AN: Sorry that I didn't get any of the things I told you all I had planned in the last Author's Note, but this chapters and the other updates took much longer than I had expected to finish and I got stuck on the ending of the holiday story I was writing.
I would like to thanks to all of you who have stuck around despite my long breaks between chapter. Special thanks to NerdGirlAlert, Phoenix1998, and the guest who left their encouraging reviews. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 34
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Morgana woke to the sound of feet thundering down a stone hallway. At first she was nearly in a panic, not knowing where she was until she turned to see Leon sleeping peacefully in his bed. She calmed down somewhat now that she knew where she was, but she couldn't remember how she got there. She recalled fleeing from The Nemeth Princess, arriving in the garden, and crying until she fell asleep.
Looking at the knight's mostly covered window, the high priestess could see that the sun was nearly set. She wanted to know what happened, yet she had no intention of waking the poor man. She knew just how close Leon and Merlin had come to dying. She had felt the absence of the magic she had never realized she could feel until it was nearly gone.
This was the second time she had been the reason Merlin's power, his life force, was taken from him. True, it had been Morgause in control when the Gean Canach had been set on him, but this time it was because someone wanted to kill her for the deeds she had done while possessed. Neither man deserved what had been done to them. Morgana just thanked the Goddess that they had managed to stop the poison before it was too late.
Morgana was pulled from her dark musings as a key was placed in the lock of Leon's door. Without a thought, she grabbed the knight's sword from the wall by the hearth and stood between the entrance and the sleeping man, just hidden by the pillar in the center of the room. When Gwaine's head peered around the door, the mother-to-be relaxed.
Her eyebrows rose as Percival slid in behind the rogue. They weren't planning on pranking Leon while he was too weak to stop them, were they? They had done it before. There was no way she was going stand back and watch them take advantage of what happened like this.
As the men walked cautiously towards her, Morgana slowly backed around the pillar and walked up behind them silently. She smiled slightly when she smacked the back of their legs with the flat of her sword.
Both men let out a feminine sounding squeak as they turned to face her. She watched as worry lines faded from both knights' faces. Morgana didn't know why they had been so tense, but she did realize the two of them had not planned on getting into mischief at Leon's expense.
"What are the two of you doing in here?" Morgana's voice was barely more than a whisper.
Gwaine's face went serious while Percival's broke into a timid smile that seemed odd on a man his size. "Gwen sent us. Annis and Godwyn found you asleep in the garden. Arthur is with them now, but Gwen wanted to make sure you were safe in case they wish to harm you."
"That was rather elegant Sir Gwaine. So how did I end up in here?" Morgana felt her face fall into the neutral mask she had perfected growing up under Uther's care.
"Bran says that Leon told her that Gwen brought you here after Arthur escorted Annis and Godwyn away." Percival's voice was quiet, but his smile was no longer shy.
"Did someone cause the two of you to switch bodies? I don't think I have heard you so quiet Gwaine, nor you so excited Percival." Morgana whispered in slight amusement.
Leon shifting in his bed cut off any answers the pair of knights may have had. Morgana motioned for them to head towards the door. Once out of Leon's chamber, she set off further into the barracks.
She surprised the two of them again by sliding in and out of the shadows as needed without even trying. They finally stopped right outside of Percival's chamber. Before the large man could retrieve his key, she waved her hand over the lock and walked right in. Both knights stood their staring, trying to get their minds to accept how easy it was from Morgana to sneak through, not only the citadel, but the barracks, which was filled with highly trained soldiers.
"How did she…" Gwaine asked as Percival said "I thought Leon had…"
Looking back into the corridor, the royal witch glared at the two, silencing the rest of their sentences. The two shared a wide-eyed look before following their friend's wife into the room. As they both opened their mouths, she raised her hand to stop them. She shut the door and then turned to them.
"Leon had only just begun retraining the knights and guards right before the wedding. As for the door, Percival's protection spell on the lock wasn't very strong. Now that that is out of the way, I would like to know what Gwen's plan is." She looked utterly calm, but inside, she was panicking.
