CHAPTER 7

BEAHN NIGHE

"Where's Arthur?"

Gwaine looked serious, a sure sign that something was afoot. "Elyan was manning the walls and he saw …well, he saw something. I need to talk to Arthur."

Gwen felt her heart sink as she listened to the knight. She had tried to dissuade Arthur from a midnight walk, but she understood how hard the last two days had been on her husband. He was always unreachable when he was suffering the most, and he hardly allowed Gwen to comfort him. He had let her hold him wordlessly at the end of the day, when the burden of his strength had grown too heavy to bear. He was silent in his pain.

"He went for a walk," she began. At Gwaine's look of deepening concern, she continued. "He's been gone at least three hours now; he said he would be right back." She looked up at Gwaine; there was fear in both their faces. "He just needed to get some, … some air. And you know Arthur; he won't listen when…" Her voice trailed off at the end, faltering as she looked away.

"It's been hard on all of us, " he said far more gently than was his usual manner, and it brought tears to her dark eyes. "Your brother isn't sure what he saw, but we wanted to tell Arthur. So don't worry Gwen. I'll find him…" he said softly. "I promise."

As he walked away, Gwaine was glad that he had not shared what Elyan had seen. He was not a man inclined to panic. But he knew danger was close. There had been a foul smell and strange grey glow spotted from the walls. Strangely lit shapes flickered in the shadow of the woods around Camelot. Neither Elyan nor Gwaine had forgotten the ill-omened words Merlin had spoken in his delirium. He remembered the fear in his eyes. He could not forget the dozens of headless bodies that had surrounded the devastation of the trebuchet.

He could forgive Arthur for his sleeplessness, but he was deeply worried about where he had gone. Merlin might know. And Merlin was a …

He stopped stock still in the hallway. What was he thinking!

Merlin would kill him if he weren't told. He felt a huge misgiving fill him, but he knew he should never forgive himself if he did not tell his friend what was happening.

Even though he had not seen Merlin since the moment he had disappeared into Gaius' chamber, barely breathing and pale as death itself, he knew that Merlin had revived. Everyone was saying his recovery was miraculous.

When it came to his friend, Gwaine was prepared to believe almost anything could happen. His mind returned to a recent conversation with Leon, but he put aside the complications. He ran back the way he had come, but this time he bypassed the royal quarters, and descended to the to the door of the physician. The knight knocked and entered.

Merlin was sitting in a huge chair, half slumped, wrapped in a blanket, looking at the fire. An uneaten bowl of gruel was cooling on the table. It looked disgusting. At first Gwaine felt a start of fear, but then his friend turned and looked up with a smile. The knight breathed a sigh of relief.

Merlin looked well, but somewhat tired or stunned. The familiar sparkle in his eye healed his concerns. The recovering servant spoke up quickly, before Gaius could forbid him to move.

"Hi Gwaine! Glad to see you. I'm bored to death." His words stuttered forth in a rapid chain.

"Merlin, …" came Gaius' warning growl.

"Let's go for a walk," suggested Merlin, He rose to his feet. He immediately tried to reassure his mentor that he was in no danger, even though it was the middle of the night. "Gwaine will guard me like a mother hen, Gaius. Promise! "

"A mother hen", echoed Gwaine immediately. He tried his best to look protective. Merlin tossed his blanket at the chair and the old physician snorted in disgust.

"Make him sit down if he gets dizzy," growled Gaius as they shut the door. They both snickered like half- grown boys as they made their escape.

As they neared one of the torches, Gwaine suddenly put out his hand and stopped Merlin from going further, looking at him closely in the wavering light. He found himself crushing his friend in a sudden hug, and then he quickly let go.

"That was too close for comfort, Merlin," he said. "I thought you were gone more than once. You look…you look alive."

The slighter man merely shrugged. His grin begged for forgiveness. "Where are we going, " he said at last.

"Somewhere we can talk in private."

Merlin's eye grew sharp as arrows at those words. He motioned to an alcove, around a corner, that he had never noticed. It was a small space filled by a rough table and a tower of buckets. Gwaine noted how Merlin put a hand out to steady himself as he turned to look at him. Mops were drying, hanging against the wall.

"Elyan was manning the watch tonight. He saw something out there in the woods around Camelot, by the remains of the trebuchet, Merlin. A strange grey glow that flickers between the trees, and there's a terrible, foul smell in the air. I came to tell Arthur, "

Merlin suddenly looked a bit paler at the pause in his voice. Gwaine reached out and put his hand on Merlin's shoulder.

"Arthur couldn't sleep, and went out for a walk, but hasn't come back. He's been missing a few hours."

Merlin stiffened. His blue eyes were dark with emotion, and there was an echo of thunder in his silence. Gwaine shivered and wondered that how he had never noticed his power.

He had seen the residue that shimmered all along the northern perimeter of the walls of Camelot, and how the greatest concentration of the powder had been near the trebuchet, where Merlin had been chained. Leon had raised the specter of Merlin being a sorcerer, as they walked the battlefield, finding only headless corpses.

