Arthur's Bane, Part 2 (5.2). Enjoy!
Rather quickly, we found ourselves surrounded and led to where more thugs were guarding a bunch of men, horses and a wagon. This must have been what Annis was talking about. That made them slavers; how had Mordred ended up here? We were tied to the back of their wagon and forced to walk behind it as the caravan got moving again.
After we'd walked for a while, I felt annoyed enough to pick a fight. "Tell me again, Merlin—how'd we wind up like this? Oh, yeah. You were thinking with your stomach, naturally. I warned you it was a trap."
"And I warned you to return to Camelot," he said angrily, still looking straight ahead. At Mordred.
"Merlin . . ."
"Stop!" one of the Saxons yelled. The little man who'd caught us—the leader. He dismounted and walked back to us.
Merlin spoke quickly. "We can't allow them take us to Morgana. We have to get away from here. We must make a plan."
Then the leader was there and punched me in the stomach; I doubled over in pain. "Speak only when you're spoken to!" he said viciously. "Faster!" he yelled at the driver and mounted. Merlin helped me stand and we were yanked forward, nearly running in order to avoid being dragged.
We were all relieved when the caravan stopped for the night, although our hands were still bound. They didn't give us food, blankets or light a fire for us. We were left to curl up on the ground to rest as well as we could. When I lay down, Merlin was still sitting up, staring at Mordred. It looked like he'd stay that way the entire night.
When I woke in the morning, Merlin was over to me in an instant. He handed me a large chunk of bread and told me to eat it quickly without being seen. He told me Mordred had given it to him.
Soon one of the slavers came back to kick anyone who wasn't awake yet. They still didn't hand out any food, but secured us to the wagon again while they ate. After they were all ready, we started walking again. I was getting awfully tired of walking, but the bread had given me enough energy to think.
I conversed quietly with Merlin, so they wouldn't hear us. We came up with a plan that would probably have to be carried out in two steps. After the day had worn on a bit more, we put it into action. I fell to my knees then forward to my face. Ouch.
"Hey, stop!" Merlin yelled. I heard someone approaching; a cue for Merlin to say, "He needs water."
A kick to my side. Ow! "Stand up!" The leader, great. I rolled and he yanked me up by my head. I tried to look faint—it wasn't hard, considering. "Not such a heroic warrior now, are you?" he spat.
"Here. I'll help him." He allowed Merlin to "help" me. I'd filched his dagger while I was bent over and winked at Merlin as I stood. Step one was completed. We started walking again; I cut our bonds.
Not too long later, while we were still in a small, snowy gorge, we looked at each other. It was time to begin the next, and hopefully last, step. Merlin leaped forward and pulled the wagon's tailgate down. The group ahead of us immediately halted at the noise.
The leader rode back and yelled, "Who did this? Who?!" Merlin stood to my left; I caught the leader's eye and tilted my head toward my servant.
"We have to rest," Merlin said resolutely. He wasn't acting.
The leader dismounted and walked over to us. "Sure, you can rest," he drew his sword, "forever!"
I smashed him upside the head with my "bound" hands. His sword went flying and he collapsed. I turned and threw the dagger at another slaver. A third slaver's horse reared up on him. I dived to the back of the wagon where our weapons were held. I tossed an axe which Merlin miraculously caught. I took a sword and slashed a couple times at the slaver who'd crept behind me. I turned back to grab a crossbow and bolts. I handed the latter to Merlin and we ran away from the caravan.
We ran over a rise and up a small slope before skidding to a stop in front of a crevice. It looked small enough to jump across safely. I tossed the bow and bolts over and turned to Merlin. He read what I was thinking before I could speak. He gave me that "you're insane" look and said, "You must be joking . . ."
"You have a better idea?" I backed up as much as I could then ran and leapt off a ledge of the crevice. I made it to a ledge on the other side and ducked behind some rocks. Then I looked back to see a slaver charging up the slope. Merlin backed up, still hesitant. "We don't have all day, Merlin!"
