Cavall in Camelot #1 Read online

  Dedication

  To anyone who’s ever loved, and been loved by, an animal

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Back Ad

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Chapter 1

  CAVALL DUG HIS PAWS INTO THE DIRT, BRINGING his big, awkward frame to a grinding halt. Chunks of grass and earth came free behind him. He stopped at the edge of the forest, panting, and craned his head to peer in. No sign of Glessic anywhere. His brother had simply disappeared into the trees.

  “Glessic!” Cavall called. “Gless! Come back! We’re not supposed to go in there!”

  Nothing but the ominous rustling of leaves answered back.

  The stable hands sometimes spoke in hushed whispers about how the forest was cursed and dangerous, and even Merlin had warned them that they should not go into the woods alone.

  When Gless had challenged him to a race, Cavall hadn’t thought he’d meant to run all the way to the road, let alone to the forest beyond. He thought Gless just wanted to prove, once again, that he was the faster, better dog. Usually, as soon as it became clear he was going to beat Cavall, the race ended and Gless would prance back to their mother and the other pups, victorious.

  Cavall shifted nervously from paw to paw and looked over his shoulder for help.

  His other brothers and sisters were playing back in the field. They hadn’t noticed that two of their littermates had gone off on their own. His mother lay in the shade of the barn, too far away. By the time Cavall went to get her, Gless would be deep into the forest.

  Cavall whined. The longer he waited, the farther Gless would run. Cavall did not have much time to decide.

  He took a deep breath and plunged into the brush.

  He had never been this far from the barn. The smells and sounds were very different—wild and untamed. Small animals chittered at him from the treetops, and low-lying branches snagged at his shaggy fur as he raced through the trees.

  “Glessic!” he called again.

  The stable hands said there were monsters in here, some sort of evil creatures called the “fay” who could change shape and disappear. They said the fay would steal you away in the middle of the night and that nobody would ever see you again. Gless might be a know-it-all and a bit of a bully, but that didn’t mean Cavall wanted him to be stolen.

  Somewhere, a falcon shrieked.

  Cavall ran faster. The trees began to blur together, and his fur whipped in the breeze. The sound of his own paws hitting the ground thundered in his ears. Running like this was a thrill that erased all the usual distractions. For a few wonderful moments, Cavall felt free—from the stable hands’ watchful eyes, from Gless’s scornful taunts, even from his own doubts that he would ever be as smart or as strong as his brothers and sisters.

  Suddenly, the trees parted and he found himself on the edge of a bright clearing, in the middle of which sat a big stone. The stone was unlike any he’d ever seen before—taller than it was wide, and impossibly smooth. He stopped before it. Swirling patterns had been carved into its side to form the image of a long-tailed dog running alongside a man on a horse. For a moment, he thought he saw the markings glow a faint blue, but he must have been mistaken. Stones didn’t glow.

  But he couldn’t get distracted now. He needed to find Gless before something else did.

  Cavall cocked his head and listened. It was oddly quiet in the little meadow, and any sounds he’d heard a moment ago had vanished. But then a rumble grew in the distance. The sound of something steady and rhythmic and coming closer.

  Curious, Cavall followed the sound to the other edge of the meadow. It didn’t sound like Gless. It sounded more like . . . like the thundering of hooves.

  He’d barely placed the sound when an enormous horse burst out of the brush and came straight at him. Cavall yelped in surprise. The horse’s head swung around as it saw him, a second too late to leap out of the way. In a flash, it was right on top of him, whinnying and rearing back on its hind legs, screaming, “Out of the way! Get out of the way!”

  Cavall tried to scramble out from under the horse’s feet, but everywhere he turned, hooves the size of his head stomped down, again and again. His bones rattled with the force of it. The entire earth shook. The ground churned with dirt, until all he could see were clouds of dust and all he could hear was the horse’s screams.

  There was no right or left, up or down. Cavall shrank in on himself, tucked his tail, and waited for the blow that would surely crush him.

  “Whoa!” A voice sliced through the noise. “Whoa, easy there.”

  The stomping slowed. The horse nickered.

  The voice continued softly, “There, there you go.”

  Cavall lifted his head as the dust settled.

  Holding the horse’s reins was a man with dark hair on his head and chin. He wore a large sword at his side and smelled like the movement of water and wind. He stroked the horse’s muzzle and continued to speak softly until the animal stilled.

  Another man atop a horse sprang from the bushes. “Are you all right?” he asked. He had light hair and a bow slung over his back.

  “Quite all right,” the first man answered. “No harm done. Though it looks as though we’ve lost the deer’s trail.” He passed the reins to the other man and came toward Cavall with his hand held out low. “It’s all right,” he said in that gentle voice. “I’m not going to hurt you. There we go. That’s a good dog.” The man slowly reached out and laid his hand on Cavall’s head.

  When their eyes met, a strange sensation ran through Cavall’s body, like when he’d been running in the wind. It made him feel like he could run as fast as Gless, be as smart as him; it made him feel like he could do anything. The man’s eyes were the same color as the sky.

  “Aye, you’re a good pup, aren’t you?” The man leaned down and gave Cavall’s ears a nice scratch.

