"You can't give up on me now, Arthur."
Merlin bent over Arthur, his eyes flashing between amber and blue as he tried numerous spells to heal his doomed friend. The great dragon Kilgarrah's words still echoed in his mind. It was some men's fate to die, and Arthur was no exception. But Merlin couldn't let fate claim Arthur's life as it had done to so many of his friends and even his lover, Freya.
Arthur stared at Merlin, still in disbelief of the sorcerer's confession of using magic several times to save Arthur's life. How could an enemy of the king live so close? Not only under the same roof, but working for and befriending him? The fact that Arthur had risked his life for him? Despicable...but not. Was magic really the enemy? These trivial thoughts had haunted him in life, but he did not want them in death. He only wanted to think of Guinevere and his friends. His mind would not be filled with the deceit of his friend, he would only remember him as the useless, clumsy Merlin who somehow became the most courageous man Arthur ever knew.
Even now Merlin lifted Arthur over his shoulder despite Arthur outweighing him by sixty pounds to save him. He lay limp over Merlin's shoulder, watching the ground crawl slowly beneath them. The green began to fade to grey and dim into darkness.
Is the sun behind a cloud? Arthur thought. He slowly tilted his head up where the sun blinded him and winced. The ground raced up at him as Merlin's knees buckled.
"I can't do it, Arthur. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
A disparaging laugh echoed out across the lake. Merlin lifted his head from his hands to look at the source. A small blue creature about the size of his hand floated above the water on silver wings. It laughed again at the two humans, its eyes narrowed and its mouth full of pointed teeth.
"Oh humans. So mortal, so fragile," the sidhe mocked.
"You. You! You are a sidhe elder?" Merlin asked clambering the last ten feet to the shore of the Lake of Avalon.
"Yes, and you are the mortal who foiled our plans to put a queen on the throne of Albion."
"Please, you have to help us! Arthur is dying. Camelot can't survive without him," Merlin begged staring back at his dying friend, his dying king.
"Camelot will go on. A new king will be chosen. Arthur's memory will turn to ash in the minds of the short lived humans in Albion. No great feat lasts forever. I've seen the cycle for thousands of years." The sidhe began to sink back into his watery home.
"Wait! What if we make a deal?" Merlin asked. He regretted the question as soon as it left his mouth. The sidhe elder slowly turned back to Merlin.
"A deal? I am very sure that you, oh great sorcerer Emrys, have much to offer me in your time of desperation. What do you require of me?"
Merlin ran back to Arthur and dragged him to the shore.
"Here," Merlin pointed to the left of Arthur's chest. "A piece of a blade forged in dragon breath is lodged in his heart. Only magic of the old religion, your magic, can save him."
The sidhe floated over to Arthur and placed his clawed hand on Arthur's chest. The tingle of power running through the Sidhe's palm caused Arthur to tense up as if he had been shocked.
"Yes," the sidhe hissed. "This wound is deep. It injures not only his heart but into his mind and spirit. Such fragility...I cannot guarantee that he will...return the same."
Merlin stares at Arthur's greying visage. He was playing with fire, trading Arthur's throne for his life, and he would get burned by the very man he was trying to save. Merlin nodded his head in confirmation to the sidhe. The sidhe closed his eyes and began to work.
By now other sidhe members flew above the surface of the water to watch the spectacle. Many bore looks of anger, a tongue flicking quickly out between their sharp teeth; their eyes glowed with hatred for the two humans.
The sidhe elder ignored them as he pulled water with a wave of his hand from the lake. The water formed into a ball above Arthur's torso. the sidhe began to speak in the language of the old religion; his eyes did not change color but a corona formed around his body illuminating him into a ball of light. He released the spell, and Merlin watched as the water hovered above Arthur's body, matching his shape and length concentrated mainly above his chest. The water glowed with the same silver corona surrounding the sidhe elder as streams of silver light began to stretch down to Arthur's body. The light filled his veins and glowed beneath his skin as it flowed through his body. The sidhe elder began to speak the old religion and the light flowed toward his heart. A smudge of darkness the light wrapped itself around was pulled to the surface, trying to push its way out until it tore through Arthur's chest. The light burst through and dissipated. The piece of the sword shattered on the ground into dust.
