Philip and most of Merlin's army were gathered in the outside courtyard as the Guardians' army surrounded the castle. "How did this happen?" Philip demanded, following Merlin as he hurried through the crowd.

"We must have a traitor," Merlin snapped. "There's no other way the Guardians could have found us! And I know just who it was."

"Oh, no," Philip said immediately. "It wasn't Mimi. She swore that oath, remember? She literally can't betray you."

"I don't believe that," Merlin said. "But we'll argue about this later, once we finish this. Get with the swordsmen, Andric. We have work to do."

Philip bit back a retort and started moving towards the other men with swords. Someone yelled his name. "Philip!"

He turned to see Mimi running up, looking a little winded. "Philip, how are we getting attacked?" she asked, panting.

Philip shook his head. "Merlin is blaming you."

"Ugh," Mimi muttered. "He's just dying to get me in trouble for something I can't do. How many enemies are there?"

Philip shook his head again when one of the knights of Camelot came running up. "Lady Winthrop," he said, bowing slightly. "I beg your pardon, but Merlin has requested that you be detained."

"Detained?" Mimi and Philip said at the same time.

"Sir Bedivere, you must know this is ridiculous." Martin shoved his way through the crowd, his sleeves sliding over his hands. Where he'd sprung from, Philip wasn't sure. "Miriam couldn't possibly have betrayed the rebellion. First off, she was with Philip in the Water of Life Story, and second of all, when we returned, she was with me the entire time."

Bedivere grimaced, his face wrinkling in displeasure. "I know," he admitted. "But he won't listen to reason. It will be easier if you cooperate, and I can take you somewhere that you'll be safe. Please, Lady Winthrop."

Mimi squirmed uncomfortably. Before she could make her response to Bedivere, a roar caused all four of them to cover their eyes. Something flew over their heads, massive and sending wind blowing through them. The gathered rebels gave yells and screams as Philip saw flames light up the flag atop the highest tower of the castle. "What the heck?" he yelled.

"Dragon," Martin said. "That is a dragon."

"How am I supposed to be safe anywhere with a dragon?" Mimi cried.

"Please, Lady Winthrop!" Bedivere insisted. "With alacrity."

"I'm coming with you," Martin said. "I'll keep you safe. Trust me."

Mimi looked doubtful, but she said nothing as Bedivere took her arm and pulled her away. Martin trailed after them, and Philip let his gaze follow them for a few moments. Stay safe, Mimi. Martin, he prayed.

The dragon's roar from above them and Philip covered his head. Someone grabbed his arm. "Keep your head up, lad!" the big man exclaimed. "Covering your head won't keep it from being burned off your neck!"

At that pleasant picture, Philip stood up straight again. The front gate came crashing open, and with a roar, the Guardians' army rammed into Merlin's and fighting broke out. Philip kept to the back, remembering his oath. The Guardians, he wouldn't fight and kill. But the dragon was another thing altogether ...

. . . . . . . . . .

Mimi and Martin followed Bedivere through the chaos, trying to avoid dying a painful death. Small fights broke out everywhere, and Bedivere maintained his grasp on Mimi's arm as he led them around the battles. Mimi caught a glimpse of Philip running through the battle, his eyes locked on the sky, just before Bedivere pulled them back through the door into the castle.

"Quickly," the older knight urged them, brushing some of his grayish-blond hair out of his blue eyes. Martin was struggling, breathing heavily. Mimi wasn't sure how much farther the young Guardian could go, considering he had to take two steps for each of Bedivere's one. Mimi grabbed his hand with her free hand and pulled him along, unwilling to let him go. She needed all the comfort she could get, even if it was from the creepy young lad.

Finally, after about ten minutes of running through the halls of the empty castle, Bedivere stopped them at a door. "Go in," he said, grabbing a heavy beam from next to the door.

"Wh-whoa," Martin panted. "You—you're locking us in?"

"Merlin's orders. Get in the blasted cell," he ordered.

Mimi didn't want to, but Bedivere's hand fell toward the sword at his hip. Maybe he didn't want to hurt them, but his loyalty to Merlin outweighed that reluctance. Seeing the knight's intention, Mimi reluctantly allowed herself and Martin to be pushed into the room, and Bedivere slammed the door shut behind them. With an oddly final sound, they heard him lowering the beam over the door with a solid boom.

Martin turned to Mimi with a forced smile. "Well," he said. "This is all very exciting. I don't suppose they could have left us with some tea or something?"

Mimi shook her head in bemusement at him. "You really are mental," she told him.

Martin's smile grew more sincere. "I suppose I am," he agreed. "But that's not such a bad thing, is it? I mean, what if people consider that Merlin is supposed to be sane? That means being insane is a good thing. Right?"

Mimi sat down with her back to the wall of the unfurnished, square prison. The stones cut into her back, but she ignored them. "I can't follow anything you say," she admitted.

