The night had come so quickly. It had grown so dark that Una could barely see her own hand waving in front of her eyes. There was no moon out to light the path. Una had to trust and rely on Gwen to follow the other horses. Gareth had told Una that they were nearly there. They had passed through a few towns, and they were traveling out of the last one nearest his castle. The villages were relatively quiet, being that not a single beggar nor harlot was out this night. Everyone was in great mourning for their beloved fallen king Idris.

Una loved him too. He had been great friends with Cynan, Una's father. Naturally, Una thought of Idris like her own father since she lost Cynan. He was always there for Una. Idris and Una would sit together after their triumphant wins in battle and discuss life. That was the fondest memory Una had of Idris. He didn't want to talk about their next strategy or how they have increased rations of arrows. Idris wanted to know what Una thought and believed. They would sit and drink mead and talk about the lore and legends of old. Una could listen to Idris for hours, and she did on many occasions when he had drunk too much. He would spew about his old adventures with Cynan. He would never mention Cynan for fear it would upset Una, but with his inhibition down, Idris filled the night air with wild tales of beauty and tragedy.

This is how Una got to know her father better after death than when he was alive. Idris was a terrific storyteller. Una loved to hear tales better than reading them. Most texts she was able to access were old canons, which didn't appeal to Una. It was Idris himself who taught Una to read. She didn't know how, but she would be married off to a distant land. There wasn't really a need. When Una became Eurion's right hand, and then Queen, it was he who helped Una.

Eurion could read and write, but he was often off in battle. Una would have to stay behind and run the kingdom, being Eurion's right hand. Idris would come to surprise visit Una and Eurion. If Eurion were gone, he would sit with Una and teach her until her brother came back. It was expected that royals were supposed to read and write.

Idris was knowledgeable, being the most intelligent man Una had ever met. She believed that he was more of a scholar than he was a king. He knew many languages. He even could read runner from the Vikings, which aided in his dealings and travel. Unfortunately, Una was only able to read and write half of what Idris knew. Una's greatest regret was refusing to learn old Norse when she had the chance. If only she knew so she could use it in her travel into the northlands.

"Ugh!" Una grumbled.

Una slid further back into her saddle. Her body ached from the long hours of riding. She was sure for a few moments she had actually fallen asleep to Gwen's gentle gait. Una leaned over the saddle and took her feet out of the stirrups to stretch her legs. The night had a chill to it. However, it was comfortable since Una was wearing the wool peplos Llewellyn gave her. Gareth felt the same way, wearing his long wool cloak snuggly wrapped around his body. Gareth's horse knew the way. He could sense his home from a very far distance. Like Una, Gareth was trusting his horse's intuition. The horses of his personal guards were becoming increasingly restless as if they knew the familiar scent of a home as well.

"I can hear the river!" Gareth exclaimed.

Una peered through the darkness. She could hear the river and smell the musky scent of the mud bank through the breeze.

"The water is shallow up the river so that we can cross it there," Gareth explained as his horse began to become uneasy.

"Easy boy!" Gareth insisted, patting his horse's sweating neck.

"Your highness, there it is!" One of the men shouted as they came out of the forest, and the deafening sound of the river split their ears.

"Follow me, this way!" Gareth shouted, turning sharply to the right.

"Can you find your way, me lady?" One of the men asked Una.

"I believe so. I'm just worried about Gwen. She is used to clappering bridges. Crossing in the dark through water might be perilous for her."

"Aye, none to worry, Lady Una. A horse has more sense than any man. I think it is you who is worried about crossing, if I may be so blunt." The man shouted.

Una huffed and regained herself.

"Well, I don't know where I'm going," Una shouted back.

"Your horse got you this far. Just trust him a little longer!" The man assured.

Una patted Gwen's soft bushy mane. She had been tremendous and needed fewer stops compared to the other horses. Una thought that surely this would be her last adventure, but Gwen acts as if she doesn't want to quit. Gwen was just like her king rider, Cynan. He didn't know when to stop, be it talking, drinking, fighting, and especially riding.

