Okay, okay. I'm sorry! I know; I said I'd post chapter four a while ago. But what can I say? Life had other ideas. Not to mention my plot squirrel seems to have taken a liking to scampering off at the most inopportune times... Anyway. Please enjoy chapter four!

"Arthur?" Merlin asked tentatively. No response but a shuffling sound in front of him.

Well, this could prove problematic, he thought. Gwaine felt it necessary to state this out loud.

"This isn't good." There was a smacking sound, followed by Gwaine's surprised yelp. "Well, it isn't!" He protested lamely.

"There is no way of communicating with Arthur this way… not without seeing him, anyway. You can hear us, My Lord, right?" Elyan asked.

"Well, obviously," Gwaine grumbled. "He was aware enough to hit me on the head!"

There were sounds of someone shifting to Merlin's left before Leon's voice tentatively asked, "Merlin… do you… do you think it would be beneficial if you… if you… So we could talk with the King…." Merlin smiled faintly. Leon still was not used to his magic.

"Maybe. I don't think Denethor is watching us, but I can't be sure. I could give it a try…" Immersing himself in the magic inside him, he chanted the words that automatically came to his tongue. A dim light sparked to life as a glowing blue orb -a white ribbon winding within- hung suspended in midair in the center of the group.

It's so ethereal, Leon thought as he stared at each of his companions in turn. All were staring at the orb, staining their eyes blue instead of their natural colors.

Merlin looked at his friends, meeting Leon's disbelieving gaze. Even after all these years, now that he knows I have magic,-for half a year now- it's like I don't even know him. He shrugged and gave Leon a lopsided grin. By this time, everyone had stopped looking at the orb and was mentally checking that everyone was accounted for. Everyone but Arthur, that was. He still stared at the unnatural light, reliving his journey to retrieve the Morteous flower and the help sent him in the face of certain death in the form of the orb floating in front of him.

"Arthur?" At Merlin's voice, Arthur's eyes lost their slightly glazed look and focused. He glanced at each man in turn, then set his questioning glance on the warlock. Merlin spoke what they were all thinking. "We need to get out of here." Nods from everyone answered him. "Does anyone have any ideas?" Nobody responded. Merlin rolled his eyes, walking over to the door. It was wood, Merlin realized with a start. Just wood. The walls surrounding it, however, were stone, albeit covered with fungus and slime.

He could easily let them out. But what if they were caught?

Gwaine came up to him. "Can you break down the door?"

Elyan spoke up, also making his way over. "But there might be guards outside."

"Worth a try."

"Not necessarily."

"We need to try."

"We have no weapons!"

"Merlin does!"

"I said we don't! And I don't feel like making Merlin do it all!"

Percival cleared his throat. They all turned toward him. He had been watching Arthur watch the two knights argue, and he felt that he knew what the king thought. "We do have to try," Percival said slowly, watching Arthur to make sure he was correct, "but we have to be extremely careful, since we have no swords. Hand-to-hand," he continued on his own, "might work. As long as we're careful. We are knights of Camelot, after all. We have not been in here long enough to start weakening, and I, for one, do not want to wait that long before attempting to escape and risk never getting out."

Nods of approval came from his companions.

Without warning, their light flickered, then came back, but weaker. They all started, then looked worriedly at Merlin. Merlin, for his part, looked horrified and confused, his mouth slightly open and his eyes wide.

Leon was the first to speak up. "Merlin? Are you okay? What happened?"

Merlin started shaking his head, his eyes wider, if possible. "I… I… I don't know," he said hesitatingly. "My… it's… fading. Going out of reach. I- no!" He suddenly clasped his head, falling to his knees, trembling. "It's… it's…" he broke off, unable to finish his thought.

Elyan broke in. "Merlin, put out the light!" Merlin did so. "…Any better?" Elyan asked.

A broken, dejected voice from where they all knew Merlin knelt; "It… stopped fading, but it's not coming back. I don't know what's going on. This has never… never happened before. I don't know what to do." He felt as though a giant vacuum had opened inside of him as the light flickered, a black hole that sucked his magic from him. When he had ended the spell, the vacuum disappeared along with the light. But his magic had not returned. He had some left; he was unsure how much. He was deathly afraid that using any more would make him lose it all. And if he lost all of his magic, he would die. Metaphorically and literally; magic was that much a part of him. But it was not just a part of him; it was him.

A sinister red light appeared in their midst, in the same place Merlin's clear blue one had been. The door swung inward again, but this time, the captives were able to see. A man entered, tall and lean, his eyes sunken into his face above a long curved nose. His eyebrows were bushy, matching in color the dark brown unkempt and dirty hair that adorned his head. In his left hand he grasped the same staff they had all seen before, but his hand -along with the rest of him- was clad completely in black, though he had removed his cloak. Giving his already malign face an eerie glow, the crystal glared. The swirling pattern matched the one floating through the new light, leaving no room for doubt that the new source was of his making.

"So," he sneered, "I was right. You do have magic. I did suppose, after all; why else would anyone want to keep a bunch of high-and-mighty knights and a good-for-nothing-servant?"

Gwaine spoke up. "So why did you?"

Denethor –for indeed, it was he– huffed at the question. "I have my reasons," he growled.

"And what does making Arthur unable to speak have to do with anything?"

"To be perfectly honest, nothing. It amused me," he replied with a sneer. "But I suppose I cooould remove the spell…." He seemed to think about it, then spun on his heel to face Arthur. "But it is so entertaining."

Denethor flicked his head back toward Merlin.

"But why didn't you try to remove the spell, I wonder? Why would you not want to help your precious king?" Denethor asked with mock sincerity. "As a matter of fact, why don't you do anything right now? The door is open, after all. And I am not the most powerful of sorcerers, Merlin Emrys."

Immediately, warning bells started ringing in the warlock's mind. He knew already? All of his secrecy had been in vain. They could have escaped at any time. But, wait. If he had already known, then he probably would have set traps for them…..And was that goading? Was Denethor really goading him? From his experience, Merlin knew that this could only mean that his opponent either knew something he did not, or at least he thought he did. The best option was to hopefully knock him off guard….

"Then why had you not said this before?" Merlin retorted with a suspicious glare, one eyebrow arched. If he had been able to see himself, he would have laughed at how much he resembled Gaius in that moment.

Denethor said nothing in reply, throwing a smugly victorious grin at the group. Spinning on his heel –again– he swept out of the cell, dramatically extinguishing his werelight at the precise moment the boom of the door reverberated.

-M-

"Okay. I officially do NOT like that guy," Gwaine complained. "He doesn't even make any SENSE! Ooh, I think I'm being all mysterious by not telling you what's going on! Ooh, you don't know what's going to happen! Yeah? Well, I'm shaking in my boots. And I swear. He's going to get a neck cramp, or a headache, or something. Moving that jerkily all of the time really has to put a strain on him… Ya know what I think? I think that he doesn't know why he's got us in here. I think that he's kidnapped us just because his buddies already have. Or…or his buddies dared him to do it! I dunno. But this is just getting plain annoying! Ouch!"

"Thank you, Sire," Elyan sighed. Arthur snorted in reply.

"This is getting to be a cycle…" Gwaine mumbled under his breath.

Ooh! The angst is building!

Okay, self-confidence issue time; I don't honestly know if this chapter made as much sense as I tried to make it. Please tell me what you think!