Chapter Four
The sharp edge of the sword pressing against my throat cut off my scream rather efficiently. "Now, Anna, there's no need for that," Seth's voice hissed next to my ear as he wrapped an arm around my waist. "We're all friends here."
From the forest came a band of twenty or so armed thugs. Lot's men didn't deserve the title of soldiers, as none of them possessed a scrap of honor. They surrounded us, and I could see Gwaine's eyes flitting from one to the next, assessing them for any possibility of attack. But I knew that he was unarmed, and against twenty armed men, even one of Camelot's greatest knights didn't have a chance. "Please don't do anything stupid, Gwaine," I pleaded, even for the terror running through me.
"Yes, Gwaine, don't do anything stupid," Seth mocked. "We'd hate to see you hurt over this little trifle." He then nuzzled his face in my hair, inhaling deeply. I shuddered, squeezing my eyes shut as tears started trickling down my face. "Though she is so very delicious. Did you know, Anna, that Lot has promised all of us, his closest companions, their own time with you? After your marriage, of course, but still. We'll each get our own taste of Anna, so to speak, as a little reward for bringing you to him."
"Over my dead body," Gwaine growled, stalking toward us.
Seth laughed, sending more and more shudders of revulsion down my spine. "Well, that shouldn't be terribly hard," he said, shoving me to the ground to meet Gwaine.
Who suddenly had a sword in his hand. "You forget, mate, that I've got a warlock on my side," he said, nearly decapitating Seth with his first blow.
Suddenly, my friends were fighting Lot's men, taking two and three a piece. "Anna, time to go," Merlin said, tugging me up as he threw a fireball at the two largest thugs. "Get to Mother and Gwen," he ordered, shoving me in the direction of our picnic.
I ran, headless of branches or roots in my way. I simply ran, while my mind supplied its own images from the stories I'd heard of Lot's first five wives. His first, killed for trying to run away from the horrors he put her through. The second, killed herself after discovering she was pregnant with his child. The third, killed by her own father for trying to get away from Lot. The fourth, starved for daring to question his methods of ruling. And the fifth, a mere girl of fourteen, killed by his brutal "affections". Terror tore at my mind as I remembered the tales of maids being forced first to his rooms, then from them, bloody and sobbing. Or dead.
Arms caught at me, and I struck out, fighting to break free. "Anna! Anna darling, you're safe! It's Hunith. Hunith and Gwen."
Hunith's voice broke through my madness slowly. But as soon as I recognized my friends, I started babbling. "Please. You can't! Please, don't let them! You can't let them take me!"
"No one is going to take you anywhere, darling," Hunith soothed, running her hands down my arms in an attempt to calm me down.
"Arthur and the boys will take care of them all," Gwen promised. She smoothed my hair back from my face and smiled gently. "They won't take you from us."
Both women continued to gently ease me back into a normal breathing pattern, though I eventually noticed that Gwen was holding a sword in the hand she wasn't running through my hair. And Hunith kept a rather grim eye on our surroundings, even for our guards around us.
Soon enough, crashing through the underbrush came Seth, causing my heart to take residence in my throat once more. Until I realized that he was bound, gagged, and unconscious, and followed by my friends with a few more tied up ruffians. "He won't be bothering you anymore, Anna," Percival said, promise ringing through his quiet words.
"None of them will," Leon added, smiling softly to me.
"Especially since the rest are dead," Gwaine added, with a vicious kick to the unconscious Seth's ribs.
I stared at them all in astonishment. They had all promised to keep my safe, but I had never thought that they would go to such lengths for me. "You did this, for me?"
Bewildered, the six men looked to me in confusion. Then, comprehension dawning, Arthur dropped to one knee in front of me, taking my hand in his. "Anna, as King of Camelot, I pledge my life and all my power to keep you from those who wish to harm you."
His words rang through the little clearing with power, and I was awestruck to see the flash of gold in his eyes. But I barely had time to comprehend it all when Merlin was kneeling next to him, jostling him a bit out of the way. "Anna, I pledge my life and my magic to keep you from those who wish you harm."
Gwaine was next, kneeling before Merlin even finished his words, and nearly ripping my hand from him. "I swear that as long as there is breath in my body, I will hunt down any who try to harm you, Anna."
Leon took my other hand, as he was kneeling on the other side of Arthur. "I swear, as a Knight of Camelot, that you are safe from all those who wish you harm."
