Chapter 86 I don't own Merlin. Sorry, I forgot what day it was an didn't update on time. OOPSIE!
"Ah!" Cassie heard Gundemar cry out later that night, looking to see what had happened and laughing as she saw Gildas and his wife keeping their laughter in.
"King Gundemar, is everything all right?"
"Your friends just popped into my tent without warning." he said angrily, his sword in his hand and his tunic open to reveal his chiselled chest.
"I did invite them on the journey. Should I not have done that?" Cassie asked in a tone only those who knew her well knew was mocking.
"Don't ever do that again!" Gundemar muttered to Gildas and his wife, sheathing his sword and walking back inside his tent angrily.
"Cassie, this is my wife, Adenora. Addie, this is Cassie."
"It's a pleasure to meet you." Cassie told her kindly, smiling wistfully.
"The pleasure's all mine, my Lady. When Gildas told me Llys Dôn had finally arrived…"
"Let's not get into that, my dear. Is there someplace for us to stay, or should we have packed our own tent?" Gildas asked, interrupting his wife from revealing too much about her future.
"Please, take mine. I prefer sleeping under the stars, anyway."
"Won't your King be upset if he found you outside your tent?" Adenora asked.
"He is not my King. King Arthur is. Once he's crowned. Besides, when Emrys healed me he also healed my magic somehow." Cassie told them.
"Do you know much about him? Emrys?" she asked in wonder, starstruck at knowing about the two who were fated to help bring about the Golden Age.
"He is like a brother to me." Cassie answered, her eyes going sad as she thought of leaving them all and all the anger and resentment that felt so petty now.
"It's late, my love. We should get some rest." Gildas told them, smiling at Cassie and leading his wife into the tent.
"Of course." Cassie said, watching them walk away and looking up at the stars as the soldiers all went about their business. "How I miss you, Owaine. How I miss Leon." she whispered, clutching the amulet tightly and conjuring a palette for herself to sleep on, her eyes glued to the stars as she rewrote the letter over and over in her mind, wishing she'd had more time to get it perfect. "My dearest Knight… my darling Sir Leon… I want to love you. I want to feel for you the way you do me…I want you happy...I want to be happy with you." she kept thinking, changing the wording and the order every time she finished drafting the letter. Falling asleep after the fire died down and only the wind could be heard.
"Where's the Princess?" Gundemar demanded of Gildas and his wife angrily, challenging him with his gaze.
"Right behind you, Your Majesty." Gildas replied, biting back the smirk as Cassie appeared out of nowhere with her hair slightly dishevelled from sleep.
"Where did you sleep, Princess? The tent was for you, not your guests." Gundemar asked, visibly relieved for some reason.
"Out here, under the stars. I much prefer it, Sire. If I have offended you in any manner, it was not my intention. I beg your forgiveness." Cassie told him meekly.
"My dear Princess Casiopea, there's no need to beg. If you prefer to sleep under the stars I can arrange for you to do so with privacy." he replied, bowing respectfully and smiling at her.
"I thank you, King Gundemar. We should be on our way, the journey is long."
"That it is. Let the men pack everything up. Is there anything you need?"
"No, King Gundemar. I have everything I need with me."
"You travel light." he commented in surprise.
"Oh, far from it! I have the element of magic helping me. If my belongings were all normal sized we'd have at least three very large carriages laden down with the weight of them." Cassie answered conversationally, trying her best to observe proper etiquette as her mother had taught her, the person she truly was hidden beneath layers of that facade.
"Is it not heavy, Princess."
"Not at all, Sire. The magic of… magic." she said, taking off her necklace and handing it to him.
"Very… eloquent." he said, looking at it curiously and handing it back to her.
"I'm afraid you'll find that while she may speak three languages and is quite intelligent, eloquence is not one of Her Highness's many talents." Gildas answered, smiling teasingly at Cassie to the bemusement of the foreigner.
"Nor is tact one of yours, dear Gildas." Cassie told him, rolling her eyes and taking his wife's arm. "Speaking of… you and I must get better acquainted." Cassie said, pulling her along and walking away while the two men glared at each other challengingly. "Excuse us, Your Majesty, Gildas."
"Ask whatever you want, Your Highness." Adenora said politely, walking away with her and finding a semi-secluded spot for them to sit.
