No! I pushed aside scallops, and shrimps scattered, but the inkwell was nowhere to be found.
The sound of water circling made me freeze. Unsure of who it was, I ducked behind a rock formation and held my breath. The moments ticked by. Finally, there came another sound—a slurping noise.
“I know you’re there.”
Blanc.
She was fishing, waiting to see if I would give up my position. Well, I wasn’t that—
“You’re behind the limestone peak. You left inky footprints of that reaper’s filth. You may as well come out.”
I looked down at my feet, and the Lady of the Lake was right. No doubt Morte was upping his stain on me, trying to hasten my demise. Without the boots, this death would be my last. And the Grimm Reaper seemed to be waiting impatiently.
I stepped out from behind the rocks to see the Lady of the Lake, composed half of squid and a dozen or so snapping turtles this time.
“I thought we were friends. So why do you hide from me?” she asked.
I thought about every con that might make a convincing story, but tact had never been my strong suit. “Let’s just be straight and get it over with. You’re Blanc, and I’m breaking in to steal from you. Now what?”
I don’t know what I expected, but trills of laughter weren’t it. “Very well,” she said, and the turtles and squid dropped to the ground, slipping into the nearest pool. The White Empress rose smoothly from the waters. “It takes a surprising amount of effort to control those creatures, but I couldn’t very well just show my true form from the beginning. You’d already made your mind up about me without hearing my side.”
“Your lies you mean.”
“No. Think back. I haven’t told you one false statement.” She gestured to the last turtle crawling away. “I apologize for the puppetry, but the rest is who I truly am. I am not like that charlatan Mimikos, pretending to be someone else. Long before I was called Blanc the White Empress, I was simply the Lady of the Lake. Some men of this land worshipped me as a goddess; others feared me as a demon siren. The rest of my family and I, all elementals, were blamed every time there was a flood, a drought, an earthquake, or a lightning strike.”
She’d hit a sore spot. “Or, I don’t know, steal someone’s life force and hit them with stormbolts.”
Blanc shrugged serenely. “And I should be judged for my sister Grizelda’s actions? From the moment I entered into the world, I have been saddled with the blame for others’ choices. Blamed for the stupidity of men who sacrificed their virgin daughters on my shores. Some to appease the wicked demon and protect the village. Some to garner favor and harness my powers for their own benefits.”
Blanc hit the bull’s-eye again, and emotional wounds Robin inflicted on me hurt anew.
“I never asked for that,” Blanc said, holding her hands to her chest. “I wanted to live in a world where people were free to decide their own fates, in spite of their births. So I gave a peasant boy a sword and made him a king, not the knight who was supposed to have it. I changed the story. I thought I controlled my own destiny. I was wrong. And I paid the price.”
Listening to her, it really was hard to remember that she was the enemy. She was a victim. She’d lost the one she loved and had to watch him die. Blanc had had everything taken from her.
“I can tell what you’re thinking,” she said. “I already told you that we are much too alike for my own good. Which is why you wear my blessing and why I’m not going to kill you for trying to steal the grail.”
“You’re not?” I coughed. “I mean, grail? What grail? I was just gonna steal the trident since Excalibur was a bust.”
“Now who’s lying?” She motioned with her hand, her fingers making the water dance, parting it until I could see the grail. “This is what you’re after so you can save that destroyer.”
I snorted. “Hypocrite much? You took out an entire story just a minute ago.”
“They’re casualties of war. Sacrifices have to be made if we are going to fix the system.” She walked toward me with her arms open. “I can’t do it alone. Help me create a new world where there are no more children abandoned in trees. No more needless suffering just to make sure some insipid princess gets her happy ever after.”
The passion in her eyes and the empathy in her voice cooled some of the anger in my soul. Whatever Oz said, I didn’t believe that Blanc was down-to-the-bone evil. She wasn’t mean, nasty, and cruel simply to get power and make herself happy. And the Storymaker system sucked. Gods creating characters to amuse them and dance to their tunes. But that didn’t mean what Blanc was doing was right.
Oh, and she was absolutely nuts.
There was no universe where it made sense to sacrifice thousands, to cause pain in order to spare people from pain. In trying to give characters a choice and a chance at controlling their own fates, Blanc had taken away their futures. Trying to make sense of it all made my head hurt.
And that whole ten percent survival was getting slimmer by the second. I had one chance. I was going to have to be fast. There were really good odds I wasn’t going to survive it in the end.
I let Blanc embrace me, and behind her back, I waved at DumBeau. Help me, I mouthed. He nodded, not nearly as dumb as all of us thought him to be. I pointed to the grail on the ground and hoped he understood.
Not wanting to seem off, I pulled back. “I wish I could help you. I do. But as you can see, Morte is going to claim me as soon as Dorthea loses it again.”
Blanc traced a line down my face, looking into my eyes. “I can protect you from both, but I need these binds off first.” She held out her wrists. “If you free me, I will free you.”
DumBeau was moving behind her, and she would notice as he got close. I would have to play along, just long enough. The timing would have to be perfect.
“Tell me what to do.”
She narrowed her eyes but nodded. “The trident. Someone else has to willingly hold it and choose to release my binds.” Holding on to the tip of the trident with one hand, she pressed under the bracelet with the other. “Grab on to the end and say Libération.”
I nodded. Hurry up, I pleaded to DumBeau.
“Well, go on.”
Forgive me, I thought, then said, “Libération.” The left bracelet crumbled to dust. Miniwaves rose out of the pools. A new rush of heat filled my wrist, and the lotus rose sigil glowed anew.
Blanc’s smile was brilliant as she closed her eyes and said, “Yessss.”
She let go of the trident, so I could shift it to the other wrist.
“Liber… Now!” I yelled at DumBeau. He tossed the grail to me and wrapped his arms around Blanc, holding her tight.
He smiled. “Good-bye, Rex.”
Grail in one hand, trident in the other, I jumped into the pool and willed myself to Camelot. I waited for the whirlpool to choke me, pull me back, but it spit me out on the shore.