"Alright, lead me on!" Una asked as she released her reins and tightly held onto the pommel.

Gwen did as she always did. She slowly but steadily followed the train of horses up the bank and down to the river. The sound was, even more deafening up close. What Una shouted sounded like a mere whisper to the men. Una could hear them ease themselves into the river on their horses. She could listen to no hesitation from the horses and rider. In fact, she could listen to Gareth's horse begin to snort and whinny in anticipation of rapidly approaching its home.

"It's alright. We're almost there! I know you are excited! Easy now!" Gareth said, stroking down the neck of his great steed.

Gareth could feel his horse rushing to get through the river, even with water up to his hocks. Gareth felt his excitement, but he felt everything but less. His horse was going back to his stall, reuniting with the ones he loves. Gareth thought about what he had to go home to. His father was dead, his eldest sister was married off to a faraway land, his mother had been gone for years, and Mildred.

What was left of his home was no more than an empty shell of its former glory. All Gareth had to go home to was now his insolent wife. He knew she would be waiting for him. Gareth laughs, thinking about it now. He wonders how many men she had seen in the three days he was gone. She had probably drunk half of the castle's mead and pillaged the castle looking for more. In the absence of the late king, anything could have happened.

"The river is up, from the rains. Heed caution!" Gareth entreated them.

While Gareth was steadying his horse through the river, Una was quietly growing more concerned with Gwen. She seemed to be stubborn about wanting to cross. Una could understand, she couldn't see that well, and she had never been here before. Gwen could only rely on the horses in front of her to lead her through. The problem was that these horses were much younger than Gwen, being more robust and nimbler. Una urged her on, and Gwen couldn't turn back. She was already halfway in the water.

"Woah!" Una shouted as Gwen took off in a raging spurt through the water.

Gwen reared up in the water, being stuck behind the horses of the other men. Before Una realized she was rearing up, Una found herself crashing headfirst into the frigid water. Una was already disoriented from the darkness. There was no lantern or moon to guide her through the pitch-black night.

"Gareth, the lady!" One of the men screamed and jumped in the water after Una.

Gareth tried to pull back on his horse, but instead of stopping, this propelled his horse into a furious gallop towards the castle. Gareth abandoned his horse midway, jumping down and rolling across the grasses onto a large stone pile.

"Ahh!" Gareth cried out in pain as his arm twisted into the rocks.

Gareth stood up, holding his arm and looking around. There was not a light in sight, only the faint glow of the town far away.

"Una!" Gareth screamed out for her but to no avail.

Una could never hear Gareth. The water had muffled out everything. She was swept by the current so quickly, which was much stronger than she imagined. She was already in a weakened state. The icy water and the blackness of night enveloped Una. The waves' pounding across her body threw her around into the rocks like a doll cast at sea. She was utterly helpless. She tried to grab onto a rock, but her nails split as the pressure of the current tore her away. She has pounded deep into the water again.

In her head, she couldn't rationalize what was happening. Was she going to perish, right here, right now? Una was a powerful swimmer and once had tread ocean water for two hours to hide under a flipped boat during a Viking invasion. This was the last time Una had seen the land which Cynan grew up in. Snowdonia was an old abandoned family stronghold in the mountains. Una and her family had to move there after this attack to save the kingdom from being attacked again.

As the freezing water blistered and numbed Una's skin, she prayed out for the first time in a long while. She was afraid to die, for it wasn't her time. She couldn't allow herself to die this way, a miserable cold death. Drowning was one of the worst ways to die, and ironic in a way since Una's swimming rivals a fish's ability. She finally prayed out to God, not Gareth's lord or her old Gods, but something beyond Una's comprehension. She felt like she always knew this entity but could never put words to describe it. It was more significant than her Gods or Gareth's. Whoever or whatever it was, it called back to Una. It was real because as soon as she cried out in her head for God to save her, she felt a violent jerk. She was pulled out of the current.

"Thank you! I'm so...so sorry!" Una cried hoarsely.

She could feel someone's arm so snug around her waist, she thought her ribs would crack.

"It's not your fault, me lady. Your horse threw you." A man shouted in her ear.