Percival and Elyan each knelt behind the others, as there was no more room directly in front of me. "I will protect you as I do my own sister," Elyan swore.
"No one will hurt you again," Percival promised.
I looked to the six men in front of me, incredibly awed. "I think it's safe to say that you're well protected, my dear," Hunith said, slipping her arm around my waist.
"Not to mention, well cared for," Gwen added, hugging me on the other side.
After such an intense display of loyalty and love, all aimed in my direction, not to mention the overwhelming terror I'd felt with the attempted abduction, there was really only one response for me. I burst into tears.
The men instantly looked distinctly uncomfortable, while Hunith and Gwen simply wrapped me more tightly in their arms. "Please, don't cry, Anna," Leon said after a long moment, sounding a bit desperate.
"Yeah, I can't stab tears," Gwaine added, causing me to laugh amidst my tears.
"Thank you all, so much," I told them, wiping my face. "I just can't quite believe that you would do that for me."
"We promised you'd be safe here in Camelot," Arthur replied.
"But do you think it'd be alright if we all stood now?" Merlin said, grinning up at me. "It's getting a bit uncomfortable kneeling like this. And nobody wants to be this close to Arthur when he's all sweaty."
His comment got the reaction he wanted as we all laughed, while Arthur shoved him. The guards helped my friends gather the prisoners, then we all mounted our horses to go home. "I appreciate your playing, Anna," Arthur started as we rode through the forest again. "But I think we should be back in the castle next time. And perhaps give the guards something to plug their ears with."
I grimaced, a bit embarrassed. "I forgot to… aim my song, I suppose. I forgot they would be listening. But I promise it won't happen again."
A few moments later, Gwaine asked, "How did you lot know to come? You were all asleep."
"Anna's scream had a magical resonance to it, a bit like her song," Merlin explained. "We all could feel her terror and woke up instantly."
"I am so sorry you had to feel that." I was horrified, not to mention further embarrassed.
"I'm not," Gwaine said emphatically. "If they hadn't, they might not have woken up and come to save you. And me," he added, seemingly as an afterthought.
…
As soon as we got back to the castle, Arthur ordered the court to assemble. "We have an execution to attend to," he boomed, and the pages scurried to obey.
Once Gaius and the lords making up the King's Council arrived in the throne room, as well as various curious nobles, the trial began. "You four men stand here after an attempt to abduct Lady Annaliese," Arthur stated, looking down at the prisoners forced to kneel on the hard marble floor. "You, by your own admission, were sent here by King Lot, to bring Lady Annaliese to him in order to force her to marry him, without her consent. You also threatened her with terrible, unspeakable things after said marriage. You then were interrupted by myself and my knights. You four were kept alive to send a message to Lot, and to the world. Camelot and all those who reside in her borders are protected, be they noble or peasant, man, woman, or child. I will not allow anyone to harm my subjects, and I will bring swift justice to those who try to do so."
A resounding silence swept over the room as we all looked to our king in awe. For one brief, shining moment, I could understand why his family had been given the name of Pendragon: he looked like a great dragon, ready to defend what was his to his last breath. And as the afternoon sun streamed through the windows and down upon him, I pitied those who tried to defy him.
"Do you have any last words?" he then asked the prisoners.
Seth raised his head defiantly, and Arthur nodded to Gwaine to remove his gag. "King Lot will come again for his little trinket," he promised, smirking darkly at me. "He wants her land, and her in his bed. He will never stop coming for her, not until he gets what he wants."
"He can try," Arthur replied, even as Gwaine punched Seth hard in the face. "The four of you will be hanged at sunset. Guards, take them to the dungeons to await their execution."
"He's right, you know," I said softly, but it was enough for Arthur to hear me from the other side of Gwen. "Seth is, was Lot's right hand man. And he wants me. He will take this as a grave offence. I can't let you do this for me."
"I've already sworn to protect you, Anna," he said kindly. "And besides, what sort of message would that send to Lot if I let his men invade my kingdom and abduct my queen's closest friend? I can't do it, and I won't do it. You mean too much to us all."
Nodding, I bit my lip to keep the tears at bay. "Thank you, Sire," I said, curtseying deeply.
He nodded once in recognition. "I protect my own, always," he said quietly, only meant for those of us closest to him. "And you are part of us now."
"Whether you like it or not," Gwaine added with a cheeky grin. "Now, I do believe that we have an execution to prepare for. I think I need to change. This doesn't quite say 'Good riddance, you miserable swine'."
