To Break a Curse

Chapter 6

An elderly man came forward to escort Tom, Rose, Will and Oliver from the throne room. Once the huge double doors have slammed shut behind them, they all let out a sigh of relief.

'That could have gone worse,' said Oliver happily. Rose watched the smile on his face, for some reason suddenly feeling happy herself.

'Worse?' demanded Will. 'We can't go home for five years now!'

'You will be able to go home once you have lifted the curse,' the elderly man interrupted them. He spoke with a slow but steady pace, as though he gave each word detailed thought before saying it: something, Will thought, Tom could do with a bit more practise of.

Rose was the first to put two and two together and her face lit up: 'you're Gaius! The one Merlin was telling us about!'

The man inclined his head, smiling, 'that I am. I apologise for the manner in which you arrived in Camelot, but at least you are in the castle now, which is where I presume you need to be in order to remove the curse?'

He gestured for them to follow him. He was wearing loose green robes and had white hair. Although he appeared to be in his mid-sixties, he walked with a sturdy strength along the corridor.

'But we don't know what to do,' explained Rose.

Gaius didn't seem too worried by this; he just flapped his hands and told them he was sure they'd soon get the hang of it.

In silence, they followed Gaius through the castle; having to wait for Tom every so often as he wanted to look at everything at once.

When Gaius saw this, he chuckled, 'my great-niece and nephew, Torrent and Storm, will give you a tour of the castle later, if you would like?'

Tom nodded enthusiastically as they continued, Gaius talking to them over his shoulder.

'They work as guards in the castle; they should finish soon and I expect will meet us in my chambers. Ah, here we are,' Gaius opened an oak door and ushered them through.

Inside was a very large, very cluttered, room. On various tables dotted around pots were filled with liquids that Will wasn't sure he wanted to know the contents of. In the centre of the room, brown liquid bubbled in a big cauldron and books were scattered on every other available surface.

They barely had time to take this in before the door banged open again and two guards clattered in. Rose felt her heart jump in alarm – had the king and queen changed their minds about having them executed? Through the way Oliver had taken a step backwards, she could tell he was thinking the same thing. Rose couldn't help but notice how the muscles on Oliver's arms contracted when he was nervous. She gave herself a mental kick, telling herself to stop being so ridiculous and concentrate.

'Ah, here you both are!' exclaimed Gaius. 'How was your day?'

Oliver watched in confusion as the guards made no move to arrest them, but instead took off their helmets revealing a boy and girl about their age, maybe 19 like Will. He suddenly realised they must by Gaius' great niece and nephew, Torrent and Storm.

'Alright; we managed to get away early so we could come and meet you four,' Torrent spoke. Both he and his twin sister were tall and handsome with bright red hair. They smiled friendlily at Will, Rose, Oliver and Tom, who returned their smiles gladly – it was nice to meet people who didn't want to execute them.

'Good good,' said Gaius. 'The queen wants them to wear normal clothes, perhaps Storm, you could take Rose to her room and sort her out, and Torrent, you do the same with the boys?'

'Of course,' grinned Storm. She led the way back out of the chamber and took an immediate left, talking to them as she went. 'You've each got a room, it's small but at least it's clean,' she reached a dead-ended corridor with four wooden doors down the side and opened the first one. 'This is yours, Rose,' Storm turned to Torrent. 'You sort the boys out.'