When Uther first brought Morgana to Camelot as a child she had dreams of dragons. When she told the young prince about them Arthur told her, with a level of arrogance only available to royals and nine year old boys, not to be so foolish; his father had slain all the dragons.
Many years have passed since Morgana last dreamed about dragons, these days most of her dreams concern a boy (thank goodness she'd had the sense to stop confiding in Arthur.) A boy with messy dark hair, a wide smile and the ability to move objects merely by thinking about it.
Merlin a rumbling voice in her dream informed her, he is Merlin, Morgana.
In Morgana's dream Merlin wished to come to Camelot, but his mother had heard about Uther's reign; about the execution of sorcerers and she sent her son far away to the North where magic still ruled. Morgana watched Merlin turn away from Camelot.
Morgana. Morgana, wake up. MORGANA.
Morgana woke with a cry and the feeling that something had just gone terribly wrong.
"My lady!" Gwen, who'd been bustling around the room setting out Morgana's things for the day, rushed to her bedside. "I'm sorry, I should have woken you as soon as I arrived but you looked like you needed the sleep. Not that I'm saying you look bad," she sounded appalled. "Not that you could ever look bad. I just meant-"
"It's alright, Gwen," Morgana brushed her maid's concern away. "It was only a bad dream."
"Have you run out of sleeping draught?" Gwen asked, "Because I could fetch some more from Gaius."
"No, I've got plenty." Since childhood Gaius had been prescribing her a draught that gave her dreamless nights. That usually gave her dreamless nights, recently it had become less effective. "Is there anything important happening today?"
Gwen stopped in the process of laying out Morgana's breakfast. "Only..."
"Only what, Gwen?"
"The king wants you to attend the execution."
"The execution. He's arrested another villager?" Morgana threw back the bedcovers and demanded her clothes.
By the time she was halfway to the throne room Morgana had forgotten all about her dream of Merlin. The dream voice, however, stayed with her throughout the day.
"My lord, they were harmless enchantments to ward off illness, he was hardly trying to overthrow the crown." It wasn't like Uther paid any heed when Morgana objected to him beheading anyone who so much as thought the word sorcerer. But it provided some much needed entertainment for the rest of the court so he allowed her to say her piece.
Morgana.
"My lord, I would appreciate it if you didn't interrupt me."
"Morgana, tempting though it was, I did not interrupt you."
"Was there a particular reason," Arthur asked, when he and Morgana had finished dining with the king, "why you kept kicking me in the shins under the table?"
"You were irritating me with that foolish game, whispering my name throughout the meal."
"You are mad," declared Arthur before striding off to get on with whatever it was he did all day. Stabbing straw men and tormenting the servants, Morgana had always assumed.
Morgana.
"I heard that!" she called after him, coming dangerously close to stamping her foot in annoyance.
Morgana.
Morgana glared around her, annoyed at being the victim of this particularly unfunny practical joke. Her gaze narrowed on the servant who was the only other person present. "You, did you hear that?"
"Hear what, my lady?" the servant mumbled.
"Someone addressed me just then."
"I didn't hear anything," he looked terrified.
Morgana.
"You don't hear that?" Morgana demanded.
"No, my lady. Sorry, my lady."
Morgana wondered if she was allowed to have servants dragged away to the dungeons for failing to hear voices that were perfectly clear to her. She decided that even if it was permissible it was probably a bad idea.
"What's your name?" Morgana asked.
"Morris, Lady Morgana," he replied miserably.
Morgana had thought he looked familiar. He'd recently been co-opted as Arthur's manservant after the prince's last servant had crawled into the kennels where the castle hounds were kept and refused to come out after being used for target practice one too many times. Morgana shuddered to think what Arthur would say if he knew she was hearing voices and accosting servants in hallways.
"Well, Morris, if you're thinking of telling Prince Arthur about this little chat of ours I'd like you to remember that my knife throwing is far more accurate than his." Morgana flashed Morris her wickedest smile and watched him flee, possibly to go and live with the castle dogs.
Morgana.
Gwen brushing out her hair at the end of the evening always had a soporific effect on Morgana, but she snapped awake at the sound of her name. "I'm sorry, Gwen, what were you saying?"
