A/N: So I finally managed to get another chapter done! I feel like I'm moving at a snail's pace now after the updating rate I had with In Darkness. It hasn't been too long, though. I hope. Anyway, enjoy the next chapter!
The guard moved to stand directly in front of the door as Merlin approached. The young warlock couldn't help but think that if he wasn't currently being clawed at from the inside by a sense of dread for what was to come, he might have had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at the movement. After all these years, the guards still didn't seem to trust him when he wasn't with Arthur or one of the knights.
"May I help you?" the guard asked, glaring down his nose at Merlin.
"I just have a message to deliver to the Lord and Lady of Berradon," Merlin explained quickly, doing his best to conceal his anxiety from the man's scrutinizing gaze.
The guard continued to eye him suspiciously and it was all Merlin could do to keep his next words steady.
"The King of Camelot has instructed me to deliver a message to the Lord and Lady," he said firmly. "Perhaps you would like to check with him?"
That seemed to do the trick. The guard just grunted in response and moved aside to grant Merlin access to the room where the Lord and Lady waited. Merlin moved forward hesitantly and pushed open the door. Then, after taking a moment to compose his features into an unreadable expression, Merlin walked into the room.
His eyes immediately fell upon the table in the middle of the room where the two nobles sat waiting for the King of Camelot to join them. Currently, there was a maidservant waiting on the two of them, filling their goblets with wine as they sat in silence at the table.
The first thing that Merlin noticed about the Lord and Lady was that they were both wearing blue. An insignificant detail, perhaps. Except that Merlin remembered when he had first met the royal family of Varelia. They had also worn blue.
Merlin quickly shook himself. Now he was just being ridiculous. Just because they were wearing blue, it could hardly be considered a bad omen. Besides, it was a completely different shade of the color. Okay, he reprimanded himself, it was really time to focus.
"Yes? What is it?" Lady Amelia spoke first, taking in Merlin's sudden appearance at the end of the table. Lord Walter also turned to stare at him expectantly.
Looking at the two nobles, Merlin couldn't help but to note how plain they both appeared to be. There was really nothing about their features that stood out. They had the same brown hair and eyes. The same pale skin. They looked completely normal. Not the least bit threatening. And that was really what was making Merlin the most nervous.
Because that sense of danger was still there. He still couldn't shake it. And now that he was standing in the same room as these two visiting nobles, that feeling of apprehension seemed to only have grown worse.
Then, realizing that they were waiting for an answer, Merlin cleared his throat and delivered the message.
"King Arthur has sent me to inform you that he will be unable to join you for breakfast this morning," he said.
Both nobles stared a moment at Merlin before replacing their indifferent expressions with ones of annoyance.
"And why not?" Lord Walter asked brusquely.
Merlin watched the reactions of the two nobles carefully as he spoke his next words. "A young girl was found dead in one of the corridors."
Lady Amelia's hand immediately flew to her mouth. "My goodness. What happened?" she asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
"She had a rare heart condition," Merlin said slowly, trying to keep the image of Ella's still body out of his mind as he spoke.
Amelia's eyes widened, but it was hard to say what she or her husband were thinking.
"Who was this girl?" Lord Walter asked, his tone somewhat demanding.
"The Queen's maidservant, my lord," Merlin answered quickly.
"Oh no," Lady Amelia breathed, her hand now moving down to rest over her heart.
Merlin wondered if she was being sincere. It was hard to tell for sure.
"Well that's that then, isn't it?" Lord Walter said, standing up abruptly from his chair. Unfortunately, he did not see the young maidservant standing just behind him, and ended up backing the chair right into her. As a result, the young girl was unable to hold onto the pitcher of wine she had been holding in her hands. It fell to the floor at Lord Walter's feet.
"Must you be so clumsy?" Lord Walter said angrily, having only narrowly escaped being drenched in wine down his front. By some miracle, only the very tips of his boots seemed to have been stained with the liquid. Turning, the irate man stormed from the room, plunging the place into an awkward silence after slamming the door behind him.
"I'm so sorry," the maidservant said finally after several seconds went by. Merlin hurried forward to help her clean up the mess with the cloths that seemed to appear out of nowhere from another servant who had been lingering in the corner of the room.
"It's fine, Anna," Lady Amelia said reassuringly as she stood up herself. "He's just in a foul mood today. Just clean that up and head back to our chambers."
