A/N: So sorry for the delay. This chapter won't even begin to make up for it. Maybe next chapter, the big battle. Replies to reviews below.
"You can't kill him!" Kayleigh exclaimed, jumping forward.
"Why not?" Lancelot asked, the point of his sword digging into the skin of the young warrior's neck. It seemed like the simplest solution to their problems.
"He has done nothing wrong," she cried. She knew the Sarmatian knights were forced to kill men that had done them no wrong but this was different. She had spent time with this man, enjoyed his company. He had a love for life that she had never seen before, and yet he was unafraid to die.
"You have done nothing wrong! Tristan has done nothing wrong!" Lancelot shot back at her.
"No, Tristan hadn't until he attacked them in the forest. It was I who broke their law," Kayleigh clarified.
"What law?" Arthur asked. This may not be the best time to discuss it, but he knew if the opportunity passed, he would never get her to explain. He would only get another vague answer.
"I took water from their sacred brook," Kayleigh said, regretting that whole morning. She had acted childishly and made a fool of herself in front of Tristan. Now they all were paying for it.
"That's it?" Lancelot asked. "Why not just give it back?"
"Because I used it on Tristan," she said. That was the one thing she didn't regret doing in the past few days.
Bevyn saw his opportunity as they were distracted and ducked under Lancelot's blade, tackling him. Lancelot's swords slipped from his loosened grip and scattered across the ground. He moved to draw his dagger from his boot but Bevyn had already drawn his own and was preparing to bear down on the fallen knight.
"No!" Kayleigh yelled stepping between them, holding her hand out before her in a gesture to halt him. Bevyn stepped back sharply and a murmur went through the crowd.
Kayleigh had purposely raised her right hand, displaying the zig-zagging scar down the palm. Though she dreaded doing it, it was only solution she saw to the predicament they were in.
Of the Celts that knew the meaning of the symbol, Turi was the only one not surprised by its revelation. Kayleigh had sworn him to secrecy in the stronghold after he had retrieved the water she requested. He had a lot of power and influence being second in command. She was sure his sheer size had something to do with that. Nobody second guessed his actions. Even when they came to Airell's village to join the other Champions, his order to provide Kayleigh and Tristan with a private room wasn't questioned.
Now the knights looked from Kayleigh to each other in confusion. They didn't see any importance to the strangely shaped scar. Tristan went back in his memories of the past few months he had spent with Kayleigh. Why hadn't he noticed it before? In all his memories of her, he found she always had her arms crossed or her hands balled into fists. He only waved that off as a tense reaction to the situations she had been put into. When she gradually began to wear her leather riding gloves increasingly often, he shrugged it off as her attempt to hide wounds dealt to her by Brogan.
"The only one I belong to is the god that blessed me with his mark. As such, I have rights to the water and you can hold no charges against me or anyone to whom I choose to give the water," Kayleigh said in a stern voice, looking through the crowd. She stood silently waiting for a challenge that never came.
Bevyn put his dagger away and Lancelot retrieved his swords as Airell was withdrawn from his residence by the unusually sudden silence of the village. "What is happening here?" he asked. As his eyes met Arthur's, Airell turned three shades of red, "I thought I asked you to leave."
"You did," Arthur confirmed, "and we wouldn't have come back if your Champions hadn't kidnaped two of my people."
Airell then turned to Cadell, "Is this true?"
"Yes, m'lord," Cadell slightly bowed his head. "My apologies. I was not aware you had met with them. I did not know who she was."
"She?" Airell asked, noting how Cadell said it as if 'she' were of great importance. The leader followed his people's stares at Kayleigh. He looked her up and down. "Who is she?" he asked the warrior.
"'She' has a name," Kayleigh said, annoyed. "It's Kayleigh."
"She–Kayleigh," Cadell quickly corrected himself, "bears the mark of Taranus."
Galahad was getting impatient for a translation. "What's going on Arthur?" he asked. Gawain had moved to look over Kayleigh's shoulder as Airell inspected her hand.
"She told them she was blessed by their god and had rights to the water," he said to his knights. Lancelot could not help but laugh outright. There was no way she could be blessed with all the bad luck that came with her.
"Forgive our misunderstandings," Airell told Kayleigh and Arthur. "You and your knights may stay as long as needed."
"Thank you," Arthur said, "but we must return home. We have a war to prepare for."
"Yes," Airell said, "that is unfortunate."
"It does not have to be," Kayleigh put in.
The leader shook his head, "As much as I would regret going to battle against one with Taranus' favor, it must be done. The deal has been struck. I have given my word."
Kayleigh nodded in understanding. "I know how much you value promises. That is why I feel compelled to inform you that the Saxons have broken theirs with you."
"What is this you speak of?" Cadell demanded, his face becoming flushed with anger.
"The Saxons have already begun claiming land in Britain. They have no intentions of sharing the land with you or they would have awaited your arrival," Kayleigh informed them.
It grew quiet as the Scots thought over her comments. Airell looked at Arthur to confirm what Kayleigh had said.
"It is true. Nearly two months ago we gathered arms to drive them off the land," Arthur said as he quickly caught up with Kayleigh's plan.
"Come," Airell said, "let us discuss this further inside." Airell, Cadell, and Turi led the way followed by Arthur, Kayleigh, and the knights.
"Arthur, what's going on now?" Galahad asked once again.
Arthur ignored the question and shot one of his own at Kayleigh in Latin, "What are you doing?"
"I'm doing what we set out to do in the first place, convince the Scots to ally with us," she told them.
