Skylar woke the next more and it took her a few seconds to realize where she was. As soon as she did though she rushed to get dressed and ran out of her brothers room with a big grin on her face. It soon went though as Merlin was nowhere in sight.
"Where's Merlin?" She asked Gaius who was mixing some strange looking things together and making different colored liquids.
"His gone out on patrol with Arthur and the knight's." Gaius didn't look up from what he was doing as he spoke.
Skylar scrunched her noise up at the horrid smell in the room that she'd just noticed. "Oh, what time is it?"
"Well past morning, you must have been very tired my dear." Gaius smiled. "I've made you some food, it might be a little cold now but it'll still taste just as good."
Skylar thanked him and sat down to eat. She looked at the food, it looked nothing like what she was used to. It looked like some sort of slop just splattered into a bowl. She made a face as she put her spoon in and brought some up to her mouth. She could now smell the slop and it didn't make her want to eat it anymore that the sight of it had. She reluctantly shoved the slop into her mouth and swallowed as fast as she could. It tasted as bad as it looked and smelt. She looked back at the bowl, there was so much of it and she didn't want to seem rude by not eating it but she wasn't sure she could force herself to eat anymore. She looked over to Gaius who was hard at work, she had an idea and used a spell to make the slop disappear.
"Done, thank you Gaius, I think I'll go find Gwen and see if she needs help with anything." Skylar said rushing off.
Skylar asked around and soon enough she found Gwen.
"How are you enjoying your stay so far?" Gwen asked looking at the jewelry at the different stools and picking a few pieces up to have a closer look.
"Quite a lot, I was hoping to see Merlin this morning but of course he has his duties to Arthur." Skylar said smiling as she picked up a necklace. "Excuse me how much for this?" She asked the stool worker.
"One gold coin." He said politely. Skylar gave him two and carried on walking round the market with Gwen.
"Yes Arthur's always giving Merlin a long list of things to do, poor Merlin." Gwen said laughing a little.
"Gwen, what's Merlin like? I mean I know a bit about him but not much."
"Well he's very kind and caring, his save Arthur's life more times that I could imagine and his always been a good friend to me, the knights and Arthur. His well loved here, well maybe not so much by Uther." Gwen laughed. "The amount of times Uther has put him in the stocks for being silly is unreal."
Skylar smiled, she liked hearing about her brother and she loved that the people here like him so much.
"I'm guessing Uther hasn't a clue about his magic then." Skylar laughed but her laugh was cut short as Gwen stopped walking a turned to Skylar with a look Skylar was unsure of. Gwen looked confused, shocked, worried and even a little angry, which scared Skylar.
"Merlin has magic?" Gwen asked in disbelief. Skylar didn't know what to say she just stood there silently. They were both silent for so long as Skylar's heart raced and thought's ran through Gwen's head.
Skylar finally spoke up. "Gwen he'd never use it to harm anyone, from what you've told me his a good person. Not everyone with magic is evil, I'm not Morgause isn't, please don't tell on him."
"You have magic too?" Gwen looked even more shocked, had Merlin not told his friend's. It didn't look like he had and since he hadn't it meant she had just outed them both. What had she been thinking? Now both their lives were at rise. Oh god what was going to happen? Skylar was so scared.
"Gwen I'm begging you please don't tell anyone. I thought Merlin would have told his friend's."
"I'm sorry Skylar but I can't not tell anyone. Magic is dangerous and I won't have it on my head if anything bad happens to anyone. I won't tell Uther but I will tell Arthur." Gwen walked away leaving a scared and worried Skylar all by herself.
Arthur and the others had arrived back, Skylar had watched from a window in the castle as Gwen went over to Arthur and walked off somewhere with him, Merlin went too. Skylar was so worried. She went back to Gaius's room and sat there watching him work as she waited for someone to come say everything's going to be okay or worse. Gaius knew something was up but Skylar wouldn't tell him.
After hours of waiting Arthur appeared in the door way. Skylar tried to read his facial expression to see if she could work out what was going on.
"Gaius could you give us a minute?" Arthur asked. Gaius bowed and left the two alone. "Skylar, don't worry. I already knew about your magic."
"So everything's going to be okay?" Skylar's face lite up.
"Well, with you yes, but I've had to tell Merlin not to come near me till I work out my thought's about him."
"Your not going to execute him are you?" Skylar was so worried it was written all over her face.
"I'm not sure what I'm going to do, he lied to me Skylar for so long. I thought he was my friend, I thought I could trust him but all this time his been lying to me. Do you know how that feels?" Arthur looked sad and hurt. Skylar didn't answer and Arthur sighed before he left. Skylar stood there unable to move. What if she had just got Merlin killed? How could she have been so foolish? Maybe she could talk Arthur round or talk to Merlin and see if he had any ideas. Skylar then realized Merlin hadn't come back. She began to panic, she had to go and look for him. Skylar raced off to find Merlin. She ran down numerous corridors but couldn't find him anywhere. She decided to ask if any of the guards had seen him, none of the ones she asked had. That worried her more. She deiced to search outside the castle. On her way out she asked the guards if they had seen him.
