20 Premature relief

To his own embarrassment the King felt jealous when Arthur let go of him to be fiercely embraced by Merlin. "Dear Gods, I thought I'd never see you again."

"Me too."

Luckily it was quickly over. "Let's get out of here." Arthur went to a small door in the castle wall which looked neglected. "Badagere said we may have 15 minutes at best before anyone will find out that the Count is….indisposed."

"He let you go, just like that?" The King couldn't believe it.

"He send the guards in the corrridor away and he untied me as soon as we came here. He... but I'll explain everything later." Arthur pushed the door open and vanished into the small passage behind it. They unbolted a second door on the other side of the passage and found themselves outside the castle walls, with a meadow to cross under the very eyes of the castle guards and bowmen on the battlement before they would reach the shelter of the forest.

"Merlin, can you do something about them?" Uther found his son's casual handling of the wizard somewhat disturbing. So Arthur had known of his manservant's magic abilities for some time before Merlin had been arrested by the King.

"No problem!" The warlock's eyes flashed golden and he just ran off. "Follow me."

As Arthur just ran after his friend Uther had no other option but to follow suit. They reached the forest and darted under the trees, only to find themselves being apprehended by Arenboarth's group. Arthur was immediately swallowed by a mass of enthusiastic hugs with Merlin merrily hopping around in the crowd with him.

Uther found himself somewhat pushed aside. Arenboarth spotted him and joined him. "Congratulations, Uther. I never dared to believe you'd make it back safe, all three of you. Seems as if you were the better strategist after all."

Uther jumped alarmed at the sound of Blackrock's alarm bells but the Lord Druid only shrugged dismissively. "Don't worry. Now that you are with us, they could stumble over your feet without seeing or hearing you."

Arenboarth saw Uther's face when he looked over to the merry crowd once more. The Prince had seemingly lost himself in Guinivere's embrace while Leon was bear-hugged by Mirella. "It's hard to accept that they have a life of their own, isn't it?" the Druid said sympathetically.

"I'll never win him back! I've lost him" Uther suddenly said with utter certainty. Without another word he vanished into the brushwood, towards the place he could hear some horses pant. He had been gone for half an hour when Arthur came looking for him. It took the Lord Druid some persuasion to convince the Prince to give his father some peace before the great reunion. What finally won Arthur over was the argument that Uther would have trouble to cope with the emotionality of the occasion.

Therefore Uther wasn't disturbed while he lay in his tent and listened to the friendly commotion that went on an hour or two after the bulk of the group had reached the main camp. Naturally the Druids were all curiosity for the young man they knew next to nothing about except that their remote leader had been willing to bent his iron rules for the rescue of the son of the Druids' sworn enemy. Even to shelter this mortal enemy himself.

Only now, knowing that Arthur was safe, the King began to think about what was waiting for him in Camelot and he realized that his world had been shattered around him. Camelot's power and safety were significantly reduced, most of all by the loss in territory and money. The border countries' return to the Crown was imperative but what if young Count Antek was to bear, well, let's say, a minor grudge against the people who had murdered his father? With which army Camelot should re-conquer the territories? Who should be the Commander of such an expedition? There was only one thing Uther knew for sure: It wouldn't be Arthur. No matter what he said or did, he wouldn't set foot on Llanfair land again, ever.

To regain Camelot's trust and the royal authority wouldn't be exactly easy either. To lift the ban on magic after the severity with which he had pushed the law through, over and over again, to return home with a convicted sorcerer in tow, a sorcerer who doubtlessly was the hero of the day - it was all difficult and awkward enough. But additionally Camelot's Head Knight, from a family of ancient nobility, would return with a Druid wife and for Arthur's own obvious choice for a Queen……

"Maybe I should abdicate" Uther thought. "Yes, that's the only possible solution. I chuck the whole business and go fishing. I may not have a chance to have my son back but I have successfully raised a future King! Let Arthur see how he muddles through, I quit."

With this, at least momentarily, very comforting decision Uther felt himself slowly drift off to sleep, the relaxing certainty that there wouldn't be any of Llanfair's brutal letters in the morning still in his mind. When something furtively tugged at his sleeve, he shrugged it away. Stupid animal. Unfortunately the tugging didn't stop. Disproportionally enraged by the harmless disturbance Uther jumped to his feet, almost knocking over Merlin in the process. "What the heck is it now? Why aren't you celebrating with the others? Seems to be the thing to do right now, at least for everybody else!"

