The Empress & The Gunslinger

Chapter 27 - Emily Kaldwin, The Guardian

Arthur stuck to his word, every day for the last month Arthur would come and visit Emily at Charlotte's cabin; he looked more and more fragile every day. He also found Emily's sword amongst the wreckage at the Mayor's house. Emily was kept out of what Arthur was doing; she didn't know what he was getting up to or who he was killing truthfully she didn't want to know. She had bonded really well with Charlotte over the last month, helping her with day to day activities and she even learnt how to fish which was a skill Charlotte taught her. Everyday Emily would go out by the lake, which had a beautiful waterfall falling into the lake close to Charlotte's home. It was the perfect place for Emily to relax and take her mind off of worrying about Arthur.

It was a warm day and Emily decided she would take a walk down to the lake. When she got there she saw deer running freely on the other side of the water. She sat herself down by a large rock, soaking in the warm sun. Nothing could be heard except for the birds and the water from the waterfall crashing into the lake. After a while she began to feel really lethargic, like something had zapped away all her energy, she placed her hand on her small growing bump and closed her eyes tightly. She remained like this for 10 minutes. Goosebumps began to cover her pale skin and her heart began to race then suddenly she blacked out. 30 minutes had passed and Emily's lifeless body was slumped over on a rock. From a distance the pounding of a horses hooves were hitting the ground... it was Arthur coming to visit his love Emily. He approached the cabin where Charlotte advised him that Emily had made her way down to the lake and hadn't come back up. Arthur hitched his horse and walked down to the lake. As he got closer he saw Emily's head hanging off the side of the rock and her hair swaying in the slight breeze. He ran down to her aid and picked her up in his arms.
"Emily wake up!!" He said slightly shaking her.
It was almost like she was dead except her skin didn't appear that way; she still had a warm glow on her cheeks. After several minutes of trying to wake her, Emily slowly opened her eyes. She looked up at Arthur confused.
"What happened?" She asked him, looking up at him.
Arthur caressed her cheek and moved a strand of hair away from her face "I don't know you were slumped backwards on the rock, lifeless"
Arthur helped Emily sit up, she was very confused, rubbing her forehead, truth was, whilst she was out she saw something horrifying. She grabbed Arthur's hand and looked him dead in the eye.
"It was Micah" she said to him.
Arthur looked at her confused "What was Micah? Emily you're not making any sense"
"Micah killed everyone in the Mayor's house and he kidnapped the Mayor in...In an attempt to..." Emily paused as it soon hit her that what she saw probably wouldn't be taken very well by Arthur "...In an attempt to kill me... this makes sense now... Dutch took you all out of camp to take care of other business so Micah and his followers could ambush the Mayor's house in an attempt to find me and kill me but instead killed everyone in his sight"
Arthur looked at Emily even more confused than he was before.
"Where has all of this come from?" He asked
She broke eye contact with him and began to walk back towards the house, Arthur followed closely behind her still confused with the information she had shared. As they arrived back at the house Emily sat outside on the porch.
"Micah has the mayor and were going to get him back" Emily said sternly.
Arthur shook his head in disagreement "You're not going anywhere your pregnant" he ordered.
Emily didn't take his order very well and began to raise her voice in anger "Don't you stand there and tell me what I can and can't do! That man took me in when you abandoned me, you stood by the man who wants me dead and you still continue to ride around with the man who wants me dead killing anyone he tells you to. How many innocent people have you killed for him Arthur?"
Arthur looked away from Emily and sighed loudly. He turned around and began to walk back to his horse. Emily began to laugh
"Oh there he goes again running back to Dutch, King Dutch"
Arthur didn't respond he just rode off on his horse in silence. Emily was angry, how many more times was he going to stand by him despite everything. She stormed into the cabin slamming the door behind her; Charlotte sat at the kitchen table looking on as Emily went into her room. She heard her shouting at Arthur outside but didn't want to ask too many questions.

5 days had passed and Arthur never returned to the cabin, Emily felt like an idiot for the way she had spoken to him, she wasn't handling her mood swings very well. Charlotte was taking a nap and Emily decided to sneak out of the cabin. She grabbed her horse and rode towards the camp where Arthur was staying in Beaver Hollow. On her travels down there she had a bad feeling, a horrible knot in her stomach like something bad had happened. She saw Abigail, Jack, Tilly and Sadie riding towards her; Abigail and Tilly were in tears.
"Hey! What's happened?" Emily asked and she rode towards them.
Tilly was sobbing and unable to speak and Abigail was having trouble trying to speak so Sadie decided to speak. "The camp has fallen apart, Arthur's going to confront Micah about his dirty tricks and he's told all of us to get to safety...Emily he's really weak...if he fights, for the first time in my life I don't think he's going to make it, he won't let me help him"
Emily looked at Sadie in disbelief, looking back at Tilly and Abigail as they sobbed even more when Sadie said he wasn't going to make it. She looked down at the marking on her hand, the only way she was going to try and save him was by using her powers but she knew he would be against it with her condition but right now she couldn't let anything happen to Arthur despite their argument days before. Despite their petty little fight she loved him dearly and in her heart she felt it wasn't his time to go.