Heart of Time (Knight Traveler) Read Online Free Page A

Kay and his bear, Gawain and his hound. Both beasts, like the hawk, were gentled, calm and quiet under her touch.
    Calling Arthur forth, he felt the sword at his side tremble in the scabbard. Even standing toe to toe with the Lady, he could not interpret the spell she wove around him. The light was far gentler than the fire nymph’s touch, but he could sense the power in both spells working within him. Ragged glimpses of his dreams flickered across his vision, blurring the Lady’s face as she finished the spell. He didn’t fight it, letting the words and images flow around and through him.
    When she finished, in that pervasive stillness, he didn’t see the smile he expected, the smile she’d bestowed on each of his knights in turn. No, as she studied him, her brow furrowed.
    Following her instruction, he returned to his place on the compass. After pouring more liquid from the flask onto the runes in the center stone once more, she exited the circle. The center stone was blank.
    Questions filled his mind and surely the minds of his friends, but to a man they remained silent, waiting for the Lady to speak first.
    “Your courage and dedication are appreciated, my friends,” she stated.
    Three priestesses walked into the clearing, flanking their Lady. “My dear knights,” she continued, “I have done all I can for you.” The Lady embraced Gawain, Kay, and Bors in turn. “These priestesses, experts in both our enemy and the mysteries of time, will guide you from here. Peace and victory be upon each of you.”
    When the knights were well gone, the Lady turned to Arthur. “You chose well,” she said. “They are fine champions with a curiosity and tenacity necessary to the task ahead.”
    “Thank you.” Poor words for sending three of his closest friends into unspeakable danger.
    “Relax, Arthur.” She sounded as if she addressed the skittish hawk. “You’ve done nothing to coerce them.”
    “I am their king,” he pointed out. “They swore an oath to me and to uphold the ideals of Camelot.”
    “We both know that is not how you presented this to them.” She linked her arm through his, Excalibur between them. “By choice they honor you as well as the goodness in their hearts. They will struggle of course, as we all do. You and Merlin and I have done all we can to empower their success and safeguard the unknowing world.”
    They walked over well-trod paths he recognized, with willow trees at the water’s edge and fruit trees toward the inland side. Every visit to Avalon confirmed his suspicion that the island and the Lady at its heart shifted and changed to the purpose at hand. She wielded powerful magic that comforted and terrified Arthur. “What is it you ask of me?” he prompted, wondering at her uncharacteristic hesitation.
    The Lady sighed. “You know me well, Arthur.”
    “Almost as well as you know me.”
    “The priestesses guiding your knights will prepare them - as best we can - for any eventuality. We do not know when or where Morgana will gain enough power to act upon her dark purposes.”
    “Morgana’s following cannot go unchecked,” Arthur stated the obvious. He had spent months searching for a way to eliminate the greatest threat of their time - within their current time once he had a grasp on the terrible possibility that Morgana might do something as unnatural as lunge into the future. “There must be something more I can do here and now.”
    “Be at ease, my friend.” The Lady smoothed her hand over his arm. “Should we conquer her here, all will be well. Should we fail here, your knights have given the world hope beyond us. Here.” She stopped at an outcropping of rock, another secret Avalon had kept from him in visits past. “Let us see if we can make sense of your dreams.”
    He nodded, ducking a bit to follow her inside.
    The shelter was too open to be a cave, though it was quite cool inside. He saw more runes and symbols he didn’t recognize on the walls as she guided him