AN: I apologize for the wait on this chapter. I was having some trouble with a few bits and making things connect. I'm still not sure it's my best chapter, but at least I'm fairly confident it advances the plot decently without being filler, now. It's also extra long, which hopefully will make up at least a bit for the wait (6.5K words and 14 pages in Word!). As always, please tell me what you think.
The next morning, bright sunlight that painted the insides of his eyes red and gold woke Arthur from a fitful sleep. The sun had already risen high in the sky, indicating the lateness of the hour, by the time Merlin yanked the curtains back from the window by Arthur's bed. He groaned, and rolled over.
"I just had the worst dream," he muttered into his pillow.
"Oh?" Merlin asked far too cheerfully, bounding over to drag the lovely warm blankets away. At least he had managed to stoke the fire first, but the air still had a chill to it that raised gooseflesh up and down Arthur's skin. Arthur glared.
"Yes," he said, dragging himself out of bed. "I dreamed that I ran away with Morgana, and somehow you managed to destroy our farmhouse with a lightning bolt. And Guinevere didn't like me." He said the last sentence in a whisper that Merlin, luckily, did not catch. He was fairly certain he had sounded unusually pathetic for a moment.
Of course, he had still given Merlin plenty of ammunition. "Ran away with Morgana, hmmm?" he said, looking decidedly condescending. "Somehow, I doubt the two of you would manage to survive in a farmhouse, so dream-me probably did dream-you a favor, Sire."
Arthur growled at the impish grin on his manservant's face. It had been a very scary dream! Morgana had cooked him food and cleaned the house with magic, all while wearing her black dress of rags from her evil days and smiling at him crazily. It was not a scene he ever wanted to see again, in his dreams or out of them.
"Luckily for me," he said, "I'll never have to take care of a farmhouse. I'll be sure to bring you with me if I run away, and you can take care of it for me. Now stop being an idiot and come help me get dressed." Merlin obliged his request, bringing Arthur his favorite red tunic. The shirt was the same bright crimson color as the cloaks worn by the knights, and Arthur always felt extra bright and noble while wearing it. He was surprised that Merlin had chosen that shirt. Then again, he had been in a constant state of stress and confusion since finding himself in the past, and just putting on his favorite shirt made him feel a little bit less lost.
"Are you feeling better, now?" Merlin asked as he brushed the tangles from Arthur's blond hair with his nimble, callused fingers.
Arthur considered the question. He was still feeling well out of his depth, uncertain about everything around him and how he fit in to a time where his father was still on the throne and Merlin was just the idiot who followed him around like a puppy and made inappropriate jokes at inopportune moments. Still, at least Merlin was there, and he was a king, even if it was not yet official. "I'm fine, Merlin," he said, affection hidden beneath the brusque reassurance.
Merlin reached around Arthur to cinch his belt, asking, "Are you done sulking, then?"
"I don't sulk," Arthur said, lifting his arms so that Merlin could add a vest to his ensemble as an extra layer against the growing cold. Merlin patted him on the shoulder once he was done, like one would pat a puppy.
"Of course not, Arthur," he said, fond condescension clear in his voice, which turned teasing a moment later. "You're much too much an arrogant prat to do something as common as sulk."
Arthur decided to ignore that last jab for the sake of productivity. "I do have something to discuss with you, though, Merlin," he said, frowning at his servant. Merlin had darted towards the door as soon as Arthur was dressed, getting out of range in case Arthur decided to hit him.
"Oh?" Merlin asked, turning back towards Arthur. The prince was annoyed to note that Merlin was still standing awfully close to the door, and looked far too prepared to bolt.
"I'm not going to bite, Merlin," Arthur said, rolling his eyes. "I wanted to talk to you about your magic."
Merlin ducked his head. "What about it?" he asked. His eyes shifted to a spot behind Arthur's shoulder as he said, "Like you said, we weren't in Camelot when I used it, so it wasn't illegal there."
"Merlin," Arthur said, then took a deep breath. He forced himself to be patient. "I am not angry with you for having magic. I know that you are loyal to Camelot and would never do anything to harm me or my father."
Merlin nodded, still not looking at Arthur. It hurt the prince to see his closest friend show such him such lack of trust, but he did his best to ignore it. There would be years in which to build their friendship back up. Right, now, he had to focus on more important matters so that those years could actually occur.
"Right then," he said. "I also wanted to ask you about the Lady Morgause. Something seemed a bit off about her. What did you think?"
"You're actually asking for my opinion?" Merlin asked, raising his eyebrows. At Arthur's nod, he continued. "I thought she seemed pretty suspicious as well. She seemed very focused on Morgana." Arthur hummed in agreement. He had noticed the same thing.
"Can you watch her while she's here, and tell me what she gets up to?" he asked. Merlin's answer did not help his worry.
