Author's notes: This story is completely AU for Star Gate, the Gate exists but well things worked out a little differently for Ra in my universe.
Q Me?: Chapter 13: Journey to Avalon
I stepped out of the elevator with even more caution than usual and found myself under the baneful glares of a trio of dragons. Enough, was enough, was fcking enough. I was beginning to feel like I'd made a wrong turn and ended up in a damn Harry Potter novel. Elves and dragons on top of aliens and vampires (not to mention the Immortals that had gotten me into this in the first place) was just beyond the bounds of belief. And it wasn't much consolation that Mac and Amanda looked just as surprised about the dragons as I did.
It was tough to tell in what little light spilled onto the grimy rooftop but it looked like the dragons were reddish. The closest one rumbled deep in his throat as the one on his right flicked his tongue over teeth longer than my fore arm. These must be the 'mardeths' Ari-El had warned me about though why he just couldn't call a dragon a dragon was beyond me. The one furthest out rumbled something in what I could have sworn sounded a bit like Gaelic and from the look on Mac's face it was. Both he and Amanda closed ranks around me and Mac went so far as to draw his katana much to the mardeths' amusement. I wished now that we hadn't taken the elevator. Methos' stretcher wouldn't fit so the elves had taken the stairs. I could have managed the stairs, not easily, but it beat being a dragon muchie any day.
All three of the big ass critters made a rumbling sound. Laughing, the damn things were laughing at Mac. It went instantly quiet as all three of them cringed, tucking in their wings, and lowering their heads all the way to the ground in groveling obeisance. I glanced over. The King of the Elves did NOT look pleased and the mardeths looked terrified of his displeasure. More evidence that the little fop was as dangerous as Ari-El claimed. As he came alongside us I was a little surprised to discover that he wasn't all that little either. He wasn't quite as tall as Mac but he wasn't more than an inch shorter and just as broad shouldered. He was sleeker in the waist and hips though as if he'd never quite grown into his shoulders. The King eyed the mardeths who barely fit on the large roof and us.
"Mi annwyl you will need to support Methos between you. Mr. McLeod you will share Lladdur a Gwerin with them. Hycalon, you will accompany me with Mr. Dawson and Lady Amanda."
He nodded to the guards and they quickly mounted the far dragon, mardeth, what the hell ever. Watching as they scrambled up the overgrown lizards I had no idea how I was going to do it, hopefully his royal highness had a plan. The other two mardeths hopped, with surprising lightness for such huge beasts, onto the adjoining roofs as the one with the guards looked at the King expectantly. His green, glowing, cat's eyes narrowed and the wind screamed around us like a jet engine in overdrive before the beast launched itself, stiff-winged only flapping once it cleared the surrounding buildings. As it circled above us the next mardeth returned to our roof where Methos was quickly and efficiently bundled aboard by the princesses. The King's willowy daughters were a hell of a lot stronger than they looked. They handled Methos' bonelessly limp frame as easily as if he were no more than a lanky child. I breathed a sigh of relief as the fluttery things that made my blood run cold followed the second mardeth into the air.
The King continued to look suavely cool through the second mardeth's lift off but something, some instinct born of a lifetime of Watching, told me that he was beginning feel the strain of giving the jumbo reptiles the wind needed to clear the roof tops in these cramped quarters. Apparently the final mardeth agreed because he came at us with claws and jaws both extended.
The King didn't even flinch, he merely turned, completely calm, and the mardeth looked like it had pile driven into a wall. He smirked at the monster as it glared impotent rage at him. I'd spent the better part of my life Watching Immortals and I'd thought I'd seen hate at its most vehement but I'd never seen the like of what blazed in the mardeth's great slit pupiled eyes. He tsked "You missed your chance Brenin Lladdededig, when I was fourteen. If you really want to commit suicide I'll give you another shot when the Dark Lady's brother is well."
The mardeth gave him a sullen sneer in response and dropped down nearly flat before him. After Brenin's little tiff I was even less keen on the idea of riding a dragon. I could just ask Mac and 'Manda for a complete report, but I'd never live it down. I was being presented with a unique, once in a lifetime chance, to document something that, while there were rumors of in the record, had never, ever been confirmed and I was considering bowing out because I had 'cold feet' about riding a dragon? I took a firmer grip on both my courage and my cane as Brenin swung his massive head in my direction, regarding me with a basilisk's gaze. Great, the fcking thing could probably smell fear. It was spooky how similar the elven King's eyes were to the mardeth's until he caught sight of the Eiffel Tower and they softened in spite of those funky assed slits into something more human.
"The mortal world changes so swiftly" he said softly "and I find I miss that."
"I take it that wasn't there the last time you were in Paris?" Amanda observed.
"The last time I was in Paris was 1603, very little is the same" he sighed and then looked harder at Amanda "What you did to Mary was most unkind."
"Mary?" Amanda asked at her most coquettish, clearly both confused and eager to deny the least hint of mischief.
"Lady Mary Tudor. Ellyllon don't have quite as sharp a memory as you Quickened, it took me a little while to place where I'd seen you before."
Her hands went instantly to her hips "You forgot me?" She sniffed "I must be losing my touch."
A grin tugged at the corner of his far too pretty face "I was barely twenty, milady, decades too young to think of the fairer sex that way, and you, as I recall, were disguised as a monk."
Interesting, so elves (or Ellyllon) clearly took longer to grow up than humans and if he was a contemporary of Mary Tudor that ball parked his age at 500 give or take a bit.
"We are talking about Bloody Mary" Amanda observed defensively.
"Your kind," the King retorted, "should understand better than any just how cruel it is to toy with the dreams of the barren."
Amanda flushed, chastened. She drew a breath to say something but the King glanced up and then gestured grandly at the mardeth, "This conversation is, perhaps, best left for once we are aloft. Ladies first?" He offered her a boost. The remaining (and best dressed) of the guardsmen looked like he was about to choke on his indignation. Apparently he didn't care for Amanda's boot being in his boss's royal hands and he didn't look at all impressed by her charms.
