The Excalibur Chronicles: The White Oak Staff

Chapter 11

Ben suddenly frowned. "By the way, Merlin, Arthur, there was a report this morning of a man that was attacked outside the gates of Camelot. His clothes were taken, and he claimed the attacker bore a remarkable resemblance to the king of Camelot." He raised an eyebrow at the two of us. "Do you know anything?"

I almost choked on my piece of bread. Alex thumped me on the back with his fist and gobs of it spewed from my mouth. "No," I said, my face red from the bread incident and the effort of suppressing my laughter. "No idea."

Alex was also suppressing a smile, but he quickly composed himself and sat up a bit straighter, gazing at Lancelot expectantly. "So I hope you have a plan to find the leader of the attacks," he said.

Ben continued to look between me and Alex suspiciously, though Lancelot only smiled understandingly in response to Alex's question. "Patience. We will come to that, but first you need to train."

Alex raised his eyebrows. "Train?"

"I am assuming you haven't picked up a sword in three years, so we will need to return you to the swordsman you were before you left Camelot," Ben explained patiently.

Alex paled. "You mean...fight with a sword?"

"Yes, Arthur," he said slowly. "That's what training means. How else do you expect to fend off an army?"

I couldn't help but grin. "All right, I am not going to miss this."

Ben turned to me with a devilish smile. "Oh, you have training too, Merlin."

That wiped the grin off my face and Lancelot laughed. "No, you won't spar, of course. Ever since you enlightened us on your magical skill, Arthur has made you his secret weapon. If the battle turns to the worst, he uses you, and you use any magical means necessary to help defeat the army."

"But why doesn't he just use me alone to defeat the army?" I asked him.

"Two reasons. One, because if someone from the enemy army escaped he would have the knowledge of there being a sorcerer in Camelot and that the son of the man who banned sorcery in the first place was conspiring with one. That would cause...some backlash. You and Arthur would make great enemies before you even realized what happened. Magic is always the last resort. When you are in battle, you must always keep to the shadows and make sure no one sees you. Luckily, we haven't had to use you in battle yet.

"And finally," he continued, "you are not powerful enough to defeat a whole army, anyway. Not to offend you, but your magic was limited when I last saw you two weeks ago, and I highly doubt it has improved a great amount. That is why you train. The more you've practiced your magic, the more powerful you have become."

"Good reasons," I muttered. "But isn't that cheating? I mean, using magic to win?"

Ben pondered that for a moment. "Not if you use it when there is no choice. At first Arthur and Lancelot disagreed, but they are knights and have been taught to abide by the knight's code of chivalry. It took us a bit to convince them, and even now Lancelot still believes it is cheating."

"It is cheating," Lancelot grumbled to the ground. Then he turned and started to walk back to the door. "If you two are finished eating, we can head out to the training arena now if you wish."

Alex and I rose to follow Ben and Lancelot out of the room, me more willing than Alex by the looks of it. His legs slightly shook as he rose from his chair.

Ben made a quick stop at his chambers where he came out holding a sack full of something unknown, and then he led us to the posterior of the castle where we walked outdoors straight into the training arena.