Modred back, back. The great sword Excalibur came faster instead of slower. The speed of Arthur's blows increased. The crowd went wild as Modred retreated farther and farther before Arthur's savage onslaught. Blood pumped furiously from Arthur's wound. The left side of Arthur's surcoat was stained red. And Arthur grew stronger.
'It's impossible!' screamed Modred.
'This is all impossible!' said Arthur. 'We all are! And you'll never defeat me, Morgan. Even if you kill me, you'll never defeat me.'
They spun in a semicircle and Modred squinted.
'Now what did I tell you about the sun?' said Arthur, and brought Excalibur down with every bit of strength he had left.
Modred's sword went flying from his hand.
The crowd went wild.
Modred made a desperate grab for his sword as Arthur swung Excalibur around. Modred dodged, and the weight of Excalibur pulled Arthur to the ground. He lay there, gasping, clutching at his wound. Under his helmet his features were twisted in pain. The poison running through his system, weighted down by his armor, his wound an agonizing pain in his side, Arthur could not rise.
Modred stood there for a moment, unable to believe his good fortune. 'You . . . you lied to me! You did drink the poison. You are dying!' He laughed Morgan's laugh. 'This is turning into a good day after all.'
He turned to where his sword had fallen.
Groucho was holding it. Chico was standing next to him.
Their expressions were unreadable.
Slowly Groucho advanced on Modred. He held the sword with the same ease that he held knives. Slowly Modred started to back up. 'Give ... give that back to me, you hairy goon.'
Chico darted around to the side. Modred didn't take his eyes off Groucho, and seconds later could retreat no farther because Chico was directly behind him. Before he could move, Chico had pinned his arms behind him.
'What are you doing?' bleated Modred. 'What are you doing? Get off me!' He struggled in Chico's grip but was unable to break free.
Still Groucho said nothing as he walked right up to the terrified Modred. He brought the sword right up to Modred's throat and then, with a quick motion, wrapped one arm around Modred's head while Chico kept Modred's arms pinned back.
And the soul of Morgan Le Fey screamed, 'No! I can't die again! Not againV And with a scream of horror she leaped free of her host body.
And it was Moe Dredd who now screamed 'No! Don't! D- '
Groucho dropped the sword and began rapping his knuckles repeatedly and furiously on Modred's skull. 'Noogies!' he shouted. Chico laughed joyously.
A black cloud leaped skyward, and from across the field Merlin worked a spell of containment. This time he was fast enough off the mark, and a ball of energy formed around the pure hate that made up the remains of Morgan Le Fey. It enveloped her completely, and then in a bright flash was gone.
' 'What was that?' asked Percy.
'I transported her,' replied Merlin. 'She's back at my sanctum. And there she'll stay until I have time to attend to her. Right now I have something more pressing.'
He was leaping out of the box, but Gwen was already out and halfway across the field. The crowd's cheering had been reduced to a confused buzz of conversation, because of the strange black cloud, the flash of light that made it disappear, and because Arthur was lying there, and boy, it sure looked like he was bleeding to death. It had to be part of the act, didn't it? But it seemed kind of tasteless....
Modred blinked furiously. 'Noogies?'
'Don't'cha remember us, man?' said Chico excitedly. 'Remember the old days, the three of us? Chico, Groucho, and you, Harpo. We were a team, man. Don't you remember?'
'The sixties,' said Groucho helpfully. 'Remember the sixties?'
'Vaguely,' said Moe, still trying to shake off the abrupt departure of Morgan. 'I was doing some real weird shit back then . . . wait.' He looked at them and frowned. And then he said,
'Oh, my God. Wait. Chico and Groucho?'
They nodded eagerly. 'You do remember!'
'I thought ... I thought all of that was just some drug-induced hallucination.'
'You disappeared one day, man. We never knew where you went.'
'I'm not sure myself. I woke up in Thirtieth Street Station in Philadelphia. To this day I don't know how I got there. And that's when I decided to pull my act together.'
'Geez.' Chico looked at Groucho. 'You think if the same thing happened to us, we'd have gotten our act together too?'
Groucho shrugged. 'Could be. Philadelphia does weird shit to your head, man.'
They pulled their newly-found third member of their group away even as a crowd started to gather around Arthur's fallen form. Gwen came to Arthur's side and dropped down next to him. She ripped off a piece from his surcoat and held it against the wound, and she looked up at the people standing around. 'For God's sake, call an ambulance.'
They stared at her. 'You mean he's really hurt?'
'Get an ambulance, dammit!'
Three people ran off and one man stepped forward. He was a doctor and at that moment he didn't give a damn about malpractice suits. 'I'm a doctor, miss. Maybe I can help.'
He knelt at Arthur's side as Gwen pulled his helmet off. She gasped at the whiteness of his skin.
'Oh, God, Arthur.'
He lifted a mailed hand to her cheek and stroked it, smiling sickly. 'Gwen. Don't cry, my lovely Gwen. We gave them a real run for their money this time.'
'Them? Who's them?'
'The fates. They have it out for me, you know. They hate happy endings, you know.' He winced. 'Now don't go crying for me, Gwen. It's unseemly.'
Tears streamed down her face. 'I don't want to lose you, Arthur,' she sobbed. 'I don't think I could go through waiting for you again for another fifteen centuries.'
'You're not going to lose me,' said Arthur. 'I'll always be with you.'
'I don't want poetic bullshit! I want you!'
He laughed. 'That's my Gwen. Never could pull anything on her.'
Merlin knelt down next to them. Gwen turned and said, 'Merlin! Do something!'
And he said softly, 'I'm a sorceror, child, not a doctor. A J 90
curse on him I could handle. Poison and blood wounds, that's something else again. It's out of my reach.'
She stroked Arthur's cheek as the doctor worked furiously on the gash in Arthur's side.
'Merlin,' said Arthur, and his voice sounded ghastly. 'Promise you'll look after her.'
Merlin nodded. There were no tears in his eyes, but they were glistening every so slightly.
'It's not fair, you know.'
'Life isn't fair, Merlin. You taught me that.'
'I know,' sighed Merlin. 'Just once I'd like to be wrong.'
Moments later the ambulance pulled up, driving straight across the green. The crowd melted from its path as the paramedics came rushing out. Plasma had already been prepared.
And the paramedics ran into a problem, as it took three of them to lift the armored king onto the stretcher.
'My God,' murmured one. 'How the hell are we going to get this stuff off him?'
Merlin handed one of the paramedics a pair of wire cutters. 'This'll do it. They're special.
Take the armor right off.'
'Are you serious?'
'Trust me.'
