A/N: Hello! This chapter was probably one of the hardest for me to write, but it's done, so yay! Thank you to all the people that read, followed, favourited, or reviewed this story so far. It's extremely appreciated and makes me oh so happy!
Chapter Eleven:
"Sire, calm down," ordered Leon, preventing an infuriated king from approaching, and possibly killing, his warlock-manservant.
Merlin had slipped away while they were going to the council room, saying something about hearing a noise. Leon had guessed that Merlin was actually fighting Morgana, and he was right, but when the servant didn't return after some time, and the others already made their way back to the council room, Gwen started to panic. After all, Merlin was the queen's best and closest friend.
After waiting a little longer, Arthur made the decision to go look for his manservant. And so, they decided to look around the hallways, before checking the throne room. As they got closer, a muffled, but clearly diabolical laughter could be heard. At Gwen's suggestion, they decided to look inside from the servant's entrance.
When they finally made it to the discreet entryway, the laughter was gone, replaced by the voices of two very familiar people. It was Merlin and Morgana, and they seemed to be having a screaming match. Most of the things they were 'talking' about made no sense to the group. Love? Poison? What was that about?
Then, Morgana shot magic at Merlin. They were about to ambush her from behind, when Merlin absorbed it, using magic. Too shocked to do anything, they stayed where they were, watching the scene unfold.
More talking/screaming, magic, and a ritual later, Morgana kissed Merlin, stabbed herself, and died in his arms. She even called him 'my love.' After she died, Merlin called her 'my love' too, then proceeded to cry his heart out, and still, was crying. They were supposed to hate each other, not love each other!
Now, an angry King Arthur was trying to get over to his manservant, and was being held back by Gwaine and Leon.
Said king turned towards his second-in-command and hissed, "Calm down? How the bloody hell am I supposed to 'calm down' after I realise that my best friend for nearly a decade, is a sorcerer? You heard him, he's in love with Morgana! He was probably plotting with her this whole time! To think I even trusted him repulses-"
A hard slap to Arthur's face, delivered by Guinevere, stopped his rant. As they were in the servant's entrance, far away from the warlock, Merlin couldn't hear their hushed conversation or the slap. His sobs covered up the sound pretty well too.
The king was still in shock from his usually harmless and sweet wife's angry slap, allowing her the chance to speak.
"Don't talk about him like that! He is my best friend and I will not allow you to accuse him of betraying us in that way! I've known for a long time now, though he doesn't know that I do, and I can assure you that he has never done harm with his gifts! In fact, he has saved all of our lives, and the very kingdom over and over again! If it wasn't for him, none of us would even be alive to have this argument!"
Leon admitted, "I just found out while we went to defeat the sorcerers. He saved us from getting killed by bandits and later, guards. He's the one that fought and won against the sorcerers. Also, Merlin never chose magic, it chose him, making him a warlock, not a sorcerer."
Before Arthur could respond, or even comprehend what Leon said, Gwaine confessed, "I suspected since I met him, but I never had it confirmed. I could've sworn that Merlin was throwing plates with magic, which I thought was hilarious. Then, when we went on the quest that I'm forbidden from talking about, the bridge man was talking about Magic and Strength arriving, and called me Strength. That really made me suspicious."
Percival commented, "I always knew that there was something special about Merlin, and it always felt like we had a guardian angel protecting us."
Elyan stepped up. "Honestly, I never suspected anything. But, it does make sense now. Branches falling conveniently on enemies, yet never on us, and bandits being exceptionally clumsy, dropping their weapons, falling out of trees, and having overall bad aim."
Gaius didn't say anything. He just stayed in the shadows, trying to remain inconspicuous. Sadly, everyone turned their attention towards him, expecting something to be said. When he didn't offer any words, Arthur prompted, 'Well, did you know?' fully knowing what the answer was.
With a bit, okay, a lot, of hesitation, Gaius vaguely answered, "I might've."
Noticing the looks on everyone's faces, the physician knew that he would have to elaborate.
"Fine, I knew. The very first time that I met him, he saved my life using magic, and has been saving our lives ever since. He is loyal to you and values your life over his own, which gets him nearly killed far more often than a man my age should have to worry about. If you want to know the full extent of everything he has done for you, you would have to ask the man himself. I doubt I know even half of it."
Trying to find something to prove the sorcerer's (What was Leon talking about with warlocks anyways?) guilt, Arthur spluttered, "His name's not even Merlin! It's Emrys! He's been lying to our faces this whole time!"
Leon promptly face-palmed. Was Arthur really that dumb?
"First off, his name is Merlin. Emrys is kind of like a second name. Second, Emrys is a figure of prophecy, who is destined to protect the Once and Future King, and return magic to the land. Lastly, of course he's been lying to our faces! What kind of idiot would go up to someone in Camelot and say 'Hi, I'm a warlock!'? He would just be asking to be killed!"
"So he's been working for this Once and Future King all along? How dare he betray me like that!"
Trying to get Arthur to figure it out himself, Gaius explained, "If Emrys is Merlin, then the Once and Future King would have a different name too."
Seeing how Arthur was not comprehending in the slightest bit, the physician deadpanned, "You are the Once and Future King."
