The king of Camelot blanched and then called for his guards.
He roared at them "Bring me the girl!" and then he slumped down in his chair with his head in his hands. Arthur moved to sit down beside his father and said, "Father, what girl? what do you mean Father," he looked at Morgana and they both remembered the girl Arthur had saved from burning three month earlier and Arthur looked down at his lap, waiting.
Soon, sure enough the guards returned holding the girl, wearing chains around her feet and wrists so she couldn't walk properly. They forced her onto her knees in front of the platform the thrones were on and when she tried to rise again they pushed her roughly to the floor so she was lying there in a crumpled heap.
Uthur rose out of his seat and walked slowly towards the girl. she tried to sit up and get herself out of the degrading position she was in on the floor only to be kicked in the side by one of the guards standing next to her. She cringed in pain as Arthur rushed forward to restrain the guards who had done that to her. Uthur stopped them, "Sorcerers need to be treated roughly, Arthur or else they will not be broken and will perform magic to poison the court." He stepped closer to the girl and motioned for the guards to bring her up onto her knees. He then started to question the girl, "Do you know what is happening here in camelot?" The girl turned her head aside and without looking at Uthur she shook her head, ever so slightly. Uthur became angrier and he slapped the girl with enough force to send her to the ground, "Speak!" he commanded her.
"No," she answered, obviously scared with a voice rough from the musty air of the dungeons and lack of water. "No I don't know."
"People are dying because of a magic plague that is sweeping the city! Do you have any idea how this is happening?" The girl shook her head again still facing aside. Suddenly the king grabbed a fistful of the girl's hair and pulled her face upwards so that she was looking at him. The girl cried out in pain and this time Merlin and Arthur rushed forwards to stop him but were both held back by the guards, Uthur shouted "Look at me when I speak to you! Do you have any idea how this is happening?"
"I don't know sire," The girl said looking up at the king from her kneeling position on the floor. The king started pacing obviously believing that the girl wasn't telling him something. Finally he looked at the girl, "Do you know how to cure it?" He asked quietly, hopefully. She looked sad for him before she said,"No, I'm sorry sire, but I have never had a chance to practice and control my magic so I cannot cast strong spells, only weak ones."
The king was thunderous, "You are lying to me, witnesses saw you burn down a cart, you are more powerful than you tell me. You do know the healing spell don't you, you just don't want to tell us, you'd rather see the people of Camelot die!" He slapped her again and Merlin broke free from the guards holding him and rushed over to the king pushing him away from the girl and turning round to see if she was alright. "Merlin!" shouted Arthur "You idiot! What are you doing?" as Merlin was restrained again by the guards as Uthur faced him, "Take him down to the dungeons for a week," He said before adding; "And take her back too, see if you can loosen her tongue." Arthur grimaced, he knew what that meant, he just didn't think his father would do that to a young girl, even if she was a sorcerer. He watched helplessly as the guards dragged the girl from the hall and escorted Merlin out.
They took Merlin and the girl back to the underground dungeons, the guards put Merlin in a cell near the back of the dungeons and they put the girl in the opposite one across the corridor. However they didn't leave, one of them chained the girl up so that she was facing the wall and then the other guard pulled out a whip from his belt and he raised it above his head. The first guard turned to her and said maliciously "Now, you can tell us the healing spell that's needed or else we'll extract it from you unwillingly," Merlin looked away as the guard brought the whip down on the girls back. A ripping sound filled the dungeons and the girl cried out. There was a large slash on her back from which a red liquid was blossoming through her tattered dress. The first guard said to her again "Tell us the spell!" They brought the whip down again and the girl yelled and started crying "I don't know the spell, Please stop. Please!" she cried out again as they whipped her once more. The girl started shaking and sobbing in to the wall crying out hysterically "Please stop, Please! I honestly don't know the spell. Please you have to believe me- she was cut off as they brought the whip down on her back a fourth time, the guard then said to her "Fine, have a think about where your loyalties lie and we'll come back later to see if you can 'remember' that healing spell." He then marched out of the cell calling "Carry on," to the guard, who continued flogging the poor girl six more times. He then unchained her and let her fall down to the floor where she lay in a crumpled heap. He marched out, locking the door behind him and leaving the dungeons of Camelot in near darkness.
