Chapter One

Exhilarated

The moon gazed lovingly over the sleeping city of Camelot, her pale glow caressing the little houses. The rolling hills in the distance looked like milk had been spilt over them as the moon's gleam reached out to them also. The trees of the forest looked like Christmas trees that had been coated with snow. It was truly beautiful. But then the peaceful atmosphere was pierced by one harsh voice, echoing round the tiny houses below. It was ordering directions into the night. Recognition sprang into his mind. That was Arthur. Arthur Pendragon. The Prince of Camelot. Heir to Uther Pendragon. He had been waiting for that voice. It brought him both exasperation and yet, exhilaration. It was time for his daily, well - nightly, chase. He pulled himself up from his comfortable position on the roof of one of the minute houses. This was his territory, domain, land… home. Arthur's voice stopped as he finished ordering his Knights as to which route they would go searching tonight. They did this same routine every night. But that's what he loved about it. No, what he really loved about it was the feeling of danger that he had on them. It was immature and cruel really, to take pleasure out of their fear, but it was fun. And to be honest, it was the only thing he could do that was fun. He was the top of Camelot's most wanted list. But, to be honest, it was a bit sad, they didn't even know his real name. He was known only as Emrys to them. His real name and practically any information about him remained a secret, not known by a single soul in the city. He was the Thief of the city. The danger of the city. The fear of the city. Not a single person in the kingdom had seen him. Yes, they had seen his silhouettes, footprints, mysterious dark figures, his hooded cloak billowing out behind him as he stood above the city. But never his face. And that was just how he liked it.


Emrys made sure his hood was securely concealing his face. When he was happy that his face was suitably hidden in shadow, he strutted over to the edge of the roof and peered down to the street below. This was the street directly outside the vast wooden lower gate that lead into the castle courtyard, and then the castle itself. Arthur and his Knights were just starting to move off down the street, their steps as quiet as they could make them and, considering most of them had full armour on, they were extremely quiet. Their mind's must have been set tonight. On other nights, when they were in less positive moods, they clanked their way down the back roads, making so much of a racket that some of the disturbed neighbours even stuck their heads out of their windows and shouted complaints to Arthur and his men. But tonight was not one of those nights. Emrys followed them along the rooftops, his eyes trailing them below as they wound through the streets. He thought that they would have worked out by now that he spent his time above the city, not in the streets. They had been stalking him like an animal for so long. It had been years, at least two, maybe even three. Time passed slowly and peacefully when you spent almost all of your time on the roofs, watching the sun rise, shine in the sky and then go to sleep behind the mountains and then the moon would take over the shift, sharing her light out onto the landscape until she then gave way once more to her sister. He could tell what season it was, but that was as far as his time-consciousness stretched. But he could always rely on Arthur and his men to let him know when adventure time was. Arthur and the Knights held their weapons out in front of them, ready for any threat that may jump out at them. Emrys decided that he would give them a bit of target practice.


Emrys leapt silently down onto the rough ground below. His cloak flapped down behind him a second after he landed, also silent, like a bat's wings in flight. He was just round the corner from Arthur, the shadows hiding Emrys from sight. He could only just hear Arthur's and the Knight's muffled footstepsfrom round the corner. And then, they were there. They didn't see him at first, the shadows were so used to hiding him, he had become invisible to any onlookers. But then he stepped out into the beaming moonlight. Arthur noticed a movement and whipped round to stare down the side alley at him. His Knights soon followed his gaze, narrowed their eyes and held up their swords further, readying themselves for the oh-so familiar chase.

"We meet again, Arthur." The words escaped Emrys' mouth from curling lips. There was an ominous and silent pause.

"Emrys," Arthur whispered the one word before raising his sword and yelling the order to attack.


The Knights obeyed Arthur's command instantly and charged forward, brandishing their swords. Arthur followed, wielding his own sword. A sly, slanted smile crept across Emrys' mouth. He was certain Arthur couldn't see it but he let it stay there anyway, he relished in the joy that this chase brought him. Just before the first blade could reach him, he stepped back into the shadows and disappeared from view as easily as covering himself with a pitch black sheet. Arthur and his Knights did not stop however, they knew he was in there somewhere, hiding in the shadows. 'Not for much longer' thought Emrys. He waited until the last moment, just before the Knights were on top of him. Then, without warning, he leapt up and clambered up the building as easily as a lizard. Before Arthur and his Knights could notice that he was no longer concealed in the shadows, he was standing on top of on of the roofs smiling down at them as they failed to notice his disappearance. The moon's glimmering beams spilt down on him, turning his figure into a dark outline. He was a black silhouette against the pearly white shine of the moon's spotlight. He was the main attraction in a show, and now was the time for the major performance. He laughed to himself as he watched them groping round in the darkness for something that was now surveying them from above. But then one of the Knights realised that their prey had escaped and looked around, his face puzzled. His eyes then travelled upward and found Emrys who still had a triumphant smirk on his face as he looked over the edge of the roof at them. The Knight tapped Arthur on the shoulder and pointed up to the rooftops where Emrys stood.

"There he is Sire, on the roof!" Arthur looked up from his searching in the darkness to follow the Knight's finger up to the top of the house. Arthur spotted him and hatred flickered in his eyes. But it wasn't just hatred there, there was a trace of something else and Emrys recognised it at once. Fear. Emrys knew he struck fear into the people of Camelot. He emanated danger. But that was just how he liked it.

"Come down here now!" Arthur yelled up to the rooftop sternly. Emrys remained silent. "Come down now, in the name of Uther Pendragon!" Arthur bellowed. Emrys smiled and crouched down so he was closer to Arthur.

