Crown of Dreams (7 page)

Rhianna clenched her fist, but slid Excalibur back into its scabbard. Sir Agravaine gave her friend a gentle push into the cell.

Arianrhod stared at them, tears running down both cheeks. “I got your bath ready before I fell asleep, my lady,” she whispered. “But who’s going to wash your hair for you?”

“I’ll manage,” Rhianna said brightly. “It doesn’t have to be perfect. We’re riding to war tomorrow, not a feast.”

Cai drew himself up and said, “Yeah, Dragonland’s no place for a damsel! You’ll be much safer in here, Arianrhod.”

The men glanced at Rhianna. She didn’t know whether to laugh, or thump Cai for suggesting she wasn’t a proper damsel.

“Cai,” Sir Agravaine growled, propelling
the boy back up the steps. “I said, shut it.”

Before the door closed on her friend’s tearful face, Rhianna tightened her grip on the dark mirror. “No one will hurt you in here, Arianrhod,” she promised. “I’ll come and see you before we go tomorrow.”

It was actually a relief not to have Arianrhod fussing over every little thing. After she’d bathed and eaten, Rhianna packed her own clothes, leaving out the tiaras and spare dresses her maid would have tried to include for her. Then she barred the door and propped the dark mirror on the windowsill.

She rummaged in her clothing chest and found another chain for the pendant – a stronger one than last time. She hung it around
her neck and changed her slippers for her boots. Finally she drew Excalibur and stared into the black glass.

“Mordred!” she called. “I know you can hear me! The knights have got your bloodbeard spy locked in the dungeons. Arianrhod’s safe. You’ll never hurt her again.”

At first, all she could see was her own reflection with Excalibur’s blade glimmering in her hand. But as she peered closer, a shadow stirred in the glass. Quickly, she reversed Excalibur and brought the hilt of the sword down hard on the mirror.

There was a loud CRACK, and the glass shattered with an unexpected flash of green light.

Rhianna jumped out of range as the pieces tinkled to the floor. She smiled grimly and
stamped on the broken glass to make sure all the magic was destroyed. It crunched satisfyingly under her boots, and the green light died.

She checked Excalibur, a bit worried the sword might have been harmed by the blow. But the Sword of Light had been forged in Avalon and seemed fine.

She laughed. “That scared you, didn’t it, cousin?” she said to the empty room. “That’s what happens when you come after my friends! You’d better start running, because we know where you are now, and we’re coming after
you
!”

D
ARK
P
LANS

M
ordred woke in the shadrake’s lair, bathed in sweat. What a nightmare! His cousin Rhianna had been standing over him with Excalibur, wearing the missing jewel from the Crown of Dreams around her neck. He’d woken up just as she brought the sword down to crush his skull.

He checked the crown was safe and scowled about the cave. His men had stabled the horses in one of the tunnels behind the waterfall and built a fire at the entrance. They had furnished this alcove for him from the dragon’s treasure, but his captain should have
been back by now. How long did it take to ride to Camelot and get a jewel off a silly maid? It would be winter soon, and then the rain would turn to snow. He shuddered at the thought of being trapped in such a godforsaken place until spring.

The crown glittered in the candlelight, mocking him. So pretty, and yet so useless – its jewels hiding magic he dared not use. He snatched it up, limped over to his mother’s body and prodded her blackened bones with a spear.

“Well?” he snapped. “What’s happened to my captain? Did he get into Camelot? Why’s he taking so long?”

The witch’s spirit did not appear immediately. Mordred ground his teeth in frustration and raised the crown over his head.

“Mother!” he hissed. “If you don’t answer me, I’ll ride to Camelot right now and use this thing to claim the throne—”

“Not until you’ve taken care of Arthur’s jewel, foolish boy!” the witch said, rippling into view at last and frowning at him. “Yes, your man is inside Camelot, but he seems to have got himself arrested. That interfering squire who carries the Lance of Truth saw through his disguise and challeged him to a duel. Unfortunately, my ex-maid wasn’t able to get hold of the stone in time, and now it looks as if she won’t be able to.”

