Chapter 6

The first thing Gaius did was to rip open Gwaine's shirt, so he could have a look at the knight's wound. The cut went from his left shoulder to his right side, about the height of his navel and still there was so much blood literally pouring out of it.

Gaius expertly searched the wound to estimate how bad Gwaine was hurt. When he finished, he seemed relieved: "It's not as deep as I thought", he explained, "and there is no internal damage done. Not that I can see, anyway. Looks like his ribcage took most force out of the swing, stopping the blade from doing any further damage. I assume that Gwaine tried dodging the attack, but wasn't fast enough. But we will need to staunch the bleeding immediately."

When I kept staring at the wound, murmuring: "We need to do do more than this!", the physician turned around to me and gave me a serious look: "The only thing we can do right now is to stop the bleeding and hope that we will get rescued before he dies of blood loss or infection."

I nodded, took a deep breath with my eyes closed and tried to calm down.

"I wish we had anything clean to use on the wound, to prevent it from getting infected", the physician sighed, while he started to rip the part of the knight's shirt not drenched in blood into makeshift bandages.

It took me only a heartbeat to react: "I have something clean. Well, at least it has not been in direct contact with the floor or the wet straw. It should be cleaner than anything else here."

The physician looked me up and down, clearly at a loss. I took another deep breath and pulled off my shirt. His eyes widened and for a second, it looked like he wanted to say something, but then he switched back into professionalism and simply nodded, while I took off the bandages and handed them over.


I'm not sure how Gaius and I managed to get Gwaine onto the cot. Lifting someone unconscious is harder than it looks, and even the slimknight was still heavy, especially for two people who hadn't eaten or drunken properly in the last week.

After we finished tending to Gwaine, the physician said: "If we ever get out of here, I would like an explanation."

"Seems only fair", I answered and retreated back to the wall underneath the window.


Light fell through the barred window above my head. I must have slept for hours, deeper than ever since they imprisoned me, but not because I wanted to, but because I was exhausted. Even now that I was awake again, I was still tired and felt like I would never get warm again.

I kept glancing to Gaius, leaning against the wall left to me, seemingly asleep, and tried to calm myself down by trying not to think about what he now knew.

It was the dawning of the seventh day since the King escaped. In the original storyline this was the day Arthur took back the Citadel. Surely by tonight we would be free again, sleeping in our own beds, after a good meal and a bathtub and drinking water until we were full.

I imagined how we would celebrate our rescue: Gwaine would laugh and joke around, drinking more than he ought, Merlin and Arthur would banter about the smallest things, Percival would watch them and smile silently, Elyan would laugh openly and Leon would try to keep some sort of order, while simultaneously drinking as much as Gwaine. I pictured myself on the other end of the table, secretly observing them while appearing to enjoy my solitude on the outside, breathing in the life in the castle once more, feeling safe for the moment, listening to the laughter and bustling around me...

But the only thing I could hear now was the labored breathing of a severely wounded knight.


A few more anxious hours passed by and the dusk was getting nearer, when Gaius, who checked on Gwaine every few minutes, exclaimed: "He's running a fever."

"Is the wound infected?"

Gaius took some time before he shook his head: "The effect would not show that soon. I much rather think that his body is too weak to deal with the blood loss." He laid a hand on Gwaine's brow and shook his head worriedly. "If only I had my things here..."

The physician sat down again, looking older than ever before and buried his face in his hands. Somehow I was sure that he thought about Merlin's powers which would be of great use here.

Like she knew how desperate our situation would be now, Morgana suddenly appeared at the other side of the bars. When she saw Gaius' desperation, she simply started to laugh and wouldn't stop for quite some time.

It was a blood-curdling sound that made me sick.

I felt like I really needed to hit the witch in her face for laughing at people who were dying or standing by someone who might be on the brinkofdeathand, though knowing exactly what would cure them, not being able to help.

I got up on my feet, my anger giving me strength that I had not felt in me for a long, long time, and was at the bars so quickly that I took her entirely by surprise. I managed to catch her by her dress and pulled her close, but I was too furious to say anything and just stared at her, shaking with rage. Not being able to say anything made me even more angry.

She broke away after some struggling, but at least she had stopped laughing. Her face, on the other hand, seemed even more cruel than before. She looked at me, at Gaius, at Gwaine, and said: "Well, if you want to get help for handsome over there, you will have to work for it..."

Before I knew what was going on, I was out of the cell and on my way up the stairs.


I'd really like to tell you how I only thought about helping Gwaine and not once about myself, but this would be a lie.

Of course I was thinking about the fights I had seen Gwaine do, how my skills were not in the least comparable to his, and that it was now more likely than ever that I was going to die, again without doing what I set out to do.

When we reached the hall where we had been feasting only a few days before, I made a decision which, at this moment, felt like the last one I might ever make:

If I get out of this in one piece, I will do everything I can to keep Arthur Pendragon alive, him as well as his knights and Merlin. I will bring down Morgana. I will stop Mordred whatever it takes, and I will help to built the Albion that was promised to us.

Screw the council.

Screw all the rules.

I'm here, right now, and I will fight with all my heart for - for the love of Camelot.