Powerful Magic (51 page)

          
"Halt." Kenric ordered, reining Lancelot to an immediate stop.
 
"If we go forward now, we could ride over the edge of a cliff and not know it."

          
"There are no cliffs in this part of the country."
 
Edmyg scoffed.
 
"If we stay here, then we wait like lambs to be led to the slaughter."

          
For Megan's benefit Kenric forced a laugh, though it was a dry and humorless sound.
 
"There may be no cliffs now, my friend.
 
But who's to say Myrddin would not create them?"

          
"This is not what I expected."
 
Megan spoke, her voice low with what sounded like suppressed fury.
 
"This Myrddin fights like a coward, with thunder and lightening and darkness.
 
Is he afraid to face us like a man?
 
Is he so afraid that we will best him that he will try to make us stumble around in the dark?"

          
After a moment of stunned silence, Kenric chuckled.
 
Ah, his brave soul half.
 
In her anger she sounded like a female warrior, like one of those Amazons of legend.
 
About to tell her that Myrddin would use whatever means he had at his disposal, low handed or not, he held his tongue when the darkness instantly lifted.
 

          
"Myrddin has heard you."
 
Satisfaction colored Rhiannon's tone.
 
"He does not like being named a coward."

          
"He will try to avenge this insult."
 
Edmyg sounded

worried.
 
"We shall have to guard Megan, and guard her well."

          
"I had intended on it."
 
Now that he could see, Kenric urged Lancelot on again, this time at a controlled gallop.
 
Though Megan had but spoken truth, he wished she had not singled herself out to the evil mage.
 
Now Myrddin would have two reasons to try and hurt her - the other knowing no doubt that Kenric would die for her.
 
This gave their enemy a slight advantage that Kenric did not care to contemplate.
 

          
Edmyg spurred his own horse until it drew apace.

          
"You will have to strike fast."
 
Rhiannon glanced at Megan and smiled.
 
"Do not give Myrddin any opportunity to touch her."

          
With a nod, Kenric tightened his shield, feeling a double urgency driving him to reach Blackstone Keep.
 
He only hoped they would have time before Myrddin truly attacked.

          
As it turned out, they nearly made it.
 
Kenric didn't know whether Myrddin was licking his wounds or gathering his power, but by mid-afternoon on the second day they drew near to the jutting boulders and rocky landmarks that surrounded his cave.

          
Megan, recognizing them, grew restless.
 
She shifted and squirmed so much that Lancelot faltered in his stride.
 

          
"What is wrong?"
 
Kenric spoke low, knowing she would not confide in him if the others could hear.

          
"This place--" her voice broke.
 
For the first time she showed fear, though not of the battle to come.
 
"This place is where I woke up, after the lightening struck me and brought me through time.
 
What if--"

          
He would not let her speak it.
 
Words had their own power, something few people knew.
 
"You will be safe with me."
 
He told her firmly.
 
"I will let nothing happen to you."

          
Slowly, her gaze locked on his, she nodded.
 
"I trust you."
 
She told him, her voice a husky murmur.
 

          
His heart swelled at the honor she so casually gave him.
 
But then he remembered his human family and how they had perished at the swords of his own kind.
 
They too had trusted him to protect them, to help keep Blackstone Keep safe.
 
He had failed them then.
 
But he would not fail Megan.
 

          
Straightening, Kenric pushed away his doubts.
 
Desire for this woman raged through his blood, mingling with the ever present simmer of the power he now knew he could command.
 

          
Impatient for the battle to begin so that he might finish it, he reined Lancelot to a halt near the hidden entrance to the cave.
 

          
"This is a place of great power."
 
Dismounting, he held out his hand and helped Megan down, letting her body slide down the length of his so there could be no doubt in her mind how badly he wanted her.
 
Still.
 
Even with the tremendous task ahead of him, he yearned to take her into the cave -
their
cave - and make fierce, passionate love to her.

          
"I would have first blow."
 
Edmyg declared, his face hard.

          
Immediately, Kenric shook his head.
 
"This is my battle."

          
"No.
 
Edmyg pulled Rhiannon close.
 
"The legend says
half human, half faerie
.
 
That is what Rhiannon and I are, each of us making the half to complete the whole."

          
Rhiannon immediately nodded.
 
"There are many ways to interpret the legend.
 
Myrddin believe it is he who defends his right.
 
Edmyg believes it is two individuals, separate yet one.
 
Soul-halves.
 
Like you and Megan."

          
Eyes narrow, Kenric thought on Edmyg's words.
 