“What do you mean, woman? I thought you said you could control her?”

“I did what I could, but the girl was careless, and Rhianna smashed my mirror. Your cousin wears the jewel around her neck,
and now it seems she’s riding to Dragonland with the knights on a quest for the Crown. The bloodbeard must have talked.”

Mordred frowned, thinking of his nightmare. “My men never talk under interrogation. They’ve all sworn to die first.”

The witch gave a dark smile. “I’m sure they have. But a dead captain is no help to anyone. Alive, he might still be of some use to us. Don’t worry, my son, all is not lost. Since we’ve failed to get the jewel out of Camelot, we’ll let our eager Rhianna bring it to us.”

“How many men are coming with her?” Mordred asked, getting worried now.

“I’m not sure. I’ve lost contact with my maid now. But I doubt all the knights will come. Lancelot will be too worried about
leaving the queen unprotected, after we captured her up in the North last year. We just need to make sure our brave princess is separated from her friends so your man can get hold of the stone.”

He smiled, feeling a bit better. “I’ll make her give me the Sword of Light and the Lance of Truth as well,” he said. “She’s bound to bring them on her quest, isn’t she?”

“That’s my boy,” the witch said. “But don’t underestimate her this time! She almost got you killed in the summer. I’ll do what I can to help, but I can’t work miracles if you find yourself at the wrong end of her blade again. I think it’s time you had a few lessons in using that crown of yours.”

Mordred grinned, then remembered how she’d told him the crown had killed her. He
eyed her blackened body. “I thought you said it was dangerous?”

“All magic is dangerous!” his mother snapped. “But your men won’t stand a chance against two of the Lights unless you help them. A dragon attack should do it, and the Jewel of Annwn is strong in this place. I’ll teach you all I know.”

R
hianna thought she’d never sleep. Pieces of the broken mirror flashed darkly at her from the floor every time she tried to close her eyes, reminding her of the way Morgan Le Fay had enchanted her friend. When she
eventually dozed off, she dreamed of her cousin Mordred sitting in her father’s place at the Round Table wearing the Crown of Dreams, and spent the rest of the night tossing and turning in a nightmare where the dark knight ruled Camelot.

She woke before dawn, dragged on her armour over her Avalonian leggings and laced up her boots. The yard was already full of horses and squires making ready for the journey. Shaking away the echoes of her dream, she buckled Excalibur around her waist with cold fingers. She reached for her father’s black jewel and held it up to the light. Was it her imagination, or had it turned paler overnight?

She tucked the pendant under her armour and hurried downstairs to keep her promise to her friend.

The knights had already hauled their prisoner out of the dungeons. The bloodbeard stood shivering in the dawn, leashed by his wrists to the back of a wagon and watched by two armed guards. He looked tired and beaten. But when he spotted Rhianna crossing the yard, he raised his head and bared his teeth at her.

She glared back at him and hoped the knights would make him walk all the way to Dragonland.

The dungeons were deserted apart from Squire Gareth, who had been given the job of looking after Arianrhod. Her friend seemed to be the only one in the cells, which made her glad. At least the place wouldn’t smell.

Gareth scowled when he saw her. “What are you doing down here? I thought you were
riding to Dragonland with your
champion
, playing at knights.”

“I want to see Arianrhod,” she said.

The boy hesitated and glanced up the steps.

“Oh come on!” Rhianna snapped. “She’s my friend. You know she’s only locked down here for her own safety.”

“She’s a witch,” Gareth muttered. “Sir Lancelot says she might put a spell on you.”

“You don’t really believe that! Let me in and I’ll make sure you get guard duty on the walls instead of down here while we’re gone.”

He gave her a quick, hopeful look, then shrugged. “Don’t matter to me. Won’t be much excitement around these parts while you’re away, any rate. Waste of time you all going after Mordred, if you ask me… you’ll never find him if he doesn’t want to be found.”

