15. Fear

The days after Zoe had made her promise to Tristan were, quite frankly, hell. She was seeing woads behind every tree, hearing them all through the night and imagining all sorts of scenarios where everyone would be killed and it would be all her fault because she hadn't told anyone. She lost sleep, she was flinching and twitching like some sort of timid animal, she was running to and from work and earning herself several strange looks in the process and she wasn't sure if she was doing the right thing.

And what was the right thing to do? Should she tell her friends that there were woads watching them and warn them about the danger, or should she keep her promise to Tristan, and, by doing that, help Arthur?

'Zoe, are you feeling well?' Braewyn asked, clearly concerned. 'You've been acting strangely lately. Like running everywhere, and you're flinching at nothing.' Winter was barely over and the old woman had been preparing the ground for planting this year's herb and vegetable gardens when she saw Zoe puffing up to the house after running home from work.

'I'm fine. Just wanted to burn off some energy,' Zoe lied, turning away from Braewyn to go into the house. Normally, Zoe was a bad liar, but this time she got away with it.

Nevertheless, Braewyn checked her for fever, and warned her that doing silly things like running would ruin her reputation. Zoe personally thought that her reputation was less important than her life, and continued running home so that she had less chance of being accosted by woads.

As subtly as she could, she encouraged her friends to hurry home, and, if possible, to walk in pairs. They laughed at her, saying she had an overactive imagination, and she was sorely tempted to break her promise to Tristan. They did have a right to know if they were going to be assaulted by savages on their way home from work.

But, ultimately, the matter was decided for her.

She was up in the knights' quarters, doing what she usually did at this time of the afternoon. It was just after midday, the knights were usually in a good mood after being fed, and it was rare for them to be in any situations where it would be awkward or embarrassing for Zoe to walk in on in the middle of the day. Unless it was Lancelot, but he was quite the exhibitionist and Zoe had already caught him in all sorts of situations that had made her blush. She'd even been asked to join a threesome with him and the tanner's niece one day when she'd forgotten to knock.

Zoe shook her head to get rid of these unwanted, albeit amusing, memories and dumped Lancelot's clothes on his bed. His clothes-chest was open, and the table where Zoe usually put the clothes was covered with weapons to be sharpened or cleaned or repaired in some way. She'd learned not to touch the knights' weapons after Dinadan had yelled at her for five minutes for moving his sword and accidentally cutting herself on it.

She moved on to Gawain's room, knocking softly on the door. He didn't answer, so Zoe went in. It was empty, and rather messy, but it smelled surprisingly good. More like Gawain and less like animals, sweat, ale and rotting food than other rooms. She carefully set the clothes down as slowly as possible, making as many excuses as she could to stay in the blond knight's room. Maybe, if she took long enough, he'd come back.

After about five minutes of procrastination, Zoe was forced to move on. There was a limit to how much time she could spend up in the knights' quarters without Blanchefleur and Evelyn creating some epic romance to excuse Zoe's absences. I wish, Zoe thought, remembering Gawain's smile.

The next room was Bedivere's and she knocked on the door. He said she could enter, and she had, finding him and Lamorak sitting together. Well, Bedivere was sitting; Lamorak was sprawled out on Bedivere's bed, arms behind his head, staring at the ceiling.

'I'm telling you, it's true,' Lamorak insisted.

'Anatomically impossible, Lamorak. I refuse to believe you,' Bedivere said, shaking his head with a thin-lipped frown on his face. 'Thank you, Zoe.' The knight nodded at her and Zoe smiled back, disappointed that she wouldn't be able to sneak some more reading in. The last time she had been in his rooms she had seen the name Aeneas, and it had sounded familiar, but she didn't know who he was or what he'd done.

'Ah, but you just know you'll try it out eventually. Just to prove it,' Lamorak said, grinning.

Zoe checked the pile of clothes she had. She was certain she'd seen some of Lamorak's things in there. Yes, there they were, Zoe thought, pulling out couple of shirts and a pair of breeches. Suddenly, she was being pulled towards Lamorak, who was sitting up on the bed now, his shirt gaping open on his narrow chest.

'Zoe, would you help dear Bedivere prove me wrong? Or would you prefer to help me prove Bedivere wrong?' He asked, wagging his eyebrows suggestively.

'I have no idea what you are talking about, sir, so I'll have to say no,' Zoe laughed. 'Now, please take your clothes, I have to go back and help.'

'You're even less fun than Bedivere,' Lamorak accused, holding out his arms to reluctantly accept his laundry.

