You're not talking about justice, you're talking about revenge.
Sometimes they're the same.
No, they are never the same. Justice is about harmony. Revenge is all about making yourself feel better.
Rachel Dawes and Bruce Wayne, Batman Begins
Chapter 8: No Mercy
A guard came to Uther's chambers and informed him that Sir Tate and his men were back in Camelot and were heading for the stables to leave the horses. Uther called for an emergency session of court to hear the news. He knew that his men had picked up a trail that took Balinor out of the borders of the kingdom and he hoped that their return yielded good news.
"Welcome back Sirs Tate, Lehman and Jarvis," he said as they walked in and bowed to him in front of his assembled court members and advisors.
"Thank you sire," Tate said as he and his fellow knights rose from their bow.
"I trust you have news to report," he said getting right into business.
"We do sire. I'm sure that you know from our last report that we found Balinor and the Great Dragon's trail along the border by Essetir. Sir Jarvis led a small team beyond the border to continue the pursuit."
"Were you discovered?"
"Do not worry sire," Jarvis said stepping in. "My men and I traveled incognito as we went into Essetir. We were careful to avoid attracting any sort of attention." At Uther's understanding nod he continued. "We lost the trail through hard rocky terrain and went to collect information from the nearest big town in Essetir but there were no sightings or even rumors of Balinor and his dragon in the kingdom."
"So you found nothing?" Uther's frustration started to show on his face.
"No sire, we found more than something. We found Balinor…and his dragon as well."
"You found them?! Where?" he asked eagerly but strongly.
"As we were heading back to regroup with the others by the border we took a shortcut that put us at the outskirts of Essetir by some high cliffs. These cliffs are the outer perimeter for a cave system. At the mouth of a cave I saw him and his dragon."
"Did they see you?"
"No sire," answered Jarvis. "I was careful. I knew that any sign that they were discovered could compromise this report."
"Excellent. Where exactly is this cave?"
"Along the southwestern part of Essetir. It is next to Ealdor."
Uther thought to himself for a moment before he shook his head. "That name doesn't sound familiar."
"It is an outline village sire," Gaius said keeping his voice steady. "A small one. It would be remote and have no critical value outside a claim of territory. That's probably why."
"True," Uther mumbled.
"Why would the Dragonlord Balinor retreat to a place like this?" asked one of his court.
"It is remote and out of the way. Perhaps that means that Balinor wants to be left in peace, He's probably chosen to live in seclusion." Gaius suggested.
"I truly doubt that peace is something that Balinor wants Gaius," said Uther before turning back to his three knights. "So we have Balinor and his dragon's location? Excellent, now we can begin planning to re-acquire them."
"That's not all we have to report sire. It would seem that Balinor wasn't alone," said Sir Lehman.
"Not alone?"
Jarvis nodded. "When I found him and his dragon, he was with others. Another young man and a young woman were with him. They were with him and the dragon was in plain sight before them and they were acting as if it were a normal occurrence."
"Any idea who these people were?"
Jarvis shook his head no. "They didn't seem familiar or out of place. I would say they were ordinary villagers, probably living in Ealdor. We take this to mean that they might be sheltering them knowingly."
"They probably were," said Sir Tate. "Jarvis found no sign of supplies or even a campfire nearby which suggests that he is living amongst the villagers and not the cave."
Uther was thinking to himself on this for a moment before he nodded to them. "Yes…it's possible that Balinor might be trying to rally people to stand behind him. It could be a sign that he's trying to build himself an army and has started in this village. The entire village might have chosen to support Balinor in his bid to destroy Camelot. For all we know Balinor retreated there because it was his fallback spot. That entire village could be his foothold here in the five kingdoms." He then stood up from his throne with intent and purpose. "This could be bigger than I feared before. We must stop him before he continues to spread his evil."
"That might be a bit far of a stretch sire. All we know is that two people were seen with Balinor. We can't make assumptions on an entire village based on that. For all we know it could only be those two."
"We can't take that chance. If left unchecked Balinor could rally enough people from other outline villages until he has enough for an invasion force. Warlords or even Cenred himself could pledge support if he has a chance to build his army. This might be the time to intervene while we still hold the upperhand."
Sir Tate gave a start. "Strike? Sire, against Balinor and his dragon we would need a decent size force. Balinor is in Essetir and if we move in with that type of man power it could be taken as an act of war. A handful of men can be excused but this kind of force could be taken as an invasion attempt."
"True," said one of his lower lords. "Sire, perhaps we could send an envoy to Cenred and negotiate a means of allowing us permission to apprehend the two."
"No," Uther said defiantly. "The moment Cenred learns of a dragonlord and dragon within his lands he will move in to acquire them for himself. The last thing we need is for one of our enemies to claim such a power to send against us. We would be no better off with that dragon in Cenred's hands than Balinor's. Also, Balinor seems to have made no moves to approach Cenred with an alliance if he stays far from his central field of attention. We just might be able to avoid his attention as well. We'll have to send an army of men there as soon as possible while attention hasn't been called there yet."
