"Merlin!" Jaya hissed.
Gaius stood up abruptly, hands on the table, glaring at Merlin evilly. "Merlin! Are you mad?"
"I cannot let her die for me." Merlin looked away from the old man and fixed Uther with a dead stare. "I just hope that you will have mercy."
"He doesn't know what he's talking about." Gaius shook his head, addressing the King.
"Merlin! Stop this now!" Jaya ordered, her voice barely above a whisper.
"I do." Merlin protested not looking away from the King.
"Then arrest him." Uther shrugged, flippantly waving his hand toward the guards who had burst in after Merlin and Jaya.
"Father, please!" Arthur protested from his seat to the right of the head of the table. "There's no way that you're going to arrest him for magic." he stood up, his tone scoffing. "He's a servant. And a idiot one at that."
"Did you not hear him?" Uther wondered.
"Hey!" Merlin protested looking at Arthur like he was heavily insulted.
Jaya stepped up behind Merlin and grabbed his arm. Staring at him in open-mouthed shock when he threw her hand off his arm.
"Yes-" Arthur started.
"He admitted it." Uther shrugged, not missing the movement at the other end of the table where Jaya had glared the guards into backing down and had just made another failed grab at Merlin's arm.
"He saved my life, remember." Arthur tried a different tack.
"Why should he fabricate such a story?" Uther wondered.
Arthur pursed his lips slightly. "As Gaius said, he's got a grave...mental disease."
Jaya stepped back slightly at the vicious glare that Merlin shot her way. "Merlin! This is by far the stupidest plan." Jaya shot at him mentally, only to have the words bounce off a shield that he had put up. Her lips pursed together and her green grey eyes sparked in indignation.
"Really?" Uther was unconvinced.
"He's in love." Arthur shrugged. He was pulling things out of thin air, but it seemed to sound like it made more sense than it really did to him.
"What?" Merlin squacked.
"With Gwen." Arthur added, warming up to his reasoning.
A grin crossed Uther's face.
"I am not!" Merlin protested looking at Jaya for the first time for support and looking back a little bit longer the second take when he saw the anger that was held back on Jaya's face.
Arthur walked up next to him, seemingly oblivious to Jaya and the look that she was giving Merlin and threw his arm around Merlin's neck. "Yes. You are."
"No way." Merlin disagreed, pulling away from Arthur slightly.
"I saw you yesterday with that flower she'd given you." Arthur looked at him like he should really stop denying what everyone already knew.
"I'm not in love with her." Merlin shook his head.
"It's allll right. You can admit it." Arthur looked at him pointedly.
"I don't even think of her like that!" Merlin protested, finally breaking free of Arthur's arm.
"Perhaps she cast a spell on you." Uther suggested.
Arthur looked at his father and then glanced back at Jaya, worry on his face.
Uther chuckled slightly, as did the rest of the members of the council.
Arthur relaxed and grinned. "Merlin is in love. It's not his fault it only adds to his idiotic antics."
"Don't waste my time again. Let him go." Uther waved Merlin away, a chuckle still in his voice.
Jaya took that as her cue and grabbed a hold of Merlin's closest arm and very nearly dragged him backwards out of the room and around the corner. Once they were out of sight of the guards she tossed him in front of her.
Gwaine pressed his finger tips together and looked at Jaya closely. "Are we sure that Arthur didn't know that Merlin had magic at this point?"
Jaya shook her head. "We stayed up late one night talking and I told him all the parts of the stories that he didn't know…and he didn't know."
"Because it sounds like he knew."
"I know. I'm sure that if I hadn't been so angry and terrified I probably would have thought the same thing."
Merlin stumbled a few steps and looked back at her, hurt.
"That was your plan?" Jaya asked, her eyebrows up and slightly pinched together.
Merlin looked at her and folded his arms. "Well-"
"That wasn't very smart, Merlin." Jaya shook her head. She followed after him as he walked toward the physician's chambers.
Merlin hunched his shoulders a little but didn't say anything.
Gaius walked into the main room only a few minutes after Jaya sat down on the bench nearest the patient's cot. "Oh good you're here." he looked relieved that Merlin was in the room, far from Uther.
"Arthur's an idiot." Merlin snapped.
"No." Gaius shook his head slightly. "He was right to do what he did. And thankfully, he saved you from your own stupidity."
"What else could I do?!" Merlin demanded. "It's my fault Gwen's going to die!"
