“Do you ever actually use the throne?” I asked him as we walked past it. Several people in the room bowed to Galahad, who waved and said hello before we continued.
“No,” he admitted when we’d finally left the throne room. “Not often, anyway. It’s uncomfortable, and gaudy. I’d rather just have a table.”
“A round one?”
Galahad looked at me and shook his head. “Don’t mock me.”
“I’m not. I remember the table. It was very big. Not round, though. Never really got why that part was so important.”
“It was so no one was better than the others.”
“Galahad, I understand why Merlin said it; I just never understood why he felt the need to say it. He made it up—the table never existed. I just found it weird he made up a story about it instead of just, you know, making the table.”
“Ah, sorry.”
We continued through the palace, passing dozens of guards, until we arrived at the huge palace doors, which Galahad unlocked with a touch of his finger. He pushed one of the doors open, and we both stepped out onto the top of the steps looking over a large part of the city of Solomon and his kingdom of Shadow Falls.
“You were never one of the knights,” Galahad said. “Why was that?”
“You know why. It wouldn’t have been a good idea for someone in my line of work to be associated with all of you fine knights in your lovely shiny outfits.”
“You’re mocking me again.”
“Always,” I told him, looking over the ramparts to the city below.
“Can I tell you something?”
I looked back at him.
“No mocking,” he continued.
I laughed. “I guess so, sure.”
“I miss you. I miss you, me, Mordred, Morgan, Gawain, Mac, and the others. It was a time of camaraderie, and friendship, and I just miss it. I miss fighting back against the evil that infected the lands we lived in. I miss being heroic. I’m getting old.”
“You’re my age, and I don’t feel old.” I paused for a few seconds. “But I know what you mean. Things were easier.”
“They were. And none of us had even hit our first century, and we thought we could take on the world. All of it. Our biggest problem was dealing with Kay and the assholes he was friends with.”
“Kay isn’t going to be an issue again.”
“Mordred told me you killed him. That Kay killed your wife. I’m sorry for that. I wanted to reach out and ask how you were, but I wasn’t sure how to put the words together. It’s weird—we fight, we bleed, we stand side by side, but I can’t figure out how to say I’m sorry you discovered someone we knew murdered your wife. How are you dealing with it?”
“I killed him, Galahad. I dealt with it well, considering.”
“Nate, when she died, you went really dark. I saw the swath of pain and misery you cut across a continent. I saw that it took Tommy to bring you back from that brink of darkness and self-destruction. I know how hard Mary’s death hit you, so I’m asking if you’re feeling similar.”
“No,” I said. “Mary’s dying changed me, but I put that behind me. I put the anger and hate I felt behind me. I killed Kay because he deserved it. Not just for Mary, but for so many people whose lives he ruined. I’m in a good place about everything. What about you? You seem to be doing well as a dad.”
“It took some getting used to, yes. It took more than I’d have expected. I sometimes have to remind myself that she’s a grown woman who managed for a long time without my interference. It’s difficult to juggle the need to be protective with the need to let her remain independent. I never thought I’d have children. I certainly never thought I wouldn’t find out about one until she was an adult, and that the mother would be a crazed psychopath.”
“Surprise.”
Galahad laughed. “Yeah, it really was. What about you and Selene?”
“I love her. I’ve always loved her. That’s it. We decided to move in together.”
“Marriage?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea. Neither of us has had good experiences in that department, so we haven’t really talked about it.”
Galahad hugged me for several seconds before saying anything. “I’m happy for you. Genuinely happy. I always wanted to see you in a good place again. And I was worried you’d never allow yourself to go back to that place, and the fact that you did it with Selene, again, is good to see. Don’t ever piss her off, because she’ll kick your ass.”
I laughed. “Yeah, no kidding.”
After that, conversation was kept to a minimum. I couldn’t blame him—if I was in his shoes, I’d probably be nervous, too. Galahad and Arthur hadn’t seen one another in centuries, and there was no telling how either man would receive the other. I knew both of them, and they were both capable of being more than a little stubborn.
We used a private version of the rail transport that linked the various parts of the city with the temple and palace, traveling in as close to silence as possible. I got the feeling that Galahad wasn’t looking forward to seeing Arthur.
It didn’t take long to reach the temple, and Galahad passed his sword to one of his guards. Galahad was possibly the finest swordsman I’d ever met, with very few exceptions, and rarely went anywhere without his sword. Maybe he was really trying to ensure that Arthur had no excuses to start something. I certainly hoped so.
“You got a second?” I asked as we walked through the temple to the realm gate. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
Galahad nodded.
“Lee went through the Harbinger trials,” I told him. “Whoever Abaddon is working with, they have access to Avalon procedures.”
“Didn’t you go through those trials?”
“Yeah, something like that.” In fact, whereas the Harbinger trials weren’t officially to be performed on anyone under one hundred years of age, I’d only been a teenager when subjected to them. A fact that could have easily killed me. The Harbinger trials were designed to take someone who was already powerful and allow them to unleash their potential far more easily than they would normally. While unconscious they would live out everything happening to them, making it feel as though years had passed, when in reality it was only weeks or months.
“Okay, so what aren’t you telling me?” Galahad asked.
“Merlin. Merlin has access to the Harbinger trials. He has the power and expertise to put someone through them without getting them killed.”
“You think Merlin is this My Liege character?”
I nodded.
“It could be Abaddon,” Galahad suggested.
“Agreed, it could be, but either way one of them is working for the other one. I don’t know Abaddon well enough to say that she’s the kind of person who would be okay with being the second in command, but I know that Merlin wouldn’t be okay with it.”
“Unless it was Arthur who was in charge.”
“You don’t think Arthur is My Liege, do you?” I asked.
Galahad shrugged. “I’m not counting anyone out until we have proof one way or the other. You don’t, I suspect.”
“I find it hard to believe that if Arthur is My Liege he would have asked me to come here and try to defuse the situation. Or promote Lucie. Or have Merlin placed under house arrest.”