Krysia put a few bottles and some herbs into the pockets of her apron carefully as Merlin searched through some books. She hoped Gaius would not be back too soon, but they were moving quickly, just in case.

"Bites," Merlin muttered, "bruises, burns, wounds…. Infections…"

He hurried over to the bottles and grabbed a few more, pressing them into Krysia's hands. She just managed to slip them into her apron when Gaius entered.

"Ah, there you are," he said. "I need you two to pick some heather for me."

"Er, can we do it later?" Merlin said. "We were just going out."

"Sorry about the mess," Krysia said, noticing that Gaius was looking at the books Merlin had left out, curious and confused. "We were…"

"That was me," Merlin said quickly. "I was doing some reading."

Gaius raised his eyebrows, mildly impressed. "Oh?" he said. "I'd given up hoping you might take more of an interest in my work."

"No," Merlin lied. "It's fascinating."

"Who would have thought?" Krysia said, hoping the lie was believable. "I've been trying to guide him, but you know, I never did take to certain...aspects of healing." Gaius blinked at her. "Not that I'm not still very interested and trying to learn," she added hastily.

"That's us," Merlin said cheerfully. "We were just getting some...cleaning supplies. Arthur's been complaining about the state of his chambers."

Krysia bit back a laugh, but she had a brief moment of panic when Gaius said, "I think Arthur's chambers can wait. I'm not missing the chance to work on your education."

"Really," Merlin said nervously. "We should go."

"Gaius," Krysia began, trying to think of a way. After all, the boy could be dying for all they knew.

"Sit!" Gaius said, gesturing for them to join him at the table, which they did hesitantly. "We'll start with some basic anatomy…"

When they saw the size of the volume Gaius pulled off his shelf, Krysia and Merlin exchanged a horrified and desperate pair of looks, but they were out of plans for the moment.

/-/

Morgana opened the door to Krysia and Merlin, who rushed across the room as she closed the door quickly behind them.

"What took you so long?" she demanded.

"Sorry," Merlin said as Krysia pulled medicine out of her apron. "Once Gaius gets talking about anatomy, there's no stopping him."

Krysia and Merlin began doing their best with Krysia's limited knowledge of wounds and the bit Merlin had read in the book before they were caught by Gaius. Morgana watched on nervously, wringing her skirts in her hands.

"Careful," Krysia muttered, stopping Merlin's hand before he added far too much of an antiseptic solution she had snagged.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Morgana hissed.

"We're doing our best," Merlin said nervously.

Unable to watch anxiously in the corner, Morgana said, "I'll get you some more water."

Krysia continued to work, not looking up from the wound that she had no doubt of the infection of at this point.

Merlin kept making frustrated faces, though, and every time she glanced up at his confused expression, she realized that he was communicating telepathically with the boy.

"Are you alright, Merlin?" she asked gently.

He did not seem to hear her, saying instead to the Druid boy, in a beseeching voice, "Speak to me."

They were startled by Morgana's silent return when she said, "I don't know if he can't speak, or...he's just too scared to."

Krysia knew, when they left Morgana's chambers, that Merlin was anxious for answers, but she reminded him that they absolutely couldn't tell Gaius that they were helping the boy.

"No," Merlin agreed, glancing down at the square. "But there is someone we can ask."

She sighed as he watched the guards down the hall searching other quarters and chambers in the castle. She knew where this was going and didn't like it, but she decided it was better to follow him than not as he led her down to the tunnels under the castle, down to where the dragon Kilgharrah was kept.

"Hello?" Merlin said into the darkness.

The dragon came silently around the corner and roared at them and Krysia was ashamed that she screamed.

"There is absolutely no need to scare me to death," she snapped as the dragon gave her an amused look.

"The young warlock," the dragon said. "And the witch. No doubt you're here about the Druid boy."

"How did you know?" Merlin asked, but Krysia shrank away, clutching her arms around her anxiously.

"Like you, I hear him speak."

Krysia did wonder why she could not hear this telepathic speech, but she was mildly relieved, so she did not ask questions.

"Why does he call me Emrys?" Merlin asked.

"Because that is your name."

"I'm pretty sure my name's Merlin, always has been."

"You have many names," Kilgharrah responded, not especially amused with Merlin's arguments.

Krysia shook her head and said, "But how does the boy know who Merlin is? We've had no contact with the Druids. They're not exactly welcome in Camelot."

"There is much written about you that you have yet to read," Kilgharrah said. With a shockingly even tone he said, "You should not protect this boy."

Krysia frowned and Merlin said, "Why? He has magic. He's just like us."

"You and the boy are as different as day and night."

Merlin insisted, "What do you mean?"

Kilgharrah merely said, "Heed my words, Merlin."