Merlin scrambled towards the front of his cell, trying to get as close as he could to the girl in the opposite one. He tried to see if she was alright, "Psst. Hey, are you alright?" He got no answer, the girl seemed to have passed out. He tried again, with the same result. He then put his hand out in front of him, looked side to side to see if there was anyone watching and said " Ahlúttre þá séocnes. Þurhhæle bræd*!" A healing spell. The girl stirred and looked at him from where she was lying, she tried to stand but was too weak and she fell back down "Careful," Merlin whispered to her "You're still weak." the girl crawled to the door of her cell and put her arms on the bars so that she could get as close to Merlin as she could, "Thank you," she said "And don't worry, your secrets safe with me," Merlin was relieved, "What's you name?" He asked her.
"Catriona**," she said "Though most people call me Cattie,"
"I'm Merlin," He said,
"It's good to see you Merlin, I am quite glad you're down here. It's not often I've had anyone to talk to." Cattie said
"I've been down here a lot of times in the past few months, how come I've never seen you here before?"
"Because I have never been allowed to see anyone else in the prison, whenever anyone new came in they moved me away because they must have thought that I would enchant them," she sniggered, then whimpered the laugh shook her injured back. "I guess the king didn't care if you were enchanted,"
"Oh, alright," said Merlin, " Here let me help with that," He went to say the healing spell again but Cattie stopped him, "No, don't," she said, "I don't want them thinking that I know a healing spell but I only want to use it on myself,",
"I can teach it to you if you like," offered Merlin. But Cattie shook her head, "No, I'm sorry Merlin and I'll probably get hurt more for this, but I can't ask you to teach me the spell. I'm not powerful enough for it and I'd probably end up doing more bad than good if I try to cast it and I definitley don't want to feel King Uthur's wrath again,"
Suddenly, she looked to the side. The sound of footsteps echoed down the hall, guards were approaching, Cattie turned to face Merlin, eyes wide "Someone's comming, quick face away from me and pretend to cower in the corner like your scared, don't ask questions go now!" Merlin retreated into the corner of his cell and watched as Cattie crawled to the back of her cell and lay down, pretending to still be unconcious. At that moment two guards came round the corner and walked up to Merlin and Cattie's cells. They stopped and one of them looked down at Cattie "She still out of it then?" he asked,
"Yep," answered the other guard, taking out a ring of heavy iron keys and opening the cell door, they both entered and the first guard kicked Cattie in the side she jerked 'awake' and on seeing them she tried to scramble as far away as possible from them as she could however before she could get very far the first guard picked her up as if she weighed nothing and slammed her against the wall. Cattie jerked as her head hit the wall and her vision became out of focus. The other guard reached for his belt and unhooked some handcuffs (Medieval version) and put one ring on each hand, he then clipped the other end of the handcuffs to the wall. so she couldn't move an inch. Then the guards left again muttering about 'king's orders' Merlin grimaced and looked back at Cattie, he could see now what the guards had done. They had positioned Cattie's body so that she couldn't stand up straight or sit down, instead she was half way between both, slouching against the wall held up only by her wrists, she would be in agony soon. Merlin crept forward again to the front of his cell, he knelt down by the bars and looked through them at Cattie, her head was down and she looked slumped, and defeated. Immediatley Merlin pittied her and tried to comfort her as much as he could from his position in the cell, eventually however he fell asleep. Cattie raised her head slightly to reveal a tearful face with gritted teeth as she tried to stifle a cry of pain as her arms strained with the weight of her body as the darkness closed in around them.
* A healing spell from 'The Last Dragonlord'.
** Catriona/Cattie, Irish name meaning pure.
PLEASE REVIEW/FOLLOW/FAV IT MEANS A LOT, I will also take suggestion as to what could happen in later versions.
Thanks!