Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up. I had some trouble getting things strait. Any way I haven't had time to do a basic editing of it so there are probable a lot of grammar mistakes. That and I also can't get the computer with the printer to work right.
Reader Response:
Stormbringer91--- You're right. It's not Lancelot, and it's not Dagonet. It's not Galahad, Bors or Arthur either. But just between you and me I don't think you'll be disappointed. And I totally agree with you about the ending of the movie.
MonDieu666--- You are soooo eight about those two. 'Corse sometimes Lance is knida an idiot, but that makes him all the cuter. Also Thank You soooo much for what you said about my writing. I like the way you put it.
Jaulli Bass--- Wow I just found out that you wrote "The Five Point Compass". Damn! I also just found out there are eight chapters up. I'll have to catch up. Stupid printer! I hate reading a computer screen for long periods so as soon as I get my printer to work I'll read it. ... Any way, thank you so much for reading my story. That thing about the Druids is so cool. I totally agree that a lot of the Waods are probably Druids. 'specialy Merlin. I want to work in more magic with him later on. And thanks again!
Oh wait I almost forgot I wanted to mention why I called this chapter "Hell's Estate". Actually it is mentioned later in the chapter bout... Any way frankly it's called that because I HATE MARIUS!!!! What a jackass! Any way that's all I wanted to say.
Chapter 5: Hell's Estate
The party broke free of the forest around midday. It had taken slightly longer than Trinaty had expected since the trail had been blocked by several trees that had fallen in a storm.
Everyone had felt a sense of relief as the came out from the gloom of the forest, even the horses. The knights and Trinaty had begun talking good-naturedly to each other, and Bors had begun to play tricks on Horton.
They rode through half the night before stopping to camp by a small stream. Though they did build a fire, most of the knights chose to sit off by themselves. Trinaty lay near the fire, staring up at the stars and trying to erase everything from her mind.
A few feet away, Lancelot was talking to Arthur about death. Trinaty didn't like it when Lancelot got in the kind of mood where he started to wander what death was. A place, a person, a thing? She really didn't want to think about it.
With a sigh Trinaty sat up and looked across the fire at Tristan. He was sitting cross-legged, with his hawk perched on one knee, staring into the fire. The firelight that played across his face momentarily distracted her. The bangs that constantly hung over his face looked like long dark shadows that were trying in vain to conceal the flickering light in his eyes. She stared at the dark tattoos that marked both of his cheeks, and distractedly brushed a finger across a similar mark on her left cheekbone.
It was an old tradition amongst the Woads to show the grate pains of their lives in this manner. The one on Trinaty's cheek was in remembrance of her real mother. She had three more of these 'scars', but they were just above her right knee, where they were not noticeable. These three marks stood for the loss of her milk mother, Calest, the loss of her village and home, and the last one had been added to the others when one of the knights had died, about a year after she had joined Arthur.
Though Trinaty had often wandered at what Tristan's meant, she had never asked.
Trinaty knew he was one of the older knights, but he had never revealed his true age to her. Only the gray in his beard and the depth of his eyes told of his long years of service, and the horrors he had seen in those years. She figured that they were about the same age. Though the years had left little to no mark on her face, except for a thin white scar the sliced across the corner of her right eye.
Her seeming youth was a result of the power that Avalon still held over her, even though she had only been back to the island a few times since she had come to know Tristan and the others. Luckily she didn't look as young as when she had first been to the island, since she had only been fourteen. How she had come to the island was a mystery, even to her.
Tristan pulled his gaze away from the fire and saw Trinaty watching him. Their eyes locked for a moment, before Trinaty stood and wandered over to Draco. She spent the rest of the night next to the horse, sleeping a little, but mostly thinking about what the future held in store for her and the knights.
The next day was hard travel over the foothills at the base of a snow-covered mountain range. Some of the hills had steep slopes and the knights had had to dismount and lead their horses along narrow ridges.
Finally, after they had crested what seemed like the hundredth hill, they looked down on the estate of Marius Honorius. Like many such estates, there was a large and lavish house surrounded by a high stone wall for protection. Arthur was stunned to see that all of the huts of the other families that worked the estate were outside of the protective wall.
"Welcome the Hell's Estate." Trinaty said coldly.
Gawain looked over at her and asked, "What makes it worse than any other Roman estate?"
"Just you wait. From what I've heard, this Marius Honorius is even worse than our dear Bishop Germanius."
Gawain grimaced.
Arthur had already started to lead his white horse down the slope towards the estate, and the others moved to catch up.
