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


Chapter 6

Lily looked between the distiller equipment and Gaius floundering to speak. Without him able to give them instructions, they had no idea how to complete finding an antidote.

Merlin grabbed a piece of paper and quill and set the parchment on the stool next to the cot. He then took Gaius's hand and placed it on the edge of the paper and fitted the quill in his other hand to hold. "Can you write it out?"

Expression taut, Gaius felt his way around the paper before setting the tip of the inked quill to it. Lily watched him attempt to write down the instructions, but his scribbles all ran together and were illegible. She exchanged a fraught look with Merlin. What were they going to do now?

Merlin's mouth pressed into a tight line. "Um, we'll have to think of something else."

"I need to check on Lancelot," Lily said, fear for him zinging through her.

Merlin's eyes widened. "Arthur." He turned toward the door, only to pause and twist back around. "We'll be right back," he told Gaius.

Lily felt bad for leaving him like that, but there were so many people who'd been poisoned in the great hall… She and Merlin hurried through the corridors to where the injured had been bedded down for the night all in one place. She immediately heard sounds of distress emanating from within as they drew closer, and they burst into the hall to find several people panicking as friends and loved ones attempted to keep them calm. No sounds were coming out of their frantically moving mouths. Lily whirled toward Lancelot, who was reaching for his throat desperately as Arthur grasped his shoulder.

"Lancelot, what is it?" Arthur was asking urgently.

"He can't speak," Merlin said, announcing himself.

Arthur jerked his sightless eyes toward the sound. "What? Why?"

"The scorpion's venom is progressing. Gaius can't speak either."

Lily rushed to her husband and knelt down beside him. "Lancelot," she said softly, reaching a hand out to cup his face. He turned his head toward her, those brown eyes vacant of focus but still so full of emotion and fear. "Merlin and I are working on an antidote," she assured him. "Just hang in there."

He nodded shakily, leaning his cheek into her palm.

"You said Gaius can't speak either," Arthur put in. "Did he finish telling you how to make an antidote?"

Merlin grimaced. "No. But we'll figure it out."

Arthur's brow pinched with concern at that, but he didn't express his doubt.

Lily was loath to leave Lancelot, but she had to get back to work if she was going to help him. So she leaned in to kiss him. "I have to go," she whispered.

He nodded, and Lily reluctantly pulled away, leaving him unmoored save for the presence of Arthur beside him. Percival had slept through it all.

Lily and Merlin hastened back to Gaius's chambers, but when they arrived, they found him lying on the floor amidst broken glass and spilled solutions. The table had been bumped into and the distiller and all their work knocked over.

"Gaius!" Merlin exclaimed, hurrying forward while trying to be careful of the glass. "What happened?" he asked before remembering the physician couldn't answer.

Gaius's face was scrunched up in frustration and embarrassment as Merlin helped him up off the floor. Lily grabbed the broom from the corner and brushed bits of glass out of the way so they wouldn't step on it. Merlin got him back to the patient cot, then looked around at the destroyed distiller in dismay.

Gaius's mouth moved, but nothing came out.

Jaw ticking, Merlin took Gaius's arm and hefted him up again, this time leading him to his own bed in the back of the room. "I know it's hard," he said, "but you need to stay put for now."

Gaius's expression twisted with frustration, but with a resigned slump of his shoulders, he lay back on the bed.

Merlin walked back over to Lily to survey the mess. Nothing was salvageable. All the solutions they'd painstakingly spent hours making had been spilled and mixed together. There was no way to make an antidote.

"I don't suppose it would be possible to try to grow a hundred more star lilies," Merlin said grimly.

Lily gave him a pained look at that and murmured, "I doubt it."

He drew his shoulders back. "Alright, we'll do what we can. You can try to treat the effects of the poison with your magic while I look into other magic cures."

Lily nodded, though she wasn't feeling very optimistic. Still, they had to do something.


