Chapter 8 The King of the Mercians

Thank you for reading and also reviewing, it means a great deal, particularly as I've had "writers' block"recently and not been able to "flow". An episode of Merlin was on, and this character, which links so many events in all 5 series together, appeared, fully formed in my head.

So you have Eluned!

Hi BIG FAN - not seen Deadwood - would love to hear your idea though, can you send me a message?

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The moonlight slowly faded as the earth headed Camelot to dawn. Elfys, who had talked softly to Eluned in an effort to keep himself awake - "I have had too many warnings for being asleep, I can't have another one -" spoke to her about a maid he liked in the kitchens - "You must know her - "eyes as bright as the stars, hair as dark as midnight" - until she told him that she wojld keep watch.

"You'd do the same for me," Eluned reassured him, and the slow, steady breathing of a person at rest filled the alcove, well hidden as they were from the rest of the guard.

She sat too, and looked into the gloom of the cell. Had King Bayard really wanted to do to this? To kill Prince Arthur with poison? It was hardly his style, hardly a thing he would do when he knew both kingdoms were weary of war - this would prolong the war, and already his people in the borderlands on both sides starved because crops were ruined and land destroyed.

Peace was cheaper than war. It had been Owain who had said that, to Lancelot, one evening when everyone thought she was in bed. A lump caught in Eluned's throat as she thought of her parents - the people who adopted her - dying at the hands of rogues and fire. She would never see him, nor Haf again.

Nor Lancelot, if he had returned. He may still be trying to get to Camelot, although Eluned had to admit to herself that, if no-one here had heard of him, considering he had left over a year before, he musglt not have made it either.

A rattle of chain caught Eluned's ear, and she stared into the gloom of the cell.

"I said, what ails you?"

"My king?" Eluned was surprised to hear Bayard address her, and even more surprised to hear her own reply.

"You sound troubled, my child."

"I was thinking what a bad business this is, sire," Eluned replied, "And of my family."

"Your Sais family?" the king prompted.

"I…" Eluned broke off. There was a shuffling in the cell, and then Bayard came forward his face, careworn, looking at Eluned.

"What is your name?"

"Aled, sire."

"You speak Welsh?"

"Yes Lord King. My mother was Cymric. Before she died, she told me my father was a Saxon. I never knew him."

"Ah yes," Bayard replied. He shifted in the darkness. "You are one who has been granted freedom to return to Waeleas after the treaty - pray, where will you go?"

He still believes, Eluned thought. He still trusts Uther, and that Uther will give him his freedom once his innocence has been proven.

But he was a king himself, and would have made provision. Bayard was as clever as any king - outward trust, but an army at his back. Even now, Queen Syla would have sent word for Mercia's army to petition for the king's release. Camelot would soon be surrounded, if it wasn't already.

"I do not know that I will, given my father is a Saxon, my lord." Which was the truth. Eluned had left in a temper at the loss of Matthew and of Lancelot, and had sought the Saxon lands. But, over time, her loyalty had been won - she was no mere mercenary, working for food and shelter.

"You do your job well; when we return, would you like a guard position in my court?"

When Eluned did not answer, he shuffled again and added, "I do not offer this lightly, particularly to a Briton. You proved - "

But, when a noise came from above, the door above that opened to the steps down to the dungeons had scraped against the top step, Bayard broke off, and fell to silence.

The captain was coming, or Kay, the deputy. Eluned scrambled to an upright position, then saw Elfys, leaning, semi-awake by the thick stone wall. She hurried over and shook him by the shoulder.

"The captain!" she hissed, then stood straight herself. Elfys stood straight and the stretched his shoulders, before catching a yawn with the back of his hands.

"To the kitchens, both of you," Kay told them, "You too," he added to the rest of the guard shift. "Then rest. You will be needed this evening."

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But Eluned did not go to the kitchen. Instead, stowing the mail and helmet she had acquired into the guard room.

"Thanks back there," Elfys told her. "You not to the kitchen, Aled?" he asked her, when he saw she was heading in the opposite direction. Eluned shook her head.

"Not yet. There's someone I need to see." At this, Elfys's face broke into a grin.

"Say no more, say no more!" he declared, in what, to Elfys at any rate, probably sounded as if he was being humorous, but instead sounded as if ge were summoning the court entertainment for the night. He bent close to Eluned's ear and added, "Is she pretty?"

"It's not like that," Eluned replied, visualising Seren's face. "It's just - " She broke off. Whatever she said now would just make it worse.

"Come on, twp!" Called Kay, as the rest of the guard trod with haste the corridor to the kitchen courtyard.

"Hope you find her!" Elfys told Eluned, giving her a wink, then shambling off after his comrades.

