When Merlin woke up again, it was clearly morning this time: the sun was shining brightly through his window. Another clue was the crown prince of Camelot standing in front of his door, his arms crossed over his chest, and looking quite pissed at him.
"I'm late, aren't I?" Merlin immediately assumed.
"You know, I should really get rid of you," Arthur menaced.
"Good. Then maybe I'd be able to get a full night of sleep for once," Merlin retorted, closing his eyes again.
He smelled more than he felt the dirty tunic being dropped on his face.
"You have fifty minutes to meet me back in my room with these cleaned and dried. Not a second more. There's a meeting in the Great Hall."
Merlin pushed the smelly tunic off his face when he heard his door slammed shut.
"And a good morning to you too, Arthur..."
Merlin stood at his usual spot beside Arthur, slightly set back, while Arthur himself was at his father's right in the Great Hall. On the other side of the throne, Morgana and Gwen stood as well.
Merlin recognised one of the knights advancing to bow in front of the king.
"Sir Alberic, you requested an audience," Uther said as a way to invite the soldier to speak.
"Yes Sire. My men and I were patrolling through the forest last night when we stumbled upon a warlocks gathering. They were at least thirty. We managed to kill twelve of them, and take those two prisoners. I'm afraid the others managed to escape."
As he mentioned the prisoners, Alberic gestured the two guards behind him to come forward. The guards pushed a man and a woman towards Uther, while remaining close behind them for safety.
The woman had a slashed eyebrow and a bad bruise to the cheek. Her dark hair was sticking to the dry blood nearly covering the whole left side of her face. The man had a split lower lip and was holding his right shoulder, looking in pain. It was obvious they had both been roughed up on their way to the castle.
Morgana gasped audibly at their sight. When Merlin turned to her, she was looking back at him, her jaw clenched and her gaze intense. In an instant, Merlin knew she had seen those prisoners in her vision the previous night. Which meant she knew now it had been a vision and not a nightmare.
"A warlocks gathering, really..." Uther repeated as he walked in front of the young man. "Do you have anything to say, lad?"
"I'm not a warlock, Sire," the man stated cockily.
"Are you calling my knight a liar?"
"Oh, no Sire, I mean... We were indeed talking about magic, but they were just words. We're not sorcerers, by no means. We're just fooling around, having fun pretending we have magical powers."
"I believe that game would look much less amusing from the bottom of my dungeons or from the top of a stake," Uther commented. "And what about you?" he asked as he turned to the young woman. "I gather you're not a witch either?"
She looked down to her feet, clearly intimidated by Uther. "No, Sire," she managed to whisper.
"Of course..." Uther seemed thoughtful for a second. "Alberic, did you and your men see them practice magic?"
Merlin was surprised by this question. When it came to magic, Uther condemned on suspicion only and never bothered to ask for proof. It was all the more unexpected that it was rather obvious that the prisoners were lying. Arthur, too, was staring at his father with a frown.
Alberic looked just as surprised as them. "Hum, no Sire. But all of them kept talking about spells, potions and other magical things. Some also talked about killing you so that magic could return to the land."
"I see... So when you attacked them, none used any magic on you?"
"No, Sire." The knight looked puzzled by the turn of the conversation.
"Yet over twenty of them managed to escape?"
Realising the underlying reproach in his king's question, Alberic looked down when he answered: "Yes, Sire."
"You're dismissed, Alberic," Uther said on a tone that allowed no protestation. Once the knight was gone, he turned his attention back to the male prisoner. "So you're not a sorcerer?"
"Like I said, I'm not," the young man confirmed.
Uther nodded absent-mindedly. Then, unexpectedly, he unsheathed a dagger hanging at his belt and stick it to the hilt into the man's chest. The whole audience jumped at his action.
"NO!" the woman cried out when the other prisoner fell to the ground. She tried to get to his side, but the guard behind her caught her.
Morgana would have lunged forward if Gwen hadn't held her back. Merlin had a hard time remaining still as well in front of this sudden violence.
"Sire, what are you doing?" Arthur questioned. He, too, seemed unsettled by his father's behaviour. "This is neither appropriate nor necessary, I really don't think the -"
His father silenced him with a movement of his hand without even looking at him. Merlin could tell from Arthur's pursed lips that the prince was quite irritated by this dismissive attitude.
As for Uther, he had moved to the remaining prisoner. "It's really a pity that you're not a witch, because I'm afraid your friend here is going to die from this wound if he's not healed quickly..." he told her quietly. Then he motioned the guard to release her.
The woman looked alternatively at the wounded man laying on the ground and at Uther, unsure what to do.
It was a trap. Merlin knew it, she knew it, Arthur knew it, everybody knew it. All Uther wanted was her to betray herself. And sure enough, she did.
Making up her mind at last, she knelt next to the man and put a hand above his wound. "Karaahuva meltak!" When he sat up, apparently healed from all his injuries, chest, lip and shoulder alike, she smiled weakly at him.
"Guard, take her to the dungeons," Uther ordered. "She'll be burned at the stake for witchcraft and conspiracy."
As the guard grabbed her and started to drag her towards the door, she resisted with all her might, but it was no use against a man twice her size. Her pleading voice betraying her fear, she hailed Uther: "Sire! Sire, not all magic is evil! We're not bad people! We don't even know any offensive spell! We could do so much to help if you'd just let us! I know hundreds of healing spells, I could... Sire! Please, Sire!"
The Great Hall's sturdy wooden doors closed behind them. Uther had remained impassible during the whole scene. Morgana's fists were clenched tightly. Merlin silently prayed that she didn't say anything. But as could be expected, she did.
"Sire, have you no mercy? These people are obviously -"
"Not now Morgana," Uther hushed her up as he turned his attention back to the remaining prisoner. "You're obviously no sorcerer," he told him, "otherwise you would have healed yourself, right? You probably just got dragged into this by a girl's pretty eyes, didn't you?"
Even though he looked upset, the young man didn't say a word and kept staring down.
"Let him go," Uther suddenly ordered the guard, much to everyone's surprise. "But I'd better never see your face ever again in Camelot," he hissed to the prisoner.
The young man hesitated for a second, but quickly seized his chance and hurried out.
"Sire, you can't be serious!" Arthur exclaimed as soon as he was gone. "Why did you let him go? He's clearly a sorcerer as well!"
"Of course he is," Uther agreed. "And I want you to follow him, Arthur. I trust you'll do a much better job than Alberic. The idiot almost spoiled it all."
"Follow him, Sire?" Arthur queried with a frown.
"He'll lead you right to all those other sorcerers that escaped." Then Uther added with a smile: "Why have only two when we can have all of them? And if the boy is brighter than I believe him to be and doesn't lead you to them, we'll still have the girl to torture for information."
"So what are my orders?" Arthur asked.
"Follow the boy, find the other sorcerers, and kill them all."