AN: Okay this is the last short chapter :) Enjoy! I'll post the next one soon!
The horses reached the clearing when dusk was beginning to send shadows dancing around the forest. Arthur helped Merlin dismount while Lancelot gently lay Cuilén on the ground.
After a moment, Merlin took a deep breath and began to shout words in a language Arthur had never heard before. When Merlin was done, he was panting.
"Now we wait," he said quietly before he swayed and Arthur had to catch him. Gently Arthur sank to the ground beside Lancelot and Cuilén while Merlin gasped for breath.
"Merlin!" Arthur exclaimed, "What is wrong?"
"Emrys, what happened?" Mordred asked, crouching down.
"I just feel really tired, suddenly," Merlin mumbled. "I think I should sleep."
"Alright." Mordred said, before Arthur could say anything. "We will wake you when the dragon gets here."
"Thank you," Merlin murmured, before his eyes blinked closed completely and he gently curled into himself, his breaths steadying out. He murmured softly and smiled a little as he nuzzled into the jacket that was suddenly pushed under his head as a pillow.
"How long do you think we have to wait?" Arthur asked, looking around at the semi circle of people.
"I don't really know," Mordred answered. "None of us do."
Arthur nodded and settled himself down for what could possibly be a long wait.
"You know what?" Lancelot spoke up suddenly. "He reminds me of Cuilen, you know when he is sleeping like that."
Leon watched as Merlin's breath gently rose and fell, and he couldn't help but agree. Merlin always looked a bit young for his age, but asleep he seemed even smaller. He seemed almost delicate, and Leon nodded.
"Poor, poor Merlin," he murmured softly. "How could anyone harm him? How could anyone even have an inkling of a desire to harm him?"
Leon sighed and glanced away, unused to verbalizing such sentimentality, but feeling that under the circumstances, it was an appropriate thing to say. The others seemed to agree with him.
Arthur nodded and glanced up at the sky once more, "When is the dragon going to get here?" he asked once again, impatient as always.
"We cannot know that," Mordred replied patiently. "We must simply wait."
And wait they did. They waited until dusk disappeared and soon the moon was high in the sky. Merlin stirred slightly, his eyes blinking open.
"Where is the dragon?" He asked. "Did he leave already?"
"No," Arthur said slowly.
"No?" Merlin paled. "But... He should have come by now! Oh... Oh no..."
Merlin suddenly stared purposefully down at his ankle with the cuff.
"What is it, Emrys?" asked Mordred.
"It blocks my magic," Merlin frowned. "I'm afraid... I think... I don't think the dragon will be coming. I think it's blocking my dragon powers as well."
"Is there any other way you can call him?" Arthur asked.
"No," Merlin appeared close to tears. "I really am useless without my magic."
"You are not useless," Arthur told Merlin.
"What are the words?" Lancelot asked.
Merlin spoke, and then to his shock Cuilén began to mutter the words in his sleep.
"What is he doing?"
"What's happening?"
Arthur and Leon spoke at the same time while Merlin and Mordred stared at Cuilén in shock.
"He's speaking in the language of dragon lords," Merlin said after a moment. "How does he know that? He... Cuilén couldn't be..."
"Cuilén couldn't be what?" Lancelot asked, looking at Merlin.
"He couldn't be a dragon lord, could he?" Merlin glanced at Mordred, when suddenly there was a large wind that startled the horses as the great dragon appeared over the clearing.
"Greetings young Warlock," Kilgharrah said, as he landed in the clearing. He suddenly stiffened, before frowning as well as a dragon could. "Something terrible has been done to you. Additionally, I was not prepared for you to call when others are present."
"Don't worry about them," Merlin realized perfectly well why the dragon might worried. "They mean no ill will to you."
"You were not the one to call me," the dragon said after a moment. "I have not been able to sense your presence recently. What has been done to you?"
"I have this cuff on my ankle," Merlin gestured down at said cuff. "It is prohibiting me from using my magic. Wait, I wasn't the one to call you?"
"Patience, young warlock," the dragon signed. "First elaborate. I see that this cuff is soaking away your life force. You will need to get it removed with haste. How did you acquire it?"
The dragon glanced almost suspiciously at Arthur and Leon.
"They had nothing to do with it," Merlin shook his head. "I was taken by a king who hates magic, he did this."
