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Dum dum. Drums. The people stopped. "The Saxons!" they cried. Arthur looked at his knights. They were so close, so close. They had come to the last pass before the reached the coast. Snow covered the ground and before them was an ice covered lake. They looked behind them. There was no visual of the Saxons but the drums spoke of their nearness.

"Knights?" Arthur asked.

They all looked at him then each other. "What are we waiting for?" Bors asked. "Let's show these Saxons what we're made of."

"It would be a relief to end their ruckus," Gawain jested.

"I never liked running, prefer to face them and fight," Tristan remarked.

The other knights offer their comments and they all begin to arm themselves. Arthur turned to one of the villagers. "You are in charge. Take them to the east. Soon you will reach the coast. Follow the coast line south until you are well passed the wall." The villager nodded his head. Arthur then turned to Marius's men, "This man is now your captain." They nodded and begin to move the villagers out.

Alecto approached Arthur. "I will stay and fight."

"No, you are the reason we came. Do not let our deaths be in vain. Go to Rome, make it a better place." Alecto nodded and returned to his mother. Dag gave the boy, Lucan, a hug and placed him in Fulcinia's arms. Lucan cried, he did not like to see his protector go.

Halfway across the ice the knights set up. They had shields, both long and small, bows, arrows, and a large variety of other weapons at their fingertips. The Saxon drums grew louder and the knights held their breaths, everything was still. The silence before hell broke loose.

Kida rode hard. The knights had five days on her, but she had the advantage of traveling alone. She rode night and day, eating as she went. If she was lucky, she could catch them before they reached the coast. There was no sign of Saxons. The horse bore her well; it was as if he sensed the urgency of the matter. For two days she rode. In the middle of the second she came to snow covered fields. If what Merlin told her was right, it was only two days ride to the coast. She scanned the area for signs of a large party. There was. At the edge of the clearing she found the remains of a camp and a body. An arrow stuck out of its back. She turned it over and stepped back amazed to find that it was the arrogant Roman. She was somewhat relieved to find him dead. He would have caused her great grief once they got back to the wall.

She rode on, finding signs of them everywhere. At the end of the second day she found another camp, at first she thought it was one of Arthur's camps, but as she closely inspected it she discovered strange things. A few discarded weapons, a pot, and a piece of a flag. By the footprints surround the camp, whoever it was wore armor, heavy armor. She knew immediately whose camp this was. The Saxons. She had to reach them before the Saxons did. Determined to find them first, Kida set off again as fast as her mount could go, secretly praying to every god she heard of for speed.

The knights stood in a line with Arthur in the center. Lancelot, Guinevere, Gawain and Galahad were to his left while Bors, Dagonet, Tristan and Liam stood to his right. The nine of them stood and waited. The drums sounded louder and louder. Finally they caught sight of the enemy. A large army emerged from the forest. The knights drew their bows. This was it, the moment that would decide their fates.

Kida heard them. Dum, dum, dum. Drums. They were not too far off, but she did not know where they were at. She was too late. Her imagination got the best of her and she saw the lifeless bodies of Liam, Tristan, Arthur, Dagonet, and all the others. She shook her head. She had to stay focused on the task at hand; find the others. She kicked the horse on and they ran.

The drums grew louder and louder as she rode. She was close, she had to be. The horse stopped. She looked around her to find nothing. When she tried to kick her horse forward it would not budge. Kida grew angry with it. The drums were close, so close, but the horse would go no farther ahead. Whenever she tried to make it go forward it stopped and tried to go left. "No, forward!" she told her mount but it refused to go. She kicked it once more and it bolted off towards the left.

The horse ran, not listening to its rider. Kida cursed as she tried to get the horse under control. When she finally did she found herself at a frozen lake. In the distance she saw the knights standing in formation. Her heart leapt, she found them at last. As she scanned the area she found what she feared. The Saxons had reached them before she did. The Saxons were cautiously marching onto the ice towards the knights, towards Liam. She had to do something.

The Saxons approached them. Arthur glanced at his knights. It was now or never. They all held their bows, aiming for the heart of a Saxon. Guinevere caught his eye and smiled at him. He nodded back and concentrated on what laid ahead of him. The air was heavy around them yet their breath still rose in small smoke-like columns before them. "Aim to kill," Arthur said. "Try to make them cluster and pray that the ice is thin and will not hold them."

