AN: Happy April Fool's Day! No, this is not a prank chapter, but I wrote it last nigh while my roommates set up pranks around the house.
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Chapter 17
Morgana was of mixed emotions. Uther was her father, but also the man who killed and hid the body of her mother. Alined tried and failed to kill the king, but Arthur was was ruling already anyway because their father had been locked away in his room as a mad man. The foreign king had sent his personal slave sorcerer to kill an unarmed man, but the victim had done far worse in his day.
The royal was very convincing in his claim that his indentured servant had hurt himself falling off a table and landing on a mirror. A broken mirror was found in the room nextdoor to the one Alined had been assigned, but it was discovered after the servant had come forward with information about the glass cuts he treated. It was clear the king judges doubted the tale, but Morgana was inclined to believe it.
It was much more likely that Trickler injured himself and the pair hid the evidence in the next room than a notorious troublemaker sending his well known slave to kill a king in his own kingdom. But if that was true, who tried to kill Uther? It wasn't Agravaine, surely. Was it?
He wouldn't necessarily have to have done it himself, given he was often too lazy to do something he could pay someone else to do when it was somewhat difficult. She wouldn't put it past him to hire someone and she wouldn't be surprised if that was why he was bothering Merlin and Gaius when it happened. But she had doubts there too that she couldn't explain.
This meant when the trial was over, Alined was found guilty, stripped off his title and his land split among the bordering kingdoms, Morgana felt it was an unfair ruling, but also justified by his previous attempts at stirring up wars in the Five Kingdoms. She was mollified when the now former king was allowed to keep his castle where he would live out the rest of his days a lord under whichever king received that part of his land.
As for Trickler, he was to be imprisoned for a month and them released as a freeman. The kings saw that the poor little sorcerer was a slave to Alined and therefore had no choice but to do as he was told or he would be beaten or possibly killed. He was to be allowed to live in any kingdom other than Deorham, mainly because it was to be split up anyway, or Camelot, because, despite following another's orders, he had been the one who had harmed Uther, thus attempting regicide.
Feeling the need to let her brothers know what had been decided, she headed for the physician's chambers. If Arthur was there with Merlin, good, and if he was not, Gaius would have more of an idea where he was than she would. Either way, she had someone to rant to, or at least that was what she thought.
When she was in sight of the elderly man's door, she saw it was manned by two guards, which meant one of three things in her mind:
One, something else had happened to Uther beyond the apoplexy.
Two, something had happened to Arthur.
Or three, one of the visiting royals were injured enough to have to be treated in Gaius's rooms instead of their own.
The latter was unlikely since all but one of the visiting royalty had been at the trial when she left and the missing one was Alined, who had already been taken back to his cell. If it was Uther, the council, herself, and the king judges would have been informed since it affected the outcome of the trial and the kingdom as a whole. But if it was Arthur, Gaius would have wanted it kept quiet to keep speculation and descent to a minimum. That was why she practically flew into the room to see what was wrong with her brother.
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On the other side of the citadel, Balinor received a mental update from him stepdaughter on what had happened at the trial and the Dragonlord hung his head due to a mixture of relief and frustration. He was glad to hear that Trickler was not going to be harmed for a crime he obviously did not commit, but he was irritated that the kings couldn't see that Alined was not the one behind the attack. Despite that, he would not lose any sleep over the weasley man's demotion from royal to high noble.
That was when Morgause told him about Uther's condition. The former ruler had hoped for a quick death when he tried to end his own life, but now he was fading slowly and likely very painfully. In a way, Balinor felt this was divine justice for all the crimes the man had yet to be tried for.
Having nothing else to do, Balinor decided it was time to have one last talk with Uther before it was too late to sooth the mad man's troubled soul. He was mildly confused at the lack of guards at the door, but they were likely inside to keep a closer eye on their leige lord. That was when he noticed the door was ajar.
Glad he was still wearing the glamour of a Camelot guard from his childhood, Balinor burst into the room to see Agravaine holding a pillow over the King's face. He wasted no time tackling the lord to the floor and pinning him down as he bellowed for more guards. He could hear Uther's gasping breaths from where he was kneeling on the back of the prince's uncle, so he did not have to worry about whether the man below him was a king killer or not.
