Another brick in Hadrian's Wall:

'Wakie wakie,' cooed Jet.

She was crouching down beside Shakira, who was sleeping in the tent she shared with her husband. She put her index finger on Shakiras third eye and rubbed lightly.

'Wassgoion?' Shakira mumbled sleepily. She opened her eyes and sat up straight looking at Jet strangely. 'Is it morning already?'

She looked to her right and saw Tristan was not beside her. 'He went scouting hours ago,' Jet informed her.

'Oh,' Shakira said as she rose from the ground. 'I'm exhausted. And…..'

She was Jet's grin and flushed face and sighed. 'Sex on the road again?'

Jet hung her head. 'Sorry, I know but…..I took your advice and Lancelot and I decided to try again.'

Shakira hugged her tightly. 'I am happy for you my sister.'

'GET HIM!'

Shakira and Jet bolted from the tent and saw Dagonet fighting of three Romans and Marius holding a knife to Lucan's throat.

'Marius!' she yelled. 'Let him go!'

'Shut up you whore!' he growled. Felutiana ran forward and tried to get Lucan away from him but Marius threw her aside. 'You will be punished later,' he told her.

Guinevere shot an arrow from her bow causing Marius to yell and let go of Lucan. The little boy ran past them all and into Dagonets arms.

Shakira took out her dagger from her boot and picked up Marius by the scruff of the neck. 'I'm sorry,' she said. 'Did that hurt?'

Guinevere smirked and put another arrow on her bow and moved forward. 'Quick or slow?' she asked the Sarmatian.

Shakira grinned evilly. 'I'm thinking slow…..lets drag it out for a few weeks…..the way he did to us and those poor souls down in the dungeon.'

'I quite agree,' said Guinevere. 'Now, hold him still.'

'No!' whimpered Marius.

Guinevere looked at him with a sickly evil expression. 'Look Kira…..he's begging.'

'It's pathetic,' Shakira said calmly. 'Now……Guinevere is going to shoot you in the side. It will be painful, very painful but you will not die.'

'Asturias!' Marius called desperately. 'Stop them!'

'I cannot,' said Arthur standing beside Shakira. 'Your son has given the word that you are to die. My God forgive you for your sins.'

Guinevere fired the arrow and Marius screamed in pain. Blood flowed from his wound and Arthur ordered the guards to take him to a wagon.

'Your hands seem to be better,' Lancelot told Guinevere. She looked at him blankly and smiled at Shakira.

Tristan rode to them and threw armour at Arthur's feet. 'Saxons,' he said. 'They are close.'

Arthur nodded. 'Lets go!'

Tristan looked at his wife who was smiling happily as she looked at him.

'I will kill you! Taking orders from a WOMAN!' Marius screamed as he was being lifted to the wagon. 'Pagans! Filth! Whores!'

Shakira rolled her eyes and looked up at her husband as she stood by his horse. 'I love you,' she said as he bent down to kiss her. He pecked her on the lips and she took a hold of his tunic and licked his lips causing him to open his mouth to her.

Lancelot and Jet whistled as they watched. Tristan lifted an eyebrow before pulling Shakiras head closer and kissing her deeply.

'Yeah!' exclaimed Bors lifting his arms happily. 'Nothing like a good snogging to wake you up in the mornings.'

'So that is how you come out of your drunken states in the mornings?' Lancelot teased.

Bors grinned and looked worriedly at Tristan and Shakira. 'Do you think they'll stop anytime soon?'

Jet shook her head. 'No. They carry on like that for the rest of the day and then start up again tomorrow.'

Shakira and Tristan finally pulled away from one another. Her lips were red a even more swollen but she was grinning and was he. No one could see his grin because his long hair covered his face from view. 'I love you too,' he breathed.

0-0-0

Drums.

Shakiras eyes began to feel heavy and she began to sway on her horse. Her head was spinning wildly and she stopped her horse and began to watch a patch of ice.

Saxons……the Knights……Guinevere….Jet…..herself…..they were fighting…..Dagonet ran forward…..an arrow hit him…….

Shakira gasped and flinched as she felt the impact of the arrow.

……ice….cracks……screaming…..blood…….light…..blinding light…..Lucan crying…. Tristan holding her soaking body.

'Shakira!' called a voice.

She snapped out of her trance and saw Jet looking at her. Her eyes found the Knights who were looking at her as if she had lost her mind. 'What is it?' Jet asked her.

