Myths and Gargoyles Jamie Hawke (i read a book .TXT) 📖

on what they believed to be the legend of Arthur’s origins. Of course, they didn’t believe any magician named Merlin had actually existed, or at least, not one who had been able to do real magic, anyway.

Now that I knew what I did of the world, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if I met Merlin tomorrow. Okay, maybe a bit.

“There’s so much to this world, so many layers.” She leaned forward and nibbled on my lower lip. “Luckily, we have each other’s genitals to distract us from it all.” I cracked up at that, even more so when she reached down into my pants, basically tickling my balls and saying, “Distract me, Jericho. Come on, distract me.”

“Stop,” I said, pulling her hand out, then flipping her over to pull her dress down and take her nipple in my mouth.

A soft moan flowed from her lips, but then she pulled me up, frowned, and said, “We have work to do.”

“I… what?”

“Let’s go.” She moved out from under me, heading for the door. There was no way she could have not felt my growing erection, sensed my rising desire again.

“What happened to distracting ourselves?”

“You said it yourself. Mr. Happy needs a break, so that you can bring it next time. Come now, quickly. Snap, snap.”

She was out the door before I had a chance to tuck my boner into the waistline of my pants. I caught up with her halfway to the stairs.

“That was cruel,” I said.

“Oh?” she glanced over, then down. “Eh, I’d rather have you anxiously awaiting our next moment together. Makes every second between now and then more exciting.”

“You have a strange way of thinking.”

Her head bobbed up and down. “Never denied that.”

We came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, seeing that the group we had come for were in the next room over. Steph stood with Galahad and Riland in discussions with her wraith knights. To my surprise, the wraith knights hadn’t changed in form. They still wore their rusted armor and red hoods over shadowed faces.

At my look, Steph excused herself and came my way, lowering her voice to address Megha and me. “The change is on a spiritual realm, Galahad says. He won’t be able to bring them back to the point where they’re like him, but as for conversation and presence of mind, this is the real them. At least some of the knights.”

My arms tingled with the thought that now I was standing not only in the presence of Galahad, but other knights from the Round Table as well.

“Introduce us,” Megha said, nonplussed. In her time, I guess much of this wouldn’t have been a big deal, and if I remembered correctly, at least some of my team hadn’t likely heard of King Arthur. But Megha had been free, had lived through that, or at least come to our world and seen how others viewed it.

“This knight,” Steph said as she led us over, gesturing to the tallest one next to her, “is Sir Percival.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you,” Percival said.

I bowed my head. “And I you, Sir Percival.”

She introduced the others as well, and I greeted them each in turn. When introductions were over, I scratched my chin, wondering.

“The rest?” I asked, hoping it wasn’t rude. “Lancelot?”

“You wouldn’t want him here,” Percival said with a boisterous laugh. A couple of the others chuckled, but in a dark way that made me very curious to hear the rest of this story. My guess was it had a lot more to it than simply stealing Guinevere from Arthur.

“All of the fighting, these moments with Steph,” I asked, eyes moving over our new friends to ensure I wasn’t stepping on any toes, “that’s the only place I’ve ever seen you before. Do you have any recollection of it?”

“More like a distant song,” Percival replied. “Not even a dream, but the idea that it exists, that sometimes parts of it play in my head, but not in a clear way.”

“I see.” I recalled Steph’s story about how they had made a sacrifice, and decided that this wasn’t the best time to bring it up. “At any rate, I look forward to getting to know you all more. Thank you, for all that you have done.”

Percival bowed, the others following. Galahad gestured for me to split away from the rest, so I did, joining him by the fountain in the corner.

“While it’s still daylight, we should discuss the specifics surrounding you and your role as the new Senator Funai.”

“About that. Isn’t there another way?”

He eyed me, then shook his head. “Not that I am aware of. Maybe we could illusion someone, but it wouldn’t be the same as with your transfiguration magic. Others could see through the illusion more easily, and this way you can keep an eye on the enemy.”

A shudder ran through me as I remembered Fatiha and how she had become Senator Ohlo. Even with the power of Avalon at my back, Fatiha had been quite the match once she had absorbed Thitis into herself. If she got more of the Nine, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

“If this is the only way, I’m in.”

“Then follow me,” Galahad said, and we left the others to their socializing. “It’s time to teach you how to be a senator.”

The thought was terrifying.

126

Galahad took me to a room where Senator Funai stood floating, staring right at me. For a second I blinked, confused, until I noticed the slight translucence. He smiled, nodded at me, and waited.

“From the Dark Lands?” I asked.

“No,” Galahad said. “This is a remnant of the senator. Like a ghost, if you wanted to put it in simple terms, but more like a piece of him he left behind with magic.” Interesting—and I had to wonder if it had any relation to how my remnant spell worked.

“Similar to what my aunt—er, Gertrude, did.”

“Close.” Galahad stepped up to the senator, passing a hand through him. “Only, this one will