Una and Gareth finally made their way out to the stables. Gareth was saddling his horse when Una went over to Gwen to get her ready too.
"Just ride with me," Gareth shouted over.
Una could see the stable boy look at her and then Gareth with much confusion.
"Alright," Una said as she patted the muzzle of Gwen and walked over to Gareth.
Gareth helped Una up on the massive steed. The stable boy was staring a hole into Una.
"My king, who is this woman? Where are you going?" He asked.
Una sighed, but at least the word was not out.
"A very, very important lady. We are journeying to the forest." Gareth said as he got up behind Una.
"I see. Do not stay out too late. Some monsters lurk in the woods" He smiled.
"I shall be back soon." Gareth declared as he nudged the horse into a gentle canter with his stirrup.
Una could see that dusk had fallen and was replaced by the almost full moon's radiant light as they rode off. She held close to Gareth and could feel the cold metal of his armor against her arms. She recognized this armor. Idris wore it the first time Una, and he met. He had come to meet Una's family. They were living near the coast and not in the mountains at the time. Idris had come to offer King Cynan aid as well since the Vikings kept coming for his kingdom. Una remembers that she was very young. The memory feels like a series of pictures rather than a cohesive series of events. Una had spotted him first. She was playing in the forest with Eurion when king Idris approached. Eurion ran away, but Una stood there, mesmerized by the beauty in front of her. He had blood on his cheek, and yet he was still beautiful. He knelt and offered a bouquet of wildflowers he had picked in the field to her. At first, Cynan saw him as a threat, but Una grabbed on to Idris's leg and begged her father not to kill him. The blood on his cheek was from beheading a Viking warlord. Una was wise that day to protect Idris. From then on, their bond was inseparable.
"His armor suits you well. Why are you trying it on?" Una asked as they made their way deep into the forest.
"I have something I must tell you as well." He gulped.
Una knew that for such a lovely and mild evening, only darkness could come of this night. Gareth halted his horse once they had stopped in a clearing. There was a ring of tall stones in the middle of the clearing and the middle a large rock slab. The sound of a pin could be heard. There was no wind. Not even the sound of the ocean could be heard through the thickness of the forest.
"What is this place?" Una asked as Gareth slid off behind her.
"It's an old place. My father said the Celts used to use this place for their religious practices." Gareth said softly.
"I'm surprised it hasn't been destroyed," Una said.
"We believe it is cursed with evil. Anywho touch it are bound by darkness until the end of their days." He said, gazing at it.
"Have you touched it?" Una jested, pulling down a branch in her hand.
"It appears that circumstances would make this appear as if it is true."
"What circumstances do you speak of?" Una asked as she looked down and slid off the horse.
As she slid down, Gareth caught Una in his arms and gently let her down. Before Una could say thank you, Gareth grabbed her waist and arm and pulled her close to him. Gareth bent his neck down and twisted his head until his lips collided with Una's. Una felt disassociated at first as if she were watching from afar. She could not rationalize why Gareth was kissing her and why she was kissing back. Gareth finally pulled back to catch a breath, but he did not let Una speak. He plunged his lips across Una's soft lips again. He had never kissed anyone with so much fervor before. He wanted Una so severely, but he knew he could not have her. Una felt her heart flutter, and she felt light and airy, euphoric in a way. She had kissed people before, in a friendly way, but never anything like this. Una could not stop herself. She grabbed his neck and pulled him closer. He was so inviting and warm and beautiful. She knew it was wrong, but Una felt that it was correct. It was the honesty of her heart speaking through her flesh.
Suddenly Gareth pulled away and turned around.
"I'm sorry, Gareth. I did not mean to reciprocate. I fear my affections for you surpass what is deemed friendship, and I..."
"We are now at war, Una." Gareth interrupted, not turning around.
Una involuntarily gasped.
"What?" Una said breathlessly.
"I'm going to make the official declaration tomorrow," Gareth said, his voice trembling.
"Gareth," Una said as she reached out to touch his hand.
He turned around with tears in his eyes. He wrapped his hand around Una's cheek and peered deeply into her eyes. Una grabbed his hand over her cheek, and she could feel his terror.
"I don't want to lose you. I don't want to die." Gareth said honestly.
"How did this happen?" Una looked down, and a tear fell from her cheek like a crystal in the moonlight.
