Hey! This chapter focuses more on the Ladies of Camelot and Alec. The next chapter will have more of Alec too!
Reunion 15
As their husbands had a joyful experience at the Sarmatians' expense, Emogen and the other, Ladies of Camelot and Briton found themselves locked up in their common room holding their babies close. The very fact that Attila had been able to leave the chamber Lancelot had placed him and the other Sarmatians in scared them. It made them all panic to come to the realization that he had been able to hide a weapon and murder one of their staff. More importantly, Katheryne, who had a key to enter their chambers-he, could have had access to their children's chambers if he had but looked through her pockets!
The guards of Camelot locked them up in their circular room because Katheryne was found murdered within the halls of equality and justice-the very core, the heart, of Camelot. When Sir Morton had pulled out the dagger initialized with Attila's name, he and Tristran's second in command, Lady Cerridwen-the woman who had showed them the spot for building Camelot-the two of them had overridden both Cordelia and Emogen's command in order to keep the noble families of Briton safe from harm.
Alec, son of Dagonet and Fulucina, who armed himself in a battle ready form, had placed himself at the entrance of the Circle of Wings in order to protect them from anyone dangerous; if they were still lurking within the bowels of the castle's many hallways.
The women were alarmed when all this occurred because all of them, with the exception of Vanora and Fulucina, had been warriors as well as healers for most of their lives. They were not pleased to find themselves pushed aside like wallflower, daisy-like dainty woman. Even Vanora and Fulucina's ire had raised a few notches when Morton and Alec locked their heavy chamber doors with the emergency bolts and told them to stay here.
This is horrible! How could this have happened! The chamber in which Lancelot took them too has guards at every intersection and moonlight and sunlight can enter through the large windows to illuminate it well enough to see clearly.
Cordelia sighed, held Mordwen and Morgana close, and said with a soft, disbelieving voice, "I can't believe this. Why would Attila do such a thing?"
Lance, why did you leave? Our children are in danger and I am not sure I can protect them from this! How did Attila murder Katheryne? She was only twelve paces from the a guard, so how did he do this so quietly? He came so close to hurting my babies…all he had to do was reach into Katheryne's apron pocket and remove the silver key within…Lancelot, come home!
Emogen held Cadman close to her breast as her twins' buried their heads in her lap and said softly so she would not awaken the babies, whom had finally fallen asleep, "He has made his intentions towards our children very clear. He hates them and wants them all dead, so he can take the men back to Sarmatia without any problems. I just never thought that he'd resort to killing an innocent servant girl...poor Katheryne."
Galahad, I hope you and the others are well, especially with Attila with you…be safe!
As Enys opened her mouth to comment, the chambers doors gave a resounding gone and Morton's voice was heard in Gaelic (Pict), "The circle is complete."
Alec smiled slightly and replied just a softly in Gaelic as if he were afraid that Attila himself would hear the password and appear magically within their chambers with a sword ready to slaughter all that he loved, "Now Briton is free."
As the doors swung open, Cordelia and the other Ladies of Briton stood up and asked together, "Were any others found?"
As three people, two men and one woman, entered the royal chambers of the Knights of the Round Table, Lady Knight Cerdiwen said confidently as she handed Queen Cordelia a piece of parchment, "We have checked every room in the castle right down to the last storage chamber and the last prison cell. We have found no others dead."
Cordelia and the others sighed in relief and Alec finally relaxed for the first time in three days. He rolled his tense shoulders and groaned. They had grown hard and painful during the past three days of frightened waiting. With a wistful longing look out the chamber doors, he thought I wish Dainera were here to help me relax. Then he blushed as he envisioned the beautiful woman he hoped to marry once his position within the Round Table was official. She had luscious golden blond hair that looked like pure sunshine gold and glimmered when the sunlight hit it. Her lips were plump and red-perfect for kissing and her forest green eyes were reminiscent of Emogen's, but they were more pure, more innocent, which was understandable since Emogen had seen and done things that Dainera, thankfully-did not have to experience since Arthur took Kingship and made the country peaceful.
Tristran, what a time for you to take Siolae with you…what I would not do for her right now! I do not feel safe in my own home…I need you!
Ula took a deep breath and said unnecessarily, "We need to inform the men."
Gawain's wife, Alma, asked as she cuddled her baby daughter, Belayla, her beautiful white lily, and kissed her eldest daughter, Briana, her noble child, tenderly on the forehead, "How? Siolae is with Tristran."
Emogen took a deep breath and bit her lip. There is one among them, Lancelot's squire, who could accomplish the task before them, but she was sure that his mother would not allow it. But, he was the only one, other than Morton and Cerdiwen who had any training in silent traveling, and Morton would never leave them, the Ladies, without protection and Cerdiwen was fulfilling
Tristran's job whilst he was away-he was their only choice.
She breathed out and answered simply as she leveled a reassuring, confident glance at Fulucina, "Alec will go with the news."
Fulucina protested sharply, "No! He's not yet a Knight!"
Emmy continued unhindered though, "True, but Lance is sure that he is ready to take his Trial. This could be his final test of skill. The journey will no doubt test him in his endurance, stamina, skill with a horse, critical thinking and processing time, and his ability to capture his own food and provide for himself out in the wilds-alone."