When they reached the bottom of the hill they all remounted and rode towards the gates set in the estate's wall.
As they neared it, the gate swung closed and they were left standing there, looking up at a couple of mercenaries that had obviously been hired the protect the family from any Woad attacks.
"Who are you?" called one of the mercenaries.
"Roman knights." Lancelot called up to them.
The shorter of the two mercenaries disappeared. As the knights waited several of the villagers had gathered around them and were staring in awe.
Soon the gates opened, revealing a short, fat man wearing a roman style robe. Next to him stood a woman that had the nervous frightened look of someone who is often beaten for no reason.
"Who are you?" asked the short man. He was obviously the master of the estate, Marius.
Lancelot turned to Arthur with a grin. "At least they ask easy questions." He said so quietly that only Arthur heard.
But Arthur was not paying attention to Lancelot. He was staring down at Marius. "I am Arthur Castus, leader of the Sarmatian knights, sent by Bishop Germanus." He said with authority.
Marius's face brightened at the bishop's name. He beamed at the knights and said, "It is a wander you have come. Did you have to fight the Woads?"
Trinaty glared in disgust at the Roman. The way he eagerly asked if they had killed any Woads, as though he was asking a hunting part if they had caught any rabbits for his dinner.
She contemplated spiting on him when he noticed her. He stared at her for a moment, and she glared back.
"Our orders are to evacuate you immediately." Arthur said.
Marius seamed to wake from a trance. Then he shook his head. "Impossible! Everything we have is here. This land was given to us by the Pope of Rome."
"Well you're about to hand it over to the Saxons." Lancelot said in a cheery voice. "With his holiness's compliments of coarse."
Marius was trembling with rage, and looked on the verge of attacking Lancelot when Arthur spoke again.
"Which is Alecto?" It seamed to Trinaty that Arthur had one goal, and he wasn't going to stop until he had completed it.
A boy, about twelve years old, stepped up from behind his father. "I am Alecto." He said in a steady voice. The boy was already as tall as his father, and far more handsome. He had dark hair and his face was like his mother's, narrow with prominent cheekbones and a thin mouth.
Marius seemed to have just understood what Lancelot had said and glanced at Arthur. "Saxons?" he said questioningly.
"They have invaded from the north." Arthur said with out taking his eyes away from Alecto's face.
"Rome will send an army." Marius said in a voice that sounded to Trinaty that was meant to comport him more than reassure anyone else.
"They have," Arthur said skeptically. "Us." He let that sink in before saying, "Now, you must prepare immediately. We will leave as soon as you are packed."
Marius shook his head vigorously. "No. I refuse to leave."
Arthur leaned forward menacingly. "Let me make my self clear; if I fail to bring you back, my men and I can never leave this land. So you will come, even if I have to tie you to the back of my horse and drag you all the way back to Hadrian's Wall." Marius cowered and was silent. Arthur straitened up and looked at the woman who was obviously Marius's wife. "Lady, my men and I are hungry."
The woman glanced nervously at her husband. Marius waved at her dismissively, and she hurried back to the house. Marius continued to look at the knights, then turned and stormed off.
The knights dismounted and Jols took all of the reins. He led the horses to a near by well and let them drink.
As soon as the men were on the ground they were surrounded by the villagers. A man with greasy hair and watery eyes came up to Bors and clutched at his sleeve.
"You are from Rome, no?" The man asked eagerly.
Bors looked at him in disgust and then said dramatically, "I'm from Hell."
The man released him and stared in horror, before scurrying away. Trinaty looped her arm through Bors's and smiled at him. "Some times your not far wrong." She said teasingly.
She saw that a young man was flittering about Arthur and instantly knew that he was begging to be allowed to fight with the great Arthur and his Knights of legend. It was a common enough plea from young men and Trinaty rolled her eyes.
Trinaty just caught his name over the hubbub of voices. Ganis. Well it seamed Arthur was trying to avoid Ganis, but the young man was persistent. Finally Arthur turned to him and said something that obviously pleased him, for Ganis instantly rushed off with a sense of purpose.
Just then the mercenaries started shouting for the villagers to get back to work and were pushing roughly through the crowd. Trinaty watched as some of the villagers were pushed off their feet then kicked when they didn't get up fast enough.
Trinaty watched this process with deep suspicion. Something wasn't right here and she had the feeling that things were even worse than they appeared.
It was wile Trinaty was watching the workers dash off to their fields that her attention was drawn to a small stone building that seamed to slump against the wall. She stared at it for several moments. The feeling that someone was in there made her both sick and disgusted.
