Chapter One; Changes
"Key?" Arthur asked one of the guards.
"It is locked," the guard replied, a worried look on his face, "from the inside." Arthur turned and nodded to Dagonet, who slammed his foot into the door repeatedly until it came away from its hinges and slammed into the ground. Lancelot got off his horse and drew a sword, walking forwards. Gawain nudged the two guards in the back, but when they didn't move, he yelled at them, "Move!" and pushed them more forcefully in the back to reiterate his point. They moved.
"Gawain," said Lancelot, handing Gawain a torch before descending the steps before Arthur. As they descended the steps, Latin chants floated up to them. As they entered, a priest wearing a brown woollen robe appeared. He looked at them in shock.
"Who are these defilers of the Lord's temple?" he asked. Lancelot moved forward and pushed the priest away from him.
"Out of the way," he told him sternly. The priest looked at Lancelot and then Arthur as they passed him. All around the prison, for that is what it was, were bodies of men and women, old and young, strung up by their arms or tied down in crevices dug into the wall. Lancelot looked back at Arthur with anger.
"The work of your God?" he asked. "Is this how he answers your prayers?" Arthur looked at Lancelot, not really listening. He turned to the other knights.
"See if there are any still alive," he told them. The knights immediately set about checking all the bodies to see if any were still alive. Lancelot took his sword to the nearest locked cell and broke the chains. As he was leaning down to check inside, another priest ran over and tried to stop him.
"How dare you set foot in this Holy Place!" he shouted. Lancelot turned and drove his sword into the man's stomach, and stood up, thrusting it deeper. He pulled the sword out and watched the man fall to the floor, dead. The other priest stepped forwards and pointed at the dead priest, giving Lancelot an accusing look.
"There, was a man of God," he told him, some triumph in his voice. Lancelot pointed his own finger at the man.
"Not my God!" he told him loudly. Dagonet lifted the lid to a well-shaped cell and stood back, arms across his face, trying to block the stench filling his nostrils.
"This one's dead," he said. Gawain looked around.
"By the smell, they're all dead." He moved forward and pointed his axe at the remaining priest. "And you, you even move, and you join him." Dagonet, lifting the lid of the other cell, called out, "Arthur," and lifted out a boy of no more than ten years, pale and unsure. Arthur went to another cell and looked in. Inside, a girl with red, sore eyes and a pale face stared back at him. Lancelot crouched next to Arthur and looked inside, and then a cough from behind him caught his attention. He turned to see another girl's face looking at him, ice-blue eyes staring out at him from a muddied face. He stood and walked over, then broke the chain holding her in. He kneeled down and grabbed the girl by the arm.
"Arthur, there's another," he said as he pulled her out…
"Water, give me water," Arthur said as he exited the prison and carried the first girl over to the snow-covered ground and lay her down on it. She clung to his arm and flinched as the sunlight entered her eyes for the first time in-she couldn't remember. Lancelot laid the other girl next to her, then stood back and let the Roman woman attend to her, and walked back to his horse.
"She's a Woad," Tristan said to the other knights, nodding towards the girl in Arthur's arms.
"What about the other one?" Bors asked. Tristan shrugged.
"Same, I suppose."
Suddenly, Marius pushed through the crowd shouting, "Stop what you are doing." Arthur stood, and the girls winced at hearing such loud sounds.
"What is this madness?" Arthur asked.
"They are all Pagans here," Marius said, gesturing wildly.
"So are we," said Galahad in a humourless voice. Marius continued.
"They have refused to do the task that God has set for them. They must die as an example."
"You mean that they refused to be your serfs!" Arthur yelled back. Marius looked at Arthur in shock.
"You are a Roman, you understand; and you are a Christian." The second girl lost consciousness momentarily and came back to hear,
"Perhaps I shall kill you now and seal my fate." before passing out completely.