CHAPTER 25 : THE NEED TO BREATHE

Merlin was awake and checking his snares before Arthur and the others had even stirred. Gawaine had opened his eyes and grinned at him but Merlin's suggestion for him to join him had been refused, Gawaine tucking his head back into his bedroll.

It was misty and everything covered in a light frost. Merlin left footprints as he made his way to the stream. His smiled as two rabbits darted out of his way, luckier than the ones he was hopefully going to find in his traps. These he gutted on the spot. Four rabbits would make a nice stew for supper tonight. He also knew that they would be crossing a large river before the day was out and he intended to ride ahead and get a little fishing done. They would be stopping for lunch at a pub in a village about a day and a half away from Camelot. However, wanting to get home without delay, they would keep riding until dark and sleep rough as close to Camelot as they could. In the summer, they would have pushed to get directly home but it got dark so much earlier now and night riding was not only chilly but dangerous.

He met Gawaine returning from the stream with water. He was in a foul mood, "I'm a bloody knight, not a scullery maid, Simon could have got water for the oatmeal."

Merlin commiserated with him but then said smiling, "But, Gawaine, Simon is also a bloody knight, not a scullery maid. He's just more willing to help than you are. Who told you to get water, his Lordship?"

Gawaine nodded, "He said, that everyone had to share the load."

"Well, that's what happens when we travel without squires. However, thank you, as I might have had to go traipsing off for it, if you hadn't."

"Your problem, is that you are too good natured. You should just refuse!"

"It's my job…"

"Well, one night when Arthur is happy and content and thereby, willing to promise you anything, smile sweetly and tell him that you don't want to cook anymore on missions. I bet he'd listen to you and agree to your request."

"Agree yes, but renege on it as soon as we all dismounted for a meal."

Gawaine smiled saying, "Merlin, I don't think you realise that Arthur is putty in your hands."

Merlin smiled to himself. He knew that he could wrap Arthur around his little finger but they were not seen as equals in public so he'd just play along. Not that he minded cooking but it was nice when one of the other knights gave him a helping hand. He decided to ask Arthur if Gawaine could help him tonight. He smiled and thought to himself, 'After all an assistant cook was better than a scullery maid.'

By the time they had got back to camp, the fire was very welcoming.

After breakfast, they set out. The plan was to ride without breaks until lunch. Anyone needing to stop, did so on his own and was responsible for catching up to the others.

The landscape was wooded and the tracks were wide enabling the knights to ride abreast. For the most part, the riders were quiet but every now and again talking would break out. Most conversations referred to what the speaker intended to do once he was home. The general consensus was eat, drink and sleep on a proper bed in their own rooms.

Arthur caught Merlin's eye and winked. He said quietly, "As nice as that sounds, I can think of something else I might like to do."

"Have a bath?"

"No!"

"Well, I think you should. We must all smell rank. You won't be getting any hugs from the ladies smelling like that."

"When, Merlin, have I ever wanted hugs from the ladies?"

"Well, then from other gentlemen…"

"You're pushing your luck, Merlin."

Merlin looked at him sternly, "Arthur, I intend to have a luxurious bath, maybe using some of Gaius's sweet smelling oils. Then I will go to find Treva, check on Gaius and then come back to my One and Only, hoping to find him sweet smelling and delectable…"

"I'm the king, I get to use the bath first…"

"But I said it first!"

Arthur looked at Merlin and a little smirk crossed his face as he said with a smile, "Maybe, we could share?"

Merlin put his heels to Iago and took off, calling back, "But you'd have to catch me first."

-0-0-

The horses had slowed down considerably as they reached the inn where they would hopefully get a midday meal. The knights dismounted and tied their horses to a convenient fence. Leon and Rook walked into the building as the others stretched. Aislin offered to see that the horses were watered, telling Simon to get an ale for him.

He'd no sooner laid his hands on the first horse when Leon and Rook came stumbling out of the inn, holding their noses and batting at flies.

Leon said, "It's like a charnel house in there. It stinks to the almighty and the place is overrun with flies."

Rook walked over to behind a tree and vomited. He grabbed his water skin, swilled his mouth and spat. "The place must have been closed up. We saw at least six bodies, none of them in very good condition."

Arthur said, "Well, someone has to go in to check it out. If it is as bad as you say, we'll burn the place to the ground. I'm not messing with a burial detail." Arthur walked toward the building.

