A boy appeared next to her in a gold Lion mask.
“They love you,” he said, his pure blue eyes roaming the crowd. He looked over at Rhian. “Both of you.”
“Tedros?” Sophie said, stunned. She glanced back to see Agatha in her black hood, arms folded, standing in front of a horse.
“Found Rhian’s old mask in my bag before I rode down with Agatha. Didn’t want to distract the crowd from your work,” Tedros said. “Though it seems like I wouldn’t be the main attraction anyway.”
Rhian paled slightly when he saw the king.
“Y-y-your Highness,” he said—
“I’m under no illusions of my own popularity compared to yours, Sir Rhian,” Tedros said, putting his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “You’re the one who saved their kingdoms. You’re the one who saved me. Their loyalty to you will only be an asset.” The king’s eyes hardened through his mask. “As long as you grant me one request.”
“Anything, Your Highness,” said Rhian.
“I kill the Snake tonight,” Tedros commanded. “No one else. Understood?”
“Understood,” said Rhian.
“Good. We need to start moving soldiers to the castle. Snake’s coming in four hours,” said Tedros. “Meet me in the Hall so I can address the army. Move quickly, please.”
He walked towards the Hall.
“Look who’s decided to be a king,” Hester murmured.
“While wearing his knight’s mask,” mumbled Anadil.
“Why did you bring him here?” Sophie hissed, accosting Agatha.
“He’s the king,” Agatha retorted. “He has a right to address his soldiers.”
“The leaders want Rhian to command the army—”
“Rhian fights for Tedros. And so does any army of Camelot.”
“Don’t be stupid, Agatha! The last thing we need is tension between him and Rhian!”
“Well, maybe Rhian shouldn’t grandstand so much!”
“Grandstand! He’s been nothing but humble and loyal!”
“Then why is he pretending to be the Lion, riding around wearing a lion mask? Tedros is the Lion!”
“Is it Rhian’s fault he saved everyone? Is it his fault the other leaders trust him over Teddy? Is it his fault everyone here came for him?”
“Oh please. You just love to see Tedros humiliated.”
“So now Rhian’s successes are my fault? Is Tedros’ insecurity my fault too?”
“No, it’s mine,” said a voice.
The girls turned to see Rhian, red-faced.
“I told you, Sophie. It’s a mistake for them to pin their hopes on me,” said the knight. “I’m not the king. Tedros is. And now he will lead them.”
He turned to Agatha. “To the Hall to hear the king?”
Agatha smiled. “To the Hall to hear the king.”
The group dismissed the rest of the crowds by shooting sparks into the sky—“THANK YOU!” read Beatrix’s message to the Evers; “GO HOME” read Hester’s to the Nevers—and together, they sealed the gates to Camelot Park and went into Town Hall together to listen to Tedros’ speech.
The Hall thrummed with life, like a seaship off to war. More than a thousand new soldiers crammed inside on the dusty marble tile, lit by oil lamps overhead, which flickered every time a moth burnt in their flames. Men, women, creatures, and mogrifs were fitted with armor and weapons as leaders from the various kingdoms supervised from the stage and Guinevere made the rounds to check their stamps, her newly white hair slick from the rain.
Sophie and Agatha found Tedros standing in a corner in his Lion mask.
“Ready to inspire your army?” Agatha said eagerly.
Tedros blinked through his mask.
“Do you know what you’re going to say?” Agatha prodded.
Tedros didn’t answer, his eyes on the allied leaders.
“Tedros?”
“Stop badgering me,” he said, glaring at Agatha.
Sophie saw Agatha peek at her for support.
“If you’re nervous, Rhian can address them,” Sophie said to Tedros.
“No,” said Agatha, giving Sophie a death stare.
“What is it?” Rhian said, arriving.
“Nothing,” Tedros replied sharply. “I’m doing it. It’s just . . . I had a flashback to the coronation. That’s all.”
He headed towards the stage.
Sophie turned to Agatha. “Was the coronation that bad?”
Agatha gave her a look that more than answered her question.
