The Darkest Knight (Guardians of Camelot #3) - Victoria Sue Page 0,10
but to be honest, now the necromancer is dead himself, I’m not sure what value they are, and certainly the last two are more like the ramblings of a madman than any scientific experiment. I haven’t really done any more than the last time you were here, but I suppose I need to. I was looking for references to thwart Aalardin’s nefarious plans, not just for general information.” He paused. “They have been coming every night. She throws the Ursus at us like cannon fodder, and when I got the chance, I’ve been looking at something else.”
“Would the something else be the Hospitallers by any chance?” Charles asked mildly.
Gawain looked sheepish.
“Any maybe one Knight Hospitaller in particular?” Charles took a sip of the coffee and winced a little. It was very strong, and he preferred cream. “You are a scholar. I would expect you to seek answers.”
Gawain’s expression cleared, and he swung back to his screen. “How did you know? The first time that is?”
Charles frowned. “I only have the memory of my present task.”
Gawain paused. “You mean when you woke up on the boat with the other refugees?”
“Yes, with Sister Mary Bernadette.”
“Tom’s mother.”
Charles nodded. “I didn’t know. We are only shown the details we need.”
Gawain hesitated. “When you say…we?”
“The knights.” Charles gazed at the screen. It was a search on the Hospitallers, but Charles knew Gawain would find nothing there except myth.
“Do you know how many of you there are?”
Charles took another sip even though he didn’t care for it.
“Siarl, a ydych chi’n ildio’ch bywyd?”
Charles had no idea what the man—priest—was saying. At least, he assumed he was a priest, but the cross on his robes wasn’t from any church he had seen before. The man paused as if waiting for an answer, and Charles tried not to panic. The temple he was in was huge, and he didn’t remember how he had gotten here. Nurse had bathed him and watched him say his prayers, and he had gotten into his small cot obediently, hoping tomorrow he might be allowed to play with some of the children he had seen on the road near the castle they had arrived at the day before.
Then he’d woken up and he was here, and everyone was talking in a foreign tongue he didn’t understand. When the man had drawn the dagger and advanced toward him, the words had echoed in his head, and he understood then and started crying.
And that was his first memory. He hadn’t been the only one standing in front of the priests, but he was sure he’d been the youngest. The smallest anyway.
He hesitantly told Gawain what he remembered. “It was—I suppose—when I was brought into the order.”
Gawain was silent for a second. “And there were others, but you were the only child?”
“I believe so.”
“But I suppose you’ve met more knights over the years,” Gawain continued on conversationally.
“Possibly, but as we don’t retain the memories of different lights—tasks” he clarified, “then it would be impossible to know.”
Gawain nodded sagely. “I think you said when you wake up you have the knowledge you will need for your task.”
“Yes,” Charles agreed.
“And that you are shown the light and the dark at the same time?” Charles hesitated. He knew Kay was his light but was also guilty of assuming Morgan or Mordred was the dark, or the enemy, but he didn’t remember a specific face. Last time he had been shown Aalardin. Gawain glanced back at him, not seeming to be bothered Charles hadn’t answered. “Do you have a leader? How did you get the task you were given?”
Charles blinked a little in surprise. “I-I am just woken with the task.”
“And yet there are no legends surrounding the Hospitallers and any sort of immortality.”
Mel was standing at the door, dressed in a pair of sleep pants and a long-sleeved T-shirt. He shrugged. “It isn’t only you that can use a computer,” he added cheekily and bounced into the room rolling his eyes. “My lord and master is snoring, and I can’t sleep.”
Gawain grinned. “Charles was just explaining his history.”
Mel rested his blue eyes on Charles. “But I thought you didn’t know your history?”
Charles opened his mouth to defend himself but closed it quickly. Nothing Mel said was a lie. Apart from his early recollection when he was a child, and the last forty-some years, he had no memory, just a deep conviction he was where he was supposed to be.