Warning: sexual references in the latter part of this chapter, though nothing too graphic as I purposefully watered the scene down to stay within the limits of what's acceptable for a T-rated story.
Afternoon was starting to fade into evening when they returned to the castle, but there was still plenty of time for one last banquet - in celebration of the royal wedding, this one included a marzipan confection molded into a perfect replica of the palace, complete with miniature dragons made of spun sugar flapping overhead, which was so large its ornate gold platter had to be levitated into the hall - before another night of dancing began. When the music started, Uther kept pushing Arthur to dance with Princess Elena of Gawant until Merlin rescued them by covertly casting a spell that created some harmless indoor fireworks. This blatant display of magic was the last straw for Uther, who curtly excused himself and stormed from the ballroom.
After halfheartedly reproaching Merlin for running his father out (he knew him well enough to be positive Merlin was the culprit even though no one actually saw him do it) Arthur went off to find Gwen, leaving Elena with Merlin and Morgana. "Sorry I caused you to lose your dance partner," Merlin told the foreign princess. "I'd offer to take his place, but my wife doesn't seem to want to let me go."
"Of course. I'm just grateful you reduced the scale of your magical diversion this time, since we're indoors," Elena said with a slight laugh.
"'This time'? You've met my husband before?" Morgana asked, but it was Merlin who answered.
"During the war, Nimueh sent me on a mission to keep a powerful magical artifact from falling into Uther's hands. I cut through Gawant-" Though friendly with Camelot, Elena's land, like every other kingdom in Albion, had avoided taking sides when Camelot and Dagon went to war - their fight was obviously about the future of magic in Albion as much as any mere conflict between two kingdoms, and the other rulers, whose own attitudes toward magic fell somewhere between the two extremes, wanted to see which way the tide turned before committing themselves to either side - so, when Merlin needed to slip into Camelot, he'd decided to go through the neutral territory of Gawant rather than try to sneak past the armies massed on the Dagon-Camelot border "-and I met Elena there. We were both hiding from a royal patrol since I wasn't supposed to be there and she was running away from home-"
"I wasn't running away!" Elena protested. "I just decided I'd rather ride than stitch tapestries that day. Anyhow, we both picked the same hiding spot, and then I ended up serving as his guide since he didn't know the area very well. Of course I had no idea he was the prince of Dagon; he was in disguise, so I thought he was a peasant boy on his way to live with his uncle in Camelot."
However hard she tried, Morgana couldn't imagine him as a peasant. The rest of their little adventure, which involved retrieving a magic crystal from a band of druids and then leading a band of Camelot's warriors who had come to destroy the encampment on a wild chase through the woods, sounded much more believable. In the end, the knights had nearly cornered them but were scared off when Merlin conjured an illusion of a forest fire.
"I never had such excitement before - or since," Elena declared, eyes sparkling.
"Oh, it was more exciting than you know," Merlin muttered. Along the way, he'd noticed that his intrepid guide happened to be a changeling and drove out the sidhe inhabiting her body, but Elena had been asleep at the time and was none the wiser.
"But what about that dashing knight who showed up at the end to take you home? I don't suppose he's here, is he?"
"Sir Lancelot? He's over there."
Elena grinned. "Well, it looks like I've found a replacement for Prince Arthur after all."
###
Lancelot watched morosely as Arthur led Gwen out into the throng of dancing couples; as hard as he'd tried to ignore the whispers that she had ended things with him because she'd fallen for someone else, the way they looked at each other made it impossible to deny it any longer. The worst of it was, he couldn't even be angry at them. He knew Arthur was an honorable man who would never deliberately steal away a fellow knight's lady, and Gwen was so sweet and kind that Lancelot couldn't find it in his heart to begrudge her the happiness and true love she deserved. He could only hope that one day he would find what Gwen and Arthur had found in each other, although right now he thought his prospects looked pretty dim.
"Sir Lancelot?"
He automatically stood up and bowed at the sound of the girl's voice addressing him. "My lady."
"You probably don't remember me…"
Remember her? Lancelot was positive he'd never seen the golden-haired beauty before…but then he took a closer look, mentally altered a few details, and… "Princess Elena?" He could hardly believe it was the same girl; the Elena Lancelot remembered was clumsy as a newborn foal, with a tangled rat's nest for hair and a rather ill-fitting dress in an unflatteringly garish shade of yellow. Now she was graceful and poised in a lacy, softer-hued gown, with her hair in perfect curls. The transformation was remarkable.
"So you do remember."
"How could I forget? There aren't many princesses who would help a stranger as you did."
