Simon Green - A Hard Day's Knight

I did try my very best to kill him, there in that hall, but he was an amazing swordsman and a canny warrior. Excalibur made me a great fighter, but he already was one. I had power, but he had experience. I could drive him back, but I couldn’t reach him. And even as I was fighting, striking at him with all my strength and Excalibur’s speed, I still couldn’t help noticing something else. Something that quickly seemed more important than striking down one sad, embittered soul. So I stepped suddenly forward, slammed his sword aside, and shoved two extended fingers into his eyes. He cried out and fell backwards, lashing blindly back and forth with his sword, as tears streamed down his cheeks from screwed-shut eyes. He really should have worn a helmet.

I left him staggering blindly, and went to see what was happening in the middle of the hall. Some elves tried to stop me, and Excalibur cut them down with almost contemptuous ease. Ahead of me, surrounded by protective rings of heavily armed elves, kept separate from the main battle, three elf sorcerers were killing one of their own. He stood tall and proud as they cut him to pieces, not raising one pale hand to defend himself. Golden blood flooded down his naked, mutilated body, until he couldn’t stand any more, and collapsed. The sorcerers crowded in round him as he hit the floor, tearing him limb from limb, carving him up like a side of beef. And then they took the pieces, and began to build something with them.

By the time I hit the first protective wall, I’d worked it out. The sorcerer elves were making a hellgate out of a willing victim. A willing suicide could produce a hellgate so powerful it would be almost impossible to close. Powered by necromancy and a suicide’s will, the hellgate would suck every living thing in Castle Inconnu down into the agonies of the Pit.

I hit the elves before me with Excalibur, and they didn’t stand a chance. Their swords shattered against my golden blade, and their spelled armour couldn’t protect them. I was moving impossibly fast now, the strength in my arms Excalibur’s strength, and nothing could stand against me. I cut the elves down and threw myself against the next protective wall. Meat cleaved and blood flew, and bodies fell to every side; and still the elves fought to stand between me and the hellgate. They knew they were going to die, and they didn’t care. They only had to hold me off long enough, and the hellgate would destroy the London Knights forever. Powerful energies were already forming, pulsing in the air. Something really bad was struggling to manifest, something cold and terrible and malignant.

I slammed right through the elves and threw myself at the sorcerers. I cut them down with swift, vicious blows, and they died, still trying to finish their work. The thing they’d built from the dead parts of their willing victim was already glowing and steaming. I kicked the assemblage apart, stamping on bones and grinding flesh underfoot, and the last of the life went out of it.

I looked up to find I was alone, cut off from the knights, with elves on every side. They advanced on me with glowing swords and axes, smiling awful smiles. They were wary of Excalibur, edging forward a step at a time, darting back if I brought the sword to bear on them, while others darted in. I kept circling, lashing out with my sword, looking for a way out; but everywhere I looked, cold elven eyes looked back. They had me. I could hear knights calling out to me; they’d seen what was happening, and they were coming. But they knew, and I knew; they wouldn’t get to me in time. Excalibur made me strong, but it didn’t make me invincible. It could protect me from an exploding soulbomb, but not a stab in the back from an enchanted sword.

I’d always known this warrior crap would get me killed.

I took a firm grip on Excalibur and smiled at the elf faces before me. There was something in that smile that gave them pause, but only for a moment.

They all pressed forward at once, dozens of swords thrusting towards me; and I raised my gift and found Excalibur. Not the sword; but what it really was. It wasn’t like talking with another person or even some kind of being; but there was communication. Excalibur was an extension of Gaea, her will made manifest in the world of men. And for a moment, she bestowed her grace upon me. Instead of the sword urging me on, I took control, and Excalibur blazed up, filling the whole hall with its glorious golden light. The sword had always blazed supernaturally brightly, but this was more, this was the essence of light itself, the light that first blazed across the universe when a great Voice said, Let there be light .

The elves screamed, in pain and horror and thwarted rage, and fell back, unable to face the terrible energies radiating from Excalibur. They turned and ran, shoving and scrambling and fighting each other, in their desperate need to escape a light they simply could not bear. The London Knights, dazed and awed by the light, let them go. In a few moments the hall was half-empty, knight after knight lowering his sword and looking round and wondering what the hell had happened. Excalibur’s light snapped off, and I shut down my gift and studied the blade thoughtfully. The Puck had been right. It’s not what you think it is. And it never was.

Sir Gareth came over to stand beside me and clap me on the shoulder. “Well done, John Taylor! Always knew you had it in you. You’re full of surprises, aren’t you?”

“You have no idea,” I said. “Really.”

There were dead and injured knights lying the whole length of the hall. Other knights were helping where they could. I saw Sir Roland kneel beside one still form in shattered armour, and Sir Gareth and I went over to join him. Sir Roland had taken off his helmet, and his bare face looked shocked, as though he’d been hit. He’d removed the helmet from the dead knight before him; and in death Sir Percifal looked even older. Certainly far too old to be fighting on a battle-field.

“He shouldn’t have been here,” said Sir Roland. He sounded confused, as though unable to understand how such a thing could have happened. “He should have gone to the Redoubt, to be with the women and the children. But he was a warrior and a fighter all his life, and he didn’t know any other way. Even though he must have known it would bring him here, to this. Sleep well, old friend.”

I remembered a wise old voice, saying Yes and No at regular intervals. A man who shouldn’t have been able to stand upright in full armour, let alone fight in it; but there was golden blood on his sword that showed he had. He shouldn’t have come here, but he had. Because he knew his duty.

All across the hall, knights were putting away their swords, tending their wounds and each other’s, and clapping each other across the back and shoulder, laughing and shouting as they swapped tall tales of victory. Because it did feel so good to be alive after a battle even if old friends were dead. Given how outnumbered the knights had been, they were lucky to be alive, and they knew it. Not many people get to face an army of elves and live to talk about it. Hell, there are those who say the only way to win against an army of elves is to not be there when they turn up.

Many of the knights grinned at me and waved and shouted. I was their hero now. I nodded back. They’d done well. Elves are killing machines, delighting in slaughter and suffering, and the knights had been holding their own even before I turned up. I’d never doubted their reputation. I’d only wondered what drove them.

Sir Roland finally stood up and nodded to Sir Gareth, all business again.

“Did all our families get to the Redoubt in time?” said Sir Gareth.

“Yes. They all made it. I always said those regular panic drills were a good idea. I still can’t believe it, though: elves, inside Castle Inconnu. Unprecedented. Stark must have got them in, though I’m damned if I can see how. There’ll have to be an inquiry. As long as he’s out there, the castle is wide open to attack. We have to do what we should have done long before. We have to go out in force and hunt him down and put him out of everyone’s misery.”