A/N: I feel really bad about this, actually...
Chapter 24 – Only one Alternative
We didn't talk much on our way to the valley. Merlin was obviously thinking about Arthur and the Round Table, where about now they should reach the conclusion that they didn't want to wait till Morgana brought the fight to the Citadel itself. I tried to imagine the room without Gwaine at the table and Merlin standing behind Arthur and failed.
Gwaine, too, was unusually quiet. Maybe he was hoping I'd been wrong about Eira, but somehow I doubted that. More than once he looked back to me, and though I was good at reading his expressions, the current ones didn't tell me anything, except that something was not all right between us.
When we finally reached the cave in the valley, without having been intercepted by any bandits, I was relieved at first, but then the whole immensity of our endeavourhere came back to me. I unfastenedmy bag from the saddle and felt it was staring at me with unforgiving eyes. This isn't a good idea, it seemed to tell me, it's not going to work... I grabbed it tighter and decided not to listen.
"So... I'll be going then", Gwaine said indecisively and shifted around uneasily.
"Thank you for helping." I walked over to him and hugged him, sure that it looked as awkward as it felt.
"Look after yourself", I murmured and stepped back quickly without waiting for an answer.
Gwaine grasped Merlin's arm. The warlock gave him a sad smile: "You should get going, Arthur will need you by his side." Gwaine nodded, and then turned to me once more, offering his sword: "You might need this."
"Thanks."
"You know to use the sharp end, right?"
I snorted and for a moment it felt like everything was back to normal. But then Gwaine mounted his horse, grabbed the reins of the other two horses and was ready for leaving.
"Don't forget about the path", I remembered him and he nodded, looked hard at me for a moment and then turned around to head back for Camelot.
I stared after him with a strange feeling in my stomach.
"Are you sure you want to come with me?", Merlin asked sympathetically and laid a hand on my shoulder in strange resemblance to Gaius.
"You couldn't stop me if you tried", I answered earnestly. "This was my plan, and if it goes wrong I don't want you to face her alone. And if we succeed... she'll have two people to blame and might come after me first."
I took the bag and gestured to the cave entrance: "See you inside."
Merlin nodded and entered. I gave him a few minutes and then followed.
The entrance led to a small tunnel which became narrower with every metre. Soon I was crawling through the dark, fighting a slight feeling of claustrophobia. The good thing about the tight tunnel was that I couldn't loose my way. The bad thing was that I was wet through within a few minutes because somewhere around here must be water coming through.
After a few minutes crawl, I could see the light of Merlin's torch flickering ahead and heard voices. Morgana had come. She had taken the bait.
Slowly, deliberately, I pulled my bag closer and opened the buckles to take the small, wooden box out. My fingers were shaking badly when I took off the lid. The slug slowly slid out of it, moving down the tunnel with surprising speed, in the direction of the voices on sure instinct. I reminded myself that there had been only one alternative to this, and that included murder. There was no turning back now.
I followed the disgusting thing, trying not to breathe in too deeply, because its trail of slime was smelling awfully bad.
When it reached the mound of the tunnel, I yelled: "NOW!" and jumped out after it, my sword drawn.
As predicted, Morgana spun around in surprise. On seeing me, she appeared baffled for a moment, before a slow, evil smile spread on her face which did not reach her eyes: "Look at that! Its Handsome's little friend. Weren't you a knight last time I saw you?"
She moved over slowly, taking her time. I saw Merlin leaning against a wall in such an uncomfortable, unnatural position I was pretty sure her magic was holding him there. I looked around, carefully, so she didn't notice anything was amiss, and tried to find the slug, but I couldn't see it. Hopefully it was still close to the tunnel, so Morgana was between it and Merlin, and if not, Merlin's magic should be strong enough to get away from it if need be. Or so I hoped.
"Things didn't work out the way I planned."
"Looks like it", she mused, laughing now while she looked me up and down. "Well, at least you won't have to suffer much longer... Accompanying our precious Merlin over there wasn't a good idea after all. I have some pretty nice things planned for the two of you when I get back. You know", closer, ever closer, and still no sign of our brown, disgusting, slimyfriend, "we're expecting Arthur to act very soon... I'm sure you know about it already. My dear brother is so easily predicted. And when all's said and done I'll come back for you and then - "
Suddenly something was on her face, her yell of surprise was muffled by the Gean Canach's body. Merlin slid down the wall, a look of horror on his face. I felt like the cave's temperature dropped by a few degrees, then got searing hot, then cold again, and all the way Morgana stumbled closer to me, tearing at the thing covering her face, screams of terror and anger barely audible. Then the slug fell down and she made only one more step before hunching over and dropping to the floor like all her strength had left her. It was the most terrible thing I had ever seen, and while I watched the woman on the floor shaking uncontrollably, screaming and crying at the same time, a lot of the hate for her I had so carefully kindled in the last years dissolved. Then I remembered Elyan's still face and knew this to be the right thing. It had been necessary.
Merlin was the first to move. He gestured toward the cave entrance: "We'll need that box, Will." I nodded, only to happy to be able to do something, and crawled back into the tunnel to retrieve box and lid.
When I came back, Merlin had taken off his jacket and laid it around Morgana's shoulders, which were still shaking. He was kneeling beside her and talked to her, in such a low tone that I didn't catch a word, while he looked around anxiously for the slug. I found it close to the tunnel entrance and managed to lockit back up into the box.
"We need to go", the warlock commanded.
Morgana stared at him in hate and disgust: "You will pay for this, Emrys", she said and though it was surely meant as a threat, it came out faltering and wavering.
Before I could say anything, Merlin just shrugged, grabbed Morgana's elbow and pulledher up:
"We'll see. Go on, Will, lead the way."