Note: My apologies if anybody got two notifications for this chapter: I was having massive technical difficulties, and had to delete it and reupload. Also, I made a retroactive change: Blood Guard = Black Guard.

Morgause has been found, Kari has been taken, but they are both behind a powerful magical barrier. Can Durya and Sven help? Or do they need help?

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the recognizable characters.

The Royal Crest of Camelot

Chapter 14 – Lightning

How did you know to come? We think this is where they've taken Kari!

Clearly, an exchange of information was needed. Merlin nearly answered Durya's mental question aloud, but caught himself in time. In the flurry of audible questions and answers that followed, the chain of events came clear. Kari had been taken in the night, straight from her tent, by Morgause. Durya's people were gathering to try to take Kari back. The ruined keep had been under surveillance for three days now, but the barrier had prevented any exploration. Durya and Sven had come to inspect the magical barrier to decide what could be done.

"Do you know how many soldiers she has?" asked Arthur.

"We are unsure, but we believe at least seventy or so. There have been patrols of ten to twelve going and coming, at least four of those, and a new group of thirty just arrived about three hours ago. The members of the patrols wear the insignia of the Blood Guard. But the newcomers bear no mark at all, though they carry themselves like soldiers."

Arthur mulled this information over for a thoughtful moment and then began giving orders.

"Gwaine, Merlin, get ready to go back to camp as quickly as possible. We will pick up the horses, and head with all speed for Camelot. I will gather as many knights as can be called up on short notice, and lead them back here. If Morgause is here, and has Kari here, she may have Morgana prisoner here too."

"Sire," interjected Durya, "may I make a request? Could Merlin stay with us and meet you here when you return? We would guarantee his safety among our people, and he can communicate our plans to you when you arrive."

Arthur considered her narrowly, then turned a subtle questioning gaze to Merlin. Merlin nodded silently, and Arthur returned his stare to Durya.

"As a member of my staff, he may be at risk among your people. You can promise me that he will not be endangered by this?"

"I can."

"I hold you responsible for him."

"Arthur, I'm not a child," Merlin objected. "And I can take care of myself."

"You don't even have a sword."

"Since when do I need one?"

"That's right, you can hide behind trees."

"Prat."

"Idiot. We'll be back with reinforcements by morning." Arthur cuffed him lightly across the head; Gwaine bumped his shoulder and winked. Then they both strode off into the forest, and were quickly out of sight.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Durya and Sven spent some time examining the barrier. Merlin could not detect that they did anything to it, and Durya confirmed that when she sighed and said, "Best not to let her know we're here. And if I cast a spell on it, she'll know. Let's head back to camp."

Durya turned away from the barrier and led the way, winding through the forest along a game trail that wandered at an angle away from the ruined keep. Merlin found himself chatting with Sven, and the conversation wound its way to Katya's flowers. Upon hearing the story, Sven rubbed his forehead and ahead of them Merlin could hear Durya sigh. "With that child," said Sven, "you never quite know what's going to happen next. Magic just sort of spills out of her all the time. I think half the time she doesn't even know she's done it." The forest had thinned a bit as they walked, and now the game trail disappeared as it entered a broad green meadow. Durya dropped back to walk alongside Sven.

"Luckily," she added, "her impulses are always kindhearted, and so is her magic."

Merlin suddenly remembered the spies they'd uncovered, and the strange resistance to magic he'd discovered in Thomas. When he described the experience to Sven and Durya, they exchanged surprised glances.

"I think you've uncovered a Servant," said Sven. "And a newly trained one, too. There weren't many left after the Purge and all of them my age or older."

"Servants," prompted Merlin. "Who are they? What are they?"

"Before the Purge, the Servants were the sorcerers who functioned as the high priestesses magical protectors, assistants, spies, and so on, just as the Blood Guard provided physical protection. They were highly trained, and some of them were powerful in their own right, equal to the high priestesses though not consecrated to the gods. That effect you described, of magic sliding off of Thomas, that's a Servant's spell. A spell shield that powerful can be used to protect yourself or someone else. We were taught it to protect the priestesses…" He paused abruptly mid-sentence, then finished the sentence with an air of determination, "and ourselves in battle."

At the word 'we' Durya stopped and turned to Sven. He reached out and took her hand, stroking the back gently with his thumb.

"I spill my own secrets, my dear."

