A/N: Thank you Buckhunter, GuestM, Guest, and SnidgetHex for reviewing!
Chapter 3
Arthur didn't sleep well that night, even though the bats had gone. Just when things were going well, it seemed someone was determined to bring him and his kingdom down.
He and Merlin stood on the castle wall, discussing putting up some kind of magical defenses. It was a conversation that had been waylaid last time, but now it was necessary to move forward with it.
"I can't really keep out a swarm of bats," Merlin said. "But maybe I could set up some kind of warning so we'd at least have time to get inside and seal everything…"
Arthur shook his head and muttered, "We can't live like this."
Merlin looked grim. "Unfortunately, all we can do is wait for the sorcerer to reveal themselves."
"And if they don't?" He shook his head again. "Is it wrong to miss the days of Morgana? At least then we knew what we were dealing with."
Merlin grimaced.
An angry shout went up from the courtyard below, and Arthur turned to make his way down to see what was going on. Merlin hurried alongside him. They found a pair of guards bearing the brunt of Sir Leon's upbraiding.
"You don't just bring a strange object into the citadel!"
"It's just a lump of clay," one of the guards pointed out. "And the note attached is addressed to the king."
"Nothing is safe!" Leon berated them.
As if on cue, the block of clay on the ground between the two guards suddenly began to shift and expand. They scrambled away from it as Leon drew his sword. The clay morphed upward into an eight-foot, nearly featureless form with bulky arms and legs.
Leon surged forward and stabbed it, but the blade got stuck in the clay and Leon couldn't get it back out. Unfazed, the creature backhanded the knight so hard he went flying several feet across the ground. Swinging around, the clay monster brandished its arm like a club at the guards, slamming into them and throwing them into the stone wall with a crunch.
Arthur ran to Leon as Merlin cast a spell of fire to throw at the creature. But the flames only served to harden patches of clay and didn't slow the thing down one bit.
"Merlin!" Arthur shouted in warning as the monster spun toward the warlock.
Merlin dove out of the way.
Arthur gripped Leon's arm and hauled him up, pulling him backward as the clay creature lumbered past them and went smashing into the castle. Leon's sword struck the door frame and broke, the rest of the blade remaining ensconced in the clay.
"What is that?" Arthur exclaimed as Merlin sprinted over to them.
"A golem."
Crashes and screams emanated from inside the castle, and the three of them barreled after the clay monster, not that Arthur had any idea how to fight something like that. The golem was tearing its way through the main foyer, smashing everything in its path to pieces and trampling anyone caught underfoot. It paused for the briefest of moments to turn its hollow eye pits up at the stairs where Gwen stood on the landing. Then it changed direction and went after her.
"Gwen!" Arthur yelled.
Merlin uttered some kind of spell, and a candelabrum went skidding across the floor to trip the golem, pitching it face first onto the steps. It kept crawling, though.
Arthur spotted Elyan running out from an adjoining corridor on the next level and gestured frantically at Gwen. "Get her out of here!"
Elyan didn't need to be told twice and seized his sister's hand and ran. The golem tried to go after them, but more knights had arrived with swords drawn and were striking it from behind, trying to get its attention. Those who swung too hard got their blades stuck in the clay, but the tactic worked and the golem turned away from the stairs and came clambering back down, swinging its massive arms and bludgeoning knights and guards left and right. Their weapons were doing nothing against it, and Arthur wished he had Excalibur.
"Move!" he shouted, hoping to keep more of his men from being trampled.
The golem galumphed through the foyer after the fleeing men and burst into the great hall. Someone tripped, and Arthur darted forward to pull them up before the golem could stomp on them.
"What are you waiting for, Merlin!" Gwaine hollered from where he kept brandishing his blade against the clay beast, to no effect.
"I'm thinking!" he shouted back.
"Think faster!" Arthur yelled.
Merlin thrust his palm out and his eyes flared gold. A geyser of water shot out from thin air and crashed over the golem's back. The thing started to slow down as its body began to soften, but it was still able to continue its rampage.
Percival grabbed a decorative shield off the wall and threw it like a discus, tripping the golem again. It hit the floor with a resounding splat, but started to get up, even under the barrage of water Merlin kept pounding it with—which was of course also flooding the chamber.
Arthur ran to the wall and began to frantically untie the rope holding up one of the chandeliers currently directly above the golem. The weight of the iron fixture pulled on the rope before Arthur had finished, and the coarse fibers grated his palms as it whooshed out of his hands and the chandelier came crashing down on the golem. Mud splattered everywhere.
They all waited with bated breath to see if the thing was going to get up again, but there was so much water pooling over it that the clay had been diluted into mush. Everyone was covered in it, and Gwaine tried to wipe it off his face with a disgusted grimace, but all he did was smear it further.
Arthur looked around the great hall. What a horrible mess. And he couldn't help but woefully think what was going to come next?
Gwen ran alongside her brother as he ushered her upstairs to her chambers. She had no idea what that monster was, and her heart hammered against the inside of her chest with fear for her husband and everyone else. Elyan burst through the door, pulling Gwen in behind him, then shut it. As if that would keep out a giant monster capable of smashing right through the wood.
Gwen tried to get her breathing under control, but she jolted with a sharp gasp as she turned and found a man in a long black cloak standing in her chambers.
Elyan whirled at the sound, only to falter, his expression slackening in shock. "Sarrock?"
Gwen's breath caught in her throat as the face and name clicked. He looked very different from the noble who'd once attended court. He was no longer clean-shaven but had a grizzly beard, and his eyes were like flint.
Elyan shifted to a subtly defensive stance. "What are you doing here?" he asked in a hard tone.
Sarrock didn't move; he was like a statue. "Arthur took everything from me," he said, voice gravelly. "I'm going to do the same to him." His gaze moved to Gwen, and her heart lurched at the intensity in his eyes.
