As my holiday gift to you all, I will finally reveal Morgana's magic! This chapter also sees her getting some practice at being queenly, the introduction of another familiar face, some pre-Arwen development…oh yeah, and there's another Mergana scene. Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you all!
After the lunch hour ended Morgana followed Balinor to his study, where she assisted him in reviewing various reports from the kingdom's many provinces, as well as those pertaining to the running of the palace. "This is dull work," the king remarked as he paused between signing documents to flex his sore hand. He then slid the papers down to Morgana's end of the table so she could stamp them with the royal seal. "I don't complain - a king can't shirk his less enjoyable duties - but you don't have to be here. You'll have plenty of time to do this when you're queen. Why don't you run along and amuse yourself while you can?"
Morgana didn't look up from her work. "With what, your majesty, needlework?"
"If that is what you like to do," Balinor said lamely; he had no idea what constituted fun for the average highborn female. "Or you could spend some time with your friends."
"Merlin and Arthur are gone, Gwen is nowhere to be found, and the Lady Amalla is journeying home to her family's lands to attend the birth of her new cousin - I fear I'm short of friends at the moment." She methodically dripped melted wax onto the bottom of yet another report next to the king's signature and pressed his seal into it.
"Well, I am grateful for your assistance."
They worked through the afternoon until Will poked his head in to tell them that Merlin, Arthur, and Lancelot had returned with the witch, who now awaited the king's judgment, at which point Balinor and Morgana immediately put aside their papers - the latter carefully returning the royal seal to its proper place - and hastened down to the castle's ground level. Will went with them; he wanted to see the witch's trial, and it seemed everyone else did too - the corridors were congested with people flocking to the throne room.
Morgana spied Gwen and Freya in the crowd and pushed her way over to them. Both girls jumped when her hands landed on their shoulders, then relaxed when they turned and saw it was her. "There you are!" the three of them exclaimed all at once. "Where have you been?"
"You first," Morgana declared, looking at Gwen.
"I did as you asked and kept Arthur out of your way all morning, and then I did your laundry."
"And I polished your jewelry until a quarter to noon, and then when I noticed it was almost lunchtime and you hadn't come back I went looking for you," Freya recounted.
"Then we just missed each other. I did come back, but not until you'd left."
They separated again inside the throne room - Gwen and Freya joined the other servants off to one side, and Morgana was positioned at the head of the room beside Balinor's throne. The king entered last and took his seat, completing the assembly, and then the witch was finally brought in. Morgana, who had been eagerly craning her neck to get a glimpse of the woman who had almost been the death of her, subsided with a faint feeling of disappointment. The witch was just a plump older woman with wrinkles lacing the skin around her eyes and a light brown braid streaked with a few silver strands; overall, Morgana thought she looked more like an old aunt than a purveyor of deadly poisons. She was flanked by Arthur and Merlin, with Lancelot at her back in case she tried to run, but that seemed unlikely - she offered no resistance at all as her captors led her in and presented her to the king.
"Her name is Alice," Merlin explained when his father inquired as to their prisoner's identity. "She travels from village to village working as a healer-"
"Yet she sold Edwin the bloodstones he used to poison me?" Morgana burst out. "Some healer." Alice dropped her gaze to the floor, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but it wasn't entirely her fault," Arthur said. "She was in the thrall of some sort of beast-"
"Manticore," Merlin supplied. This set the crowd of spectators buzzing like a hive of angry bees. Listening to their whispers, Morgana gathered that a manticore was a very rare, very dangerous magical creature.
Alice's quavering voice cut through the buzz. "Please, sire, may I speak?"
"You may." The sound of their king's voice silenced all except the one he had given permission to speak, allowing Alice to talk uncontested.
"I summoned the manticore hoping I could harness its powers for good, but it was too strong for me. It took control of my mind and forced me to turn my powers from healing to darker purposes-"
"Where is it now?" Balinor demanded. Every line in his body radiated tension; a manticore was far too dangerous to be allowed to roam freely through the kingdom.
"We've already destroyed it, sire," Lancelot assured him, and the crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief.
"Sir Lancelot and I held it off while Merlin destroyed its life source," Arthur elaborated. "We were lucky to escape with our lives-"
Merlin snorted. "It barely came up to your knees, Arthur."
"It may have been small, but it was fierce - and it almost stung me with its scorpion's tail! Anyway, you didn't have to fight the thing; all you had to do was destroy a box."
"What box was this?" Balinor asked in an effort to stop Arthur and Merlin from falling into their usual playful squabbling.
"The box Alice kept it in acted as a portal between this world and the spirit world the manticore came from. She was able to fight its hold over her long enough to tell us that it had to maintain a connection with the spirit world to survive in ours, so we figured out that it would die if we broke the box."
