Camelot

Eighteen - True Love's Kiss

A/N - I'm so greatful for all the support I'm getting for this book! I really appreciate your comments and votes and even if you're just a silent reader I appreciate it. For this chapter I had two paths I could have gone down and I hope you all like the one I've chosen. Not sure when I'll update again, since I have exams coming up but I'll try to update again as soon as possible! Stay tuned, the Leideline wedding is just around the corner...

Enjoy! :) 

Eighteen – True Love’s Kiss

 

The citadel was deserted when I reached it, with the sound of the horse’s hooves echoing eerily around the empty courtyard. There was not a soul in sight, no guard, no people, nothing. Madeline, Jensen and Leith rode into the citadel shortly after me, having not ridden as hard over the journey and like the horses Leith looked close to collapse.

“Take him to rest,” I ordered Madeline, jumping off my own horse. I looked around the empty square, wondering where everyone was and feeling my heart sink with dread.

“Emalia what if the fight has already begun?” Jensen asked worriedly as Madeline and Leith disappeared into the castle. “What if Arthur’s already dead? What if-,”

“Shush!” I snapped, holding up a hand to silence her.

She stopped talking immediately and looked away, her eyes filling with tears. I hadn’t meant to be so harsh on her, but all my worry was currently disguising itself as anger and I had exploded without meaning to.

“I’m sorry,” I sighed, rubbing her arm apologetically. “I am just as worried as you are and your fretting is only making me worse. I should not have snapped at you and for that I’m sorry. We must head to the tournament yards at once.”

I took off in the direction of the tournament yards with Jensen running along behind me clumsily. She was much louder then I was and her heavy panting was apparent. The closer I got to the yards the louder the atmosphere became, until finally I could hear the clash of steel on steel. The match had already begun.

“It’s started,” I said, stopping and feeing Jensen crash into the back of me. “I cannot call off the match now. King Olaf will not allow it regardless of who I am.”

“Could you force Arthur to stop?” Jensen asked. “Perhaps enchant him enough to cause injury so that he is forced to stop?”

“It is a fight to the death,” I reminded her. “If I enchant him and he loses focus for even the shortest moment then he could die. We must be smart about this.”

“Well, if we’re being smart then this is the first step,” she said. She pulled my formal silver hood over my head so that it obscured my face. “Now if we’re spotted we won’t cause alarm. Let’s get in and take a closer look.”

She took off towards the tent area behind the tournament yard. Usually during the many tournaments Camelot held, this yard would be full of different tents for all the different knights attending the tournament; today it only held two.

After finding the tent allocated to Camelot completely empty, we crept over to a gap in the stands, where the knights would usually enter from as they started their challenge or tournament. From there we got a perfect view of what was actually going on.

Arthur and Olaf were both in the middle of the field wielding maces. Arthur was moving stiffly, as though he had already been injured in the fight and was definitely not at his best. Olaf was fighting fiercely and I feared that it was already too late.