Destined

Chapter 10

The air around them seemed to electrify as the crystalline blade emerged from the slab, and Laurel took an involuntary step backward as torrents of energy washed through the room. She felt Tamani’s chest against her shoulders and his hands at her elbows, steadying her, and she was glad for the support. David stood motionless, staring down at the sword in his hand with a probing expression.

Jamison gasped and they all turned to see the smile spreading across his face. “I am not ashamed to admit I wasn’t entirely certain that was going to work. After all these years, it’s a bit of a dream come true for me.” Then he cleared his throat and sobered. “We must work fast. The Queen will be here at any moment. Tamani, you’ll want something as well.” Jamison gestured invitingly toward a small selection of shimmering armaments hanging from the eastern wall of the chamber where the now-empty block of granite sat.

“They’re beautiful,” Tamani breathed, so quietly Laurel doubted anyone else had heard. He walked over and hefted a long, double-headed spear; the blades on each end looked razor sharp. It didn’t give Laurel quite the same squicky feeling as she got when she was around guns, but it was close. Tamani turned and balanced the spear in his right hand, lifting it up and down a few times before nodding. “This is a good weight for me,” he said, his voice serious. It was his sentry voice; a sign that he was officially in battle mode. And that frightened Laurel as much as the spear.

“Sir?”

Everyone turned to face David. Despite the unearthly power exuding from him, he looked rather lost. “Yes, David?” Jamison said.

“I don’t… I don’t understand. What do I do?”

Jamison stepped forward to place a hand on David’s shoulder, but it slid away. David gave the hand a puzzled look, and Jamison pulled it back, smiling as though he’d just discovered something wonderful. “Believe me when I say it is as simple as swinging the sword. It will guide you, and make up for any and all of your deficiencies. But like Arthur before you, you must have the courage to step forward and the strength to remain standing.” He paused. “I am asking you to do a hard thing, but it is well within your ability. I promise you that. Now come,” he said, addressing them all again. “We should be going.”

No one spoke as they traversed the upper chambers, descended to the foyer, and passed onto the palace grounds. It was Jamison who finally broke the silence as they reached the white marble archway at the head of the trail.

“If we go back the way we came,” Jamison said, turning to look back at the group, the wind carrying his voice to them, “perhaps we can avoid the Queen altogether.”

“And why would you want to do that, Jamison?” Queen Marion’s voice was soft and simmering as she stepped up to the white archway. Behind her, Laurel could see a long line of green-garbed sentries, their weapons shouldered, mingled with her Am Fear-faire.

Jamison drew up short, his confident posture slipping for the briefest moment before he recomposed himself. “Because you are going to be very angry with me,” Jamison said simply. “And we don’t have time for that.”

Laurel could see the question on the Queen’s lips, but she didn’t ask it, searching each member of the party with her eyes instead. When her gaze fell upon Excalibur her expression betrayed shock. “Jamison, what have you done?”

“What the Silent Ones knew you would not,” Jamison said evenly.

“You must realise the consequences of this.”

“I am aware of what they have been in the past, but I also know that the past need not dictate the present.”

“You will be the death of Avalon one day, Jamison.”

“Only if I stop you from killing her first,” Jamison said, his voice ringing with quiet fury.

The Queen’s eyes flashed anger, then something Laurel thought might be pity. “You are so unbendable,” she said. “Even Cora spoke of how unyielding you are when you set yourself to something. Well, do as you will. But remember that the branch that will not bend is the first to fall before the storm. I refuse to bear any responsibility for your death. Come, Yasmine.”

The young Winter faerie stepped away, taking Jamison’s hands into her own. “I want to stay with you,” she said, determination flashing in her eyes.

But Jamison was already shaking his head. “I’m sorry.” After a glance at Marion, he bent himself close to Yasmine’s ear. “If we were both there to protect you, perhaps. But I do not trust myself to do it alone.”

“You don’t have to,” Yasmine said fiercely. “I can help.”

“I cannot risk your safety,” Jamison said, shaking his head.

