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Chapter 9: Training

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“Keep your sword up!” Lancelot reminded, darting around to poke Jada in the side she’d left unprotected.

“I’m trying!” Jada complained. “God, this is so complicated!”

She hefted the wooden sword that Lancelot had procured higher, but all this whirling around and swinging just like this, or blocking just like that, was starting to make her brain hurt.

“You can do this,” he reassured her. “Let’s try it again, but this time we’ll do it slower.”

Jada let out a sigh, getting back into position. Feet spread equally apart, sword at shoulder-height—was there anything she was missing?

Lancelot’s sword tapped her shoulder in her distraction—not hard, but enough to make her drop her arms and scowl. “Ugh, this is impossible!”

“We can stop, if you wish.” Now, Lancelot relaxed his stance, waiting for her decision.

It wasn’t like she really had to learn how to fight. As soon as they found a way for her to get home, she wouldn’t ever have to even look at a sword again. And Merlin had promised that they’d find a way to get her home somehow.

But who knew how long that might take? It could be days, weeks, months before they found a solution. And every day Merlin faced some other dangerous situation, whether it was witches, kings, or magical creatures rampaging through the forest. She didn’t want to have to count on another Lancelot coming to their rescue the next time he got himself into trouble.

“No,” she answered. “No, I’m going to learn this. Let’s do it again, please.”

Lancelot nodded, giving her a smile. “Very well.”

He swung his sword at her, more slowly this time, but still seeming to radiate pure skill in every movement. Jada shifted her weight, bringing her wooden sword up to block his attack, twisting it just as he’d told her to do. It wasn’t a particularly amazing feat, and she was hardly ready for battle now, but she felt proud of herself. Maybe she could do this, after all.

“Very good,” Lancelot praised. “Faster?”

This time, Jada grinned. “Sure. Let’s go.”

She was certainly going to have few bruises tomorrow by the time they’d finished. Under Lancelot’s guidance, she’d finally started to get the hang of some of the basics, and so now, as they returned to Gaius’ quarters, Jada was in a much better mood.

Gaius himself was nowhere to be seen, having apparently gone out to work, and Jada noticed that he had moved all the books they’d been searching through back onto the bookshelves now that Lancelot was staying there. That was probably a smart move, she thought—there was no telling how Lancelot would react to that tale.

Lancelot now handed her his wooden sword, making for an apple on the table as she put the two of them away under the stairs.

“So, when do you want me next?” she asked.

Lancelot thought for a moment, beginning to peel the apple in his hand with a knife. “I’m not certain. I don’t know what I’ll be doing, exactly, since my ambition to become a knight is…” He waved the hand with the knife about vaguely, still looking just as disappointed as he had the day before.

Jada pitied him, but mostly she just couldn’t understand it. He was Lancelot. Of course he was supposed to be a knight. The more she thought about it all, the more this Camelot seemed to be some alternate universe version, where everything that was supposed to be turned out the opposite. She wondered what that meant for her, and Morgo’s request. Perhaps her just being here had caused the reversal?

It was at that moment that Merlin burst through the door, holding a rolled-up piece of parchment triumphantly.

Lancelot nodded towards it. “What’s that?”

“This,” Merlin announced, clearly proud of himself, “Is your seal of nobility.”

Lancelot shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

Merlin unrolled the scroll grandly, still grinning. “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Lancelot, fifth son of Lord Eldred of Northumbria.”

Without a pause, Lancelot waved his finger at him. “No, Merlin. No.”

“Oh, right, so you don’t want to be a knight, then.” Merlin gave a small shrug, before turning for the door again.

“Of course I do!”

Merlin paused, turning back towards them. “What? The rules don’t allow it? Damn the rules! The rules are wrong.”

“But it’s a lie,” Lancelot pointed out. “It’s against everything the knights stand for.”

“You have as much right to be a knight as any man. I know it.” Merlin turned to Jada, looking for support. She shrugged.

“You’re supposed to be a knight,” she admitted. “I’m sure of it.” But did that mean that lying to get him there was right?

