Shit. Even Ari remembered how important that one was. It was in all the versions of the legend. “Okay, how do we fix it?”
“Stop with the fixing mentality!” Val said. “We need to set the legend floating on its own. Give it sails.” Lam and Ari stared at him. “King Arthur has to go on without us. Otherwise we’ll never be able to leave without disrupting the stupid time continuum.”
“How do we do that?” Lam asked.
Ari stared at the book in her hands. “We bring Arthur in on it, that’s how.”
“Ari…” Val’s voice held such perfected exasperation. “No.”
“He knows I’m a girl underneath all this armor, and he’s okay with it.”
“He does?” Lam asked at the same time that Val said, “He’s not okay with it.”
Ari stood up. “He’s like me. He wants the truth, even if the truth is challenging. And I know that’s true because deep down in me is… him!”
“And this is where you lose me.” Val sat down on a pile of hay. “Cursed spirits, no thank you.”
Ari turned to Lam. “I have to get in the castle. I need to talk to Arthur.”
“You’ll need a disguise,” they said. “Sir Kay made some pretty bold statements about you not being allowed back into the keep.”
“Good thing Suck Kay isn’t in charge. Although, I should slip in unnoticed to avoid ending up back in the stocks.” Ari turned to her childhood best friend and brought out her sweetest smile. “Val, do you have any makeover magic tucked into that corset?”
Val raised a finely shaped eyebrow at Ari. “Always.”
An hour later, Ari was standing in a large wooden tub, getting her back scrubbed by Val. “Gross. Everything in this time period is gross. Did you roll around in the peat, or just make a few peat angels?” Lam came around one of the back stalls, and Ari closed her arms over her breasts. “What, you get shy around them, but not me?” Val pinched her side.
“Of course I get shy around Lam. They’re Lam.” Ari muttered, elbowing Val. She’d missed his no-filter conversations too much. Stepping out of the wooden tub, she went straight to the pile of dresses Val had procured from somewhere. “Why did you bring so many?”
“You think this is the first time I’ve dressed up a masc girl as a femme girl to trick patriarchal overlords? I grew up on Pluto. First things first, the dress has to actually fit. And you, Ara Azar, are not the same size you used to be. I had to estimate.”
“I am much bigger.” Ari looked down at the muscles she’d collected along her limbs like badges of honor. She’d been lanky in the future, but she was pretty sure she wasn’t anymore. “The armor was so heavy. Took weeks to get used to it.”
“Now you’re strapping,” Lam said, dropping a dress over her head.
“Too short. Try the green one,” Val ordered.
Ari shimmied out of the dress and into the green one. It did fit slightly better, although the neckline was as wide as an ocean. “What in the world?” Ari muttered as it fell from one shoulder and then the other.
“It goes off the shoulders. Stand back.” Val pushed his sibling out of the way and positioned Ari in the dress, pulling the laces taut. When Ari felt like she’d stop breathing, Val tugged the front lower and pulled the back tighter. Ari yelped, and Val added, “You’re pretending to be a working girl, remember? You’ve got to show a little skin.”
“Great.” She looked to Lam. “Where’s Roran?” The last thing she wanted was to trigger him by yowling while someone stuffed her in a dress.
“He’s asleep in the back. I just tucked him in.”
Ari let those words sink in. Lam spoke them with such care. “He sleeps in the stables?”
“He left his family. They frightened him,” Lam said. Ari felt softer inside as she imagined the fiercest kid in Camelot. Lamarack was taking care of him. Making him feel seen and loved. Of course they were.
Ari nearly shouted when Val finger-combed her hair, finding the first dozen of a thousand knots. “Well, this is going to take forever.”
“Leave it down,” Ari tried.
“Down and you look like Lancelot. Up and you’re a lady.”
“It’s not that important.” Ari winced as Val pulled her hair again. “I just need to get in.”
“And then you’re going to do what, exactly?” Val asked. Ari ignored him, and he added, “Oh, so you want to see the oubliette, too? It’s just fantastic. When Merlin was locked in there with Jordan, Nin didn’t blink. She loved how miserable they both were.”
“She’s more nefarious than Merlin lets on,” Ari wondered. “Where is he, by the way?”
“Playing with himself. Don’t get me started. Those two are up to something.”
Ari was still and silent even though Val tugged too hard and made her eyes water. She looked to Lamarack, who nodded as if they were thinking the same thoughts, which gave her courage to voice them. “What do you think it will be like when we finally go home?”
Val was so distracted by detangling that he spoke harsh and flat. “I’ll tell you exactly what it’ll be like. Mercer will have punished the people we left behind for our absence. All of those representatives who jumped to come to our summit have probably fallen back, taking whatever bargain might keep their planets alive. Gwen’s people, along with whatever’s left of our friends and family, will most likely end up working in a Mercer distribution factory. And if Mercer is really on-brand, they will set fire to Ketch for the show alone. The last time they blew up a planet they streamed the destruction with inspired ad placement.”
“Fireproof boxes and smoke detectors,” Lam muttered. “I’ll never forget it. Our parents bought them.”
Ari’s brain filled with images of the capital city, Omaira, up in flames. “Does Gwen think this will happen, too?”
Val bit his bottom lip. “She’s mapped it out by now. That news
