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In front of the still crowd, in the balcony, stood the King of Camelot, Uther Pendragon. All alone. Already they missed the presence of a woman that used to fill in the space beside him. The king's source of reason and his connector to the people. Now without her, they didn't know what to expect. It felt like the queen had been there since forever. Her caring nature drowned out a ruthless king that he was to the point where all the people remember about his reign was when she was there.
When the knights announced for a gathering again, they'd been cleaning the remains of the candle each of them lit last night. The smell of grief hung in the air. But all citizens were to be there, with no exception. They wondered in silence why the king wanted to hold his wife's funeral in haste like that, and what he would announce.
Words travel fast. As quick as the news of the queen's passing was of King Uther's rage. He went far as openly blamed magic for his wife's death and banished a sorceress. Non-magic people knew nothing about why it happened, only that Nimueh aided the physician at the time of the Queen's labor. Some even started to get suspicious of people with magic so magic users kept their mouths shut. When they went skittish that day, the reason is obvious.
"Yesterday, we all lose someone dear to us." He started in a firm tone. And getting firmer as the speech proceeds. "My queen, a queen that Camelot deserves, and a mother our son would have admired, had she been given the chance."
From the room behind the balcony, two figures emerged. One a serving woman and the other a babe. With wisps of blond hair and blue eyes that his lids covered, all proofs of his relation to the late queen.
"The last and the most wonderful gift Her Late Highness gave us. The heir to the Camelot throne, Prince Arthur Pendragon." He took him from the nursemaid's hands and show the baby for the whole courtyard to see. He slept safe and soundly despite the claps and cheers of the mass below. Ignorant of the future sealed for him since his first cry in this world.
After handing his son back, he held up one hand to silence the people. Some people who were silent since the beginning, the ones who were there because there was no other way, started to get more anxious. Dreaded what would come out from their king next.
"My newborn son made me see sense the way his mother would have. I spent all night with him, and I thought she wouldn't want me to get angry about something we can barely control. She wouldn't want me to hold a grudge for the rest of my life." True. But the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to avenge his wife's death. So sitting at Ygraine's bedside, not only he was with the company of Arthur and the memories of hers. He too was scheming. But the people need not know that. It was part of the plan.
"I let grief clouded my judgment and made a rash decision. I banished a dear friend of my wife's, Nimueh and I regretted it. So if you're listening Nimueh, know that I will welcome you back here to the place where you belong. I made a grave mistake. There is no one and nothing to blame. My anger was unfounded and unjustified." Unshameful murmurs broke out from the people. An admittance of a mistake from the king was unheard of. He silenced them again.
"I decided, starting tomorrow there will be celebrations for the birth of my heir. I don't mean to disrespect our loss. For us to be content was what she always wanted. And I wish to grant it to her. She had passed. No amount of grief would be able to bring her back from her rest. But her memories shall live with us. Let the kindness she'd done be the reminder of who she was." With a final nod, King Uther Pendragon retreated to his room — formerly his and Ygraine's, he pondered — to see her one last time before the funeral.
The celebrations lifted Camelotian's spirits up. Although a few, namely the paranoids among magic users were suspicious and stayed on high alert. It included Nimueh, who after her failed attempt at convincing her sisters to leave the Isle of the Blessed, went to hide in the forest by herself.
There were numbers of festivities, from the one provided for the nobles to the fest in the lower town and a few villages. All leading up to that one outdoor feast special for the priests, priestesses and dragonlords and their dragons. None aware of the addition of a secret ingredient in all the foods and beverages.
It was quite a feast indeed.
For the Knights of Camelot and their king. They feasted on the blood of blameless people and magical creatures.
And so, the Great Purge begins.
There weren't many of dragonlords left in Albion, and even less stayed at Constantia. Actually, they were rare to begin with. That only the first son inherited the ability made it more difficult. Some of them died before they had the chance to have an heir, and some families died out from the lack of a male descendant.