It was one of Gareth's personal guards. She was astonished at how he had caught her. He must have run down with his horse to catch up with her in time. She was also glad this man could swim and was able to grab her. They were both thigh-deep in this raging water.

"Are ye alright, lady? You nary missed the waterfall!" Another voice shouted down.

"Waterfall?" Una said with shock.

"Yes, there be one a few yards away! Can ye not hear it?" The man said, jumping down and running to Una's aid.

The men helped walk Una out of the water and out of the mucky bank.

"I praise you for this!" Una sincerely said, kneeling from exhaustion on the bank.

"Thank the almighty!" Gareth shouted as he ran towards Una and his men.

"Are you okay!?" Gareth shouted as he went up to each of them to assure that they were okay.

"Aye, horses be like cats, they switch on ye from an angel to a devil!" One of the men said.

The other one who helped save Una took her hands and helped her up.

"Your highness, please, let's get the Lady into the castle quickly. She is shaking like a leaf!" The man implored Gareth.

"Where's Gwen?" Una asked.

"She'll turn me up, lady, but we best be getting you into some warm garb before a chill takes you!" The man insisted.

"Come, Lady Una. Ride with me to the castle." The man said, rubbing her shoulder.

"Yes," Una said with her teeth clattering.

"Alright, let's go!" Gareth said he took the other man's horse and held his hand down for him to get on with him.

"Here!" The man who saved Una hoisted her foot up, and Una crawled over the horse's back and settled herself into the front of the saddle.

Una took her foot out and allowed the other man to get on behind her. He wrapped his arms snuggly around Una and held her close.

"Yah!" The man cracked his reins, and they began to ride to the castle behind Gareth with the other man.

Una nestled herself against the man's warm body. She was so cold, colder than she had ever been before. She had lost all the feeling in her hands and feet. Her joints felt like unseasoned leather trying to bend, and her skin burned against the wind blasting across her.

"I'm sorry, Lady Una. I know how terrible and frightening that was!" The man said.

"It's a true miracle that you were able to seek me out and grab me before I plunged over the cascade," Una replied.

"God has always given me keen senses during times like that. I once saved my own father from waters like that. Instead of a horse, it was a disobedient cow that kneed him in the gut." He laughed.

"Hmph." Una laughed and smiled.

She knew, as Gareth has said, the God she called out to was real because her prayer didn't go unanswered. It was immediate. Whatever the divine force was, Una knew what a greater love and fear felt like now. This God was attentive. It was watching Una very closely.

Una wonders, though, if this creator had the power to save her immediately, then God can annihilate her out of existence in a split second. Perhaps her falling and being swept away was a test from this new God. Una knew that she was in great and powerful hands. This God cared for Una, unlike her other Gods. Perhaps her old Gods worshiped this supreme God, creator. Whatever it was, Una could not explain. It just was, and it always was and always will be.

"Let us pass!" Una heard Gareth yell out.

"Open the gate!" Gareth added.

Suddenly she could see the soft glow of lanterns swirl in shadows around the castle. Una could see the castle was even larger than Llewellyn's from even the tiniest bit of light. It made Una's court look like a tavern compared to this place.

Suddenly Una could hear the unkind sounds of chain and iron being clashed together. It gave a subtle memory of battle back in Una's mind. She could see a gate opening, and then beyond it was a mighty door ready to be entered through. As the light grew, she could finally make out the outline of Gareth and that man on their horse, walking through the door. As Una and her rider made their way through the door, she set her eyes on the immense courtyard they were entering. There were guards everywhere. In the distance, there was the heart of the castle, the main building. A large wooden door opened in the space, and a blinding light poured into the courtyard.

"What be the meaning of this Gareth! Why are you here!?" A woman screeched out from the top of the large stone steps.

"I have returned to stake my claims, my love," Gareth said bitterly.

"Ah, yes. The king is dead. Long live the king!" The woman bellowed out.

Una knew then that this was Gareth's infamous wife, she-devil of Wessex, the debaucher of Brittania's right name. And she wasn't going to be very happy now that Una has arrived.