They soon learned why Morgana was heading east. News arrived that a large Saxon force had landed at Rutupiae, and had overrun the shore forts with the help of Morgana's soldiers. The leader of the Saxons, it was rumored, was a man named Horsa. The Council was in session when the news reached Camelot, and Merlin saw Arthur grow grave at the mention of Horsa's name.
"Who is Horsa?" Merlin asked as soon as the messenger had withdrawn.
"You remember Hengist?" Arthur said.
"Of course." How could he forget the bandit leader who had kidnapped Gwen and held her to ransom thinking she was Morgana?
"Horsa is his brother." Merlin stared at Arthur, and Guinevere grew a little pale. "What you may not have heard at that time is that there was a history between my father and the Saxon brothers. That is part of the reason my father was so hesitant to go to Guinevere's rescue."
"What history?"
Arthur looked at Gaius. "I'm sure you know the story better than I do."
"You may have heard Uther say that he gained the throne of Camelot through conquest," Gaius said to Merlin, leaning forward. "It was, perhaps, a slight exaggeration. The last king was a man named Vortigern. When the Romans withdrew from Albion, the land broke once more into various kingdoms, picking back up the old traditions of our ancestors. As the land was no longer unified, the kingdoms were threatened by Scots and Picts. Vortigern was a weak ruler, insecure in his position. So he hired two mercenaries from Saxony: the young brothers Hengist and Horsa, and their troops. He offered them land in exchange for military service. And for a short time, they kept their word.
"But eventually the Saxons realized what a fertile land this was and how easy Vortigern himself would be to overthrow. They brought more and more men to Albion, and eventually became more of a threat to Camelot than the Scots and the Picts they were supposed to be fighting. The brothers were both of a vicious nature, and didn't care whom they harmed in their quest for more land and more power.
"At last, Vortigern went with his most trusted councilors to the brothers' meadhall to sue for peace. Hengist and Horsa, after agreeing that no harm would come to them, had the doors locked and slaughted Vortigern and all his councilors. Only one escaped: Ambrosius Aurelianus of the de Bois family, Igraine's father.
"The young Uther, a minor member of the court, was a rising star in Camelot's military, and Aurelianus knew he was the man to find a strategy that would defeat the Saxons. Along with Aurelianus's son Tristan de Bois, Uther led Camelot's armies to victory. Hengist and his men held on in the east as a bandit lord with only a small following of his most loyal Saxons, but Horsa and his men had to escape to the continent. Aurelianus saw to it that Uther was crowned king, and Uther married Aurelianus's daughter. Camelot had peace, and a new ruling family."
"But now Hengist is dead—by what he surely considers my hand," Arthur summed up, "and Horsa is back with his army, and is allied with our greatest enemy: the daughter of his old foe. He wants revenge, and on the way seeks to gain what he has always wanted: power and the rich land of Albion."
"He will not get them," Guinevere said calmly. "Thanks to your diplomacy, many of the kingdoms of Albion are once more united. We are in a stronger position to repel Horsa's attack than Uther was." She smiled. "And the Knights of the Round Table are second to none."
000
Percival swallowed hard and knocked at Gaius's door.
"Come in," Anna called.
He pushed the door open and ducked under the doorway. "Erm," he said, feeling too large for the space, "is Lily… receiving visitors?"
Anna looked down at the bunch of wildflowers in Percival's hand and repressed a smile. "Let me just check. Lily?" she said stepping around the screen that blocked the view of her sister's cot in the corner. There was a shuffling and whispering that Percival strongly suspected was the sound of Anna helping her sister to make herself presentable for her visit. Finally Anna pushed back the screen and pulled up a chair. "I have an errand to run," she announced to no one in particular, and left the room.
"Well!" Lily's eyes lit up. "Percy!" She took in the glory of his chainmail, his sweeping crimson cloak. "Oh, I mean, Sir Percival!"
"No, no." He stepped forward. "I told you to call me Percy. Oh, um… These are for you." He held out the bouquet.
"How lovely!" she exclaimed, breaking into a smile that showed her dimples. "I think there's a vase over there."
He put the flowers in water and brought them over to the table by her bed. "I love them!" she said, burying her face in them and breathing their fragrance. "Did you pick them yourself?" He nodded. "Thank you," she said, dimpling again.
He smiled back, then shifted awkwardly in his chair, trying to think of something to say. He cleared his throat nervously.
"Did you retrieve poor Trefor's fishing pole?" Lily teased, and he laughed.
"Yes—as soon as I had reported to Sir Leon. He's the King's right-hand man," he explained.
"Are all the knights…" she looked up him and down with a twinkle in her eye, "as big as you?"
He laughed again. "No—although Leon's about my height."
"I'd like to meet them."
"I'll introduce you," he offered—"as soon as you're on your feet again."
"Anna says I'll be alright to walk tomorrow—after a session with her and Merlin. I was so shocked when she told me she had magic!"
"How long has it been since you've seen each other?"
She frowned in thought. "We haven't seen much of each other since our father died—we both went out as apprentices in different towns, because there weren't many opportunities in our little village, and our mother couldn't support us on our small bit of land. We both went home when our mother was dying, and afterward we saw the land sold." Percival made a sympathetic noise. "I hadn't seen Annie since then—though we could both read and write, so once in awhile we had a chance to write to each other," she added proudly. The last letter I got from her said that she had gotten a new master in Camelot. What about you?" she asked. "Do you have any family?"
He shook his head. "My family was killed when Cenred raided our village," he said. "But I've found a new family here, among the knights." He smiled. "You've come to a good place," he told her. "The people here welcome those in distress."
Lily smiled and glanced at her flowers again. "So they do," she agreed.
TBC
AN: Sorry about the long wait between chapters! (I seem to be saying that a lot, don't I?) On Tuesday I moved back to Ohio for the school year. Classes start Monday, so I'm likely to be pretty busy. My updating schedule won't be as frequent, but I plan to write at least a chapter a week—I don't do homework on Sundays, so that's likely to be my most common updating day. At least I've gotten to the final plot arc for this fic! (-she says at the end of chapter 65…)
Thank you to the folks who reviewed! I got a disapproving review on ao3 toward the beginning of this fic complaining about my concentration on OCs and their romances, but judging from the positive response on the last chapter, that opinion is definitely not shared on ff dot net! :)