The sidhe muttered one more word under his breath, and Arthur took a deep breath, the color returning to his face. His eyes did not happen.
Merlin grasped Arthur's shoulders and shook them.
"Arthur. Arthur! Arthur, wake up!" Merlin unsheathed a knife and pointed it at the sidhe elder. "What's wrong with him? What have you done to him?!"
The sidhe laughed at Merlin.
"I've insured that you will keep your part of the deal. The moment you fulfill it, Arthur will awake. However, if you do try to trick me, Arthur will stay in this coma for eternity, never aging and alone inside the confines of his mind."
Merlin kept the knife raised. He stared intently at the grinning sidhe. Arthur could very well die the moment Merlin fulfilled the deal. He had to take that chance.
"Alright. How might I repay you?" Merlin asked reluctantly.
"On the Isle of the Blessed is a woman who tends the gardens for the high priestesses. In three days time you will retrieve her, and Arthur will make her the heir to his throne before Guinevere and any children he may have. Our lifelong quest of a queen taking the throne of Albion will be complete upon Arthur's death. Now go."
As the sidhe sunk back into the water, the surface near the shore began to bubble like a boiling pot. The front legs lept out first followed by the head and torso ending with a long tail. A coal black horse stood before Merlin, whipping its head back and forth to release the water from its mane. Merlin hoisted Arthur onto the horse's back. He rested for a moment before swinging himself up in front of sidhe spoke, his feet dipped below the surface of the water.
"Just remember, Emrys, whether you fulfill your end of the bargain matters not to me. We have waited thousands of years and are happy to wait thousands more. A lifetime to you pitiful mortals is nothing but a blink of an eye in the life of a sidhe." With that final word, the sidhe sunk back under the water with the rest of his kind.
Merlin nods his head and says, "I will fulfill my end." He looks down at Arthur, "I will, don't you worry. Hyah!"
The horse reared back before sprinting East into the forest toward Camelot.
Guinevere saw them from her castle window before Leon practically busted down her door to make the announcement.
"Milady Guinevere! Merlin and Arthur-"
"I know." Her fingertips grazed the cold glass; her mouth opened slightly in disbelief at the sight of Merlin and Arthur on the black horse circling the court yard. Merlin stopped the horse for a moment to wave at her window with a grin. Her open mouth formed into a smile. She turned and sprinted past Leon.
"Grab Percival to greet them at the gate and Gwaine if he can stand!" She sprinted down the stairs out of Leon's sight.
Leon's heart swelled at her happiness. "Yes, milady."
Guinevere had cried through the night when the last of the soldiers– both the living and the dead– trickled through the gates of Camelot and Arthur's body did not walk or lay among them. Her eyes were swollen but dry when the priest inducted her as Queen of Camelot and placed Arthur's crown on her head. The people chanted, "Long live the queen!" without enthusiasm. A shadow cast over Guinevere's face and her mouth was set in a in a stoney frown. The knights of the round table bore the same look covered by the same shadow.
But now no shadow cast down on their face, only a smile lit up their features as they embraced a weary Merlin. Guinevere peered over Merlin's shoulder for Arthur; her face descended into darkness once she saw his body draped over the horse's back. She looked at Merlin, teary-eyed.
"Is he...?" she asked with a shaky voice.
"No. No! He's only in a coma. I'm sorry to cut this good welcome short, but a more important matter is at hand. Arthur is in a coma, and I know how to wake him up, but we must leave immediately."
"Merlin, what are you talking about?" Percival asked as he and Leon lifted Arthur's limp body off the horse. "You've rode through the night. You cannot possibly ride again without a good day's rest."
Merlin shook his head. "There isn't any time for rest. We must reach the Isle of the Blessed in two days time or Arthur will be as good as dead."
Everyone froze in their movement at the mention of the isle. A chill ran down Percival's spine as he vividly remembered his fellow brother in arms Lancelot's soul ripped from his body into the portal of the dead as an offering to the Gatekeeper to close the portal.
"I would be glad to never return there," Leon muttered. He visibly paled as his eyes turned to the South toward the isle.
"I know, but this time we won't go to sacrifice a life, we're going to save one," Merlin said. Leon and Percival picked up their eyes to look at the young man whose blue eyes blazed with determination and spirit.
