I tied Tommy to a tree where there was good, if damp, grazing, and ran across the sodden ground. The reports Mordred had heard about the yearlong rains at the Lake had been correct, judging by the way my boots sank into the mud. I went for perhaps a mile and a half, always staying within the boundary and under the rains, before I saw them. Or rather before I saw Sir Lamorak with War-Strider. The horse was terrified, and trying to rear, but the giant knight held the beast’s reins in an enormous gauntleted fist, and was preventing Strider from jumping or kicking out his front legs. There was no sign of Garnish.

When the horse was sufficiently obedient, Lamorak released him, and looked around. As I dived behind the nearest tree to avoid his eyes, I saw that the right side of his face had sustained a terrible burn that warped and scarred the skin: the legacy of Epicene’s attack when she, Melwas and Brunor broke the siege at the tower by the loch.

When I next thought it safe to look, the giant took the black spear from his back. All the stories Garnish had told suggested that this was the Spear of Longius, which Merlin had taken from the ruins of King Pellam’s castle on the red rock. Lamorak held the spear less as one would when hunting, and more as books describe villagers holding divining rods to look for underground water. Though his hands were huge, and immensely strong, he held the spear lightly, allowing it to guide him rather than the other way round. It turned towards the boundary of the Lake, but then bounced away from my mother’s magical barrier, much as two pieces of iron sometimes repel each other, for reasons not even the wisest sorcerer understands.

Lamorak turned slowly, watching the bloody point of the spear carefully, until he again had his back to me. I crept towards the boundary. If I could take him by surprise I might be able to bind him with ice, or knock him out with a great projectile like the one I’d used against the Questing Beast on Avalon. But I still didn’t want to alert my mother to my presence, so it was best I was outside the boundary before I attacked.

When I tried to step across the invisible boundary-line, however, I felt myself pushed back. I reached out to touch the barrier, and found that it had turned thick and elastic. Beyond the boundary, the world was becoming even more warped than it had seemed over the previous few days, but behind me the forest was quite normal. Within my mother’s lands I couldn’t feel the heavy drag of Merlin on the world, or the jaggedness he left everywhere else in Britain.

The head of the spear bobbed as Lamorak pointed it towards a nearby tree. He walked forward, following the sharp red point indicated to him. His feet rustled and snapped the brittle yellow grass above the sound of the rain.

There was a stir behind the tree he was approaching, and Garnish bolted from his hiding place. The big lad’s body wobbled as his lumbered away in an approximation of a dash. He was white with terror.

Sir Lamorak didn’t even need to pick up his pace to catch him. The knight’s long strides took him to the boy before Garnish reached the edge of the clearing. He grabbed Garnish’s neck in his giant hand, lifted the fat lad from his feet, and slammed him to the ground.

‘No no no no, please no,’ Garnish whimpered as he looked up at the hideous burnt face of Sir Lamorak. The knight grunted, placed his boot on Garnish’s chest, and raised the spear, making ready to strike.

I slammed my hands against the barrier, but it would not let me through.

Lamorak did not stab the boy. He moved the spear slowly and precisely towards Garnish’s neck. I looked on in horror, but I was trapped inside my mother’s lands; there was nothing I could do.

And then the world beyond the barrier warped out of recognition. The sun went dark, the yellow grass turned blue, the tree Garnish had been hiding behind seemed to shatter like glass, but its shards did not fall to the ground. Sir Lamorak became even larger in my eyes, and the sobbing Garnish much smaller. None of this disorienting effect could be seen in the rainy forest around me, which remained quite free from distortion. The border was protecting my mother’s lands from the force.

The point of the spear touched the base of Garnish’s neck, the hollow of his collarbone, and the lad screamed in fear and hideous pain. Lamorak put all of his weight on the spear, and began to grind it into Garnish’s flesh, turning it like a screw. A thin trail of blood dribbled down the side of the lad’s neck. His scream became strangled, his eyes were ready to burst from their sockets.

A small spark burst from the butt of the spear. The light floated around the weird, distorted scene, and then flew off into the bushes. The bushes rustled, and I saw –

I dashed behind the nearest tree, and put my back to it.

I had seen the head of a ram’s skull staff emerge from the bushes. Merlin was here, mere feet away from me.

‘A nibble, Lamorak! You have caught me a nibble, well done, good fellow,’ said Arthur’s sorcerer in his high voice. ‘A small magic, of course, but it proves that the spear is now truly mine.’

