And here's the next chapter. Enjoy! Please review.

Chapter 26

Merlin

Alina had disappeared to take her place in the stands as soon as they reached the tournament grounds. She was already late, which was likely not to please the king, who was very punctual. Alina usually was as well, but not today. Merlin had caught her and Arthur in a kind of embrace, both of them looking almost guilty when he had burst in.

So, what exactly happened before I came in? Merlin asked her as he helped Arthur into his armour.

We…ehm… had a moment, she replied, her mental tone coloured with embarrassment.

You kissed?

That's another way of saying it, she admitted.

So, you're accepting destiny? he asked hopefully.

I hope I don't need to spell it out for you? Alina asked. Merlin could hear the mental sigh of annoyance, but there was happiness underneath that, a sense of completeness.

I'm happy for you, truly, I am.

I know, she thought at him. Does it sound stupid that I am almost literally freaking out with excitement and joy?

Try not to bounce off your chair, he advised dryly. Uther might think you've gone mad.

She chuckled. Oh, so that's why he keeps glancing in my direction?

They both laughed.

Arthur shot him a very worried glance. 'What's wrong with you, Merlin?'

'Nothing, sire,' he replied, trying to get back to normal and failing.

'Then stop behaving like an idiot and pass me my helmet,' the prince snapped.

Arthur was slightly embarrassed by getting caught at a private moment by his servant, Merlin thought. That was what made him so edgy. That and the nerves that preceded every match.

Merlin himself felt… relieved. There really was no other way to describe his feelings. It had become clear to him very soon that Alina was vital to destiny and her attempts to fight it had been worrying him more than he had shown even to her. But there was no way that legend was going to be thwarted now. Alina and Arthur were officially a couple and there wasn't really anything that could stop destiny from going the way it was supposed to.

Merlin was in high spirits when Arthur mounted his horse and despite his attempts to hide it, Arthur must be too. He wore Alina's token on his right arm, which made a lot of girls look rather sad. They had all quite taken to sir William in the last couple of days. The fact that he had a lady was not a surprise, but a disappointment nonetheless.

Arthur seemed to be completely in control when he galloped along the field, lance held out just exactly right. His opponent was good, but Merlin had seen enough jousting in the last few months to know that Arthur was definitely better than sir Alynor.

He could not understand what happened when Arthur and not sir Alynor was hurt when the lances shattered. Arthur had hit the other man, Merlin could have sworn to that, but the knight appeared to be unharmed. The prince's condition was another matter entirely. His posture was cramped and he had a hand against his chest. Something was wrong…

He's hurt! Alina's panicked voice penetrated his thoughts. Merlin, he's hurt. Oh heavens, I should have known, I should….

Calm down, he ordered. And come here. You might be able to do something for him.

She took a few deep breaths. Of course.

Merlin saw her leave the stands, but was then distracted by sir Alynor, who rode past him. He caught sight of the lance. The point of the lance was in the likeness of a fist. This was strange, though not forbidden. The spike coming out of the fist, however, was. As the knight rode on the spike was drawn back into the fist and no one was the wiser, except for Merlin.

Sir Alynor is cheating, he told Alina.

That is not sir Alynor, she groaned, sounding very angry with herself. That's the assassin! I knew, but I completely forgot! I didn't even think of it until I saw that Arthur got hurt. I am so, so sorry, Merlin. Panic crept back into her mental voice.

Stop it, he ordered. I'm going to check on our so-called sir Alynor, while you go and make sure Arthur's all right. Right?

She gave a mental nod and Merlin felt she started to run, but then he broke off the connection and went investigating.

The tournament grounds were full of people. Merlin could hardly understand how no one could have noticed that it was not sir Alynor that was competing in the jousting. He hoped that Alina had in some way been wrong about this. It wouldn't be the first time that legend in real life went a little different from how it was told in her time. Besides, how could Myror have found out where Arthur was hiding? They had kept it a secret. No one but Alina, Gwen, Merlin and sir William had known where the prince was. All of them would rather die than give such important information to an assassin. By the time he was halfway to sir Alynor's tent, he had almost talked himself into believing Alina was wrong on this one.

Almost, because there was no good reason why a normal knight would use a forbidden weapon to win the tournament. Right, Valiant had tried once, with his shield of snakes, but Valiant had been creepy from the start and nothing had implied that Alynor was made of the same stuff. Merlin had believed him to be a nice, chivalrous kind of man. So why would such a man cheat? The answer was that he wouldn't, which supported Alina's theory that Arthur jousted against the assassin.