"Hycalon" the guardsman snapped to attention. Was that a name or a title? "Please leave a gap for Mr. Dawson between yourself and milady and be ready to assist him in mounting."
I personally doubted that there was enough assistance in the world to get me up on that monster but if they couldn't manage it I at least I had a better excuse than I wimped out. While Hycalon settled himself the irony of an 'immortal' complaining that the world changed too slowly suddenly hit me. Every Immortal I knew, except for Methos, complained that the world changed too fast. I had the distinct impression that the King of the Elves felt a bit stifled. I suppose no one is ever content with what they have which is just too damn sad for words. Hycalon turned his blue cat pupil eyes on his King and nearly strangled when the King lifted me smoothly to above his shoulder. He quickly scaled the beast's shoulder without jostling me. From the look on Hycalon's face I was giving his King human cooties and he wasn't even slightly happy about it. He did move fairly quickly to help me get my prosthetic leg around the mardeth's neck probably to minimize my clearly objectionable contact with his King.
I was surprised when the King dropped nimbly back down onto the roof instead of mounting but maybe it was easier to do the take off thing while he was on the ground himself. But how was he going to get on once we were airborne?
I've never particularly enjoyed take offs even in those oversized flying buses that they pack us into like cattle and had never had Richie's love of motorcycles so I was less than thrilled to find myself above the Paris streets on the neck of an super-sized flying reptile. I'm a city boy so I don't know much about what it feels like to ride a horse but I could feel every pump of the mardeth's great wings and I was damn glad to be sandwiched in tight between Hycalon and Amanda though heaven help me if either of them slipped because I'd never be able to keep a grip on the slick scales. I nearly jumped out of my skin and off the dragon when the building below us erupted like a fragging volcano. 'Nam had let me get up close and personal enough to lose my legs with demolitions and I had never, ever seen anything like the inferno below us. It turned night to day for blocks as the flames shot so high that the taller tongues nearly licked the definitely red mardeths' bellies. The Watcher in me noted that they were distinctly different shades of red. The one Methos and Mac were on had a distinct orangey-red tone while this one was more the color of half-dried blood. The rest of my attention was spent searching the blinding conflagration for any sign of the King. He emerged from the blue-white heart of the inferno levitating out of it with stately grace as it swirled and eddied around him making intricate geometric patterns that were far too detailed to be natural. They dropped away as he rose to join us like petals falling from a dying flower. So much for discrete and I felt a sudden chill as it occurred to me that we had only Ari-El's word that the people within were dead. Had the King burned them alive at Ari-El's request? The reality that we were essentially putting ourselves completely at this being's mercy turned my marrow to ice. Given that my life depended on it I mustered a lifetime of Watching to see just what we'd gotten ourselves into.
My first thought was - show off. The bejeweled cape was perfectly flared by the breeze which might have been fanned by the inferno or might have been crafted by the King himself just to display the fine sprays of glittering gems and precious metal embroidery on the strange silk like fabric he was wearing. Every flicker of flame illuminated him to the best possible effect and the smoke framed him but never obscured or touched him. This might well be the VAINEST being I had ever met. Having decided that he'd made enough of a spectacle of himself he mounted a grey stallion I hadn't even noticed. From Hycalon's start this was not part of the original plan. I understood the gigantic flying lizards, they had wings but the damn horse didn't and he was still just hanging there.
"A Marw Llidiart chan Avalon" he commanded and urged the horse into a midair canter in the lead.
"Where are we going?" Amanda asked leaning forward and pressing against my back. Old, not dead.
"To the Great Gate" Hycalon answered "The mardeths are not permitted into Avalon proper. Undoubtedly the King has sent word ahead for a full escort back to the Citadel from the Gate."
"You speak English very well" she observed. Her warm breath tickling my ear was almost as distracting as her body pressed against my back. I never had a prayer with 'Manda but a man can dream, even an old broken one.
"The entire court does" Hycalon replied "While the King speaks El'lan as well as if he had been raised speaking aught else, he was raised as a changeling in Tudor England and it is well known he has a soft spot for the tongue of his childhood so most speak it at least passably well."
"Are many of your children raised as changelings?" she asked.
"Most certainly not" Hycalon sounded offended, "No matter what all those foolish tales say, only under the direst of circumstances are young Ellyllon fostered among humans." He shuddered with revulsion.
Lovely, I was snuggled up against a racist.
"No other Penthalion prince has ever been raised among your kind but given the atrocities committed by that" he snarled several curses in El'lan "monster that usurped the throne of Avalon was ever to have the hope of a good Brenin again there was no other choice." He shifted a little "The Kingship does not pass by strict primogeniture, the ruling Brenin may choose any male of the Blood to succeed him, brother, son, nephew, or grandson. Brenin Rhys am Byth's grandsire, wise Brenin Callineb had no surviving brothers and but one son, who was an utter fiend, so he was determined to pass the throne to a grandson but his heinous offspring knowing that retaining his bid for the throne depended on there being no other heir" His voice trailed off
"He killed his sons" Amanda finally stated.
"He arranged the deaths of all his children in infancy but Brenin Rhys am Byth survived his first attempt and was afterward hidden away. Knowing that he was extremely aged and that young Brenin Rhys was an extremely skilled Shadow Master Brenin Callineb intended to have him trained hard and fast in the Outlands and to fetch him back at twenty to take the throne. You must understand that we age differently from you and a twenty year old would barely be out of the nursery. Alas, it was not to be. The usurper struck first, murdering his father and sending, King Slayer, the very mardeth we are riding, who at that time was already infamous for the number of noble Ellyllon he had devoured, to slaughter the young prince." He paused and I could feel him swell with pride "My father heard the tale directly from his older brother Mannwan who arrived not long after the battle. Alone and armed with naught but daggers the child prince inflicted nearly mortal wounds upon his foe." He pointed in front of him "You can still see the scars His Highness left though the ones on the underside of his throat are easier to spot."
