"Speech" / thoughts
Chapter Eight
Back to the front
you will do what I say, when I say
Back to the front
you will die when I say, you must die
Back to the front
you coward
you servant
you blindman
Why, Am I dying?
Kill, have no fear
Lie, live off lying
Hell, Hell is here
I was born for dying
Metallica - Disposable Heroes
Early next morning Tristran arrives first in the stable, one last check over his horse and pack lets him know what he's ready for their last mission. His hawk settles next to him, on the benches placed on the indoor training field. Out of custom he starts cleaning and polishing his sword.
Not much later the once empty benches are being occupied with his fellow knights. Only Arthur and Dagonet are missing. Galahad is riding his horse in circles to vent off his anger. He watches Arthur enter the stables; he halts his horse in front of Arthur and looks angrily at him. When Arthur just blandly stares back at him and walks past. Galahad starts to circle Arthur with his horse.
There is an uncomfortable and sinister silence when the Bishop arrives at the stables, which increased when Dagonet bumped into the Bishop.
"To represent the holy court, my trusted secretary, Horton…" The Bishop searches for Horton, and the man walks in. "Will accompany you with your quest."
"Jols, find him a horse." Arthur looks unimpressed and stares at the Bishop. After more useless words from the Bishop the knights are on their way to the Roman family.
They have been travelling through the dense forest for quite sometime. From his first steps into the forest Tristran had realized that this was Woad territory. Seeing that they were tracking them, he informs Arthur.
"Woads. They are tracking us." Tristran says as he watches the horses and knights turn restlessly. "Where?" Arthur looks concerned. "Everywhere." Came Tristran's less then calming answer
The horses became more restless and then without a sign an arrow shoots out from the bushes, blocking their path. Frantically the knights try to find an alternative path, until they end up being surrounded by Woads. Each knight draws his weapon ready to confront the Woads if need be.
"What are you waiting for?" Gawain yells at them.
As quickly as the Woads had appeared they disappeared again, leaving the knights behind looking around warily for more Woads to surprise them.
"Inish! Devil ghost." Dagonet spits on the forest ground.
"Why would they not attack?" Galahad asks the question that is on every ones' mind. "Merlin doesn't want us dead." Arthur had a feeling that Merlin was trying to tell him something with this attack. He could have killed them, but apparently the dark wizard needed Arthur and his knights for something.
Somewhat bewildered by what had happened the knights arrive at Marius's estate. Several serfs gather around to see what the commotion is about. Marius mercenaries don't trust the situation and quickly close the gates. One of the mercenaries steps up: "Who are you?"
"I am Arthur Castus, Commander of the Sarmatian knights and I am here by the orders of Bishop Germanius of Rome, open the gate." Arthur had enough for today and his patience was growing thin.
Arthur's formal tone appeared to work on the mercenaries as they open the gates immediately. The serfs appear to be impressed with the display of power. From the house a Roman looking man storms towards them, being followed by more mercenaries.
While Arthur tries to reason with the man he can't help but feel that there is something very wrong with the man. Sensing that he will not get anywhere with the man, he asks about the young man next to Marius and hopes that he is Alecto, the Pope's godson. He is right when he asks about the boy.
The knights watch in astonishment as Marius and his mercenaries start to order and push the serfs around. Arthur has had enough of this; he has made a promise to keep his knights alive. He dismounts his horse and approaches Marius, who is fearfully taking some steps back.
"If I fail to bring you and your son back, my men can never leave this land. So you're coming with me if I have to tie you to my horse and drag you all the way to Hadrian's Wall myself, my lord." Arthur speaks through gritted teeth with a mock bow at the end of the sentence.
The man clearly understood Arthur's words and together with his wife he makes his way to his mansion. Arthur looks around the village and his eyes land on a strange building made of rocks, with a torch next to it.
"Come, let's go." He hears Bors saying in the distance. Arthur has fixed his gaze on the serfs; he draws Excalibur as he sees an old man in chains. It soon becomes clear that Marius has made himself God as they listen to the stories from one of the serfs, named Ganis. Arthur frees the old man and warns the serfs about the Saxon army that is coming their way.
Tristran rides up to the estate to report Arthur what he has found. He sees that the serfs packing their belongings and wonders what he had missed this time. He slows his horse down and rides up to Arthur.
