Arthur paced anxiously while Gaius thumbed through a dusty tome about the poisonous plants found in Albion. Arthur had found a flower petal at the bottom of the chalice. Gaius needed to figure out which flower the petal belonged to in order to develop an antidote.
Gwen fussed over Merlin, pressing a cool cloth to his brow and whispering to him softly. Gaius had stripped off his shirt in an effort to keep the feverish boy cool. The younger of Merlin's two dogs curled up on his bare chest, while the black one was pressed against his side. He licked his hand anxiously. Arthur strode over to the bed to stand beside Gwen, peering down at Merlin's chest. The crisscrossing scars were thick and knotted. His fingers ghosted over Merlin's chest, before he felt the five thick scars on his servant's arm. Whoever tortured him must have cut Merlin almost to the bone.
"What happened to him, sire?" Gwen whispered to Arthur. She looked at Merlin's chest with wide eyes.
"Merlin doesn't like to talk about it," the prince said with a shrug.
Gaius opened to another page and let out a joyful shout. "It's the Mortaeus flower. There is a cure, which is obtained by the leaf of the very same plant. It grows in the caves of the Forests of Balor."
"Those caves are infested with Cockatrices," Arthur said. "I'm always up for a good battle." He stood up.
"Arthur, it's too dangerous," Gaius said.
"How long does your nephew have?" Arthur countered.
Gaius's eyes seemed watery. "Five days, at the most."
"He wanted to protect me," Arthur said. "A master is supposed to protect his servants, and a prince has a duty to his people. I'll get the cure, Gaius. Tend to him until I return."
Gaius bowed. "Yes, sire. May whatever gods that are watching grant you a safe journey."
Arthur left to go find his father.
"Father, the boy needs the plant or he will die!"
Uther turned away. "You are the Crown Prince of Camelot, Arthur. I cannot allow you to throw your life away on a suicide mission for your manservant."
"He saved my life!"
"As is the duty of every citizen of Camelot. Your life is infinitely more important than any peasant's."
"A king's duty is to his people. I have a duty to him as his master and as his friend," Arthur said hotly. "Let me take a half dozen men, sure-footed horses, and our best weapons."
"No," Uther said.
Arthur turned away from his father, his blood singing with fury. He stalked out of the king's chambers, his shoulders thrown back proudly and his chin stuck out with determination.
"Stop acting like a child, Arthur," Uther called after his son.
"Start acting like a king, Father," Arthur responded in turn.
"He's forbidden me from going, Morgana." Arthur ran a hand through his hair.
"Arthur, that poor boy is dying on the other side of the castle," Morgana said.
"Do you think I don't know that?" Arthur said miserably.
"You want to know what I think you know?"
"What's that?" Arthur turned to face his foster sister.
"That sometimes you've got to do what you think is right, and damn the consequences."*
Arthur put a hand on his sword belt. "Can you get Morris and Gwen to get three days' worth of provisions and hide them in the stables? I trust them the most, out of any of the servants. They are Merlin's friends."
Morgana nodded.
"This evening, you are to get Windracer from the stables and tell the grooms you are taking him for a trail ride. The guards' shift ends at six, so the new shift will not know you left the city with a horse and will not be suspicious. Windracer won't be discovered missing until tomorrow night."
"You'll meet me outside the city, in the forest?"
"In the clearing we used to picnic in as children with the governess you tortured for years."
"Poor woman," Morgana chuckled. "Who will grab the provisions?"
"I will," Arthur said. "I'm good at sneaking around."
"Gods know that you sure did a lot of sneaking around in your youth," Morgana chuckled.
Arthur raised his eyebrows. "Gods?"
Morgana shrugged. "Something my mother used to say."
"We may need your mother's gods tonight. Stay safe, Morgana," Arthur said. They clasped hands, in the ways knight do, and Arthur hurried out of Morgana's chambers.
Gaius waited until Gwen left to attend to Morgana before grabbing Em's spelled mirror. As the boy writhed and moaned feverishly on the bed, he whispered the word that activated the contacting spell. Em taught it to him in case of emergency.
A girl with dark hair and piercing eyes picked up almost immediately. Gaius wondered if his sister and her in-laws always had someone watching the mirror, just in case. "Who are you?" she growled. "Where is my brother?"