“You won’t actually die, will you?” Yasmine asked, looking reproachfully back at the Queen.

“I certainly don’t intend to.”

Yasmine glanced briefly at Laurel and Tamani before lowering her voice. “I can do great things,” she said, so quietly Laurel scarcely heard. “You have told me for years, that I can and will do great things.”

“That is precisely why you must stay here,” Jamison said, lifting one hand to touch her face. “What we go to do now is not great — it is only necessary. It is more important than ever that you remain alive so that you can do those great things. Avalon cannot afford to lose you, or all our efforts will have been in vain, in the very moment they are nearest to blossoming.”

Whether Yasmine understood Jamison’s cryptic speech or not, she nodded her assent, then turned to catch up to Marion, who hadn’t waited for her. Jamison’s eyes tracked the two Winter faeries until they reached the palace and were safely inside with their Am Fear-faire. Only then did he turn back to the group. “Come,” Jamison said, his voice strained as he led them down.

“There are… so many,” Laurel said to Tamani as they trailed Jamison, passing lines of sentries still marching up the path that led to the Winter Palace.

“Two hundred, give or take,” Tamani growled.

“Two hundred?” Laurel exclaimed, her breath catching in her throat. “Does she really need that many?”

“Of course not,” Tamani said.

Laurel hesitated. “Can Avalon spare that many?”

“Of course not,” he repeated, his eyes hollow. “Let’s go.”

He took her hand and together they followed Jamison, David, and Chelsea. Laurel’s feet seemed to move of their own accord as gravity pulled her downhill along the path that led to the Gate Garden. The line of sentries finally ended and soon even their marching footsteps had faded away, leaving only the sounds of breathing and the scuffing of their own footfalls.

Laurel’s head snapped up as the silence was shattered by a piercing blast of gunfire.

“We’re too late,” Tamani growled.

“They’re here?” Laurel asked. It was too soon!

“And they have guns,” David said, his face pale.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jamison said. “We have something better. Perhaps you young ones should run ahead. I’m afraid these old stems are slowing you down.”

The others turned to look at the glittering sword and David’s face paled. But Tamani’s grip tightened on his spear. “Let’s go kill some trolls.”

The four of them ran the rest of the way to the Gate Garden, which was in an uproar. The tops of the walls were lined with sentries wielding bows and slings; others were passing around knives and spears. Most of the sentries seemed to be on the verge of panic, and the whole operation had an air of disorganisation about it.

“The caesafum doesn’t work!” Laurel heard one armoured sentry shouting at a plainly garbed Spring carting a wheelbarrow full of potions. “None of that Mixer stuff works! Get back to Spring and tell them we need more weapons!”

“I—”

But the anonymous fae’s response was drowned out by the roar of crumbling stone some fifteen metres from the entrance to the Garden. Immediately, the cry went up: “Breach in the wall!”

“We’ve got to close that breach,” Tamani said. “The Garden is a secondary choke point, after the gateways. We need to contain the threat until Jamison catches up. David, I want you on point.”

David blinked.

“That means I want you in front. Nothing can hurt you.”

“Are you sure?” David said, his voice shaking on the first word before he steadied it.

Tamani fixed David with a determined look. “I’m sure. Just don’t let go of the sword,” he said seriously. “From what Jamison said, I don’t think anyone can take it from you, or yank it out of your hands. But even so, whatever you do, don’t let go. As long as you have your hands on that hilt, you’ll be fine.”

David nodded, and Laurel recognised his stony expression. It was the look he’d had when he pulled her from the Chetco River; when he carried her across the ocean to the lighthouse to rescue Chelsea; when he insisted on returning to guard Yuki last night.

This was the David who could conquer anything.

He plunged the tip of the sword into the earth and wiped his hands on his jeans. Chelsea bounced anxiously from foot to foot beside Laurel until Laurel wanted to grab her arm to make her stand still. After a deep breath, David cracked his knuckles — how often had Laurel watched him do that? — and reached for Excalibur again.

