A/N: Not saying this is the final installment in the Lancelot and Lily verse (because I already said that once and look what happened XD). But it is the last I *currently* have and the muse has dived into another AU series at the moment. So, enjoy!


Chapter 1

Gwen wrung her hands together as she stood in the royal chambers, she could barely contain herself. The door opened and Arthur came in.

"Merlin said you needed to talk?" he said with a hint of curiosity and nervousness.

Gwen couldn't keep a premature smile off her face. "Yes. I have something to tell you."

"Okay…"

She went to the back of the room and pulled back a drape from the corner to reveal a bassinet.

Arthur looked at it in confusion for a moment, then at Gwen. His brows shot upward. "Really?"

Gwen nodded excitedly. Arthur let out a delighted laugh and crossed the room to embrace her. She laughed with him. She'd been waiting for this for so long, and after several failed attempts with fertility herbs, they had finally worked. The first time she'd missed her monthly cycle she'd been on pins and needles, waiting, hoping. Then the weeks went on and she had to hold the news in just to be sure. And now, finally, after three months, she could tell Arthur with confidence that it was official—the queen was with child.


Arthur, of course, wanted to hold a tournament in celebration. So a few days later, Gwen was sitting in the royal box with Merlin, Lily, and the twins as the knights commenced with the games.

Merlin bounced Rhedyn on his knee and pointed toward the field. "There's daddy."

Lancelot galloped his horse down the line, jousting pole aiming to catch the ribboned ring hanging in the air. Cheers went up as he succeeded, and he turned his steed around to approach the stands and lift the ring up to Guinevere. She leaned over the edge of the box to take it, and he bowed his head, eyes shining with joy for her.

She sat back down as Lancelot left the field and Elyan nudged his horse to the starting position. When he charged down the fence line and captured the ring, everyone whooped and hollered. He brought the ring around to Gwen, who leaned over to accept it. Elyan had a gleam in his eye, and he abruptly leaned his pole against the stand and drew his legs up to perch on the saddle. Standing up on the horse's back, he reached for his sister's hand to kiss it. Gwen shook her head in fond amusement. With that boyish grin, Elyan plopped back down into the saddle and rode off the field.

The rest of the knights took their turns catching the rings for their queen. Only a few missed their targets, and Gwen winced in sympathy as they had to ride off the range in embarrassment.

Sitting in Lily's lap next to Gwen, Rhys reached for the ring Gwen had just accepted, grasping for the dangling ribbons. She smiled and let him have it, which he of course promptly put in his mouth. Gwen grinned and gave one to his sister.

Of course, after the lighthearted ring catching came the more nerve-wracking jousting. Gwen watched with bated breath as Arthur faced down Leon. Arthur, of course, won. Gwen's heart swelled with fondness for her childhood friend. Leon was the most adept at making Arthur's victory against him look completely natural, when Gwen knew he had never—and would never—make the winning blow.

Elyan and Gwaine went next, and Gwen winced as her brother took a hit to the shoulder. But he wasn't unseated and didn't look injured as he turned his horse around. At least with celebratory tournaments like this, rounds were taken much less seriously than the mass tournament between kingdoms where prowess and victory were more important than anything.

When it was Lancelot's turn, Lily cringed and covered Rhys's eyes, even though with the knights' full armor and helmet, their faces weren't visible. Unless they lost their helmet in a fall. But Lancelot won his round and the stands applauded.

"I don't know if I'll ever get used to this game," Lily commented.

"It is rather tense," Gwen conceded. "But it's a longtime tradition."

"It's weird I'm not down there helping Arthur with his armor," Merlin said. "But I do rather like the view up here," he added and tickled Rhedyn until she squealed with laughter.

Gwen placed a hand over her stomach, eager for the day Merlin would bounce her child on his knee.

After the jousting came the dueling, and they watched several rounds. But when it came time for Arthur's turn, there was a delay in the knights coming onto the field. Gwen frowned and scanned the grounds for her husband. She spotted him speaking with his manservant and some of the knights, and he looked rather tense.

"I wonder what's up," Merlin remarked, also watching.

Arthur glanced their way and gave Gwen a forced smile. Her frown deepened. Leon handed Arthur his sword, and the king strode out to the field for his round.

"That's odd," Merlin said.

"What is?" Lily asked.

"Arthur has his own sword, but Leon just gave him his." Merlin grimaced. "I hope Ivan didn't make a mistake. You know how hard it was to find a replacement manservant Arthur could tolerate?"

They fell silent as the round began and the clang of steel pealed through the air. Arthur was the most skilled knight of them all, but his opponent held his own for a good long while. And then with a deft move to disarm him, Arthur won. Everyone clapped uproariously.