"I have to speak to you, Your Majesty." Merlin's face was pale and strained.

"For the Gods' Grace, why me? Go and speak with Arthur! After all you did for him he could at least pull himself free of this woman's arms long enough to lend you his most august ear for five minutes! As for my part it's all over!"

"That's the problem, Your Grace. Nothing is over. I killed Llanfair, or as good as, but I didn't break the Di'inshara. It's….dormant for the moment but as soon as Llanfair is dead the bond will come to life. He will try to pull himself back into our world by this bond."

Uther felt the horror he had only just shook off return to him. He refused to let it sink in. Not again. "Then let him" he said. "I give a damn whether he haunts these godforsaken castle walls at night. Let him howl to the moon like the old wolf he was to all eternity for all I care!"

Sadly Merlin shook his head and Uther thought that, if he never were to see this special kind of sadness in these dark blue eyes again, he would consider himself fortunate indeed. This expression seemed to be exclusively reserved for a Pendragon catastrophe.

"With all due respect Your Grace, but you do not understand. The rule is always the same. A life for a life. I killed the Count to give his son's life back and once Llanfair is dead he will use…."

The King surrendered to reality. "My son" he finished Merlin's sentence.

The warlock bent his head and nodded. "Yes. If I can't break the Di'inshara once Llanfair is dead, Arthur will die within two days." Reflexively Merlin tried to explain that he wasn't to blame, at least not entirely. "You see, it wasn't possible to do it all at the same time, to cast a death spell, to protect you and to weaken the bondage Arthur was under sufficiently to get him out of Blackrock. I had somehow hoped that, once we had him out, the Druids could shield him but Arenboarth is affirmative that they can't."

Uther's heart missed a beat when the warlock looked up again. "There would have been only one way to break the Di'inshara for good then and there and I…I didn't think that to be an acceptable option."

"What option?" the King asked albeit he knew he didn't want to hear the answer.

"You remember that Arthur entered the bargain with Llanfair for your life" Merlin began ponderously.

"Yes, what of it?"

"The Count swore that neither he nor his men would kill you. If I had provoked him to take your life, by magical means or otherwise…the deal would have been off."

"Arthur would have been free and you could have finished the old wolf with a blink of your eye." Uther felt his stomach turn. "Why didn't you do it?" he said. "I never really thought I'd go back home anyway. After all I did to you, why on earth did you endanger your friend's life once more for me?"

"Your son loves you" Merlin replied stubbornly. "He needs you. And I have sworn to bring you both out of this."

"And how does the great master sorcerer intend to do that?"

Merlin shrugged. "It's simple, really. As soon as Arthur shows the first symptoms I will go back to Blackrock as fast as I can and I will try…., I mean, I will finish what I started. I know how. It took some persuasion but in the end Arenboarth told me, on the condition that I never…. But that's not important right now."

"I bet it is. It wouldn't be that the high and mighty Lord Druid said that you'd never be able to come back to the Druids, would it?"

Merlin was a picture of misery when he nodded.

"Well, we shall see about that!" Uther was already on his way out but the warlock blocked his path.

"You mustn't quarrel with him, he only does what he thinks is right. Besides, we need him. However feeble the protection is he can offer to Arthur, it'll be better than nothing."

"Then what's my part in this ugly business? I take it you have reserved a part for me too?"

"It's important that you stay with your son as long as it takes me to defeat Llanfair. You and Arenboarth. And if I should fail… I mean if the Count should regain full control over the Di'inshara, I mean….. in the unlikely event that this would happen I would want you to…"

Uther was at the end of his tether. "For heaven's sake, spit it out!"

"I would want you to kill your son quickly before Llanfair can do it slowly. Nobody should die that way and I'll never forgive myself that I inflicted this horrible death on Llanfair, whether he deserved it or not. Let Arthur die with his soul being free."

Pendragon stared back at the young man for a second. Against his will he imagined the picture of the King of Camelot lifting his blade to take his son's life. "This is too much" he thought. "No one can demand this of me!"

"Does my son know?" he asked.

Merlin shrugged. "He didn't say anything but I think he guesses what is about to happen! I could see all the while that he was scared, very scared, for all his smiles and enthusiasm. I could always see how he really feels, right from the beginning."

"Yes, you could, but his father?" Uther shook off the unwelcome thought. "All right then, I promise I won't let him fall into the monster's hands again."

Only when Merlin had left the tent Pendragon allowed himself to fall down on the ground and cover his head with his arms.