A/N: I hope everyone had a lovely holiday last week (for those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving). My regular beta has had a family emergency to cope with and has been unable to look this chapter over. This is essentially un-beta'd so any errors you find are all on me. I have gone over it several times trying to catch any typos. There is only one chapter left to go after this one but I will wait for one of my beta's to have time to look it over before posting. Thanks for the patience.
Enjoy,
Alice I
Chapter Twelve
Uther took a moment to register what he was seeing in his son's bed chamber. Arthur lay on his bed either sleeping or unconscious, his left leg in some sort of plaster molding and propped up on a stool next to the bed. His court physician was kneeling on the floor over Arthur's man servant who lay unconscious on the floor with a large bloody stain covering a clumsy looking bandage tied around his midriff. The fact that Uther had seen no sign of an injury on the boy earlier forced him to draw the conclusion that an attack had taken place inside this room.
"Guards!" he bellowed in a thunderous voice as he stepped into the room drawing his sword.
Years of experience in battle had honed the King's reactions and he instinctively scanned the corners and hidden recesses of the room ready to spot and fend off an intruder. Upon seeing no one else in the room he turned his attention to Gaius.
"What has happened here?"
Gaius was startled speechless for a moment by the King's actions, but recovered quickly.
"Sire, wait! It's not what you think!" he said, breathlessly.
The sight of Uther Pendragon armed and ready for battle was quite formidable especially from the vantage point of someone kneeling on the floor. Before Gaius could say anything else two men dressed in the garb of the royal guard charged through the door. When they saw the King with his weapon drawn they too drew their swords looking around for the threat. Seeing no one beside the king the physician, the prince and a servant lying unconscious on the floor they looked to Uther awaiting instructions. The king sheathed his sword and indicated that the guards do the same.
"How was the boy injured, physician?"
Gaius relaxed visibly as the weapons were put away and answered as he checked Merlin's pulse.
"I would imagine that this happened while fighting off the thieves who attacked Arthur in the forest."
Uther's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "I saw no wound when we met the knights beyond the city gates."
Gaius shook his head sadly. "He hid the wound from Arthur. I, myself, didn't realize he was wounded until he nearly collapsed after he helped me set Arthur's leg."
Just as Gaius spoke Gwen rushed in through the door carrying the supplies the physician had asked for. When she saw the guards and Uther she stopped dead in her tracks not knowing if she had appeared unseemly in her haste. Then she saw Merlin lying on the floor and any thoughts of propriety swept from her mind.
"Oh, Merlin! Gaius is he...? I came back as quickly as I could. I have your rounds kit and the towels and some linen sheets, and... and..." Gwen stammered in near hysterics.
Gaius spoke in a soothing voice to try and calm the girl. "Merlin has collapsed from the wound, but he is not dead." Gaius turned his attention to the king. "I need to get him up off the floor."
Uther motioned to the guards to lift the boy up as Gwen quickly cleared the table, it being the only place they could lay him down. Once they got Merlin on the table Gaius instructed the men to hold him up in a sitting position so he could remove the makeshift bandage the boy had fashioned and examine the wound. As soon as the material fell away the wound began to bleed freely. The wound on the boy's front where the sword entered his body was about three inches in length and the exit wound in the back was slightly smaller. The skin surrounding both wounds was hot, red and puffy. Gaius turned to Gwen who stood at the end of the table with a horror struck expression on her face.
"Gwen, I need a towel and some clean water."
The girl's eyes never left her friend as she nodded, yet she stood unmoving for a moment longer. Then she seemed to come to her senses and grabbed up a clean white towel from the small stack she had snatched up from a laundry maid walking through the corridors and shoved it into the physician's hands before she ran once again from the room to fetch water.
Gaius carefully placed the towel over the exit wound in Merlin's back and with the help of the guards gently laid him down on the table.
"Thank you." he said, to the guards who took that as a dismissal and quietly left the room.
Uther stood at the foot of Arthur's bed deep in thought as Gaius rummaged through his medical kit pulling out items he would need to tend to Merlin.
"Extraordinary." The king said, softly.
