I didn't think healing the villagers would take long. With the Green Knight's powers, it shouldn't have. What I hadn't counted on was the sheer number of victims. Over a hundred people were still bedridden, kept together in the largest building in the town. More walking wounded began to gather as word spread that William was doing his thing. Apparently the enemy knights had wounded half the village, including over a dozen children. It was enough to make my blood boil.

Still, the Green Knight worked quickly. Within half an hour, all but a few stragglers had been healed, and we were ready to move on. Unfortunately, a large portion of the townsfolk had armed themselves and made ready to move on with us.

I was looking forward to the help. We had three Swords of the Bequest with no wielders. Three more people with magic swords and superpowers would make a hell of a difference even if we didn't have time to train them. Another forty trained warriors wouldn't hurt, either. I savored that ray of hope for two whole minutes. Then we learned that all their trained warriors had already died. None of these people had seen combat. None of them could accept the Bequest. All of them wanted to come with us anyway.

William and Patrick were both strongly against the idea. So was Mike. I was on the fence. The world was at stake. We needed as much help as we could get. Aiofe and the villagers felt it was as much their responsibility to rescue Nynyane as ours, and they weren't wrong. More than that, they hungered for vengeance. Roderick and his ilk had killed their friends, their families. They'd injured the survivors in pride as well as body, made them feel helpless. Made them feel weak. Now the Knights were here, and it was time for payback. Everybody and their brother wanted to be part of it. Sister's too, I guess. There were a lot of women in the crowd.

The argument that ensued wasted another half hour. In the end Aoife's insistence that we couldn't stop them from coming was trumped by Mike's insistence that he'd "burn their fucking town to the ground" if they tried. His argument was punctuated by the immolation of the nearest building.

"What are you doing?!" Aoife had shrieked at him.

"Whatever I want!" Mike had shouted back. He clenched a fist and made the building burn brighter. "I'm a god-damned Knight, and none of you have the power to stop me!"

I'd stayed silent up until now, but Mike had a point. The villagers were armed with old swords and spears and kitchen knives. There were a lot of them, but none of them had the ability to injure a Knight, and that made them cannon fodder. At best, they could make a nice distraction while the Orange Knight ground them into fine paste. More likely, they'd get in the way, and an idiot like Mike would end up sacrificing himself to try to keep them alive. Besides, we were running out of time. I couldn't convince the others to take these fools with us, but maybe I could end the argument and get us on our way. Mike had just given me the set-up. All I had to do was take it.

I used my power to make my voice much, much louder than normal. "And if you can't stop Mike, you can't stop any of them." I pointed at the Keep. "Any one of the knights could slice through you like butter, and you don't have a way to fight back. If you did, you'd have taken Avalon back already."

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I expected Mike to jump back in, but it was Patrick who spoke next. I amplified his voice for him. "We can't protect you, but we'd have to try. Bringing you along will get us killed. It will get Nynyane killed. I know you're mad. I know you want payback. But we need you to stay behind."

"And we need a back up plan." The Green Knight stepped in. "Lady Nynyane is not the only person at stake. Roderick is here. You know what he wants. You know who he will summon. If we fail, the Devourer will escape the Partition. If that happens, it will be up to you to escape the island and warn mankind."

Mike and I shared a look. "The Devourer?"

Most of the villagers were not convinced, but Aoife reluctantly conceded the point. Since she was in charge, that turned out to be enough. It took a little while longer, but she convinced the rest of the dumbasses and hotheads to back off, and started laying out a plan in case we didn't make it back by nightfall.

As soon as we'd gotten past the crowd, I turned us invisible. We started up the road to the keep at yet another brisk god-damned jog. This time I was able to force myself to keep up. Sort of. It was only a mile or two, but it was all uphill. When we reached the halfway point I realized I couldn't hear the others. I dropped the invisibility, only to find they were so far ahead I could barely see them. The other knights waited impatiently for my slow ass to huff and puff the rest of the distance.

"So..." Mike kept his voice down as I approached, even though we weren't that close to the keep, yet. "The Devourer. What's that about.?"

The Green Knight watched me catch up, then broke into a walk. "The Devourer was the God of Hunger. Lord of Wyrms. A lot of the gods were twats, but he was one of the worst. He makes Zues look like fucking Santa Claus."

"Does that mean Santa Claus is real?" Mike asked.

"Not the point, mate." William continued, "When Arthur and Nynyane were trying to create the Partition, a lot of gods waged war to stop it. The Devourer was one of the biggest of them. He was the one who laid waste to Camelot with fucking dragons."

"If he's so bad," I huffed. "How come we never heard of him?"

"The same reason I don't know his name," said William. "The bastard was purged from history. We burned books that mentioned him and killed any followers we could find until there weren't any to be found, anymore." He paused. "Nasty business, that." He shook his head.

"Only problem is," Patrick joined in, "the God of Hunger had a follower we couldn't get to. One who killed every Knight that came after him."

It wasn't hard for me to guess. "Roderick?"

"Roderick," the Green Knight agreed. "Turns out Mordred, mad bastard that he was, pledged his soul to the son of a bitch. Along with the souls of his descendants. Descendants like Roderick, who wormed his way into Avalon and betrayed us."

"Wait a minute." I almost stopped walking. "Are you telling me you can pledge your kids souls?"

"Of course you can," said William. "Why do you think babies get baptized?"

"It's more like you could back in the day," Patrick cut in. "Guaranteeing free will is one of the things the Partition does. No one can sell your soul without your consent anymore." He paused. "At least, we don't think they can."

"Sort of hard to know for sure," William admitted, "now that us mortals can't see the afterlife." He shrugged. "Still, Roderick's still bound. Or at least he thinks he is." He looked up the road. We were coming up on another bend. The keep was still obscured by trees, but it had to be close. "Anyway, we'll be in sight of the keep once we round this bend. Kevin, make us invisible."

I did as he asked. We were all silent for a minute, than Mike decided to ask another question. "What happens if this guy breaks free? What can he do?"

The Green Knight didn't answer right away. When he did, his voice was grim. "He's a god, Mike. An ancient, evil god. Who the fuck knows what he can do?"