Black Moon Draw

Ugh. I'm a mess. He's taken.

I wish I could confirm what I saw in the dream.

Then again, if I did, wouldn't that make it harder for me to pretend this place isn't real?

"You cannot go anywhere, witch!" The squire is adorable, groggily alarmed. He lifts his head from his nest of blankets and pillows next to the fire.

"Do I look like I'm going anywhere?" I grumble.

"The Shadow Knight says you -"

"Where is he?"

My companion climbs to his feet, his dark hair ruffled charmingly. "On the roof."

"Roof?"

"'Tis where the Square Table is," he says with a look that tells me I'm supposed to know this.

"Who puts a table on the roof?"

"'Tis not a real table." He shakes his head.

There are times when the nonsense of this world makes me want to throw things. "Take me to the roof and this imaginary table."

The squire appears ready to lecture me the way his master might, but I stomp my foot and point towards the door. With a mumble I can't hear, he pulls on his boots and picks up his massive sword and straps it to his back.

I'm fully dressed after passing out. I recall talking to the Red Prince without knowing for sure what we talked about.

He passes me more of the minty water. I drink greedily, my stomach empty, and hand it back.

We leave the chamber and walk through two hallways before reaching stairs that appear to be suspended in midair, leading to the roof.

"Wow." I circle the odd scene. "These are magic stairs?"

"Is that not what they look like?" He walks up them without really caring about how cool it is to see floating stone blocks.

I trail the grumpy teen. The chill before dawn reaches me halfway up, tickling my neck, and I shiver. I'm not certain what to expect when I reach the top, but it's not for the Square Table to be a wrestling ring where a dozen men are gathered around watching two others in an MMA style fight.

Maybe I should expect such a sight in an embattled world. It's not my scene, though, and my attention goes from the fighters to those watching them. The boar head gives the Shadow Knight away, his eyes glowing an unnatural blue like two lanterns in the night. Next to him is Wolfie with his silver eyes, and the Red Knight stands at the Shadow Knight's other side.

My attention drifts back to the Shadow Knight. Deep in my gut, I suspect I'm here to help him get revenge. But how ignoble of a Hero does that make him to want revenge for something that occurred a thousand years ago, the result of a curse placed by an angry woman who just saw her husband slain?