Morgain's Revenge - Laura Anne Gilman [71]
“I know what you meant. And it all felt real to me. Every minute.” He paused. “Be thankful, if it’s blurred for you.”
“Yeah.” Gerard shoved the straw with his foot, then blurted out, “Something’s bothering you.”
“Me?” Newt looked up, an innocent expression coming over his face.
“Yes, you. Something more than the fact that we’ve got to ride out tomorrow morning with half a dozen knights who’re probably more like Sir Caedor than we would choose.”
“You’re getting smarter,” Newt said, dropping the “dumb stable-boy” expression.
“You’re getting more evasive. Is it still about all the magic stuff?”
Newt sighed, resigned to finally having this conversation. “A little. Not the magic itself, but…”
“You might as well tell me. Ailis can attest to the fact that I can be really stubborn once I start digging at something.”
“It’s not magic. It’s what magic does to people.” The words came out of his mouth as though they were being pulled from him, one letter at a time. “When I was a little kid…Ger…we have to watch Ailis.”
“Watch her? Why? You think that Morgain might try something again?”
“I think…I think we keep getting away too easily. That portal we used to get back from the Orkneys—Ailis says she made it. But how? She says she can’t do it now. Something in the fortress spoke to her, showed her how…but what if it actually was Morgain? Or, worse yet, the shadow-figure? What if they sent us back here and let Ailis think she did it on her own?”
“Why would they do that?”
“Why did Morgain agree to let us stay? Why did she take Ailis in the first place? It’s all a long, convoluted plot to Morgain, you know that. Everything she does, it’s all aimed at striking back at Arthur—the way we all wanted to stay there, even after just a few minutes? Think about it, Ger! Ailis was there so long, and was so enamored of that woman, and what she could do—” He stopped cold, and stared at his friend with a sudden thought. “Ger, what if Morgain didn’t come to the castle to spy on Arthur at all? What if the goal was Ailis all along?”
“That’s impossible. How? And why would Morgain care about one girl, even if she does have some magic? Ailis wouldn’t ever endanger any of us.”
“She might not be aware of it. She might not even be…Argh. I don’t know.” Newt put his head down in his hands, covering his face and shuddering like a horse shaking off flies.
Gerard was starting to follow the threads of Newt’s thoughts, and he didn’t like them at all. “You think they did something to her?”
“I think—I know that magic is addictive—appealing. We both felt that. Morgain…she can twist your mind. I know that I’d feel better if Merlin was keeping a close eye on Ailis, instead of sending her away.”
“He’s not sending her away. You heard him, we earned this spot, all three of us. Together.”
When he saw that Newt still wasn’t convinced, he went on. “We’ll take care of her. Think about it, Newt. What better place to send someone who might be magic than into the company of half a dozen hardheaded knights who don’t use magic—don’t have any interest in magic—with her two best friends who know what to look for?”
Newt kept his face in his hands, but his shoulders relaxed a notch.
“We’ll keep her safe, Newt. No matter what. That’s what we did in the fortress. That’s why Merlin’s sending her with us. So we can keep her safe.
“And who knows,” he said, suddenly thinking of it. “Maybe her magic, whatever it is, will help us find the Grail!”
They looked at each other, the same thought suddenly in their minds.
Newt spoke it for both of them. “And then Morgain—and the shadow-figure—will know where it is. Even if she wanted Ailis this go-around, more than any strike at Arthur, she was dead-serious about the Grail and what it meant to her. And we have no idea what it really means to the shadow-figure. Merlin has to—”
“Merlin has thought of it already.”
Neither boy had heard the enchanter join them, and they jumped guiltily as he spoke, stammering their apologies.
“Enough already. If you’re going to be fools enough to think I didn’t know something like