The sounds of trouble came way too early the next morning. From the subject of the conversation it was clear that a couple of the Batavians had taken a not-so-secret shine to Kat's big eyes and had decided to try to express their feelings on the matter. Tristan had crept forward, intending to let Kat suffer a little and then step in before anything serious happened, but Kat plainly meant to deal with it herself.
In one fluid movement, she had grabbed his arm and—somehow—thrown the man to the ground. It had happened so fast that Tristan had completely missed the details, but it was clear from the apparent effortlessness of her actions that she knew exactly what she was doing. But when it looked like she was going to break the Batavian's wrist, he knew he had to intervene.
She looked slightly annoyed at his appearance, but didn't argue as she let go of the man and went to his side.
"He assaulted a commissioned soldier of Rome!" yelled one of the Batavians to their commanding officer.
"And as far as I could tell it was purely self-defence," Aquinas replied lazily, but his sharp eyes were fixed on Kation with fresh curiosity. "Unless you receive an invitation, I suggest you leave the lad alone from now on."
It was a clear message and Tristan was half-tempted to back it up with some sort of possessive gesture of his own, but he knew that Kation would probably throw him to the ground too. If he was lucky.
But she was already walking back to the horses, preparing to leave.
"Little demon," the man she'd thrown spat as he rubbed his wrenched arm, glaring after her.
Time to do some 'damage control', as Kation called it, of his own. He sidled over to the disgruntled man and gave him a clearly disdainful once-over before speaking: "My bloodthirsty slave would have killed you, had it not been for my intervention," he said quietly, his tone inferring that he really couldn't have cared less if that had happened. He watched with hidden satisfaction as the man's face paled slightly before turning away to join Kat.
When he came upon her, she had already saddled both horses and was now affixing her gear to Sarakos' saddle.
"Nice move back there, I think you've earned yourself another enemy."
"It's a hobby." She replied lazily, swinging herself back up onto Sarakos with ease. The horse seemed raring to go and stamped impatiently, infecting Tagiytei with the same nerves and making Tristan's job twice as hard.
When they were finally on their way he shot a quick glance at her and saw that she was staring upwards, expression one of earnest supplication to the heavens. She looked so pious that Tristan almost took pity on her. But this was so not the time to be too merciful. After all, she had stolen his horse. Besides, with her fitted black clothing, array of weapons and sharp features she was an imposing looking creature, especially when she dispensed with her cloak.
~oOo~
When the Batavians finally arrived into the fort, Gawain was surprised to see that Kation and Tristan were bringing up the rear of the procession and had dismounted before entering through the gate. They looked angry in only the way the utterly impassive of countenance could look cross. Kat's eyes were glittering and Tristan's mouth was set in that small, grim line of dissatisfaction. After Tristan's hasty departure, Kahedin had explained to everyone why the scout looked ready to slaughter everyone in sight. Their reactions had been a mixture of disbelief, scepticism and despair—the latter mostly from Arthur since no one else seemed half as willing to deal with his mountains of paperwork. And Tristan had looked more than ready to murder Kation or anyone who tried to stand in his way. Kahedin hadn't even tried.
Gawain thought this very disloyal of him, but upon seeing the two combatants first hand decided he wanted to see Sarmatia a whole lot more than he wanted to die at Tristan's hands for getting involved in his personal life.
As he approached them, he was struck by the fact that the girl barely came up to his fellow knight's shoulders, only adding to the differences of the mismatched pair.
"… and calling us cowards is a joke—" he caught Kation muttering. But she broke off as Gawain gave her a quick hug and nodded at Tristan. At least it wasn't so bad that they were trying to kill each other in public…
"What's this about spinelessness?" he asked sunnily, trying to change the subject.
"Nothing," Tristan said quickly. "So how have preparations been going here?"
"We've briefed the senior officers, village elders and we've been making contingency plans in case we can't prevent it. Also Arthur says if anyone complains or makes trouble, then we're to send them his way and he'll deal with them." Gawain said stoutly, very pleased with this arrangement.
Kation was looking entirely too amused at this news and as they walked to the Sarmatian barracks, Gawain waited to hear what she had to say. But she remained quiet, although her lips were moving slightly as she mouthed words to herself. She remained completely silent until she'd finally finished unpacking—the horses had even been given sponge baths—and then she'd finally decided to speak. Kahedin had joined them and they stood in a small group at the back of the tack room, surrounded by saddles and the smell of leather soap.
"Well? What are you thinking?" Gawain asked.
"I'm thinking if I was in charge everyone sleep more soundly at night," she murmured.
"Or not at all," Tristan remarked—everything he said came out as a growl these days.
The idea was so alarming that Gawain wanted to laugh out to diffuse the tension—but caught the look on the others' faces and swallowed it down again. Kation was being serious and they didn't seem inclined to argue with her either. This was clearly a woman nearing the edge of her self-control.
"Well since that isn't the case, I'll just have to make do." She fixed them all with a piercing look. "I do believe that it is high time we wrest control of matters from Arthur altogether—that is not to say mutiny," she added quickly, seeing their expressions, "it's just that Arthur's optimism is a great and wonderful thing, it makes him likeable and popular. And he's a formidable warrior, very brave and violent—but he's not cunning, and you all know it. I suggest that the knights run patrols inside the fort at night to look for men behaving suspiciously. We haven't been vigilant enough when it comes to the mutineers' possible activities and targets."
"True enough, but what do we do if we find them? We can't end up arresting half the legion." Kahedin argued.
"I think we should discourage them," the way Tristan said 'discourage' made it sound like a code word for 'torture' or 'kill'.
"Well that would be the most convenient option, but will they listen to us? Especially if they've been bribed." Gawain said, feeling that this option hadn't yet been suggested.
"Perhaps they've been offered the fort's treasury—since there'll be a bloody slaughter unless they vanish entirely. I imagine they'd try to get to Ireland or go native here. This place is finished anyway." Kahedin said glumly.
All the knights knew that it was only a matter of time before Rome completely abandoned this island, but Arthur seemed to think that everything was fine and the empire would last forever.
"I only hope we live to get home," Gawain said and noticed the way Kat's face fell slightly at the mention of home. He threw an arm around her shoulders and hugged her to his side. "Don't worry, kitten. If Tristan won't marry you and show you off to his strange relatives way out east, then you'll always have a place with me, I promise."
"Hey, no fair! I want her to meet my family!" Kahedin said with a grin, moving closer and grabbing Kat's hand. "What do you say missy? My people's land runs all the way to the southern mountains. You like mountains, right?"
Kation smiled. "I do like mountains, yes, and I'd love to meet both your tribes… but I don't think I'll live that long." There was a pain in her eyes that she hid with another smile, but when it came to matters of the heart, Gawain considered himself—and not Lancelot—an expert. He would fix this, even if it meant tying Tristan and Kation to chairs and forcing them under threat of torture to admit their feelings for each other.
Little did he know that Kahedin and Vanora had similar plans in mind…