9.
"Your Highness, do me a kindness, and hold Arthur's shoulders down." Gaius murmured in Uther's ear as he walked around behind the king. They were in Arthur's chambers. More specifically, they were hovering over Arthur's table, where Gaius had ordered the prince to be laid out while he checked him over.
Uther was properly in a mood fit to be tied. He had been working to reign in some sort of order over the chaos of that night while tending to his injured son. Pacing the chamber for a while, Uther banished everyone but Gaius out of the room and listened to the moans of his son as he had begun to come around. If lightning could have come from the regent's eyes, the room would have been incinerated by now.
Arthur, more or less coherent now, was groaning as he held a bloody rag under his nose. He was shirtless, and lying still as ordered by Gaius, who was gently coaxing the prince to swallow something that the physician was pouring down his throat. He squinted up warily at his father.
"Wha' is that?" he mumbled, grimacing at the distasteful liquid.
"Nothing for you to worry about," Gaius said.
Expressionless, the old physician set the small bottle aside, then he removed the rag from under Arthur's nose. There were two thinly rolled pieces of muslin poking from out of his nostrils. Arthur looked at him bleary-eyed as Gaius pulled his hands away. The swelling was already setting in, and Gaius knew he had a job to do before he could let it get any worse.
He slipped his hands under Arthur's head, using his thumbs to very gently probe around the break in Arthur's nose. Uther, not even having to ask, suddenly appeared at Arthur's head. He knew exactly what Gaius was up to.
"What are you doing?" Arthur slurred, looking at Gaius suspiciously, and flinching from the occasional twang of pain.
"Just checking the break, Arthur. Whatever hit you was a glancing blow from the side directly to your face. Just relax..."
"Meaning?" Arthur managed to mumble, settling back, trying to relax and let Gaius do his job.
"Meaning that the bone isn't setting straight." Gaius looked Arthur in the eyes. "So I need to..."
With a surprising amount of strength, Gaius pushed down hard with one thumb, and poked the other side of Arthur's nose with the other. Uther's hands had slid sneakily into place and literally pinned Arthur's shoulders to the table as the prince let out a blood curdling yell of pain, bucking once and almost unseating Gaius, who had forced his own weight down on Arthur's chest.
That howl of sheer agony echoed down the corridors of the castle, causing several guards in attendance to wince in sympathy.
"Set the bone now or you'd end up with a spectacularly crooked nose." He glanced at Uther. "Mustn't let that happen." He probed around the break gently and nodded at Uther in satisfaction.
Arthur's eyes were screwed shut from the pain, and what looked suspiciously like tears appeared at the corners of them. He pounded a bare foot into the wood of the table. "You can unclench the table now, Arthur," Gaius added, releasing Arthur's head. He gently patted the prince's shoulder as he stood upright.
"Other than some spectacular bruising across his back and that break in his nose, he's fine, though I suspect he's going to look and feel like a mule kicked him by morning," Gaius said to Uther.
"Please, don't talk over my head..." Arthur growled. Uther couldn't help but let a smirk slip onto his lips at his son's slurred speech.
"And being in a superbly foul mood also tells me he will be just fine," Gaius added as he tucked the little bottle back into his bag. He turned then, reaching over to take Arthur's arm in his hand. Together he and Uther sat the prince up. Blonde hair fell forward as Arthur groaned in pain, barely able to keep his head up, while he slowly swung his legs off the table.
"Why does everything feel fuzzy?" he demanded through the throbbing of his skull. "And where the hell is that useless manservant of mine?"
"That useless manservant of yours is helping other victims of whatever hit us tonight," Gaius replied, taking Arthur's arm in his hands as they stood the wobbling Prince up. Arthur blinked once or twice, his mouth opening in an 'oh' of surprise as he was steered towards his bed.
"No wait..." he balked. "You said there where other victims?" He tried to stop, but they managed to easily keep him moving.
"Nothing you can do about right now, Arthur," Gaius said. "What you need now is bed rest."
"I can't just go to bed when something is attacking Camelot!" Arthur protested feebly.
"You can as soon as that opium hits."
"Opium?" Arthur asked, and he looked at Gaius.
"Poppy juice, and a very strong dose of it too, my boy; that's what you drank before I set that break in your nose." Gaius saw the look of mingled ire and realization in the prince's eyes.
"You poisoned me?" he accused.
Gaius looked at him in consternation as they sat him on the edge of the bed. "Hardly poisoned!" He protested, reaching down to help swing Arthur's legs up onto the bed.
"Properly dosed you up, son," Uther remarked forcing Arthur's shoulder back, and pushing him gently down. "Come morning, you are going to be begging him for more."
"How would you know?" Arthur protested, trying to sit back up.
"Yours isn't the first broken nose in the family, son." Uther looked at Gaius, who was straightening up with a groan of pain himself.
