it almost seemed as if my brain was trying to make up for five hundred years of silence, or perhaps it simply needed to babble for a while to process what I’d seen.
Ray did not seem to mind, or even appear to be listening. He was cursing under his breath, although whether that was at the new kindling, which did not seem to want to light, or at fate, or at . . . I realized that I did not even know her name.
“Nimue,” he said, scowling.
I propped myself up on my elbows. “Do you really think so?”
He paused to look at me over his shoulder. “Really?”
I decided he had a point.
“So that is the Lady of the Lake,” I mused. It seemed that the Arthurian legends had failed to do her justice. Had completely failed.
“She looks different on Earth,” Ray said, and then paused to blow on a spark. It went out. He snarled at it.
“Oh?” I asked. “How?”
“More toned down. So people don’t get overwhelmed,” he added, shooting me a look.
I failed to blush. “She is overwhelming,” I agreed, and snuggled further into the blanket as a chill wind swept over us.
The material was scratchy against my skin, but I didn’t mind. I would not have minded a flail in order to have seen that. “She is very beautiful,” I said, only to have Ray pause again and glare at me over his shoulder.
“She’s a goddamned menace, that’s what she is, and possibly nuts! The fact that she knows we’re here is Not Good, okay? The idea was to stay under the radar!”
I did not point out that we had not been doing so well at that before, because he seemed tense.
“She did not appear hostile,” I said instead.
“Oh, she’s hostile.” It was grim. “The villagers avoid her like the plague ‘cause she keeps stealing their babies, always wanting more soldiers for her stupid wars—”
“What wars?”
He shrugged and started over with the fire, having assembled some more moss. “Take your pick; she fights with everybody. Aeslinn, ‘cause he keeps raiding and taking her lands. Caedmon, ‘cause they used to be married and there’s a lot of bad blood there. The dark fey, ‘cause she keeps trying to steal lands from them, every time Aeslinn does it to her, which means she’s basically fighting all the time. Or she was, anyway.”
“She was?”
He nodded. “She up and disappeared a decade or so ago, just noped right out of her job, her capitol, all her responsibilities. Left her armies in the field with no leadership, her nobles with no idea when or if she was coming back, and enemies all around. It caused chaos, but did she care? But that’s a demigod for you.”
“She is a demigod?”
That won me another look. “You sound surprised.”
“I am.” I thought back to the amazing creature I had been privileged to see. “I would have thought that she was the real thing.”
He gave a short bark of a laugh. “She’d like you. From everything I ever heard, she’s vane as hell. But no, she’s only half.”
I thought about that. It made me wonder how we mortals were supposed to fight beings sired by the gods. Even space vagabond gods. It did not seem fair.
But Ray would not have an answer to that any more than I did.
“Why did she leave her court?” I asked, instead.
“No clue.” His face was focused, as he was trying to light the moss without lighting himself. “Nobody has one. Least not the villagers, who started buying in bulk from people like me because, all of a sudden, the rules changed. And not the courtiers who—
“Ow, shit!”
A spark had hit his thumb, and despite the fact that it went out almost immediately, it left an inch-long wound. I frowned at it, even as it began to close up. “Let me,” I said, and took the flint and striker.
He made a be-my-guest gesture and I rolled onto my stomach and inched up to the little mound of moss. It was damp, which was why he was having so much trouble. I pushed it aside and substituted some small, dried twigs instead, one of which I crumbled almost into powder.
“What were you saying?” I asked.
“Just that her courtiers are fighting each other over the throne, ‘cause there’s no direct heir. Her loyal people are busy trying to keep the treasury from being plundered, and her armies are scattered. Some of the troops are with her, wherever she is; some are with her nobles—half