The Call of Camelot

Chapter 19 - The Treacherous Snake

Sleep became hard to come by that night. The weight of my new found knowledge mixed with mounting paranoia meant that I'd barely slept more than a few hours.

Not for the first time I found solace by watching the lives of the people in the town below, I'd even smiled at two drunken friends trying to navigate Camelots twisting streets late at night with only the light of torches and the moon to guide them.

Then as the town itself seemed to slip into a pleasant slumber and the dusty streets fell silent, my eyes moved to the forest at the edge of town, which in the dead of night was a blackened mass on the horizon. I yearned for those trees and the security they'd bring, I longed for the Druids and for the sense of home I'd felt amongst those people. And it was with their faces in my mind that I eventually found enough peace to sleep, if only for a short while.

Percival was at my door soon after sunrise. As Mordred was on bedrest, and under the assumption that I would be still miserable with him as my guard, Arthur had appointed him as my personal babysitter. Ironic.

"When the King summoned me this morning I overheard the end of a conversation between him and Merlin" Percival whispered as we hurriedly made our way through the busy corridors of the palace "It seems Arthurs growing frustrated that the length of his celebrations are getting in the way of something important. I've no doubt whatever that is has something to do with you Cara"

"How long are all these parties and the tournament going to last for?"

"Another five days. There's two more rounds of the tournament then a feast for the champion, after that there'll be nothing left to act as a distraction"

The timeline made me nervous. Realistically we had five short days to find a way to escape the palace and get away long enough so that Camelot's knights and soldiers couldn't follow us. But before that we had to find a way to contact the Druids. Guinevere had assured me that there was no way we could use the necklace again, aside from no one casting a spell on the other end, these gems only acted as a one return ticket and as the community moved around alot to avoid detection, it could be days till we heard from them.

What was equally irritating was that while we tried to put together our plans, we had to maintain a front and continue to play the role of loyal servants to Camelot. A part of that guise was that Percival and I needed to behave as though we still disliked one another and I needed to appear as though I was hating every moment I had to spend helping him treat yesterday's injured contestants. But as someone who'd made a career of healing the sick with natural medicine, I was relishing the opportunity to use my craft. More than once I had to remind myself not to smile or hum with contentment as I brewed fragrant potions and mixed together balms. I could see Percivals struggle to do the same, it seemed every time I looked at him I'd caught him watching me with a face brimming with pride.

One of our last patients to tend to was Mordred. I hadn't seen him since I'd tended his wounds in the tent and all morning I'd grown more anxious to see him, so it was a great relief when we made our way to the oldest part of the palace and to his rooms.

Before today I'd only visited this part of the palace once, it had been part of the welcome tour Elin had taken me on when I'd first arrived. My own rooms were part of an extension built onto the original palace and were very Medieval in their architecture, they were drab, cold and dull whereas this part of the palace was light, airy and colourful. Even the corridors were awash with colour. Much like the rest of the Roman ruin, the walls were cracked and peeling and the colours dulled slightly from centuries of exposure to the sun, but it did nothing to dampen their beauty and I found myself quite envious that my own rooms were not in this part of the palace. But as Percival informed me, only Arthur's family and his most trusted friends were housed here, ironically Percival was one of them!