"I figured. What's a little thing like gun control to a professional assassin?"

Modred stopped and glanced at Paul. "You told him?"

"He told me everything," said Loomis, but Modred caught the slight shake of Paul's head and nodded.

"I see," he said, speaking to Paul, though Loomis thought he was talking to him.

"Don't blame Paul," said Loomis. "I made him do it. He was afraid that I was going to shoot first and ask

questions later."

"And would you have?"

"Maybe I should have. You did."

"Yes, but I only fired a warning shot," Modred replied. "On the off chance that you would have fired

first."

"You're a careful man," said Loomis. "I can see how you survived as long as you have. If I didn't know

better, I would've thought that Paul had flipped his lid." He shook his head. "No wonder you didn't tell

me up front. It's the damnedest story I ever heard."

"It's just as well he told you," Modred said, putting his pistol away in its shoulder holster. "I was going to

tell you myself, anyway."

"You'rereally King Arthur's son?"

"His bastard, to be more precise," said Modred dryly. "My father and I never enjoyed the best of

relationships."

"From what I've read, that's one hell of an understatement," Loomis replied. "How much of that story

was true?"

"You mean Mallory's legend? Most of it was reasonably accurate, albeit colored by a romantic's

perception. The true story of Camelot is a rather tawdry affair that I won't bore you with. Suffice it to say

that my father was presented in a highly flattering light. His so-called ideals and nobility left something to

be desired."

"I find it hard to believe you're over two thousand years old," said Loomis. "You don't look a day over

forty."

"The rate at which I age is an infinitesimal fraction of the normal human life cycle," Modred said. "Being a

half-breed, I am not, in the strict sense of the word, immortal. But our necromancer is."

"You call them the Dark Ones?"

"That is what the Council of the White called them," Modred replied. "The Old Ones who refused to

give up the practice of necromancy for white magic. How much of the story did Paul tell you?"

"He gave me an abbreviated version," Loomis said. "I know about the Mage War and how the Dark

Ones were imprisoned in the pit. And I know about the runestones and how the Dark Ones escaped.