gift.”
“You think he had the Healing Cup—”
Matt put a hand over my mouth and glanced around the train. People continued to chatter on without paying any attention to us.
“Ease up, Merlin.” I pushed his hand away.
“I don’t want to run into another Robin Chaucer.”
“How do you know Robin wouldn’t have helped us? It was Raj who attacked us.”
“He’s a Regular. He’ll only get in the way.”
It was an arrogant statement Vane would have definitely made, and yet, coming from Matt, it left me momentarily speechless. “I’m a Regular.”
“Of course you are,” Matt said in a placating tone. His voice lowered. “Listen, I’m not sure how it’s all connected, except every instinct I have tells me that the answers we seek lie here. Our foundations go back to this region—”
“What do you mean the foundations? How so?”
“The Council theorizes that the Keltoi emerged first in the civilizations of the Indus Valley roughly in 3000 BCE.”
The wizards called themselves Keltoi. It was some kind of ancient name.
Matt continued, “Sects of the Indus people migrated across Mesopotamia, Greece, and up into Western Europe. Among them, us. If you follow the derivation of languages spoken in the region today, you can follow the migration of magi—” With another furtive glance over his shoulder, he lowered his voice. “Our people.”
He raked a hand through brown, shaggy hair. “But more than that, I get the feeling that we’re supposed to be here. That we didn’t wind up in this place… at this time… by coincidence.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Lady knew what would happen once the Fisher King awoke. She knew we’d come to this region to avert the disaster.”
The more I learned of the Lady, the less I liked her. Now, she got credit for my decisions too. “I made us come here. You wanted to go back to England, remember? Anyway, Bran of Pellam took the Healing Cup to Aegae.”
“I’m not so sure. From what I could glean from Lelex, the mermaids beheaded Bran in Aegae. One version of the Fisher King story says as much—that the head of the king came back and was buried, and its magic protected the Island of Britain from marauders thereafter.”
I rolled my eyes. Boy, had they been wrong about that. The Vikings sacked Britain for a hundred or so years after Arthur.
Matt continued, “The point is—the mermaids never had the Cup. Galahad and Perceval must have found it. In the legends, it’s not clear which one got the cup. They were supposed to bring it back to Britannia, but Galahad never returned.”
I blinked. “I thought you sent Galahad after the Cup. Who is Perceval?”
“Actually, three set out after the Fisher King. Perceval, Galahad, and Bors. I didn’t mention it before because it was irrelevant. From what I’ve been able to glean, only one of them seemed to have actually gotten the Cup. Also, Vane and Perceval were close. It happened a long time ago, but I didn’t want to remind Vane of him.”
I stared at him. He’d just made a small admission that he actually cared enough to spare his brother’s feelings. Was I ever going to understand these two? I cleared my throat. “Vane and Perceval?”
“Vane brought Perceval to Camelot with him. Perceval was the youngest son of a noble. He was orphaned and Vane trained him. In turn, Perceval worshipped Vane.” Matt muttered, “Seems he has a thing for orphans.”
That dig was directed at me. I ignored it since I heard an underlying edge to his tone. He’d been jealous. Wow, Merlin jealous. My head swam with the insight. Then, it clicked. “Was Perceval from Carthage?”
“Yes, that is where Vane found him. You’ve seen him in Vane’s memories?”
I nodded.
“As I said, they were close.” He went back to reading the guidebook.
My eyes raked over Matt’s profile. The straight line of his jaw was so similar to Vane’s. Yet, I could never get a good handle on who he was—Matt or Merlin. Matt, I could trust. Merlin, I never had. Matt would save his brother. Would Merlin? After what I’d seen of Vane’s memories, their animosity didn’t make sense. When had it all gone so wrong? At least the brothers felt so strongly about each other once, it gave me hope that they would again.
It also made me wonder if I made a distinction in my head that wasn’t there. Matt or Merlin. Either way, be it Matt and Ryan or Merlin and Ryan, we were at a standoff.
I took the first step. “Matt, I need to