"Honestly, I just wanted away from all the pomp and propriety. And the measuring contests. I just want to curl up in a ball and cry, but with all these eyes looking at me, watching my every move, I must be a vision of gentility and grace." Cassie answered, looking around at the various soldiers who kept their eyes on her at all times.
"I'm glad I've always been a peasant." Adenora said, looking around and noticing everyone's gaze on them for the first time.
"You're not really. Gildas may say he's not nobility but he's certainly not a peasant."
"We met in my old village almost ten years ago. He hasn't aged a day, and I've been getting older, more wrinkled. I- I feel I can trust you. Even if we've only just met." Adenora said, her voice quieting to a whisper as she leaned in closer. "I'm afraid he might meet someone else and l-leave me."
"You have nothing to worry about, he's in love with you, it's plain as day." Cassie told her, squeezing her hand gently and looking over to where the two men were still staring each other down. "I only wish my feelings were so."
"I don't know how to answer you, my Lady. Truly, I am sorry for your loss. I wish I could tell you what you want to know." she said quietly, looking up as Gundemar shouted out that they were ready to leave. "We must go. But if you ever need a silent ear, I have two."
"Did you two bring horses?"
"No, but I don't mind walking, it keeps me in good shape."
"Riding does too." Cassie said, a graceful smile on her face as she walked towards the King and accepted his help to mount her horse. "Thank you, Sire."
"Of course, Princess." he replied, smoothly mounting his own and leading the army east towards the channel.
"King Gundemar, if I may?" Gildas interrupted a few moments later, catching up to him and making him stop his horse with a meaningful look.
"Yes?"
"Those lands are dangerous, especially for such a big party travelling with something so precious. If we start to travel due south, we reach the Great Seas of Meredor and avoid the bandits and…other beings."
"What are these 'other beings' if I may ask?"
"Believe me, Your Majesty, you do not want to know."
"Princess Casiopea, what do you say?"
"I agree with Gildas. I've travelled those woods before and they are very dangerous. South may very well be a better path."
"Very well, we go south. Lead the way." Gundemar said, indicating for him to move.
"Miro, the map. We must outline our new path towards Hispania." he said once they settled for the night, walking into his newly erected tent and holding the flap open for Cassie, dropping it after she passed on Gildas' face like a petulant child.
"I do not know your land, but I have travelled this one well. If we travel south through here, and then go to the porturary city in Nemeth. We can take a ship there. What I don't know is if it's longer or shorter by sea in Nemeth or in Kent. Nemeth is a friendlier Kingdom, Kent is closer to the Franks' Kingdom." Gildas told him, showing the places he spoke about on the map after they'd lit the candle and gathered around a table.
"I figured going through here would be the best choice." Gundemar told him, pointing to the southernmost point on the map.
"You can see land from the Farum Brigantium, but I do not know what is being seen. If it's Cornwall or the Isle of Mora." Cassie told them, pointing to both places. "Or maybe it's Frankish territory that can be seen, I don't remember."
"I don't think it's any of those, it might be Hibernia." Gundemar told her, looking at her seriously.
"The Western Isles?" Gildas asked with a furrowed brow.
"Yeah." Cassie told him, nodding as she looked at the map. "Perhaps, if we sail from Cornwall, but we navigate south-east we can make it to the Suebi Kingdom."
"Hmm. You're right, would it take too long to get to Cornwall?"
"Depends on our pace, a month at most. The long travels will be by sea if we go this path. If we go to Nemeth or Kent, the travels by sea will be much shorter, but I assume there's more land to traverse." Gildas answered, taking the map of Hispania and Septimania and the map of the Frankish lands and trying to see where they would be heading. "We need someone well acquainted with the stars, I do not know of any way to determine the exact way to go."
"If I may, it would be safer to travel the Atlantic Route. I'm sure there's ships going to and from." Miro said, looking at the two royals and Gildas.
"Yes, but if Witteric gets word that we're travelling that way, who knows what we'll expect." Cassie told him. "I know not if he has magic, or if he has someone who does everything for him, but it's easy to scry for someone, even if you don't know them personally. You just have to know exactly where they are."
"Or where they're going to be. Cassie has a point. We need to stay unpredictable. He might be monitoring those ports."
"Can you…scry for him? Ebro!" Gundemar asked, calling over the soldier who had found Cassie in the first place.
