A/N: Hello! Sorry for the wait for this chapter, life once again took over and finding time to get things done was tricky. I apologise for and spelling mistakes or grammatical errors that I may have missed when sweeping out the cobwebs. I hope you enjoy this chapter!
"Isabella? Isabella, come on, you need to wake up." Someone called to me, disturbing me from my sleep. I was even more exhausted now than I had been when Arthur had drugged me to go to sleep. I had spent such a long time training with Sian and my brothers, it felt like I hadn't been asleep at all. "Come on, wake up."
"Go away, Arthur, it's the middle of the night." I moaned at him, wishing that he would just let me go back to sleep.
"Which is why you need to wake up, Isabella." He told me, letting out a sigh. "We have to go."
It was those last words that he had said which made me snap my eyes open to look at him. "Go? Go where? What?" Yes, I was confused, I had no idea what he was going on about. I didn't understand why we needed to go anywhere, not when we had only just gotten back. There was something that just didn't make sense, but my head was in too much of a haze to try and work it all out.
I watched him as he let out another sigh. "I'm getting you out of Camelot. It's too dangerous here for you now, Lord Donald knows that you're here. We're going to sneak out of the castle, out of Camelot completely." Arthur informed me, speaking in a bit of a rush. "Get dressed, quickly."
With a frown on my face I dragged myself from the warm and comfortable bed, noticing how the Prince was already dressed and ready to go. I could tell that he was nervous, his eyes were looking everywhere, as if trying to make sure there were no hidden dangers lurking in the walls. "Why have you suddenly changed your mind?" I managed to ask him, stripping off the clothes I had been forced to fall asleep in and tugging something clean on. "What's happened?" I couldn't help but think that something had happened while I had been asleep. It was all I could think about really.
"Please, Isabella, not now. I will explain everything later, but right now, we have to move." I reappeared from behind the screen and nodded at him. "We have to be quick, the guards will be back soon." Odd, they never left their post, at least not both at the same time. Also, I was pretty sure that security was meant to be much tighter since we found the message my dear old uncle had left for me.
I let Arthur take a hold of my hand, and I couldn't help but notice how clammy it was. "I don't understand why we're doing this, Arthur. Something must have happened, you have to tell me what it was." Even though I was asking, I could see that there was no way he was going to tell me anything, he wasn't even bothering to look at me.
Suddenly he turned and faced me, a serious look on his face. "Isabella, you have to trust me. You do trust me, don't you?"
"Of course I do, Arthur, I trust you with my life, you know that." I was starting to fear the worse now, fear that my uncle had been spotted in Camelot and that he was panicking. "But is running away really going to solve anything?"
"We're not running away." The Prince told me firmly, before his eyes turned back to the empty corridor. "Come on, let's go."
He was moving at a rather quick pace, one that I found hard to keep up with. I could tell that he was in a hurry, and I really was trying my best to keep up with him. It probably would have helped if I knew where we were going in the first place, but I was confident that he wouldn't tell me, he was in too much of a rush.
All of a sudden he stopped, his hand flying over my mouth as he dragged me into one of the alcoves behind a tapestry. I listened hard and heard clomping feet pounding on along the stone corridor. The guards were back, and it would only be a matter of minutes before they realised we were gone. The moments it took for them to pass felt like an age, but Arthur finally dropped his hand from my mouth and continued to lead me through the gigantic castle.
Even after all my time there, I had still not memorised all of the long corridors, and where they led. But he had lived there all his life, he knew all the stone corridors, every passage and every door, so I knew that he had a way out planned for us. "What are we going to do when we get outside, run into the woods?" Because of my lack of knowledge of the castle, I was feeling a little unsure.
"There are horses waiting for us." He told me simply, not bothering to look at me once again as he continued to drag me along. I was beginning to feel like a rag doll being pulled around by him, his clammy hand holding onto my wrist tightly now.
"So, you roped Merlin into all of this as well?" If it had, that was at least some relief for me. If Merlin was aware of the whole plan, I knew that I would still be able to check in with him.