One of Uther's knights shot that idea down. "I don't see how this will work sire. As soon as we move in, someone from that village will report us being there to one of Cenred's patrols or lords. Even if we are successful in getting Balinor and the dragon there might be more harm done to us than good. Little care or not, our army on his land would mean war."
"Then…we must ensure that no one in Ealdor gets the chance to tell of us being there."
"Sire?"
His court knights and advisors were in states of shock, confusion and fear.
"In addition to defeating the dragon and dragonlord we must annihilate Ealdor. Ensure that there is no one left to tell we had been there. Apprehend everyone and set the village afire. That would suggest that rogue bandits and looters were to blame. Since Cenred is blind to his outline villages and hamlets then it wouldn't be too out of place that there were no survivors."
His knights were wide eyed and breathless. Sirs Tate and Jarvis particularly. Lehman was uncomfortable but stayed silent. Gaius was frozen in shock.
Geoffrey of Monmouth broke the silence. "Sire, wiping out a village, one not even on our lands, that seems too drastic and radical a move for us to make."
"We can't allow Balinor and his dragon to roam free. They are a true threat to this kingdom and must be destroyed at any cost."
"But to destroy an entire village like this is not one we can make sire," Tate inputted. "It's dishonorable. This is butchery."
"This is a war! A war against magic and the evil it leaves in its wake. Wars have their sacrifices and their casualties. If Balinor is left unchecked or Cenred learns of our move it could mean thousands of Camelot lives. A few dozen villagers or the lives of our people? You want all of our people to suffer in the name of misplaced honor?" There was a dead silence after that. "The answer should be clear. Now we must prepare."
Gaius was in his lab beside himself. He was beginning to wonder just what he had done. His actions have now gotten Hunith and her whole village involved in all of this. He was sure that the woman with Balinor that Jarvis had talked about was Hunith. She had sent a letter to him that Balinor had arrived and had told her that he wasn't planning on staying long. Before today he had thought that he had moved on but it seemed like he had decided to extend his stay with his niece.
"I have to warn her," he mumbled to himself.
But how? He thought about sending a letter to tell her but Uther would have people watching the border between here and Essetir to try and protect the information about an army massing for the border. There was no way that he could send a warning without it being intercepted. No way HE could…but there might be a way for someone else to warn them
Gaius gathered his bag and went out into the city under the pretense of visiting a patient to the guards. He went to the lower town to a house that he had been avoiding for over half a year. He braced himself and knocked on the door. He waited for a moment before the door opened and the figure froze at the sight of him.
"Hello Dinah," he started before he felt a hard slap across his face.
"You have a lot of nerve to show your face here," she growled at him.
"We need to talk Dinah, in private" he added in an undertone as he looked behind him.
Dinah kept glaring at him before she roughly grabbed him by the arm and pulled him inside. As soon as she closed the door Gaius was about to thank her for giving him her ear but before he could she gave him another hard slap across the face.
"What do you want Gaius? I know it's not to give me condolences. You certainly didn't give any to me right after my brother was killed or any day from then to today. I'm sure it doesn't take months to get from the castle to here."
Gaius cringed as the reason for avoiding Dinah all this time hit him with all its glory. It was years ago that Gaius came upon Dinah's brother who had become a broken man. He lost his wife and two daughters during the Greedy King's reign. They were wanted for sale by slave traders and when he tried to refuse the men that came for them, he was beaten and his family killed by those men for resisting. Gaius saw that he lost any love or meaning in life and decided to recommend time with the Druids to help heal him. He was resistant at first but his sister pleaded him to try something other than mope aimlessly in his house. He went to them and he took to them better than expected and soon found himself converting to their way of life. He started to reach out to people again and Gaius was happy to see that he was healing. At least until the Purge started and Uther had him arrested and executed.
"I'm sorry about Reed. He was a good man."
"Don't waste my time with your empty words Gaius. You saved him from a life of misery only to stand back and let his life be cut short just as he was finally moving on."
"Do not presume that Reed wasn't dear to me Dinah," he scolded. "He didn't deserve his fate. He was a good and innocent man."
"No less good or innocent than you and yet you still roam alive and free. I guess it is unfortunate that Reed didn't hold the value over some others that actually have used magic over just interacting with them," she said accusingly.
Gaius closed his eyes as he tried to block out the feelings rushing at him from her words. "Dinah-"
"I said spare me Gaius. Now just tell me what is it that you want already."
He didn't want to ask this of her like this but this looked like it wouldn't get any easier or better than where they were now. If he kept trying then he ran the risk of her not listening at all so he went right into it. "Because Reed met with the Druids constantly and you were close then you must know how to get in contact with some of them."
