Chapter 34
Kat’s breath caught. For a moment, she didn’t recognise Ordes. Every line of his body was as hard as ancient stone, unyielding and rigid. When his eyes shifted over the dead crew, stopping on Carbrey’s lifeless body, lightning coiled around his knuckles and ripped the sky in two.
Kat struggled against her bindings, almost forgetting how to breathe as someone landed on the deck behind her.
She breathed a sigh of relief as water dripped onto her hands.
Jenyfer untied her, moving swiftly to Arthur and then the next person.
Kat should help free her people but couldn’t look away from Ordes and Marsh.
Once Halymere was free, he roared with rage, grabbing hold of the closest of Marsh’s men and snapping his neck like it was made of twigs.
With the Sheletari working their magic from the helm, Kat was powerless.
She snatched up a fallen blade and drove it into the man rushing towards her. He crumpled like a wet rag at her feet.
‘Ordes!’ she shouted. ‘The Witchfinders!’
Before she could blink, the five Sheletari had fallen to the deck, their bodies smoking, lightning coiled around them, and The Excalibur’s crew clashed with Marsh’s men once more.
Kat watched Ordes approach Marsh, silver mist swirling around him, lightning dancing from his hands.
The captain backed away, firing his pistol as he went, but the bullets bounced off Ordes’ chest.
Marsh reached for the Sword of the White Dragon at his hip.
The moment he drew the weapon, it shot from his fingers, soaring across the deck towards Arthur’s outstretched hand.
Kat’s pleasure at the turn of events was consumed by her shock.
Arthur’s connection to the Treasure scared the life out of her, but at the moment, it could be one of the things that saved them.
The deck was a chaotic swirl of magic and weapons, bodies tumbling to the ground – the timber beneath Kat’s feet was slick with blood.
She fought with one eye on Ordes and Marsh.
Ordes never used magic to kill, yet he’d taken five lives without so much as blinking.
The air around him shifted and swelled like it was breathing with him.
Marsh shouted something, and then the captain was flying through the air, crashing into the main mast with an ear-splitting crack. Ropes of silver light bound him there.
Ordes’ eyes were filled with lightning. His wings uncurled, crackling like an oncoming storm. He took to the air, pausing when he was level with Marsh, who was staring at him in horror.
Silence slipped over the ship, deep and dark and bristling around the edges.
Jenyfer appeared at Kat’s side, her cheek smeared with blood, a gash running the length of her scaled forearm – blood dripped from the dagger clenched in her hand.
‘He’s going to kill him,’ Kat whispered.
‘Good,’ Jenyfer said. Her stormy blue eyes were hard. Kat wanted to know where they’d been, what had happened, but now wasn’t the time. They were back, and that was all that mattered.
Arthur made his way over, shoving his damp hair from his forehead.
The sword was gripped tight and blood was splattered across his shirt front.
All of Marsh’s men were dead. Kat swallowed, turning back to a furious Ordes and the captain, bound to the mast with magic. Marsh’s face was tight with pain.
‘Ordes,’ Kat called. ‘We need him alive.’
For a dreadful moment, she thought Ordes wasn’t going to listen to her, but then Marsh tumbled to the deck, falling in a bone-crunching heap. Groaning, the captain sat up.
But before he could take a breath, a sword swung through the air and his head was sliced clean off his body.
It landed with a sickening thud at Katarin’s feet. She swallowed as his body joined it, blood spilling across the deck, spraying her boots. She took a step back, shaking. She could hear nothing but the terrible pounding of her own heart as she slowly lifted her gaze.
The Sword of the White Dragon dripped crimson.
‘Arthur,’ Kat breathed.
Her brother turned and stalked away.
Ordes crouched beside Carbrey’s body. Twenty dead, including the Witchfinders and Marsh’s crew.
The wreckage of the Black Rose floated not far from them.
Marsh’s headless body lay separate from the rest. Kat couldn’t blame Marsh’s crew, or even the Witchfinder’s.
Those men were following orders from their captain, as she’d expect her crew to do. The fault rested entirely with Marsh.
And with Mordred.
Kat placed her hand on Ordes’ shoulder – a small crackle of lightning coiled around her fingers. The eyes that met hers glowed with silver fire and the air around him still pulsed with residual magic.
‘He didn’t deserve this,’ he said roughly. Kat’s heart pinched as he ran his hand over Carbrey’s face, closing the old man’s eyes. ‘None of them did.’