The area around Alynor's tent was rather empty. There were no guards, no servants. That was strange. There were always plenty of servants around, if only one to help the knight with his armour, which was very difficult to put on alone.

He peeked through a hole in the cloth. There was a strange man in the tent, clad in sir Alynor's armour. Oh dear, Alina had been right. He should have known better than to doubt her by now, but no, he had thought to know better. Was he ever going to learn to just take her word when she said something was the way it was?

The man in the tent adjusted something about his breastplate, which gave Merlin a chance of studying him closer. Myror was bald, with a beard and Merlin suddenly recognized him as the stranger who had spoken to him yesterday after the tournament, when he was watering the horse.

The stranger walked over to him and patted the horse admiringly. 'He's a fine horse,' he remarked. 'I see your master has advanced to the final. He's extremely skilled with a lance.'

'He's doing well,' Merlin had replied with a smile. If only the stranger knew who his master was… 'Just one more match to go.' And then everything can go back to normal. I can't wait.

The stranger leaned a little closer. 'Tell me, what is he like to work for?' He was just one of those people who liked to gossip about nobles, so Merlin had only been too happy to oblige, especially after that tongue-lashing he got from Arthur not five minutes ago.

'Between you and me? He can be a bit of a prat.' They had both laughed at that.

'So you are no longer working for prince Arthur?' the man asked and Merlin had still suspected nothing. It was only a natural question to ask, since Merlin was always anywhere near Arthur. The fact that he was not so now raised questions.

'No,' he said, before realising that was not true and so he added: 'Yes, yes, not right now. Arthur's away. I'm just helping out. There are so many things to do. It would not be fair for me to sit down and do nothing.' It would be more than fair, but no need to tell this stranger that.

He had made a slight, polite bow. 'Well, I wish your master luck in the final,' he said and after a last pat on the horse's neck, he walked away.

Merlin wanted to bang his head against the wall for being so stupid. How much had the assassin learned from his little chat with Merlin? Had he followed him in the hopes that Merlin would lead him straight to Arthur? In that case he had been the one giving the secret away, even though it was unknowingly.

The assassin put his helmet back on. In all that armour no one could see that he was not sir Alynor. They had the same posture and same height, so that would not give him away either.

But was sir Alynor in on this whole plot to kill Arthur? Merlin had been through enough to automatically expect the worst, but this was beyond ridiculous. So he looked inside the tent one more time, only to see the motionless body of the knight lying on the ground. Merlin had seen enough dead bodies to recognize one when he came across it. Sir Alynor was no more.

He had seen enough. He turned and ran.

Alina

Arthur had difficulty walking on his own. He stumbled into his tent and Alina could see the blood coming through the torn chainmail and shirt underneath it.

'Sit down, I'll get you something to stop the bleeding,' she said.

He obeyed. 'I only have five minutes or I forfeit the match,' he panted.

'I'd say that is exactly what you should be doing,' she muttered. 'But I got a feeling that you won't listen to me. Hold still. I'll see what I can do.'

'I'm not going to quit,' he groaned as she tried to remove the blood.

All the clothing prevented her from looking at the wound, but the amount of blood was enough to convince her that it was every bit as bad as she thought it was. He was in no condition to joust right now. It even appeared to be worse than it had been in the show. Well, she had already decided to change legend, she might as well do it thoroughly.

'Your pride is going to get you killed one day,' she predicted.

He grabbed her hand, forcing her to look at him. 'This is not pride. I have to prove myself.'

'To whom?' she wondered. 'Surely not to me?'

'To myself,' he replied. His eyes begged her to understand.

She smiled a sad smile. 'I know. Just… be careful.' I couldn't bear to lose you, not now, not after what happened between us. She did not speak those words, not with sir William watching. 'I'll look at the wound. I'll be quick about it.'

She held the cloth as far away from his skin as possible and then cast the spell with her mind as she had done before. It worked, she knew it did, because as soon as the spell began to heal the wound, she became more aware of the bond with Arthur, intensifying with every moment she kept the magic flowing towards him. She wondered if this process would strengthen itself every time she healed him, tying her closer to him. Once she might have shivered at the thought of such a close bond with Camelot's prince, but those days were behind her now. This was the man she loved, she might as well confess it after the kiss. There was no more denying her feelings, no more hiding behind the excuse of not wanting to change legend.

'That's better,' Arthur said, a smile forming on his face. 'What did you do?'

'I cleaned away most of the blood with a cloth that I drenched in herbs,' she explained. 'They help with the pain. You'll have to be careful, though. As far as I can see the wound is not such a big deal, but you have lost a lot of blood. You may experience some dizziness, so take it slowly.'

