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“It was worth it. I mean, it was worth it if the Black Knight is really a villain—which suddenly I’m not sure about.” I walked to Tristan with my hands held out.

“What if he was supposed to be some sort of great hero like King Arthur or Hercules and I just betrayed him?” Tristan shrugged, seeming more amused than worried. “Then I guess it would be doubly ironic, wouldn’t it?”

When he saw I didn’t know what he was talking about he added, “Hercules and King Arthur were both betrayed by women.”

Hearing this felt like a bad omen. “They were?”

“Didn’t you ever pay attention in school?”

“Okay, that’s not the point. The point is I don’t know if I’ve done a good thing or a horrible one.” Tristan folded his arms. “I doubt you’ve done anything but lost a few things and caused us both trouble.

Enchantments are very hard to break, you know.”

“I didn’t break it, I took it.” I remembered the mirror and opened up my satchel. “Here—I can prove it.” I sifted through the contents. “The wizard’s assistant let me take his magic mirror for the week. When you put it over your hand, it tells you what enchantments you carry.” I kept sifting through the satchel but didn’t find the mirror. I looked through the contents again, feeling Tristan’s disbelieving gaze on me as I did. Finally I took 227/431

items out, handing a few of them to Tristan. I knew I had put the mirror in the satchel, and yet even after I’d pulled almost everything out, I didn’t find it.

“It isn’t here,” I said, my voice tinged with outrage.

“He said I could have it for a week and now it’s disappeared.”

Tristan put the items he held back into the satchel.

“Savannah, have you ever gone to a big city and seen the guys on the street corners selling Rolex watches for twenty dollars? Or the sleazy-looking guys who say they can get you a cut-rate deal on designer purses?”

“It was real magic.”

“I’m sure it was. It was a mirror that told you whatever you wanted to hear and then disappeared along with a good chunk of your wealth. You can buy that sort of magic from a lot of wizards, so from now on let me do the bargaining, okay?” The horse finished drinking and walked back over to Tristan, flicking its ears. Tristan patted his neck. “You ready to go, boy?”

I shoved the rest of the things back into the satchel, biting back my disappointment. I didn’t want Tristan to be right, but suddenly I wondered if he was. Thus far my dealings with magic—fairies and leprechauns—had been less than successful. Perhaps wizards were the same.

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The apprentice had told me I’d have the mirror for a week and it had disappeared in just hours. If he hadn’t told the truth about that, what else had been lies?

I should have felt relieved at the idea that the Black Knight’s future wasn’t my responsibility, but I just felt cheated, unsure of myself, and small.

Tristan helped me up on the horse and then got up in front of me. I put my arms around him in order to hang on. It felt oddly intimate but at the same time comforting. When I’d ridden with the Black Knight I’d felt nothing but armor, heard nothing but my own frightened breaths. Now I could feel the warmth coming through Tristan’s tattered wool tunic. It smelled of smoke, dirt, and sweat, but mostly smoke. With only fire for warmth, most people smelled of smoke. It was the pervading smell of the Middle Ages.

It suddenly struck me that the Black Knight hadn’t smelled like smoke, or dirt, or anything.

I thought of this as the horse plodded along. I listened to Tristan breathing in a rhythm that almost matched the horse’s hoofbeats and had to fight the impulse to lean forward and rest my head against his back.

What was wrong with me? How could I kiss one guy so passionately I started to have feelings for him and then only minutes later be fighting the desire to lean my 229/431

head against another guy’s back? And all of this when I still had feelings for Hunter.

Hunter. I thought of his name, pictured his face, and waited for emotion to clench around my heart. Only it didn’t. Everything about Hunter seemed so far away, like someone I’d only dreamed about once. The modern world was beginning to fade away and everything here—the smell of grass and horse and smoke, the way the sun warmed the top of my head, the smudges of dirt on Tristan’s hands—all of this felt much more real. It was hard to concentrate on Hunter and I found I simply didn’t want to.

I wanted to lean into Tristan. I wanted him to put an arm around me and say I didn’t have to worry because everything would work out all right. I wanted him to tell me, like he had back in the inn, that I was smart. I wasn’t sure he thought so anymore, though.

This thought, oddly enough, made my heart clench.

Chapter 15

Without saying much of anything to each other, Tristan and I rode back to the castle. After we entered the courtyard, several people came out to stare at me and to con-gratulate Tristan on rescuing me. They seemed genu-inely impressed that Tristan was in one piece and I wasn’t weeping.

They insisted that we stay for dinner at the castle so we could tell the tale of our escape. Tristan accepted, even though I was already shaking my head no. He twisted his head around to face me. “The horse needs to rest so we might as well stay. Don’t worry, I’ll tell the story.” He dismounted, ignoring my protests. “You’ll never eat a better meal than at the king’s table. It’s an honor to be asked.”

After I dismounted, he took the horse’s reins in one hand, my arm in the other, and walked toward the stable. “Besides, I still need to finish up with the armory and you’re coming with me this time. I’m not letting you out of my sight again.”

I walked beside him feeling like an errant child. “I wasn’t planning on trying to contact the Black Knight again.”

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“Good,” he said with false cheerfulness. “I’m glad it only takes you one abduction to figure out who your enemies are.”

I didn’t argue the point. Instead I said, “I can’t tell everyone at dinner what happened between the Black Knight and me. I can’t let people know I tried to steal his enchantment. He’ll find out and be angry about it.” Tristan only shrugged. “Well, I wasn’t planning on telling the truth. There’s not much of a good story to that, is there?”

“Then just leave me out of it all together.” He smirked at me, enjoying my discomfort. “That would be hard to do since you are the main point of the story, but don’t worry, you can get up afterward and give a rebuttal. Tell them all how you saved me.”

“I can’t lie—,” I started, but then realized if the enchantments had actually switched, I could.

Tristan shrugged again. “Everyone gives their own glorious account of their deeds at the king’s table. This is like the TV of the Middle Ages. They don’t care about it being true as much as they care about it being exciting—” Tristan looked at me, understanding filling his eyes. “Oh, you mean in case the Black Knight is there.

Good point. For all we know he’s one of the men in King Roderick’s court.”

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I stopped walking and Tristan turned to see why. The horse swished his head impatiently but I couldn’t take another step. I let out a nervous breath. “The sky is purple.”

Tristan’s gaze shot upward. He looked from one end of the sky to the other. “No, it’s not.” I didn’t feel anything. I touched my tongue. “Nothing happened.”

Tristan tilted his head, examining me. “Savannah, you know I’m not the Black Knight. You saw us together.” I nearly told Tristan about my lying-equals-toads-and-other-gross-things-in-my-mouth enchantment, but stopped myself. That was as good as telling him I’d switched enchantments with the Black Knight and if he knew that, he might be able to learn how I’d done the rest. I couldn’t let him know that if he kissed me he could go home.