In Sickness and Health.
Chapter One
Summary: Gwaine and Merlin are attacked by a sorcerer. While Gwaine comes out scratch free, Merlin realizes that not only has he fallen sick, but his magic. Now, Merlin must rely on the help of others to cure him before his time runs out.
Note: Set after Mordred becomes a knight but before hee officially joins Morgana. Therefore, Mordred is still a loyal knight, Morgana is an evil bitch- excuse me, witch, Gwaine is alive, Percival is a knight, Arthur is now king, and Gwen is his queen.
-M-
"Merlin."
The voice came out sharper than its owner had intended, but said owner wasn't in the correct state of mind to care about such a thing. Arthur Pendragon had woken himself up this morning two hours after his incompetent servant had been instructed to. Now, said servant was stumbling into his chambers while making a complete fool of himself.
"Sorry, sire. I…." Merlin paused. Of course, he wasn't sorry. Arthur was a royal prat on a good day; him not waking up on time would just make him worse than usual.
"Don't, Merlin," Arthur warned. The newly-crowned king walked in front of his dressing wall and promptly threw a goblet at Merlin, who, unfortunately, ducked out of its way. "I'm king now, in case you forgot, and the king deserves better than you petty excuses for always being late- and never knocking!"
"Oh, you would get bored if I behaved properly," Merlin chided as he picked up Arthur's belt. He looked up and down his master. It seemed as though he would be needing to add yet another hole in the leather soon. Seeing as Arthur was already dressed, Merlin offered Arthur the belt and quickly finished his dressing. "Unless you miss George's company that much-"'
"I'm not firing you, Merlin, despite my better judgment," Arthur glared.
"Of course, sire," Merlin smirked. His eyes followed Arthur as he made his way back towards the desk placed near the opposite wall. Merlin couldn't help but be relieved by that. Today, it seemed, Arthur would be doing paperwork, and thus that meant no hunting today. "Is there anything else?" If he was lucky, there wouldn't be, but then again he never was.
"Yes, actually," Arthur mumbled distractedly. Merlin's heart dropped. Of course there was. "Gaius has informed me that he is in need of some spices or something of the sort, but apparently acquiring them will take a full day's ride through Cenred's kingdom. He asked me if I would be as kind as to loan him a knight for protection."
"Gaius couldn't possibly be traveling-"
"He's not Merlin," Arthur cut in. He looked up at Merlin and smirked. "You are, and you're going with Gwaine." He then waved what appeared to be a list in front of Merlin. Once Merlin finally took it, he continued, "Gaius is in the outer villages. There seems to be a fever epidemic that needs his full attention, so he asked me to give you the materials he will need. The horses are ready, and Gwaine should be as well."
Merlin tucked the list in his pocket and sighed. At least he wouldn't have to clean up after Arthur for the day. Almost like a day off, he mused. He was also glad that Arthur had chosen Gwaine. Not only did the warlock get along spectacularly with the knight, but also the knight could fight even better than Arthur. Merlin figured that was the main reason why he had chosen Gwaine- that, or so he wouldn't have to listen to the knight's incessant chattering during practice.
Just a Merlin closed the door, he heard Arthur shout, "And try to trip and kill yourself!" Merlin just rolled his eyes and walked off.
-M-
"So what exactly are we looking for, mate?" Gwaine frowned. The knight had been staring blankly at the list of herbs as if he had no clue whatsoever what they were even for. Now that the pair had finally made it to the correct clearing, that suspicion was confirmed.
"Green, leafy things that Gaius crushes up his a pestle to make them taste terrible," Merlin replied, smirking all the while. He hadn't expected Gwaine to help look for the herbs, and, in fact, had counted on him not helping. Although the effort would have been appreciated, Merlin really didn't have the patience to teach about how to identify herbs like Gaius could.
"Well, that narrows it down," Gwaine muttered. Merlin couldn't help but laugh at the knight's frustration.
"I've collected Gaius's herbs for many years now, Gwaine. I should be done-"
"Merlin, get down!"
Gwaine pulled Merlin down just in time to avoid the tip of a dart. Wasting no time, the knight threw himself in front of Merlin and began guiding them both to the safety of a ditch.
"Bandits?" Merlin whispered.
"No," Gwaine frowned. "They're wearing armor, but they're not Cenred's men, either."
Merlin instantly went pale. In his experience, if the attacker wasn't a knight or a bandit, it was a magical being. "Maybe we should-"
But he wasn't able to finish his thought, as suddenly they both were being thrown into the air. The world went fuzzy, but Merlin was able to focus enough to locate where Gwaine was. The knight was unconscious. Good- he could use his magic openly then. Merlin stood up despite his dizziness and threw a similar blast in the direction of the original attack. As soon as the blast had been thrown, however, yet another pushed him to the ground. This time, however, he was pinned to a tree. He struggled against whatever magic was holding him as his feet were being lifted from the ground, but it seemed as though his own magic was being strangled with him. A gasp escaped his throat as an unfamiliar voice chuckled. "Why is a knight of Camelot keeping the company of a sorcerer?" Merlin desperately tried to focus his eyes on the figure talking even as his vision continued to blur. "You know, I was going to kill your friend and let you go. It's the least I owe the Camelot Patrol for sparing me when they killed my father. But now I find one of them consorting with a sorcerer? Does he know what you are? Well, I suppose that doesn't matter now." The figure circled around Merlin as he- or at least Merlin believed it was a he- pulled Merlin further up the tree. Unable to catch his breath, he threw his hands to his throat as if he could pull the magic away. "You having magic changes things. Oh, don't fear. I'm not going to kill the knight, or you. But, when you wake up, you're going to be wishing I had."
Suddenly the sorcerer pulled Merlin up even farther, and the oxygen was completely cut off from his body. He was finally unable to withstand any longer and fell limply to the floor.
-M-