Gawaine stepped up beside him saying, "We've probably seen worse in a battle."

Merlin and Spenser also walked forward. Arthur said, "Would someone check the outbuildings?" Simon and the two guards made their way over to an open-sided barn and a couple of sheds. The third guard injured during the storm on the moor, leant against the fence.

Arthur and Gawaine walked across the forecourt. Merlin said, "Haven't you anything to put over your nose and mouth?" He offered Arthur his neckerchief but he refused instead he grabbed a handful of mint which was growing near the door and the others did the same.

The smell met them about six feet from the door; Merlin could see flies buzzing against the windows. He had a pretty strong stomach but always felt that it was easier to face something disgusting about which you knew nothing than to have been given a heads up.

Little light came in the windows but it was enough to make out an ale room with bodies, tankards of beer before them, at the tables. Buzzing flies were everywhere. Some of the dead had slipped to the floor but a few were still upright on the benches. Arthur sidled around to the bar and found three more bodies, two of older people and one a younger woman, their faces drawn into death grins. He suspected the man must have been the innkeeper. Everything, person and object alike was covered with a thin film of smut.

Merlin's voice was muffled by his neckerchief as he told them, "Don't touch anything! It could be poisonous or catching." He could catch the cloying smell of death but that didn't explain the grey soot.

Spenser looked at him as if to say, 'Come on, Merlin, it was the farthest thing from my mind!' He caught Merlin's eye and nodded.

Arthur motioned for Gawaine to proceed into the back rooms, while he and Spenser walked up the stairs. One room had three kids and an old women in bed, all dead. Next door was a room which must have been for guests but only one body lay on one of the cots. There was the same soot up here as down below.

Merlin had cautiously checked some of the men at the tables, he could see no wounds. He followed Arthur up the stairs and folded back the blankets to view the children's bodies. They seemed to be asleep but again, there was this strange smoky residue on the faces especially around their noses. He wracked his brains trying to remember what Gaius had possibly said about that.

He touched Arthur's arm and pointed downstairs and led the way, walking right out into the forecourt followed by the other three.

The others went to gather around but Merlin asked them to pull back except for Leon and Rook. They had already come into contact with whatever it was. "Did anyone notice the hearth? It was still full of logs which seemed not completely burned. Who or what could have put the fire out?"

Simon and the guards had found nothing wrong in the outbuildings; there were some skinny looking pigs which were rooting in their pens and chickens scratching around. Simon had emptied a couple of dippers of oats into the trough for the pigs. There was hay in the barns and a good stack of firewood as well as some tree trunks still to be cut.

Arthur explained what they had found mentioning the ashy substance. Merlin added, "Good thing, no one had direct contact with anyone and we didn't water the horses here. I have a lotion from Gaius for infected wounds so we will use that as we wash our hands and hope for the best."

Arthur said, "Until we have talked with Gaius, I think we should camp outside the castle. We know for sure that Aislin, Simon and the guards are clean as they didn't enter the inn. You'll have to cook for yourselves tonight."

Leon said, "But why where they all sitting around drinking, no one looked as if there had been a mad panic to leave the place and the children had obviously gone to bed. How did the disease take them so fast?"

"Maybe it wasn't a disease, maybe it was something they ate…"

"…or drank? said Gawaine. Merlin smiled trust Gawaine to think of that.

Arthur made a decision, "We'll set fire to the whole place. It's been dry so the thatch should catch immediately. Don't touch the chickens, as much as roast chicken would be nice for supper, I think we should just leave them here. The pigs can be turned free to forage. The next village is Downbriar; Simon, Aislin and the guards will have to visit it and tell the elders of the deaths and you can also mention the livestock. Go now and we'll meet you on the road."

The horses had been moved back into the woods. The others stood and watched the pub quickly burn. The thatch burst into flame in no time and Spenser and Rook had laid straw around the half timbered walls to encourage their catching fire. The smell of the burning was pretty horrendous and Arthur and Merlin had gathered handfuls of mint so that everyone could hold the crushed plants to their noses as the pub went up in flames.

Soon all that remained was charred and smouldering wood. Deciding that the fire was out, the remaining knights and Merlin finally mounted and made their way to meet up with Simon's group.

Merlin kept sniffing. Arthur finally said, "Are you coming down with a cold?"