"Why should I not protect him?" Merlin asked, but there was no answer. The dragon merely flew off deeper into the cave, making his point that there was nothing more to say. Krysia simply frowned, wondering what could cause such a great beast to fear a young boy. Because there was no question in her mind that Kilgharrah was, for some reason, afraid of the Druid boy.

Against her better judgment, Krysia did not follow Merlin back to bed. She wandered to where they kept the silver and began to inspect the polishing her maids had done that evening. The girls always did a fine job; they knew Krysia held her staff to high standards, even those who had twenty or thirty years on her. Occasionally there would be a spot on a plate, on the corner when a girl was in a hurry to attend to other things, and Krysia ignored an such mistakes as long as they did not accumulate.

Tonight the plates were sparkling, however, and she moved on to goblets with tired but careful eyes.

She heard the sound of someone clearing his voice and she turned, startled, to find Leon smiling at her.

"What have I told you about being out at night while we search for the Druid?" he said.

His voice struggled to be stern, but his eyes were amused and he could not contain the smile at his lips. Krysia smiled back, feeling as sheepish as she was sure she looked.

"I have been very busy today," she said honestly. "I have not had the time to inspect the silver. You can stay with me while I finish, if that would make you feel better. The castle must go on working, even until the boy is found."

Leon hesitated, but he entered, closing the door behind him. His hand remained on his sword hilt, but he sat behind her, watching as she picked up a goblet by the stem with her fingers encased in a polishing cloth.

"You do this every night?" he asked.

"Not every night," she admitted. "We do not use the full inventory every night, after all. But I inspect that which has been recently used, and even if we have no feasts the silver must be periodically polished to keep it shining. And we have just done a complete polish, so I have to inspect everything." She gave him a small smile as she set the goblet down gently. "Imagine if Uther were to be given a piece of silver improperly handled."

He shook his head, his golden curls around his head like a mane as he said, "I cannot imagine such a thing. I have never seen you make such an error in all the years I have known you."

"Oh, I make mistakes like the next girl," she said reasonably. "I just have the good fortune of not having made any critical mistakes." She paused, buffing a small smudge that could have been a fingerprint on the stem of the next goblet. "And much of that comes from taking the time to make certain that all the silver is spotless."

She continued working on the goblets, her eyes even more careful as she realized that Leon was watching her very, very closely. She frowned, turning to find him gazing at her with thoughtful eyes. What she wouldn't give to read his thoughts in that moment, to know what would cause him to focus so intensely, but she simply asked, "What is wrong?"

"You misspoke," he said slowly.

"Did I?" Krysia asked, turning back to her work with slight confusion. She did not recall misspeaking.

"You are not a girl any longer, Krysia. You have been a woman full grown for some time."

The laugh burst out from her lips before she could stop it. Of all the things she could have focused on, that he chose such an insignificant detail to be bothered by was inexplicably entertaining to her. She moved on to knives shaking her head.

"Perhaps," she finally said, "but it is hard to feel a woman in my position."

She regretted the words almost as soon as they left her lips, and she wondered what he might read into them. She paused over a knife, her heart pounding, waiting for him to say something.

Finally, in a strangely tight voice, he said, "I suppose you could always...marry."

Her mind went to the stranger from her dreams, the vague outline of his face that she could recall in waking hours. She had not met him yet, she was certain. But even if she wanted to try to explain this to Leon, even if he could understand, she could not say anything that so resembled prophecy to him. She trusted in Leon's affection for her on many fronts, but not to keep her head off a chopping block.

She smiled weakly and said, "Not any time soon, I imagine. After all, there is hardly anyone promising on the castle staff, and anyone of reasonable intelligence in Camelot works here at the castle." She gave him a teasing smile and said, "Perhaps I should have gone with King Bayard to Mercia when he tried to purchase me off of Uther. Perhaps there were better candidates for husbands in his household."

Leon's eyes were wide with confusion and horror as he processed this joke, but he seemed not to catch the joke in it. Krysia's face fell as she realized he was troubled by what she had intended as a harmless comment.

"Leon, I would never leave Camelot. You know that."

His relief was so obvious that she was actually surprised.

She went back to examining the silver, a few candlesticks, a platter. She had nearly finished when he said, "There was a time I thought you would marry Ewan someday. But then…"

Then he died. Krysia closed her eyes, recalling with a raw closeness how she had felt to lose one of her oldest and dearest friends.

"There was nothing between us," Krysia said honestly when she had gathered herself once more. "And there never could have been."

"Why not?" Leon asked, obviously puzzled. "I know Ewan thought you beautiful and charming, talented, capable, intelligent-"

"Leon, knights cannot marry servants," she reminded him, and there was a long silence as she inspected the last platter. "And while I am flattered that Ewan thought so highly of me, we had no special connection. Even if we could have married, we would not have."