As he was speaking you could feel the mardeth's rage building. I suppose if I'd had my ass handed to me by some little wet-behind-his pointy-ears pipsqueak I'd be pissed too. I don't think if I was the King I'd let this thing at my back either because you could taste how damn badly this monster wanted to kill him.
"The Highness, the Daig Dia, remains the only Ellyllon to ever slay a mardeth in single combat."
I could feel Amanda swallow "Single combat?"
"Actually if Brenin Lladdededig persists in his suicidal wish for a rematch I'll have an even dozen kills."
The King's voice at my elbow startled me so badly that if I hadn't been sandwiched aboard the beast I'd have slid off to my death far below. When the hell had he gotten there?
"And you know that I do not care for that title."
"My apologies, your Grace" Hycalon sounded like a whipped puppy. The King looked as if he would have liked to recall them. Points for the King, he cared about at least one of his subject's feelings.
"A man who doesn't think he's a good god?" Amanda said flirtingly "Where have you been all my life?"
He gave her a brash smile in response, this was a man who knew precisely how pretty he was and reveled in it.
"I fear, milady, like the Captain of my Guard, flatters me above my worth. My wife, were she so inclined could undoubtedly read you chapter and verse on my faults as a husband. My subjects have not had a good king in millennia, if ever. It's easy too look good when you take the throne from a monster who could have given lessons in brutality to Ivan the Terrible, Stalin, and Hitler. It isn't difficult to appear messianic with such competition."
The words were extremely self-deprecating; the attitude was not exactly humble.
"But I have not forgotten the companions of my youth and while I am a better king than Philip, Ivan, or Max, next to Bess, Henri, or Guile I am barely adequate."
When he mentioned Ivan and Philip his eyes hardened into utterly inhuman slits but when he spoke of Bess and Henri they softened into something completely human despite the snake like pupils. He missed them and mourned them centuries later. Of course, Ari-El, was sad about Rebecca being dead and that didn't make him any less of a bastard.
"Henri…Bourbon?" Amanda asked and then flinched behind me. Great, just peachy, what had she done to the King's posthumous good buddy?
"The very same. As I recall he always spoke well of you in spite of the fact that you robbed him blind."
The King's mount dropped back just a bit and I could no longer see him but Amanda tossed her head and I could feel the suggestive smile.
"I was worth it."
"So he said, which is why I didn't hunt you down and flay you alive, while he lived, to regain what I had just stolen."
The tone was mild but Amanda's heart was racing against my back. What kind of look was the King giving her to earn such a response and how could I help her?
She cooed "You can't possibly still be angry over that." Her arms tightened, apparently he was. I could imagine her running her tongue over her lips provocatively during the pause.
"I could show you why he thought I was worth it."
No one should be able to pack that much innuendo into so few words.
"Tempting" he didn't sound tempted but I sure was "but I have no wish to shame my Queen before the court."
"We could be…discrete."
Amanda was f'ing terrified. I wanted to lash out at him for it but didn't dare. Besides Amanda could take care of herself and if she couldn't Mac was a far better hero to come charging to the rescue than some legless 'Nam vet. He must have turned her down because she spoke again in teasing disbelief.
"A king without a mistress?"
"A rarity, I know, but I have always been one of a kind. I must confess, it is a pity our paths never crossed when I was an Exile rather than a Changeling. I would have been most eager to take you up on your offer then."
A pause and then in a voice laced with apprehension that she was clearly trying to hide "What is your Queen like? Clearly she gave you some beautiful children."
"She is currently carrying our 14th & 15th."
"Twins!" Amanda exclaimed too brightly "Congratulations! Your Queen must be very excited."
"I fear I am more pleased than she and I have granted that these will be our last."
I could feel Amanda relaxing against me as the discussion turned to the King's children "Such a big family. How long have you been married?"
"296 years on the solstice."
Hah, what was the elf Queen complaining about? I'd known some families as a kid that managed to have 12 kids in 16 years, one every 13 months. The Elven Queen was probably spacing them at about 20 years and she undoubtedly had servants.
"Speaking of my Queen, Rhiana, is not overly fond of Outlanders and I fear she will be less than overjoyed to have you as guests."
Interesting, so Hycalon wasn't the only 'racist' (or would that be speciesest?). The mardeths wanted to eat me and the Ellyllon were likely to snub me (or worse). It was shaping up to be a lovely week courtesy of Ari-El, thanks a lot pal. I hoped again that the bastard died, preferably without taking the King's son with him. The prince had seemed like a decent sort.
"Does she not care for the fashions?" Amanda ventured.
"She does not care for the fact that I allowed the seven of our children who were of an age to make their own choices. To decide if they wished to join the contingent of my subjects that served in your Second World War. Six served, two gave their life's blood and one's taste for battle was so whetted that he has not yet returned home but has traveled the world from battle to battle these last seventy years. She can blame me for it or the Outlands and while I am occasionally harangued for it by and large she holds Outland aggression responsible." The elf king pulled up a little so I could see him again and shook his head "I know that the Draig blood runs stronger in Cynsieg than in any of my other children but seventy years of killing should be enough even to slake a Dragon's thirst."
I spoke up for the first time "A Dragon's thirst?"
"We Ellyllon were once human" his voice took on an edge again and he glared at Hycalon's back "A fact frequently overlooked by our nobles. As the last of the great Draigs lay dying they bequeathed their Blood and Power to a select group of humans to keep it out of the claws of the mardeths."
"So these aren't dragons?"
From the strangling sounds Hycalon was making I'd just made a serious faux pas.
The King settled for a succinct "No." One perfect ear flickered back "Your pardons but Morcana requests my assistance with your companion. Don't worry, he is still stable but we have never needed to support and assist a Quickened in healing before and it presents unique challenges. He will be fine though, the critical moment is past."
