Chapter 12: Tension

The knots passed her fourth inspection. Two attempts, then the grappling hook caught and held halfway up the rocky cliffs. Down on the rocky shore, Kelly stared up. Compared to the monstrous perpetual vertical climb her dreams had conjured up, this should have been encouraging. There were plenty of rough edges to cling to and use to gain height once she got above the overhang. The tide was out too so she wasn't going to get bashed against the cliff face by a large wave. It looked like there was an outcrop near the grapple hook that she could rest on while she readied the next upward swing. The top of the castle parapets loomed over a hundred metres above the cliffs. They stared down and scoffed at her and her primitive equipment, daring her to try.

Too late for nerves? Bullshit.

Before the cliffs and stone wall could psyche her out, she donned the harness and attached the make-shift prusiks to the main rope. Having looped the rope through a ring in the grappling hook, both ends of the rope were on the ground. The Doctor took up one end wordlessly while she attached the other end securely through the belay loop around her waist. That done he took hold of the other end of the rope and wrapped it around him. Once she was off the ground, he would be her anchor.

He didn't hurry her which she was grateful for. It was also comforting to notice he seemed familiar with what he was required to do. It did puzzle her though. Nothing about him suggested he had ever climbed but his movements were precise and thoughtful. He's done this before, she realised yet she couldn't imagine Ace being much of a climber. She would sooner charge the front gate than sneak around the back. He nodded that he was ready and took the slack out of the rope. She watched the grappling hook carefully. It did not budge an inch. Hopefully it would stay that way.

Kelly leaned forward and the rope took her weight. Promising start, she thought. Her feet stood on a prusik each and she pulled the left one up, pushing down on her right leg for momentum. She copied the same action for the right prusik and slid it up to meet the left. Alternating between standing and sitting, she gradually gained height. Every time she stood, she felt the rope tug at the belay loop as the Doctor took the slack.

"Good luck," she heard him whisper as her feet left the ground.

Contrary to popular belief the trick was to neither look up or down. Look up and you'd get discouraged by how far you still had left to go. Look down and suddenly you feel you're a lot higher up and cling to the rope for dear life. Both drained stamina. Kelly stared at the rope instead. Unlike everything else, it did not change. Gradually the sound of waves crashing on the rocks lessened and the sea breeze picked up. Kelly wasn't paying either any attention. All that mattered was sliding left hand up, sitting, sliding right hand up and sitting.

Were she to think about it, she might have found the noise a little discomforting. She was used to climbing in silence. Being able to see her hands and the prusiks was also uncommon. Most occasions of late that she had made use of these skills had been in the dark, fixed to a rope from the ceiling and descending slowly and quietly usually with a grid of lasers beneath her. Falling at least was a consistent peril with sharp rocks, long drops or lasers waiting for her to slip up.

As her mind tried to blot out everything but the rope and the climb, she was pulled out of her zombie-like state every few steps by a tug of the rope from above. That too was unusual. She couldn't remember the last time she had climbed with a partner watching her back. Even when she had been given the option, she had always turned it down. She couldn't trust anyone to look out for her so it was better to work alone. Depend on yourself and then you are the only one who can let you down. It was smarter and safer that way, or so she had thought. But when a task could not be accomplished alone like this was, she had always sought an alternative. Yet she had not looked for one this time.

Surely there had to be other options, she thought as she adjusted a prusik that had tightened too much. This one must have been the best one... even though I can't remember assessing any other. She wasn't sure if that worried her or not. This plan had been so concrete in her mind and she had focused on obtaining everything needed. Did that mean she had chosen to utilise the Doctor's help because it was convenient or because she needed him? The thought lingered. 'Needing' was not something she liked. It felt wrong to depend on someone but now wasn't the time to think about it but later... Later she would need to reflect on that.

The pendulum swings back and forth shortened as she approached the lip of the overhang. She didn't slow until she had both feet resting against the rock face. Sitting back in the harness and allowing the rope to take her weight and her feet to steady her, she nervously removed one hand off the rope and breathed a deep sigh of relief when she didn't plummet to the beach. So far so good.

She selected a chisel of metal from her belt. Let's hope those knives were good quality, she thought and stabbed the point into the cliff. Twisting it until it was firm, the knife remained imbedded into the rock when she let it go. She gathered a length of the rope from beneath her and looped it around the knife's hilt. To be sure it wasn't about to fall out, she prusiked up a little higher and hammered the pommel with her heel. Satisfied her safety line was secure, she examined the rock face for handholds and a way up. It would be tiring to prusik the entire distance and rock climbing would be faster too.

