After King Arthur’s death, Sir Bedwyr hurled Arthur’s legendary sword into the lake from whence it came. His dagger, less famous but no less enchanted, was kept by his queen Guinevere as she shut herself away in a convent. As for his holy spear, the Rhongomyniad… almost no one knows. The new king, Constantine, is desperate to find it, to claim the favor of God and hold the throne with an air of legitimacy.
It was last seen in the hands of Madoc, a torturer who served Mordred, Arthur, and Constantine as well… but the king has declared that the fugitive man serves only himself. A would-be knight named Vaughan and his maimed assistant Roldan have captured Madoc at last… but how low will they go to extract information? Does a knight’s duty lie in obeying orders, or in defying them?
“The Torturer of Camelot” won first place in the 2021 FantaSci Writing Contest, and appears in the anthology Keen Edge of Valor, alongside thirteen other stories of magical relics and the valorous deeds they empower.
You can find the Keen Edge of Valor here.