Betrayal In The Heart Of The King.

'ARTHUR' shouted Merlin, as he spotted Arthur at the end of the corridor. 'What Merlin' he sneered, then he spotted her. 'I wanted to introduce you to Florence, she's Gaius' new assistant' Merlin said happily.

'Hello Sire'

'Call me Arthur, well spend a few hours around Merlin and it should catch on' Arthur glared in Merlin's direction.

'Please si-Arthur call me Flo, no-one calls me Florence anymore' she said with a smile.

With that Arthur left with a small nod, as he turned the corner he heard Merlin shout something about a tour of the castle, what a clot pole. 'King Arthur' mumbled Sir Leon 'your presence is needed in the dungeons'. 'You look shattered Leon, what's up?', 'Sorcerer' is all Leon could splutter before he collapsed to the ground.

As Arthur raced to Gaius' chambers with Sir Leon in his arms, Florence was brushing her golden locks with the brush her mother gave her, before she died. Oh how Florence wished her mother was still here. Tears filled her dark, blue eyes and she blinked them back behind her long eyelashes, she started to sing, an ancient song her mother had taught her when she was little,

cum sidera caeli lucere super vos
lucem librari cum nocte consumant vos,
diligere mundum
arripuerit ad lucem
nox et beata libera.

Her voice was that of an angels, but she never sang in front of anyone, she was too scared to. She repeated the song, remembering how her mother used to sing her to sleep, when Arthur rushed through the door, holding a man in his arms. 'Oh god, oh god, Florence, where the hell is Gaius?! Where the hell is Merlin?' he cried. 'I, err I don't know sire, I think they went out to pick herbs sire' she stammered. Arthur sighed and went back into Gaius' chambers and placed the man on the table.

'Who is that sire?'

'Sir Leon'

'Wh-hat happened to him sire?'

'A sorcerer is what bloody happened'.

Florence gulped, she always knew she was different, but she didn't know how different until a few years ago. She was walking along one of the short cuts to the fields from her house, when a bandit, a mad, evil bandit came flying out of no-where, she froze, unable to do anything, she thought he was going to kill her. That's when she felt the power flood through her like a river. The last thing that bandit ever saw was the golden fire within a young girl's eyes.

She knew she could tell no-one, and she never would. 'That's terrible sire, I'll go and get Gaius sire' she muttered and rushed out the door before Arthur could reply. She roamed the corridors, and quite frankly she was lost, she had only been here a few days and still didn't know where she was going. She closed her eyes trying to think where Gaius could be when she walked into something, she saw in front of her a beautiful dark skinned woman, in the nicest frock she had ever seen.

'Err.. do you know where Gaius is?' she asked

'Who are you?' the woman questioned,

'Oh, sorry, I'm Florence, but everyone calls me Flo' she said with a smile, 'who are you?'

'I' said the woman with a little smirk 'am Guinevere'

'Oh!' gasped Florence 'i-i'm sorry! I didn't know my lady!'

'Honestly it's fine, and yes I know where Gaius is, he's in the courtyard, do you know him?'

'Yes, I'm his new assistant ' Florence smiled 'Sir Leon's fallen ill I've been sent to find him'

'Oh' groaned Gwen 'I'll come with you'.

They walked together to the courtyard and found Gaius, he was there with Merlin, and he smiled when he saw Florence coming. Gwen and Gaius and a quick conversation and they all quickly rushed back to Gaius' chambers.

Gaius rushed to Sir Leon's side. 'What happened sire?' asked Gaius, Arthur simply replied with 'sorcery'. 'Ah' muttered Gaius 'if I could please work in peace sire, I will try my best to cure him'. 'Of course' said Arthur 'come on Gwen' and with one last fleeting look at Florence he left with Gwen. 'Er- Florence?' asked Gaius 'can you go and fetch some water?' she nodded and walked out into the town to fetch some water, she pumped the water into the bucket and quickly returned , she could tell Leon meant a lot to everyone. She opened the door and walked in on Merlin muttering, his hand placed over Leons heart 'sanare animam
qui detracta est sanare hominem hunc ipse enim teritur'. She knew exactly what was happening, even more so when she seen the horrified look on Gaius' face. 'FLORENCE' he half shouted, half moaned. Merlin looked up from Sir Leon, at the same time Leon groaned and rolled over, Merlin looked at Florence, his eyes were pleading, she understood. 'Merlin' she cried and run up and hugged him, his expression said it all, he was so confused, Florence explained it all, 'Me too' she whispered and made one of the books fly around his head.

Merlin was shocked, but so pleased at the same time, 'I-I- Florence!' he beamed. 'Seems we can both keep secrets magic boy' she smirked and they both laughed. 'Will Leon be okay?' asked Florence, 'Yep, he should be' said Merlin happily, 'I'll stay with him' muttered Florence, 'you should tell Arthur that Leon's going to be okay'. With that Merlin left and Florence sat herself at the bedside of Sir Leon. Gaius raised his eye-brow but said no more about what he had just witnessed.

It had been a few day's since Leon had fallen ill and Florence's newest task as Gaius' assistant was to look after Sir Leon, and be by his side as much as possible, it was a boring job but Sir Leon did have many visitors, Arthur visited quite a few times, and Florence had started to become comfortable with the king, he was actually quite nice and it was funny hearing Arthur and Merlin's conversations, her favourite visitor was Gwen, she was really kind and had actually offered Florence a job as her maidservant, which of course she accepted as long as it was after Leon had recovered. It was late afternoon when Florence heard a groan from Leon, she went over next to his bed and held his hand (well it felt like the right thing to do), Leon's eyes fluttered open and a blurred image of a beautiful woman came into view, 'ugh' he whispered 'am I in heaven?'. Florence giggled, 'of course not, sir, you're in Gaius' chambers'.