"They have flanked us to the east. They are coming from the south, trying to cut off out escape. They'll be here before nightfall." He reports out of breath.
"How many." Arthur hopes that he can get these people into safety, before the Saxon army arrives. "An entire army." Arthur had seen that the great Saxon army had been divided to cause as much damage as they can.
"And the only way out is the south?" Arthur is forming a clear picture of the activities in his head. Tristran shakes his head. "East. There is a trail, heading east. Across the mountains. It means we'll have to cross behind the Saxon lines, if that's the road we shall take." Tristran again looks around at all the packing serfs. "Arthur, who are these people?"
"They're coming with us." Arthur is still thinking about his options. "Then we'll never make it." Tristran knows that all these people will only slow them down.
Arthur refuses to accept that knowledge, although he knows that Tristran is right. Solemnly he lets his head hang and listens to the distanced pounding of the Saxon drums. Tristran and the other knights turn their attention to the pounding Saxon drums as well. Marius actually seems worried; his mercenaries turn back to getting the monks to do their work.
Arthur moves his horse towards the monks, who appear to be walling up a door. He draws Excalibur and gets of his horse, the mercenaries block his path. The other knights ride up to see what the trouble is about.
Tristran watches as Dagonet kicks in the door, and draws his sword when Dagonet, Arthur, Gawain and Lancelot disappear into the darkness of the door. Tristran shares a look with Bors and Bors shrug's his shoulders to point out that he hasn't got a clue either. Arthur reappears caring a woman, soon after him Dagonet comes out with a young boy in his arms. Gawain and Lancelot come out with a look of terror on their faces.
Again Marius comes forwards to hinder Arthur. As it dawns on Arthur what Marius has done, he makes a decision. "Wall them back up."
"Arthur." Tristran tries to remind Arthur that they do not have the time.
"I said, wall them up!" Arthur ignores the scout, as well as the Saxon drums that grow louder and louder.
As the knights watch the people load up their processions Galahad's attention is drawn towards a small pile of rocks on the far west side of the village. He could have sworn that he just saw Sebastian's falcon, but then he could be mistaken, to him all falcons looked the same. Just as he wanted to turn to Gawain, Sebastian's horse ran out from the forest and made a bee-line around the people towards the pile of rocks.
"Damned beast!" Ganis yells as he spots the horse. As Ganis starts to walk in the direction of the horse Galahad stops him. "Do you know that horse?"
"Yes Sir, it has been trying to destroy that fresh grave since it was closed two days ago." Ganis explains. "Whose grave is it?" Galahad inquires as he motions for Gawain to come his way.
Ganis looked silently at the two knights only being interrupted by a falcon's screeching. Both knights look up and see the falcon fly towards the horse. "Isn't that Sebastian's falcon?" Galahad asked, at the same time when Gawain asked: "Isn't that Sebastian's horse?" There was an eerie silence and an awful feeling between the two knights.
The other knights looked oddly at each other as they saw Galahad and Gawain race towards a pile of rocks. "ARTHUR! Gawain roared as he was sure that it was Sebastian's horse.
Arthur has just loaded the Woad woman into one of the wagon's when he heard Gawain's voice. Arthur looks at Lancelot who shrugs his shoulders. They both look at Gawain and Galahad waving and jumping frantically in the distance. Getting on their horses they ride towards the pair, followed closely by the rest.
As all the knights stand near the pile of rocks they look at Gawain and Galahad for an explanation. "Horse." Gawain says as Galahad yells "Falcon."
"Only one speak at a time." Bors yells back. "Yes, let's use small and slow words so that Bors here can understand." Lancelot adds sarcastically which earns him a glare from Bors.
"See its Sebastian's horse." Gawain points towards the horse. "According to Ganis, it has been trying to disturb this grave since it has been dug some days ago." Gawain has gotten the knights attention.
"You think they buried Sebastian here?" Arthur looks concerned. Before either of the knights can answer the question they hear some vague kicking noises from the grave. Sebastian's horse responds too it by kicking against the rocks.
"They buried him alive. He's still alive." Galahad mumbles in disbelief as all the knights move toward the pile and start to remove the rocks. Underneath the rocks there appears to be some sort of wooden board. About 6 by 6 feet. Dagonet reaches for his axe but is stopped by Tristran. "You could hit him." He pointed out. "So how do we open this?" Bors asked the others.
