Title: Forever More

Author: Me, Myself, and Red Pollard

Author's Note: I am so struggling now. I really cannot think of something that should be the big secret. Argh……

Disclaimer: I don't own King Arthur but I do own Kera.

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Chapter 16:†Saving a Life†

A steady pound had begun to grow inside Kera's head. Pressing her hands to her temples she tried to suppress the ever growing headache. Screaming out, she stumbled from off the solid earth and onto the ice. She wanted to put as much distance as she could between her and the Saxons as possible.

Lancelot jumped up as he saw the girl cross the ice. Immediately he knew it was Kera. Dropping his bow, he began sprinting as fast as he could towards her. He didn't care what happened now, but to everyone else's surprise, the Saxon's did not fire at him.

"Take your pitiful whore!" Cynric shouted out tauntingly from his place. The Saxons behind him jeered and laughed.

Lancelot slid across the ice as he rushed towards Kera. She had collapsed near the middle of the lake, and by the time he reached her, her whole body was stiff yet shivering. Scooping her up in his arms, he nearly fell backwards for he had expected her to be heavier. Coming back to the knights, Guinevere rushed to Kera's side.

"Poison," Kera whispered, coughing up a mouthful of blood. "They gave me—" more blood, "poisin."

Jols waved Guinevere quickly back to her spot.

"You cannot loose concentration in battle. Fight. I shall take care of her."

Arthur nodded indecisively and placed a hand on Lancelot's arm to prevent him from returning to Kera's side.

"Lancelot," Arthur said as a hollow-stomach feeling of anticipation crept through him. "She will be fine."

Lancelot gave him a hard look, biting down into his lip, before picking up his bow again.

Jols pulled Kera away from the line of knights and quickly propped her up against the wheel of the supply wagon. He had heard her whisper something about poison and he went with his first instinct. Bending her over, he placed a hand lightly on her throat. Her stomach felt considerably uneasy and her throat felt tight. But when Jols made her bow her head, she began to gasp. A dry raspy noise came from her throat as she tried to get rid of what stirred erratically in her stomach. Retching, she spilled the little contents that she had onto the cold ice. She throat burned as she dry heaved then coughed until blood dripped down her chin. Yet even after that, she felt slightly better.

Jols wiped the blood away and tipped a flask of water to her lips. Though he was a squire, he still had had the time to study herbs and he learned that whatever Kera had been forced to eat, the best thing was to get it out of her system by inducing vomiting. As ghastly as it may have sounded, it did the trick. The effort of swallowing hurt, but Kera managed to down a little bit of liquid.

Cynric ordered one of his archers to fire an arrow to see how far apart the two opposing groups were. One command, a Saxon pulled back on his longbow and let the arrow fly. It soared high into the sky before coming back down onto the ice and skittered past Arthur's knights.

"I believe they are waiting for an invitation," Arthur mused.

Guinevere notched an arrow to a Sarmatian compound bow which could fire much farther distances. Pulling the bowstring to her ear, she angled it upwards and released. On the other side of the ice, a Saxon squealed as an arrow powered through his armor. Cynric cursed and ordered his men to spread out. As the Saxons first began to march out onto the lake, the ice began to moan underneath there weight.

"Aim for the wings of the ranks—make them cluster!" Arthur said.

All eight of them picked up an arrow from their piles and nocked it to their compound bows in unison. Aiming it upwards, the pulled back the bowstring and waited for Arthur's command. The Saxons marched in synchronism out onto the ice, their shields held out in front of them protectively.

Before the Saxons could reach for their own bows, Arthur called out, "Now!"

At once, they fired their arrows all at the same time. Eight identical arrows whistled through the air and each one of them thudded into their target. At each end of the Saxon line, warriors fell back with arrows in their face of chest. The ones that were not hit began to frantically try and push themselves closer to the main body, making them loose formation.

"Move move move! Keep your positions!" Cynric yelled out. "Hold your rank or I will kill you myself!"

The Saxons unwillingly fanned out once more only to receive a rapid rain of arrows. Torrent upon torrent, Cynric's hopes began to fade as his infantry was picked off one by one by a band that he should have completely outnumbered. Clutching the necklace in his hand, he began shoving Saxons back into their positions.

"Rapid fire!" Arthur roared out.

Tristran loaded two arrows to his Sarmatian bow and pulled back the stiff string. Letting go, he reloaded almost as quickly as Jols could feed the arrows to him, while on the other side, three Saxons were skewered with just one of his arrows. Even with Saxons falling at an alarming rate, Cynric was at their back, stabbing at them with his sword, making them march even faster until the distance between the Saxons and the knights was very narrow.

"Prepare for hand to hand combat!" Arthur cried out, waving Excalibur majestically over his head. "The ice is holding!"

The knights shouldered their bows as they realized that their situation was dire. They could never beat an army that large with their few number, and at the Saxon's rate, they would be reaching them very soon. Dagonet seemed to be the only one that was not frightened or unnerved. Dropping his bow to the ground, he picked up his battle club.

Kera had dragged herself so that she could watch what was happening. She watched as Saxons fell under Arthur and his knight's fire. She scrambled to one side to barely avoid being pierced with an arrow herself. The Saxons were advancing quicker now and it seemed as if all hope of winning was lost for Arthur. Suddenly, she saw an expression of understanding spread across Dagonet's face.

i One large and brawny knight from the smaller group strode up confidently to the boundary between them and the army. Raising his mace, he brought it down so relentlessly that the aftershock that rippled up his arm stunned him momentarily. A thin crack began to snake its way upon impact. The warriors yelled in protest and shortly, arrows were flying through the air aimed for that one knight. /i

This scene was all too familiar—

"Shield! Get a shield!" Kera suddenly screamed.