  Cavall’s heart was still racing. He’d panicked when the horse had been on top of him. Then this man had cut through all the noise and chaos to help him. Cavall felt so grateful, he licked the man’s face.

  The man laughed. “Why, you’re welcome,” he said. “But what are you doing out here in the forest all by yourself?”

  “No collar,” the other man said. “If I had to guess, I’d say he wandered off from one of the nearby farms.”

  “Well, best get him back where he belongs. Looks like we’ll be cutting this trip short, Tristan.”

  The second man smiled. “As you wish, Your Majesty.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you to call me Arthur?”

  Cavall followed the two men, the one named Tristan riding his horse and holding the other horse’s reins, and the one named Arthur resting a gentle hand on the scruff of Cavall’s neck. It turned out they weren’t far from a dirt road, where several other men and their horses stood waiting for them.

  “Cavall?”

  Cavall jumped when he heard his name called. There, among the people, stood his brother, Gless. He did not look happy to be wearing a twine leash.

  “Gless!” Cavall barked and ran to him. “I’m so glad I fo
und you.”

  “You found me?” Gless huffed.

  The man holding Gless’s leash was young and lanky and smelled a bit like Arthur. Looked a bit like him, too. They both had dark hair and the same color eyes, but where Arthur had hair on his face, the younger man had only a bit of scruff on his cheeks. “I take it you didn’t find any game then?” the young man said.

  “This beast really gave Mordred a scare,” one of the other men laughed, pointing to Gless. “He saw something that big coming at him and screamed, ‘Wolf! Wolf!’”

  “I was just startled,” the young man grumbled. “And I was the one who caught him, after all.” He gave a tug on Gless’s leash, and Gless growled at him. “Anyway, the day’s ruined. These beasts have probably scared off all the game.”

  “Now, now,” Arthur said. “There will always be more trails and more game. It’s why we practice, after all.”

  Someone slipped a twine leash over Cavall’s neck as well, and although it itched, he didn’t pull on it the way Gless did. “I hate leashes,” Gless muttered as they walked back on the dirt road. “I hate people.”

  “People aren’t that bad,” Cavall said, thinking about how the stable hands came to feed them twice a day and let them out of the barn and would sometimes even play with them. And also, the strange feeling he’d had when he looked into Arthur’s eyes. It felt like meeting someone he used to know a long time ago.

  “They’re weak,” Gless said, interrupting his train of thought. “They’re not strong or fast like us.”

  “But . . . one caught you,” Cavall pointed out.

  Gless didn’t respond right away, but by the way he hunched his shoulders, Cavall could tell he’d said the wrong thing.

  Finally, Gless said, “Those who are strong should be in charge. Don’t you think that makes the most sense?”

  “I guess,” Cavall said, though he wasn’t sure.

  They followed the men on horses along the dirt road. From across the field, two stable hands came running from the barn, waving their arms frantically.

  “Ah, are these two rascals yours, then?” Arthur asked.

  The stable hands reached them, huffing and out of breath. Even so, they dipped into low bows. “I’m terribly sorry, Your Majesty!” the first one managed. “We had a visitor, and I was distracted. I should have been keeping an eye on them. I should have—”

  “It’s fine,” Arthur said. “Gave us a bit of a surprise on our tracking practice. An interesting breed. Big.”

  “Er,” one of the stable hands began in surprise, “aye, they’re deerhounds. Bred to hunt red deer.”

  Arthur exchanged a look with Tristan. “I have been looking for a hunting dog, after all,” he said.

  “We breed the best in Camelot, Your Majesty,” the stable hand replied, before giving Cavall a withering glare. “Though maybe not this one. Or that one.” He shot an equally disapproving look at Gless. “Obviously these two require more training than most.”

  “They are fine beasts,” Arthur said. He patted Cavall’s back, and Cavall wagged his tail. “Would you be willing to part with one?”

  “Father, you can’t be serious,” the young man—was his name Mordred?—scoffed. “You don’t want that one. Look at his overbite. His legs are misshapen. If you want a good hunting dog, this one has better breeding.” He pointed to Gless. “That one will never give you a good hunt.”

  “And everyone said a peasant’s son could never become a king.”

  “If you want a hound for a companion, we can train the other one. You can fix a dog’s behavior, but not his potential.”

  Cavall leaned against Arthur; his shoulders almost came to the man’s waist. Sometimes, when he leaned against a person, he would knock them over, especially if they weren’t prepared for it. Arthur seemed a bit surprised, but he didn’t fall or even stagger. He just smiled and scratched Cavall’s chin.

  “I see plenty of potential,” a new voice said.

  Everyone turned to see a stooped man making his way toward them, leaning on a gnarled stick with a glass ball fixed atop it. Cavall recognized the pointy hat right away. It was the wizard who sometimes came to talk to Cavall and his brothers and sisters.

  “Merlin!” Cavall yipped in excitement. His tail thumped against Arthur’s side. He knew that Merlin’s visits often included surprises, like the time he had conjured lights that danced in the palm of his hand. That was when Cavall had learned that he could see the color blue. Merlin possessed a cleverness most people did not. Mother said that Merlin had even given him the name Cavall, which meant “horse.”