"Yes, he came by here a little while ago. I believe he went out to the forest." One of the guards said.
"Thank you." Skylar said about to rush off when the other guard spoke.
"You shouldn't go out alone miss, it's not safe." He looked genuinely concerned. Skylar knew he wouldn't have that look if he knew who she was though.
"I'll be fine, thank you though." With that she ran off into the woods in search of her brother.
It was getting very late and very dark and Skylar had been wondering around the woods for so long now and still found no sign of her brother. She was getting tired but didn't want to go back without Merlin. She wanted to call out and see if he would answer her call but she knew from her training how dangerous that could be. The more time that passed though the more she just wanted to call out and eventually she gave in.
"Merlin! Merlin where are you?!" She shouted as loudly as she could but no one answered her call. She tried calling again but still no answer. The woods were deadly silent and the darkness mocked her as she began to struggle to see through it's thick walls of blackness.
She kept walking but it was getting cold and she felt like she'd just walked round in circles. She stopped walking when she heard a twig snap. She span round to where the sound had come from. She stared into the darkness there but couldn't see anything. Her magic began to panic inside her warning her she was not alone, warning her of the danger. She began to feel scared.
Suddenly a hand covered her mouth and an arm wrapped around her waist. She tried to struggle against the person, she tried to scream behind the hand.
"Shh, it's me Arthur." Skylar immediately stopped struggling and Arthur let go of her. She spun round to look at him.
"What are you doing here?" She asked.
"Shh we're not alone. Get behind us." Skylar was confused when he said us but then she saw his closest knight's Gawain, Percival, Leon, Lancelot and Elyan. She did as Arthur said and got behind them.
They all had their swords drawn and were looking out to where Skylar had heard the sound. It didn't take long for the bandits hiding there to come running out and soon everyone was fighting. Skylar had no weapon other than her magic but she was weary of using it even though everyone here except the bandits knew she had it.
She then saw Arthur be knocked down though and the bandits sword coming down to deal a deathly blow she panicked but tried to reach for her magic to help him, but someone beat her to it as the bandit went flying. She then saw Merlin run out from the tree's to Arthur's side checking he was okay. Arthur just stared at Merlin and it scared Skylar.
Everyone had finished fighting, but sadly more of them had seen Merlin use magic then Skylar had hoped. Surly they wouldn't kill him. She was so worried as she saw them all look at Merlin with new eyes, eyes that held betrayal, hurt, disappointment and surprisingly acceptance.
"You have magic?" Sir Leon said looking like he'd just seen a ghost.
"Yes b-but I swear I've o-only u-used it for good." Merlin stumbled over his words and it made Skylar feel so sorry for him. This was all her fault.
"It's true." Everyone's heads spun round to look at Sir Lancelot in shock. "I've known about Merlin's magic for awhile, I caught he using it to help me and the kingdom. If you'll let him explain he can tell you everything." They all looked back to Merlin who had a small smile of thanks on his face to Sir Lancelot.
"I was born with my magic. I never knew why until I came here, Arthur I didn't tell you this part earlier because I was scared I'd freak you out more. My destiny is to protect Arthur and help him become the best king Camelot has ever known and I will do all I can to do so. I have only ever used my magic when the kingdom was in danger. I use it to protect people, to save them and that's all I'll ever use it for I swear. I'm sorry I didn't tell anyone before but living in a kingdom where those with magic are killed makes it hard to trust people." Merlin looked to Arthur, "I really am sorry but I am not a different person, it's still me."
Everyone stood in silence taking in what had been said and what had happened. It felt like the silence had dragged on for so long. Skylar looked up from the floor to see Arthur looking at her, he then closed his eyes before opening them to speak.
"I trust everyone here with my life as you have all shown great loyalty. What has happened tonight will not be spoke of again and no one is to tell anyone of Merlin's magic. I trust you will all do as I say, and Merlin if you ever break the trust I have with you I hope you realize the consequences." Merlin nodded. "So is everyone willing to trust Merlin's word?" Arthur asked.
"I always have." Sir Lancelot smiled.
"He has never shown reason not to trust him." Sir Leon said stepping closer to Merlin and patting him on the shoulder.
Sir Percival nodded, "I trust him with my life."
"Well I don't know about that Percival, I mean we all know how clumsy he is." Sir Gawain laughed. "Of course I trust your word Merlin."
"As do I." Elyan smiled.
"Then it's agreed no one speaks of this again and we keep things as they are." Arthur said. "Now lets head back." They all walked back to the castle and all but Arthur, who had to go explain to his farther why he had gone off into the woods so late with his knights, went to bed.