"Unhand me! He asked me to end it! I was following the order of the king! Get off!" Agravaine was yelling furiously.
Balinor was trying to come up with a response when a lord or knight he had not noticed while trying to keep the squirming noble from rising from the ground spoke up saying, "The Court Physician says the earlier attempt on his Majesty's life left him without the use of his voice. And even if that were the case, the order of a king dethroned by madness is not valid in the eyes of the laws of the kingdom."
Two more guards arrived and helped restrain the man, but not before the disguised Dragonlord received an elbow to the nose. Luckily the glamour showed the injury and he was escorted to get it looked at by the man who had rebutted Agravaine's demands. Glancing up, Balinor saw it was none other than King Olaf who was guiding him towards Gaius's chambers.
Balinor would have said he could find his own way, but his mouth was full of blood from his nose, which was most certainly broken. The attempt to stem the flow by tilting his head back and swallowing lead to wet, sputtering coughs and eyes clouded with tears, making the man glad to have a guide. In fact, he hadn't even realized he had made it to his destination until Olaf demanded to know what had happened to the Prince Regent.
The response was blocked out by pain as Gaius prodded his deformed snout. He did hear the door slam as he was maneuvered to sit on a wooden bench, a bucket was placed in his lap, and his head forced down, allowing the blood to flow without going down his throat. He felt like an idiot for not doing so himself earlier back in Uther's chambers.
"You can drop the glamour now, you and I are the only ones here who are awake. Why you picked poor old Duncan to copy is beyond me." The fact that Gaius was whispering clued Balinor in that there was someone asleep in the room, likely Arthur based on Olaf's earlier bellow.
He dropped the guise of his late friend when his stomach rebelled against the amount of blood it was holding and it all came boiling up. "That is what you get for disguising yourself as one of the most accident prone people I have ever met aside from your son and the prince."
With the vomit clearing out his gut, his mind cleared too. Enough that he could cast a quick spell to stop the bleeding. A few more coughs and painful huffs and he could breathe again enough to focus and talk.
Noting the two sleeping boys on the beds visible from his vantage point, he asked a similar question as king Olaf had. "What happened to the boys?"
"Who said anything happened to Merlin?" Gaius's mockingly sincere voice made Balinor want to scoff, but he knew better than to do so with his nose like it was.
Instead, he rolled his eyes, which also hurt. "Merlin would be down here by Arthur's side if he was able to, so what happened?"
The way Gaius looked pityingly at the boys did nothing to ease Balinor's worry. "They were drugged. Someone laced Arthur's clothing with Belladonna and other herbs that were slowly affecting him. Then he and Merlin had a heartfelt talk that left Merlin crying into the Prince's shirt. This caused them both to inhale the fumes of the drugs where the cloth got wet. They passed out in Uther's chamber."
"So that was why there was only one guard." He mumbled this, but Gaius heard it nevertheless.
He lifted his eyebrows questioningly, "Why were you in the King's room?"
It hadn't dawned on the Dragonlord that his old friend didn't know what had happened. "I was going to let Uther know I forgave him, for the dragons, magic, Vivienne, all of it, when I saw there was one one duty and the door was partially open. I stormed in to see Agravaine trying to smother Uther with a pillow. I knocked him to the floor and held him down while yelling for more guards. Olaf showed up first, told the weasel off, I got hit in the nose, and guards took the slimeball to the dungeons while I was brought here."
"I see." Gaius looked torn as he glanced between the boys and the door.
Balinor knew what the physician was thinking. "Are they alright for you to be away from them for a while?"
"Morgana purged most of the drugs from their systems, but I had already said they would sleep for hours before that, so I am trying to hide the fact magic was used to help them." Gaius clearly understood what he was getting at as he started to collect supplies.
"I'll watch them. If they wake up, I will spell them back to sleep. They could both use in given the days to come." They exchanged nods, Balinor recast his glamour, and the Physician left.
For the first time, the Dragonlord was able to get a good, long, uninterrupted look at the Prince whose birth lead to the genocide of anyone connected to magic in any way. The boy looked so young, less than his 22 years, as he slept, yet weary from they things he had done and seen. Another victim of Uther's madness.
