"Arthur...Arthur, it's a trap." Merlin's heavily fevered voice protested weakly.

Gwen looked at Freya and then looked over at Gaius. "The fever's getting worse, isn't it?"

Gaius looked over at the two girls that were eyeing him, hoping he had something to tell that that would conflict with what they could see. "The poison is setting in." he confirmed, his voice sounding old and tired.

Merlin started muttering some tangled up words that sounded like he was trying to say a spell.

Freya quickly shushed him and switched out the clothes on his head, dipping her hands into the bucket of water to get them wet before running them through his damp hair, trying to add a bit a coolness wherever she could.

"Gwen, could you fetch me some more Wolfbane?" Gaius asked, looking at her quickly.

"Of course!" Gwen stood up and hurried out the door.

Gaius looked at Freya somberly and then fixed Merlin with a hard look. "Merlin, you must fight it."

Arthur walked a step and a half in front of the girl, torch held high in his left hand. He was surprised at how clean the cave he was walking through was. It seemed like the walls were less damp and slippery than the walls of the tunnels that surrounded the water supply in Camelot. He could feel the oldness of the place, and now that he was actually out in the forest he was glad that Jaya was along and watching the horses and the entrance of the cave to make sure that nothing snuck up on him. Though it did surprise him a little bit that Jaya hadn't rushed into the fight with the Cockatrice, or at least after the fight. Of course, knowing her, she was probably on the look-out for another one.

The cave opened up into a cavern of sorts and the light from their two torches bounced off the jagged walls that seemed to plunge up toward where the sky would have been and down into the depths of the earth without stopping.

Arthur looked at the small spit of land that jutted out over the chasm that stood between him and the opposite wall. A small feeling of dread pricked at him. That was not ideal at all.

"There they are." The girl pointed to some small white flowers that seemed to grow out of a small root, or the rock next to it.

Arthur eyed them for a moment. This is what he had come here for. It was such a little thing to be sucking the life out of Merlin as he stood here looking at it. Well, there was no way a little chasm was going to keep him from getting it. He smiled at the girl next to him and started out across the small spit of rock that spanned the chasm, doing his best to not look down, mentally gritting his teeth whenever small pieces of stone chipped away from it.

"Keep back from the edge. Don't worry, we'll be out of here soon." Arthur smiled at her before starting to work his way farther out onto the bridge of sorts.

"Eorthe, lyft, fyr, waeter, hiersumie me." The girl's voice suddenly broke into the stillness.

The cave rumbled and the ground started to shake.

"What are you doing?" Arthur demanded, looking over his shoulder sharply at her.

"Eorthe, ac, stanas, hiersumie me. Ic can stanas tobrytan…" She continued, daring him to do something. "Hiersumie me."

Arthur looked down at the rock that he was standing on and tried not to panic when he realized that even more rock was falling away from under him. At the last second he decided that it was better to jump than stay where he was. As his feet left the stone that crumbled away he wondered for a split second where Jaya was. Surely there would have been some sound coming from the cave that she would have been able to hear. He felt and heard both of his shoulders pop when he gripped the rough rock and his weight slammed down against his fingers before his ribs smashed into the wall. He looked over his shoulder as the torch fell down toward the bottom of...he tried to ignore the fact that the light had disappeared without hitting the ground.

"I expected so much more." the girl's voice mused from across the chasm.

"Who are you?!" Arthur demanded, straining to see her a little.

"The last face you'll ever see." She smirked at him, her head cocking to the side slightly. "Even the girl knew that you were in danger."

"Jaya?" Arthur panted, struggling to look back at her. "Why didn't she warn me?"

"She did." the girl shrugged slightly. "You told her stay outside and 'keep an eye on things'."

Arthur remembered Jaya calling his name, and now regretted that he hadn't slowed down enough to realize what tone she had used. His attention snapped away from his thoughts when a very large spider suddenly crawled over the ledge that he was hanging from and stopped to inspect him for a moment. He pulled his sword quickly and stabbed at it's belly, half pushing-half pulling it over the edge to toss it down the direction that the torch had gone.

"Very good." the girl praised sarcastically. "But he won't be the last. I'll let his friends finish you off, Arthur Pendragon. It's not your destiny to die by my hand." she smiled and walked away back the way they had come from.

"Who are you?!" Arthur demanded as the darkness settled in around him like a blanket.

"Arthur." Merlin's strained voice muttered.

Gaius and Freya both started slightly and looked at him in surprise. He hadn't moved or said anything since Gwen had left.

"It's too dark. Too dark." Merlin muttered, his head thrashing back and forth. His voice dropped to just above a whisper and he started stringing together an actual spell.

"Merlin!" Freya protested shushing him slightly.

"Merlin." Gaius was more stern.

