Authors notes: Thank you so much for the great reviews. Hope you enjoy this chapter.
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Lancelot stared at the hideous deformed creature stood in front of him with the air of disbelief that usually accompanies the discovery of something so out of the realms of normality that it bordered on the absurd. Where the hell had this thing been conjured from? Was his mind really this warped?
"You kill for a living." The creature hissed. "Why are you surprised that your mind has produced me?"
Lancelot frowned and moved to pull his swords from his back and then realised that he wasn't armed, he wasn't even wearing any armour.
"You can't kill me so what are you going to do? Use diplomacy…" the creature let out a harsh sound that Lancelot presumed was a laugh.
"Oh wait you are no good at that…guess you are doomed then."
The creature leapt at him and Lancelot fell under his weight. His last thought before the pain enveloped him was to question whether a creature created by his mind could in fact kill him.
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Arthur fell off his chair jerking awake as he hit the floor. For a few seconds his mind was dazed and confused as to exactly what had happened and then he realised that Lancelot was screaming. Scrambling to his feet in a most undignified manner he quickly went to his friend's side.
All day and night Lancelot had been in the throws of delirium, screaming and crying for help, begging for the torture to stop. Nothing Crassus or Arthur had done had reduced the fever and all they had been able to do was restrain him when it looked like he would injure himself.
They had moved the knight into an isolated room to prevent him being disturbed or in turn disturbing the other patients. Arthur had spent most of the night with his friend but as dawn was rising again he would need to go out and see for himself the situation, however before all that he had to calm Lancelot down. Crassus burst through the door with Dagonet behind. The knight was thrashing on the bed and the trio grabbed his limbs holding him still. Lancelot continued screaming until suddenly he went limp.
"He is not getting better is he?" Arthur asked as he sat back down.
"No, but he is still alive and that is more than I expected when he was brought in."
Arthur sighed.
"I have to go and check on a few things but I will return as soon as I am able."
Crassus nodded. Arthur brushed his hand through Lancelot's hair and left with Dagonet after having one last look at Lancelot.
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As soon as they exited the building Tristan approached.
"The rogue group have fled. Merlin is waiting outside; I believe he wants to talk to you." The scout stated raising an eyebrow.
Arthur rubbed his eyes tiredly.
"We could just shoot him; say Tristan had a muscle spasm?" Bors suggested as he joined the group. Tristan glared and Arthur smirked.
"If we could guarantee that the hoards of Britons won't seek bloody vengeance that might be a valid suggestion." The roman replied. It was a testament to how tired he was that he even thought about the idea for a brief second.
"Well I better go and talk to him."
"Be careful, if anything happens we'll charge out and kill them all." Bors assured him.
"If something happens to me you do not charge out there. The fort needs your protection." Arthur turned to Dagonet. "Sit on him if he even attempts anything, if that fails, Tristan shoot him."
Dagonet and Tristan both smiled at Bors affronted exclamations of being underappreciated. Arthur walked towards the gates and stared up at the mess that stood in front of it. He highly doubted that anything would get through that in a hurry; Tristan had done a good job. He decided that he would exit through one of the concealed doorways. He chose one that was out of sight of the woads, he didn't want to give anything away.
As Tristan said Merlin was stood patiently on the plain before the fort, his army behind him but not close enough to be uncomfortable.
"How is your knight?" Merlin asked.
"Still alive. What do you want?" Arthur said in no mood for a verbal sparing match.
"To share some information."
Arthur frowned. "What kind of information would you want to share with me?"
"Centurion Antoninus." Merlin replied. Arthur quickly searched his memory for the name and realised Antoninus was the commander of the fort most northerly in position on Britain's borders.
"What about him?"
"He is responsible for slaughters of my people and for this attack."
"WHAT?" Arthur exclaimed.
"He is working for himself with his unit commanders for profit."
"And what evidence do you have to base this on?" the roman said sceptically.
"I have seen it for myself. If you will come with me you will see that some of the warriors are not Britons."
Arthur nodded his assent and moved after the man. As the walked through the bodies Arthur had felt his heart clench as he saw the dead Romans. Merlin drew to a halt next to a group of his warriors and a dead rogue.
The Briton nodded and one of the soldiers removed the mask. The dead figure was clearly a Roman. Arthur was stunned.
"So they set this all up in the hopes that… what?" he wondered.
"That the Roman army would send their legions to destroy us. They could therefore take over resources and trade and grow rich with no interference."
"All this for greed?" Arthur said in disbelief and the naivety that the Roman had concerning human nature was exposed to Merlin.
"Greed is a powerful motivator…Get back to your knight. We will search for the leader."
"No" Arthur stated. "He needs to be brought to trial."
Merlin shook his head. "I cannot be certain that my men will not exact some sort of vengeance. This is not your Rome Arthur; you are not in control here no matter how many men you have."
Arthur froze considering all the options. The woads outnumbered them and were set for vengeance. Even though Arthur wanted to get to the bottom of this they were in no condition to even defend the fort let alone lead an attack. There wasn't really an option to be considered.
"You need to bring him to us with evidence. If you kill him nothing you have told or shown me will prevent a retaliatory attack on your people. Romans will not listen to woads."
Merlin nodded and paused in contemplation.
"I will do what I can." The British warriors moved away leaving Arthur stood in a field of bodies. This revelation was shocking. Not only had they been betrayed but the cavalry unit had been taken and killed by their own. Then they had attacked the fort. The well organised nature of this and the time it must have taken was astounding. He hoped Merlin would bring the leader back so they could root out all the participants; this obviously went deeper than one man and a few unit commanders. With a deep sigh he headed back to the fort to share the information and then to sit with Lancelot praying for his recovery. At the moment nothing else mattered.
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