'Saxons are here,' Shakira said as the drums became louder. 'We don't have time to get off the ice.'

'What do we do?' Jet asked as the Knights grew impatient. All of them but Tristan who knew what was on her mind.

'Nothing. We'll fight. But Dagonet must not run forward…….he must not try to crack the ice.'

'Crack the ice?' Jet said.

'Yes,' she said looking at the spot where she knew the ice was weak.

0-0-0

'It'll be good to but an end to this racket,' Gawain said looking in the direction of the drums.

'Never liked looking over my shoulder anyway,' said Tristan who has his arms around his wife's waist.

Arthur gave orders to the Romans, and the wagons prepared to leave. 'We are seven against hundreds,' Lancelot tried to reason.

'Ten,' said Guinevere as she hoped out of the carriage. 'You could all use extra bows.'

Shakira nodded and looked around the Knights. Tristan tightened his grip on her and she knew he did not like the idea of her staying. 'You are still weak,' he told her quietly.

'I am strong enough for this,' she told him. 'I saw what would happen…..I will be alright.'

'But…,' he said knowing there was more.

'We should hope that there is a way to prevent a death,' Shakira said nodding to Dagonet.

Tristan held her to him and stroked her hair.

0-0-0

'Do not do it Dagonet,' Shakira said as she knew what he was thinking. He picked up his axe and ran forward.

'DAG!' shouted Bors.

'Cover him!' Arthur commanded to the Archers.

Shakira fired four arrows and they each landed in a different Saxon. They were closing in on them quickly and Dagonet was cutting through the ice.

The first arrow hit him. Shakira looked at Jet who had just fired to arrows to Saxon archers.

'DAG!'

The ice had been cu through. Many cracks were now appearing along the ice and the Saxons hesitated before walking forward.

Shakira drew her sword as well as a dagger and watched wearily as Arthur commanded them to charge. She knew what was to happen.

0-0-0

She screamed as the ice cracked under her feet. Her mind felt frozen as did the rest of her as she tried to swim to the surface. She concentrated her mind on the water and it began to spin around her. Spinning and spinning until it moved away from her slightly. She could swim easier now.

A strong arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her from the water. She felt hard ground beneath herself and slightly warmer hands on her face. 'Shakira,' said the desperate voice.

'Shakira……,' said the voice in an echo.

0-0-0

Warmth. She could feel warmth on the left side of her face. She was covered in blankets. She was dry.

Slowly she opened her eyes and saw herself in a wagon. It was still. It was night. Then a gentle hand stroked her face and she turned her head to see her husband beside her. 'How do you feel?'

'Stimulated,' she said as she smiled. Tristan looked at her passively. 'You scared me.'

'I think I scared myself,' she said as she tried to sit up. He immediately put his arm around her back and lifted her. She put her hand to his cheek and looked at his tattoos.

He kissed her palm and she smiled slightly. 'Don't scare me like that again.'

'I won't,' she told him in a broken voice. 'I did not see it though. I only saw the ice.'

'And Dagonet,' he said quietly.

She nodded and looked at their joined hands. 'He was a great man.'

'Aye,' he said looking at her. 'That he was.'

0-0-0

Flashback:

It was mere hours after their wedding ceremony. Tristan was dancing with Shakira happily before the villagers. Their tattoos fresh on their skin. Tristan already had one tattooed before their wedding because he had killed a man in battle, many men in fact. Then when they married he received another on his left cheek and she had two on her left shoulder blade.

He could not believe his luck. He had just married the love of his life, his heart, the woman who owned his soul. She laughed happily as he kissed her after just having finished the dance.

She knew he was to become a Knight. As many times as she had thought of it, she wished that by some miracle they would forget him or miss the village.

He led her to what they could now call…..their hut. As he kissed her she pulled him on the bed and they fell back together. He broke their kiss and she looked up at him. She was so small compared to him. She was amazed half the time on how she managed to kiss him.

She rolled him onto his back and straddled him. As she slowly teasingly undressed herself before he flipped her onto her back and kissed her. Slowly he dragged both of his hands down her sides until they stoped at her knees and lifted them slightly. She smiled at him, as nerves filled her and he undressed quickly until he was bare.

She rolled him onto his back and straddled him again and leaned down so her lips were mere centimetres away from his. He put his hands along her neck and his thumbs caressed her jaw before he ran his thumb along her pouty bottom lip. 'So beautiful,' he murmured, it was barely audible but Shakira heard it and smiled.