"I wasn't saying anything, my lady."
"Oh."
Gwen ended the awkward moment by asking Morgana if she'd heard what had happened at the execution.
Morgana had defied Uther's wishes and not attended the beheading of the suspected sorcerer and Gwen never watched them, but apparently the entire castle was abuzz with the news that a witch had appeared at the execution, threatened the prince's life and vanished before the guards could seize her.
Gwen's fingers combed through Morgana's hair, feeling for tangles. "I hope it's not true that she was the mother of the man who was executed. I can't imagine how awful it must feel to watch someone you love killed."
Morgana.
Morgana's hair tumbled from Gwen's hands as she jerked forward at the voice which Gwen showed no sign of having heard. "Thank you, Gwen. That will be all for tonight," although surprised at her abrupt dismissal Gwen obediently departed.
Morgana finished preparing for bed without any further interruptions from the irksome voice. She was just slipping between the sheets when-
Morgana.
Utterly fed up Morgana threw herself from the bed and slammed the door open. "What is-?" she cut herself off; she was not yet crazy enough to be shouting at an empty hallway.
Morgana.
Morgana stepped back into her chambers and firmly closed the door.
Mor-
"In a minute!" she snapped. She went to the cupboard and pulled on her dressing gown, slippers and a fur wrap. Now at least semi-decently attired she stepped out into the corridor, "Well?"
Morgana.
"I see," she said coldly. "I'll just follow the sound of your voice through this freezing castle at midnight, shall I?"
Rolling laughter was her only response.
"I don't appreciate being laughed at by a figment of my imagination, you know."
The voice led her deep beneath the castle, below the wine cellars and even the dungeon. She was careful to go quietly, it would a brave guard who would question the movements of the king's ward, but Morgana would prefer not to be stopped until she had an answer to the question, 'what voice, my lady?'
She came to the top of a steep flight of stairs, lit a torch, picked up the train of her dressing gown (which had clearly been designed with the aim of preventing late night wanderings in mind) and started descending. She wrinkled her nose in distaste, it smelled like something had died down here, it smelled like several something's had died down here. The stairs ended at a ledge protruding out into a damp, cold cave.
Morgana held her torch out in front of her, "Hello?" she called.
There was a rattle of chains and a sudden gust of wind caused the flames of the torch to flicker. Before Morgana could consider whether a mysterious cave with an unknown something chained up in it was really somewhere she wanted to be in the middle of the night, an enormous Dragon swooped into view.
Morgana had never seen a Dragon before on account of how they were supposedly extinct, but she'd seen pictures and unless she'd been grossly misinformed about the nature of the rodents under the castle this was definitely a Dragon, with a capital D.
It settled on a rock facing Morgana's, suddenly very exposed feeling, ledge. It folded its wings back and stared at her.
When Morgana had been a child she'd been allowed to play games with Arthur and the other boys of the court. Whatever boy had been forced to pick Morgana for his team had invariably looked her up and down with a resigned oh-I-suppose-you'll-have-to-do look. The Dragon was regarding her in the same manner.
"Ah, the young seer. Here at last."
Morgana had been subjected to endless etiquette lessons as a child, but none of them had mentioned the correct form of address when faced with a giant talking Dragon. This was obviously an egregious oversight. "You're the one who's been calling me?"
"I have a job for you."
"I apologise, my lord," Morgana all but sneered. "I did not realise I was employed by you."
The Dragon chuckled. "You almost weren't. But the young warlock, Merlin, is not coming to Camelot. You must protect the once and future king."
"Arthur. You're asking me to protect Arthur?" Morgana nearly laughed out loud at this.
"Yes, young seer."
"And stop calling me that. I'm not a seer!"
"I see. You dreamed of Merlin, did you not?"
"Beaky looking boy, poorly concealed magical powers? Yes. But that's the first dream I've had in years-"
"Because the physician has been drugging you."
Morgana was about to object. Of course Gaius wasn't drugging her, she'd known him since childhood and he'd been giving her a draught to combat her nightmares ever since... ever since she'd innocently told him as a girl that she was dreaming of dragons. The torch in her hand wavered and she realised she was shaking with rage.
"Go," the Dragon told her. "Forgo the physician's medicine and return tomorrow."