“Screw it,” Chelsea muttered under her breath. “I am not going to die today without doing this. Wait!” she called out before David could touch the sword.

He scarcely had time to turn around before Chelsea grabbed his face and pulled him down, pressing her lips firmly to his. Laurel saw the moment more like a snapshot than an actual event. Chelsea. Kissing David. Not a moment of romance and seduction — rather of desperation and bravado. Still, Chelsea was kissing Laurel’s boyfriend.

He’s not my boyfriend, Laurel told herself. She looked down and forced back her weird jealousy. When she looked up again, the moment had passed.

Chelsea spun away from David, avoiding everyone’s eyes — especially Laurel’s — her face burning red.

David gaped open-mouthed for a moment before he composed himself and grabbed Excalibur, shouldering it, and turned to trail after Tamani.

He, too, avoided Laurel’s eyes.

The dust was already clearing when they arrived at the breach, and all the trolls in sight were heavily armed. Laurel had expected Klea’s soldiers to be carrying guns, but guns was far too simple a word for these weapons. They were semiautomatics, assault rifles, machine guns, the kind Laurel had only seen in movies. Sentries had pinned some of the trolls down in the gap as they tried to escape — arrow-riddled bodies outside the wall lay crumpled in testament to the archers” vigilance — but the remaining trolls were waiting for the faeries to give up their cover, to step away from the safety of the stone walls and bring the fight to them.

David scarcely hesitated before doing exactly what the trolls obviously wanted; he raised Excalibur and strode right through the hole in the wall. The first gun-toting troll spotted him and opened fire as Tamani pulled Chelsea and Laurel down behind a smooth-barked aspen, but not before Laurel saw David reflexively duck his head and raise an arm to shield himself from the assault. A second troll’s gun joined the first, staccato bursts like a string of firecrackers assaulting Laurel’s ears even louder than the shriek that escaped her throat.

She forced herself to peek around the tree at David, who was, she saw with relief, still standing. He studied his limbs and touched his face before holding Excalibur out in front of him and taking it in from point to hilt. Then he reached down and picked something up off the ground.

It took Laurel a moment to realise that the vaguely oblong metal bead in David’s hand was a bullet. He stood there, deaf to the fray, staring at that misshapen bit of metal, awe blossoming over his face.

“Yes, the sword works!” Tamani shouted over the gunfire, flinching back as a bullet notched the tree near his face. “Now can you please kill some trolls?”

Shaking his head as if to clear his thoughts, David turned and charged his assailants. Several of them grinned menacingly; David looked like a child with a stick getting ready to try to beat up an oncoming freight train.

But when he clumsily swung his enchanted blade it cleaved the closest troll in two.

Laurel wasn’t sure exactly what she had been expecting, but she most certainly had not been expecting the troll to fall to the ground in two cleanly severed pieces.

It didn’t seem to be quite what David expected either. He stopped and stared at the bleeding corpse at his feet. The other trolls howled and attacked, their fists, knives, and clubs failing to so much as jostle David. With a jerky motion that looked more reflexive than purposeful, David brought the sword up again, and another troll fell to the ground in bloodied pieces.

“Snicker-snack,” Chelsea whispered, awestruck.

With the corpses of two trolls at his feet, David was again stunned into inaction. Laurel could see his chest heaving as he stared at the carnage.

“David!” Tamani’s voice was sharp, but Laurel thought she detected concern, as well. The remaining trolls had recovered from their shock and raised their weapons again.

Snapping to attention, David’s eyebrows furrowed. He lunged forward, slicing one troll’s enormous gun in two, separating another from its weapon by taking off its hands. His swings grew ferocious, indiscriminately cleaving metal and flesh alike with all the effort it might take to carve gelatin with a steak knife.

As David made a gap in the onslaught, Tamani stepped out of the protective cover of the trees. “Get some sentries into this breach!” he shouted. “Anyone without a weapon, I want you stacking rocks!”

The sentries were successfully cutting down many of the trolls that came pouring through the gateway, but many wasn’t enough; the sentries were losing ground. Fighting had broken out in a dozen places throughout the Garden, and the archers on the walls were rushing to and fro in an effort to keep the trolls contained without wounding the sentries on the ground.

