A/N- another day (well another coupla days) another chptr! Come check out my website (I'm not writing it down anymore, check my profile) I'm serious!
Shaken but still very much alive, they pressed forward through the awful weather determined to reach their goal. When the sunset, they stopped dispiritedly and huddled under the misery tree cover to shield from the bone-chilling drizzle. At one point Galahad pointed out that a fire might be a good idea, but was quick to be reprimanded by the others for not using his head. A fire, no matter how small, if they were even able to start one in such weather, could summon unwanted enemies. So in the rain they sat, hunched beneath cloaks and armor, roughing life in the wilderness. The next morning they woke, sodden and dispirited and remounted their equally dispirited horses. When they thundered into marcus Honorious' courtyard they were freeze-dried by the wind and their moods were no better for it. A small fat man that reminded Camille unpleasantly of her mother's stories of Gowan Kelbraiugh. Through the rolls of fat on his chins (all three of them) and his quaking jowls, what looked like it may once have been a smile emerged.
"Ahhrthoor, Ahhrthoor!" he cried, in the same self-affected accent as Germanus.
"weeelcooom too my home" Arthur was not about to bandy words with a pompous nobleman and abrubtly informed
"Our orders are to evacuate you immediately" . The grimace-like smile dropped like a stone and the old man drew himself up in a mountain of outraged quivering flesh.
" That's eempossible! I veell not leaf my hoome!" Arthur stared coldly down his nose and informed him menacingly
"If I fail to bring you and your family back with me, my men can never can never leave this land. So you're coming back with me if I have to tie you behind my horse and drag you all the way to hadrian's wall myself...my lord" Furiously the fat man backed down as Arthur stormed off to right the wrongs being done to the serfs of the household. Left sitting, slightly bewildered, Camille dismounted and approached Marius. She inclined her head respectfully and began
"M'lord? My name is Camille and I bring you news from Rome." He glared at her, but accepted the letters she produced, one bearing a purple stamp and the other a less prestigious red one. His eyes widened slightly at the crests on the seals.
"Whooo ahre theeese layters froom?".
"The first is from Bishop Germanus, staying at the wall. The second is from my late master in rome." She leaned forward and whispered the man's name in his ear. His eyes widened even more than narrowed as he sneered
"Ahhh Ih've heard off yoou. How mahny behds deed yoou grease tooo geet thee johb as hees assassin whoore?" Her eyes glowed with anger but she brushed off the insult and sauntered away. He spluttered at this dismissal and yelled at her retreating back
"Wheere are yoou goingk? I deehdn't geehf yoou permission tooo leaf!"
"keeehs mahy aahhhss!" she called over her shoulder, mocking his accent. Meanwhile, Tristran was informing Arthur of the dire situation growing around them.
"The only way out is to the east across the mountains" he concluded then asked, frowning
"Arthur? Who are all these people?" around them, the serfs Arthur had warned were gathering their meager belongings
"They're coming with us." He replied bluntly.
"Then we'll never make it" commented the scout as if this did not phase him in the lease. Somewhere, in the forbidding mountains around them, they began to hear the pounding of the Saxon drums.
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