Alec went to his mother's side, knelt in front of her, and pleaded honorably with encouragement in his voice to let him go, "Master Lancelot would not say I was ready if I truly were not. They need to know, mum."
Oh Dagonet, if you could see our son now. He would make you so proud with his courage and honorable spirit. Fulucina sighed and as she held her three-month-old baby daughter, Imogene, she reluctantly agreed, "Very well…just be careful my son."
Alec smiled sweetly at his mother and younger siblings and rushed down the corridor that held emblazoned with the emblems of a horse.
As he was packing, Sir Morton quickly reassured his mother, in a typical Tristran-like way, "He won't be alone Lady Hors; you have my word that one of the Knights will follow him as is procedure during these tests."
Fulucina started to breathe a bit easier as Alec appeared minutes later. He quickly kissed his mother and baby sister, patted Lucus on the back and rushed out.
When he reached the stables, he found his brown-hared horse, Constance, already tacked up for him and Jols, a Knight of the Round Table since the Battle of Badon Hill, holding the reigns with a smile.
Alec grinned and said, as he mounted the horse his master, Lord Lancelot, had bought for him three years ago, "Thank you Jols! You have saved me a lot of time!"
Arthur and the Knights' old squire returned to grin and said with a wink, "You have someone who wishes to speak to you, young Knight."
Alec raised an eyebrow, but his confused face transformed into a bright smile, as his love and soon-to-be fiancée and wife appeared with a pack bursting with dry food and water skins, "Dainera! What are you doing here?"
His future wife, Dainera, Jols' niece, smiled sweetly, handed him the pack, and said with a playful frown, "You didn't think I would let you leave without saying goodbye, did you?"
He chuckled and said as he placed a sweet kiss on her lips and said soothingly, "No, I did not. If Master Lancelot cannot leave the castle without saying goodbye to Lady Emogen, I did not have a chance, eh?"
Dainera giggled and said with a serious kindness, "Come back safe, Alec."
He nodded and with a clip of his reigns, he was gone.
Unknowingly to him, three and a half hours after he had left, Sir Alymere tacked up and followed him-to grade him and make sure he was safe, of course!
As Lancelot and Arthur eyed one another from their places off to the side of the shell-shocked Sarmatians, they cracked up laughing with Habren's exclamation with wide eyes and an open jaw, "HOW!"
Attila, Tor, and Artur, still groggy and exhausted from their ordeal, slowly but surely traveled from the world of unconsciousness to the conscious world. They each winced as freezing cold rain fell upon their open burn wounds, but at the same time felt a sense of healing as the cold water neutralized the burning fevers that the fires left behind.
When Habren's voice echoed through their aching heads, all three raised their distorted faces, and Attila demanded hoarsely and rudely, "Get us out of this!"
Tor, who was silently staring up at his older brother, felt a heart wrenching pain in his heart and gut as he finally realized that his TRUE older brother was dead. The man before him that carried the likeness of his brother was NOT of his father's loins. The man before him, who carried the name Bors, was NOT his favored brother. If this had been his brother, Bors would not have mongrel children, would not like peace but love bloodshed and destruction, and would have done everything in the world to return tot heir beloved homeland-he was a stranger
Therefore, with a heaviness wrought on by the heart-wrenching epiphany, Tor stared morosely up at Bors and said in a drunken-like tone, "You win, you win... After the funeral rites I'll leave...quietly."
As he stood-up, thankful that Tanais had rushed to his side to help unbind him, and rubbed his bloody-raw wrists, Artur snorted and exclaimed in disgust, completely disregarding the fact of who had helped him "You Wolf-son-of-a-bitch! You have brought dishonor upon our tribe by this boy-fool-heartedness! You deserve death for bringing such dishonor upon us all! By the Gods, you are nothing but a weak, wolf-baby boy-man!"
Not even a split second after those horrible words left his mouth, Garen, Galahad and Gawain's cousin, and Tanais, Galahad's brown-hared, brown-eyed childhood friend had their swords at Artur's neck.
Garen growled out as a thin line of red blood started to pool under the black hared man's, Artur's, Adam's apple, "Son-of-a-Whore! How DARE you insult the Wolf Tribe!"
Gawain, who had been laughing uproariously since the beginning, along with the other Knights of the Round Table, sobered instantly and lunged between the two in hopes of preventing a miniature war.
As he pushed them harshly apart, he answered Habren's question easily, "We aren't barbaric killers, Lady Habren. You are of our blood. What those three went through was a warning-a serious prank-to let you know that we are serious about protecting our children. If you do ANYTHING to hurt them..."
Lancelot placed a hand on his lion-like friend's large shoulders and ended as Arthur started to arrange rooms for them all, "You'll find a life of being imprisoned and a few hours of sitting in the rain to be easy compared to what we shall do to you if you hurt our children."
As she stared into her eldest brother's orbs of deadly black fire, Habren knew-they would let their former family stay-if only for a short time. However, woe is being to the one who made the Knights of the Round Table's family feel threatened...
She shivered just thinking about what kinds of torture her brother and his fellow Knights could think up.
After all, fifteen years of war was an excellent instructor in the black arts (death, pain, and torture).