her palm, and she curled her fingers around it.
âGood luck,â Caroline said in her ear, as the spell took her by the hand and began gently to tug. Lark followed the magical pull as, around her, other Magekind began to mill around doing the same.
Â
Arms folded, Gawain watched as young members of the Magekind sought out their new guardians. âGreat,â he said to Bors, who was also one of the original Round Table knights. âWeâre both going to end up baby-sitting grass-green rookies who donât know hilt from blade. Dammit, Arthurâ¦â
âYes, well, Iâd advise you not to give him a hard time about it,â Bors drawled. âI donât think heâs in the mood.â
âI noticed.â Gawain recognized the warning signs in his liegeâs clipped speech as well as anyone. Sometimes Arthur was open to suggestion, and sometimes you damn well took orders and kept your mouth shut. Otherwise, you caught the flaming edge of that Pendragon temperâif you were lucky. If you werenât, he carried a grudge. And Arthur could carry a grudge for a long, long time. Heâd only recently forgiven Lancelot for his one night with Gwen sixteen hundred years before.
âEither way, weâre going to have our work cut out for us with this lot.â Gawainâs gaze lingered on a young Magus who walked through the crowd with a particularly bewildered expression. âThe last couple of generations have gotten soft. Too much television and riding in cars.â
âNot all of them.â Pain tightened Borsâs face.
Gawain winced, silently cursing himself for his unthinking comment. âAnything new from Richard?â
Richard Edge was Borsâs son with Meredith Edge, a Maja whoâd been the knightâs lover. Despite the brief relationship, Bors had helped raise Richard in Avalon until the boyâs growing violent streak had forced his banishment to mortal Earth.
Bors shook his dark head. âI havenât spoken to my son in twenty-six years. His mother and I were afraid heâd start killing people, but as far as I can tell, heâs done nothing but study magic.â
âOn mortal Earth?â Kel asked from his scabbard. âHeâs not going to have much luck with it there.â Magic did not work well on humanityâs home, and mortals had not evolved to use it. It took intervention by someone like Merlin or Geirolf to give a human the ability to work magic.
âMaybe,â Bors said grimly. âThe problem is, he disappeared a year ago. Meredith was unable to track him. After she died fighting Geirolfâs cult, I had Morgana search for him, but she had no luck either. It was as if heâd vanished right off the planet.â
Gawain frowned. âHe could be dead.â
âMaybe.â Bors expression was grim. âBut I donât like it at all.â
As his friend brooded, Gawain rocked back on his heels to watch the new Magekind wander around with their enchanted slips of paper.
A slim brunette attracted his attention. She was petite, nearly a foot shorter than he was, but her body was lushly curved. Her dark hair slid to the small of her back in a fall of silk, and her eyes were huge and brown.
âLook, somebodyâs gone and recruited a Playboy bunny,â he joked, hoping to distract Bors from painful memories. He slipped into a mocking singsong. ââHi, my name is Bambi, and Iâm barely legal. I love puppies and kitties and throwing flaming balls of death at my enemies.ââ
Bors chuckled.
Kel spoke from his scabbard. âSheâs also Tristanâs great-granddaughter.â He always knew those things.
âYeah? Wonder if heâs protective?â Gawain eyed her, still tempted. She might be worth getting on Tristanâs bad sideâ¦
Bors snorted. âWeâre talking about Tristan here. He thinks women are only good for one thing, and since
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