“But the rules,” Lancelot insisted.

“We’re not breaking the rules,” Merlin countered. “We’re bending them, that’s all. You get your foot in the door, but after that… After that, you’ll be judged on your merit alone. And if you succeed, if they make you a knight, it will be because you have earned it, noble or not.”

Lancelot folded his arms, sitting on the edge of the table as he considered Merlin’s argument.

“Can I see it?” Jada asked Merlin, holding her hand out for the seal.

He handed it to her, and she examined the page, the crest, the archaic writing. It must have been forged, she knew that, but without seeing anything like it before she was no authority on how convincing it would look to an expert.

“I can’t change the way things are done around here,” Merlin was continuing to Lancelot. “But you can. If you let me help you.”

“Will they know it’s faked?” Jada asked. “What if you get caught?”

Merlin shrugged, a hint of smugness in his smile. “Don’t worry about it; it looks exactly like the original, I promise. Except for the name, of course.”

She eyed him suspiciously. She wasn’t sure what it was about the way he looked back at her, but it made her almost certain he’d used magic to copy the page. Which meant that if they did get caught, the punishment could quickly become much more severe.

“What if you get caught?” she repeated.

“I won’t.” He grinned at her, and suddenly she was no longer surprised he regularly found himself in trouble. Now, he frowned. “You’re giving me the look.”

“The look? What look?” she asked, baffled out of her wariness.

“The Look. The one that Gaius gives me whenever I do something like this.”

Despite herself, Jada laughed. “Clearly you need more people to give you The Look then, if you keep doing stuff like this.”

Despite her concerns, Jada soon found herself accompanying both Merlin and a now-convinced Lancelot to Gwen’s house. Merlin had decided that if Lancelot was going to pretend to be a noble, he’d need to at least look the part, and that meant enlisting the help of Camelot’s best seamstress.

Jada got a sense of déjà vu as they entered Gwen’s house, but this time she leant against the wall with Merlin as Lancelot was measured.

He cleared his throat as she measured the inside of his leg. “This is very kind of you, er…”

“Gwen,” she said, looking up at him with a smile.

“Gwen,” Lancelot repeated.

“Short for ‘Guinevere’,” she clarified, standing to measure his arms.

So Gwen was supposed to be Guinevere, then, as Jada had suspected. She regarded the girl. Yup, definitely not a princess. Her opposite theory was looking pretty promising, so far.

“Ah,” Lancelot said. “Then, thank you, Guinevere.”

“Don’t thank me,” she smiled. “Thank Merlin. Merlin would do anything for anyone, wouldn’t you, Merlin?”

Okay, she definitely fancied the him, Jada thought, trying to suppress a smile. How adorable.

Merlin waved his hand awkwardly, grinning.

“Sorry, can you raise your arms?” Gwen asked Lancelot, who gladly obliged. “Thank you. Sorry." She quickly wrapped the tape around Lancelot’s torso, glancing at him over his shoulder at the same time that he risked a glance at her.

Yikes, Jada thought. Everybody apparently fancied everybody in this city.

“I think it’s great that Merlin’s got you this chance,” Gwen was continuing, wrapping her measuring tape now around Lancelot’s neck. “We need men like you.”

“You do?” he asked.

“Well, not me, personally, but, you know, Camelot,” Gwen stammered. “Camelot needs knights. Not just Arthur and his kind, but ordinary people like you and me.”

“Well, I’m not a knight yet, my lady.”

“And I’m not a lady,” Gwen giggled.

“Sorry, I…”

“Okay, we’re done,” she announced. “Um, I should have these ready in no time. It’s nice to meet you, Lancelot.”

She offered her hand for Lancelot to shake, but instead he bent to press a kiss to the back of it. Merlin pushed himself off from the wall, patting Lancelot on the back as he headed for the door, and Lancelot turned to follow.

“Oh, Jada, I almost forgot,” Gwen said. “Your clothes are almost done; I just need you to come back for the fittings whenever you can.”

