The Rise of Arthur Pendragon

CHAPTER TEN

The King halted so suddenly that Sir Gareth careened into him and they both toppled to the ground. Scrambling to his feet again Arthur stared around him, horror-struck. In the courtyard before him lay at least ten bodies, all covered up by large white sheets. His handsome face paled but least anyone could speak he had pulled himself together and spoke in a strong voice; "What happened?" When no one spoke he barked; "Someone tell me what happened!" Trembling, a serving girl, who had previously been busy covering up the bodies, stepped forward and spoke in a hardly audible whisper; "We don't know my lord. No one does. I was just making my way to the palace this morning like I do every morning when I found one of them in an ally not far from here. I notified the knights immediately of course and they came and took him away. Since then eleven more have been found. All in the lower town. Not a single one of them bear any marks and-" With the sweep of his hand the King silenced the poor girl and asked; "Has Gaius been notified?" "Yes my lord. We had one the victims brought to him and he is inspecting the body now.", one of the knights piped up. Without another word Arthur turned on his heal, his long red cape flying out behind him, and stormed up the palace steps heading straight for the old physicians quarters.

Bursting though the door Arthur crashed painfully into Merlin. They both jumped back instantly. Merlin looked as though he wanted to say something, then thought better of it and turned back to what he had been doing. Just seeing the young sorcerer made Arthur feel so angry, yet guilty and sad at the same time but he pushed these thoughts deep down and focused on his task. "Gaius!", he called out, "Have you been able to identify the cause of the deaths?" Without looking up from his work Gaius replied; "Not yet Sire but I'm working as hard as I can." Nodding his head even though the old man had his back to him Arthur paced the room, waiting. "Merlin fetch me my book of magical creatures will you?" Merlin raced over to the over-filled bookshelf which looked as if it were about to send a cascade of paperbacks down on the next person who tired to remove a book from it's place. Despite that, Merlin found the one he was searching for and managed to lift it off the shelf without causing a book-slide. Hurrying back to Gaius' side he handed him the tattered old thing and Gaius riffled thought the worn and faded pages until he found what he was looking for.

A/N: I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who's read my story so far and I really hope you like it! Please let me know what you think! I'd love to get your opinion on the story so far. Also if you have any idea I'm very eager to hear them :)