Pendragon

By Stacey Jaine McIntosh

From the day he was born, Mordred Pendragon believed himself cursed.
That nothing good could come from the union of Morgan Le Fay and Arthur Pendragon.
But what if it did?
And what if Mordred's path is not the one defined by history?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stacey Jaine McIntosh
• Release date: Oct 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223763529

Stacey Jaine McIntosh

Stacey Jaine McIntosh is the author of ten short stories. "Freya" and "Blood Sacrifice" were published late 2011 and "Fallen Angel" published in 2012. "Life or Death", "Exiles of Eden" and "Morrighan" published in 2013. "Red" and "The Summer Girl" were published in June 2015 and "The Hunter Million" and "Shadows of Annwn" are due to be published later in 2015. She lives in Perth, Western Australia with her husband and four young children.

Book preview

Pendragon

a short story

One for sorrow,

Two for mirth,

Three for a wedding,

And four for death

—John Brand, 1780

THE BIRTHING HAD BEEN HARD. The child was stubborn, like his father, and Morgan had found herself praying to the Gods to spare both their lives. All the while cursing Arthur. She’d lain with him but once and she had come away from their time together bearing a child in her womb. And now that the child’s birth drew near, the pains were constant. But at the end of it...

Morgan?

She looked up, pulling her attention away from the babe in her arms in time to see Mab standing before her, a pensive look about her face and said. Are you absolutely sure you cannot keep him? He’s a beautiful child. I’m sure in time—

I don’t have time, Morgan said. Besides, he is a reminder of all that I do not wish to recall. Perhaps if he were another man’s child... but he is not. No, keeping him will bring me more pain than joy. Take him and raise him as you would if he were your own son.

All I ask is one last thing of you, Mab said. Do you have a name for him?

Mordred, Morgan said. His name is Mordred.

***

I’d fallen for the entirely wrong girl. If anyone had told me I’d fall for a girl from the Summer Court, I would have laughed at them. I’d been raised in the Winter Court. It was a cold and capricious place not unlike its Queen.

Queen Mab had taken me in when my own mother had cast me