Chapter Twenty-One
"Are you ready?" Gaius asked Merlin.
"No," Merlin said. Gaius knew exactly how he felt, but they both knew that they had to get back to where they belonged.
It was early in the morning and there was a fine mist that hung over their village, but they knew that the sun would burn through that before very long.
Everyone else was still sleeping, including Alice and Freya- both Merlin and Gaius had managed to leave their cottages without disturbing their families, which they were both very glad about. It was easier to say goodbye that way.
They left the village with nothing on them except for a little food. They walked away from the village, away from the mountains, and towards the field where they both remembered spending a lot of time in, but neither could remember why they had spent a lot of time there.
"I don't remember it taking this long," Gaius said, as they had to stop after a couple of hours' walk so that he could catch his breath. Merlin was quite glad for the breather too. He helped Gaius to sit down and then sat next to them. He took the loaf of bread that Freya had baked the day before from his bag and broke it in half so that they could both eat. It was so fresh and delicious that it didn't need anything on it.
Merlin knew he would miss her cooking. Her baking was legendary and people would come for miles around to buy some from her.
As they sat and ate in silence, the sun rose, although it wasn't quite as bright as it had been, and the sky wasn't nearly so blue. There were even a couple of grey clouds on the horizon above the snow-capped mountains.
"I've never seen that before," Merlin said to Gaius, pointing at the grey clouds.
Gaius looked. "No, I haven't either, which makes me think that that is another reason why we should find our way home."
They finished eating their bread in silence and when they were done, Merlin helped Gaius to stand and they carried on.
As they walked, they talked a little, but not about anything important. They were leaving their families and that weighed heavily on their hearts. They didn't want to think about anything else just yet. It got to the point though, that one of them had to bring up a certain subject.
"How are we going to get home?" Merlin asked.
"I'm not sure," Gaius admitted. "I was rather hoping your magic would be able to find a way." He stopped just for a second to catch his breath and Merlin stopped a couple of steps after him.
"I don't remember us having to walk all of this way," Gaius said then, when he could breathe and talk again.
"Merlin shook his head. "You're right- I think it was one of those times when we just sort of... jumped," he said shrugging and looking apologetic at the lack of words he had to describe what they had done.
Gaius understood though. "You might be right. And now it is harder for us to leave than it was for us to get here in the first place."
Merlin looked around. The wind was picking up and the grey clouds were getting closer and darker.
"How did we get here?" he asked Gaius.
"You haven't started remembering yet?" Gaius said, surprised.
Merlin thought about it. "No, not really."
"I have been remembering more and more the further we have walked. I suppose you might have been thinking about other things," Gaius said gently. He could tell that Merlin had constantly been thinking about Freya because of the lack of any noise coming from him.
"Do you remember the druids?" Gaius asked him. "Do you remember how you felt something coming towards us- something that was so evil and monstrous that it was destroying everything in it's path and that included magic?" He took a breath when he saw Merliln frown. "Well, we were out looking for herbs and we came across a travelling druid camp- they were looking for somewhere safe to camp for a little longer. They welcomed us as they recognised you for who you really are, and the elders remembered me from before the Great Purge. We were exchanging herbs and talking to them which I think they enjoyed even more than we did as they so rarely get the opportunity to talk to outsiders of their community." Gaius stopped and took the water that Merlin offered him. The younger man was hanging off his every word and was silent. He really had been thinking deeply about Freya and much less about how they got into their current predicament.
Gaius swallowed the water in deep gulps, thanking the gods for the coolness of the liquid and how refreshing it was. He liked a walk in the fresh air as much as anyone, but he legs would get tired much faster these days.
He sighed as he remembered how old he was getting. But he carried on anyway.
"Well you felt something- something monstrous coming towards us without any regard for anything that stood in it's way. After a moment, the druids felt it as well. I have to admit that I felt no such thing- my magic is rusty after so many years of not using it. But we all trusted your judgement my boy and we stood up, ready to run or hide from whatever you felt was coming. The only problem was, that you felt it coming for you specifically and there was nothing anyone could do about it. You thought that your presence was putting everyone else in danger and you were about to run when Theodric grabbed your arm and stopped you...
"You'll never make it, Emrys," Theodric said, grabbing Merlin by the arm and stopping him from running. "You can feel it, just like I can- this thing will devour all of us whether or not you are here or not." Theodric looked over his shoulder to try and see the 'thing' whatever it was, but it was not yet within sight.
"What are you thinking of doing?" Gaius asked the elder druid.