"And then its body withered away into nothing," Arthur put in, sounding disgruntled.
Merlin rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, everyone still knows how brave you are even if you don't have the manticore's head as a trophy."
"It was too hideous to mount on a wall anyhow," Lancelot opined, and Arthur grudgingly agreed.
"Now that that's settled," said Balinor with a touch of impatience, "perhaps we can turn our attention back to Alice?"
The witch in question gulped. "I am ready to face whatever sentence your majesty deems appropriate, and I thank Prince Merlin, Prince Arthur, and Sir Lancelot for freeing me from the manticore. It's better to die free than to live as a slave."
"Brave words, but I will not pass sentence on you." Balinor turned to Morgana amid surprised murmurs from the crowd. "You were the one who came to harm as an indirect result of this woman's actions; I'll let you decide her fate."
Morgana slowly looked from the king to the woman whose life was now in her hands. Alice had supplied the magical vessels that had nearly ended Morgana's life, and even if she had only done so under the manticore's thrall, consorting with the creature had been her decision. Uther would have executed her in a heartbeat. Then Morgana glanced at Merlin, who was anxiously biting his lip as he awaited her verdict. He had been in a similar situation with Freya, whose actions had caused a death, and he had chosen to show mercy. He understood that although her actions were harmful, her intentions hadn't been bad, and that made all the difference. It wouldn't have made a difference to Uther. The question is, whose example should I follow? Morgana felt that the choice she made now would have a profound effect on the sort of person she became later. So who do I want to be?
She took a deep breath and spoke at last. "I will spare your life." Alice looked as though she could hardly believe her ears. Morgana held up a cautionary finger. "Upon condition that you surrender all items of dark magic you may have acquired and never practice such enchantments again. If word reaches me that you have not abided by these conditions, I will order your execution. Do you understand?"
"Oh, yes - thank you, my lady!" Alice stepped forward and clasped Morgana's hand. "You are truly kind and merciful. How can I ever repay you?"
"You can submit to a search of your belongings by Prince Merlin to ensure that you have discarded all your dangerous magical objects...and perhaps you should stay in the city awhile as a sort of temporary probation."
"Of course... May I still practice my craft? Healing is my only gift, and I must buy food and pay rent if I'm to live in the capital."
"Maybe we can help with that," Merlin spoke up. "I had to kill the court physician because of what he did with the bloodstones you sold him, since when I and anyone else who knows anything about medicine have had to fill in while we look for a replacement. As a healer, you'd be perfect for the job - if it really was just the manticore's influence that turned you to the dark arts, and if my father agrees - and you'd be provided lodgings in the palace, free of rent."
Balinor had to agree - after all, they couldn't keep asking the crown prince to perform a physician's duties in addition to his own, and after hearing what had happened to the previous physician no one was especially eager for the job - but he couldn't suppress a twinge of worry over his son's tendency to take in troublemakers. Granted, Freya had been an exemplary servant since her arrival, but Gwaine was a bit of a scoundrel who spent too much time brawling in the tavern.
I'm sorry, Father, I didn't realize you disapproved of my friends. Merlin had linked minds with his father just in time to catch his thought about Gwaine.
I don't disapprove, I just hope you know what you're doing when you choose them. Some of your friends are trouble.
Merlin gave no outward sign of the mental conversation between him and his father, but the emotions he communicated via their thought-speak gave Balinor the feeling that Merlin desperately wanted to roll his eyes at him. No one is more trouble than Arthur, but you want me to be friends with him, don't you?
I don't think you find Prince Arthur nearly as bothersome as you pretend to.
Yes, I do, Merlin assured him. He's a complete clotpole. Then he severed their magical line of communication and turned his attention to Morgana, who had made her way to him as soon as Balinor dismissed the court. She and Merlin left the throne room together and found some relative privacy on the front steps of the palace; there were people in the courtyard but none close enough to overhear them.
"That was the first time I ever passed sentence on an accused criminal," Morgana admitted. "I've been present at dozens of trials and watched Uther do it more times than I care to remember, but no one has ever asked me what I thought should happen to them before."
"I guess my father thought it was time you started practicing. It's a bit scary realizing that the people live and die by your command, isn't it?" Morgana nodded. "Well, I think you did the right thing, and it'll go a long way toward helping you win the people's loyalty."
"Did I not already have it?"
Merlin shrugged. "You will once they're convinced you'll be a good queen; they just don't know you well enough to make up their minds about you yet. The few times they've seen you outside the palace haven't told them much except how beautiful you are."
Morgana raised her eyebrows. "The people say I'm beautiful?"
"Everyone with eyes says so," Merlin stated matter-of-factly.