“We’re not just going to look for Mordred. I’m going to look for my father’s crown, the one the dragon stole from the battlefield. The one that makes its wearer into the Pendragon.”

That shut the boy up. He stared at her then shook his head. “So you fancy yourself as queen? Your mother might have something to say about that.”

Rhianna sighed. “My mother knows why I’m going. Just let me in.”

She waited until Gareth had closed the cell door behind her. Then she fumbled under her armour for the pendant. “Listen, Arianrhod…”

“Oh Lady Rhia!” The girl flung herself at her and held on tight. “My lady, please, you have to listen to me. You can’t trust that bloodbeard! Last night, after you’d gone, there was a sharp pain in my head and I suddenly
started remembering things. I know now why Lady Morgan made me come down here with her dark mirror – the bloodbeard used it to speak to her spirit! You’ve got to warn the knights. I think he’s up to something.”

Rhianna frowned. “I must have broken the enchantment when I smashed the mirror…”

“You smashed it?” Arianrhod blinked at her. “Then that must be why I remembered!”

Rhianna nodded grimly. “I didn’t realise breaking it would cause you pain. Don’t worry, nobody will be using that mirror to enchant anyone ever again. Listen, Arianrhod, this is more important. I want you to do something for me while we’re away.”

“I’ll do anything for you, my lady, you know that!” the girl sniffed. “But how can I, if I’m locked up down here? I can’t even clean
your room for you. I’m not much use as a maid, am I?”

“You can do this.”

Rhianna peeped through the door to check Gareth was not listening. She drew Arianrhod to the back of the cell and pulled the black jewel over her head. She hung it around the girl’s slender neck. “I want you to look after this while I’m away,” she whispered. “Try not to let anybody see it. If they do, just say it’s an old pendant I gave to you because I didn’t like it, all right?”

Arianrhod’s eyes widened as she touched the stone. “My lady! But this is your father’s jewel—”

“Yes, and I think it’ll be safer with you in here until we get back. Just in case that bloodbeard is up to something, as you say.
Nobody must know you’ve got it.”

The girl smiled. “Don’t you worry, Lady Rhia. I’ll guard it with my life!”

Rhianna smiled too. “You won’t need to do that. Gareth is supposed to guard you with
his
life. As long as none of Mordred’s bloodbeards get down here while we’re gone, it should be safe enough. If Lady Isabel comes to see you, just tell her what I told you. With all the knights gone to Dragonland, my mother’s the only one who’s likely to recognise the pendant, and I doubt she’ll come down to the cells.”

Arianrhod sighed. “No, the queen never visits the dungeons. She’s been afraid of the dark ever since Mordred captured her and locked her up in his tower.” She glanced uneasily at the shadows.

Rhianna hadn’t known that. Her mother hid it well.

“Have you got everything you need in here?” she asked.

Now that it had a proper bed and rugs on the floor, the cell looked much more comfortable than yesterday. Arianrhod had taken one of the bedcovers and fixed it to the hooks on the wall, so it hung like a tapestry. She had been allowed some candles too, spare dresses, and her trinket box full of Rhianna’s unwanted jewellery.

Arianrhod nodded. “I’ve enough, my lady.”

“Good.” Rhianna gave her an awkward hug and knocked on the door. When Gareth let her out, she looked back at her friend and hesitated. “Will you be all right?”

Arianrhod sat on the edge of the bed and gave Rhianna a brave smile. “It’s not for long, is it?
You’ll soon be back with the Crown of Dreams.”

Rhianna smiled too. “As soon as I can, I promise.”

“And then the knights will kill Mordred, so we can all be safe.”

“Yes,” Rhianna said, trying not to think too much about her cousin. “And when I’ve found the Crown, we can all go and look for the Grail of Stars and bring King Arthur back from Avalon. Then nobody will hurt you or lock you up in a dungeon ever again, I promise.”

Gareth rolled his eyes.

Arianrhod bit her lip. She started to say something else, but Cai’s voice yelled from above, “Damsel Rhianna? Are you still down there? Sir Bors says if you’re not up here in two shakes of a horse’s tail, we’re leaving without you!”