Based on her age and appearance, Gaius figured he was speaking to the elder of his sister's two daughters. Adelina, a fire mage of unparalleled skill and the mother of Astryd. "I'm your Uncle Gaius, my dear. There was a plot to kill Arthur, but Em ingested the poison instead. It was from the Mortaeus flower…" Gaius quickly filled her in on the situation.
"Have you sent someone to go to the Forest of Balor?" she interrupted. Gaius raised his eyebrows, impressed. The Druids were renowned for their skill in the art of healing, he supposed.
"The prince aims to go, but I do not know if Uther will let him—"
"We have someone who will be able to get the medicine to you in four days. Em will hold out longer than most, his magic will do its best to fight off the poison and its effects. I would say he has seven days," Adelina said.
"How do you know this for sure?" Gaius couldn't help but ask.
"A High Priestess of the Old Religion had a feud with my daide—my birthfather—and tried to poison him with the Mortaeus flower. My birthmother , a healer, had my sister and me assist her with nursing him. Magic-borns can resist the poison for up to seven days."
Gaius froze. "A High Priestess? By the name of Nim—"
"You know Nimueh?" Adelina's voice turned into a snarl.
"Years ago, before she turned out the way she did." Gaius hesitated before continuing on. "Niece, there was Mercian servant girl Em was enchanted with, with dark hair and blue eyes. Em said someone warned him about the King of Mercia trying to poison Arthur. He would not give the person's identity."
"You're saying Nimueh orchestrated this?"
"It's not unlikely. She hates Uther for killing hundreds of High Priestesses and followers of the Old Religion. Destroying our peace treaty with the Mercians would be a sweet, sweet revenge for her."
"I hate that bitch," Adelina said, half to herself. "I'll alert my relatives. We have a Shifter who can travel far distances in a matter of days. She will be able to get the flower to you. My grandmother will contact you soon, she is a skilled healer and may have some tips for treating Emmy."
Gaius's eyes welled up with tears. "Thank you, niece," he said fervently.
TWO DAYS LATER, AT DAWN
Arthur took a sip of water from his canteen, leading his exhausted stallion after a brief three hours' worth of sleep. He had arrived at the entrance to the caves a few hours before the sun rose. Rather than face the night, he opted for a few hours of sleep to regain his strength and recover from the strenuous journey. He'd be no use to Merlin dead.
Arthur froze when he heard the sounds of faint, breathy sobs. With a hand on his sword hilt, he crept through the trees, willing Windracer to stay silent. As he picked his way through a particularly thick copse, he saw a woman with a ragged dress and greasy hair sitting on a log. She wept softly, her face buried in her hands.
As she possessed no weapons, Arthur approached her. He held up a hand when she let out a startled gasp. Her torn dress revealed pale skin peppered with cuts and bruises. She seemed underfed, the same way Merlin did when he first came to Camelot.
"I won't hurt you," he said.
She nodded tentatively. "Will—Can you help me?" she asked.
Both froze when they heard something stirring in the underbrush. Arthur drew his sword. A reptilian beast that came to his shoulders emerged from the trees, hissing softly. Ordering the girl to stay back, he assumed a fighting stance. The beast roared.
Cockatrice, Arthur suddenly remembered. A large reptile native to the Southlands, an ancient king had brought it over to guard the Forest of Balor and its caverns. They survived by spending the winter and particularly cold nights in the caverns, which were warmed by fires deep within the earth. The reptiles were well known for their taste for human flesh.
He circled the lizard, desperately searching for any weak points. It moved nimbly, its intelligent eyes tracking Arthur's every move. Arthur took the first strike, going for a blow to the head. Enraged, the Cockatrice dodged it. It charged at Arthur, but the prince managed to dodge the attack and use his sword to carve a shallow cut in the creature's side.
The Cockatrice wheeled around and pounced at Arthur, teeth bared. Arthur rolled out of the way, breathing heavily. He rose to his feet and saw the beast charging towards him. He drew the long knife strapped to his belt and threw it. The knife embedded itself into the Cockatrice's chest. It shuddered and collapsed, twitching. Arthur let out a sigh of relief. He turned to face the girl, still huddled on her log. She flinched back.
"I won't hurt you." Arthur gestured to her ragged clothes and injuries. "Who did to you?"
"My master," the girl said. "I ran away, but I got lost. Can you help me?"
