And there's chapter 9 already. Is it just me, or is this story really growing quickly now? Anyway, as always, enjoy reading!
Disclaimer: I don't own… Well, you know the rest, don't you?
Chapter 9
Merlin
'I'm so sorry, Merlin. I tried, I really did!'
It was obvious that Alina was still blaming herself for what happened in the cave. She had scarcely said anything else since Arthur lost consciousness. Merlin knew that she believed she could have changed the outcome of the fight if she had just tried harder. With her knowledge she thought she would have been able to turn the events in her favour. She just had not anticipated Arthur's stupid try for heroism and neither had he. Was it really that hard to let a girl take the credit for once? Apparently it was. Alina had been doing fine until Arthur drew the beast's attention away from her.
They had tried, heaven knew they had tried. Alina had yelled on top of her longs and so had he, but when it finally returned its attention to them, it had already been too late. The damage had been done. He had lost control then, deciding that it did not matter if he used magic now. They were going to die anyway if he did not.
There had been no time to explain. He just acted, hoping that Alina would understand. He spelled her sword so it would be able to kill the monster if she hit it. He should not have doubted her, for as soon as she realized what he did, she had thrown her sword as hard as she could straight into its chest. And that had been the end of it. It had roared one last time before falling to the ground. It did not get up again.
The knights had come shortly after, drawn to them by the noise they were making and they had set out for Camelot as fast as they could. They had just burst into Gaius' chambers. Merlin cleared the table in the middle of the room with one smooth movement so that the knights could lay Arthur on it.
'What happened!' Gaius exclaimed, then bending over and seeing for himself. 'He has been bitten!' he said angrily, looking at Merlin, as if he was in some way to blame for all of this.
'I tried to save him, we both did,' Merlin said, knowing Gaius would understand how hard they had tried.
'Someone must tell the king,' Gaius said.
All the knights exited the room, leaving only Gaius, Alina and Merlin to stay with Arthur.
'Gaius, there must be a way?' he begged.
'I wish there was,' Gaius said.
Merlin recalled all too clearly how Gaius said that there was no cure for the bite of this animal, but something in Alina's face had made him unsure about that. This was not the expression of someone who had given up all hope. This was someone who was still fighting and therefore she must know about a cure.
'There is a way, Gaius,' she said, looking him straight in the eye. 'You know there is.'
Judging by Gaius' expression it was not a way he approved of. 'That is not a way,' he told her. It seemed as if they had had a discussion before about the subject and were now continuing their debate.
'There is no other way,' Alina said. 'And Arthur has to live. It's our destiny to keep him alive, so if you think I'm going to stand by and watch him die, you do not know me at all.' Merlin had to agree with her on this one.
Gaius could not argue with this. He nodded in defeat.
'What are you talking about!' Merlin asked impatiently. 'Are you trying to say there actually is something we can do?'
Before Gaius could stop her, Alina answered: 'There is. The Isle of the Blessed. The priestesses of the Old Religion dwell there and they can mirror the power of life and death. It's Arthur's only chance.'
'That's wonderful!' Merlin exclaimed in relief. 'Why didn't you say so before?'
'Because there will be demanded a life in return,' Gaius said angrily.
Merlin's face dropped. 'Whose?'
'That would be mine,' Alina said calmly. 'Arthur managed before with only you to keep him from trouble, so he'll have to do with that again. I can very easily be missed.'
One look on her face could tell Merlin she was serious about this. 'You can't!' he cried out.
'Someone has to,' she said. 'And it is most definitely not going to be you.'
There was no time for more arguing, because the king burst into the room. Merlin had never seen the king look so scared before. 'Where is my son? Arthur!'
They all did a few steps back so that the king had room to get to Arthur. He bended over, touched his face, but there came no reaction whatsoever.
'Do something, Gaius!' he demanded.
The physician told the king something they already knew: that there was nothing to be done, but that he would try everything in his power.
'I'll carry him to his chamber,' the king said, talking as if he had not heard Gaius at all, but the look on his face told Merlin that he knew. He picked up his son and left the room and there was nothing they could do but follow.
The king managed to hide his grief until they were in the courtyard. He collapsed, not able to keep the tears inside any longer. Knights came and took Arthur's limb body from him, leaving Uther crying helplessly on the cold stones. Merlin did not think he had seen the king look so vulnerable ever before.
Alina was the first to get to him, lending him her hands, getting him up. Uther leaned heavily on her, but she did not complain. She comforted him in a soft voice, assuring him that everything was going to be all right, telling him how capable Gaius was and that he would find a way. Speaking like this she led the king away to rest.
Merlin watched. When he saw how easily she interacted with the king, he knew what he had to do. Because even if she did not believe it herself yet, she belonged in that family. The dragon had been right. She was born to be here, born to live here. And that only left one option open: not Alina, but he had to go. It was as clear as daylight to him that this was meant to be. Yes, he would be sorry to leave Arthur behind, but the prince would not be unprotected. Alina would see to that. In time they might even start to love each other. She would fulfil her destiny here, all of it. And he was the one to make sure that she would.
Alina
Alina returned to her room when she had escorted the king back to his chambers. To see Uther so broken had only strengthened her decision to go. He could not bear to see his only child die. It was up to her to see that he did not have to see that day.
The thought of her going to the Isle of the Blessed had only just occurred to her when she was speaking to Gaius and Merlin about the cure. She knew that was how things needed to be the moment the words left her mouth. She would go, bargain with Nimueh for the cure and finish the evil witch off when she had it. She knew the spell to do it. After that she would race back to Camelot, give the cure to Arthur and then suffer the consequences. It was a simple, straightforward plan. Very little could go wrong. The legend would not be really disturbed and this way the risks of something happening to Merlin or someone he cared about would be brought back to an absolute minimum. And I write myself out of legend, she added as an afterthought.
