I had to give it to Gaius, he was smart. Really smart. When he had originally suggested that we twist the truth around slightly to avoid any suspicions from my father, I had my doubts, I will admit that but what Gaius had come up with was really simple but really effective. After we had finalised our plans, I had left Gaius's chambers in search of my father.
Of course when I finally found him, he seemed in a mood, as usual but when I mentioned that Gaius had requested an audience, something about a piece of information in relation to the Crystal of Neahtid, his face broke into a massive grin and for a split second I was terrified that he was going to try and hug me. Thankfully he seemed to regain his composure and immediately gathered an audience.
On entering the Great Hall ten minutes later, I wasn't too surprised to see it already lined up with rows of Lords waiting to hear what Gaius had to say. Knowing that Morgana was involved with this, I tried my best to act natural as I sat beside her at the front of the room, though I did try to not look in her direction if I could manage it.
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't angry with her but I was worried about her. I hadn't realised that she felt so alone here and that she was so miserable. I knew I had to change that before it was too late but at this moment I wasn't sure what I could do to help, knowing what I did. But from now on I would try and comfort her more about her magic as that seemed to be the main issue here. Part of me considered telling her about my own magic but considering her alliance with Alvarr right now, I doubted that information would stay secret in their little band of renegades and I was concerned that the information would get back to my father who would probably take the upmost joy beheading me on the spot and ridding himself of the burden that was me.
"You know the whereabouts of the crystal?" my father asked, rising from his throne after Gaius had finished speaking.
I felt Arthur shift nervously behind me as he was leaning up against the back of my seat, watching over the audience. From anyone else's perspective, his action wouldn't have been noticeable but as he was right behind Morgana and myself, though I couldn't see him, I could feel every shake of my chair as he moved around slightly.
"I believe so, Sire," Gaius confirmed.
Rather than Arthur shifting nervously, this time I had Morgana on my left shifting slightly in her seat at this news. I pretended not to notice it but as my eyes wandered around the room and landed on Merlin, I could see that he had noticed it too.
"I see. How did you come by this information?" Father asked, keeping his calm exterior this time.
"In my many years of being a physician, I have dealings with many different people," Gaius answered. "They hear things, Sire, and they see things. Last night I was confronted by one such couple." I noticed the small tug at the side of Gaius's mouth as he said this, his eyes flicking to mine for a mere fraction of a second, making me try to contain my own smile. "They told me that the crystal had been stolen by a band of renegades, led by a man called Alvarr."
"Who exactly were these informants?" Father asked. Oh, if only he knew he was standing right beside one of them. Once again, I had to bite down on my lip to contain the smile as I saw Merlin have to duck his head to hide his own smile.
"I think it would only be fair to protect their identities, Sire. If news of their betrayal were to reach the renegades, it could indeed endanger their lives," Gaius said.
"Very well," Father agreed.
I felt Arthur leave his place from behind my chair and instead he came over to my right side and perched on the arm of the chair. Could he not get in his own chair?! I moved to my left slightly to give him a bit more room so he didn't fall off, though that would be really funny if he did, and in the corner of my eye I saw him subtly smirk, making me really want to shove him off the chair.
"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."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
As we reached the top of a cliff that overlooked the Valley of Chemary, Arthur turned in his horse to look at Merlin, whose gaze was fixated on the spot where the smoke had been coming from last night.
"Gaius had better be right about this," Arthur commented.
"He will be," I assured him.
"And how can you be sure?" Arthur asked.
"Call it a hunch," I replied with a small shrug.
"Great, so rather than just following a rumour, now we're following a hunch," Arthur sighed.
"Hey, my hunch's are nearly always right and you know that," I defended, trotting over so that I was beside him.
"I hope you're right," Arthur said, and for the first time since we had left the castle he actually sounded nervous.
With that, we continued to ride on in the direction of the Valley of Chemary, going deeper and deeper into the thick woodlands. After about half an hour of riding through the trees, they spaced out again and we were left out in the open on a dusty trail. Everyone had pretty much been silent the whole journey here, either not having anything to say or not wanting to risk being heard by the renegades. Who knew if Morgana had actually gone to them to warn them but I had a feeling that the chances were high and that when we got there, they weren't going to go down easy.
"I don't know why I bother bringing you on these expeditions," Arthur broke the silence, glancing over at Merlin, who was yet to say a single word on the whole journey here. "You spend the whole time terrified."
"I'm not terrified," Merlin defended.
"Yes, you are. I can tell," Arthur said.
"No, you can't," Merlin countered.
"You can't hide anything from me," Arthur insisted, making Merlin and I share a subtle smile at his comment. "If you weren't scared, you'd be talking rubbish as usual."
"Well, I am talking rubbish as usual," Merlin remarked before he realised what he had said and tried to alter it. "I mean, I am talking as usual. So, clearly, I am not scared."
"What do you think, Chels? Don't you think Merlin's acting like a little scaredy cat?" Arthur asked.