'Just when I'm working,' Zoe answered, handing the knight his pile of clothes and moving on to Arthur's quarters.

Unlike the knights, who lived in relatively simple rooms, Arthur's quarters were unusually lavish. Easily twice the size of the other knights' chambers, they were on the other side of the Round Table room. The only problem was that Arthur was expected to give them up every time anyone with more rank than he did stayed at the Roman fort. It was also one of three rooms in the building that had actual locks, however crude. The other two rooms in this building that locked were Arthur's office, for obvious reasons, and the armoury, for equally obvious reasons.

Zoe knocked at Arthur's door, but there was no response. That wasn't unusual for this time of day, so she tried to open the door. The handle wouldn't turn. Odd, Zoe thought, trying again. Normally Arthur, left his room unlocked out of consideration for the people who worked to clean his rooms, or to clean his clothes, or even the special care he got from the kitchen workers, who sent his meals up to him if he didn't come get them. It still didn't open, so she turned to the door on the opposite side of the corridor, the one that led to Arthur's office, and knocked.

'Come in,' Arthur called from inside.

Zoe opened the door and walked in. She remembered this room from her first day in this time. It was still cluttered with those wax tablets that the Romans used to write messages on, and there were shelves in his room with expensive scrolls on them. One was open on his desk when Zoe walked in.

'Sir, I've come to return your clothes, and I wouldn't disturb you, but your room is locked,' Zoe said quietly, fighting the urge she had to curtsey to Arthur.

He looked tired, and worried. His hair was messier than usual, his face was stubbled and there were bags under his eyes. And he smelled like he needed a wash.

'Ah, Zoe. May I talk to you for a moment?'

Frowning in puzzlement, Zoe nodded and put the laundry down on a space Arthur cleared for her on the table.

'Shut the door, please,' Arthur requested, rolling up the scroll and pushing it to the side, grabbing one of the wax tablets from the pile on his desk and putting it in front of him. Picking up a stylus used for writing on it, he scribbled something while Zoe did as he had asked and closed the door.

'I understand you ran into Tristan a few nights ago when he was scouting for me,' Arthur began, fiddling with the stylus in his hands.

'I did, sir.'

'And he told you of the woads who are scouting the fort for a possible attack?'

'He did, sir.'

'This is important, so I want you to think very clearly. Have you told anyone about them?' Arthur's eyes, usually so striking, were almost shining with the intensity of his gaze.

'Why would it be important if I had?' Zoe asked, taking the seat opposite him. His eyebrows raised for a moment-she hadn't been asked to sit, and neither had she answered the question.

'I will explain, just give me your promise that you have not said anything,' Arthur pressed, leaning forwards, tapping the stylus on the desk for emphasis.

'Tristan asked me not to, sir,' Zoe answered, shifting uncomfortably on the chair.

Arthur frowned, and Zoe could see he was getting impatient. 'Just answer the question, please.'

'I did as he asked,' Zoe replied.

Arthur sighed, and leaned back in his chair. 'Thank you, Zoe.'

'Sir? You said you would explain your reasons, and I want to hear them,' Zoe said. 'I trust you, but…I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing.'

'I understand. And I will ask you not to discuss this with anyone,' Arthur said, waiting for Zoe's nod before continuing. 'The woads often scout the fort, particularly while the knights are absent. What protected the fort for this long was winter, they were delayed just like us by the heavy snow. Now that winter's almost over, they're looking to attack again. However, they rarely attack the fort, so, despite their presence, they pose no threat except to people who find them accidentally, as you were about to when Tristan saw you.'

'I did think it was strange that Tristan was there,' Zoe admitted.

'He was out scouting for me. He wouldn't have been there if he hadn't seen the woads as we returned from our mission,' Arthur said, smiling tiredly. 'You will keep this secret, won't you, Zoe?'

'If you ask me to, sir,' Zoe said, nodding.

'Thank you.'

'I'm not putting my friends in danger, am I?'

'Attacks on the fort or village are rare, Zoe. If word reached civilians about woads in the area, they'd panic. It's better if we leave the woads to target the Roman military,' Arthur explained patiently. 'If that's all, I'll unlock my chambers and leave you to your work.'

Zoe nodded, still not convinced that she needed to keep quiet about the woads, and the two of them stood up. Then, Jols, who looked rather rushed and a little disturbed, pushed the door to Arthur's office open abruptly. 'Woads, sir. The legion is holding them off at the walls, but some have made it into the yard. Everyone's been called out.'

