Later that night, when the branch of the Saxon army that had attempted to cut the Sarmatians off on their escape to the east had rejoined the rest of the Saxon troops at Honorius' estate, Cynric lay beside Ytria in his bed and wondered how to tell his father about her.

He knew that the punishment she would receive for treason by letting herself get captured was death, and that it was more in revenge for the stolen grain and horses than women that they were here. He also knew that his father would eventually find out at some stage, and if he left it too long to tell him he risked facing the charge of treason himself.

He sighed and rolled over onto his back, thinking. She rolled over as well, turning to face him, and he reached out and put his arm around her, pulling her in close to him.

"What's wrong?" she asked him quietly, sliding a hand across his bare chest.

He just sighed again and brushed a strand of her hair out of her face.

"You're thinking about what's going to happen to me, aren't you?" she said sadly, resting her chin on his shoulder.

"I won't let them kill you, Ytria. You know that."

She laughed softly. "Even you can't counter the laws laid down by the Gods, Cynric. I have to be punished for bringing dishonour on my family and my tribe and our people."

He shook his head. "It wasn't even your fault. I should have been there to protect you."

She sighed and laid her head on his chest. "There's nothing we can do about it now."

"Who were those people you were with?" he asked her curiously.

She laughed. "Arthur Castus and his Sarmatian knights. They saved me from the Romans."

"So it wasn't them that captured you?"

She shook her head. "The man who conducted all the raids was a nobleman named Marius Honorius. The knights killed him early this morning."

"How did they rescue you?"

She shuddered. "I was… the Christian priests locked me in a room with about twenty other girls… and left us to die because we were sinners, they said. Some of the girls… the girl next to me… they went mad with hunger and started eating themselves… their clothes, their hair. We were all chained down, or they would have been eating each other, too."

She started to cry and he drew her into his arms, horrified. He held her for a while, until she had cried herself out. He then searched for something to ask her, trying to change the subject. "Who was that woman that cracked the river this morning?"

She sniffed. "That's Jessamine. She's a Sarmatian gildatore. The Scythian girl they had with them told me a bit about the gildatorae – they're female warriors who carry a part of the Sarmatians' war god inside of them. I hope she's all right. It was her that first discovered the room I was locked in. Without her, I wouldn't even be here."

"A female warrior?" he asked incredulously.

She laughed and nodded. "The Sarmatians aren't as traditional about that sort of thing as we are."

He raised his eyebrows. "Obviously,"

She began to cry again. "Oh, Cynric, I don't want to die here. I don't want to die."

He held her close to him, hating his father and their stupid laws with every fibre of his being. "I won't let them kill you. I promise I won't let you die."

-----------------------------------

Fulwood sat in her dorm, leafing desperately through the piles of paper and other crap on her desk, looking for her ancient history assignment. She had been thinking about what had happened to Jess, and had realised the date that it had been when she had disappeared.

31st October. Not only was it Halloween, to the Celts it had been a special ceremonial day where they celebrated something, but she couldn't remember what, or which day it was.

She found the assignment and flipped through the pages, trying to find the section on Religious Beliefs and Practices of the Ancient British Celts.

"Oh, of course," she breathed to herself as she read over the list and the properties of the day involved.

Samhain, the ancient Celtic festival marking the beginning of winter and also the beginning of their New Year, was the time when the veil between their world and the surrounding worlds was supposed to be the thinnest. It was the night when the door between life and death stood open, and likewise the day when the Summer King and the King of Winter concluded their epic duel with the triumph of the Winter King for another six months.

Not only that, scientists had done some extensive research on the solar winds in the past few days and discovered that they were the sun's way of releasing pent-up energy, a phenomenon that occurred approximately every 1500 years for the whole of the solar year1.

The telephone companies' satellites were still up in space because they weren't able to move them through the windstorm, but the companies had all issued a decree stating that the use of mobile phones during the period of solar wind activity was dangerous and irresponsible, and the boarding house had then gone and confiscated all of the boarders' phones.