Sir Lamorak grunted.

‘Oh release him, my boy: it’s done. Oh. Oh. You’ve caught him. There were no others?’

Lamorak grunted a negative.

I peeped around the edge of the tree. Now that Merlin was in the copse it was more distorted than ever. Everything outside of the barrier seemed to flex around him, moving in and out of proper proportion. Merlin looked down at the prone form of Garnish, shaking his head.

‘My spy, Lamorak. You’ve broken my weeping spy.’ The wizard’s silver skullcap flashed light in my eyes, though I could no longer see the light source it was reflecting. ‘Ah well, not to worry. I don’t believe he had reported to Dinadan in months. What matters is that at long last we’ve proof the spear works as I’d hoped, after my failed experiment with the wise woman of Vellion.’ He reached out and touched Lamorak’s scarred face gently, making the knight look him in his swirling, oily eyes. ‘Now you can hunt the creature that burned you. Would you like that, loyal beast?’

Lamorak nodded. He turned towards the barrier and raised his remaining eyebrow. I dived behind the tree once more, hoping he hadn’t seen me.

‘No, no, my lad,’ said Merlin, ‘Lady Nemue can wait for a time. North. You go north now. Find Sir Dinadan, wherever the fool’s got to. He must know where your black sorceress is by now.’

I heard Sir Lamorak mount his huge horse and ride away. I stayed where I was, waiting for Merlin to leave. If Garnish was still alive, then perhaps I would be able to find out what kind of spying he had been doing for Merlin; precisely what information he had passed to the sorcerer and King Arthur. I peeked around the tree again, but Merlin was still there, looking down at Garnish.

‘Oh you ambitious young thing,’ Merlin tutted at the unconscious boy. ‘I did so hope for an update on the disposition of lovely Lady Neave.’

My heart pounded. Garnish must have been feeding Merlin disinformation, if the sorcerer didn’t know that my middle sister was as dead as Nemone.

‘Well, you shall have the reward I promised,’ Merlin went on. ‘Up, up, up.’

There was a rustling in the grass.

‘Now,’ said Merlin. ‘Off you go to the red rock to see the Lady of the Slates. The two of you will live most contentedly on that hill of rubble. Most contentedly?’ He giggled to himself. ‘I should say: most quietly. Farewell, my boy.’

I heard a succession of noises beyond the barrier. Slow, heavy footsteps went in one direction, quick purposeful ones in another. War-Strider whinnied, and then the horse too left the copse.

I waited for a long while before I finally broke cover. Outside the barrier the world had assumed its normal aspect again. I touched the boundary; it was no longer solid, and I could pass through. I stepped out of the rain, back into the sun outside my mother’s lands. Other than a few drops of blood on the grass there was no sign that the clearing had been disturbed by men in years. I could feel the weight of Merlin moving away, heading south.

* * *

I found Garnish and War-Strider on the road. The lad was shambling along, while the horse, following behind, prodded him with his muzzle, trying to prompt the boy into a response.

I overtook them, and tried to get Garnish’s attention by pulling at his arm. He didn’t shake me off, neither did he seem to notice me. He just kept following the road.

I ran ahead and stood in his way. It was then, looking him full in the face, that I saw his eyes. The colour had been drained from them. As he came closer I saw that his irises were dark and shifting, as if there were clouds within them, as if I was looking through his eyes and seeing the sky, much as Petal had described the eyes of his mother.

I raised my hand and summoned the healing water snakes, but though they brushed his skin, and mended the dripping wound at the base of his throat, I could sense no activity in his mind. It felt like reaching a dead end, just like when I had first brushed Merlin’s husks of Melwas and Margaret of the Marsh on Avalon. This was Garnish’s body, but nothing remained of the boy’s mind or magic.

No matter how hard I pulled at him I could not get him to follow me back towards where I had left the others. In the end I gave up, and instead took hold of War-Strider’s reins. I wanted to blame the horse for letting his master down, but the beast looked back at me with such sad eyes that I could not bring myself to scold him.

‘K-K-K-K-Keep him s-safe, S-S-S-S-Strider. T-T-T-T-Take him where he’s g-going, and k-k-k-k-keep him safe.’

The horse seemed to nod in agreement, and I stopped there, watching the two of them head down the road. Then I turned back to the forest, and walked into the rain.