She ascended at a slow but stable speed broken with periodic bursts of energy followed by a few minutes of rest where she allowed the rope to hold her and give her arms and thighs a break. She tried to be sparing with the knife-pitons as her supply was limited but establishing them in the cliff also reduced the weight she had to carry.

It was a relief to reach the grappling hook but also a concern. She had to be extremely careful how she approached it. Lean too far left or right and the hook might slide out and she would freefall until the nearest piton/knife jolted her to a stop. That is, if it held. Otherwise it was one fast track to the beach. Kelly was pleased to have judged a good place to swing the hook. There was a rock shelf here which she could cling to while she retrieved the hook and swung it up again for part two of the climb. The thought of leaning back to throw it sent a stream of sweat down her spine.

One hand firmly grasping a solid handhold, she tugged at the rope until the grappling hook slipped. It fell a short distance then stopped. She didn't dare look down but she knew the Doctor had noticed it come free and had pulled on the hook from the other direction to stabilise it. She reeled it in and was forced to look up. Whoo, yes, still some way to go. So long as she didn't look down and gain perspective on how high she was...

Come on. Throw the hook already, she told herself.

She swung the hook around a few times to get momentum and tossed it then hugged the rock. She groaned in frustration as she heard it clang against rock then felt the tug as the hook fell past her again.

Bugger.

She hauled it up and leaned back a bit to try and catch sight of where she ought to aim. Her throw was off again and she was showered by pieces of broken up rock. Spitting some out of her mouth and rubbing her shoulder against her face to get it off her face, she gritted her teeth.

Up went the hook, down it went. Up, down. Up and stick! Yes! She tugged at the rope. The hook came free. No! She almost slipped on the loose pieces of stone under her feet during the next throw and drove another knife into the stone above her head as a precaution.

I knew this was going to be tricky, she thought, but this is just infuriating. Not to mention terrifying.

She donned her emotionless mask to draw upon her patience. I need to adjust my throw position. It wasn't a reassuring thought and her heart beat restlessly in her chest as she edged out along the ledge. Fighting to maintain her balance with only one hand keeping her from slipping backwards, she swung the hook up. It caught.

Holding her breath, she sidled back along the ledge. She tugged at the rope. She tugged again. On the third try she started grinning and stretched her arms above her head. Right, off we go again.

On a clear day, the reflection of the sun on the ocean was blinding. At dawn it was pretty but still damn bright and painful to look at. Once it got dark though, few wanted to get close to the parapets. Beyond the stone wall was nothing but a long drop into oblivion. The castle guards who patrolled the wall avoided getting close to the edge. Most didn't see much point standing around there anyway. Any ship would be seen first from the towers, not the walls. Patrolling 'sea-side' was punishment most of the time. It was cold, dark and downright unsettling.

The lone guard stationed along the hundred metre stretch stood beside a brazier. His back was turned and he was warming his hands so he did not notice a hook fly over the parapets from the darkness and lodge itself in the corner formed between the merlon and embrasure. His hands were almost defrosted when he took a blow to the back of the head and collapsed. His assailant dragged his unconscious body away from the light.

Nobody gave a second glance as a castle guard patrolled the wall's perimeter then took the watch tower's spiral staircase down to the ground floor. They walked unopposed into the courtyard and into the barracks. Most of the occupants were asleep in bunks or gathered around a table rolling dice. The guard took a tankard from a nearby table and filled it before departing. While their presence did not go unnoticed, the behaviour wasn't uncommon. No one could blame them for sneaking a drink to keep them awake while on duty.

Had the guard dawdled or faltered on their way, perhaps a few eyebrows would have been raised. But they didn't. There wasn't even the slightest hesitation. They walked in a direct route towards their destination, as if they had walked it before. In fact the only person to squint at the guard was the grumpy older man on duty in the dungeons. He put it down to old age but the partially obscured face beneath the helmet didn't look very familiar. His memory certainly wasn't what it used to be. He took the offered drink with a grunt of thanks. Maybe this new pup wasn't so bad after all.

He snapped moodily at the racket made by one of the prisoners who had been a nuisance since his shift started and had been mentioned in numerous curses in the barracks. He would have been pleased to have the incessant banging stop but he had been knocked out cold and thus could not hear anything anymore by the time it did.

"Pack your bags," the guard told the prisoners as she stepped over the jailor and retrieved the keys. "Your knight in shining armour's here."

Ace beamed like a Cheshire cat as she leapt from the floor and grasped the bars. "Kelly!"

Kelly raised a finger to her lips and shushed her. "Keep watch while I get this open," she instructed as she fitted one of the keys into the lock.