He ran and launched himself off the ledge, and landed on the edge of the ledge. He slipped down; I jumped over to help him up. I dragged him over to where I'd taken cover. By that time, not one but two slavers had made it up the slope. I grabbed the crossbow and loaded it quickly. One man was at the ledge; I shot him down. The other leapt over the crevice and I shot him as he landed.
Merlin jumped up and said, "I'll ensure they can't get over." He ran to the ledge and started hacking at it with his axe.
"Merlin!" I yelled. Because that was a stupid idea, but typically Merlin.
I couldn't get up to stop him; another slaver was running up the slope. I reloaded the crossbow and aimed it at the third man, shooting him down before he could cross. Merlin kept hacking at the ice while I ducked down to reload the crossbow. I heard Merlin pause then give one heavy blow. The ledge broke and fell. I looked up to see Mordred on the other side. I aimed the crossbow at him while he scanned for another way to cross. Finding none, he stopped and just stared at us for a few moments. I lowered the crossbow and Mordred began to back away.
Merlin looked at me like I was insane again. "Why did you let him go?!" Where was his mercy?
"He had no way to follow us." I thought that was obvious.
"He was driving us to our deaths," he yelled. He yelled?
"He showed us mercy." I tried to stay calm.
"You should've killed him!" He yelled again; I had to say something.
"What's the matter with you?" I was incredulous—I can count on one hand the times he's yelled. Besides, this is the man who got upset about killing defenseless animals
He glanced back briefly. "You had the opportunity!" At least he'd lowered his voice a bit.
"We got away, didn't we?" He should be ecstatic.
"We may not be so fortunate next time." Nowhere near ecstatic.
"I love your optimism. Anyway, we have to keep going." I grabbed his shoulder to get him going again. Luckily that's all it took to get him running. They might regroup and come after us.
We ran until we were sure they were far behind us. Then we walked until Ismere's tower rose black in the distance. Much to Merlin's annoyance, it had begun to snow. It wasn't long until we'd reached the dreadful thing; he looked at it with deep apprehension. I noticed.
"You know, Merlin—appearances can be deceiving."
"Not this time," he replied.
We hid under cover to plan our next move. A short time later, the slavers' caravan arrived, Mordred walking near the front. Now Merlin would say something critical about him.
Sure enough, he said, "I warned you—you should've killed him while you had the opportunity. We'll never make it in there." What unflinching pessimism; it wouldn't bring me down.
"Where there's a will, Merlin," I told him. He looked back at me, disbelieving. I just grinned.
We circled the keep, ducking behind boulders to keep hidden. All castles had a few features in common, and I discovered one that would get us inside. It would be messy and Merlin would hate it, but it would work. His comfort was the least of my concerns, but I still had to do a fair bit of convincing. At nightfall, we crept toward the entrance I'd pinpointed and began crawling up the incline of the keep's food disposal tunnel.
"Why'd I let you talk me into this?" he asked when we were about halfway up. Ironically, food was dumped right in front of him at that moment. He narrowly avoided most of it and glared back at me.
"It's genius, Merlin . . ." I told him.
"Genius," he said with contempt.
To add insult to injury, I pointed and said, "You have a little, um . . . carrot in your hair." He frantically brushed at his hair. "Least I think it's carrot." He threw a handful of food waste at me then made gagging noises, but resumed crawling.
We reached the end and crawled off into a connecting tunnel. Merlin began brushing food bits off himself. I found a hole in the wall and looked down to see several shirtless men and a few Saxons. The Saxons were directing the men to load rocks into a cart situated on a track.
When Merlin caught up to me, I asked him, "All set?"
"For what?" he asked with trepidation. He looked down.
"Our carriage awaits." I got up and began looking for a way down to the men below. When no one was looking, we crept into the cart and covered ourselves with a cloth. We were pushed down the track, hopefully to an area where my men were working. The cart came to a sudden halt and I heard a guard say, "Move it!"