Gaius looked up at Uther puzzled. "Sire?"
"How is it possible that this boy was able to fight off two skilled swordsmen, rescue Arthur and get him all the way back to Camelot from the Knavesmire Wood with such a grievous wound?"
Gaius paused in his work for a moment and made sure he had the king's full attention. "Loyalty, Sire. Merlin may not be a knight of Camelot or skilled with a sword, but he is Arthur's friend. You of all people should know how strong the bonds of friendship and loyalty can be."
Uther looked behind him at his sleeping son, then back to the slight and broken figure of his man servant lying on the table in front of him.
"Merlin spoke of a bond between them, that day when he helped me into my armor before I fought the wraith. Is it possible that this bond - this friendship - that has grown between them is the reason that Nimueh wasn't able to use Merlin as a weapon against Arthur? Could friendship be a strong enough force to subvert magic?"
Gaius knew perfectly well what the sorceress had in mind when she attacked Merlin, but he wasn't about to dissuade this line of thinking in the king.
"Yes, sire. If the bonds of love and friendship are strong enough, I do believe that they can overcome anything, including dark magic. The malaise that Merlin experienced could easily have been a manifestation of an internal struggle within his heart."
Uther nodded still deep in thought. After a moment he looked up at Gaius who was still staring directly at the king.
"Loyalty and friendship won."
"Yes, Sire, undeniably."
"How serious is this wound? Can you save him?" Uther asked, earnestly as he approached the table.
Gaius' expression grew sad and pensive.
"The wound itself isn't as grave as it could have been which is most likely why Merlin was able to do everything that he did for Arthur. It is far to the left of the abdomen; far enough to have missed his kidney and stomach..."
Gaius' voice fell off and Uther said, "But?"
"The wound is infected. If the bowel was pierced, there is little hope, Sire."
Uther understood why his court physician was so grim. He had skinned and gutted more than enough animals to be marginally familiar with internal anatomy, and how easy it would be to pierce the twisting loops of intestine that occupied a majority of the space inside the body. As a warrior, he had seen a multitude of wounds sustained in battle. He had seen what a sword wound to the abdomen could do to a man, especially if infection set in. It was a slow and agonizing way to die. Somehow, whether due to undying loyalty, friendship, or just plain stubborn perseverance this frail, seemingly insignificant boy had done more for Arthur than any of his knights ever had. It was wholly remarkable and Uther fervently hoped the boy would recover.
Gwen rushed back into Arthur's chambers carrying a bucket of water. Her face was flushed and she was breathless having run the whole way. Gaius had taken out a wooden bowl with a groove cut into it's lip for pouring. While he and Uther spoke the physician had taken a hard cake of dried yellow woundwort and began crushing it up in the bowl using a stone pestle until it was a fine powder. He added some of the fresh water and mixed it up until he has a yellow colored wash.
Merlin had begun to move, moaning slightly as he rolled his head from side to side, his eyes trying to open and focus. Gaius looked up at the king and asked, "Sire, could you recall one of the guards. I will need strong arms to hold him down while I wash out the wound. The woundwort is an astringent and will be painful, but it will stop the bleeding and cleanse the wound."
Uther stepped forward squaring his shoulders. "Tell me what you need done."
Gaius only allowed surprise to show on his face for an instant then he replied, "His arms and legs must be held down. When I apply the wash he will feel great pain."
Gwen immediately stepped up to the table and practically lay across the young man's knees. Uther took a hold of Merlin's arms raising them over his head to remove his hands from the physician's work area and held him tightly by the shoulders and upper arms. Merlin was only semi-conscious, but Gaius spoke to him in a clear strong voice.
"Merlin, this is going to hurt quite a lot. I'm very sorry, my boy, but try not to fight."
The physician wasted no time. He made sure both Gwen and Uther were ready then he poured the wash directly into and over the wound in Merlin's side. The yellow fluid immediately fizzed over the surface of the skin and bubbled up out of the open wound creating a yellowish foam that mixed with the blood. Both Gwen and Uther were hard pressed to keep the young man's limbs still as he screamed in agony writhing in pain. Gaius instructed Uther to turn the boy's shoulders half way to the right so that he could apply more of the wash to the wound in his back. He looked carefully and after pouring the rest of the wash over the exit wound he was pleased to see that the bleeding was already slowing considerably.
