Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,15

said with a small smile.

Mordred chuckled. “And you know what, my friend? It’s always true.”

The guards all around the cave that we found ourselves in looked more than a little shaken by what they’d seen. The elven realm gate was usually pretty quiet. They all bowed to Mordred, who sighed. I wasn’t sure he was ever going to get used to that part of being king.

“Anyone want to tell us where all those people went?” I asked.

One of the guards pointed down toward the exit with his spear.

“You think Viv is okay?” Isis asked.

“She’s one of the most powerful water elementals I’ve ever met,” Mordred said. “She’ll be fine.”

I left the realm gate cavern with Mordred while Tarron set about deactivating the gate. It was unlikely that anyone was going to use a realm gate that was soon going to be on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, but better safe than sorry.

Outside the cavern, high above the city of Solomon in Shadow Falls, Isis, Mordred, and I stood in silence as we waited for one of the lifts to arrive to take us to the bottom of the mountain range that we were on.

“Did we at least learn anything of use?” Mordred asked.

I nodded. “We need to go see your council,” I said to Mordred.

The lift arrived with Persephone and my mother, Brynhildr, on it.

“I was worried,” Brynhildr said to me as we got onto the large lift and Persephone operated it, making it slowly move back down the mountain.

“It wasn’t the most fun ever,” I admitted. “We have news, though. Poseidon was there.”

Persephone appeared shocked at the news. “Honestly, I thought he’d died centuries ago.”

“He’s dead now, if that helps,” Mordred said.

I told them both what had happened on the ship. I was probably going to have to repeat the information half a dozen times before I was done, but I had a lot of pent-up frustration and wanted to vent.

When I’d finished, Brynhildr and Persephone shared an expression of resignation.

“I don’t think the president is going to be a big problem,” my mum said.

“Why?” Isis asked.

“Twelve hours ago, we got information that Gawain was on a civilian flight into the United States,” Persephone said. “He landed in DC and went straight to the White House.”

“We had a chat,” I said. “Not sure how he got into this realm, though. Where did he fly from?”

“Egypt,” my mum said.

“How the hell did he get to Egypt?” Mordred asked.

“We’re looking into it,” Persephone said. “But two hours ago, our allies in the American government arrested those senators and congresspeople who were helping Arthur. They went to the White House to arrest everyone there, including Gawain, and were met with resistance. The White House is in lockdown, but we’ve scrambled all communications entering and leaving.”

“You can just go and arrest the president?” I asked. “Because that seems like something that takes a lot of time and effort.”

“The president, no,” Persephone said. “The people who work for him are somewhat easier. Besides, these are strange times.”

“What’s their endgame?” Mordred asked. “They said Gawain had to wait until midnight before the law could be signed. Why?”

“We need to go ask him,” I said.

“My father would have a plan for such a contingency,” Mordred said. “I would assume there’s a realm gate inside the White House, but then why would Gawain fly in? No, it can’t be that.”

“Do they have access to launch codes?” Isis asked.

My mum nodded. “Yes, but we’ve been slowly taking control of all missile launch sites for the last year. Despite what Poseidon said, we’ve made sure that the military is clean of Avalon influence.”

“Who do they answer to?” I asked.

“The vice president,” Persephone said. “As strange as this sounds, she had no involvement with Arthur. She’s been feeding us intel on her boss for the last year.”

“Arthur needs America,” Mordred said. “It’s too wealthy to lose. He’ll have a plan to make sure he doesn’t lose control.”

Persephone nodded. “Yes, he needs America, not just for its riches but also because of the amount of military here. He can’t risk that falling into the hands of anyone else. Same with Russia. He’s lost Germany and the UK already, and western Europe is removing Avalon influence. Canada, Mexico, large chunks of North Africa and South America aren’t under Avalon influence either.”

“China, Japan, and South Korea aren’t far behind,” Brynhildr said. “Arthur can’t risk losing anyone else with the military clout he needs. If he controls America, Russia, eastern Europe, and big