A/N: I realize that it has been years since I updated this story, and I do sincerely apologize for that. I never abandoned this story for good, though. What do you say we take some serious strides to finishing this one up and finally getting Merlin and the gang back to Camelot where they belong? If you're still out there, and still willing to read this story that's probably nearing 10 years old at this point, then I'd love to hear from you. I hope you enjoy!

This Cold Land

Chapter Twenty: One Last Hope

Getting back into the citadel turned out to be far easier than they had expected it to be.

It was a good thing that Kol was well enough now to accompany them on their quest. He had lived with the Vikings since he was a young child, and he knew their village well. So well, in fact, that he was able to sneak them past the few guards at the gates, to the main hall, then into and through the passageways the servants and slaves used to move to and from the kitchens quickly. It was something the Vikings had apparently picked up from a southern coastal kingdom they'd raided generations ago, and the idea of having these passages to allow them to both be served faster and also to not have the main hallways cluttered up by the rabble was too good to pass up. Kol had played in them when he was a child.

Arthur worried that they would run into someone in the narrow passageways. Kol assured him that it was avoided by all but the servants and slaves. It wasn't the Vikings themselves that the prince was concerned about meeting, though - he had no doubt he could easily best them, especially with their bulk forcing them to walk in single file. No, it was the possibility of having to harm an innocent, a servant or a slave that had been ripped from their homes, brainwashed, forced into labor that, from what Kol had related to them, was just as brutal, cruel, and deadly as torture.

He steeled himself, though. He was here to save Merlin. He would do what he had to, and if they ran into a servant who tried to reveal their presence, he would do what he had to.

Thankfully, they ran into no one on their way to the healer's chambers. It had been untouched by the force that had exploded out of the Great Hall the day that Merlin and Kol had made their escape. Arthur forced himself not to think about what he already knew but refused to acknowledge had caused all that destruction.

The healer, Eir, was a small but firm-faced woman with hard eyes, a sloped back, and steel-grey hair. It was almost as if she were expecting them, Arthur thought. At the very least, she didn't seem at all surprised to see them on the other side of the door at their knocking. Gwaine had wanted to bust into the room, swords brandished, but Kol had talked him out of that particular plan. "Eir is the kindest Viking I've ever met, but she's still a Viking, and she doesn't put up with any funny business," he'd warned. "She'll be much less likely to help us if we don't respect her and her home."

Arthur chose not to point out that the citadel was also her home, and that it had been severely disrespected by being all but destroyed. But the thought lingered in the back of his racing mind, anyway.

Eir looked rather fierce as she regarded her visitors, and at first Arthur feared that she was going to call the guards, but after a few tense moments that seemed to last a lifetime each, she opened the door wider and said in a heavily accented voice, "Come in."

Arthur didn't know why he was surprised to hear her speak their language. He knew that Vikings were voyagers, that they plundered more than just wealth and slaves from their ventures - they took with them pieces of languages, bits of cultures, architectural ideas like the servants' passageways, and they adapted them as they wanted into their own language, cultures, and homes. Rage stirred within him as he thought about how they took and took what wasn't theirs indiscriminately.

"Hello, Eir," Kol greeted, head down, toes pointing inward like a sheepish child.

"Hmph," Eir acknowledged his greeting.

"It's been a while," he pressed.

Eir glared at him. Arthur stepped forward, not knowing what he was going to do or say to diffuse the situation, but knowing he had to do something. It was then that a smile split Eir's haggard old face and she embraced Kol like her son. Arthur noted with some degree of fascination that the smile didn't make her look beautiful or graceful like smiles did for so many women - she still looked fierce, and tired, and more than a little terrifying. But her eyes were kind as she regarded the young man in front of her, and Arthur relaxed a little.

"Astrid," Kol said, releasing the healer and turning to his newly-found sister. "This is Eir. She practically raised me until I was old enough to go on voyages."

She nodded. "When he was old enough to go with the men, I had to stop 'babying' him so he would be strong and tough - I had to distance myself from him."

Astrid still looked suspicious (but Arthur had begun to suspect that was just how she always looked), but she still grasped the old woman's hands in her own. "I am very grateful that you took care of Kolfred when I could not."

Eir raised an eyebrow at Kol. "Oh, this is Astrid. She's my sister, apparently." Astrid rolled her eyes and gently elbowed him in the side.

"A family reunion," Eir mused, then turned to the others. "Let me guess," she said, her blue eyes skimming across first Arthur, then Gwaine, and finally Leon. She pointed to Gwaine. "You're the real prince, I'd wager." Arthur's jaw dropped in indignation. "And you two are his knights, yes?"

Gwaine smirked, looking happier than he had in months. "Well, you know, actually I -"

"I am," Arthur interrupted, deciding not to give Gwaine the satisfaction of ruffling his feathers any longer. "And we are here on urgent business." With that, everyone in the room turned somber and serious, and with each word he spoke, explaining their situation to the old Viking woman, the more his heart sank as her face grew graver. She wasn't going to agree with this, why should she?

"Let me make sure I understand what you are asking me," she said slowly. "You want me to abandon my home, my children, my people, to go sailing across the sea to an enemy nation, in order to keep the very same false prince who caused all of this destruction alive?"

Arthur glanced from Gwaine to Leon, noticing that Gwaine looked anxious, and Leon confused. Triumphantly, Arthur realized that Gwaine was nervous because he already knew who the sorcerer was who'd caused all this destruction, and he didn't know that Arthur knew.

"Merlin couldn't-" Leon began.

"He could, and he did," Eir said firmly. "I cannot believe I did not realize it at first, but he was so weak, so tired, so ill. Only when he made his grand escape was the truth made clear to me."

"Realize what?" Leon asked. Kol obviously knew what she was talking about, and Astrid had an idea as well, but Gwaine was the most obvious of the three. He looked like he was about to panic.

Eir opened her mouth to speak, but Arthur, who found he could not deny nor contain what he knew anymore, interrupted. "That Merlin's a sorcerer."

Leon blanched, and it was now Gwaine's jaw's turn to drop. "You knew?" He stared at Arthur intensely, trying to read him, to decide if he was a threat to Merlin.

"I've suspected it for a while," Arthur responded vaguely.

"Since when?" Gwaine demanded.

"Since he appeared to me in a dream with glowing golden eyes," Arthur answered flatly. "Can we please talk about this later? Actually, you know what?" he interrupted himself. "I'm the Crown Prince of Camelot. I order us to talk about this later."

Gwaine harrumphed, still shaken, but Arthur ignored him and a flabbergasted Leon and turned back to Eir. "Every second he grows weaker. I know that you owe us no loyalty, that there is no reason that you should abandon your life here, your family, for a sorcerer who attacked your home. But Merlin is," he hesitated for only the fraction of a second before acknowledging what he already knew to be true, "Merlin is a good man. He was taken in my stead. He did not deserve this."

Eir was silent for many tense moments before she agreed, voice slow and steady, "You are right." She did not elaborate.

The tension was too much for Gwaine. "About what?"

"I do not owe you my loyalty, and there is no reason that I should do what you ask and accompany you across the sea to save the life of a sorcerer who destroyed my home and caused grave injury to my son in the process."

Arthur winced, seeing their prospects dwindle away.

Kol's eyes widened, looking almost hopeful. "Is Onäm…?" He trailed off.

"He's dead," Eir said shortly. She didn't appear to be very broken up about it though.. She turned back to the prince and knights. "Like I said, I owe you nothing, and there is no reason I should help you."

"Please-" Arthur began, desperate.

"But I am still going to do it, anyway," she finished. She glanced around at the gaping faces. "What are you standing around for, gawping like fish? Help me gather my things! We must hurry if we are to get Emrys home safely."

Astrid's eyes widened at the use of the name Emrys, but everyone else showed their confusion. "His name is Merlin," Arthur corrected, brow furrowed.

"That's what I said," snapped Eir, and continued packing.

Lancelot sat by Merlin's side, eyes glazed over with tiredness and cold and hopelessness. He gently brushed sweaty bangs from his dear friend's forehead. "I wish you would wake up. I don't know why you haven't tried to heal yourself yet, but I imagine it has something to do with Arthur always being here. But he's gone now, off to try to find you a healer for the journey home. It's just you and I, my friend, and if you would just wake up, just get better..." Merlin didn't answer. He had grown steadily worse as the day wore on, his face and lips grey despite the warmth of the fire, his breathing coming in sucking little gasps, and Lancelot thought not for the first time that he might not make it through the night.

"Hurry, Arthur," he pleaded out loud, the ice in his soul colder than the world outside the cave. "Please."

They made it back to the cave right before dusk, all looking half-drowned, shivering, with their hair plastered to their heads. Lancelot, who had spent the last half hour staring desperately at Merlin's chest, watching for its next labored rise and fall, quirked an eyebrow at the sopping group, noting with relief that there was a new member among their ranks. Though the old woman looked like a haggard bird of prey that had just plunged into the ocean to catch a fish, Lancelot had to fight the urge to get up and hug her. How on earth had they managed to convince her to give up all she knew to help a stranger?

"Go for a swim, did we?"

Astrid growled, squeezing water from her dark braid out onto the cave floor. "It snowed on our way back." More water splattered onto the floor. "A lot."

"Enough talking!" the old woman barked. "I have work to do. You five -" she gestured at Arthur, Leon, Gwaine, Astrid, and Kol, "-warm up by the fire. Astrid, I will need your help once you are not in danger of freezing yourself."

"What about you?" Lancelot asked. "Do you not need to warm yourself as well?"

"I'm used to this kind of weather, remember?" Eir answered, kneeling on the hard floor beside Merlin, who had the tinge of death about his face. "When I was young, I used to go on hunts through weather much worse than that, for much longer stretches of time, and up much steeper hills and mountains…" She continued muttering as she examined her patient, cupping his clammy face in her weathered hands, feeling his forehead, lifting his eyelids, resting her ear on his chest.

Arthur, who was slightly warmer now that he had changed into fresh clothing and was by the fire, crouched beside the healer. "How is he?" he asked, dreading the answer he already knew was coming.

"Poor," she said tightly. "Very poor."

"But you can help him, yes?" Gwaine demanded.

Cryptically she answered, "If we had delayed much longer, he would be beyond my help."

"...But?" Leon prompted.

"But I believe between Astrid and I, we can help him, yes." She gestured for Astrid to join her, then addressed the men. "I need all of you - yes, even you, prince - to get some sleep while Astrid and I tend to him."

Gwaine rested a hand on Astrid's back. "Surely there's some way we can help."

"Surely there isn't!" Eir snapped back. "Go!" Her face softened the slightest bit. "Eat. Rest. You need your strength, because at first light, we make for your ship."

Kol blinked. "Isn't it a bit too soon for that? Is Merlin not too weak right now?"

"Of course he is," Eir said, shaking her head in an almost grandmotherly fashion. "But we're not leaving now, we're leaving tomorrow. So get some rest."

"But-" Arthur argued, fighting valiantly against the fear that if he fell asleep like his body was begging him to do, that he would wake up in the morning and Merlin would be gone.

"I know you care for the lad," the old woman told him, almost kindly, "but the more time you argue, the longer I have to wait to care for him, and he does not have long." Her eyes met his, and he was struck with how similar the color was to Merlin's - a bright blue, like the sky. "You are just going to have to trust me, Prince Arthur."

Astonishingly, Arthur found that he did, and after eating a meager meal they'd rationed from their last hunt, he fell into an uneasy sleep, hoping that when he awoke, Merlin would still be alive.

A/N: It's amazing what happens when you actually sit down and WRITE isn't it?! I am so excited that I finally got back into this story. And the amazing thing is that I've worked past whatever writer's block I was still having and know exactly how this story is going to end! I think there will be one more chapter after this and maybe a prologue, and then we'll be done! :) Don't worry, any unanswered questions you might have from this chapter will be resolved by the end of the work.

If you are still out there and willing to let me know what you thought of this installment, please let me know. My plan is to have this story finished within the next couple of weeks, before school starts back and I have to start grading papers again.

Thanks so much for sticking with me! I love you guys!

~Emachinsescat ^..^