Chapter 1 – The Lost Knights
As Arthur leant back against the wall of the cave, rubbing his bruised and scraped knuckles, the thought crossed his mind that maybe, just this once, he should have listened to Merlin.
It had all started as just another patrol, a routine inspection of Camelot's borders – and yet, somehow, events had escalated to the point that Arthur now found himself in his current… predicament…
Running through the events in his mind once again, Arthur thought back to the moment when things had started going wrong. Until just yesterday everything had been going well (or was it the day before? It was hard to tell the passing of time in the cave). The patrol had encountered very few difficulties, and the whole outing had proven to be entirely uneventful – in fact, the patrol had discovered so little sign of bandits, or indeed any other threat in the area, that they had decided to return to Camelot a couple of days early. And in order to speed up the journey home, they had decided to take a shortcut through the Valley of the Fallen Kings.
Yes, that was when events had suddenly spiralled out of control. Maybe, Arthur decided, just maybe, Merlin might have been on to something with his distrust of the Valley.
Of course, Merlin had been against the whole expedition from the start. As he had somewhat vehemently pointed out, Arthur's duty was in Camelot itself – after Morgana's most recent usurpation, there was a great deal of work to be done rebuilding the city, and ensuring the continued safety of its inhabitants. There were all sorts of matters that needed attending to: managing the now diminished supplies of food and ensuring the farmers were able to grow crops again, training new knights and soldiers, reassuring the citizens… Not to mention all the regular Kingly duties of upholding the law and dealing with the neighbouring kingdoms. And of course, Arthur was needed to oversee it all. As Merlin pointed out, there were plenty of loyal and proficient knights to patrol the kingdom - the King himself wasn't needed.
However, the monotony of courtly life and his kingly duties had started to take their toll on the young King. Guinevere had become the only relief for the increasing pressure he was under, but even she wasn't able to lift the burden he was carrying. Arthur needed some time away to clear his mind and escape the castle life if only for a few days – to pretend that the kingdom didn't rest in his shoulders alone. Someone else could take care of things while he was away.
That someone had turned out to be Merlin. After having been on the receiving end of what could only be described as a lecture from his servant about responsibility, Arthur had snapped and insisted that if he knew so much about it then maybe he could handle his duties for a few days, and announced his intention to lead the next patrol. Of course, once he had had a moment to think about it more clearly he had chosen instead to leave his wife and Sir Leon in charge of the castle – but had decided that he would trust Merlin with all the paperwork at least. Even if it had been born out of a sense of petty revenge, that was a significant gesture of trust on Arthur's part – some of the documents he had left with Merlin contained the details of the recent negotiations with King Vortigern, whose Welsh warriors were the only thing currently keeping the Saxons out of the South, and thus away from Camelot. They were not documents to be left in the wrong hands.
Arthur had to admit to himself that even he had been somewhat surprised by his decision, but then again his relationship with his manservant had changed quite drastically over recent weeks. The Morgana affair, as well as all that business with the sword in the stone, had led Arthur to realise how much trust he had in the young man – and how much he relied upon him. He had always been aware that there was more to the servant than the bumbling fool he appeared on the surface, but it was only now that he was starting to realise how much was hidden beneath the seemingly simple exterior. Arthur had finally come to realise that Merlin was a great deal more intelligent that he let on – and that, despite his many eccentricities he was actually a lot more competent that Arthur gave him credit for.
Not that Merlin had seemed particularly grateful for the sudden recognition – in fact, he had been very insistent that he accompany Arthur on the patrol, rather than remain in Camelot. At first, Arthur had thought that it was the thought of all the paperwork that had suddenly made his manservant eager to face danger alongside the King once again – it was only later that Arthur had realised that Merlin was worried about Arthur's wellbeing, and genuinely believed that his presence on the patrol would offer some form of protection. Arthur had laughed off any suggestion that he couldn't take care of himself on the patrol, and had forcefully left his somewhat sullen manservant at the castle.