Arthur was out of the room in a flash, and opening the door to his chambers with the key. 'Zoe, stay close to me until I can find someone to take you to the laundry. Jols, my armour.'

'Sir-' Jols started to protest, but Arthur cut him off quickly.

'Now, Jols,' he said in a tone that made protesting impossible for the man. 'Zoe, follow me.'

Zoe scurried across the corridor, looking around as if woads were about to jump around the corner at her and dumped Arthur's clothes on his bed. She watched as Jols slipped a chainmail shirt over Arthur's head and began to tie the leather strips to secure the sleeves in place.

'Make yourself useful, get Excalibur,' Jols commanded, jerking his head over to Arthur's weapons stand.

Zoe jumped, startled, and grabbed the sword from where it was resting. She was surprised by the weight of it and brought it over to Arthur before asking if there was anything else Arthur would like from the stand.

'The knife just to the left of Excalibur, yes, that one,' Arthur said as he strapped Excalibur to his left hip. 'The dagger on the top right, yes, good, and the small axe on the bottom right.'

Zoe, hands full and arms straining with the weight of it all, brought it over to Arthur and Jols. Jols deftly tightened Arthur's forearm guards, and Arthur reached for the weapons. He buckled the dagger to his right hip, slid the knife in his belt next to his sword and the axe next to the dagger, hanging by its head.

Jols grabbed a large shield with a Roman eagle painted on it and offered it to Arthur rather pointedly. Arthur slipped his arm through the straps, which were then tightened by Jols, without a word. Jols looked Arthur over and nodded in approval.

'Sir-' Jols began again.

'Zoe, follow me. Jols, you know what to do,' Arthur commanded, leaving the chambers in a brisk walk.

Zoe followed obediently, suddenly frightened. It hit her all of a sudden that there was an attack, that there were men outside who were actually looking to kill other men, and anyone who got in the way. Including her. Actually, she would probably be killed for simply being with Arthur, who was unmistakeably Roman.

Lancelot came striding towards Arthur. He had a small, round shield in his right hand and an unsheathed sword in his left. Zoe remembered that he'd had broken fingers in his right hand and guessed that it made him unable to grip a sword properly, because he usually preferred to fight with double swords, if what the girls in the laundry said was correct. Then Zoe remembered that Arthur had a wound in his side.

'Arthur, you cannot fight,' Lancelot said, in a tone Zoe had never heard from him before. All traces of the frivolous, flirtatious man were gone and, in their place was a man totally focused on his work. And his work was fighting.

'And you cannot tell me what to do, Lancelot,' Arthur replied, still walking.

'You could re-open your wound, you're not healed yet!' Lancelot protested. He grabbed Arthur's mail-clad arm to halt him and Zoe nearly crashed into the Roman's back. 'Listen to me!' Lancelot demanded, shaking Arthur's arm.

'I am listening, but I am capable of fighting, my injury isn't bad enough to make me sit and watch and wait for your corpses to come back,' Arthur said. It sounded as if this was an argument that the two of them had had before.

'We won't die because you aren't with us. Arthur, you will do nobody any good if you bleed out,' Lancelot, too, sounded weary of this argument, but insistent all the same.

'Lancelot we have no time for this. If you're so worried about me, stay close,' Arthur said firmly, wrenching his arm free of Lancelot's grip and moving forward, ignoring Lancelot's growl of frustration. Zoe followed the two of them silently, listening as the noises of battle outside got louder.

'Galahad!' Arthur yelled as he walked through the Round Table room, Lancelot at his side and Zoe in their wake. 'Are you armed?'

The young knight kicked the door to his room closed and slid a dagger in his belt next to his sword. 'Now I am,' he told Arthur, grinning a little nervously.

Zoe could see that Galahad wore leather instead of chain mail, but he, too, had a sword and a shield strapped to his arm. His shield was green, Zoe noticed absently, still looking around for woads.

Arthur grabbed Zoe and pushed her towards Galahad. 'Take her back to the laundry, make sure the girls don't leave until one of us comes for them.'

Galahad nodded and grabbed Zoe's arm in exactly the same place as Tristan had. Zoe winced as Galahad's fingers closed around the bruises the scout had left on her arm. Fuck, these guys are going to have to stop dragging me places, Zoe thought. At least Arthur was gentler.