“He’ll be great,” Rhian assured, seeing their faces. “He’s a king. This is what kings do.”
As soon as Tedros stepped before his army in a Lion mask, the soldiers exploded into cheers—
“LION! LION! LION!”
Tedros took off the mask.
Soldiers hushed, staring at him.
The Hall was silent.
Agatha started clapping loudly and so did Rhian, before the crowd joined in with stiff applause for the king.
It ebbed quickly and Tedros was again standing in front of a quiet room.
“Hi. Hello. Welcome to Camelot,” said Tedros, his voice scratchy. “Thank you for your service. It’s my honor to have you—”
Someone fumbled a sword and it clanged to the ground.
Tedros cleared his throat. “It’s my honor to have you fight by my side. At midnight the Snake will come and we must be ready. I am hereby rescinding my father’s ban on magic at the castle, since the Snake himself will surely not abide by it. My father would have no doubt done the same. To get to the castle, the Snake’s army will have to climb over Camelot’s outer gates . . . then cross the broken drawbridge from the cliffs to the royal grounds. We will be magically fortifying the outer gates so no scims can fly over it. All of you will be positioned inside these outer gates to prevent the Snake’s army from using the drawbridge or the temporary rope bridge to get to the castle. My team, meanwhile, will be positioned inside the castle courtyard to protect both the castle and Excalibur. As a last barrier, barrels of boiling oil will be placed atop the towers to ensure none of the Snake’s army can get inside the castle. . . .”
Agatha whispered to Sophie: “He’s rushing, but he’s doing okay, isn’t he?”
But he wasn’t doing okay and both girls knew it. The crowd was listless, rocking back on their heels, fidgeting with their armor and weapons.
“His army will be made up of pirates, trolls, and other paid mercenaries,” Tedros went on. “Paid loyalties cannot compete with your genuine commitment to our cause. . . .”
Sophie could see the allied leaders murmuring to each other, shielding their mouths with their hands. So were the witches, while Anadil’s rats toyed with a dead butterfly. Guinevere glanced back at Agatha, looking nervous.
Sophie whispered to Agatha: “A king is supposed to rally his army, Aggie, not bore them with details and put them to sleep! This isn’t a speech for Class Captain or some school challenge! He has to boil their blood! He has to fire them up! This lot is the only thing between the Snake and all of us dying!”
Agatha bit her nails, no longer pretending that this was going well.
In front of them a dwarf yawned.
Tedros kept talking: “Because of the magical barrier, no scims can pass Camelot’s outer gates. Which means the Snake’s army is his only weapon against us—”
An ogre in Bloodbrook armor raised his hand. “What’s the Lion gotta say?”
Tedros stopped talking.
A thousand soldiers turned away from him and looked to his knight.
Rhian retreated into the shadows.
Sophie could see Tedros taking in the sight of his allies and soldiers, hungry to hear from his knight instead of him, many of them adorned with Lion masks, Lion tattoos, and Lion shirts.
Sophie could see it in Tedros’ face. The way they were all looking at his knight . . . it was almost as if the king wasn’t there.
“Rhian,” said Tedros finally. “Would you like to
speak?”
The crowd stirred, woken from their sleep.
“Rhian! Rhian! Rhian!” the Sons of the Lion sang.
Others whistled and shouted, “Speech! Speech!”
Rhian scowled, waving this off—
But then Agatha squeezed his arm.
Princess and knight locked eyes.
“Please,” she said. “Help him.”
In that moment, Rhian’s face changed.
“As you wish, milady,” he said softly.
With a deep breath, the knight took the stage and the king fell back, offering Rhian a weak smile.
Rhian stepped cautiously into the spotlight.
The crowd went quiet—a new quiet, as if the air had somehow turned kinetic.
The tan, amber-skinned boy gazed down at his shoes for a moment. Then he looked up, his copper hair shining in the lamplight, his sharp-boned face radiant and calm.
