The Dark Tower

Chapter 25 - Socks and Spouses

I coughed to clear my throat and then reached in my bag to find the bottle of water I was carrying. I took a swig and it removed one of the many layers of dust from my throat, but I didn’t want to risk drinking it all. I had no idea how I was going to get out of here. Or even if I could. My eyes were open but it made no difference as there was not one spot of light.

The rumbling had reduced and the dust was beginning to settle. ‘Hello!’ I called. ‘Hello! Help!’ Nothing. I fumbled at where the Tardis door had been, but it was a solid sheet of rock. At least that reduced my options of what direction to head in and I crawled forward on hands and knees until I encountered the first rock fall. Painfully slowly, I began to move the rocks out of the way, feeling for them with my hands, dragging them slowly one by one, desperately trying to move forward, inch by painful inch. After what seemed like an age, but was probably only a few minutes, I stopped to rest and took another sip of water, and then started again. I could hear rocks falling, settling into their lowest entropy, but as far as I could tell, no more major falls occurred. I had no idea whether the others had made it safely through, every rock I moved had the potential to reveal the dead body of one of my closest friends.

I pressed forward, slowly, just doing something seemed incredibly important, when I heard a scrabbling sound and, very faintly, voices.

‘Beth! Beth! Can you hear me?’ My heart caught in my mouth. Was it . . .? But5 how could it be? ‘Beth! It’s Gwaine!’

‘Gwaine!’ My heart skipped a hundred beats. Gwaine. My Gwaine. He was here! And then there was the scrabbling sound again.

‘Beth, call Aithusa.’

‘OK! Aithusa! Aithuuuuuusa my darling! Come to Beth!’

It wasn’t quick, but with encouragement from Katy, Gwaine and myself, Aithusa struggled her way along the tunnel until I could hear her snuffling breath and, with massive amounts of relief, eventually see the flames she was spewing to break the rocks and claw them out of the way. As soon as she had broken through, Katy took her out and Gwaine moved the final rocks to meet me. In the fitful light of his torch, I reached out and touched his hand, crying so that I could barely see him until he pulled me through the smallest of openings and into his protective arms.

He half pulled, half carried me up the steps and back into the basement of the Dark Tower where Katy, Merlin and Mordred were waiting. I was hanging on to Gwaine, sobbing, not even able to ask what had happened to everyone else.

‘Bath and then straight to bed,’ Katy ordered. ‘We can talk in the morning.’

Gwaine organised both, washing the rock dust from me gently, shushing me when I spoke.

‘When did you get here?’ I asked. ‘Please, tell me, it’s important.’

‘A day ago. After a week, I went to meet you at Mab’s to be told you’d gone to the Dark Tower. I was given your note, so came here and found Mordred. We were just preparing to come and look for you when Katy, Mab and Merlin returned. Anyway, time for you to sleep. Time for both of us as I’ve not slept either. We can talk in the morning.’

I could feel myself drifting off as he undressed, climbed into bed next to me and wrapped his arms around me.

‘I love you,’ I whispered.

‘I love you too, but we need to talk,’ were the last words I heard before sleep overtook me.

 ‘I think the portal may have closed,’ I said unnecessarily at lunch the next day when we all met round the main table.

Mab was back to fairy sized but didn’t seem all that happy about it.

‘I liked being tall,’ she said.

‘Everyone does,’ Katy agreed.

I wasn’t sure what had happened along the tunnel from the Tardis, but at least Gwaine, Mordred and Merlin were here now. Merlin tried to explain what had happened to him, but wasn’t entirely sure himself. One minute he’d been in the Dark Tower, the next dressed as a silvery bird and performing on a stage in London.  Between performances, he said that he felt like he was inhabiting someone else’s body, but wasn’t entirely existing. And that he was very glad to be back.

Gwaine was unusually quiet during the meal, so I took him back to our room so that we could talk.

‘Beth, I thought you weren’t going to go back to your old world.’

‘We had to get Merlin back. You understand that, don’t you?’

He nodded, but didn’t look happy about it. ‘I was worried about you. Especially when you weren’t back after a week. And then I was given your note by the fairies in the Impenetrable Forest saying what you were going to do.’

‘I’m sorry, I had no choice.’

‘I just wish I’d been there to help. I’m supposed to be rescuing damsels in distress, not letting them fend for themselves.’

‘I wish you’d been there too. Thanks for rescuing me.’

‘That was mainly Aithusa.’

‘But just knowing you were there . . .’

‘Well, that’s the way it’s going to be from now on. I’m going to be there. Can we go back to Camelot now?’

‘I just need to collect something from the Impenetrable Forest.’

‘What?’ he said, a little tetchily. ‘I just want to be married to you so I can properly look after you.’

‘I have to get my wedding dress.’

‘Oh,’ and he sighed with relief. ‘I really don’t want to wait any longer to make you my wife. You’ll have to obey me then and there’ll be no more running off on adventures of your own. Damn. I’ve forgotten to put my socks on,’ and he sat down to pull off his boots.

‘Obey you? Since when did I say I was going to obey you? Gwaine? Gwaine!’

‘Oh dear,’ he said, and then looked up at me seriously. ‘I really do need to bring you into line like a good wife, don’t I?’

‘Bring me into line?’

‘Yes, you know, doing my washing and cooking, obeying my every command . . . Can you pass me my socks?’ I was almost apoplectic with disbelief.

‘Gwaine!’ I squeaked.

‘Yes, my love?’

‘About this obeying thing . . .?’

‘Hmm?’

‘Gwaine! We are not getting married if I have to obey you.’

He looked up at me, a deadly serious expression on his face. ‘You don’t mean that, do you?’

‘Oh yes, Gwaine. Because I don’t want to lie to you in our wedding vows. If you’re saying that I have to obey you, then this wedding is off!’