A Crystal of Time (The School for Good and Evil The Camelot Years #2) - Soman Chainani Page 0,121

droplet—

Another storm of blue light attacked her, turning her mind to glue. This time it took longer for her to recover, as if she’d been severed into parts that she couldn’t put back together. Straining to focus, she saw she was inside King Arthur’s bedchamber, her friends and cat at her side. Her chest throbbed harder than before, as if it’d been whacked with a hammer. But there was no time to wallow in pain.

Tedros was already approaching his father, who was calmly writing at the desk in his nightclothes, floppy blond hair falling over his eyes the way his son’s often did. The Tedros of the present waved his hand in front of his father but Arthur didn’t see him. Tedros tried to touch his younger self, who was squirreling around in his father’s lap, playing with a gold Lion locket around the king’s neck, trying to get it open . . . but Tedros’ hand went straight through the boy’s clothes, through his father’s chest, and through the frame of the chair like a ghost’s.

“We are merely observers,” Reaper explained. “The Present cannot interfere with the Past. It is one of the five Rules of Time.”

“What are the other four?” Agatha asked.

But now King Arthur was speaking to his young son nestled in his lap.

“This will be your coronation test when it’s your turn to be king,” Arthur said, finishing writing on the card. “And you will not fail, my boy.” He blew the ink dry, his face darkening. “No matter what that woman says.”

The king sat there quietly, staring at the card, as young Tedros fussed harder with the locket, trying to open it with his mouth.

Then Arthur pulled out a second card from the drawer, this one blank.

He began writing.

The scene went dark, as if someone had blown the candle out. Agatha had the sensation of yanking backwards, like a misfired slingshot—

When she opened her eyes, they had reappeared inside Dovey’s ball, surrounded by the floating mini-crystals and the ones they’d discarded on the floor. Only now, the entire room seemed more translucent, the blue glow in the walls dimmer.

They were running out of time.

“What did your father mean?” Agatha asked Tedros, who was lost in thought. “‘No matter what that woman says’?”

“I have no idea,” said her prince.

“And what was he writing on the other card?” Agatha wondered. “Did he have second thoughts and alter the coronation test? Did he plan for something else and then change it to you pulling Excalibur from the stone?”

“There was only one card included in the will or the priest would have told me,” said Tedros. “Likely the second card had nothing to do with my coronation test. Those cards were reserved for official proclamations. It could have been for anything.”

“Or it could be a false memory,” said Sophie.

“Maybe,” said Tedros. “But I feel like I was too young to store false memories.”

“‘You will not fail,’” Agatha repeated, reliving Arthur’s words to his son. “‘No matter what that woman says . . .’” She chewed on her lip. “Could he have meant Guinevere?”

“But why would my mother have thought I’d fail my test?” said Tedros, scratching at his rippled stomach. “She was so confident I’d pass it the morning of the coronation. . . . No, it couldn’t have been her.”

“We need to bring Guinevere inside the crystal ball,” said Agatha, despite feeling sick over the thought of making Tedros’ mother endure the portal. “Surely her memories can help us—”

“No,” said Reaper. “Merlin was clear about leaving Guinevere in the dark about the crystal’s powers. That’s why I sent her up with the Sheriff instead of bringing her here. Merlin believed her soul unreliable when it came to her life with Arthur. Leaving Tedros behind to pursue a life with Lancelot made her more apt to paint her husband as a villain to relieve her guilt. Bringing her into the crystal would open up too many tainted memories that would yield more trouble than answers.”

“Tedros, wasn’t this your steward? That Gremlin woman?” Sophie asked from the other side of the room, brandishing a crystal.

Tedros and Agatha turned.

It was a scene of Chaddick outside Camelot’s castle, climbing onto a gray horse dappled with white spots as Lady Gremlaine, robed and turbaned in lavender, saddled the horse with a satchel of provisions and fussed over Tedros’ knight, smoothing Chaddick’s jacket and brushing it of leaves and dirt. She squeezed Chaddick’s hand and smiled at him, before Tedros moved into the frame