We waited a few moments and crawled out of the cart. There was definitely work happening here. We ran from cover to cover until we reached a window of sorts that looked down onto a lower level.
"The place is full of Saxons," Merlin commented.
"Then we'd better take care to blend in," I replied, then ducked away. We needed a couple of Saxons to strip.
"Arthur!" he yelled indignantly behind me.
I took down a couple of isolated Saxon guards easily. Their clothes reeked, but they'd allow us to blend in. We made our way down to the lower level, acting like we owned the place. All the slaves kept to their work, so no one noticed my identity. After a bit of strutting around, I spotted Percival pushing a cart. I grabbed his arm and he whirled around like he wanted to deck me.
"Arthur!" he said, surprised to see me.
"Did you honestly believe we'd leave you here? Where's everyone else?" I asked.
He looked around. "They're . . . scattered all over."
Not good news. "Gwaine?"
"Saw him one or two days back, but . . ." He was missing.
I put my sword in the cart he'd been pushing. "Use it to acquire a few more."
"Arthur," Merlin said in warning. Percival and I looked up to see a real Saxon.
"Work on freeing the others, we'll find Gwaine." I'd grabbed Percival's arm and he yanked it away, to keep up our act. Merlin and I strode away in the opposite direction. I grabbed a torch and we began searching the entrances to other tunnels. I chose one and we went inside.
We crept around through the natural tunnels, not shying away from Saxon guards. We'd gone quite a ways when we rounded a corner. Someone jumped out at us with a "RAAHHH!" Gwaine, at last. I caught the torch he was using as a club and yanked on him.
"Trust you to not be working," I commented.
"It's about time!" he retorted. He grinned at me as Merlin pushed around me to get a look at something in front of us. I turned to look also, and saw something . . . unusual. It was human-shaped, but with a bigger head and longer limbs. When it stood, it was tall and thin. And most eerie—it glowed. Gwaine seemed familiar with it; he said to it, "Friends. Good friends." It looked at us curiously for a few minutes before running and disappearing behind a rock wall.
"What was that?" I asked. The other two didn't seem nearly as freaked out as I was.
"I'm not really certain. But I owe it my life," Gwaine replied. Merlin glanced back at us, then back to where the creature had disappeared. After a couple more minutes, he seemed to come back to his senses and we began navigating back to the cave's opening.
On our way, Merlin had paused to look at something, then hurried back to us. "Something's not right. The Saxons—where did they all go?"
He's worried about the stupid Saxons? "First there are loads of them, now there aren't enough. Are you ever content?" Gwaine and I kept walking.
Merlin ran up to us again. "What was that?"
Maybe he's going loopy from being underground? That happens to some people. "What?"
"Feel the wind," he said. A very warm breeze blew in our faces. It was followed by an inhuman growl.
"That wasn't wind," Gwaine said unnecessarily. Merlin flinched; I pulled him backwards and tossed the torch down. I saw something white and scaly run toward us while the growling got louder. I threw an arm around Gwaine and hauled him back the way we'd come. Merlin found a natural alcove and pulled us so we fell inside it. The dragon ran past us quickly, breathing fire as it went. We struggled up and stared after it in shock. "Was that what I think it was?" Gwaine managed.
"Where did Morgana find a dragon?" I'm not sure I could take any more surprises today.
"I've no clue," Merlin said. He seemed distracted, but turned back to me. "Take Gwaine to Percival. I'll lead the dragon another way."
Oh-kay. Surprise! "Merlin, I realize you're foolish, but not that foolish." I looked at Gwaine for help.
"No, I actually am that foolish and if you don't accept that, watch . . ." He took off down the tunnel before I could grab him.
"Merlin!" I yelled futilely. To Gwaine I said, "I'm following him," then got up to give chase.
He'd gotten further than I thought he had. I took a few turns and called out: "Merlin!" I heard growling and other unnerving noises and called out again, "Merlin! Merlin?" I took a few more steps and emerged into a bigger, well-lit space with multiple tunnels leading off from it. I paused when I heard a deadly familiar voice behind me.