"Now that my father is dead, the Mercians want their land back he took. I refused because my cousins live on that land and many innocent families. They will be slaughtered first." He cried.
"I will join you, Gareth. You have my word. I will never leave your side. The only thing you should fear losing, it that beautiful smile of yours." Una smiled, trying to make him happy.
She knew what it must be like. She remembers her first war, how shook up she was about leading it. Gareth will be showing his first war. Una knew she must repay what Idris had done for her and her kingdom. Gareth smiled and stroked Una's cheek with his thumb. He still had tears in his eyes but still managed to hold the smile long enough where Una reached up and kissed him again. This time he began to kiss her jaw and then down to her neck. Then he tried to pull the shoulders of her dress down, but something alerted Una to stop. She pushed him away and felt embarrassed.
"I'm sorry, Gareth. I cannot do that. It's too far for me." Una said hesitantly.
"I don't want her, Una. My own wife is the daughter of the king that wants my head on a stake. I can barely look at her. Somehow God must have heard my prayers because the first time I laid with her has been my last because she is pregnant. Our child will bear the weight of this war, whichever side wins." He said solemnly.
"I wish I could be Wilona," Una said with a sad smile.
Gareth's eyes filled with more tears.
"You know, at one time I was offered your hand by my father, but I refused because I thought you were a heathen. He insisted that he was more heathenistic than you, and he was right. I regret that so much because when I gave you the Mercian army's positions, closing in from the east flank, my heart ached with regret. By that time that I saw who you were, I thought you were already wed." Gareth said softly.
"I was a fool then. I never knew. I never blinked an eye at you. There is only one face in war I remember. It is a face covered in mud, blood, and maggots. A tragedy greater than that face was that I never became what my father wanted me to be. He wanted me to get married. He did not want me to be a warrior queen that all men feared. I like to say that I married my sword. It has never abandoned me or caused me grief or pain. It's the perfect companion."
"You lie to me," Gareth said.
Una's lip trembled, and she began to cry again.
"It's true...I...I hate my sword. I hate death and loneliness and despair. That is what I have always known being royal. All I have ever known was dead. I hate it all so much! I wish myself dead sometimes. Perhaps it would have been better to have been killed with the rest of my family." Una said, sobbing.
Gareth came closer to her and embraced her, holding her as close as he could get. He stroked her soft hair and felt her warm tears sting his skin between his chainmail.
"Never wish yourself dead, Una. You give everyone so much hope, and for you to say such a thing makes me feel utterly worthless." Gareth said.
Una stopped crying and softly reassured Gareth.
"One day, Gareth, we shall wake up in a field of flowers covered in the rain and not blood. One day we will see no more war in our counties and ourselves."
"Yes. I long to see a day like this too." Gareth said.
"I will go with you, just as I went with Idris, and we will defeat the Mercians," Una said.
"I can't let you go, Una. It's too dangerous."
"It's no less dangerous than leaving me here by me with Wilona or going through east Anglia by me."
Gareth pulled away from Una.
"Why do you say that?" Gareth asked.
Una wiped her tears with her sleeve.
"That's what I want to talk to you about," Una said, sighing.
"My wife?" He asked.
"I have been informed that your wife has affections for the dark arts."
"Wilona?" Gareth seemed confused.
"That's what I was afraid of," Una said softly.
"How have you come across these accusations. Have you any proof?" He asked.
"Forgive me, but I was snooping around a few days ago after I heard that she has certain...rituals per se. While you were attending church, Alaric informed me that Wilona was ill with purging pains again."
"Yes, she has been quite sick," Gareth said with a heavy sigh.
"Well, Alaric a week ago said that he made her a tonic. A few days ago, he served her a beverage that had blood in it."
"Blood? Are you sure it wasn't beet juice or berries smashed up?" Gareth said, crossing his arms but with a concerned look on his face.
"I have grown up around pregnant women my whole life, and never once hot steaming blood was used as medicine." Una insisted.
"Well, what else would have you believe that she performs...the dark arts," Gareth said softly.
"She ate an entire raw liver, Gareth. The stag you brought in, you remarked that the liver was missing. It was served to her natural, and she drank the blood with it. She walked into the kitchen, drank the blood out of the heart, and stuffed it back in the carcass. " Una said.