Morgana fled up the stairs. Before getting into bed she picked up the bottle that contained her sleeping draught and dashed it against the wall.
Morgana knew it was a dream because she was the only member of the court who was conscious. The others were slumped over their plates and goblets. It was true that the king could be a little trying when he was reminiscing about the old days, but it was generally considered bad form to actually fall asleep while he was talking.
The only movement in the room was Lady Helen, the singer. She looked as though she was in the middle of a performance but Morgana couldn't hear her. For the first time she realised she couldn't hear anything at all.
Her attention was caught by a flash of movement on the other side of the hall, Gwen, gesturing and shouting something that Morgana couldn't make out.
"What?"
In the moment Morgana's attention had been distracted Lady Helen had produced a dagger from her dress.
It found its mark in Arthur's heart.
She woke with a muffled scream to find Gwen perched on the edge of her bed, reaching out to wake her. Gwen looked as though she was about to jump up and apologise for her impropriety, but before she could Morgana threw herself forward into her maid's arms. Gwen was startled but pulled Morgana against her, stroking her hair while Morgana whispered incoherently about Arthur, a dagger and dreams that weren't really dreams.
"Shush, it's okay, it's all okay," Gwen made soothing noises, rocking gently until, sometime later, Morgana stiffened in her arms.
"Gwen," she said awkwardly, her face pressed against Gwen's chest. "I think you can let me go now."
"Er, yes, my lady. I was just thinking that myself."
There was an awkward moment where they disentangled themselves and Morgana made an attempt to smooth down her tangled hair, Gwen tried to surreptitiously wipe Morgana's tears from the front of her dress and neither of them could make eye contact with the other. Then Gwen took a step back and some of the glass from the vial of sleeping draught crunched under her heel.
"Stay there," she instructed Morgana, "there's broken glass on the floor."
"Yes, I... I must have knocked over a glass of water while I was dreaming." Gwen looked at the miraculously intact glass and pitcher of water on Morgana's table and wisely said nothing. She bent to clear up the glass while Morgana got out of the other side of the bed and went to splash some cold water on her face.
"My lady," Gwen began, "Morgana, you do know that you can tell me anything, don't you? If there's anything wrong..."
If Gwen had asked her only a few moments ago Morgana would probably have told her everything: that she'd spent most of yesterday hearing a voice that no one else could, that the voice belonged to the Dragon that Uther was secretly keeping prisoner under the castle. That the same Dragon expected Morgana to understudy for some absentee warlock as Arthur's bodyguard and had told her she was a seer. That if her dreams really were prophetic then England's greatest singer was going to murder Arthur.
But the moment had passed so instead Morgana told her to be careful not to cut herself on the broken glass.
Morgana was foiled in her first attempt to speak to the Dragon by the fact that the entrance to the cave appeared to be guarded during the day. What sort of commander placed guards around the entrance to a mysterious hidden cave during the day but not at night? She really must speak to Uther about the quality of the castle's security.
She wasted some time loitering near the entrance, but she could hardly march up and demand admittance because she needed to talk to the Dragon about her prophetic dream. And the guards were clearly getting ideas from her continued presence, one of them had winked at her! So she wandered slowly back up to her chambers musing on her dream. Maybe the Dragon was wrong about her dreams, after all what reason would Lady Helen have for killing Arthur? She was a singer, not a murderess. She got so lost in her thoughts that she rounded a corner and walked straight into the prince himself.
"Morgana, watch where you're going!"
"I should watch where I'm going?! What are you doing skulking in hallways, anyway?"
"I am the prince of Camelot, I do not skulk, I..." he narrowed his eyes at Morgana. "What are you doing in this part of the castle, shouldn't you be brushing your hair or executing one of your fifteen daily changes of clothing?"
Not wanting to get into a discussion of her purposes Morgana gave an exaggerated sniff, "Speaking of changes of clothing, I think you landed in something foul on the training field." With that she strode past him, only to take a few steps then turn to find Arthur with his head bowed sniffing at his shirt. "Arthur?"
"What?" he dropped his shirt, trying and failing to look dignified.
"You never mortally offended Lady Helen, did you?"
