Again thank you all for all of your support and reviews! You are all amazing! Btw sorry for the poor grammar in the review response last chapter, I was really tired when I wrote it and I looked back at it a few days later and gosh it was horrible... Anyway I feel a whole lot better now, thank you for all the 'get well's you sent me! ;)
Review response:
HiddenMagician: Thank you! I love Merlin!whump in general, so I know how you feel ;)
Grell Phantomhive: Thank you, thank you, thank you! Your reviews always makes me smile! :D Yeah, I feel like Merlin is an extremely loyal character and I really wanted the knights to see just how loyal he is even though his secret is out, so this was kind of an important part of the story for me to write. I'm really happy you liked it!
dandelionseeds: awww, thank you so much!
1Buffalos & Guest (Because you both wrote pretty much the same thing ;)) : Thank you both for your tips! As I have said before english isn't my native language so yeah, I might make a few grammar mistakes here and there. ;) About the POV thing, I have considered marking when I change POVs, but I personally prefer it like this because I change between persons so much that I feel it would disturb the flow a bit. I will however mark when I change setting in the story. Again though, thank you for your tips and hope you'll keep enjoying the story! :)
kracken96: Thank you so much for your kind words! At least one of your questions is going to be answered below... enjoy ;)
Wicked Eyes: Thank you! Yeah, I know, he meant to be quite a bit annoying ;)
KIMMIKY: I wish life was that easy... that would seriously have been awesome though ;) Thank you so much for your review!
LittleDragon333: Hahaha, thank you so much! I'm so happy you're enjoying the story ;) Also thanks for the concern, I do feel a lot better now :)
mersan123: As always, thank you for your kind words and your support ;)
Now... please enjoy...
Odin watched with growing anger as the sorcerer's eyes turned blank.
No one dared to move, not even Ricon, in fear of attracting the king's attention. The silence was almost too heavy to bear.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Odin hollered with furious voice as he rose from his throne and marched to where Merlin now sat motionless on the floor.
"How dare you speak to me like that you filthy little sorcerer!" Odin clenched his fist and punched Merlin hard across the face. The fist landed by Merlin's left cheekbone and his head snapped to side.
Merlin let out a pitiful groan but otherwise didn't respond to the punch. That only enhanced Odin's frustration.
This time Gwaine actually did take a step forward and Elyan was forced to forcefully pull him back. Thankfully Gwaine soon regained his senses and didn't put up a fight. He let Elyan pull him back, his eyes never leaving Merlin, and started cursing under his breath.
Elyan looked around and thanked God when he realized no one had seen them, everyone's attention was instead focused on the king and the sorcerer at the center of the room. Reluctantly he too turned his eyes to the commotion. He didn't want to watch this, but he knew they had to. Arthur needed to know exactly what Odin was doing to Merlin.
"You are pathetic! Do you hear me?! PATHETIC!" Odin shouted and took a rough hold of the black chain connected to the collar around Merlin's neck and dragged him back up again, as if he was disciplining an insubordinate dog.
"Your precious king doesn't care about you, to him you are nothing but a worthless servant! But that doesn't even matter anymore and do you know why, Emrys? Because you are mine." The king had started grinning once more and now had a crazed glint in his eyes.
Odin ripped off his neckless where a certain key was hanging and proceeded to hold it before Merlin's unseeing eyes.
"See this, Emrys? Only I have the key to your freedom and unless you swear your allegiance to me, I swear to you, I will make sure you die the most gruesome death imaginable within these very walls."
Elyan and Gwaine's eyes widened at the sight of the key, but they were soon distracted again when Odin continued his rant.
"But don't trick yourself into thinking I will make it easy for you. No, no, no. I will make sure you suffer every step of the way. You know you can't take this much longer, your mind is slipping away, sooner or later you're going to let your guard down and I will be there when you do!"
Odin put his key down in his pocket and gripped Merlin's chin harshly to bring his face up.
"Mark my words, Emrys," he hissed, "for I will not rest before I have found a way to make your power mine."
Odin let go of Merlin's chin, stood up and turned his attention to Ricon.
"I want him chained to the floor by the feet of my throne, so that he will learn his place." He said with malice as he glanced back down to Merlin. "This room will be guarded at all times by half a dozen guards on the inside and another four outside the door. Double the guards patrolling the nearby corridors, we are not taking any risks."
Ricon lowered his head and was just about to turn when Odin interrupted his actions.
"Bring me the girl too, we don't want him to lose his mind completely. Not yet anyway."
Once again Ricon turned away and started to make his way to the door.
"Just one more thing, general," Odin called, "if anything goes wrong, anything at all, I will personally see to your execution."
Ricin tensed, but otherwise hid his fear well. Instead of showing further emotions he turned to the six guards on the left side of the room.
"You!" He barked at them. "Stay here and make sure the sorcerer is secured until the chains are brought up."
He adverted his gaze to the two guards by the door. "You! Get me the chains!"
"And you four!" He said to the remaining guards, including Gwaine and Elyan. "Dismissed."
When Ricon was finished barking orders at his men he stormed out of the room, not looking back.
Gwaine and Elyan followed his suit as quickly as they deemed unsuspicious. They left the room in silence and kept walking for several long, agonizing minutes before they reached one of the castle's more deserted parts consisting of slim corridors and sharp turns.