Gwen leaned against the unicorn, one arm draped over her now very rotund belly. She felt a kick, a sign of life that both filled her with joy and grief. Her time had to be getting close now, close to the moment when Sarrock would tear her child away from her.

Her body trembled with residual pain from all the potions he'd forced her to drink in order to speed up her pregnancy unnaturally. She rested her head against the unicorn's shoulder and stroked her stomach, thinking about the child inside that she'd wanted for so long. Would it be a boy or a girl? Or twins? she thought with an internal huff. Wouldn't that be a thing.

But then she wondered if she'd even have a chance to see her child, to hold him or her. She turned her face into the unicorn's soft fur as the tears streamed down her cheeks anew, and she silently prayed for Arthur to find her before it was too late.

When Sarrock came, Gwen cried and pleaded, but to no avail as he mutilated the unicorn's horn and made more of his heinous potion.


Lily tried plant remedy after plant remedy, with no results. The repeated failures were weighing heavily on her, and on every one of the venom's victims.

Merlin entered the great hall, looking tense. "I managed to salvage some of the solutions," he told her. "And I may have come up with an antidote."

"Was Gaius able to find a way to communicate?" she asked.

Merlin fidgeted. "No. I had to…guess. Which means there's no way to know for sure if it'll work without testing it on someone. And I don't know what will happen if I'm wrong."

Lily's chest tightened. That sounded very risky, but what else could they do?

Percival waved his arm back and forth to get their attention.

"Percival, are you all right?" Lily asked, going over to him.

He nodded and pointed to himself.

Lily frowned. "What?"

He jabbed a finger at her and Merlin's general direction, then at himself firmly. Lily's eyes widened as she realized what he was trying to convey.

Merlin was frowning. "It's dangerous."

Percival pounded his chest again insistently.

Arthur and Lancelot sat to his left, looking confused. Arthur scowled in frustration, clearly wanting to know what they were talking about, but he couldn't speak anymore either. None of the victims could at this point.

"Percival is volunteering to test the antidote," Merlin explained.

Arthur's mouth turned down and he shook his head, pointing to himself instead.

Merlin rolled his eyes. "I know you'd like to say that you're king and so it should be you, but that's exactly the reason it shouldn't be."

Percival pushed himself up onto his knees, raising his head in determination. Lily looked at Merlin, wondering what he'd decide.

The warlock looked nervous, but he swallowed hard and pulled out a small vial of liquid. "Okay," he said. "You can sit back down, Percival."

Lily watched tensely as Merlin helped Percival sit back against the wall, then put the antidote to his lips to drink. His nose wrinkled in distaste, but he swallowed it all down. Then they sat back and waited. Percival's mouth tightened and his gaze remained unfocused. But then his eyes abruptly rolled back and his limbs started convulsing.

Lily and Merlin surged forward to grab his arms and move him into a lying down position as he jerked and thrashed. His feet kicked Arthur in the side, who stiffened and gestured frantically wanting to know what was happening. Merlin didn't respond, his eyes wide with fear that he'd killed his friend. Lily was also helpless to do anything but watch and wait for the seizure to peter out, leaving Percival twitching minutely. Merlin urgently pressed two fingers under his jaw. He sagged.

"He's alive."

Arthur batted his arm around to get their attention.

"Percival had a seizure," Lily explained.

Arthur and Lancelot worriedly looked their way, waiting to hear if the antidote had worked. Lily got up to get some water and lavender, using her magic to activate the soothing aroma. She wet a cloth in the floral water and gently wiped Percival's brow with it. Merlin picked at a loose thread in his coat as they waited.

Percival finally stirred, his eyes opening and looking up at Lily.

"Percival?" she queried.

He blinked, then frowned, and her heart dropped into her stomach as his gaze failed to focus properly.

"Can you speak?" Merlin asked, scooting closer.

Percival's lips moved, but no sound came out. Merlin slumped in abject defeat.

"It didn't work," Lily told Arthur and Lancelot.