When she finally tore her gaze away from the ugly structure, she realized that Arthur had been staring at it as well. He seemed to feel her eyes of him and they exchanged a questioning look before going inside the gates.
On Marius's orders, a long table had been brought out into the yard and several trays of food had been set upon it. And although the food was considerably better than any thing they had eaten in a wile, the fact that the table had been moved out side clearly stated Marius's mistrust of them.
Wile Galahad, Gawain, and they others sat around the table and began to eat, Trinaty picked up a loaf of bread and wandered back near the wall. She stood near the wall for a moment before she leaned against it and pressed her ear to the cold bricks.
One of the priestesses in Avalon had once told her how to listen to the walls to learn secrets. Trinaty had not practice as often as was needed to perfect this skill, and had to concentrate hard, to hear the tiny whispers.
Trinaty was so concentrated on the whispers of the past that she didn't notice when Tristan walked up beside her. She jumped when he placed a hand on her shoulder, and he own hand moved instinctively to the hilt of one of her daggers.
Tristan took a step back and held up his hand in defense. "Not being very attentive thins morning," he commented.
She relaxed her posture and said, "No. I am being to attentive in one direction."
Tristan was about to reply when they were interrupted.
"Tristan!" Arthur called as he walked towards them. Both Tristan and Trinaty looked at him, silently attentive. "Oh, good, Trinaty. Listen when both of you have eaten I want you to scout for and Saxons that might be near by."
Trinaty looked over at the table where the other knights were still eating then looked back at Arthur. "Not hungry," she muttered quietly.
Tristan smiled at her then looked at Arthur. "We'll leave immediately."
Deep in the forest Trinaty observed the army of Saxons as it marched awkwardly between the trees. She had noticed that any Woads in the area had quickly withdrawn.
The two scouts, much against Tristan own judgment, had split up upon entering the forest. Trinaty no longer knew where Tristan was hiding. She had watched him for a short time but gave it up when his hawk kept pointing her out. That bird was too damned smart for its own good.
Three men walked slightly in front of the rest. Trinaty had picked one out to be the leader. Though she had not yet gotten a good look at his face. One of the others she guessed was in second in command. This one was shorter than the first with close-cropped hair like Bors and Dagonet favored. His beard was blond and plated into a single braid.
Trinaty had picked the third one out as a Briton. He was obviously the scout, and unfortunately a good one at that.
She watched him carefully as they came to a fork in the path they were following. The scout bent down to check for any signs that one of the paths had been recently traveled. Not seeing anything, he looked up into the forever-gray sky. He watched the hawk that was making lazy circles there and thoughts of wizards and druids using animals to do their spying. I wouldn't surprise him one bit if this strange bird had been sent by the wizard that was supposed to live in these woods.
Finally he looked back at the Saxon that was in charge. "This way is longer," he said, pointing down one of the paths, "but easier to travel."
"Ease does not concern me," the Saxon said. "It's time that concerns me."
The voice was disturbingly familiar, but Trinaty couldn't place it.
The scout seamed to sense something and turned to look into the trees on the other side of the path from Trinaty. The branches had shifted very slightly as if in a breeze. Trinaty sensed the movement too and cursed silently. Unlike the Saxon's scout, she had a fairly good idea what had caused the movement. Tristan's hawk had disappeared.
Thinking quickly, Trinaty snapped a branch off a near by bush. The small sound attracted the scouts attention as well as the Saxon leader's.
Recognition slammed into Trinaty like a rampaging bull when she finally got a good look at the Saxon commander's face. It was Cerdic. He had aged since she had last seen him, but she knew that this was the same man that had raped her so long ago.
All the long years of pent up anger boiled up in side her. She wanted to jump out of her hiding place and throttle him.
Just then the scout stepped in front of Cerdic and Trinaty's focus was slightly diverted. No she thought. Not now. Not here.
But something inside her wouldn't let it go. So, as silently as a shadow, Trinaty nocked an arrow in her bow and took aim at the younger Saxon that was standing next to Cerdic and looking at him uncertainly. Another of your bastard sons Cerdic? She thought bitterly. Did you rape his mother too?
Trinaty took careful aim and let the arrow fly. But just as the arrow came whirring out of the trees one of the bodyguards that had come up behind the three, stepped forward. The arrow plowed into his neck burying the feathers.
"Damn!" Trinaty hissed. Then with out another look at Saxons, she turned and ran into the trees.
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