  “My, how you’ve grown, Cavall,” Merlin said as he drew near. “You really will be as big as a horse one day, eh?” He gave Cavall a sly wink.

  Cavall came up to him. “What are you doing here? I haven’t seen you in so long. Do you know these people? Are they friends of yours?” As usual, when Cavall spoke around people, only Merlin understood. Because humans didn’t understand words unless they were said out loud. They couldn’t hear what you meant in your heart and mind.

  “And always with a thousand questions.” Merlin murmured to Cavall, chuckled and patted him on the head.

  Merlin turned to Arthur. “I apologize, Your Majesty. I’m afraid that it is partly my fault that these dogs escaped and ruined your ride. I was distracting these men with idle chatter. You mustn’t blame them or the dogs. They are fine animals, the both of them.”

  Mordred folded his arms across his chest. “Does your power of prophecy extend to beasts now?”

  “It’s not prophecy. I simply tell you what I’ve already seen.”

  “Because you’re living your life in reverse, yes, yes.” Mordred waved a hand in the air dismissively. “Well, Father, I won’t argue that you have a penchant for taking in misfits. If you want that mutt so badly, far be it from me to tell you otherwise. It’s not like you’ve ever listened to me anyway.”

  “Don’t be that way, Mordred,” Arthur said. “Why don’t you choose a hound of your own, if you’re so keen on that one?” He nodded to Gless, who eyed them both suspiciously. “I’m sure he will make a fine companion for you as well.”

  “I have no interest in a companion. I need a dog who will do his job well.” Mordred’s gaze turned to Gless. “Strong, fast, capable . . . yes, those are the qualities I look for in a dog.” He turned to the stable hands with an imperious nod of his head. “Have both of them collared. Your king has decided.”

  Collared? Cavall had never had a collar before. His mother had one, though, and she was proud of hers. She said it signified the bond she shared with her person. If they were giving Cavall his own collar, did that mean . . . was Arthur his person now? Had Arthur chosen him?

  A thrill ran through him that made his fur stand on end.

  They all walked back to the barn, the stable hands leading him and Gless by their leashes. As they drew near, their mother appeared at the barn door and shook her head at her pups. “I can’t turn my back on you two for a minute,” she sighed. “Now what trouble have you gotten into?”

  Cavall romped up to her with a happy bark. “Mother!” He leapt in the air. “I’m going to get a collar. I’m going to get a person!” And not just any person. The kindest, bravest person he’d ever met. “Gless, too!”

  His mother’s eyes widened in surprise, and then she nuzzled him and licked his face. “Oh, I’m so proud of you, Cavall. You and your brother.”

  Cavall stopped bouncing around when he realized what this meant. He would be leaving the barn. “Mother, will you come, too?” She had to. Cavall didn’t know what he would do without her. What if he made a mistake? What if he made lots of mistakes?

  “Oh, my dear,” his mother said as she licked his ears, “you mustn’t be afraid.” Cavall let her wash his face. It always made him feel safe. “I know you will be very happy in your new home. You have a person now. A person loves you and protects you, and all they ask in return is that you be the very best dog you can be.”

 
“But . . . what if the best I can be isn’t good enough?”

  His mother gave him one last lick. “Then you will simply have to try your best, won’t you?” She turned to Gless, who was struggling with the stable hand who was trying to get his new collar around his neck. “I want the two of you to promise me something. I want you to look out for each other. You both have people now, but you’re still brothers. I know you will make me proud.”

  “Yes, Mother,” Gless said.

  “I will,” Cavall said. “I’ll try.”

  The stable hand released Gless, who scratched at his collar and tried to get it off. Cavall’s turn came next. The stable hand slipped a bit of leather around his neck. It was a little uncomfortable, but he resisted the urge to scratch at it.

  He searched for his new person among the gathering at the barn door. Arthur stood talking to the stable hands, but he looked back when Cavall found him. Their eyes met again, and Arthur smiled. Cavall wagged his tail.

  Two handlers led Cavall and Gless by leashes attached to their new collars. Cavall looked behind one last time to see his mother, brothers, and sisters. “Good-bye, everyone,” he yipped. He would miss them, but he resolved that he would do his best in his new home. He would love and protect Arthur, who had chosen him. Him! He still couldn’t believe it.

  He hoped he would be able to live up to Arthur’s expectations, whatever those might be. And he wondered nervously what would happen if he did not.

  Chapter 2

  OUTSIDE THE BARN, IN THE BRIGHT DAYLIGHT, Cavall pulled on his leash to get to Arthur’s side. The man holding the leash cursed, but Arthur bent down to let Cavall lick his face. “I’m sorry, boy, I’d love to play with you, but that will have to wait. I’m needed back at the castle for a meeting with my knights, so I’ll see you later.” He gave Cavall a pat on the head, then turned and mounted his horse.

  “Wait for me,” the young man named Mordred said. “I’ll go with you. Where’s my horse?” He looked around, scowling.

  Arthur chuckled and shook his head. “No need to hurry, Mordred. I’m sure the other knights and I can handle a meeting without you.”