Out of Time

Chapter 34

Dani woke and groaned. She rubbed at her cheek, where heat and pain covered half her face. Then her brain kicked into gear and she jerked into a sitting position, waiting for the next blow to happen.

Guin sat in a chair across the room, with some sort of needlecraft in her hands. She didn't immediately respond when Dani woke, which Dani was a little grateful for. Her gut churned, worrying about what had happened after she blacked out. She hated the idea that Mordred had got what he wanted, and she wouldn't have put it past him to have sex with an unconscious person.

"Guin?" Her voice came out hoarse, scratching against the abused tissues.

Guin jumped up, dropping her stuff, and racing to Dani's side without a care. "Oh my God, you're okay!" She jumped at Dani, gripping her in a hug that sent pain flying through her torso.

She gasped.

"Oh!" Guin's hands flew to her mouth. "I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"

Dani nodded. "What happened?" She wanted to say more, but her throat wouldn't cooperate. Even those few words abused her vocal cords to their limits.

"Merlin broke down the door."

Merlin? As in scrawny, looks all of fifteen Merlin?

"Then Merlin and Lancelot raced to your rescue." Guin sighed, her clasped hands dropping over her heart.

Yup, head over heels. She smiled, but it ended up lopsided as one side of her face didn't want to cooperate.

Guin frowned. "Mordred was strangling you, but Lancelot saved you, making him let go."

She would have to thank him. When she could speak, that is...

"Mordred managed to get away, though. Not even Merlin could catch him." Guin frowned again.

"What?" He got away? Her hands started to shake, so she clasped them together in her lap. He's gone. I'm safe. He'll never step foot in Camelot again.

#

As soon as Dani left her chambers, she was fussed over by Arleigh, Merlin, and even Morgan, who seemed more interested in directing people than fussing, and how no end to her questions on what happened. Which reminded Dani that Morgan was family to Mordred.

If Morgan hadn't seemed quite so outraged and angry at what happened, Dani would have been a lot more suspicious of her. After all, Morgan and Mordred were a lot closer together than Arthur was with any of his family. If Mordred was capable of such action, what was to say that Morgan wasn't capable of equal evil?

But though she didn't lift a single finger to help Dani, merely yelling at servants to take care of "their mistress," she had seemed genuinely distressed, which she wouldn't have expected of the woman she'd known. Maybe she'd misjudged her. But one look at Merlin, and that doubt fled. He stared at Morgan with a wary and confused look on his face. She could rely on Merlin's judgment.

But thinking of Merlin only brought her round to another completely baffling subject. Why did people keep strangling her?! First Merlin and now Mordred. Was it really that common a manner of attacking someone?

She rubbed at her throat, which had swollen to the point where she could neither speak nor eat, and breathing proved challenging. Merlin had offered to help her heal, but on some level, she still didn't trust him, even if she did trust his judgment, and even if she'd been told he was instrumental in rescuing her from Mordred.