Ides of the May (Children of the May 2 - updates weekly)

Chapter Twelve: The Spear

I tied Tommy to a tree where there was good, if damp, grazing, and ran across the sodden ground. The reports Mordred had heard about the yearlong rains at the Lake had been correct, judging by the way my boots sank into the mud. I went for perhaps a mile and a half, always staying within the boundary and under the rains, before I saw them. Or rather before I saw Sir Lamorak with War-Strider. The horse was terrified, and trying to rear, but the giant knight held the beast’s reins in an enormous gauntleted fist, and was preventing Strider from jumping or kicking out his front legs. There was no sign of Garnish.

When the horse was sufficiently obedient, Lamorak released him, and looked around. As I dived behind the nearest tree to avoid his eyes, I saw that the right side of his face had sustained a terrible burn that warped and scarred the skin: the legacy of Epicene’s attack when she, Melwas and Brunor broke the siege at the tower by the loch.

When I next thought it safe to look, the giant took the black spear from his back. All the stories Garnish had told suggested that this was the Spear of Longius, which Merlin had taken from the ruins of King Pellam’s castle on the red rock. Lamorak held the spear less as one would when hunting, and more as books describe villagers holding divining rods to look for underground water. Though his hands were huge, and immensely strong, he held the spear lightly, allowing it to guide him rather than the other way round. It turned towards the boundary of the Lake, but then bounced away from my mother’s magical barrier, much as two pieces of iron sometimes repel each other, for reasons not even the wisest sorcerer understands.

Lamorak turned slowly, watching the bloody point of the spear carefully, until he again had his back to me. I crept towards the boundary. If I could take him by surprise I might be able to bind him with ice, or knock him out with a great projectile like the one I’d used against the Questing Beast on Avalon. But I still didn’t want to alert my mother to my presence, so it was best I was outside the boundary before I attacked.

When I tried to step across the invisible boundary-line, however, I felt myself pushed back. I reached out to touch the barrier, and found that it had turned thick and elastic. Beyond the boundary, the world was becoming even more warped than it had seemed over the previous few days, but behind me the forest was quite normal. Within my mother’s lands I couldn’t feel the heavy drag of Merlin on the world, or the jaggedness he left everywhere else in Britain.

The head of the spear bobbed as Lamorak pointed it towards a nearby tree. He walked forward, following the sharp red point indicated to him. His feet rustled and snapped the brittle yellow grass above the sound of the rain.

There was a stir behind the tree he was approaching, and Garnish bolted from his hiding place. The big lad’s body wobbled as his lumbered away in an approximation of a dash. He was white with terror.

Sir Lamorak didn’t even need to pick up his pace to catch him. The knight’s long strides took him to the boy before Garnish reached the edge of the clearing. He grabbed Garnish’s neck in his giant hand, lifted the fat lad from his feet, and slammed him to the ground.

‘No no no no, please no,’ Garnish whimpered as he looked up at the hideous burnt face of Sir Lamorak. The knight grunted, placed his boot on Garnish’s chest, and raised the spear, making ready to strike.

I slammed my hands against the barrier, but it would not let me through.

Lamorak did not stab the boy. He moved the spear slowly and precisely towards Garnish’s neck. I looked on in horror, but I was trapped inside my mother’s lands; there was nothing I could do.

And then the world beyond the barrier warped out of recognition. The sun went dark, the yellow grass turned blue, the tree Garnish had been hiding behind seemed to shatter like glass, but its shards did not fall to the ground. Sir Lamorak became even larger in my eyes, and the sobbing Garnish much smaller. None of this disorienting effect could be seen in the rainy forest around me, which remained quite free from distortion. The border was protecting my mother’s lands from the force.