I don't own Merlin
Welcome to Chapter 3 of Witches Coven, the title should be explained a bit in this one.
Thanks to those who reviewed and added this to their alerts list, I'm glad you like it so far.
-Rin
NB: Yet again, this has been edited and yet again nothing much changed, some grammer things here and there and sometimes the way things were worded completely changed but other then that nothing really needed to be.
And please remember this, Grammer and spelling are NOT my strong points, actually I'm pretty damn bad at them!! XD
Chapter 3
Wind tore at the landscape with vicious intensity, trees were being uprooted fields and walls destroyed but the wind was not the only thing to cause damage on this night, it was happening again.
Fire that burned with a brilliant light accompanied by intense heat swept through the village of Roin mercilessly. The wind once again drown out the sound of the screaming, the chill in the air covered the heat of the fire and the light covered the terrifying seen as countless people died in the most terrible way imaginable.
Again to the east of the village sat a girl, humming to herself while she held her jewel in the palm of her hand. She faced the furnace that used to be the village but her eyes which were the colour of emeralds, were cast further west, out towards the town of Archeion, or what was left of it.
Archeion or so it seemed had suffered the same fate as it's neighbouring village, now only smoke rose into the sky from the burning embers, it had already all but disappeared into the night, frowning the girl changed the tune to which she was singing and as she did the wind redirected its-self and blew the last of the town away so all that was left was scorched earth, looking towards the sky she decided that she had an hour left before sunrise, by that time the village of Roin would follow the town of Archeion into the wind leaving only the tell tail smell of smoke behind to linger in the air and the girl with hair red as fire would be long gone.
The sun rose late in Camelot, Gaius was up before sunrise every morning, no matter the occasion, and as such he was one of the first to hear the commotion in the king's courtyard.
"Urgent news from the south" the messenger yelled as he pulled a bundle off the back of his horse and was immediately hurried into the castles main halls, Gaius wasted no time and went to wake his ward while waiting for the summons he knew were coming his way, this wasn't going to be pretty, the messenger had looked and sounded worn out and travel weary, the kind that only comes from constant travel over a pro-longed period of time, thank goodness the poor fellow had a horse.
Arthur woke that morning feeling oddly like he was forgetting something, this its-self wasn't the surprise, as he'd had the feeling ever since he'd arrived to Archeion two weeks before hand, now back at Camelot in his own bed he had expected the feeling to subside but if anything it had only gotten worse.
Lazily he stretched out unwilling to clamber out of bed to assume his princely duties. Casting his mind back through his journey to the southern town he remembered nothing except the long nights and days spent travelling through the never ending southern forests of his father's kingdom, nothing seemed out of place.
It was that moment that Merlin chose to come bursting in through the door.
"Your father wants to see you!" the black haired boy exclaimed excitedly, Arthur frowned after he'd calmed down from his almost heart attack.
"Merlin!" he growled disapprovingly "Can't you ever knock?" Arthur steamed at his man-servant climbing out of bed as he did so; Merlin just grinned and collected something for the prince to wear.
Glory woke to the sound of frantic footsteps and hurried voices, she was blind and she couldn't move, she was being carried, that much she could tell, her limbs were not bound just heavy and her consciousness was lost in a strange delirium that didn't seem drug induced but slurred her mind none the less.
As feeling slowly returned to her she realised she could feel an extraordinary amount of pain all over her body and as whoever was carrying her walked over a particularly uneven piece of ground, steps as she later found out, she let out an involuntary whelp of pain, much to the surprise of her 'captor'.
"She is awake!" the obviously male voice exclaimed jumping from shock and forcing another groan from Glory's throat in the process.
"Yes but you must be careful Sir Ebert, she is hurt." Another - slightly older - voice said from the side.
"Give her to Gaius Ebert, he is our court physician" yet another voice said, the man who held her remained reluctant to give her over but eventually gave in, the person he handed her to, however, was not who she had expected, the moment he touched her, her senses were attacked by the presence of magic.
She let out a slight gasp as the magic rushed from the body of the boy, for this was no man, and into her own, a gasp that was thankfully mistaken for pain, although she had a feeling that whoever this was noticed the sudden rush of magical activity.
"Tell me, Sir Ebert, what brings you to Camelot?" Uther asked the Knight who knelt before him.
"Terrible news from the south my lord, Roin and Archeion have now also disappeared" The knight said sadly, the king sighed and placed a hand on his forehead.
"How long ago?" the King asked aggravated.
"They both disappeared in the same night my lord, I was at the village the day before, left early in the morning, came back the next evening and they were gone, that was two days ago" The knight sighed thinking of all the people who lost their lives in the village, he had known it well.
"And what does this have to do with that girl?" the king asked becoming more irritated, the knight snapped back to attention.
"I found her unconscious in the middle of the southern forest, she was lying close to the remains of a burnt down hut and I think it was her home. I brought her here because I thought she might be able to tell us something about the disappearances." Ebert explained calmly, the king nodded hoping that the girl would indeed know something.
"Prince Arthur, did you find anything on your visit to Archeion and Roin?" King Uther addressed his son. Arthur shook his head.
"Nothing we didn't know of already" was the reply, Uther's already persistent headache intensified, this wasn't going well.
"I assume there were no survivors?" the king questioned although he already knew the answer.
"No my lord" the knight replied, Uther was not surprised.
"We must find a way to deal with this, dismissed!" the king barked, all present bowed and left.
The covenant, a law that even the most powerful of them must abide by, or so it would seem. Over the years certain things have gone wrong with the code, it shattered the alliance and led to the development of darkness among them, to join the covenant now is folly.
It is and has been for a long while - seemingly null and void.
Glory woke up some hours later in the physician's home; she was lying on a bed, something she wasn't used to, and staring at a ceiling made of wooden beams. Glory hadn't forgotten the events which led her to be here, nor was she surprised they had happened. It had been, she admitted to herself gravely, only a matter of time and she had been a fool to think she could escape them.
The coven had split, years ago shortly after the war that band magic from Camelot had ended.
Many of them had been killed and the ones who where left after it quickly gave into darkness one by one. Those that didn't succumb to the new order where silently picked off and killed, that was what happened to Martha, Glory's mentor.
Twelve years ago, the coven decided to take its revenge on Camelot, plans were set in motion and executed with deadly accuracy, it had been seven years since Glory had seen another from the coven, well until two days ago that is.
Clutching her emerald jewel Glory pulled herself up into a sitting position and frowned, her pervious state must have been caused by smoke inhalation, it was simple enough to treat and recover form, especially for someone who was more or less made of magic. The burses and the pain that came from the magical beating she'd taken had long since healed thanks to her own magic and Gaius, Camelot's court physician.
Holding her charm before her in her hand Glory studied it carefully for a few moments, to anyone passing by it would look as if she was merely admiring its flawless surface, only a witch of the coven would know any different.
Looking into the centre of the emerald Glory began to see shapes that quickly morphed into pictures and she didn't like what she saw.