"Si, Majestad!" he said, standing respectfully behind the royals and awaiting his orders.
"Necesitamos su ayuda con Witerico. Muéstrelo." Gundemar ordered, waiting patiently as he nodded and filled the nearest bowl to the brim with water and muttered the spell.
"No lo verán claro, estamos muy lejos de Recópolis." he said, standing back and letting the King and former Queen look into the bowl.
"¿Hay noticia del asesino?" Witteric asked, slamming his hand on the table as he finished getting the reports of the uprisings.
"No, señor Rey. Él había quedado en avisarnos tan pronto llegara a Bretaña." one of his advisors answered, quaking in fear at the murderous look in the King 's eyes.
"No quiero esperar más! ¡Encuentren a otra persona con magia! ¡Quiero saber donde carajo están!" he yelled, his face purple as he went to the throne and threw himself on it, dismissing them all with a wave of his hand.
"No desespere, Majestad. Venga y le quito la tensión como tanto le gusta." a girl walked in, her legs quaking as she did and her voice forcibly smooth, a big bruise on the side of her face as she knelt by his feet.
"Espéreme en mi habitación con su hermana. Ya saben que me gusta cuando estan las dos juntas." he said in a disgustingly lewd voice, his eyes excited as he picked her up from the floor and stuck his tongue in her mouth forcefully, ignoring the grimace on her face as he did so.
"Si, Su Majestad." she said, bowing her head obediently and hastening out to find her sister with tears in her eyes.
GVFAERUOFVAEORUFVOAERUGVYOAERUGVYOERUGVYOERUGVYOERUGVYOEARUGVYOERUGVYOERUGVYOERUGVEORGYVOERUGVYOEURGVYOERUGVYOERUGVYOWUEGVOEURGVOERUGV
"¡Que hombre para ser tan vilmente cobarde!" Cassie muttered under her breath, holding in her uneasiness at the pain and fear she saw on that young girl's face just before the bowl faded back to clear.
"The good news is that he has no idea we're here. Nor does he know his man is dead."
"The bad news is that the people will suffer until we arrive. Who settled in the city after…" Cassie said, trailing off so her voice wouldn't betray her emotions.
"Villagers from the surrounding cities, the younger nobles decided to go to the palace in Septimania, most of the older nobles stayed on their lands or went to Toledo or one of the other major cities. Witteric and his men are the ones in the palace now they maintain control over the Kingdom through force." Miro answered, his english disjointed and accented, but well spoken.
"He rules through fear and intimidation. The noblemen aren't loyal to him, but they haven't the necessary men to dethrone him. That's where we come in. This is only part of the army I've gathered. I sent secret missives to most nobles, they await our arrival to join us. All but the Duke of Tarraco, it is well known he never harboured good feelings of your family's rule. We did not contact him." Gundemar told her.
"I know him well. One of my brother's killed his son in battle before I was born. The attitude when he came to a feast was quite…unmentionable." Cassie said, crossing her arms over her stomach and thinking hard with a small frown. "We set off for Cornwall immediately. Justice needs to be served for the people." Cassie said, rolling up the three maps and handing them to Miro. "I apologise, King Gundemar. Force of habit, this is your army."
"No, it is yours as well. You may have abdicated and named me successor, but you will forever be of Royal blood. And you've clearly inherited your brother's abilities to lead. Please, by all means, the decisions are up to you." he said, unrolling the map of the Isles and placing it back on the table.
"Thank you, King Gundemar. I suggest we travel through here, there are caves in the mountains that will save us a few days of travel."
"That is unwise. Those caves are infested with wilddeoren. Dangerous and deadly." Gildas told them immediately, shaking his head. "The day we might shave off will be lost in the men who die in those tunnels. It's very unwise, Cassie."
"What say you, King Gundemar?" Cassie asked him.
"I cannot risk the men for a few days. We go with his route." he said finally, nodding at them and giving the maps back to Miro. "Get some rest, we will set off before sunrise. Your Highness, sleep well."
"I wish you a good night as well, Your Majesty." Cassie said, curtseying respectfully and going to the area he'd had cordoned off for her to have her privacy and still sleep under the stars.
"What are wilddeoren?" she heard him ask before she felt sleep claim her, smiling as Gildas explained, in great detail, just how ugly and deadly they were.