Camelot #3
"The price we must pay for the spell we cast, the favor we asked of the magic," Merlin said.
Lancelot drew himself up and took a deep breath. "What is it?"
"We are bound here, to the pocket universe, forever.
We cannot leave it. Maleagant sought to control it, make it his, and to truly anchor it so that it cannot be destroyed, he was going to sacrifice the sixteen of us here, though he thought he only needed fifteen.
But for us, the requirement is the two of us, living anchors to protect and watch over it for as long as it exists. "
"So we can't return to the real world with everyone else," Lancelot said.
Galehaut, Arthur, everyone else could leave, come and go as they pleased.
Whatever they did out there, he would never be able to help.
He would always have to wait and hope for Galehaut to return to him after battles he could never join.
"We have to sit here useless, whatever happens out there. "
"Not useless, never," Arthur said. "Camelot is important, as it has always been.
Already we've welcomed a couple hundred refugees, people who would not have lasted out there much longer.
Elderly who spent their lives slaves of the duchies and are thriving on this second chance.
Camelot is a way to access other places, get to them in ways we couldn't otherwise.
An intersection of vital importance, a sanctuary. Its protection is vital."
"I'm sure we'll find other ways for you to help, even ways for you to rejoin us out there in some fashion, if not in living flesh," Morgan said. "The Knights of the Round Table would be nothing without our Prince of Tides."
"Who has surrendered so much simply to side with us," Guinevere said.
"You and you alone won that final fight against Maleagant.
We would not be here without you and Kay, who ran when it was hardest to do precisely that, and broke us free while you fought.
We can never repay what the two of you did. "
Lancelot shrugged the words aside. "Mother knew my fate before I did, a child of two places who loves them equally.
" Centuries upon centuries from now, he would be recalled to the water, to take up his duties there, but water was timeless and endless, and there was no hurry.
His mother had consorts and nobles and more to serve her needs and those of the waters.
Her son and heir had a different purpose for now.
"There's something else you're not telling me. "
Merlin smiled crookedly, and Galehaut took his hand. "We reached out to the magic with a last final request, and the magic granted it. I have traded places with Galehaut. So I can return with Arthur and Morgan, and he can remain here with you. I know it's selfish—"
"No, not at all. After all we've suffered, we deserve to be with our beloveds," Lancelot said, relief rushing through him. He looked up at Galehaut. "You don't mind? You sacrificed everything for me once, and now you're doing it again."
"Lancelot, you seem to forget all that you sacrifice simply to be here with all of us.
I might not remember my own brief death, but I remember fighting you.
Your tenacity and bravery. How easily you controlled the water, how you thrived in it.
You belong far, far below our world, should be draped in pearls and jewels, attended by servants and courtiers and called Your Highness.
Yet here you are with us." Galehaut took both his hands and kissed them.
"All I want is to be at your side, Lancelot du Lac.
That's all I've wanted from the first moment I saw you. "
He kissed Lancelot's hands again then let them go and waved one of his in the air.
"All that aside, what is there for me out there?
Maleagant kidnapped me when I was a child, destroyed my entire life, left nothing for me to return to.
Made me his slave, forced me to commit one atrocity after another.
If I returned to the real world, I would have nothing and no one outside of everyone here.
I'm sure I could rebuild, but why bother when I can stay right here in Camelot?
Serve and protect it, be a knight properly once more.
" He grinned. "Who wouldn't choose to be consort to the Prince of Tides and Steward of Camelot? "
"What?" Lancelot asked, momentarily distracted by the way Galehaut had so easily called himself Lancelot's consort. They could get married now, really and truly. Not something merely symbolic because of the time and because he already had a wife. Really and truly married.
Then everything else finally registered. "Stop calling me that, I don't use my title here. And I'm not Steward of Camelot. That's not a thing." A steward wasn't necessary, because Guinevere and her coterie of mischief served that role while the men were off getting into fights.
"You're going to use it now," Arthur said.
"You should have all along, but that doesn't matter because you'll use it going forward.
It's yours, and you deserve it, and it was the Prince of Tides who saved us.
I cannot be here all the time as I would like.
We must secure the territory, make it the real world version of Camelot, free everyone within from the purgatory we've all endured too damned long.
One day we will all return here to live, but for now, there is still work to be done.
Many people will come here needing a new home. They will be your sacred duty."
"Of course, Your Majesty," Lancelot said.
"Good. Then consider this your formal appointment as Steward of Camelot." Arthur hugged him, kissed his cheeks again, then stepped back. "The ladies have something for you."
"Oh, no."
Elaine came forward with a wooden box, and Iseult removed the top of it, revealing a beautiful diadem of white gold, three bands of it braided together and set with pearls, sapphires, and aquamarines. "There's a simpler one for day to day, but this is your official, formal one, Your Highness."
"Will anybody listen if I say not to call me that?" Lancelot knelt as Guinevere came forward to place the diadem on his head, and it was Morgan who helped him back to his feet.
Kay stepped forward and hugged him tightly. "Congratulations."
"Thank you," Lancelot said gruffly. "I hope you realize things are going to get more challenging for you as well, as squire to the Steward." More like son, and they all knew it. "Seriously, stop calling me 'Your Highness', it's not necessary."
"No," Arthur said. "You are the Prince of Tides, Steward of Camelot, and you'll be treated as such, as you should have been all along. Your first duty is to appoint a new Captain."
Lancelot smiled faintly, because that was easy. He'd known his eventual successor from the moment they'd met. "Sir Tristan de Lyones, I appoint you Captain of the Knights of Camelot. We'll do the formal appointment ceremony day after tomorrow."
Tristan's cup slipped from his fingers, barely caught in time by an amused-looking Bran. "Me? Is that a joke? Really?"
Iseult rolled her eyes and smiled fondly, poking him in the side and giggling when he scowled and grabbed her hand. "Yes, really, silly goose. Surely you knew."
"I most certainly did not know!"
"Of course he picked you, dumbass," Percival said. "He's been grooming you for it all these years. How did you not realize that? It was plain as day."
For a second, Tristan looked as though he might really cry.
Clearly he hadn't noticed. But then his familiar cocky grin returned, and he stole back his drink and playfully cuffed Percival before taking Iseult's hand and reeling her in close to hold her tight and kiss her.
Looking up, he swept his gaze over the rest of them, grin widening.
"You lot are not going to like training when it resumes in a week. "
Percival and the others groaned, and Bertilak cast Lancelot a betrayed look. "Thanks a lot, Your Highness."
Lancelot laughed. "If you can survive my training regimens, you can survive his.
Thank you, all of you, for trusting me with this new role.
I look forward to trying it out tomorrow.
For now, though, we all look ready to collapse.
" He looked at Galehaut. "Take me to bed, consort.
And I don't want to see any of you until the day after tomorrow. "
"Your Highness," Galehaut said—and then, amidst the roaring laughter of everyone else and Lancelot's sputtering protests, swept him up into his arms and carried him off through the castle.
End