With those less than comforting words the King's horse dropped like a rock straight down until it was beneath the sweep of the mardeth's wings before passing out of sight behind us.
Amanda leaned against me again to renew her conversation with Hycalon "So what is that creature he's riding and could I possibly get one?"
Hycalon sounded mortally offended though I wasn't certain if it was because of my earlier question or Amanda's.
"That was Ebrwydd, lord of the ceffyl dwr, the flying 'horses'. They will bear only the Brenin and the crown prince, they will not suffer even the other members of house Penthalion upon their noble backs so I hardly think they would stoop to carrying you."
Amanda's indignation was a presence behind me but to my surprise she let it slide. We flew in silence for what seemed like forever before finally passing out over the Channel where we were joined by some itty bitty mardeths (where itty bitty equals a mere ten feet long). I wondered if they were a different species or just juveniles. It was hard to tell in the moonlight but they looked more brightly colored than the full sized mardeths. Apparently the mardeth we were riding didn't care for sharing his airspace because he struck out at one of the little guys cobra quick. The little (green? it was tough to tell in the moonlight) critter shrieked "Brenin" as it eluded the great maw and vicious teeth. I wondered if it was begging the mardeth to stop attacking it or calling for the King's help. It tucked its wings and we left my stomach behind was our mount swooped in pursuit. Where were the brakes on this damn thing?! I clung to Hycalon and reflected that this was exactly why I had never been too keen on the whole concept of riding. I preferred machines that did exactly what they were told to critters with minds of their own. If I lived through this I was never going to complain about boring trans-Atlantic flights again. Just as the overgrown lizard leveled out for a tail chase over the choppy waters of the Channel Amanda let out a shriek.
I let out an embarrassingly girly shriek of my own as I found myself staring into a bottomless maw. If it damned my immortal soul I was going to haunt Ari-El for getting my killed in a bad Never Land meets Jurassic Park debacle. The King said something in a chiding tone and the teeth reared back and snapped shut, mercifully to the side of us. It was hard to tell where the snout ended in the dark but the critter was way bigger than the mardeth we were riding. It cocked its massive head so that one eerie glowing eye that was twice my height fixed on us.
A so-deep-bass-that-it-rattled-your-bones but crystal clear voice rumbled "Your pardons" and there was the glint of star-light on scales for a very, very long time as the monster slipped silently back into the deep. Fing English, the damn thing spoke crystal clear English. That blew my mind way more than anything else, the damn monsters spoke English.
I snarled at the King as he drew along side "What the hell was that, the fing Loch Ness monster?"
Something flashed in the King's eyes as they went coldly reptilian (and glowing). Smooth move, Dawson, I chided myself, just piss off the guy in charge of this nightmare but his voice was merely cool when he answered.
"That was Noddwr, one of the cirein croin, the greater sea serpents, Cellwair, the beast responsible for the Loch Ness monster stories, is a mhorag, a lake serpent, which are far smaller. The difference in size between a cirein croin and a mhorag is even greater than that between a mardeth" he guestured to the little mardeth that was all but hiding behind him "and a culebre."
So the little guys weren't baby mardeths.
"Noddwr never meant you any harm, he's a gentle soul, unless you happen to be a squid, in which case you are lunch, or a bully, like the mardeths."
It was then that I realized that the culebre was flying so close to the King that its wings occasionally went through the King's 'horse' sending little bits of fog swirling away and thinning its substance. The King didn't seem alarmed though so I guessed it was ok.
"The mardeths sided with my Sire" he growled the word sire, apparently not much love lost between him and his dad "while the culebre and the cirein croin suffered severely during his reign of terror for their attempts at defiance. Mardeths, like the bullies they are, revel in tormenting those that can not harm them, like the culebre. Normally no mardeth would dare fly low over the Narrow Sea knowing how much the cirein croin would love to sink their fangs into them but he knew tonight that the serpents wouldn't touch him which he thought gave him every opportunity to torment his smaller brethren." The King grinned with the most beatific menace I have ever seen. The culebre stuck a long forked tongue out at the mardeth and I swear he blew a raspberry. "But he was quite mistaken as he will discover anon."
Anon? Who the hell talks like that anymore? But I wisely kept my trap shut this time. The mardeth hruumped.
"I take it he speaks English too" Amanda observed.
"All of them understand it perfectly but none of them will speak it."
"Who would have guessed they were Parisian?" I grumbled under my breath I hadn't meant for the comment to be overheard but the King laughed. Something about it just screamed politician. Not that he didn't sound genuinely amused so maybe it was just my paranoia about finding myself in a world I no longer even vaguely knew the rules of. Not to mention that we were headed to a COURT under a King whose crown was clearly more than a nod to history. There weren't many kings left on Earth who both ruled and reigned and I somehow doubted the handful that did would impress Ari-El.
"It is good to see that you've kept your wits" the King commented "Not many of your generation do when facing the reality of Avalon for the first time. Though I would suggest that you take care what you insult for in Avalon neither size nor dress is an indicator of power."
Interesting, so there was traffic of some kind between Avalon and the rest of the world, I wondered what kind beyond the obviously unpopular with the Queen fact that two of her sons were off adventuring in my world.
"How is Methos?" I asked instead.
One dark brow arched and I quickly added "Your Highness."
"Stable, troth, it is for my son and most particularly the Dark Lady that I worry." He worried his bottom lip, not something I would have expected of a King or of someone as vain as he clearly was. The King of the Elves might be the vainest guy I had ever met but he didn't have that 'I know what's best for everyone' attitude that Ari did and I liked him a hell of a lot better for the lack. "Aneirin is the Lord of Wind and Fire and he is a master of both but he has never cultivated what little healing gifts he has and the Dark Lady was in far more dire straights than your friend. I can only hope that all of that machinery she as integrated into her flesh is enough to make a difference that and the technology on the Saru is up to the challenge." The Elven King was clearly worried and if Ellyllon were anything like humans not just about Ari-El. "Perhaps Rhi is right and I never should have allowed any of them out of Avalon where they would be safe under my keen eye." He sighed "But I loved the Outlands and the freedom of my youth and for all of Avalon's wonders I had not the heart to deny them the marvels of yours nor could I deny them the opportunity to stand on their own feet if it means letting them risk their lives."