“What is a king?” he said. “To some a figurehead. To some a throne in a castle far above the kingdom where the work is actually done. To many a stuffed shirt or a man of privilege who expects you to fight for him without knowing of your struggles, your toils, and your pain. But not to me. To me, a king is a lighthouse. A guide who can cast his glow across his kingdom and bring every last one of us out of the shadows. A beacon who we can look up to when the world seems lost. A bridge who can unite us when our differences seem too stark to reconcile. Tonight, we need a king who is all of those things. A king who can look each of you in the eye and make you feel that you won’t just fight for him or his kingdom, but you’ll fight for our way of life. Because tonight, we join forces to take on a Snake: not just because he’s attacked our families and our kingdoms, not just because he’s sabotaged the rules and order of our world, not just because he’s too scared to show his face . . . but because he dared us to come together, Good and Evil, and bring forth a hero. A hero that will stand up to him and destroy him like the coward that he is. A hero that will plunge into battle and make sure he has the last blow. That sordid, slippery little Snake looked us in the eyes and dared us to sire a king. And tonight, that king will have his vengeance.”
Rhian held up his fist. “To King Tedros!”
“To King Tedros!” the crowd roared, weapons raised, before erupting in warmongering cheers and chants.
Tedros stared at Rhian dumbly from the shadows.
Agatha looked at Sophie with the same expression.
Sophie smiled, her cheeks glowing. “Now that, my darling, was a speech.”
An hour before midnight, Tedros’ team and Rhian’s team reunited in the Blue Tower Dining Room over a simple buffet of grilled chicken, cabbage salad, wild rice, and chocolate ice cream. All of them were in chainmail armor that Kiko had scavenged and cleaned and they carried the weapons from the Armory that Hort had repaired.
From the dining room windows, they could see the torches of Camelot’s new army in the distance, lighting up the night sky, as the thousand-plus soldiers barricaded the broken drawbridge within the outer gates.
Tedros took his place at the front of the dining room, the metal of his armor gleaming under a chandelier, Lancelot’s old sword on his belt.
Everyone stopped eating to listen to the king.
“Professor Dovey will arrive soon to place a magical barrier over Camelot’s outer gates. Which means the only way the Snake can get in is if his army gets past ours. Given our size and strength, that will not happen,” he said, trying hard to sound regal after the events in the Hall. “Here’s your assignments. Hort, Beatrix, Reena, Kiko: you’ll be on guard with the soldiers in front of the drawbridge. Hester, Anadil, Dot: you’ll patrol the rope bridge to make sure nothing gets across. Willam and Bogden: you’ll man the barrels of hot oil atop the towers. Rhian and Sophie: you’ll be the first line of defense in front of the castle doors. Agatha and myself will protect Excalibur. Everyone know where they’re supposed to be? Finish eating, then get to your posts.”
The room set into motion.
Sophie piddled half of a chicken breast and a bit of cabbage onto her plate. She hesitated, then added a teaspoon of ice cream.
“Ice cream? You must think we’re going to die,” said Tedros, sliding next to her with three hunks of chicken and a mound of rice on his plate.
“You and I might die, but Sophie won’t,” Rhian piped in, having finished eating. “No way will I let anything happen to my girl. Even if she does send her little friends to check up on me.”
“What?” Sophie asked, confused.
“Don’t play coy. I know you have Nicola sussing out my ex-girlfriends,” said Rhian.
Mystified, Sophie looked at Tedros.
“Don’t look at me. I heard Nicola too,” said the king.
Sophie remembered what Tedros had said to her back on the ship: “You don’t have to hunt for flaws or dig up dirt on him. . . .”
“Well, if there are any demented ex-girlfriends, Nicola certainly hasn’t mentioned them to me,” Sophie puffed, hanging on Rhian’s arm. “So you better come clean before I become a knight’s lady.”
“A knight’s lady,” Rhian mused, fingering ice cream off her plate into his mouth. “Such a downgrade from Evil’s queen.”
“Then you better find a way to make me feel like a queen,” said Sophie archly.
“Oh, I have some ideas,” Rhian said, dotting ice cream on her nose.
“You’re good at talking, aren’t you?” Sophie said.
