Chapter Two:

A happy, festive spirit had descended upon the knights while they were out that night. Kelleigh stood watching the men play their games and drink while she kept an eye out for Arthur. She walked away from the bar, narrowly missing Gawain's knife as it hit the wood target a few inches from her nose. "Gawain!" She looked at him, but the man was too drunk to care. Kelleigh walked by Lancelot and smiled when he stuck his dagger to the wood.

"Best of three," he said. Kelleigh smiled and got out of Vanora's way. She looked at Bors who was holding his youngest child.

"Who wants another drink?" Vanora asked Lancelot's table. Lancelot, ever the ladies man, pulled her onto his lap.

"When are you going to leave Bors and come home with me, huh?" Kelleigh felt a twinge of jealousy as she watched Lancelot try to kiss Vanora's neck. Vanora rolled her eyes and slapped Lancelot.

"My lover is watching you!" she said, getting up. Kelleigh smiled at the woman as she passed her. Kelleigh followed her toward the bar, and heard Bors talking.

"You look nothing like him," he said, looking at Lancelot, who smiled back at him gaily. "You're all Bors."

"And if he wasn't, we'd all wonder," Kelleigh teased.

"Ugh, they want more," Vanora said, coming toward them.

"Here. Be a mother to your son," Bors said, handing Vanora the baby. Dagonet smiled at Kelleigh as he walked to the bar. "Dagonet, where've you been? We've got plans to make," Bors said. Dagonet drank from the glass he was given at the bar. Bors looked at Kelleigh. "Here, please. Sing," he said. Kelleigh stared at Bors stupidly.

"No!" she exclaimed.

"It's a last--"

"No!"

"Come on--"

"I'm not singing, Bors!" Kelleigh looked at him with a small smile. Bors took her hand and pulled her forward.

"Shut up!" he yelled. "Kelleigh will sing."

Kelleigh laughed anxiously. When she was younger, she'd sing of home for the knights, but never for anyone else. "No, no." Everyone cheered for her.

"Sing, sing," Bors said.

"Sing about home," Galahad requested. "Sing," he added benevolently. Kelleigh looked around, smiling.

'Land of bear and land of eagle

Land that gave us birth and blessing

Land that called us ever homewards

We will go home across the mountains'

Her voice filled the air, and everyone stared, listening attentively.

'We will go home,

We will go home,

We will go home across the mountains

We will go home, singing our song

We will go home across the mountains'

No one noticed that Arthur had approached the area that the knights were in. Kelleigh sang on.

'Hear our singing, hear our longing,

We will go home across the mountain

We will go home,

We will go home,

We will go home across the mountain,'

Jols noticed Arthur first. "Arthur!"

"Arthur!" Galahad said, happy to see his commanding officer. Kelleigh turned to him with a sheepish smile. She noticed that Arthur's appearance wasn't one of delight. Every knight got up and surrounded Arthur, except Gawain. "You're not completely Roman yet, right?" Galahad asked.

"Rus!" Bros yelled joyously. Kelleigh felt Lancelot put his arm on her waist as he walked up behind her. Both looked at Arthur skeptically. They knew something was wrong.

"Knights. Brothers in arms," Arthur began, looking at the knights around him. He then looked at Kelleigh. "Your courage has been tested beyond all limits, but I must ask you now for one further trial."

Bors lifted an imaginary cup of wine. "Drink," he said. Galahad smiled.

"We must leave on a final mission for Rome before our freedom can be granted," Arthur said. Kelleigh gaped at him. The knights laughed, thinking Arthur was joking with them. Lancelot stood stoic. "Above the wall, there lies a Roman family in need of rescue. They are trapped by Saxons. Our orders are to secure their safety."

"Let the Romans take care of their own," Bors replied. Only Kelleigh and Lancelot stood silent, seething with anger.

"Above the wall is Woad territory," Gawain said drunkenly, a little ways away from the rest of the knights.

"Their duty to Rome, if it ever was a duty, is done," Kelleigh said, unable to keep quiet any longer.

"Every knight here has laid his life on the line for you," Bors said, pointing at Arthur. "For you. And instead of freedom, you want more blood? Our blood?" By now, Bors was yelling. "You think more of Roman blood than you do of ours?"

"Their pact with Rome is done, Arthur," Kelleigh stated.