"If the requirements to being a scaredy cat is that of not speaking for a while then I would say your whole army are a bunch of scaredy cats, including yourself and me," I commented, earning a glare from Arthur.
"That's a bit harsh, don't you think, my Lady?" Leon asked from just behind us.
"You should blame Arthur for that. It was his requirements for what he satisfied as being scared," I defended, looking over at Leon.
We continued to follow the path and soon we were back under the protection of the trees that stopped the rain from hitting us as it started to pour down heavier and heavier. But as the pelted down on us, causing my hair to start to tangle and stick to the side of my face, an icy blast of wind blew straight at us as if warning us to stay away.
Ten more minutes passed before we came to a stop at a path that forked off into three different directions. In my full honesty, I didn't remember this part of the journey from before as Merlin and I had been so focused on keeping Morgana in our sights that we hadn't really paid that much attention to where we were going.
"Where now?" Arthur asked us.
"No idea," Merlin muttered, looking between the three different routes.
"I thought you said Gaius gave you directions," Arthur reminded him.
"He did, he... he just didn't tell me about this part," Merlin answered, sharing a worried glance with me.
Merlin carefully got off his horse and walked further down the path to where it divided off into two of the three options.
"Merlin, this is your fault," Arthur said, but I was too focused on what Merlin was doing to try and stop him. He appeared to be straining his ears to hear something down the paths. "If you'd just guarded the keys to the vault we wouldn't be here in the first place!"
"Arthur, keep it down or do you want to alert the whole forest of our presence?" I hissed over at him, hoping to get him to shut up so that Merlin could concentrate.
"Merlin! I am talking to you!" Arthur continued shouting over at him. When Merlin didn't respond again, Arthur got off his horse and went over to him. "What are you doing?"
"The renegade camp it's that way," Merlin finally said, gesturing over to the right path.
"And you know this because?" Arthur asked, looking back at me in doubt.
"I know it because of..." Merlin trailed off.
"I give up," Arthur shook his head.
While Arthur was distracted with being annoyed at Merlin, I glanced down the road and muttered a quiet incantation under my breath, creating a footprint in the muddy path. When Merlin looked over to me for help, I subtly gestured to behind him. He turned around and I saw a smile form on his face before he rushed over to the footprint.
"Because of this," Merlin said, causing Arthur to look over in the direction he was looking in.
"So it's a footprint. Who says it belongs to a renegade?" Arthur asked.
"Who says it doesn't?" I countered from my place back at the horses.
Arthur turned and openly glared at me, giving Merlin the opportunity to create some more footprints further along the path.
"There's more," Merlin announced.
Turning away from me, Arthur stared at the footprints and even he couldn't deny that there was a chance they belonged to some renegades. After he had stared at them for a few moments he glanced over at the rest of his knights over his shoulder.
"Leave the horses. Follow me," Arthur ordered.
I climbed off of Cinnamon and moved her over to the side of the mud track and tied her securely to a tree. After stroking her snout a couple of times, I walked over to Arthur, double checking that my bow was securely in place and that the dagger that was attached to my belt hadn't fallen off.
"Chelsea, remember. If I tell you to run—" Arthur began but I already knew the drill.
"If you tell me to run, I run. If you tell me to hide, I hide and if you tell me to leave you and save myself, I do just that," I said. "Trust me, Arthur, you've said that enough times that it is literally engrained into my mind."
"Good, then hopefully you'll listen to it," Arthur remarked.
"Not likely," I muttered to myself.
Once all the knights looked ready to go, we followed the path until it ended into the darkness of yet another forest. Gesturing for us to all stay low and silent, Arthur entered the forest, the rest of us not far behind. Knowing the importance of having a surprise attack, every leaf, twig, or branch that could possibly make a noise, we avoided each and every one of them. Though I didn't say it to Arthur cause I was pretty sure I'd lose my head if I did, but the knights weren't exactly blending in with the scenery very well with their bright red cloaks of Camelot. If Morgana had got to Alvarr before us, then they would be on the lookout and all they would need to see were these damn cloaks that stuck out like a sore thumb in a visage of greens and browns.
Once the Druid camp was in sight, I noticed that it was a lot emptier than it had been the night before, meaning Morgana had gotten to them in time. Crouching down onto our knees, we analysed the camp for at least a minute, waiting for Arthur's signal to attack or retreat.
"I told you," Merlin whispered to Arthur with a smile on his face, knowing that he had proven Arthur wrong. "Didn't I tell you?"
After sending me a glare that said something along the lines of "control your boyfriend or I will kill him," Arthur didn't utter a response to Merlin and instead quickly got to his feet and rushed over to the camp.
"Wait, what is he doing?" Merlin asked me.
Seeing this as their signal, all the knights behind us started to get up.
"Come on," I muttered back, also getting onto my feet and following after Arthur, my hands ready with a bow and arrow.
As we entered the camp, it was even clearer that it had been abandoned in a hurry but it hadn't happened too long ago. One of their firepits were still smoking gently in the breeze and tables had been knocked over in their rush to escape.