Theodric ignored the question and called to his tribe around him. There weren't many of them, but all of them were magical beings, down to the smallest baby. He called them to him and made them circle Merlin and Gaius.
"What are you doing?" Merlin asked them, the desperation in his voice apparent- he knew that they were about to do something to help him and that it would probably no doubt put them in danger. Gaius put his hand on his arm. He had a suspicion.
"My people," Theodric said, "we now have the honour of helping the great Emrys in his destiny. Let us keep him and Gaius safe."
He raised his arms towards the sunny sky and began chanting. As his words started, everyone who surrounded Merlin and Gaius began to chant also.
Merlin spun around, trying desperately to work out what it was that these people were doing to help him. Gaius stood by his side and nodded slowly.
As Theodric spoke the last of his words, he looked down at Gaius and their eyes met. A look of complete understanding passed between them and Gaius prayed fervently that Theodric knew that he had his thanks and his gratitude.
Then, in an indistinct haze of light, Merlin and Gaius disappeared from the forest completely.
And the Horror found the druids.
Merlin had by this time, crouched on the ground opposite Gaius as he told him what had happened to them. He frowned. "But that isn't what I remember Gaius," he said. "I remember going to sleep in a field on a sunny day, and then a sort of 'popping' sound, and then we woke up in a sunny field here. I remember nothing else.
Gaius nodded. "I remember the same thing. It's like the two realities are sort of... overlapping... in my mind. I think that the spell that the druids put us under played with our memories a little so that we wouldn't remember how we got here.
"What spell did they cast on us?" Merlin asked him. "And how do we reverse it?"
"Now that I remember what happened to us, I remember what the spell was that they used. It is a special spell that very few could ever hope to know, let alone attempt. But you should be able to do it by yourself- you have more power than any other magical being could possibly hope to ever wield."
Merlin just looked at Gaius. Sometimes he wished...
But there was no point in wishing for something that could never be. He longed to look over his shoulder towards the village that they'd walked away from, even though it was completely out of sight. But there was no point in wishing for something that could never be.
"What do I have to do?" he asked.
"The spell is 'Gebiede ic þone feorhberend þære ealdaþ æ'," Gaius said, slowly, while he tried to remember exactly how it went and how the pronunciation was said- a single syllable said in the wrong way could make everything wrong.
Merlin repeated it a few times over and over. He was beginning to remember what the druids had done for them- for him- on his own now, so he raised his arms in the air, just as Theodric had done, and he began chanting with his eyes closed.
The wind was picking up, whipping at Merlin's scarf and Gaius' robes and somewhere in the distance, thunder rumbled and lightning struck which Merlin could see even with his eyes closed.
Light began to radiate from them, the hazy light of a bright and sunny day, which turned darker and darker and darker, with the smallest of yellow lights burning dimly somewhere in front of Merlin's eyelids.
He became aware that he could no longer smell the fresh grass of the field and the flowers in the air. He couldn't feel the wind anymore and the silence was marred only by a crackling sound.
Very slowly, he opened his eyes a crack. The small yellow light and the crackling sound came from a fireplace which he was lying next to in a little cot. What he could smell was familiar, and welcome.
He opened his fully and looked around. He was in Gaius' chambers back in Camelot. He tried to sit up, but he felt a little weak. He leaned up just enough so that he could look around. Just to his side was another cot, and he saw Gaius with his eyes open, blinking.
"Gaius?" he said, croakily.
Gaius turned and took a moment to focus on Merlin. Then he smiled.
"Well done my boy," he said, just as croakily.
They both heard the door to Merlin's bedroom open and some light footsteps coming down.
There was a gasp and the footsteps quickened as they came over to the two men lying in the cots by the fire.
"Gwen!" Merlin said, smiling.
Her smile was big enough for all three of them. She brought her hands up to her mouth and almost sobbed- from happiness, Merlin hoped.
She was definitely happy. She knelt next to them and took their hands- one in each of her own. "I'm so glad that you're back!" she said, "I'm so glad! Arthur will be happy too! Oh- I must get him, and Sara," she said. She squeezed their hands gently and got up again and left the room.
Not a moment later, the door opened again and, going by the footsteps, Merlin guessed it was only one person. But this person came straight over to them. Merlin tried to look up a little to see who it was. He didn't recognise the old woman, but she smiled at him.
"Good," was all she said. If Merlin had had any energy, he would have retorted in some way, but he didn't. The woman turned to look at Gaius and her smile became a little larger, warmer. "Gaius," she said.
He turned his head towards her. "Naira?" he asked, not quite believing his eyes- she had had to run away in the Purge along with many healers of a certain sort of talent.
