Stitches

3


The sharp sound of Arthur's sword being drawn woke Gwaine and Elyean and they both stood at arms before they were even fully awake, gazing blearily at the figures surrounding them.

"Show yourselves!" Arthur called, his voice ringing in the silent forest.

A gentle breeze seemed to ruffle through the forest and Arthur felt it shiver through his hair and he saw the way their hoods moved so gently in the wind.

"We mean you no harm," came the voice of a man who stepped forward in a dark cloak. He lowered his hood to reveal his face and Arthur immediately recognized him. He was the man who took Mordred from him all those years ago. A druid.

"I don't know that," Arthur said, his sword raised but his heart less sure of the threat.

"I told you once before, Prince Arthur," Iseldir said, "The druids are indebted to you. And we only wish to help."

Arthur faltered as the man took a step closer, only this time it was clearly towards Merlin.

"Don't!" Arthur said taking a step so he was standing between the man and his friend, fingers gripping his sword.

"Please," the man said. Arthur was not familiar with this man, but even so he thought he could hear something like fear behind his voice, "Please let us help him. His life is more important than you know."

That got Arthur's brain turning and that familiar feeling of something he was missing made his hair stand on edge. Arthur's sword shook just slightly as his grip tightened, "What do you mean?"

"Please, his wounds are deep. He might not make it to Camelot and you won't be able to release him from those chains without our help," Iseldir said. The rest of the druids had stood perfectly still, the wind making their cloaks move in a ghostly manner around their perfectly still bodies.

"What chains?" Gwaine asked, speaking up for the first time.

Iseldir turned to him, "They are not chains in the sense that you understand. They are chaining his spirit. Those bands on his arms will not be removed by anything less than magic."

He had expected nothing less, but the idea still felt like a punch in the gut. Arthur realized that both Elyean and Gwaine were staring at him, waiting for his reaction. This man had brought them no harm in the past, but they had had leverage that time.

"How do I know you won't hurt him?" Arthur asked, his heart pounding as he looked around at the men and women and what looked like children surrounding him.

"We would never harm him," Iseldir said. Arthur couldn't shake the feeling that he knew Merlin somehow. "You're just going to have to trust us," Iseldir said. "His life is very precious."

Arthur knew that... he knew that very well.

Despite himself, he couldn't keep himself from trusting this man. So Arthur dropped his sword and Gwaine and Elyean followed suit, conceding that he would defy his father if it meant Merlin's safety any day. He nodded slowly and Iseldir began to move towards his motionless body.

Iseldir approached Merlin and the other men who had come forward stood a safer distance away. He sat cross-legged beside him and placed a hand on his face.

They stared at each other for a long while in silence. The other druids stood patiently watching the scene with Arthur. After some time Iseldir nodded and he looked to his men who stepped forward at his silent command and gently lifted Merlin up and began carrying him away.

"Come, Prince Arthur," Iseldir said, walking beside him as they followed behind Merlin's body which looked ominously like a corpse the way they were bearing him on their shoulders. Gwaine and Elyean followed, making up the end of the strange procession.

After a half hour's walk they found themselves at the mouth of a cave with a gentle slope that took them further underground. Led by candles and torches, they walked through the passage until it opened up into the open space of a large cavern that was filled with similarly dressed druids, some of them sleeping and others sitting patiently and looking towards the mouth of the cave, maybe waiting for their return.

Merlin was placed on a stone table in the center of the camp. The men who bore him immediately retreated, leaving Iseldir and Arthur standing on either side of Merlin. Without any prompting a second man came to stand at Merlin's head.

He placed both of his hands on Merlin's forehead and began murmuring an incantation that could hardly be heard by even Arthur, who stood just next to him. Merlin's eyelids became heavy and his eyes began to roll back in his head slightly.

"What is he doing," Arthur asked panicking.

"Peace, my prince," said Iseldir, "It is only to relieve him of some of his pain."

Arthur faltered, and looked back at Merlin's eyes which were drifting shut now. "Is he in pain?" he asked looking back up.

Iseldir looked at him sadly, "I'm afraid he is."

Arthur felt Gwaine come to stand by his side and felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. Arthur glanced at him and Gwaine gave him a little smile before watching Merlin.

Arthur panicked when he saw Iseldir raise a knife from his robes and brought it to Merlin's face. His hand immediately went to his sword hilt but Gwaine squeezed his shoulder and he calmed for long enough to see Iseldir cutting the knots away at either side of his mouth where the wire ended.

He put the knife away and began to say something very quietly under his breath. His eyes burned bright and he began to pull the string slowly out of Merlin's flesh.

"You can't just-" Arthur began to say furiously, but he quieted himself when he saw what was happening.

As the other end of the string disappeared beneath Merlin's flesh, the wound closed itself with a glimmer and then settled to look exactly like Merlin's normal skin. Arthur watched in amazement as the end of the string reappeared from within his mouth and that hold closed itself as well.

Iseldir's eyes glowed gold throughout his enchantment until he had pulled out a foot of the wire, still covered in Merlin's blood, and he looked up at the Prince.

Arthur looked in amazement at Merlin. His lips were still chapped and a little bloody but there wasn't a mark on his skin where the wire had been.

He dropped the bloody wire and took up Merlin's wrists. He made to began speaking but the he stopped himself.

"You may want to stand a little further away," he said to Arthur and Gwaine. "This won't be as peaceful or painless," he said looking hard at both men. They stepped back a few paces to stand beside Elyean. Iseldir looked to them both, "I will be able to release him, however this enchantment is bound to his spirit and it will not yield easily. Please, you cannot interrupt the enchantment once it begins. If we have any hope of breaking it, you must let me finish."

