Free Sword of Darkness by Kinley MacGregor Page B

Morgen might do should he leave Seren alone. Growling, he rose from the throne to open the door he conjured to the side of his hearth.
    He pulled up short as he found Blaise in his council room. In small dragon form, the beast was curled up on his desk, draped around the very orb he’d come seeking.
    “What are you doing?”
    The mandrake opened one violet eye to peer at him. “Sleeping.”
    “I told you you were excused.”
    Blaise closed his eye as if unconcerned by Kerrigan’s wrath. “And I angered Morgen tonight. I thought it best I sleep elsewhere until she becomes distracted by someone else.”
    The mandrake had a point.
    “I want my ball, dragon.”
    Yawning widely, the mandrake slid from the crystal to the desk, then crawled to one side where he again coiled up to sleep. Kerrigan ignored the mandrake as he circled his hand over the crystal and concentrated on the Lords of Avalon.
    A deep, red mist cleared to show him several ofthem in a boat, leaving the shores of their land, no doubt to find Seren and bring her home.
    He curled his lip at the sight of them. For all he knew, one of them could very well be the future father of Seren’s child.
    The thought singed him. Thumping the ball, he sent a wave crashing against them. Their boat overturned and sent the men scrambling. They shouted as their heavy, mail-clad bodies sank quickly to the bottom of the sea.
    “Now that was real mature,” Blaise said.
    Kerrigan turned to find the mandrake watching him. “Did I ask for your opinion?”
    “Nay, but I felt the need to give it.” Blaise stretched and yawned before he turned over to expose his scaly belly so that he could sleep on his back. “At least you were kinder this time.”
    “How so?”
    “They’ll all live. What has possessed you to such mercy?”
    Kerrigan shrugged. “Dead, they pose no challenge to me. Besides, I can’t kill them while they’re in Avalon and they know it. I can only make them miserable there.”
    Blaise snorted a small wisp of fire.
    Silence fell between them while Kerrigan opened and closed several books around him. He paused as he uncovered a portable DVD player that he’d brought back from the twenty-first century. A slight smile curved his lips as he considered Seren’s reaction to something that future mankind would find trivial.
    In truth, he found the future world even colderthan this one. True, there were marvels to be had. But not even they could compare with the magic he commanded. In the end, even that had left him morose.
    “How old are you, Blaise?”
    The mandrake gave him a curious stare. Kerrigan didn’t blame him. Blaise had been in service to him for more than three hundred years, and in all that time, he’d never asked anything personal about him.
    “I was born three years after Arthur.”
    “Over six hundred years then?”
    “Give or take. I long stopped counting such events, as they are meaningless to the likes of us.”
    It was true. Kerrigan could barely recall his own age. There had been a time when living forever had seemed like a good idea. But as the centuries passed and he found nothing new to explore, it had all become just another day.
    “Why am I so damned bored?”
    He didn’t realize he’d spoken aloud until Blaise answered him. “Simple. If you toss a stone at Magda, what does she do?”
    “Nothing. She rubs the spot, curses, looks to see that it’s me, and then goes on about her work.”
    “Does that ever change?”
    “Nay.”
    Blaise rolled to his side. “And if you insult Morgen?”
    “She insults me back.”
    “And if I were to open the window, what would be outside?”
    “Gray clouds or black ones.” Kerrigan felt aflash of irritation. “Where are you going with this?”
    “Simple. Your problem is that nothing here ever changes. You don’t do anything different anymore. You just sit around this castle moping. It’s truly boring, my king. Face it, you’re in a rut.”
    Kerrigan shot a blast of fire at him, but he