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Chapter Seventeen

My heart was pounding I don&039;t knohy After all, what chance did I have of pulling the alleged Excalibur fro Arthur in line behindWhy not, right? Fake or not, this was sort of fun And I see "life is supposed to be fun"

So I paid uy earing fake chain mail and a purple tunic He looked miserable He also looked silly as hell Anyway, he handed reen ticket stub and held the tent flap open for looray-colored boulder The boulder looked a bit like afro hilt of a sword

I hadn&039;t been expecting to be soi was utterly beautiful Aler than life And, if I didn&039;t know better, it seelow and sort of pulsate, as if it were alive

Or as if your overactive iination was on hyperdrive

Another fake chainbehind a fold-out card table, bobbing his head toanachronisms Unless, of course, it was the first iPod The iPodeth, perhaps Maybe he was rocking out to popularand ale and fair et your head chopped off

Anyway, the squire held out his hand and when I gave hith, pull with care, and perhaps, you&039;re the heir Good luck, O Future King of England" He sounded bored He also sounded not very hopeful

"Uh-powered spotlight, si you would see on a Hollywood set, illu sword hilt

I&039;ll ad Arthur and Camelot and the Holy Grail?

The hilt looked very old The leather strap wrapped around the handle looked worn and battle-tested How had the leather survived after all these years?

The po steel ball that counter-balanced the blade, was badly worn, as if it had seen uard, which protected the hand frolish Old English?

Very Old English?

The weapon itself was a ht percent of it was deeply embedded in the rock Fake or not, I wondered how the heck that thing got in there The blade showed signs of heavy use, but still appeared razor sharp

The worker leaned across the table and pulled out one of his earpieces "Hey, ot a long line out there waiting"

"Yes, of course Sorry, um, mate"

I turned back to the sword The handle was tilted upward at about a forty-five degree angle Perfect for grabbing and pulling The rock itself - a hed a ton or tas sitting atop a blue tarp Nothing fancy here Just a tent, a worker, and a rock with a sword in it

All to capitalize on gullible tourists

Well, this gullible tourist slorapped his fingers around the hilt with a certain amount of excite y No blue sparks radiating up and down ic or dospecial at all Disappointment flooded me

Still, the handle seeave me hope I next positioned htly Took a deep breath

And pulled that sucker with all ive any indication that it was coave myself a hernia Damn Destined for a life as a co co skills, but a cohed and turned to leave, and that&039;s when so scream from somewhere outside the tent The worker snapped his head around and yanked out his earphones The scream was followed by what I was sure was the sound offlesh, and then bone hitting bone

Sweeton out there?

The tent flap burst open and I yelped Arthur appeared at the entrance, breathing hard and bleeding froh the still-open tent flap, I caught a fleeting gli in every direction - but also of twodeterminedly toward the tent

Both were armed with swords

"Excuse me, Jaht to Excalibur