Its been a while I know, but here you go. Apologies in advance for any typos, missed out words and bad grammar, I did proof read but still.


She took a deep breath, Hal could feel her chest rising up and then she let it out; it was like a just of warm wind, hot and smoky. But a good kind of smoky. Her arm was around him, holding him still from his tears and sobs, making him feel warm and at home. He wasn't embarrassed for crying, for clinging to her like a babe, in front of all these men. Big strong knights, whom he aspired to be like. They weren't crying, but were just as exhausted as him.

And then she began to sing for him, her voice pure and soft, a lullaby and he sat and listened, tears still forming.

Of all the money that e'er I had,

I've spent it in good company.

All in ear shot stopped and turned, watching the maid as she sung to the innkeeper's boy. Hal ignored them all, eyes only for her and his minded wondered back to the fire...

The inn was on fire, smoke thick, blinding, trapping, suffocating. Hal tried to shout, to cry for help, from where he sat in the corner, clutching his baby sister, but the smoke filled his lungs and made him cough too much. Outside people were shouting, screaming, his mothers voice reaching for him from outside, screeching for her babes. He wanted to shout back. He wanted to cry in her arms. But it was too hot to cry. Sweltering hot.

And all the harm that e'er I've done,

Alas it was to none but me.

And then she was there. Smoke and fire parting to let her through, her grazed frantic, face covered in ash and soot. She looked straight at him. "What the hell are you still doing in here?"

And all I've done for want of wit,

To memory now I can't recall.

Hal didn't reply, just shrunk back in fear as she crossed the room to him. She crouched down, face now soft. "You're the innkeepers boy aren't you?"

Hal nodded, face crumbling with sobs unable to be restrained any longer. At the sight of his tears, the woman hugs him quickly, careful not to squish the babe between them and speaks in a soft voice, hushing, reassuring. Hal forgot the fire and the smoke, his world suddenly taken up by this woman, who is calm and assured and not afraid.

"Shh, shh. It's okay, it's alright. I'm here now, the fire won't hurt you, you're gonna be okay. What's your name?"

"Hal"

"Is this your sister Hal?"

"She won't wake up. Mama told me to look after her if anything happened but now she won't wake up no matter what I do. Why won't she wake? Please you have to help her. Please, please. Help her."

She placed her hand on the side of Fara's neck and her face became sad. She looked Hal in the eye, and he would never forget her expression for as long as he lived.

"I'm sorry, Hal. There is nothing I can do."

So fill to me the parting glass,

Good night and joy be with you all.

Gwaine sat, in the aftermath of the night, a mug of ale in his hand, with his brothers and some of the towns people who had helped extinguish the flames, listening to Rory as she sang. He'd heard the song before, in his days as a wondering sword when his feet had taken him North up to Skyla, he had heard the song in taverns at the base of the mountain border. He'd also heard Rory sing before, in the mornings, at night, under her breath when she thought no one was listening, but none of that compared to now, when she sung for the people, loud and clear, for the boy who she'd saved in the fire. He sighed and closed his eyes, letting her voice wash through him.

Of all the comrades that e'er I had,

They are sorry for my going away

The smoke had been intense, as he'd stood on the upstairs floor on the landing, an unconscious woman over his shoulder. Most of the civilians had evacuated the building but some had gotten stuck. Gwaine coughed, his eyes watering as he looked around through.

"Is that everyone?" He shouted.

"Yeah I think," Elyan replied, ducking his head to cough. Around them the walls creaked. The wooden floor splintering beneath them, the fire downstairs finally begins to creep upwards.

"Then let's get the hell out of here before the whole place collapses." Gwaine yelled, his heart thudding in his chest louder than anything else, the woman weighing heavily on his shoulder. He followed Elyan back through the smoking corridors to the stairs.

"I don't think we'll be able to make it back though the downstairs- The fires too intense."

"Well we can't stay here. We'll have to run for it."

And all the sweethearts that e'er I had

They would wish me one more day to stay

Then a beam form overhead cracked and fell, causing him to jump backwards out the way while Elyan dived forward and onto the creaking wooden stairs to which the fire was slowly spreading upwards towards his boots.

