“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Merlin said. Lam and Kay went in search of turkey legs, and somehow Merlin and Val ended up walking down a row of stalls.
He steered Merlin gently, and Merlin felt five fingertips like a bright constellation on his back. “I don’t know how Ari and Co. got you on board, or if you’re planning to stick around, but if you’re still here tonight, you should go to Knight Club. I’m always there after a tournament.”
Merlin watched Val surveying the crowd. “Don’t misunderstand, I love a pun as much as the next magician, but you have a nightclub? Here?”
“We’re only as period appropriate as we want to be,” Val explained. “For instance, not many queens in medieval Europe had black advisers, but that’s no excuse to keep doing things the same old shitty way, now, is it?”
“That makes a great deal of sense. I’d still like to have a word with your sign painter, though. The dragons are wrong.” Arthur 4 and Arthur 7 had both faced dragons—well, one had technically been a wyvern. “There should be less smiling and more scale rot.”
Val ducked his head and laughed, Merlin’s attention caught on the curve of his eyelashes.
“What’s funny?” Merlin asked, his voice gruffer than he meant it to be.
Val leaned in as the rest of the crowd broke into cheers. They were so close their bodies were nearly brushing, and yet Val had to yell to be heard, his voice hot on Merlin’s neck. “I asked you out and you’re talking about scale rot!”
Forget constellations—Merlin’s body lit up like the night sky.
“Hey,” Kay said, reappearing, not seeming to notice or care that Merlin and Val had been talking. He’d squirted his blouse with turkey juice and shucked it off, revealing a “Lionel is for Lovers” T-shirt underneath. “My mouth is all salty. Where’s ye olde water fountain?”
Val nodded to one of the servers, saying, “Official state business! Queen’s adviser!” and tossed a coin to a person who caught it in ample cleavage and passed out a round of drinks. Cleavage was certainly a theme on this planet.
“Mead?” Kay asked, nuzzling into his cup. “Thanks for the free upgrade.”
Lam downed one in less than ten seconds and started in on another. Merlin grasped a flagon, taking in the crisp-sweet smell and the deep golden tone. He had never been asked on a date, in any of his lifetimes. He didn’t know what to do.
So he drank.
The first sip danced on his tongue. The second one turned his stomach into a festival.
Ari watched them all guzzle. “I’ll take water.”
Val leaned toward her like they’d reached a conversational bridge he didn’t want to cross. “Truth is, we have a severe water shortage on our hands. Mercer is hovering at the outer edges of the system, withholding our latest hydration shipment.”
“Wait,” Kay said, holding up a finger before he swallowed a mouthful of mead. “You get your water from Mercer? What happened to ‘absolutely no Mercer goods—’”
“If you have a better suggestion, I’d love to hear it,” Val said, sipping from his own flagon, wincing as if the honeyed drink was sour. “Mercer is the only company with potable water to trade in the galaxy. They’ve made sure of it. In return, for their terrible water, we have to give them a small percentage of our natural resources. They want more, of course.”
“They want everything,” Ari corrected.
The crowds pushed them deeper into the tournament ring, and soon they were closed in, dozens of people on all sides. Val peeled away, calling out, “I’ll find you after!” The mead that had seemed brilliant a minute ago was now buzzing through Merlin, turning him anxious.
“Were you flirting with my friend?” Ari shouted over the roar of the crowds.
“What?” Merlin asked, feeling as caught as a rabbit shivering in a hutch. Something about Ari demanded honesty—maybe because she seemed incapable of lies. “I don’t know how to flirt with anyone,” Merlin answered, which was the truth. “I’m too busy helping Arthur.”
“So if I refuse this whole destiny thing, you’ll go out with a cute boy?”
Merlin wished it was that simple. He opened his mouth to say so, but Ari was smiling her mischief at Merlin for the first time since she’d dragged him onto Error. Merlin could feel how real and valuable that smile was. It could have been currency on a lonely planet.
The trumpets hit their highest notes, and Merlin turned to watch as horses filled the ring. At first he worried he was drunker than he’d previously calculated. The creatures appeared to be made of metal, with stiff shining flanks, clanging hooves, and electric-blue eyes. None of Merlin’s traveling companions seemed troubled by their presence, though, and Merlin tried to play along as the riders circled and a man with brass lungs announced their names.
“Whoa,” Kay said, pointing out a girl with aggressively blond hair, black armor, and a hard seat, posting around the ring to deafening cheers. “That’s her! That’s the black knight!”
“The one who handed your asses to you at camp?” Ari asked, looking at Lam and Kay.
“Yeah,” Lamarack said. “She’s so… awesome.” They sighed. Kay sighed.
Merlin had ungenerous thoughts about his F students. Especially as he watched the black knight break into a canter, soaring like an arrow from one end of the ring to the other. She swirled her sword through the air and the crowd cheered as if it had been lit on fire. How did Merlin get a knight like that for Ari’s team?
The great doors around the ring closed. Merlin’s cares felt as though they’d been left outside. The tournament began, and the black knight took down several opponents with ease: the green knight, the crimson knight, the rainbow knight. The crowd whooped. Merlin whooped along with them. He was just relaxed enough to hum a few notes and dance another flagon of mead from a passing tray into his hands. Ari gave him a sharp look. Merlin tried to look innocent as he sipped. The drink disappeared at an alarming rate. It stripped away the last of his worries. He even thought about asking Ari if they could stay long enough to visit this Knight Club.
Then a hard shadow passed over the crowd, and everyone looked up. “What?” Merlin asked. “Is it going to rain?”
“That was no storm cloud.” Ari grabbed Merlin’s flagon and downed the last few sips. The tournament had paused unnaturally, but now the clash of the fighters came back at full volume.
“What color is our doom today?” Kay asked.
“Want to take bets?” Lam asked. “Loser buys the winner another drink?”
“What are they talking about?” Merlin whispered to Ari.
“White Mercer ships are made to be seen. That’s what they use when they want you to pay attention. Black ships blend with space. That’s the nothing-to-see-here option.”
“White,” Lam said.
“Definitely black,” Kay argued.
They all looked up—at a pair of enormous shapes taking over the sky. A white ship and a black one.
“That’s… I’ve never seen that before,” Lam said.
Betting dissolved, drinks suddenly forgotten. Ari turned to Merlin. “Can you hide me?”
The trick Merlin had used in the alley on the moon wouldn’t work here—Ari could be seen from too many angles. He thought about trying to magic her straight out of the ring, but he couldn’t see where she would land. Then again, maybe Merlin didn’t need to get Ari out of the tournament. Maybe she needed to be deeper in.
He pulled her close and whispered, “I know a place no Mercer agents will look for you. And, what’s more, you can continue your training. Think of it as a two-for-one special!” He hummed a harmony to the blare of the trumpets, sprinkled his fingers through the air—
And Ari vanished.
The cyborg horse between Ari’s legs was close to overheating. That was her first thought. Her second was to wonder what was so heavy. Ari glanced at the long, unwieldy lance in her right hand and then the shield bound to her left forearm.
Merlin had magicked her into one of the knights’ suits of armor.
In the jousting ring.