"No, I just feel as if there is something in my nose."

"Put you head up and let me see." Arthur tried to check Merlin's nose not an easy task when the two of them were on horseback. "I can see something green. Take your neckerchief and blow your nose, maybe it's a piece of a mint leaf."

"Arthur, I'm not blowing my nose into my clean neckerchief!"

"Hardly clean but, fine then," Arthur said, "Use a leaf…!"

Everyone waited as Merlin pulled Iago closer to a tree and got a big orange leaf. He blew his nose, checked and said, "Yuck! It's a little caterpillar, must have been in the mint leaves."

Spenser said, "Hope it wasn't a female as she might have laid her eggs up your nose and for the next couple of months, they'll be hatching and dropping onto your upper lip."

Everyone laughed. Merlin was neither amused nor sure that what Spenser had said could not possibly be true. He'd have to check with Gaius on his return. Anyway, he stopped sniffing…

They met Simon and the Downbriar village elders on the road. They kept a decent space between them and learned that the villagers had known about the deaths but didn't know what to do. Arthur told them that the pub had been burned but they could go and get the livestock that was loose in the area. He asked how they knew about the deaths.

The headman said, "Sire, a peddler passed through and told us he was planning to stay there but everyone was dead so he had just continued on to our village."

"Did he stay here?"

"Yes, my wife took pity on him and gave him a bed for two nights."

"When?" asked Arthur. Merlin listened intently.

"Let me see, it must have been five days hence."

Merlin figured that would tie in with the condition of the bodies and the number of flies. He asked, "Has there been any illness in the village since then?"

The villagers shook their heads, as the headman said, "No, we're all hale and hearty! We've had two babies born and old widow Budge died at a good old age of seventy."

Merlin felt a weight lift off his shoulders.

They bid farewell to the villagers and followed at a safe distance behind Simon, Aislin and the guards. They reached a flat open area and Arthur decided to call it a day. He felt filthy and uneasy, knowing for sure that he smelled and had been inside the building. Merlin suggested that the other two knights and the guards still stayed away from the others.

They sat around two fires and Leon and Arthur discussed the plans. Anyone who wished to contribute an idea was welcome. Merlin said that to be on the safe side, he would like to see Simon and the guards leave immediately and continue on the road home. The rest of them would do the same tomorrow morning but go no farther than the fields to the east of Camelot and wait there for Gaius.

Gawaine and Rook agreed that that made sense. Merlin looked at Spenser and saw that he was troubled. As he was sitting beside him, he said under his breath, "Simon will be fine, they've got an easy ride. Hopefully, Gaius will give us a clean bill of health and we'll be free to mingle with everyone."

Spenser nodded not looking entirely convinced.

Simon, Aislin and the guards mounted and left the group. Merlin called after them, "Sorry about the rabbit stew, maybe the next time." That caused everyone to laugh and a more relaxed group sat around the fire listening to the horses' hoof steps get further away.

They could hear running water so Spenser offered to water the horses and Rook joined him. They returned saying that they had found a waterfall and a shame that it wasn't summer as they could all take a dip. Taking two more horses each, they walked back to the stream.

Leon smiled, they had been quite happy with their lack of cleanliness until they had been at the inn and now like the others, he wanted to take off his clothes and have a good wash. He just felt dirty.

Arthur and Merlin sat on a log. "You look puzzled," said Arthur, "Is it about the pub?"

"There is something about the soot that isn't making sense. I can't for the life of me explain why the people sat around dying. Surely, if some people began to get sick, the others would have moved from their seats. It's as if something entered the pub and killed them without their realising what was happening." He shook his head, "There had been a fire in the hearth but it was out. What would stop a burning fire from consuming itself? The only way to put out a fire is to smother it in dirt or pour water over it…" He again shook his head.

Arthur said, "Whatever it was, it was a silent killer. The children hadn't appeared to have woken up; they must have died in their sleep."

"That's it!" Merlin sprang up, "Once in Ealdor, the weather was cold; my Mam told me that a family had worked hard all autumn to windproof their house. They had put earth up to the windowsills and sealed every crack and chink. The idea was to keep the cold out and keep in the heat. Well, one night there was a lot of snow. The roofs and chimneys were covered. No one checked on anyone else until the snow had stopped and begun to melt. My Mam said that the family which had worked so hard on their cottage were all found dead in their beds.