"I don't know about you all, but I'm always up for one of Merlin's adventures." Gwaine stood there on the steps in a full suit of armor leaning on a crutch. He wore his long dark hair tucked behind his ears and a smirk on his face.
"You can't even stand. How are you going to ride a horse?" Merlin asked.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Now let's go." Gwaine marched down the stairs as best he could. Percival and Leon gave Arthur over to three other knights before following. Merlin mounted the horse as Guinevere grabbed his arm.
"Merlin, you must bring him back. You must bring him back to us."
Merlin nodded his head before following the other three to the stables. Guinevere watched him, her heart full of courage and determination. But turning back to Arthur, a small seed of doubt and fear opened up among among the courage.
A blanket of mist covered the ground and hung from the branches of the tree obscuring the four men's view of the surrounding forest. They had walked this path twice before, each time leading to destruction and death. How could this journey end any differently?
The canopy began to thin and the trees opened up; the flat land before them was interrupted by jagged mountain peaks and the towers of the castle on the Isle of the Blessed. A crowd of crows flew out from the tree line interrupted by the horses and their riders. Their harsh cries interrupted the silence and made the horses shy away; they would not ride past the tree line into the castle surrounded by by dense fog.
"We'll have to walk from here. Tie up the horses to the trees; we don't want them getting spooked and bolting," Leon said. Gwaine groaned at the thought of walking to the moat on a crutch. He slid haphazardly onto the ground and leaned back against a tree.
"You know, if you can't handle the walk, you can stay here and watch the horses, little man," Percival mocked. Gwaine glared up at him and stood up straighter.
"I'm fine, just needed a break." He hobbled past the three into the high grass surrounding the moat. Merlin and Percival laughed at the slow moving figure before following.
"Gwaine, is that a snake?!" Leon cried.
"Where?!" Gwaine swung his crutch madly into the grass and fell over. He sighed and said, "I will make sure Arthur hangs all of you for this mockery against a knight of the Round Table." He flipped his hair dramatically and march-hobbled down to the moat.
Waiting for them at the end of a worn and rotted pier was a row boat with four seats and four oars. The climbed in tentatively, one at a time and reluctantly left the shore, sailing into the blinding fog. Accompanying the splashing of the oars were the screams of the dead surrounding them from the isle. The screams of the departed loved ones who never quite made it to the other side because of the practices of the high priestesses.
The boat scratched against the rocky bottom and crashed into the jagged edge of the castle. The screams no longer pierced their ears. The mist no longer blinded them.
The isle had changed much since their last venture there. Parts of the ruins had been rebuilt. Bones were no longer scattered across the rocky shore. The biggest change, however, was the lush, green gardens that replaced the cracked fountains and dead trees that once stood on the broken ground.
The four young men climbed out of the boat and mazed their way through the crumbling doorways and open rooms to the courtyard. Bent over burying a flower among those already there was a young woman with dark hair tied back into a bun above a slender neck. She wore pale blue dress covered by a dirty apron that was stained green and brown from her gardening. Merlin kicked a piece of rubble while trying to observe the young woman. The rock skidded away from him and over the edge of a deep chasm. Merlin froze with his fists clenched and his eyes shut. Laughter like music filled their ears.
"The sidhe told me I would like you." The young woman scooped soil back over the roots of the flower before standing and wiping her soiled hands on her apron. She looked at the four figures, her eyes searching each of their faces observing their body language and features. She smiled.
"Hello, I am Ceres. I tend the gardens here, or I did when the priestesses still lived here."
Merlin was taken aback by the woman's face. He did not expect a woman of such calm temperament and beauty, especially since the last woman the sidhe chose was rude, obnoxious, and unmannered. But this woman, Ceres, was soft-spoken and charming with pale skin, a slim face, and emerald eyes.
She took off her apron and folded it against her stomach into a nice little square. She set the apron down on the only bare piece of ground Merlin could see in the courtyard. As she stepped over the ivy and flowers to meet them, they stretched their leaves and petals to graze her legs and hug her ankles. The four young men remain silent and stare in awe at her.
"You are the ones to take me to Camelot, yes?" she asked.