"Believe it or not, Morgana, with women other than yourself I am the model of chivalry and charm."
"Hmph," Morgana snorted.
"You can ask her at the feast tomorrow if you don't believe me."
"Lady Helen's coming to Camelot?"
"Yes, my father asked her to perform... Hey, where are you running off to?"
Morgana was distracted and moody for the rest of the day. Gwen made a couple of attempts to cheer her up, once with flowers, once by suggesting that they liberate two practice swords from the armoury and practice swordplay. Both times she was distractedly rebuffed.
After Gwen had left her for the evening Morgana pulled her dressing gown on over her nightdress. She promised herself that if she was going to make a habit of sneaking out of her chambers in the dead of night she'd invest in some clothes that she could get into without help.
This time she got down to the Dragon's cave unimpeded to find it curled up on its rock, apparently asleep. "You believe me now?" it asked, opening one eye.
"I know I had a dream about Lady Helen before I knew she was coming to Camelot, but why would Helen possibly want to kill Arthur?"
"Lady Helen of Mora has no desire to kill the future king," the Dragon said cryptically. "Nevertheless if you do not act then he will die."
"Arthur's surrounded by the knights of Camelot, he's been trained for battle his entire life. And you expect me to believe he requires me to look after him."
"Arthur has many enemies, and not all of them will face him in battle. Many of them must be dealt with in subtler ways."
Morgana wanted to laugh at that, she'd heard enough of the castle gossip to know she was regarded as more of a blunt instrument than Arthur himself. The Dragon reared up and spread its enormous wings, preparing to take off.
"If you're lying to me-" Morgana began.
The Dragon dropped back onto all fours, its claws scraped menacingly along the rock. Morgana flinched as a jet of flame from its nostrils stopped just short of the ledge where she was standing. "You'll do what, seer?"
Morgana forced herself not to step back. "I shall have every entrance to this cave bricked up."
The Dragon reared up but to Morgana's surprise, instead of incinerating her alive, it laughed. "I think the future king and queen of Camelot will be perfectly safe under your protection."
"Hey!" Morgana called as the Dragon launched and flew in a lazy loop around the cave. "No one said anything about having to protect a queen as well."
Not about to stand there in the cold once it had become clear that the Dragon was not about to return and explain itself, Morgana turned and went up the stairs. At the top she found her way barred by two guards with drawn swords.
"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded.
"This part of the castle is out of bounds," said Arthur, stepping out of the shadows.
"To me?"
"What are you doing down here at this time of night, Morgana?"
"I-"
"She's sleepwalking." Morgana looked up, startled to see Gwen hurrying down the steps towards them. "Thank goodness you found her before anything happened, sire. I've been worrying myself sick."
Morgana watched as Gwen, without appearing to push, made her way past two armed guards and the prince of the realm. She wrapped an arm round Morgana's waist and said, "Let's get you back to bed, my lady." Then, with a slight curtsy and a couple of 'sires' in Arthur's direction, she was guiding Morgana gently but firmly away.
"I'm not sleepwalking," Morgana hissed.
"I'm sorry, my lady, did have you have a better way to explain your wandering the castle in your nightclothes to Arthur?"
"Fine. Fine, I'm sleepwalking."
Gwen kept an arm around Morgana until they reached her chambers. She closed the door behind them, tugged off Morgana's dressing gown and hung it up. She got Morgana to sit on the bed and removed her slippers. Only when she had tucked the sheets in around her did she step back, raise an eyebrow and say, "Well?"
"As you say, Gwen, I was sleepwalking."
"A word of advice, my lady, the next time you use that lie be sure you haven't just denied sleepwalking to the person you're talking to."
"Didn't I send you home some hours ago?" Morgana asked coldly.
Gwen sighed sadly, "Of course I can't make you tell me. I just thought, I hoped, that you trusted me as more than merely a servant. Goodnight, Morgana."
Gwen was halfway out the door when Morgana said, "The king is keeping a Dragon prisoner in the caves beneath the castle. A talking Dragon, as it happens. I think you should close that door and take a seat. That is, if you really want to know?"
By the time Morgana had finished her tale Gwen was perched on the end of her bed. "There's a Dragon living under the castle?"
"I had trouble believing it myself."