The response I received was not the one I expected. "No." My eyes widened slightly. Why had he not told him? Who had he informed of his plan, of our running away?
I could feel my nerves start to flood me. "Arthur, I don't think this is a good idea."
He stopped in his tracks and spun around to face me. "Do you want him to kill you?" He growled at me, making me flinch. "Because he will come here, and he will kill you, and he will kill me to get to you." Something about the whole way he was acting was frightening me, and I think he must have seen that too. "Isabella, we have to do this, we have to leave." I was too scared to answer him, so I simply nodded my head.
Satisfied with my reply, the brisk walk continued, and soon enough we were at a secret passageway. It was dark and cold, the smell of old rotting food filled my nose, but I endured it as best I could. At the end of the passage would be the fresh crisp air, even if that air was freezing cold, and that was what I kept my focus on. I done my best to ignore the way that Arthur's grip was hurting me, and the fact that he hadn't informed Merlin of the plan.
I couldn't help but take a deep breath when the air hit me, ignoring the chills that it send over me and the goose bumps that appeared on my flesh. I didn't have time to even try to work out where we were as the Prince dragged me away from the safety of the castle and towards the walls that surrounded us. "You cannot be serious." I mumbled, wondering what exactly he had planned. "Arthur, please tell me you are not planning on us scaling the wall."
"And watch you break your neck?" I didn't like the way his eyes seemed to twinkle as he said that. "Of course not, Isabella. There are some loose stones, we can make a gap big enough for us to fit through." My fear and confusion was building by the second now. If he knew about those stones, about the way in without having to confront the guards, then maybe my uncle knew about it. Why hadn't Arthur done something about it sooner? Why had it been left?
I tried to push all my fears to one side to help him wrench the large grey blocks of stone free, but my mind kept on racing. "How long have you known about this, the hole in the wall?" I asked him, my arms aching from the weight of the block I was holding.
He grunted as he pulled yet another stone away. "Not long enough." He grumbled, placing the block down and going for another one.
My fear stopped me from saying anything else. Something didn't feel right, something was putting me really on edge. Maybe Arthur was right, maybe my uncle was extremely close, maybe that was the reason I was feeling so nervous and worried. Nothing felt right, and the way he was acting really was not helping at all. Arthur wasn't himself, he was too nervous, too anxious. His edginess was making my own feel worse.
"Arthur, I… I still don't think this is a good idea." I told him, glancing around, wondering if we were going to get caught. Inside I was begging that we would be caught, because Arthur was just acting too strangely. "Let's go back, we can talk it through properly and come up with a better plan."
But he didn't want to listen to me, he just dumped one of the huge blocks at my feet. "If we go back, then he will come and he will kill you. Is that what you want, Isabella?" I didn't answer him, I just gazed at him, wondering where all that anger and aggressing had come from. "That is what will happen if you don't come with me, if you don't let me get you away from here, away from him."
When I didn't reply to him, Arthur carried on tugging away the stones, and eventually we were left with a gap big enough for us to squeeze through one at a time. I was surprised to see a horse tied up to one of the trees nearby where we were. Even as Arthur led me over to the horse I could sense my nerves taking a tight hold in my chest. "I… I can't do this, Arthur." Now I was really starting to panic. Of course I trusted Arthur, but I just didn't agree with his plan.
"It's too late, Isabella. We've come this far, there is no going back." He told me, before grabbing me around the waist and hoisting me into the lone horse that we had.
No matter how much I wanted to protest, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Arthur really had done so much for me, and he was simply trying to do what he thought was right to protect me. I had imposed on his life long enough, every day I was a burden to him, and I had so much to thank him for. However, none of that eased the churning in my stomach as we rode out of Camelot and away from the safety it provided, most of the time.
My head started to feel fuzzy after a while, and I struggled to keep my eyes open. It was the little bumps and jolts from the horse that kept disturbing me, willing me to stay awake and fight the tiredness that was washing over me. In the end, exhaustion won, and I let the darkness claim me. My head was full of worry and fear, but I had to remind myself that Arthur was there and that he was doing all of this to protect me.
