Chapter 18 – At least one of them

Elyan got up, wincing because he was obviously in pain, but he stopped dead when he noticed me. Than, much to my surprise and delight, his face lit up while he exclaimed: "You're back!" Next moment, he hugged me, almost dragging me down to the ground with him.

I would never have expected this reaction from Elyan, especially since his sister had sentenced me to death.

"I always knew it couldn't have been you", he grinned and then, remembering that there was something more important than catching up to do, he stood up, swaying from side to side for a moment, and though he said: "I'm all right", we continued to stare at him worriedly.

Meanwhile Leon had returned. I was pretty sure he was more than a bit relieved to see Elyan up and about, but his mind was already occupied with the problem at hand: "What do you mean, a trap?"

"I'll explain it while we walk", Elyan exclaimed and gestured to the woods: "We really need to hurry."


Elyan explained what had happened to him in a few sentences – but it wasn't the way I expected things to be. By now, this wasn't surprising me any more. Things had a tendency to go sideways since the day I got here, so why shouldn't they now.

Elyan told us how Hilda had spoken to him in private, warning him of a trap for Arthur and the knights and urging him to arrest Mithian, who was in reality Morgana, but before he had made it back to camp, he had been attacked by Mithian, or rather, Morgana, using her powers to keep him from talking.


Gaius had stayed at the ruins so that we could move faster. Leon had given him his spare sword, but the old physician had handed it over to me without a word. The knight had looked like he wanted to protest, but when Elyan again told us to hurry up, Leon had given in, but while we walked, he kept glancing back at me with a wary expression.

I felt the need to ask Elyan why he was so happy to see me, so I caught up with him and asked: "Why would you think that I am innocent?" I felt my upper lip quiver. "I even fled from the dungeons... Wouldn't you say that was confession enough I was guilty?"

Elyan slowly shook his head and answered: "Gwen was far too distraught over Arthur's poisoning to think straight, and I know we too had been sparring that day and you cut me, but I was feeling great. I tried to tell her, but she never listened." He made a pause and then added thoughtfully: "Normally she does."

I gave him a curious look, wondering whether he had noticed something off about her.

"I was relieved you made it out of the cells. I doubt even after Arthur got better a few days later that Gwen would've revoked the sentence."

I said nothing, in case he would also speak about the fact that I was a woman, but before he could, Leon called his name. Elyan slapped me on the back and gave me a genuine smile which I returned, hoping he could see the relief that at least one of the knights still believed in me in my eyes, and then he hurried over to Leon.

Merlin, who was now walking beside me, kept asking questions in a barely audible whisper. He wanted to know where I had been, what I had been doing, why I was in Nemeth, but I couldn't answer any of them. After a while, he fell silent, and I could see him look at me time and time again. He was looking worried, with this special Merlin expression which said: I need to find a way to fix you. I didn't know why it bothered me so much, but I wanted him to stop thinking this way. He had enough trouble already, and adding my sanity or well-being to keeping Arthur save (this was, after all, his destiny) felt wrong, but I wasn't sure how to tell him to stop. Or if I really wanted him to.


It happened by pure accident – neither of us was sure of the way any more, and without Percival (who was the best tracker, on whom we normally relied), we had to walk more after what our guts told us than what we knew (especially since it just so happens that Percival also is great on covering tracks), but we had luck and ran across a track that no one had felt the need to hide. We all agreed that this might be Odin's men – since Odin had seized Nemeth, there was no need to hide, except from Arthur, but as the false Mithian was directing his every step to Lothar's tomb, they wouldn't have taken this route.

We followed the track as fast as possible, with our swords drawn and ready for action at any second. I expected a stray soldier or a whole score of Odin's men to suddenly jump out of the underbrushes, but again, we were lucky.

We stopped feeling that way the moment Merlin caught sight of something red lying in a blackberry thicket some way off the track. It was one of Arthur's knights. He had been killed by several blows with a sword and then simply left behind. They didn't even make sure if he was dead, as was obvious by a track of blood leading away from the trail. He had still been alive and tried to get out of sight, get more cover under the thicket, or maybe he was looking for help, but in the end he had had no chance. I didn't know him, but Merlin, Leon and Elyan did. They looked shaken, but continued to press on, since we had no time to loose.

Not long after we found three other knights, all dead. "They were slaughtered", Merlin managed to say after he had examined them hurriedly, "and look", he pointed to their wrists, which were tied together, "they had already taken them as prisoners. They killed them after they had surrendered."
The warlock, whose face was pale, rose to his feet. We stood beside the bodies for a few seconds and then, like one man, we started moving again, even faster than before.


It wasn't long till we could hear people, not far before us. We moved to the side of the path instantly to get more cover and followed them, even more carefully.

To my right it looked like the earth suddenly stopped. There was a steep decentwhich abruptly turned into a cliff about a hundred meters farther on. A long way down I could see a river and – a sentence popped into my head: The tomb lies just east of the river.

On my sharp intake of breath, Merlin turned around and looked enquiringly at me.

I gestured to the ruin we could just about see through the foliage of trees. His eyes widened.

Turning, he grabbed hold of Elyan's arm: "Look! It's the tomb!"

"But the patrol is turning to the west", the Knight whispered, "what if Arthur and the others are with them, too?"

"Arthur will be at the tomb", I said with certainty, "Odin will want to deal with him personally and Morgana is leading them there."

"We'll split up", Leon decided. "I'll follow the patrol and you'll go to the tomb."

"Are you sure?", I asked worriedly. He stared at me with a puzzled expression, like he still wasn't sure whose side I was on. I didn't blame him, but I wished it could be like it was before. Leon had always trusted me, earlier than Elyan or Percival. But this was more than a year ago, something inside me whispered.

"I am sure", he simply answered and then turned away before anyone could say goodbye.


We finally reached the tomb. It was bigger than I expected, a big building, made out of square stone-blocks covered with moss. In front of the entrance two soldiers were standing guard, but shortly after we arrived, they were distracted by a couple of bushes moving without any wind going – just like magic.

Merlin, on noticing my raised eyebrow, gave me a proud grin.

It wasn't hard to knock the two guards out when they moved past our hiding place.

Then we entered Lothar's tomb.