Gaius and Freya both noticed the light coming from under the thin blanket that had been stretched over Merlin.

Freya looked up at Gaius through her lashes and pursed her lips.

Gaius reached over and pulled the blanket back that was hiding Merlin's left hand.

Merlin's hand laid on the cot, palm up, a small, blueish-silver light floating in a small ball over his palm.

Freya gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.

"What are you doing?" Gaius wondered.

"Jaya can do that." Freya mused quietly.

Gaius looked at her and his eyebrows knit together slightly. "Can do what?"

"Make that. It's bigger, and she usually balances it over her shoulder. She uses it as a light source when she doesn't want to carry a torch." Freya dipped her hands in the water bucket again so she could run her hands through his hair again.

Gaius just hummed and looked thoughtful.

He wasn't sure how long he had been there. He was sure it wasn't too long, but his fingers were starting to get numb already. He was definitely going to have to trim up. Arthur let his head go lax for a second, wishing with all his might that Jaya hadn't been so compliant and had followed them inside. Of course...now that he thought about it, the girl was a sorcerer, so he would be lucky if Jaya wasn't harmed.

Arthur was startled out of wondering how he would tell King Brian if his daughter had been killed by a bright bluish light that suddenly floated up next to him. "Come one then! What are you waiting for?!" He demanded of it. "Finish me off!"

The light just floated where it was for a moment and then started rising slowly, revealing that the ledge that Arthur's fingers were gripping had a shelf attached to it that was big enough for Arthur to stand on.

Arthur made a split second decision and flexed all his muscles at once to pull himself up. He managed to get one elbow over the edge and then worked his way up until he was able to roll onto the small ledge. He laid on his back for a moment glad that he hadn't fallen, and that all of his weight was off his fingers. The next instant he was up onto his feet and looking around. As the light got higher he spotted the little white flower and the small green leaves that he needed.

"Leave them, Arthur." Merlin muttered, looking pained.

Freya looked at him and bit her lip slightly and smoothed his hair back from his forehead. "What's going on, Merlin?" she asked quietly.

Arthur looked over the edge of the shelf he was standing on. There were screeches and scurrying noises coming from the chasm.

Spiders. Lots of them, judging by the amount that he could see in the dim light of the blue orb that was floating over him.

"Go. Save yourself. Follow the light." Merlin muttered.

Freya quietly switched the clothes on his forehead and used the warmer one to dab at the sweat that was on his cheeks.

Arthur pulled back up straight. He needed to get out of there. But there was no way he was leaving without what he came for. The flower was just out of reach. He cursed under his breath and stretched a little farther, risking a look down at the spiders. He managed to wrap his fingers around the stem of the flower. Arthur allowed himself a sigh of relief after the flower, roots and all, was safely in the small pouch that was attached to his belt. One more quick glance over the edge to see how close the spiders were and he was off, climbing the jagged wall, following the light.

"Faster. Go faster." Merlin encouraged.

Arthur gritted his teeth as his fingers started to protest the work that he was putting them through. He wasn't sure how much more of this he could do.

"Follow the light!" Merlin begged.

Arthur paused again only long enough to use his teeth to rip off his gloves. His fingers were sweating on the inside and he could feel that he was going to start slipping soon.

"Move." Merlin urged.

Freya pulled the blanket up a little closer to his chin, looking again at the light that was in his hand.

Arthur was starting to wonder if it was just as high up as it was to the bottom of the chasm. His arms were protesting every movement. He breathed a quick gasp when his boot slipped off the small ledge that he had set it on.

"Climb!" Merlin all but ordered.

Arthur took a deep breath and dug deep into his stubbornness and started climbing again. Just when he was starting to think that he wouldn't be able to continue on any longer the small orb of blue light flitted out of a hole that looked like it was just big enough for Arthur to fit through.

Three hand-holds and a near-slip later Arthur was laying on his back in the loamy moss that surrounded the hole in the middle of a grove of trees. The sun was shining through the leaves of the trees and birds were chirping back and forth to each other.

The sunlight had never felt so good. Arthur felt like he could have laid there forever.

All too soon he was rolling to his feet and looking around him, trying to figure out where he was so he could get back to where he had left Jaya and the horses.

Jaya.

Arthur quickly scrambled out of the little hollow that he was in and steadied himself against the trunk of a tree that looked like it was going to fall over with the next big wind. He hurried off to his right, hoping that he wouldn't find Jaya dead.

Stars.

That was the first thing she saw.

Blinding pain.

That was the next sensation.

Jaya lay where she was for a moment and wished to high heaven that she hadn't done something so rash. She slowly took a breath and then gritted her teeth when a loud bark happened somewhere near her head. Ridire was close by then. She desperately hoped that it wasn't 'Cara' back to finish her off, because she really wasn't ready to ward off an attack.