It was Gwaine who responded. "She told us to make sure you stayed hidden until she and Arthur were sure our visitors weren't out for your blood."
The rogue's words didn't really relieve her worry, but she hid that fact. "Since we have nothing to do but wait, who would like a lively game of dice?"
"With what money?" Gwaine's face show wariness.
"Not money, secrets. Who's in?" Morgana may be scared, but she knew these two wouldn't let anything happen to her or the baby.
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"What in Albion was that?!" Rodor's voice was still a harsh whisper.
"You have never met a dragon, have you Rodor. What a shame. They are magnificent creatures. I used to love playing with the hatchlings during my fostering. I would say the young one here is about three summers old." Annis's voice had a wistful feel to it.
"She is five, but after her time in the pit, it is understandable that she is smaller than she should be." Arthur hoped he statement would encourage the queen to help him convince the rest of the visiting royalty to accept magic and the continued existence of dragons.
"I know is was a dragon, no matter its age. I want to know why it did that thing!" Rodor was clearly nervous about the whole event.
"She was allowing me to relive a piece of her memory. I was able to see, hear, and feel as she did. And mark my words. If another soul tries to lay their hands on that poor beast, I will see to their deaths myself." Annis's lips tightened as she glanced back towards the passage Aithusa had taken.
"I have one question for you Arthur Pendragon. How was she hatched? I heard that Balinor Wledig perished during the Great Dragon's attack on Camelot. Since Kilgharrah is still alive, does that mean Lord Balinor is as well?" The red-haired queen's eyes looked almost hopeful.
Arthur shook his head sadly. "I helped bury him myself. I am sorry, but he never made it to Camelot."
Annis sighed softly.
"Did you know him well Annis?" The elder king's nerves seemed to have calmed somewhat, but he was still jumping at random cave noises.
"I never met him, but it was well known that he was the only Dragonlord to survive Uther's Purge." Arthur nearly winced at her tone.
"Pardon my asking, but I never did catch what a Dragonlord was." Arthur smiled as Annis once again lectured them as they walk. Although this time, they were heading away from the dungeons, not towards them.
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Before Mithian had come by to see him, Merlin had noticed something odd. He could smell everything. His mother's hair soap, the fact that she had allowed the laundry maids clean her dress instead of doing it herself, and the lingering scent of the fennel and comfrey that she had helped Gaius with that morning.
And from where he and Branwen had been sitting in the bed, he had smelled the fear radiating from his wife before she snuck out of the room. If it hadn't been Mithian who been at the door, he would have tried to go after Morgana. He figured she would be back as soon as the princess was gone, but she didn't.
Now it was early evening and she still wasn't back. Bran had gone off to look for her earlier, but she hadn't been back yet. Someone had come to the door and talked with his mother, but he didn't know what had been said.
He needed to know she was safe. Something about how she had smelled was making him worry about her more than he knew he should, but his 'funny feelings' had never pointed him wrong before. He just needed to know she was alright and even if he had to sneak past his mother to do it, he was going to find her.
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"My seven beats your snake eyes of a failed twelve Gwaine, so new secret! Spill!" Morgana hadn't had this much fun in years.
They had been playing for a good while. This was the second time Gwaine had lost. Morgana had lost a good many, but she had so many embarrassing stories about Arthur as a boy that she won even when she lost. Percival was the reigning champion, having won every round he played.
"Let's see. Ah! The first time I met Merlin and the Princess, I saw Merlin use magic and didn't even know it." The man looked so proud of himself as he flipped his hair out of his eyes.
"That doesn't count. Merlin told us that already." Percival was having almost as much fun as Morgana.
"I agree with Percival. Let's have another, shall we." The witch's smile was radiant and honest, showing just how much she was enjoying this.
Gwaine leaned back in his chair and ran a hand through his shoulder length locks. "You see these?" He asked pulling the cord with a ring and dragon scale on it from beneath his chainmail. "I wear these to remember my parents. My father died when I was ten and my mother right before I turned fifteen."