The knights silently nodded and let loose. A rain of arrows fell on the Saxons, who were taken by surprise for they thought they were out of range. They let out a cry and continue on marching, the flanks moving in closer to the center. The ice groaned under their weight. The knights fired the rest of their arrows and waited, but the ice refused to crack.

"Damn!" Bors cried.

"Weapons!" Arthur ordered. "It has been an honor to fight with you," he started. "I am sorry." The knights silently drew their weapons.

"To the death," Liam whispered. "For Kida." The Saxons fired shots; the knights created a box around themselves with their shields. Through the cracks in-between the shields they waited for the Saxons to get close enough to engage. Dag looked at his fellow knights. They were all going to die. All of them. He thought of Lucan. If the Saxons got through them, him, they would slaughter the villagers and Lucan. He had to do something.

Without a moments thought, Dag grabbed his axe and ran towards the Saxons. Arthur shouted for him to come back, but Dag did not listen. He stopped about half the distance to the Saxons and hit his axe on the ice. It groaned. He raised his arms and let another fall. The ice began to crack.

"Shoot him!" The Saxon leader cried.

"Dag!" Bors cried. Arthur ran towards him, followed closely by Bors. The Saxon arrows flew. Dag hit the ice again, arrows flying pass him.

"Shoot him!"

Kida watched as Dag tried to break the ice. The Saxons were shooting at him and the others were out of arrows. She had to do something. Without thinking, she drew her bow and rode out onto the ice. "Ahhhhhh!" she cried as she let loose her arrows. The Saxons paused momentarily, surprised at the new storm of arrows. Their archers turned and shot back. Kida dismounted, sent her horse off, and ran for cover. She shot until her arrows were spent.

Crack! Dag did it. The ice parted and the Saxons retreated. Dag, Arthur, and Bors ran swiftly back and watched as the Saxons fell into the lake's icy depths. The Saxon stood on the lake's bank with the remainder of his men, watching as the rest of them drowned. He glared at the knights on the other side. They would pay.

Once the immediate danger was done, the knights looked towards the direction the second arrow attack came from. A person came out from behind a tree. They could not tell who it was, but whoever it was, he deserved thanks. They gathered their weapons and skirted the broken ice to meet the person who saved them.

Kida made her way towards them, smiling. They were alive, all of them. Before they were even close enough to identify, she knew who and where each of them stood. Arthur lead the way, Lancelot and Guinevere followed him. Gawain and Galahad followed Lancelot with Bors and Dag closely behind them. Bringing up the rear she found Liam and Tristan. She laughed, it was obvious that they did not recognize her and she stopped to wait and watch for their reactions.

Liam stopped. It couldn't be. It couldn't. Tristan looked at him strangely and asked, "Are you ok?"

"Yes, but I think I'm seeing things."

"What?"

"Kida."

Tristan looked at the figure they were approaching, Liam must be imagining things, he saw no Kida. "You're seeing things."

"I know…" Liam stopped. He wasn't insane. It was her, it was. "Kida!"

Kida laughed. Liam ran towards her and picked her up into a hug. "But how?"

The others had stopped and stared in amazement at Kida. It couldn't be her, but it really was. They surrounded her as Liam hugged her. Kida glanced at the other side of the lake, "I will answer all your questions latter. Now I think we should be going, the Saxons do not seem pleased, and will find some other way to cross." With out further ado, they set off to rejoin the villagers. Liam held Kida tightly; as if afraid that she would just disappear if he did not keep hold of her.

Tristan followed silently behind everyone else. Kida was alive, she was alive. He longed to take her in his arms, but he restrained himself, remembering the words they last spoke to each other. She would probably kill him for doing something like that. They gathered their mounts at the start of the pass to the coast and rode, Kida telling what happened to her and answering all the questions they asked her.

"How did you survive?" Liam asked.

Kida shook her head. "I have no idea. Luck probably."

"Luck? You must be one lucky lass," Bors laughed.

"Merlin?" the knights asked when she reveled who nursed her back to health.

"Yes."

"Why?" they asked.

Kida looked at Guinevere who shook her head. Now was not the time for the knights to discover her lineage. Kida nodded and refused to tell them.

"Are you insane?" she asked them in return. "To take on and entire army with only nine people?"

"No worse odds then one against an army," Liam pointed out.

She could not argue that. They rode and caught up on what happened to each other since Kida died. They caught up with the rest of the traveling party and resumed their course to Hadrian's Wall. They were all anxious for within a few days they would receive their papers and be gone. With the defeat of the Saxons and the return of Kida, hope rose again among the knights, they now believed that they had a chance to live to see their homes again.