The Book of Mordred Read Online Free Page A

he asked.
    "I'm not sure." But she'd been thinking about it while she walked. She added, "My husband—he died last year—he was a wizard." When the young knight didn't comment, she continued, hesitantly, "And ... Kiera may well have ... inherited ... some of his powers..."
    He raised his eyebrows at this.
    "She can..."—she bit her lip, finding this hard to put into words, for she had tried so long to ignore it away—"talk to animals ... and make herself understood, and understand them. And, once in a while, she might mention something that hasn't happened yet and then it ... well ... happens." Alayna swallowed hard. "Sometimes." She swallowed again. "Will you help me?"
    He sighed, which in a moment of panic she took as reluctance. But then he said, "Of course I will," and he looked down the long road that stretched empty before them. "As soon as we find that damn horse."
    They began walking.
    And walking.
    And walking,
    Alayna had begun to limp and was leaning heavily against Mordred, when he pointed off to the left. "The road curves around the old Roman quarry, but there's the castle. You can see the north tower through the trees."
    Despite its proximity, she had only been there once: for Galen's investiture as a knight. "Camelot," she whispered in awe..
    "Mmmm," Mordred said. She couldn't decipher his tone, but it definitely wasn't awe. "Camelot."
    They didn't try to cut across the quarry, which would have been treacherous going in any case, and kept instead to the main road in the hope that someone would be sent when Mordred's horse showed up at the castle riderless.
    And, in fact, it wasn't too long after that when they heard the sound of horses. One of the house guards came around the corner, the gray charger in tow. "Sir Mordred," the man said with a grin. "You seem to have lost a horse and gained a..." He raised his eyebrows. "Could it perhaps be ... a Lady?"
    "Yes," Mordred said, quietly and evenly.
    The man smirked, obviously doubting this, obviously giving his own interpretation of why Mordred was in her company.
    No need to take time pondering what
that
was. Alayna felt herself blush, though this man's opinion of her was of no consequence. Still, that anyone could think that of her ... She hovered between shame and anger, even as she felt herself diminished as a mother for letting these concerns distract her at this moment.
    Mordred looked from the man, to her, back to the man. He smiled, showing a lot of even white teeth but absolutely no warmth. He said, "And, of course, since you didn't bring a mount for her, you will have to give her yours."
    "M'Lord?" The grin wavered as the guard tried to determine how serious Mordred was.
    "Off."
    The man gave Alayna a disgruntled look, but slipped off the horse.
    Mordred helped her up, a politeness probably for the guard's benefit since she was already halfway there, and if the guard had doubted before that she was a lady, her straddling the horse couldn't have helped.
    Mordred swung onto his own horse. "I will send someone back for you," he leaned down to tell the guard. Then he gave his cold smile again. "If I remember."
    Alayna flicked her horse's reins and took off at a headlong gallop. It was a small gelding, no match for Mordred's mount which would catch up in a moment, but it felt like riding the wind after her own small mare and Croswell's plow horse.
    And at last, now, she felt as if she were doing something.
I'm coming,
she thought to Kiera.

CHAPTER 4

    Camelot was aswirl with color. Alayna remembered that had been her first impression four years ago also, when she—and Toland, and Kiera, who hadn't been quite one-year-old at the time—had come to see Galen named a knight. In the intervening years, she had remembered the impression of color, but had forgotten the colors themselves.
    There were banners, and awnings, and shirts and dresses: all in different shades and textures, not looking as though they were all dyed together—the way