King Arthur's Daughter

         The girl ran through the night.  Something was going to happen, she could feel it, and she needed the seer’s help to see what it was.  Shortly she came to the cottage in the woods.  She rushed inside, the wind blowing in with her.  “Orla!” she called, “I need you!  Get up.”

         “I’m here.” came a voice from the corner of the room.  It was old, not scratchy, but it carried in it the secrets of the ages.  “I thought you would be coming.  I feel it too.”  The girl looked, at a table, next to a dim lantern, sat the old lady she had come to see.  Quickly she sat down across from her.

         “Yes, I feel something, but I do not know what it is.”

         She smiled gently, “You’re young yet, when you’ve gotten older you’ll learn to discern what these feelings are.”  She leaned forward, her smile vanishing.  “I have already prepared everything we need.”  She reached her hands across the table.  The girl grabbed hold.  They closed their eyes and concentrated.  Images flashed through each of their minds and after only a moment their hands parted.  The girl sat gasping, the woman looked apprehensive.  “Quick!” she said, before the girl could catch her breath, “What did you see.”

         “Blood, so much blood.” She let out a half sob.  “So much, it was too fast.  I remember a hand holding a sword, like it was a cross.  A cub stolen from a bear.  Carried by a raven?”  She shook her head.  “That doesn’t make any sense.  Does it?”
                                       
         “More then you realize.”  She stood up abruptly.  “You need to get back to the castle.  Now!”  The girl stood up uncertainly.  “Hurry Ciara.  Go” The girl nodded and headed out the door.  “Be safe.” whispered Orla.

         Quickly she ran back through the woods and toward the castle.  As she got close she could see the water front.  The water was choppy, the wind whipping the water to a froth.  The moon reflected off the foamy waves, before ducking behind clouds.  She slowed for a moment and blinked.  It looked as though giants were walking through the water.  She could see their heads above the waves, way out to sea.  Suddenly an ocean of swords crashed over the figures.  They fell and broke on the shore with the rest of the waves.  And something else.  The moon came back from behind the clouds and she saw crude canoes pulling up to the shore.

         She ducked behind a tree and studied the beach.  There were two pirogues pulled up on the shore already, with more riding the waves in.  If she had continued running, she would’ve run right into the raiders coming ashore.  She continued to study them.  They were running up the shore quickly, some staying behind to pull the other boats in faster.  They ran up to the castle efficiently, using whatever cover there was to remain hidden.  She doubted anyone from the castle could see them, even with the moon out.  She watched a moment more before realizing that they were headed right toward her.  It was too late for her to run, they’d surely see her.

         Glancing around she realized there was only one place to hide, so she quickly climbed the tree.  From there she watched as the raiders got closer to the castle, then stopped.  She looked around again.  There was nothing she could see that would make them quit moving, but they stayed where they were hidden.  “Lord, let them stay put long enough.” she muttered shinnying down the tree.  She took one more quick look, they still hadn’t moved, then rushed toward the castle.  She used the same methods the raiders had, remaining hidden from them using what bushes there were.  She finally reached the outer castle wall, hugging it and using its shadow she made her way to the front gate.  Moving cautiously, she kept all her senses aware.  Words floated out of the darkness and she froze.  They came from in front of her.

         “I don’t see anything James.  It was probably just a shadow.  Move along, but keep a sharp eye.”

         “Yes sir.”  Ciara heard a guard walk past inside the wall.  She remained still, weary of whatever the soldier had seen.  Looking back toward the shore she didn’t see any movement.  Taking a deep breath, she started forward again, only to have a door open from the wall directly in front of her.  She stopped again as light spilled out into the night.  A figure stood outlined in the doorway.  She couldn’t tell who it was, the light dazzled her eyes.  She watched as he stood there a moment before stepping out of the keep.  She watched, unwilling to go up and warn him, and unsure why.  Instead she observed him walk out and down the hill.  He didn’t look back or else he would’ve seen the girl slip in the door before it closed.

         She hurried through to the inner wall hoping to see some guards, but it was empty.  Quickly she entered the inner ward and ran to the castle.  As she ran her mind puzzled over the images it had received earlier.  A bear losing its cub.  Someone losing a child, that was obvious, but she didn’t know who.  Her duty was to the King and his daughter, but if someone else was in danger she wanted to know who.

         Artos.  She had heard some of the King’s close friends call him that.  She remembered asking once what it meant.  The story had been that when King Arthur had been born a bear had died.  It was believed that its spirit had entered the newborn.  Artos was another word for bear.  It was his daughter in danger, Princess Regan.