"No," said Gwen, "it explains a lot."
"It does?"
"Yes. The amount of raw meat that goes through the castle kitchens for one thing."
Morgana couldn't help laughing at that, although whether it was at the comment, or just out of sheer relief that Gwen believed her and that she wasn't alone, she couldn't tell.
"You should get some sleep," Gwen told her, gently pushing her back into the pillows and pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Lady Helen arrives tomorrow, one way or another it's going to be a busy day."
"You should stay in the castle tonight," Morgana said. "It's too late for you to be walking home."
"I'll be fine, and I don't want to intrude."
"Nonsense, I insist. I'm sure they'll find room for you in the servants' quarters."
"Yes, er, I'm sure they will. Goodnight, my lady."
The next morning Gwen and Morgana stood on the castle battlements watching Lady Helen and her entourage arrive.
"She doesn't look she's planning to kill Prince Arthur, does she?" Gwen observed.
"If everyone who wished to assassinate Uther or Arthur advertised the fact then the lives of the castle guards would be much easier and the population of Camelot would be significantly smaller. I had that dream again last night."
"The same one?"
"Yes. In the middle of her performance Helen produces a dagger and kills Arthur."
"And everyone in the hall was asleep, apart from you?"
"And you. You were calling to me, but I couldn't hear what you were saying. Honestly, I'd expect prophetic dreams to come with sound included. I've half a mind to ask for a refund."
"Hmm."
"What?"
"Nothing, I'm sure it's- Oh, I've found out what rooms Lady Helen has been given, and she's sure to be having an audience with the king at the moment."
Morgana turned to Gwen with a smile, "Are you suggesting that we go and snoop through the personal possessions of the king's honoured guest?"
Gwen mumbled something that Morgana didn't quite catch. "I'm sorry, Guinevere, I didn't hear that."
"Yes. I mean if she means Arthur any harm surely we must-"
"Oh, absolutely we must," Morgana looped her arm through Gwen's, "lead the way."
A thorough search of the singer's belongings yielded nothing more than a few pairs of earrings that Morgana (after careful consideration) decided it would be beneath her to steal.
"I'm sorry," Gwen apologised as she swept Morgana's hair up into the style she was intending to wear it to the banquet. "I really thought we'd find something in her rooms."
"It was a good idea," Morgana said, turning this way and that in order to see the necklace she was wearing reflected from all angles. "It's hardly your fault that she didn't leave a scroll containing her secret plan to kill the prince rolled up her luggage."
Morgana admired her dress, jewellery and hairstyle in the mirror and decided she was satisfied with all three. "I think we're ready to go."
"There's, um, just one more thing. It's just an idea I had, it's probably stupid," Gwen reached into the pocket of her dress and produced two sets of... "Wax earplugs. I got them from the kitchen. I just thought that it might be important that you couldn't hear anything in the dream. It's a silly idea."
She was about to shove the earplugs back into her pocket when Morgana caught her wrist, "No, it's worth a try."
Morgana spent most of the banquet with Arthur, both of them found it an unexpectedly pleasant experience. Morgana because she couldn't hear a word Arthur said, and Arthur because instead of talking back to him as she usually did Morgana just nodded and smiled.
By the time Lady Helen's performance was due to begin Morgana was half convinced that her dream had been merely that, a dream. She was also considering taking to wearing earplugs whenever in Arthur's company.
Then Lady Helen began her performance and it was exactly like Morgana's dream. She stood deaf and frozen as one by one the other members of the court fell into a slumber, and watched as the singer produced a lethal looking dagger from the folds of her dress.
Morgana's interest was caught by something moving across the hall. It was Gwen trying to attract her attention. Morgana snapped out of her paralysis, picking up the first thing that came to hand from the table behind her, she stepped smartly forward and brought it down on the back of Helen's head.
As the singer fell so did her disguise, by the time she hit the floor she was no longer Lady Helen but the old witch who'd threatened Arthur at the execution. Morgana didn't see this because she was still staring at the ladle she'd hit Helen with.
Chaos broke out in the hall as people began waking up. Uther and Arthur were shouting, knights were drawing swords and servants were rushing this way and that. Gwen tumbled into Morgana and pulled her by the hand into an alcove off the main hall. She said something that Morgana couldn't hear, she couldn't hear what she was saying to Gwen either.
