A/N: Thank you Buckhunter, GuestM, and PadrePedro for reviewing the last episode!
Chapter 1
Three days of scouring the kingdom, and there was no sign of Merlin and his friends. Arthur wondered where they could be hiding, especially since they supposedly had this "sanctuary" place where they kept magical creatures. How could that go unnoticed? Magic, of course, Arthur immediately answered his own question. It must be protected by magic.
Leon moved closer to him even though their troop was spaced out to cover more ground. "Arthur," he said quietly. "I- I should have told you sooner, but I know one of the hunters."
Arthur arched a questioning brow at him. They'd met all of Merlin's men a few times by now, so that couldn't be what Leon was referring to.
"Elyan," Leon went on. "He and his sister grew up in Camelot. Their mother was handmaiden to my mother, so we spent a lot of time together in our childhood. But then Uther executed their father for suspected sorcery, and they left. I'm sorry for not telling you."
Arthur didn't chastise his friend; he'd known about Merlin being a sorcerer sooner than everyone else and hadn't said anything. "Suspected sorcery?" he asked instead.
"There was a plague in the city and Tom was one of those who fell gravely ill. But then he suddenly recovered, and Uther thought it was sorcery, because no one else had recovered that quickly."
Arthur frowned. He didn't remember this, but he'd been ill with the same disease. "There wasn't a trial?"
Leon shook his head.
Arthur's jaw tightened. So his father had executed a man without proof of sorcery? He wasn't all that surprised, but it rankled to know that.
Leon sighed. "When I first saw Elyan again, I thought they were there to rid Camelot of the griffin. But after the dragon and everything else…I can't believe he turned to sorcery after what happened to his father."
Arthur kept his silence. He remembered Elyan had said Uther had killed his father, and Arthur had assumed it was justified. But if it wasn't…
"Can't you see it's your own kingdom's history of hatred and fear that has fostered malcontent against you?" Merlin's words from the tomb came back to him.
Arthur felt like his entire world was being upended around him, but he was the only one experiencing it. His father, who had once been infallible in his eyes, was now showing cracks in his righteousness. And Arthur didn't know what to do with that.
As they continued to move through the forest, a thick fog began to roll in, completely whiting out visibility. Since Leon was still beside Arthur, they pressed close together, shoulder to shoulder.
"Call out!" Arthur shouted to the other knights in their troop.
There were some muffled responses, but they almost seemed to bounce around through the mist, and Arthur couldn't tell which direction they were coming from. He waded through the fog anyway, trying to find his men. Leon practically stuck to his hip to avoid losing him, the brume was so opaque.
"Over here!" Arthur kept yelling.
The responses were growing fainter and fainter, until there were none that Arthur could hear. Finally, he and Leon broke through the fog into a clearing in the woods. They both turned in full circles, trying to get their bearings. Arthur's jaw tightened; they were lost.
"Do you think that was magic?" Leon asked in a hushed voice.
Arthur pursed his mouth. It certainly seemed like it could be a useful deterrent to protect or hide a secret lair… Were they close to discovering Merlin's location, then?
A chittering sound drew their attention to a small knoll where a giant scorpion came skittering over the rise. Several more followed, and soon the clearing was filling up with the creatures. Arthur and Leon drew their swords and tried to beat them back, but they were quickly surrounded.
Arthur slashed one and stabbed another, the serkets squealing and reeling away, but more surged forward to take their place. He dodged a strike from a stinger tail and chopped the appendage off. But then a scorpion bashed its armored pincher into his back, knocking him to the ground. Arthur flipped over just as a tail came arcing down. Then Leon was jumping in front of him, swinging his sword with deft agility. The stinger was amputated, and he stabbed the scorpion in the head, pinning it to the ground where it flailed and thrashed in the throes of death.
"Leon!" Arthur shouted in warning as another came up behind the knight and stabbed its stinger into the back of his shoulder.
Leon cried out and dropped to one knee as the serket yanked its tail back out. Arthur surged forward and stabbed its thorax, driving it backward. But he had to abandon the attack and backpedal to stand over Leon in defense. There were too many serkets, though, and they were being overrun. Arthur thought he caught a glimpse of a woman watching from a distance, but he lost sight of her when he was knocked to the ground again. The serkets were about to trample him and Leon when suddenly there was a burst of flames overhead.
The serkets screeched and backed up. Fireballs struck two of them, sending them skittering. Arrows and knives began to fly through the air and strike several others, and Arthur saw Merlin and his hunters storming into the clearing. They fired bolts from crossbows, then flicked an arm out, deploying knives strapped to the inner forearm with deadly accuracy. Merlin was a veritable fire storm, throwing balls of flame left and right.
The serkets decided it wasn't worth it and retreated. In the ensuing silence, Merlin and the hunters turned to Arthur, who slowly got to his feet, hand clenched tightly around his sword.
