Oh my gods, she’d left Gwen behind in the Middle Ages.
Error’s proximity alarm dinged. Kay put her in a tight headlock, squeezing and letting go so fast Ari barely felt him before he was gone again. Back in the cockpit, Ari picked up the suit. It was heavy from the extra padding Mom had ordered, for when Kay took more than his share of blows at knight camp.
“Hurry up and get dressed!” Kay called. “We’ll be in the docking garage in five.”
Heritage grew into focus in the front viewscreen, dwarfing her brother’s messy profile—and Ari knew why the Lady of the Lake had dropped her here. This was where it all started.
And she could stop it.
Ari ran to the airlock. She threw the stupid knight costume in and hit the button to seal the inner door. Her hand paused over the second button, the one that would open the outer door and eject the costume into space and make everything un-happen. No hacking into Mercer’s files, crashing on Earth, finding Excalibur. No empty Ketch, or Kay’s death, or Gwen torn from her arms in that merciless portal…
Maybe this was supposed to un-happen. It’d be a new start. She’d go to Lionel, not chased by Mercer, but returning to pick up with Gwen where they’d left off with that first kiss. They could all live there, be happy.
But then, she remembered Gwen’s brand-new smile. The one she wore when she touched her belly, the baby moving beneath her fingers. If Ari changed the story, there would be no series of catastrophes to lead to that small, miraculous person. Ari wished she had some way to prove that this baby wasn’t destined to become some legendary patricidal maniac. She didn’t have proof, but then, she didn’t need it. This baby was theirs.
Ari’s hand moved to the first button, re-opening the inner door. She lifted the rubber knight suit and put one leg in. There was a reason for this pain just as there was a reason for King Arthur’s tragic story. Through the darkness, the new life.
“I’ll do everything exactly the same,” she told herself—and the Lady of the Lake if she were listening. “Every single thing.”
Ari coughed and black, half-frozen water shot out of her lungs. It hit the floor of Error, which flooded in an instant, twisting her around until she was back beneath the crushing pressure of the lake, screaming a good-bye to Kay that he would never hear.
Ari lay on her back in a few inches of cold water. Beside her, a black lake sat silently within a great, glimmering cave. A few small, silver torches burned. She breathed hard, rubbing her face with numb hands, trying not to feel like Kay had died all over again. Her tears came fast and desperate… until the sound of giggling broke through her grief.
Ari opened her eyes and found a favorite memory playing out in the surface of the dark lake: back on Error, she was sitting in the captain’s chair with her knees spread wide. Gwen, who wore nothing but her unders and that goldenrod tank top, was sitting between Ari’s legs, staring avidly at the control board. This was the day before they landed on Troy. Before they met the Administrator and so much changed so swiftly.
“How do I make us go faster?” Gwen asked.
Ari took this as a cue to slide her arms around Gwen. “That orange button guy.”
“There are three buttons in the orange family.”
“So try all three.”
“Ari, what if I crash us?”
“That’s the fun thing about space. Not much to crash into.”
In the dark cave, Ari could almost feel Gwen’s weight through the image. New aches replaced her grief, the idea of holding Gwen like that, of being relaxed together in a tangle. The Ari in the memory guided Gwen’s hand to the throttle. She helped Gwen press it forward and held on to her as the ship’s speed rankled and jerked, making them burst with laughter. Ari throttled back after a few seconds, shutting off a few no biggie alarms, while Gwen started kissing her, and kissing her…
“On the control board, Ari?” Kay roared, appearing in the cockpit.
Ari—the real Ari who was freezing in the Lady of the Lake’s cave—laughed too hard. She covered her cold lips with her hand, watching her brother chase the two girls back to the room they’d stolen from him. All the while shouting, “Next time I have a date on board, we’re going straight to your bunk, Turtle! What do you think of that?! Karma is coming for you!”
Ari’s laughter faded as the image fuzzed. She stood up, taking in the strange scenery. The wet rock walls, the black lake, and at its center, a small, rectangular island. She squinted; it was a funeral pyre, complete with a body laid out upon it. “Val?” she called out, voice echoing.
“Ari!” Val’s voice called back from far away.
“Val! Where are you?” Ari swung around, looking for a door. Instead she found a gloriously perfect person, watching her.
The Lady of the Lake.
“Would you mind not screaming? Human voices are tedious at best.” She circled Ari, showing off long limbs beneath a tightly tailored green velvet suit. Her skin was the sort of nearly-translucent white that seemed to be on the verge of glowing, and her hair was a screaming shade of red, combed against her scalp. Ari’s eyes peeled a little too wide. She hadn’t expected this; Merlin hadn’t said anything