'And how am I supposed to do that?'

She bit her lip. 'Just be careful,' she repeated, knowing she could not possibly tell him it was the assassin he was jousting against, because she was not supposed to know. She grinded her teeth in frustration.

Arthur looked around him for the first time. 'Where's Merlin?'

It was very tempting to bring the joke of Merlin being in the tavern somewhat forward, but she restrained herself. Merlin would not thank her for that and he was her friend after all. That did not change one bit now that Arthur and she had become a couple.

'I think he said that he was going to fetch a few lances,' she replied. 'He should be back any minute now.'

'I can't wait for that,' Arthur said. 'I'll have to go back now. You'll have to help me.'

She nodded. 'You know I would, don't you?'

He was able to get on the horse without help, so she suspected that she had done a good job. But she could not heal all, not without arousing suspicion, so he still had difficulty moving his right arm.

'You'll have to pass me my lance,' he said.

She did as he asked, looking right into his eyes. 'Be safe,' she whispered to him. What if legend decided to play a trick on her again? What if she would lose him, unable to do something? What if Merlin could not get in the right position to distract Myror? What if, what if…?

Get a grip! she told herself. Everything is going to be just fine.

Merlin came sprinting around the corner just when Arthur left. 'Where's Arthur?' he panted.

'He's gone back to joust.' Of course.

'He's jousting against the assassin!'

'I know.' She explained quickly what needed to be done.

Merlin nodded and ran away, while she returned to her place beside the king. She was still in time. The match had not yet begun, which seemed to have something to do with "sir Alynor" being incapable of calming his horse. The beast reared up, making a lot of noise and scaring away a lot of the serving boys.

Your doing? Alina asked Merlin.

Doesn't seem to work as much as I wanted, the young warlock replied. I did that after I saw Myror in the tent. I put a thorn underneath the saddle, hoping it would buy us some time.

It did.

Myror was a skilful rider, so he regained the control over the horse. The jousting could begin any moment now and Alina found herself too nervous to sit down. She stood as close to the jousting field as she possibly could, watching the two men, one a prince in disguise, the other an assassin in disguise.

Arthur was still not recovered from the blow. She saw him fighting to keep his balance, trying to shake the drowsiness off that the blood loss caused. Please Arthur, fight it!

The signal was given and the riders spurred their horses into a gallop. She sought Merlin amongst all the people and found him way too far off to be of any use. Oh yes, legend did decide to play tricks with them. There was no one to make sure that Arthur would make it out alive. No one but her.

This realisation hit her with the force of a bomb explosion. She had to use magic in front of all of Camelot watching? What was this madness? Was legend trying to get her killed, now that the other Alina had not been able to do the job properly? Sometimes it felt like everything was conspiring to kill her.

But, what then? Was she supposed to leave Arthur at the mercy of a ruthless killer? And once again she found that she could not abandon him. No matter what the consequences would be for her, she would have to think of him first. That was her destiny, but even if it hadn't been her destiny, she still would have wanted to save him. Because she loved him. She loved him with all her heart and she could not let anything happen to him. Saving Arthur had become an instinct for her, just as it had to Merlin.

'Stupid destiny, stupid connection,' she muttered under her breath. The general noise drowned out her annoyed complaint.

Alina focused hard on the saddle of Myror's horse, waiting as long as she dared. Then, when he was almost in front of her, she closed her eyes as far as she could without closing them entirely, thus minimalizing the chances of getting caught, and whispered the spell.

It hit, as she knew it would. Myror's saddle got loose, nearly causing him to fall off his horse. He barely kept his balance, but the effect was as she had hoped. He was too distracted to point his lance at Arthur.

Arthur, however, jumped at the chance. His lance hit Myror in the chest. The defenceless assassin, who had trouble maintaining his balance as it was, had no possibility of taking that blow. And so he fell, almost graciously, off the back of his horse. He hit the ground with his head first and in the shocked silence of the moment everyone heard his neck break as he collided with the ground. He did not move again and Arthur rode victorious to the other end of the field, still hurt, but also still very much alive.

In the general chaos of shock and cheering, no one seemed to have noticed that Myror's accident was no mere coincidence. No one looked at the royal party. All eyes were turned towards the jousting field.

Alina looked at Merlin, who smiled widely at her.

You did it, his proud voice spoke inside her head.

I did it, she confirmed. She somehow doubted ever feeling so happy in her entire life.

And that's it for today. Please review, make my day!