Chapter 6 - In The Fading Light
A situation like this should never exist,
So why are we out of control?
Two eyes watched patiently in the bushes surrounding the clearing as the beast's body was dragged off into town. They blinked and then retracted.
"It seems that our plan has worked perfectly. I am sad that the beast did not kill Prince Arthur though, only wounded his manservant," Alvarr leant back against a tree and picked a speck of dirt idly from his knee.
"What fun would that be?" came a low growl from behind him. Kolan's great grey mass, rippling in the moonlight, crouched low in the undergrowth. He looked like a dragon, with the long scaly body and vicious tail, gleaming white fangs inside a large-snouted mouth that was upturned in glee. However Kolan's legs were stumpy and large footed, like a rhinoceros, and his eyes were dark, black almost, sunken into his skull, with two large horns atop his head that stuck far out and were chipped and yellowing.
"We want sport, do we not? We want to do the killing, not watch it from behind some trees."
"Fair enough," Alvarr raised his hands in surrender. "But now, at least, we know that our poison works. Instead of killing the enemy, we just transform them into the ally."
Kolan gave a great, throaty laugh.
"And now we shall put it to the test. In the morning the whole of Camelot shall be defenceless and we will roam through the streets like kings. No one will be able to stop us."
Even Alvarr could not stop the corners of his mouth lifting and a small chuckle escaping his lips.
"Tomorrow," he said, staring up into the black eyes of the beast. "Camelot shall be ours."
Merlin's dreams were sketches with monsters and demons. His mind seemed to be replaying the moment in this head over and over again, in slow motion, sped up, from every angle. He could see the beast, whatever it was, cut him with it's long talons as he was flung back. Nothing seemed to make sense. Merlin hadn't done anything to anger the creature, and as he watched on like a helpless bystander, saw himself being ripped apart he could hardly believe what was happening in front of him. And then he was blind again, the white sheet placed over his eyes, his chest tight, unable to breathe. He struggled against the blindfold, somehow hoping that he would be able to pull it off and that everything would be okay. Perhaps it was just one of Arthur's practical jokes, he would remove it and there would be his master standing over him, laughing heartily. But Merlin couldn't remove the white mask, it was trapping him; not just his vision but his throat, it was as if it was closing up.
The young warlock shot up, his eyes snapping open in a fit of panic but still unable to see anything. He cried out, his voice cracking with the strain, beads of sweat trickling down his pale face. It hadn't been a dream, everything that he had been thinking was real, and it had happened to him. Merlin tried to calm himself down. He shut his eyes once more, focused his mind and then his breathing. It wouldn't be any use him getting all worked up over nothing, he had to try and assess the situation as calmly and productively as he could.
When he had finally calmed down, Merlin sighed loudly. The noise seemed to echo around the space he was in, wherever that was (he assumed his chambers, but it could have been anywhere), and wondered why there was no one doting on him and telling him to settle down. His brow creased and he tried to turn his head to one side, listening out for a sound, any sound that might tell him where he was. But there was nothing, nothing out of the ordinary. There was birdsong and wind from outside, and the sound of his own heart rattling in his chest but there was nothing else. Surely if he was in the castle he would be able to hear the hustle and bustle of the court outside, or footsteps echoing around the large, stone corridors. But there was nothing. It was as if the entire castle and its grounds were completely deserted.
The manservant exhaled and placed his head in his hands. There was nothing he could do but wait, and the fact that he was blind didn't do anything to help him. He was going to have to sit there until someone came to find him. But then he stopped mid-thought, his hands hovering with some expectation over his features. He had felt something, around his eyes, something coarse and rough and tough against his fingertips. Merlin, in his excitement, began to tear at the material, all hope welling up inside of him. Perhaps the white he could see was a bandage, maybe he wasn't blind after all, after all this he could just have been over thinking things. The fabric was tougher than the warlock had been expecting and before long he was writhing around on whatever hard table he had been placed on, grabbing it around the edges and trying to rip it from his features. Objects, glass most likely, fell to the floor around him, smashing and bubbling upon the floor. Merlin cursed himself for being so clumsy and allowing this cloth to get the better of him, unable to understand why it was being so stubborn. And then it occurred to him. He almost laughed as he reached behind his head and felt the large, distinct knot that whoever had fashioned him with this headpiece had tied. The bandage fell into his hands with ease, and within moments it was off and clutched tightly in his shaking hands. He still couldn't see everything, the white light piercing his vision like just after staring into the sun on a bright day, but strange shining, fuzzy shapes clouded the otherwise pristine pale landscape.
As things started to creep back into view, Merlin gripped the sides of the table he had been placed on and watched as Gaius' chambers began to swim in front of his eyes. His vision was far from perfect, everything looking as if it had been given a lashing of white paint, but at least he could tell where he was. But there was still something wrong, there was still no background noise, nothing to tell him that Gaius was near, or anyone for that matter, and that was odd. Usually if a patient was brought in, his uncle would be working beside them until they woke up, or at least for the first twenty-four hours. As the manservant was Gaius' nephew, he would have assumed that the physician would be waiting to greet him as he awoke. Had Merlin really been out for that long? Surely he couldn't have been under the beast's poison for more than a day?