Durya said nothing for a moment, searching Sven's eyes, then seemed to shake herself slightly. She turned her attention to Merlin.

"Speaking of secrets, Emrys, I assume you want to keep yours. I had been thinking about you, and I made this for you." She dug into a pouch at her belt, and withdrew what seemed to be an acorn strung on a leather cord. When she handed it to Merlin, it seemed heavy for its size, and felt harder than it should, almost as if it had been turned to stone.

"You need a disguise. A way to be Emrys sometimes and Merlin sometimes, particularly here and now. This should do that for you. When you speak the spell," and she pronounced it for him, "all will see you as someone else. Try it now."

Merlin settled himself, closed his eyes and voiced the spell. He felt the quick slap of effort, and knew something had happened, but was not aware of any change until he looked down at his hands. His palms were broader, the backs dotted with blonde hair and weathered from sun. He looked up at Durya and Sven. Sven seemed surprised, Durya somehow pleased and distantly sad at the same time.

"I needed a form for you," she said quietly. "So I chose the form of my father as I remember him from many years ago, when I was a little child. You will not be recognized, for few live who still remember him, and they would be expecting to see a very old man." She paused, tilted her head and examined Merlin closely. "Your eyes didn't change, but everything else did. It was work well done, if I do say so myself."

Merlin spoke very gently. "Durya, how do you know how to do these things?"

"Training. Long ago. Now, Emrys, there are other spells that I think you would like to know. Let's begin with lightning. I can cast it by calling a storm. You, I believe, will be able to cast it from clear blue sky. Shall we try?"

-o-o-o-o-o-

By the time Durya was done with him, Merlin had learned several new uses for his magic. Most of them were fun, but lightning was just plain scary – Merlin wasn't entirely sure he really wanted to use it any time soon. The shield spell, well, he'd been so close. Every time I've dodged a magical attack I felt something, thought Merlin. That's what my magic was trying to do: make a shield. And both of those, by the end of the afternoon, Merlin could cast without speaking. Sven clapped him on the back.

"Not everyone can do that, Emrys. In fact, few can. Then again, you are Emrys."

The lesson having ended for the afternoon, Durya and Sven brought Merlin to a bustling encampment in the forest on the other side of the meadow. Geren was there, and at first Merlin couldn't understand why Geren was greeting him as if he were a stranger. Then he remembered that he was still in "Emrys" form. Durya whispered something in Geren's ear which made Geren laugh and come to clasp Merlin's forearm warmly in a warrior's greeting. "Hello, Merlin!" he whispered as he did so.

Merlin was introduced as Emrys, and generally welcomed, though some of the men kept trying to challenge him to various tests of magic. After a first defeat that lead to helpless laughter at finding leafy green vines growing rapidly out of his head, he caught the way of it. The next several matches resulted in opponents coughing up frogs, sprouting long grey beards, becoming magnets for empty pots and pans, or finding their knees stuck together. The shield spell, cast silently, had come in handy, and by the time the evening meal was ready, Emrys seemed to be welcomed all round – and respected.

Merlin was wiping the last of the stew out of his bowl with the last of a fresh hearth cake when a disturbance was raised from the meadow-side of the encampment. A young man, perhaps Gwaine's age, sprinted up to where Durya and Sven were sitting side-by-side on a log by the cook fire, and spoke urgently.

"Something's happening. That one large group of soldiers is leaving – all thirty men – and they have Kari with them. They are coming more or less this way, three on horseback, the rest on foot. I'm only minutes ahead of them."

The camp simply boiled. Everywhere people were moving. Men and women grabbed weapons, donned any armor they had, and gathered around Durya.

"Lead us to them," she said to the young man, and he turned to go, with Durya, Sven, Merlin, Geren, and most of the rest of the camp following.

The young man led them to the place in the meadow where Merlin, Durya, and Sven had entered it the day before. The warriors hid themselves in the undergrowth and behind the nearest trees on either side of the trail leading to the meadow, while the magic users found concealment a little farther away.

The wait was short, and the expected troop was soon in view. A horseman in black leather armor was leading, followed by several more men on foot, wearing the same kind of armor. In the center of the group, Kari was sitting astride another horse, hands tied to the saddle. That horse was being led by another soldier, and followed by the remaining soldiers, the last of those ahorse. Merlin remembered Durya's comment about the party of the thirty that had arrived a few hours before. She'd said they moved like soldiers. She's right, thought Merlin, and not only that, look at that armor – all alike. Something's odd here. They aren't brigands, but not wearing the Blood Guard insignia either. What is going on here?