“Don’t I know it,” Tedros said flatly. “Made me look like the opening act in front of my army.”
“On the contrary, I’d say he honored you and everything you’re fighting for,” said Agatha, joining them, a mountain of ice cream on her plate.
“I know,” said Tedros, forcing a smile. “It’s why I assigned him to guard the castle doors. If the Snake manages to get onto the grounds, I know Rhian will stop him. As long as I get to kill the Snake myself like Rhian promised.”
“You have my word,” said Rhian firmly.
The two boys kept talking, while Agatha pulled Sophie aside.
“What’s wrong with Dot?” Agatha asked.
Sophie spotted Dot alone in the corner, separate from Hester and Anadil, sulkily turning her chocolate ice cream to extra-extra chocolate.
“Thinks Hester and Ani let a pirate through during loyalty tests, which is ridiculous, given those two are suspicious of everything,” said Sophie. “But after what happened with her dad and Kei, I think Dot’s just looking for a way to feel useful.”
Agatha sighed. “Let me talk to her.”
As her friend left, Sophie could hear Tedros and Rhian—
“Where’s your mother?” said Rhian.
“Waiting for Dovey at the outer gates,” said Tedros. “Leaders of the other kingdoms are out there with her. They want to fight alongside their soldiers. I still think you and I should do the same instead of manning the castle.”
“And if the Snake gets past the soldiers, then what?” said Rhian.
“No way his army gets past ours. They’re paid mercenaries. Our soldiers fight for a cause,” said Tedros.
“Regardless, you and I need to protect the castle and Excalibur. We’re Camelot’s last stand,” said Rhian.
Tedros looked at him. Then he glanced away. “It’s strange when a king trusts his knight’s judgment more than his own,” he said.
“You don’t mean that,” said Rhian.
Tedros didn’t answer. He moved food around on his plate. “By the way . . . what house were you in at that Foxwood school?”
“Arbed House,” said Rhian. “Why do you ask?”
“Figured if Sophie is digging up dirt on you, I should too,” said Tedros, grinning.
“Hey, Sophie—” said Nicola, jolting Sophie back to attention. “I wanted to thank you for sending a letter to my Pa. Even if something happens to me tonight, at least he’ll know I was thinking of him.”
“Of course. I am still your Dean after all, even if you’re no longer in
my school,” said Sophie, eyeing the first year hawkishly. “Though I might have to send another letter to your father telling him that you’re snooping on the Dean’s boyfriend and pretending that I asked you to do it.”
Nicola didn’t flinch. “I wanted to check something. That’s why I lied to Rhian and said what I said. But I was wrong.”
“Wrong about what?”
“It’s nothing. If I was right, Merlin would have come back already.”
Sophie frowned. “What does Merlin have to do with this?”
Nicola didn’t answer, watching Willam and Bogden pass in front of Rhian and Tedros as they got more food.
“Hey, Bogden. Should I still be wary of gifts?” Tedros asked.
Willam and Bogden both turned around.
“Very wary,” said Bogden.
“If you value your life, that is,” said Willam.
“But he has a wedding coming,” said Rhian, nudging Tedros. “He’s going to get a lot of gifts.”
“Maybe we should put ‘No Gifts’ on the invitation,” Tedros said, nudging Rhian back.
“Ignore them,” Willam murmured to Bogden, pushing him along. “My brother told me to stay away from Tedros.”
“Your brother?” Tedros said, still laughing. “Who’s your brother?”
Willam didn’t answer.
“Can I ask you a question?” Nicola said, turning to Sophie. “Do you find the Snake’s attacks . . . odd?”
“Odd?” Sophie said. “What do you mean?”
“In storybooks, Evil’s advantage is that it attacks and Good has to defend. That’s the number one rule of Good and Evil. So Evil usually does everything it can to make sure its attacks are a surprise,” said Nicola. “But the Snake always seems to tell us when he’s attacking. We knew he was going to attack the Four Point. We knew he was going to attack Nottingham. We know when he’s going to attack tonight. I mean, what villain gives you a time when he’s coming for you?”