Note: Sorry it took so long. Life has been hetic. Won't go into details. Hope it's ok. I'll try to update soon so I won't hold you past your limit and have you loose interest. Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

Blasphamy!

Morning dawned. Kida spent the entire night thinking. This was the end. Her guard fed her some bread and then took her out. They escorted her out into the outer courtyard. A large crowd waited. Vanora and her children stood at the edge of the crowd, watching. She scanned the crowd for some sign of Liam or any of the other knights, they were not there. She sighed, it was better this way. If they were there she would have to worry about them interfering and getting themselves in trouble as well. The guards led her out of the fort. Outside of the fort they had built a pier on a hill over looking the knight graveyard.

"What is this?" Kida asked the guard closest to her. "I thought I am to be hanged."

"There has been a change," he replied gruffly. "The Bishop did not want to risk any of the knights acting out and trying to cut you down and so he thought it would be best to burn you as the witch you are."

Kida nodded and bowed her head. This was it. Even if there was a plan to rescue her there was no chance of it now. If she was hanged they could charge in and cut her down or perhaps shoot her down if they chose their aim carefully. She scanned the platform ahead of her. There were twenty guards around it plus the five that escorted her and the countless more that held the crowd back. The small part in her that refused to resign to her fate was now extinguished for escape proved impossible.

They led her up to the platform and made her face the crowd. The Bishop stood off to one side, all dressed in his Roman battle attire. "This woman has defied God's will by disgracing herself by pretending to be what she is not. She is to burn for her sins and we can only pray that the Lord will find it in his heart to forgive such a wretched wretch." He made the sign of the cross and they tie Kida to the stake. A group of priests began to mumble their prayers as the guards back away and take up their torches.

Kida stared straight out in front of her. She showed no fear. Once again she searched the crowd for familiar faces. She saw Alecto and his mother, a few villagers she saved. She smiled at Alecto and he nodded at her. Finally her gaze rested on Vanora. Kida looked at her as if asking where the knights were. Vanora only shrugged and Kida nodded, she did not understand why they were not there, but she was not going to cry about it, this was what she wanted. Smiling, she faced the Bishop who looked at her as if she were a witch.

"Why do you smile?" he asked. There was no answer. "Why do you smile? Are you daft? You are going to die and all you can do is smile?"

"I may die today, but at least I do not have any regrets," she replied.

The Bishop stared at her confused. "Explain yourself."

"I may die today, but you have died long ago, not physically but spiritually. If you are as petty as this, burning people who do not believe what you tell them, then I pity you. You may live, but it will not be a full life, it will be a life lived in fear, greed, and selfishness. I'd rather live a life with fear then live a life around it."

The Bishop glared at her. "Blasphemy! Continue!" he yelled. The five guards around her began to slowly lower their torches.

The torches fell and flames began to dance around her. Small at first but they quickly grew until she could feel them bit her.

"STOP!" a voice rang.

Kida looked. They stood there, all of them. "No," she whispered. "No! Go!"

"What is this?" she heard the Bishop cry.

The flames danced across her face, biting, burning. Smoke swirled around her, engulfing her. "NO!"

Liam watched as they led her to the stake. This sudden change of plan unsettled him. They had it all planned for a hanging. He looked at the others; they all wore the same look he did, fear.

"What do we do?" Galahad asked.

"What can we do?" Lancelot retaliated.

"Why did they change?" Tristan asked.

"They suspect something," Liam muttered.

"What?" they all asked him.

"Why else? They probably assumed that we would do something and so changed everything. Smart, I didn't see it coming from the Roman Bishop."

"We can't just watch her die," Tristan said.

They all grew silent. There was one thing they could do, but that would mean sacrificing everything. "I'll do it," Liam said. "There is nothing at home. All I ever thought about was going home to Kida. She's here now and I can't just leave her."

"Me too," Tristan said. "It's my fault."

"She'll hate us for this," Arthur muttered.

"Us?" Liam asked.

"I can't let you two do it alone, besides, I have other arrangements that will keep me here, might as well make it worth my time."

The other knights looked at each other. "I'll do it," Dagonet said. "Bors will too."

"Of course I will, you think I'm going to leave you to get yourself killed. Beside Vanora says she likes it here, and I suppose it's much easier to keep them here then to move them all across Rome to my home." Arthur nodded at the two knights, they were making excuses, all of them were, but perhaps it was their excuses that made it seem nobler.

"We can't leave you to kill yourselves. We've been with you this far, we might as well go all the way," Gawain volunteered with Galahad nodding in agreement.