         The princess should be in her quarters.  She tried to run faster, the Princess was her charge to protect.  At fourteen she was only a few years older then the Princess.  She’d arrived only three years before to be a new companion for the Princess.  They spent a lot of time together but when the Princess went to her tutoring she went to hers, secretly.  Both were very different.  Regan learned everything she needed to be a proper Lady, Ciara learned everything she needed to be a proper body guard.  They’d become good friends and Ciara cared a lot about Regan and her family.

         She skidded around a corner and bounced off the wall.  Running up the stairs she cursed the empty castle.  Most everyone had gone to bed, those who hadn’t seemed to be in other parts of the castle.  Bouncing off another wall she ran down a hall and ripped open the door at the end.  Regan popped up in bed, Ciara was surprised she didn’t scream.  Instead she looked wide awake.

         “Something’s happening, isn’t it?” her voice sounded a little strange, like it came from a long distance.  Ciara didn’t have time to wonder about it, she just nodded.

         “Get up.  Quick.”  Princess Regan jumped out of bed, her nightshirt flapped around her ankles.

         “What’s going on?”  Ciara jumped on top of the bed and put her hands on the ceiling.  “What are you doing?”

         Ciara looked down at her, “You need to stay quiet and do what I say.  Understand?”  Regan nodded and Ciara went back to searching the ceiling.  “Found it.”  She pushed and part of the ceiling slid aside.  “Come up here.”  Regan jumped back up on the bed and Ciara grabbed her to steady her.

         “Someone is about to attack the castle.”

         The Princess’s eyes opened wide.  “We need to warn the guards!”

         “There’s no time!  Listen to me.”  Princess Regan swallowed hard, nodding.  “You need to hide up here.  Whatever happens you need to promise me that you will be silent, not a sound.”  She nodded again, tears starting down her face.  “There’s not much room, just enough for you to lie down, maybe to sit.  You need to stay there until your father enters this room.  Don’t come down until he is in here by himself.  Understand?”  The Princess nodded again, holding back sobs.  “If he is in here with anyone else you need to wait until he’s alone.  It doesn’t matter whom you see with him, he must be alone.”  She put her hands together in a stirrup, “Step here and I’ll lift you up.  Put the trap door back when you get up there.  There’s a ring on the door on the top to pull it back open.  Do you understand everything I’ve told you?”

         “Yes Ciara.  I understand.” she whispered.  She stepped into the other girls hands and was boosted into the opening in the ceiling.  She crawled in and turned around to look back into the room.  “What about you?”  There was a scream from somewhere down the hall.  They both looked to the door.

         “I’ll be fine.  Close the trap door now.  Remember, not until your father is alone.”  The princess nodded, her pale face framed in the dark opening.  She ducked out of sight and Ciara watched the trap slide back home.  She looked around the room.  She needed to do something so they would think the Princess had fled.  They couldn’t be allowed to search the room.  She could hear sounds of fighting out in the hall.  The guards would have rushed to the Princess’s wing.

         First she went to the window, one of the few rooms to have one, and flung it open.  She poked her head out and looked down.  It was too far a drop to make.  She went back to the bed and ripped the bedding off of it.  Quickly she tied it all together and then tied one end to the bed frame.  The fighting outside got louder, they were very close to the door.  She pulled her sword from its scabbard and waited.

         The door burst open and a man rushed in, Ciara stabbed forward and caught the man in the neck.  He fell to the floor, dying.  The others behind him paused before entering.  One man entered first, he approached cautiously, sword out in front.  Ciara backed up uncertainly and glanced at the window.  The man lunged but Ciara parried and riposted, cutting his sword arm.  He dropped his sword but backed up before she was able to stab him.  He backed out the door as three other men entered, all had swords leveled at her and seemed more able then the first two had been.  “Drop your sword and you’ll not be hurt.”

         Desperately Ciara looked to the window, one of the bandits stepped in front of it.  “There is no escape.  Drop your sword.”  She looked around again, but they were right, there was no way out.  She was a passing good swordswoman, but there was no way she could take on three,
older, more experienced fighters.  She let her sword fall to the ground.  The bandit in the lead walked closer, pulling out a knife he pressed it to her neck.

         “Hold your hands out, together.”  Ciara glared up at him, but did as she was ordered to.  “Cathan, bind her.”  Another of the bandits sheathed his sword, pulling some thin rope from a pouch he walked up.  Roughly he tied her hands together.  The other bandits sheathed their swords.  The leader reached out and grabbed a handful of her shirt.  “Where is Princess Regan?”  Ciara remained silent.  The bandit shook her roughly by her shirt.  “It looks like she left out the window.  Where is she going?”  Ciara didn’t utter a sound, though they continued to ask her. 