"Now, why would I want to do that?" He whispered and then straightened back up victoriously, knowing he had won. Arthur's face threatened to go scarlet with rage but Arthur pushed it back down and turned to his Knights.


Before soon, Arthur was calling instructions to his Knights to climb up to the roof. Emrys took a step back to allow them a moment to get organised and find adequate places they could clamber up from. He could already hear their armour clanking as they rushed off to find sufficient footholds. It wasn't a huge number of Knights tonight. There were nine of them, including Arthur. Once, Arthur had brought out what must have been a collection from his army, there had been around twenty of them that night. But even with so many men, Emrys still slipped out of their clutches. Suddenly, two arms appeared clutching at the wooden roof. Luckily, the hands found a small hole in the wood, which they grasped tightly. A few seconds later, a body had been hauled up onto the roof. Fortunately, this was one of the few flat-roofed houses in the city. Most of the houses had pitched roofs, which Emrys had mastered but Arthur and his Knights were not as experienced and so they clambered up and down the slanted tiles with difficulty. When the Knight had straightened up, Emrys recognised him at once. This was Gwaine. Emrys had learned most of the Knights' names from hearing Arthur's constant commands directed at them individually. Gwaine wasn't wearing any armour, unlike most of the other Knights. He stood there simply with a shirt, trousers and boots. He also had a belt around his waist holding a sheath which had the hilt of a glinting sword protruding from the top. Gwaine had untamed, extremely dark brown hair that hung messily around his ears. He had light brown, glistening eyes and stubble running round the bottom of his face. Emrys knew Gwaine was a troublesome Knight. He was cheeky, especially toward Arthur. Arthur was always complaining that he could never take thing seriously. This made Emrys fond of Gwaine more than any of the other Knights. Although, of course, he could never actually like any of the Knights. It was like a mouse befriending the cat that had been chasing it every night. No, he would only ever be known as 'the most wanted of Camelot' to Arthur and his Knights.


Soon, all of the Knights had straightened up on the rooftop. Emrys recognised all of them. There was Gwaine, Lancelot, Elyan, Leon, Olwyn, Braeden, Percival and Delmar. Arthur stood proudly in front of them, eyeing Emrys challengingly. Emrys knew Arthur felt most confident when he had all his Knights behind him but this didn't have any difference on Emrys. He knew this would be just like any other night. They would chase, trap and then lose. All the Knights suddenly drew their swords from their belts simultaneously, including Arthur. But this only made Emrys smile more. They thought that long, sharp, metal sticks could defeat Camelot's most dangerous enemy? He almost laughed. But instead he just smirked. Emrys could defeat all of them in a second. He had a secret weapon that Arthur and his knew about only too well. Magic.


The Knights awaited Arthur's signal anxiously. They were ready to charge. Then, with just a nod of Arthur's head, they were let free and stampeded forward. Emrys turned on his heel instantly, wanting to get a head start, even though he knew he wouldn't need it. His cloak spun round with him, swirling up in the air behind him impressively. Then he ran. He sprinted along the wooden rooftop with ease. He saw a gap in the houses approach, but it didn't worry him. He spent so much time running along these houses and leaping over the gaps, he could practically do it with his eyes closed. He bounded across the gap effortlessly. He heard the Knights falter at the opening and cautiously jump over it one by one. They started running again as soon as they landed, hastily wanting to close the gap they had formed by being so careful. Emrys slowed a little and glanced quickly over his shoulder. Gwaine was leading a few feet away. They had been broken off into groups now. Gwaine lead, then came Lancelot and Arthur, then Leon and Delmar, behind them was Elyan, then Olwyn and Braeden, and finally came Percival, who was already panting heavily, bringing up the rear. Emrys slowed right down to allow Gwaine and the rest to catch up. This was his thrill, so he wanted it to be good.


They had been running from rooftop to rooftop for a while now and they had moved onto the pitch-roofed houses. Most of the Knights were slowing down now, all apart from Gwaine, Lancelot and Arthur. Evidently, the clambering up one side of the tiled roofs and then trying not to slip down the other was proving draining for most of the Knights at the back of the pack. But Gwaine, Lancelot and Arthur battled on, showing hardly any signs of slowing down nor getting tired. They seemed determined tonight. Emrys decided they deserved a bit of a treat. He stopped without warning at a large gap between the houses. It was extremely wide and looked way to large to jump across. But Emrys knew otherwise. He heard Gwaine instantly stop in his tracks behind him. Emrys turned slowly to face the Knight. Gwaine eyed him suspiciously but also looked a bit bolder when he saw that he had trapped him. The building they were on top of was vastly tall. It was at least fifteen foot high. Lancelot and Arthur caught up to Gwaine and halted also, staring at Emrys triumphantly. Victorious smiles crept across their faces as they saw there was nowhere else for him to run. Although Gwaine still looked a little doubtful. He obviously remembered how many times they had thought they had had him trapped but then he had slipped through their snare at the last moment.

"Now Thief, there is nowhere for you to run, so why not hand yourself over? Give up!" Arthur's voice was dripping with proud success. Emrys shook his head slowly.

"You obviously do not know me as well as I thought you did. You see, Prince Arthur, there is always somewhere for Emrys to run. Or in this case, jump." And with that Emrys took breath and slowly let himself fall backwards. Just before he descended completely, he caught sight of Arthur's shocked expression as he freely let himself surely plummet to his death. Emrys smiled once more beneath his hood at Arthur. He really didn't know him as well as he thought he did.