Arthur, Leon, Gwaine, and Merlin have led the prisoners out of the building successfully, but the outer gate still remains. Soldiers on the gate are wide awake and vigilant, but Merlin has a plan.
In the Vaults of Camelot
Chapter 12 – Escape
When Merlin had first explained exactly what he meant by "...just walk out the front gate," Arthur had been opposed. Still, after an involved discussion that covered every option from killing guards to climbing walls, the plan that was settled on was similar to the idea that had been turning itself around in Merlin's head. And for that reason, Merlin was walking up to the guards at the gate, feeling the press of three pairs of friendly eyes from the shadows. He shifted the wine skin in his hands, refilled with wine that Gwaine had filched from the kitchen and Merlin had laced with sedative.
When he got within hailing distance, he arranged his face into the most inoffensively clueless expression he could manage and greeted the two closest guards, making a fast visual inspection of the two as he did so. Did either of them have some kind of distinctive feature or marking? Indeed, the youngest guard had a scar that ran in a straight line down his left cheek. Perfect. I can use that, if he asks.
He spoke to the young one. "Got sumthin' for ya. From your friend in the kitchens. Said ya could probably use a warm up, it bein' a bit cool t'night an all." Luckily it's pretty easy to heat water with magic, as long as you can get away from Prince Prat to do it. Works for wine too.
"My friend?"
"Yeah, ya know… The one… oh, she tol' me her name but I forgot. Ya know, the one with the…" He gestured generously in front of his chest, mentally crossing his fingers. Hopefully he knows some girl in the kitchen.
The man looked puzzled for a moment, then his expression cleared. "Oh, I bet you mean Eliza. Hey, you let Eliza be, you hear?"
"Yeah, sure, 'course. Just couldn't remember her name. I'm new. Anyway, she sent this up for ya, and enough for ya all t' share so's nobuddy gets in trouble."
"Right nice of her. Wait, how do you know it's for me?"
"Well, she tol' me y'r name but I forgot. But she said ya had that," Merlin traced a line down his own cheek with his forefinger, "an' that ya were on guard duty in front. Gotta be you, right?"
He extended the wine skin to the man, who automatically reached to take it. "G'night, fellas. This was m' last errand; I'm gonna go crash." Turning away, he headed determinedly toward the side door from which he'd purportedly come, choosing his course to disappear into the shadows as quickly as possible.
Once out of sight, Merlin changed course and crept up to watch with his companions, who were hiding in the shadows behind the nearest corner of the building. Gwaine handed him the stolen tabard he'd taken off to play kitchen boy, and he shrugged back into it.
The four nearby guards, after some discussion, began passing the skin around. The two men up on the walls, seeing the gathering below them, became curious enough to come down and were invited to partake. Soon, with six men sharing it, the skin was drained. With barely audible complaints, the guards returned to their stations. As they did so, Merlin was heartened by what he saw. They were no longer alert, but yawning and rubbing their eyes. As the minutes passed they became drowsier and drowsier. In the time it took for Leon to be sent to summon the former prisoners and return, two men had succumbed to sleep, one sitting by the fire pit and the other having slid down the wall to lean against it, snoring softly. This left two men barely awake at the gate level. Up on the wall, one of the two lookouts could not be seen. Hopefully he's out. The other was still upright and facing outward, but he seemed to be listing slightly.
After a few more minutes, during which no more men fell asleep, Arthur apparently decided that it was time. He motioned to Gwaine, and as Leon and Merlin dropped to the back of the group, the prisoners arranged themselves in a rough cluster, clearly trying to look cowed and tired rather than excited and nervous. They moved as quietly as they could along the front of the building, and then stepped briskly out into the light. Merlin could not see well from his position at the back of the group, but he could hear clearly the sleepy voice of a guard challenging Arthur.
"What are you doing-" he yawned, "-leaving this late? I had no notice of - prisoners, is it? - being moved tonight."
Gwaine responded before Arthur could. "Yeah, well, Himself wanted to get rid of them quietly, I think. We're to deliver them to a buyer just outside town."
Another voice spoke with a question probably directed at the first guard. It sounded like the young man Merlin had spoken with earlier. "Want me to wake the watch captain, Lanner?"
"On your head be it," responded the irrepressible Gwaine. "I wouldn't want to be the one explaining to him why he's being awakened in the middle of the night just 'cause somebody's leaving to make a delivery."
