My Kingdom for a Kiss

With Morgana and Sir Alexandrus in the safety of Camelot's walls, Evangeline felt less heavy-hearted.

But the war had yet to begin.

She rushed to her father as he shouted his battle speech to the Knights, his crown resting on his graying dark hair.

"Father." Evangeline called his attention, standing far enough that he couldn't stop her.

"If Arthur gets hurt, I will never forgive you." She told him coldly as he approached for privacy.

"There are casualties in war, Evangeline. I can't make promises." Odin told her.

"I thought you might say that." She stepped back.

"Cynttan m'e aet Arthur Pendragon!" Her eyes burned like the sun as she raise her arms, chanting those words.

She groaned in pain and her arms fell. As she took a few deep breaths she explained to her clueless father what she had just done.

"If Arthur gets wounded in battle, I will know. For I will too be wounded. And if he should die, I shall die as well."

Odin's eye widened. "My child! Undo it! The chances of his survival are slim! I cannot loss you too!"

"It is done, father." Evangeline turned away, leaving her awestruck father in the throne room with his knights.

**

Arthur suddenly fell to the stone floors with a groan. He clutched his stomach but the pain soon subsided.

It was replaced with comfort. A curious thing indeed.

"What just happened?" Merlin rose a brow as Arthur stood once again.

"I don't know, Merlin." He looked very much perplexed.

But something felt strange about him. He was different...

Merlin frowned. "Well, let's go." He shook off his feelings, handing the prince his sword.

**

"If anyone of you strike Arthur Pendragon, I will have your heads on spikes in the courtyard!"

Odin angrily shouted at his Knights, who were profoundly confused by the king's sudden change of heart against the young prince.

He left them after a prolonged glare of enforcement.

"Evangeline Ethelwulf! You will undo that foolish spell of your's!" Odin banged on her long wooden chamber doors, his crown falling askew atop his reddening face.

Evangeline shouted her disagreements through the thick wood, rolling her eyes as she lay back on her bed.

"Beatrice! What am I going to do?" Evangeline sighed heavily, sitting up to look at her maternal handmaiden.

Beatrice took a seat on her large bed, pulling Evangeline close.

"It's not your job to do anything, darling. Men are like children. They react sourly to things that inconvenience them like a child denied a treat."

"The ploys of men tire me." Evangeline sighed heavily, leaning her head against the comforting servant woman.

"But, Evangeline, I believe your father is right this time. You shouldn't risk your life like this." Beatrice frowned, patting her long, soft tresses.

Evangeline pulled away. "Is Arthur not? What gives only men the right to fight and protect what they love and truely believe!?"

"Whoever told you women haven't fought?" Beatrice inquired, raising a thin brow at the glaring sorceress.

"Women above men have fought valiantly. The High Priestesses! Warrior women! Your mother...!"

"My mother?" Evangeline sat up taller, looking over at her with curious excitement.

"My father told me stories. I thought he might be indulging my curiosity." Evangeline smiled.

Beatrice shook her head. "She had the Knights around her pinkie. Her command over Odin's. A lot like her daughter, I've noticed..." Beatrice smiled lightly, nudging her shoulder gently.

"I heard about your little jailbreak." She laughed lightly.

Evangeline blushed, smiling brightly at the memory of the guard's stammered obedience.

"Alexandrus is my friend. Of course I broke him out." She smiled, feeling slightly better after talking to Beatrice.

Odin's men carried on, his pride clouding his judgement. He thought he would persuade her to lift the spell and extract his long coming revenge all at once.

"Evangeline!" Odin marched in, seeing his daughter sitting on her window ledge.

"I'm not lifting the spell. If your pride and need for vengeance outweighs your love for me, then so be it."

Odin approached. "Nothing outweighs my love for you! You are my only child left... My only family left. Just think of what your mother would say!"

"Think of what she would make of you now! A frightened, angry coward King sacrificing a hundred for two lives he can never get back! How would she feel to know she is the one who made you cold?"

"It was that tyrant Uther! Not my beloved!"

