Chapter 19 – Too faint to catch

The air inside the tomb was pleasantly cold compared to the outside, but smelling of decay. A shiver went down my spine while we slowly moved forward – the tunnel was very narrow and more than once I had the feeling the ceiling was only inches from my head. But I couldn't make sure how high it really was, as we had not dared to light a torch and moved in absolute darkness, feeling our way along the walls, and I wasn't courageous enough to raise my hand and feel for the ceiling.

Then we saw light ahead, the flickering of at least one torch, and heard people talking, unintelligible at first, but then clearer and clearer, until I was able to discern Arthur's voice, and felt relief flooding in. We weren't too late, the King was still alive.

"My fathers life – that wasn't enough?"

"No."

Elyan, who was walking in the front, suddenly came to a halt: "Wait", he whispered, and continued on alone to risk a glance into the burial chamber.

"Camelot is nothing without it's king."

"Then you don't know my knights. They will hunt you. And they will find you. And they will not rest until they're done."

He's damn right about that, I thought and gritted my teeth. It was strange to hear Arthur say these words – and even stranger how proud I suddenly felt. A few hours with my friends had been enough to make me feel part of their group again, part of Camelot's knights. Fighting for the King, for Camelot, to protect what was worth protecting...

"I will deal with your knights soon enough – but now your time has come."

With an angry roar, not bothering to give us any warning, Elyan stormed into the burial chamber and out of our sight.

"Don't!", I managed to shout, but even while I did so, I was after him, my sword drawn. We reached the chamber and instantly were met by several of Odin's men, wildly brandishing their swords.

The only good thing in Elyan's rash move was their surprise at our sudden appearance. Before I really knew what was happening, I retreated together with Percival, who had managed to shake off his captors and had taken the sword of a fallen man, closer to one of the walls, slashing and hacking away, but the men just kept coming. We were outnumbered four to one.

Then I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a familiar, gangly shape at the entrance of the chamber, quickly retreating. I braced myself for something extraordinary to happen – but nothing did. Meanwhile, I felt my arm getting heavier and my concentration wavered. I hadn't trained properly for forever, and more than once only narrowly avoided being hit. Percival noticed my desperate situation, even though he too had his hands full with fighting off yelling men, and he moved closer to me, until we stood fighting back to back.

In the middle of fighting, it always is hard to keep up to what is happening to anyone but oneself, so I only knew that suddenly I could breathe again and that there were no men coming any more. Stunned, I turned around (I had faced the wall opposite of the entrance before).

"What took you so long?", Arthur scolded Merlin, who was standing next to him. The warlock grinned boyishly and, though he was breathing heavily and his face looked flushed, he answered: "I wanted to give you a chance to prove you could do without me – but obviously you can't."

"Merlin", Arthur said, but he wasn't sounding pissed, just tired and more than a bit relieved.

Only when I saw Leon hurrying over to greet Percival, I realised that the knights who had been taken by Odin's patrol had joined us – and I wondered if Merlin had gone and brought them here really fast, or if he had stopped the time in the chamber, as he had done so long ago when he saved Gaius, back when he first arrived in Camelot. Odin was being held in one corner by two of the knights, waiting for the King to deal with him. He was fighting to get loose, but the men held him firm.

Suddenly Arthur, who had been talking to Merlin in hushed tones, looked in my direction, and I jumped, startled and felt my heart skipping a beat. I tried to compose myself, though, walked over to the King and made a low bow, and stayed in that position, waiting for him to give me permission to speak... or run me through with his sword. Who knew what Gwen had told him.

"William?", he finally asked, and I could hear his bewilderment.

"Sire", I said, "if you allow me to speak, I would like to explain..."

Before he could, though, Mithian appeared from the side, arm in arm with her father, and at a short nod of Arthur's, I retreated to let them speak with each other. It seemed like a miracle they hadn't been hurt in the fight.

With the sudden, uncomfortable feeling of having forgotten something, I looked around, trying to find Morgana's too well-known face, but couldn't. The witch had gone, had fled the melee, again. But before I could decide whether I was relieved or disappointed she wasn't amongst the dead, I noticed something else: Elyan was propped up against the stone-coffin of Lothar, with his mail-shirt torn on the left side. Blood was slowly seeping through the gash. I rushed over to him and knelt down on his side. Before I could have a look at the wound, the knight grabbed my hand and gave it a weak squeeze. His eyes had a strange, almost wild expression, but otherwise he seemed oddly calm and composed. Elyan managed to give me a weak smile and whispered something. I brought my ear closer to his mouth, but even then the words were too faint to catch. By the time I had sat up again, Elyan had stopped breathing.

A hiccoughing sob escaped my mouth, after which people finally noticed something had happened, and while I let Elyan's limp hand slip from my grip, stumbled up and retreated to the corner, the rest of the inseparables, including Gwaine, whom I hadn't seen before, Arthur, and Merlin crowded around Elyan's body, shielding it from my sight. Then I saw Gwaine lift his eyes, which were full of tears, and find mine over the heads of Merlin and Percival. We looked at each other for mere seconds, then I averted my gaze and fled out of the chamber, back to the exit, back to sunlight, to get away from the King, from Elyan's body, and away from Gwaine, as fast as I could.