A/N: I'm sorry it has been so long since i have posted a new chapter. I will hopefully be getting the chance to post more often as the story comes to a close and another one begins.

Enjoy!

3

Chapter 32

The Wait

The snow fell in heavy drifts all day and long into the night layering the soon to be battle field in a blanket of snow. It was enchanting, and haunting. However, the Queen couldn't get lost in the beauty of it with the looming battle hovering over all their necks like an extremely sharp guillotine, with a drunk holding the release. All she saw when she looked out at the field was red splashed across the snowy battleground. Bodies strewn about dismembered and on the cusp of death. Her fear and imagination has purloined the innocence of its beauty and turned it into a tragic necropolis.

Guinevere watched the sun rise over Camelots' army. Her heart lodged in her throat. Dread, her ever constant companion, choked her. The sunrise never looked so deadly before. Like freshly spilled blood in the sky. The light bathed hundreds of rows of tents in its reddish golden glow that reflected off of the first snow. Guinevere swallowed. Her fear of the future nearly overwhelmed her as her gaze continued to roam over the fresh white powder that blanketed the ground like a burial shroud.

Guinevere counted each breath she took by the puffs of clouds that hovered before her face trying to keep her mind from wondering its way back to the upcoming battle. She tugged her fur cloak tighter over her shoulders nestling into its warmth. She couldn't tear her eyes away as the sun rose higher and higher in the winter sky. It gave them light, but it did little, to nothing, for warmth.

Guinevere shook from the cold. She was freezing, only it wasn't the weather that had her feeling hollow and chilled. It was the absence of her husband by her side. She couldn't imagine living the rest of her life without him here. Or Merlin for that matter. They have both become so ingrained in her life that to remove them would, essentially, kill her. She had no one left on this earth except Arthur and Merlin.

Guinevere sighed, deep in thought. She turned when she noticed the presence of Gaius and Gwain by her side. She never even heard them approach.

She looked back out at the camp. She took back her earlier thoughts. She had more family than just Arthur and Merlin. She had Gaius. She had the Knights. They have become as much apart of her family as Gwain, Percival and Leon have over the years. She smiled out at the horizon. Her bottom lip split. She licked it before it could start to bleed. Her eyes followed the Knights down below. Her family. The army packed up tents and supplies, putting out fires and primed their weapons. They gathered themselves for the final battle. Yes, she had a big family. A family of Knights. Guinevere frowned. Men who will be fighting in this war. Most of them could die. Including Arthur and Merlin. The thought crippled her. She should be fighting alongside her husband, not hiding behind the lines waiting to see who survives.

"When did Arthur say he would meet us?" Guinevere murmured. She gazed out at the field beyond the rows and rows of snow covered tents trying to hold back the image of coming bloodshed.

"He didn't." Gwain murmured from her left. "He only indicated we needed to be ready when he did." He looked at the Queen.

Her noes was red and raw, her lips and cheeks chapped from the cold but she still looked as radiant as she did sitting on the throne of Camelot. Even wearing her simple lavender peasant dress. The elegantly simple white gold crown that wrapped around her head in a display of intertwining vines that met and dipped down to the center of her forehead to meet in a soft point seemed to make her look regal in her inferior peasant gown. She wore no other jewels or adornments. Gwain had overheard Guinevere speaking with Gaius in passing. That the reason behind her simple dress was that she wanted to remember where she has come from. How far she has risen. And most importantly, how far she can now fall.

Guinevere heard Gwain's' words and felt Gaius's probing gaze. She nodded absently. If Arthur said to be ready, then, they will be ready. "Then we wait." She stated firmly, still keeping her eyes trained towards the horizon.

Gaius watched the Queen sadly, and then glanced to Gwain on the other side of her, who raised a brow in question.

"Yes," Gwain confirmed when Gaius didn't speak up. Gwain gave him a hard stare. "We wait."

Gaius nodded at him and watched their Queen watch the horizon before they joined her in watching the camp, and further beyond to the field that looked like a white lake. From what the young Warlock had told Gaius, this coming battle was going to be a bloody one. It was inevitable. The consequence catastrophic. He hopped that Merlin would be able to change what he saw in the crystal caves. However, if Gaius's old age has taught him anything, it would be that fate has a capricious way of correcting what's been tampered with. In trying to save the Kingdom you could be the very cause that destroys it. He has told the Warlock this many times before. Now, whether or not he had been listening was an entirely different issue.