They being used to this, though, each girl had two; one that she pretended to hand in every morning (so they couldn't use it at school) and one that they actually used all day and practically all night as well.

Fulwood thought about all of this and then looked out the window, checking for thunderclouds. As Pascoe and Campbell came in and began complaining about their end of year exams, she began to formulate a plan.

--------------------------

Jess woke up as the sun was rising and looked in confusion at the long red cloak she was wrapped in. She then sat up stiffly and gasped as the pain from her wounds flooded back, having taken a holiday while she was asleep. Bartatua pricked up his ears from where he was grazing nearby and walked over to her, nudging her inquiringly. Fortunately, it was her right shoulder that he nudged, and not the one with the arrow in it.

"You're up early," a voice said behind her, and she turned to see Lancelot walking towards her, with a sword on each shoulder and wearing only his leather pants.

She laughed. "So are you. And by the looks of things, you've already been busy for a while. What were you doing?"

He shrugged and swung his swords down, leaning them against a tree. "I felt the need to brush up on my sword-handling skills,"

She grinned at him. "Meaning you felt the need to hit something,"

He laughed. "Maybe,"

He sat down beside her and pulled a tunic on over his head. "How're all those wounds?"

She grimaced and leaned back against the tree behind her. "I'm hoping if I keep still enough they won't realise I'm here."

He laughed again. "Arthur says you have to ride with me today,"

She sighed. "I was expecting there to be some such decree,"

He shook his head. "What were you thinking, running out there all by yourself, anyway?"

She shrugged. "I guess I figured that it would be easier than battling them all,"

He looked at her. "You had us all worried,"

She laughed. "Yeah, I heard you all yelling after me. I must say, I'm flattered that you all care that much about me,"

"Sorry I was a bit short with you yesterday," he said, looking down at the ground.

She shook her head. "You more than made up for it last night by looking after me the way you did,"

"In that case, then, you owe me," he said, moving over and pushing her around the trunk of the tree she was leaning against. "Let me share that back rest."

She laughed, falling off the tree. "You can have the whole thing if you want, so long as I can lean on you."

"Deal," he said, grinning, and then grabbed her and hauled her over so that she was sitting in his lap.

"You're such a little kid," she said, laughing, as she hit him and tried to get away.

"Who's the one hitting people to get what she wants?" he asked, amused, and then pulled her back down to lie against him. "If you keep that up you'll injure yourself again."

She laughed and relaxed a little bit. "So what are your plans for going home, Lancelot?"

He shrugged. "See my family, I guess. Apart from that I don't know. But anything's going to better than being here on this bloody island with every hostile tribe of barbarians in the whole of the Roman Empire."

She snorted. "Amen to that,"

He laughed and let down his guard a little bit, and she managed to crawl about a metre away before he caught her, tipped her over onto her back and then kissed her.

Unfortunately, though, Bartatua thought this was very interesting, and came over to investigate, nudging Lancelot in various places from his head to his chest in an attempt to find out what was going on. Eventually, Lancelot came up for air and made shooing motions at the big black horse, who just snorted and then kept trying to eat various parts of Lancelot's clothing, which caused Jess to start laughing. Lancelot then grabbed hold of Bartatua's nose and pushed him away, at which the black stallion let out an ear-piercingly shrill whinny and loped off over the other side of the clearing.

Unfortunately, this also woke everyone else in the camp.

Lancelot sighed and looked down at her. "I knew that horse was evil,"

She began to laugh again, and after a while he glared at her and moved away, but he was grinning as he did so.

-------------------------------

Kelermes was sulking. Not only had she been hoisted out of the body she had gone to so much trouble to find just as she was about to wreak major havoc and destruction, she seemed to be floating in some kind of icy water. Bodies floated around her, but they were all male, and Saxon. She couldn't have used any of them even if she had wanted to. She sighed and started floating towards where she could feel the distant tug of the tides on the shore, thinking that the river would eventually have to melt somewhere towards the sea.

