Sword of Light by KATHERINE ROBERTS Page B

strings,” he explained. “I couldn’t stop playing, or we wouldn’t have got out of the Saxon camp. It never used to happen in Avalon.”
    “You should have said something.” She felt angry again. Why hadn’t Merlin warned them magic had a price in the world of men? Then she remembered Lord Avallach giving final instructions to her friend before they left Avalon, when she had been so impatient to get going.Elphin must have known the consequences of using magic all along, but he had still played his harp so they could escape.
    He gave her a weary smile. “And let those Saxons find out who you were and use you as a hostage? My father would never forgive me.” He added in a low tone, “Besides, I can’t just keep playing my harp out here. If anything is following us, the music will give us away for sure. It’s not only dragons we need to worry about. There was darker magic than mine at work in that hut… Don’t say anything to him, but Cai might be right about Mordred’s spies.”
    Rhianna thought of the shadowy figure she’d seen in the hut and shivered. She pulled her cloak tighter. As they rode, her wrist that the gauntlet had touched grew colder. She slipped it under her Avalonian armour, whichseemed to help a bit. She didn’t make a fuss. If Elphin realised, he’d only insist on playing his harp to heal her, and his fingers were in a worse state than her wrist was. She hoped Excalibur might work some magic on it once they got to the lake.
    She eyed Cai, who had been unusually quiet since they left the camp. “You do know where you’re going, don’t you?” she asked. The last thing they needed was to get lost out here in the dark and ride into another band of Mordred’s bloodbeards.
    The squire chewed his lip. “Sort of. I know the way to the battlefield, anyhow. The lake should be close to there.”
    “Then what’s wrong?”
    “It was my fault we got captured,” he said in a small voice. “I should have stayed hiddenin the bushes like Sir Agravaine told me to, only I was so scared I couldn’t think right.” He sniffed. “I’m glad you came back for me, Damsel Rhianna. I’ll never be a brave knight like my father was.”
    Rhianna sighed. “No, it was my fault – I should have waited for the knights before coming back to help you. I never thought those bloodbeards would actually shoot me.” Another shiver went through her. If it hadn’t been for her magic armour, Elphin would even now be on his way back to Avalon with her body, and Mordred would have all the time in the world to find Excalibur. “Besides, you’re doing just fine,” she added, shaking the thought away. “You’re riding now, aren’t you?”
    Cai looked down at his horse in surprise. Coming over the hills, he had clung to the ropessecuring the unconscious knight and let the bay horse follow the two mist horses. But once they had left the hills behind and descended out of the fog into a wooded valley, he had taken up the reins and was now trotting out in front.
    “I am!” He grinned in delight. “Just wait till the other squires see me! Shall we go a bit faster?”
    He gave the bay a kick in the ribs, and the big horse leaped forward as it had obviously been trained to do in a joust. Cai lost his balance and tumbled off over its tail.
    That stallion is stupid,
Alba observed, as the bay horse trotted off with Sir Bors.
I would not leap like that with an inexperienced rider
.
    “No, you misted with me instead,” Rhianna reminded the mare. But she had to smile as the squire jumped up and ran after the horse.It reminded her of how she’d learned to ride Alba, falling off until she got fed up with the bruises and finally managed to stay on.
    “I think you’d better learn to gallop another day, Cai.” Elphin winked at Rhianna as he dismounted to boost the boy back into the saddle again. “For now, just concentrate on not getting us lost.”
    “You concentrate on keeping that dragon off me, fairy boy!” Cai scowled