"It doesn't help you to get killed with her, Merlin." Jaya pointed out.
"Jaya's right. Can we work to find the cure to this disease before you leap into the flames?" Gaius looked at Merlin sternly.
"Well, whatever it is, one thing's for sure: Arthur isn't going to find it." Merlin looked back and forth between the two of them. "He thinks he's so sharp. But even when I told him I was a wizard, he still couldn't see it."
"Sometimes they're hard to spot." Gaius shrugged.
"Maybe that's a good thing, Merlin. Doesn't do you any good to be a dead wizard." Jaya pointed out, smirking.
"Well, maybe I should start wearing a pointy hat." Merlin retorted.
"What?" Jaya exclaimed, giggling.
"I don't think you'll find one big enough." Gaius looked at Jaya with a frown and a raised eyebrow and then at Merlin with a small shake of his head. "Anyway, forget that. If we're going to save Gwen, we have to find out what's contaminating the water." He walked toward the door and pulled a large key ring, with one heavy key hanging from it, off the wall where it had just seemed so part of the rest of the organized mess that one would assume it unimportant. "Are you coming with, Jaya?"
Jaya stood up and stretched slightly. "If you'll have me. Can't say that I'm not incredibly curious."
Gaius' favorite eyebrow jumped toward his hairline. "You realize that this is just a sample-gathering excursion?"
"Doesn't mean it's not without excitement." Jaya shrugged, running her fingers through Ridire's fur.
"Come along then. Merlin, get the door." Gaius nodded toward Merlin.
Merlin waited until Jaya and Ridire were out of the doorway before going out the door himself and closing it behind them.
They walked down the many staircases and winding hallways until they were out in the courtyard. Then around the corner of the castle they walked, following the tall alabaster stone that rose up to scrape at the sky. They kept going until they were even with a small set of double doors that were nestled up between the wall and the castle wall. Gaius pulled the heavy key out of the folds of his ponderous sleeves and pushed it into the rusty lock. "This is where the water for the entire town comes from." Gaius explained as he brushed past the creaky door and into the large, dark, damp tunnel.
Jaya followed Merlin into the tunnel and out of nothing more than habit, pulled the door shut after her and Ridire. She looked around, her eyes half-narrowed assessing the tunnel and it's layout that what she thought of it. Judging by the spiderwebs that clung to the corners and the posts that supported the tunnel ceiling, they were the first ones to set foot in the dankness for some time. It crossed her mind that if someone knew that, it was the perfect way to set up something like a sickness. It wasn't regularly patrolled, so no one would notice until it was almost too late. A small twinge of begrudging respect pricked her for a short second, before she was distracted by Merlin lighting the torch with his magic while Gaius put the key ring away in his sleeve again.
Merlin caught her looking at him and shrugged, his cheeky grin plastered on his face again.
Jaya rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly. The next moment her eyes were darting around when a squeaking could be heard from the dark reaches of the shadowy corners. Ridire had found some sort of varmit. "Ridire!" she whispered, looking around pointedly.
"I'm sure the King wouldn't mind." Gaius called over his shoulder, already starting down the tunnel without them.
Jaya frowned and shivered slightly when the noise stopped. She shot Ridire a long-suffering look when he appeared out of the darkness and dropped a very large rat on her boot. "Come on-no! Leave it there!" she snapped her fingers at him and pointed down the way that Gaius and Merlin were going.
It took them a few minutes to get where the underground spring fed into the small, but deep pool that the pipe for the well lead from. Jaya looked around at the small cavern as she entered, taking a short moment to appreciate the dancing reflections that the water created on the heavily textured ceiling.
"Get a sample." Gaius instructed Merlin, nodding and half-pointing toward the pool of water.
Ridire paused next to Jaya, his head lowering below the level of his shoulders. The hair on his ruff stood up as he looked around the room.
Jaya noticed the way he was standing and carefully dropped a hand down onto his nearest shoulder, hoping not to startle him and that the touch would soothe him. She wasn't sure what it was about the cavern that was making him look like that, but was sure there was a real threat. She took the torch that Merlin handed her without really realizing that she had done so.
Merlin walked up to the pool and dipped the little glass vial that Gaius handed him into the water. He held the vial at arm's length until Gaius had secured the leather stopper and then quickly shook the water off his hand.
"Let's take it back and examine it." Gaius tucked the vial into the pouch that he was carrying and motioned to the two younger people.