         The leader pulled her close, her face was inches away from hers.  “Where.  Is.  Princess.  Regan?”  He spit flew with every word, still she didn’t answer.  He growled and pushed her back in frustration.  She slipped and fell, hitting her head against the wall.  She slid to the floor unconscious.  “Damn.”  He leaned down and studied her a moment.  “She’s still alive.”  He turned to one of the other men, “Go find Lord Brendan.  He might have more luck.”  The man nodded and left.  He returned a moment later followed by another man.  He carried himself regally and was dressed as befitting a noble.  The other men in the room shrank away from him.

         He too squatted down to study the girl.  “Leave us.”  The bandit’s bowed and left, he got up and shut the door behind them.  He went back to the girl getting down next to her again.  Ever so gently he patted her face.  “Ciara, wake up.”  Her eyelids fluttered, he patted her face again.  “Ciara. ” he called softly.  Slowly her eyes opened.  She blinked a few times and looked around the room.  She focused on the Lords face above her.

         “Lord Brendan?”

         “Yes Ciara, it’s me, you’re safe.”  Carefully he helped her sit up.  “Ciara, where’s Princess Regan at.”  She looked around the room in confusion.  “The Princess, Ciara, where is she.”

         “She fled,” she blinked, groggy, “out the window.  I heard the fighting.  I told her to flee, to go hide.  Wait until the King returned.”  She yawned and leaned against his shoulder.  “I’m so tired.”

         He gave her a gentle shake.  “I know Ciara, I know you’re tired.  We’ve got to find the Princess though.  You’ve got to help me find her.  I can’t see her outside anywhere.”
         She looked up at him again, her eyes cleared a little.  “I heard you.  The guard who saw the bandits coming.  You were the one who said you didn’t see anything.”  His face grew hard and he clenched his jaw.  “You let them in didn’t you?”  He stood up, letting her fall back to the floor.

         “You’ve got one last chance Ciara.”  He stood over her, pulling his sword from its scabbard.  “Where did Princess Regan go?”

         “I don’t know where she is.  I told her to flee out the window and hide.  I don’t know where she’s hiding.”  She glared up at him.  He looked down, eyes glinting.  Angrily he stabbed down going straight through her upper arm and stopping on the floor below.  Ciara screamed, writhing on the floor.

         He leaned down on the pommel of his sword, Ciara quit moving.  She lay panting in pain, looking up at Lord Brendan.  “Where is she?”

         “You’ll never find her.  She’s hiding in woods she’s played in forever.”  He twisted his sword and she screamed again.  He pulled it out, slowly, and she passed out again.  He sighed angrily and opened the door.  “She didn’t tell me.  Bring her with us, she might be useful.”  Two of the bandits reentered and picked up the girl’s still form.  Blood dripped from her arm to the small puddle that had formed on the floor.  “Bind her wound, I don’t want her to die of it.”  He stalked out, followed by the men carrying Ciara.

         Princess Regan watched it all from a crack in the floor of her hiding place.  Tears streamed down her face, but she was true to her word.  She didn’t make a sound.  She continued to watch long after Lord Brendan had left with her friend.  She desperately wanted to go down and see who else was left in the castle.  Her promise to Ciara kept her hidden.  She had just protected her with her life.  Been captured and tortured and still hadn’t given up Regan’s hiding place.  She wouldn’t dream of not doing everything Ciara had ordered her to do.

         Despite being frightened and upset Regan managed to fall asleep.  It was rather warm in her little hiding place and she cried herself to sleep.  She woke up sometime later to the sound of voices.  Opening her eyes she saw daylight streaming in through many cracks in the floor.  She looked through the one she’d used the night before.  There was a man in the room, she didn’t know who it was, but he wore the uniform of the household guard.  She waited watching as he searched her room.  He checked the wardrobe and the chest, he looked under the bed and out the window, then he left.  Still she waited.  She caught sight of a small dried pool of blood on the floor.  Ciara’s blood, she thought, and tears started rolling down her cheeks again.

         She hoped her friend was ok, she also hoped her father would be back soon.  She didn’t remember where he had gone, but she didn’t think it was far away.  She rolled over on her back as her stomach began to growl.  She lay there waiting, listening to the voices below her, when she heard her name.  It was said with such sorrow and longing that she looked back down again.  Her breath caught, there, framed in the doorway, stood her father.  He was a big man and she longed to be held in his firm embrace.  He wasn’t wearing his crown atop his golden hair, but he still carried himself like a king.

         She reached out with relief to the iron ring in the trap door.  As she touched it her father entered the room, behind him followed three of his personal guards.  Princess Regan lay still remembering Ciara’s words and the treachery of Lord Brendan.  Send the guards away, she thought desperately.  She watched as all four of them searched her rooms thoroughly.  “Has there been any sign of her outside?” the King demanded.

         “No Your Majesty, the searchers destroyed any tracks the Princess may have left.”