"I can take you to Camelot for healing. We'll be able to find a job for you in the kitchens, I'm sure."
"Oh, thank you, sir knight," the girl said.
Arthur pulled the knife out of the Cockatrice's chest and handed it the girl. "I need to do something first. Take this knife and climb the tallest tree you can. I'll be no more than a few hours—"
"Have you come to the caves for a reason? I've roamed them since I was a girl; my master often took me here," the girl said.
"I'm looking for a particular flower that grows in them."
"The Mortaeus flower? I know where a patch of them grows. I can take you to them."
Both the girl and the prince failed to notice the shadowy figure that followed them into the caves.
After a half-hour of navigating the winding caverns, the girl led Arthur to a spot where the sunlight filtered in through a hole in the cavern roof. A chasm with a narrow ledge separated Arthur from a patch of yellow flowers that grew on the other side.
"Stay back," Arthur warned the girl.
He crept onto the ledge, moving carefully and testing his weight before he took a step. He heard the girl muttering under her breath, but he ignored it. However, the ledge began to groan under his feet and her muttering turned into chanting.
"What are you doing?" Arthur snarled, twisting around to see the girl's eyes glowing. "You filthy sorceress! Who are you?"
"No more than the last person you will ever speak to. I expected more, Pendragon," the sorceress sneered.
The ledge collapsed. Arthur blindly jumped, scrabbling for footholds and handholds. He clung to the edge of other side of the gap, his muscles straining.
Arthur heard a faint hissing coming from his side of the gap. "It seems we have a visitor," the sorceress sneered.
"I expected more from you, Nimueh," a faintly accented voice rang out. It sounded like a woman's voice. "You never could kill cleanly. You always relied on Nature's creatures and your dark magic to do your dirty work for you."
"I would think one of your kind would want a Pendragon dead, Shifter." Shifter?
Arthur heard the hissing creature come closer. He clung tightly to his handhold on the stone with one hand and used the other to draw his sword. He waited until he could see a tangle of legs and a black, black body to strike. The creature moaned and fell still. Arthur drew himself up to his elbows and was faced with three giant spiders. Holding his sword in a threatening way, he scrabbled onto the ledge and got to his feet.
"Killing this boy will not bring the dead back. It will only fuel Uther's crusade," the other woman said.
"I always found Derwydd* pacifism revolting," Nimueh said.
"That is not a name I have heard in a very long time, Priestess."
Suddenly, the other woman shouted something in a language Arthur did not understand. Bolts of electricity shot out and the three spiders joined its dead fellow. Arthur whirled around, shocked. He was faced with a woman in blue robes, her dark hair braided and pinned to her dead. Brown eyes looked up at Arthur, and the woman offered him a catlike smile.
"Did that look like pacifism to you, Nimueh?" she said mockingly.
"I've had enough of this conversation." Nimueh drew her hand back and began to chant.
The woman simply smiled as a wave of blue fire shot towards her. She flapped a hand and uttered a single word. The fire was sent back towards Nimueh with a strong gust of wind. The sorceress roared in frustration.
The other woman, meanwhile, seemed to undergo some sort of physical transformation. Arthur could only watch helplessly as the woman's face elongated and her fingernails turned to claws. Fangs sprouted. Pale, freckled skin was replaced by glossy black fur. Her blue robes shredded as black-feathered wings sprouted from her back, growing rapidly. A winged black panther faced Nimueh. Was this what Nimueh meant when she called the woman a "Shifter"? Arthur shuddered as the beast roared in Nimueh's face, fangs bared.
Nimueh stood, frozen in terror. Keen yellow-green eyes bored into hers, waiting for her to make a single move.
"You win this time, Shifter," the sorceress said. She glanced over her shoulder. "Until next time, Arthur Pendragon."
"Rot in hell," Arthur snapped.
"I will, but only when your father is there to meet me," she said with an air of finality.
The large black cat let the woman past, growling lowly. She snapped at Nimueh as the sorceress strode by her.
"I'm leaving, I'm leaving," Nimueh said before sprinting into the darkness.
The beast roared into the dark in reply. It turned around to face Arthur. He held out his sword threateningly, even though he trembled at the thought of facing a beast that made a powerful sorceress flee in the opposite direction at the first opportune moment.
