in this chapter, I will quote a piece of a poem, but I will talk about it in the notes at the end.

thank you for your comments


"Arthur" whispered the Draken prince, instinctively stepping back

"Hello, love. I missed you," grinned Arthur

All the people in the room were so focused on red king that they didn't notice the knights of Camelot, until they had blocked the Draken people, squeezing them tightly with their arms. Will was also taken, while he was trying to enter the throne room to save Merlin.

Merlin tried to wiggle out of Elyan's grip. He tried harder, when he saw Arthur coming toward him.

"Stay away from him, you bastard!" Balinor shouted and struggled with all his strength, seeing the enemy walking to his son.

However, the king of Camelot didn't hear him. He could only see Merlin. It was like there were just the two of them.

"Merlin, my dear sweet Merlin. You are even more beautiful than I remembered. You have no idea, how much I have waited for this" Arthur's voice was full of lust.

He was about two steps from Merlin. He opened his arms, ready to take Merlin from Elyan; but suddenly, an inhuman power threw him and his men against the walls.

Merlin turned and was just in time to see the gold light fading from his father's eyes.

"Merlin, go!" Balinor shouted

"Father, no…" Merlin didn't want to leave his family

"Please, son, GO! I love you, Merlin"

With still a bit of hesitation, Merlin and his friends, Lancelot, Gwaine and Will ran from there, using a side-door.

While they were running, Gwaine asked Merlin

"Where are we going?"

"The west tower. There, we will use the Golden Door, a gate that will take us at the other side of the forest"

When they were almost there, some of the Camelot knights of the throne room appeared behind them.


As soon as Arthur saw Merlin escape, he screamed "NOOOOO!" and tried to go after him, but an invisible weight pinned him on the wall.

He looked up and saw King Balinor's eyes shining gold with magic

"I. Will. Not. Let. You. Take. Him." Balinor was panting, due to the extended use of magic.

Noticing the other king's hassle, Arthur smirked

"You can't stop me, Balinor. I am ready to go to the end of the world to have Merlin. He can hide, he can run, but one day he will need to stop and I will be there to take him away with me. Besides, watching you now, I don't think you will be even there to see that day"

As to confirm him, Balinor fell to his knees with a hand on his heart. He was sweating and breathing hard. Hunith was immediately by his side.

As soon as Arthur felt the barrier weaken, he order his knights to go after the Prince.

He turned to Leon

"Take the King, the queen and the others to the dungeons". Then, he sat on the throne.


Merlin and his friends managed to arrive in the tower and to barricade the door. They could hear the knights on the other side trying to break it.

"So, where is this magic doo? There's nothing here," Gwaine asked looking around

"Indeed. There isn't. Well, not yet" answered Merlin, enjoying his friends priceless faces, despite the situation

"WHAT?" all the three of them shouted, looking confused and a bit frighten at the idea to be locked in a tower without an exit.

Merlin went toward a wall

"I need to create it. When this castle was built, magic was strong and my ancestor enchanted a door to appeared from nowhere"

"How will it appeared from air?" this time it was Lancelot asking

"The door will show itself, when a drop of the blood of a Emrys will touch the wall facing the sun"

Merlin took the knife from his belt and scratched a finger. He put it on the wall and immediately, a gold shining door came into view on it.

"What the hell? Mate, this is amazing. I love your castle and I do it in a pathologic way" Will said.

He and the others wore awed expressions.

The prince smiled and opened the magic door. On the other side, they could see the end of the Enchanted Forest. A deer escaped, startled by their appearance.

As they were about to exit through it, the knights of Camelot entered the room and one of them, seeing them escaping, shoot an arrow, which passed through the gap, as the door was closing behind the runaways.

Once in the forest and the door closed, the four friends signed in relief.

Then, they heard a groan. Merlin turned around and saw Will collapsing on the ground, holding his side. The arrow had perforated it.

"Nooo, Will" Merlin dashed to his friend's side.

He pulled out the arrow and pressed on the wounded trying to stop the bleeding. He murmured the few healing spells he knew and was able to performed, but nothing happened. Something was wrong.

"Shit. It's poised," said Gwaine, after analyzing the weapon. He threw it away in a frustration.

