Gwen woke to a pounding on her door, and, disoriented stumbled from her bed. The curtains were still drawn, but light was peeking through the space between.

It must be mid-day, she thought, from the way the light was falling.

The pounding on the door persisted, bleating and annoyed. It reminded Gwen of sheep in the springtime.

She threw a robe over her nightdress and put on a dignified face as she swung the big door open.

Leon, who was perhaps only seconds away from breaking down the door, tried to hide his surprise at Gwen's unqueenly state.

"My lady," Leon said. "You missed this morning's council meeting. No one had heard from you, so we began to worry. Had we known you were just having a lie in –"

"That's quite alright, Leon," Gwen said, wrapping her robe a little tighter in mild embarrassment. "Salia was supposed to wake me this morning. It seems she did not come."

"Shall I send for Asha, my lady?" Leon asked.

George pushed his way around Leon's legs and scurried into Gwen's room. He hugged her waste and smiled up at her.

"Mummy, you missed breakfast. I had to eat with Merlin, and he kept trying to teach me things."

Gwen let out a little laugh and patted her son's head. To Leon, she said, "Do send for Asha. When I'm dressed I'd like to call to the lower town to check on Salia. It's not like her to miss a day's work."

"Of course," said Leon, giving a slight bow of his head.

George released Gwen from his embrace, and she bent and scooped him up into her arms. He was really getting too big for her to do this, but it still amused him and a mother's love – or lower back – knows no bounds.

IOIOIOIOIOI

Sirs Galahad and Tristian were enjoying the unusually good weather while standing guard at the gate separating the upper from the lower town. This is to say, Galahad was standing guard, and Tristian, otherwise unoccupied, was standing with him, enjoying the weather while chomping down on a leg of mutton.

"You see that over there by the far side of the gate," Tristian said between sloppy bites. "That rock there keeps going up and down of its own accord. Doesn't that seem odd to you?"

Galahad, stormy as ever, refused to even glance in the direction in which Tristian gestured. To humor him would be to encourage him, he thought, and that was the last thing Galahad wanted.

"See," Tristian said, "There it goes again."

"You're imagining things," Galahad said. "Rocks don't just float around."

"But really, if you'd just look, you'd see what I mean," Tristian insisted. He gestured wildly with his stick of mutton, so wildly, in fact, that it caught Arthur's attention on the far side of the gate. Arthur decided that, despite his boredom, it might be best to stop tossing his rock up and down, if only to shut up the young knight.

At that moment Gwen, escorted by Leon and another knight, passed through the gate. Galahad and Tristian (who dropped what was left of his mutton) came to attention and bid her good day as she passed.

"Off into town, my lady?" asked Tristan cheerfully.

"Ah yes, just calling on Salia," said Gwen, who enjoyed Tristan's chatter despite all. "She didn't come to the castle this morning," Gwen said.

The twinge of worry in her voice caught Arthur's attention, and he stood too, hoovering in close proximity to his queen.

"That's not like her at all," said Tristian.

"No not at all," said Gwen – and their polite conversation finished, Gwen continued on her way.

Arthur, curious, followed a step behind, feeling oddly self-conscious. It wasn't his intention to spy, but Merlin had been gone since just after breakfast, and it was lonely just sitting around watching people.

Gwen paused after a short distance and looked behind her, meeting Arthur's gaze. Thinking she must see him, Arthur's jaw dropped and he grappled for something to say, but she turned back around.

"What is it, my lady?" asked Leon.

"It's nothing, I'm sure, said Gwen. "I just got the feeling we're being followed."

IOIOIOIOIOI

Salia's door was shut tightly and when Leon pounded there was no answer. Gwen waited a moment and then shouted, with as much dignity as she could muster, "Salia, are you home?" A rather long pause followed, and Gwen looked skeptically at the knights.

"Could she have gone away, my lady?" asked the knight who was not Leon.

"She has family in the country, but she'd never leave without telling me," Gwen replied.

Arthur, becoming impatient with the ordeal, slipped through the door. He didn't particularly care for the sensation of the wood passing through his ethereal frame, but it was a trick he had that he might as well use.

Inside he stopped dead in his tracks – or alive in his tracks, if that's what surprised ghosts do. A girl, who he could only assume was Salia, lay shivering on the bed, broken out in a mean sweat. Gwen called out again, but the girl hardly stirred from her fitful state.

Outside, the queen and her men were beginning to make a scene. Arthur uncomfortably floated back through the door and observed the indecision on their faces.

"Should we break down the door?" Leon asked.

"I don't know," said Gwen, "Perhaps we should search elsewhere first."

"No," said Arthur, forgetting himself. Gwen seemed to tilt her head just the slightest, but otherwise there was no indication that anyone had heard him speak.

"As you wish," Leon said.

"You've got to break down the door," said Arthur, more vehemently this time. Still there was no recognition. "She's very sick," Arthur said desperately. And then, "Gwen, break down the door."

Guinevere, who had all but turned away from the house, paused for a moment and seemed to consider something. "Leon," she said, "Perhaps we should let ourselves in."

"My lady?"

"I've just had a – a feeling, it's the right thing to do."

Arthur let out an inaudible sigh of relief as the knights braced themselves to charge the door. It was thin, made of cheap wood, like all the others in the lower town. It gave way easily under their might, letting out only a feint whine as it fell.

Inside, Salia continued to toss in her fevered state, and Gwen's face melted with worry. Very suddenly she was less a queen and more a maid, running to the sick girl and wiping the sweat from her brow.