Only when they reached a dead end in one of these slim corridors when they hadn't seen a guard in the last ten minutes Gwaine aloud himself to let out his frustration.
"That sick, sadistic bastard! When I get my hands on that snake I am going to make him regret the day he was born! I'm going to make him pay!" Gwaine's voice was gaining volume as he was pacing up and down the corridor with a murderous look in his eyes.
"Gwaine, I need you to calm down." Elyan tried with low voice. "We can't risk attracting attend…"
"Calm down?! You seriously expect me to calm down?!" Gwaine turned sharply and fixed his eyes on Elyan. "Did you not see what I just saw?! Or did you just happen to forget that Merlin is practically, in this very moment, being tortured by that damned collar around his neck? Or that Odin intends to use him as some kind of magical slave against his will? Or that he was completely helpless while being beaten and abused and we stood by and did nothing?"
Gwaine's angry resolve broke and he looked, maybe for the very first time Elyan had every seen, utterly vulnerable.
"We did nothing." He repeated with a sad, soft voice.
Gwaine turned away again and dragged his hands through his hair. When he turned back the vulnerability was gone, replaced by pure rage.
"I will kill Odin for this." Gwaine growled.
Elyan kept quiet, not entirely sure Gwaine would listen to reason right now.
"Really, Elyan, how can you not be the least bit riled up?" Gwaine asked, agitated. "Do you even care about Merl…"
Elyan pushed Gwaine up the wall, efficiently cutting him off.
"Don't you dare finish that sentence, Gwaine." He hissed quietly. "Don't trick yourself into thinking you're the only one who cares about Merlin. Trust me I want Odin dead just as much as you do, but this is not the time to go about taking rash decisions. So I need you to calm down."
Elyan let go of Gwaine and took a few steps back. Gwaine took a deep breath. When he met Elyan's eyes again he had calmed down considerably.
"I'm sorry, Elyan. That was uncalled for."
"It's fine. I understand how you're feeling." Elyan sighed, relieved to be having a calm and collected conversation with Gwaine again.
Neither of the knights said anything for a couple of minutes, both trying to process and think through what had happened the last half hour. Behind them sunbeams had now found their way in through a window in the stone wall.
"How long till noon?" Gwaine suddenly asked.
"Judging by the sun's current position, I would say no more than one hour." Elyan answered and then put his hand on his forehead. "God, how are we going to tell Arthur?"
Now it was Gwaine's turn to be quiet. He knew, just as well as anyone else, that Arthur and Merlin cared deeply for each other. They sure didn't act like it sometimes, but deep down they were like brothers.
"There is no telling what his reaction will be," Elyan continued as he started pacing, "but my guess is that its going to be pretty damn similar to yours."
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Gwaine said. "Right now we need get them in here, because we are not getting Merlin out on our own."
"Yeah, we need to get out of the castle and find that escape door through the outer wall."
For the first time since they had entered the throne room Gwaine actually smiled.
"Come on then," he said, "lets go invite our friends into this hellhole."
Half a mile away in a cave Leon sat, on alert, looking out among the trees, searching for unwanted guests. Behind him Arthur was lying on the floor in deep sleep.
Leon was, to say the least, relieved when Arthur finally had fallen asleep. The first few hours he had been restless, twisting and turning and murmuring. Leon had almost woken him several times fearing the reason for his restlessness might nightmares. He hadn't though, concluding all sleep, however restless, was too important to the king to be disturbed.
The sun had risen high on the sky by now and Leon knew noon wasn't far away.
With one last sweeping gaze through the trees he turned to the sleeping king. Leon knelt down by Arthur's side, lightly ceased one of his shoulders and shook it softly.
Arthur turned his back to Leon, with his eyes still shut, and started mumbling.
"Go away, Merlin. I want to sleep."
Leon tensed. "Arthur, it's Leon."
Arthur turned back to Leon and, in his sleep-drunken state, looked at him with confusion.
"Where's…" His question died out as realization hit him. He quickly adverted his eyes from Leon.
"Right." He mumbled under his breath.
Arthur stood up and brushed himself off. His gaze was immediately drawn to the cave opening and the light.
"How long till noon?" He asked hastily.
"About an hour." Leon answered.
"Anything new?"
"No, not that I know of."
Both their eyes snapped back to the opening as they heard an twig snap outside. Without even looking at each other they quickly stood on either side of the opening with swords in their hands.
They heard footsteps coming closer, then stopping right before the opening. Arthur cast Leon a glance and Leon gave a nod.
Arthur charged. His sword immediately clashed with another and then he looked up and couldn't help but crack a smile.
"Percival!" He said surprised.
"You're awake then." Percival smiled back. But his smile quickly faded and he turned serious.
He turned to look at Leon who now had come out of his hiding place.
"No sign of Elyan and Gwaine," Percival said, "we can only assume they haven't been able to free Merlin by themselves."
Leon and Percival both turned to Arthur, waiting for orders. Arthur tensed his jaw and met their eyes, now fully awake and determined.
"Well what are we waiting for?" He said. "Lets go give them a hand."
The knights are ready to take action, how will it go? Next chapter up on Thursday... Or Wednesday if you leave 15 reviews or more ;) Until then I hope your all having a great couple of days!
Love,
summergirl404 ;)