She shook her head and glanced over towards the door. It remained closed. "It's Sara here, Gaius- it keeps me safe. Guinevere came and got me when this happened to the two of you." She went over to the cauldron that was bubbling away over the fire and looked inside it. "There is a little broth here if you two would like some. It will get your strength back to you faster." Gaius agreed with her and so she helped the two of them sit up and then she ladled out two bowls of the broth for them to drink slowly. As they drank, they realised that she had been correct- it did make their strength come back to them faster- they could practically feel it working it's way into their bones and making them feel awake and refreshed.
"What's in this?" Gaius asked her. "I need to get the recipe from you!"
Naira laughed a little at him. "It's the easiest way to get someone to drink some medicine and it's the easiest way I've found to administer magical remedies to someone- they don't even know that that is what they're drinking."
"Well it has done just the job," Gaius said, looking down at his bowl. Naira laughed again and took the hint, taking his bowl and refilling it for him. He accepted it gratefully and she refilled Merlin's bowl as well at the same time.
"Arthur should be with you soon," Naira said, sitting down at Gaius' workbench and looking at them. "A strange woman was here today and broke into the treasure rooms. Apparently, the one where all of the magical artefacts are kept," she said.
"Morgana?" Merlin asked quickly.
"She was very well disguised," Naira said, "but that was everyone's guess, yes. She was in the market place spreading rumours about a plague that is running rampant throughout the lands- a plague which no one can stop. The funny thing was, that she wasn't the only person who had seen this plague- her rumours were backed up by the cheese-seller named Lucas who had also seen it while he was travelling on his way to Camelot for the market." She paused and looked at them, waiting for them to process everything that had been going on while they had been 'ill'.
Gaius looked at Merlin, who looked back at him. "Plague?" Gaius said, turning back to Naira.
"Yes," she said, nodding, "something coming straight for Camelot leaving a trail of destruction in it's path and everything and everyone dead."
"Doesn't that sound a little like the thing that we found while we were out with... er... out walking Gaius?" Merlin asked him, not wanting to mention the druids, even in front of someone who knew magic.
"It does sound convenient that there would be a plague that kills everything and a monster that acts brings death and decay all at the same time," he agreed.
"You've seen it as well?" Naira asked, sitting forward a bit to hear them better. "Is that what put you into your sleep?"
Gaius sighed, "no- we were put into this 'sleep' by a group of people who wanted to save us from this evil." He looked at Merlin again. "How did we get here?" he asked Naira.
Naira sat back. "Well, from what I've been told, you both went out for a walk, you didn't come back so Arthur went to look for you. He found you leagues away- too far for you to walk really and brought you home. You've been asleep for all of this time right here in this room until you woke up. You've had no markings on you and nothing that would make me think you had any disease or illness, so I've been looking for magical remedies. That's all I could think it was- that something magical had happened to you."
"You'd be correct," Gaius told her. "These people cast a 'Droht áwendednes' spell on us."
Naira's eyebrows rose as far as they could go. She knew that spell and it was a spell that was incredibly hard to do.
Gaius turned to Merlin to explain quickly. "This is a spell that removes a person's soul from his body and, in our case, moved the body also to a safer place."
"What is the point of that?" Merlin asked.
It was just then that the door burst open and Arthur bounded in. The look in his eyes when he saw Gaius and Merlin sitting up and drinking some broth was happy indeed.
"You're awake!" he said, the smile on his face was ecstatic. He couldn't hide it, and he didn't want to just then. He was just happy that they were alright. "Thank you so much Sara!" he said to Naira and he walked forwards and sat on a stool in front of the two men sitting on their cots. She opened her mouth to say that she hadn't done anythng, they had in fact woken up by themselves, but Arthur was already talking again.
"Has Sara been telling you about what has been going on here?" he asked them.
"A little, Sire," Gaius said. "Apparently a strange woman was here?"
"I am sure- that it was Morgana. Positive. In the way she acted and the way she spoke to me, and the fact that she knew her way around the castle so well. And she broke into the artefact vault. As you know, there is a list of everything that is in there, just in case of such disaster, and there is something missing. It is an amulet which has no name, just this picture," and he showed a scrap of parchment to Gaius.
Gaius put his now-empty bowl in his lap and took the parchment to have a look. "I recognise it," he said. "It is an amulet that was used by the High Priestesses to focus their magic and make it stronger," he told Arthur. "Anyone who wore it could harness it's power."