The king's face made many expressions, before settling on one of confusion, and replying, "Oh."
Gwen reached forward and put a hand on her husband's shoulder. "Give him a chance, Arthur. He's never given you a reason not to trust him."
"All right," Arthur relented, "but he will answer my questions."
Looking out the window he realised that the score of soldiers were probably just the beginning. Even if everyone was asleep, they would wake up eventually, and Morgana always had a plan. There was going to be another group, a much larger group, he was sure of it.
Just as their conversation finished, Merlin gently placed Morgana's corpse on the ground, before standing up, determination radiating off of him. He had an army to demolish; a kingdom to protect. Grief would come later.
With a wave of his hand, all evidence of his sobbing session disappeared. Everyone would be gathered in the council room, and he didn't want to answer any questions. He took one last glance at his dead love, and left the throne room in search of the knights, Gwen, Arthur, and Gaius.
When he got there, he immediately sensed the tense atmosphere. Well that's to be expected. The kingdom was nearly overtaken again.
They had already agreed to act as if they hadn't seen Merlin being an all-powerful being, but that didn't stop them from being a little tense. None of them, not even Gaius, had known that Merlin had that kind of power.
"Nice of you to finally show up Merlin," said Arthur. He turned to address the entire group.
"We need to get ready for the army that will most likely come to attack. Sound the bells, spook the chickens, make noise to wake the people up.
Archers are to get to the battlements, along with some of the knights, in case some soldiers breach the wall. I will command them. Foot soldiers are to be in the courtyard. If the army gets close enough, charge them. Leon, I leave you to command the foot soldiers.
Gaius, Gwen, Merlin, set up the infirmary. If you find any wounded or dead guards or townsfolk, bring them there. The dead are to remain away from the living. When you are done, Merlin, find me at the battlements.
Elyan, Gwaine, Percival, round up the townsfolk and bring them into the citadel. Close the gates while you're at it. We'll only open them if needed. Go!"
All the people in the room instantly carried out the orders. After Merlin finished in the infirmary, Arthur kept him close at all times. Though he was quite confident that Merlin wouldn't endanger anyone, Arthur wanted to make sure that his servant didn't get an opportunity to.
Half an hour later, the preparations were done. Gaius, Gwen, and Merlin worked together set up the infirmary, which hadn't been used in quite a while. They were firtst to finish their task. The common folk were inside the citadel, but there wasn't enough time to get the people from outlying villages. They weren't too worried about that though, since the soldiers didn't attack anyone that didn't try to attack them first.
Fighters lined the courtyard. Most of them were near the gates, ready to ambush if the army got close enough. Archers were in formation at the parapets, longbows and crossbows aimed at where the army would come from.
As they expected, a few hundred men barrelled towards the gates, some mounted on horses, others not. When they came within firing range of the crossbows, bolts flew out, penetrating the leather armor the majority of the army wore. Horses were also aimed at, along with their riders, getting rid of the fastest of them.
The army kept advancing. Soon, they were within range of the longbowmen, so both weapons were firing at them. Since longbows could be shot much faster than crossbows, the men fell at a much more efficient rate.
Only a hundred or so remained by the time they got close enough for the foot soldiers to attack. On Leon's orders, the soldiers attacked the invaders, most of which were injured from the onslaught of arrows. Arbalists were ordered to stop shooting, since they needed the masterful aim of the longbowmen to take out the back.
Opposing sides fought, the enemy advancing enough to have some of their men climb the high walls of Camelot. Those that weren't shot down were quickly finished off by the knights on the battlements.
Quickly, the last of the attackers died, leaving a bloodied battlefield in their wake. Overall, it was an extremely successful battle. Very few men were lost, and the army was unable to get past the gate. The clean-up was a long one, but with all the common people's help, finished swiftly.
About a week after the attempted invasion, everything was calmed down enough to finally approach the subject that they had been avoiding. Magic. More specifically, Merlin's magic.
Honestly, Merlin had noticed the awkward way all his friends were acting around him. How they'd be whispering to each other, only to stop the moment he came close. How they would look at him as if trying to figure out the answer to a question. So when Arthur called a Roundtable meeting in his royal chambers, calling Gwen and Gaius as well, Merlin was quite sure that he was going to be the topic of discussion. Why? He'd find out soon enough. But there was this odd feeling of foreboding in him...
A/N: Sorry about how late this update was today! In case you didn't know, I try to update every Thursday. For the bows, I actually did look for terms and statistics. Apparently, crossbow shooters are called arbalists or arbelists, according to the five sources on Wikipedia. Also, crossbows could shoot longer distances, but took longer to reload and shoot than longbows did. Longbows could shoot two to five times more arrows than crossbows could, at a given amount of time. Longbowmen were often trained since they were young, in order to master the craft of using their weapons. From a skimming of the Wikipedia page on it, while trying to find evidence that longbowmen is, in fact, a word, it seems that longbows used to be much heavier in the past. I am imagining that the army has people like the Saxons, but she collected the army herself. If you find any mistakes that seem to need fixing, point them out! Anyways, thanks for reading, and reviews are always appreciated!
Let's hope for another update on Thursday of next week!