She smiled, pleased at having made a good impression on the handsome, charming knight.
"I hope you are enjoying your visit to our kingdom," he continued.
"From the looks of things, I'd say I'm having a better time than you are. How would you like to get out of here?"
Lancelot, who had been preparing himself to ask her to dance because it was impolite to leave a lady standing on the sidelines even though the last thing he wanted was to go out there where he'd have a better view of Arthur and Gwen, Merlin and Morgana, and all the other happy couples, paused. "My lady?"
"I haven't had an opportunity to ride all week, but now that Father went off to try and calm King Uther down I think I can slip out to the stables. You may accompany me if you like."
Lancelot barely gave it a second's thought before saying, "Gods, yes." He was tired of balls too, and besides, he realized that he needed to move past Gwen, and sitting around watching her dance with Arthur was not conducive to that goal. Meeting some new women couldn't hurt either, and while he had no idea if Elena was his type, going for a ride with her seemed like a good place to start.
###
Throughout the ballroom, the other guests were enjoying the celebration a lot more than the lovelorn knight and bored princess had. Even Nimueh, who had eschewed all events leading up to the grand wedding but had been persuaded to stay for tonight's ball, didn't look like she thought it was a complete waste of her time. She had shed her glamour once Uther left and, with her natural good looks on display, was one of the most stunning women in attendance, yet also one of the few left standing around the room's perimeter. Balinor was the only man brave enough to approach her, but even he didn't dare ask her to dance as he had no desire to end the evening as a toad.
Gaius and Alice weren't dancing either; the former lovers had been surprised and delighted to find each other again after all these years and had spent a lot of time getting reacquainted over the past week, but their old bones were no longer up to the whirling waltzes the spry young things on the dance floor were doing. They preferred to sit quietly and sip goblets of the land's finest wine before slipping away to share what they'd learned about the healing arts during their time apart - at least that was what Merlin told himself they were going to do when he spied them leaving together. His aged uncle doing anything else with the court physician was not an image he wanted in his head.
Meanwhile, there was one person who hadn't tasted any of the excellent wines available - thanks to Morgana's threat to his manhood, Gwaine hadn't drunk anything stronger than water all day. He initially found the situation quite disagreeable, but it had just occurred to him that being sober might work to his advantage. Spying his target across the room, he quickly made his approach. "Hi there, Freya."
She turned to face him slowly, bracing herself for yet another onslaught of clumsy, drunken advances. "Good evening, Gwaine."
"Look, I know I have a history of bothering you at events like this, but that's not what I'm here to do. I just wanted to tell you that I think you're one of the prettiest girls here tonight, right up there with Morgana and the High Priestess, and I'd be honored if you would dance with me…but if you don't want to, I'll leave you alone."
Freya blinked in astonishment. The man in front of her looked like Gwaine and sounded like Gwaine, but his demeanor was so different she could hardly believe it was the same person. There was no smell of liquor wafting off him and no cheap lines coming out of his mouth; the sincerity she'd briefly glimpsed in him before was on full display, and she definitely liked it. She couldn't help being slightly suspicious of his abrupt turnaround, though. "Who are you and what did you do with Gwaine?"
He grinned and seemed on the verge of answering glibly, but then he remembered he was on a mission to show her he was a suitor she could take seriously. "Since you said it's hard to believe I really have feelings for you because I'm always drunk when I flirt with you, I've been trying to rein myself in a bit. Tonight, well, I figured if I could resist drinking here I could resist it anywhere, so here I am." He decided not to mention how much harder he would have found not slipping back into bad habits without Morgana's dire warnings hanging over his head.
"Well," Freya said after a second's hesitation, "I guess I have time for one dance."
One dance became two, and somehow they ended up spending the rest of the evening together.
###
When the ball finally ended at midnight, Merlin escorted his bride upstairs to the chambers they were now going to share; at the door he stopped, picked her up, and carried her inside. "It's an old tradition in these lands," he explained when she squeaked in surprise at having her feet swept out from under her, "for newlyweds to enter their new home like this. Is everything to your liking?"
Morgana had already seen the place; their new rooms were the same ones that used to be Merlin's alone, now rearranged to accommodate her as well. Her most important pieces of furniture had been moved in, along with a few other odds and ends, but there was not, as Will had once teasingly predicted, a second bed for her - just the same one Merlin had always slept in, which was easily big enough for both of them. Although Morgana had tried it out before, it somehow looked different now that she was about to share it with him on their first night as husband and wife - the night everyone expected them to consummate their union - and she wondered, half nervously and half hopefully, if he would carry her over there right now, throw her down on top of those luxurious covers and…
But he deposited her on the cushioned stool at her dressing table instead, in front of the (in his opinion) ostentatiously and unnecessarily large mirror. He didn't understand why they needed this thing, but then he guessed anyone who looked like Morgana couldn't help wanting to admire themselves. "Our servants have been told to leave us alone tonight, so it looks like I'll have to help you…prepare for bed."
