A/N: I'm glad I completely stumped you all with Kayleigh's thoughts in the last chapter. I'll enlighten you this chapter. Zelinia, your suggestion made me laugh so hard, I just had to put some kind of version of your idea in this chapter. I just love conflict, and a little violence is just the icing on the cake. So, thank you for your input. Mustang Gal, you must let me know if I write anything stupid about the horse, seeing as how you have one and I don't know anything about them. ElvenStar5, that's the goal mystery, action, humor. Glad I'm giving it. Now, without anymore delay, the answer to all of your questions...
"Yes," Kayleigh admitted, "I am from Sarmatia."
"Why would you be ashamed that you are Sarmatian? All of us here are. You have nothing to fear from us," Dagonet spoke gently to her. The other knights nodded in agreement.
It wasn't the fact that she was Sarmatian that made her nervous to reveal her origins. "I am not Sarmatian," she corrected.
Galahad looked at her, confused, "But you just said . . . "
"I know what I said!" She sighed in frustration, "Yes, to the rest of the world, I am Sarmatian. But to the Sarmatian people, I am not. I am from a tribe not worthy of a name. We are made up of men with families who refuse to give their sons up to be slaves for Romans. Sarmatians, always big on their honor, cast these families out of their tribe, calling them oath breakers. What they do not know is that it was their grandfathers that died in the great battle against Rome. Their grandfathers who thought it better to die on their own soil, defending the country they belonged to, then pledge their lives and offsprings' lives to their enemy. They are our ancestors. They made no oath to Rome. We owe Rome nothing!"
The table was silent. They knew of the tribe she spoke of. So much hatred was directed at the tribe that they never stayed in one place more than two nights in a row for fear of being attacked. When they came across other Sarmatian tribes, they suffered horrible insults and injury through the duels they resulted in. Under the fear and anger, it was resentment that caused problems for Kayleigh and her tribe. Why should the other Sarmatian tribes have to give up their sons when they didn't?
No tribe would trade with them. They couldn't sell their goods, nobody would buy them. Eventually they turned to raiding as a means of survival. Though they suffered hardship at the hands of their own race, they would not maraud them, for they were still their kinsmen. So they turned to the west and wrecked havoc on the Romans who had taken the lives of their forefathers.
"And yet, here you are, serving our commander in a Roman fort," Tristan mused before taking a sip of wine.
Kayleigh's eyes sparked and she was over the table knocking him to the ground in a flash. Wine splashed onto his face, spilling into his eyes, momentarily blinding him. A loud crack vibrated through the tavern as she brought her fist down into his face. That seemed to shake the knights from their shock and they jumped up to interfere. Lancelot came from behind and drug Kayleigh off the scout as Bors and Dagonet helped Tristan to his feet. He rubbed fiercely at his eyes and Gawain left to get a bowl of water so he could rinse them.
"Barbarian," Tristan spat. Respectable men fought duels with weapons, not with fists, rolling around in the dirt like savages. Kayleigh's foot came up to kick him in the face but luckily Tristan's vision was coming back and he saw the attempt before it came, easily moving out of the way in time. Lancelot pulled her back further so she could do no more harm and wrapped his arms around her tightly, trapping her arms at her sides.
"Let go of me," Kayleigh screamed, flailing her body.
Galahad watched cautiously as the woman attempted to free herself. There was fire in her eyes, but there was also fear. Her fight had turned into panic and her eyes were wide with terror. She was on the verge of losing all control. "She doesn't like to be touched," Galahad remembered. "Let her go!"
"She's going to kill someone," Lancelot yelled over her screams. A crowd had gathered around the tavern, watching the spectacle. They rarely got such entertainment inside the dull fort walls.
"Let go of her now or you're the one that's going to be killed," Galahad shouted. He had a tiger by the tail.
A figure crossed the tavern floor, passing the knights, and stopped in front of Lancelot and Kayleigh. A fist darted out, making contact with her chin causing her head to snap back against Lancelot's lightly armored chest. She drooped in his arms, unconscious. He looked down at the tortured girl and back up, "Arthur . . . "
"Take her to her room. She has a lot of explaining to do when she wakes," Arthur said, his face emotionless.
The darkness faded away as Kayleigh sleepily opened her eyes. "Hello lovely," he heard the words slip from her smiling lips. The worry from the man's eyes disappeared and he smiled.