"Long way from home, princess," Gwaine remarked.
"Too close to yours?" Arthur challenged in response. "Were those your creatures?"
"Of course not," Lancelot answered. "We often come out here to hunt the serkets, make sure their number doesn't grow too large and they venture out of the forest into populated lands."
Before Arthur could form another retort, a groan of pain behind him had him whirling toward Leon. The knight was still on the ground, pale and shaking. Arthur quickly dropped down beside him and pulled him into his arms.
"Leon?"
"Was he stung?" Merlin asked urgently, coming over.
Arthur nodded. "His shoulder." He reflexively tensed as Merlin reached out to slightly lift Leon and look.
"The venom is working fast," Merlin said gravely. "We need to get him to Gaius."
"Excuse me?" Gwaine interjected. "Uther is looking for our base and you want to bring one of his knights and his son into it?"
Merlin's mouth pinched in contemplation at that. Arthur, also, wasn't feeling very keen on relying on these people for aid, but Leon was trembling and twitching, his eyes slipping to half mast.
"Can you really help him?" he asked.
Merlin nodded.
"Then take him," Arthur said reluctantly, voice breaking. "Please."
"We can't exactly leave you out here alone," the sorcerer replied, looking torn.
Then Elyan, Leon's old friend, spoke up. "Blindfold him. Both of them."
Merlin looked at the others with raised eyebrows. "That work?"
Lancelot and Percival nodded, while Gwaine looked miffed but didn't argue.
Percival stepped forward. "Weapons," he prompted.
Arthur grudgingly handed over his sword and accompanying dagger. When Lancelot moved to blindfold him, Arthur initially bristled indignantly, but Leon's life was at stake, so he bore it mutely. The cloth was knotted behind his head and then someone took his elbow to guide him.
"Leon?" he asked.
"We've got him," Lancelot's voice assured him.
As they started to make the slow trek, Arthur tried to count the distance in his head, but since he'd lost track of his position in the fog, it really didn't mean anything. He turned his head, trying to find the heat source of the sun to orient himself, but there was no warmth. It had been a cloudy day when the patrol had set out and must not have burned off. So he had no idea whether they were heading north, south, east, or west. And the longer they walked, the more he worried Leon wouldn't make it to their destination.
The noise of a roaring waterfall grew louder and louder, until it drowned out all other sounds. Arthur's footfalls moved from soft earth to solid rock, and he almost slipped, but Lancelot's grip held firm and kept him upright. Then the waterfall became muffled and faded quickly, more quickly than it had grown. Arthur was guided along for several more yards before he was brought to a stop and the accompanying hand released him. There was a tug at the back of his head, and then the blindfold was removed. He blinked at the influx of light, only to freeze at the vista before him.
Greenery and flora in varying species filled a massive valley between two steep crags, the tops of which Arthur couldn't see, as they rose and disappeared into a muted sky. A tranquil waterfall fell down one side, and Arthur spotted a griffin flying in the distance. He was so stunned by everything he almost forgot the urgency behind them being there.
"Gaius!" Lancelot shouted, running ahead down the path toward a cluster of huts. "We need serket anti-venom!"
Percival and Elyan carried a limp Leon after him, and Arthur jolted into step behind them, determined to not let his friend out of his sight. They entered a hut, and Arthur was once again brought up short as the interior extended further in than it should have. He stepped back outside and looked at the exterior, then inside again. Yes, the dimensions were definitely not congruent.
He gave himself another sharp shake as Leon was laid on one of three cots, and Alice's healer friend hurried over with a vial of mulberry colored liquid. Cupping Leon's head, Gaius tipped the elixir into his mouth. Leon coughed weakly as the treacly potion went down.
"Where was he stung?" Gaius asked.
"Shoulder," Percival replied.
"Get that chainmail off him," the old man instructed.
Arthur watched tensely as Percival and Elyan divested Leon of his chainmail and the shirt underneath, though he had to admit they were gentle about it. Then they gingerly rolled a still unconscious Leon onto his side, revealing a gaping hole in the back of his shoulder. It was purplish black, and Arthur's stomach churned at the gruesome sight.
"Will he be all right?" he asked thickly.
"The anti-venom will cure him of the poison," Gaius replied as he went to retrieve more healing supplies. "And the wound is not fatal by itself, as long as we keep it from getting infected."
He carried a tray of various accoutrements back over and set it on the next cot over, then began to clean out the puncture wound. Even unconscious, Leon whimpered and twitched in pain.
"Gaius is the best," Merlin said encouragingly.
Arthur turned to the sorcerer, all the past anger and hatred over the dragon incidents bubbling back up. But he managed a curt, "Thank you."
This didn't make them even, though.