'Come on. We've got to hurry,' the knight said as he pulled her through the now-familiar corridors back to the laundry. Zoe heard some screams from outside and clashing metal and felt sick. She caught several glimpses through the narrow windows of men fighting, but she couldn't make out any details as Galahad pulled her down the stairs that led to the laundry. She felt like screaming, screaming and lying down and crying and hoping that everything would just go away.

'What's going to happen?' Zoe asked, her voice trembling as the two of them reached the laundry. Galahad wrenched the door open to the screams of girls as Zoe tried to control her breathing and ignore the sounds of battle.

'Nothing's going to happen to you. We'll make sure of it,' Galahad promised. His voice was soothing, but he didn't meet Zoe's eyes. That, and the particularly gruesome scream that came from somewhere outside made Zoe's blood run cold.

Galahad pushed her gently through the doorway, told her to barricade it and keep the girls quiet before shutting it in her face. Zoe leant against the wall and prayed that nobody would come here until after the fighting was over, that she'd come out of this alive, that she wouldn't get hurt, that her friends and the knights would all be alright at the end.

'What'd he say?'

'What's going on?'

'Who's attacking?'

'Are we going to die?'

The questions poured in from all around Zoe, as her friends, and the other girls working there pressed close. Zoe turned away from the wall, having almost forgotten that there were other people here and shook her head, trying to stop herself from crying. Outside, she could hear noise of clashing metal, trampling feet, shouted instructions, woadish war cries and the screams of dying men.

'Hey!' Lucia's stern voice cut off the flood of questions. 'Whatever's going on, it obviously isn't good, so we obviously don't want to draw attention down here. Shut up and barricade the door first, then we can ask Zoe what's going on.'

The girls nodded and moved to grab the furniture while Lucia led Zoe away from the door to clear their paths and over to the other side of the room. Zoe was shaking and she gripped Lucia's hand tightly, hoping that the door was as solid as it seemed to be.

'Zoe, I need you to calm down,' Lucia murmured in Zoe's ear, rubbing her back as soothingly as was possible for a woman like her. Zoe could tell that she was already uncomfortable with their position, so she took a few deep, albeit shaky breaths and stepped away.

'What should I do?' Zoe asked, wiping her palms on her dress.

'For now, just help the others moving the furniture. When that's done, you need to tell us what's going on and what we need to do.'

'Why me?' Zoe asked, looking around wildly. 'Why not you?'

'You were just with the knights,' Lucia said simply, as if it was obvious.

There was a particularly close, and gruesome scream from outside, and the two of them flinched. Lucia took a deep breath and moved to help Evelyn drag a table over to the door, but Zoe had to lean on the wall for a second. She didn't like this, not at all. She wanted to be back where she belonged, not here, where men were fighting and dying on the other side of the stone she was leaning on.

By the time Zoe felt a bit calmer, the furniture was piled up against the door. It probably wasn't the most effective way to barricade the door, but seeing it made Zoe feel a little safer.

'Zoe?' Liliana called, holding out her hand. 'You have something to tell us from the knights, yes?'

Zoe took her friend's hand and nodded, letting Liliana lead her to the corner where the other girls were huddled. Lucia looked the calmest, almost indifferent to the screaming going on outside. The only sign she was any more disturbed than normal were her eyes, which were constantly flicking to where the loudest screams came from. Blanchefleur was gripping tightly to her skirt, making her knuckles turn white with tension. She looked nervous and angry, but not afraid. Evelyn looked afraid; she was clinging to Blanchefleur and weeping softly into her shoulder. There were three other girls, sisters who lived in the town called Casta, Anora and Kalare. They were all pale and shaking, holding tightly to each other's hands and flinching at screams from outside. The last girl was the frizzy-haired one who Zoe had helped carry laundry up to the knights' quarters shortly after she'd first started working here. The frizzy-haired girl was called Bellona, Zoe remembered.

When Zoe and Liliana sat down with them Bellona nearly hurled herself at Zoe, tears and snot pouring down her face. 'I'm so scared,' she cried.

'Be quiet,' Blanchefleur snapped, her voice barely carrying to Bellona. 'Keep on like that and I'll start to believe you want them to find us.'

'I was with Arthur, and Arthur promised he'd protect us. Galahad promised the same thing. All we have to do is sit quietly and wait for them to come get us,' Zoe said with as much confidence as she could muster.

Lucia nodded approvingly, Blanchefleur smiled tightly at Zoe and Evelyn's crying stopped after a little while. Everyone seemed to agree to wait silently, but nobody thought how hard it would be to just wait.