"That's alright," Martin answered. "Nothing wrong with that. I guess we have plenty of time to talk now, since they're leaving us in here for who knows how long."

"You can't get us out with your magic?" Mimi asked.

Martin shook his head. "I wish I could," he said. "But Merlin's put magic blocks in this cell. He obviously doesn't want to risk us getting out with a Story door, even if he doesn't know ..." He stopped.

"Even if he doesn't know ... what?" Mimi said suspiciously.

For a moment, she didn't think he would answer. Then, "There's something I haven't told you."

"Obviously," Mimi retorted, but curiosity prevented her from saying anything more.

He smiled wanly. "My powers enable me a little bit of foresight. I know what my fate will be."

"That's impossible," Mimi protested.

"Impossible or not, I know what awaits me. And if I know, Merlin certainly does," Martin said. "He's going to try and get rid of me, I know he is. But I won't let him. Certainly not. He's going to have to try harder to kill me."

"Why would he want to kill you?"

Martin had that look on his face—the one that was far too old for a boy of his age. "A lot of reasons. None of which I'm willing to disclose at this point. Have you ever considered your own fate, Miriam?"

"I'm not sure what you mean," Mimi said cautiously.

"What happens next. If we get out of this mess alive."

Mimi shrugged. "I suppose I'll do my best to live a normal life and protect The Story to the best of my ability," she said after a moment. "Why?"

"With or without Philip?"

After a moment, Mimi stared at him. "Are you ... trying to set us up?" she asked.

Martin looked away awkwardly. "I just think you're both being pigheaded about the whole thing," he muttered, and Mimi was drawn to his flaming cheeks. How he went from his wise old man facial expression to that of an embarrassed child caught with a hand in the cookie jar, she wasn't sure. "It's obvious he cares about you."

"Not if you know the details," she snapped. Martin's eyebrows shot up, and she wished she could take back her words. Now she would have to explain. For a moment, she felt tempted to use the same phrase that he had before—"I cannot disclose that"—but she found herself admitting the truth. "We tried to make it work, Martin. We knew each other our whole lives, so one day we decided to give it a try and go on a date. Philip took me to this ice cream parlor in America, and we had ... a decent time, I suppose. But it was the way it ended that was the problem."

"Did you have a fight?" Martin inquired innocently.

Mimi sighed. "He didn't fight with me. The Guardians dragged him off," she said. "It turned out that before he came on the date with me, he went into the Beauty and the Beast Story and stole the rose Beauty's father was supposed to take for her. He nearly got written in then, too."

"So?" Martin said. "What's wrong with that?"

"It showed," Mimi said quietly, "that he didn't care enough to stay out of trouble. Everything is a game to him. Being a Guardian, trying to get me to like him, and if he loses, it's no problem. He'll just find something else. You would have thought that he would've learned his lesson after his parents' deaths, but no. He just keeps doing these things, and it's horrible."

"Maybe he had a reason for doing it," Martin said.

"There is no good reason!" Mimi exclaimed, exasperated. "Don't you understand? He doesn't care enough about anything to even have a good reason! I'm convinced Philip doesn't even feel at all, and that hurts, more than anything."

"I think you're wrong," Martin replied.

"That's your opinion," Mimi said. "All due respect, I'm going to ignore it."

Martin made a face at her. "You really are stubborn," he muttered.

"It's a gift," she admitted. "You'll never change my mind."

"Oh, very well," Martin said. "I'm not even going to waste my time."

"Good plan," she retorted.

The two lapsed into uncomfortable silence. Mimi sent Martin several glares in irritation, but he either didn't notice or didn't care. Most likely, it was the latter. He seemed to be the type for that.

An earsplitting roar from the dragon, still flying around outside, made both of them flinch. "Oh my goodness," Martin said, paling. "I don't really want to say this, but ..."

"That sounded close," Mimi said.

"Oh, I think it's going to get closer," Martin admitted. "A lot closer."

Before Mimi could understand quite what he was saying, the next roar came from right outside. Then something smashed into the wall, and the last thing Mimi saw was the entirety of the stone wall collapsed around them.

. . . . . . . . . .

Philip was still on the lookout for the dragon. That was his only target; he occasionally hit Guardians in the head to knock them unconscious, but never stabbed. He had learned his lesson from Lu. It had been a hard lesson, but he had definitely learned it.

Someone grabbed his arm, and he struck out blindly with the hilt of his sword. The blonde young woman nimbly dodged his blow and came back up, her fierce green eyes flashing. Golden curls fell around her shoulders. "Fool!" she snapped. "I was merely coming to tell you about your friends!"

"My friends?" Philip said, dragging her down before an arrow could pierce her back. "What about them?"

"The prison Merlin sent them to," the girl said. "It's been destroyed by the dragon!"