Instead of gouging Arthur's eyes out, the beast began to turn back into a human. Claws retracted, fur melted away, the spine straightened and the beast began to stand upright. The blue robes, somehow restored to their former condition, reappeared. In a matter of seconds, the same woman from before faced the prince. Her lips twitched into what he thought might have been a smile.
"What do you want, sorceress?" Arthur snarled.
"My quarrel is with Nimueh, not with you, my boy," she said. She spoke Common in a strange way—as if she knew the words well enough, but she was loathe to speak them. As if she was forced to speak them. "What brings you to these parts, Pendragon?"
"The flower," Arthur said finally.
"What use do you have for it? It's a powerful poison."
"It's also a powerful antidote," Arthur said, failing to mask the bitterness in his voice.
"Ah. Someone close to you was poisoned."
Arthur nodded. "My manservant. He's only a boy. I need to return to Camelot with haste, he only has a couple days before the poison kills him. His uncle, the court physician, needs the flower to cure him."
"Not many princes would risk their lives for a servant," the woman said.
"He's risked his life for me, several times. It's no more than any man would do in return," Arthur said.
"Ah, so the prince is valiant and bashful. You impress me, young Pendragon. I see courage in you that is hard to find these days. Your serving boy is in Camelot, you said?"
Arthur gave her a single nod.
"In my alternate form, I can fly to Camelot in less than a day. Give me the flowers and I will leave them somewhere for the physician to find."
"Why would you help me? You're a sorceress, an evil woman," Arthur said.
"And you are the son of a murderer, but you are still a good man. I can be a sorceress and still be a good woman," the woman responded. "I'll help you, because it will save an innocent, a mere servant you risked your life for. Do you trust me?"
Instead of responding, Arthur grabbed a handful of flowers, bundled them together with a bit of twine, and tossed them to her.
"Your servant will be as good as new by the time you return," the woman promised. Before she left, Arthur called out a question.
"Nimueh said you and your kind would want me dead. Did she mean Shifters?"
The woman laughed. "Shifters are only a type of sorcerer, my dear boy. We are few and far between, as it is. My people are more than a mere class of mage." She paused. "All you need to know about us is that we will support you should the time come, Prince Arthur. However, beware—our allegiance lies not with the House of Pendragon, only its scion. We hate Uther Pendragon as much as the rest of the magic-born. Should you ever need our help, we will be there."
"What is your name?"
"Shifter will do for now. Some call me the Fair Warrior, though." With that, the woman turned her back and left the same way Nimueh had fled.
Gaius picked up the spelled mirror when it began rattling. He had sent Gwen to look for a length list of herbs in the forest as he watched over Em, so it was safe for him to answer. Emerald's weathered face appeared from within the mirror's reflective depths.
"Go to the forest, where the patch of lady's bedstraw grows by the willow. There you will find the flower needed to cure our boy," she said.
"I don't know how you did it, but go raibh maith agat (thank you)," Gaius nearly shouted.
Gaius found the bundle of flowers laid in the shadow of the willow. He found two notes next to the flowers, scribbled in a narrow hand. The first read:
You will know what to do with this, physician. Hunith sends her love and thanks you for taking care of her son as if he were your own.
The second read:
Stay safe, Emmy, for Freya's sake. She misses you more than you can imagine.
With love,
Finnlagh
Gaius clutched the flowers to his chest and ran back to the castle as fast as his legs could take him.
Two days later, Arthur approached the main gate to the city, holding the flower for show. He knew Merlin had already recovered, but he needed to convince his father that he did not already know. The guards, instead of letting him pass, levelled their pikes at him.
"What are you doing?" Arthur shouted, cross. "I am your prince. Let me pass."
"I'm dreadfully sorry, my lord," the older guardsman said with regret, "but I am afraid you are under arrest."
"By whose orders?"
"Your father the king."
Uther approached the door to Arthur's cell, his face set with a scowl and his arms crossed. Arthur's face had a scowl that matched his father's.
"Release me at once! I need to get the flower to Gaius," Arthur said with faked urgency.
"The guards said you threw quite the fuss when they arrested you," Uther said instead, ignoring his son.
"Father—"
"The boy is fine, Arthur," Uther said in a low, dangerous tone. "He recovered on the fourth day of his illness, seemingly pulled from the brink of death with a rare herb that Gaius found in the forest. It acts in the same way the Mortaeus leaf does. I saw him myself just hours before, streaked with sweat and calling out in his sleep. It's a miraculous recovery."