And that concluded the tournament, so Gwen, Merlin, and Lily went down to Arthur's tent to congratulate him. But as they approached, they heard Arthur's raised voice coming from inside.

"How could you misplace it?" Arthur was demanding angrily.

"I didn't!" Ivan bleated. "I don't know what happened; it was right here!"

"What's going on?" Merlin asked as they ducked under the tent flap.

Arthur huffed. "Ivan seems to have lost my sword."

Merlin's eyes widened. "You mean Excalibur?"

Arthur gave a clipped nod.

"I didn't lose it!" Ivan insisted. "I set it right here, I swear. Someone must have taken it."

Gwen noticed Merlin pale at that.

"We need to find it," he said.

Arthur's expression was pinched in irritation, but he nodded and strode out of the tent to order a search of the tournament grounds and every tent, saying his sword may have just been misplaced.

Merlin passed Rhedyn to Gwen so he could go help. Yet after a thorough search of every inch, the sword was nowhere to be found.

"This is bad," Merlin said. "Very bad."

"Why exactly?" Lily asked.

"Excalibur was forged in dragon's breath, which makes it no ordinary blade," he answered. "In the wrong hands, it could do a lot of harm."

Gwen met Arthur's eyes with a grim look. So much for their celebration.


Merlin sat in his study, poring over magic books trying to find a spell to magically track Excalibur. But he wasn't having any luck, and worry gnawed at his stomach. Kilgharrah had warned him from the beginning how dangerous it would be if anyone but Arthur wielded that sword. So Merlin was definitely not going to tell the Great Dragon that it'd been stolen.

He found an enchantment detecting spell which was normally used to identify enchanted objects, but maybe Merlin could finagle it into homing in on Excalibur. Unfortunately, after he'd cast it, he kept getting tons of mental pings from artifacts down in the vaults. At least he knew the spell had a bit of a range, so he decided to walk a circuit of the castle and its grounds, hoping to find Excalibur lying hidden away somewhere. But he didn't. Which meant either the sword was shielded from such spells…or it wasn't even in the city anymore. And Merlin really didn't like that possibility.

After that failed attempt, he sought out Leon to ask if everyone had been accounted for. The knights had been instructed to conduct a census, make sure no one had up and disappeared who might then become their top suspect.

"Everyone's accounted for," Leon reported. "In the castle and the lower town."

Merlin's mouth thinned. "Then it must have been an outsider. But how did someone get in without being noticed? The tournament wasn't open to other kingdoms."

"In all the excitement, some people must have been paying more attention to the games," Leon said grimly. "Or perhaps we should be taking a closer look at Ivan."

Merlin immediately shook his head. "I've known him for years and I trust him. Otherwise I never would have suggested him for Arthur's servant."

"Then that leaves us with no leads."

Merlin sighed. He knew that, and it wasn't an encouraging thought.

Lancelot came hurrying down the hall. "Merlin! You need to come quickly. Someone just stumbled through the gate asking for Emrys. The guards think he's a sorcerer."

Merlin frowned and quickly followed Lancelot back out to the courtyard where several guards were warily standing several feet away from an old man lying on the ground, blood painting his frayed gray robes and the cobblestones beneath him. A wooden staff lay beside him.

"Anhora?!" Merlin exclaimed in shock and rushed to his side.

The old man lolled his head up and clutched desperately at Merlin's arm. "Emrys…"

"Someone get Gaius!" Merlin yelled, then turned back to Anhora. "What happened?" He hadn't seen the man in years, not since his first year in Camelot when Arthur had killed the unicorn and Anhora had put him through a series of trials to break the resultant curse.

"He came…for…unicorn," Anhora wheezed.

Merlin frowned. "Who did? Who did this?" He scanned the old man's body for the source of the blood. There was a stab wound in his chest, deep and gaping wide. Merlin bunched up parts of his robes to press against it and staunch the bleeding. It was bad, though Merlin had been under the impression the man was more or less immune to death, given his role as Keeper of the Unicorns. And he'd made it all the way here.

"Sword…forged in…dragon's…" His chest hitched with each fading breath.

Merlin's blood turned to ice. No.

Anhora's eyes suddenly blew wide with panic, and he grabbed Merlin's wrist hard. His other hand grasped his staff, and Merlin felt a jolt of magic zing through him. He jerked in surprise, and Anhora's hand fell away as he dropped back against the stone.

"Protect the unicorns," he wheezed with his dying breath, and then the light in his eyes went dark.

Merlin stared for several long moments, his stupor only broken by Gaius's arrival. But it was too late. Merlin reached out to close Anhora's eyes. The Keeper of the Unicorns was dead.