She pulled the earplugs out. "What did you say?" asked Gwen, doing the same.
"I said that I always wanted to hit someone with a ladle at one of these feasts."
Gwen laughed. It struck Morgana how rarely Gwen laughed, properly laughed, in Morgana's presence, it changed her from pretty to startlingly beautiful.
Giddy with the thrill of taking out a murderous sorceress with a kitchen utensil Morgana swept Gwen into a hug and kissed her lips. Just briefly, not longer than was strictly appropriate between mistress and servant, but it took Gwen by surprise and there was a tiny frown on her face when Morgana pulled back.
"I'm-"
Just then Arthur appeared in the alcove and said, "Have you heard, it was Sir Gawain who killed the witch, he's telling everybody how he did it."
Morgana squeezed Gwen's hand hard enough that she winced, "Is he now?"
Ever since she'd stopped taking Gaius's sleeping draught Morgana had found herself unable to sleep through the night. Sleep deprivation did not agree with her, and her general mood had not been improved by the feast which had been held in honour of Sir Gawain's slaying of the witch.
"Slaying," Morgana snorted disdainfully. "All he did was run her through with a sword after I'd knocked her unconscious."
"I think you've mentioned that once or twice before," Gwen would never smirk at Morgana, but if she were going to now would be the time.
"Yes, well, if I have then you could at least refrain from pointing it out, Gwen."
"Yes, my lady," maybe Gwen was smirking now.
"And now everyone's talking about Gawain going up against Arthur in the tournament." Gwen and Morgana were arm in arm on their way to the feast to welcome the knights of the realm to Camelot for the annual tournament. "The only way Gawain would stand a chance would be if I were to sneak up behind Arthur and hit him on the back of the head before their match."
"Which you're not going to do."
"Which, of course, I'm not going to do. However amusing the expression on Arthur's face might be."
"Speaking of Arthur," Gwen began nervously, "have you had any more dreams about him? I only ask because some mornings when I arrive your bed looks disarrayed. Not that it's any of my business what you do in bed. Oh, God, I can't believe I said that."
"Gwen, stop." Morgana held up her hand to forestall Gwen's, no doubt lengthy, apology. "Yes, I've been having nightmares. The same one over and over again."
"Oh, have you talked to the You Know What?" Gwen looked furtively at the guards who were walking ahead of them, not wanting to be overheard talking about the Dragon.
"No, I haven't talked to the You Know What. In the dream Arthur is bitten by a snake and whatever else our prince is, he is a grown man and I refuse to believe he needs protection from members of the animal kingdom."
They reached the doors to the throne room where a servant was waiting to announce Morgana's entrance. "I must go and be presented to the knights like a prize pony. How do I look?"
Gwen reached out and smoothed back Morgana's hair. "You look beautiful."
"Yes, I was afraid you were going to say that."
Morgana was exhausted and bored. Gwen had gotten talking to some of the other servants so Morgana was stuck entertaining a knight from the Western Isles who, judging from the way she had to keep dodging his hands, went by the wholly inaccurate name of Valiant.
"It would be an honour to escort you to the feast."
"Yes," said Morgana distractedly, "I'm sure it would. Excuse me..."
A few short weeks ago Morgana knew she would have enjoyed Knight Valiant's attentions but now there was something about him, something that made her skin crawl. Stupid Dragon, she couldn't even enjoy a bit of harmless flirting anymore.
"Lady Morgana," said Gaius, approaching her.
"Gaius," greeted Morgana politely, even as her fingers curled tightly around her goblet, furious that this man who had been drugging her since childhood could speak to her so calmly.
"How have you been sleeping, my lady?"
"Fine," replied Morgana, through gritted teeth.
"Really? I had heard reports of you pacing the castle by night."
"I suppose," admitted Morgana, seeing that she was backed into a corner, "that I'm having a little trouble sleeping."
"I'll drop some more sleeping draught in to your chambers."
"That would be...lovely."
Gaius did indeed drop another vial of sleeping draught in that night. Morgana smiled coldly at the departing physician then raised the vial in her hand to hurl it against the wall. Gwen interceded and caught her wrist.