"I'm sorry," Merlin said.

"It's not your fault," Lily told him. "Just keep trying."

He nodded dejectedly but got up and left.

Lily resumed her own rounds, though she felt just as defeated in that area too. At this point, the most she could do was simply keep checking on patients. It was perhaps selfish of her, but she frequently went back to Lancelot to give him comforting touches. She thought about the twins, but she was so worn out, the thought of climbing a bunch of stairs made her want to collapse. She knew Rhys and Rhedyn were being looked after, and she wasn't neglecting them. She was trying to restore their father to health.

She slogged her way across the hall and knelt down next to her husband again. "Lancelot," she said softly so as not to startle him. He didn't respond, head leaning against the wall and gaze cast downward. Lily frowned. "Lancelot."

When he still didn't react, her heart skipped a beat in fear, and she grabbed his arm and reached to see if he was still breathing. He jolted violently and jerked his head around in apparent fright.

"Lancelot!" she half exclaimed, half chided. He'd nearly scared her to death.

But he continued to look around frantically, his hands grasping at the one she had on his arm and following it up to her shoulder, then face. His sightless eyes were wide with terror as he held onto her with a death grip. Beside him, neither Arthur nor Percival reacted to the commotion, and Lily's breath froze in her lungs.

"Lancelot?" she tried again. "Can you hear me?"

He didn't nod or shake his head, just kept clinging to her in complete sensory deprivation.

"Arthur? Percival?" she called next, chest tightening.

Neither of them reacted.

Lily gripped Lancelot's arms in return, heart clenching in distress. How far would this cursed venom go?


With the symptoms progressing and Merlin unable to find an antidote, he was finally desperate enough to call Kilgharrah for help. He left the castle and headed out to the field, but before he could summon the Great Dragon, those whispers that had been plaguing him became louder. And they were calling for Emrys.

Merlin frowned. Only the Druids and other magical beings called him that. Sarrock wouldn't, so he didn't have to worry about this being some kind of trap. Still, did he really have time for this? Yet something about the insistent voices tugged at his magic, and so he turned away from the field and ventured into the woods after the source. To his utter astonishment, he was met by a herd of unicorns. He'd only ever seen one, and they were so rare that he'd never imagined there were more, even though Anhora had called himself the Keeper of the Unicorns, plural.

"Emrys," he heard in his mind.

Merlin's brows rose sharply. "You can speak." The unicorn he'd seen years ago hadn't spoken to him.

"Only to the Keeper," the unicorn replied.

"But that's…"

"You now."

And the surprises just kept on coming. Merlin remembered that jolt of magic he'd felt when Anhora died in his arms. The man must have passed on his powers as Keeper to him.

"You've been calling to me this whole time, haven't you?" he said with an apologetic grimace.

They nodded their heads.

"I'm sorry for ignoring you. I've had a lot to deal with."

"We know. The one who killed Anhora took one of our own captive. He has been using unicorn magic to attack Camelot. You must rescue her. We can lend our magic to reveal a trail to our kin."

Merlin's brows furrowed. If Sarrock was the one who had Excalibur and killed Anhora, that meant Gwen and this captured unicorn were in the same place. And if the rest of the herd could lead him there, they could save Gwen too.

But half the knights were out of commission and only getting worse. Merlin didn't know if the cursed venom would eventually end in death. He straightened.

"If unicorn magic was used in the attacks, can it reverse the curse from the scorpions?"

One of the unicorns nickered with a head nod.

Merlin's heart leaped with renewed hope. "I need to cure everyone first. Then we'll have enough men to ride out and confront Sarrock. He's taken our queen along with the unicorn."

The unicorns looked as though they were exchanging conferring glances before one by one they stepped forward and tipped their horns into Merlin's hands, releasing silvery strands of liquid light. Merlin cupped the collective magic protectively.

"Thank you," he said. "I'll return as quickly as I can."

With that, he hurried back to Camelot, praying this would finally work.