Sleepless Knights Read Online Free PDF

Can’t yer see I’m busy?” he shouted above the noise.
    â€œNo you’re not, Gawain. You’re coming with me.”
    â€œI like your friend, Gawain,” said a girl in black, with plastic feline ears and smudged whiskers on her cheeks. “What’s his name?”
    â€œBuggering Off,” said Sir Gawain, moving between Sir Lancelot and the cat-woman.
    â€œAw come on, share it with the hen!” said one in a bridal veil, a red letter ‘ L ’ pinned to her back. She draped her arm around Sir Lancelot’s neck, her head lolling on his shoulder. He looked towards the table of observers, just as a collective jolt of anger spurred them up out of their seats. Sir Gawain noted it too, and smiled thinly.
    â€œAch, don’t bother with him, Sandra,” said Sir Gawain, putting his arm around the bride. “I’m your last request, remember?”
    â€œYou’ve exceeded your limits, Gawain,” said Sir Lancelot.
    â€œOh I’m just getting warmed up,” replied Sir Gawain, taking a long swig at a champagne bottle.
    â€œIt’s Ritual Night,” said Sir Lancelot through gritted teeth. From the corner of my eye, I marked our observers’ swift approach. Sir Gawain released the bride.
    â€œThen I’ll get a taxi.”
    â€œTo the Inn? Talk sense, man!”
    â€œYou’re not the only one with money, Lance DeWhatnot.”
    â€œWe’re running out of time. We need to leave.”
    â€œ
This
is my Ritual Night, right here. So why don’t you run back to your wee mansion?”
    â€œYou fool, Gawain! You’ll die —”
    â€œYou’re dead, you Scottish bastard.” Our observers, all six of them, now had us surrounded. Their leader pushed Sir Gawain in the shoulder. “You’re old enough to be their dad,” he said.
    â€œGranddad,” chimed a henchman. Physically, this was true, though inaccurate on a point of technicality by some years. Over one thousand, four hundred years, to be more precise.
    â€œBarry? What the hell are you doing here? Just go, will you!” said Sandra.
    â€œShut up and stay out of this, I ain’t even started on you yet,” replied this ‘Barry.’
    Sir Lancelot inclined his head towards Barry, as if he were about to share an intimate secret. “One: You do not address a lady in that tone and manner. Ever. Two: Kindly remove your hand from my companion’s shoulder. Now.”
    Barry’s hand stayed exactly where it was. At his side, the fingers of the other hand squeezed the neck of a beer bottle. His mouth twisted into in a grim sneer. Green eyes flashed fire. With a flick of his wrist he smashed the bottle on the side of a pillar.
    â€œOr what?” he said.
    â€œOr I promise you, you will not leave this place without suffering blows most dolorous.”
    â€œYou what?”
    Sir Gawain took a step closer to Sir Lancelot and Barry. “He means
come an have a go if ye think yer hard enough, ya manky wee goat scrote
.”
    Barry’s jagged bottle swung for Sir Lancelot in a wide arc. Sir Lancelot stepped neatly to one side, upsetting Barry’s balance, not to mention his pride, as he found himselffloored by his own momentum. The bottle flew out of his hand and towards the unflinching Sir Gawain, nicking his neck. Sir Gawain touched the skin, looked at the blood on his fingers, and smiled. “Been there, done that,” he said, and head-butted Barry’s chief henchman, sending him sprawling back towards his fellows.
    As if a stone had been dropped into the centre of an ant hill, the patrons surrounding us scattered in alarm. Furious now, Barry’s gang attacked. One flew for Sir Lancelot’s waist, only to meet the knight’s foot, sending him into the path of another, who was charging for Sir Gawain with a chair raised above his head. The chair fell towards the cat-woman, who proved decidedly less nimble than her