"Maybe that is what happened at the inn. They were killed by the smoke, slowly loosing consciousness and breathing it in until they died.

"Merlin, you could be a storyteller, who ever heard of smoke killing people!" Leon just grinned at the two of them.

Merlin continued, "Listen, Arthur, have you ever been caught in the smoke of a campfire when the wind changes direction?" Arthur had the decency to nod. "Well, then what if the smoke or fumes are not immediately recognisable. You would have breathed them in and over time felt dizzy or maybe sleepy. You would have dozed off and died in your sleep."

"I take back what I said about the smoke, maybe it can kill people."

Spenser and Rook returned, the horses were all watered and had been given their rations of oats. Spenser said, "Now, I'm hungry. Has no one started supper?

Merlin stood up and said, "Come on, Gawaine, you can be an honorary sous chef. Are you any good at skinning rabbits?"

Gawaine scowled but got up and joined Merlin, saying, "You'll owe me one for this, Merlin!"

Smiling sweetly, Merlin said, "Well, you just scored brownie points with Arthur and…if you do a good job, I'll give you a kiss…"

Perking up, Gawaine said, "You will?"

"No!" said Merlin with a sneaky smile.

-0-0-

Supper finished the knights, Arthur and Merlin sat around the fire and talked. "Well, to say the least, this had been an interesting mission," said Rook. "Raging storms, underground caves, I'll need a long holiday to recuperate from this."

"Arthur, will we be getting time off?" said Spenser.

"Yes, you can sleep in the morning following your return and then back to business." There was a groan from the others. "Until, we are seen by Gaius, I can't tell what will happen. We seem to be suffering no lasting effects so maybe, we'll get a clean bill of health immediately. Otherwise, we'll be quarantined…"

"Imprisoned in some dusty wing of the castle…unloved and forgotten; starved of human companionship…starved of love and probably food. Found years later as a clothed skeleton, turning to dust as the guards try to move us to a more suitable resting place. Never to feel a horse under us or smell the woodland glens…all alone wrapped in a mouldy blanket and our thoughts."

"Spenser, I said quarantined not imprisoned! Somebody, give him a punch!" said Arthur.

Merlin said, "Spenser, you will be well taken care of and once Gauis gives the 'all clear' you can be reunited with your horse and the trees. And you Gawaine with your alehouse buddies and you Rook with all your daughters. Just think absence makes the heart grown fonder."

"Not necessarily," said Gawaine, "I like to think of it as 'out of sight, out of mind', we can be so easily forgotten."

"Speak for yourself," said Leon, "Maybe your encounters are of such short duration that probably the ladies do not even remember you once you have vacated their beds."

"Touché!" said Gawaine, "But then again 'variety is the spice of life'."

Everyone roared, Gawaine's lifestyle was certainly colourful but Merlin was sure that if ever this comedian fell in love, he would fall hard. He thought of Simon and glanced at Spenser who was quietly staring into the fire.

Arthur stood up, stretched saying. "Wonder how to close to Camelot the others got before they camped?"

Leon said, "I would say within a half day's ride and knowing Simon, he'll be ready to leave by first light to make the final push."

Arthur said, "We'll be ready to leave once it's bright enough, we'll ride steadily within reason, no long breaks and hopefully get something to eat around noon. We'll continue on until it gets dark then camp. It really depends on the weather, road conditions and the horses. Get a good night's rest, we've a big day ahead."

They grabbed their bedrolls and settled around the fire, to which Merlin had added some more branches. It crackled, sometimes sending up sparks and soon the camp was asleep.

Merlin got up, he needed to add some more wood to the fire. He was careful not to disturb anyone and smiled as he glanced at Arthur who was just a mound in the firelight. He thought, 'Oh, for us to get back home!' He made his way to the pile of logs collected yesterday and grabbed an armful bringing them back and adding them to the fire. It was chilly. He walked back to his bedroll sitting down. The woods were alive. He had heard a fox earlier and now what was probably a hedgehog snuffling in among the fallen leaves for insects and even mushrooms. Merlin smiled thinking that he and the hedgehog had similar tastes well maybe not...as they also ate snakes, carrion and toads.

He lay down looking up at the sky. The night was clear which boded well for tomorrow. He fell asleep thinking of Gaius and what Treva had been up to since he'd been away.