The smiles the other two had been wearing faded with that revelation. All three of them were orphans. Morgana had lost two fathers as well as her mother.
"Both mine died when I was seventeen. Raiders. Cenred did nothing. So, I learned to fight and ended up meeting Lancelot." Percival received two sad smiles for his short tale.
"I guess it is my turn." She said this with a with a self-deprecating chuckle. "I don't really remember my mother. I know that my father, well the man I knew as my father, always told me she had to go away for a while, but by the time he died when I was ten, she never had come back. I found out, during my time with Morgause, that she had been killed as a sacrifice when I was about six. And then, of course, Uther."
After that, they sat there silently. Each of them lost in their own thoughts.
"Oh! We should let Leon know where we disappeared to! I'll sent him a note!" Morgana got up from her seat and rushed to the big man's desk.
After a moment of searching she found a small piece of unused parchment and wrote a short note. Once she was done she folded it and then chanted a quick spell. As her eyes flashed, the paper in her hand burst into flame. Smiling, she returned to her chair.
"Umm… Being the only one in here without magic, how does burning your note let Leon know where you are?" Gwaine looked first to Percival, who shrugged, then to Morgana.
"It was a sending spell. It moves the message from here to there, but it has to destroy the copy here to made make one in Leon's room." She knew she was over simplifying how the spell worked, but it got the point across.
With the sad stories forgotten, they returned to their game of dice. While Percival and Gwaine were playing a round, Morgana felt an odd fluttering in her belly. It didn't hurt, but it did surprise her.
"Are you alright? You look frightened." The concern in both men's eyes made the sorceress's heart swell with brotherly love.
"I'm fine." She smiled sheepishly at them. "My stomach was just reminding me how long it has been since breakfast."
"You did miss lunch. I'll go get us all some early diner. We can't have you going hungry now. After all, you are eating for two now." At Gwaine words, Morgana's mouth dropped open and her face paled.
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Having a warlock for a child is hard, having a warlock child who seems to always have trouble circling around him is even harder. There had been times over the years that Hunith was convinced that her son had been exaggerating, but after living in Camelot for an extended period, she was no longer so sure. If her last stay and this one were any indication, Merlin had been underplaying events rather than exaggerating them.
She had nearly lost her boy to a poison that was meant for his bride, a woman who only avoided sharing his fate because she was carrying their first child together. The person behind it all was never found. They then had to hide what happened from most of the city, so that no one knew just how close the poison had come to killing Merlin and Leon, both men that most would never think had magic.
Now, the two were healing, but slowly. Add in visiting royals from all corners of Albion and a pregnant high priestess that most believed to be evil, and you get the tension that was building now. Morgana had run off, scared and emotional, she was then found by two of the last people that she could possibly have wanted to see her vulnerable like that. Now Merlin, who cannot even stand up without help is panicking and trying to go make sure she was safe.
That was what Hunith, a poor farmer from the edge of a neighboring kingdom, was currently dealing with. It wasn't as if things like this were new to her. This was nothing compared to hiding that one's newborn baby was using magic almost nonstop since he took his first breath and continue doing it for five straight years without end. Compared to that, this was like gathering eggs while the hens were away.
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Queen Guinevere now understood how Gaius felt when Merlin ran off to do something that could get himself killed. She still felt responsible for Morgana, as if she was still under her care. Now, she had left her charge unprotected with the word of an ill man that no harm would befall her. On top of that, she was currently covering for her former mistress, by pretending that her friend was in the royal nursery with her and the babes.
She was wound so tight that she was half afraid that if Rodor or Annis did show up that she would attack them. Thank goodness, the triplets kept her busy, otherwise she would had had time to overthink everything that happened. It also stopped her from creating countless 'what if' situations.
She had just settled the girls and was trying to get Elyan to sleep when she heard a key rattle in the lock to the nursery. Not many mothers liked the idea of weapons near their children, but Gwen was the daughter of a blacksmith. So, by the time the door opened, she was armed.
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AN: Sorry about that cliffhanger at the end. I couldn't decide who to have at the door that would have a key. Suggestions are always welcome.