Someone knocked at her door.
'Come in,' she called.
'Packing, Alina?'
She turned around. 'Merlin. What are you doing here?'
'You are determined to go?' he asked.
She nodded. 'You know I have to.'
'I know someone has to,' he said.
'That someone is going to be me,' she said. 'It's only logical, Merlin. I have the least to lose. I can so easily be missed, not to mention that I will no longer be a threat to the future.'
'You can't go.'
She had not realized Merlin felt so strongly about this. They had become close friends in only a few days' time. He did not want to miss her. That was something he had to deal with, though, because she would indeed be leaving very soon. It's like being a guest star really, she thought. In it for one episode only and then I'm out again.
'I'm sorry, Merlin,' she said. 'But someone has to go and I'm not going to ask so much of another person. You are going to be all right, I know it. You have Arthur to protect, so you better not make a mess of that or I might decide to come back and haunt you.'
'You do care for him, then?' he asked.
She decided that question deserved an honest answer. 'It's difficult to describe,' she said, hesitating. 'All I can say is that it's strong, very strong. That might have something to do with me knowing so much about him already, while I haven't had the chance to really get to know him in real life. It's… I like the man I know he will over time become. That man will be worth all the trouble. It makes that the prat he now is, is tolerable. Sorry, I don't know if you get what I mean, but that's the best I can say about it.'
He nodded, understanding.
'So, you understand that I have to go?' she asked softly.
'No,' he said.
Sometimes it was so easy to see why Arthur called him an idiot. 'Surely you understand that someone has to go and get the cure!' she said, annoyed now. Why did he have to make it so difficult? 'Arthur has to live, no matter what.'
'I understand that,' he replied calmly. 'I just don't agree with the part that says you have to go.'
'Merlin…,' she began, but he interrupted.
'The dragon was right, you know. You belong here, at Arthur's side,' he said. 'It must be your job from now on to keep him safe.'
There was something about the way he spoke those words that she didn't trust. 'Merlin, what are you…'
'I'm sorry, Alina,' he said in a sad voice. 'It's for the best.' Then he spoke a spell that she did not yet know, but she knew what it did immediately, because all of a sudden she felt so drowsy that she simply could not keep her eyes open.
'No, Merlin,' she muttered incoherently. 'You mustn't…'
'Hush,' he said softly, lifting her up. 'It's going to be all right. I'll make sure it is.'
She wanted to protest again, but she felt she could not. Next moment she was asleep.
When she woke again, she found herself lying on her bed, with the blankets carefully draped over her. For a moment she did not remember how she had come to be there. One moment she had been packing her stuff together for the journey to the Isle of the Blessed. But then something had intervened. She could not recall it.
'Ow,' she moaned as she got up too quickly and her surroundings seemed to start moving. She had to ask Merlin if there was a spell that stopped dizziness.
The next moment it all came back to her. Merlin! Merlin had been here, telling her that she couldn't go, that her place was at Arthur's side. And then he had used magic against her, to make her sleep. It was not hard to guess why he would have thought that necessary. Merlin had assumed, and rightly so, that she would make a scene when he announced that he would be the one to go, thus making sure that legend followed exactly the path it would have done if she had not been here. She groaned in frustration. 'Merlin, you moron!'
She walked to the window. It was still dark outside. It must have been exactly like that when Merlin had cast the spell on her. Maybe she had only been out for a few minutes. She could still be in time to stop him.
Without actually deciding it she broke into a run, straight for Gaius' chambers. Merlin would need to gather supplies before leaving. She burst into the room without knocking, waking up Gaius, who had been asleep.
'My lady?' he asked in a confused tone.
'Gaius,' she greeted.
'What brings you to this dark corner in such a hurry, my lady?' the old physician asked politely.
'Where is he?' she demanded.
'Who?' Gaius asked.
'Merlin,' she replied in a cold voice.
Could it be that the old man was in on this whole scheme to keep her from going? She had trouble believing that, because he was almost like a father to Merlin and would not be willing to let his ward go too easily and most certainly not when someone else had volunteered to go. Still, she would not put it past Merlin. She should have known how fiercely protective he was of the people he cared about. He was too selfless for his own good, she thought angrily.
'I thought he was with you, my lady,' the physician answered. 'I have not seen him since yesterday.'
It took her a few moments to process that. Yesterday. She had not slept for a few minutes, she had slept for twenty-four hours. That would have given him plenty of time to get away. There was no going after him now. There was no way she could get to him before the deal was struck.
For a moment she forgot she was not in her own time anymore, but in the Middle ages. She uttered a word which made Gaius' face turn bright red, but she hardly noticed it anyway. Before he had recovered himself, she was already on her way again, making for Arthur's chamber, cursing her own stupidity. How could she not have seen this coming? She knew the answer to that question. She had been too preoccupied with her own plans that she had overlooked everything else, including Merlin's willingness to sacrifice himself.
This also had her thinking about her role in all of this again. She toyed with the idea of going to the dragon again in the hope he could provide some answers, but realized such a visit would most likely leave her with more questions than she had had in the first place. Besides, she was not really fond of the enormous creature. She would have to figure it out alone.
Hope you had fun reading. I've got a feeling this whole thing is going wildly out of hand, but if you don't care, I don't. So let me know what you think please!