When the front of the party was about to enter the meadow, and the rest of the party still strung out along the game trail, Durya shouted, "Now!"

There was a swift flight of arrows, and then battle cries as the men and women who had concealed themselves by the trail erupted from their hiding places and attacked the soldiers. Geren, near the head of the line, used his spear to neatly skewer the front rider. The horse, startled, reared and ran out into the meadow. Most of the other attackers, however, hadn't had quite the same effect. Leather armor had turned aside many of the inexpert blows, and now the soldiers turned to fight.

Merlin reared up and blasted two men into trees. What is it about that that's so satisfying? he wondered. Beside him, Durya had done the same to another of the soldiers, and another man beyond her was tossing sticks into the air and sending them rocketing at his opponents' heads. Sven and three other bowmen were sending arrow after arrow into the fray.

Durya's man to Merlin's other side, Merlin realized, was behaving somewhat oddly. He had stood up, stock still, and was staring fixedly at the horse on which Kari was riding. Kari, taking advantage of the distraction, was working at her bonds, trying to get herself untied, or at least detach the ropes from the saddle. The horse had raised its head, whickered, and now it tried to move toward the sorcerer watching it so intently. The soldier attending the animal grabbed its bridle and it obediently subsided.

That man needs to go, thought Merlin, and suiting action to words, chose that man as his next target. The soldier was blasted off far into underbrush, landing with a crunch. The horse, freed from his hand, ambled calmly through the trees to the sorcerer and stood still, allowing the man to cut Kari free and help her down. Then Geren was there, appearing as if out of the ether and crushing Kari to his chest. Merlin smiled, and turned to survey the battle.

Durya's warriors were winning, but only by sheer strength of numbers. Many of her fighters were down, either injured or dead. Of the soldiers in the black leather armor, there were only three still standing, two of which went down as even as Merlin watched. One soldier, however, had taking down his opponent, and was standing in the clear, at the edge of the meadow. He surveyed the situation and evidently came to some conclusion about it, for he turned and looked into the meadow. One of the horses was nearby. He ran up to it, vaulted into its saddle, gathered up the reins, turned it, and began to flee across the meadow.

Durya turned, and saw the escaping soldier. "Garth! Call it! Call the horse!" she shouted to the man on Merlin's other side.

Garth stared after the fleeing horse for a moment, then shook his head, "Too far – can't get in!" He took off running toward the meadow, as if hoping to close the gap.

Merlin tried to blast the escaping soldier out of the saddle, but couldn't quite reach.

They were fast running out of options. Merlin could still reach the man with lightning, but didn't want to do it. Something in him shrank at the thought of that death. It was a little too much like the pyre. Nonetheless, the man was getting farther away by the moment, his horse now running at its fastest gallop. Clouds were gathering in the dusky sky. Merlin remembered Durya saying she could only cast lightning by calling a storm, but it was going to take too long. Merlin made a decision.

He spoke the spell aloud for maximum control, and the lightning slammed down right in front of the horse's nose. The terrified animal tried to both plant its front feet and turn at the same time. Its rider, taken by surprise, flew off the horse's back and hit the ground with a sharp crack and a thud. He did not move. The battle appeared to be over.

-o-o-o-o-o-

By the time they had gotten everything sorted out, it was late at night. There was one prisoner, who was currently bound and gagged and being ignored. The wounded had been brought to shelter, and Kari had healed the worst of them with Geren hovering nearby. When she stood up and then staggered, after healing a woman who had taken a dagger clear through her arm, Geren had simply wordlessly scooped his wife up and walked out. Merlin had helped to bandage and dose the others, and they were resting as comfortably as could be expected. The three horses had been coaxed back to camp and tethered there, and the dead on both sides had been laid out, to be dealt with in the morning. Merlin fell into the space he'd been allotted in Durya's and Sven's tent and was asleep almost before he'd closed his eyes. Hopefully he'd get a bit of sleep before Arthur arrived the next morning.

Author's note: Hope you are enjoying the story! Please comment – it makes my day! The next chapter will cover the assault on the barrier and reunite our trio of boys. We're nearing the end of my tale – probably 2 or so chapters left depending on how I decide to split things up.