When King Balinor of Constantia bade his fellow dragonlords and their families a good travel, he held no hesitation. Only warned them not to get drunk and gave away their secret kingdom.
He was smart. Had he lived in Camelot, he wouldn't dare let them go an inch outside their houses. But he wasn't a Camelotian. All he knew was that the King of Camelot was overjoyed at the birth of his son.
Regrets always come in the end. He learned it the hard way.
He felt his kins dying. It was an overwhelming sensation of falling into a bottomless despair. As if Balinor himself was dying.
In that chaos in his head, he failed to be rational and went to Camelot solo. When he finally arrived at the crime scene, he was on a great late. Only in time for the show of Kilgharrah wreaking havoc on the capital. He sparked up at the sight of a survivor., but as bad as he wanted to get revenge, the wise king in him couldn't let innocent people die. So he roared.
"Dragorn. Non didlkai. Kari miss, epsipass imalla krat. Katostar abore ceriss. Katicur. Me ta sentend divoless. Kar… krisass."
The furious dragon reluctantly obeyed. Nature's rules were hard to trifle. It took time for him to reach Balinor at the clearing from where he was. Unfortunate for him and the dragon, the time was enough for Camelot's knights to prepare a round-up.
They were on guard with chains and manacles. He couldn't even start to put up a fight as they sneaked up on them and restrained their movement as well as their magic. They set both of them in the courtyard as an 'example' while the king made a speech to denounce and outlaw sorcery. He reminded them of some evil sorcerers and told them that the queen was murdered by Nimueh with magic. That the destruction in front of them was the one true evidence of how magic corrupts. Practicing magic was a crime, punished by the pain of death.
The scared magic users could only pray that the people around them wouldn't buy the king's words or prayed that their escape would be successful. The angry ones fought back in various ways, one of them was a half-baked blackmail to the king. They kidnapped the prince and threatens to kill the baby if he wouldn't retract the new law. Nothing was better, Uther thought than a group of sorcerers who overestimated their powers and did a true crime. An even more evidence of the evil of sorcery.
The luckiest sorcerer in Camelot to get away from the execution block was Gaius. The court physician swore that he'd stop using magic and so Uther pardoned him. The king had kindly spared his life, but he couldn't risk stretching the limit. After scoring out the names of his partner Alice and his niece Hunith from the list of the suspected magic user, he ordered them to flee. To a small village in Escetir.
His little heart felt for the ones captured and soon to be executed. Sometimes he labeled himself a traitor to his own kind. But he was a human with fear. He feared death, like most people. When he saw that there was a chance that he could prolong his life, he took it. Even at the price of his magic.
He had wanted to free all the prisoners. And he did it, once. On the second day after the purge started. Uther was less than pleased and straight out suspected Gaius. So he didn't do it again. He may not be able to do much, but it was better than to die where he could do nothing more.
But when he visited the cave under the Camelot castle that night, he surprised himself with wanting to do some mischief again. He'd taken an interest in the dragon that survived the genocide. Though the dragon hadn't appeared in front of him that time, Kilgharrah had spoken to him in his sleep. He asked Gaius to free his dragonlord. The last dragonlord.
That was why the night after it, he ran out of strong sleeping potion. Not an impressive plan, seeing how it almost got him away the first time he used it, but he had no better idea. Time was running out. For some reason, Uther had let the dragonlord lived longer than the rest of the captured. But he might not be that lucky for any longer.
"Dragonlord." He called in low. He brought a candle in place of a torch, so he couldn't see much. He opened the lock carefully. The other cells had been emptied by the day's executions. So the sounds bounced and multiplied in volume.
"Come to finally execute me?" the voice must be louder than he intended it to be.
"Hush." Gaius set the candle beside him. In swift, he inserted his hands into gloves. The manacles weren't only designed to restrain magic, but with more addition to bring pain for magical being too. It was good he remembered that bit when thinking up the plan, or else he would be this dragonlord's cell-mate.