"These are our orders. We leave at first light and when we return, your freedom will be waiting for you. A freedom we can embrace with--"

"I am a free man!" Bors yelled, making the baby Vanora held cry. "I will choose my own fate!"

"Yeah, yeah, we're all going to die someday. If it's a death by a Saxon that frightens you, stay home," Tristan said, eating an apple.

"Well, if you're so eager to die, you can die right here!" Galahad moved toward Tristan. Lancelot pulled Kelleigh back, in an effort to prevent mayhem from happening.

"Enough, enough!" he exclaimed, pushing Galahad back away from Tristan.

"I have something to live for!" Galahad cried.

"The Romans have broken their word. We have the word of Arthur. That is good enough, I'll prepare," Dagonet said, walking away. "Bors, you coming?"

"Of course I'm coming!" Bors yelled back. "Can't let you go on you're own; you'll all get killed!" Kelleigh watched Tristan follow Dagonet. "I'm just saying what you're all thinking!" Bors added. He mumbled something, but Kelleigh didn't hear a word of it.

"And you Gawain?" Arthur asked Gawain as he walked up.

Gawain sighed, and then nodded. "I'm with you," he said. He looked at Galahad. "Galahad as well." Galahad stared at Gawain in astonishment, but said nothing. He laughed in disbelief, and then turned the bottle of wine over, pouring its contents all over the ground. He threw the jar on the ground, shattering it. Kelleigh gave them a look of empathy as Gawain and Galahad passed her.

"Pack food for us, Kelleigh." Arthur said, looking at her.

"Don't order me about, Artorius Castus. I'll prepare to leave as well." Kelleigh gave him a look that dared him to tell her no as he had innumerable times before. Arthur said nothing. He left Kelleigh and Lancelot there to stare after him.

Kelleigh walked into the stables, finding Lancelot and Arthur together, talking. "I don't like anything that puts a man on his knees," Lancelot said. Kelleigh agreed, coming closer to them.

"No man fears to kneel before the god he trusts," Arthur said.

"Without faith, without belief in something, what are we?" Kelleigh asked, causing them to look at her. Lancelot and Arthur both knew that she didn't believe what she was saying.

"To try and get past the Woads in the North is insanity!" Lancelot exclaimed angrily.

"Them we've fought before," Arthur replied.

"Not north of the wall!" Lancelot began to pace. Kelleigh seated herself on a rail beside Arthur. "How many Saxons? Hmm? How many?" Arthur looked at Lancelot solemnly. "Tell me, Arthur. Do you believe in this mission?"

"Those people need our help," Arthur said sternly. "It is our duty to bring--"

"I don't care about your charge. And I don't give a damn about Rome, Britain, or this island. If you desire to spend eternity in this place, Arthur, so be it," Lancelot said angrily.

"Suicide cannot be chosen for another," Kelleigh added.

"And yet you two choose death for this family!" Arthur shouted. Kelleigh got of the rail and stood beside Lancelot.

"No! I choose life! And freedom!" Lancelot slammed his hand down on the rail. "For myself and the men!" He gave an angry sigh, sitting down. Kelleigh stared at her two trusted friends. Arthur remained calm. Lancelot remained angry.

"How many times in battle have we snatched victory from the jaws of defeat? Outnumbered, outflanked, but still we triumph?" Arthur spoke. "With you at my side, we can do so again. Lancelot, we are knights. What other purpose do we have if not for such a cause?"

Lancelot shook his head. "You fight for a world that will never exist," Kelleigh said softly, voicing what she and Lancelot knew was true.

"Never. There will always be a battlefield." Lancelot finished for her. He got up and leaned over the rail to face Arthur. "I will die in battle. Of that I am certain." Kelleigh looked at him, not understanding what he was saying. "And hopefully, a battle of my choosing. But, if it be this one, grant me a favor: don't bury me in our sad little cemetery," Lancelot looked at Kelleigh. "Burn me," he said, turning back to Arthur. "Burn me, and cast my ashes to a strong east wind." Arthur looked at Lancelot, emotionless.

"Come Lancelot. Let us give him the time he needs," Kelleigh said. She and Lancelot then left Arthur, each person thinking about what their futures now held, for fate threw in a hand that they didn't know how to play.