Merlin's Secret

Chapter 21 Masters

Getting into the castle was a long annoying process. Our uniforms were that of low ranking soldiers, and one or two combat specialists.
We followed Snake's path back through the forest. The trees got really dense, and although it was still daylight, the leaves above us were woven together so tightly that it was almost completely dark.
It became difficult to see the trail, and nearby, we heard screeching and howling. It was like an eternal night. Still, we did not give up...even when we got lost.
"Merlin! Where are we? These are your woods, you should know!" Arthur grumbled.
"Oh yeah, 'cause I've been here sooooo many times in the past few years." I mumbled tiredly.
"I should remember." Sir James said miserably. "After all, I came through with the traitor Knights to go to Camelot."
"Come on, guys. We'll get nowhere if we just blame people." Gwaine said.
"Yeah, you're right. This is not the time for such things." Sir Isaiah agreed.
I sat up in my saddle. Why didn't I think of this before?!
"I know!" I said loudly. 'Oh, wow! I bet It's laughing It's head off right now!!' I thought.
The others turned to me. I looked back at them in the dim light.
"Let's ask The Sands to help us!" I said.
Suddenly, the large pocket on my cloak glowed. I looked down at it, confused.
A cloud of golden sand blew itself out of my pocket. We all gasped, but the cloud drifted in front of me like a beautiful shifting golden mass of sunlight, and in my mind I heard,
"Little Prince Servant, I do not have a head, but if I did, then you are right; I would be laughing it off."
I shrugged sheepishly. Whoops. The Sands fell to the floor of the forest and illuminated our group so we could see. It rolled across the ground like a soft desert wind, and it was beautiful.
We shook out of our reverie and followed the rolling golden sand into the kingdom of Kealyen.
We stood on the top of a very steep cliff, and the sharp daylight contrasted dramatically with the dimness of the Enchanted Wood.
As we stood on the cliff, I took in the sights. The cliff we were in circles around the castle in a half bowl, so there was only one grand entrance to the Capitol City, Keyelleyia.
It was a sparkling city that housed a great sparkling castle. Kealyen mined a lot of crystal and precious jewels, so there were sometimes entire walls and windows and door made entirely of my crystal.
I teared up looking at it. If only Emi could see it. Although it was set on fire in the invasion, the palace architect, Sangiove, would die before not rebuilding the castle even better than before. And he has certainly done a spectacular job.
I was home again.
    We made our way around to the left back side of the castle. This was the side furthest away from the Crystal Spire, the twisting, sparkling tower that rose high above anything else. It housed some of the most luxurious rooms in the kingdom.
    This is where the King sleeps, but he would probably be in the Audience Chamber right about now.
    There was an incredibly steep staircase winding down the side of the cliff. I felt bad for Sir James, when he was little, he told me he had a fear of heights. 
    He went a bit pale, but I purposely stuck him in the middle of the group, and he gave me a grateful smile, which I returned.
    "Ok. I can lead us to a side door in thee kitchens. Then we will go..."I trailed off.
    "We go where?" Gwaine asked me.
    "...I don't know, we'll figure it out on the way. As long as we stick to the basic plan, the rest is fine. Just stick to the plan." I awnsered.
    "Plans that are planned will never go as planned." Mordred said to us.
    "That's cheery." Arthur told him.
    "Milord, it's quite true." Sir Isaiah said.
    "Yes, but seeing as what we're about to do, I think we ought to be a bit more cheerful, do you not agree?" He replied.
    "At the same time we need to be realistic." Sir Joshua said.
"While being realistic is important, you wouldn't want to be so realistic that it demoralizes your comrades." Gwaine said.
"But if speaking realistically is enough to completely demoralize everyone, should they even be out there?" Sir Isaiah retorted.
"That's dependent on what they are 'out there' to do. If it's a trivial job, errand, or dare, then it wouldn't matter if they gave up and got demoralized, bacause it wouldn't be that important. But if it is something like this, then you have to go through with it wether you are demoralized or not." Arthur explained.
"Not to interrupt your oh-so-relevant discussion, but we reached the bottom." Sir Sirach notified them.
"Aww you should've let them keep going, it was funny!" I smirked playfully at them.
"Your face is funny, Merlin." Arthur said.
"I see you are as original and funny as ever, Sire." I mock bowed.
He chucked his shield at me.
Some things never change...

