“The hell I am,” she retorted, making Simon turn his head to hide his smile. He had been about to leap to her defense, but she didn’t seem to need him. “If you two had told me who you were and what you wanted instead of lying to me and treating me like a leper in my own castle, I would have shown you my father’s scrolls from the very beginning.” She included Simon in her general glare. “Though I doubt very much you would have known how to use them, even if I had.”
“She’s right, Orlando,” Simon said. “Would you have known we needed Isabel’s blood to make her father’s code do its work?”
Before the wizard could answer, the sound of a bell from outside broke through the general hum of the hall. Someone was ringing the bell on the other side of the moat as if the imps of hell were hanging from the clapper. They looked at each other, Isabel going pale. Someone meant to summon the Black Knight.
“Forgive me, Isabel,” Orlando said, bending over her hand. “But now, I fear we will see just what this wasted time will cost.”
Kivar had not just stolen Michel’s corpse but his horse and his armor as well. “Will no one answer my challenge?” he called out in the French knight’s slurred and lazy voice. He made the destrier rear and turn about like a seasoned veteran of the lists. “Where is this Black Knight?”
“I’m dreaming,” Isabel said, standing between Simon and Brautus on the battlements with Orlando and Kevin close by. “I’ve had this dream before.” In truth it had been her constant nightmare since the moment she had heard the name Michel. Only now he was a vampire.
“It will be all right,” Simon promised, drawing her close to his side.
“Can you kill him, then?” Brautus asked.
“Where is the beauteous maiden of Charmot?” the brigand shouted, brandishing his sword. “Fight me or bring me my bride!”
“Yes,” Simon answered.
“No,” Orlando said at the same moment.
“I killed him before,” the vampire said stubbornly.
“Apparently not,” the wizard replied, his tone more gentle than his words. “Simon, without the Chalice…” He caught sight of Isabel’s face and let the sentence die.
“This is probably a foolish question,” she said. “But what happens if we refuse to let down the drawbridge and open the gate?”
“Kivar comes over the wall,” Simon answered. “Or under the lake or out of the sky. He’s a vampire, love— worse than a vampire. For ten years his spirit has been living inside the bodies of dead men—I killed the man you see myself, I promise you. He can turn into a dog or a vapor.” His hand had tightened on hers so much he knew he must be hurting her, and he made himself loosen his grip. “He doesn’t need the drawbridge to get in.”
“So why bother with this challenge?” Brautus asked.
“It amuses him,” Orlando said. “He knows Michel intended to kill the Black Knight, and he enjoys the joke of allowing him to do it.” He looked pointedly at the ring Simon now wore, the ring that the duke had regretted not giving him before his death. “It is one of his favorite tricks.”
“He may not know I’m here,” Simon pointed out. “He may still think I died in his trap.”
“Not likely,” Orlando answered. “He will have made certain one way or the other.”
“But he doesn’t know whether or not you have the Chalice,” Isabel said, making them all turn to look at her in shock. “He knew I had the map, and he knew what it was. And apparently he wants it.”
“Oh, yes,” the wizard nodded. “Very much.”
“So let me fight him,” Brautus said. “You and the acorn go down and find this Chalice, whatever it is—”
“No,” Simon said, cutting him off. “He’d know at once he was fighting a mortal man, and he would abandon the game. The only one with any hope of keeping him busy is me.”
“And what good will keeping him busy do?” Isabel asked. “If Orlando is right, and you can’t kill him—”
“Kivar is immortal, but Michel’s body is not,” Simon answered. “He never should have left Francis for me to find; I know now how to drive him out. If I can cut off his head and cut out his heart, his spirit will have to abandon its host. We don’t have any other corpses lying around the castle that I don’t know about, do we?”
“You mean other than you?” Orlando said. “It’s too risky—if Kivar took possession of you—”
“If he could possess me, he would have done it when I killed him the first time,” Simon cut him off, putting an arm around Isabel when he saw her horrified face. “He has other plans for me, I’m afraid.”
“So what about this beheading and heart ripping,” Brautus interrupted. “Can you do it?”
Simon smiled. “Oh, yes.”
“Simon.” Isabel put a hand on his arm and pointed. “Look.”