Pineapple-Sorceress: You need more, well here it is. I'm sorry I couldn't deliver it at flying-squirrel-on-crack speed, but then I've never seen a flying squirrel on crack so I don't know how fast they are. So maybe I am that fast after all!
Warnings: chapter includes Gwaine being a slacker, Morgana plotting and getting poisoned, the psycho ramblings of a villain, and Merlin and Arthur (off-screen) being happily oblivious to it all.
"Arthur will be out of the castle most of the day," Gwen remarked as she helped Morgana dress. "I suppose you'll be glad not to have to deal with him for a while."
Gwen was right about that, but Morgana was still a little annoyed that Arthur had managed to slip away without her knowledge. He might call himself her chaperone, but she actually kept a closer watch on him than he did on her. "Where has he gone?"
"He's going to teach Merlin to enjoy hunting."
"Yesterday I heard him say he wanted to go hunting, but I didn't think Merlin was interested in joining him."
"He wasn't," Freya said, "but I told him he might as well go so that Prince Arthur would leave him alone about it."
It had been mid- or late-afternoon when Arthur suggested that Merlin accompany him on his hunting trip, so he must have told Freya about it later, in the evening perhaps . . . or even that night? What reason does she have for seeing him at such a late hour? It had better not be the one I'm thinking of! Morgana had never seriously credited the notion that there might be something between her maid and her fiancé because such a thing was not very likely to happen in Camelot - noblemen might use a pretty serving girl as a diversion for one night, but an ongoing affair was out of the question. As she had often noted, though, things were different here. "And the prince acts on your advice?" she asked, suspicion sharpening her tone.
Freya looked up from the pillows she was arranging on Morgana's bed, blinking her dark doe eyes. "He takes advice from friends, yes." Morgana studied her intently, searching for any sign that Freya was taunting her by calling herself Merlin's friend and finding none; though the witch met her probing stare unflinchingly, there was no insolence or defiance in her gaze, nor in her voice when she asked, "Yes, my lady? Is there something you need?"
"No, that will be all. After you finish making my bed you may go. You too, Gwen - I'm giving you both the afternoon off."
"You're very generous, my lady." Freya put the last of the pillows in place, checked that all wrinkles were smoothed out of the bedcovers, curtsied, and left.
"What are you going to do here all by yourself, Morgana?" Gwen asked.
Morgana shrugged. Her friend's concern was touching, but she didn't want Gwen thinking she had to hang about all day just to keep her company. Morgana did not require constant companionship. "Don't worry about me, Gwen. I think I'll go for a ride."
###
Gwaine was having a wonderful day. Prince Prat (as he'd secretly nicknamed Arthur) had said he wasn't coming back until he'd killed something, but Gwaine knew Merlin planned to warn away all the animals whose minds he could touch from the hunters - meaning they were likely to be gone for some while. This meant Gwaine had fewer horses to tend, at least until Merlin, Arthur, and the knights who had gone with them returned. Then he would have double his normal workload what with all their sweaty horses needing to be groomed and their tack needing to be cleaned, but in the meantime he was determined to make the most of his free hours.
He had just settled down for a nap in the hay when a throat was cleared almost directly above him, letting him know he'd been caught. Reluctantly he opened his eyes and saw the Lady Morgana standing there, grinning. "I'm not disturbing you, am I?"
Gwaine groaned and allowed his head to flop back into the straw. "I've a feeling you're about to, my lady."
"I only want you to saddle my horse, and then you can get back to loafing."
Loafing? Gwaine almost protested, but the memory of Morgana's knee catching him in a very sensitive place kept his lips sealed. Besides, he realized it wasn't an inaccurate term for what he'd been doing. He got up slowly; he didn't want the lady to think he was one of those bootlickers who would jump to do her bidding.
She followed him as he trudged to where Justinia was stabled, lifting her blue skirts so they wouldn't be soiled on the dusty, hay-strewn floor. "I'm surprised Merlin didn't take you with him today."
Gwaine's spine stiffened slightly; he hadn't expected her to speak to him and wasn't sure he wanted to have a conversation with her. Now that she had opened one it would be rude not to reply, and being rude to the future queen was unwise. "Why should he?"