Change back into kitchen smock, that was the next job. Eluned could not turn up to the quarters of Bayard's wife and daughter in the garb of a Camelot guard - that would cause panic and confusion.

She found it where she had left it, stuffed under the hay in the loft above the horses. Stripping to her under-shirt, Eluned pulled it on.

It smelled of horse. It would have to do. And she would have to have a reason to go to the guest wing of the castle.

Again, the kitchens provided the answer. As did Merfyn.

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The kitchen boy was semi-recumbent, lying flat on his back in the early morning sunshine. The place was not overlooked and, Eluned surmised, it had been a good "get out of work" place for the lump of a lad.

Fortunately, his complete lack of care afforded Eluned the opportunity not only to swipe the tray of food he was meant to be delivering, but the means to get it to the queen and princess - the courtyard was clear and the guards had been relieved.

"Who is it?" called a voice from behind the door of the guest quarters.

"From the kitchen! Aled!"

"Aled!" Seren breathed, as the guards moved automatically from the door - no food delivery would ever be delayed by a tardy guard - and, once Aled had set down the tray, she was bustled to one side by the maid, and they walked down the passageway, Seren appearing to give her instruction.

"...and Princess Inesse needs water at three after the sun. We shall need more linens, and - " Seren bustled her around the corner, noting two more guards coming past them in the opposite direction, "...sneap, does your cook know it? Lady Elaine has asked for it. And Lawr. Will you ask…?"

Eluned made it appear she was listening by nodding at Seren, until they found an alcove in one of the turrets, where Eluned told her what she knew - which was very little, then descrived the woman who Gwen had mentioned to her.

"You're right, we have no woman of that description with us," Seren told her. "I was sorry to see the servant boy fall ill."

"Do you think it was Bayard?" Eluned asked, bluntly.

"No," Seren told her. "He is a fair and just king, though I am choosing to stay. No," she emphasised. "That woman was no-one I know. It must have been a trick, maybe someone to get Prince Arthur out of the castle?"

"Out?"

"He has gone to find a remedy for his servant's malady - against Uther's instructions, may I add," Seren lowered her voice as another guard walked past. "Arrogant, spoiled man, I just hope he grows up before he takes his place on - " She broke off and shook her head. "He's no Uther."

No, thought Eluned. Uther had rid her village of their druid and Matthew, two people who would have defended them had they been there. Instead, everyone who Eluned had known had perished to raiders. No. Let us hope that Arthur rules much differently to his father.

"So someone wants the peace treaty to fail," Eluned summarised, almost to herself.

"Why would you think that?" Seren asked.

"If it held, both kings could fight other wars on other borders, ally with one another." Seren gave her a long look.

"That is fair," Eluned replied, shrugging.

"The place to be is at the front, learning and adapting to your enemy."

"You sound like you have a lot of experience," Seren told her, nodding towards the door of the royal Saxon quarters, intimating she needed to return.

"My brother taught me. He wanted to be knight of Camelot."

"But he is dead?"

"Why do you say that?" Eluned asked.

"You said, "wanted"."

"I hoped he would be here," Eluned sighed. "I hoped I see him in the hall last night. But no-one I has heard of him." None of the guards with whom she had shared the night on duty, at any rate.

They would be the people who knew, guards in any castle were where the true knowledge lay - trading in current affairs and gossip, they would be the first to know anything.

But none of them had heard of a - "Lance-a-lot". Even his name had provoked lazy humour.

So Eluned had been angry - where was Lancelot if not here? Had he returned back to the village?

And when she was angry, she was emboldened, reckless.

Watching Seren return, who loaded Eluned up with a tray of dishes, she chanced the courtyard, indulged in some roasted meat intended for the knights and, just as Merfyn had realised she was back in the kitchen, Eluned pushed her way between the guards she had served the night before and headed to the guardroom, ignoring their taunts about being dressed as kitchen staff and dressing for her role.

They were to guard Bayard again that night, someone claiming to be Sais had tampered with the chalices and Prince Arthur had disobeyed his father to go on a perilous mission.

And her own hypothesis.

"Come on!" growled Kay, their unit leader, whose demeanour had changed to one of deadly seriousness. "Extra vigilance tonight. The Mercian guard are out in force: they do not like it that we have imprisoned their king."

"Mo sleeping!" hissed another guard in Elfys's direction as they approached tge gate to the dungeon steps. "Or you'll be on midden duty for the rest of the year!"

And Eluned picked up the pace, walking in step with the Camelot guard, too wired to rest, too tired to eat.

Senses too dulled to notice a figure in the shadows. Only when a hand clamped over her mouth and Eluned was pulled away from the guards did it occur to her she might be in more trouble than she thought.