"You are not elaborating," the dragon shook his head. "But I understand. Such poor treatment of creatures of magic can be a topic some prefer to avoid. I am relieved that you are now safe, although you are not truly out of danger until you have removed that cuff. Now, you wondered who called me. It is someone who I knew for some time, I wondered when the young empath would contact me."
"Cuilén?" Merlin and Arthur exclaimed together.
"How is Cuilén a dragonlord?" Merlin asked, glancing in Cuilén's direction.
"He is your cousin, is he not? His father was not a dragon lord until Balinor was taken from your world. You then were gifted the powers of dragon speech, as was Balinor's long estranged little brother. Since Balinor's brother had no magic, he lived a peaceful, simple life. The former last dragonlord did not want to bring chaos into his little brother's life, and that is why their paths did not cross again. Balinor's death brought more than simply your powers into existence."
Merlin sat where he was for a moment, in shock as the idea ran through his mind. Cuilén was a dragonlord? He looked over at Cuilén and wondered if the boy knew anything at all about this power.
"So Cuilén called you here?" he asked.
"Yes young warlock, as I just said to you," the dragon sounded exasperated.
"Forgive me for the fact that I need a moment to think about this," Merlin told the dragon.
"Time is a precious commodity that is slipping away from you. You need to begin acting quickly before Albion rests on shakier ground than it already does."
"Can you help him?" Mordred asked.
"I will do as much as I ever do," the dragon peered suspiciously at the Druid. "But I must warn you, Mordred, that remaining by the side of Emrys and the Once and Future King, you are disrupting the natural order of things."
"Destinies can change," Merlin said fiercely. "It is not certain what will happen."
"As you say," the dragon bowed his head to Merlin. "Now, you have a journey ahead of you, you must begin to prepare."
"And where am I going?" Merlin asked.
"You and Cuilén are both injured in mind as well as body. You are meant to connect to become a powerful force of healing and strength. Recent events had hindered your paths. I cannot change what has been done to you, but some will be able to. You will need to travel together over an expanse of water and north west to a place where there are a brand of Druids more powerful than those who reside near Camelot. They are renowned for their healing, and their magic will be the only thing capable of taking off that cuff that hinders your life force."
"Alright," Merlin said, surprised that the dragon hadn't been more cryptic. "Anything else I should know?"
"Your journey will change your destiny, young warlock. As you said, destinies can change, and if you do not make choices appropriate for the times that await you, you will find that your statement holds true, even as you begin to deny it. And remember, those who deceived you may not always be quite as strong." With that, Kilgharrah took to the air leaving everyone staring after him, very confused.
Merlin groaned, there it was. The advice that wasn't helpful at the moment and made him question what he did.
"Come back!" He shouted in vain as his dragonlord powers were not functioning. "Why does he always do that?" He muttered, staring angrily at the ground.
"What exactly did that last part mean?" Arthur asked.
"Who ever knows what he's trying to tell me?" Merlin groaned.
"Well, do you have any idea?" Arthur cried. "You're the dragonlord, why don't you wake Cuilén up and get him to demand answers?"
Merlin thought long and hard, when suddenly he felt his heart almost stop.
"Did... Did you hear his last line?" Merlin's voice was paper thin. "Those who deceived you may not always be quite as strong. He's talking about Gwaine, I'm sure of it. He's in trouble, Arthur. Gwaine is strength and he's in serious trouble or he wouldn't have bothered to have mentioned him."
"Okay, calm down for a minute," Arthur said then turned to Leon. "We will need to gather some of the knights and go out and find Gwaine. You and Cuilén," he turned back to Merlin. "You two need to go on some sort of quest thing."
"I don't think we should go alone," Merlin admitted. "It sounds like I'll be getting increasingly worse, and I don't know what Cuilén will be like when he wakes up."
"I will go with you Emrys," Mordred said. "If you will have me."
Merlin hesitated. The dragon had once again warned that Mordred would bring trouble, and it made Merlin uneasy. Was Mordred still a threat to Arthur? He supposed it was better for Mordred to be with him rather than with Arthur if Merlin wasn't with Arthur, so after a moment Merlin nodded. He needed to keep an eye on Mordred.
Mordred looked up when Merlin didn't answer right away and instantly saw the hesitation and unease on his face. He glanced back down at the ground, waiting for Emrys' judgement of the offer.