I could hear chains clanking together in the silence that surrounded me. Forcing my eyes open, I found that I was lying on the forest floor, a tree behind me. "Arthur, what's going on?" I asked him, lifting a hand to rub my eyes. The jangling from the chains grew louder, and my wrists felt extremely heavy. And then I saw them, the shackles around my wrists. "Wha… what's going on?" Fear was threatening to take over.
He turned to face me, a strange expression on his face. "Camelot is in danger, and the only way to save my kingdom is to hand you over." My eyes widened, knowing now why he had dragged me from my bed in the middle of the night and led me deep into one of the forests. "You have brought nothing but trouble, Isabella, and I will be glad to wash my hands of you."
Arthur's voice was full of spite and hate. I didn't like it. "Why? Why have you gone from swearing to do anything to protect me to personally handing me over to the man who will do nothing more than kill me?" I was trying to keep my cool, to stop myself from getting too worked up, but the anger was starting to mix with the fear.
"You have been nothing but a burden to me, to my father and our kingdom. People have suffered because of you, and I am going to put an end to that." Arthur told me, tugging at the chains the kept me grounded, making sure they were secured and that there was no way I could escape. "Lord Donald has sworn to leave Camelot alone, the people will be safe."
I didn't want to believe it, I really didn't want to believe what Arthur was saying, but his current actions were rather hard to ignore. "How could you do this, Arthur? I thought…" What did I think? Did I honestly think that he would put up with me forever? Did I honestly think that he wouldn't consider giving me over to my uncle to protect his home? "It was all just a lie, wasn't it? You never actually cared, you were just trying to keep me under control until the time came, the time to hand me over."
A smirk spread across his face, and it made my stomach churn. He didn't look like Arthur, not the Arthur I knew. The man before me was a complete stranger, and he was scaring me with that twinkle in his eyes. "You're not as stupid as I thought. It was too easy to manipulate you, too easy to get you to trust me. You were so naïve, Isabella, you would believe anything that I said." He was right, I had been naïve, and that was my own stupid thought.
"Yeah, I was stupid. I was stupid to think that you could actually posses the ability to care about anyone other than yourself. It was my fault for trusting you and believing that you were a honourable man, when you are nothing but a pathetic coward." My head snapped back as the back of his hand collided with the side of my face. Even thought my cheek was stinging, I was not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing my cry. "What's the matter, Arthur, can't handle the truth?"
The next thing I knew, the Prince of Camelot was upon me, a hand wrapped tightly around my throat. "You are nothing. You're not smart, you're not pretty, you are nothing. I had you fooled the whole time, and while it was fun for a while, it became boring." There was a fire burning in his eyes, and the fear that was brewing inside of me began to rage a little fiercer. "But now I am done with you." His grip tightened for a moment before he released me. "Goodbye, Isabella." Before I could respond, something smacked me across the head, and those stupid black spots appeared in my vision once more.
I couldn't believe what was happening, what Arthur was doing, what he had become. I didn't want to believe it, but the fact that I woke up with chains shackling me to a tree, I knew it wasn't just a bad dream. "Ah, the little princess finally wakes." I froze, my skin crawling and bile rising from my stomach as the sound of the voice. "I told you I would have you, but I bet you never expected the Prince that you care so much about to simply hand you over."
My hands tugged at the metal that was restraining me, trying to pull away, to get as far away from him as I could, but I was trapped. There was no way I was going to be able to get them off, he had me, my uncle finally had me. "It doesn't matter. You've got me, now you can just kill me." I was doing everything I could not to act like a baby can cry. In my head I was trying to think of something, of a plan, of a way to escape.
"Oh, I'm not going to kill you, not yet." He told me, edging closer to me. "The Prince betrayed you, he handed you over when he promised he would protect you. I want to make you a deal." Everything Sian had told me flashed in my mind, the fact that he wouldn't just kill me, that my uncle would try to use to me, to turn me against everyone I cared about.