The three of them turned back toward the door, Ridire stiffly following after them, a low growl rumbling in his chest.
They were nearly out of the cavern when the surface of the water roiled and then broke and a large creature roared, its clawed hands spreading wide.
Ridire launched at the beast, barking and snarling. His teeth flashing in the half light of the torch. He snapped slightly when Jaya threw herself on him, the torch falling to the floor completely forgotten, to keep him from jumping into the pool with whatever-it-was that had roared.
"Ridire! Stad! Ciúin!" She ordered, her voice harsh and slightly demanding.
Ridire dropped down to all four paws again and growled angrily. He snapped at the water viciously, seemingly every hair on his hide standing up.
"What the hell was that?!" Merlin demanded, looking over at the pool.
Gaius grabbed Merlin's elbow and half pulled half pushed him toward the doorway.
Jaya wrapped one hand around Ridire's collar and tugged on it with nearly all her weight to keep the big dog from attacking that...thing. "Ridire. Come!" she snapped.
Ridire walked after her obediently enough, though he checked over his shoulder as he stalked away on Jaya's heel.
Jaya watched his shoulder blades rotate up through his fur and back down again, half nervously. Whenever one of the war the dogs walked that way there was a hunt afoot, and something was most likely going to die. Ridire was usually very well behaved and joyful almost to the point of exuberant. She had never had to keep such a tight hold on his collar, he was still pulling against it slightly.
Gaius waited very impatiently for Jaya and her dog to get out of the way and then quickly closed the door and locked it. His face was set more than normal and he walked much quicker than Jaya and Merlin would have thought possibleJaya only had to tug once against Ridire's collar once they were outside the closed door. Once they were a few feet away from it, Ridire's whole body relaxed and he trotted loosely next Jaya like he normally did, his hair slowly starting to lay flat again. Jaya half-trotted to catch up with Merlin. "What was that?" she asked her voice a cross between a hiss and a whisper.
Merlin looked at her and shrugged slightly half shaking his head. "Nothing good."
"Ye gods!" Jaya muttered looking over her shoulder almost like she was worried it was following them.
Gaius didn't say a word until the three of them and Ridire were safely inside the physician's chambers. He set down his satchel and looked at the two young people. "I need books. Merlin, that-no that one with big binding. Jaya the one with the red, green and brown binding in that stack there." his voice was gruff and the two of them jumped to grab the books that he indicated. Gaius pursed his lips as he set some spectacles on the bridge of his nose and started to flip through both books at the same time, completely ignoring Merlin and Jaya.
"What are you looking for?" Merlin asked, braving the heavy silence.
Gaius didn't answer, just kept flipping pages.
Jaya shifted slightly and started when Gaius' finger jabbed the page of one of the books.
"There!" Gaius picked up the book that Merlin had been instructed to fetch and set it down on the part of the table so that they could see what he was pointing at.
Jaya crowded Merlin and looked over his shoulder at a line drawing of a creature that was as ugly as it was ferocious looking. It may have only been a rough rendering, and she only had caught a quick glance at whatever-it-was that had roared out of the pool, but there was no doubt in her mind that it was whatever that drawing was. "What is it?" Jaya asked, her lips pulled back slightly.
"It's an Afanc." Gaius sounded tired and horrified.
"An...what?" Merlin asked.
"Afanc?" Jaya asked the same time.
"A beast born of water and clay. Conjured by only by the most powerful sorcerer." Gaius looked up at the two of them over the rims of his short, stubby glasses. "Now. We just have to find a way to defeat it. But...where?" he wondered aloud, looking over the numerous books that were scattered hither and thither in the room.
Jaya looked around and stifled the groan that escaped her down to a mix between a sigh and a whisper. "There's no way to narrow it down?" she wondered, her voice sounding like she didn't have much hope that it would be the case.
Gaius pursed his lips and just handed her a book.
Jaya took it and nodded tightly. "I'll take that as a no then."
Merlin looked at the two of them, his mouth hanging open slightly. "That'll take days. Gwen'll be dead by then."
"Have you got a better idea?" Gaius questioned, looking at him with both eyebrows raised high.
Jaya glanced up at the two of them over the binding of the book that she had cracked open and was now a third of the way through.
Merlin's mouth set in a hard line and his jaw muscles worked for a moment. He stalked toward the door without saying anything, ripped it open wildly and slammed it behind him with finality.