"No, no, Will. It's ok. You will be fine. I will not give you time off, not now, you lazy servant"

Will managed a little laugh "of course not. What would you do without me? You crying baby. I always had to watched your back"

Merlin felt a knot in his throat. "That you did. You may be a lazy servant, but you are the best friend a man could ever hope to have. I'm happy you chose me"

"The honor was mine, Merlin. I know you will be a great a king, since you are already the best man ever to walk the Earth. Thank you, brother"

With that, Will closed his eyes forever and Merlin embraced him and cried.

He stayed there for what seemed like a lifetime. Then, Gwaine hugged him.

"You need to let him go, Merl. Now, he is in peace"

They buried Will under an oak and Merlin recited a poem his mother read to him years before.

'There are persons in our lives that make us happy by the simple chance of crossing our path. Some of them walk by our side, seeing many moons go by, but there are others that we only see between step and step. We call them all friends, and there are many kinds. Let´s pretend that each leaf of a tree is one of our friends.

Time goes by, summer is gone, and autumn is coming, we lose some of our leaves, some grow the next summer and others stay with us during many seasons. But what really makes us happy, is that the fallen ones are still close to us, feeding our roots with joy. Memories of the wonderful times when they crossed our path.

I wish you, leaf of my tree, peace, love, health, luck and prosperity. Today and always… Just because every person that passes through our life is unique. Always leaves something from his own and takes something from us.

Some may take a lot, but we won´t find anyone that is not going to leave us something.

This is the biggest responsibility of our lives and the obvious proof that two souls never find each other by chance'

[The Tree of Friends. Jorge Luis Borges 1]

"Goodbye my friend"

Merlin took a deep breath, dried the tears and turned to Gwaine and Lancelot

"Do you have any idea to where we could go?"

"I'll suggest going to my isle, but Arthur met me and he knows where to find me," said Gwaine.

"Maybe I have an idea" started Lancelot. "We could go to my Uncle in Sarzo. He lives in a big mansion with his son Percival. They will protect us for a while, until we decide what to plan for Drakaria"

All of them nodded and started their journey to Sarzo. It will take them about two days.


In the throne room in Drakaria, Arthur watched impassible, as Leon and another knight told him they had lost Merlin; but inside, he was furious.

The other knight stepped forward

"My Lord, I didn't completely failed. I'm sure, I managed to hit some of those bastards with my poised arrow" he was obviously proud of himself.

Arthur focused his attention to him and frowned

"You tried to hit them with an arrow? Which one of them?"

"I don't know, my lord. But, I'm sure, I killed one of them"

The atmosphere became tenser. Leon stepped back.

"What's your name, Sir..?"

"Valiant, Sire, from the Western Isles. There, we have to most poisonous snakes in all Albion and we use them to make our weapons more lethal. For example, my arrows could kill a man in just a few seconds"

"Umm... Can I see one of these arrows? I'm very curious"

Valiant gave him an arrow with reverence and Arthur analyzed it.

"Interesting. You thought it was all right to send these very poised arrows toward Merlin's group. What makes you think you didn't hit the Prince?" Arthur was almost shouting

Valiant had wide eyes understanding his mistake

"My…my Lord. I…"

"Shut up. You may have killed my husband, you IDIOT"

"S…Sire…" Valiant never ended what he wanted to say, because the King stabbed him in the neck with the arrow.

Valiant was shocked and looked at the King, who regarded him with cold eyes

"This is what happens to fools who try to hurt my consort!"

In a few seconds, the knight was dead.

"Leon" the knight looked at Arthur, trying to ignore the corpse on the floor. "I want Merlin found. Take ten men with you and go west. He should be in Sarzo"

"Why Sarzo?"

"I doubt he escaped to Lord Gwaine's Isle. He knows I know where he lives and his servant comes from Eldor in Essentir so, too near Camelot. Therefore, he must have gone where Lancelot, his bodyguard, grew up and still has a family, which means Sarzo. If you can't find him there, search Wyllt and Eldor."

Leon bowed and walked to the door

"Leon… I want him unharmed and safe. Use the carriage, so he can be comfortable. Kill the others. Take him directly to Camelot. I will go there myself in a few days. Send a knight to inform me, when you will be near Camelot with Merlin"

"Yes, My Lord"

Leon didn't want to know what Arthur would do to him if Merlin was hurt… not after he had seen what he did to Valiant just for suspecting.


In the dungeons, only bars separated the royals' cells.

"Balinor, dear, how are you feeling? Can you use magic to escape?" Hunith was very worried about her husband's paleness.

