Avelina's guide led them quickly and cautiously to the cellars beneath the castle keep. "Now we are beneath the armory," he said quietly. "We can either go up into the castle proper or out into the open spaces behind the inner walls. Which way?"

"Into the castle," she said firmly.

The young knight nodded, and they continued on in the gloom. There was a thunderclap loud enough to be heard even underground. It shook dust from the walls and tiny fragments of rock came down from the ceiling.

"The lower town is taken," Avelina murmured. "I feel the power." Around her, all the druids were nodding in agreement.

"Freya is powerful," said one man in awe. "She holds the storm itself in her grip."

"Shhh," the knight said, a little nervously. "We may be heard from now on."

0000

There was no resistance in the lower town. Instead, the residents poured out to meet them with glad cries. Most were wielding homemade weapons. Arthur swiftly directed those who wanted to fight the invaders to form a group behind the knights. They all bore down on the gates into the castle keep together.

The townsfolk had already told Arthur that there were only a few soldiers from the Other Side ever in the lower town. They were the gate guards, and none of them had survived the charge after the gates burned. The rain was easing a little as the mixed army piled up in the wide street before the gate into the courtyard of the castle proper. Everyone knew that this would be the hardest gate to break.

The knights tried a few swings with the tree trunks, the the gate didn't even shudder. Freya stepped forward to Arthur's side.

"Let me," she said through Mordred. "It will be easier." He nodded and ordered the men away. She moved a pace forward, and then something, some half-remembered fragment of a nightmare, made her turn back to the King.

"Tell the men to form a defensive line out of fire of the walls and the open gate. Tell them not to rush it. I will go first, and any with magic may follow me. Magic is our only defense against the weapons from the Other Side. The knights will be shot down in seconds unless we protect them. Do it!" she ordered, and was happy that Mordred had such a commanding voice when he needed it.

The knights hurried into their positions as she stood before the gate. High above them, the sun began to rise, and at the same time, the bells began to ring. They had been noticed. Well, that would have happened soon anyway. At least now her people weren't sitting targets for the soldiers and their guns.

She saw, out of the corner of her eye, the dark shapes of the druids flowing from shadow to shadow, clustering near the gate. She closed her eyes.

Form a shield, she commanded telepathically. Raise a barrier of energy above us to keep the projectiles off. Don't worry about me. I won't be affected. When the gate opens, extend it to cover the army in front, too. I will protect the King.

She felt the snap as four hundred minds bent to the task of protecting everyone from aerial attack, and relaxed a little. One less thing for her to do.

Mordred was still at his post behind her. She handed him her staff. "You use this now. Give me your sword."

"Why?" he asked, obediently taking the staff and handing his sword to her. She looked at it thoughtfully, noting the place where the notch on the blade had been repaired by Elyan, using Thalassa as the heat of the forge.

"This sword is dragonmade. I need it. You use the staff to shield the King and I. I need a different weapon."

He nodded.

"Stay behind us. Fight with your brothers." She nodded to Gwaine, who was watching her.

"Join us," he called. "It's where you belong, isn't it?"

Mordred gently touched Freya's cheek and walked back to join the others. She stood alone before the gate now, except for the King, who was slightly behind and to one side of her. She turned to him.

"Stay with me when it opens. We'll be cut off for a few minutes. Concentrate on surviving. Let me clear the path," she said curtly. He raised an eyebrow.

"And how do you know?"

"Don't be such an ass!" she snapped. "I know things, all right? It's what I'm for!"

He nodded. "Then open the gate. Let's get this over with."

She turned to face the gate, and let the fear and the anger and the loss that she had kept locked away for so long rise up a little inside her. And she felt the land respond, lending some of its own hurt and fury to her, and it filled her bones with cold power.

Once again, she touched the little silver horse with her free hand. "This is my land. My kingdom. And I am ice." She reached up to the sky and dragged the cold of the winter down from the clouds in a spike of blue frozen light. It hit the gate and stopped abruptly.

Arthur spoke behind her. "I hate to object, but it's still standing."

She reached behind her and took his hand, smiling thinly.

"Ow! Your fingers are freezing!" he yelped, trying to pull away.

"Yes." She led him up to the gate, until they stood within arm's reach of it. "Touch it."

He glanced at her sideways. Then he drew a deep breath and touched the wood gently with the tip of his sword. There was a hiss and a cloud of steam, and the gate melted into a puddle of rust and water. They stood in the opening, staring into the darkness beyond it.

"I see what you meant," Arthur muttered. He raised his sword, ready to fight. Freya did the same. In her other hand, a sphere of cold blue light glowed menacingly.

The light of the sun grew a little stronger, making the hundreds of green shapes crammed into the courtyard seem less like a homogenous mass and more like an army of individual men, all heavily armed and moving slowly forward.

"For the love of Camelot!" shouted Arthur as the soldiers closed in around them, and together he and Freya began the slow, deadly process of cutting their way towards the castle.

—

A cliffhanger, again! This is the end of this book. The sequel is called The Last Enemy and I will start posting it tomorrow. It's a crossover, but not much more than this one was. And it will finally return to Merlin's part in the story.