The Call of Camelot

Chapter 17 - Dr Cara, Medicine Woman!

The main attraction of Arthurs anniversary celebrations was a tournament, where the men of Camelot came together with warriors from neighbouring kingdoms to fight, duel and generally show off their fighting prowess. It was violent, brutal and in my opinion, completely unnecessary. I couldn't see how applauding needless violence could be classed as entertainment, but as it was being hailed as the event of the year, I knew expressing my distaste would only make me feel even more out of place here than I already did!

The tournament was being held on the vast, grassy fields that made up the palace training grounds. Normally, they would be filled with the kingdoms knights and soldiers, practising battle strategies and fighting one another with swords, arrows and axes, basically partaking in the ultimate display of testosterone fuelled revelry. But today the weapons and battle props had been cleared away and in their place stood a makeshift arena, a kind of colosseum inspired tournament ground, with tiered wooden benches encircling a pit of sand and grass where today's champions would do battle.

Since early morning people had come to claim the best seats in the arena, once again I'd been told that I was to be seated close to the King as his guest of honour, and told to be grateful about it.

I'd been allowed to have Elin with me today as company, as all the knights were busy with the tournament, including Percival who'd replied to my summons with a "I'm sorry I can't see you now, let's meet later" kind of message. I was willing to bet that his answer would have been different if he'd known the true reason I wanted to meet with him.

"So, this is what a Medieval tournament looks like" I said aloud without thinking, screwing my face up in the familiar "oh shit" kind of expression and hoping Elin hadn't picked up on what I'd just said

"Surely you must have seen a tournament before today my lady?" well, there went that idea!

"Of course, I meant that I had never seen one so grand" hoping she'd believed my lie. Which thankfully she did, I hated lying to her but Elin was an innocent in this whole messed up situation, she was so sweet and sincere and I didn't want to say or do anything that may unintentionally drag her into the massive shit show that was my life!

The arena was packed with people, all squeezed together shouting and cheering, the atmosphere was infectious and despite the fact that my head still throbbed under the stress of the last 24 hours, I felt my spirits lift being amongst the party atmosphere. My seat for the day was amongst a row of throne like chairs that had been lined up on a raised, stage type platform at the far end of the arena, which offered an unobstructed view to the blood and gore, with a pretty green canopy set over the chairs so we didn't get sunburnt watching men fight and stab one another with pointy weapons. How thoughtful, not!

Elin and I arrived just as the rest of the Kings honoured guests started to take their seats, I took the opportunity to sit beside the smaller of the two velvet cushioned thrones reserved for the King and Queen, ensuring that I was as close to Guinevere as it were possible to be.

Aside from the certainty I felt over who Percival really was, I was also convinced that there was more to Guinevere than met the eye, and I was determined to find out exactly what it was she was hiding

The royal couple joined us a few moments later, walking through the arena to the sound of applause and cheers. To the unobservant individual, the sounds of the peasantry welcoming their King to his tournament would appear celebratory and grateful, but I wasn't an unobservant individual. A few moments ago, the arena had been filled with shouting, singing and cheering but the moment Arthurs approach was announced, the atmosphere changed in an instant. While the eyes of everyone else were focused on the royal couple making their way to their staged canopy, mine were concentrated on the faces of the audience. Though their hands were clapping there were no smiles and the few people who were cheering looked to do so under duress, a Camelot guard coincidentally nearby with their spear pointed intimidatingly close to the cheering peasants.