Arthur shot his father a disgusted look as Gaius took hold of the end of the blankets that had been folded back. "You let him dose me up?" he asked accusingly.
"It was remarkably easy," Uther replied as he pushed Arthur back down. He gave his son a stern look. "Stay down, I refuse to pick you up off the floor."
Arthur looked at him abashedly and promptly relaxed into the mattress. As the king patted his shoulder and stood up, he gave him a smile that reminded the prince just how much of a wolf lurked under his father's exterior. allowing Gaius to pull the blankets up to Arthur's neck.
"Listen to your father," Gaius said, pulling the blankets up to Arthur's neck. "I'll be back in the morning to replace those nose packs. In the mean time, just sleep. I'll prepare another dose of that poppy juice for tomorrow. However, if you need something beforehand, drink some strong wine."
Gaius straightened, wincing at his own aches and pains and looked at Uther. "With your permission, Sire, I'd like to check on some of the other patients."
Uther nodded his head, and Gaius gathered his things before making his way out of the room. Uther stood and waited until the door swung before turning and looking down at Arthur.
"Who did this?" he asked pointedly.
Arthur frowned at him, his eyes closed as he tentatively probed at his nose, which felt five times bigger than it ought. He cracked one eye open and looked up at Uther, who was bracing his arm on the upper canopy bar above Arthur's bed.
"Someone unleashed magic in this kingdom twice tonight, and they nearly killed you. Who was it?"
Arthur let out a sigh, his body relaxing. "Father..." Arthur started, but Uther just leaned menacingly over the bed.
"Those explosions were most certainly of a magical nature, and the guards told me how you came to the relics vault and found the gate open. I know you: you locked it, and Gaius confirmed that. Something or someone was in that vault and made you travel up the corridor where you were found, who was it?"
"Do we really have to do this now?" Arthur asked.
Uther's grey eyes never blinked. "I was in that vault not an hour ago, Arthur. Someone ransacked the back of the vault. Something has been taken, and you saw who it was. Now tell me... Who. Was. It?"
Arthur looked at the icy coldness that had settled in his father's eyes and knew he was defeated before he could even say anything. He also knew that what he was about to say was going to rain hell on the life of an old and trusted friend.
"Gaius' patient. The mute. Mirin," he said quietly, his eyes closing in despair. He felt the bed shift as Uther pushed himself away. They snapped open again as the king turned from his son. "Father, he doesn't know! Gaius doesn't know and neither does Merlin. She was the only one in the catacombs."
Uther paused, starting to look back at his son. "And how am I supposed to believe that?" he pointedly asked.
"Gaius was in the vault with me tonight, remember? Answering questions for you. If you won't believe me, believe the guards who accompanied us. Mirin was asleep when I arrived to get his help. Merlin was at Gwen's -they're friends, you know that. He wasn't anywhere near the tunnels."
"But you are certain it was the mute who caused the magic?"
There was no response behind him. Uther turned his steely-eyed glare towards his son. Arthur was just staring up at the top of the canopy over his bed, remembering. "Arthur..." he growled.
"I saw her," he said quietly. "She was the source of the magic."
"Did she have anything from the vault?" Uther asked.
Arthur let out another sigh, reaching up to rub his temples, his eyes closing wearily. If anything, the opium Gaius had dosed him with working amazingly fast. Even lying flat on his back, he swore the room was spinning. Only closing his eyes seemed to stop it.
"No..." he said, frowning as he tried to recall the events of the evening. "I don't remember seeing her with anything."
Uther looked suspiciously at him for a moment and could see the struggle his son was starting to have. He heaved a disgusted sigh, knowing Arthur would be out in just seconds. "We'll discuss more of this later..." he said as he turned on his heel and headed for the door.
Arthur never heard him leave.
Merlin nearly jumped out of his skin when Gaius suddenly arrived home. So focused was he on his task that he never even heard Gaius open the chamber door.
The sight that greeted the old physician as he entered his chambers was one that had become all too common in the past few weeks. Merlin sitting by the little cot trying to clean up a profoundly unconscious Mirin. Gaius didn't say a word as he came around the screen, ignoring the chaos of even more damage from the second explosion all around him. and silently took charge of the situation.
His face was set in a grim mask by the time he completed that initial exam, and Merlin looked at him soberly as he passed whatever items Gaius had needed while he worked over the girl. Her hands were a mess: there were many small cuts, the bruising already was setting in, and she never once reacted to anything Gaius had had to do to her.
Merlin finally couldn't take the tension between them any more and rose, beginning to pace silently across the room as Gaius stitched what he could of the reopened –and aggravated- wound on Mirin's head. Something was simmering under the old physician's exterior, and it was very evident in the short clipped words he had spoken as he tended to his charge.
Finally, Gaius appeared from around the screen and fixed Merlin with a gaze that brooked absolutely no nonsense. Merlin just took one look, spun on his heel, letting his hand slap his leg, and shook his head in frustration.
