“And I shall hold you to that,” the young monk said. “As you will hold me to it, as well.”
“And yet, in the morning, that deceitful knight, Sir Bedevere will come to behead me with the sharp edge of that bloody sword.”
“Do not worry about knights who come for you,” the monk said. “They cannot pass into this monastery if we do not wish it, even with that pagan sword.”
Mordred chuckled. “These are knights, youth. They’re not priests of your churchyards. I’ve heard of knights who slaughtered women and children at Mass. Bedevere will not stop at your wooden gate to say his prayers.”
“You underestimate us,” the monk said. “We have had many soldiers who arrived to burn us from this place.” Then he stretched his arms out and yawned. “But it is late, and dawn is not far off in coming. Will you tell me more tomorrow when the sun has set? I will come then and sit with you.”
“You hide much, little monk,” Mordred said, arching an eyebrow. “Who are you that you and your fellows hold back armies from this place?”
But the monk ignored his question, grabbing the near-extinguished torch as he stood.
“I will bring a good supper for you tomorrow. I wish to know more of Arthur and your lover, Lancelot, and if you know the fate of your cousin Sir Gawain and of that Prince of Lyonesse called Tristan…”
“As I can, so I shall,” Mordred said, but felt the pull of sleep take him over. He lay back in the straw, closing his eyes, trying not to dream.
2
The young monk stepped in the hall, shutting and locking the door behind him. He glanced through the small square window, barely large enough for a man’s fist, and watched as the captive turned onto his side and fell fast asleep upon his bed.
He stood there awhile longer, watching Mordred in his sleep, wondering if he dreamed of Lancelot even then, of the great King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, and of the palace at Camelot with its towers that went nearly to the sun.
The monk then returned to his own sleeping quarters, and as he lay down upon his hard bed, he thought of those two men on the boat, tied by rope, the storm all around them.
He closed his eyes, feeling a terrible longing for that which he had not yet learned.
That night, the monk dreamed of Mordred and Lancelot, on the boat with the sleeping maiden, facing the storm of life that was to come.
The Chronicles of Mordred will continue.
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About the Author
Douglas Clegg is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of Neverland, The Priest of Blood, Afterlife, and The Hour Before Dark, among many other novels, novellas and stories. His short story collection, The Machinery of Night, won a Shocker Award, and his first collection, The Nightmare Chronicles, won both the Bram Stoker Award and the International Horror Guild Award. His work has been published by Simon & Schuster, Penguin/Berkley, Signet, Dorchester, Bantam Dell Doubleday, Cemetery Dance Publications, Subterranean Press, Alkemara Press and others.
A pioneer in the ebook world, his novel Naomi made international news when it was launched as the world’s first ebook serial in early 1999 and was called “the first major work of fiction to originate in cyberspace” by Publisher’s Weekly, covered in Time magazine, Business Week, Business 2.0, BBC Radio, NPR, USA Today and more; his book Purity was the first to go onto a mobile phone in the U.S. in early 2001.
He is married, and lives and writes in New England in a house called Villa Diodati.
Click here to discover more fiction by Douglas Clegg.
STAND-ALONE NOVELS
Afterlife
Breeder
The Children’s Hour
Dark of the Eye
Goat Dance
The Halloween Man
The Hour Before Dark
Mr. Darkness
Naomi
Neverland
You Come When I Call You
SHORT NOVELS & NOVELLAS
The Attraction
Bring Me the Head of Marie Antoinette
Dinner with the Cannibal Sisters
Isis
Purity
The Chateau of Devils
The Marriage of Figaro
The Necromancer
The World on Butterfly
SERIES
THE HARROW SERIES
Nightmare House, Book 1
Mischief, Book 2
The Infinite, Book 3
The Abandoned, Book 4
The Necromancer (Prequel Novella)
Isis (Prequel Novella)
THE CRIMINALLY INSANE SERIES
Bad Karma, Book 1
Red Angel, Book 2
Night Cage, Book 3
THE VAMPYRICON TRILOGY
The Priest of Blood, Book 1
The Lady of Serpents, Book 2
The Queen of Wolves, Book 3
THE CHRONICLES OF MORDRED
Mordred, Bastard Son, Book 1
COLLECTIONS
Lights Out: Collected Stories
Night Asylum
Wild Things
BUNDLES & BOX SETS
Bad Places
Coming of Age
Criminally Insane: The Series
Dark Rooms
Halloween Chillers
Harrow: Three Novels (Books 1-3)
Harrow: Four Novels (Books 1-4)
Night Towns
The Vampyricon Trilogy
With more new novels, novellas and stories to come.
Copyright 2006, 2016 Douglas Clegg
Published by Alkemara Press in the United States.
Cover art provided by:
Damonza.com
Editorial services provided by:
Ashley Davis