There was a problem, could I really say that I still cared about Arthur after what he had just done to me? But I was still curious. "What kind of deal?" I wasn't going to refuse, not until I had heard what he really wanted.
He took another step towards me, now standing right in front of me. "I can help you get revenge on the Prince, on all of those that laughed at you behind you back, those stupid maids who gossiped about you. I could show you how to use your magic as well." That definitely got my attention, but I had been learning how to control my magic, I had trained for hours in my sleep.
"And what do you know about it? What do you know about my magic?" I hissed at him, glaring at him, wishing he would shut up and go away. I didn't feel comfortable with him standing over me, threatening me, trying to tempt me.
"I know how to control it, isn't that what you want? Don't you want to control it, Isabella?" that twinkle in his eyes just seemed to keep on growing, and I knew it wasn't right.
"What it really want is for you to let me go." I told him, tugging once more at the shackles that were restraining me. "That would just be great."
My eyes locked with his, as from the corner of my eye I saw him reach into his pocket, before pulling something shiny out. "I suppose I could take those off. They must be awfully uncomfortable." Was he trying to be sarcastic with me? Seriously, did he really have the gaud to be sarcastic? "If I take them off, are you going to run away at the first chance you got?"
The key glistened in his hand, and I knew my answer. "No. For a start, you have magic and you know exactly how to use it. I can't control mine, I hardly even know anything about it, and running would just be a waste of effort." Okay, so maybe I told him a slight lie, I had an idea of how to use my magic, of how to control it, but I had never put it into practice in the real world. This was going to be my first opportunity,
He seemed to ponder on my words for a few moments, before he knelt down and unlocked the cold, harsh metal that bound me. "Remember, I can knock you out before you even have a chance, so I would recommend you do not do anything stupid." Of course he was going to warn me, in fact I was surprised that there hadn't been more warnings and threats.
"Noted. Anything else? If I try to run are you going to break my legs? Maybe stab me in the back with a knife, like you did to my parents?" I had said the words before even thinking about them, and then I instantly regretted it.
I expected some kind of pain to be inflicted, a smack across the face or a tug on the shackles he was still in the process of removing, but he simply smirked at me. "You get that attitude from your mother, you know. She never could keep her mouth shut, always had something to say." I knew that my mother had never been afraid to say exactly what she though. "Got her killed in the end. Now, I wonder, are you going to make the same mistake?"
"I am not my mother." I knew I wasn't, my mother had been powerless against him in this world, and I wasn't. That man was in for the shock of his life, Arthur may have betrayed me, but he had betrayed his family.
The smirk on his face seemed to grow even more. "No, you're a lot stronger than she was. Oh, there is so much that you can do, and you don't even know it." He told me, just as I heard the lock click and my wrist suddenly became lighter.
Now it was my turn to smirk at him. "You're right, I am a lot stronger, but that's all you're right about." I told him, my voice actually sounding a little menacing. Now that my hands were free, I felt a lot more confident, and I could feel all that anger and hatred starting to grow inside of me. "Surprise." As I said that, I felt the earth shifting beneath me, the roots of he trees springing to life and swiping him off his feet.
My uncle fell backwards, his eyes widening in shock slightly. "Oh, the little princess has been practicing." He commented, before pushing himself up off the ground. "But you're still no match for me. All you have is petty tricks. You have no idea what real power is."
A wave rushed over me, and a hot flaming ball of fire headed my way. My first instinct was to duck, to try to move out of the way, but I held my ground, and draw on my magic. Before it reached me, it had been smothered out by the dirty that had risen from the ground, putting it out completely. The elements, they were mine to control. Yes, he had fire, but I could fight that with something else. The earth was all around us, the air was all around us as well, now, if only I had access to water as well.
He tried again with fire, but once more I was able to contain it before it could reach me. A growl escaped his lips, one that reminded me of an animal. "It looks like I'm going to have to deal with you the same way I dealt with your mother." As he said that, he pulled out a sword, and brandished it before me.