‘We fought when they boarded us, but we were outnumbered,’ Kat said, then shook her head.
‘That blasted sword. You didn’t see the look on Arthur’s face when Marsh took it from him – such anger, pain almost. I’ve never seen my brother look that way before.
’ She ran her eyes over Ordes critically.
‘Is the bow affecting you? Because you reminded me of a certain goddess I thought I knew.’
He gave her a rueful look. ‘That wasn’t the bow. It’s not affecting me. I don’t know why.’
‘Jenyfer?’
‘Yes,’ Ordes replied. ‘The sooner we end this madness, the better.’
A black bird dropped from the sky, landing on the deck near the main mast. It sat for a moment, dazed, then in a flash of blinding light and an explosion of feathers, Merlin appeared. Marsh’s head rested near his boot – no one had touched it. Merlin nudged it with his foot, eyes wide.
‘Is that a head?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ Katarin snapped, anger sizzling through her again.
‘I’m wondering if yours will look better on the deck than Marsh’s does.
What do you think, Merlin?’ She strode over, bending to pick up Marsh’s decapitated head by the hair, turning it around so she could stare into his dead eyes.
The shock of his death was planted there.
‘Mordred hired him to find us,’ she bit out, shifting her gaze to Merlin. ‘You weren’t here – again.’
‘I was—’
‘I don’t give a fuck,’ Katarin snarled. Arthur was approaching, but she didn’t care.
All her fear and her anger from the last week was swirling around inside her, and it had nowhere to go but into her words.
‘Either stay here with us, with Arthur, your prophesied King, the man you are supposed to be guiding, or fuck off and don’t come back. ’
She let Marsh’s head drop to the deck with a wet thud.
‘I’m sorry,’ Merlin told her. ‘You’re right. I shouldn’t have gone. I shouldn’t have bothered trying to make her see sense.’
Ordes pushed past Katarin. At the sight of him, Merlin’s face collapsed.
‘You went to see Niniane? I’m assuming she didn’t listen?’ Ordes asked.
‘What are you doing back here?’ Merlin whispered, standing and reaching out to grip his son by the forearm.
Ordes shook his head, forestalling whatever else his father was about to say.
Merlin sighed and rubbed his cheek. ‘Your mother and I had a fight – she trapped me in a cave, and I’ve only just managed to free myself,’ Merlin explained sadly.
It was only then Katarin realised how truly awful the Prophet of the Gods looked.
His skin was pale, his cheeks hollow, purple smeared beneath his eyes, and his hair was a tangled mess.
It appeared like he clawed his way to freedom and then dragged himself across a patch of thorns – cuts decorated his cheeks and hands.
Kat gestured at Marsh’s head with her boot. ‘Throw this overboard and let’s get out of here then.’
Ordes shook his head. ‘I think we need to return him to Mordred.’
‘He was after you, Ordes,’ Arthur said. He had not sheathed the sword or cleaned it. The blade still shone, wet and glistening, with Marsh’s blood. ‘Mordred wanted you taken to Dinas Emrys.’
‘But why?’ Jenyfer demanded, overhearing them and coming over.
She wiped the blood off her cheek with the hem of her shirt.
Her expression was still cold, calm and deadly.
Magic shifted around her, like it did Ordes.
Something had happened, something big, and it was more than prophecies and their stupid rules.
‘To trap me,’ Merlin said. ‘Melodias wants me dead. Medb wants me dead. I’m fairly certain Niniane does as well, but she… trapping me in a cave was the best she could do.’ He rubbed his face. ‘I guess I’ll pay Mordred a—’
‘No,’ Ordes cut in. ‘I’ll go. After all, I was the target. I’m the reason people are dead.’
‘That’s why you shouldn’t go anywhere near that place,’ Kat objected hotly.
‘I’d like to see Mordred try and keep me there,’ Ordes growled. Lightning flashed overhead. ‘I’ll take that with me, as a gift,’ he added, nodding at the head.
‘I’m coming,’ Jenyfer declared, slipping her dagger away. ‘I want to see my sister. See if I can talk some sense into her.’
‘We’ll come back,’ Ordes promised. Kat nodded and picked up the head as Ordes conjured a box. She placed Marsh’s head inside, shuddering at the touch of cold blood on her fingers.
‘You’d better,’ was all she said.