"The large grey one between the smaller silver ones," Ancelyn chimed in helpfully, having been awoken by the noise. "But... Can it really be you?" He peered through the bars at her. "I saw thou slain."

Well, I'm not a ghost, thought Kelly. Not this time around anyway. The passageways had been identical to those she had travelled while in her ghost-like state. The Trickster's gift had had its uses. Remembering how to reach the dungeons had proven to be incredibly useful. The keep was a maze of corridors which all looked alike. All were also sparsely guarded which put Kelly's nerves on edge. There had been at least twice as many guards last time. Where had they gone?

"Told you I was gonna get out of here," Ace declared as Kelly unlocked the doors to their cells.

"I did not doubt it," he replied with a broad grin. Freed, he immediately took up the fallen guard's sword while Ace grabbed her friend in a quick hug.

"Took long enough though," Ace reprimanded lightly as they broke apart.

Kelly rolled her eyes but smiled. She scanned Ace's face. "You okay?" she asked.

Ace nodded. She stank terribly. She had earned a few more scrapes since Kelly had last seen her but otherwise appeared unharmed. While this was a relief for Kelly, it didn't make much sense. Surely they would have tried to extract information from Ace about her whereabouts. That had been the reason she had been captured after all. Yet Ace was intact and on the mend by the colour of those bruises. They were a very dull brown and weren't swollen at all. Kelly glanced at Ancelyn's exposed forearms and face. Minimal bruising and also on the mend. So they hadn't harmed him either. Why?

Suspecting another illusion, she poked Ancelyn but he was solid and a bit confused by her scrutinising frown.

"I'm fine," Ace protested, misinterpreting Kelly's frown. "We're both fine."

"Thanks to your squire's magic," Ancelyn added.

"Not actual magic," Ace butted in hastily as Kelly's eyes narrowed. "They got spooked by the eye colour changing thing."

But that meant they had tried, thought Kelly as she bit her lip. They had to have made her angry, very angry. It was the only trigger for the golden-eyes. So they had assumed it was because she had magic and left her alone for fear of it being used on them, concluded Kelly. I never thought I'd be glad this time period was so superstitious but I sure am now.

She caught Ace peering past her. "Where's the Professor?"

"Avoiding high tide I should think," Kelly replied, peering out into the corridor. I hope Ancelyn isn't afraid of heights, she thought with a frown. She hadn't thought of that. I knew he would be a beginner having never been exposed to abseiling before but if he has a panic attack while suspended in the air... That could be dangerous. Too much swinging or flailing around and the grappling hook might come loose and down they all went.

Ancelyn bent over the unconscious guard and began stripping him of armour. "Let us hurry before the fighting is over."

"What?" Kelly blinked. "Fighting? No, there's no fighting."

He frowned and glanced back at her. "The fighting is done already?" he asked sounding disappointed. "Tis sad news to hear."

"I think he was hoping for a good castle siege style rescue," Ace commented. "Big battle, armies, lots of sword swinging, that kind of thing."

Ancelyn looked uncertain. "If the fighting is all but over, let us charge into battle and help where we can."

No, that's not what I meant, thought Kelly as she scrambled to stop him from running off. "A hundred men against three? I don't think so. There is no army, just me. This is a rescue, not a suicide mission."

The knight was perplexed before translating her explanation into something he understood. "Ah," nodded Ancelyn. "You mean for us to run away."

Yes, run away before we get spotted and surrounded, captured or killed. But the knight's pride would object. "Not running exactly… Just... regrouping. Yes, regrouping. Because..." she strained for an acceptable excuse. "You are needed elsewhere as quickly as possible."

The knight crossed his arms. "For what cause?"

For someone who has just been rescued, you're being quite picky. Can't you just be grateful and go along with the plan? Kelly plucked an excuse from the ether. "You wouldn't turn down a plea for aid from the King, would you?" She knew she'd struck the right chord when Ancelyn's eyes lit up. "Didn't think so, now come on."

Ace had a gleam in her eyes as she whispered, "You mean King Arthur?"

"The one and only," Kelly murmured back trying not to smile.

"Wicked," Ace breathed.

They kept to the shadows and followed Kelly's lead. She tried to ignore the extra noise Ace and Ancelyn made as she guided them from shadow to shadow. The clunking and heavy footsteps did little to ease her nerves. That wasn't the most concerning factor to her unease. Not a single guard was to be seen and Kelly's blood chilled in her veins. She knew they should have bumped into somebody by now. They were hardly inconspicuous or silent and Kelly pulled a knife out from under her disguise and poised, ready to lash out. Every corner she peered around made her more anxious. It smelt of a trap; the empty corridors, the lack of sound bouncing off stone walls.