"Gwaine?" He heard him shout through the thick haze, panic in his voice.

"I'm fine." He yelled out, his voice deep and hoarse. He looked at the damage the fallen beam had done: breaking through the wooden floor and falling to the fires beneath. The gaping hole it had created was to wide for Gwaine jump, and he didn't like the look of the floor on the over side connected to the top of the stairs. Forget the roof falling in it was the floor beneath him that he was suddenly worried.

"Gwaine I can't stay here long." Elyan shouted helplessly.

"Go!" Gwaine told him. "Just go. I'll find another way out."

He heard no more, which he prayed to god was a good thing and he turned back down the Inn's twisting corridor, re-adjusting the Lady on his shoulder and headed back the way he'd came his mind set on the hope of there being a back staircase.

But since it falls unto my lord

That I should rise and you should not

When he rounded the corner they stopped short at the sight of one another. He, with his heated armour, and sweat soaked hair, wheezy breathed and desperate. She, hair and dress singed, face darkened with soot, clutching a bundle of cloth and linen to her chest in one arm, her other gripping tight to a boy, sweating and snot nosed, whose chins was trembling as she dragged him along.

"What are you doing in here Meadows?"

"Same as you." She snapped back, business like and harsh, this was not time for small smiles and teasing.

"You shouldn't be in here, you could get hurt." Gwaine shouted, suddenly angry, thinking that now he had another person to worry about.

Rory frowned. "Well it's too late now, I'm here and we have to get out. The back stairs are jacked, please for the love of God tell me-"

"Front stairs no good either. A beam broke the floor, it's wide to jump. I could probably throw the kid across-"

"No! He's not leaving me. Anyway down stairs is too vicious he'd never make it to the door."

"So we're trapped?" The boy asked, voice quaking. He'd been following their shouting match, large eyes darting between him and Rory as each spoke. "There's no way out?"

Rory's face turned steely. "Lesson number one kid, there is always a way out."

"Then please, enlighten us." Gwaine yelled, his voice condescending and snarky, the Lady's weight on his shoulder was really starting to hurt. "We can't stay here long. The floors gonna give way any second and I don't even want to think about the roof."

Rory looked around and Gwaine could practically hear her thinking. He didn't stop to think that is should be the other way round: that she should be looking to him for a solution, an idea. He was the Knight after all.

"C'mon" Rory shouted suddenly, a plan clearly in her head. And she ducked into the nearest room, dragging the kid and Gwaine followed hot on her heels.

It's one of the private bedrooms, where richer guests who stay at the inn sleep. The bed took up most of the room, with a dresser in the corner and singular wooden chair. As soon as they entered the room the smoke seemed to disperse and Gwaine could suddenly breathe a heck lot better than he should have in a building on fire. But he still felt as if he's roasting alive in his armor.

Rory had let go of the Kid by the bed, and left him clutching the bundle while she moved to the only window in the room, one which overlooked the street below. Gwaine could already see what her plan may be, and he laid the woman down on the body, taking the chance to check her pulse while Rory tried to open the window.

The latch on the shutter got stuck, and for all her avail, Rory couldn't get it open, so she used the chair to break it, Gwaine looking up just in time to see her swinging at the wooden blockers across the window. The chair disappeared through the window and onto the streets below, the shouting from outside becoming louder. Rory then grabbed hold of the curtain rail nailed to the wall above the window, and hoisted herself up, her back muscles tensing through her tattered dress, and she kicked away at any of the remaining shutter, clearing them path through devoid of splinters before dropping nimbly back onto the floor.

Gwaine stared at her. "If we survive this I'm buying you a drink."

Rory glanced at him over her shoulder, her mouth curving slightly in a way that was familiar, like her usual self. "You'll have to find a new tavern then."

And then she stuck her head and shoulders through the window and shouted out to the bedlam in the street below. "OI!"

I'll gently rise and I'll softly call:

Good night and joy be with you all.

The owner of the Black Horse Establishment, well, the former owner, didn't know what to do. The early morning sun was breaking over the horizon, the beautiful image cut in half by the thick trail of black smoke that was rising to the sky form where his inn had stood, now a blackened pile of rubble.