As she spoke, the noblewoman moved closer to where Merlin and the servant girl called Anna were kneeling on the floor, mopping up the mess. Merlin tried to gauge whether or not his strange magical sense of danger was heightened by the woman's close proximity, but he was feeling far too anxious to be able to tell for sure. He wondered if the other occupants of the room could hear his heart beating in his chest. He could certainly hear it pounding in his own ears.
The girl just nodded and Lady Amelia turned to walk away.
"Go on," Merlin said to the terrified-looking girl. "I'll clean this up."
"Are you sure?" Anna asked quietly.
Merlin nodded. "Of course. Don't worry about it."
Anna flashed Merlin a small smile of gratitude before getting to her feet. But as she did so, Merlin couldn't help but notice the bruises that ran all along the young girl's arms. Meeting Merlin's gaze, she quickly tugged her sleeves down to cover the markings, evidently having forgotten that they had been rolled up in the first place.
"Thank you," she whispered embarrassedly before hurrying to catch up with the Lady Amelia. They left the room together, leaving Merlin to clean up the puddle of wine on the floor.
"Not a very pleasant man, is he?" a voice said.
Looking up, Merlin saw that the other servant was back. He recognized her as one of the Camelot servants. Rose, he thought her name might be. She knelt down to place a larger cloth over the mess.
"Lord Walter?" Merlin said, only half listening.
"Yes. You should hear the way their servants talk about him in the kitchens. He's apparently very difficult to please."
"Does he beat his servants?" Merlin asked before he could stop himself.
The servant frowned. "I don't know for sure. I wouldn't put it past him though. He's certainly capable of it. Why?"
Merlin just shook his head. "No reason." He then quickly got to his feet, the mess having been completely mopped up. "I have to go," he said then.
The servant nodded. "Alright then. Try to avoid the nobles if you can."
Merlin forced a smile onto his face. "I will." He then turned and made his way from the room.
Once he was making his way back to the physician's chambers, Merlin realized that his sense of danger had somewhat dulled since he was no longer in the presence of the visiting nobles. It was definitely still there though, lurking beneath the surface. Merlin was feeling even more worried now.
He was also not comforted by the fact that Lord Walter seemed to be a harsh man. He couldn't be sure how the servant girl, Anna, had gotten her bruises, but Merlin had his suspicions. And by the time he finally reached his and Gaius' chambers, only to find that the physician was not there, he had decided that he thoroughly disliked the visiting nobles.
Unfortunately, that was just about all he could say with absolute certainty. He had no proof whatsoever that Lord Walter or Lady Amelia may have had some kind of involvement in Ella's death, although there was no denying it now that he suspected as much, even though Gaius clearly thought otherwise. And that could only be bad news for Arthur. For surely, he had to have been the real target. Because killing a servant girl seemed so pointless. Unless she had gotten in the way somehow.
The image of Ella's lifeless body came to the forefront of Merlin's mind once again. It was currently serving as a painful reminder to him of just how close he himself had come to meeting a similar fate just a few months ago. He sighed as he sat down heavily at the table and buried his face in his hands.
Sometime later, Merlin found himself being roused awake by an extremely tired and weary physician. He raised his head off of the table where he had apparently fallen asleep, and glanced around.
"What time is it?" Merlin asked sleepily.
"Early afternoon," Gaius replied, as he moved about the chambers, gathering various herbs and bottles before walking over to his workbench.
"What are you doing?" Merlin inquired, as he became more aware of his surroundings.
"Preparing some sleeping draughts for Ella's mother," Gaius answered. "That's where I've been these past few hours. Doing my best to comfort her family."
Merlin sighed and suddenly became very interested in a long crack in the wall on the other side of the room. He stared at it intently as he spoke his next words.
"Do you really think Ella died of a heart condition?" he said at last.
Gaius immediately put down his work to stare at Merlin. "Everything that I observed would lead me to that conclusion. Yes."
Merlin nodded slowly but did not take his eyes off of the crack in the wall. "There is absolutely no chance, then, that somebody did this to her?"
Gaius frowned at the tone in Merlin's voice. "What is this about Merlin?" he asked seriously.
Merlin finally turned to look at his mentor. "Is it possible, Gaius?"
"As I said before, Merlin, there were no marks, no blood-"
"What about poison?" Merlin interrupted. "Poison wouldn't leave a mark. Yet you never even considered it as a possibility."
"It is highly unlikely," Gaius answered.
"But not impossible?"
