A/N: Thank you GuestM, Buckhunter, and Guest for reviewing!

Chapter 4

Lily pressed the back of her hand to Lancelot's cheek. He was cold and waxen and didn't stir at the touch, barely conscious from the blood loss and trauma of his wound.

"Merlin," she called anxiously.

He hurried over, and she gave him a beseeching look. She knew his healing spells usually didn't work, but if they didn't do something soon, Lancelot wasn't going to make it much longer.

Merlin knelt next to him, expression pinched with determination as he held out his hand and uttered a spell. His eyes flared gold, but nothing happened. Merlin dropped his head in dejected defeat.

"I was wrong about you being a threat," Sir Beorn said disparagingly. "You're a pathetic sorcerer."

"Shut your mouth," Gwaine snapped.

The two knights glowered at each other but didn't escalate.

Lily pressed her mouth into a thin line as she regarded her husband. There was no choice.

She got to her feet. "I'm going to try to get supplies," she said.

"That side of the castle might be overrun," Gaius pointed out.

"I can try to get up to my chambers," she replied. "I have some healing plants there." Something would be better than nothing.

"I'll go with you," Percival said.

Merlin stood up as well. "I'll try to get to Gaius's chambers. We need those magic books if we're going to find a way to defeat these thorns, and I can grab supplies too."

Arthur muttered something indistinct under his breath, and Merlin just gave him a look.

Lily shifted, uncomfortable with the strife between them, and she wished she could do more to help ease it. But tensions were running high over more than just the magic reveal, and they needed to find a way to save themselves first.

"Well," Gwaine broke in, "sitting around here isn't doing any good. I'll go with Merlin."

The other knights of Arthur's inner circle also volunteered to venture out, and they split into two groups—Percival and Elyan with Lily, and Arthur, Gwaine, and Leon with Merlin. A round of "good luck" and "be careful" was exchanged as they went their separate ways.

Lily, Percival, and Elyan hadn't gone three corridors before they came across a bunch of simmering thorns blocking their path. Lily's stomach churned at being so close to them, but they didn't break into a frenzy at their presence.

"Let's go around," Elyan suggested.

Fortunately, they were able to take the long way round and made it up to Lily's and Lancelot's chambers without incident. Lily grabbed her herb bag off the table and started plucking leaves off the various plants in her room while Percival and Elyan split their attention between standing guard and holding the torches so Lily could see what she was doing. She tried to move quickly before the thorns found them, but she was abruptly distracted by a soft glow emanating from out on the balcony. Furrowing her brow perplexedly, Lily went to open the glass-paned doors.

"Don't!" Elyan shouted, and it was only after she'd pulled the doors open that she saw black thorns crawling up the sides of the castle wall around the windows and over the balcony's edge. But they didn't attack.

In fact, they were keeping a wide berth from the source of the glowing white light—a star lily.

Lily gaped at it in bewilderment. She had planted the dead blossom after using it to heal Gwen, just on a whim, but it had never grown back. She hadn't really expected it to. The magical flower was native to the Isle of Asteron, and her people were its guardians. But here it was, alive and in bloom.

Lily stepped cautiously onto the balcony, eyeing the thorns warily. They didn't react. She slowly picked up the pot with the star lily and began backing into the room. The thorns moved then, trying to follow and lashing out like whips, but they recoiled instantly in the soft halo of light from the star lily.

Percival and Elyan immediately surged forward in her defense, but she called for them to wait. Holding her ground, she watched as the thorns flailed and thrashed but didn't cross the threshold into the star lily's light.

"Close the doors," she said.

Percival and Elyan exchanged uncertain looks as they inched forward and shut the doors, then locked them.

"Once we leave with the star lily, the thorns will probably come after us," she said.

"How is one even growing here?" Elyan asked.

"I'm not sure, but it's the miracle we need."

Bracing for the ensuing attack, they made a run for the door. Glass crashed behind them as the thorns punched their way in. Percival and Elyan slammed the outer door shut just as the thorns smashed against it, and the three of them kept running. They rounded a corner and skidded to a stop as they found more thorns blocking the path they'd come up on. But as the aura of the star lily filled the hallway, the vines backed up away from it.

Lily took a shaky breath and moved forward. The vines retreated a foot. She glanced back at Percival and Elyan. "Only way is through," she said.

They looked nervous but nevertheless followed as Lily was able to part a path through the vines, leaving them seething a few feet in their wake.

"A miracle indeed," Percival commented.

They passed another corridor swarming with vines.

"That's the way to Gaius's chambers," Elyan pointed out. "If Arthur and the others managed to get through, they won't be able to get back."

Lily looked down at the star lily in her hands, then at Elyan and Percival with an arched eyebrow. They nodded, so she changed course and led the way into the writhing morass, the light from the star lily carving a path.

Arthur, Leon, and Gwaine stood inside Gaius's chambers, not knowing which plants Lily needed or which medicines off the shelves Gaius would want. Merlin was busy rifling through his room for his magic books. Arthur recalled the times searches had been ordered of the castle, including Gaius's chambers and Merlin's room, for magical contraband. And they'd missed it. So many times Arthur had missed the signs. He even recalled the time Merlin had openly admitted to being a sorcerer and Arthur had scoffed at his servant and argued he was just a lovesick puppy confessing for the sake of Gwen. He wondered what would have happened if he'd believed Merlin that day.

