Merlin met Morgana at the bottom of the steps. The dark haired Lady was standing impatiently, her foot tapping in irritation as she craned her neck to look somewhere over Merlin's head. She made no move to help him with the bags he was carrying, their weight beginning to drag across the ground now that he was nearing the horses.
"Do you think Arthur believed you?" she asked, quietly. Her lips moved little, her eyes never lowering. He glanced where she was looking, but saw nothing but a window, curtained by heavy purple drapes.
"Not really," he admitted, looking back to Morgana. She had one hand against her forehead, shading her eyes. He resisted the urge to check the window again. "Do you think Uther believed you?"
"I'm not sure," she admitted, leaning forward slightly. "Pack the horses up, would you Merlin?"
He nodded without comment, gripping the straps, and moving them onto the horses. They were already saddled, making his job easier than he would have expected. He thought he might have to thank the stable boys for that, at a later date, but was more concerned about getting the bags quickly secured to their proper horses. Morgana got most of the weapons; his horse gained most of the food. He was under no illusions as to which of them was better with a sword, or more capable of hunting down a dish, should the two of them get separated. Swords were just for waving around, so that people wouldn't be so suspicious when enemies started dropping around him.
"You ready, Merlin?" she demanded. He spun around, his eyes automatically moving up past the woman and towards the window she'd been looking at. The king's weathered face looked out, his gaze bearing down on them.
Merlin swallowed, trying to combat a sudden bout of parchness. "Y-Yeah." He swallowed again. "Yeah… just let me adjust a few straps…"
She nodded, glancing up to the window and giving a slight nod. Merlin kept an eye on her expression as his fingers moved over the straps, gripping the colder metal with one hand and pulling the leather tight, as the warm horse whickered above him.
Morgana's expression was filled by a forced grin. It filled her face with teeth, her lips stretched out enough to doubtlessly look realistic from a distance. Her eyes were blank, however, letting out none of what she was feeling when she twisted around. The smile faded as she turned to look at Merlin, leaving her face entirely cleared of emotion.
The horse Merlin was working on whickered again, its head butting him in the shoulder. He lost his balance, fingers gripping into the fur in order to stay upright, the beast wrenching itself free with a hasty step forward. His lips touched the dirt, in time with a cloud of dust from the horse's hoof.
Morgana giggled. The smile she wore when he looked up was tight lipped, but the amusement showed in her eyes. "I did that on purpose," he informed her. "Honest."
"Of course, Merlin," she murmured, patting him in the shoulder. Her fingers carefully brushed against his shoulder, the delicate digits picking out a few clumps of dirt that had embedded themselves in his clothes. "At least it wasn't horse dung, this time."
"I had to use a spell last time," he admitting, leaning close and keeping his voice low. Like Morgana, he didn't move his lips too much. "Can you imagine Arthur's expression if I'd walked in with those? 'Rise and shine, my lord; what smell do you mean, sire?'"
Morgan's smile widened, actually showing a hint of teeth. It wasn't as wide as her earlier grin, but the amusement shining in her eyes made up for that. Merlin smiled back at her, before turning back to the straps. Adjusting them on his own horse, he turned back to offer Morgana a head up. He was met by the sight of her thigh, its owner already moving her horse down the road. With a half strangled noise of surprise, he put his own foot inside a stirrup, pulling himself up to the horse's back. Gripping the mane in his hands, he managed to move his remaining foot to the other side, striking the horse with his heels to get it moving forward.
Morgana was smiling wider, again. Her gaze moved quickly to the dirt road ahead, but not before he caught sight of it. Moving faster, Merlin scowled at her. "I'm not so bad at the riding itself, you know."
"Of course not," she smiled. "I just thought you'd be a bit better at the mounting, what with how much you travel with Arthur."
"Yeah but… On foot…" he trailed off when he noticed her looking at him, feeling mildly embarrassed. "Arthur normally seems to want to walk everywhere; we only use the horses occasionally, so I'm not that good at mounting; and on the road, I can use magic to avoid looking like an idiot."
"Ahhhh." Her expression seemed friendly, some of the haughtiness wiped clean as they trotted away from the castle. "How long have you…?"
"As long as I can remember," he finished for her. "I had to learn the spells when I came here, but the basic abilities…"
"Ah. Did you… ever put your own room on fire?" she asked, glancing away.
Merlin shook his head, even though she couldn't see it. "Not that I'm aware of; I brought a statue to life, once." He smiled when she glanced at him. "Temporarily; I'm not sure what happened to it, either; it barked up a storm."
"You… brought a statue to life?" she questioned, her eyes slightly wide. "And it… barked…?" She placed against her lips, an action that did little to hide her smile, or muffle her laugh.
"It was a dog," he pointed out. She giggled again. He was relieved; the blank look in her eyes had been worrisome in a friend. "You don't want to know what it was like actually dragging it up those stairs."
"I'm sure," she murmured; her voice broke slightly at the end, but she managed to keep herself from bursting into giggles. That meant she either respected him, or disrespected giggles, but either way it saved him the tiny scrap of dignity. He might want to spend it on something other than humor later.
"Come along, Merlin," she said, smiling as she kneed her horse. It sped up, Merlin's horse following automatically, the dirt road passing beneath them in a symphony of clicks and clomps. The riders themselves were silent, sinking into thoughts as the first branches of the forest came up above their heads, the occasional leaf dropping down on them as they passed beneath.
Neither of them talked, but Merlin was certain Morgana had the same worries he had. Whether Arthur was following, and how close he would be. Whether the king had sent anyone else was less of a concern than whether Merlin's liege, and Morgana's foster brother, was going to make a decision to interfere. Both of their magic could be revealed, in that case.