She blinked rapidly trying to clear her mind. The realization that she had just woken up and a man was in her room while she was sleeping hit her suddenly. "Have you been here all night?" she asked suspiciously.
He nodded. Her smile disappeared, "Did we . . . I mean, did you and I . . . umm . . . "
"No," he exclaimed laughing. The loud noise brought on a pain deep in her head and she groaned, slipping further under the covers. With the pain came the memories from the night before, how Tristan had announced her ethnicity and how she had attacked him.
Kayleigh peered out from under the covers at Gawain, "Did I kill him?"
"No," he shook his head, "but he looks worse for the wear than you do."
Her jaw ached terribly. She brought her hand up to examine the damage. The skin was tender and she felt a slight welt. There had to be a rather large bruise decorating her left cheek. I wonder what damage I could have caused him that's worse than this, she thought wincing.
"You should rest," Gawain said as she moved to rise.
"I'm fine. Thank you for watching over me, but I can manage myself. Besides, I'm sure your commander will want to accuse me of killing his knights now. Perhaps it would be better if you stayed away," she suggested. She seemed to do everything wrong. She didn't want any of the knights to suffer for it.
"Lancelot has already explained the whole situation to Arthur," Gawain informed her. "We all know that you didn't mean anything by it."
"I didn't? I just jumped over the table and tried to throttle the man for nothing?"
Galahad chuckled, "Alright, we know Tristan provoked you. You were only defending your honor. Arthur will not be upset."
"Tell that to my jaw," she said grimly.
Arthur paced in the Great Hall in front of Kayleigh and Lancelot. She noticed he did that often when he was troubled. "I was going to consider the debt you owe fully paid after you deliver the foal safely. Now I have merchants demanding that justice be delivered and damages paid. And on top of that you attacked one of my most trusted knights. How are you going to rectify yourself now?"
Kayleigh shrugged. She really hadn't thought about it. "The merchants want 500 denarii for the havoc that horse wrecked," Arthur ran a frustrated hand through his hair.
Lancelot whistled under his breath. He didn't even make that amount in a year. There was no way he could help her pay this debt.
Arthur continued, ignoring the interruption, "How am I supposed to come up with that money? We have a tight budget around here, I can't go giving away money whenever you have an 'accident'," Arthur said sarcastically. It was obvious he didn't believe any of her actions were accidents.
"I didn't mean any harm," she said quietly.
"You meant Tristan harm, did you not?" Kayleigh could say nothing in response that would not incriminate her.
Lancelot sighed, "I told you already Arthur, Tristan provoked her."
"Provoked or not, I cannot have fighting in my fort. We are already tense enough as it is. You've left me no choice but to punish you with prison time." Arthur regretted putting anyone in prison. They never seemed to come out the same. But if that's what would ease the merchants' anger at the destruction she caused and set an example to warn the other soldiers away from conflict, he would do so.
At that moment, Tristan strode into the room and all looked to him. Lancelot's eyes narrowed at him. Kayleigh looked over Tristan's form. She couldn't help but smile when she saw the tattoo he wore below his right eye was hidden under a massive black bruise. He looked at her and nodded. She thought she saw the corners of his mouth rise slightly, in a hint of a smile, before he turned to Arthur.
"The incident between Kayleigh and I was a personal matter. It was not a malicious attack. I believe I may have insulted her, which I now regret," he said, attempting to apologize. Kayleigh nodded her acceptance. She wasn't sure how she could make up for wailing on him and nearly blinding him. "I would like to solve the matter with her in private," he added.
"I understand that you like to keep personal affairs to yourself, Tristan. But I cannot have civilians attacking soldiers thinking that they will not be met with repercussions," Arthur explained. "You'll spend a week in prison, then be released to carry out your normal duties," he told Kayleigh.
Tristan nodded and left as Arthur called to Jols, instructing him to take Kayleigh to the prison. Jols reluctantly led her from the room. She spotted Tristan walking down the hallway and called to him. He turned and waited for the pair to catch up.
"Why did you do that?" she asked curiously. The last thing she expected that he would do was admit he was wrong and discourage Arthur from punishing her harshly.
"You are not easily intimidated. I respect that. We have much in common," his tongue darted over his top lip. He opened his mouth slightly but no words came out, as if he couldn't decide what to say next. Kayleigh as about to ask him what he meant when he spun on his heel, exiting the building into the fresh air, something she would not breathe in seven days.