And here's yet another chapter. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, by the way. Loved it.

Disclaimer: The BBC still owns Merlin. I don't.

Chapter 10

Arthur

Arthur wasn't entirely certain whether he was alive or dead. He was not completely alive, but he didn't feel dead either, so he guessed he was somewhere in between. The pain in his chest seemed to support that theory.

He lost all sense of time, had no idea of how long he had been lying like this or how long it would take for him to either recover or die. The only thing he really could do, was wait. And waiting had never been his strong point, as all of Camelot would agree.

His body was paralyzed with the beast's poison. He could not move a finger. He could not even open his eyes. But he had moments of awareness. In those moments he could hear what was going on around him, not much, to be sure, and he could feel it if people touched him, held his hand or touched his forehead. Most of the time however he spent sleeping, for want of a better word.

There had been a moment of awareness some time ago. Guinevere had been at his bedside, saying things about how he had to live to become the man she had seen inside him or something very much like that. Then there was a moment of oblivion. He was only just "awakening" when someone knocked on the door.

Nobody answered. Arthur wasn't even sure there was someone else in the room with him. It was very silent.

The door went open. 'Hello?' a voice softly asked. 'Anyone in?'

Yes, I am, he thought, not being able to say it aloud.

The door was closed again and the person who had just come in walked over to the chair he knew stood beside his bed. 'Gwen?' she asked. It was Alina, he realised now. 'Gwen, wake up.'

'Oh, my lady!' the maidservant said. 'I'm so sorry, I did not mean to fall asleep.'

'It's all right,' the princess assured her. 'You should go to bed. Get some rest. I'll take over here.'

'Do you not need to sleep, my lady?' Guinevere asked.

'I've had more than enough sleep for a while,' Alina replied decisively. There was a sharp edge to her voice, which Arthur did not fully understand. She sounded angry about something. But then, it seemed to be a habit for her to be angry when he was around. The only times he had seen her looking happy these last few days was when she was in Merlin's company, a fact that did annoy him somehow.

'Are you sure, my lady?'

'Very sure. And there is no need to call me that, Gwen. Just my name will do.'

'Thank you, Alina.'

'Sleep well, Gwen.'

Gwen exited the room, Arthur heard the door close behind her. Alina sat herself down on his bedside, changing the cloths on this forehead.

'I don't know if you can hear me,' she began.

Yes, I can, he thought. Go ahead.

'But if you can, I wanted to apologize,' she went on. 'I have been, well, unkind to you on several occasions and still you tried to save me in that cave. I mean, it's not like I needed help or anything, but I like it that you tried. Oh dear, that's not much of an apology, is it?'

No, I think you can do better.

'But seriously, Arthur, what were you thinking? You ought to know by now that nothing good ever comes from saving damsels in distress. Most damsels seem to be quite capable of saving themselves around here.'

Thanks so much for reminding me. If you have come only to mock me, I'd rather like it if you left.

'I know you don't feel great right now, but I know you are going to be all right. Merlin and Gaius are working hard on a cure, so you'll have to keep fighting this poison until they do.'

Sure. You know you have to hurry, though?

She sighed. 'You probably can't even hear me, so it does not matter what I say. You won't know that I did when you wake up. Don't even know why I'm doing it. Probably because I might very easily get bored in no time when I don't.'

She sounded a bit like Merlin now, chattering on about nothing in particular, but for once, Arthur did not mind. Her voice gave him something to focus on and focussing on something was the best way to remain aware of what was going on around him. So, by all means, just chatter on.

She chuckled. 'You know, when I came here, I used to think that life here would be easier than it was at home. Well, Camelot has done everything in its power to prove me wrong on that one, it appears. Merlin… Oh no, can't tell you about that, just in case you are listening.'

Now, this is getting interesting. What about Merlin?

She chuckled again. 'Come to think of Merlin, though, he told me that you are under the impression Merlin and I have this kind of secret relationship. Really, Arthur, what were you thinking? Well, at least I can put your mind at rest on this one. We're just friends. I'm not sure you approve of that either, but that is something you will just have to deal with. I don't think I will tell you straightaway when you wake up, though. It's kind of funny to see you being jealous.'

He really should not be relieved right now, he really shouldn't. But this was a feeling he could not help but feeling. It was ridiculous. He did not even like her, did he?

She told him a lot of stories from her homeland after saying that, to entertain herself, but entertaining him in the process, of which she was of course not aware. Most of the stories were just stupid fairy tales, about sleeping princesses who needed to be woken up by princes who were riding on white horses or nonsense like that. It wasn't until the door of his chamber opened again that she stopped talking.

If he heard correctly, there were two people coming in. Alina, who had been holding his hand for a while, tensed. He could almost feel the anger radiating from her. Arthur wondered who it could be to make her so furious, because that was probably the best word to describe her mood, so suddenly.

'You and I need to talk!' she snapped.

Arthur was a little surprised when he heard Merlin answer. Were they not supposed to be good friends? 'I'm sorry, Alina, but I had to.' He sounded a little guilty. Now this was truly a very interesting situation. He couldn't wait to find out what was going on here.

'No, you did not,' she disagreed. 'You could have let me do it, as planned.'

'As you planned it,' Merlin said, sounding a little defensive now. Arthur would have done the same if he were in his shoes. He could almost picture the look on her face right now. 'Believe me, Alina, I know exactly what I am doing.'

'You have no idea what you are doing!' she growled. 'You may think that you do, but you don't.'

'I… ehm… I asked the advice of our mutual friend,' Merlin replied. 'He agreed with my plan.'

