Chapter Twenty

Hi!

I've stayed up way to late writing this, so I hope you all think it's all right!

This chapter is mostly from Gwaine's POV, with a little of Merlin's.

Warning: I may be paranoid, but I feel like I need to warn you that there are implications of sexual assault in this chapter. And mention of torture. But I promise (with almost complete certainty) that this story will never go above a T rating.

Even with carefully-laid plans, battles and skirmishes consisted mostly of chaotic improvisation.

And even the best-laid traps could foiled. At least in part.

Gwaine briefly glimpsed Cleva and the twins as they spurred their horses back in the direction that they had come from, seemingly escaping the worst of the combat. After that he had almost no time to think about anyone's safety but his own.

Unable to escape the gully himself, he tried to stay on his horse for as long as possible, but given the situation it was impossible. His mount reared and bucked violently in response to the fighting around it, eventually throwing Gwaine off. But the knight was prepared and landed more or less on his feet, sword out and ready.

He certainly needed it. The adversaries just seemed to keep coming.

Instincts took over yet again as he fought, trying as best as he could to work his way back to his companions, or at least the few he could still see and hear. But there were too many thugs. He was slowly but steadily being driven back against a pile of boulders despite his best efforts to escape and find the higher ground.

He fought well, as always. But he was overwhelmed by sheer numbers and the fact that his recently right injured arm gave out and ceased to work properly after too much exertion.

It was around then that he realized that his adversaries were not trying to kill him. They were trying to capture him instead.

And soon enough they did, one seizing his sword arm and wrenching his weapon from his grasp while another brought him to his knees with a heavy blow to the shoulder with a mace. Gwaine yelled in pain and tried to twist out of their grasp, but they held him down. As one thug tied his hands, he bit into the arm of another that was just within his reach.

For that he received a blow to the skull which made his head spin. His captors took advantage of his sudden unsteadiness to blindfold him. With his eyes now useless, he immediately reached out with his other senses and realized, with a sinking feeling, that the sounds of battle had all but died.

So either everyone's captured like me or they're all dead.

Unfortunately he didn't get the chance to call out to anyone before he was gagged as well.

Damn.

Not only did his body ache like hell, but now he had no clue where anyone else was save for the stinking thugs pressing in on all sides.

He was immensely relieved when, a few minutes later, he found himself pushed into close proximity to someone who was yelling (well, trying to) through his gag in a voice that sounded very much like Arthur Pendragon's.

Well, that's me and the Princess accounted for…I just hope everyone else is alive…and hopefully far away from here…

But even if they were, Gwaine knew that the others wouldn't stop until he and Arthur were rescued.

Since apparently their captors didn't have any interest in simply lopping their heads off.

Which is something they might have already done with everyone else, though…

But judging by what he could hear, he and Arthur were not the only prisoners.

Their captors were not gentle and spoke very little as the captives were forced to walk, stumbling and tripping almost every step, for what Gwaine judged to be around three miles, more or less. Most of what was said were commands to either "shut up" or "get moving", punctuated by numerous curses. Not that any of the prisoners were actually speaking audible words, of course, the gags prevented that, but the variously-toned grunts and muffled yells alerted Gwaine to the fact that at least four other people had been captured.

Just wonderful.

These couldn't possibly be ordinary bandits. Those killed and pillaged without discrimination, but these men…

Slave traders, maybe?

Gwaine didn't like that idea any better.

What seemed like hours later, the group suddenly halted. After a murmured conversation between the ruffians (of which Gwaine couldn't hear a word), they started moving again, only now the prisoners were forced up and through what were clearly stone staircases and halls. Gwaine could hear everyone's footsteps echoing down mostly empty passageways, along with the distant murmur of rough voices.

So now we're in a large stone building, most likely a castle. The question is, whose castle? And where the hell is it? We're nearly out of Rheged, maybe Gododdin…

Despite wanting to know very much what was going on, Gwaine still felt unprepared when he was pushed forward onto a stone floor and had his blindfold yanked off.

Blinking furiously to adjust to the sudden increase of light, Gwaine looked around frantically to figure out who exactly was with him.

Arthur was directly to his right, with Aldwyn beyond that. Turning his head, Gwaine found that Elyan was on his left, with Merlin and Leon also on their knees next to him. Arthur, Aldwyn, and Merlin were also blinking and looking around, though Elyan looked only half-conscious and Leon appeared to be having trouble breathing.

So Cleva, Percival, and the twins got away. And Ryle has some magic, so of course he did, too.

Taking his eyes off his companions, Gwaine examined their present situation.

They were in a large, dilapidated throne room of sorts. The stone around the arched windows on the left wall and the other end of the hall was crumbling and the floor was missing several large paving stones. At least two dozen armed men surrounded them on all sides, and sitting on a makeshift throne before them was a hulking figure dressed all in stained, tangled furs. He leered at the prisoners, showing off his yellowed teeth from behind a huge grey beard that was more knotted than his furs. A huge battleaxe rested against the side of his throne.

"Well, well, what have we here?" he snarled.

His voice is just as unpleasant as the rest of him. Gwaine involuntarily longed to make a quick comeback, but there was still a gag in his mouth that prevented him from doing so.

There was a long moment of silence before the fur-clad man on the throne snapped out, "Remove their gags! I want them to be able to speak." With the last few words, he stood and made his way towards the prisoners as their guards removed the gags, none too gently.

Though he might want them able to talk, the man made no immediate attempts at initiating a conversation. Instead, he paced up and down in front of them, peering at each one intently. And when he finally spoke, his words were directed at his soldiers. "How many got away?"