"How nice of you to spare me the hassle of finding you." I attempted to reach for my sword, which wasn't there. "Dear me, how careless of you. Your courage is equaled only by your idiocy." I could practically hear the smirk in her voice. "What did you possibly imagine you would accomplish by coming here?"
Finally I turned to face her. To my surprise, Mordred stood behind her. "I'm here to rescue my men." I controlled my expression—I didn't need her taking advantage of my emotions.
"Fleoge . . ." One word and a dagger floated in front of me only to stab into my shoulder. Ahhh! I fell to the ground, curled up. "It appears there truly is no way out this time."
"I'm sorry for how our father treated you," I managed to gasp out. He made her into this.
"Uther was never my father." I apologized and that's what she focused on?
"But we're brother and sister." I began using the rocks behind me to climb upward.
"Interesting how you decide to remember that with my dagger at your back." Wonderful.
I finally made it to standing, and turned to face her. Floating dagger, how nice. "What happened to you, Morgana? When you were young, you were so thoughtful, so caring . . ."
"I grew up." I watched her eyes flash gold again and the dagger stabbed me a second time. I fell back into the rock wall and tried not to pass out. "You are wise to tremble at my hand. I am more powerful than you can conceive of."
"But with all that, you decide to do nothing but hate."
She gave me a vicious smile. "Uther trained me perfectly. Goodbye, Arthur Pendragon."
"Arthur!" I heard Merlin yell; all three of us turned to look. No, not Merlin! Mordred drew a dagger as Merlin ran into our little conflict.
"No!" I yelled. She didn't even speak a word and he was thrown into a wall. He slid down and didn't get up. "Morgana . . . Please . . ." Another flash of her eyes and my head collided with the rock next to me. Oh, the pain . . . I barely heard her next words.
"Don't talk, dear brother. Time's up." She came very close and I waited for the end. "Hine . . . Mordred?" The next thing I knew, I was being helped to my feet by someone . . . Merlin? No, he was passed out on the floor, like Morgana. Morgana? That left Mordred.
He half-carried half-dragged me through a few tunnels until we came to one that was brighter and stopped. I looked up and heard someone say, "Arthur . . ." Was that Percival? He came over and took me from Mordred, who looked kind of afraid of the group of armed knights. Gwaine gave him a look but left him alone. Mordred followed us out.
By the time all of my men had been gathered, Merlin had caught up to us. I was glad to see he wasn't hurt—visibly, at least. I sent a couple of men to look for Morgana, but she'd disappeared. All the Saxons had fled as well, so we took a few hours to rest and locate food. After a night of sleep, enough clothing was scrounged up so no one would freeze on the journey back to Camelot. Mordred shared how he'd stabbed Morgana, so I invited him to come back to Camelot with us. I had a rather unique reward in mind for him.
xxxXxxx
I talked my decision over with the Round Table knights and the Council. Both agreed. I could tell that Merlin didn't agree, but he didn't oppose me even when I asked for his opinion—which I did more and more these days.
So two days after we returned from Ismere, the court convened in the throne room for a knighting ceremony. This one was a first; he was not only the youngest but the first former druid to be knighted during my reign.
When I called for him, he walked front and center to kneel at my feet. I didn't like giving long speeches about anything, let alone knightly virtues. I certainly didn't believe I was a paragon of them, like I used to. I simply recounted what he'd done for me and spoke the words of the ceremony.
"Arise, Sir Mordred, Knight of Camelot." He stood and smiled; I couldn't help but smile back. I prompted him to turn so the court could applaud him. He walked back down the aisle to the sound of applause, a proud new knight of quickly, we found ourselves surrounded and led to where more thugs were guarding a bunch of men, horses and a wagon. This must have been what Annis was talking about. That made them slavers; how had Mordred ended up here? We were tied to the back of their wagon and forced to walk behind it as the caravan got moving again.
Next- the creepy but cool The Death Song of Uther Pendragon, 5.3.
