“The Arthur?”
“Yes.”
Lance frowned.“I would have thought Oberon…”
“Apparently not.”
“He’s younger than I imagined him being.”
“That’s because youdidn’t imagine him.” She gestured toward the kids. “They did. Arthur, this is Lance. He’s a very confused grad student looking for his professor and a reanimated mummy.”
Arthur stared up at the large, blond man and his pale cheeks paled further.“Lance?”
“Yes.”
“Du Lac?”
“Benedict.”
The Immortal King released the breath he’d been holding. “Thank God.”
YOU’RE WELCOME.
THIRTEEN
[Êàðòèíêà: img_4]
“YOU LOCKED SAM IN A CRATE?”
“With both you and your sister missing, I felt responsible for his safety. I asked him to give me his word that he’d remain here, in the store. He wouldn’t.” Arthur glanced over at Claire, his expression somewhere between concerned and defiant. “I thought I was doing the right thing.”
“You were,” Claire told him reassuringly. “But that’s not actually relevant. If I were you, I’d check your bedding before getting into it and your shoes before putting them on.”
A quiet voice murmured“Ooo, shoes…” from around ankle height but when Claire looked down, Sam was nowhere to seen.
“Sorry.”
Arthur waved it off.“It’s all right…”
He was lying, but she appreciated the effort.
“…we have greater troubles now facing us than possible retribution by one annoyed cat.”
And if Arthur was very lucky, Sam hadn’t heard that. “So you’ve armed your people and are about to…?”
“Meet the enemy head on, rescue your sister and my captain, and end this once and for all.”
“That’s the plan?”
“No, those are our objectives. How we achieve those objectives—that’s the plan. Once we have drawn the enemy into battle, Teemo and Kith will take the scout’s route in behind their lines and effect the rescue.”
“And ending this once and for all?”
“I will be leading my people. Once I am on the darkside, I do not doubt their leader will personally try to kill me. We will meet in battle and in single combat decide the fate of this mall.”
Claire stopped walking and turned to stare at Arthur.“I beg your pardon?” She could almost hear Diana asking him if his baseball equipment was cutting off the oxygen supply to his brain.
“I have been in these situations before, Keeper. This is what always happens.”
“Yes, and youlose.”
His smile was almost condescending.“There is no Mordred in this reality.”
“Okay, first of all, you don’t know that. We don’t know who or what is pulling the strings on the darkside. That’s what Diana and Kris were supposed to find out instead of getting themselves captured and possibly tortured, and it’s all very well for you, but what on earth am I supposed totell my mother if I come back without her?”
Arthur blinked, glanced back at Lance, who shrugged and finally offered,“Tell her that Diana gave her life in the service of the greater good.”
“Uh-huh.” Claire chewed a bit of nail polish off her right thumb. “And on a pure Keeper/Cousin level that might work but I’m talking about my little sister and mymother.” She spat a bit of Midnight Coral out with the last word, then sighed. “I’ll be going with Teemo and Kith. If Kris and Diana have been taken by the enemy, there isn’t a chance of getting them back without my help.”
“Then your help is gratefully accepted.”
“Good.” They began walking again, skirting the edge of Giftware and cutting through Leather Goods. Given what the elves considered party clothes, Claire wasn’t surprised that particular section had been emptied out. “Where was I? Rhetorical question,” she added quickly as Lance made anI know, I know! kind of noise.“The whole Mordred thing is irrelevant. You’re the archetypal symbol for one side, and if you face the archetypal symbol for the other side—we can call it Big Bird if we want to, but it won’t make a difference—you’ll die. This is the Otherside. I am a Keeper. I believe this, so itwill happen. If it makes you feel any better, you can blame Mrs. Saint-Germaine and grade eleven English.”
“But…”
“No.”
“If I…”
“No.”
“It isn’t…”
“What part of ‘no’ are you having trouble understanding? Youmust not face the leader of the darkside in combat.” Claire ran both hands up through her hair and sighed again. “All at once, I understand exactly how Yoda felt.”
“Who?”
“Not important.”
Arthur looked as though he was about to protest, then clearly thought better of it.“Okay.”
“I’m going to go get changed.”
“Petite Sportswear is against the far right-hand wall.”
“Thank you. Lance…” A half turn to find him smiling down at her. She had a sudden vision of him let loose in the mall and shuddered. “…you’d better stay with me.”
“Sure! Hang on a minute!”
Since she didn’t have a hope of moving him, she folded her arms and waited as he stepped forward, his pale blue eyes locking onto Arthur’s azure ones.
“You’re the actual Arthur?” he asked.
“I’m a version of the archetypal Arthur.”
“Cool! Can I ask you something?”
“Yes.”
“What the hell are you doing here?”
The broad brow under the silver band wrinkled.“I am making a fractured people one. I am a leader where there is need.”
“But here? In a shopping mall?”
“Yes.”
“With elves?”
“Yes.”
Lance frowned.“I’m confused.”
“You’re not the only one.” Claire patted him reassuringly on a sunburned forearm. “Come on…”
[Êàðòèíêà: img_5]
Black stretch pants, black tank, black hood, black running shoes, black belt pouch…Claire had no idea if the real-world store carried the same selection, but on the Otherside this was clearly the place for one stop skulking. She either looked like she was going to a very casual funeral or about to fill her evening with a little B&E—she couldn’t decide. Maybe both; B&E at a casual funeral…
Stop it. Do not think of funerals. You’ll get Diana back.
Her hands were shaking as she dropped to tie her laces.“Is this really necessary? Ninja dressing didn’t keep Kris and Diana from being captured.”
“I totally doubt it was the clothes that got them snagged,” Kith snorted, tying off the end of her braid with a black elastic. “You walk the walk, you wear the cloth.”
“Excuse me?”
“You gotta dress like you do.”
“Yeah. Okay.” Communication between seventeen and twenty-seven occasionally took place in two distinct languages. Buckling on the belt pouch, she hurried out of the dressing room in time to smack a piece of chocolate away from Lance’s mouth.
“Hey!”
“If you ever want to go back, you can’t eat or drinkanything on this side that you didn’t bring with you.”
“But I’m hungry!”
Actually, so was she.“I’ve got food in my pack. Come on.”
Her pack was with Diana’s, just inside the front door. Claire dragged Lance through the milling crowd of mall elves, tossed him a power bar and a bottle of water, and began filling her belt pouch with preset possibilities.
“I’d send you back to Kingston if I could,” she told him, tucking a folded piece of paper behind three glass marbles, “but with the darkside influencing the paths, I can’t guarantee where you’d end up.”
“I’m willing to take that chance in order to stop Meryat!”
“Since you’re the only one whocan stop Meryat and since she’s with Dean, I’m not. We rescue Kris and Diana, we stop the darkside, we stop its influence, I send you to the guest house, you stop Meryat, and…”
“We all live happily ever after!”