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Blood bubbled up inside the cup like dark, rich wine. Flowing over the top. Fountaining to cover the table. An endless supply of blood.
“Sir Warwick,” I said out loud, my words slow and distant to my own ears. I lifted my hand, and he immediately came to kneel beside Gwen.
“I’m here, Your Majesty.”
“You said you were the grail earlier. Before we healed you. What did you mean?”
“I’m a bleeder. At the time, I thought I would never stop bleeding.” He paused, his breathing quickening in the silence. Not with excitement. With dread. “Many fed on me. Because I was an endless source of blood.”
“Were you always this way? Or did something change you?”
“I… I don’t remember. My mind… tears. Like delicate spider webs. Anytime I try to remember.”
Gwen lifted her head from my palm, her pupils wide and dark. A white nimbus flared around her, turning into gossamer pearly wings before the glow sank back into her. She blinked several times, as if slowly waking from a dream.
“I saw the Grail on the Round Table.” Her voice quivered, her eyes squeezing shut again as she tried to remember and hold the vision. “Swords.”
“How many, my queen?” Lancelot asked.
“Many. At least ten.”
“I saw it too.” Though I shook my head. “More than ten, though. Twelve? No. Thirteen.”
Carys nodded. “One hundred percent.”
I thought feeding on Warwick might give me more insight into what had happened to him, but the last thing I wanted to do was trigger him. “Sekh, can you see anything else in Warwick’s past that might help Gwen in her quest?”
“Unfortunately, no,” Sekh replied. “I see him entering the stone walls of Houska Castle as he described but nothing else. His face was never revealed again until Itztli opened the casket in the attic.”
“If they had Ar-éadbair, it’s possible they may have other fae gifts and weapons,” Lancelot said. “The Cauldron of the Dagda. Or the cauldron Arthur supposedly stole from Annwn when he took Gwyn’s ring.”
Merlin cursed beneath his breath, his teeth clashing like shards of glass. “Any of those hallows in the wrong hands could be devastating, not just to Aima but the world. Look at what Arthur did with a single ring. Let alone one of the other treasures.”
“Goddess.” Pale, Gwen shook her head. “We need to return them to the other side of the Veil.”
Stoic and grim-faced as if he faced my Executioner without a weapon, Warwick stared back at me levelly. “Please use me however you see fit, Your Majesty. If there are fae secrets hidden in my mind, I wish for you to unlock them.”
“We have time.” I gently squeezed his hand and then released him. “Allow your mind and body to revel in being healed, Sir Warwick. At least for today.”
Mayte rose to take Gwen’s place, but I smiled and stood myself, slipping my arm around Leonie’s waist and then hers as she came near. “I’m saving you two for dessert.”
35
SHARA
“We’re ready for dinner, Harvey.”
He immediately bowed and fell into step with us as we headed to the door. “Shall we enter the dining room by precedence, Your Majesty?”
“What does that entail?”
“Lesser houses would enter first and remain standing at their designated seat until you enter the room. This would be in the reverse order from this morning, though of course I have shuffled Queen Sorcha and Queen Mairead to the top of the former Valois siblings.”
Thinking about ranking my siblings made me uncomfortable, especially my closest siblings. Carys didn’t have any Blood of her own and I had no idea what her properties might entail. Yet she was still a vital part of my court. More, she was my family.
“We can seat them however you wish,” Gina added. “House Isador doesn’t have to follow any rules. This is your court, my queen. Not your mothers’, and certainly not Rosalind’s or the Dauphine’s.”
“Absolutely,” Harvey replied. “We can easily change the seating. Forgive me, Your Majesty, I should have discussed your seating preferences earlier.”
