"Where do we even start?" asked Mordred as he and Vortimer were riding through the forest for about an hour after they left Kent's border.
"Caves," Vortimer answered, focused on the road.
"Caves?" the druid frowned. "Do you really think that the dragon hides in the caves?"
"Where else could it be? That's the best place a dragon can hide. Aithusa is lost and scared and caves are often in remote areas so she's not disturbed," he paused. "There are two places where we can search. Camelot and Essetir."
Mordred's head snapped to him. "Are you mad? I bet as soon as we take a step on Essetir's border we get killed and the king will be satisfied to have another two heads in his collection."
"I'll take the risk," said Vortimer without a beat.
"Why are you doing what your father tells you to?" Mordred gave him a questioning look. "Most of the time you disagree with him and then you are first to take a quest refusing to bring a party with you, but me."
"More men could get more attention and I would rather avoid a tail following me. It's safer this way," he replied calmly.
"But risking our lives to find some goddamn dragon because your father has a whim?"
Vortimer shot him a glare. "I know you think of it as a waste of time and I know of what you can't stop thinking," he said. "You're full of hate, Mordred. Besides, I'm not doing it for my father," he held a stare on Mordred for a second before he looked ahead.
The druid narrowed his eyes and watched Vortimer as he rode ahead of him. There's definitely something he's not telling him, so why would he take him on a hunt for the white dragon? For whom Vortimer is searching for Aithusa if not for his father? Mordred was just about to ask, but he restrained himself and decided not to piss him off. He's going to know anyway.
They were crossing the river when to Mordred's mind came another problem. "Camelot isn't safe either. It's not wise coming there especially after the battle."
Vortimer seemed not to hear the druid until he didn't stop his horse after they crossed the stream.
"Actually I thought about that," he said, dismounting the horse. He pulled something red out of his bag and threw it on Mordred who, still sitting on his horse, missed catching it and it found itself on his face. Vortimer laughed and took the same thing for himself, too. Mordred pulled a cloth off his head and looked at what was on it.
"You gotta be kidding me," he said, glancing at Vortimer.
"It's a perfect disguise," he replied; "and red did really suit you."
Mordred gave him a gloomy look. "One more word…"
"And what?" Vortimer chuckled. "Put it on and don't complain."
With new clothes they crossed Camelot's border and headed to the Forest of Balor. As they were going deeper into the woods it was getting darker and temperature dropped when the night finally fell. Mordred lit torches and handed one to Vortimer.
"We have to beware of strange creatures," said Vortimer when they were close to the cave.
"How do we know if the dragon is here? Maybe she's hunting at night," said Mordred, pushing a branch away with his hand.
"Better for us if that's so," Vortimer replied.
"Well, I thought you wanted to catch her," the druid gave him a suspicious look.
"Yes, but first we have to make a trap," said Vortimer, jumping off his horse. "Look for traces, any traces that might indicate the presence of a dragon."
Mordred lowered the torch so that he could see better what was on the ground, but he saw nothing but leaves. When he was at the entrance to the cave he got off his horse and looked behind at Vortimer who was kneeling down and running his hand over the soil.
"Did you find something?" Mordred asked in a half whisper.
"Just a deer traces," Vortimer answered, not looking at him.
"Well," the druid peered into the cave and looked around; "there's no point now, it's too dark. The torch doesn't even help."
Vortimer sighed. "Right, we'll make a camp and search the cave tomorrow."
As he said so, the two of them found a good place to get some sleep and early in the morning, with fresh minds, they undertook the search of the cave. Unfortunately, they found nothing that would tell them about the dragon that would inhabit this creepy, dark cave. Mordred wasn't pleased because of it and still he didn't know what was going through Vortimer's mind, but he said nothing and politely followed his colleague as they continued on their way.
During their passage through Camelot they didn't encounter any patrol and soon they entered the territory of the kingdom of Essetir. They bypassed the village on their road to not to draw attention to themselves and headed through the mountain range. After a few hours of riding and several stops to take a rest and water the horses they eventually saw the caves.
"Well, that's it," said Vortimer, dismounting his horse.
"It's going to take us a lot of time, just hope it will be worth it," Mordred got off his horse, too.
They came a little closer to the caves to tie horses to trees. After a few minutes, prepared and ready, Vortimer and Mordred were about to walk in when they stopped abruptly at the sound of a deep and low voice.
"Stay where you are! Show yourselves."
Vortimer and Mordred exchanged quick glances. The former shook his head nervously as he saw a meaningful expression on the latter's face.
"No magic," Vortimer whispered almost inaudibly and Mordred could only read it from the movement of his lips.
"Are you deaf or something!?" shouted the man and both Vortimer and Mordred flinched as they felt the blade of the sword pressed against their backs. "Show yourselves!"
"Fine, could you just put down your swords?" Mordred asked.
As the blades were put aside they turned around to see six men in dark robes. Each one of them had a serpent symbol on the left side, crest of Essetir. This one, who threatened Vortimer and Mordred, was standing dangerously close to them and was staring at the young men with a murderous look. The man was way taller, muscular and he had a round face. When he scanned them carefully, he smacked his lips.
"Well, well..." he smirked and glanced again at the Pendragon crest on their red robes. "Look who we've got here, knights of Camelot."
Mordred closed his eyes, with exasperation letting out a breath. "Great," he mumbled, giving Vortimer a side look.
"Do your king know about you two being up to something within Essetir borders? What are you doing here?" he was shooting questions towards them.
"Well, we are…," Vortimer started, but was immediately cut off by the muscular man.
"That's very suspicious after king Arthur made peace talks with king Lot."
"Well, we know," Vortimer smiled nervously. "We were on a night patrol and we were attacked."
"Attacked?" the man frowned and the rest of his knights got a little closer.
"By who?" the other man asked.
"By some… animals, I guess," Vortimer tried to sound confident and credible, but it seemed otherwise.
"You're not sure?"
"That's because it was very dark," Mordred interjected.
"Yes, it was," Vortimer glanced briefly at him, nodding his head. "And at some point we split up. We didn't know where we were heading and we didn't know that we crossed someone's border."
"These caves are hours from Camelot's border and you're trying to tell us that you travelled all this time and didn't know?" The tall man narrowed his eyes.
Vortimer snorted, making big eyes and shaking his head. "We couldn't get back," he shrugged.
"The finest knights in the Five Kingdoms," he said with irony; "but not that clever, are you?" he and the other knights laughed in unison. Vortimer and Mordred looked at each other. "Take them, the king will decide what to do with them."
***
They were tossed on the floor before the king, who stood at the sudden confusion in the throne room. He looked at Vortimer and Mordred curling up in pain, and then at his men.
"What is it all about?" the king Lot asked furiously, but there was a hint of unease in his voice.
"Sire," all the knights bowed their heads; "these two men were trespassing through our land and they refused to go with us so we had to make them," one of them replied.
"If that's how you treat your guests I fear for your kingdom," Vortimer laughed softly, still lying on the floor.
"Silence!" the king raised his voice. "These are Arthur's knights," he turned to his men and stepped forward to them; "we are in the process of concluding a pact with his king and what is it that you're doing? Trying to sabotage it?"
"No, of course not, my lord," said the muscular man without missing a beat. "But there is a question, why were they sent here."
"I think it can be explained in a more civilized way and there is just one way to explain it," the king said after a moment. "We will talk with the king of Camelot and we will find out what he is playing with us."