"We must stop her!" Merlin said, and threw off his blanket which was wrapped around his shoulders and he tried to stand up. Arthur jumped up with him and luckily caught Merlin's arm as the slight man swayed, having been lying down for so long, despite Naira's magical healing broth.
"Oh no," Naira said, standing and laying down the law before Arthur had even ahd a chance to open his mouth. "You two need a little more rest. Then you can go out and do whatever you need to do. Physician's orders." and she folded her arms and had such a stubborn look about her that Merlin didnt protest. Almost. "But," he began.
"No no," Arthur said, smiling as he helped Merlin to sit down again, "you must do what the physician orders you to do!" and he tried fairly hard to not laugh.
"So you will be doing exactly what you're told the next time you have to see me?" Gaius said, with a completely serious face.
"Er..." Arthur stammered, seeing the flaw in his argument. "No, just Merlin here has to do as he's told- he's the servant after all," and he beamed so much that Merlin couldn't be anything but amused by his friend. "I'm glad you're back with us though," Arthur said, putting his hand on Merlin's shoulder and squeezing a little. Part of him hoped that Merlin hadn't noticed the squeeze, and part of him hoped he had. Merlin smiled up at him though, and whether he'd noticed the squeeze or not, that smile made Arthur happy. But he dropped his hand quickly before it got too weird and he stood up straight. You two must rest- Sara says that it's important, and I agree with her. No one can sleep for as long as you two have and not feel a bit out of it afterwards. Sir Leon and I are assessing the situation and what she- if it is Morgana- might want to use the amulet for." He looked them both in the eye as if to check that they were really themselves and that they were both really back and awake, he gave a little nod of the head and then he practically marched to the doorway and left, closing the door behind him.
Almost immediately after he left, Guinevere walked in, still beaming from ear-to-ear her large smile, clearly so happy that her friends were alright. She said hullo to both of them and then went over to Naira to talk about a little something that might need a physician's attention in the lower town.
Merlin leaned over to Gaius as no one was paying attention to them much anymore and whispered his thoughts to Gaius. "What happened to us... do you think that the druids meant to send us to a place where we wouldn't want to come home?"
Gaius looked at his empty bowl, not really seeing it, so that he could compose his answer. "I have heard of a certain kind of magic that Seers use- it is generally not recommended to know what a life could have been like, I think it only serves to make one bitter with their own life." He sighed, thinking of Alice. "Seers have an ability, although I've never heard of one actually using this ability, to change a person's reality. They used it to show people the consequences of their actions by seeing each of the indvidual outcomes in the future and therefore steer their tribes in the right direction to ensure peace and happiness." Gaius paused to look at Merlin. "To leave their reality, they had to want to leave which took years of practice for them to know which was their true reality and how to get home. What that druid community did for us was to sacrifice themselves so that we could live, and they moved our bodies out of the way using some kind of transportation spell as well, or as a part of the spell they used."
"I wish they hadn't done this," Merlin said, half to himself. "I could have saved them."
Gaius leaned over and put his hand on Merlin's shoulder to comfort the younger man. Sometimes, with all the weight that Merlin had to shoulder, the young man occasionally forgot that he wasn't alone. "They did it for both of us my boy, they saved our lives. Think of all the magical people who have been pointlessly killed since the beginning of the Purge- these druids died in the knowledge that they had saved Emrys- you- which was clearly their destiny. In their eyes, they had the greatest honour to save your life and therefore directly save your own destiny. Do not feel bad my boy, they died doing something great- they didn't die in a pyre while people who hated them for being born the way they were screamed hatred at them." Gaius paused. He wasn't sure if he'd gone too far and sounded a little callous, but he knew he was right, and the truth was all that a person needed to hear sometimes. "They chose how they would live, and that's all that anyone wants in life."
"I thought for a while that I had died. I was so happy that it felt like we were in Avalon. And then when we returned, I thought that maybe the druids had moved us closer to the Veil. But I felt more like death when we returned than I did in our little perfect village," Merlin admitted.
"It was perfect," Gaius agreed. Neither of them made eye contact. Their lives in the place that the druids had sent us to had been everything that they had wanted out of life- a family, a happy place to live, and to be accepted for who they were, regardless of magic.
"Why did they have to move us to a new realm?" Merlin asked, looking up a little.
"I don't really know," Gaius admitted. "I think that was the first thing that came to Theodric's head and it's not like we had much time to debate the issue. Maybe he was a very powerful Seer and that was what he could do best. I don't suppose we'll ever know, unfortunately."
Merlin merely nodded.
He was already thinking about Freya again.
oOo