Read Online Sacrifices by Mercedes Lackey, Rosemary Edghill - Free Book Online

hand on his sword. Guinevere raised her hand. He stepped back.
    “Do not measure others by yourself, Kinslayer. My husband was no fool. The Lady of the Lake took me into her care—I went to Avalon, not to Glastonbury, as Arthur and I both intended. And there I prepared my army to fight you.”
    “An army which came too late!” Mordred cried. “Now Arthur is dead, and my time will come! Imprison me as you wish, False Guinevere! I have been steeped in blackest sorcery since I lay in the womb! My power is greater than any other—I have conquered Death, and I shall conquer Britain!”
    “Greater than any, Kinslayer?” Guinevere said softly.
    A figure stepped through the doorway of the tent. His hair and beard were white, and though he wore the dark plain robe of a scholar, he was still muscled like the blacksmith he had once been. In his hand was a staff hewn from the wood of the Sacred Oak, and at its top was fixed a shimmering green thunderstone.
    He was The Merlin of Britain.
    “You’re dead!” Mordred shrieked.
    The Merlin smiled coldly. “Did you not wonder where your wench Nimue went when she abandoned you? Do you not wonder into whose hands she gave your secrets? The trap you meant for my tomb could not hold me—but I— I will craft a prison that will hold you until the end of Time.…”
    *   *   *
    Spirit woke to the shrill wail of her backup alarm. She felt as if she hadn’t slept at all. Her head felt heavy and achy, and everything hurt. Only the sight of the time displayed on her laptop got her out of bed—she had twenty minutes to get to the Refectory if she wanted breakfast, and didn’t want demerits.
    But even as rushed as she was, she logged in to her email account first. Missing the morning Motivational Message would be dire. She grabbed an armful of clothes and dressed as she skimmed it quickly (important, leadership, the future, sacrifice, milestone, capacity, discovery, challenge, guidance, reward, triumph, yadda). She was about to dash out the door when she saw the next email in the queue was a memo from FACULTY . There hadn’t been one of those in quite a while (since Oakhurst had given up telling them whoever wasn’t at breakfast this time had “left to pursue other opportunities”), and it wasn’t to STUDENTS but to SPIRIT WHITE , so even though she was running late, she opened it. The first paragraph was the usual puffery about Oakhurst students being the leaders of tomorrow; she skipped it. The next paragraph congratulated Spirit for being on the Approved List due to her exemplary (more boilerplate; she skipped ahead).
    —in pursuit of our ongoing mandate to leverage our core competencies and reach out to the people of McBride County in an ongoing spirit of embracing the unique opportunities—
    Radial was being declared in-bounds, just as all the rumors had said. Just as Loch had said. Students could work with their teachers to earn “Deportment Points,” which could be used as skips for their academic classes—and to go into town.
    Meaning we’re all still going to be used as punching bags, but by working around the clock we can earn the chance to go to Radial and spend money we don’t have on things that aren’t there, she thought in exasperation. If they were “under siege” the way Breakthrough kept saying they were, giving them Town Privs was close to the stupidest thing she’d ever heard of. (At least next week’s Dance Committee meeting was at Oakhurst so she didn’t have to freeze to death while she argued with Juliette Weber about what colors the Spring Fling bunting should be.)
    She slammed the lid of her computer to put it to sleep and headed for the door at a dead run. She got to the Refectory just as they were closing the doors. She skidded inside, panting just a little, and headed for the breakfast line. When she got there, she saw Addie was a few places ahead of her. She looked completely exhausted. She was talking to Maddie Harris (another Water