His father would have executed him, that's what would have happened.

Arthur sighed to himself.

"Found fresh bandages," Leon said, setting rolls of linen on the table.

"Maybe we should just take some of everything," Arthur said, glancing around the myriad supplies. "We need to hurry."

Merlin came back out with an armful of tomes. He looked at their lack of progress and quickly set them down to then start gathering medicines.

Leon looked at the books and shook his head. "All those times you were accused of sorcery, they were actually true."

Merlin grimaced. "Erm, yeah."

"And I defended you," Arthur muttered.

Merlin looked at him sadly. "I appreciated that. I didn't exactly want to be burned at the stake."

"You've made a fool of me, Merlin."

"I've done that plenty of times without magic; why should this be any different?"

Arthur's jaw went slack with incredulity. Leon and Gwaine averted their gazes in discomfort.

"What do you want me to say, Arthur?" Merlin went on. "I'm sorry for keeping this from you all this time. I wasn't trying to make you look like a fool! I wasn't secretly working against you. In fact, you'd be shocked to learn everything I have done for you with my magic. And I never asked for anything in return. I never asked for credit or glory."

Arthur looked away. Now was not the time to deal with this.

Merlin turned his pleading eyes to Gwaine next. "I do trust you with my life, Gwaine. But you're also a knight of Camelot, and I didn't want to put you in the position of having to choose me over your duty."

"It wouldn't have been a choice," Gwaine replied.

"I know, which is why I couldn't let you do that."

Arthur gritted his teeth. Not only was it the betrayal of Merlin having magic, but also knowing just how many of his closest friends would have betrayed him too over it.

Leon cleared his throat. "We should go."

They gathered up the rest of the supplies in tense silence, then headed for the door. But as soon as they opened it, they found the corridor outside swarming with thorns. The vines immediately plunged toward them, and they slammed the door shut just in time. The wood juddered from impacts, and Arthur heard the thud of wood getting jabbed. He hoped those thorns wouldn't pierce all the way through and stab one of them as they pushed all their body weight against the door to brace it.

"Now would be a good time for you to come up with something, Merlin," Gwaine grunted.

Merlin had dropped the books when they'd scrambled backward and was now on the floor frantically grasping at them. "I don't know where to start!"

"Just open to the first page!" Arthur snapped as the door shook beneath him again.

"This kind of pressure is not helping," Merlin retorted.

The thuds against the door stopped, but the knights were hesitant to ease up on bracing it. They knew the thorns were still right outside. Which meant they were trapped. Merlin frantically flipped through the pages of the books.

Then a minute later, they heard a voice calling from outside.

"Arthur! Merlin!"

Arthur shared a confused frown with Leon and Gwaine. Was this some new trickery?

"Elyan?" Arthur called back cautiously.

"Arthur!" His voice was right outside now. "Open up."

Still guarded, they carefully cracked the door open. Outside was Elyan, Percival, and Lily, and she was holding a potted plant that was glowing in the darkened corridor.

"Everyone all right?" she asked.

He nodded dumbly as he stared at the plant. "Is that…?"

She nodded. "I don't know if it will ward off the thorns forever, so we should move quickly."

Saving their questions for later, they grabbed up all their supplies again and hurried off. The vines nipped at their heels as they went, the light from the single star lily not enough to surround their whole group. Lily ducked into the center of them, trying to give them more coverage as she held the plant out, moving it back and forth like a weapon. And the thorns were kept at bay.

They made it back to the others and quickly filed inside so they could lock the doors again. Merlin dropped his books on a table and turned to Lily.

"How did that get here?"

"I'm as surprised as you," she replied. "I found it blooming on my balcony and the thorns didn't want to come near it."

"Hurry," Gwen called from Lancelot's side. She and Gaius were crouched over him where they'd laid him down on the floor. His pallor was ashen.

Lily started toward him with the star lily, which would instantly restore Lancelot to health, but then she stopped.

"What's wrong?" Merlin asked.

She looked at the flower, then around at everyone else. "This might be our only way to combat the thorns."

A grim silence fell over them.

"And if you use it to heal Lancelot, we'll be defenseless again," Elyan surmised.

Lily nodded.

Arthur's chest constricted at the impossible choice. He'd faced it once already, back on the Isle of Asteron. He'd chosen Lancelot then. But now he was faced with the choice between saving one man and the rest of his kingdom. And even if they healed Lancelot now, they'd all still perish in the end. Lancelot wouldn't want that. He'd want them to save the kingdom.

"What about the other plants we grabbed?" Percival asked. "Will those be enough to help him?"

Lily's throat bobbed. "Maybe. I'll try." She passed the potted star lily to him and opened her herb bag as she hurried to Lancelot.

Gwen pulled the sodden bandage back, revealing the grisly wound. Lily crushed a handful of leaves between her palms, then pressed them to it. Arthur knew she was using magic to infuse their healing properties into Lancelot, but it wasn't an overt display. Her eyes didn't glow like Merlin's and other sorcerers, and Lancelot didn't miraculously open his eyes, fully recovered. Arthur had accepted her magic long ago; why couldn't he do the same for Merlin? Was it just that Merlin had lied to him?

Well, given Arthur's reaction and handling of the situation, he supposed he couldn't blame Merlin for that. Arthur decided in that moment that it didn't matter, that he wanted to make things right.

And he hoped he'd get the chance.