Disclaimer : I do not own King Arthur. If I did, Tristan and Lancelot wouldn't have died at the end. I will not repeat this cause it's a waste of space.
This is another fic with a girl and the knights. I'll try to make it as un-MarySuish as possible, but no promises. Please read and review, I love getting feedback!
Chapter 1
Akira watched as the knights cut down the Woads as if they had been nothing but parchment. She smiled ruefully. These were her countrymen. Taken from their homes fifteen years ago, as she had been. Her brother had fought with them at one point, but she knew he was dead. She had felt it in her bones as he had taken his last breath. He had been the only person she had ever really talked to. She had been closer to him than anyone who had ever lived on this earth. And she had not been there for him when he died. She had been serving Rome also, but in a more specific way. She had served the Pope as an assassin. She had lost count of the men she had killed. They were irrelevant.
She had visited Britain several times as well, once before her brother died, twice after. She had never met any of the other knights, but she recognized some from her brother's descriptions. The one with two swords was Lancelot. Arthur was the one who commanded, you could tell from his posture, and the way his men had looked towards him for orders. She thought she could place Bors as well, a short, stout man who seemed to prefer hand to hand combat to a sword.
The Woads were fighting well, though, not turning back when they saw who they faced. Akira smiled again. She had met the Woads before, too, not to mention their leader, Merlin. He held her in respect, and she did the same for him. She did not kill his people.
She turned her mind back to the battle. Arthur had left one of the Woads alive. Bors walked up to the Bishop's carriage. He turned back to Arthur.
"What a bloody mess."
Arthur looked for himself, before announcing that the man in the carriage was not the Bishop. He turned and spoke to the man who Akira knew to be Bishop Germanius. His Eminence entered the carriage after the body of the unfortunate man chosen to be his decoy had been removed. The knights mounted their horses and continued towards the wall, the Bishop's carriage only a short way behind.
Akira nudged her mare, Myrrah, forward to join the knights. She drew up alongside Arthur.
"You are Arthur, are you not?"
He turned his head to look at her. Most of the other knights turned too, surprised to see a woman in their midst.
"I am. How did you know me?"
"My brother spoke of you when I visited this island before."
"Who was he?"
"His name was Kay. I believe he was one of you."
"Yes, he was. His death was a hard blow to us all. I counted him more as a brother than a knight serving under my command. You are his sister?"
"Yes. My name is Akira."
"Enchanted." Lancelot had dropped back to be level with them.
"And you must be Lancelot? My brother told me a great deal about you as well."
"And what did you hear?"
"Nothing that gives me the slightest inclination to flirt with you." The other knights roared with laughter. Arthur smiled.
"I should introduce you to my other knights. This is Gawain, Galahad, Dagonet, Bors and Tristan." All the others turned to smile at her as Arthur spoke their names. Tristan merely nodded
Gawain fell back to flank Lancelot. "So what do you do here, my lady?"
"I have served Rome for the past fifteen years, as you have. My task is to escort the Bishop to Hadrian's Wall. After that I will be free."
"Will you return home?" This time it was Bors who had spoken.
"I think so. I wish to see if my mother still lives, and my younger sister. You?"
"I'll stay here. All I remember about home is that everyone I know is dead and buried."
"I'll go home, find a beautiful Sarmatian woman, and marry her." Gawain said.
Bors laughed. "A beautiful Sarmatian woman? Why do you think we left in the first place?"
Akira cleared her throat loudly. She smiled at Bors, who looked apprehensive all of a sudden.
Galahad grinned. "And you, Lancelot?"
"Well, if this woman of Gawain's is as beautiful as he claims, I expect to be spending a lot of time at Gawain's house. His wife will welcome the company."
Gawain looked skeptical. "I see. And what will I be doing?"
"Wondering at your good fortune that all your children look like me."
"Is that before or after I hit you with my axe?"
Akira joined in the laugh that followed. She had missed the company of people who were as unpretentious as she herself. She watched the Wall loom closer. She was almost free.
So? Tell me what you think! Which knight should I pair her with?
Carline