A/N: Thank you GuestM, Buckhunter, and Guest for reviewing! Final chapter on this one, but there is more of the series in the pipeline.

Chapter 4

The rest of the trek back through the forest was thankfully uneventful. They didn't need any more close calls if they were going to provide a strong force against Morgana and her men.

Merlin sidled up to Lily. "Don't worry," he said quietly. "I'll make sure Lancelot is protected."

Lily glanced nervously at the other knights walking not too far ahead, then whispered, "How?"

"I'll use my magic in a way that everyone will assume it's you doing it, like making branches fall on top of people's heads." He quirked a small smile at her. "That happens a lot in Camelot, actually. More than you'd imagine."

Lily rolled her eyes in mild exasperation. She'd never liked that Merlin's magic was kept secret. Where she was from, magic was as natural as the air people breathed. She'd even invited Merlin to stay where he could be himself openly. But he'd of course declined; he had hope that one day Camelot would see a similar future.

"My magic doesn't work like that," Lily said under her breath.

"In the heat of battle, no one's going to be thinking too closely about it," Merlin assured her. "Trust me, I've done it plenty of times." He reached out to squeeze her arm. "I won't let anything happen to him."

Lily nodded.

They reached the spot where they'd left the horses and mounted up to ride out of the forest. Morgana had said her men would be watching, but Merlin scanned the area and didn't see anyone.

They left one forest behind and headed for another, and then they left the horses again so they could make their way to the rendezvous on foot with swords drawn and ready. Morgana was waiting for them outside the Druid shrine, along with her mercenaries and Lancelot. There was blood on his chainmail but he was standing on his own two feet, hands bound behind his back and a thick leather strap cinched around his throat, which one of the burly men was holding like a lead to keep him in check. Merlin's jaw tightened, and he tried to catch his friend's eye. Lancelot looked at them with a pinched expression, especially when his gaze fell on Lily.

Morgana gave Lily a simpering look. "You didn't return alone."

"You aren't alone either," Arthur retorted. "And we're only here to ensure an equal exchange."

Morgana shot a scathing glower at him. "Look at you, Arthur, a hypocrite just like Uther. You accept her magic while condemning every other kind."

"I admit there may be instances of good magic in the world," Arthur said carefully. "But you definitely use yours for evil." He nodded to Lily to go ahead.

Gripping the box tightly in both hands, she started forward. Morgana waited, but halfway there Lily stopped.

"Release Lancelot," Arthur said.

"I'll release him when I have the item."

"Lily went halfway," he rejoined. "You can come the rest."

Morgana huffed but moved forward, waving for two of her minions to drag Lancelot along with them. The rest stayed back, crossbows nocked with bolts.

Merlin scrutinized each one of them, evaluating the threats and planning out how he was going to neutralize them without drawing attention.

Everyone was as taut as a pulled bowstring as Morgana reached Lily. Merlin straightened in anticipation. Off to the side, a vine was slithering through the mulch toward Lily and Morgana. Merlin counted down.

Morgana held her arms out. "Give it to me."

Hiding behind Percival's broad shoulders, Merlin whispered a spell that cracked a large tree branch above three of the archers. The branch fell and knocked them all down. Morgana whipped her gaze around to see what the commotion was, and Lily's vine snatched the box out of her hands.

Morgana whirled back and lunged to grab it, but the vine recoiled swiftly, taking the artifact out of reach. She shrieked and thrust her hand at Lily, sending her flying backward through the air, which broke her hold on the vine and it plopped on the ground. The knights charged, and Merlin cast another quick spell to drop a branch on some other archers before they could fire.

One of the men restraining Lancelot drew a dagger, so Merlin took a cue from Lily and made a vine strike out from the shrine to lash around his throat and yank him backward. Lancelot head butted the second man, who staggered back into Elyan's waiting sword. The rest of the mercenaries exchanged their crossbows for swords as the knights broke upon them.

Merlin ran to Lily, dropping down beside her to help her up. Morgana went for the artifact. Merlin didn't think, he uttered a spell that made the box burst into flames. Morgana reeled back, then spun around in shock. Her gaze snapped to Lily and Merlin, and they both tensed. There was no reason for Morgana to suspect Merlin…maybe Lily, though.

Morgana's eyes blazed gold in fury and she whirled toward Lancelot. Still bound as he was, he'd been trying to avoid the fighting going on around them, but he suddenly jerked and dropped to his knees, choking as though he couldn't breathe. Merlin scrambled to his feet, but before he could act, Leon picked up one of the mercenary's unfired crossbows and shot Morgana in the shoulder.

