King Henry

Chapter 51 - The War Begins

***** Mary Margaret's Point of View *****

As Mary watched Merlin walking away down that hallway, her anger rose up inside her and she hated him for not loving her back. She wanted to hurt him with everything she had. She wanted him dead.

She knew she didn't have the strength to do it herself, so she screamed, ""Guards!" as loud as she could, clenching her fists at her sides in anger.

Guards came running down the hallway towards her with their metal armor clanking.

"Kill that man! He just attacked me!" she screamed breathlessly, pointing down the hallway at Merlin.

The guards rushed past her towards him and she watched anxiously, waiting to see what would happen. Merlin pulled a sword out of the holder around his waist that was glowing neon green, obviously having some kind of magical spell on it.

Merlin lunged towards them, clashing his sword against theirs, fighting off three guards at once. He had always been an excellent fighter. George and his father had taught him well, just like they had taught Henry and Richard.

Merlin blocked their strikes and ran a couple of guards through the chest with his sword before getting sliced in the shoulder himself, grabbing it and crying out in pain.

'Yes!' she thought to herself, hopeful he might actually lose.

Then he reached into his robe and pulled out some kind of neon pink powder, blowing it out of his hand and into the guard's faces. They instantly collapsed around him and he took off running down the hallway and then jumped through an open window, disappearing.

***** Henry's Point of View *****

"Are all of our soldiers in place and ready?" Henry asked Lord Buxley, the head of his royal army.

"Yes your highness. Everything has been done. The canal has been narrowed and boulders have been laid across its entrance under the water so the Spanish ships can't get through. The city streets leading up to the castle have all been blocked off except for the one in the center that has our archers on top of all of the buildings along it."

"Good. Good," Henry said, letting out an exhale as he rubbed his chin, looking down at the map laid out in front of them, thinking. "We need to storm the castle and capture Guinevere and my mother and all of their accomplices now so that once we've taken over control of the castle, we'll have enough time to widen the moat and put our catapults into place before the French and Spanish armies can get through the city to help them."

"Sounds good to me. We should go," Lord Buxley nodded, patting Henry on the back.

Just as they were turning to leave, the door of Father Lawrence's office flew open and Merlin walked in holding his bloody shoulder, looking pale. He collapsed down into a chair, catching his breath.

"What happened?" Henry asked him.

"It didn't go how I had planned," he panted. "I was hoping I could reason with Mary Margaret and prevent this war, but she's completely unreasonable."

"Well I could have told you that," Henry laughed. "Unfortunately we don't have time to stay and talk Merlin. I have a throne to take back."

"I'll go with you," Merlin said, wincing in pain as he struggled to stand.

"No you won't. You're going to stay here and let Father Lawrence tend to your wounds," Henry told him, helping him sit back down. "You're in no state to fight."