Swinging his legs tentatively over the side of the table, Merlin brought himself around and dropped noisily to the floor, his bare feet crunching painfully on the vials he had broken prior to his awakening. Quickly leaping, as if from hot coals, Merlin, leaning against the nearest wall, scanned the room for signs of life. Nothing moved, nothing stirred. Where was Gaius? It wasn't late in the day as, even though most of Merlin's vision was white, he could see the shimmering shape of the sun from the top window. Hugging his bare chest tightly (and regretting it as the sharp, painful sting of his wounds made his head spin) and decided that his first mission would be to find something to cover his top half over with. Stumbling and tripping through blindness, Merlin had hardly made it a few metres before he crashed headlong into some strange immovable object that was in the middle of the room. He frowned, peering and squinting at whatever he had banged into but he couldn't quite make it out. The shape was slightly smaller than him, standing in a position as if it was in the middle of an action but hadn't quite got there. Something small and round glinted and sparkled like a jewel suspended in mid-air.
"What on Earth…" Merlin started, rubbing at his sore eyes, trying to get them to focus on the mass in front of him. And then it hit him, like a full on collision that made him reel backwards in horror, clasping a hand to his mouth and shaking his head in mute disbelief. The still shadow, the unmoving entity standing part way through moving was Gaius. His skin was pale with an waxy quality to it. His clothes, as Merlin soon felt, were as hard as stone, his face fixed in an endless concentrated stare, eyes boggling at the still flask in his hands.
"G-Gaius?" Merlin asked his frozen uncle, unwilling to believe what was right in front of him. It couldn't be. How had this happened? Was anyone else like this? Who had done this? The young warlock span around, his eyes still streaked with white. He could do nothing but run and shout and he did exactly that, rushing into the corridor beyond the chambers and hollering for help. But no one answered, no footsteps resounded through the passage, no agitated cries of guards as they came hurtling in his direction. It was as if the entire castle had been frozen. Merlin stopped. What if the whole castle had been frozen? What if Gaius wasn't the only one and he was the one person still alive in the vicinity?
"Oh no," Merlin shook his head, unable to believe it. Had yesterday's attack on him intended to kill him, to get him out of the way of whatever plot someone might have had in mind? Or had it been some sort of ward, to keep whatever spell was freezing Gaius (and perhaps the others, if he could find anyone else) from affecting him. The warlock began to hurtle down the corridor, blinking and rubbing his eyes, trying to rid the blindness once and for all. There were dirty, great pallid spots obscuring his vision, he was crashing into walls, seething and touching the wound on his chest in agony, but he couldn't stop. He needed to find out if he could get help, or if he was alone.
"Watch it!" came a sudden shout, and Merlin was suddenly knocked off his feet by a flying mass careering down the corridor at him at great speed. His head his the floor hard, cold against his bare back and stinging with pain. He groaned loudly as whoever had pushed him over laid their hand square on his wound.
"Oh, I'm sorry, are you alrigh'?"
The manservant recognised the voice; he looked up but the figure's face was horrible distorted mainly from his agitating spots but also a trio of long oozing gashes down the side of their face. "Hey!" the figure said, peering even closer into Merlin's face. "I know you! You were at the tournament yesterday!"
"Huh?" Merlin asked.
A sudden weight was lifted from his body as the girl (he could work out that much from their voice) got to her feet, and Merlin could just see between the bright spots a hand outstretching itself to help him up.
"At the tournament, yesterday," she repeated as Merlin was helped to his feet. "Woah, you alright there? You look in pretty bad shape."
"Hold on," the warlock protested. "Did you see anyone whilst you were walking through the castle? Did you see anyone that wasn't moving?"
"Wasn't moving?" the girl replied, Merlin could almost hear her stroke her chin thoughtfully. "Now that you come to mention it, yeah. I saw quite a few people doing things, but when I looked back they hadn't changed position. Thought I was going crazy myself, but -- hey, where do you think you're going?"
But Merlin had started up the corridor again, swaying a little as he went for fear of crashing into another person mascara ding as a statue.
"What's going on 'ere?" the girl called after him.
"I don't know," Merlin shouted back as he managed to find the door to Gaius' chambers and slip inside. "But come here, quickly."
The chinking of armour and padding of feet followed and the girl entered the room right behind Merlin.
"The physician, yeah?"
"Yes. Gaius."
"Hm, he looks like everyone else. He looks like he's been done over as well."
"Done over?" Merlin asked her, turning to face her, a strained expression on his face. His visitor began to meander around the room, taking her time to reach the frozen figure in the middle of the room.
"Yeah," she said. "Done over, you know, magic-ed up a treat."
"You think this was done by magic, then?"
"Well o'course! What else could've given the whole castle the shakes, eh? It's magic alright, could smell it a mile off."
Merlin sighed. That was all he needed. Some sorcerer thinking he was the best and zapping the castle into silence. Now there was just him and this strange girl who Merlin knew that he recognised but couldn't quite place the voice or the fuzzy face she held that was slowly starting to come into view.
"What's with you runnin' around like a headless chicken then? And how come you're alright whereas your Guy-az 'ere's not doing too well, and neither's the rest o' the castle, hm?"
"It's Gaius," the warlock corrected her. "And I don't know. I was attacked last night, I've been out cold for at least half a day and," he bit his lip. "And I'm not sure whether the creature that attacked me had anything to do with what's happening now."
"You reckon it was a pinch and freeze job? Hm, very tricky."
"W-what?" Merlin cried. "Look, I don't mean to be rude, I mean it's good that you're here, but who are you?"
"The name's Robin," the girl said, her figure moving a little closer to Merlin. His eyes were beginning to adjust now, and her face slowly moved into focus, it seemed to be the only thing that was making sense now around all of the fuzzy shapes and white aurora shrouding the room.
"Oh!" Merlin cried, his face splitting into a smile. The girl frowned at him expectantly. "I know you, of course I know you. You were at the tournament yesterday! You're Sir Leon's sister!"
"Yeah," Robin replied, raising an eyebrow and folding her arms across her chest defensively. "Wanna make something of it?"
Sonic Syndicate, Denied