One day I'll kill everything that threatens the Sarmatian way of life, she thought to herself furiously. One day.

------------------------------

Their horses were exhausted by the time they stopped at midday, most of them carrying two people over the rough territory to the north of the Wall. Jess suggested mildly that if they were going to insist on not letting her ride by herself, perhaps she and Lancelot should switch to Bartatua, and, after looking once at the labouring Api, Lancelot agreed.

Guinevere and Arthur were talking quietly on the far side of the clearing, and Jess grinned at Lancelot as he lifted her down from Palagius' saddle, as Lancelot had done for her. Lancelot smiled and handed her some of the bread that was apparently all they were eating for lunch. She took it and sighed, thinking that she couldn't wait until the sandwich was invented.

Arthur came over and stifled a grin as she chewed dispiritedly through the soggy bread. "We're going to stay here for the night to give the horses the rest they need. We're far enough away from the Saxons to ease off the pace a bit, I think."

Lancelot nodded. "I'll go and water the horses, then,"

Jess sighed and limped across to where Cimmeria and Guinevere were now seated, divided the rest of her uneaten bread in half and through one half to each girl, sitting down carefully in between them. Guinevere smiled and handed Jess the apple Arthur had given her. She raised an eyebrow.

"How did you manage to wrangle this, Guinevere?"

She laughed. "Animal magnetism,"

Jess shook her head and took a bite, thinking how strange it was that she had hated Guinevere in the movie for what she had done to Lancelot, but now, knowing her, she was just an ordinary teenage girl the same as any of her friends – albeit with some rather different problems, like wars instead of exams. "Are you sure you're not just the cook's favourite?"

Cimmeria laughed and shook her head. "It's bribery, so that she'll keep sleeping with him,"

Jess noticed Arthur looking at them suspiciously and began to laugh, and soon all three of them were involved in a giggle-fest the likes of which she hadn't seen since their Carols Service back in 2007, when a very devoted man had stood up and sung loudly off-key and behind time to "O Come All Ye Faithful".

Lancelot shook his head at them as he walked past. "Women,"

She stopped laughing and raised an eyebrow archly. "Oh, come on, you know you can't live without us,"

He laughed. "Oh, really?"

She nodded. "You see, one of the major differences between men and women is that women can live without sex. Men can't."

Lancelot stared at her, his mouth open, for a second, and then swore and walked away. Cimmeria and Guinevere both recommenced giggling as Jess punched the air triumphantly – with her good arm – and took another bite of the apple.

"Got him. Right where it hurts, too, by the looks of it," Cimmeria said, leaning back against the rock they were sitting in front of.

Jess laughed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Guinevere snorted. "Oh, come on,"

Cimmeria nodded. "Yeah, we've seen the way you two tiptoe around each other,"

"You're almost as obvious as Cimmeria and tall and silent over there," Guinevere said, chewing on the bread Jess had given her.

"Stop calling him that," Cimmeria said irritably. "His name is Tristan."

"You wouldn't know it, though," Eunyphore said, coming over to sit beside them. "I mean, you practically have to drag every word out of him. I asked him how far we were from the wall before and he just shrugged."

"Maybe he didn't know," Cimmeria said defensively.

Jess laughed. "No offence, Cimmeria, but Tristan knows. He and Arthur are talking about it now,"

Cimmeria sighed. "Fine, so he doesn't talk much. There's nothing wrong with that, is there?"

The men stood in a small clump on the other side of the clearing looking wary.

"Is Jessamine okay?" Gawain asked Lancelot quietly, looking at them all gossiping madly.

Lancelot shook his head. "She must be delirious from the pain, or something,"

"Who do you think they're talking about?" Bors asked suddenly, and they all looked at each other and then tried to edge closer.

"Oh, God," Arthur said quietly as Guinevere began to talk animatedly, gesticulating wildly. "I think she's talking about me,"

Galahad looked at some of her hand gestures. "I hope not,"

Tristan was trying to lip read something Eunyphore was saying, but nothing that he came up with made any sense. "I think they're talking about Maechises, at the moment," he said uncertainly.