"I'm sure Aneirin will be fine" Amanda said gently.
"Probably, I worry for Cyn's survival but I think that 'Rin is actually more lost to us even than the dead. He has been in love with flying machines and the stars since he flew a spitfire in the Battle of Britain. One day the call will be so strong he will never return. You can see it building in his eyes. Oh, he comes home but it only proves to him that this isn't where he wants to be. When that day finally comes my Queen is going to want something more precious than my head for the loss of her favorite child."
"It sounds like your Queen has quite a temper" Amanda observed. She'd gone back to being flirty, but then Amanda was usually flirty it was her SOP. I hoped she didn't try it on the King in front of his Queen.
"The Driag Blood runs strong in her for all that she was not born to House Penthalion."
"Earlier you mentioned that Ari-El has a long history with your House. I must confess I'm dying of curiosity."
The Elven King cleared his throat, undoubtedly more for effect than anything else and began in a lecturing tone that I wondered if he inflicted on his children and subjects,
"Long ago the Great Ice came and drove the Draigs and most of the other cyfae from their homeland in the north south into the lands now known as the Middle East where they dwelt for many years yearning to return to their homeland but otherwise content. About ten thousand years ago there was a great war in the heavens and many refugees fell to Earth. The Draigs rose up in rage against these trespassers and slew as many as they could get their claws on until Ra came. Ra's technology was greater than their magic and he slaughtered many and drove the rest to what is today Spain."
He sneered (very prettily too prettily to have not practiced how to do it without actually marring his good looks) at the mention of Spain.
"They seethed and roiled in their anger. The land was not theirs and it came to hate them as much as they hated to set foot on it but the Ice kept them from returning to the North and Ra's machines continued to kill them. The few that remained were beginning to despair when another alien came to speak to the Draig Nimrais last of the Whites." The King waved a hand and an entire scene took shape before us.
A physically younger Ari-El inclined his head to the great beast that regarded him with malevolent red eyes. I had known about Ari-El's mis-matched eyes but the calico cat look to his head was a surprise. Some of his hair was the wavy blond I was used to but the rest was straight black in a crazy patchwork Even though Methos had mentioned the fact that he had physically aged since he had last seen him I wasn't expecting to see a kid that didn't look a day over thirteen. It was more than just the physical years that separated the boy standing his ground in front of the angry dragon and the man I had recently met. The kid didn't ooze Ari-El's arrogant confidence. In point of fact he looked damn unsure of himself and scared half-witless. Pity that kid had vanished, he seemed a lot more likable than the asshole he'd grown up to be.
"And why should we help you? We have no love for humans, you are not even worth bothering to eat." Nimrais rumbled.
"Because you are in even more dire trouble than the humans. Ra seeks to enslave the entire world."
The dragon blew a great gout of smoke over Ari-El but he ignored it "and what he can not enslave he will destroy."
He gave the dragon a sharp glance more in keeping with the man I knew.
"How long until he kills you all? One year? Two?"
This time there was flame in the smoke but the slender child stood his ground.
"What do we care about that? The less there are the more for the few that remain. We do not coddle weakness. The strong survive, the weak die. It is the order of things."
"If you want to die here, in exile, far from your own lands, so be it."
I wouldn't have been so keen to turn my back on the dragon (who was I kidding I won't have come anywhere near the damn thing to begin with).
The white dragon's head shot forward, cobra quick to snap up Ari-El but he cried out in agony as the Quickening lashed him. He flicked a forked tongue over his still twitching lips and glared at the slight young whatever in front of him.
"Not even human, and no more of this world than Ra himself." The great beast rumbled "How do I know that you are not in league with Ra yourself?"
Ari-El flushed so dark he was nearly purple. Interesting, I maybe I should bring up Ra just to see if I could get a rise out of the bastard. The dragon's pupils narrowed so much they nearly vanished.
"So, is this merely a lover's spat? Or a trap to destroy those of us that remain?"
"My mother was human" Ari-El snapped back with more real human feeling than I'd ever seen from him "and you may not understand the concept but I loved her, and my brothers and sisters" Electricity flickered across his eyes and coiled at his feet whipping out little jags as the sky darkened above him. Heat lighting wrapped around the edges of the funnel cloud that spun faster and faster above them. "Ra killed them." He swallowed "and he played me for a fool."
I'd pay every penny I ever possessed to be a fly on the wall for that moment. So someone had one upped Ari-El once upon a time. Good. That did it I was going to bring up Ra at some point.
"I want him dead, no matter what it takes" he snarled.
Unlike his sneers in this day and age there was nothing pretty about his visage as it twisted. Fierce hate, devastating grief, and wounded pride, in that order, the kid was real. Amanda had spoken of Rebecca's ire at his failure to weep over his daughter, had made a point of observing how rarely Ari-El wept. Maybe he'd outgrown it before Rebecca met him because his face was certainly wet with them in the glamour or whatever that the King was showing us. I wasn't sure if they were of rage or grief but there was no shortage of them.
"Neither of us can destroy him alone, do we have an alliance?"
The dragon considered long before replying "It will take more than just the two of us and my kind do not work together."
Ari-El hadn't bothered to wipe the tears from his face and the wind had dried tracks on his lovely face "Which is why I have offered something that all of you want – your own lands, free of the Ice, as soon as Ra is dead."
The dragon's head rocked back and he blinked at Ari-El, "You truly believe you can do it."
