Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,57

to screw around with Merlin’s head to join Arthur’s cause?”

“Not long,” Gawain said with a smirk. He was happy to be giving this information. Information, I was pretty sure, that Gawain felt hurt me. “Abaddon did most of it. And once he was in our thrall, he had little chance to escape. The day Mordred nearly killed Arthur and required Merlin to tend to him around the clock . . . well, that was the beginning of the end to Merlin’s being anything other than Arthur’s soldier. Mordred did this to our father—he turned him into the man he is today.”

“Is there any way to save him?”

Gawain laughed.

I turned as Queen Orfeda and a dozen of her soldiers entered the clearing. “We’re taking him to a secure facility in the city,” she said. “Hades and Persephone will want to question him.”

“You can’t kill me yet,” Gawain said with a laugh.

“Let me know when you can,” I said to Orfeda and punched Gawain in the jaw, knocking out a few of his teeth.

Chapter Thirteen

NATE GARRETT

City of Solomon, Realm of Shadow Falls

I’d left Washington and headed back to Shadow Falls, where my first port of call was the council room in the palace so I could debrief everyone as to what had happened there. Lamashtu was now considered a high priority, but we had a more immediate way forward, and that was to get into Avalon. I’d finished with the debriefing when Mordred and his team returned, looking remarkably upbeat. The bastards.

“Nanshe and her people are going to help us,” Mordred said, dropping a large leather-bound book onto the table. “The Olympians are going to pledge fifty thousand troops to our command. My command. Apparently.”

“What’s the book for?” I asked.

“This is a present from Nanshe,” Mordred said. “It details a realm gate that goes into the mountains in Avalon. It’s in—”

“Duat,” Hades said.

“Hey,” Hel said, looking around. “Do you all know this?”

Everyone nodded.

We spent the next hour sharing information so that everyone was on the same page. Selene sat on one side of me, Zamek on the other. There was an aura of tension over everyone, and even Remy—usually a source of humor even in the darkest of times—was quiet. He caught my eye and winked, making me smile.

“You didn’t kill Gawain, then,” Remy said.

“I did not,” I said.

“Shame,” Remy said.

“At least we know Gawain wasn’t lying,” Judgement said from the corner of the room.

“Small mercies,” Mordred said. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”

“It was better you weren’t,” I said. “Although now that we know Lamashtu is out there, she could be a real problem.”

“We’ll have people look for her,” Persephone said.

“In the meantime, we need to send a small force to Duat and through into Avalon,” Olivia said. “They’re going to have to get through Avalon to the realm gate and activate it. We’re going to send our forces to Avalon Island so that we can get into Avalon once we know it’s safe. Unfortunately, not only is the realm gate booby trapped, it’s also not big enough to take more than a few dozen at a time.”

“I have an idea about that,” Zamek said. “I think we can make it bigger.”

Everyone turned to look at him.

“How?” Orfeda asked.

“The realm gates can heal themselves,” Zamek said. “It should be possible to also make them change shape.”

“Should be?” Hades asked.

“We tried it once,” Zamek said. “It worked.”

“With live people?” Persephone asked.

“With goats,” Zamek said. “Lots of goats.”

“And they survived?” Mordred asked dubiously.

Zamek nodded. “It’s not easy, and it takes a lot of power, but we should be able to change the gate so that it can take thousands in at once, not hundreds.”

“That would mean much less time for anyone in Avalon to mount a counterattack,” Mordred said.

“Okay, people, get it done,” Hades said.

“I’m leading the team into Duat,” I said. “This is not open for negotiation. Whatever is inside Avalon is going to need people who can hit hard and fast. Gawain said you can’t take a lot of people into the realm, and while I’ve never been there, I’ve spoken to Isis. She’s coming, too, by the way. She’s been to Duat before.”

“What did she suggest?” Hel asked.

“That we all get in and run really fast,” I said. “Her actual words.”

“I wonder,” Remy said. “How many people here have been to Atlantis before?”

There was a smattering of people who said that they had.

“Anything we need to know?” Tarron asked.

“When everyone is here,” Hades said, “I will give you all the information