Six-guns and Slay Bells -- Story 11

11

The Keepers of Camelot

Do you believe in Arthur? In Camelot? In the Round Table? Can you get your head around Arthur and Guinevere and Lancelot and Merlin being brought back again and again until their roles are completely fulfilled?

Fast forward to the 1880s, to a lonely stage station somewhere in Apache country. Fast forward to a racing stage, to a man with an arrow in his neck, an Apache arrow. Fast forward to Arthur Pender; once known as the Once and Future King. Why here? Why now? Why me? He automatically fires his revolver at the attacking Indians. He wishes he’d had one back in the day, back when he wore steel and attacked with lances.

Lances. He wondered if Lancelot would be here in this place and time. They made it through the attack to the stage station, leaving one dead man behind. Arthur finds Ginny, Guinevere, inside the station, wife of the operator. She recognizes him almost as quickly as he recognizes her. Can they overcome the pain of Camelot? What can be done to overcome the fate that keeps them coming back again and again, thousands upon thousands of times.

The keepers of Camelot, surrounded by Apaches, helped by Merlin, hindered by their memories. Can they? Will they? Read on and find out.

CHERYL PIERSON, a native Oklahoman, was born in Duncan, OK, and grew up in Seminole, OK. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma, and hold a B.A. in English. Her short story, THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS, is included in the Western Fictioneers anthology THE TRADITIONAL WEST. Other western short stories are available through Western Trail Blazer (WTB) publishing, as are her novellas, as well as her debut historical western, FIRE EYES, and her time travel western novel, TIME PLAINS DRIFTER. WOLF CREEK:  BLOODY TRAIL is available from Amazon. A joint project co-authored with five other western authors under the pen name of Ford Fargo, it's the first in a series you won't be able to put down once you start. You can visit her website at http://www.cherylpierson.com