It only occurred to Arthur now that perhaps if he had brought Merlin with him after all, none of this might have actually happened. Despite his uselessness in a fight, the young man did have an almost unerring instinct for danger – and a wariness and distrust of the Valley of Fallen Kings that Arthur vowed he would pay more attention to in future. Had Merlin been with them, Arthur might never have made the questionable decision to stop for the night in the valley, and instead continued on a little further to a safer haven.
Arthur dropped his head between his knees, and remembered the events of that day.
It seemed like a sensible idea at the time - after all, the Valley offered shelter and water, and most bandits avoided the place out of fear of 'the curse'. Evening was drawing in, and the overcast sky was threatening rain in the near future – and as they weren't due back in Camelot for another few days there seemed no harm in stopping early for the night, taking advantage of the shelter where they could find it.
That evening progressed like any other, with the knights settling down to sleep after setting up a watch rota for the night. It wasn't until Arthur woke up the following morning that he realised something was amiss - Sir Percival was supposed to have woken him sometime before dawn for his turn on watch, but that time had clearly passed. Although it was possible that Sir Percival had chosen to instead carry on with the watch to allow Arthur to sleep, it was unlikely – Arthur had been very specific that he wasn't to be given special treatment just because he was King. Propping himself up on his elbows, Arthur turned to take a look around the camp. Of the five knights who had accompanied him, Sir Elyan, Sir Lamorak and Sir Tristan (who had only been knighted a couple of weeks ago) were still fast asleep – but Sir Percival, and Sir Gareth who had been on watch before him, were nowhere to be seen.
Arthur didn't lose any time waking up the rest of the knights, and starting a search. For two knights to just wander off while on watch, without waking any of their companions, was too out of character – something must have happened to them while everyone else was asleep. Spreading out around the camp, the knights began looking for clues to indicate what might have happened to their missing companions. It wasn't long before they found something.
"Sire! Over here!" Elyan's voice sounded across the clearing.
Rushing to his side, Arthur bent over to see what Elyan had found. There on the ground was a set of footprints leading away from the camp. They looked fairly fresh, indicating that whoever the prints belonged to had passed that way only a few hours ago.
"Only the one set of prints" Arthur murmured thoughtfully, "Too small to belong to Percival, but they could be Gareth's…" He rubbed the dirt thoughtfully, before looking ahead to see if there was any indication of a trail they could follow. Sure enough, there were a few signs ahead that a body had pushed through the undergrowth – a faint trail, but more than enough for a skilled tracker like Arthur. He made up his mind.
"Elyan, Lamorak – stay here at the camp. I need you to search for any more signs, see if you can find out what happened to Percival – and we need someone here in case they decide to come back. Tristan, with me. Lets see where these tracks lead."
And with that, he set off with Tristan in tow.
Arthur shifted his position on the cave floor, trying to find a more comfortable position. He had definitely been here for several hours now, and he was starting to feel stiff and cold. Just how long was he going to be trapped in this place?
Groaning, and resting his head against the rock wall, he thought back to the results of the ill-fated search.
"Nothing, Sire. It just ends"
"It can't be!" Arthur followed Tristan to the edge of the cliff, and desperately searched for any indication of where the trail might lead – but, as Tristan said, there was nothing to be seen. Just a couple of footprints in the mud leading to the cliff wall, and then… nothing.
"They can't have just disappeared" Arthur repeated "Maybe they climbed the cliff?" he started testing the wall for handholds, looking for any way in which a person could have continued on from the end of the trail.
"Not likely, Sire" Tristan pointed upwards, towards where the cliff angled outwards above their heads "The first metre or so, maybe, but I'd like to see you try to climb that in full armour. No, either they walked into the cliff wall, or there's something we've missed".
They spent the next hour or so scouring the area for any sign of the missing knights, any hint that someone might have walked that way. But it proved hopeless – besides the clear footsteps by the cliff, there was no indication that anyone had been in this area of the valley for some time. In a moment of frustration, Arthur kicked a large stone from the ground at the cliff – it rebounded, hitting a nearby tree with some force and leaving behind a thin scar in the bark.