He and Uther had known all the dragonlords in Albion. Or so they thought. He bet Uther had never met this one before because he himself hadn't. The king must've kept him for long for information. Four day's worth of imprisonment to extract information granted horrible things to happen. He dared not to mull over his shirtless body. The faster he was off the wall, the faster he could be treated. But as he finished the second manacle, the dragonlord leaped at him. With all the strength left in him. Which was not much.
"I freed you, Dragonlord." Gaius wasn't fighting back at all.
"Who is to say that this was not just another sick joke you magic-hating people play on me!?" he growled under his breath. His grip on Gaius tightened.
"I swear I come to free you. The guards are sleeping. But we have to be quick if you don't want us to get caught." He knew that there were at least six more hours before the effect of the potion wear off. But one couldn't be too careful. "Believe me. The dragon himself guided me to this cell." Well, sort off. Kilgharrah did tell him where exactly this cell was, last night. "I swear on my mother's grave."
He was still suspicious, but Gaius sensed he was only on the edge of it. Gaius understood. It must've hard to trust anyone at that point.
"Kilgharrah. He told me that you're one of importance in your homeland. And that the continuity of your line concerned the life of a lot of people." Kilgharrah had refused to elaborate. At first, he thought it was because he was the last dragonlord. His firstborn son would be the next last dragonlord. But the more he thought about it, the more he guessed that there was more to this than dragonlordship.
When the man was finally tired of pinning Gaius with all his strength, Gaius used it to move his hand to the younger man's back. With a spell and a brief change in Gaius' eye-color, he was free. The dragonlord rolled over and let Gaius do more healing spells.
"What's your name, dragonlord?"
"Tell me yours first."
"Gaius. I'm Camelot's court physician." Then silence as Gaius grew weaker and the injuries recover.
"How come he hadn't killed you yet!?"
"I made him trust me that I wouldn't do something like this anymore."
The cell started to spin around. Gaius had exerted himself too much. "Come on. Let's get out of here."
The two weak men helped each other walked the long way to Gaius' room. This part was a bit different from his previous attempt. He had led them to a secret tunnel because there were too many of them. This time, he prepared a cloak for the ex-prisoner. He just had to walk normally through the gates. Gaius had put the potion on the guards' pitchers.
"My name's Balinor. I 'll be forever in your debt, Gaius. Please come with me. I know a place where we don't have to live in fear. My home." Balinor said when he finished putting on the cloak. But Gaius shook his head.
"I'm not living in fear. The king will not kill me" Actually, he wasn't sure of it at the time. "I'll be better off here, to help people."
"You can help people anywhere! You can still be a physician. In the place where I'm going."
He smiled. "No. This is my place. Uther needs someone to trust. Someone to confide in and oppose his decisions. I'll do my best to cease this madness. Who knows someday I can convince him to lift the ban?"
"Then how do I repay you?" Balinor asked. Gaius had told him about Kilgharrah's request to be left in the cave, and the non-existence of the key to the manacles on his feet. Gaius hoped this argument wouldn't take as much time as it had for that argument.
"You said your home is safe for sorcerers? Mm, actually, before I know for sure that you have somewhere to hide, I was meant to lead you to this village on the border of Camelot and Escetir. That's where my niece Hunith and my partner Alice hide." He went to pick up a folded paper and a vial of potion above a book. "I know this is too much to ask. But I wish you would be willing to take them with you." He gave Balinor the paper and the vial. An introduction letter, in case Hunith and Alice wouldn't believe him.
"It wasn't too much at all, for someone who saved my life, and the lives of many people." Balinor's brows furrowed. "Are you sure.."
Gaius cut him off and held up his hand. "I'm sure. Now get going. We don't want this little adventure to be in vain, don't we?"
With a hug, they lasted their farewells. While Balinor reached the lower town, Gaius was also tracked back his trip to Balinor's cell. A disappearance of a prisoner would lead to trouble, but a candle found in the cell whose occupant had disappeared would lead to more troubles. Luck was really on his side.
I don't have any idea how to write the speech, U_U but I tried. XD
Thanks a million for reading!