Once & Future (Once & Future #1)(20)

The trumpets sounded again, and Ari’s eyes hardened with challenge. Merlin was encouraged by this look, and a little frightened by it.

“Nearly tournament time,” Lam said. “We have to go meet Val.”

Merlin hesitated. Gweneviere would be at the tournament, but the likelihood of Ari meeting her face to face was minuscule. She would sit in the queen’s box, and Ari would be one of a thousand commoners underfoot. Besides, Merlin hadn’t seen a good joust in millennia.





The tournament ring was packed when they arrived. Lam used their watch to send a message, and a few minutes later Val appeared from the great churning mass of tourists, many of them wearing the colors of the knights they favored.

Merlin noted how many people sported black feathers. “The black knight is popular.”

“Odds are always on the black knight,” Val said.

“Remember our black knight?” Lam asked, their dark brown eyes glazing with nostalgia, and something a bit steamier.

“So hot,” Kay crowed over the crowd.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Merlin said. Lam and Kay went in search of turkey legs, and somehow Merlin and Val ended up walking down a row of stalls.

He steered Merlin gently, and Merlin felt five fingertips like a bright constellation on his back. “I don’t know how Ari and Co. got you on board, or if you’re planning to stick around, but if you’re still here tonight, you should go to Knight Club. I’m always there after a tournament.”

Merlin watched Val surveying the crowd. “Don’t misunderstand, I love a pun as much as the next magician, but you have a nightclub? Here?”

“We’re only as period appropriate as we want to be,” Val explained. “For instance, not many queens in medieval Europe had black advisers, but that’s no excuse to keep doing things the same old shitty way, now, is it?”

“That makes a great deal of sense. I’d still like to have a word with your sign painter, though. The dragons are wrong.” Arthur 4 and Arthur 7 had both faced dragons—well, one had technically been a wyvern. “There should be less smiling and more scale rot.”

Val ducked his head and laughed, Merlin’s attention caught on the curve of his eyelashes.

“What’s funny?” Merlin asked, his voice gruffer than he meant it to be.

Val leaned in as the rest of the crowd broke into cheers. They were so close their bodies were nearly brushing, and yet Val had to yell to be heard, his voice hot on Merlin’s neck. “I asked you out and you’re talking about scale rot!”

Forget constellations—Merlin’s body lit up like the night sky.

“Hey,” Kay said, reappearing, not seeming to notice or care that Merlin and Val had been talking. He’d squirted his blouse with turkey juice and shucked it off, revealing a “Lionel is for Lovers” T-shirt underneath. “My mouth is all salty. Where’s ye olde water fountain?”

Val nodded to one of the servers, saying, “Official state business! Queen’s adviser!” and tossed a coin to a person who caught it in ample cleavage and passed out a round of drinks. Cleavage was certainly a theme on this planet.

“Mead?” Kay asked, nuzzling into his cup. “Thanks for the free upgrade.”

Lam downed one in less than ten seconds and started in on another. Merlin grasped a flagon, taking in the crisp-sweet smell and the deep golden tone. He had never been asked on a date, in any of his lifetimes. He didn’t know what to do.

So he drank.

The first sip danced on his tongue. The second one turned his stomach into a festival.

Ari watched them all guzzle. “I’ll take water.”

Val leaned toward her like they’d reached a conversational bridge he didn’t want to cross. “Truth is, we have a severe water shortage on our hands. Mercer is hovering at the outer edges of the system, withholding our latest hydration shipment.”

“Wait,” Kay said, holding up a finger before he swallowed a mouthful of mead. “You get your water from Mercer? What happened to ‘absolutely no Mercer goods—’”

“If you have a better suggestion, I’d love to hear it,” Val said, sipping from his own flagon, wincing as if the honeyed drink was sour. “Mercer is the only company with potable water to trade in the galaxy. They’ve made sure of it. In return, for their terrible water, we have to give them a small percentage of our natural resources. They want more, of course.”

“They want everything,” Ari corrected.

The crowds pushed them deeper into the tournament ring, and soon they were closed in, dozens of people on all sides. Val peeled away, calling out, “I’ll find you after!” The mead that had seemed brilliant a minute ago was now buzzing through Merlin, turning him anxious.

“Were you flirting with my friend?” Ari shouted over the roar of the crowds.

“What?” Merlin asked, feeling as caught as a rabbit shivering in a hutch. Something about Ari demanded honesty—maybe because she seemed incapable of lies. “I don’t know how to flirt with anyone,” Merlin answered, which was the truth. “I’m too busy helping Arthur.”

“So if I refuse this whole destiny thing, you’ll go out with a cute boy?”

Merlin wished it was that simple. He opened his mouth to say so, but Ari was smiling her mischief at Merlin for the first time since she’d dragged him onto Error. Merlin could feel how real and valuable that smile was. It could have been currency on a lonely planet.