Sitting there, with only a door and a pile of furniture protecting them from whatever was out there, Zoe realized exactly how vulnerable she really was. If they really wanted to, the woads could come in, break down the door and kill them all with very little effort on their parts.

Zoe listened, afraid to even move, for footsteps outside the door, or for a knock on it, or for voices. But all she heard was quiet crying from Bellona and the sounds of the battle outside.

And she waited.

While she waited, men died outside.

It felt like forever, just sitting there in a cold room, on hard stone, waiting for someone to come to the door. Seconds felt like hours. It was hard, so hard, to just sit there and stay quiet. Lucia grabbed some clothes that needed to be mended and, with a calmness that was disturbing, kept working.

'How can you do that now?' Evelyn asked angrily. She was so pale she looked like a ghost.

'Would you rather I go into hysterics? Sit there weeping and dwelling on death and pain like the rest of you? Well I can't,' Lucia hissed, eyes darting to the door as if by speaking she would draw the woads down to her.

'She's right,' Kalare, a girl Zoe had barely talked with before, said in a shaking voice. 'If we can't do anything now, perhaps we can get ready to help when we're let out.'

'How?' Zoe asked. 'It's not like any of us has medical training.'

'We can make bandages,' Kalare suggested.

'With what? With Gawain's spare tunic? I'm sure he'll be thrilled once he finds out that we tore it apart when, in all likelihood, the doctor has enough bandages for everyone,' Zoe snapped.

'We got some bedding sent down. It's washed, and dried. It should do for bandages, without the destruction of personal property,' Liliana said. 'Kalare's right, Zoe. Calm down, please.'

'How can I calm down when at any moment there's going to be woads pounding on the door thirsty for our blood?' Zoe asked, standing up and beginning to pace.

'You're getting hysterical and pathetic,' Lucia said, looking up from her mending. 'I'll help make bandages.'

Zoe watched as the girls, one by one, decided to help with the bandages and felt incredibly foolish and rather guilty. She'd been doing nothing but worrying about herself when there were soldiers all around her dying to protect her, her friends and everyone in the village. She didn't really matter, in the grand scheme of things.

So she tried to be brave, like the others, and tried to ignore the screaming outside and focused on tearing up the freshly laundered sheets into strips appropriate for bandages.

Every so often somebody would glance over at the door, or flinch at a scream from outside, but mostly, it was better to have something to do with her hands while she waited. Her head started to hurt; she was desperately thirsty, rather hungry and very scared. But now that she was doing something, it was somehow better.

The problem was what to do after they'd finished tearing up the sheets. In the absence of anything better to do, the screams from outside and the sounds of fighting seemed that much louder and that much closer.

'I don't know how much more I can take, Lucia,' Zoe murmured, leaning on the woman's shoulder, trying to block out the screaming.

'As much as you have to,' Lucia said calmly.

'You're really disturbing, you know that? We're trapped. There are people out there dying, killing each other and we can't do anything? We're right in the fucking middle of it and you sit here sewing!' Zoe hissed, sitting up and gesturing in the direction of the battle outside, where the sound of men groaning in pain was closer than the sound of battle.

'I don't know how it was where you came from, but men die all the time here. Sickness, starvation, accident, old age, battle, it doesn't matter, but they die. We live with soldiers, we love soldiers. There are risks involved with loving them, with living with them. Get used to this,' Lucia replied, looking up at Zoe with her calm dark eyes.

Zoe trembled, not knowing if she wanted to strangle Lucia or scream for all she was worth. Liliana hurried over and slung and arm around Zoe's shoulder. 'You know, you never told us which special man caught your eye,' Liliana said, in a blatant attempt to distract Zoe.

Zoe looked at her incredulously. 'We are trapped in a laundry, with woads attacking the building with nothing to fight back with and there is a possibility that we die today and you want to know what man I was looking for? You're crazy!'

'On top of that, I desperately need the toilet, but we can't have everything, now can we? And I wouldn't want to die without knowing,' Liliana said, trying to lighten the mood.

Zoe started to giggle. At first it was just a soft laugh, but then it grew until she was desperately trying to smother it with her hands and Bellona was begging her to calm down and keep quiet. It wasn't a nice laugh either, it had a sharp, hysterical edge to it that made Liliana shift away nervously.

