Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,16

chunks of Africa and Asia still, he’ll have enough to spread back out across the world. Just Russia and America under his control would be enough to cause serious problems worldwide.”

“We beat him once; we can do it again,” I said.

“I get the feeling that’s why he’s so keen on controlling the Earth realm,” Isis said. “He wants the one thing he’s been told he can’t have. Like some spoiled little child.”

“We have to trust that our allies across the globe are still fighting back,” Mordred said. “We need to find Arthur and stop him from making things worse.”

“So I guess we need to go to DC?” I said as the lift stopped.

“I’ll get ready,” Mordred said as we left the lift, heading toward the tramlines.

“It’s not that simple,” my mum said. “Right now we have the White House contained, but we can’t have the king running off over there, helping to drag out the president of a country. We’ll just be swapping one dictator for another. In fact, none of our people can do the dragging.”

“So who does?” Isis asked as we entered one of the trams that traveled above the city of Solomon.

“The humans have to,” Persephone said as the tram started.

I looked outside the window as the tram moved up the rails until it was at its peak height, a hundred feet above the city. Solomon had grown constantly in the years since I’d come back from the dead, so to speak. There had been a lot of refugees from Asgard and Valhalla and a lot more from the human cities in the Earth realm who had been driven from their homes by Avalon.

“You listening?” Persephone asked me.

I shook my head. “Sorry, the humans have to take President Reed alive and drag him out with all the rest of his cockroach friends in front of the world’s cameras, yes?”

Persephone nodded.

“Human law enforcement, backed up by the government, yes?”

Another nod.

“Sounds like a plan,” I said. “I’ll go to DC and get people inside the building. It’ll be up to the humans to sort it out from there.”

“You need to see the council first,” Persephone said.

“Sure thing,” I said with a sigh. I’d been building up to a question I’d asked a hundred times in the last year, and a hundred times I’d heard nothing of any use. “Any idea about Tommy?”

Thomas Carpenter was my best friend, and a year ago he’d been taken by Merlin and Arthur before they’d destroyed Asgard. No one knew where he was or whether he was even alive. There had been neither hide nor hair of him in twelve months, and the only thing I could do was find Arthur and ask him personally.

“No,” Persephone said.

“Gawain might know something,” Isis said.

“And he’s in DC,” Mordred continued.

“Mordred, how would you feel about me asking your brother a few questions?” I asked him.

“My brother is a psychopath and mass murderer,” Mordred said. “You can cut his fucking head off and use it as a football for all I care.”

“There’s an image I could have done without,” Isis said as the tram stopped and we all got out before making the short journey to the palace.

I was halfway up the steps when I heard Mordred sigh.

“Still find it weird you live here?” I asked him.

“I have people who cook for me, Nate,” he said. “I am not accustomed to the luxuries of having someone come make my bed for me. I had to stop that one. And also stop them from pouring my wine and opening doors for me. I can open my own damn doors.”

“Do they announce your entrance?” Isis asked with a grin.

“Oh gods, what’s that about?” Mordred exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

“When I was revered as a god, people would do things for me all the time,” Isis said. “I once had a man burn my bed and carve me a new one from some wood I’d found. Just to see if he would do it. We were all assholes, drunk on our own power and believing our own mythologies. Don’t do that. Don’t act like you’re above everyone else, or you will start to believe it. I was told from birth that I was better than everyone, and it took me a long time to realize it wasn’t true.”

“Well, I was pretty much ignored from birth,” Mordred said. “It may have had an effect on me; who’s to know?”

Isis smiled. “The best rulers are those who have it thrust upon