"There's nothing here. Either they came this way and disappeared, or we're following a false trail. Look, lets get back to the camp, Elyan and Lamorak might have found something else. We've been gone too long, anyway."
But upon their return to camp, they were met with another surprise. Instead of the two knights waiting for them, they returned to an empty camp. In fact, once again it looked like the two knights had just vanished into the air – and from the looks of things, rather suddenly. The camp fire had been lit recently and was showing no signs of dying down, and hanging above it was a pot of stew that was only just beginning to burn. A couple of bowls and spoons had been laid down next to the fire, one of the packs was lying open beside a log with a couple of loose items dropped beside it, and Elyan's sword was propped up in the ground as if it had just been forgotten.
It looked like the knights had just vanished in the middle of what they were doing. No warning, not even enough for Elyan to pick up his weapon – just… gone.
That was the final straw for the King. Worry for his knights, as well as frustration at the lack of any kind of clue as to what might have happened to them, had caused his temper to reach boiling point, and he had lashed out. Throwing the now smoking stew away from the fire, he had proceeded to storm around the camp swearing under his breath for several minutes, before dropping suddenly onto one of the logs and sinking his head into his hands.
Tristan, the more level headed of the two, took a more practical approach. While Arthur stormed the camp, he set about searching for more signs of the missing knights – but after yet another fruitless search, he too gave in and sat on the log beside Arthur.
"We can't stay here" Tristan was the first to break the silence. "We're not safe here – whatever happened to the others could happen to us too. We need to get back to Camelot."
"Hmph" Arthur grunted, refusing to acknowledge the truth of Tristan's words.
"You're the King of Camelot – you're too important to your people. We can't risk losing you."
"I can't leave them." Arthur turned to Tristan "What sort of King would I be if I just abandoned them – we need to find out where they've gone, rescue them if we can. We can't just leave them to some unknown fate."
"I understand Arthur – but what can we do? We have no idea where they are, no idea even where to start looking! And any minute the same fate could befall us – we need to get you to safety soon. Once we're out of the valley, we can go back to Camelot and gather reinforcements – with more knights we can perform a better search. You know I'm right, don't you?"
Arthur grunted again, looking uncertain, before opening his mouth to reply – but whatever it was he intended to say was cut short by the sound of a twig snapping behind them.
Arthur didn't hesitate. In an instant he was facing the other side of the clearing, sword drawn and ready – only to find that the figure facing him wasn't quite what he expected.
The figure of an old man stepped into the clearing. He was dressed in a long robe, and held himself tall and straight despite his age. He was weaponless, and there was a benign look to his face that suggested great kindness and wisdom. There was nothing about the old man that suggested that he was any kind of threat.
Which immediately made Arthur suspicious – appearances could be deceiving, after all. Especially here, in the Valley of the Fallen Kings.
The man stepped forward towards Arthur, his hands extended and open to show his good intentions. Arthur lowered his sword slightly, but remained on alert – there was no telling where this man had come from, or what he intended.
"Fear not, good knights, I mean you no harm. I come with news of your friends. My name is Taliesin."
And with that, Arthur had lowered his defences. If this man knew something about the fate of his knights, then he was prepared to listen.
In the cave, Arthur shuddered at the memory of his first meeting with the old sorcerer. Who would have believed that such a harmless looking old man could have contrived such a terrible curse.
Arthur had fallen for Taliesin's seemingly innocent persona, and walked straight into a trap.
A/N: Ok, so this is my first ever fanfic - any comments/criticism would be welcome! I hope it was Ok for a first attempt... New to fanfiction, so help would be very much appreciated :)
To be honest, i'm not entirely sure how good I'm going to be at uploading (especially given that I'm currently writing this instead of working on my dissertation... um...), but if people actually think its worthwhile continuing I promise to do my best!