"You're his friend." Her voice held a note of skepticism, or perhaps inquisitiveness.
"So are Will, Freya, Lancelot, and even that physician who hardly ever leaves his quarters, but you don't see him dragging all of them after him everywhere he goes," he said curtly.
"You're an odd bunch of friends for a future king," Morgana remarked, trying to prod Gwaine into saying more.
He settled the saddle on Justinia's back and turned to face her. "If you're so curious about Merlin's friends, why don't you ask him?"
"I am asking you."
And of course I can't refuse Your High-and-Mightiness anything. Gwaine gritted his teeth. "There isn't much to tell - Will's parents work here so he and Merlin grew up together, he and Lancelot trained together, the physician tutors him, I met him in the tavern one night when he came in to drink a toast to a knight who'd gotten engaged and later he found me this job, and he brought Freya here."
Morgana's eyebrows shot up. "He brought her here? Where from, and why?"
Gwaine shrugged. "It was before I came to Dagon. All I know is that a year or two ago Merlin rode out to meet with the captain of the border patrol and came back with her. He's looked after her ever since."
"Looked after her in what way?"
"He found work for her. Makes sure all the lads keep their hands off, too, you know."
Morgana was confused. Gwaine's last statement made it seem that Merlin wanted to keep Freya to himself, yet he hadn't shown any possessiveness when Gwaine expressed feelings for her. "If he was concerned for her welfare he could have found her a well-to-do husband," she mused. "Perhaps he means for the two of you to get married?" She certainly wouldn't mind seeing Freya married off to the horse trainer.
"Merlin isn't like that!" Gwaine snapped. "He doesn't treat people like his playthings just because they're not rich and powerful like him; he's honorable and kind. You don't know how lucky you are." Morgana's face reflected pure astonishment, and Gwaine realized it was probably the first time in her life that she'd been told off by a commoner. He also realized he was likely to end up in the stocks, or the dungeon, for daring to speak so disrespectfully to one of his 'betters'. Ah well, it was worth it. She needs to get her head straightened out if Merlin's going to be stuck with her. He faced her defiantly, waiting for her to call the guards.
Instead she merely cocked her head, studying him as though fascinated. "Very loyal, aren't you?"
Gwaine's chest puffed out with pride. "To Merlin, yes. He and the king might be nobles, but I don't mind serving men like them."
The lady's head dipped in a slow nod. "I did not mean to offend you by speaking ill of your friend. I don't want to insult Merlin, only to know him better. Forgive me."
"All right." He turned around and began coaxing Justinia to accept her bit.
She wanted to push on, talk him into pursuing Freya more aggressively - a more attainable suitor might be just what the witch needed to break off whatever was going on between her and Merlin - but she realized Gwaine wasn't in a frame of mind to take suggestions from her. It seemed he disliked the nobility in general, and Morgana in particular seemed to be setting his nerves on a knife's edge. Now is the time to step back and smooth things over, not push forward. "I hope you can also forgive me for wounding you," Morgana continued, putting on her best contrite expression. "I'm sorry to have done it."
"Well, no lasting harm done, right, my lady?" He flashed her a cocky grin which Morgana took to mean she had at least made a start at winning him over.
Gwaine held her horse while she mounted and then stayed outside to watch as she rode away, his desire for a nap having vanished. The Lady Morgana, he decided, was nosy, but she had been nice in her own way. She had even apologized for attacking him. Took her a while . . . but she didn't have to do it at all, and she sounded like she was really sorry. She might be one of the good ones after all. And her beauty and intelligence reminded him of Freya - a more dangerous version of her. He didn't believe for a moment that Morgana was harmless; there was a sort of innocent guilelessness in Freya that Morgana lacked. But then, so did Merlin. No one could grow up in the viper's nest of a royal court and retain their innocence for long. Gwaine sighed and went back into the stables. He was a thousand times better off there than in any palace.
###
After her ride Morgana spent some time exploring her new home; the place was huge, and she still hadn't seen all of it. Edwin Muirden interrupted her attempt to remedy that, appearing so suddenly that she wondered if he'd used an invisibility spell to move about unseen and bowing low before her. "Might I beg a moment of your time, my lady?"