After the initial shock of pain Merlin fell into a weak mumbling protest and stopped struggling much to Gwen's relief. She was a very strong young woman having honed her muscles with a lifetime of manual labor, but Merlin's legs nearly kicked her to the floor when Gaius first applied the cleansing astringent. Now with the young man turned up toward his side Gaius used the towel that was now wet and bloody to wipe off the rest of the blood and woundroot wash from his body.
"Gwen, see if you can turn his legs and hips. I need him on his side so that I can begin to stitch these wounds."
Between the three of them they got Merlin securely positioned on the table on his right side so that Gaius could begin his work. Uther stepped back as the physician began sewing up Merlin's wounds. He moved around the bed and more closely examined the plaster mold around Arthur's lower leg. He saw that the plaster was still wet and only went down the sides. He realized that the physician must need to apply a coat to the bottom before the mold would be finished. Arthur tossed his head slightly frowning in his sleep. Uther thought that he might be in pain and gently stroked the side of his son's face trying to calm his inner torment.
Gwen turned out to be an excellent assistant to the physician and with her help he finished stitching the sword wounds in short order. He applied a yarrow poultice to both wounds and then used the linen strips that Gwen had brought to bandage him around his waist. Once he was finished he moved around the table to stand in front of Merlin and began to untie the handkerchief wrapped around his forearm. That wound was deep but far less troubling than the sword wound. It too showed signs of infection, but milder. He made up more of the astringent wash and had Gwen hold Merlin's hand very tightly while he held the boy's upper arm. Merlin moaned loudly and rolled to his back as the wash worked on the gash in his arm but not nearly as violently as he had before.
"Merlin!" Arthur called out in a slurred voice as he tried to move.
Gaius looked over at Arthur and spoke sharply as his casted leg was close to falling off the stool. "He must not move! I have not finished with the cast."
Uther once again stroked his son's face calming him as his eyes darted back and forth under closed lids, and carefully pushed the young man's leg back to the center of the stool. "Rest now, Arthur. Merlin will be fine. Gaius will take good care of him."
Uther's tone was so gentle that it sounded utterly foreign to Gwen's ears, but it did seem to calm the prince. By the time that Gaius had cleansed the wound on Merlin's right arm and left hand the boy was shivering and delirious. The physician placed his hand on Merlin's face and felt the heat of fever radiating from the boy. The infection had set in and he needed to be in bed. He still needed to stitch up the wound on the boy's arm but he needed to be in bed and covered first.
"Sire, Merlin needs to be taken to my chambers so that he can be covered before I begin to stitch this wound."
Uther got up and opened the ornate chest that sat near the foot of Arthur's bed pulling out a spare blanket and covered the shivering boy with it before gathering him up in his arms, much to the shock of both Gwen and Gaius. He stepped over to the door and waited for Gwen to open it. Once out in the corridor the King did not turn toward the exit to the courtyard, but in the opposite direction causing the physician and Gwen to frown in confusion. He turned and stopped at the door to the chamber next to Arthur's and waited for the maid to open it for him. He walked directly up to the rich four poster bed against the left wall of the chamber and after Gwen pulled down the bed linens he gently laid the boy down and turned to Gaius.
"You need to attend to both Arthur as well as his man servant and it makes no sense for you to travel between your chambers and here. Arthur needs you to be near him and so does Merlin.
"Indeed." Gaius replied with an unreadable expression on his face. "It will take me some time to stitch up this wound. By then the cast on Arthur's leg should be dry enough for me to coat the bottom with plaster. Perhaps you could sit with Arthur and make sure his leg doesn't move until I can return to finish with him."
Uther nodded his understanding and left the room quietly. Gwen and Gaius watched with nearly stunned looks on their faces as the king left. Gaius had taken up his rounds kit as they left Arthur's room and he set it down on the table next to the bed looking through it for what he needed to stitch up Merlin's arm. Gwen pulled a chair over to the side of the bed for the physician to sit on and went back to Arthur's chambers for a moment to gather up the towels and linen bandaging before returning to assist Gaius.