"Having a Druid when we're going to talk to Druids could be very helpful," Merlin spoke up finally. "Thank you for offering to accompany us."
"You are welcome Emrys," Mordred said, relief on his face that Emrys hadn't turned him down. "When are we leaving?"
"We should leave immediately," Merlin decided.
"No." Arthur said. "Come back to the city first and get the supplies that you will need and spend the night resting. You will need it."
"We will get the supplies, but I'm afraid we can't afford to rest," Merlin's voice was sad. "If we rest now I... It may be the last time I ever see Camelot. No, we have to hurry."
Arthur nodded and they all mounted their horses, Merlin riding with Arthur and Cuilén with Lancelot. They quickly rode into Camelot and Arthur ordered some of the servants to gather the knights from their rooms for him and a few others to help Merlin with whatever he needed.
Merlin visited Gaius and the old physician was beyond relieved to see him. When he learned that Merlin would have to leave again, he told Merlin to be careful and he made him promise to come home safely. Far too soon, Mordred and Merlin had a wagon of supplies with Cuilén cuddled in a small bed of blankets in the back which Leon and Lancelot had prepared for him. Mordred and Merlin would take turns driving so that someone was constantly at the boy's side.
Arthur told Merlin that he'd better come home quickly and to get a hold of a messenger some how to tell him what was happening, and he and Lancelot would be departing for Alister's castle in the morning.
"Don't you fall off the boat or make any magic people mad or be an idiot so I have to come save you!" Arthur told his friend.
"Same to you," Merlin replied. "Minus the boat part."
Arthur punched Merlin in the shoulder for old times sake before he watched from the castle as the wagon rolled out of Camelot.
"He'll be alright," Lancelot suddenly approached Arthur. "He has a destiny to fulfill, he'll be okay. Get some rest, you'll need it come morning when we go to save Gwaine."
Arthur nodded but didn't move until he could no longer see the wagon, then he slowly turned around and walked after Lancelot into the citadel.
MMMM
Gwaine was pretending to relax in his small room when Daniel burst in.
"What's got you wound up tighter than a king's bootlaces?" Gwaine glanced over at the door.
"The boy escaped!" Daniel shouted. "He escaped!"
"Oh," Gwaine tried to look shocked. "Well, that's too bad. Thought you had his magic locked tight so be couldn't use it."
"He couldn't," Daniel ground out. "Someone stole the key. Someone let him out."
"How did they do that?" Gwaine asked. "I thought only Alister had a copy."
"Alister's key went missing," Daniel replied. "Not long after he left the sorcerer's cell. Not long before the sorcerer escaped. Not long after only the two of you, and me, left the dungeons. There is no lock on the inside, he did not release himself."
Gwaine shook his head. "What a shame!" He exclaimed, trying to sound annoyed. "I bet Alister isn't too happy."
"No, he's not," Daniel stood there a moment more before his voice turned still colder. "Guards, seize him."
"What are you doing?" Gwaine exclaimed. "I helped you! I'm on your side."
Guards suddenly flooded the room and dragged Gwaine's hands behind his back before locking them tightly with chains.
"You played your role well, but I am perfectly aware what he was to you. You never seemed the type to turn on your own family, it seems his highness and I were not incorrect in thinking something more was running through your head."
Gwaine struggled for a moment, then he stilled. "I'm glad you weren't as dumb as we thought you were then," he said. "But as long as Merlin is safe I am happy."
"Then I'm sure you will just keep smiling and smiling," Daniel growled before the guards began to drag Gwaine towards the dungeon. "That is, until Alister finalizes the maps. We just sent away a group of knights of Camelot who examined the premises to find no sign of your sorcerer. Next time they may not leave empty handed. After all, surely someone will wonder what's become of you in a few months or so."
"Arthur will come for me before very long," Gwaine said. "And when he does you better watch out, he doesn't take kindly to his knights being mistreated by others. And if he doesn't come, at least I know my conscious is clear. I got out who I needed to save. Maybe he'll turn out more like your king, wouldn't that be pity?"
Daniel watched as Gwaine disappeared down the stairs before he ground his teeth and went to tell Alister that the task was completed. Soon the sorcerer would be back within their grasp. After all, surely the sorcerer would not leave his family member to die.
AN: Please review! And watch out for the next story Upon New Tides. Also, remember to check out my story with former author Anna Davenport. She has changed her name to Warrior of Camelot.