Arthur heard Ridire's familiar bark before he saw the big black dog. He hurried over to where the dog was, sliding slightly on the downed leaves that were left over from the fall before. Once he was back in the clearing he caught sight of the downed Cockatrice, and it didn't take him long to find where Ridire was heading. Jaya was lying crumpled up on the ground with her head resting on a large, jagged stone. The tree behind her had gouges from the metal of her breast plate a few feet in the air. Arthur had a split second moment of thankfulness that the breastplate went over her back as well. He was sure that the hit hadn't done nearly as much damage as it could have. "Jaya. Jaya are you awake?" he asked, keeping his voice low, hoping that it wouldn't be too loud.

Jaya's eyebrows knit together. And after a small groan she cracked her eyes open just enough to let some light in before she opened them about halfway.

Arthur watched her squint up at him and smiled tightly. "Are you all right?" he wondered.

Jaya pushed herself up on her right elbow slowly and regarded him like she was wondering if he was stupid or just asking because he knew it was the right thing to do. "How do I look like I feel?" she asked, her voice dry.

Arthur looked at the small trickle of blood that was dripping down from her right temple. "Let you tried to use a rock for a pillow."

Jaya snorted and carefully pushed herself up until she was sitting upright. "Yes, that wasn't very smart of me, was it?" she muttered, touching a couple fingers to her temple and then grimacing at the blood that she saw when she pulled them away.

"You know, if I had known that you were going to lay down on the job, I wouldn't have allowed you to come along and watch my back." Arthur jabbed cheekily while offering her a hand.

Jaya stared at his hand for a moment and then grabbed it, and hauled herself up onto her feet, bracing against him a moment while she fended off Ridire's excited attack. She looked him over as she let go of his hand and her left eyebrow tipped down. "What happened to you? You look like you've been digging in the dirt with...all of you."

Arthur pursed his lips and walked over to the slain Cockatrice to take a closer look at it. "She was a sorcerer." he mumbled.

Jaya snorted and placed her hands on her hips. "How do ya think I hit the tree that high in the air?" she asked.

Arthur shrugged and then started toward the horses. "We should be getting back. Do you feel well enough to ride?"

"Do I feel well enough to ride!" Jaya scoffed starting after him, wincing slightly when she misplaced her foot on a tree root. "Are you going to tell me what happened to you?" she asked, pulling herself up into Courage's saddle with a small grunt of pain.

Arthur looked at her like he wasn't sure that she was as ready as she claimed to ride and then shrugged. "She tried to kill me." he answered as he spurred his bay toward the way that they had come from.

Jaya pulled Courage around and let him out to catch up with Arthur. "You can't just tell me that!" Jaya protested over the sound of muffled hoofbeats and the wind that was sailing past their ears.

Arthur didn't pull up until they were up on top of the ridge that they had stopped on when looking over the forest. Once they were going a more easily-sustainable pace he explained to Jaya what had happened and how the light had appeared to guide him out of the cavern.

Jaya listened quietly for the most part and only commented that it was lucky that he had made it out at all.

"Why do you suppose she tried to kill me, but not you?" Arthur asked, looking over the bay's neck at Jaya who was scrubbing the blood off of the side of her face with the water of the stream the horses and Ridire were drinking from.

Jaya flicked the water off her fingers and stood up. "I'm really not sure. And to be honest, I'm not sure I want to try to figure it out. Maybe it was because she knew that you would be coming and didn't know that I would be."

"That's ridiculous. How could she know I was coming?" Arthur scoffed, swinging into his saddle and turning the bay back toward Camelot's walls.

Jaya let Courage find his own way after Arthur as she swung into the saddle and took a minute to get her right foot in the stirrup. Jaya wondered if she should tell him that it was a plan that 'Cara' had had from the beginning or not. She looked up at the sky and frowned. The sun was starting to go down and they still had a lot of riding left to do. "I'll tell you when we get back to Camelot. It looks like we might have to race the sun."

Arthur looked around to see what she was talking about and urged his horse a little faster. The sun was much farther down than he had realized, and he wasn't about to spend any more time than necessary to get back to Camelot. "The moment we get this to Gaius you will have to explain everything to me." he looked at her pointedly.

Jaya nodded and let Courage out a little more. She was in just as much of a hurry as Arthur was. And her head was pounding and there was small black dots that would threaten to block the corners of her vision if she wasn't careful about the way that she held her head.

The moon was just starting to rise when the two Royals finally caught sight of the white walls of Camelot. They were exhausted, and their horses were foaming and sweating with the effort to keep up the fast pace for so long. Ridire had started to lag behind, but when he sensed that they were starting to get close to the city he began working on keeping up a bit better.

"We're coming, Merlin." Jaya muttered to herself.