Dagonet grimaced and then knelt down to talk to Lucan. "This is probably the highest form of evil in the known world," he said, pointing at all the girls. "It is called gossiping. It is advised that you never engage in this yourself."

Lucan nodded solemnly. "It does look a bit scary,"

"Don't worry, son," Bors said, sounding worried. "We'll protect you,"

The knights clustered into an even tighter clump, and Gawain shuddered. "Any minute now they're going to start talking about their hair. I can just feel it."

They stayed in their little group, clustered fearfully on the outskirts of the clearing, for much of the rest of the day.

-----------------------------

Cynric stood in the middle of his father's tent, watching the man himself pace angrily back and forth in front of him.

"Let me get this straight," he said menacingly, stopping right in front of his son. "You want me to circumvent the laws laid down by our Gods regarding treason for your little wife just because you believe that she doesn't deserve to die."

"She doesn't," Cynric said, not meeting his father's gaze.

"She betrayed our people!" Cerdic shouted, getting right in Cynric's face.

"It wasn't her fault!" Cynric shouted back. "It was my fault! I should have been there to protect her!"

Cerdic backed off and raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? You want me to kill you in her place? Because I will, if you keep this up,"

Cynric closed his eyes for a brief, furious moment and then opened them again, clenching his fists and his jaw. "Yes,"

Cerdic moved a bit closer, looking confused. "What did you say?"

"I said yes!" Cynric shouted, grabbing his father by the front of his furs. "All my life you've told me I was worth nothing! But she is worth something! And the loss of nothing is better than the loss of something, so kill me instead of her! She doesn't deserve to die. Not after everything she's been through."

His father nodded and waved his men-at-arms in from outside. "So be it. You die at midnight."

Cynric sighed and stood still as the men-at-arms tied his wrists behind his back and hustled him out of his father's tent towards where they were keeping what few prisoners they had taken.

They ran into Ytria outside where she was waiting, in tears, obviously having heard their shouted conversation. "Don't do this, Cynric," she said, but the guards pulled him away before he could reply.

Cerdic turned to one of the remaining guards around his tent. "As soon as he's gone, kill her, too,"

The guard nodded and Ytria burst into sobs, falling to the ground in helpless despair.

---------------------------------

By the time the sun was setting, Jess had limped off to the inevitably freezing river to go and wash out her arrow wounds and apply some new bandages. The one in her thigh had bled the least but hurt the most, and she suspected that a bruise would start to show up there sometime soon. Thankfully, none of them seemed to be showing any signs of infection, so she rinsed the bloodstains off and then did the new bandages. The one on her shoulder ached in the cold, and the one in her stomach just hurt, but apart from that she was pretty much okay.

She didn't realise that Lancelot had followed her down until he came and sat beside her after she had pulled her dress back down from her stomach and tucked her knees up under her chin.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked her, quietly.

She sighed, and opted for the truth. "You,"

He laughed. "So, Jessamine, you've been to bed with Galahad, Gawain, Arthur and Tristan. How does a man go about convincing you to go to bed with him?"

She smiled at him. "Well, if you're asking me what you've been doing wrong, you always get me too drunk, for starters."

"And what else?" he asked her, grinning.

She sighed. "You're just too likeable. So I can't sleep with you because then I'll start thinking about our future," she shuddered. "Whereas with the others, it's just like…" she sighed again. "Do you know what I mean?"

He was silent for a while. "What would you say if I told you that right now, from where I'm sitting, a future with you doesn't look too bad?"

She laughed. "I guess I'd have to check if you were serious,"

He nodded and then moved closer to her, brushing a strand of hair away from her face. "Have you had anything to drink tonight?"

She shook her head. "Nothing,"

He nodded again. "Good,"

He leaned in and kissed her, and, thankfully, this time all the horses were tethered.

1 How the scientists actually figured this out is still a mystery, but it probably has something to do with quantum.