Everyone turned towards the girl who had been forgotten for the moment. Seeing their confused faces, Kera shakily got up and grabbed Arthur's shield.

"Kera—what are you talking about—" Arthur began when the thought finally set in.

Before he could finish his sentence, Kera and Dagonet were sprinting together out across the ice. The look of amazement was quickly wiped off of Arthur's face and he finally called out, "Cover him!"

The knights and Guinevere sheathed their swords and picked up their bows. If anyone tried to hurt Dagonet, they would be dead before they could try.

Kera's long legs powered beneath her as she held the shield out in front of Dagonet. The two of them were shielded by it as they ran towards the center of the ice. Dagonet turned his head towards her, his battle club held firmly with two hands.

"How did you know?" he asked.

Kera shook her head. Dagonet was a tall man and she barely came up to his shoulder even though she herself was tall. At that moment, he didn't look so much like a vicious warrior. He looked just like a man doing his job. You wouldn't think he would put his life on the line but here he was, just smiling away, ready to do his duty.

"Not now," she said. "Get ready. I'll shield. Just hit as hard as you can Dagonet. I trust you."

Dagonet shook his head and at that instant, Kera stopped and took several steps in front of him. The Saxons were only fifty yards away and she was scared as hell but she knew what to do. Behind her Dagonet had lifted his mace high above his head. Kera turned back to the advancing warriors, her legs shaking visibly but she held the shield steadily in front of her.

"Kill him!" Cynric was yelling. "Kill that knight and that girl!"

Arrows began whizzing towards Kera and Dagonet, but she parried them off with her shield. One of them slammed through the shield and barely missed her face. Breaking it off, she threw it aside before concentrating on covering as much of Dagonet's body as she could with the shield's face.

A long deafening crash sounded as Dagonet's mace slammed into the ice. A large fat crack appeared where his mace had just been and Kera jumped back beside him so that she wasn't standing where the ice was splitting. That moment, when Dagonet was not shielded, a Saxon arrow flew unsteadily across the ice towards him. Kera saw it just in the brink of time and threw her entire weight into Dagonet's side. Together, they tumbled backwards as the arrow pierced Dagonet's foot. He winced but did not cry out.

"Lancelot!" Arthur said, putting down his bow.

Lancelot understood and quickly took Arthur's place as Arthur began running towards Dagonet and Kera. Arthur ducked low as he began jogging across the ice, dodging the arrows which flew around him and snapped upon the ice. Dagonet's final blow shattered the ice around him and it quickly spread towards the Saxons. Large sheets of ice flipped up towards the sky, as Saxons tried desperately to hang on. Slipping on their bloody hands, they would plunge underneath the surface and swiftly undergo hypothermia.

Cries filled the air as the warriors plunged into the freezing water. Some clung distraughtly at the ice's edges, but soon the large chunk of ice would flip over and send them sinking to the lake's bottom. Cynric looked down at his feet to see a face pressed up against the ice. The Saxon's eyes were enlarged by the ice's reflection and soon his bleeding face slipped away into the black waters. The water sparkled like diamonds for a moment before it was soon as black as blood on that hopeless day.

Dagonet held onto Kera as together, they slipped into the frigid lake. The first lung full of water was an icy shock. Choking Kera wrapped her arm around Dagonet's neck and tried to reach for the surface with the other. Both of them struggled to kick for air, but the cold had paralyzed them for that moment and they were helpless. Kera's arms began to become rigid and her grasp on Dagonet loosened. She did not feel cold now, a strange warmth swimming over her body as she began to sink. Her lungs felt tight against her ribs as she swallowed more water. Her head felt lightheaded and strange visions began to drift before her eyes. Dagonet still resisted hypothermia and caught her before she slipped away. His body felt light now, as if all his burdens were floating away with the water when suddenly—

An arm thrust through the hole in the ice and grabbed a hold of the back of Dagonet's armor. Hauling both him and Kera up was tremendously difficult but not impossible. The sharp blade of light coming from the sky was an intense difference to the dark waters and Dagonet groaned as white spots covered his sight. Beside him lying on the ice was Kera. She wasn't moving.

There were fewer arrows flying through the air and to Arthur and his knight's surprise, what little Saxons were left began retreating back towards shore as fast as their legs could bring them. Bors ran forward from his position at the first sign of the Saxon withdrawal and helped Arthur pull back Dagonet and Kera. A bright red line was smeared across the ice where Kera was being dragged.

"Dag!" Bors yelled hoarsely, his eyes brimming with tears. "Dagonet stay with me! You can't die on me!"

Dagonet sat up and groaned when he saw his bleeding foot.

"Bors I'm fine I'm fine," he said, hurriedly limping to his feet. "The girl."

Bors smiled a smile of relief. The knights had gathered around the small body that lay sprawled in front of them. Guinevere bent down beside Kera and tried lifted her head.

"Kera," she whispered. "Come on now. Wake up."

When she took her hand away, her palm was stained with blood. Looking at the underside of Kera's head, Guinevere saw that her black hair was beginning to mat with blood that was coursing slowly from a head wound.

When there was no reaction from the body, Arthur bent down beside her and placed his mouth to hers. Breathing in, he tried to coax life back into the motionless body.

"Kera…" Lancelot was whispering. "You can't do this. Come back… please."

After several attempts, Kera's eyes all of a sudden flew open and water coughed from her mouth. Her hand swung out as she tried to sit up and ended up slapping Arthur across the face unintentionally.

"She's alive," Arthur said, rubbing his red cheek.

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Author's Note: Done with Chapter 16. Hope you liked it. Please read and review.