Chapter 6

Linden

The party had set off in the early morning. The dew was still on the ground as they guided their horses through the little wood. There was a cold chill in the air that made Gwen shudder, despite the extra under shirt that she wore underneath her top. She realised winter would be with them pretty shortly, therefore it was imperative that they got Arthur and the party back as soon as possible.

The party were being led by Leon and one of the warriors that offered that had volunteered. He was a big man, someone who looked as if he'd spent his entire time fighting wars. He had said very little, Gwen had the feeling he was someone who let his actions speak rather than his words. There were a few others who he looked much the same, not for the first time Gwen realised just how vulnerable places such as Linden were. Having men such as these would be the difference between survival and and being taken over on a regular basis.

If nothing else Gwen felt that she and Arthur should somehow do more for places like this. Sometimes being at Camelot it was easy to forget about the places far away, and how needy the people were. She was determined that she would do something about it, once they were safely back home.

The journey carried on for an uneventful couple of hours, everyone was anxious and looking about them. They could all sense their destination was coming nearer. Suddenly the warrior put his hand up and everyone stopped. He pointed ahead of him, across some trees was a castle.

"There it is." he said. "This is where we are best to part. You need to continue going onto this path. Eventually you will come to a disused abbey, make sure you use the path behind it. Sometimes you will catch the guards on the path in front, it can be seen from the castle, but if you go behind you are sheltered by the trees for longer. We will attack the castle from the other side." he said, his face suddenly breaking into a toothless smile.

Leon nodded, and he pulled everyone together as the warriors left.

"I suggest we go in single file as much as possible." Leon said, "I estimate it will take us maybe half an hour to get there, provided we are not delayed en route."

"Once we get down the path we'll need Freya to open the door." Gwen pointed out. "I suggest you go behind Leon, we need to enter the castle quickly."

"Of course." Freya smiled, feeling suddenly ready for the challenge ahead.

"Good idea. Just keep as quiet as you can." Leon said, "We must take them by surprise otherwise this will be a lot more difficult. Ready Freya?"

"Yes I'm ready Leon lead on." Freya moved her horse behind the Knight, feeling the stone in her pocket as she guided her horse onto the path. As she followed she realised it was prime ambush country. In any of the trees there could be bandits awaiting them. She kept her eyes peeled for any unusual movement, knowing that when they got there she must be ready to play an important part.

It wasn't long until they came to the disused abbey. Leon pointed to a path that went behind it. Freya urged her horse onto the path, which was higher up and also more covered by bushes. At times Freya had to push the bushes out of her horses eye line, giving her a few scratches as a result. Suddenly she understood the bad part of being the leading rider.

The nearer she came to the castle the more excitement she could feel. Soon the gods willing she would be back with Merlin again. She just hoped he was coping okay, as she pushed huge bramble out of the way she could at last see the first tower of the castle. It looked an old, decrypted one, nothing like the beauty of Camelot. Freya shuddered suddenly at the conditions their loved ones must be in. As she continued to follow the path it suddenly came to a clearing, she stopped and looked back.

Leon joined her up front and urged everyone into the clearing away from the edge of the path.

"I suggest we get off our horses now. There is a little covet over there. We could leave the horses there, and do the rest of the journey on foot. We take only what we can carry, everything else should be left."

"Do you think it will be sheltered enough?" Gwen asked as she walked her horse over with Leon.

"It's not ideal." Leon admitted. But the nearer we go to the castle, the more likely we'll be to meet a patrol."

Gwen nodded. "I'll make sure everyone is organised."

Leon watched her go, nerves beginning to take over now they were so close. He realised the responsibility he would feel if any of the women were caught or worse, killed. Shaking his head he pulled himself together, about thinking such thoughts.

"Don't you be worrying about us." Isolde replied coming up from behind him. "We can take care of ourselves Leon, if anything I'm more worried about you lot. You Knights do tend to get yourselves into a lot of trouble!" she said with a grin.

Leon prepared a bite back, but suddenly realised she was merely joking.

"I'll make sure we don't let ourselves down." Leon smiled back.

Before long they were crawling along the path, making sure they kept undercover as they did so. Suddenly they were right by the back of the castle. As Leon looked down he noticed two guards ambling below, neither of them seemed especially wary as they talked amongst themselves sharing a joke. Leon signalled to one of the Knights and he crawled over.

"I need you to take the two guards out. Wait until we are almost by the castle, and then join us." he commanded.

The Knight nodded, pulling an arrow out to put in his crossbow.

"Freya." Leon whispered. "Can you see where the entrance is?"

Freya took a good look, then suddenly spotted a half hidden doorway. It was certainly well camouflaged.

"I can see it." she said pointing in the direction of it.

"The moment the guards have been killed we need that door open, before anyone else reaches it."

Freya nodded. "That won't be a problem."

"Right everyone we need to get down this path, I'll give the signal once the guards are taken out and the door is down we need to get in there quickly."

There was a general mumble of agreement, making sure the Knight was concentrating first, Leon led everyone down the path, making sure he kept partly inside the bushes. Everyone followed suit there was an audible tension around suddenly. Leon went slowly not wanting anyone to slip, the path was even more steep then he was expecting. A couple of times his own feet almost lost their balance.

He could hear Isolde mumbling under her breath. "Remember what you said about not letting us down!" Leon sighed to himself, she was incorrigible at times. He continued to inch his way down, hoping that the warriors had made it the castle to begin their diversion, otherwise he feared it would be twice as hard.