         King Arthur nodded, “Continue searching.”  He looked down at the dried pool of blood.  “Leave me.” he whispered.  The guardsmen nodded and bowed out of the door, closing it behind them.  King Arthur kneeled down and ran his fingers over the blood.  Tears coursed down his face.  He stayed that way a moment before he became aware of a scraping sound above him.  Standing he searched the ceiling above him, trying to see what made the noise.  As he watched a small crack opened directly above his daughters bed.  Curiously he stood on her bed and easily slid and lifted a square of the ceiling up and aside.  His daughters faced peeked down at him.
                                                           
         There were dirt smudges everywhere and her eyes were swollen and red.  When she saw him looking up at her, she burst into tears.  Gently he reached up and drew her from her hiding space.  He didn’t set her down, wrapping her in a bear hug he carried her in his arms.  Carefully he climbed off the bed, carrying her in his arms as he hadn’t done in years.  They stood that way a while, tears running down both faces.  Slowly he set her down, smoothing her hair back he kissed her head.  “I’m so glad you’re safe, no one could tell me what had happened to you.  I was told that Lord Brendan and another had been taken from your room, but no one who the other person was.”

         “It was Ciara, she protected me.”  She looked up into her fathers loving face, “Lord Brendan wasn’t captured, he let the bandits in.  He hurt Ciara trying to make her tell where I was.”  Fresh tears started down her face, “She didn’t tell Father, even when he stabbed through her arm, she didn’t tell him where I was.”

         Arthur looked down into her face, she was still badly frightened and he pulled her into another hug.  His jaw clenched as he imagined what must have happened.  Gently he pushed Regan back, she looked up at him.  “I need you to tell me everything that happened last night.”  She nodded and took a deep breath.

         She told him of how Ciara had rushed into her room, waking her up.  She told him everything she had seen and heard.  “I did exactly as she told me father, I didn’t come down or make a sound until you were in here alone.”

         Gently he tucked a wisp of hair, golden like his, behind her ear.  “You did right Regan.  I know it was hard watching everything and not being able to help, but you did the right thing.”  He raised his voice, “Guards!”  The door opened and one of his personal guards entered.  His eyes widened upon seeing the Princess.  “I want you to take the Princess to my rooms.  Have some food brought to her.  I want her seen by as few people as possible, and I don’t want any of you to ever leave her side, no matter what.  Understood?”  Arthur didn’t wait to see the guards nod.  He turned back to his daughter.  “Wait there for me, I’ll be along shortly.”  He gave her a gentle push toward the guard.

         “Come along your Highness.”  The guardsman gently put an arm over her shoulder and steered her along.  Arthur sat down on her bed after they had left.  It didn’t make sense.  He understood having been betrayed by one of his Lords.  It had happened before, and he’d barely survived that.  What he didn’t understand is how a girl, barely older then his own daughter, had managed to hide his daughter, kill a raider, and not give his daughter up under torture.

         Ciara had been sent a few years earlier as a companion for Regan.  He hadn’t known much about her, but she had come from a good family.  Regan and she had quickly become friends, he’d taken a liking to the girl himself.  That didn’t explain how she’d been the only one of his household to see the attack before it happened and successfully protect his household.  “There’s more to her then I knew.”

         “That’s very true, Your Majesty.” said a voice from the doorway.  Startled he jumped up, pulling his sword from his scabbard as he turned to the speaker.  A man stood in the doorway, he wore robes like a monk, but he had the build of a fighting man.  “She’s actually been trained since she was a toddler in the same order as I.”

         “What order is that?  And who are you?” he let his sword fall back into its scabbard.

         “I am Sir Phelan.  Our order doesn’t exactly have a name Sire.  We train to protect the royal family from anything.  After what happened with Mordred certain of us realized that regular guards weren’t good enough.  You needed to have people that could blend in anywhere that would protect you from anything.  The changes you have wrought Majesty are too important to be risked again.  If you hadn’t returned from Avalon healed . . . ” he gave a shudder, “I don’t like to think what the land would be like.”

         He walked into the room and shut the door.  “Ciara has been well trained, first to be a good companion for your daughter, so that none would suspect her.  Second she has trained to be a personal bodyguard to your daughter, so that no harm would befall her.  No one would’ve thought a girl would be capable of that, but she has succeeded.”

         “What happens to her now?”

         “Unfortunately, Your Majesty, to stay as hidden as we are, there’s no way I can send anyone after her.  Then people would wonder what made her so special.  If she were an ordinary companion, what would normally be done?”

         “I would try to find her and rescue her.”  He looked at the man a moment, “But probably no one else would, except her family.  I see your point, but I will save her.  She saved my daughter.” the last he said quietly, looking at the ground.
         “We will do whatever we can to help, Your Majesty.  Ciara is important to me and I will not stop until I get her back.”  Arthur studied him a moment, “She’s my niece.”