His disinterested tone bothered Morgana. "And what do you say?"
"I have eyes, don't I? Do you want me to write a speech praising your beauty?" The words sounded mocking, but Merlin's smile let her know he was only teasing, not seriously making fun of her.
"Perhaps I do," she teased back.
"Perhaps one day I will. Right now I have to go - a certain lady ordered me to search Alice's things for magical contraband, and I don't want to displease her." He gave Morgana a formal bow and started back up the steps.
"Merlin!" He stopped and turned around, frowning. Morgana quickly climbed the three steps separating them. "I don't care if you write a speech about me, but there is one favor I would ask of you. If I should need a sleeping draft or any other medicine...would you make it for me?"
"All right. I take it you're unhappy that I suggested Alice as our new physician?"
"I don't believe she is evil, else I wouldn't have let her live. Still, summoning the manticore was hardly a wise decision, and if I were in your place I would not have rewarded her foolishness with such an important position. I don't see how else you could have kept her in the palace, though, and for now I want her to stay where we can watch her."
"Exactly. I want to believe her remorse is genuine, but if it isn't I couldn't let her wander off someplace where she could hurt more people without us ever knowing about it. I swear I won't let her touch any of your remedies until I'm certain we can trust her."
Morgana expressed her relief and gratitude with a dazzling smile. "Thank you, Merlin."
###
Gwen and Freya served dinner at precisely eight o'clock that night, as if they felt a need to make up for the lunchtime lapse in their service. Merlin did not eat with Morgana as he was still busy helping Alice settle in; Arthur, however, did, and he spent most of the meal regaling her with the tale of how he, Merlin, and Lancelot had slain the manticore. She suspected he was exaggerating his part in it.
When he finally left - followed by Freya, who was taking the dishes away to be washed - she felt compelled to apologize to Gwen for foisting him on her but, amazingly, Gwen claimed not to have minded. "He really wasn't that bad; actually he was almost...nice."
"Are you talking about the same Arthur we just heard boasting of his latest victory? I almost lost my appetite listening to him!"
"He wasn't like that this morning. We just went walking in the gardens - I said I wanted to pick fresh flowers for your room and talked him into coming with me - and we just had a normal conversation."
Morgana twisted her neck in an awkward attempt to look into Gwen's face, but it was impossible since the maid was now directly behind her, unfastening her ruby necklace. "What could you and Arthur possibly have to talk about?"
"We're both lifelong residents of Camelot who've been sent to a foreign land, so I suppose we've more in common than we used to. We started off comparing Dagon and Camelot, and then he told me how his perspective on magic has changed since he and Merlin became friends. He isn't sure he wants it in Camelot, but he's glad Uther is only banishing sorcerers now instead of executing them." She laid Morgana's necklace on the vanity, then took her nightgown out of the wardrobe while Morgana undressed.
"And what do you think, Gwen?" she called from behind the changing screen.
"It's hard for me to believe there's any good in magic when it killed my father and I've only seen it used for evil...but maybe that's because Uther brings magical attacks on himself and the rest of Camelot through his prejudices. I think Arthur will be a kinder king than him."
Morgana made a noncommittal noise. "Arthur can be kind when he isn't too busy being an arrogant prat."
Gwen chuckled. "Now that I've spoken to him alone, I'm starting to wonder if he isn't more prone to acting that way around you."
"Me?"
"It's just that you're always teasing him - I've noticed that you both can be a bit mean to each other - so he feels he has to stick up for himself. I guess he wasn't like that with me because he doesn't care what I think of him; I'm just a servant, so I don't matter."
"You matter to me," Morgana said firmly before going into the washroom to clean herself. After she finished washing up she put on the nightgown that Gwen had draped over the top of the screen, then stepped out into the bedchamber to find that her bed was already neatly turned down. "Thank you, Gwen. That will be all."
"Good night, my lady." Gwen blew out all the candles save one, which she took into her room with her. Morgana fell asleep to the sounds of her friend preparing herself for bed.
###
She awoke what seemed a very short time later with the smell of smoke filling her nose. Gwen must not have blown out every candle after all, she thought hazily. She opened her eyes, and was immediately shocked into total alertness by the sight of a raging inferno overhead. She instinctively tried to hurl herself out of bed, but was stopped by the discovery that her bed curtains, which had been closed to ward off the night's chill, were all ablaze. Morgana was trapped, and if she couldn't get out she was soon going to be burned alive. "Help! Gwen - anybody - help me!"
Well Morgana is once again in mortal danger. Can she be saved in time, or is our heroine about to perish?
Morgana: How about instead of saving me, you quit putting me in danger in the first place?
Me: Um…sorry, no can do. I hope you all have enjoyed this early Christmas present. Happy holidays!