"I know I can."
There was the son of a bitch I knew. Know-it-all bastard.
"I will speak to my kin" the dragon said before launching himself into the sky.
The King waved a hand and the images faded letting us see the stars and the low slung moon again. "According to Nimrais that was the first time one of the Great Draigs had ever spoken to a human much less allied with one. Nimrais the White, mightiest of the Draigs managed to convince the Remnant to lead the cyfae into battle against Ra in the War of Wrath while Ari-El mustered the human slaves and armed them with his tech." A new set of images paraded before us.
Ari-El's wild colored hair would have marked him out even if he hadn't been the only one on a horse and out it front. Way to make a target of yourself, dude. Hadn't anyone ever told him generals hide back behind the lines? After that one glance Nimrais' attention had clearly shifted away from the roiling mass of humanity below and to his own battle against Ra's crescent moon shaped fighters.
I had chosen to be a ground grunt in 'Nam for a reason, I hate heights and airplanes and just the thought of being in a dog fight made me ill. I certainly could have gone the rest of my life with out a dragon's eye view of dinosaurs versus the space age, thank you very much. But I was still a Watcher and this was history we had never dreamed existed. We were after the Truth and this was part of it so I kept my eyes open like a good soldier. If numbers were any indication this was about to be a very lopsided fight because there were less than twenty dragons, maybe even less than a dozen. Since it was Nimrais' view we were getting it was tough to get an accurate count but Ra's attack wing took up an entire quadrant of the sky. They proved they were a whole hell of a lot faster and more maneuverable as they streaked toward Nimrais' line. From the way the dragons flinched when they opened fire they weren't usually shielded Quickening like arcs of power and light. The dragons roared in exaltation and dove after the ships as they tucked tail and fled once they discovered their little lasers now had no effect. The vessels scattered and the dragons veered off on a dozen different vectors in pursuit. With his wings pumping and the wind howling at his tail the golden sands streamed past at a clip I really hoped the mardeth I was riding wasn't capable of achieving but it wasn't nearly fast enough to keep up with the little bronze fighter.
I nearly jumped off the mardeth when a stone wall rose out of literally nowhere to block the fighter. The King's bejeweled hand steadied me as the little ship veered desperately away from the wall while trying to elude Nimrais as well but a sudden change in the wind forced it right into his waiting maw. It vanished from sight but you could still hear the crunching as the wall crumbled back into sand before Nimrais flew right through what was left himself.
The King glanced at me. I must have looked a little green because the 'in flight movie' abruptly skipped from dawn to long after dark.
A wing of dragons circled overhead as Nimrais dropped neatly onto a dune himself. A green dragon dropped the remains of a fighter onto the ground and proceeded to trample it himself while watching Nimrais like a hawk (or dragon as the case maybe). Clearly no one had ever told the big lizard that staring is impolite (or maybe it was among dragons, who knows) . When the green dragon had decided that he'd made enough of an impression he turned his head toward the moonlit great pyramid which looked a hell of a lot whiter and sharper edged than I remembered but then it was also a hell of a lot newer.
"Where is your human? He still has the other half of his bargain to deliver."
From the sound of things, "Puff" wasn't too pleased with the deal. Puff launched himself into the air followed by Nimrais. This in flight movie sucked. Hadn't anyone ever told the Elven King that you show comedies?
They swooped low over a strange black ring I would have liked to have gotten a closer look at but Puff caught sight of Ari-El and made a beeline for him. The two dragons circled high watching what looked like an argument between Ari-El and an angry mob over something huddled in the sand. Puff bellowed and dove. The rest of the humans scattered like cockroaches caught by the light but Ari-El didn't even look up. Nimrais circled even higher, clearly not intending to either help Ari-El or hinder "Puff".
Long before Puff even got close his chest exploded raining chunks of dragon over the base of the Great Pyramid. Interesting, there was only one, odd to see it without its little buddies. From the look of things Nimrais was ripping at his own chest. Whatever he was trying to do if the smoke he started bellowing was any indication he wasn't have much success finally he rumbled to Ari-El
"I am going to land near you."
Ari nodded once in acknowledgement but didn't even bother looking up from the body lying face down in front of him. Nimrais landed neatly and cautiously approached Ari-El who still didn't look up.
"I thought you wanted Ra dead."
"I needed Ra dead, which is a very different thing" he replied softly.
"You deceived me" the dragon hissed at Ari his voice a mix of rage, hate, surprise, and awe.
Ari shrugged and finally raised his head. He looked frigging shell shocked, it was something I'd seen too damn often in 'Nam but wouldn't have thought Ari was capable of it but I suppose even he might have been young and innocent once.
"Yes and no" Ari allowed while the dragon growled "I couldn't deal with Ra's air forces and his ground forces at the same time. I needed your peoples help and you needed mine to survive but if you had known my only interest was in freeing humanity from being enslaved for the rest of its existence you never would have understood or allied with me. So I gave you a reason you could understand. I convinced you I wanted revenge. The only lie I told was that I wanted to kill. " His hands twisted around each other and I noticed the blood on them for the first time "I've killed many of the diseased but never one that was healthy."
"He was either destroying or enslaving the entire world"
Nimrais sounded exasperated.
"I know" Ari didn't finish as he went back to staring at the body at his feet.
"A fool" the dragon spat "A fool to make so poor a choice of mate."
Ari-El's calico head snapped up in surprise.
"Did you think you could trick a Draig?" Nimrais asked haughtily.
Ari smirked but didn't point out the obvious and then turned more serious "I am well aware that I was played for a fool. Never again will I let passion cloud my judgment."
Well, that certainly explained why he was so uptight. Keeping it in your pants was always safer but never as much fun. Maybe he just really needed to get laid more regularly?
"You swore" Nimrais accused "that this tech of yours would do us no harm."
