“Why do I feel so sore that the old cretin didn’t notice I’d gotten drastically younger overnight?” Merlin glanced up from his shoveling, and Ari looked away. “You’re angry with me?”
“Not angry, Merlin,” she managed. “Just… pissed off.”
“Oh, that’s much better, thank you.”
Ari hid a small smile, hacking at the layers of squishy mess, trying to make sense of all that had gone wrong. She paused after a minute and looked up at where Val was perched on the edge, several feet above their heads, keeping watch.
“No sign of them,” Val said, answering her wordless question. “You sure Gwen got the message to Lam about the meeting?”
“I’m sure.” Ari went back to shoveling. “I’m also sure Lam had quite the night.”
Merlin cleared his throat. “Should we talk about—”
“Not without the others,” Ari barked. “We’ve had enough half-truths wafting about.”
“They’re coming on horseback!” Val announced, leaping to his feet, pacing until his sibling reached him. Ari scrambled out of the bog trench just as Lam leaped off the horse to embrace their brother. And they weren’t alone. While Val and Lam had their reunion, Ari stared at Morgause.
“What are you doing here?” Ari asked.
Lam broke out of a hug with Val to give Morgause a hand down from the horse. Ari had only gotten a glimpse of the enchantress on her trip to Avalon before she face-planted in the lake. Now it felt so much like looking at Morgana that she couldn’t help blinking a few times. They were both slender and slightly curved. They had the same intensity, like a fire that couldn’t be doused. It helped that their coloring was different, Morgause’s long dark hair much warmer than the black hole shade that Morgana had so eloquently rocked. “Morgause is with me. We can trust her. I think it’s about time we get help from someone inside this time period.”
Merlin crowed an objection from the bottom of the peat trench, and everyone looked over the edge at him. “She can’t be here!”
“Are you… okay?” Lam asked, squinting at the significantly diminished mage.
“I look worse than I am!” Merlin insisted, while Val gave a sure shake of his head.
“We did something wrong,” Ari said, chewing on her thumbnail. “Gwen will be here soon. We should wait until we’re together.” She climbed back down into the trench and Lam and Val followed. Morgause took over Val’s lookout position, silent but taking in everything.
“So, what happened to Merlin?” Lam asked.
“He’s been holding out on you,” Val said flatly.
“We can’t just talk about this with Yoko up there listening in!” Merlin said.
“Who?” Lam asked, and Merlin waved his hand dismissively. “I’m telling you we can trust her. She knows we’re not from this time. All the enchantresses do. They can feel the portals every time they open and close.”
Merlin was going to keep objecting, Ari could tell, but Val put a hand on his arm that settled him down. “Lam is right.” Merlin opened his mouth and Val gave him a warning look. “Merlin was just about to tell you that every time he uses his magic, he gets younger. He realized it when he arrived but didn’t tell anyone.”
“Merlin.” Ari couldn’t keep the parental scolding out of her voice. “How could you keep that from us?”
“Because you needed help! And you wouldn’t have let me if you knew!”
“Of course we wouldn’t have let you. You’re our family. We’re not letting you sacrifice yourself!” Ari yelled. Merlin’s bright brown eyes filled with tears. Ari turned away, not wanting to make him upset, wrestling with her own disappointment. She held out Gwen’s watch. “I have something to show you. A news bulletin that came through while that portal was open last night.” She showed them the footage, still unable to process the sight of Mercer clearly in control again. “Gwen and I think we accidentally sent Jordan back later than we meant to.”
“That’s… not entirely true,” Val said, wincing. “Nin kept me in her cave because she’s Grade-A obsessed with Merlin, but I picked up some info down there. The way this all works is that human bodies, regular ones,” he qualified, shooting a glance at Merlin, “have to age in the past the same as they do in the future.”
“Which means…?” Lam asked.
“Every day we’re in Camelot is a day that passes in the future. We’ve been gone for months, so months have gone by in our galaxy. We can’t return to the night we left as originally advertised. And Mercer has—clearly—taken advantage of our absence.”
Ari’s vision popped with bright, black spots. She dropped her shovel and held her hands over her pounding headache. They’d only left the future because they needed more time. Time for the baby. To find the chalice. To decide what to do about Mercer. And while they were missing, Mercer had the perfect opportunity to spin the future back into their control. Who knows what firestorm they’d be walking into when they finally made it back.
If they finally made it back.
“Nin is obsessed with me?” Merlin asked through the silence. “That’s a bit hard to swallow. Not that I doubt you, but Nin is the magical, motherly, glowing presence in my life. She saves me. Why would she do that?”
“Oooh, pick me,” Val deadpanned. “She needs you, Merlin.”
“That motherly song and dance is an act,” Ari added. “She didn’t seem that way to me.”
“What does she look like?” Lam asked. “I picture horns for some reason.”
Ari cleared her throat. “Uhh… she was… attractive? In a sort of terrifying way?”
“Attractive?” Merlin spluttered.
“She wore a suit, but not a Mercer type of suit. It was cut down to…” She pointed at a scandalously low spot on her sternum.
“Funny,” Val said. “That’s not what I saw. My Nin has this sharp black buzzcut and she wears a lot of uniforms. Though sometimes she’ll throw in a boa or a fascinator.