Could this be possible?
 
Mayhap this was not his battle at all, but his sister's. All that training--
 
but now, he could not take the chance that they were wrong.

          
"We will all fight then. Together."

          
Megan made a small sound, whether in protest or agreement he could not tell.
 
It happened then, just as Kenric let go of his lady, just as Edmyg released Rhiannon from his embrace.
 
A noise filled the air, sharp and shrill, like a thousand hawks screeching as they sighted the kill.
 
Megan clapped her hands to her ears, her face contorted in pain.
 

          
"He comes."
 
Rhiannon shouted over the din.
 

          
It grew dark, then light, then dark again.
 
The very air they breathed became heavy and dank, pressing at them as if to crush them into powder on the earth.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

          
Myrddin stood in front of them, his darkly handsome face contorted with hatred.
 
Kenric could feel the evil emanating from him, great waves of it so strong that he staggered back a step.
 

          
The noise grew louder, bring back the wind and the

turbulent skies.
 
Edmyg, his own face contorted with rage, rushed at Myrddin, but before he got within a spear's distance he was repelled with such force that it tossed him across the clearing, into the rocks near the cave.
 
Rhiannon rushed over to him, drawing Myrddin's glare.

          
"She and her kingdom should have belonged to me."
 
The guttural words sounded unnaturally loud in the din of the storm.
 
"All of it - Rune, the earth, the prophecy, truly belongs to me."

          
Startled, Kenric saw how the wizard's dead eyes filled with such pain that it made him appear human.
 
But the emotion was fleeting; flashing into Myrddin's gaze, then vanishing, replaced once again by the flat, dead eyes of a man who had nothing to lose.

          
Like Kenric himself had once been.
 
Before Megan
.

          
Had Myrddin loved his sister that much?
 
If so, it had not been mutual.
 
Her loving attention to the fallen Edmyg attested to that fact.

          
"This is between us."
 
Kenric shouted, drawing Myrddin's ire.
 
"We are both the same, of two worlds - human and faerie."

          
Myrddin jerked his head in a nod, showing he understood and agreed.
 
"Aye, this battle is between us.
 
Prepare to die as your human family died, Kenric of Blackstone."
    

          
By those words Kenric knew it had been Myrddin who had led the assault against Blackstone Keep.
 
He fought to keep the rage from consuming him- to do so would be foolhardy, with so much else at stake.

          
Prepare to die.
 Myrddin had said as much to him before, when they'd met by chance in the marshes.
 
Even then, untrained and weary, Kenric had been able to turn away his magical ire.
 

          
"Before we fight, explain one thing to me. I do not understand."
 
Kenric shouted, as the unholy noise shrieked and eddied around them.
 
"What have I ever done to you, that you bear me such ill will?"

          
With a narrowing of eyes, Myrddin laughed.
 
His laugh was a horrible thing, both bitter and full of an agony that Kenric doubted the other man even knew he exhibited.
 
"You have stolen my birthright, my place in the annals of time.
 
It is I who fulfill the prophecy, I who should take Rhiannon to wife as my soulhalf, I who should be worshipped as a savior by the people of Rune."

          
In a flash Rhiannon stood beside Kenric, a shaken but determined Edmyg standing tall and straight by her side.
 
She opened her mouth to speak and the air became still and silent, so that all might hear her ice-toned words.

          
"You are both wrong and right, Myrddin.
 
I am not your soulhalf - how can I be when Edmyg is mine?
 
And you
are
mentioned in the prophecy, though not as the savoir, but as the evil which must be defended against.
 
Look deep within your heart, if you still have such a thing beating within your chest, and you will find the truth of these words that I speak."

 
         
With one arched brow, Myrddin aimed a look at Rhiannon that promised retribution.
 
He lifted his hand, gesturing so rapidly that his movements were a blur.

          
Edmyg staggered, doubling over.
 
The wind howled, echoing his cries of anguish.

          
Rhiannon made no sound, simply stepping forward and taking Edmyg's hand.
 
With a softly chanted spell of her own, she vanquished Myrddin's.
 
Edmyg immediately straightened and drew his sword.

          
A look of baffled rage came over Myrddin.
 
"Do you think that I will not hurt you, Rhiannon,
Queen of Rune
?"
 
He made the simple title sound like an insult.
 
"I will rule without you, and no longer only Rune, but the entire world.
 
After all, who better?
 
I am of both places, Faerie and mortal.
 
So tell me, how is it that you truly believe I will let you go unharmed?"