She cried out and stumbled backward, and Lancelot sucked in a ragged lungful of air. As the mercenaries fell, Morgana turned and fled through the Druid shrine.

Merlin rushed to Lancelot, Lily right behind him. She dropped to the ground and threw her arms around him. Lancelot tucked his chin over her shoulder as Merlin worked to undo the knots. Once his hands fell free, he immediately returned his wife's embrace.

Lily pulled back urgently and picked at his chainmail where there was dried blood. "Are you all right?" she asked urgently.

He nodded. "I'm not hurt."

"You were shot with an arrow," Elyan said, coming over.

Lancelot grimaced. "Morgana healed it. She needed me alive." He looked back at Lily. "Are you all right?"

She nodded, then cringed at the leather strap around his throat and reached up to loosen it. "We got Morgana what she wanted."

"Not exactly," Arthur said, walking over to the charred remains of the box. "How did this even catch fire?"

Merlin shrugged. "Everything was so chaotic, I didn't notice."

"At least Morgana didn't get it," Leon said.

"Still would've been nice to know what it did," Gwaine put in.

Arthur came over to Lancelot and clasped his shoulder, then his arm to help him to his feet. "I'm satisfied with what we came out of this with," he said.

Indeed. They were all going home safe. Morgana was still out there, but she was always plotting against Camelot. Every day they thwarted her was a victory.

Lily and Lancelot rode back to Camelot together, Lancelot's arm wrapped around her waist from behind and her arm holding firmly to it as she directed the horse's reins with the other hand.

Gwen came rushing out of the castle upon their arrival, her eyes awash with relief when she saw Lancelot with them. "What happened?" she asked as they dismounted.

"We found the artifact Morgana wanted," Arthur answered. "But it was destroyed in the fight."

"That's fortunate," Gwen replied. "Who knows what she was planning to do with it."

"Morgana's also the one who cursed Lily," Lancelot informed them.

Lily frowned. "What?"

"She was trying to steal your magic so she could retrieve that artifact herself. But it didn't work."

"So she went after you instead to force Lily to do it," Merlin finished.

Lancelot nodded and turned to slip his hand into Lily's.

She squeezed back. "Well, I'm just glad everything worked out in the end."

The others nodded in agreement, and the knights took turns clapping Lancelot on the shoulder as they passed him to head inside. Lily, hand still linked with his, led him up to their chambers so he could change out of his stained clothes.

He pulled his chainmail off, and Lily swallowed hard at the larger dried blood stain on his ripped shirt. But when he shrugged his tunic off next, there was no matching wound in his shoulder. Lily moved closer and reached up to trail a finger down his chest. There wasn't even a scar. Lancelot winced at the touch, though, and Lily frowned at him in concern.

"It still hurts some," he admitted.

"I think I can help with that," she replied and went to get the healing herbs she had packed earlier.

Folding the leaves between her palms, she summoned up her magic to connect with their healing properties, awakening them to life. She settled one hand over the front of Lancelot's shoulder, the other over the back. The chords of life strummed through her and into the plants, weaving together and then seeping into Lancelot. She felt him relax into her touch as the healing soothed raw nerves and frayed muscles.

"Better?"

He nodded with a grateful smile.

Lily went to wash her hands in the basin, and when she turned around, Lancelot was right there, pulling her into a fervent kiss. She pressed her hands to his bare chest and kissed back just as earnestly. They moved in sync like that, locked in a seductive embrace as they crossed the room and fell into bed to make up for lost time.

The woods outside the Druid shrine were silent in the deepening gloaming. Morgana stepped around the bodies of the mercenaries left as worm fodder. She could hear the shrine just a few feet away vibrating with the fresh addition of blood and death, but she ignored it. Let the ghosts have their pickings.

She hobbled over to the charred remains of the box and lowered herself to the ground. She'd healed her shoulder wound as best she could but it still smarted. No matter; she'd gotten what she came for.

She dug through the broken pieces of wood, some of them crumbling into ash at the movement. But there at the bottom was a single, small pod. Morgana picked it up between her fingers and held it up into the last of the waning light. The fleshy plant wriggled in her grip, and she broke into a smile.

Tucking it close, she stood up and left, making her way through the darkening woods until she came upon the spot she had learned about in a dark grimoire. The soil was rich and dark, not with nutrients, but power. Morgana knelt down and planted the wriggly pod, then leaned back. Now all she had to do was wait.