I panted and heaved. The air grew colder as I climbed up the mountain, but the scent trail grew hotter.

My back legs pounced and my front legs caught me. My back legs launched and my front legs set up the next leap. I scaled the rocks at a full-power run.

My Asteria helped. I cast tiny shock waves at the stones directly beneath my feet. I laid down my Certainty with each pounce.

I will fight for my friends.

Boom! A blast from my Asteria cracked the ice beneath my back feet and sent me forward, fast. My bones rattled with each shock, but my concentration was sharp as a tooth.

I tried the Certainty I will save my friends, but I couldn’t make it work. I knew Oberon had one worm sprite left. And twenty soldiers to fight for him. I tried not to think about that.

I will fight made me feel Certain. I would fight for them as long as I lived.

Boom! My Asteria blasted the rocks behind me and I gasped for breath.

Boom! The snow blew away and my ears flailed wildly.

Boom! My body soared through the air, outstretched like a bounding deer. I came down on the rocky path, and ice crystals cracked beneath my feet.

Below me the entire island of Avalon spread. It was a snowy wonderland surrounded by gentle waters. Above me was the top of a mountain with soldiers armed and ready to kill. And I was going up.

The spiraling path up the side of the mountain leveled off into a flat plateau. Tall fir and pine trees rose up as guardians of the path, and a trail of two dozen footprints in the snow weaved between them. The tops of the trees reached high above my head, and I paused for a brief moment to catch the scents of wild animals on the wind. I thought about a time when tracking squirrels through the woods was my favorite pleasure. Now I tracked Fae and men with swords.

Can’t think of that, I scolded myself. Need to keep my Certainty.

Quicker than I expected, I came on the scene. The snow-heavy trees opened up into a quiet clearing, too quiet for a small army, but there were twenty soldiers lined up in a row. Each wore full armor: leather and metal from their feet to the tops of their heads.

Every soldier’s eye was fixed on a tremendous structure that rose in the center of the clearing. I thought it was a church at first, but it was really just a giant boulder, one as big as any building I’d seen.

All along the boulder’s sides and top were carvings of animals and men. The entire front of the rock had been shaped into a rough staircase, which was why I’d thought it looked like a church.

At the top of the stairs stood Merlin, with a woman beside him. No, not a woman, I realized. A figure made of stone. It was some kind of altar. The female figure rose right out of the rock, and in her hands she held a gleaming sword. Her stony fingers wrapped around the blade and offered the hilt to anyone who cared to take it.

Merlin stood stock-still beside the statue, clasping his staff. Oberon had given it back to him.

“Wizard,” called an iron voice from the line of soldiers. “Retrieve for me…my blade.”

My eyes shot back down to the base of the boulder. Oberon, in his Lord Destrian disguise, stood in the center of the formation of men. Beside him were two small figures: Arthur and Morgana. Oberon’s iron gauntlets gripped Arthur around the neck. I couldn’t see Morgana’s face, but her whole body was trembling.

Where is the worm? I thought. I glanced across the crowd and saw a soldier at the far corner. A chain led from his shaking hand to what seemed to be a fallen log on the ground. It was the wood-colored worm sprite. It rested peacefully in the snow, soaking up what it could of the island’s magic.

My ears flattened and I crouched low to the ground. How can I fight them? A small army of men carried swords. The worm sprite ate magic. Oberon was a better sorcerer by far.

“Wizard, hear my words and…” Oberon’s iron voice stumbled as he tried to twist his speech into a more human form. “Deliver the sword of kings. For the glory of…my name!”

“Destrian! Destrian!” the soldiers shouted, slamming their fists on their leather armor. “King! King!”

Their voices scared me and my tail drooped. There were so many of them. I lowered farther in the snow.

“You are no king of mine, and I will never grant you this sword. If you want it so badly, you must try for yourself!” Merlin said from the top of the stone altar. His voice quivered and he glanced at the resting worm sprite. “If you threaten me with death, I accept. I surrender my life for the good of the realm.”

My ears shot up at that, and my whole stomach turned over. Would Merlin really let Oberon kill him?

I will save my master, I thought, trying to conjure a sense of Certainty. But I wasn’t Certain I could.

“It is not your life…that you will…surrender,” Oberon called in his twisted, iron voice. His gauntleted hand grasped Arthur tighter by the neck, and Arthur screamed. Oberon raised him up off the ground so his feet thrashed in the air. “It is his!” Oberon drew a dagger from his belt and pressed it to Arthur’s throat.

I tried to shout, but my throat was hoarse. I tried to run, but I was frozen to the ground. The men and their swords made me cower, and Oberon’s echoing voice crowded my mind.

Arthur’s in danger, I thought. I will save him!

The words were like wisps of smoke on the wind. They disappeared in the terror that gripped me. Oberon’s hands held Arthur by the neck, and, weirdly, I felt them clamping down on my own. Nivian’s Asteria, which had given me power, was being poisoned by my fear. Its magic closed my throat and stopped my breath.

“Don’t do it, Merlin!” Arthur shouted, and his voice echoed in the chamber of my mind. “I lay down my life too!” he screamed through fear and pain. “I lay down my life!”

The sides of my vision collapsed until the scene was a narrow tunnel. I saw Merlin flinch, but he would not move.

Oberon grunted and threw Arthur to the ground. I blinked hard when I saw him hit the snow. He coughed and tried to raise himself, but Oberon put a heavy boot on his back.

“If your own life…means nothing to you,” Oberon said in his stilted human tongue, “and this boy’s neither…then I’ll do as you once said—and take hers!”

Oberon pressed Arthur deep into the snow and switched his knife into the other hand. He turned as quick as a snake and snatched up Morgana, who’d been trembling at his side.

“No! Father, stop!” she screamed as he lifted her high in the air and pressed the blade against her chest. “No!”

Merlin’s mouth went wide. “Don’t hurt her!” he shouted. “All right! I’ll break the spell.”

Morgana sobbed and Merlin raised his staff above the statue—the Asteria within glowing bright.

“I’ll plunge my knife into her chest!” Oberon shouted, the music slipping back into his voice. “I am not a soul to test!”

Merlin brought his staff down onto the sword in the statue’s hands. Lightning and fire erupted where the Asteria met the golden hilt. Bright flames lit Merlin’s face as it twisted in pain. He shook and cried out. The whole of the Sword in the Stone glowed hot—the air around it pulsed with power. My jaws clenched and ground my teeth.

Merlin was dying in front of me. Morgana had a knife to her chest. Arthur was being crushed into freezing snow.

I tried to wake myself from the living nightmare, but fear kept me bound in place. My Certainties were poisoned ones:

My friends will die.

I’ve failed them all.

I’ll never see Merlin again.

They pressed me down. My body grew cold. My mind went blank.

—

Nosewise, sounded a voice from far off in the distance, across the dark and snowy plain.

Nosewise, spoke the voice again, simple and familiar. There was a lilt of music in the words, and when she called my name, I heard something more.

Nosewise, said Nivian, the Lady of the Lake. I could hear her clearly now. Who are they? she said, and the question confused me.

Who? I asked with my last strength.

Those before you, Nivian answered, her voice guiding me to the only corner of my mind not in shadow. Merlin, Arthur, and Morgana, she said. Who are they?

My master, I thought. A boy I met along the way. A friend who betrayed me.

No. Nivian’s voice beckoned me on. Who are they in your heart?

And in that last small corner—in a tiny speck of light the Lady showed me still remained—I found an answer.

They are my family, I thought. And I love them, every one.

It was a very Certain thought.