A Week with a Prince

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕾𝖎𝖝𝖙𝖞-𝕿𝖜𝖔

It was at dinner that night when the first rumours started to spread through the castle. Rumours about a magnificent grail made of the purest gold, set with the most precious gems, an otherworldly, holy thing, suddenly appearing on the chapel's altar.

Arthur didn't pay much mind to the words at first, his full attention was riveted on his wife-- he pondered about the unfathomable love he was feeling for her, and the reckless promise he had given her to take her with him to the army camp at Mount Badon, into a possible danger.

He was appalled that he was actually feeling... happy that she had managed to persuade him to take her with him. He was not strong enough to part with her again, despite knowing that this castle which he had built for her was the only place suitable for his queen. He should become her Dux Bellorum, fight in her name like the war dukes of the old, leaving her behind in safety... But she was not like the fair queens from Myrddin's tales; she would not listen to him. She, with her hair spun of flames, her strength greater than that of most men, her unyielding resolve and stubbornness, was different, unique, a warrior like the Queen Boadicea...

Ginny giggled as she noticed how Arthur's spoon missed his mouth, touched his cheek, and woke him up from his reverie, her happy giggle making him laugh.

Destiny. This was their destiny, and he could not fight it, he resolved finally.

And then, Father Patrick, sitting two seats from him at Ginny's other side, repeated the rumours Arthur had registered like faint echoes throughout the meal from around the great, round table.

He noticed Ginny listening intently to the priest's story about the God of the Christians, and the Lord Jesus, and a Holy Grail somehow connected to those legends which had reached the isles with the Romans and spread among the people, exactly like Myrddin's tales of Avalon before... He noticed how Ginny, her lips lifting in a mysterious half-smile which she tried to conceal from him without success, carefully avoided the priest's eyes.

Arthur understood then. The grail that had mysteriously appeared in Camelot's chapel overnight was not the one the priest was hoping for. This Holy Grail belonged to Avalon. He also knew that there was no point in shattering Father Patrick's illusion-- the man would not believe him, he would not want to.

Ginny's eyes met his then, and Arthur knew that she knew, and that she realised that he knew too... They understood each other perfectly. Shrugging simultaneously, they decided without a word spoken aloud to let the grail to its own fate. It would be their secret.

A couple of days later, a group of knights left Camelot for Bowden Hill. To Arthur, still not entirely convinced that taking Ginny-- or Sir Geoffrey into whom she transformed herself for the journey-- with them was the right thing to do, the three days' long journey felt endless.

His hand flew to the hilt of his sword, and he jumped in front of Ginny protectively, drawing unwanted attention to the otherwise perfectly ordinary Knight of his Company, every time they met someone on the road, until Garreth decided to shroud the group into an impenetrable layer of mist.

It erased their surroundings and made them invisible to all passersby, and soon, some of Arthur's Companions started to complain about its being boring and tedious... Ginny did not mind, though, she always liked the strange feeling of intimacy Garreth's fog magicked around them. She and Arthur now trailed behind the group, their horses walking along the narrow path side by side so close to each other that their thighs brushed more often than necessary, making Ginny giggle and blush as she recalled the week, such a long time ago, when they first met.

Arthur finally accepted that bringing Guinevere among the soldiers was really the best thing to do, or rather their destiny, or at least an unchangeable decision of Avalon, when King Gwynedd, the only one of the major kings of their kingdom who had not sworn his fealty to the new High King yet, appeared in the camp two days after their arrival as their ally, seeking the Queen Guinevere, offering his men and the legendary cat-monsters of Combrogia-- panther-like beasts nearly as big as Arthur's dragons trained to carry men into battles-- to her service.

Despite Arthur's suspicions about Gwynedd's real intentions, Ginny trusted the middle-aged king wholeheartedly. It was because of the advice of her Sword, which she obeyed, the strange, prophetic visions it brought to her from time to time. Her tie with the magical Excalibur of Avalon had grown so strong that she sometimes felt as if the blade spoke to her-- aiding her, showing her the right way through the labyrinth of thoughts, worries and indecisions which seemed to grow larger ever since she pulled it from the stone, and became more complicated since she married Arthur, and was crowned his queen.

After a week spent among the men whose resolve to fight for their kingdom tripled at the sight of their young, beautiful queen who walked through the camp on King Athur's arm, having a kind word and a smile for each and every one of her soldiers, the couple left the camp.

In the times of relative peace, before the war always looming somewhere, nearer or farther on the horizon, broke, the king's duty was to solve neighbour disputes among his loyal subjects, and, if necessary, fight small groups of rebels disturbing the life of some more remote settlements.

Ginny, firmly refusing to return to Camelot without Arthur, was allowed, after a lot of persuasion, to come along.

The royal couple, Sir Lancelot, several of the Knights of the Company, and Garreth, whose magical fog made their life so much easier, never left King Arthur's side, and hardly spent more than a few weeks in Camelot throughout the summer.

And then, with the first rains announcing the approaching autumn, they were summoned back to Mount Badon. The battle they had all been expecting for months was upon them.