"I will admit that is a bit gut retching. My God says we should not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. I figured it was an old age remedy for her people. The pendragons were known for such things."
"So, you knew? Even I, who was once a pagan, would never consume the life force out of the animals I sacrificed. That is heathenistic beyond any practice I have heard about. Drinking blood like that does not honor the animal or any God or Goddess that is holy and sacred. It is blaspheming the animal and deity's life because drinking blood is mocking what the Gods do. Any mockery of the Gods is an insult, and it is forbidden. I thought Wilona claims herself as a Christian woman?"
"Wilona definitely has a darker edge about her, but I thought that was because she was always drinking and sleeping around with men. I hated monitoring her like a parent, but she was such an embarrassment to the kingdom. So, I told her I didn't care what she did under my roof so long as she didn't make herself known."
"So, you basically don't know your wife at all," Una suggested.
"She's a close stranger." Gareth laughed, but his face sulked.
"I fear that your life is in danger, not because of this war, but Wilona. Alaric said that Samhain is coming up, and she will do something that night."
"Alaric?" Gareth seemed disturbed.
"He fears saying or doing anything because Wilona will hurt his sister again."
"Again, are these accusations true?"
"Alaric wept, Gareth. He is more levelheaded than all of us. That is how I knew he was telling me true. I am here to warn you because I have seen this dark before. My mother partook in drinking blood and eating the flesh of sacrificed animals. She would become possessed during battle by a dark force that overtook her, and she slew many. I believe that is why such cruel titles are placed on me. I was the daughter of two very high, very dark families. Look what it has brought me, only misery. Nothing good can come of Wilona on Samhain. I suggest you leave town before she does something. Usually, on a night like that, larger sacrifices are needed. It took me a long time to realize that my mother was not only a warrior but a murderer. She killed many men in the name of her Gods, the dark lords of old. Do not seek Alaric out and confront him about this. I am saying that he and his sister are in an impossible situation to leave from Wilona's forces. Once you are in them, you cannot leave."
"Did you partake in the flesh and blood-consuming?" Gareth said, his eyes wide.
"I was offered once, but I refused. The next day, my entire family was slain except my brother and me." Una trembled.
"You think Wilona would sacrifice me? So, she is a wolf in sheep's clothing." Gareth scoffed.
"No, but you have a child on the way with her. She may do what my mother did. She will want protection from your people. I know how much the people of Wessex hate the pendragons, and now that we are at war? I do not know what will happen. I am just warning you that this is not a simple heathen matter. This goes beyond all heathenism. These beings are very dark and are very real."
"Why do you feel the need to tell me this, Una?" Gareth asked honestly as he placed his hands over Una's shoulders.
"Because I am confident in what I know. Idris told you I am honest and true. You must believe me, Gareth. I have faith in the creator. This is a matter that goes beyond humans. We are merely sheep to them, these dark beings. I have seen firsthand what they can do. Everyone thought my mother was mad, and since I look like her, they thought I had inherited her madness. I also care for you, Gareth. I did not kiss you back because I've never had anyone before. I care for you, and that is a dangerous thing."
"Why is it dangerous?" Gareth said, staring into Una's eyes.
"Love is blinding. It makes the world beautiful again. Love will make me give up on avenging my family and friends. Love will make me abandon the war. Love will make me abandon all evil, and that is what I cannot do. I must fight evil head-on. Who else will do it if everyone else is blind?" Una said.
"I have no love for Wilona. I only married her because it made my father happy so that Mercia would ally. Now I see it was all for nothing. I could have married you if I had waited If I knew this war was coming. We will have to push them up even further than before." He said, reaching out to hug Una again.
"We will win," Una said.
"I hope so. This is Mercia, the merciless we are talking about." He laughed.
"Don't be so grim. I know we will win because I have not lost a battle yet. Mercia will be begging for mercy in the end. I can see it. I have the gift of sight, remember?" Una said hesitantly.
She hesitated because she will see the outcome of this great war. On the night of Samhain, she will be given a vision of the future in her dreams. Only then will she know for sure if her intuition was right. She may have abandoned the Gods, but she will never abandon her visions, for they are true. She has never seen a God or Goddess, but she has seen images come to fruition. Even the vision of her family's death month's before it happened still haunts Una. She will never forget it. She will not let it happen a second time.