Uther paid Gwen no heed as she entered the room and gathered up the physician's supplies before bowing slightly and retreating from the chamber. Uther's attention was on Arthur. He took two of the cylindrical shaped pillows from Arthur's bed and fitted them on either side of his son's casted leg trying to help keep it still. It was clear that Arthur was beginning to arouse from the drugged slumber that he was in. The prince's eyes slowly opened and he turned his head trying to focus on the face staring down at him.
"Wa 'appened?" Arthur's asked, in a drug slurred voice.
Arthur tried to sit up in bed and found that strong arms held his shoulders down.
"Arthur, lie still. Gaius was very specific about you not moving your leg until he can finish making this plaster mold."
Arthur was still woozy from the drugs and looked around, but not seeing the physician he frowned. "Where is Gaius?"
Uther sat up straight in the chair next to Arthur's bed. "He is tending to Merlin's wounds. He'll be back to finish with you when this is dry enough." Uther said, glancing down at his son's leg.
Arthur looked down as well and saw the plaster contraption surrounding his lower leg. He experimentally tried to wiggle his toes but that caused a sharp pain to shoot through his leg and he dropped his head back on the pillow squeezing his eyes shut as the pain subsided. He seemed to drift off back into sleep for several long minutes when rather suddenly his head shot back up.
"What? What do you mean Merlin's wounds?" Arthur looked up at his father and saw the king look away. "I thought, wait, was he injured? He was, wasn't he?" Arthur tried to think back to the events of the day. His thoughts were still sluggish with the after effects of the drug, but he clearly remembered the sword fight in the forest, or at least what he was able to see of it past the body of the dead horse pinning him to the ground. "That's right, his arm was cut. I remember. His hand as well."
Uther was looking at Arthur with an odd expression on his face and Arthur felt his stomach tighten up. The look in his father's eyes resembled pity, but that made no sense. He suddenly felt the strong desire to see Merlin. He didn't understand why, but some part of him told him that something wasn't right. He could almost hear a remembered voice - a scream of agony. He thought it had been a dream.
"When you were attacked, Merlin took your sword and fought off the thieves." Uther said, without looking at Arthur.
"Yes, father I was there I know that. It was rather amazing actually. He is a complete buffoon with a sword and yet he still somehow managed to..." Arthur trailed off as his befuddled mind began to put things together. "His arm was cut pretty deeply, and his left hand. I remember tying that silly neckerchief he always wears around his arm for him."
Uther sat forward and placed a hand on Arthur's shoulder. "You servant's wounds were not limited to his hand and arm, Arthur."
Arthur was determined to sit up at this point. He shot straight up in bed visibly wincing as his leg moved. Uther grabbed all of the pillows on the bed and stacked them up behind his son and guided him back into them while Arthur spoke sounding almost frantic.
"What do you mean his wounds were not limited? We walked all the way back from the Knavesmire Wood together. If he had another wound I would have known about it. Now tell me father, where is Merlin? What happened to him?"
Uther remained in position to keep Arthur from moving as he spoke. "During the course of the sword fight with that thief, Merlin was run through, Arthur.
Arthur looked on incredulously. "What? That is impossible. How could I not have known that? If he had been run through, as you say, then tell me how he was able to kill Gavin, knock out Evan and tie him up, dig me out from underneath a thousand pound dead animal, splint my leg, and then practically carry me back to Camelot. That just isn't humanly possible. You must be mistaken. I'm sure that Merlin is just fine. Maybe he has a scratch or two, but he was most certainly not run through!" Arthur voice rose with each word becoming more frantic and desperate with the passing until it almost sounded as though he were pleading.
Uther shook his head slightly and sighed. "What he was able to do, was indeed remarkable. I would never have imagined him capable of it, certainly not after the encounter with Nimueh."
"This can not be."