"If this is some attempt to find some cannon fodder for Uther than I think we're done here. You might as well tell Uther to send some guards to apprehend me now because-"
Gaius cut her off. "This isn't for Uther. It's for me. I need their help."
Dinah was stone faced for a moment but she asked regardless. "Help with what?"
"I need to get a message to someone. I need to warn someone that Uther is sending an army for them. The ones I sent Reed to are the only ones I can trust to get it to him."
"Why don't you just send it and leave them out of it?"
"I would if I could but Uther will be watching everyone knowing of this plan closely. I wouldn't be able to leave to send a warning and I know that they can."
"Who?" she asked.
"I'm sorry Dinah. I can't say. You're going to have to trust me."
"You expect me to trust you? I trusted you with my brother's well-being and you failed both him and me. If you think I'll trust you with the lives of these others on blind faith then you have another thing coming Gaius. You want me to trust you, then you are going to have to trust me first."
He didn't want to get more people involved with Hunith and Ealdor but what choice did he have? He was desperate. Gaius explained the situation and when he was done, Dinah said she would do what she could.
"Thank you."
"Make no mistake Gaius. I don't do this for you. I do this for this man that has made Uther running scared out of his mind. Anything that I can do to make his life difficult I would gladly do. And, this niece of yours, I don't want her to feel the pain of you letting her down. I know personally how hard that hits you."
Gaius was silent for a moment but he nodded. "I understand…and thank you."
"Now leave my house," she ordered.
Gaius bowed to her and left without another glance or word.
It was a day of light rain which meant that there was no need to work the fields today. Balinor decided to see if he could find some berries to treat Hunith with as a surprise. They had started sharing her bed and Balinor was feeling better these days to wake up to Hunith in his arms. Before, his nights had taken with him being haunted by the faces of his fallen dragonlord brethren before and after he closed his eyes. Now Hunith and the prospect of a future with her and Kilgharrah were taking up much of his thoughts at night. Perhaps there was room for more as well.
Balinor heard some mild thumps followed by grunts and gasps not too far away. He carefully followed the noise to inspect and saw that it was Richard causing that sound. He had a sword in his hand and was hacking away a thick tree.
"Richard?" he said stepping into his plain sight.
Richard looked behind him with a sweaty gaze before he smiled breathlessly at him. "Balinor," he said gasping a little from either exertion or surprise or perhaps a mix of the two. "What are you doing out here?"
"Just hunting for berries, for Hunith. What are you doing with that sword?"
Richard looked to the sword in his hand. "Just practicing," he shrugged. "Ealdor doesn't have any real protection from Cenred. Barely a handful know how to even hold a sword and there's always a chance that bandits might arrive and see us as easy prey."
Balinor breathed in deeply as he remembered the stories that Richard told him. "Joining Cenred's army…it wasn't only about money was it?"
Richard shook his head. "No…I joined so that I could learn how to fight. When I was a boy, my father was attacked by bandits not too far from here. He wasn't killed but he was hurt pretty badly and suffered a limp for the rest of his life. There is little hope of getting daily protection for Ealdor and this seemed like the way to ensure that I can help protect my growing family and my friends here."
"I understand," he said. Balinor looked to see quite a few scratches upon that tree. It looked like Richard had hacked at it quite a long time. "Though I'm guessing that bandits and thugs will be tougher than that tree. You might feel better if you have a sparring partner."
"Balinor, only a few other people know how to hold a sword and they're all much older than I am."
"You and I are roughly the same age Richard."
Richard's eyes widened. "You know how to use a sword?"
"Richard, I attacked a king at his own city. Do you really think I would do that if I didn't know how to fight?" he asked teasily.
"You had a dragon Balinor. Forgive me if I thought that would've been enough."
Balinor took the bundle tied to his back and unwrapped it and took hold of Excalibur. He kept it close by whenever he left the village both to protect it and for protection. He had some aptitude with swords and perhaps it was time to sharpen them along with helping to sharpen Richard's.
"I'm not saying I'm an expert or a master with a blade but I have a good amount of skill. Let's see if what I have is enough for you?" he challenged.
Richard took a step back but he wasn't backing down. "You know…I did manage to make a lieutenant and it had nothing to do with my looks or sense of humor."
"I'm sure Gina's happy about that."
When the two were done teasing each other they started to lightly spar with each other for a good part of the day.
End of Chapter 8
A/N: Trouble is heading for Ealdor big time. As opposed to just Balinor there, he and his dragon have brought a whole army to that hamlet and Uther now plans to spare no one to avoid a war. I hope I betrayed him good during that meeting. I must say that Anthony Head is a good portrayer of people in power that have fallen to corruption in the name of doing what's best for their people. He was good as Uther and he is doing well portraying Senator Whele in Dominion. Any who haven't seen it should give it a good look.