The Everblooming Flower [Book One of The Dreamers Series]

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"Nimue sent us," I explained. "She wishes to release you from this place."

Lancelot frowned. "She's been here this whole time?" He looked away, pain in his eyes. "I'd heard rumours of what he did to her, but to send her here?"

"Who is this he?" Flare chimed in.

"Alas, he has cursed me to never speak his name," Lancelot looked sorrowfully at us. "He was jealous, wanted Guinevere for himself, and so he wanted her banished."

"Didn't you and Guinevere...," Flare enquired, "you know, get it on?"

Lancelot looked at her confused. "I do not know what that means," he said. "Guinevere and I rarely spoke at all, it's true she was lovely, but I did not want her the same way Arthur did."

"Well then," I started, "what did happen?"

"He happened," Lancelot said grimly. "His desires were too much for him, and he was not as wise as his older brother, Merlin. Merlin tried to convince him to abandon his plans, but it was far too late. There were many pieces to his sick games, I was only one, and not all that important.

"He convinced Sir Gwaine that if I were gone, he could become Arthur's second in command. Guinevere and I were banished as a result, and Arthur was left mistrusting. It became his downfall when Mordred betrayed us."

I gulped. It didn't sound horrible, but if this was only the tip of the ice burg, how much else did this man do that nearly destroyed the world? If he could singlehandedly scheme his way into weakening Camelot's forces, there was something else he wanted. Something more than just Guinevere's hand in marriage.

"What about you?" Flare asked. "Why does Nimue care so much about you?"

"She was the closest thing to a mother I ever had," Lancelot frowned. "My parents abandoned me at Lake Avalon, where Nimue often wondered. She found me, cared for me, taught me about her world, and what she was. I could not tell the other humans, for fear of what they might do to her.

"I was gifted with the ability to see these legends. I could see the creatures of myth for what they truly were. I saw creatures the knights didn't know existed. Nimue did not explain why I could see it all, but I am thankful for it. And thou, thee are like her?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"Very well," Lancelot held out his sword for me to take, and I looked at it in question.

"You want to die?" I asked.

"I already have," Lancelot explained.

Flare took the sword when I wouldn't, and Lancelot smiled remorsefully at her.

"I know ye have questions," Lancelot started, "but I do not have the answers. Thou must kill me."

Flare held the sword up tearfully, and it shook in her hands.

"You haven't done anything wrong though," I said. "We can't justify killing someone when they haven't done anything."

"Thee can," Lancelot nodded. "I died, and he wished to punish me, so he sent me here. Now that he is free, I do not wish to be part of his sick games."

Flare and I stood there for a few seconds, debating whether or not we should kill him. I could tell myself the others deserved it, after they hurt me first, but Lancelot was much like Bedivere. Someone who'd done nothing wrong. I couldn't bring myself to hurt him, but Flare seemed to think it was for the best. It probably was, but I couldn't watch. I turned away when she did it and looked back to find a pile of self-luminous red particles.

But the night was far from over, and he was not happy.

The castle shook with rage, and the red light appeared before us in a human shape. It was him, but he was not present.