This ones on time! Yay! On the downside... It's not very long.
This is basically an introduction of who Iyla is, and her background so we can get to the good stuff
And before anyone says 'he's falling for her too fast', how quickly did Merlin and Freya fall in love? And Iyla's been alone for a very long time...
Enough rambling!
On with the chapter!
XxX
Iyla
They sat in silence for some time, Merlin wincing slightly every time Iyla moved to a new patch of broken skin, gently wiping away the crusted blood there. The throbbing pain was still there, but it was numbed slightly by the water that slowly down his aching back. It wasn't as refreshing as fresh, cool water would have been, but Merlin was already beginning to feel slightly better.
A movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he jumped when he realised she was reaching for his face. Merlin made to shuffle backwards, but gasped as he jolted his back. She glared at him, and reached forward, gently dabbing her cloth at the cut on the side of his head. It wasn't particularly long or deep, but head wounds bled a lot. He watched as her gaze focused a little to the left of his eyes, unable to wrench his own from her deep brown irises.
'Why are you helping me?'
She flinched at his question, her eyes flickering to his. 'You helped me. You didn't even know who I was, but you cared. In places, like this, it's normally every man for himself, yet you still tried to defend me. And, right now, you look like you could use a friend.'
'I'm a sorcerer.'
'I'd noticed,' she shrugged. He continued to stare at her, and she sighed. 'When I was two, my father was executed by King Uther for sorcery. I never found out the truth, but, to this day, my mother denies that he had any involvement with magic; that the magic took him from us. She feared that King Uther would execute us all for conspiracy, and he probably would have, if not for a friend of my father's. Although he'd been unable to save him, he'd promised to look after us. The man smuggled us out of Camelot, and we made for Caerleon's Kingdom; my mother, myself and my two brothers. We were lucky.'
'I'm sorry.'
Iyla shook her head, and placed the cloth in the bowl, before helping him drag his tunic over his back, and then moving to sit down next to him. 'It was a long time ago. But ever since, we've always avoided magic. Caerleon left us alone; he had no interest in what his people were doing as long as there was enough food to go around, and we paid our taxes. We were peaceful. That is, until King Caerleon died.'
At this, Merlin couldn't help but shudder slightly. He remembered that day clearly.
'My brothers were called away to war; Queen Annis wanted revenge for what King Arthur had done to her husband, and my brothers wanted revenge for the murder of our father. My mother begged them not to go; we both knew that they would never return. They were farmers not soldiers. But still they went...'
'I was there,' Merlin whispered, under his breath.
Her head shot up. 'You were? What happened?'
He stared at her. 'You don't know?'
Iyla shook her head. 'It was while they my brothers were away at war that the slavers came. My mother and I ran. I think we ran for several months, before we decided to return home. That's when they grabbed me.'
Merlin bit his lip. 'You never found out if your brothers survived.'
'No.'
'They survived.'
He heard her gasp, and she slid backwards on the floor, shaking her head. 'You can't know! How could you possibly know what happened, even if...'
'No one died.'
She stared at him. 'What?'
'King Arthur settled the battle with a duel; one to one combat. No blood was shed; he spared his opponent. Your brothers would have returned home safely, of that I'm sure.'
Iyla's breath hitched and Merlin, despite his throbbing back, moved closer to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
'Are you alright?'
'They survived?' she whispered. He nodded, and with that, the dam broke. She sobbed, burying her head into his chest. Merlin hesitated, slightly stunned by her reaction, and slowly closed his arms around her shoulders, drawing her into an embrace. She shifted slightly, and Merlin thought that she was going to try to withdraw, until she pressed her face against the thin fabric of his tunic, drawing in a shuddering breath. 'Thank you,' she sighed.
XxX
Eventually, Iyla drew back, wiping her eyes with the palm of her hand.
'I'm sorry.'
He smiled gently at her. 'It's alright. I'm glad I could give you some good news in a place like this.'
She nodded. 'Thank you. Just knowing that they survived... how long ago was this?'
'About a year and a half.'
'That would mean I've been here a year...' she whispered, again bringing up her hand to wipe the tears in her eyes away. 'Do you think they'll have been looking for me?'
'I'm sure of it.'
Iyla laughed gently. 'A silly question I know.' She turned to face him properly. 'What about you? Do you have anyone who would be looking for you?'
Merlin turned away. 'No.'
'I'm sorry... I didn't mean.'
He waved his hand, dismissing her comment. 'It's fine; you didn't know. I was cast from my home after my... my friends found out what I can do. I lost everything. I was heading for Mercia when the slave traders caught up with me. No one knew I was there, and, even if they did, Gaius is the only one who would care enough to do something, but he's not strong enough to come after me anymore.'
She bit her lip, glancing away before looking back to him. 'Maybe we could get a message to someone. You said you knew the Knights of Camelot! I'm sure they'd come...'
'They won't,' he shook his head. 'The Knights hold no love for sorcerers; even Sir Gwaine probably wouldn't come if he knew I was captured. No, there's no one out there who would race to my rescue, otherwise they would have at least said goodbye to me before I left Camelot. I'm alone.'
Iyla watched him, as he picked at his sleeve. 'No.' Merlin looked up, frowning. 'No, you're not alone. Not anymore.'
'Yes, I am, Iyla.'
She shook her head. 'Don't you get it? You have me now. We can do this together. Like friends should. What do you say?' She stuck out her hand. 'Friends?'
Merlin smiled, and took it. 'Friends.'
XxX
They agreed that the best idea would be to sleep after their newly found companionship. They had no idea what time it was; the cell was dark with no windows, just a single torch lighting the passageway outside, and casting dark shadows across the room.
Iyla had removed Merlin's jacket, using it as a blanket to curl up under, before resting her head against Merlin's shoulder. He felt her breathing even out and knew she'd fallen asleep. He, however, couldn't.
A year... Even with people looking for her, she'd been a slave for a year.
Merlin could tell by how quickly she'd opened up to him that it had been a long time since she'd had someone to talk to. The whole time they had been speaking, he'd barely heard a sound from the corner where he knew the rest of the slaves to be hiding.
With a sigh, Merlin titled his head back and closed his eyes. He had to get some sleep if he was to be ready for whatever tomorrow threw at them.
But, whatever it was, he knew he would no longer have to face it alone.
XxX
I am hoping the next chapter will be out sooner than next Saturday! In fact, next Saturday might be a tough update time, so it may be earlier, or later, or, if you're really nice and leave me lots of lovely reviews, it'll be both! A double update.
Not that I'm bribing you are anything. If I was, there would be Aithusa shaped virtual cookies! *which there are, if anyone's interested*
Oh, and one more thing. I've noticed that some of my chapters on here have some very odd mistakes that I can't seem to find on my documents on my laptop... If you spot one, can you let me know? I think it might be a glitch or something that's cutting out parts of sentences...
Please review before you leave! Reviews are golden!
TTFN
Valkyriexx
