The Royal Scandal *Book Two*

The Battle of Chemary S2 E11

"Where is this Alvarr hiding?" Arthur asked.

"He was last seen in the Valley of Chemary, Sire," Gaius told him.

"Summon the guards, Arthur. I want this matter investigated now," Father ordered before he lowered his voice so only we could hear. "And take your sister with you. She seems to be of use recently."

Seems to be of use! I'll show you how useful I can be when I shove my foot up his—

As if sensing my thoughts, Arthur grabbed onto my arm and pulled me after him towards his chambers so I could get my weapons from there. We'd barely made it to the corridor to his chamber when a pair of rushing footsteps alerted us of another presence. Usually I would've presumed it to be Merlin but the footsteps seemed to dainty to be Merlin's and I'm pretty sure Merlin's clothes didn't drag along the floor. And that left only one other person.

"You're not really thinking of going on this mission, are you?" Morgana asked, as she fell into step beside me.

"No, I'm not thinking of going on this mission, I am going on this mission," Arthur answered.

"Chelsea?" Morgana said, making me look over at her.

"Well, I've got nothing better to do and it'll be good to see the annoyance of father's face if I can help be the one to catch this Alvarr," I told her, the thought alone of proving my father wrong brought a smile to my face.

"But you're both chasing nothing but a rumour," Morgana insisted.

"True. But for now it's the only lead we have to go on," Arthur said.

"You'll be wasting your time, I assure you," Morgana responded, stepping in front of us to stop us from moving any further.

"Morgana, I never knew you cared so much," Arthur commented.

"What are you talking about?" Morgana squinted her eyes at him.

"I can look after myself, you know," Arthur said. "But, Chelsea, on the other hand—"

"Will literally stab you if you even think of saying something along the lines of a fragile, weak, human being," I warned him.

Arthur shrugged at my comment before looking back over at Morgana.

"It's a combination of raw talent and hard training that makes me—" Arthur began to explain again, but Morgana cut her off.

"Yes, I know. That makes you so utterly obnoxious," Morgana finished for him.

Arthur gave her a sarcastic smile in response, and though I knew the real reason she didn't want us to go, I decided to play along.

"Morgana, you needn't worry. I'll make sure Arthur doesn't get himself killed and in return he'll pretend that he saved my life when in reality I can handle myself perfectly fine. No harm will come to us and I promise we'll find those renegades," I said, giving Morgana a small smile and squeezing her hand slightly. "We'll be okay."

Morgana nodded silently, sending back a small smile before she started to wander off down the corridor.

"That was nice of her," Arthur commented as we continued our walk. "It's nice to know she cares."

If Arthur could know the truth I would have offered a snarky response of commenting on how utterly naïve he was to believe that it was us she was concerned about but he couldn't know, not yet anyway, so instead I landed on a simple response.

"Yes, it is."

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Within the hour we were all on our way to the renegade camp and even though both Merlin and I knew the way to get us there, we had to let Arthur lead the way, even when he took us on a different cause than the one we had taken the night before. Merlin and I were riding just behind Arthur, who would stop every now and then, get off his horse, look around for a few minutes before resuming his trot.