Chapter 13 – Healer's Troubles

Willow stayed where she was until all sounds of footsteps had faded. Then she followed the serving girl. She had to find Gaius or Merlin. They would know what to do. The hallway and stairs came out near the kitchens. From there, Willow managed to find Gaius's rooms again. He wasn't there, but Merlin was. He was cleaning the horse manure off of his hands and changing his tunic. Willow started talking at once. "Merlin!" She shut the door behind her. Finally, she registered what he was doing. She blushed but otherwise ignored his bare back. "I just overheard a plot to poison Arthur's dinner."

Merlin turned. Willow's blush deepened. She averted her eyes, then threw him a clean tunic he'd laid out. She did it without looking. It hit him in the face. "Uh!" He pulled it off. "Willow, are you sure?"

"Well, Sir Tobias was speaking to a kitchen maid about poison. He said Uther would blame it on me. Who else could they be planning to poison?"

Merlin nodded. "We have to get to Arthur right away." He slipped his shirt over his head and Willow pretended to ignore his trim stomach muscles. "Come on."

"I'm right behind you," he called.

They most of the way to Arthur's room only slowing down when there were other people around. Willow whispered, "Why are we slowing down? This is important."

Merlin whispered, "Because we don't want to tip off them off that we're on to them."

Willow nodded. "Smart."

When they arrived, Uther was meeting with Arthur to discuss the war preparations. Arthur was up and pacing back and forth slowly and painfully. When they entered Uther glared at them. "Where have you been, girl? Arthur has been in severe pain."

Arthur put a hand out to settle his father. "It's not severe, Father. I'm just uncomfortable. Where have you been, Willow? Didn't I bring you here to be my healer?"

"What are you doing out of bed, your prince? No wonder you're in pain." She tried to lead Arthur back to his bed.

He resisted her. "Walking helps me think."

Willow looked at Merlin then glanced at Uther, then looked at Merlin again.

Merlin shrugged.

Sighing, Willow said to Arthur, "You'll want to sit down for the news we've brought you."

Arthur looked at Willow, then Merlin expectantly.

"Sit down, at least, your prince." Willow tried to lead him back toward the bed.

He sighed and sat down on the end of his bed. "Now will you get on with the telling?"

Uther fumed. "Arthur, you're wasting your time with these two. Let me send for Gaius."

Arthur again put a hand out to settle his father. Uther growled. "Well, I won't waste my time." He stormed out of the room.

Willow and Merlin relaxed. Merlin said, "Willow has to tell you something important."

Arthur rolled his eyes. "You can hardly have a more captive audience. Get on with it."

Willow told him of getting lost and hearing voices. Then she told of the poison and the words she'd overheard. Arthur grew very serious. "Do you know who either of them are?"

Willow sighed. "The man was Sir Tobias. I do not know the name of the girl."

Arthur clenched his fists in the bedding. "Sir Tobias? Are you sure?"

"Very. He rode with us on the journey to get you. And she called him Tobias. When he walked out, he wore the red cloak of a Camelot knight."

Arthur swore. "How long until dinner?"

Merlin looked out the window. "At least an hour."

Arthur grimaced. "Merlin, will you hang out in the kitchen and see if you can't spot the girl who carries the poison. She won't be the one primarily responsible for my food preparation. She will be someone who just offers to help."

"Oh, that sounds remarkably easy." Merlin waved his hand in mock casualness. "Just hang around the kitchen near the head cook Audrey without her hitting me over the head with a frying pan and watch everyone in the said kitchen for an hour and see who touches your plate, but make it casual so nobody gets suspicious and postpones the poisoning to another time when I'm not hanging around the said kitchen for an hour looking suspicious."

Arthur frowned. "Merlin just go. Be creative. Oh, and have Sir Tobias detained until I can question him."

Merlin got up to leave. "And what will you two be doing while I save the day?"

Willow walked toward Arthur. "It's past time to change the dressing on your bandage. If I don't tend to my duties, poison won't be necessary."

Merlin seemed satisfied and left.

As Willow helped Arthur off with his tunic, he winced and asked, "Where have you been all day?"

Willow grunted. "I tried to get in to see you after breakfast when it would be less noisy, but you were busy with your father." The bandage was red and yellow with bleeding and possibly infection. "You're a hard man to get to talk to in a quiet room."

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "You should have asked. I'd clear the room to spend time with you." He smirked in a suggestive way.

Willow ignored him. "I asked Merlin about when you would be free. He didn't know your schedule and didn't want to. So I talked to Gaius. He suggested I do journeyman's work with him to make my time more valuable so I could feel more confident to demand time when I was available. He suggested your father would be less suspicious then too."

Arthur laughed. "My father isn't suspicious."

Willow smiled sweetly as she began to undo his bandages. "Then his threatening me with being thrown in the dungeon is rather odd, don't you think?"

Arthur frowned. "He threatened you? When?"

Willow wasn't gentle with the bandage removal. "When I first arrived, after we got you to your rooms and you fell asleep from exhaustion."

He made a fist in his blanket. "I'll talk to him. You're my choice of a healer. He must respect that."

Willow sighed. "Truly, I don't care if he's suspicious of me. I plan to do my best to heal you and that should satisfy him. I'm just glad I got lost so that I could discover this plot to frame me. Oh and it's nice that we can save you from being poisoned as well."

Arthur snorted. "Oh, don't go to any trouble on my account."

After the bandages were removed, Willow pressed on the wound. Arthur winced but didn't cry out in pain. That was a good sign. There didn't seem to be any internal infection. She examined the edges of the wound. There was some redness. She ran a finger over them and checked Arthur for a response. There wasn't much of one. "You seem to be healing well, despite the way you abuse your body by being restlessly active. You should give your body time to heal. I can only do so much. Your body much do the rest. Let it do its work."

Arthur snorted. "I don't know if you noticed but there is an attack imminent. Our defenses don't get in place by themselves."

"Yes, I know," she said as she smeared ointment over the wound, "but you didn't have to ride halfway to Camelot yesterday and you don't need to pace as you talk to the king or your men."

Arthur laughed. "It's hard to command respect from a bed. I must show strength to my men. I'm ordering them to put their lives at risk my command and some of them will die because of my orders. The least I can do is get out of bed to give the orders." After a pause he added with a chuckle, "Besides, I think better when I up and moving."

As Willow began to recover the wound with new bandages, she said, "Yes, but you won't be there to give any orders if you don't take care of yoursel–"

A soldier burst in. "Prince Arthur, attacks have begun on the outskirts of the kingdom. South Farthing and Hamshire have both been attacked and New Delphi has reported troops sighted massing in their forests."

Arthur swore and sprang out of bed, his bandage flapping. "A multi-pronged attack. Has my father been informed?"

Willow followed him to keep the bandage from hitting the ground. If it did, she'd have to start over with a fresh bandage. While Arthur discussed troop assignments with the soldier, Willow tried to steer Arthur back to the bed so she could finish the bandaging. He allowed her to guide him as he spoke and had just got him sitting again when another soldier came with more reports of attacks. Arthur sprang up off the bed again. Willow barely managed to keep the bandages from hitting the floor this time. She realized with a sigh that she wouldn't get time to work properly. She bandaged his wound as best she could while he stood talking. It was a challenge to avoid his gesturing arms, but finally suboptimal bandaging was achieved.