Dear Fellow Merlin fans, At last we have come to the final chapter and epilogue! So many of you have commented and followed/favorited that I am humbled. I hope you will enjoy these last chapters. I thank all of you most sincerely and wish you many adventures. Feliz Día de los Muertos!
Dreams Not Forgotten: Arthur
"Sire, please," cried Gaius in anguish.
Arthur felt himself go pale, a wordless nightmare re-awakened .He crumpled, grabbing at his chest, blinded for moment.
"No,don't stop!" said Alice authoritatively. "It's working like cautery. The flow of energy slowed when you were touching him. We may still be able to stop it." Arthur looked about in wild hope, hardly understanding her words. "You can save his life!"
"Arthur, now!" she commanded. "Here," and with that she took the king's hand and plunged it firmly on Merlin's chest,atop the horrific scar, so recently healed. Unconscious, so painfully weak, Merlin still writhed in pain, his gutteral gasp of agony, wounding Arthur. He couldn't bear it. But Alice was firm and did not let him break contact with his servant, with his friend.
He remembered the red shadow surrounding Merlin and the look on his face, the way he had stumbled. He had thought Merlin had broken that spell, but perhaps that had been only part of the attack. The second strike had come from the knife. Not sure what he had seen, Arthur could feel Merlin slipping away with each beat of his heart. Merlin was still weakening. His wounding was too deep. He fought his way loose of Alice's grip, knowing in some strange way exactly what he had to do.
"I'm sorry," he cried. "I'm sorry, Merlin!"
Taking a deep breath, he gathered his friend clumsily into his arms, holding him tightly against his body. Merlin screamed. It echoed in their hearts. His pain was alive, tearing into him, like a blade. Merlin was trying to jerk away, his breath coming in short gasps, but Arthur held him ever tighter.
No, the king told himself. He was closing the stroke of the blade that had done this to his friend. Merlin was shuddering, sweat pouring from his body and he gave a wrenching gasp. He went limp. He was so still; Merlin was so frighteningly absent from the body he held in his arms, that Arthur began to doubt his sanity. He loosed his friend, Gaius bending carefully to check his vital signs. Gaius' expression told him Merlin lived. He sobbed in sudden relief, still not understanding what had happened and what he had just done. But it hardly mattered.
Merlin's hands were twined in Arthur's shirt, his fingers stiff in his rictus of pain. Tenderly, Gaius and Alice coaxed his hands to let go, his body relaxing as the pain of their contact faded. Arthur was beyond thinking.
"What.."
"It worked!" cried Alice. Gaius began to shake in relief and Alice hugged him close.
"What have I done!" Arthur's voice was deep in shock. He was staring at his hands as if he gazed on a nightmare.
"You saved his life, Sire," said Alice gently. The words made Arthur startle from his horrid introspection, diverted him from the fear that was rising in his heart.
"I do not know what magic has bound you to Merlin in this way, Arthur. But let us thank the powers that made this miracle today", counseled Alice. Gaius steadied and wiped away his tears, rough as a boy.
"I do not believe you have magic, Arthur," said Gaius at last, with a look of compassion. He was holding Merlin in his arms, as if he would never let the boy go again. "But the bond between you, has done something I cannot explain, and we might never understand what happened. But surely,it was fate, my Lord."
Arthur was feeling faint with relief now. "Is he better, " he whispered. "Will he... will he live Gaius?" Fear of the answer underlined his tone.
"I beleive so, my Lord. We must wait."
"You warned me," he replied, looking down at his friend. He smiled at Gaius and Alice, leaning down to brush Merlin's hair, and reassure himself that he was still breathing. He was, but he was still looked so fragile, so helpless. Arthur saw that Merlin had exhausted his power, using himself as some kind of conduit, only to find he was dying. His survival was incomprehensible. Emotion suddenly threatened to overwhelm him, there in the cramped storeroom. His heart reeled, taking in everything that had happened. The dark and light of facing Morgana's malice and emerging victorious still overwhelmed him. Merlin had taken a nearly mortal wound and no one had understood he was even injured, until almost too late. And now, somehow, he found their lives and fates were bound together in a way he might never understand. This must have been what the warlock's world had been like all along. He choked his feelings back. He could do this at least as well as Merlin, he told himself. He looked up at Alice and Gaius a little uncertainly, reaching down to touch Merlin's arm. He began to understand miracles.
"You warned me, Gaius." But this time he laughed, because today was not a day for tears. And it all could have ended so much worse.