Hello, thank you all for your messages and your obstinacy to read ^ ^
As usual I post chapter uncorrected until the correction ^ ^ so, sorry for all the mistakes ...
enjoy ^^
Chapter 14.
Before the confession of his friend, Merlin remained silent, open mouth, a mixture of incomprehension, of worry, of anger, but mostly of sadness. 'He had not actuallysaid he wouldkill him, isn't he?'
- "You say that to scare me, right?
- No.
- You really want to kill me just to hunting a man because he is practicing magic?" The young warlock began, totally stunned, unable to control his flow of words as every time his nervousness prevailed over his reason.
- "Merlin...
- Yes, okay, he does not look very friendly, and maybe he kills people but it remains to prove it because so far there is no proof of what you say ...
- Merlin...
- After all, we do not even know where you went to get this Ankou was a 'spectre' who 'collected souls', really...
- Merlin...
- It's insane, you wake up and you tell yourself: 'and if I sacrificed this poor Merlin in order to satisfy my revenge against magic'.
- Merlin...
- I cannot believe you want to kill me, alright, I'm perhaps not the ideal servant, I've made mistakes but I've alwaysbeen here in the most difficult moments, and I thought that after all these years I had become... your friend and ...
- STOP!" Arthur whispered and took a deep breath to try to relax "You still have that distressed look Merlin...
- What? That's it? That's all you have to say?
- No.If you stoppedcomplaining, you would notice that I asked two vials to Gaius, one for the poison and one for the antidote.
- So what, you want to resurrect me after killing me?
- Yes.
- That's... better... But you still want to risk my life for...
- If you want to know everything I do it to save your life instead! Alright? ... I'm just asking you to trust me Merlin... And it's not bothering to ask me more questions because I will not answer to any of them, distressed look or not.
- But...
- That's enough! Shut up ...we're arriving." Arthur said, down from his horse and relaxing the straps that bound his manservant from his own mount, but carefully avoiding to meet the eyes of the latter.
.
Merlin, always out of him, also ready to descend from his mare, carried away he took his foot in the stirrup and fell head first into the rock. He thought his last hour had come but powerful arms caught him in time before his head violently hitting the stone.
.
- "Be careful what you do! I have not done all that for you to die by falling of your horse... Do you really want to live to be so clumsy?" Arthur yelled, carrying and holding his friend tightly to him, feeling that his nerves were broken down for fear of losing this bumbling servant again. "What? What are you looking at?" He said under his breath when he saw the eyes of his friend staring at him strangely.
- "Are you crying?
- No.
- Why your eyes are so shining then?
- It is the sun, it dazzled me... but this is not the case of your wit, Merlin."
The King realized that he still had not released his grip of his servant, so he moved away from him with haste, looking totally imperturbable. "For the love of Camelot, watch where you put your feet... and stay close!" He said, falsely authoritarian, advancing slowly through the trees.
.
The young magician remained completely lost of the behavior of his Sovereign; he understood nothing and could only follow him in his silent torment.
.
- "They should not be long now." The king whispered, after a few minutes of walk, taking place behind a bush with his valet, peering around discreetly.
- "Who that?
- The mercenaries...
- Huh? What mercenaries?
- Those who will arrive...
- What? But ...? ... What the...?
- Shut up Merlin, you're going to attract attention to us!
- But there is no one here apart from..."
Arthur grabbed the arm of his servant and pulled him down to the ground hearing the many steps run in their direction. He stared at him for a moment, seeing that he grinning oddly at the approach of the bandits.
- "What?
- I have this feeling...
- What feeling?
- I do not know...these mercenaries, the clearing, ... already seen...
- It's yourimaginationMerlin.
- I don't know, maybe. But...
- Silence!" The King then put his hand promptly on the mouth of his servant. "Do not move." He murmured in his ear, encircling his head with his arm when he saw the bandits come dangerously close.
.
Dozens of armed men passed right by them without noticing their presence, for their greatest relief. The young Sovereign waited patiently for several minutes after the path of the renegades, ensuring that they are well away and that they would not return on their way to slaughter them.
.
- "Ou... other...e... ith...yo...and...
- What?" The King asked without looking at his valet, peering around with his blue eyes on the lookout for danger.
- "...our... and!
- But what are you sa...?" Arthur inquired, turning his head towards an incomprehensible Merlin. Realizing then that he had not yet released his grip, he took hastily his hand off from the mouth of his friend. Oops.
- "You smother me with your hand!" Merlin repeated, despite the fact that he was finally free, still taking a deep breath.
- "Sorry ...
- Are you going to explain to me what happens? How did you know that these bandits would go through here?
- Luck I guess ..." Arthur said, casually, as he rose slowly from behind the thicket.
Merlin clenched his teeth from the unsatisfactory answer of his King, still lying on the rocky and muddy soil, watching him leave, furious, to the clearing, with a firm step. He joined him, and grabbed him by the shoulder to turn the man toward him.
.
- "I can't take it no more...tell me what happens!
- If you do not know yet, I'm the King and I gives orders...
- Oh, I know it very well, do not worry!...Tell me what happens... My Lord!"
Arthur smiled ironically, annoyed. Merlin will never change, always this insolence and outspoken than any other servant would never use... but that's what made him so special to him.