One of his thugs responded promptly. "We saw one woman, two men, and a pair of boys fleeing, m'lord Haig."

Ah, so he's a rouge warlord of sorts. Dangerous, has plenty of resources by the looks of it, and is most likely somewhat insane. Could this situation get much worse?

"Lord Haig" made a displeased face, but continued to scrutinize his prisoners intently. Then his eyes caught something as he came to a stop in front of Gwaine. "Well, well." he growled.

Gwaine recoiled from Haig's foul breath as the man reached forward and hooked his fingers on the chain Gwaine wore about his neck. He took a few moments to examine the pendant, seemingly disregarding the ring. "Well, if it isn't…This is far better than those little boys, my friends!...let me see…Aldwyn Barclayn, am I correct?"

It took Gwaine all of three seconds to understand. He's after the princes for some reason...he must have had the twins kidnapped, now he thinks that I'm my cousin…because of the bloody pendant…

And then Gwaine realized what he had to do. "That's about right." he replied coolly, summoning whatever dignity he had left.

"Cousin, no!" shouted Aldwyn.

"Shut up, Gwaine!" Gwaine snapped back at him.

Haig looked from one to the other, apparently very thoughtful.

"What the hell is going on?" demanded Arthur suddenly.

Haig turned to him with a mildly confused expression. "Who are you, precisely?" he ground out.

Thank God we hid all the things we had that bore the Camelot crest before we entered Rheged. What had been merely a precaution in order to avoid any political awkwardness had probably saved them from a even worse situation. It was bad enough that Haig knew that he had members of one royal house in his grasp, let alone two.

Aldwyn, thankfully, answered before Arthur or another one of the knights could say something stupidly honorable or honorably stupid. "They're nobody of consequence. The question is, what exactly do you want with us in the first place?"

Haig smiled cruelly. "I want a lot of things, my friends, but first of all, I want to have you meet another guest of mine. Of course, I believe that you've met her before…" He made a gesture towards a couple guards, who left through the main door. Haig turned back to the prisoners.

"I hired some slave traders to capture those children. I knew that someone would be after them…and what better way to lure even more Barclayns out of Bernicia? If I know one thing about your family, it is that you are loyal to a fault…A few of my men were waiting in Cornwall to retrieve the boys, and bring them back to me. Either way, I would have at least those two in my grasp, and perhaps those who had come after to try and find them. Imagine my displeasure when I lost contact with the men I hired…I suppose they are dead? No matter, enough of my plan has worked."

"What is it you want?" Gwaine asked icily. I don't know exactly who he is, but I think I do have an idea of what he's after…

Haig laughed harshly. "Isn't it obvious? I want revenge…for wrongs the Barclayns have wrought. But I'm getting ahead of myself…about my other guest. I was pleased to find her, I admit…and even more pleased when I realized who she was. But unfortunately, she didn't give us any information worth having…luckily my spies are vigilant and your company rather negligent."

Gwaine felt as if he'd been clouted in the stomach. For suddenly he knew exactly who Haig's "guest" was.

No, no, no…

The door behind them opened. The two guards returned dragging somebody. They walked around the prisoners and deposited their burden on her knees in front of them.

It was Elen.

What the hell did they do to my sister?

It took all of Gwaine's self-control not to scream her name.

Merlin felt nothing but horror at the sight of his former adversary. But not because they had once fought.

The once-beautiful young woman was a pitiful sight. She was filthy, her entire body caked in dirt and blood. Her clothes were crusted to her and from what Merlin could see of her back, it was a solid mass of welts underneath the remaining strips of her tunic, probably from a whip. Her wrists were particularly bloodied, and her golden hair hung in limp, ragged strands down around her shoulders.

But the worst part was her face. It was mostly undamaged, save for being dirty like the rest of her, but it was bizarrely blank. Her brown eyes were dull, lifeless.

Merlin tore his eyes away from her and chanced a glance at Gwaine. The dark-haired knight's face was white, his jaw clenched. And his dark eyes were blazing.

"What did you do to her?" That was Aldwyn, who apparently felt the need to enunciate what everyone else was thinking.

Looking at Arthur, Merlin could see that the king was horrified, but confused. He doesn't know who she is…

Haig looked almost gleeful. "Sometimes torture breaks people and they confess. Other times…they just break. And though she hasn't given us any useful information, I will confess that we've had quite a lot of…fun with her, so to speak. Haven't we, men?"

Several soldiers guffawed. Merlin felt like throwing up as he realized what they were talking about. Those monsters…

"Elen." Gwaine finally spoke, very quietly. "Elen." he repeated after a moment, more loudly.

Merlin looked quickly at the young woman, but she showed no response to her brother's words.

Haig was pacing again. "I have no idea who most of you are." he growled, "But I do know what I think; that two of you are lying to me."

Merlin watched as the warlord came to a stop and glared down at Gwaine and Aldwyn in turn. "You think that you are very clever, don't you? Trying to confuse me as to which cousin is which? It's true; I've never met either of you. But I do happen to know...it slipped my mind briefly, however...that Aldwyn Barclayn has grey eyes. I did ask one of my sources for a physical description."

"Shit." Aldwyn growled.

Merlin had to agree with that.

So, another "kind-of" cliffhanger. Sorry!

I just got back from organ camp yesterday (and it was amazing!), but tomorrow I'm going on a hiking trip. I should be back by Monday, though. Hopefully I can update then!

Have a great day/night!