3MA

3MA | Chapter 33

33
RECONNECT

The Lady of the Lakes burns like a cerulean phantom on the edge of the Kilgharrah River, her hands splayed out, palms up, eyes soft and hopeful. It's as though tonight, she isn't just offering relief for the wounded, but something special just for me.

My interpretation better be right, because with time quickly ticking down, I think Fisher might be our only hope for survival. I find a glowing clock face on an adjacent apartment building. 8pm.

Four hours until Fantasia.

Not many more until sunrise, when Amaris and I are scheduled to be laid to rest in the copper cauldron beside Eleanora, Filben and all the rest.

The hospital's automatic doors hiss open. The main lobby is a muted vault of whispered prayers, a stark contrast to the chaos of the tunnel collapse.

The stern-eyed nurse with the spectacles balanced on her nose sits behind the main desk and greets me with a bemused grunt. "Magic man. Back for seconds?" she says perusing a clipboard.

"Something like that. How's my friend?"

"He'll live. Still unconscious though."

I nod and head toward Fisher's room in the C-wing corridor.

"I hear you dropped out of Fantasia. All over the news," she calls after me, pointing at the mini-TV on her desk on which a gaggle of teenage girls in purple half-shirts are crying. "Your groupies are positively devastated."

"I'm from Trudge. Don't count me out yet," I say, walking passed her with something resembling a grin.

The sliver of window embedded in the door of room 192 glows with a dim orange light. A shadow flickers across the glass. I open the door and find Amaris bent over Fisher's bed, dabbing his sweat-speckled forehead with a wash rag.

"Did you forget your wallet or something?" Amaris jokes with a broken smile.

"No. I forgot to never give up," I reply. "I forgot how important my friends are. I forgot that I'm not the only one fighting here."

Amaris tentatively lifts her chin. "Terrible things to forget."

I shrug and step across the room. "Excellent things to remember?"

"What changed your mind?"

I shove my hand into my sweatshirt pocket and hold out Guinevere's crescent necklace. "I know about my family now. I think I've always known."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you a long time ago. I wanted to. But I couldn't. Like so many other things."

I nod and walk to the other side of Fisher, taking his limp hand in mine. "I understand that now. I didn't need to be told. I needed time to accept it on my own."

Amaris puts her hand over mine, so that all three of us are linked. "What now?"

"I have a theory," I say, glancing at the lines of Fisher's furrowed brow. "Why would Carven go through all that trouble. Destroying everyone but the one person who poses him a threat?"

"Because he can't kill you," Amaris says, her eyes shifting around the room for the answer. "For some reason."

"It didn't make sense until after I talked to your mom. Fisher's been working like crazy lately. Digging for LeMorte. Supposedly expanding the subway tunnels. But when was the last time you ever heard of a new station being built?"

"Never," Amaris breathes.

"It's because LeMorte's not expanding anything. He's looking for something. For the one thing he knows is powerful enough to take him down. And the one thing strong enough to kill Merlin's Heir."

"Excalibur," Amaris says.

I nod. "And if LeMorte really did blow the tunnel, it means he's finished looking. I think Fisher found the sword. But he was too late to tell anyone."

"And now he's down for the count," Amaris groans.

"Maybe," I say to myself.

"What do you have in mind?" Amaris asks, studying my face with concern.

"Hold onto my hand and close your eyes," I say.

"The last time you said that I nearly lost my breakfast," Amaris says, tightening her grip around my and Fisher's hand.

I fix my gaze on Fisher's closed eyelids and close my eyes. "Here we go."

Connect.

I feel the same bone-chilling sensation I did when I plummeted from the King's Spire, only in reverse, like I'm falling upwards.

I open my eyes. Amaris and I are standing in a field of knee-high red roses, holding hands in a tight circle. Fisher, or something like Fisher's image, flickers before us; a crackling projection that looks like a negative on a roll of unprocessed film; blindingly black skin set against supernova-white hair and eyes.

"Explain," Amaris's voice quivers. "Quickly."

"I have no idea, Amaris. This was just a long shot. But I think we're in some kind of a middle ground, where all of our minds can connect."

Fisher opens his mouth, a gaping white hole in the air. "What---hell---happen---me," his voice crackles, coming in and out of focus, as if transmitted by a radio with a weak antena.

"There was an accident in the tunnels," I say. "You're in the hospital now, resting."

"Feel---shit," Fisher moans.

"You look even worse," I say. "But you'll make it. You always do. Now listen to me, because I don't know how long we have here. I need you to think. Right before the tunnel collapsed. What happened? Did you see anything? Did you find anything?"

Fisher shakes his head. "All--blurrrrr."

Fisher's image begins to flicker. I can see the field in back of him as he begins to fade away.

"Wait!" Amaris shouts. "We need to know! Where were you Fisher? What did you see down there!"

"Bbbblack," Fisher whispers. His image blips and then disappears. I can feel his presence being ripped out of my hand.

"He's gone," I say. "I can't feel him any--

Fisher's body comes thundering back into the field, clearer and crisper than ever, the discomfiting negative image, now full color.

I look to my side and see Mag and Inka linking hands with us, making the circle bigger, more powerful.

"Looking good, Fish," Mag says.

"You were supposed to stay at home," I groan.

"And you were supposed to be sulking in the corner waiting to die somewhere," Mag replies.

"I can hear you guys better now," Fisher says, his familiar husky voice closer to the real thing.

"Fish, I need you to concentrate," I say. "You were digging in the tunnels. There was a collapse."

Fisher squints, his eyes blank and unfocused. And then his gaze rolls over the tattoo on my right arm. His eyes shoot open in recognition.

"Wait. Yeah. I--I was digging. I found a room down there. It was too dark to see anything clearly. But it felt like I was surrounded by...people. And I felt something. Like a heartbeat that ran through my entire body. And then everything went black."

"Where was it, Fisher?" Amaris presses. "We have to find it. And fast."

Fisher's gaze goes soft as he flips through the broken pieces of his memory. "I don't know," he says. "I'm sorry. It's just all a blur."

"It's ok, I know where it is" I say, causing every head in the circle to dart in my direction.

Amaris squeezes my hand. "How could you possibly--wait. The heartbeat?"

I nod. "It's the Hearthstone he felt," I say. "Fisher dug right into Camelot castle."