Kiersten White

Sent by a banished Merlin to protect King Arthur, a sixteen-year-old impersonating the deceased Guinevere struggles to fit in at Camelot where the magic she practices is banished.

The Guinevere Deception

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He poured two glasses of watered wine and passed one to her. "I would like you to tell me if you are leaving the castle, though. What if something happened to you? I would not know where to look." 

Guinevere raised an eyebrow. "You forget your place, my king. You are not to worry about me. I am to worry about you." 

She wanted to know how he had recognised her. How he had found her face even when she was hiding it. It felt precious. A gift of grace in the midst of turmoil. And she did not want to spoil it by pulling it apart like one of her failed knots. 

Her body froze. Arthur felt it. He held up a hand for his men to stop; then he leaned close, putting his mouth next to her ear. 

"Trust that I will let no harm come to you." 

She did. She truly did. But who was Arthur to water? Arthur was a king. The wielder of Excalibur. That mattered nothing to the lake. It was dark and deep, cold and eternal. Someday it might dry up, but the water would flow elsewhere. It could not be unmade. 

And they were fragile, breakable, one chocking breath away from death. 

She stumbled numbly forward, Arthur leading her. When they got to the edge of Camelot, the lake gnawing at the shore, she could go no farther. Arthur scooped her up into his arms, laughing brightly to cover the necessity of his actions. He was cloaking it in jest. 

"My queen is so light, I could swim her across the lake myself!"

His men laughed as well. A hand was on her back. Brangien. 

Guinevere buried her face in Arthur's chest. He talked and joked with his men as though carrying his queen onto the ferry was a perfectly normal action for a king to take. And because Arthur acted as though it were normal, it became normal. 

Guinevere stayed curled against him; she was trembling, hiding herself from the water. She felt it in the sway of the raft, heard it in the hungry slapping of the water against the wood. Arthur directed the ferryman to cut to the side of the lake, shortening their journey and meeting up with the horses instead of steering directly to the market. "I would like to ride in", he explained. 

He did not put her down until they were on dry land again. Brangien stepped in front of her, blocking everyone's view and pretending to fix one of Guinevere's braids. "Take your time", she whispered. "Wait until you can breathe again. Wait until you can smile." She held Guinevere's eyes. And soon, Guinevere could breathe. Soon, she could smile. 

"Thank you," she whispered. Brangien squeezed her hand. 

Guinevere's hands twitched beneath the table, longing to cast her blindness knots at him if only to force him to stop staring. She startled as another hand found hers under the table. 

Arthur squeezed her fingers. He did not turn toward her or react to Maleagant, but he noticed.

"Was he difficult during the discussions?" 

"No, I mean when he would not stop staring at you." 

She wanted to give him her name. She wanted to give him everything. 

Something shifted around Arthur's warm brown eyes. Gone was the weariness, the sorrow, replaced with ... hurt. "Do you want to leave?"

"No! No." The thought of leaving Arthur behind made tears burn in her eyes. How quickly she had grown to be Guinevere! 

Arthur crossed the room to her, kneeling in front of her chair and putting his hands on top of hers. "You are useful to me." 

"My strengths are a liability here. You know it's true."

His hands tightened around hers. Her breath caught, waiting for what he would say next. "Merlin sent you here. That is reason enough to stay." 

He pulled her suddenly close, wrapping his arms around her. Her chin was on his shoulder, the side of his face against hers. "Guinevere. Please. I want you in Camelot. Do not leave. Promise you will not leave." 

He took her arm and led her through a door back into the castle. 

"The problems of my borders are my own. You are doing enough simply by being here." 

"You are helping. If you could-" Arthur paused. They were outside her door. He looked at it, at the wall, at anything but at her. "If you could be my queen, that would be enough. You did not have a real choice before. I am giving you choice now. Will you? Still be my queen?" 

Lily

There was nothing in this world ad magical and terrifying as a girl on the cusp of womanhood.

The Guinevere Deception quotes

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