Sorry for the wait on this chapter. This is a shorter chapter. Its back to the knights point of view.


Arthur had sent Leon to check for any signs of Merlin along their side of the stream. He didn't want to cross the border if Merlin had just wandered off and fallen asleep somewhere and Gwaine had just been lazy but he was beginning to regret sending Leon off to check as Gwaine was definitely getting on his nerves now.

Just getting on his nerves, mind. It wasn't like the fact that Gwaine was so worried about Merlin he was starting to worry or anything. Merlin was his friend sure, he could admit that now he was an advisor to him as well now, but Merlin was always disappearing. Merlin always came back. Gwaine was just over protective right?

Gwaine gave a very loud and agitated sigh, yet again and Arthur was just about to snap at him when Leon came back into view out of the trees ahead of them.

He was alone.

"Nothing sire. No trace of him. I think the tracks we can see on the other side must be his. There's no other ones around here."

Arthur pinched the bridge between his nose. This was not good. They were going to have to go over the border then. How long ago had he gone over? Surely he couldn't have got himself into trouble already?

He was brought out of his thoughts by Gwaine picking his way across the stream and to the other side of the bank. He saw Leon beside him watching him and waiting for his decision.

He sighed again and nodded as he started to follow Gwaine across to the other bank.

Gwaine was staring into the tree line now, having seen the tracks going into them.

"Gwaine, we need to be careful now, we can't be seen. We're going to find wherever Merlin is and then get out of here before any trouble starts okay?"

Gwaine nodded. Arthur wasn't very reassured by this as Gwaine would have agreed to anything if it meant he could go after Merlin.

Arthur headed into the treeline looking down at the tracks, checking behind him to see Leon and Gwaine following closely, he continued forward.


They had been walking for at least 20 minutes when they started to be able to see the trees thinning out in front of them. Arthur slowed, signalling behind him to make sure the others stayed hidden. He crouched down as he made his was slowly forward to the edge of the trees.

There was a ridgeline a little was ahead of him and the tracks went in that direction.

Where on earth are you going Merlin? He signalled to his knights to come forward to the treeline and to keep down.

Arthur was studying the tracks now. There weren't any coming back towards him but the ridge ended just there. And obviously Merlin wasn't there.

"Merlin must have gone over the ridge"

He muttered to himself more than to his men but he saw the worry in their eyes as their eyes followed the tracks to the edge. He had to grab Gwaine's arm as he set out forward.

"Stop, Gwaine. We can't see what's down the ledge. We have to be careful."

"Merlin could be hurt Arthur"

"I know but we can't just go charging up to a ridge when there could be anything down there. We aren't in Camelot, we have to be careful"

Gwaine glared at him but nodded. Arthur motioned for them to get down to the ground and they began edging their way over to the ridge.

Arthur stiffened as he reached the edge to look over. There was a large camp of bandits below them, and cages though they were empty now.

Where was Merlin? Why had he gone down there?

He motioned for the others to get back from the edge so they could talk. As he retreated back towards the treeline he studied the tracks.

"Sire?"

Leon was watching him carefully, not sure of what they were going to do next.

"These tracks don't show a struggle and it doesn't look as if he fell. If he wasn't seen maybe he is trying to find a way back up the ridge further along?"

Arthur couldn't find any other explanation, where else could he be?

Before he could stop him Gwaine had crawled forward towards the edge again to look down at the camp. Reluctantly Arthur and Leon followed him.

"Why would he have gone down in the first place sire? It doesn't make sense" Leon whispered.

"I don't know Leon, why would he have come all this way to begin with?"

Arthur looked over at Gwaine who was squinting down towards the camp below him as if trying to work something out.

"Gwaine?"

Gwaine looked up at him still trying to think something through.

"I think…well, these cages." He stopped again as he looked down again. "They're all empty"

"Great observation Gwaine now do you have anything helpful to add?" Arthur was getting very annoyed now, none of this made sense and Gwaine wasn't helping him think properly.

Gwaine was giving Arthur a very dirty glare as he carried on.

"I mean, they're all empty now. But look at them. They're all open and it's obvious at least some of them were being used. You can see the stuff whoever were in them had left behind"

Arthur looked down at them again, he hadn't really been paying attention the first time except to see they were empty, he had been more occupied looking at the bandits and Merlins tracks.

But now that he looked he could see that Gwaine was right. The cages had been in use and if he were the bandits, he wouldn't be leaving all the doors wide open like that.

"So you think that whoever were in the cages have escaped" He glanced over at Gwaine who was squinting down at the camp again before looking back at him exasperated.

"No Arthur not escaped. Rescued. How would they have been able to get out by themselves? Merlins down there somewhere. I think Merlin found them and he decided to help them."

Arthur looked down again as if expecting to see Merlin standing there waving at him. Merlin? Why would Merlin…. No of course Merlin would want to help them. But how?

"How? Merlin would have needed keys to open the cages, the keys would be with…" He looked further into the camp at the bandits, but no, Merlin couldn't have been caught getting the keys or he wouldn't have been able to get back to open the cages.

"Even if he did, where is he now? Wouldn't he have just decided to…."

Arthur stopped abruptly as he heard a very soft clang of metal from the far side of the clearing that was covered in darkness. He could make out somebody moving on the far side of the camp. Was that Merlin, he saw a flash of red around the neck of the figure as it turned to check around him.

What the hell was he doing here still? And if they had heard the noise from over here surely….

He tensed again as he watched the bandits to check for any movement. He could feel Gwaine beside him move ready to jump down at any moment if he thought Merlin was about to be found out.

Looking closer he could see glints of the fire reflecting in what must be another cage. Merlin had it opened though, so whoever he was helping could get out of there and he could get away without being found right?

Arthur was willing Merlin to turn and take whoever he was with into the forest away from the camp. What was he doing? Why was he hanging around?

He placed a hand on Gwaines shoulders to make sure he didn't do anything stupid. The last thing he needed was Gwaine jumping down to help and waking up the rest of the camp.

He was just about to tell the others to stay still so Merlin had a chance to get away when he heard screaming suddenly coming from the forest to the side of the camp. Arthur wasn't sure in what order everything happened next, but he heard the camp waking to shouts from the bandits.

The screams were so loud now. Someone must be being dragged back to the camp. He watched helplessly as Gwaine charged out from where they were hiding and down the ridge.

He and Leon followed straight away. Gwaine couldn't have waited one minute to see what was happening could he. But Arthur felt the anger leave immediately. He knew Merlin was in trouble now. Not that they could actually see Merlin any longer through the men in front of them.

He had his sword in hand, cutting the bandits down as he fought, before he could work out where the screaming was coming from. Where on earth had Merlin gone?

They had charged through the camp before many of the men had seen them attack and had managed to get quite far before they were surrounded and had to stop to fight, but Merlin was nowhere to be seen.

That was good right? Wasn't it? That meant he had got away didn't it? Trying to think was very hard while he was fighting and trying not to get himself killed. Where had he gone?


Did that make sense okay? Im not very happy with the chapter but it was necessary to get to the next bit.

Review would be greatly appreciated.