"No. But you use her as an excuse to act out childishly. You stain her name with the blood of fallen men! Men you've condemned to battle in the memory of your ghosts!"

Evangeline felt strongly about her mother and brother, but further bloodshed is far from what they would wish.

Odin didn't know whether to be angry with her, or weep out in regret for his past sins.

He could do little now as the battle horns cry in the distance.

Evangeline's breath caught in her throat and she gazed out the window in an attempt to see the battle grounds.

Odin was speechless. A part of him wished to call his soldiers back, but alas the time was too late.

It had already begun.

In the distance battle cries could be heard. Horses racing and metal clanging.

Evangeline took a deep breath, wishing she could see what was happening.

"Beatrice, I need my scrying fount." She glanced around for it.

Almost forgetting she was a Seer.

Beatrice rushed around in search of it, before pulling it to the middle of her large bedroom.

Odin stood in silence. Despite his history with magic, it still brought a chill to his spine.

Evangeline filled it with water and cut her finger for blood.

It dropped in and the dark red mixed in with the clear water.

"Diegol cyntte gewitte me yst, to Arthur cymp!"

She chanted in that ancient tongue and the water rippled out to show a violent battle within it's waves.

The prince valiantly fought alongside his knights but Odin's men were ruthless and many.

Sir Leon impressed her as he managed to maneuver around the oncoming soldiers while he fought the ones around him.

Arthur ducked as a sword flew through the air, cutting the cool wind with a swoosh.

Evangeline bit her lip. She hated being stuck here while he risked his life all because of her.

If she had never had magic, Uther would not have tried to kill her and invoke her father's anger.

But she could not resent the Triple Goddess for long.

Her magic had saved her many times. She could never wish it's departure.

A rough thrust of a shield threw Arthur to the Earth, and he scrambled to reach his fallen sword.

The soldier rose his sword, but seemed to hesitate.

Remembering the King's command, he dropped his sword and fought a knight who attempt to attack him.

Arthur was perplexed as he hastily stood, sword in hand.

But not all of Odin's men knew what the prince looked like.

And once he began, the knight found it difficult to stop himself.

He struck the armed Pendragon, missing his aim and slashing his arm instead.

Evangeline's arm began bleeding violently through her velvet sleeve.

She cried out and held her wound, frowning but keeping calm.

Odin rushed to her. "Evangeline! You must stop the madness! Break the spell!" He plead, tearing his sleeve to wrap it around her arm and tied it.

"It's fine, father." She hoovered her hand over her bandaged wound, "Purhhaele dolgbenn." She spoke, then removed the bandage.

The wound had disappeared completely, though the tear and blood in her dress remained.

Arthur didn't seem to notice his healed wound, though the stinging pain had ceased as he fought on.

"It isn't fair, father." She sighed.

"I have no business choosing those who live and die."

Odin sigh too. He never wished to tear her in two. Or put her in that position.

He pulled his last and only child into his arms, hugging her with the words he couldn't find.

Evangeline rest her cheek on his cold embroided breastplate, closing her sad eyes.

She suddenly pulled away, doubling over as she clutched her stomach.

She held onto her fount and gazed inside.

Arthur seemed to have been kneed in the stomach by one of Odin's men.

They battled one on one before the knight moved on to the next passing Camelot knight.

''Okay.'' Evangeline took a breath, biting her lip as she watched regretfully. ''We have to do something, father.'' She frowned, wincing as a sword swung by too close for comfort near the source of her affection.

''I can't watch anymore!'' She waved her hand over the image in the water, sighing heavily as it rippled into clear nothingness.

''I'm sorry to have brought you such sorrow, child. But how could I allow Uther's rash endangerment to you go unpunished?'' He asked, hoping she would understand.

''It's your pride! Stop using those who love you as an excuse. And if you haven't noticed, Uther isn't the one being murdered on the battle field!'' She glared, her chest heaving in her anger. This was never supposed to happen. If only she wasn't in Camelot.

She wondered now, more than ever why that girl had assumed her identity. If it was worth the lives being sacrificed on both sides. She thought not. Little would justify the massacre happening beyond her chamber walls.