“Go, my lady!” her friend said. “And don’t forget your hairbrush…”

“It’s already packed!” Rhianna lied, grinning as she sprang up the steps.

They took the Roman road the knights had used when they rode to the North Wall in the spring to rescue the queen and bring back Sir Lancelot. As they crossed the bridge, Rhianna looked back at Camelot’s white towers and remembered how she had watched the knights ride out that day, as much a prisoner in her room as Arianrhod was now, in the dungeon. But she’d got out with a bit of help from her friends.

She patted Alba’s shining neck. “The knights know that even if they locked me
in the dungeon, I’d find a way to escape and follow them,” she told the mare.

Alba tossed her head.
I want to gallop
, she complained.
These big horses are very slow.

Rhianna smiled. “I know they are, my darling,” she said. “But at least we’re going with them this time. That’s more fun than using the druid path to catch up with them, isn’t it?”

Elphin glanced at her and shook his head. No doubt he’d have preferred to use the magical path Merlin had shown them, which allowed them to travel quickly between stone circles using the spiral pathfinder Elphin wore around his neck to open the mists. But she always found riding with the knights exciting.

The men were in high spirits because Sir Lancelot led them again. The big horses pranced, the knights’ lances glittered in the sun,
and her father’s red and gold dragon banner flapped proudly in the breeze. People ran out of the villages and towns to wave and cheer as they trotted past. Rhianna didn’t even mind that they wouldn’t let her ride at the front. Here, in the middle of the party with her friends, she could keep an eye on the bloodbeard, who stumbled along behind the wagon. He seemed docile enough, but she didn’t want him behind her where he might get up to mischief.

She checked the sky for Merlin, but couldn’t see the little falcon. Before leaving the castle, the knights had sent messages by hawk to the volunteers who manned the druid beacons which formed a line of sight across the Summer Sea, from Camelot to an old fortress on the far shore. Merlin had flown off with the hawks to check the fire magic would still work
if the volunteers needed it. He’d promised to meet them in Dragonland. She just hoped he wouldn’t get distracted by a rabbit and forget.

As they rode further north, Elphin gazed across the marshes beside the road, humming a sad song in his throat. The raised banks and stretches of misty water suddenly seemed familiar.

“Isn’t that the way to Avalon?” she said, remembering how they had ridden in the opposite direction with Sir Bors and Sir Agravaine last year, after losing Merlin in the mists between worlds. So long ago, it seemed now.

Her friend nodded. “I think so, yes.”

“Then aren’t we going the wrong way? I thought Dragonland was back that way. Oh, Arianrhod
said
that bloodbeard was up to
something! We’ve got to warn the knights.”

“We can’t cross the Summer Sea with all these horses, Damsel Rhianna,” Cai said. “They don’t have magic shoes like your mist horses do. We got to keep going north on this road till we get to Corinium, and then head west across the river to Dragonland.”

“How long will that take?” Rhianna looked longingly at the narrow tracks leading off into the mist. “Elphin, you don’t think we could…?”

He put a hand on her rein. “No, Rhia,” he said firmly. “Let’s find out where Mordred’s hiding first.”

They camped that night on a hill near a town with public baths built by the Romans. Rhianna wanted to visit them, but Sir Bors wouldn’t hear of it. “This isn’t a sightseeing
trip, Damsel Rhianna,” he reminded her, tweaking her braid. “Besides, you had a bath last night, didn’t you? Two baths in two days is a bit much for someone who grew up in Avalon. I thought you’d at least want to roll in some mud first.”

Rhianna flushed as the other knights chuckled. She caught the bloodbeard looking at her again and scowled at him.

They passed through Corinium without stopping and headed west. This road was more overgrown and showed fewer prints. They trotted past some blackened, smoking huts and then came to a town beside a river, where the people did not cheer them. When they saw the Pendragon banner, they complained about a dragon swooping out of the hills and setting fire to their homes.