The Shadow Companion - Laura Anne Gilman [63]
The sorceress clearly did not agree, but chose not to follow up on that point, staring at her opponent for a moment.
“Will they love the land enough, Merlin?” she finally asked. She was not looking for reassurance, but rather asking as one great general to another, conferring on the status of armies marshaling in the field.
“If they don’t, it will be their failure, not ours,” was all he could say. “Good night, Morgain. Do not try to harm them again.”
She laughed then, a sweet, clear, evil laugh. “You do not command me, Merlin. I will harm them or not, as I choose.”
He bowed to her, mockingly, and faded from view, his hawk-sharp eyes watching her until every other feature of his body had disappeared. Then he blinked, and was entirely gone.
“As I choose,” Morgain repeated, relishing the sound of the words, and then she, too, departed the astral plane, fading into wisps of dark golden light.
Safe and secure in the great stone in the Orkneys, Morgain’s physical body slowly stretched, waking out of a deep sleep. Still drained from the effort of defeating Nemesis and protecting her chosen successor, she barely had the strength to raise the waiting cup of hot chocolate to her lips. Her body might be weak still, but her mind was finally clear of Nemesis’s malevolent influences. She was her own woman once more and had no desire to hand over any sort of control ever again—no matter what anyone might promise her, no matter how tempting.
Merlin had won this round. But there were endless turns of the day yet to come. And, despite Merlin’s pretty words, she was not willing to leave her legacy to chance.
Ailis and the stable boy would marry and have children. No doubt Merlin was counting on their love of the loyal and noble squire, Gerard, to keep them tied to his precious Camelot. And it would likely be so.
But even loyal knights could be subverted, if you offered them the right bait. Perhaps she would leave Ailis and her friends be, to see what they might, in fact, grow up to become. If Merlin was correct, as well as mad, Ailis might yet become a powerful ally, and her menfolk along with her.
Morgain thought it best to focus on other links in the chain surrounding Arthur’s throne first. The great and noble Lancelot was a good place to start. Incorruptible Sir Lancelot. Finding his weakness would be interesting.
The great cat slept at the foot of her bed, stretched full-length, ears twitching in dreams of chasing giant mice.
With a contented sigh, Morgain went back to sleep, willing her body to heal, and smiling about the plots yet to come. The battle for the Old Ways was far from over, and she’d have many more chances to take action.
And, in the window of her bed chamber, a small owl clucked mournfully, then spread its sawdust-stuffed wings, and flew away.
About the Author
LAURA ANNE GILMAN is the author of more than twenty-five short stories and three nonfiction books for teenagers. She also edited two anthologies—OTHERWERE and TREACHERY AND TREASON—and is currently writing the bestselling Retrievers fantasy series.
You can visit her online at www.sff.net/people/lauraanne.gilman
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Read all of the Grail Quest Books!
Grail Quest 1: The Camelot Spell
Grail Quest 2: Morgain’s Revenge
Grail Quest 3: The Shadow Companion
Credits
Cover © 2006 Parachute Publishing, L.L.C.
Cover art © 2006 by Don Seegmiller
Copyright
GRAIL QUEST BOOK #3: THE SHADOW COMPANION. Copyright © 2006 Parachute Publishing, L.L.C. Cover Copyright © 2006 Parachute Publishing, L.L.C. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether