"Merlin, how is Mordred's friend?" Gwen asked. They had gone out for a pleasure ride—Arthur, Gwen, Elyan, Tirion, Merlin, and Gwen's current maidservant, Bethan.
"The wound in her leg was deep, but with Anna's help, it's almost healed," he answered. Gwen was still looking at him expectantly, and he added with a smile, "I think she's getting friendlier, too."
Kara had been downright hostile when he and Arthur had first encountered her in the woods. Mordred had disappeared from his patrol, and Arthur and Merlin had gone to find him and had discovered him with the girl. When Arthur had offered to take her back to Camelot so that Gaius could look at her wound, she had looked at him like he was a performing dog.
"Are you really going to help a Druid, Arthur Pendragon?"
"I have no quarrel with the Druids," he answered.
"What if I said I was a magic-user?"
He gave a crooked smile and glanced at Mordred and Merlin. "I'd say you were in good company."
She looked confused and glanced up at Mordred, who was smiling down at her. "I told you things have changed," he said softly.
In the end, Kara had allowed them to take her to Camelot, and though she was quite standoffish at first, she was slowly beginning to join in Gaius and Anna's conversations.
"This seems like a nice place," Tirion commented, and they all stopped. They had come to a small, grassy clearing with a stream running along one side. There was plenty of shade, and the birds were singing.
"I agree," Gwen said, dismounting. "Bethan, let's spread out the picnic while the men take care of the horses."
Bethan and Merlin carried the two picnic baskets they had brought over to the place Gwen indicated, and then Merlin went with Elyan and Arthur to water and tie the horses.
"We did pick a perfect day for this," Elyan said as they were finishing up. They all glanced upward, appreciating the fall the sunlight through the leaves. The birds were in full chorus, and there was a gentle breeze.
"It's nice to get away," Arthur agreed.
"ARTHUR?" Gwen called. Her tone sounded strained. Elyan and Arthur exchanged looks and ran back to the clearing, Merlin at their heels.
The sight that met their eyes when they reached it made all three of them stop in their tracks. Their three companions were all standing in the glade, in a position that made it look like they had all three leapt to their feet. At the corner of the clearing, kneeling with her arms outstretched, was someone they hadn't seen in a long time.
"Sifa," Arthur said, stepping forward.
"Sire." She bowed her head. "I humbly beg your forgiveness." Merlin could see, even from across the clearing, that she was shaking.
"Why have you come back?" Arthur asked sternly.
She glanced up at him and then dropped her gaze again. "I have information on Morgana's plans," she answered.
"How did you learn them?"
"From her. She hired me as a spy, believing that you would accept me back." She kept her eyes resolutely on the ground. "I have no such expectations, but I had to do what I felt right."
"Why do you side with us and not with her?"
Sifa looked up. "Because you are good people. Morgana is full of hatred and violence. She would destroy the whole world if it would slake her thirst for revenge. You wish to build us up. She wishes only to tear us down."
"You say you know her plans," Gwen said in the silence that fell after this speech. "How much detail do you know?"
"I know where she will attack next and when."
"When?"
Sifa took a deep breath. "The day after tomorrow."
Gwen and Arthur looked at each other. "We must return and convene the Round Table," Arthur said.
"Please, Sire," Sifa said, almost flinching as they looked back at her. "Word must not get back to Morgana that I have told you her plans."
"She's right," Elyan said. "The fewer people who know, the better."
Arthur nodded. "We'll convene the Council, then." He looked over at Merlin, who nudged Bethan. The two of them began to gather up the picnic things.
There was a little awkwardness when they mounted up—they weren't going to make Sifa walk while the rest of them rode, but they were still unsure of her—so who would she ride with? In the end Elyan took her up behind him: Merlin would have done it, but one of the picnic baskets was strapped on behind his saddle.
Mordred was in the courtyard when they arrived. "I'm to tell you, from Gaius, that Ceri has begun having contractions," he told Merlin, then smiled up at Bethan.
"Oh my goodness!" Bethan leapt off her horse, then stopped and wheeled toward Gwen.
"Go on!" Gwen said with a smile, and Bethan took off at top speed. Ceri, who lived in the lower town, was Bethan's sister.
"How is Kara?" Merlin asked as he dismounted.
"I don't know; I was just… about to go see her…" Mordred trailed off as he spotted Sifa.
"Before you do that, please tell Leon I want to see him in the Council Chamber. Merlin, leave that," he added. "Someone else can get it. We need to gather the Council."
000
Anna and Gaius were both needed at Ceri's house, so the Council was one member short. It was strange to Merlin to sit at the table rather than standing off to one side. Arthur saw him shifting in his chair and leaned over with a grin. "Come on, Merlin. You've been telling me what to do for years, now," he murmured. "Now you just get to do it publicly."
Merlin smiled back as the door opened for Elyan, who was still escorting Sifa. She had gone down to the kitchen and cleaned up a little. Merlin wondered what the staff's reaction to her had been. It was perhaps a good thing that Elyan had been with her—his presence would have kept comments to a minimum.
"Sifa," Arthur said when everyone was settled, "tell the Council what you told me."
Sifa took a deep breath. "Morgana hired me to spy on Camelot for her. I pretended to comply, but I want to help you. I can tell you that she is planning on attacking in two days. Early on the morning after tomorrow, she will bring a large troop to the eastern side of the city and attack there. She is hoping to use the element of surprise."
Geoffrey opened his mouth to respond when the door flew open and Kara limped in, with Mordred behind her. "Don't trust her!" Kara said. "She's working for Morgana!"
"We know," Merlin answered gently. "She has decided to work for us instead."
"But Morgana recruited her months ago! She avowed a hatred for Camelot and Arthur."
"As did you, I imagine," Sifa answered quietly, and the two girls locked eyes—Kara's fiery, Sifa's gentle. "Many of us have had a change of heart," she added, turning back to Arthur.
"Why should we believe you have had one?" Geoffrey asked. "You spied for Morgana once before."
"I spied for my father," she responded. "And I was very sorry for it afterward. I never meant to be the cause of the deaths of good men." She dropped her eyes. "I only wanted my father to be proud of me. Now my father is gone—and I have decided that I want to be proud of me." She looked up again. "I could never live with myself if I knew that I had helped evil to triumph over good. Morgana is evil—I know that. So I will help you to defeat her."
The Council members looked at one another for a long minute. None of them seemed to want to talk in front of her. "You may go," Arthur said at last. Sifa dropped a curtsey, and Elyan turned to escort her from the room. As she reached the door, Kara's voice rang out in Merlin's head.
You lie, she thought loudly. Sifa paused and turned her head, then left the room. When the door had shut behind them, Kara exclaimed, "You don't really believe her, do you?"
"We will certainly consider carefully what she has told us," Arthur answered. "Can you tell us anything more about Morgana's plan?"
"I wasn't in her inner circle," Kara disclaimed. "I was hired as part of a group that was to ambush Camelot soldiers as they brought weapons shipments into Camelot. But the strategy for catching them depended on magic, and all the sorcerers abandoned Morgana when they heard that magic had been legalized in Camelot and that you were working with sorcerers yourselves." She glanced up at Mordred.
"So she will not be attacking our shipments?"
"Not as far as I know. But they are a target." She paused. "And there's something else. Morgana has been working for several months with a very powerful sorcerer named Elïavrés—they call him the Gaul." She shivered a little at the name.
Arthur looked at Geoffrey. "I will look him up in the court records," Geoffrey said.
"Ask Gaius, too," Arthur added to Merlin. "Thank you for your help," he said to Kara. "You may go." Kara bowed her head and left, leaning on Mordred's arm. "Sir Leon, what do you think of all this?"
"We don't know that Sifa is telling the truth—but then, we don't know that she is lying, either," Leon answered. "Better safe than sorry, I think. We should put the majority of our troops at the eastern side of the city—but we should leave some around the perimeter, just in case."
"I agree. Does anyone have a better suggestion?" No one did. "Then that's what we'll do."
As the Council broke up, Merlin wondered how Kara would feel when she realized she had gone from planning to help Morgana attack Camelot to helping Arthur defend Camelot from Morgana. He didn't have much time to think about it, however—there were chores to be done.
TBC
AN: Sorry for the long break between updates. I had a lot of things to sort out for this story arc.
While I was researching a name for the Gaul, I came across this Arthurian gem: Bredbeddle: The true name of the Green Knight in "The Greene Knight"; the counterpart of Bertilak of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". He tamed a fiend known as the Burlow-Beanie.
The high and noble tale of Bredbeddle and the Burlow-Beanie. Classic.