"You are the sorcerer that defended Camelot," said Gwaine, without preamble.

Merlin's knees almost buckled and he took a deep breath, as if his wound had opened up again. He looked up at Gwaine, with a terrible doom written in his eyes.

He nodded, voicelessly admitting his magic, and then he looked down at the ground.

"I've always had magic." He said, "Since the day I was born, …"

"Say no more, Merlin! I know you saved us yesterday and that's enough for me!" He paused, and then he gave his friend another quick embrace because he did not have the words to say what he felt. "We have to find Arthur!"

"Help me" said Merlin steadily, looking deep into Gwaine's eyes as he recovered himself. Merlin looked confident, but as he began to walk, he stumbled, and held on to the wall as the world reeled around him. Before he could ask, Gwaine was holding him up, for all the world as if Merlin had too much to drink, as they walked down the hallway and across the courtyard. Crossing into the moonlight, Merlin seemed to get a little more strength back, and he did not lean against Gwaine for support.

"I hoped it was just a dream." Merlin began to tell Gwaine as they walked. He looked around as if someone might hear them. " After Percival found me. Out there in the woods, I dreamed…crazy ideas. I saw, … I saw Macha, the second queen of the Morrigan," he said in a horrified tone to his friend. The knight was not sure he understood but the next words froze his heart. " She promised a band of dead warriors to the sorcerer who built the trebuchet. She told him to bury the heads of his warriors after he lost the battle. In my dream she anointed him in blood and told him, in the end he would be victorious. But she must have revenge for the death of the forest, and the only thing that will appease her is the head of a king: Arthur's head. " His voice ached in his throat. His fear was crushing.

"Ruadan. The sorcerer's name is Ruadan."

Merlin stumbled again, then stopped for a moment, hanging on to the knight for a moment more, until his weakness passed. He smiled at Gwaine reassuringly. "I'm ok." He said. He took a few more breaths.

"Outside the castle walls, Gwaine. There's a stream that feeds the moat, a hidden spot of green and water. When Arthur doesn't have time to ride, and he needs to get out… He might be there. I know the way. Ruadan is in the woods…" He looked up suddenly, his eyes riveting Gwaine's.

"I will need Excalibur from the armory," he said, shaking his head. "I should have thought of it." The words had hardly left his mouth, when Gwaine was already tearing off, running at top speed. Merlin sank down on the steps near the entrance.

He had personally mopped them only three days ago. He took a breath, letting the cool feel of the marble press against the palms of his hands. To his own surprise, Merlin felt himself nod off into a kind of trance in the white light of the moon, as he waited. He felt danger ahead, and sacrifice. He felt the land still crying out in it's wounding. And Arthur. It seemed to him that danger had already encompassed the King, but he told himself, he dare not lose hope. The sense of danger grew heavier. He thought that only a few heartbeats had passed, but he dimly heard Gwaine's heavy tread as he returned. He forced himself to his feet. He felt stronger.

"Hurry," said Merlin, as he took Excalibur from Gwaine's hand. He whispered a word, looking at the blade and his eyes blazed gold for a moment. Excalibur shone with a faint blue light and Merlin whispered.

"The dead warriors are near. They may have Arthur already."

The knight nodded, somehow unsurprised at the sudden evidence of his friend's power, and followed along behind him, delighted and frightened. As they neared the gate of that crossed the moat, there was a sudden stench. They turned off the main road and Merlin showed the way to the hidden part of the stream. They did not find Arthur. They found only trampled grass and mud by the edge of the water. The smell of death was overwhelming.

Merlin shivered. He stumbled again, as he took a step forward into the water. He fell to his knees almost immediately. He froze for a long moment.

"The Morrigan," he said hoarsely. "Beahn nighe."

Gwaine did not understand, but he pulled his friend out of the water, hauling him to his feet. Merlin's eyes seemed to refocus and he panted to regain his breath. The servant looked down at his blue shirt for a moment, as if it haunted him. He looked up at Gwaine with a strange look in his eyes. There was both sadness and a plea for forgiveness in his aspect, but that look quickly changed into the steel of warrior. Then Merlin turned and scrambled madly down the bank to get closer to the water again. He was peering intently across the stream. There was a clear trail of crushed plants and mud churned up on the other side of the stream as well. The knight tried to stop him, but Merlin shook Gwaine off and plunged across the water, falling into the mud, as he neared the shore, in his haste. He sank his hands down into the earth. He closed his eyes as if he was searching with some other power. He turned around and looked up at Gwaine, once more. There was stark terror in his eyes.

"Ruadan has captured Arthur. They're heading back to the site where they built the trebuchet. This is their trail."

Gwaine felt his heart drop.

"Do you trust me," said Merlin softly, rising to his feet again. He held his muddy hand out to the longhaired knight. "I can get us there quickly, if you trust me." Gwaine nodded and wondered what Merlin was going to do.