"I'm not going," Gerald said.
It was early morning. The mist was still lying on the lake, and the black tower on the far shore rose out of it with no bottom.
"You are," Nathan said.
"You need someone who can fight."
"I need someone who can get to Camelot in five days without being seen. You know the paths. You know the drain. You know which border guards are too lazy to look." Nathan crouched down so they were level. "Kenji doesn't know. The prince doesn't know. If the stone cracks in forty days and nobody in Albion is ready for it, the breach opens in the middle of the palace, and everyone in Camelot dies."
Gerald looked away. His jaw was tight.
"Tell the prince what Faen found," Nathan said. "The gold thread. The forty days. Tell him to put his best healers in the Anchor chamber and keep Kenji eating. Every day he stays strong is a day we get back."
"And tell Kenji?"
Nathan thought about it.
"Tell Kenji I'm working on it," he said. "Don't tell him the number."