“There’s too many,” David called, shaking his head. “I won’t be able to get to all of them before they break down more of the wall.”

“Then let’s at least stem the tide,” Tamani said. “If you can keep any more from making it through the gateway, maybe—”

But his words were cut off as a group of six or seven trolls emerged from the trees, making a run for the breach. Before anyone on the wall could react, however, thick roots erupted from the ground, spraying black earth into the air. They waved menacingly, and for a moment Laurel was afraid Yuki had arrived to finish them all off, but then the roots swept backwards, throwing the trolls against the trees, where their howls of anger turned to cries of pain.

“I agree,” Jamison said, approaching from the direction of the Garden entrance. Somewhere along the way he’d rejoined his Am Fear-faire, who were ready to fight beside him. “If David can defend the gate itself, I believe the sentries can clear the Garden.”

Laurel didn’t understand how Jamison could retain such an optimistic calm in the midst of such chaos, but the sentries close enough to hear Jamison’s pronouncement were visibly encouraged by his words and Laurel realised it was deliberate.

“Most of these sentries have never seen a troll, much less killed one,” Jamison whispered to Tamani and David, confirming Laurel’s conclusion. “Tamani, your experience will be invaluable here. If you’ll allow me to look after your charge, I promise I’ll return her to you safely. I’d appreciate you joining David at the gates.”

Tamani nodded, though his jaw was clenched; Laurel knew he didn’t like leaving her, but he wasn’t about to argue with Jamison. David also said nothing — though he did spare a glance back at both Laurel and Chelsea before following Tamani into the trees.

“Stay close,” Jamison said without looking at them, his attention wholly focused on the battle.

With a nod, two of the Am Fear-faire shifted to include Laurel and Chelsea in their circle of protection.

Jamison set off down the interior perimeter of the Gate Garden as though he were on an evening stroll. When they encountered two black-clad trolls tearing chunks out of the stone wall, Jamison bent, stretching his arms forward. Mimicking his pose, two enormous oak trees also leaned forward, their mighty branches creaking and groaning as they wrapped around the trolls and then straightened, flinging the beasts up to such a height that Laurel knew they would never survive the fall.

Before Laurel could dwell too long on what it would feel like to be thrown to her death by an oak tree, they met a small group of sentries fighting desperately against several trolls that had armed themselves with massive tree branches, which they were wielding like giant clubs. Laurel guessed they were about to have their wooden weapons turned against them; but instead, when one of the trolls turned to charge Jamison, it sank into the ground, clawing madly at the dirt that closed over its head.

One by one, the rest of the trolls disappeared as if they’d stepped into quicksand. When the last one turned to flee, Laurel caught sight of the roots Jamison was calling up from the ground to drag the trolls under, burying them alive in Avalon’s fertile soil.

Laurel tried to keep an eye on the guys as Jamison circled the Garden, assisting the sentries. David was easy; it was almost impossible to miss the arcs of blood being cast off his magical weapon with every swing. He looked less like a swordsman and more like a farmer at spring harvest, reaping a never-ending crop of howling monsters. He was truly untouchable. It didn’t matter if he was shifting directions or actually aiming for a troll, every movement of the sword brought down bodies.

Occasionally, Tamani would emerge from the fray and shout an order at someone, but even dressed in her dad’s shirt Laurel had a hard time following him as he blended in with the other sentries, all swinging their weapons, watching for each other, and fighting to keep the trolls at bay.

When they had first entered the Garden, Laurel thought there was no way this simple fighting force could beat the battle-crazed hordes pouring from the gate. But now — with the help of Jamison and Excalibur — the faeries were slowly, slowly, driving the trolls back through the gate.

They were winning.

Then, as abruptly as it had begun, the battle for the gate was over. The shouts of the sentries were deafening as they closed ranks on a handful of remaining trolls. As the final troll fell, everyone’s eyes went to the gate.

But nothing else came through.