"Arthur, I was here when Gaius tended to his wounds. I assure you that what I have told you is true. At some point during the fight in the wood, your servant was pierced through his middle. The injury was far to the side and there is a possibility that he will recover, but I saw the wounds with my own eyes."
Arthur was silent for a moment. "I can't believe it. Why? Why wouldn't he tell me that he was hurt?"
"Perhaps he felt that you would have reacted badly if you knew of his injury."
Arthur slapped his forehead. "Idiot! I told him to leave me. I ordered him to go to Camelot and get help, but he refused. He said he wouldn't leave me. That's it! That's why he wouldn't tell me about the wound, but I still can not believe he was able to do what he did, injured so gravely."
"Loyalty and friendship are powerful forces, Arthur. Gaius believes it was what allowed him to overcome the enchantment Nimueh placed on him."
Arthur thought about what Merlin said to Gavin; that he would die before he let him hurt Arthur. Is it possible that the words that his servant spoke were more than just a bluff to get the man to back down as Merlin claimed?
"I want to see him." Arthur said, in a firm tone.
"You will go nowhere until Gaius has finished with your leg and clears you to move around. Arthur, I understand that you are concerned for Merlin, it is understandable, but you must put your priorities in order."
Arthur was getting angry. "My priorities? Father, he was willing to die to keep me safe. My priority is clear. I want to see Merlin. I must know how badly he is hurt!"
The door to Arthur's chamber opened as he spoke and both men turned their heads to see Gaius standing there.
"Arthur, you must remain still and in bed until I finish your cast, and even beyond that, I'm afraid. If your leg does not heal properly you could be lame the rest of your life."
Gaius' words stopped Arthur's automatic retort. The thought of being lame, unable to fight, unable to fulfill his duties as prince or eventually as king made him take pause.
"Please, Gaius, tell me the truth. How badly was Merlin injured. He will recover won't he?"
Gaius came over and sat down on the edge of the bed and began to examine the cast. It was not yet dry but it was set well enough for him to begin making the rest of the plaster and apply it to the bottom.
"Gaius, please."
The old physician looked up into Arthur's eyes and the sadness reflected there scared the prince. "Merlin's wounds were not as serious as they could have been, but they have become infected. I assure you that I will do everything in my power to help him, but at this point only time can tell whether or not he will recover. Gwen is with him now tending his fever."
After a moment Gaius said, "Arthur, if the infection runs unabated he will die a slow and painful death. You must understand that if it becomes clear that there is no hope - I will not allow him to suffer."
Arthur could not believe what Gaius was saying to him. He understood all too well that the physician was right. A belly wound was a cruel and painful way to die, but he wouldn't allow himself to believe that Merlin wouldn't be alright, that he wouldn't recover from the injury. He refused to speak or even look at either the king or the court physician as Gaius finished his work on the young prince's cast. Both of the older men seemed to understand Arthur's need for silence and did not try to engage him in conversation. By the time Gaius had finished with his work and propped the now fully casted leg on the stool to dry, Arthur had sunk into a sullen mood that worried both the king and Gaius.
"I am truly amazed by how well your leg is responding, Arthur. There should be far more bruising and swelling than what is apparent. Honestly, I don't really understand it. I have seen and set more than enough broken bones to know that you are showing signs of healing that are nothing short of miraculous. It seems that you will heal from this broken leg very well, as long as you keep it elevated and don't try to do more than you should."
Arthur hardly registered what the physician had said and didn't respond. Gaius sighed and stood from the bed and walked over to his medical kit. He pulled out a small vial and set it on the table before turning back to the prince and the king.
"Arthur, you need to get out of those clothes and get cleaned up. Afterwards I want you to drink this and get some rest." Gaius said, indicating the vile an the table.
Gaius approached the bed to begin getting Arthur out of his chain mail, but stopped when Arthur held up his hand. "No Gaius, you need to go back to Merlin and take care of him. Father, get a couple of servants to come in here and help me with this."
Arthur's voice was strong and held no note of despondency. He couldn't do much to help his servant, but he could at least not occupy the physician's time with the menial task of changing him out of his clothes.
"As you wish, Sire." Gaius said, as he bowed then turned to gather up his supplies.
TBC