It was an hour or two later that morgana finally drew her steed to a halt. The noon sun was presumably high in the sky, by the then, the light filtering through the leaves at a slightly different angle than it had before, though it still warmed the side of Merlin's head. It was not night, at the very least, or nearly late enough to come to a rest.
Morgana twisted around in her seat, keeping her eyes on Merlin as he came up alongside he. He glanced at her curiously, but she waited until his mare stopped before explaining. "This is where our path separates from the path we're supposed to be going, to where we're actually going," she explained. "Can you make the path show us going all the way to the town?"
"I think so," he murmured, putting a hand out. He whispered a word, feeling the burn in his eyes that told him something was happening. He repeated it, louder, grunting as the spell left him. Two sets of tracks went down the next path.
"You'll have to destroy our own footprints once we're away," she pointed out. "We don't want anyone asking questions."
Merlin nodded, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "I realize as much, my lady. May we please go?"
She was quiet for a long moment, before nodding. Her feet kicked, their horses moving forward almost in union, side by side along the path. The quiet of the forest didn't seem as peaceful anymore, though; the animal's chattering felt too loud, crowding out his ability to think. Or perhaps it was simply that they'd taken care of the problem he was thinking about.
Arthur would simply lose track of them if he followed. They didn't have an issue to worry about, on that front; except Arthur wanting to know where they'd been. He glanced at Morgana to ask her what her plans were, in that case, but paused with his mouth half open. Her eyes were locked on him, moving back and forth; they looked troubled.
"My lady?" he questioned, tightening the grips on his reigns. They bit into his flesh, but he didn't let go; he was worried, and it kept his mind focused on the present.
"I'm the one supposed to be mad at you," she informed him after a moment. He gave her a confused look which she ignored. "You failed to tell me things I deserved – needed – to know. You would have lied even after your secret was revealed beyond a shadow of a doubt if you thought you could have gotten away with it – and you wouldn't have taught me a thing if I hadn't argued for it myself."
"I…" Merlin glanced away; her eyes were blank again, rather than angry; that felt worse. "I might have… come around on my own, eventually."
She made a small sound, pursing her lips. She didn't sound convinced. "The point , Merlin," she murmured after a minute, "is that I'm supposed to be mad at you, for personally logical reasons; so why did I get the feeling in our last exchange that you were mad at me?"
"I'm not… that's just… You can't tell me how I feel!"
Morgana's serenely lifted brow sent a surge of horrified embarrassment through Merlin, but he didn't glance away. He hoped his cheeks were still pale, but they felt warm. "I'm not a child, Morgana; I don't need you to instruct me in everything."
She frowned, tilting her head slightly to the side and looking him up and down again. "Arthur always instructs you in everything, from what I can tell; you mostly seem to joke with him about it."
"Well, yeah, but he's trying to be condescending. And he's not allowed to know everything I do to save him…"
"Save him?" She was looking at him with open interest, both eyebrows raised in apparent surprise, and her mouth slightly open. She leaned towards him, one foot lifting slightly to accommodate the motion. "What are you referring to, Merlin?" she questioned.
"…Did I forget to mention that?" His cheeks were definitively warmer than they'd been at the start of the conversation. "It doesn't matter. I just… I'm used to more respect when people find out about my skills; I mean, mostly because I haven't told anyone who wouldn't respect it, but…" he frowned. "It doesn't matter."
For a long second, there was only the sound of the horse's moving again. "How about we both try and give each other more respect, Merlin?" asked Morgana, after a moment. "You don't lie to me anymore, and I will treat you like a genius until you prove otherwise."
Merlin glanced at her; he bypassed the smile, looking directly into her eyes, which were set in a serious expression. Hesitating, he nodded. "I'd like that, Morgana." She smiled. He smiled back before continuing. "So, assuming I'm a genius who can understand everything you're about to tell me… what is it, exactly, that we intend to tell Arthur about why he didn't find us in the city?"
"Who says I'm going to tell him anything?" Merlin glanced at her, but she was keeping her eyes straight to the road ahead. "If he asks, I'm going to demand to know exactly what he was doing following him, then I'm going to insult his tracking skills, and finally I'm going to claim that we took a different route back, and that the town didn't even have what we wanted, so we simply didn't linger long enough for him to find us before striking out to another town."
"…You're going to brow beat him into admitting your right?"
Morgana nodded, smiling. "Yes, Merlin, that is exactly what I'm going to do; and with your help, he won't challenge it even if he doesn't believe it. Mostly because there's nothing he could accuse us of that wouldn't get someone hanged."
"Ah. Right. Hanged." Merlin's throat felt dry again. He touched his throat, rubbing it slightly, and pressing his palm against the pipe. After a moment he grimaced and shook his head. "Better erase the tracks."
He whispered the word, sighing with relief when they disappeared from his line of sight. Going back to check would defeat the purpose, but he cast the spell one more time with another gesture. When he turned around, Morgana was already heading through the woods, and towards their first ingredient. Shaking his head at the potential foolishness of it all, Merlin followed.
No matter what she said, Merlin doubted Morgana would be any better at listening to warnings than Arthur.
(Author's Rant: Quite a bit late, but I hope it's worth the wait. :D
This one's the longest chapter to date!
Okay, rhyming done now. You can put the weapons away.
Please? At least beat the path instead of me! [this is totally why that path was beaten.]
More seriously, though, beaten paths tend to be beaten into such well-worn things for a REASON. Whether they'll find that out for themselves… I haven't decided yet! But most likely. This is a cause and effect story, after all – denying them the consequences of their actions would be silly of me.)