Arthur's heart was sinking rapidly with each word. He was trusting Iseldir with so much, yet he had no other choice. He watched as the man at Merlin's head stepped away and Merlin's eyes blinked open. Iseldir turned Merlin's face towards his own and spoke to him in a quiet voice and Arthur couldn't hear the words that he spoke.

Merlin tried to speak several times, the noises he was making cut straight through Arthur and made his stomach writhe with fury and grief. Finally Merlin's sounds became words.

"H-he... ca... c-can't..." he was saying, each sound taking a huge effort.

"I know," Iseldir said, "We'll be able to speak freely once we've finished. Derryth?" he spoke out to the camp.

The smallest person any of the Knights Arthur had seen in the cave stepped forward and lowered her hood. She was a little girl of five or six and she had wide brown eyes and wild curly hair the color of oats.

"Derryth, you know what to do?" Iseldir asked.

She spoke in a little voice, "I think so..."

She stepped closer to Iseldir's side, looking nervously between him and Merlin and Arthur. "Once we are finished," Iseldir said, "I don't know what kind of wounds there will be. You must be ready. I trust that you will know what to do when the time comes."

She tried to look brave and nodded once. Iseldir smiled at her.

"You're going to put his life in the hands of a child?" Arthur asked, staring incredulously at Iseldir.

"She's a very powerful healer, sire," he replied without any further explanation.

"It's fine, trust them," Elyean said kindly from his side.

Iseldir took both of Merlin's wrists in his hands, and began muttering something quietly.

Arthur may have imagined it, but he felt like the air shifted as his eyes glowed with a fire he didn't understand. He breathed it in deeply and felt his lungs fill with some kind of unfamiliar energy.

For a full minute nothing happened, but then Merlin's eyes began to widen and roll back into his head. Arthur squeezed his eyes shut in panic, but pushed his fear down and opened his eyes to look at the scene again.

At first it sounded like Iseldir's words were echoing throughout the cavern, then Arthur realized that several other Druids were speaking with him. Two women stepped forward and stood on either side of Iseldir. They spoke the same words in unison and Merlin's eyes snapped shut.

Merlin's body seemed tense as a spring as his eyes squeezed shut and he breathed heavily through his nose. Arthur had no idea if he was conscious or if he was in pain and he felt the fear coil in his stomach as he continued to stare at the scene.

Then a horrible strangled gasp broke through the monotonous sound of the enchantments and Merlin's eyes flew open. His hands balled up into fists in Iseldir's grasp and his body began to shake. He stared sightless upwards, his mouth open in a silent scream.

Arthur instinctively made to go to him and Gwaine grabbed his arm and hauled him backwards. Elyean put a hand on his other arm just in case. Arthur stared with wide eyes at the terrible sight. Merlin's entire body was shaking violently and Arthur wanted nothing more than to stop it, stop whatever pain he was going through.

More druids stepped forward, their words growing louder with each repetition of the prayers. Arthur felt like the very air he was breathing was buzzing with some kind of life that was both drawing him towards the table and throwing him back as well. The energy was coming from the very air, from their words, from his own breath and Merlin's. The moment grew and Arthur watched in horror as Merlin's head began to thrash from side to side, trying to pull his hands free from Iseldir who was gripping them with white knuckles now. His feet were scrabbling the stone as his body began to convulse.

The more Merlin struggled the more Arthur tried to fight past Gwaine and Elyean who were forcibly keeping him from going to Merlin. He wasn't even conscious of himself fighting them, his whole mind was consumed with the terrible scene in front of him.

Hands from every side held his limbs down as Iseldir's voice rose above the others. His hands began to tremble around Merlin's bindings and he closed his eyes.

Arthur felt the breath leave him in a rush as he felt something shift. Merlin's whole body became still as stone and his head fell to the side, his eyes closed and his body unmoving.

Cold dread began to spread through Arthur at the sight. Merlin wasn't... he couldn't be... the Druids would have stopped if he was... but Arthur couldn't see the rise and fall of his chest and every limb was limp. He stood, limp in Elyean and Gwaine's grasp, no longer struggling.

Don't you dare die, he thought desperately, willing him to live.

But then Merlin's whole body arched upwards away from the table with a choking sob and Arthur broke free from Gwaine and Elyean just as their chanting stopped and just as he felt like the air had calmed and he could breathe again.

Merlin's body slumped back down onto the table and his body began to relax. The druids began to step away from him. Arthur approached the table as they slowly disappeared on all sides into the shadows. Only the little girl and Iseldir remained, his hands still around Merlin's wrists.

Merlin's body was still trembling still but Iseldir was smiling, watching quietly as dust began to fall from beneath his fingers. The dust was black, but shimmering. Arthur stared in amazement as it disappeared in the air as it fell, never touching the table or Merlin.

"Is it done?" Arthur asked, his eyes fearful as he stared at Iseldir, "Will he be alright?"

"A-Arthur?"

Almost afraid to look, Arthur dropped his gaze to look at Merlin, who was blinking blearily at him.

He felt such immense relief hearing his voice. Arthur laughed happily and was embarrassed to say it sounded more like a sob as Merlin looked up at him.


a/n: Helloooo again folks! I feel this was a little too much bordering on an exorcism, but it felt right for what the chains did to Merlin (further explained later on, yes they did keep his magic away but it's more than that)

After many votes in both directions, I think I'm going to keep this story just friendship. But if you're itching for some slash, I'm ATTEMPTING to write a Merthur fic... a long and sad and smutty Merthur one shot about what was meant to be Arthur/Gwen's wedding night the first time around... never written smut before (IT'S TERRIFYING)

Thank you for the wonderful reviews advice and Happy New Years!