"Chelsea?" Arthur said, making me turn over to him. He was crouched down by a put out fire and looked deep in thought. "They're not here, are they? You said they'd be here. You assured me."
"They can't have gotten far, Arthur. Look at all the signs. They were warned of our approach," I replied.
"Are you saying there's a traitor in Camelot?" Arthur asked, his eyebrows furrowing.
"There's a chance but right now we need to leave. I have a really bad feeling about this place," I admitted, glancing around the camp. "They're not here anymore."
"Yes, they are," Merlin countered, coming over to my side.
As if on que, an arrow whooshed straight between Arthur and me and into the heart of a knight who was standing behind us. Another grunt echoed through the forest as another man fell down, this time being shot in the back and just behind Merlin.
"Take cover!" Arthur ordered before he turned to Merlin and me. "Get out of here now!"
Not waiting for my answer, Arthur grabbed his sword that he had chucked to the ground and started to run at the band of renegades that were charging into the camp. As if already knowing what I was going to say, Merlin picked up his own weapon from the ground, ready to fight. There was no way we were going to run.
There had to be at least fifty, if not more, of the renegades that were ambushing us. But I could not see Morgana anywhere.
Ducking from a hit of a sword, with my free hand a grabbed the dagger from my belt and twisted around, stabbing it into the back of my attacker. I pulled the dagger away and he crumbled to the floor into a piled mess of blood and clothing. From what I could see, the fight was pretty equal. Several of Alvarr's men had fallen but so had several of ours. And yet I couldn't see the man himself anywhere.
Just as I started to try and locate Merlin or Arthur to tell them that Alvarr wasn't here, a gloved hand wrapped around my mouth, pulling me back behind one of the tents before I could stop them. When I'd been let go, I turned and saw Alvarr standing there.
"I don't want to hurt you, Princess. I mean no harm," Alvarr said, though I was struggling to hear him over the screams and cries of death. "We have a mutual friend and they told me that you support those who have magic." I remained silent, already knowing where this was going. "Join us, my Lady and we can take down all of those who oppose magic. You can help save so many innocent lives if you join us now. Help us protect the innocent."
"You're insane," was all I said before I jabbed him in the gut with the hilt of my sword and ran back around to the main battle.
"You'll regret that, Princess!" Alvarr yelled after me, but I couldn't care less right now. I had to make sure that Arthur or Merlin didn't fall.
When I was back in the main battle, I was immediately charged by one of the renegades but before I could even lift my dagger or my bow, Arthur leapt in front of me, striking the man down before he could even acknowledge what had happened.
"I thought I told you to go?" Arthur commented.
"When have I ever—get down—" Arthur ducked, allowing me to release an arrow into the heart of the renegade that was going to charge Arthur from behind. "When have I ever done what you've said?"
"Good point," Arthur nodded. "On your left."
I side stepped to the right instead, swinging my dagger to the left, and into the stomach of a renegade.
"Have you seen Merlin anywhere?" I asked, as Arthur and I stood back to back, slashing and kicking at the half a dozen of renegades that had begun to circle us.
"He's probably cowering behind a tree somewhere," Arthur replied, making me roll my eyes, just as we knocked the last renegade down.
I looked around at the fallen knights and just from where I was standing I could count at least a dozen of them. The only renegade left standing was Alvarr, who was looking around at his fallen comrades, his face masking the sadness that I'm sure he felt about them. Arthur slowly left my side, approaching Alvarr, whose gaze was fixed on me, making me feel slightly uncomfortable at the intensity of it.
Quickly making a move to strike Arthur with his sword, Alvarr was quickly detained when Arthur knocked the sword from his hand and instead held his own against his throat.
"Give me the crystal," Arthur ordered him calmly yet fiercely.
"Why should you care?" Alvarr challenged. "What use is it to you?" Two knights came up behind Alvarr and held his wrists tightly behind his back. "You are a fool!" Alvarr's gaze landed back on me again. "And you. You are more than a fool. You are a hypocrite and a—"
"Finish that sentence," Arthur warned him, holding the sword closer to his throat so that a small trickle of blood broke through his skin. "I dare you." Arthur then turned to me and handed me his sword so that he could frisk Alvarr for the crystal.
"How many lives have been lost this day, and for what?" Alvarr sneered at Arthur, who came away from him with a small brown package. "You cannot wield the crystal. You do not have the power. None of you do!"
"Chelsea, protect this with your life," Arthur requested. "I don't trust anyone to look after it more than you."
"I am greatly offended by that," Merlin commented sarcastically, coming over to our side as I pocketed the crystal.
"Where've you been?" Arthur asked.
"Oh, I was just taking a nap. It was really relaxing," Merlin replied, making me smile.
"Idiot," Arthur muttered under his breath before he walked away.
I shared another smile with Merlin, though the weight of guarding the crystal was looming over me, making me uneasy and anxious. I would not lose this crystal. Not again.
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