"Gwen, let me go," Morgana ordered.
"Morgana, I can't stop you from breaking this vial. I can't stop you from breaking every single thing in this room. But if you keep throwing your medicine against walls people will notice and ask why. I'd also like to begin my working day without having to sweep up broken glass from your floor."
Morgana relaxed and let Gwen take the vial from her hand. Gwen took it to the window and poured out just a little, one dose's worth.
"That can't be good for the flowers, you know."
"You're an expert on flowers now?" Gwen teased gently.
"You're laughing at me."
"I wouldn't dream of it, my lady. I'll leave you to get some rest."
That night Morgana dreamed again of the snake biting Arthur. But this time it wasn't a real snake. It was a rendering of a snake, like an artist would draw, like a knight would display on his tunic or on his shield. A shield that Morgana had seen at...
She woke up just before it all clicked into place.
The next day Morgana put in her obligatory appearance at court, exchanged pleasantries with the king and enjoyed the black eye that Arthur gave Gawain during their tournament match. Afterwards she made her excuses and headed down to the armoury, she wanted to get a look at the knights' shields, she knew she'd seen one with a snake design.
"Sir, excuse me," Morgana heard Gwen's familiar voice and whipped round the corner to find Gwen backed up against the wall facing Valiant, who apparently had not managed to get any more well-mannered since last night.
"What are you doing here?" Morgana demanded.
"My lady, I-"
"I was not talking to you, Gwen."
"I was merely speaking with this servant," Valiant said. "I was enquiring as to her presence here."
For some reason Morgana bristled at hearing Valiant call Gwen a servant. "She is here at my instruction," she lied.
"I see," said Valiant, turning away from Gwen towards Morgana. "Does my lady perhaps want to participate in the tournament in secret? I have heard of women doing this, they never last beyond their first match."
Morgana looked at the intertwined snakes embroidered on Valiant's tunic, she chuckled. "If I were to compete in the tournament I would not need to use sorcery to help me." Valiant looked taken aback and Morgana pressed her advantage. "Oh, I know all about you, Knight Valiant, and shortly the king will know all about you too. He does not show kindness to those who seek to murder his son using magic."
For a moment Valiant looked as though he might strike Morgana then he changed his mind and pushed passed her, fleeing up the stairs. Morgana turned her anger on Gwen, "What are you doing down here?"
"Arthur asked me to-"
"Arthur! Are you Arthur's servant or mine?"
"I'm yours, my lady, you know that."
"Do I?"
After Valiant fled the kingdom Arthur emerged as the virtually unchallenged champion of the tournament.
"Is your maidservant not here tonight?" Arthur asked Morgana during the five minutes he was required to spend with her as her escort to the feast.
"You are showing an unusual amount of interest in my maid. She spent yesterday morning in the armoury at your instruction, I understand."
"Yes, well, Morris is rubbish at the sort of thing."
"Maybe if you didn't amuse yourself by using him for target practice he wouldn't have such a phobia of the armoury."
"He's my servant, it's his duty. Anyway, Guinevere seems to be something of an expert with weapons and armour, she's clearly wasted brushing your hair. Are you sure you can't spare her?"
"I'm sure," said Morgana, "she's invaluable to me."
"Shame."
Gwen hadn't been required to work at the feast so Morgana found her in her chambers, straightening up a few things and waiting to help prepare her for bed.
"I was talking to Arthur tonight, I think he would like to steal your services from me."
"Thank him from me but tell him that I like the job I have."
"Do you?" Morgana asked, genuinely curious. "I know I'm not the easiest person in the world to work for."
"No," replied Gwen, unlacing the ties at the back of Morgana's dress. "But according to every servant he's ever had, neither is Arthur."
Morgana's dress fell to the floor, she stepped out of it and waited for Gwen to put it away and return with her nightdress. "I'm a seer."
There was a moment of silence as Gwen pulled the nightdress over Morgana's head. "I know."
"You could tell Uther about me. He'd reward you, I'm sure. You wouldn't be a servant anymore."
"I wouldn't tell anyone, ever."
"I know," said Morgana, smiling over her shoulder at Gwen. "I told Arthur that you were invaluable to me."