It was quite interesting to know what people say when they think you can't hear them. Not that he had any clue as to what they were talking about, but he could always find out later. That was, if he survived this. But since everyone who had been at his bedside had told him that he would, Arthur did not worry too much on that account.

'Oh, did you, now?' Alina exclaimed in a very hard and sarcastic voice. 'This just gets better and better! Friend, indeed! I am sure he agreed with your plans, but shouldn't you know by now that he has an agenda of his own? Did he tell you exactly what was going to happen if you chose to go through with this?'

'Yes,' Merlin said, but it was obvious that he meant the opposite. Merlin was a very bad liar and Arthur was not the only one who noticed that.

'I thought we had an agreement on being honest with each other, Merlin.' She took a deep breath to calm herself. 'Well, we can talk about this later, I guess. I take it you found the cure at least?'

'I did,' Merlin said. 'And I'm not sure how much time there is still left…'

'Plenty of it, I do not doubt,' she replied icily. 'Come on, let's give him that cure.'

'Could you hold him up, my lady?' asked the voice of the physician. Arthur remembered now that he had heard two people entering. He had kind of forgotten that, too taken up in the argument that was going on.

Alina held him up while Gaius dripped something in his mouth. It tasted like water.

The door opened again and another voice was heard asking: 'What are you doing, physician? What are you giving him?' Arthur recognized it as his father's voice. Good heavens, it was getting rather crowded in his room.

'It's a… It's a tincture made from the lobelia plant,' Gaius answered after some hesitation. Arthur sensed that the old man was not telling the truth for some reason, maybe because he gave him something his father did not fully approve of. 'An ancient remedy for poisonous bites,' he added.

His father did not like that, most likely, as ancient most of the time had something to do with the time there was still magic in the land. They must have been desperate if they turned to remedies like that. Maybe Gaius had not been lying at first, he had just been hesitant to tell the king he had used a remedy that was not forbidden, but was very close to something that was. Still, Arthur could not get rid of the idea that he had merely drunk some water just now. There was no other taste in the liquid Gaius had given him.

His father did not seem to mind now. 'A cure?' he asked hopefully.

'We hope,' Gaius said.

'Do you really think it has some effect?'

'It's our last resort, sire,' he said, dripping another few drops into Arthur's mouth. He swallowed it. 'Perhaps you should allow him to rest.'

Resting sounded like a terrific plan. He suddenly realized he was very tired and needed to sleep. He was out before Gaius, Merlin and Alina were out of the room.

Merlin

'What did you think you were doing?' The door was hardly closed before Alina started to yell at him. 'Have you any idea what you have just done?'

They were back in Gaius' chambers, where they could shout at each other without the rest of the castle listening in, as it was not too close to the other inhabited parts. Gaius had taken his medicine bag with him and left the two, so that they could argue in peace.

'I got a cure for Arthur,' he answered. Merlin could not really see why Alina was so upset. Surely saving Arthur's life had been all that really mattered?

'Yes, you did. But at what price, Merlin?'

'You can stop looking at me like that, Alina,' he snapped. He did not mean to get angry, but the long journey and the lack of sleep were finally taking its toll. Not that he would have to endure that for much longer, most likely, but it did make him rather grumpy at the moment. Her not understanding did not help to improve his mood either. 'I bargained my own life.'

She threw her hands in the air. 'Argh, Merlin! That may be what you bargained for, but if that is what you get, that is another matter entirely.' The way she looked at him, so knowingly, made him feel uneasy.

'Is this another big event?' he asked.

'No, it's still the same,' she replied.

'So, you know something I don't,' he concluded.

'I very much hope that I don't, really.'

'But if you are not a part of the original legend,' he said, thinking very hard. 'Then you must have been trying to change it when you said you would be the one to go, right?'

'Very perceptive, Merlin,' she said sarcastically. 'Though I had hoped you would see the light before you cast that spell on me. And speaking of that, use magic on me again and I'll kill you, dig you up and kill you again. Is that understood?' When she was speaking in that tone it was impossible to doubt a word of what she said. He had really angered her. But this was more than just anger, though. There was fear as well. It gave him the uncomfortable feeling that by doing what he thought was right, he had jeopardized the entire future of Camelot.

'I am sorry, Alina,' he said, realizing that he actually meant it.

Her anger faded away in an instant. She sighed and sat herself down. 'Maybe I'm just overreacting. Maybe I'm only this angry because I had hoped to save everyone this emotional roller coaster that we are in for now. It seems that no matter what I do, I can't even change the legend if I want to.' She sighed again. 'And maybe I'm only so angry because the situation frightens me,' she confessed. 'Knowing the story and living in it, those are two entirely different things. Part of me wants to get out of here as fast as I can. I feel like I'm losing control over everything, including my own life.'

'Getting yourself killed for Arthur's sake was your way of getting out?' Merlin asked.

'In a way it was, I think,' she admitted. 'Though I never thought about it in that way. I wanted to make sure Arthur was all right whilst saving all of you a great deal of heartache and getting myself out of legend's way in the process.'

'But we are still on legend's way?' Merlin asked.

'For now, we are,' she said.

'And everything is going to be all right?' He really needed to be reassured now.

'Eventually, it will,' she nodded.

He sighed in relief.

'That is, as long as you do exactly as I say from now on,' she added. She sounded stern, but Merlin could see the hint of a smile on her face and he knew that, no matter what emotional roller coaster (whatever a roller coaster might be) was still to come, that they would be all right in the end.

Hope you enjoyed it. A lot of talking, I know, but I'll try to do something about that next chapter.

Oh, and as always, I really love reviews. Let me know what you think!