"This isn't a game," Arthur whispered harshly to her. "You're going to get us all killed with this talk about being blessed by gods."
Kayleigh let a small laugh escape her lips, "Their gods are as real to them as your god is to you. How do you know their gods don't exist? Just because you don't believe in them doesn't make them any less real to these people."
"She's preaching to the wrong crowd," Galahad whispered to Gawain, who elbowed him to shut him up. "What? Romans think that just because we don't believe in their god that we're faithless savages." Galahad hated when Romans called him pagan. What made their religion the right one? Arthur had been the only one who hadn't looked down on him for it. He had never forced his religion onto Galahad and Galahad respected Arthur for that.
"You're using their beliefs against them," Arthur accused.
Kayleigh shrugged. "They can believe what they want. You can believe what you want," she added as they entered the great hall of Airell's residence.
A large wooden table dominated the center of the room. Many chairs lined the sides of the table and Kayleigh guessed there was one for each of his Champions. It was beautifully engraved with intertwining knots. From the walls hung lines of royal tapestries. On each was embroidered a battle scene in fine details.
"They are beautiful," Kayleigh commented as she studied a particular scene. Dozens of charioteers drove through the defending army, spears raised, but they seemed to pass straight through them without inflicting any damage.
"Ah, yes," Airell agreed as he joined her in gazing upon the tapestry. "All are battles this old tribe has fought. Some of these handed down from father to son for hundreds of years. This one you look at is the oldest. These men," he pointed to the charioteers, "are our ancestors, bravely facing their foes. Of course, they did not know of the curse laid on the land."
"Curse?" Kayleigh raised an eyebrow, intrigued.
"Aye, the gods had taken hold of that land in the north, the Fog Lands, to torment the souls of dishonorable men. Men that lie, steal, and profit from the pain of others are sentenced there for eternity. These spirits, the Innish, exact their revenge on any man that enter their territory using their otherworldly powers," Airell explained.
"You did not come out victorious then?" Kayleigh asked. It was a great story and she made a mental note to herself to translate it for the knights later.
"Oh, we lost many men and took no gains, but we learned a great moral lesson and those that died did so gloriously," he smiled at her and gestured for them all to sit as he took the seat at the head of the table.
"The Saxons came to our land a year ago to conquer my land and people. That crumbling building you made camp in used to be my resident stronghold, stable and impenetrable," Airell told Kayleigh. She sat near the far end of the table, quietly trying to keep the knights abreast with what was being said. With politics once again taking center stage, she was glad to let Arthur deal with it.
"We made war with them for ten days. Each battle would have a different outcome but neither army took the upper hand. We were at an impasse. Finally on the eleventh day, we drew terms. We needed better land. Our people were growing hungry. The Saxon also needed land for expansion. They had been planning an invasion of Britain for some time but did not have the numbers to take on the furthest part of the Roman Empire. Impressed by our strength and skill as warriors, they agreed to reserve a percentage of the land to us in exchange for our services in their attacks of the island," Airell explained.
"It seems the percentage they intend to give you is zero," Arthur said, getting to the point.
Having finally translated to the knights what Airell had said, Kayleigh chipped in unceremoniously, "They are using you as pawns."
The leader quickly began to look tired and he called for a glass of ale between a fit of coughs. Dedric appeared from the hallway with the mug in his hand. He handed his father the drink and sat next to him, opposite Arthur.
Lancelot's countenance immediately grew dark at the sight of Dedric. Kayleigh explained to him the situation with the Saxons.
Finally, Airell regained his breath, "They've made fools of us, my son."
"Then we must regain our honor," Dedric replied, then threw a devilish grin Kayleigh's way. "We have let them get away from us once, we need not let them get away again. We know where they will be. We know their strategies and weaknesses."
His father was beginning to warm up to the idea. Arthur decided to promote the benefits of joining them, "If they conquer Britain, they will have a launching ground to attack your lands. If they don't succeed, we will always stand between them and you."
"Rome is a powerful ally to have," Dedric whispered to his father.
Kayleigh knew they still needed something to push him over to their cause. "Those barbarians are probably laughing at you behind their backs, so proud of themselves that they have outwitted the great Scots. They come over here and desecrate your land, kill your brothers, make false promises to you, and they believe they have gotten away with it. Are you going to sit back and let them believe the Scots are cowards, or will you seek your revenge?"
By now Airell's face was red with anger. He slammed his fist down on the table, causing the droopy eyed Bors to jump slightly, "We will avenge the fallen and regain our honor! If I die, it will be gloriously and with purpose!"
Cardeia- I hope this chapter answered some of your questions. I also really liked those two parts from last chapter. I love those Kayleigh/Tristan interactions but it's so hard to keep him in character and have him talk and reveal feelings at the same time. So they will be few and far in between but hopefully really good.
Brandy- Sorry I haven't reviewed to your story. I lost it among the others. I hope it's going well and you've been getting more inspired than I am. I check it out soon.
Evenstar- I hope you don't hate the Scotts too much. They'll be sticking around for a bit.
SpectralLady- It's okay that it took you awhile to review because it took me longer to update. Sorry 'bout that.
Wild Woman- Cool name. Thanks for the comments. I can't believe you read the whole thing in one sitting! You should get a reward or something. I'm glad you like my little story that has become quite long. I had thought about being a journalist a long time ago but I just respect others' privacy too much. :-P
To everyone else that reviewed, thanks so much. It keeps me going, even if it is slowly.