"No, it says more 'I need to take a bath'," Merlin quipped readily.
Feigning offence, Gwaine said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I was just in a fight to save a beautiful maiden. And where were you? Oh, that's right. Using magic like a nancy boy while the rest of us men fought with swords."
"If it weren't for my magic, you never would have survived that fight. And I don't have to rely on brute strength to fight a bunch of thugs."
"That's because you don't have any brute strength," Percival added, with his usual quiet perfect timing.
"And I'm fairly certain that I'm the one who saved the beautiful maiden," Elyan butted in.
"Come along, my dears," Gwen said to me and Hunith. "They'll be brawling soon enough, and we don't need to see that."
…
At sunset, we gathered once more in the courtyard. No one, other than me, wore dark colors, in stark contrast to their usual attire for an execution. It was a clear message, one that I wasn't entirely sure they had collaborated on. "You don't have to be here," Gwen told me quietly.
"Yes, I do," I replied, as the executioner led the prisoners to the gallows. "I'm the reason they'll be executed."
"No, you're not," Merlin argued viciously. "They followed the orders of a greedy, power thirsty king of their own volition, and this is the end result of that action."
"Nameless subjects of King Lot," Arthur announced, "you are to be hanged by the neck until you are dead. May you find peace in the next life, however unworthy you may be."
The gags were not removed for any of the men as they were led to their nooses. Seth caught my eye, and I was powerless to look away until he fell through the trapdoor.
Arthur led us all back inside once the men were dead. Surprisingly enough, none of us felt hungry, and we all went our separate ways. I wandered listlessly, trailed as always by my guards, finally ending up in my room. I tried to read, I tried to sew, I tried to play, but every time I closed my eyes, I was reminded of the horrors of my day.
A knock at the door revealed Merlin with a comforting smile. "Gaius sent me with a potion to help you sleep," he said, jiggling the bottle in his hand.
"Bless you both," I breathed, moving to let him in.
I put the bottle on my bedside table, then took a seat next to Merlin in my window. "I can't thank you boys enough," I told him, putting my head on his shoulder as I had always done as a child.
He wrapped his arm around me, kissing my head, just as he had always done. "I will always come for you, Anna. And besides, we owed you a bit for that song you played for us."
I huffed a soft laugh. "A paltry trick compared to what you did."
We sat in silence, simply enjoying one another's company for a bit. Until I remembered something. "Arthur used magic today. When he swore to protect me. I saw his eyes flash gold."
Merlin smiled. "He's done that a few times since becoming king. He doesn't realize it, of course, and I think it would probably worry him if he did. But it happens when he swears things as a King, like when he took the crown, and when he married Gwen. My favorite was when he brought back magic and swore that its use would never be punished, only the actions taken with it."
I was awestruck. "Why- How-?"
"I think Magic knew that he would be a good king, the greatest king Albion has ever seen," he explained. "And in proving himself worthy of that title, Magic has accepted him as its own."
"You think, or you know, My Lord Grand Sorcerer?" I teased lightly.
His fingers quickly found their way to my ribs, digging in mercilessly for a long moment. "I think, and Kilgarrah agrees with me," he said finally.
"It's so odd to think of you regularly speaking with a dragon," I said, cuddling back into his shoulder. "I think a bit of me still thinks of you as the gangly boy I grew up with."
"And a bit of me will always think of you as the tiny little girl who used to follow me everywhere," he assured.
We spoke long into the night until neither could hold back the yawns. "Goodnight, Anna," he said, kissing my forehead. "Sleep well."
"I will, once I take that potion you brought with me," I grinned tiredly at him. "And thank you, Merlin."
Slipping into a thin night gown, I downed the potion, smiling at the sweet taste. I knew that Gaius took special care to make the potions taste better for me and Gwen, especially since the boys all complained of their horrid taste. I got into bed quickly, as I knew how fast-acting his potions typically were, I was nearly asleep when I had a sudden thought. If Magic had accepted Arthur as its own, that explained why his eyes had glowed. But why had Gwaine's?
AN: I totally had not planned on getting this to you so quickly, but that's what happens when you get off work early and have plenty of inspiration. So this hopefully makes up for the cliffie, even though I'm leaving you with another one, albeit tiny. Thanks for reading, and a big thanks to CrystalVixen93 for reviewing the last chapter already!