Merlin shook out of his trance.
"Yes. And you will become heir to his throne in return for his waking."
Ceres's eyes dropped and her face turned solemn. She looked back at the orange rose she planted that stretched above the others surrounding it.
"It's a shame," she said, "I just planted it because it didn't like the amount of sun it was getting."
Merlin laced his arm around hers.
"That's okay, I'm sure Gaius will let you plant a garden for him." They began to walk back to the waiting boat.
"Well that won't do you any good, Merlin, you'll never be able to skip out on Arthur again with the excuse that you're 'gathering herbs' for Gaius," Gwaine said. "Speaking of herbs, I'm starving." He rubbed his growling stomach.
"Is food all you ever think about?" Leon asked with judgement in his eyes. Ceres chuckled, her musical laughter filling the air again.
"Well I'm sure we can work something out," she said to both Gwaine and Merlin. They had reached the shore where the boat bobbed up and down in the water, its scratches and wreckage repaired. Gwaine climbed in first and tucked his crutch into the side. Percival and Leon followed. Merlin stood with Ceres on the shore looking back at the castle and gardens.
"I am going to miss this place dearly. It may not be cheery or bright, but it is my home." No tears brimmed at her eyes, but her face was downcast as she recalled the many priestesses, no the many friends that had passed through there over the years. But now a greater destiny than planting gardens was calling to her, whether she was ready to leave this part of her life behind or not.
Merlin helped her into the boat. Due to the lack of room, he sat on the edge of the prow and pushed off from the shore. As they rode, the mist split and no screams bothered them on the short trip across the moat. Ceres's heart beat hard against her chest as she watched the castle fade behind the mist that slowly filled the empty space it had left for them. The pier was in sight now along with the tree line and jagged mountain peaks to the East and West. The boat docked right next to the pier and rode up against the surface. Gwaine lifted himself out using his crutch. Percival stepped out and helped both Leon and Ceres. Her hands were cold in his.
Merlin was climbing out of the boat when Ceres took her first step onto land away from the isle. A gale swept out in a circle from where she stood. The wind was so strong it blasted the three young men onto the ground. The boat swept up vertically dumping Merlin into the black water of the moat.
Guinevere sat next to Arthur's bed with her hand on his forehead.
"Is he still running a fever?" Gaius asked. Guinevere nodded her head, her lips pursed.
"I think a cold rag might do him some good," Guinevere said. Her chair scraped against the floor as she stood to leave. Gaius put a hand on her shoulder.
"Guinevere, I will get the rag; you stay here with Arthur."
She pulled herself away from his grip and stood in the doorway.
"No, I will not be made useless by his absence," she said. She swept through the doorway and into the hall, her footsteps fading in Gaius's ears. He mixed another ointment with his mortar and pestle to put on Arthur's chest wound. He heard the wind before he felt it.
Outside, in less than a second, a great wind bent trees at their trunk and ripped branches clean off and swept them into the city. Windows shattered in a ripple starting at the gate and ending in Arthur's room. Gaius covered his face as bits of shattered glass embedded in his hand. Gaius looked back up.
The room was covered in glass except for Arthur's bed where the shards surrounded it in a circle as if an invisible shield had protected him. The room was in disaster now. Pieces of the curtains and window frames lay around the room with the uprooted floor boards and scattered furniture. Gaius looked at his surrounding with confusion, but was soon distracted by the groan that escaped Arthur's lips.
"Guinevere! Come quickly!" Gaius called to the empty hallways. He soon heard her footsteps up the stairs. She entered the room.
"My God, what happened here?" she asked looking at the shattered window. Gaius ignored her question.
"Arthur is awake."
Guinevere looked at Gaius for a moment, struggling to process what he said. She then looked at Arthur's face and open eyes. She ran to his bedside and placed her hand on his face.
"Arthur! Oh thank God. Oh thank you Merlin, thank you." Guinevere closed her eyes, struggling to hold back her tears. She felt her hand slowly pulled away by Arthur's. She turned back to him.
He stared at her, his once crisp blue eyes were now clouded with confusion. They moved up and down scanning Guinevere's face or any trace of familiarity.
"What's wrong Arthur?" she asked. He shook his head slightly.
"Who are you?"