"So long as you keep your end of our bargain it will not" Ari turned Quicking lit eyes on the dragon "Break it, do any harm to those I have taken under my protection and I will destroy you all."
Nimrais made a scoffing sound "You expect me to believe that when you are so distraught over a single kill?"
"I never said I'd like it" Ari retorted "But I will do it if you force me to."
I knew that look I'd faced it myself, that please don't make me kill you look.
Nimrais grudgingly retorted "We will not harm you precious humans…so long as you keep your own end of the accord."
Ari inclined his head, "The matter will be concluded much more swiftly if you would be so good as to give me a ride to the coast of the Eastern Sea."
"Ride your horse" Nimrais replied with savage hauteur.
"Angnar the Red ate her."
"Then use your much vaulted tech."
Tech was clearly a four letter word to dragons.
"Penbran the Black smashed it."
"Then get one of them to carry your sorry carcass to the shore" Nimrais groused before turning his attention to the big black disc that from the position of Ra's body he'd been trying to reach. He launched himself toward it.
I'd wanted a closer look at the thing but not exactly this way.
"STOP" Ari roared, frantically, "The explosion would destroy us all!"
Nimrais backwinged creating a minor sandstorm before settling back to earth beside the great carved disk.
"And if we leave it open we could be invaded at any time. Not an acceptable option half-breed freak."
Ari-El took the insult without batting a parti-colored eye.
"No it isn't" he retorted "So we need to cast it down, bury it, and between the two of us so thoroughly hide it that no one but us will ever be able to find it."
"So far as Nimrais knows it lies there still" A wistful note crept into the King's voice "It's a pity I didn't learn of the Stargate's existence when I was a Changeling for I would have liked to have found it. Nimrais thinks I'm a daft fool, as usual, and that those of us who have been born under the shadow of the Dark Lady's wing are far too sanguine about the benevolence of the Universe. He's half of the opinion that he should tell me where it is just so he can laugh at our demises. Draigs have a rather twisted sense of humor. "
I had a quandary of my own – was it wise to pass this tidbit on to the Watchers? On one hand it didn't take a rocket scientist to guess just what a Stargate might be used for on the other hand Ari-El had undoubtedly buried the damn thing for what he considered a good reason and hadn't used it himself when he'd needed a quick out. That said he considered the danger very, very real. Could I trust my fellow Watchers to be wise? We hadn't exactly proven ourselves to be the best of guardians for the Methuselah stone.
"But that doesn't explain how your House became entangled with Ari-El" Amanda observed.
"For an Immortal you aren't very patient" there was just the subtlest of edges to the King's tone "The Dark Lady was true to her word but sending the Great Ice into almost instant retreat had several far reaching consequences."
So Ari is also responsible for global warming, bastard.
"The first is really only important to the Dark Lady herself but I did use it to save my daft brother's skin once"
"Ho, ho" I swallowed the third ho when I realized just who I was interrupting "Sorry, I thought that your father" I shut up before I ended up dead. The guy REALLY didn't care to hear his dad mentioned.
"By the time I returned to Avalon to take my rightful place as heir my predecessor on the throne had decided I was much too useful to kill out of hand but his plan required a powerfully gifted half-breed son to carry it off so he forced himself" he had to pause and fight his rage. Such violent hate that was a razor's edge from spilling over. Amanda's grip was hard enough to leave bruises "upon a lady of the proper blood line who was dear to me and got on her a son. She died making certain the boy did not, in fact, fall into His hands and when I escaped into Exile shortly thereafter I raised him in secret." At the mention of the boy the anger evaporated to be replaced by a nostalgic grin. "Sparrow had a…unique talent both for both getting into and out of trouble but he made the most foolish deal of his life with Davy Jones for something he would have known he didn't bloody need if he had ever bothered to listen to me. Do to circumstances unfortunately beyond my control I was unable to intervene personally and so incurred my only personal debt to the Dark Lady. Ironic that I am paying off that debt for one the Dark Lady still counts as a brother in spite of the fact that he is the traitor that cost her, her eyes and hands."
So the King knew some of Methos' history, interesting, it would be nice to have another perspective on the Old Man.
"But I digress, the Dark Lady earned the eternal adoration of the Kraken who haunts her steps dreaming of the moment it wrap her in its tentacles in the depths."
I had a notion that I knew what the Kraken was but asked anyway "So the Kraken is a giant squid."
"The Kraken is a squid large enough to dwarf a blue whale."
That would certainly explain the squid phobia and the avoidance of all large bodies of water.
"The second was the Great Draig War that tradition holds was begun by the mardeths but I personally believe from discussions with her that the Dark Lady had a hand in. It was certainly she who kept the mardeths from killing my ancestors long enough for us to become the Gwaed da Draig, those with the Dragon's Blood. We are a hybrid race with all the territorial pride and bloodlust of the Draig running in our veins. More than once the Dark Lady has preserved my House… undoubtedly to serve her own interests." He glanced up "But anymore will have to wait for we are nearly to the Great Gate"
Stonehenge? Well, that probably derailed a whole lot of peoples pet theories, it's an oversized door. The mardeths landed much more easily than they took off outside the ring which threw some spooky ass shadows. Somehow I'd expected a welcoming committee (including the much mentioned Queen who I was feeling more than a little leery of) but the place was still as a tomb. Hycalon had another cow when his king helped me back off the mardeth. All three of them winged away leaving us in the first faint light of dawn. It had been entirely too long a night. I wanted to be wherever the hell we where going an hour ago but the King just silently watched the sun as it took its dear sweet time clearing the horizon. I started to say something but I think Hycalon would have killed me if so much as spoke to his royal highness.
The King turned to us once the sun was up "Your pardons, but I do miss the sun, moon, and stars in the twilight land."