"She's going to kill us," Lancelot stated as he mounted his horse. The knights looking at him but not saying anything fearing it might break the strange spell that had fallen over Lancelot.

"If she survives," Liam said. "If she survives."

Guinevere stood with her father in the shadows of the woods. Everything was wrong. She looked at her father and he shook his head. They could not do this. If she were to hang, they could just shoot and hit the rope and then send a few people in to carry her out while the others provided cover. To get her now would result in a battle that would result in death. Guinevere sighed and watched as the torches were lowered and the wood Kida stood on was engulfed in flame. She was going to plead with her father when she saw figures ride up. Eight of them.

"Stop!" Arthur's voice rang.

"What is this?" the Bishop cried. "Blasphemy!"

The knights drew their weapons and waited for Arthur's signal. "If you wish to live you will let her go," Arthur began.

Liam looked at Arthur as if he was insane. Let Kida go? They didn't have time to negotiate, they had to act now. Without another moment's thought he kicked his horse on and they charged towards Kida. Tristan and Lancelot following closely behind him, their swords drawn and ready to cut down anything or one who got in their way.

"Liam!" Arthur cried, but his words were not heard as Liam pushed through the guards. The other knights joined in and as they fought the guards Liam leapt onto the platform. The fire was large and Kida's head hung lifeless, only her ropes held her up. His heart stopped. They were too late. He swung his sword, and with one swipe he cut the ropes that held Kida up. She crumpled to the ground and he barrowed in and pulled her out of the flames, ignoring his own pain as the fire bit him.

He pulled her to safety and carried her to his horse, mounted, pulling her on in front of him and rode away as fast as he could. The rest of the knights followed him in a protective circle. They rode hard and disappeared into the covering of the woods.

"Arthur!" the Bishop called after them. "You're men will never leave this island. If they even try they will be shot down like dogs. You all have condemned yourselves by this foolish act."

The Woads greeted the knights as they rode in. Guinevere took charge of Kida and they carried her off. They took her to a tent and began to tend to her. Guinevere inspected her. She had no burns but she did not breathe. Women brought water, herbs and cloths. They had to everything they could to revive her. "Come on, Kida wake up!" Guinevere cried frustrated. "They just sacrificed their futures for you; you can't die on them now!"

She slapped Kida. "Wake up!"

The knights waited silently. "We were too late," Liam said. "She's dead."

"She's not. She'll live. She has too," Tristan muttered.

"She's almost died twice, she can survive a third," Dag said.

"Can she?" Liam asked. "You didn't hold her in your arms and feel her lay lifeless in them."

"Calm down Liam, attend to your burns," Arthur ordered.

"Burns?" Liam asked confused. He looked at his hands and clothes and noticed for the first time that he had burnt himself.

"It was a brave thing you did, jumping into the fire to pull her out," Arthur started. "If God is willing she will not leave us yet."

"God?" Liam spat. "What has your god got to do with this?"

"I believe he will help."

Liam shook his head as a woman wiped salve over his hands. "Just stop it. She's dead. We were too late. Too late."

Arthur started to say something but thought it better to say nothing and he sat there in silence. The air was heavy. They all were probably thinking about what they have done. They would now never be able to go home. If they tried they would be killed. He looked at each of his knights. They sacrificed more than anyone could ask them too. If it were asked of them, they probably wouldn't have sacrificed it, or if it were someone else. He did not know what it was about Kida that made them all willing to sacrifice their one dream, but she had a hold over them, over them all. A hold he thought that was established when they first discovered she was a girl, or perhaps it was before that, the time when she was just the small lad Kiran they all taught their expertise to. He did not know when it all happened, he just knew it was there from the beginning and everything else she had done over the years strengthened it. Thinking back, perhaps it was the stories Liam told of his lovable sister, so young, so innocent. The ideal sister they all wished they had to give them something to remember, to keep them sane in the world of pain, killing, and despair. The fact that she was the exact opposite of what Liam described her as intrigued him, and most of the others. She was grown up far beyond her years. She was not exactly bitter, but she was not cheery. She knew reality and lived with it. It was hard to say exactly what it was about her that made them love her; perhaps it was the combination of everything. She was a walking contradiction, loyal to the point of seeming suicidal, trustworthy, idealistic and yet grounded.

They all felt the same, what they just did proved it. Even though some of the knights refused to let it show, such as Lancelot, but they have become a sort of a family over the years, they were brothers and she was their sister. They all sat in silence thinking things over. If she died…That was not a possibility, it couldn't be. She had to live. She had to. Everything was going to be fine, even if they were trapped on this god-forsaken island for the rest of the lives, everything would turn out fine.