While the guard considered this excruciatingly slowly, Merlin shifted so that he could see better. Don't forget to keep out of sight for now, he reminded himself. They've seen me already and think I'm a kitchen boy. He drifted forward along the column, always keeping at least one "prisoner" between him and the two awake guards. After a few moments, Lanner, the first guard, decided, "Sorry, lad, better to wake him. Go on."
The young guard walked toward the front doors, and Gwaine said to Arthur with a manic glitter, "Move them up, why don't you? We'll need to be on our way as soon as the watch captain gives the order." Arthur had turned away from Lanner enough to pin Gwaine with a glare that should have killed him on the spot, but Gwaine only grinned. Leon began ordering the prisoners to move forward, and Merlin moved with the group. He was fairly sure he knew what Gwaine was up to. When Gwaine engaged the guard in conversation and shifted subtly until the man was facing the castle, and Gwaine could watch the proceedings out of the corner of his eye, Merlin was sure of it. He was trying to get Leon and Arthur close to the gate so they could quietly lift the bar.
Arthur must have come to the same conclusion, for he beckoned to Leon and shifted quietly through the milling "prisoners" to the bar. Two of the men, seeing what the prince and the knight were doing, did the same. Merlin moved out of the way and turned to check on Gwaine. He had the guard laughing and nodding. Going well, then. Merlin turned back to see that the heavy bar was quietly clearing the brackets. Arthur grounded one end and, with Leon's help, tipped it silently up to lean against wall. He pointed to Leon and the two men and made a pushing motion then a 'wait' motion. He met Merlin's eyes and jerked his head toward Gwaine. Merlin translated. Push the gate open on my command and Merlin, get Gwaine. As Arthur raised three fingers, and mouthed, "Three," Merlin slipped quickly to the back of the party, waving to get Gwaine's attention. He succeeded, but the guard turned around as well.
Lanner's mouth opened in surprise. "Wait, aren't you the lad from the kitchen?" It was all he had time to say before Gwaine's, "Sorry, friend," coincided with the hilt of Gwaine's sword impacting the back of his head. He crumpled silently, to be caught by Merlin and Gwaine as the gate began swinging open. It must have been well oiled, for it opened with only the barest minimum of metallic complaints. That's good. Maybe if we are very lucky, it didn't wake the lookouts?
Hastily Merlin and Gwaine dragged Lanner to his guard post and leaned him in a seated position against the wall there, as the "prisoners" poured out through the opening gate. As Merlin followed them through opening, he realized that the road led through a town, much like in Camelot. Small buildings - shops and the like - crowded the road on both sides, disappearing into darkness beyond the reach of the four torches that bracketed the gate area. It was then that it occurred to Merlin that having the bar back in place after they left would be a good thing. He looked ahead. The prince was talking urgently to Leon, and gesturing down the road.
"Gwaine," he said quickly, "Hurry, let's get the gates closed." He threw his weight against the gate and, as Gwaine came to lend a hand, continued, "As soon as we get this closed, go join the others. If Arthur comes back this way, distract him. Keep him away from me. I'm going to try to lift the bar back into place and then I'll catch up."
As soon as the gate was shut, Gwaine clapped Merlin on the shoulder and shot off in the direction of the receding group. Arthur had turned to come back, but seeing the gate safely closed, stopped and waited for Gwaine. Satisfied that Arthur was safely out of the way, Merlin turned back to the gate. If he scrunched over far enough, he could see the bar leaning against the wall. That would help. It was heavy; that was the only problem. Merlin looked upwards. The lookout that had been standing couldn't be seen from where Merlin stood. Either he was standing back a bit from the edge, or he'd succumbed to sleep. In either case, that would work. Merlin extended his senses toward the bar and spoke the spell. It was, perhaps, the heaviest thing he'd ever tried to move with control. It's funny. I could smash this thing across the courtyard with almost no effort, and no spell. But this is hard. Slowly the bar lifted clear of the ground, then rotated in midair until it was horizontal. Merlin could feel the tug of effort, but set himself and continued pouring energy into the spell. The bar floated toward the gate, lining up with the brackets. Downward, slowly. Slowly. The weight dragged on Merlin, and his grip slipped. The bar fell the last few inches into the brackets with a resounding thud and ringing of metal. Wincing, Merlin darted into the shadows and waited, listening.