With that he led us into the circle of stones. The instant I passed between the stones I left bright morning for foggy twilight. Apparently the famed London fog is an export from Fairy land, small wonder the King missed my world if this was what his own looked like. The fog roiled, writhing and twisting into a thousand different forms. Ah, this was another of the King's shows. I was way too tired for this bullshit and my stumps ached. All I wanted to do was get some sleep and right now the ground was looking damn good. Of course there wasn't a thing I could do to rush him without biting off more than I could chew so I sighed and decided to see if he could one up the Queen concerts 'Adam Peirson' had kept dragging me off to since he couldn't get Dom to go. God but my life had been so much simpler then, back when Mac was a guy I watched, James wasn't an Immortal killing fanatic, and I hadn't had a clue the young grad student with the penchant for rock music was really the elusive Methos. I'd liked him better back then when I had thought 'Adam' was all there was. He'd been so damn excited when Alexa called him cute, because as Methos had said he could 'do' cute. All smoke and mirrors. Kind of like this little (alright not so little and better than an laser light show I'd ever seen and thanks to 'Adam' I'd seen quite a few) display of magic the King was indulging in.
Maybe it was a result of the tour of duty in 'Nam that had cost me my legs but I'm more than a bit paranoid about dangers I can't see. Getting tossed into a swamp by a landmine will do that to you. I like things straightforward and in the open (notwithstanding the fact that I've spent over half my life working for a secret organization). Take Mac (who might as well be on the moon this fog is so dense) what you see is what you get, 150 pure hero, regardless of Ari-know-it-all-El's opinion to the contrary. This is bullshit.
Just as I started to step forward the mist swirled into a great white dragon that launched itself into the stratosphere. I would have expected the mist to sheer off but more impressively it held its shape. No sun, no stars, no moon, damn bizarre. I wondered if it would smack into a ceiling up there. Before the theory could be tested it barrel rolled and shot, hmm, firebolts? They were shaped like lighting but were very clearly crafted out of blue flame and they encircled the entire ring of stones and created a tunnel of flame off toward, damn but my sense of direction was completely shot, I assumed toward wherever we were going next.
The quieter of the King's twin daughters sniffed and rolled her eyes, clearly not at all impressed with her father's theatrical tendencies and slightly impatient. I could sympathize but I wondered if it was all theatrics 'cause if I was an attacker this particular display of power would certainly have me rethinking my approach.
"Mr. Dawson, would you be so good as to accompany my daughters in the coach?"
Women, invalids, and cripples to the center. It stung, I should be used to it by now, after all I've been a cripple most of my life and there was no way in hell I wanted to try riding one of the horses waiting for Amanda and Mac. On the bright side I got to hang out with the King's gorgeous daughters without Methos' "witty" commentary to spoil the moment. Then I looked at him and suddenly I wanted him to say something that would tempt me to sock him one even if it would hurt my hand more than it ever would his nose (hey, even I can't miss a target that big) because the strange diffuse light in the coach made him look ghastly, revealing just how deeply those can't-quite-pick-what-color-to-be eyes had sunk into his skull and his lips still held a blue tinge. He was always pale but he seemed almost translucent now,
A gentle hand wrapped itself around mine and I looked up into very earnest cat-green eyes "I swear to you, he will make a complete physical recovery."
I started to nod and then snapped "Physical?"
The girls glanced at each other "The Dark Lady is concerned some of her work to stabilize him mentally might have been compromised by what that thing did to him. It is her hope that the link between your friends' Quickenings and Meddwl's gifts will be enough to undo any harm that might have been done."
"Meddwl?"
"One of our younger brothers, he is a mind healer, trained by the Dark Lady herself. She requested that he come with us but father would not allow it."
"Father never lets Meddwl or Aisling go any where" the quieter sister said so softly I barely heard it.
"He let him go to Aratta to be trained in his art by the Dark Lady" Morcana protested "And he would have let him come if he had realized that the situation was contained."
"He only let him go to Aratta on the condition that Aneirin went too, and that they stayed there. He never would have let him come with us."
From the sound Morcana made I doubted that the second condition had been followed which meant I could add kidnapping (or should that be contributing delinquency of a minor?) to Ari-El's long list of crimes but she seemed inclined to agree with her sister's evaluation of the situation in spite of her defense of her father.
I frowned suspiciously at them "How do you know all this?" I certainly hadn't heard a word about it and I had been present from when Ari had realized Methos was down until the Elf King had put him on his own ass.
"The Dark Lady's first telepathic sending was merely a Call to arms requesting immediate assistance specifically requesting, father, us, and Meddwl, and a small, discrete, highly mobile, but powerful, armed support force. The instant she asked for the last there was no way father would let Meddwl come." The quiet one winced a little and I got the feeling that Meddwl hadn't taken be told to stay behind quietly. I was beginning to feel bad for the kid and I hadn't even met him. "The second when we arrived had more detail, and a great deal about the Dark Lady's concerns and logistics were conveyed."
Son of a bitch. He could have let all of us in on things instead of having a private conversation right in front of us with the bloody elves.
The quiet sister, I really did need to learn her name, squeezed my hand "Ab-El was in a terrible rush and not in the best of shape. She essentially dropped information in our heads with very little discussion." Ab-el was it? I was a lot more wary of her than I'd been 10 seconds ago.
Morcana seemed annoyed that her twin had presumed to speak, "The Dark Lady isn't certain if there is any real damage. He may be as he was, or he may have been reset to what he was when the Lord of Aratta first found him, or he may be Death. We will not know until he wakes. It is to be hoped that it will be the former, if it is the later, father will deal with him."
Oh shit, what the hell would Mac do if the Elf King went after Methos' head? Or even worse, would I finally have to Watch the fight I'd been dreading for years, a full on no holds barred battle between Mac and Methos?
"If he has lost who he is it will be up to Meddwl and your friend, Mr. MacLeod to help him find his way back to himself." Morcana said while her sister said "Don't worry Meddwl is far better than father gives him credit for."
How the hell do I get myself into these things? Some days I wished Cord had let me die with the rest of my squad.
15