"Oh, come on, how is that even fair? I don't have a sword." I moaned at him, knowing that if I had a sword or something I would easily be able to defend myself. My training with Arthur hadn't been too bad, I had picked up on a few new things whilst he had been pushing me as hard as he could.
"Being fair wasn't part of the deal. But, if you want to make a deal, how about we talk about it. Prince Arthur betrayed you, after everything he said, he all those promises he made, he turned his back on you and left you with me. What does that say about him, hm? How does that make you feel?" It hurt, it definitely hurt, knowing that Arthur had just dumped me here, left me to my worst nightmare. But I couldn't blame him, I didn't hate him for it, even though I knew I should. "With my help, you can have Camelot, you can bring a whole kingdom down to its knees. We can take Elbear, and Camelot, if we work together."
This was it, this was what Sian had been warning me about. He was trying to get inside my head, trying to convince me to join him, to follow the dark path with him, to walk in the shadows. "Thanks for the offer, but revenge really isn't my style. I have one goal, and one goal only, to stop you." I pulled in as much magic as I could, search for every tendril that was around me. My emotions were a mess, but I had to keep them in check, I thought of my parents, of my brothers, and all the pain and suffering he would cause them. I wasn't going to let that happen, I was going to protect them. I couldn't think of Arthur, thinking of him just brought me pain and anger. My brothers could deal with him, they could do what they wanted to him and Camelot, but only once I had freed us of our deranged uncle.
Without warning, I let my magic burst out, a cloud of dust rising up from the ground, swirling around my uncle, blinding him in a mini storm. I took that as my chance, and made a run for it. I wasn't running away, I was trying to find water. I was more confident with water, I knew what I was doing with water. I just hope that I could find it.
Moments later and I could hear him shouting, cursing at me, following me. My legs kept on moving, and I kept on running. Water, that was my only thought, find water. I was so focused on my thoughts, that I failed to notice him gaining on me. I didn't realise it until he had barrelled into me and knocked me to the ground, the wind being knocked out of me.
"I'll take that as a no." He hissed in my ear, pinning me down, hurting my back with his knee. "Oh, I am going to enjoy this. Beinnen æt híe bréosthord." After hearing his words, I felt something in my head, like someone was trying to force their way in, to take over.
"You cannot win this, little princess." My uncle's voice echoed in my mind. "I own you now, I control you."
"No! No one owns me. I'm not going to let you do this!" I ended up screaming, my head burning as he pushed his way further inside. It was different to when Merlin had entered my mind, I had given him permission, I let him in, but my uncle was forcing himself in. I had to stop him, I had to do everything I could to stop him.
"There is nothing you can do to stop me. I'm in your head. I have control of you now."
I closed my eyes tightly, putting everything I had into fighting him off. I didn't really know what it do, so I just thought of everything I cared about, of my brothers, my parents, Morgana, Gwen, and Merlin. I couldn't think of Arthur, that would just distract me, I had to keep him locked away in a tiny corner of my mind, where I would deal with it later. "You will not win. I will not let you." I cried, doing my best to ignore the pain, to put everything I had into pushing him away, to get him out of my head.
"I already have." I heard him tell me, before my body began to feel heavier. It felt like I was sinking, and the darkness was coming for me. "You've lost, little princess. Your world is about to fall apart, and there is nothing you can do to save it." I didn't want to listen to him, I didn't want to believe him, but his words kept ringing in my head, over and over again. I could feel myself losing, my control was slipping away, and I knew he was right. He had won.
A/N: Ta da! Bet none of you saw THAT coming! It was about time that she came face to face with her uncle, but I bet that none of you expected Arthur to just hand her over to him. But she still doesn't really understand how to control her magic, and the battle is over before it's even begun.
Or is it? Bwahahahaha!
I would like to take the time to say a big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to leave a review, you guys are awesome. A big welcome to everyone who has favourited/followed the story recently.
I've got the next chapter all ready set up in my head, I just need to get it typed up. Let us all hope that I can find the time to get it done as quickly as possible. But, until then...
Pippa.