Call of the King (Rise of the King, #1) by TJ Green

Author:TJ Green
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: young adult, Arthurian fantasy, King Arthur, Excalibur, myths and legends, English legends, Coming of Age, Lady of the Lake, Books for teens, fey, Otherworld, Fairy, Faerie
Publisher: TJ Green
Published: 2020-10-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12: The Lakeside

For a few minutes, Beansprout stood watching as Tom disappeared into the mist, heading to some distant place she would never know.

A chill swept through her. The boat was clearly ancient; it reminded her of images she had seen in history books. Its familiarity scared her—it was as if the past had crossed an invisible barrier and was suddenly right next to her. It challenged everything she had ever known.

Trying to shake off the feeling, and realising there was nothing she could do now to help Tom, she hurried across to where the others stood, still motionless. She stopped in front of her grandfather. His eyes were filled with tears and he gazed beyond her, into the distance. She hesitated, wondering if it would be dangerous to disturb him and the others, but decided she couldn’t just leave them standing there.

She reached out her hand and laid it gently on his arm. “Granddad, wake up.” He remained motionless, so she shook him, watching his eyes carefully. “Granddad, can you hear me? It’s me, Beansprout.” She thought she detected a flicker of movement in his eyes, but then it was gone.

She sighed and moved to Woodsmoke. He was much taller than her, so she couldn’t see his eyes properly. Feeling self-conscious, she touched his sleeve and then his hand, shaking it. “Woodsmoke, wake up.”

He didn’t stir and she sighed again. With her back to the wide expanse of grey water, she looked at the desolate moor, the windswept grass, the trees, knotted and bent, and the tall standing stones, mysterious and indifferent to her needs. She felt overwhelmingly lonely.

She panicked. “Woodsmoke, I’m scared. Don’t leave me here alone!” She shook him more aggressively, and felt a pressure on her hand as he squeezed back. He shook his head as if emerging from a deep sleep, blinked a few times, and then looked down at her. She suddenly became aware that she was still holding his hand, and released it quickly, asking, “Are you okay?”

“I think so. I had the weirdest dream.” He looked around. “What’s going on? Where is Tom?”

“Gone. With her. And you’ve been bewitched. All of you.” She nodded at the others. “I couldn’t wake Granddad.”

“And what are we supposed to do?” He moved in front of Jack, Fahey, and Brenna, looking at their frozen faces.

“We have to wait for Tom. Shall we try and wake them? And then we can set up camp.”

Brenna and Jack roused more quickly than Fahey, who seemed to be in the deepest sleep. Slowly, smiles played across his face, and it was with the greatest reluctance that he finally woke up, annoyed to leave a perfectly good dream.

It seemed wrong to set up camp within the standing stones, so they found a spot to the side of them, behind the narrow beach. They rigged up a waterproof shelter and built a fire of dry brushwood collected from along the shore. It was mid-afternoon by the time they had finished, and

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