Ace sensed her unease and started twitching nervously. "This is wrong," Ace stated. "Where is everyone?"

"Perhaps they are asleep," suggested Ancelyn but neither Ace nor Kelly believed that was the answer.

There was no other option but to continue. To stay would only make their discovery and recapture certain. They could not deviate from the path Kelly had followed in either. It was the only way out she knew. She doubted she could find the section of wall where the grappling hook was in the dark.

The courtyard was empty and they hurried to the stairs to climb onto the wall. That would have been the ideal location to stage an ambush, thought Kelly. Or here on the wall in the confined space.

Against her better judgement, Kelly led them to the grappling hook. Much to her relief, it was still there. Ace peered over the edge.

"Whoa! You came up from all the way down there? You can't even see the ground!"

"I can assure you, it'll be a lot easier going down than it was getting up," Kelly murmured back, still spinning around every few seconds, expecting to be ambushed.

"You want us to go down there?" whispered Ancelyn in alarm.

"No," Kelly replied deadpan. "I want you to just admire the view and appreciate just what I had to do to get up here to rescue you."

Ancelyn looked relieved, unfamiliar with sarcasm.

"Of course I want you to go down there," she told him bluntly.

She told them about a rock shelf about twenty metres below as she helped them into rope-harnesses. They were crude and amateurish compared to hers but they should last the trip down. She worried less about the likelihood of them failing and more on how uncertain she was of Ace's ability to abseil.

"We shall fall," Ancelyn stated adamantly.

He looked extremely uncomfortable in his harness, doubly so when Kelly made him leave the guard's armour behind. There was no need for it. It was heavy and would only weigh them down. Without it he looked quite vulnerable, as he had in the cell. He took another look over the edge of the wall and visibly paled.

Kelly glanced helplessly at Ace. I didn't think he'd be this stubborn and I can't just leave him here.

Ace jumped to her aid. "Don't be such a scaredy cat." She nudged Ancelyn. "Look, Merlin enchanted these." She snatched a look at Kelly. "Didn't he?"

Kelly nodded quickly.

"See? It's magic, tin head. We're not gonna fall. I'll even go first."

Without a word more, Ace stood in the gap beside the grappling hook, turned her back and lowered herself until she was almost horizontal. She waved then pushed off the wall and bounced into the dark. The knight peered nervously after her.

Kelly wished she would take a bit more care but appreciated how Ace had made it look easy. Hopefully that recklessness would embolden the sceptical knight. "You're going to be fine," she assured him as she attached the rope to his harness. "Keep your legs straight and grip the rope with your hand." She mimicked the stance so he could see. An idea appeared in her mind and she handed him her right glove. "That should stop it from stinging or burning your hand. Let the rope slide through slowly. If it's too fast, hold it tighter. To stop, grab it as tight as you can."

The knight nodded slightly. "It sounds complicated but I shall try."

Relieved he wasn't going to baulk on her, she smiled. "I'll be right behind you."

He nodded hesitantly then shuffled his feet backwards, glancing behind him every few steps to see the edge. Kelly held onto the wall with one hand and the rope with the other, holding it taunt while he lowered himself millimetre by millimetre. She allowed no frustration or anxiety show on her face as she directed him through it, step by step. Don't panic, she begged. Don't panic, don't let go and don't look down. Keep looking up at me. Ignore the long drop. That's it, one step at a time. Bit faster when you're ready… We haven't got all day you know. We aren't in a hurry to escape or anything…

Only once he was out of sight did she allow herself to breathe a sigh of relief. They were in the clear now. A shiver ran down Kelly's spine. Her heart raced. Her palms began to sweat. She knew this feeling. She dreaded feeling it every time she went on a mission for MI7. It was more than just a feeling. It was an awareness. She knew she had been spotted before she felt eyes staring into her back. She removed her hands from the wall.

"Hello Mordred."

The knight took a sharp breath, shocked that he had been discovered. He held out his sword and its tip touched her throat. She didn't flinch, holding her ground. His entire arm shook as fury engulfed him.

"I suppose you want to kill me." Really, what else could it be? Taking glances either side of her, she noticed the lack of an entourage. "Personally too it seems. Nobody else around to get in the way."

Nobody to watch you murder a woman, Kelly added to herself.

"Killing me once just wasn't enough, was it?"

"No," was the short reply. "Thou should have stayed dead when first slain."

True, she agreed. I should have. I should have died on that gravel. I would have if not for Ace's foresight. I have those she lost before me to thank for that. "I apologise for being so difficult to kill," she mocked, stepping back to put herself between the knight and the grappling hook. "But I bet you want to know how I did it. How I outsmarted you."