'I love you,' she whispered as she looked into his eyes.

'I love you too,' he told her in a louder voice than the one he had used before.

Slowly he kissed her and she raised her hips and took him inside of her. Both of them moaning at the same time. She lifted and lowered herself over and over again, her eyes closed and her mind fully concentrated on her movements. Tristan put his hands on her hips and flipped her over in one thrust and continued his movements with her underneath him.

Making love was not hard for them. There were no odd moments or uncertainties. Everything was just perfect. Being totally and completely in love helped that. And the lust they felt for one another was overpowering. She murmured that she loved him over and over, until he finally growled her name in her neck when he came.

He collapsed on top of her and she was ready with her arms open to him and she wrapped them around his shoulders burying her fingers in his long hair. She smiled happily as tears came to her eyes.

Tristan quickly wiped his left eye of the stray tear before she could see. He could not believe he cried whilst making love. The feeling was completely over powering. He was not sure if he even liked to cry. It was not a good feeling, causing him to wonder why women did it so much.

End of Flashback:

0-0-0

'Mama!'

Shakira jumped of her horse and took her 4 year old son in her arms. She kissed his little face and hugged him tightly. 'Mama….air,' he gasped.

'Sorry,' she mumbled as she loosened her grip. 'I missed you baby.'

'Where did you go mama?' he asked as he touched her cheek lightly. 'You sad?'

'Me?' she asked. 'No. Mama's happy.'

She picked him up and took him to where the Knights stood waiting around the Bishop for his papers.

'Asturias!' he called happily coming down the stairs.

'Bishop Germanius,' said Arthur icily, 'friend of my fathers.'

Germanius did not know what to make of his tone, but quickly brushed it off and brought over a wooden box. Shakira stood beside her husband who smiled at his son and kissed his cheek quickly before wrapping an arm around his wife's waist.

One by one the Knights took their papers but Bors stood rooted to the spot. Lancelot took his out and Bors's and Dagonets. 'He is free now,' Lancelot to him as he handed him his papers.

'He was always a free man!' yelled Bors as tears flowed down his face. He threw the papers on the ground and walked off. Lancelot picked them up, while Tristan walked to the Bishop quietly and taking his papers. Germanius looked scared of Tristan and stood silently and blankly as the scout examined the box in his hands before taking it.

Shakira smiled as Tristan put his arms around her shoulders and they went to their rooms.

0-0-0

'What is this?' demanded Germanius as the Roman guards dragged Marius out of the wagons, on Arthur's orders.

'This man will be punished for his evil ways,' Arthur said calmly. 'When my Knights see fit, he will be killed for the abominable treatment and torture against Tristan's wife Shakira, Lancelot lover Jet, the child Lucan and many others that were murdered in the cells of his land. His own son….has even agreed to it.'

'You will let this!' screeched Germanius angrily. 'Pagans! You will let Pagans murder a respected man of Rome? The father of the future Pope?'

'Yes,' snapped Arthur. 'He lost his way. Stand aside Bishop, do not interfere unless you wish to join him.'

Germanius gulped slightly and stepped back nodding. 'Rome is leaving this forsaken pagan place……and you have decided to join them.'

'This was always my home. Your lies, and your ways are not those of Rome or Christianity. They are those of men in power. You have no connection to the lands anymore.' Arthur turned his back and began to walk away.

Tristan walked past Arthur and gave him a nod in greeting before glaring dangerously at Germanius and taking out his dagger as he walked toward him. The Bishops eyes widened in fear but Tristan walked right past him.

0-0-0

'So what do we do with him?' Lancelot asked the Knights as they sat in the tavern.

'Torture,' said Gawain.

'Club him,' Bors said slamming his fist down on the table.

'Hang him, but not before cutting off his hands and feet,' said Galahad with an evil grin.

'Why not kill him the way they do in Rome? Crucify him,' said Lancelot.

'And leave him there so the crows can eat his eyes,' grinned Bors.

'Let us cut off his head before the Romans,' said Gawain. 'But not before we beat him.'

'Sounds good,' said Shakira as she walked past.

The Knights grinned and Tristan pulled his wife down to sit on his lap. Shakira looked at the Knights and saw Jet coming through the doors. 'So it's agreed then?' Lancelot asked.

Everyone nodded. 'Aye.'

'What's agreed?' Jet asked as she sat down.

Shakira told her how they planned to kill Marius and she grinned evilly.