"Of course. What do you need?"
"Merely to assure myself that I am serving my lady well. How have you fared since I began preparing your sleeping drafts?"
"Very well. Every night I've taken it I have slept like the dead."
"And you awaken feeling refreshed? Your sleep is restful?" As he spoke Edwin took Morgana's arm and walked along the corridor with her. She allowed him to guide her, paying more attention to his questions and her replies than to where they were going, until they reached an old workroom that was now empty of everything save a dusty, splintery table. Edwin released Morgana and closed the door. "Yes, this will do nicely."
"Beg pardon?"
"Corporis vinculis ligari sicut!"
Morgana froze as if bound from head to foot in invisible chains. "What is the meaning of this? Let me go!"
"I am sorry, my lady, but I cannot." Ignoring her fruitless struggles, he cast another spell to levitate her and lay her out on the table.
"I demand that you release me immediately." A small tremor crept into her voice as it dawned on her that she might be in real trouble; she was alone with a man who was forcibly restraining her and powerless against his magic. She drew air for a scream, but before she could let it out Edwin cast a silencing spell on the room.
"Now no one will hear you. Even without the spell, people don't come and go in this part of the castle often."
Morgana screamed anyway, and struggled more violently than ever against her magical bonds when Edwin pulled a knife from the pocket of his robe. The blade was short, but a physician would know where to stick it to cause the most damage. He didn't stab her, though. Instead he turned her hands over and made shallow cuts on both her palms. "What are you doing?"
He pulled a dark, blood-red, fist-sized rock and two smaller rocks of the same color out of another pocket. "These are bloodstones. Harmless to hold in your hand-" he held one up for her to see "-unless you happen to have a wound there. These little beauties are highly poisonous when they come in contact with blood." He placed one of the small stones in each of Morgana's hands, curling her fingers around them so they were held securely against her cut palms. Then, holding the larger stone up in front of his face, he whispered, "Inficere sanguine."
The tip of the stone began turning black, and so did its smaller duplicates. Morgana's hands began to hurt terribly; looking down, she was horrified to see that her blood had also turned black where it touched the stones, and the blackness - as well as the pain - was starting to spread through her veins. She tried to hurl the bloodstones away, but her paralyzed fingers refused to let go of them. She looked up at the physician, who was watching with a hint of a satisfied smile, and whispered, "Why?"
"Uther Pendragon murdered my parents. These scars that horrify all who see my face so much and force me to live as a recluse were acquired trying to rescue them from the flames."
"So you would murder me, even though your parents' deaths were not my doing?"
"The only one I wish to see pay for Uther's crimes is Uther himself. I saw Prince Merlin's power, and it gave me hope that he would be the one to bring him to justice . . . but then the war ended. And Uther still lives."
"You want Dagon and Camelot to go to war once more." Morgana could not comprehend such obsessive hatred. She knew that as court physician Edwin would have seen the toll war took in human lives, yet he was still willing to plunge both kingdoms back into violence and bloodshed just to force Merlin to be the instrument of his revenge.
"Yes. Uther won't keep the peace for long once he learns that his beloved ward has suffered a horrible death by magic, will he? You will be a martyr to a great cause - the end of the Pendragon dynasty at the hands of Emrys!" He leaned down and patted her cheek. "I hope this comforts you."
"Please, you don't have to do this." More quietly, Morgana added, "I don't want to die."
"I see, you are worried about the pain." Edwin sighed. "I cannot deny that it will be excruciating, but it will all be over in a few hours' time. Farewell, Lady Morgana." He magically sealed the door behind him when he left.
Left alone with no distraction from the burning poison that had completely consumed both hands and was now creeping up her arms, Morgana screamed again - in pain, and in frustration at her own helplessness. Then her frustration was replaced with fear as she realized that Gwen and Freya wouldn't miss her until they delivered dinner to her chambers; Merlin and Arthur were gone. There was no one to save her, and she was going to die alone.
Hands up, who's surprised by this twist? If you thought for sure it would be Sirenia attacking Morgana, then I've done my job right. If you knew all along it would be Edwin, congratulations.
Next chapter: the princes bond, the maids save the day, and Merlin's inner badass comes out to play.