Reviewer Responses

AK Anonymous- Thank you for being such a loyal reader. And as to your question about Dag. taps finger to chin you'll just have to wait until chapter 11 evil grin.

Sandy- Thank you for the compliment. I am trying really hard to make this a believable story.

Raven Sparrow- Well here's the long awaited chapter 10. Enjoy it. I'll be posting chapter 11 as soon as possible.

Chapter 10

A few moments later, as the wind blew, the Saxons finally arrived. All the knights, Guinevere and Lillian stood on the ice, waiting for the first move to be made

Arthur looked down the line. "Hold until I give the command," he ordered.

Lancelot, who had been standing a few feet from Guinevere and Lillian, looked over to the two women a smirk making its way to his face.

"You both look frightened," he said, "That's a large number of lonely men out there."

Guinevere's eyebrow rose as she glanced at him, not taking an eye off the Saxons.

"Don't worry; I won't let them rape you," she returned.

Lillian chuckled, having heard the exchange. Taking the chance she cast a mischievous glance over to Lancelot. "Guess Vanora and I aren't the only women who are immune to your 'charm' are we Lancelot," she teased.

Suddenly a Saxon stepped forward, under command of the Saxon leader and launched an arrow. She watched as it skids across the ice, not hitting anyone.

Lillian and the others could tell the leader was getting angry but they were to far away to hear what was being said.

"I believe they're waiting for an invitation. Bors, Tristan," Arthur called out.

Guinevere looked at Arthur incredulously. "We're far out of range," she told him, oblivious to the skill those two possessed.

Arthur smiled secretively at her as Tristan launched four arrows and Bors launched two arrows, which pierced a few Saxon soldiers killing them instantly.

Arthur raised his eyebrows at Guinevere. Guinevere just glared back at Arthur, slightly angry that he had proved her wrong. Lillian shook her head and made ready to fight.

Arthur then looked at everyone ordering them to, "Aim for the wings of the ranks. Make them cluster."

Lillian, Guinevere and the knights all fired. The arrows hit their targets on the wings of the Saxon force and the Saxons fell. The Saxons who were near the edges, saw the pattern of the arrows and started to cluster as more arrows rained down on them killing more of their numbers. They clustered again, ignorant to the fact that the ice was cracking beneath their combined weight.

Arthur noticing what's happening yelled out, "It's not going to crack. Fall back. Fall back!" as he drew Excalibur, "prepare for combat!"

The small group picked up their weapons of choice, ready to fight. Lillian noticed that Dagonet was fidgety. Her eyes widened as he suddenly dropped his sword, grabbed his axe, and in a yelling fury, charged forward

"Son of a bitch!" she muttered as she grabbed an available shield. "The man's suicidal."

Realizing the only shot she has at saving Dagonet would be to grab a shield and cover him with it, Lillian reached down and grabbed Lancelot's shield with one hand and ran forward, her throwing knives at her sides, her borrowed crossbow and quivers of arrows in the other hand.

Bors seeing his friend rushing toward the enemy yelled out, "Dag!"

"Cover him," Arthur ordered.

Guinevere and the knights go back to arrows as Lillian runs to cover Dagonet while he chops at the ice.

She caught up with Dagonet as he started hacking the ice so it will crack. The others kept shooting down the Saxon archers as Lillian covers Dagonet and herself with the shield to make sure neither are killed.

Dagonet continued hacking at the ice some more and it finally started to break.

Lillian, still covering Dagonet's back, by holding the shield and firing the crossbow at every available opportunity heard a British voice yell out, "The ice is breaking!"

'What the hell?' she thought, 'What is a Briton doing helping the…' her eyes widened in realization. The little fucker was a scout the Saxons had found and instead of killing him were using him to lead them to the Wall.

Both sides continue to shoot their arrows furiously. The Saxons continued advancing, ignoring the sound of ice cracking beneath their feet.

"Kill him!" Lillian and Dag heard the Saxon leader shout.

At that moment, a few stray arrows got beyond Lillian's shield. One arrow caught Dagonet in the arm and another shot hit him in the side. Another arrow founds its way into Lillian's leg.

