Morgain's Revenge - Laura Anne Gilman [17]
“Idiot stable boy,” he muttered. Then he put on speed himself, catching up with the others as they started down the stairs that led to the kitchen. Once they had Ailis back home and safe he and Newt needed to have a few things out, starting with the fact that they were friends, however unlikely, and friends didn’t assume the worst of each other. Right now, if it wasn’t going to interfere with what they had to do—and he couldn’t see how it would—then it just wasn’t important enough to worry about.
SIX
“I think I preferred leaving without fanfare,” Newt said, frustration evident in his voice.
“I cannot believe that we’re traveling in such a haphazard, unbecoming fashion,” Sir Caedor grumbled.
Gerard exchanged an ironic look with Newt. The stable boy had bet the squire half a crown that Sir Caedor would not be pleased with their arrangements.
“Why does he have to come with us?” Newt muttered, shifting on the back of Loyal, the horse he had taken on their previous journey. Less handsome than Gerard’s gelding or Sir Caedor’s mare, Belinda, Loyal was well-named, and Newt would take no other. Arthur had said that one who worked in the stables was expected to be the best judge of horseflesh and commended him on his choice.
“Because I say you must,” Merlin replied, even though it hadn’t really been a question. He appeared between the two horses and riders where he had not been an instant before, making all four of them start in surprise. Gerard quickly turned his horse’s head aside when the animal tried to take a bite out of the enchanter’s shoulder.
“I know, he grumbles,” the enchanter continued. “But Sir Caedor is a good man, for all that his tourney-fighting days are past, and his experience will complement your natural gifts.”
Gerard had to admit the truth of that. Sir Caedor might be of an age with Sir Rheynold, but he had not let his years turn him into a stay-at-home. There was strength left in Sir Caedor’s arm and courage in his heart. So long as he did not assume that time and experience alone made him the leader of this rescue attempt, then they would have no trouble at all.
Gerard did not think for a moment, however, that Sir Caedor would accept taking orders from a squire. And from the expression on Newt’s face, he doubted that his friend thought so, either. But Merlin commanded, with the weight of Arthur’s voice in his, and so you accepted. Hopefully Sir Caedor knew that, as well.
The horses shifted, the pages having finished their last-minute checks. The mule carrying their extra supplies lifted first one leg then the other, indicating a desire to be off.
“Will we be beginning our journey, then?” Sir Caedor shouted, kneeing his mare forward to join the three of them. “Or is there some unknown-to-me reason we yet delay?”
Gerard sighed. Why had Merlin placed him in charge, and not Sir Caedor?
“There is indeed reason yet to wait,” a rich alto voice said from above them. All four looked up, and Newt almost fell off his horse. Queen Guinevere stood on the balcony above the courtyard where they were gathered. Several of her ladies-in-waiting clustered around her like pastel wildflowers to her golden rose. “I have come to see our brave questers off if they would care to wait for me.”
“My lady, we would,” Sir Caedor said, bowing to her as gallantly as one could while on horseback. Gerard didn’t mind him taking the lead here, not at all. He had no idea what you said to a queen. He wasn’t even sure he knew how to bow properly.
He didn’t have much time to think about it before Queen Guinevere was coming through the courtyard archway. She was tall and fair, with golden hair coiled about her head and a deep blue gown draped about her body in a way that made her seem even more regal. She was supposed to be the most beautiful woman in the entire kingdom. Gerard thought she was very pretty, but preferred Ailis’s lively