3. Lessons in Latin and Sign Language

Red-Cape-Man had gotten quite angry when Zoe had stolen his…parchment? It was parchment, wasn't it? He snatched it back with a loud exclamation, in Latin, again, shaking her roughly.

'Sorry, sorry, sorry.' Zoe felt like she was babbling, but she didn't know what Red-Cape-Man was saying to her, only that he seemed quite upset. He kept snarling at her, but she didn't know what she'd done to deserve this. She felt herself start to cry, but she still babbled out apologies, hoping that the man wouldn't go for the sword he wore at his side.

Suddenly the man stopped, one of his hands on her cheek, the other touching the cross she wore. Why this strange man with a very sharp sword was so interested in her dead grandmother's crucifix she didn't know, and it wasn't in the least comforting. He said something quite serious, Zoe was sure. Pity she couldn't understand it. He was searching her face for something as she tried to stop crying and nodded as if she had understood at least part of what he had said.

A new voice, and a new man came over. He was the most beautiful man Zoe had ever seen; all black curls and dark eyes with a wicked smirk. His rough thumb wiped some of her tears away and she stopped crying immediately. Busy staring at this new stranger, Zoe didn't object when she was handed over to him by Red-Cape-Man. Red-Cape-Man said something to the other one, but he still wasn't speaking in English. She wiped her eyes as best she could, and her nose on her sleeve. It always ran when she cried, and she didn't want to face whatever it was that she was going to face covered in snot.

'Where are you taking me?' She asked, not really expecting an answer. The man looked at her with those gorgeous eyes of his, raised one elegant eyebrow and said something in Latin that sounded like he was talking to an idiot.

Zoe looked down at the floor and frowned. She was intelligent, probably smarter than this too-pretty man. Too-Pretty called to the blond man who had carried Zoe here on his horse and he walked over and took her other arm. Zoe started shaking. Maybe they were going to take her away and kill her now. Or…other things. She really didn't want to think about it, but so many nasty scenarios were running through her head. It wasn't a good time to be smart, or to have read so many novels.

Blondie yelled back at the rest of the men, and a smallish dark-haired man in what appeared to be a skirt answered him. Together with Too-Pretty, he took her through narrow, dimly lit corridors to a small room with a narrow bed and a rough table with a fragile-looking stool. Not that Zoe saw much of this because she'd seen the bed, looked at the two men and started to seriously freak out. She was crying again, and didn't see the look the two men shared over her head. Too-Pretty led her to the bed, but didn't push her down to it like she'd been afraid of. Instead he grabbed her shoulders and brought his face roughly level with hers.

Zoe flinched away and closed her eyes, turning her head away from him. When nothing happened she opened her eyes a tiny bit. And then, when nothing happened again, a bit more, and she turned to face Too-Pretty.

'Somnus,' he said, looking into her eyes and saying it slowly and carefully. 'Somnus.' God he was treating her like an idiot and she wasn't an idiot she just didn't understand what was going on. Where was the light switch? Why were these men wearing swords and where the hell was she?

'Somnus?' Zoe asked, wiping her eyes and trying to stop crying. Familiar sound, maybe it had a similar meaning in English? Or French? Latin was supposed to be related to these languages, damn it. Why didn't she understand a single word? What was she doing here? Why couldn't she just go home?

One of them mimed sleeping at her, hands together and snoring. Sleep? Was he telling her to sleep? 'Sleep?' She pointed at herself, sniffling one last time and Blondie nodded, hitting Too-pretty on the shoulder and they both turned to leave.

'Wait!' She called, wiping her nose on the back of her hand. 'Hey, wait!' Probably not the best idea to question her rather intimidating captors, but she needed water. She was really thirsty and she hoped that they wouldn't get angry with her for stopping them from leaving. And she really hoped they didn't think that she wanted them to stay.

They turned around and shot puzzled looks at each other, but at her beckoning they came back into the room, staying far enough away from her so that she wasn't as scared as when they'd first opened the door.

'I'm thirsty. Water?' She mimed drinking and looked at the two scary men hopefully. She mimed drinking to them again and flinched when Too-Pretty frowned. Note to self, Zoe thought, do not anger scary men wearing swords. Bad things might happen. Not that bad things hadn't already happened-she had been kidnapped by big scary men wearing swords and been taken to who knows where and was probably getting locked in a room for tonight. Hopefully without big scary sword-wearing men, but there was no guarantee of that.

Blondie said something and Zoe caught the word 'aqua' in the middle of it. She thought she'd heard it anyway. And aqua was still water-related in English, so she thought it might actually mean water. She hoped it did.