“Is tonight all right?” Jada asked. “I’ll let you finish Lancelot’s stuff, first.”

“That’s fine.” Gwen smiled sweetly, and Jada mirrored it as she turned to follow the others out.

“Thanks, Gwen. I’ll see you later.”

“She seems lovely,” Lancelot said as the three of them walked back through the castle together. “Guinevere.”

He was trying to play it off as casual interest, judging by his body language, but Jada remained unconvinced. She was almost certain Lancelot was smitten.

Merlin, however, seemed not to have noticed, answering just as casually as Lancelot was pretending to be. “Oh, yeah, yeah, she is. And the best seamstress in Camelot, I promise.”

“Are you two…” He gestured vaguely, but Merlin only watched him with a blank expression. “…You know?”

Another awkward moment passed before Merlin caught on, and then he laughed. “No. No, no. Just friends.”

Jada glanced at him sideways in surprise, but he didn’t appear to be hiding anything from them. So he didn’t know about Gwen’s little crush, then? Poor Gwen. Although, Jada realised, Lancelot certainly seemed to have taken quite a keen interest in her instead. So, Lancelot liked Gwen, Gwen like Merlin, and Merlin was utterly oblivious about the whole thing?

She snickered, causing the other two to give her strange looks.

“What?” Merlin asked, frowning.

“Nothing,” she replied, trying to suppress her smile. What a tangle they were all in. Maybe they weren’t so far from their legendary counterparts, after all.

Gwen really was the best seamstress in Camelot, Jada concluded, so much so that she wasn’t sure the girl didn’t have some kind of secret superpower. Before the day was done, she had prepared Lancelot a full outfit to match his ‘noble heritage’, complete with his supposed family’s crest emblazoned across his chest.

He wore it now as he headed down to the training yard—accompanied by Jada, Merlin and Gwen—to present himself to Arthur.

“Well, you certainly look the part,” Merlin said, finishing his last-minute adjustments of Lancelot’s mail.

“Doesn’t he just?” Gwen agreed.

Lancelot, however, was fidgeting uncomfortably. “I don’t feel it.”

“Okay, that’ll do for today.” Arthur’s voice reached them from the training ground as he dismissed his men and began to head over to where the equipment was. “Well done.”

“Here’s your chance,” Merlin said, patting Lancelot on the back. “Go for it.”

“Good luck.” Jada gave him a hopeful smile as he headed towards the Prince.

Arthur glanced up at him as he approached. “Yes?”

Lancelot shifted nervously. “Lancelot, fifth son of Lord Eldred of Northumbria.”

“‘Lance-a-lot’?” Arthur repeated, seeming unimpressed. “My servant mentioned you. Got your seal?”

Lancelot bowed, offering Arthur the scroll that Merlin had produced. “Sire.”

Arthur hit him. He struck Lancelot straight in the face without warning, sending him staggering backwards until he fell to the floor. Jada sent a worried glance at Merlin beside her, who looked a little taken aback, but certainly not as appalled as she felt. He worked for this man?

“Sluggish reactions,” Arthur declared. “On a battlefield, you’d be dead by now. Come back when you’re ready.”

He gave Lancelot one last dismissive glance before turning away, but Lancelot would not be dissuaded so easily. He got back to his feet, his hand on the hilt of his sword. “I’m ready now, sire.”

Arthur turned back, an amused look to his features. “You are, are you?”

Lancelot nodded.

“Fine. You can start by cleaning out the stables.”

The other men in the yard laughed as Arthur re-joined them, and Lancelot turned to send a questioning look to Merlin. Merlin gave him an excited thumbs-up, so Jada had to assume that whatever had just happened was a good thing. Somehow, Lancelot was on his way to becoming a knight.

It seemed that Gwen had been even busier than Jada had thought. Upon returning to her house that evening, she found that she had made her not only a beautiful blue day dress, but a simple white nightdress also.

“Gwen, this is amazing,” she said, astounded. “How on earth did you manage to find time for it all?”

