in an eagle's nest and fed to glorified chickens. It's all your fault, boy."

Instead of taking them to a nest, the golden eagle set them down - with great care - on the grass of a forecourt on the other side of the high wall, before giving a shriek and flapping into the wind.

"Good luck," Merlyn spoke behind Warren.

He jumped. "Mr. Lynn?"

"I see you have managed to attend the festivities," the wizard said drily. "Many hundreds have been injured or killed, though I'm glad you are safe. Ah... where is Carlton?"

The eagle had only two legs; Carlton had been left behind.

"Will he wait, do you think?" Morgan said.

Warren shook his head and chewed his lip. "Oh, dew. Dad's going to throttle me when he finds out I lost him. He's our only dog and we can't afford another one. I mean, we don't keep sheep any more but my family likes to have a guard-dog. Everyone's so attached to him. Even George."

Merlyn placed a comforting hand on Warren's head, steering both him and Morgan past the forecourt, through a wide doorway like a church entrance (but with no doors left in it) over a smooth paved floor, and up a flight of stairs.

They paused on a landing with three doors leading from it. Merlyn smiled.

"Victory is almost here."

"Who are the people besieging Arthur?" Warren asked. "There were loads of people out there, all putting up tents. Some of them sounded Scottish."

"Many. King Lot of Orkney, Arthur's half-brother Carados of Cornwall, Clarion from Northumberland, Eskand, the Duke of Cambenic, King Yder, also from Cornwall, son of Nudd and also brother to Gwynvus, which I suppose will result in some awkward family Christmases at the end of this year. King Cradelmand, King Anguish of Ireland, the demi-god Bran of Gore, and of course his relative, Uhrience."

Morgan's eyes grew a degree brighter.

"And also..." A shadow fell over Merlyn's face. "There are rumours of the King with a Hundred Knights coming to join the opposition."