'Aqua! I'd like aqua!' She knew that it made no sense to them, but she felt better having told them what she wanted. She shrank away from them right after she'd said that, immediately scared she'd overstepped the mark.

Blondie said something to Too-Pretty and got a wave and a brief sentence in reply. Blondie nodded and left. Too-Pretty sat on the table and leant against the wall, groaning when the weight of the armour came off his shoulders. His trousers were made of leather, Zoe noticed.

Too-Pretty looked at her, but she tried not to return his gaze. Those eyes were kind of scary. Very intense. And she still had no idea what these people wanted or where the hell they were and she was beginning to suspect she didn't know when they were either. So the best course of action was to play it safe and try not to piss anyone off too badly. She hoped.

The man said something, but when he tilted his head he sighed. He pointed at himself and said slowly. 'Lancelot.'

Lancelot. The man must be nuts. Or his parents were weird as well, to have named their child Lancelot they'd have to be. And Lancelot had kidnapped her. All right then, Zoe was trapped in a room with a man wearing swords who thought he was called Lancelot and she had no way of getting out. Fucking brilliant.

'Lancelot?' She asked; pointing at him so he was clear what she was referring to. 'Your name is Lancelot?'

'Lancelot.' He pointed at himself, shaking his head. 'Lancelot.'

'Lancelot.' Zoe dutifully repeated.

Lancelot pointed at her and she blinked. He jabbed the finger in her direction again and she flinched a little.

'Zoe,' she said. 'Zoe.'

'Zoe.' Lancelot nodded, as if satisfied. He pointed to the door and said 'Gawain.'

Zoe supposed that that must be Blondie's actual name. Or at least, the one he went by among these crazies. Seriously. Who would call their kid Gawain? Or Lancelot for that matter. Maybe these people just had an obsession with the Knights of the Round Table. That was actually a scary thought given the weapons Lancelot had.

Blondie, or Gawain, or whatever he was called, came back with a cup in one hand and a burning candle in the other. He set the candle down on the table and gave the cup to Zoe. She looked inside and sniffed it. It didn't smell great, but she was really bloody thirsty. That, and she didn't want to make Gawain and Lancelot angry by asking for some real water. She drank it. And it tasted nasty. Like dirt, actually. She hoped to God it wasn't poison, and touched her crucifix necklace again. It had belonged to her grandmother and Zoe found it unexpectedly comforting.

Lancelot said something to Gawain, who smiled at her and nodded. Lancelot took the cup and shoved Gawain out the door. Once they'd both left Zoe heard them rattling the door a few times before leaving. And she was left in the dark with only a candle for light.

'Just fucking brilliant.' Zoe muttered. She tried the door, rattling it a few times. It was locked. She looked near the door for a light switch, but there was none. And that bed was looking really beckoning. She was bloody tired.

Except she was still wet. Zoe kicked off her shoes and pulled off her socks, wrinkling her nose at their smell. She spread them out on the floor, hoping they'd dry by tomorrow. Or by whenever the scary men came back to get her. She peeled off her tracksuit pants, glad she had decided to wear them instead of her shorts today, and her t-shirt followed soon after. They, too, were laid out to dry. Her bra and underwear were still damp, but she thought she could deal with that. She really didn't want to sleep naked when the scary men could come back any second. She felt vulnerable enough as it was.

Zoe sat on the table to examine her ankle. It was really swollen with attractive purplish bruising that was yellowish at the edges. Lovely. It'd take a while to get better, and she didn't think she'd be able to put on her shoe in the morning.

She gingerly stepped to the bed, wincing as her unsupported ankle protested a little, and slid under the blankets reluctantly. She was a little afraid that, if she went to sleep, something would happen to her during the night, like the crazy guys coming in and murdering her, but she also hoped that maybe everything would all go away.

The mattress was spiky and smelled a little mouldy. Must be straw. She'd read about straw mattresses in her fantasy books. But they'd never mentioned how uncomfortable they really were, particularly when compared to her lovely, soft bed back home. The blanket was itchy, but it managed to warm her up quite nicely. Soon, she forgot about everything and went to sleep, clutching her crucifix necklace and hoping she'd wake up cold and muddy in a field somewhere to the sound of a jeep horn and her friends yelling at her for worrying them.

xxx

A/N: Well, Zoe's getting somewhere. Slowly, but she's getting there. This was a fun chapter to write, but keeping Zoe's character consistent was a bit of a trial. She kept trying to become a smartass on me, which isn't the kind of person she is at the moment. At the moment she should be too scared of these guys to be a smartass.

Thanks a million to homeric, my lovely, new, very fast and very good beta! I owe you big time.

Disclaimer: King Arthur not mine-don't bother with the lawyers.