Bors seeing his friends hurt yelled out, "Dag! Lillian!"

Arthur dropped his bow and arrows and ran forward with another shield. Dagonet and Lillian dodged the arrows as he hacked at the ice once more before his strength gave out. The ice fully broke with that last hack. Everyone watched as the Saxons start falling into the icy waters below. Guinevere and the knights backed up from the breaking ice.

They all watched in shock as Dagonet fell over into the water, exhausted and weak from loss of blood. Lillian caught his shirt keeping his head above the water.

Arthur slide onto the ice, next to Lillian and grabbed Dagonet's shirt. He looked over at Lillian and ordered, "Keep the shield up, I'll pull him out."

Lillian nodded knowing he was right and covered Arthur and Dagonet as they got up. When he was finally out of the water the three heard Lancelot shouting.

"Pull back! Arthur!"

Bors ran forward and helped Arthur carry the exhausted and injured Dagonet back to their comrades as Lillian covered their backs against the Saxon arrows while the others start shooting furiously.

Bors seeing everyone yelled out, "Help us!"

Gawain dropped his weapons and ran over to help Arthur and Bors, while Tristan ran over to Lillian and helped her keep everyone under cover. Galahad kept enthusiastically firing his arrows, as did Lancelot and Guinevere.

The cracks in the ice kept stretching, breaking the ice and the Saxons fell into the icy water below, as the knights keep firing their arrows.

Dagonet falls unconscious from the exhaustion and blood loss. "Speak with me! Dagonet! Speak with me!" Bors said to his 'brother', trying to keep him awake.

While Arthur, and Bors tended Dagonet; and Tristan and Lillian were helping to provide cover and cover fire, Guinevere spotted the Saxon leader, Cynric, and tried to kill him, but to no avail. The wind carried her arrow to the left of Cynric, killing his right hand man.

Seeing this, Cynric ordered the retreat of what was left of his infantry.

Once the Saxons left the group crowded around Lillian, Arthur, Bors and Dagonet. Guinevere was the first to speak.

"Is everyone all right?" she questioned, concern in her voice. She may not have known these knights and this woman for very long but they had become friends over the last few days.

Lillian looked up at Guinevere. "I don't know, I just don't know Guinevere. Hopefully Dagonet will survive," she said.

Tristan walked over and knelt in front of Lillian and looked over her wound. "This will hurt," he warned as he made ready to pull the arrow out.

Lillian gave him a shaky grin, "Just do it. The sooner it come out, the sooner it will heal.

Guinevere watched Lillian in fascination. Here was a woman who seemed Roman, yet her beliefs and actions were that of a Woad. This woman who was friendly with the Sarmatian Knights and the lover of one was a walking contradiction. Guinevere handed Lillian some tough leather to bite on.

"Thanks," Lillian said before biting down.

While Tristan and Guinevere were helping Lillian, Arthur and Bors were dealing with Dagonet. Though the fact that he was unconscious helped.

As Tristan pulled the arrow out of Lillian's thigh she screamed into the leather at the pain. Tristan gave her an apologetic look that said 'I'm sorry I couldn't make it easier'. Lillian nodded in acknowledgement and Tristan finished pulling the arrow out swiftly and easily.

Once the arrow was out Lillian let go of the leather.

"Bloody fucking hell that hurt!" she screamed.

Guinevere gave her an apologetic grin as she held some sort of poultice and bandages. "Sorry Lillian, but it will hurt a lot worse before it gets better," she said as she handed Tristan the medicine.

"Thank you," Tristan said as he dipped one of the pieces of cloth into the poultice.

Lillian squeezed her eyes shut as he placed it on the wound. It stung just as bad as bactine but stunk a hundred times as worse. Once that was done Tristan wrapped the legs in the bandages and tied them tightly making sure the wound was covered, and stopped bleeding.

As he finished tying the last knot Lillian opened her eyes and looked over where Dagonet lay.

"How is he?" she asked.

Arthur looked up and over at her. "He will live, but not for long if we don't keep him still and get him to a healer soon," he told her.