Morgain's Revenge - Laura Anne Gilman [65]
“So, Morgain believes that she has cause to be angry with Merlin and Arthur.” Gerard was adding things up in his head. “Is that why she’s so set against us winning the Grail? Because it will make Arthur’s hold on the throne that much more powerful?”
Ailis reached over and petted the cat until it relaxed back to her knee. “I think so. She wants it for herself, too, but mostly it’s to strike against Arthur. To make him too weak to hold the throne, so that he’s not Arthur the High King, anymore.”
“And what’s going on now?” Newt asked. “Is it related to the Quest? Is that what that…person meant about it being time to act?” Surely by now, the Quest should have already departed, each knight racing to be the one to find the prize and bring it home.
“I don’t know.” Ailis shrugged. “That…person hasn’t been happy that I am here. I know they’re planning something, some way to destroy the Quest, something that it thinks I’m distracting Morgain from accomplishing.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. It wasn’t like I was stopping her from doing anything—not like I could have stopped her.” Ailis reached up to stroke the feather in her hair absentmindedly. “I hope Morgain’s all right.”
“What?” Gerard’s exclamation was loud enough to rouse the cat again, who half-opened its slitted eyes and glared at him.
“I said I hope that she’s all right. This stranger has her worried. I can tell.”
“Maybe she should be worried,” Newt said. “You need to be careful who you invite into your home. Sometimes, they don’t leave so easily.”
“We should be more worried about how we’re going to leave,” Gerard said.
“Leaving really isn’t a problem,” Ailis said offhandedly.
“Right,” Newt said. “Ailis, you know I care for you, but I think that your brains have softened, sitting here, inside this…place.”
She pushed the cat gently off her knee and stood up. “You doubt me?” Her tone was imperious, offended. She walked over to the door, which they had all heard Morgain lock, and placed her palm flat against the wood. “Walls are for keeping. Doors are for leaving. If I choose, I leave.”
There was an audible click, and the door swung open into the hallway.
“It’s not that difficult,” Ailis said. “Morgain knew such a simple spell wouldn’t keep us locked up. That’s what her words meant.”
“Come on, cat.” And with that, she walked out into the hall, the great black cat close on her heels.
Newt and Gerard looked at each other, then at the now-empty doorway, and practically ran each other over, trying to be the next one out of their prison.
“You know the way out?” Newt asked, since Ailis was walking with a determined stride that indicated she had a goal in mind.
“No. I need to find Morgain.”
“Morgain? Ailis, have you lost your mind?” Gerard caught Ailis by the arm, then dropped it again when she turned on him, her eyes wide and angry. The cat snarled, low and dark, its ears flat against its skull.
“Right,” Gerard said, taken aback. “Morgain.”
Newt fell in beside Gerard as Ailis raced with disturbing certainty down the unmarked hallway. “Look on the bright side,” he said quietly. “Maybe she’ll send our bodies home when she gets over being annoyed.”
“Shut up, Newt,” Gerard said, mainly because he had been thinking exactly the same thing—and wasn’t sure if the ‘she’ he was thinking of was Morgain, or Ailis.
TWENTY-ONE
Ailis led them up a short flight of stairs to a huge blackwood door that made both Gerard and Newt hang back, although neither of them could quite say why.
“Are you sure we should…I don’t think we’re supposed to go in there,” Newt said.
Ailis had been certain of her actions walking up the stairs, but the last few steps her feet had slowed, like they were moving through something thick and sticky. Her face had gone from determined to puzzled. “I don’t…understand.”
“Maybe she’s not so good a friend as you thought?” Gerard’s voice was nastier than he meant it