"You shan't escape death twice," he spat. "I will make sure of it."

She believed him. His eyes were flooded with bloodlust. No magic trinket was going to save her this time. "Of course you will. But running me through with a blade is rather unimaginative."

I must draw this out, she thought firmly. I must give them enough time to reach the overhang. If I don't, it'll all have been for nothing. Is this what happened to the others Ace never talks about? she wondered. Did they die for her?

"Surely you can think of something a bit more inventive to kill me with," she taunted. "You have had days to think about it, after all."

"You deserve no better," he told her, lowering the tip of his sword to rest over her heart.

She smiled. Maybe he was right. Dying without cause was pointless. Dying to protect those she cared about was… acceptable. Her sense of peace wavered as her back scraped against the wall, producing an odd sound. That's not a knife, she thought, or my harness. What is … Discretely she reached for it and her fingers wrapped themselves around the grip. Ah… I knew this would come in handy.

You know, being selfless doesn't suit me, she decided. I've played my part. I've bought them enough time and if they haven't reached the outcrop yet, then tough luck. I'm not just going to stand here and let Mordred kill me. Bugger being noble, I'm going to survive this if my name's not Kelly Jones.

With the slightest twitch of a smile, she sidestepped away from the blade at her throat and brought the pistol up to point between Mordred's eyes. His eyes widened in alarm before he laughed in her face. "Pathetic. You know not what you hold nor how to wield it."

Kelly cocked an eyebrow.

The knight yelped as the pistol fired a bolt of charged lightning between his feet.

"Care to rethink that?" she offered.

His grin wavered.

"A gun's very different to a sword," Kelly began, casually tapping his sword away from her with the side of the barrel. "You don't need years and years of practice in order to use it." She shifted the aim of the pistol up towards Mordred's face once more. "You just point and-"

The knight stumbled as she fired over his left shoulder.

"-click."

Mordred kept a watchful eye on the pistol, appearing to be rethinking his approach. Not such a bright idea sending everyone else away to kill me on your own now was it, thought Kelly with a sly smile.

"In the time it takes for you to stab me, or slice me, or cut my head off or whatever other way you're thinking of chopping me up into itty bitty pieces, I will have shot you three times." She pointed to her first two targets; the left side of the chest and a little to the right. "Bang, bang…" She then pointed at the last target; his unprotected throat. "Bang."

She did not think about the fact that she had never pulled a trigger to fire at a person before. Completing the training for service in MI7 had not been difficult but after that target practice she had not used once since. She did not own one, nor did she carry one with her while on a mission. An espionage operative was more likely to be shoot at than in a position where shooting someone was necessary. An espionage operative was also more likely to be shot rather than captured if armed.

She and Mordred were at a standoff, neither willing to make the first move. Would a shot or magic bolt to the arm or leg be fatal? The fallen warriors who were little more than ashes now, had they been killed with one shot? She had no way of knowing. Morality aside, she could not afford to kill him. He had yet to encounter Ace and the Doctor where they had first met him. Almost everything that had happened since she had arrived here relied on that meeting. If Mordred never lived to meet them, surely that would cause a paradox. In that case, shooting him was not an option. It was only a bluff.

If she had any hope of surviving, she had to make it to that overhang. The moment she went over the edge, Mordred would try to remove the grappling hook. One slice of his sword and the rope would be cut. The nearest knife was imbedded into the cliff-face at least ten metres down. The fall factor was high; she would fall almost that far again beneath it before the next knife took the strain.

She met his eyes in one last glare of defiance. "I'd sooner jump than let you kill me."

Mordred's gaze was drawn to the abyss behind her. Grabbing the rope, she fired the pistol. The magic bolt slammed into the ground between them with a flash as she pushed off the wall. The pistol fell from her grip as she grabbed the rope with both hands. Mordred roared and she felt the snap as he severed the rope.

Her gut plummeted. The rope ran through her hand like a stream of boiling water. She gripped it tighter to try to slow her decent and the rope seared into the soft skin between the thumb and forefinger. A violent tug; the first knife piton. Her decent slowed momentarily but the knife didn't take the weight. She began picking up speed again. Another tug and her shoulder slammed into the cliff. She swung out then back towards the rock face again. On the return swing, she snatched a handhold with her free hand, the taste of blood from her bit lip in her mouth. The rope quivered but she couldn't stop moving until she had the rocky ledge beneath her feet, not even daring to look down.

"Got you!" Ace called as she pulled on the back of Kelly's shirt.

Only after stabbing another piton into the cliff and anchoring herself to it did Kelly allow herself to acknowledge the terror that had threatened to engulf her.