"All right." Morgana avoided looking at her reflection, certain she was blushing.
She waited, but Merlin just stood there looking lost. "Where do I start? Should I get all this stuff out of your hair?"
She stifled a laugh. "Yes, please."
He could have accomplished this very quickly by magic but instead removed the roses by hand, carefully unwinding each individual stem. When the last flower parted company with her locks, he picked up her silver-handled hairbrush. "Am I supposed to use this next?"
"Yes," she whispered, and shivered as he gently drew the brush through her dark, wavy tresses - having her hair combed felt very different with the brush in Merlin's hands instead of Gwen's.
He stopped immediately. "Did I hurt you?"
"Oh no - of all the men in the world, Merlin, you are the only one I know beyond a doubt will never hurt me." She gently took the brush out of his hand and set it aside. "Enough of that." Much as she appreciated his attentions, she didn't want to waste any more time when his hard work on detangling her hair would probably be undone by the end of the night. Standing up, she pulled it aside to expose the back of her neck. "Could you unfasten my necklace?"
He did, and then as he reached around her to set the necklace on the table, she turned and removed the ornamental chain securing his cape.
"You don't have to do that," he told her as the silver cloth slithered to the floor. "I undress myself all the time."
"Do it then," Morgana breathlessly ordered. The instant his shirt was off, she pressed herself into his arms again, eager to explore her new territory…until Merlin pried her off.
"Wait, wait… Your dress should probably come off too, before it gets torn up. How-?"
"It unlaces up the back." Morgana reluctantly turned around again; she hated being unable to touch him while he made agonizingly slow work of her dress, his hands lingering on her much longer than she thought necessary before finally allowing all the white silk and chiffon to slip off.
"Getting impatient, are we?" Thanks to the link Nimueh had created between them when she merged their magic, Merlin felt Morgana's frustration almost as if it were his own.
Yes!
"Well, if you want to pick up the pace…"
Morgana never saw him move, but he was suddenly right in front of her and his hands were gripping her bare thighs and lifting her so that she nearly had to wrap her legs around him. Then they were across the room by the bed, which must have unmade itself in the last five minutes, and she was still clinging to him as his weight pushed her down into the soft feather mattress; she never wanted to let him go.
Is this better? his voice asked inside her head while his mouth worked over her throat and down toward her collarbone.
"Yes!" she cried out loud, because he was making it impossible to keep quiet, then whimpered as he continued kissing her, dismantling every scrap of restraint she still possessed. "Please…"
His head snapped up, their eyes locking as he abandoned his exploration of her body and returned his attention to her face. "Please what? What can I do for you, my lady?"
"Stop teasing me," she pleaded breathlessly, not even caring that she was begging; she was past the point of worrying about embarrassing herself. All that mattered was getting him to stop this unbearably pleasurable torture and do something to relieve the tension building inside her before her grasp on sanity shattered - and he did, after quickly casting a spell to make the act painless for her. After all, Morgana believed he would never hurt her, and he didn't want to disappoint her.
###
Good morning, princess.
Morgana's eyes flew open, and she found herself face to face with Merlin, who was just waking up himself. "Good morning, my love." She reached up to brush his hair, which was always hopeless in the morning, out of his eyes. "Did you sleep well?"
"The best I ever have…but with you here, for once I'm actually glad to be waking up."
"Me too." Smiling, she leaned in to kiss him - but before their lips met, the bedroom door was flung open with a thunderous crash, and Will burst in. Morgana yelped and scrambled to make sure she was adequately covered, but for once Will didn't have any inappropriate remarks.
"Scout just arrived…from outlying villages," he panted, clutching the bedpost as he gasped for air. "Attacked…slaughtered…everyone dead…"
Merlin jumped out of bed, pausing for barely a second to grab his underpants before he helped Will to a chair. "What happened? Who slaughtered the villagers? Bandits?"
Will shook his head hard. "Not bandits. Morgause. She's here."
Yay, Morgause is back! Couldn't end the story with her still out there, but as some of you may have surmised, the final face-off with her is the last really big thing left here, so I think this fic should be wrapping up in 4-5 chapters. Of course I also once thought it wouldn't make it past 30, so you might want to take that statement with a grain of salt.