"Merlin's fine?" Arthur let his jaw drop.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't leave you in here for the rest of the week," Uther snarled.
"I fulfilled my duty as prince. I only disobeyed you to do what I felt was right," Arthur said in reply.
Something shifted in Uther's face. "Fair enough. You'll remain in here for a couple days rather than a week."
"Father!" Arthur shouted at his father's retreating back. "I need to tell you about someone I encountered on my journey. A sorceress. Her name was Nimueh."
Uther turned around.
When Arthur stumbled into Gaius's chambers, he found a bright-eyed Merlin eating soup in bed.
"You got the cure, I take it? You look a little bit better than the last time I saw you," Arthur said gruffly.
"Thank you, sire," Merlin said, putting his soup aside. "I heard your da locked you up when you came home."
"Only for a few hours. He was furious I risked my life for a servant that recovered all on his own," Arthur said.
"Not quite," Merlin said with a crooked grin. "How'd—how'd you get the flower to the forest? Who put it there?"
Arthur looked behind him, to make sure no one was listening. "A woman… She had a talent that made it possible for her to travel long distances."
"Magic?"
Arthur nodded. "I was loathe to do it, but I wanted to make sure you made it. I will never consort with one of their kind again, though. The very thought of what I did still makes my skin crawl. I lied to my own father."
Merlin's face fell momentarily.
"I don't regret doing it, though. I need someone to clean my chambers after all."
"You could get anyone to do that!"
Arthur appeared to contemplate this for a second. "True, but then I would also need to find a servant that could spar with me as well. It's easier just to keep you on; even if you are the most irritating creature I've had the misery of interacting with."
"What did you tell Uther?" Morgana asked Arthur after he informed her of everything that happened. They sat at the bay window in her chambers, drinking hot tea. It was still the night of Arthur's return. Uther buzzed with anger, so the two of them had Gwen fetch them dinner from the kitchens and they ate in Morgana's chambers.
"I told him that Nimueh left me for dead, but I fought off the spiders and killed them all. I took an alternate route out of the caves with the flowers in hand and headed back to Camelot. I made no mention of the sorceress at all."
"I wonder who her people are."
Arthur gnawed his lip. "Me too, Morgana, me too."
"I worry about the Mercians. Uther received word of a large battalion coming to get King Uther. He wants to send out the cavalry to meet them in battle."
"Then I will lead the charge, if I must," Arthur said heavily.
Uther was about to send the cavalry out to fight the oncoming Mercian army when Gaius informed him about his suspicions of Nimueh involving herself in the situation. Combined with Arthur's testimony about what went down in the caves, the evidence seemed to indicate that the entire situation was orchestrated by the sorceress to drive a wedge between the two kingdoms.
He visited the dungeons and explained the situation to Bayard. While still enraged, the Mercian king shockingly seemed to understand that Nimueh manipulated Uther into doing what they did. They signed the treaty in secret. Bayard sent out a few trusted men to tell the army to head back to Mercia.
War had been averted.
A/N: We have finished with "The Poisoned Chalice" episode! I hope you don't mind the liberties I took with this episode, I wanted to make it my own in some way. I just wanted to clarify what I thought could be confusing in this chapter:
- Arthur disobeyed his dad and went to go find the Mortaeus flower. The Druids, after Gaius alerted them, sent Finnlagh to retrieve the Mortaeus flower. She is a Shifter and Freya's mom, if you can't remember. She also turns into a Bastet and she can fly.
- Finnlagh helped Arthur fight Nimueh and offered to take the flower back to Camelot. She left it in the forest for Gaius to find. Gaius told everyone a rare herb he found cured Merlin. Merlin was already cured by the time Arthur got back to Camelot.
- Arthur pretended not to know Merlin was already cured. Uther threw him in the dungeons when he got back for disobeying him, but released him after Arthur told him about his encounter with Nimueh. He did not tell Uther about Finnlagh or how she helped him.
- Uther told Bayard that Nimueh tried to sabotage the treaty, so the two nations did not go to war and Bayard called off the oncoming army
Also:
1. Derwydd: "Druid" in Welsh
2. * indicates words I took directly from the show. I did not write these.
3. The name Finnlagh means "the fair warrior." That is why Finnlagh tells Arthur that some call her this. She was literally just making a pun.
Much love~