"Merlin, I spoke to Ella's parents. The girl had no enemies. The likelihood that anyone would poison her-"
"What if it was meant for somebody else? And she ended up consuming it instead-"
"Merlin. Ella was in a very fragile condition at the time of her death, and had been for quite some time. My potions and remedies were not able to offer very much in the form of treatment for her. It has been my fear for several months now that her heart would eventually give out on her. And it is for that reason that I feel confident enough to dismiss the possibility of poisoning. Now tell me, why do you seem to think that someone else may have been involved?"
Merlin took a deep breath as he turned his gaze onto the floor. "When I was near her, I could just sense it, Gaius. There's just something not right about any of this."
"You're having a funny feeling?" Gaius asked.
Merlin nodded. "But it's more than that, though. I've never felt anything quite like it before. It's so strong. It's like my magic is trying to warn me of danger. And it seemed to get stronger when I was near the visiting nobles."
At the last sentence, Gaius' eyebrows went up. "You think that the Lord and Lady of Berradon are responsible for Ella's death?" he asked incredulously.
Merlin bit his lip before answering. "I think it's...possible, Gaius. And I think they mean to hurt Arthur."
Gaius just stared at Merlin, stunned.
"I don't know what to do, Gaius. I'm worried-"
"So am I," Gaius interrupted, walking over to sit down next to Merlin on the bench. "About you. Merlin, ever since the incident with James, you haven't quite been yourself. And now with these new visitors-"
"This isn't about James," Merlin said firmly.
They sat in silence for a minute before Gaius spoke again.
"I saw the look in your eyes after I examined Ella's body. You looked haunted, Merlin."
Merlin was unable to suppress a shiver at those words.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Gaius pressed.
Merlin looked up to meet Gaius' gaze. "That could have been me," he said at last.
The physician frowned. "Yes, it could have been."
Merlin sighed. He hadn't really been planning to discuss this now, but suddenly the words seemed to just be tumbling out of his mouth. "I have faced more magical creatures and sorcerers than I care to count," he began. "I have gone on impossible quests and have risked my life time and time again to protect Arthur's. And yet nobody has ever made me feel as scared and weak as he did." Merlin shook his head before continuing.
"I still have nightmares about what happened a few months ago. But, you know, none of those dreams are about the sorceress. About nearly dying in those flames in the stables," he let out a humorless laugh.
"You would think that as a sorcerer, that would be my worst nightmare. Fire. Burning alive. But no. I see his eyes, Gaius. I see them as he beats me in the armory. And right before he pushes me down the stairs. And then even when I'm blind, the image is still seared into my mind."
Merlin took a moment to breathe before going on.
"No one else has ever affected me like this before. And I think it's because of who he was. He wasn't a sorcerer. He didn't have magic. He had no special abilities or talents. And yet he nearly succeeded in taking everything from me. And I was completely helpless. Completely powerless. He made me realize just how vulnerable I really am."
Gaius continued to stare at his ward as Merlin finished speaking. He had been trying to get Merlin to open up about what had happened to him for months now, and had never had any success. His speech had therefore been unexpected, and Gaius was still absorbing all that Merlin had just said.
Finally, Gaius wrapped an arm around Merlin's shoulders. "It'll get better, Merlin. You will not always be haunted by James."
Merlin shook his head. "I could never forget what he did to me."
"No," Gaius agreed. "But eventually, you will stop dwelling on it. He will no longer plague your dreams."
"How can you be so sure of that?" Merlin asked.
Gaius smiled. "I just am."
"You think I'm being paranoid," Merlin stated then. "About Lord Walter and Lady Amelia."
"I do," Gaius answered.
Merlin sighed and stood up, thinking hard about everything as he paced slowly back and forth across the floor. Gaius did not attempt to interrupt his thoughts. A full minute went by before he finally stopped and shook his head.
"I know something's going on, Gaius. I can feel it."
The physician sighed. "I think you need to take some time to calm down, Merlin. Perhaps Arthur will give you the evening off and-"
"No. I can't," Merlin said, moving towards the exit.
"Where are you going?" Gaius demanded. "Merlin, I really don't think you should be-"
"I'm fine, Gaius. I'm going to go see if Arthur needs anything," Merlin said.
Gaius sighed. "Just don't do anything stupid, Merlin," he pleaded. "Keep your suspicions to yourself for now."
Seeing the worried look on Gaius' face, Merlin knew he had no other choice but to nod. "Of course, Gaius."
The physician visibly relaxed at this response. "Good."
Merlin gave his mentor what he hoped would be a reassuring smile then, before turning away and leaving the chambers.
A/N: Thanks for all the continued support! Reviews are appreciated and always fun to read! Until next time! :)