'You're hopeless. Absolutely hopeless,' she gasped, looking around frantically at the other girls. They were all looking at Zoe. Casta and Anora had tears pouring down their faces; Bellona had her hands pressed over her mouth. Blanchefleur looked angry, Evelyn pale but determined, Liliana had a look of forced frivolity on her face. Apparently she was a strong believer in 'make the best of a bad situation', Zoe thought, a little giddily.

'It's a better question than 'Do you think we'll get out of this alive?' or 'Do you believe in Heaven and Hell?'' Liliana protested.

'No, those are good questions, because we're doomed. It's been too long since we locked ourselves in,' Anora suddenly said, pointing to the shadows on the floor, which had moved a considerable distance since the beginning of the attack. 'The woads are winning.'

Zoe started to shake. She was going to die here, thousands of years from her home. If she'd just been at home none of this would have happened. She would be…out shopping with Suze, meeting boys with Brit and making her boyfriend jealous, curled up on a sofa with a book, something non-life threatening. She'd be doing something where nobody would be dying.

Casta walked over to her sister and slapped her on the face. 'Don't be so stupid. Get a hold of yourself. Have the knights ever failed to protect the village before?'

Anora looked like she was going to retaliate when a scream of agony ripped through the air, making even Lucia flinch. Zoe screamed too, trying to block the sound out, and leant back against a wall, sliding down it with her hands over her ears and her eyes tightly shut. She couldn't take any more of this. She just couldn't.

'It's not real, it's not real, it's not real,' Zoe said to herself in English, speaking it aloud for the first time in months. She squeezed her eyes as tightly closed as she could, trying to block both the reality around her out and keep her tears in.

'Zoe? Is there a problem?' Liliana asked in Celtic, kneeling next to Zoe and putting a large hand on the smaller girl's shoulder.

'It's not real, it's not real, it's not real.'

'Of course there's a problem. Remember-trapped in a laundry, can't go outside because of the people attacking, we can't defend ourselves, you need to go to the bathroom, I've got a headache and Zoe's last encounter with woads left her caravan dead,' Blanchefleur snapped. 'Do you think that possibly any of them could contribute to this?'

'It's not real, it's not real, it's not real.'

'Zoe, please, calm down. Please, it'll all be all right. Arthur promised, didn't he? It'll be all right,' Liliana tried to calm Zoe down, hugging her tightly, stroking her hair, talking to her as if Zoe was a young child who had just had a nightmare.

Zoe was rocking back and forwards, shaking Liliana's comforting hands off. 'It's not real, it can't be real, it's not real.'

'Oh, you're all being stupid,' Lucia said. 'Stand back.'

Then a sharp pain bloomed across Zoe's face, making her stop in her tracks. She pressed one hand to a cheek that seemed unnaturally warm, looking up in astonishment at Lucia.

'You slapped me,' Zoe said.

'Yes, I did. You were hysterical.'

'Oh…thank you,' Zoe said, shaking. She didn't stand up again, but when Liliana moved to sit next to her, she leant into the comfort Liliana was wordlessly offering, burying her head in the other's shoulder and trying to pretend there wasn't a battle going on outside.

Evelyn sat down on Zoe's other side and leaned in, too. Bellona collapsed next to Liliana and Blanchefleur curled up in front of Evelyn. Kalare and her two sisters joined them on the floor, all of them staring at the door. Lucia, after looking at them coolly for a few moments, sat down in front of Zoe and buried her face in Zoe's shoulder. Lucia was trembling. She was scared, just like the rest of them. Zoe wrapped an arm around the older woman, pulling her closer.

They sat like that, listening to the moans outside and the distant sounds of battle, for a long time. Zoe's legs got stiff and sore from Lucia resting so much of her weight on them, but she didn't move. They were all watching the door, too drained of energy to cry in a silent vigil.

The sounds of battle dwindled as they sat together. Gradually, the light in the laundry faded and still nobody said anything. And in the quiet, the sound of footsteps coming towards the door was obscenely loud.

The door shook. Zoe held her breath.

xxx

A/N: First of all-merry Christmas and a happy new year to everyone reading. Second-thank you to my lovely beta, homeric, for all the hard work and the very encouraging comments. You managed to pick out exactly what I was thinking of when I wrote it! Third-to all the reviewers, thank you. You guys are brilliant and very encouraging. And even if you just read and don't review-you're cool too. It's nice to know that people read this. Last-any concrit you have is very much appreciated, and reviews of all kinds are awesome.

Again, merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Disclaimer: Do not own King Arthur. I was very disappointed when Santa didn't bring me gift-wrapped knights for Christmas.