guided his horse with expert hand through the town. "And how is it I have saved your life?"
"Those men who were after me. They were mad."
"How so?"
"They claimed that I was to be the mother of the wizard Merlin. Mayhap they were only drunk, but…" She shivered as she considered what had almost befallen her. "Thank the Lord and all His saints that you came when you did. I shudder to think what they would have done to me had I gone with them."
He gave her a knowing look. "Aye, there was a higher power that brought me to you this day. Of that I have no doubt."
Seren had just started to relax when she heard the sound of hooves behind them.
The knight turned to look.
"It's them," she breathed, her panic returning as she saw the two knights again in pursuit. "Why won't they let me go?"
"Have no fear. I won't let them take you."
His words thrilled her. Who would have believed that such a handsome knight would defend a simple peasant maid? "You are truly a kind and noble knight, sir."
But as he looked down at her, Seren would have sworn that his eyes flashed red before he spurred his horse to an even greater speed. The other two knights continued to give chase. They raced through town until they flew over the bridge that took them out into the countryside.
Seren cringed. "I'm not to leave the town," she told the knight. "My master will have me beaten for leaving without his permission."
"There is nothing I can do. Should we return, they will take you. Is that what you want?"
"Nay."
"Then hold tight until we lose them."
Seren did as he said. She turned to face him in the saddle and wrapped her arms about his waist and inhaled the scent of leather, man, and beast. His horse flew over the open meadow, racing toward the dense woods that lay before them.
All of a sudden, something exploded by their side.
"Accero, accero domini doyan,"the knight said in his deep, resonant voice.
Seren gasped in terror as the gargoyle decorations on the horse's bridle lifted themselves off and took flight. They screeched like banshees before they headed toward the men pursuing them.
"What is this?" she asked.
"You're lost in a dream." His voice was inside her head. "Sleep, little one. Sleep." Seren blinked her eyes as exhaustion overtook her. She tried desperately to remain awake, but couldn't.
Before she knew what was happening, darkness consumed her.
Kerrigan pulled the woman closer to him as he felt her go limp from his spell. She was completely soft and pliant in his arms. Satisfied that she couldn't fight him, he slowed his horse so that he could turn around to see Gawain and Agravain fighting his gargoyles.
He let his malevolent laughter ring out. "She is ours," he called to them.
Gawain launched a sorcerer's fire blast in his direction. Kerrigan dissolved it before it came near him.
"You know what I want, Gawain. Tell Merlin to give it over or see this woman die." With his orders issued, Kerrigan spoke the sacred words that took him away from the world of man, into the nether realm of Camelot.
In an eerie black mist, the visible world faded into darkness. The veil that separated the two realms mingled until he found himself once more on the black soil of Camelot.
Here Kerrigan was more than a knight. Here he was king and champion. Laughing in triumph, Kerrigan rode over the black drawbridge, into the outer, then inner bailey. As he reined his horse before the donjon, a misshapen grayling male came forward to take his horse.
Theirs was a cursed elfin race that had once been tall and graceful. But they had run amok of a Celtic god who had made their exterior as abhorrent as their hearts. Now they were damned to serve here at Morgen's behest.
Giving no thought to the haggard creature, Kerrigan gripped the woman tightly in his arms before he slid to the ground with his precious bundle. She was the key he needed that would open up the world and make it his.
"Give him extra oats," he told the fey grayling.
"Aye, my lord."
Kerrigan shifted the woman's slight weight before he headed toward the blackened doors of the once-famed castle. They parted of their own volition as he approached, allowing him to enter. With every step he took, his heels and spurs clicked eerily against the stone floor.
As he walked through the hallway that was scented with nutmeg and mace, torches