They were almost at the bottom, when suddenly they heard the warning bell going off. Leon gave the signal to the Knight who instantly took the two guards out. They rushed down the path, Leon allowing Freya to go past. He motioned Gwen and Isolde to follow her, and with the other Knights he kept an eye open for any more guards.

"Tospringe." Freya called and the entrance blew off. Smiling she called. "Follow me."

Gwen and Isolde followed Freya. "We need to turn left and then go down the steps there." Gwen called remembering the plans they'd seen before they left.

"Let me go first, I'll check the way is clear."

Leon said bending his head around the wall. He could hear footsteps running but they seemed to be going in the opposite direction. He assumed they would be helping out the defence in the front of the castle. Hopefully the warriors would keep them busy for a while.

"Okay follow me, keep your eyes open though." he said running forward. He ran down the corridor looking out for the steps, They were half way along the corridor the corridor was very dark though, darker than he would of liked. He inched his way along it, aware of that there were alcoves where anyone could surprise them, at any moment. He was just about to relax as he saw the steps ahead, when suddenly a shadow loomed out of the last alcove.

He went to use his sword, but to his surprise found it knocked out of his hand, as if someone had thrown a heavy weight at it. His wrist felt an intense pain in it.

"It would appear we have some visitors." the figure moved out in front of them all. "It is so nice of you to call, I do so get lonely on occasions." she laughed.

Before anyone could react they were surrounded by the castle guards.

"Are you not going to introduce yourselves?" she asked approaching Leon. Taking a good look around him, she purred. "I would say that you were Leon, Arthur's second in command, most trusted ally."

Leon couldn't help but stare at her eyes which were an intense blue colour, they seemed to eat him up, rendering him useless.

Demonia moved on to Gwen. "I don't think I have ever had a King and Queen visit me together Guinevere. How nice to meet you. I'm sure Arthur will be so pleased to have you with him."

"Don't think-" Gwen began, but before she managed to say anything else Demonia had lost interest in her.

The witch had already reached Isolde, and was partaking in a staring stand off with her

"This must be Isolde." Demonia smiled indulgently. "I so like women with spirit."

"I'll put you to the sword!" Isolde cried out but as she prepared to hit out with her sword, Demonia put her hand in the air and the sword went flying down the corridor narrowly missing two guards as it did.

Suddenly Demonia approached Freya. "Now this must be Freya. Merlin's little girl." she grinned and began to touch her on the face. Freya jerked her head back and faced Demonia determined not to flinch.

"Of course if I was really evil I would be making you repair my castle that you have attempted to destroy today. But I am sure you are dying to see your loved ones, and who am I to deny people their last wishes." Demonia laughed. She signalled to the guards to take them down stairs.

They were herded down and taken along a darkened corridor, suddenly they could see the cells ahead of them. Freya who was in front looked desperately around her, despite her annoyance at being caught her only thought was to be reunited with Merlin now.

All the cells though appeared to be empty and for a second she was beginning to suspect that they were not here at all. Then suddenly she saw movement up ahead, and recognised Arthur's astonished face staring at them all.

Suddenly there was pandemonium around a load of voices all talking at once. The guard having got the cell open then pushed them all into it, and closed the door and locked it, a gleeful look on his face.

"What on earth are you doing here?" Arthur demanded.

"I would of thought that was obvious!" Isolde bit back.

"We were trying to rescue you." Freya explained looking at Merlin embarrassedly.

"So what went wrong then?" Gwaine asked a grin on his face.

"They got caught, what a daft thing to do." Tristan said rolling his eyes.

"Well if you hadn't of got yourselves caught in the first place." Isolde stormed back.

"Say nothing of going through places that you were told not to go through." Freya pointed out looking straight at Arthur.

"Now just a minute." Arthur demanded suddenly having enough. "We had time against us so we needed to take a chance."

"I said that forest didn't feel right." Merlin objected.

"Whose side are you on?" Arthur said glaring at his friend.

"He never does listen though." Isolde pointed out.

"Your hardly one to talk!" Tristan grunted.

"Well it takes one to know one." Isolde said turning her back on him.

Suddenly Gwen had had enough. "Will you all be quiet!" she shouted. "You're all carrying on like a bunch of children!"

Suddenly there was silence as everyone looked in shock at the Queen. Satisfied that everybody was now at least quiet she attempted to make a bad situation seem less embarrassing all round.

"Thank you. The point is we are now all in this together, so we need to work together. When we can get back to Camelot we can get into less trivial matters such as whose fault it is."

Feeling suddenly embarrassed Arthur stepped forward.

"As ever Guinevere you are right. Maybe we should take a few minutes to reflect that." he smiled lovingly at his wife, who as ever in a moment of madness had managed to keep her head and dignity.

The tension suddenly eased and partners who before were shouting in each others faces, were suddenly more mellow.

Freya went over to the side of the cell towards Merlin. She reached her hand through the bars and before long they were attempting an awkward kiss.

"I'm so glad you're still alive." she said with a smile.

"It will take a lot to get rid of me." Merlin assured her with a grin.

"Are you all right?" she asked looking at him carefully.

"Oh I'm fine." Merlin lied not wanting to confess his difficulties.

Freya looked at him knowing he was not telling her the truth. She sighed he would always be the same in that respect. She was about to say something when Gwen spoke again.

"I think Freya and Merlin need to talk I suggest the rest of us take a rest quietly." Gwen said looking over at Freya.

Freya nodded at Gwen, and slowly began to tell Merlin all that she had learnt about the forest.