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I walked around the outside of the kitchen walls. It must be around there somewhere, but it's been a long time, and it might have been altered by the fire.
I finally found it in a shadowed, secluded area of the gardens, and I ripped the door open with the shield Arthur threw at me.
...I then came face to face with a lovely brick wall.
"Damn!" I swore. "It must have been affected by the fire."
I walked away, staring directly up the wall of the palace, looking for a place to climb up.
"No, actuality, we use this as a secret entrance for the Knights of the Code." Sir James notified me.
    "Yes, I was wondering if this was the one you meant. I was going to wait to see if it was this one or not, I apologize for not letting you know before." Sir Sirach addressed me.
    "That's fine, as long as you can get us in the castle." I said.
    Sir James pulled a pendant out from underneath his chain mail. It was the shape of the Blue Fox mascot of Kealyen, but inside the wolf had an intricate tree.
    Sir Isaiah told me that it stood for the royal bloodline of Lealyen, and the direct family there.
    I tried not to think of the pain my brother had gone through when he realized he was not actually part of that bloodline.
    Then I shook my head. He had always been a part of this family, and if he had ever thought otherwise, then he was more of a fool then I thought he was.
   Sir James pressed the pendant up to the wall, and it glowed. The solid brick wall all of a sudden disappeared, as if it had never been at all.
    The eight of us quietly snuck through, realizing just in time that there was only a thin walk separating is from the bustling lively kitchen.
We followed the long, dark, skinny corridor for awhile, past a few
cobwebby doors, until I finally recognized a door. It was attached to a secret passageway that ran along almost every wall in the castle.
Well, I say secret, but it actually wasn't that secret- everyone knew of them. The hard part was not getting lost in them. It was basically just s glorified maze.
Fortunately enough, I grew up here. It would definitely be a matter of fact to say that I practically memorized the entire thing. I was always planning to come back to my castle, so I went over the tunnels in my head every night before I went to sleep.
The door led directly to a staircase that ran very steeply up. The surfaces of the stairs were only like five inches wide, so they were very precarious.
They creaked, so we had to go very slowly, but I knew it was worth the almost getting caught when I saw the short hallway with the three doors at the end.
These had once served as Emi, Viv, and my rooms. We had found out when we were very little that they were connected by the ancient tunnels.
We used then to get out, it see each other when one or two of us got grounded to our rooms.
I went to the door in the middle. Placing my hand on the dusty green door, I told the Knights and my King how this room used to be mine, but when Emi was born Viv and I decided that she should be protected more, and so we put her in the middle.
That way, if an assassin or intruder got in, they would have to get past our rooms first to get to Emi's. And we all knew that no one would pass over the Heir to the Throne's room just to get to the youngest child's room.
"He seems, from what you tell us of him, like a very valiant and noble brother." Mordred said cautiously.
"He is. Was. He always thought of us. And he knew I didn't want to be king, so he studied very hard in order to become the perfect one. He devoted his life to the throne, and to us. I don't know what went wrong, or where!" I said, choking a little.
I've lost everyone, but now I finally have people who are important to me again. I've got Arthur, and Emi, and Guias, Mordred, Gwaine, my Knights, the other Knights of the round table, Gwen...
My eyes hardened. I can, and will do this...for them. There was on other passageway in Viv's room that led to the parlor room, and a opening mirror in there that led to the room outside the throne room.
"Come on. Let's free my country. Let's free Vivirae." I said, fire burning in my eyes.

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Hi guuuuyyyzzzzz so I just came here to say that I've planned the rest of the chapters out and finished early, so there's a super big update coming, like in literally less then twelve hours from now. Ok byeeeeeeee

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