"Shouldn't someone yell to Sebastian that we are going to get him out?" Galahad suggested. "Your right, go ahead." Arthur looked at Galahad.
"What should I yell?" Galahad looked clueless at the others. Lancelot rolled his eyes and bent down to lean his head against the wooden board. "Sebastian, kick three times if you can hear me." While yelling Lancelot couldn't help but feel stupid, he got his three kicks very quickly, followed by more kicks sounding much panicked.
"That's it, Sebastian try and roll over to your left side." Dagonet lost his patience and made his way over to the right side of the boarding. "How is he supposed to know which way is left?" Gawain had just stopped Dagonet from hacking a hole in the wooden board. "What if he's upside down, his left won't be Dags left."
"Unlike some of us, Sebastian knows which is left and which is right." Lancelot smirked at Gawain.
"Sebastian, roll to any side you want." Dagonet yelled and started to hack in the middle of the board.
As the boarding came loose a terrible foul smell came with it. Bors and Dagonet started to pull at the board, revealing several decaying bodies. Galahad couldn't stand the smell and as he quickly moved away from the smell, he started to retch. Arthur, whom had been trying to retain his anger, suddenly rounded upon the gathering crowd and demanded that the person responsible for this action come forward.
When the boarding was removed they found a cloth figure to the left of what appeared to be a mass grave. Bors and Dagonet lifted the figure out of the grave and put it on the grass a few feet away from the grave.
Bors pulled out one of his knives and cut the ropes that held the cloths to the figure. Dagonet quickly pulled the material away to find Sebastian in a state of shock. The boy had been gagged and was covered with bruises and blood. Dagonet couldn't hold the boy still as he tried to move away from him. Sebastian blinked his eyes at the bright light that hit his eyes.
The knights watched as Sebastian frantically looked around, searching for something. Sebastian's eyes fell on Marius standing at one of the wagons. Sebastian crawled on his hands and knees towards him, trying to get up. As he tried to stand on his left foot he let out a loud cry, and fell hard onto the ground clutching his left foot.
Dagonet moved towards Sebastian. "Let me see, I'm not going to touch you." Dagonet slowly moved next to Sebastian, who was lying on his right side with tears in his eyes.
Tristran watched in horror as he saw Dagonet swallow painfully, it had to be bad. Tristran wanted to do something and found himself walking towards Sebastian. Dagonet looked up at Tristran shaking his head. "They cut through the tendon here. He's not ever going to be able to use it again."
Tristran looked at Sebastian's left ankle, just above the joint there was an ugly, deep cut. There were maggots crawling in it eating away at the dead flesh. Tristran reached quickly for his water bag and poured it over the wound, cleaning it. Sebastian hissed as the cool water hit the infected skin.
Dagonet left some bandages so that Tristran could bind the wound. He walked over to Arthur to inform him of Sebastian's state.
Arthur was marching over to where Marius was standing. "What have you done to my scout?" Arthur nearly growled at the man. "I didn't know he was your scout," came the pompous answer from the man. "So you didn't see the crest of Rome on his cloak?" Lancelot spit at the man.
"He came in the middle of the night, looking like a demon and not speaking." Marius edged away from both knights.
Realizing that the man wasn't going to take responsibility Arthur decided to ask Marius wife for some answers. She could indeed provide Arthur with the story of what happened. Apparently Marius had taken Sebastian as a bad omen especially after reading the letter, his resolve strengthened by the lies of his insane priests, they punished Sebastian. The wife also supplied Arthur with the whereabouts of Sebastian's belongings. He sent Gawain along with the woman to get the things.
Dagonet had returned to help Tristran with the binding of the wounds, both knights keeping the physical contact to a minimum. Tristran noticed that Sebastian was avoiding eye contact with him, he didn't know whether he liked that or not.
"Tristran, I need you to scout ahead." Tristran heard Arthur's voice and with one last look at Sebastian he was on his way.
"Sebastian we have to leave, Bors and Dagonet will move you too one of the wagon's." Sebastian looked Arthur in the eye, and for the first time Arthur noticed something fragile in the boy's eyes. Sebastian nodded and let Bors and Dagonet lift him.