She carefully replaced the platter, satisfied that it was sufficiently clean. Leon insisted on walking her back when she went to return to her quarters, and she agreed. He was quiet, pensive, and she decided to say, in a carefully light tone, "It's remarkable, isn't it, how afraid the King becomes of one small boy."

His face darkened and he said, "Magic is dangerous, Krysia. You know that."

Oh, how well she knew. But this boy, she could not believe he was dangerous any more than she had been as a child. Yes, he was old enough to know what he was doing, but...he was far from being a man, responsible for all his actions.

"But children? As far as I am aware, we haven't murdered innocent children since just after the Purge."

Leon's face stiffened in the moonlight, and Krysia recalled all too clearly the words of the dragon about the boy. Could she let him die? She was already responsible for the deaths of too many innocent children. Could she live with this boy's death on her conscience? Could she ever look at her reflection again, knowing she let that happen?

Krysia knew little about destiny, but perhaps destiny could be changed, thwarted. Perhaps whatever made the dragon uneasy about this boy could be fixed, avoided.

"I have my orders, Krysia," Leon said. "As far as the law is concerned, Druids are not innocent, whatever their age."

"He is a boy, Leon," Krysia whispered, pausing outside of the door to the physician's chambers. "He is a wounded child. I have seen enough of them brought to Gaius's care that I cannot look on it as a matter of law. We should at least take some measure of pity on him. Children, they are caught up in the currents of things bigger than themselves, with no control. He has as much of a right to live as I, whatever Uther's laws say." Leon frowned but she could feel tears burning the corners of her eyes. Was she trying to convince Leon or herself?

He narrowed his eyes slightly in the moonlight, straining to see her face more closely. Krysia tried to turn to hide her tears, but too late. Leon tenderly brushed the tears from her cheeks, taking off his glove to do so. His warm fingertip against her skin was an almost paternal thing, and she could recall her own father wiping tears from her dirty cheek as he said his goodbyes to her in the forest.

She felt even more tears fall onto Leon's fingers and she choked on a sob.

"It is only natural that you feel a maternal instinct for a child in danger," Leon said reasonably, giving her a feminine out for saying such potentially treasonous things. "But I know you understand why it must be done. I am sorry it distresses you, Krysia. If there were something I could do, I would. Without hesitation."

He stood with her in the corridor until she had calmed enough to go to bed without waking Gaius or Merlin, who were surely already long asleep. To her surprise, however, Leon placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head before she slipped into the physician's chambers, and if she had looked back before pressing the door closed she would have seen his eyes shining, watching her leave with pained longing.

/-/

After taking Arthur and Uther their breakfasts, Krysia and Merlin met as casually as possible just outside of Morgana's quarters. When they were satisfied no one was around, Merlin knocked sharply on the door.

"It is us, Krysia and Merlin," Krysia hissed.

Gwen opened the door, letting them in. Krysia crossed the floor quickly, kneeling to check the wound and change the dressing.

"How is he?" Merlin asked, taking herbs out of his bag.

"He's getting weaker," Morgana said anxiously while Gwen fetched them water. "Whatever you did yesterday, it hasn't worked." Krysia lifted the dressing to see that indeed, it was not working. "We have to ask Gaius for his help. After all you've done, you can't give up now!" Krysia and Merlin exchanged nervous glances. This was the moment of truth. Did they get the boy help against their better judgment and advice, or did they risk his death?

"Please!" Morgana pressed. "If he doesn't receive treatment, he'll die!"

Krysia sighed, biting her lip as she focused on the dressing. This was not a choice she could stand being responsible for. If she did her best, that was all she could do. After all, Merlin was the one with an urgent destiny, the one Kilgharrah had really given the advice to.

"Okay," Merlin agreed as Krysia continued to prepare the dressing, and Krysia closed her eyes for a few brief moments, feeling the weight of that choice in her chest.

Krysia went about her duties that afternoon feeling especially nervous that someone would discover the boy, discover that she had helped him. When she passed Leon and Arthur near the kitchens, searching every storage area, her heart raced so much she thought they must be able to hear it.

"Still looking for the boy?" she asked, not meeting Leon's eyes after the conversation they had the night before.

"Yes," Arthur said wearily. "Either he is hiding somewhere with access to food or someone is feeding him."

Krysia smiled sweetly and said, "Have you had any luck in the kitchens?"

"No," Leon said. "We suspect someone is feeding him."

"Perhaps," she said slowly, "you should ask the cook if anyone is eating more than their usual."

The two men exchanged looks that plainly indicated that they had not considered this option, and they barely thanked her for the suggestion before hurrying off to the kitchen.

As she walked away, Krysia did not bother to hide the smile turning at the corners of her lips as she congratulated herself on reminding Morgana not to order extra food for the boy, but to share her usual amount with him while the search continued.

Now they simply had to think of a way to get Gaius involved without having it all fall apart.