"Please don't start..." Merlin begged, turning from the old man.
"What did you do?" Gaius never raised his voice, but the words felt like a sword slicing through Merlin. Merlin just continued shaking his head, now running a hand through his hair as he continued pacing the chamber.
"Is Arthur all right?" Merlin asked.
"Arthur is going to be fine. Quit trying to change the subject." Gaius replied acidly. Merlin sucked in air, turning from him and pacing away.
"Merlin, you must tell me what happened. At least tell me you hid that package!" Gaius voice grew more stern.
"Yes, yes!" Merlin exclaimed, waving a hand towards his room. "It's up there." For a split second he hoped that that would mollify Gaius' ire, but his mentor never moved.
"Sometime during the night you realized Mirin was not in this chamber; you said you followed her. Obviously that led you to the relics vault, Merlin. The gates were locked. I was there earlier in the evening with Arthur. I saw him lock the gates. What happened then?" Gaius snapped.
Merlin flinched, still pacing.
"I had to see..." he suddenly blurted out, "I had to see. She was desperate, Gaius, trying to get in there. It was like watching one of the foxes chewing its leg off to escape the trap. It was like... it was like-" Merlin sucked in a deep breath of air, "-it was like Freya all over again. The hopelessness, the desperation..."
He looked pleadingly at Gaius. "I couldn't stand seeing that much pain in someone!"
"What did you do?" Gaius repeated, softer now.
Merlin ran his hand through his hair again, this time clenching his fist in his hair and turning from Gaius. "I unlocked the gate," he said softly. "Using magic."
Gaius closed his eyes in despair. "Oh, Merlin..." he breathed, reaching up to rub his hand across his forehead. Suddenly he could feel all his long years aching in his bones.
"What was I supposed to do?" Merlin exclaimed, spinning on in him frustration. "I couldn't just watch her suffer any more. Something's been all wrong about her from the very beginning, Gaius, you know it as well as I do. I figured if I could just see what it was she was after we could answer a few of the questions. You'd think she would take something of incredible value, but she passed all that stuff up, didn't even look at it. She just went straight for that old dusty package."
"And look where it got us!" Gaius snapped. "She nearly killed Arthur tonight! That alone is an executable punishment, but once Uther puts the pieces together -and you know he will- he will execute her as a witch."
"But she's no witch, and she's just a kid!" Merlin protested.
"Has that ever stopped Uther?" Gaius snapped at him. Merlin balked and then began pacing again.
"You keep saying she's got no magic, yet tonight, in possession of whatever is in that package, she used magic. What was it?"
"I don't know, Gaius!" Merlin protested. "I've never felt its like. The only thing that comes close is Kilgharrah, and his is the oldest magic I know of. This magic she had, it was strange, wild, raw..." Merlin shuddered. "Unquestionably ancient."
"What happened once she got a hold of that package?" Gaius demanded.
Merlin heaved a sigh, dropping his head. "She took off running, Gaius. She just started running. I have never seen such joy on anyone's face before. She got the package and started running up the corridor. I tried to stop her, but I was still reacting to how suddenly her magic had appeared."
"Joy?" Gaius asked, frowning.
"Yes, joy. It's the only way to describe it. It was like she was being reunited? She grabbed the package and took off. From the minute her fingers touched it, that ancient magic just appeared." Merlin looked at Gaius imploringly. "It felt like a punch to the stomach. I could hardly breathe."
He heaved a sigh and continued, "When she started running up the tunnels, I tried to cut her off, but then I realized Arthur was down there with us. When she saw me, she turned back and ran into Arthur..."
"Which is when the first explosion occurred," Gaius finished. He looked at Merlin sternly. "She could have killed him, Merlin!"
"You don't think I don't know that?" Merlin protested, he continued pacing, unable to look at Gaius. who was raising his brow at him in admonition. "While I checked on Arthur, she started heading down towards that unused exit leading out of Camelot and into the woods. How the hell she could navigate those tunnels in the dark is beyond me. Even I can't do that! That must be where you come into this. I heard you and knew I had to cut her off and stop her before she could let off another shot of that magic."
"So you hexed the cobwebs," Gaius said, as Merlin nodded.
"When she fell to the ground, you stepped into the tunnel with us, and I could see her getting ready to unleash that second explosion, I had to get you out of the way. Only..."
Gaius paused, looking at Merlin and knowing he was the one who had prevented him from getting buried under the rubble pile with Mirin. "Only what?" he asked his softly.
"She wasn't aiming at either one of us, Gaius," Merlin said sadly, "She wasn't trying to hurt us. I saw her face just before she let her magic loose."
He looked at Gaius beseechingly. "She aimed for the ceiling. She deliberately brought the roof down on top of her self." Merlin watched a slowly dawning comprehension fill Gaius' eyes.
"Gaius, she deliberately tried to kill herself."