As they reached the mountains Lancelot caught Arthur looking at the Woad woman. He rides up to Arthur. "We're moving to slow. The girl's not going to make it and neither is the boy. The family we can protect, but we're wasting our time with all these people…" Arthur interrupts him. "We're not leaving them."
"If the Saxons find us, we will have to fight." Lancelot notices that there is something changed in Arthur. "Then save your anger for them." Arthur sounds angered.
"Is this Rome's quest? Or Arthur's?" Lancelot takes a jab at Arthur, seeing the doubt flicker through Arthur's eyes he leaves him alone with his thoughts.
Tristran is feeding his hawk when Arthur rides up to him and the other knights. "We'll sleep here. Take shelter in those trees. Tristran." Arthur explains the plan for tonight.
Tristran looks at his hawk. "You want to go out again? Yeah…" Tristran lets his hawk fly off and rides away from the group. Maybe he can gather his thoughts about Sebastian's behaviour against him.
As he rides through the darkness he thinks about the way Sebastian has been ignoring him since they found him. Perhaps he is a shamed of his behaviour? Not until early next morning does he spot some Saxon scouts. Nice way to start a day. Tristran smirks to himself.
Tristran finds the knights and Roman mercenaries standing against each other and Marius lying dead on the ground. "How many did you kill?" Bors asks. "Four." Tristran looks at Arthur. "Not a bad start of the day." Tristran hears Bors laughing.
Tristran drops the crossbow he found with the Saxon's at Arthur's feet. "Armour piercing. They're close; we have no time." Arthur realizes the seriousness of this situation. "You ride ahead." And Tristran is off again.
It will not hold. Tristran is standing on the frozen lake. He gets back on his horse and awaits the arrival of his fellow knights.
"Is there any other way?" Arthur asks as he sees the frozen lake. "No, we have to cross the ice." Tristran has looked for another way, but there isn't one. "Get them out of the carriages. Tell them to spread out." Arthur believes that the ice will hold.
Tristran started to walk over the ice. His horse was starting to get nervous as the ice started to crack below their feet. He stopped when Arthur raised his hand to halt the train of people. In the background the sound of the beating Saxon drums drew closer. Tristran looks around at the other knights.
"Knights…" Arthur looks at his knights, knowing that it is time to fight. Each of the knights responds to him in their own personal way.
As they ready themselves for battle Guinevere joins their ranks. The knights frown as Jols helps Sebastian towards the line of knights. "Sebastian I want you to go with Ganis back to the fortress." Arthur walks up to Sebastian, who is ignoring him and grabs his bow from Jols. "Sebastian I'm not letting you stay." Arthur raises his voice, Sebastian turns to look Arthur in the eye shacking his head and motioning with his hand that he's staying.
"Let him stay, it's his funeral." Bors speaks for the group of knights. Arthur takes one last look at Sebastian trying to find a comfortable stance on the ice before moving back to his own place. United they stand on the ice and wait for the Saxon's too appear from around the corner. The Saxons take their stand on the other side of the ice.
"Hold until I give the command." Arthur wants the Saxons to come his way, being aware that he is out of reach of the Saxon archers.
Lancelot looks over to Guinevere and notices the look on her face. "You look frightened. That's a large number of lonely men out there." He decides to tease. "Don't worry. I won't let them rape you." She answers with out flinching. Perhaps she isn't as scared as I thought. Lancelot has to smirk at her answer.
The knights watch as some of the Saxon archers step up, sending arrows into the air. The arrows skid across the ice, not even close to the knights. "I believe they're waiting for an invitation. Bors, Tristran, Sebastian?" Arthur looks at his archers. "They're far out of range." Guinevere doesn't believe her ears, Arthur just smiles secretively back at her.
Bors, Tristran and Sebastian send over several arrows, which pierce several Saxon soldiers who fall down dead. Arthur raises his eyebrows at Guinevere, she glares back at him. The invitation has worked as the Saxon commander, angered; sends his soldiers marching onto the ice. The knights draw their bows and start firing arrows towards the oncoming Saxons. "Aim for the wings of the ranks. Make them cluster." Arthur hoped that by making the soldiers cluster together the ice beneath them will break before the Saxon's reach them. The ice already starts to creak more furiously as the Saxon soldiers gathered together to avoid the onslaught of the arrows from Arthur's Knights.