Both of the boys deserved to know their mothers, both were denied. Merlin had Hunith, but not his true parents. Arthur had the king, who knew nothing about loving a child, especially the one who killed Ygraine. Hopefully, once the source of misery was gone, the two could heal and grow to be the pair prophesied.
Time would tell.
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Agravaine no long felt anything. He was still in shock over it all. He didn't understand how it had come to this.
He had talked Trickler into spelling the herbs to not have an effect on the washing girls when they cleaned the Prince's clothes and then Uther was found to have almost been strangled by an unknown assailant. Then Alined and the hedge wizard were tried and nearly guaranteed to be found guilty of the act. Then the news the king had been struck by apoplexy drifted through the castle. Not wanting waste time, he had acted.
Luckily the drugs on Arthur's clothes had taken affect and Gaius and all but one of the guards had taken their prince to the Physician's chambers. While the healer was likely finding out that the boy was in a coma he would not be waking from, Agravaine made his move. Using a dart on the last sentry, it was just him and Uther.
By some miracle, the king, who had been unable speak since his botched assassination, whispered pleas for death. Not one to question such a request, he had grabbed a cushion and held it over Uther's nose and mouth. Next thing he knew he was on the floor with a guard all but sitting on him!
King Olaf had him sent to the dungeon, but not before he broke the nose of that guard who stopped him. Now he was in the cells where he would either rot or be sentanced to death. His life was over and he was too numb from shock to care.
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Gaius was too late and he knew it. He had just started his examination when the arrhythmia started. The clamminess and sweating soon followed. He dosed Uther with willow bark, foxglove, and figwort, but he knew it wouldn't be enough. When the King's breathing became light and quick, he knew it was over.
Before the hour was over, King Uther Pendragon had died. It was clearly due to a combination of both of his assaults and stress that had caused it. Given this, Alined's sentance was changed from being stripped of his status as king to death by hanging, flogging was added to Trickler's punishment, and and Agravaine was to join Alined on the gallows.
Arthur stoically did his duty watching over his father's body that first night of interment, watching the execution of his uncle and a fellow ruler, and his coronation. He looked just the right amount of sad, yet determined, allowing him to get things done without all the lords and fellow kings encouraging him to take time to grieve. To those looking from a distance, he appeared as strong as folded steel, to those who knew him well, he looked a heartbeat from falling apart.
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Never, not even in her oddest dreams had Morgause pictured herself mourning the death of Uther Pendragon, the Butch King, the Purge Bringer, and Leader of the Blood Cloaks. Yet here she was, wishing he still drew breath. It was a day for the history books.
If anyone asked her, she would say she was doing this so that her little brother would sleep, but in truth, she was there for Arthur. He had sat with her mother's body until she arrived, doing the same for him was something she needed to do. If she stayed and let the new King of Camelot cry in her arms, so be it.
Who else was he supposed to turn to? Gaius was in mourning over his late friend and losing a patient. Morgana was trying to come to grips over the fact that a man was hung for a crime he was innocent of and that she had just lost another parent. Balinor was haunted that he missed his chance to expose the truth and to ease Uther's soul. Hunith had her hands full with a distraught Merlin. And everyone else were looking to him for strength and leadership. It was her or no one.
He cried for hours, stopped and explained things that happened over the years, cried more, but despite clearly wanting to, he never fell asleep that night. He took his duty seriously, following every rule, but doing them in his own way. Never had she respected someone like she did Arthur after that.
She regretted trying to manipulate him when they first met. Have done so felt dirty to her now, as if it was Merlin or Morgana she had tried using. Sadly, she knew that she wouldn't have thought twice about doing so prior to Emrys trying to protect her from Nimueh's spirit and magical drain. No, it went all the way back to that lullaby their mother had sung the last time they had all been together.
When the sun rose and Arthur returned to his chambers, she followed silently, out of sight. When it was clear he would not be able fall asleep on his own, she sang the lullaby softly, barely audibly in her rough, smokey voice. Soon enough, he fell into slumber with a peaceful look on his face.
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AN: I hope you all enjoy what I put together! Special thanks to those who reviewed on the previous chapter. There are only 2 more chapters planned for this story and I keep putting off writing this story to make it last, but from here on out, it is basically just falling action and resolution.