He'd just left his wife in the room where the injured were being treated, sobbing in the arms of the Queen, the body of his daughter in her arms. He knew it was supposed to be his job to comfort her, but this kind of mourning seemed to be a maternal thing, as many other mothers and maids had gathered round Silvia in the ward and he had just felt so out of place and helpless. And so he left.

And now he was wondering through the castle corridors, opened up generously by the King for the townspeople to shelter in for the rest of the darkness. And then he heard her voice, soft and haunting, wafting through the halls and like a trance, followed it.

A man may drink and not be drunk.

A man may fight and not be slain.

It was the maid, the one who had saved his son. The Skylish one. She was sitting on the floor, his son curled up against her, a knights cloak draped over them like a blanket. A barrel of the Kings ale had been set up in the corner for the men to take, and almost all in the room had a flagon in his hand. But they were all held forgotten as the Skylish maid sang.

A man may court a pretty girl,

And perhaps be welcomed back again.

He thought back to when he had been standing on the street, when he first saw her in the window. He and many of the other men had formed a line from the fire to the well and were passing buckets of water to and fro at warped speed, when their concentration had been shattered by a falling chair and then her wild shoot covered face.

"We're trapped. We need have to jump but we need something to land on."

"My children!" He had yelled at her, fire forgotten. "Do you have my children?" But his words were drowned by other shouts and yells and screams, and a cart of hay was fetched and positioned beneath the window.

And Hal appeared, hoisted up on to the windowsill, he stood with his knees and back bent so he could fit through the frame, one arm was holding a large bundle to his chest, the other bracing himself against the wall. He was crying, the soot on his face streaked with tears and snot. And he was afraid, the innkeeper realised. Afraid to Jump.

"You can do it boy" He yelled, as others around shouted similar encouragements. But Hal was frozen, staring down into the hay pile in fear. He's not going to Jump His father realised.

"Hal-" He started to shout, but then Hal was falling and screaming, having been suddenly pushed forward and off the sill by the maid behind him. A hundred hands must have been offered to him to help him out the hay once he landed, but Hal found his father's instantly and he let himself be tugged into his embrace.

The innkeeper missed the maid jumping afterwards, and then the Knight and Old Bathilda after her. But he did hear the sound of splintering wood, and he saw the roof of his home and work collapse in on itself. He saw the flames dimming under the constant stream of water brought by the townspeople. And he was listening when the maid clamped her hand on his shoulder, looked him in the eyes and whispered "I'm so sorry."

But since it has so ordered been

By a time to rise and a time to fall

He thought it was because of his home, but then Hal wriggled out of his grasp and showed to him the bundle in his tiny arms, which The Innkeeper then, with trembling hands, took from him.

He remembered little after that, but his wife screaming and sobbing, and Hal getting in the way, and him shouting for someone to take the child away, which he guessed the maid must have done.

Now Hal was near sleep in her arms as she played mother to him while his real mother wept in another room.

Come fill to me the parting glass

Goodnight and joy be with you all

She sung so softly, that everyone in the room leaned in, scarce a person seemed to be breathing as she finished the last lines, her voice stretching out with the melody.

Goodnight and joy be with you all

No-one applauded. As Hal would then wake up and the lullaby would have been for naught. But there was more than one man was a tear in his eye from the Haunting Skylish song sung by the mysterious Skylish maid. The knight who had been in the fire with her moved from his place across the room and sat down against the wall by her side, silently handing her a tankard of ale. She took it with a grateful smile and raised it up to the still silent room of men and women.

"A ghrian a's a ghealach, stiùir sinn. Gu uair ar cliù 's ar glòir"

She then downed the pint.


The song in this chapter is called 'The parting Glass' and its a Scottish/Irish traditional song. I first heard it on the Ed Sheeran album but there has been many other covers as well. I suggest you check out The Celtic Women's version as well as The Wailin' Jennys. I honestly can't decide which I like more.

But anywho, that's the chapter, tell me what you think.

Love Elle x