"Send for Gaius at once," Gwen ordered.

IOIOIOIOIOIOI

In the forest, the hooded figures were meeting. Gareth, uneasy since his run-in with Aithusa two days before, fiddled with a long strand of grass he'd plucked from a nearby glen. The others stood at attention, eerie in their stillness. Gareth wished they would move and give some indication that they too could feel fear.

Marissa was the last to arrive, her arm bandaged and her frock speckled with mud.

"What news?" Gareth asked eagerly.

"I have seen the dragon," she said. "It is as you said, she roams free."

At this, the other two stirred just the slightest. Gareth dropped his mangled strand of grass.

"And the plan?" asked the other woman. "I played my part last night after the town fell silent. I do not believe I was seen."

"Very good, Anna," said Marissa. "I, too, had success in my part. They do not suspect a thing."

"Then all is well," the fourth said.

"Indeed," said Marissa. "Now all we have to do is wait until the time is right. The boy will yet die at our hands."

IOIOIOIOIOI

Gaius could not determine the exact cause of Salia's sickness, though he was comfortable saying that it was not a contagious condition, which eased Leon's fears about letting the queen linger so close. Not that Leon could truly tell the queen to do otherwise, but he had sworn to protect her, and he thought that sometimes may include protecting her from herself.

Gwen, for her part, was overwhelmed with concern – first and foremost for Salia, but also that the source of the problem be found so whatever it was could be stopped.

"Could it have been a bad meal?" Gwen wagered.

Gaius shifted in his chair. He could no longer stand when he performed these diagnoses.

"I suppose, my lady, it could be, but I fear it may be something much more sinister. I have not seen a sickness like this in many years. It may be caused by magic."

"Magic?" Gwen asked. "Who in Camelot would do such a thing? And to so kind a girl?"

"That is a troubling question," said Gaius, "But not one I can answer. Since you have allowed magic again there are any number of practitioners of the old religion living within Camelot's boarders."

"But in these eight years I've never seen any harm come from them," said Gwen.

Gaius huffed as he stood. "Magic is neither good nor bad," he said, "It's people who can grow evil in their hearts."

Arthur, who had been reclining in a corner, glanced up. It sounded very much like something Merlin had tried to tell him a long time ago, but he hadn't been willing to hear then.

Gaius told the queen the best thing to do was to send for Merlin. A flurry followed, as no one had seen Merlin since very early in the morning, and no one knew quite where to look for him.

"Don't tell me you've lost him," Gaius said.

"George said he took breakfast with him this morning," Gwen said fretfully.

"I believe George mentioned something about a lake earlier," said Leon. "Or a woman, maybe."

Athur sat up in disbelief. Was Merlin really going after that blonde from yesterday afternoon? When there was important work in Camelot?

"Ah," said Giaus, "I should think I know where Merlin went."

IOIOIOIOIOI

Leon sent Tristan and Galahad to fetch Merlin at a lake on the outskirts of Camelot. When Arthur heard the name of the place, he was certain he knew it, and went ahead of the knights, floating his way through the atmosphere at a speed they could not follow.

Arthur found Merlin standing on the shore, the water lapping at the tip of his boots. Across the lake, a small mountain range rose, and in the water a single monolith stood on an island like a beacon.

This was Avalon.

"Merlin," Arthur said softly. The sound made the sorcerer startle, and Arthur was surprised to catch him wiping a tear from his eye before he turned.

Merlin radiated a sadness so deep that Arthur, who was about to chastise his friend for taking a day off, fell silent. After a moment he said, "I know this place."

Merlin nodded.

"This is where we were going the day…"

"The day you died," Merlin said. "Yes."

Arthur, trying to be delicate stumbled around the idea. "Why are you here now?"

"You're not the only one I buried here," Merlin said.

"I remember," said Arthur. "Elyan was laid to rest here."

"Lancelot too," added Merlin.

"But you haven't come for them, have you?"

Merlin wiped away another tear. "Not today. I come here for all your anniversaries. Today," – he seemed to choke on his own breath – "is Freya's."

"I'm sorry, I don't know who…"

"You wouldn't remember her. She was a girl I knew once. I freed her from a witch hunter in Camelot." Merlin's tone changed, and suddenly he was very matter-of-fact. "We were going to run away together, she and I."

Arthur blanched at the idea. Merlin and a girl running away? "And what about me?"

"Oh I was going to leave you," Merlin said.

"You'd chose a girl over me?" Arthur said in playful horror.

"Well," Merlin said.

"Hey!" Arthur snapped. "Abandoning your king is treason."

Merlin chuckled, and a genuine smile blossomed on his face. Arthur felt content that his work of cheering his friend was done – but curiosity still had a hold on him. Why had Merlin never spoken of this girl?

"What happened to her?" Arthur asked.

And Merlin almost said, you killed her, but he stopped himself – because no matter how lightheartedly he said it, Arthur would still be devastated. So instead Merlin shrugged and just said, "What always happens. She was wounded, and I could not save her."

"It's not your fault, Merlin," said Arthur. He thought he was being kind, and Merlin let him go on thinking so.

"Anyway," Merlin said, "What have you come all the way out here to tell me. Or could you not entertain yourself for one afternoon?"

Before Arthur could answer, Tristian and Galahad broke through the tree line, rouge capes still wavering from the haste of their journey.

"Sir Sorcerer, you are needed right away."