Nobody came to investigate the sound at first. Then, just as Merlin was about to slip away, there was the sound of the front door opening. Footsteps approached the gate and a surly, sleepy young voice spoke. "Captain says let them go. And you can guess what he called me for waking him up. Lanner, did you hear me?" There was a pause and a soft clank of jostled armor. "Oh well. Gods, I'm tired. Gonna just sit a minute."
Merlin refrained from doing a victory dance and instead shot away up the street to catch up with the rest of the group.
-o-o-o-o-o-
The main street of town had, as expected, led directly from the gates of the castle to the gates of the town. It took several nerve-racking minutes to reach the gates. Here, however, their passage was ridiculously easy. There were only two guards, who, seeing the tabards of the castle guard, opened the gates for them with no questions asked.
Merlin released a sigh of relief as the gates closed behind them and they proceeded into the night. He knew that they were not out of danger yet, but for the first time since they'd come through the portal, he had a moment to simply enjoy his surroundings. The air was pleasantly cool, though when the breezes kicked up Merlin was glad of the long sleeves of his new tunic. The moon, just past full, was pouring light down from a clear starlit sky. Now that his eyes had adjusted to the lack of torches, he could see houses near the road. Behind them, small farm fields, with the wheat standing high, climbed the hills. Cows, drowsing along the hedgerows and piled stone walls, flopped their ears when disturbed and then studiously ignored the travelers. Tiny rustlings in the bushes that skittered away as they passed proclaimed the presence of night creatures. The former prisoners were talking quietly among themselves as they walked, exchanging surreptitious hugs and handshakes, perhaps having been warned by Arthur to maintain the pretense of being prisoners until they were out of sight of the castle and the gate guards.
Once they were well out of sight of Cenred's capital, Arthur led the group off the road into a field. They took shelter behind a copse of trees, and after assigning Leon to maintain watch, the prince took a seat on a boulder and invited the folk to join him.
"We're not safe yet," Arthur began. "But in order to make decisions about what to do now, we need to exchange information. Merlin, you stayed back to listen for bit. Did you hear anything? Were they preparing to pursue?"
Merlin grinned. So that's what Gwaine told him I was doing. He related what he had heard from the young soldier.
"So probably we have until shift change." Arthur looked at the former prisoners. "Do any of you have an idea of what time the guards changed?"
The men and women looked at one another, then heads shook. Nobody seemed to know. Mari spoke. "It was always dark, Sire, and after only a few hours, we could not even be sure how long we had been there. I'm sorry."
"We'll stay on the road until dawn then. Merlin, while we finish here, please distribute some of what food we have. Ration what we have to last at least a day. Hopefully by then we can find a way to get more." He turned back to the people.
"Now I would like to hear who you are, and how you came to be in Cenred's dungeons."
It turned out that fully half of the group consisted of Mari's extended family, and the other half were fellow villagers known to her. Her husband, her son Ben and his wife Melody, and five of her grandchildren had been in Ben's home in the village of Breckfall when the soldiers had arrived, and had been invaded first. Melody had been able to slip three of the girls out the back window, with orders to hide in the forest until the soldiers left then find the nearest familiar adult. Her son Bard had outright refused to go, Melody explained, giving the boy an admonishing look. Bard looked rebellious.
Arthur looked at the boy sternly. "While we are on the road together, young Bard, I expect that you will follow the orders of your prince - and your mother - without question. Do I have your word?"
Bard nodded, dropping his gaze to his feet.
"That won't do, young man. I will have your word on the matter."
"I give m' word, Sire. I will follow your orders. And Mother's."
"Good man."
Releasing the boy from his gaze, he turned to receive Mari's introductions of the rest of the group, consisting of two other families of adults caught out in the fields or in their homes when the soldiers arrived. All had family left behind back in Breckfall and were desperate to find out their fate.
"Tell me where your village is." It took a great deal of discussion to discover this, but several questions and answers later, it was eventually decided that Arthur where the village was and how to get there - and that it was indeed in lands ruled by Camelot.
Having a destination in mind, plans were made. The group would follow the road until dawn, then strike out across country. They had enough food for a day; perhaps enough to reach Breckfall if all went well.
In the moonlight, the group returned to the road and continued their journey as clouds slowly filtered in and the night darkened.
Author's note: They've been very lucky so far with the weather. That's about to change...