- "It would take too long to explain...
- Well, I have all the time!
- No, actually you do not have much time, and that's the problem ...
- A riddle again ... perfect!" The young warlock shouted with his arms raised to heaven.
- "Okay, okay, calm down, will you?
- Calm down? Calm down? You wake up mumbling strange questions, you do not allow me to walk alone in the palace, you ask Gaius for potions, whom I did not even know the existence of them, to kill me...and resurrect me, you carry me on my horse and tie me on him, you react like you know in advance what will happen, you talk about this Ankou as if you knew him perfectly and you say things that have absolutely no sense...
- That's it, you're done?
- No! Why did you...
- You die Merlin!" Arthur yelled, interrupting him, taking him by his shoulders with a gesture of despair "I relive that day over and over again and it inevitably ends with your death!" he finished, trembling, staring at his friend in the eye, pain reflected in his wet look.
Merlin was speechless. 'That explains a few things indeed...' He kept his eyes focused on the one of his King, he had never seen him also affected before.
- "But... I... well... how...
- I cannot explain everything yet, I'm just asking you to trust me and stop to ask me all these questions ... please." Arthur said slowly, releasing the shoulders of his friend, and turning to the clearing again. "The stick will likely to appear soon, the battle did not take so long ...
- The battle?"
Arthur blew, annoyed.
- "Uh...Maybe I should keep my mouth shut now?" Merlin mumbled a sorry grimace at his silent friend.
.
The King did not even wince at the remark of his servant; he scanned the ground in search of the famous pieces of the scepter. A few minutes later, two large gray rods appeared in a ray of light on the ground of the clearing only two steps from the Sovereign who knelt to take the sticks in his hand.
.
He swallowed hard, turned and looked at Merlin, stared at him strangely and then noisily inspired and expired by giving his attention on the broken scepter. He would commit the irreparable, violate one of the most important laws of his kingdom: use magic. For Merlin and for Camelot.
- "Beb…bo de þe ar…ari san re fe… feo ormi …an".
Nothing happened.
- "Bebo de þe ar…ari san refe… o ormian!" Arthur reiterated trying a better pronunciation.
- "But... what the hell are you doing?" Merlin was indignant when he heard the pseudo-spell from the lips of his King. "You state a spell? You make... you make... magic?
- I have no choice Merlin, it is the only way...
- But...
- Trust me! I have to manage to do it!" And he said the spell again, but still no change, still a scepter ... in two pieces.
.
Merlin could not believe his ears, Arthur, King of Camelot, tried his hand at magic. Against all expectations he was petrified... of happiness. It was perhaps the beginning of the end of all the lies for him, maybe he was finally becoming the King hoped, the one who would allow the practice of magic, the one who would accept him as he really is, without fear of the gallows. He smiled shyly, lost in thought, a trivial tear streaming down his pinkish cheek. Only his sweet dreams were interrupted by the angry cry of Arthur who could not reform the stick in any way despite his persistence in the diction of the spell. The smile of the servant then quickly turned grimace when the voice of Gaius crept into his head: 'Arthur will fail to re-forge the scepter by magic; he has no experience at all... it is you who must do it...'
Why he heard this sentence in thought, his guardian had even never said that? Seeing his hysterical King, Merlin does not ask himself more questions and quickly positioned himself behind his friend.
- "I think you should close your eyes to focus and articulate the spell louder!
- What? But what do you know, you, about magic? I do not see how the fact of close my eyes and scream that damn magic spell will help me to reform that thing!
- I've already seen sorcerer do it that way..." The young warlock said on the defensive.
- "How so? Which sorcerer? You know sorcerers? You hide me some...
- No, no! I am talking about sorcerers that your father executed, some of them had say spells and..." The servant desperately tried to argue, sinking into a cock-and-bull story.
- "Alright, alright, we have no time to equivocate about it anyway, I'll try it your way...it costs nothing to try..."
Arthur closed his eyes then, gathered the two pieces of the scepter from his hands and greatly inspired. Meanwhile, Merlin, always in the back of his sovereign, placed his hand forward and focused as possible waiting for his friend to dictate the spell, that he could also whisper it without the King would hear him.
- "BEBE ODE BEA RI ISAN REFEO ORMIAN!" Arthur yelled without worrying about his friend behind him.
- "Bebeode þe arisan refeormian" Merlin then murmured exactly at the same time. His eyes tingled of gold illumination, and a blinding light burst forth, and then be absorbed by the black stone at the top of the stick, in few seconds.
.
The scepter was reformed. No trace of a break anymore.
.
- "I managed, looking at it, oh Merlin, I did it, I 'glued' the damn thing... by magic, I've succeeded, it is incredible, I did it!" Arthur exclaimed, springing up, stick in his hand, soaking up the pride on his jovial face.
.
But he would have no response from his friend who was standing right behind him. He turned then to understand the silence of his servant and faced to a livid face.
.
- "Merlin?" He asked, worried.
- "What is that?
- What is that... what?
- These images in my head...? It's horrible!"
The young magician fell to his knees and poured the contents of his stomach on the scorched ground. Arthur rushed to his side, without really knowing what to do to relieve his friend.
- "What do you see Merlin?
- Me! And...I die... in many different ways!".
.
TBC.