A/N another chapter up quickly :) I was meant to spend all day revising but instead did this :/ totally starting my revision right after I upload this,

Ooh I finally did a cover picture for this story, it took 5 mins and its rubbish as you can't really see it when it's so small, it's supposed to be half Young Merlin half old Merlin :/, but its better than nothing I suppose :)

Thankyou to people who followed this story or added it to their favourites :) so so happy.

Anyway enjoy and as always Review; criticize, correct or tell me how much you love it I appreciate each and every review :) (cheeky hint: the positive ones are my favourite, but i'm not picky)

Lancelot had never run so fast in his life, he sprinted through the corridors of the castle calling Gwens name, she hadn't been in her chambers, Arthurs or the the bedroom chamber they shared, she wasn't in the throne room and she wasn't in the Grand hall, he was running out of places to look. The only place that remained was the sewing room, he skidded down the remainder of the hall as he came to a stop, and he heard it a slight whimpering coming from the sewing room, his heart hurt listening to the pain in the womans sobs as he walked forward and peered round the door.

Relief flooded through him, bathing him like a warm light, Gwen was here, alive and still conscious, she was pressed up against the wall sobbing, her breaths coming out in gasps and clawing at her chest.

'Gwen?' He called softly as he entered the room. She only sobbed in response.

He slowly made his way forward crouching down he held one hand outstretched the other at his side clutching the sleeping draft.

Suddenly she started screaming again, screams of pain and fear. 'Arthu—rrrr.' she cried, Lancelot tried to ignore the dagger that drove through his heart, he didn't know what he had expected, but seeing the woman you love like this over another man hurt regardless.

'Gwen.' He said softly again, burying the pain deep down inside he inched forward. 'I can bring Arthur back to you.' He said, she snapped her bloodshot eyes to meet his. He held out the bottle 'You just need to drink this.'

She grabbed it and his heart broke all over again, she hadn't hesitated hadn't questioned, she was willing to do anything to save the man she loved. She gulped it down and he watched as her eyes closed, her breathing slowed and he caught her as she slumped to the ground before him.

He breathed heavily as he forced down the emotions that wanted to overcome him and were so close to doing so and he pulled her into his arms, carrying her from the room, he headed for her chambers, they were smaller and only had one entrance he could protect her from there.

Merlin-

'argh.' He screamed in anger kicking out at the cells, his toe stubbing painfully against the solid metal bars, he jumped backwards and grabbed his toe, and starting hopping. .

Morgana was gone, her cell empty as was Mordreds. How had he been so careless? He should have been down there watching her every minute of everyday, he was naïve to think that simply enchanting the cells would have been enough. He groaned and ran back up the stairs he would go check back in with Gaius before seeing if he could find her using his magic.

Mordred-

Mordred tagged along behind Morgana and Katie as they moved uninterrupted throughout the castle, the spell or whatever Katie had done was powerful, he had lost count of the amount of people, clutching the chests screaming and sobbing in fear.

'What exactly have you done to them?' He asked after a while. The two girls looked at each other before looking at him with extremely patronizing sympathetic smiles.

'Mordred you would think you had learnt nothing in the year you have spent with me.' Morgana said her voice rang with irritation.

'I know the mandrake root can have this effect but surely you didn't create one for every single person we have seen infected?'

She laughed 'No I put it in their food.'

'Their food?'

'Yes cooks Porridge.'

'But surely people will have noticed it would taste foul.'

'Yes but they only need one bite and within seconds the poison is running round their body, heading for their minds.. now I believe the queens chambers are this way.' She said to Morgana swiftly changing the subject.

Mordred tagged along behind, how could they reverse the effects of the Mandrake root? He knew of no spell, the only thing to do was wait, but having it directly enter their bodies people would be dead before the effects wore off. He had to go get help, he had to get rid of Morgana and Katie.

'Ah here it is.' Katie said 'The queen awaits.' She said holding her arm out toward the door. Morgana grinned and took a step forward, Mordred grabbed her before he could stop himself

'Morgana what will you do?'

She snatched her arm back from his grasp. 'I am going to teach my former serving girl her place.' She snapped 'You can either help me or join the others in fear.' He took a step back and let her go ahead, waiting to see if he could turn and run but Katie stood waiting for him to enter the room, he glared at her as he walked past and she smiled at him sweetly.

As he entered the room he saw the Queen laying asleep on the bed and the Knight he believed was Lancelot suspended in the air, Morgana stood in front of him her hand held up, he grimaced at the sound of the mans choking.

'Tell me what have you given her?' Morgana asked him. The man shook his head.

'Never.'

Morgana squeezed and the man choked some more. 'Tell me! How long until she awakes?'

Mordred jumped slightly in surprise as the man managed to spit a gob of saliva at Morganas face. She shrieked and dropped him in surprise. He turned to grab his sword but was thrown backwards and pinned to the wall, his head made a nasty crack as it hit the solid stone.

'Morgana stop it. He's not going to tell you anything.'

She turned to face him her glare was cold and frightening she looked ready to scream at him, but her expression quickly changed and she smiled at him 'You're right.' With that she turned back around and glared at Lancelot. 'When she awakes the serving girl you love will suffer the worst kind of pain imaginable, for her it will never end. You can die knowing you failed.'

'NO!' The knight yelled making a last ditch attempt at freeing himself from the invisible grasp and then something snapped and he crumpled to the ground. Mordreds eyes squeezed shut, he couldn't save him, he had to do something to save the Queen. He wasn't powerful enough to take them both on, If he could reach Emrys he could get help. Determined he shrunk to the back of the room out the way and searched for Emrys, this would be easy if Emrys hadn't shut his mind off from him, if he had then this was going to take time.

Merlin-

'Gaius?!' Merlin called as he ran into the room. 'Morganas gone.' He said breathlessly.

Gaius' face fell but he didn't look surprised. 'Did you search the castle?'

'Not yet. Has Lancelot returned?'

Gaius shook his head 'He may be having trouble locating Gwen she always has busy Mornings.'

Merlin nodded 'Have you made any progress?'

Gaius nodded his head 'some but I haven't narrowed my search, there are a few things that cause people to see theirs fears, but the only one that matches this exactly is the Mandrake root, but I don't understand how people could have been exposed to it.'

Merlin frowned and walked over 'Is there anything on in jesting it?'

'You think people ate it?' Gaius asked surprised 'That is not common practise for..' Merlin glared at him and he trailed off. 'I'll look and see.' He finished.

Merlin nodded and went over to Arthur who was still fast asleep in his dirty socks and tunics. 'Has he moved or anything while I was gone?' Gaius shook his head.

'No you're spell appears to have been effective, he doesn't even appear to be dreaming, which is good.' Merlin nodded. 'Do you think you could do it for more people?' Gaius asked.

Merlin shrugged 'Probably, it would take time finding them all though and it isn't a solution.'

Gaius nodded 'Could you do a general one? Find a way to put only those affected to sleep? At least there would be no more deaths until we found a permanent solution.'

Merlin sighed 'I'm not sure, probably but I would need them to all be in one place, I'll see if I can find Leon, get him and his men to find them all. I'll tell him we're giving them a draft or something.'

'I assume you are going to Kilgharrah?' Gaius asked.

Merlin nodded 'We need information fast, this is killing people quickly.'

Gaius nodded in agreement 'In that case I will find Leon you go straight to him.'

Merlin glanced at Arthur one last time. 'Lock him in when you leave.' He said, he had no way of knowing that Morgana wasn't still in the castle and she would be out for revenge.