Gwen blushed, a shy smile appearing. “Lady Morgana is very kind; she allowed me some spare time to finish them once she found out what I was doing.”

Jada raised her eyebrows involuntarily. Morgana? So that must have been the girl who sat beside the King and Arthur during her performance.

Hers was a name that Jada knew very well from the legends, though it often took slightly different forms, so she could not help the twinge of worry that she felt at the mention of her. But if everything here was the opposite of all that she’d read, then Morgana surely was a good, kind character. Indeed; she’d gone out of her way to help Jada by helping Gwen, and she’d certainly seemed kind when Jada had glimpsed her in the hall.

“That was nice of her,” she mused, before turning her attention back to Gwen and flashing her a smile. “And these really are wonderful.”

“I’d have liked to add a bit more detail to the nightgown,” Gwen replied, pursing her lips slightly at the fabric, “But I thought you’d probably appreciate it being finished faster more.”

“It’s perfect, really. Thank you.”

Now, Gwen grinned. “You’re welcome. I can teach you how to do it, if you’d like, so that you can make more of your own.”

Jada’s mind called up memories of her high school textiles lessons; of sewing pillows and getting yelled at by the teacher for never remembering how to thread a sewing machine properly and having to hand-sew everything instead. But sewing machines hadn’t been invented yet, she realised with a glimmer of hope.

“Sure,” she grinned. “I’d like that. But you deserve a break, first.”

Gwen laughed. “I’m almost out of materials, anyway, so it will have to wait a little while. But the first thing we need to do is see if these need adjusting. Could you try them on?”

“No problem.” Jada took the dresses eagerly, but quickly came up short the moment she realised that Gwen’s house consisted of just one room. She had turned around to give Jada some privacy, but Jada still couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable. It’s fine, she told herself; you’ve shared dressing rooms before. And hospital rooms. And everybody feels awkward in hospital gowns. Why didn’t they make them with backs? What kind of idiot design was that, anyway?

Her inner grumblings distracted her mind as she changed into the first dress, relaxing as the skirt touched the floor. The waist was a little large, and the sleeves just slightly too long, but other than that she was pleased to find it fit perfectly. Gwen really was a superwoman.

She quickly got to work on the adjustments, chatting happily away to Jada as she pushed pins through the fabric. Before long, they had moved onto the nightdress, which somehow fit Jada even more comfortably than the first. She hoped she would be able to keep them both when she found her way back home, though what she’d use them for she had no idea. Maybe just to prove that she wasn’t crazy, and hadn’t imagined the whole thing.

Eventually, Gwen finished working, and the clothes were ready at last. Tom had come home just as Jada finished changing back into her original clothes, which was particularly fortunate timing, she couldn’t help but note. She’d already undressed in front of enough people today.

“Thanks again for everything, Gwen,” Jada said, gathering up her things. “I can give Merlin his shirt back, now.”

“Mhm,” Gwen agreed, raising her eyebrows slightly. “How kind of him it was to let you borrow it.”

“Yeah, bless him,” Jada replied, chuckling slightly. “I’m glad it was him that found me in the woods. And the knights, of course. I don’t know where I’d be otherwise.”

“He seems to be just as glad,” she remarked, before her tone turned more sincere. “He’s a good person; he has a good heart.”

“Undoubtedly,” Jada replied. She’d seen enough of Merlin to know that much.

“I wouldn’t want to see him get hurt.”

“Of course not.”

Gwen seemed to be trying to get at something specific, but for the life of her, Jada couldn’t figure out what it was. “You’ll look after him, won’t you?”

Jada frowned a little. Did Gwen know about Nimueh? “I’ll do my best, I promise,” she said, flashing a reassuring grin.

Gwen smiled back, seeming to relax now. “Good. I’m glad.”

Though still confused, Jada was glad that whatever worries Gwen had had had seemingly been put to rest. “Well, I should be getting back. Thanks again for all of this, I’ll repay you as soon as I can.”

After bidding farewell to Gwen and her father, Jada headed back to the castle, taking the bundles of fabric with her.

Chapter 10 ->