Elyan drew his sword to attack, but Sarrock drew one from beneath his cloak and met Elyan's blade mid-strike. The clang of steel rang throughout the room, and Gwen recognized the sword as Excalibur. She ran for the door to call for help, but just as she pulled it open, an invisible force slammed into it, shutting it again. She yanked at the handle, but the door wouldn't budge.
She spun back around just as Sarrock's eyes flashed gold and he shot a plume of black smoke in Elyan's face. Elyan staggered backward, coughing. He didn't see Sarrock move forward, sword thrusting out. The blade plunged into Elyan's stomach. Gwen screamed as her brother choked on a pained gasp and fell to the floor. She tried to get to him, but Sarrock moved quickly and snaked one arm around her waist, pulling her against him.
"No!" she screamed, struggling and kicking as he dragged her away from her brother.
Elyan's chest was juddering as he looked her way, eyes drooping and blood pooling beneath him in an alarming amount.
"Elyan!" Gwen cried.
Then there was a burst of smoke and rushing wind, and everything disappeared in a whirlwind of darkness.
Lily had heard the alarm bell and the distant crashes of some kind of attack, but she'd stayed in her room with the twins until someone finally alerted her it was over. Then she secured the children with their nurse and went to check on Gwen. She hoped all this excitement wouldn't prove harmful to the baby.
She knocked on the door and cracked it open, unsure if Gwen was even in her chambers or if she'd already rushed down to check on everyone. The sight that greeted her flooded her veins with ice. Elyan lay in the middle of the floor, blood pouring from a massive stab wound in his stomach.
Lily rushed in and dropped down beside him, the edges of her dress instantly soaking up red. Her hands shook as she frantically tried to gather enough fabric to press against the wound and staunch the flow of blood. Whipping her gaze around, she realized Gwen wasn't here. So why was Elyan? And what had happened?
"Help!" she screamed. "Someone help!"
It took a few agonizingly long minutes before a servant rushed in. Their eyes widened in horror and then they were running down the hall, shouting for more help. Lily kept applying pressure to Elyan's stomach, even as his breaths became more shallow and his eyes listless.
Some guards eventually arrived and Lily snapped at them to get Elyan down to Gaius's chambers and for someone to find the court physician if he wasn't already there.
Two guards lifted Elyan by the arms and legs and carried him out in a hurry. Lily grimaced, unable to keep applying pressure to his wound as they moved, and the blood trail they were both leaving in streaks across the floor made her own stomach churn with terror. As soon as they reached Gaius's chambers, Lily went straight to their many medicinal plants and began plucking off leaves for various things—help the blood clot, aid the body's own natural healing, fight off infection. Gaius hurried in a moment later and went to the patient cot, though he'd barely gotten much of a look past all the blood before Lily was pushing her way in to use her magic. She connected with the chords of the plants and strummed them to their highest intensity, pushing their healing properties into Elyan.
Even so, in the back of her mind she knew how dire such a wound was.
When she'd used up the nutrients in the leaves, she removed them. Gaius had a bowl of water and wet towel ready and began to wipe away the blood so he could see better. His expression was grave and he flicked a wordless look at her.
Lily rocked back, crumpling the desiccated leaves in her hands. She needed the star lily. But what chance was there it would have bloomed?
Leaping to her feet, she hurried out of the room and up to her chambers, heart racing. But when she burst out onto the balcony, the spot where she'd buried the dead flower was empty. It hadn't blossomed.
She dropped to her knees next to the planter box and held her hands over the soil, forgetting they were smeared with blood. Please, she asked, extending her magic and trying to prompt the star lily into flowering. After all, she'd done it before.
She pressed her palm flat to the dirt, Elyan's blood mixing with the soil. And she felt the star lily respond. A green sprout poked its way up through the dirt, stretching taller and forming a bulb at the end that swelled within a matter of seconds and then bloomed into a radiant white flower tipped with carmine red.
Lily nearly collapsed in relief and gratitude. "Thank you," she breathed and plucked the flower, then hastened back downstairs.
She reached Gaius's chambers just as Arthur and the others were arriving in an anxious rush.
"What happened?" Arthur asked in alarm as his eyes landed on Elyan lying unconscious on the cot, his pallor bleached of life.
"I don't know," Gaius replied. "Lily found him."
"Where's Gwen?" Arthur asked urgently.
"I don't know," Lily said, pushing her way through so she could use the star lily to save Elyan before it was too late.
"You got it to bloom again," Lancelot said in surprise.
Lily nodded and placed the flower over the stab wound, then connected her magic to its. The flower began to glow, its light seeping into Elyan's stomach and spreading through him. His eyes shot open and he blinked rapidly in confusion. Lily rocked back in relief.
Gaius moved in to look at the wound, which was completely gone. Only the blood remained. "Remarkable."
Elyan looked around at everyone gathered in the room, his eyes blowing wide. "Gwen! He took her!"
Arthur went rigid. "Who did?"
"Sarrock. He's back. And he has Excalibur."
Everyone's expressions went slack with incredulity.
Lily thought the name sounded familiar but she couldn't place it. "Who is that?" she asked.
"Remember after Arthur legalized magic, one of the knights started learning to use it?" Merlin answered. "Only he used it to subjugate and terrorize the peasants on his lands."
She remembered now. Merlin had found out what was going on when a castle servant from one of those villages had approached him about it. He had investigated and discovered what was going on and had told Arthur, who then stripped Sarrock of his title and lands and banished him.
"He took Gwen to get revenge on you," Elyan told Arthur.
Arthur's face drained of color, and everyone else looked horrified as well. Gwen was missing, and they had no idea where she'd been taken.