As the soldiers further advanced over the frozen lake, Arthur realized that the ice wasn't going to shatter. "It's not going to break. Fall back. Fall back! Prepare for combat." Arthur draws Excalibur. The knights pick up their weapons, ready to fight if need be. They don't believe their eyes as Dagonet drops his sword, and grabs his axe, and in a yelling fury storms to the middle of the frozen lake.
The knights drop their swords and go back to firing arrows, as Dagonet is starting to hack at the ice so that it breaks. Galahad grabs his shield as he sees a Saxon archer moving into position; he slides over the ice towards Dagonet, trying to cover the large man and himself with his shield, which is an impossible task so arrows hit Dagonet in the side; Arthur drops his bow and runs forward. Ignoring the arrows that have been imbedded into his body Dagonet hacks away with great strength as the ice fully breaks.
The Saxons start falling into the icy waters of the frozen lake. Arthur watches in horror as Dagonet starts to fall over into the icy water, he slides on the ice and catches him just in time. Bors grabbing a shield runs forward and shields Arthur, who is dragging Dagonet back onto the ice. From behind Arthur can hear Lancelot telling him to pull back and with the help of Bors and Galahad he starts dragging Dagonet's body back towards the knights.
The other knights keep firing arrows furiously at the Saxon archers, who keep on firing at the four knights in front of them. Gawain and Tristran rush forward to help as Bors is yelling for help. Sebastian, Lancelot and Guinevere keep shooting arrows at the Saxon s as the ice keeps on further breaking.
"Dagonet! Stay with me! Dagonet! Stay with me!" Bors is holding Dagonet's head in his lap, shouting loudly at his friend.
The Saxons realize their defeat and start to retreat. Bors is weeping over Dagonet's body, as he believes his friend to be dead. He doesn't feel that Sebastian, with the aid of Guinevere is pulling him away from Dagonet's body. Sebastian yanks on Lancelot's cloak and is rewarded with it, and with the help of Bors and Gawain they put Dagonet's body on it.
Immediately Sebastian starts to pull Dagonet's soaked tunic away, making sure that he doesn't pull the arrows out with it. He does a quick observation of Dagonet's wounds. Arthur pulls his cloak of him and hands it over to Sebastian. Sebastian signals to Tristran that he needs his bag. "His bag, where is his bag Gawain?" Tristran grabs Gawain by the front of his tunic. "On the horses, I'll get it." Gawain rushes of to the horses. Tristran feels someone pull his jacket and turns to look at Sebastian, this time he is signalling for a fire to be lit. "There is not time." Tristran looks at Sebastian and sees the frustration on his face.
"What if we made some sort of cot to transport him on?" Guinevere suggests to Arthur who is passing around the wounded Dagonet. "Yes, we have to make sure that we keep him warm." Arthur looks at Lancelot and together they go off to find something to built a cot.
The mood has turned grim as the knights and caravans arrive back at the fortress. They have tried to keep Lucan away from Dagonet, but as they stop in the courtyard he runs to the wagon where they have kept Dagonet.
"Lucan!" Guinevere yells after the running boy. As one of the Roman soldiers try to stop him. Galahad draws a dagger and points it at the Roman soldier's neck. Guinevere climbs in after Lucan into the wagon.
The Bishop seems nervous at the mood the knights are in. Arthur leaves the courtyard very quickly after scaring the bishop even more. Lancelot grabs the papers from the box and gives them out to each knight. "You are free. You can go!" The bishop encourages him. Each of the knights exact the papers from Lancelot. Lancelot gives Tristran the one for Sebastian as well. "Bors. Bors. For Dagonet." Lancelot holds up two papers to Bors. "This doesn't make him a free man. He's already a free man!" Bors throws the papers at the Bishop's feet. "He's dead!"
"No he's not." Lucan shouts to Bors and starts hitting him. "Guinevere?" Bors looks at Guinevere stepping out of the wagon and watches Roman healers lift Dagonet from the wagon. "Not yet, he's still fighting." Guinevere pats Bors and his arm and takes Lucan away with her.
Gawain walks over to the bishop and takes the papers, Tristran however is more interested in the box that contained the papers, and after inspection it he takes it with him.
A/N: sorry for the long periode between updates, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If so let me know.