"I'm tired, darling. I know my body. If I use even a bit more of magic, my heart will not be able to take it. I had exaggerated before, but I don't regret it. I'm happy to spend my last moments with you, my love" Balinor smiled lovely at his wife "do you remember when I started to court you?"

Hunith laughed, "How could I forget? You were such a clotpole! You kept giving me these expensive gifts, just to show me what great and rich prince you were"

"Yes. But despite it, you kept returning them. I couldn't understand why. No other woman had refused such presents from me"

"I didn't want something others made and that you just had to buy with your father's money. I wanted something that could make me understand who you really were".

Hunith smiled sweetly "then you did it. You gave me a blue rose, created with your magic in front of me. In that moment, I knew you were the one for me"

Balinor took her hand through the bars, "that day, you looked at me like I had given you the world with that simple rose and I knew you were the one for me, too"

They kissed, silently telling how much they loved each other and how happy their life together had been.

"How sweet"

They turned hearing the invader King's voice.

"I was about to tell you to say goodbye, before Balinor's execution, but it seems you have beaten me on it"

Balinor stood up "I'm ready. I am not afraid of you, little King. You may have taken my kingdom, but you will never conquer its spirit, because it resides in my son's heart and he will never be truly yours"

"Nice words, but I'll prove them to be untrue. Let's go.

You and I, my Lady, will see each other later to return to Camelot"

Balinor kissed Hunith' hand and went to his end. A few minutes later, he was hanged.


A WEEK LATER- SARZO

The group escaping Drakaria arrived in Sarzo safe and was welcomed by the chief of the village, Lancelot's uncle, Lord Joseph and his son Percival, whom entered in their group of friends very quickly.

The group rested for a couple of days. Merlin needed it more than the others did. In a day, he lost his kingdom, his home, his friend and he felt his father's death, too.

Then, he was ready to start planning a way to win against Camelot but suddenly, one of the peasants ran to them, announcing the arrival of a patrol of knights wearing red. They knew they were the Camelot ones.

Gwaine started packing. Merlin looked outside at the villagers that recieved them so kindly and then at his friends. He knew what he had to do.

"Merlin, what are you waiting for? We need to go?" Lancelot tried to guided him to the door, but Merlin stopped him

"I'm afraid I will not coming with you"

"Mate, it's not the right time for jokes. Let's go" Gwaine was frantic.

"No. You go. They want me. They will never stop coming after us as long as I'm with you. They will hurt the people and then, they will kill you. I have already lost a friend and I can't lose you, too. I couldn't take it."

"Merlin…"

"I'm your prince and I order you to run from here and let me go with them. Be safe"

Gwaine stepped to stand in front of Merlin and looked at him in the eyes. "I swear on my life, I will come back to save you, Merlin. I will not rest until you will be free again"

Merlin smiled and joked, "Of course you will. I'm irresistible, after all" Then more seriously "thank you, Gwaine"

Lancelot hugged him and promised him the same as Gwaine did. They both kissed him on the forehead.

"Go, please" and after some hesitation, they did, knowing their prince was right.

Once alone, Merlin exited the mansion and went toward the knights.

Seeing the prince, Sir Leon dismounted from the horse and walked to him, a relief expression on his face.

"My Lord, thanks Goodness, you are unhurt. We were worried"

Merlin moved back and the knights immediately stiffed. Merlin asked himself what Arthur must have told them, to make them so happy to see the prince safe, but also so tense when he showed a bit of resistance.

"Sir Leon, it's a pleasure. I know what you want from me and I promise to come with you on my own free will, if you swear not to harm anyone here in the village or my friends. Failed it and I will resist and you will be forced to hurt me. And something is telling me, your king wouldn't be please about that"

Leon was clearly uncomfortable, but he accepted Merlin's conditions

"You have my word, Sire" he bowed deeply and then, he offered his hand "would you accommodate in the carriage, my Lord?... please?"

Merlin ignored the hand and royally, went in the carriage.

Once the prince was inside, the knights were relief, knowing the one thing that will protect them from the king's wrath, was safe in their possession.

Leon spoke to Merlin before departing

"if you need something, you just need to asked and we will serve you as best of our abilities"


After three days, Merlin could see the white towers of Camelot and his heart started to bit faster because he didn't know what the future will have in store for him.


1. this is a piece of the poem "The Tree of Friend" by Jorge Luis Borges.

so, it's NOT mine.