"Actually, I ran into Gwen on my way here this morning," Merlin said. "From what she heard from Morgana, Morgause left last night. She got called away on urgent business."
This got Arthur's attention. She must not have come back after he saw her leave the previous night. Somehow, this worried Arthur even more than if she had stuck around. There could be no question that she was planning something. "Well," he said, glancing out his window at the people of Camelot going about their lives below. "If you see her return, let me know."
Merlin ducked his head in acquiescence. He fidgeted near the door. "Is that all?" he asked. Arthur grinned, a light of mischief entering his eyes.
"I'm glad we've had this talk, Merlin. However, since you are still my servant, I need you to polish my armor, feed my horses, walk my dogs, and muck out my stables. So yes, that's all I wanted to talk to you about, but it is certainly not all." As Merlin turned to leave, he tacked on, "And no using magic to complete your chores, Merlin!"
With the conversation with Merlin out of the way, Arthur decided to go see Morgana. Maybe she could tell him a bit more about Morgause, if she had seen the witch before she left.
On reaching her room, he hesitated. It would be difficult to talk to her without seeing madness in her eyes, even if it was not yet there. Finally, after a passing servant had given him a strange look for standing around aimlessly in from of Morgana's door, he knocked.
"Come in," her voice came from behind the door, happy and kind as he remembered she had once been. He entered and stopped right inside the room. Morgana sat in front of her mirror, running a brush through her hair. A strange, thick bracelet sat upon her wrist, but Arthur paid it little heed. His half-sister looked so peaceful. She wore a dress of rich violets and dark blue, and her hair was sleek and shiny, not knotted and tangled as it would be when she went mad. Though he had just spent days in close quarters with her, she had been in simple clothes, happy, using a sword instead of magic to fight and blending in surprisingly well with the simple folk of Ealdor.
Now, she reminded him of the queen she had been for a time, the woman who had broken their father's spirit.
She looked up from her mirror and stood. "Arthur," she said, surprise in her eyes. "I thought you were Gwen."
The two siblings stared at each other for an uncomfortable moment, before Arthur cleared his throat. "Right," he said, uncertain suddenly of why he had come. "Merlin tells me that the Lady Morgause left last night, and you were the last to see her off."
Morgana raised her eyebrows, but she answered. "I was."
Casting about for a subject to ease his discomfort, Arthur's eyes alighted on the bracelet he had noticed earlier. "That's an interesting bracelet," he said. "Is it new?"
The subject caught Morgana's attention, and she stared at it as she answered. "It is." Her voice took on an odd, wistful tone. "Morgause gave it to me before she left, to help me sleep. It worked, too. I had the best sleep I've had in ages, last night. I feel like all my troubles have finally left."
Arthur was struck by an urge to grab the bracelet and chuck it into the nearest blacksmith's fire. "Right." He felt trapped, suddenly, and wanted to leave. This was not the Morgana who had tried so many times to destroy Camelot, but she was already accepting gifts Morgause. "I'm glad you are doing well, then. I've, um, got something I've got to be seeing to now," he said. He nearly fled the room, uncertain now why he had even gone there in the first place.
Of course, Morgana would not be Morgana if she did not decide to say something to make everything worse. "I had been worried when you were ignoring me, Arthur," she called after his retreating figure. "I'm glad to know I can still fluster you!" There was far too much teasing in her voice, and Arthur forced himself to keep walking. No good would come of going down that road. He chose not to think of the days when Morgana had flustered him for romantic reasons.
Upon leaving Arthur's room, Merlin took a detour to the armory via the Great Dragon's prison. Though he had forgotten all about it when his mother was in danger, the magical signal from the previous week now rested heavily on his mind. The dragon lay on the large rock near the tunnel when Merlin reached the cavern, as though it were waiting for him.
"Hello, young Warlock," the dragon said in its resonant voice. "I thought I might see you here soon."
Merlin watched the dragon suspiciously. "And why is that?" he asked.
The dragon matched Merlin's stare easily. "There are strange matters at hand, and Camelot lies on a turning point in history," the creature said. Merlin frowned as the dragon shifted, seemingly uncharacteristically uncertain.
"What turning point?" he asked. "Is there a new threat to Arthur?"
"The answer, young Warlock, depends," the dragon said, cryptic as always. His next words, however, were blunt and surprising. "I will tell you everything you need to know, on one condition." At Merlin's prompting, the dragon continued. "You must swear to set me free."
Merlin gaped. "I can't do that!" he said. "Arthur will kill me, and he's only just begun to possibly accept me!" He waved his torch around for emphasis and nearly set his sleeve on fire. The dragon merely watched his rant impassively.
"Be that as it may, Merlin," the dragon said, using his name for once, "that is my term for assisting you further. You have done much already, but if you do not agree to free me from my cage, then you must do the rest on your own."
Merlin glared, and then turned his head away in defeat. "I cannot make such a promise," he said. "If you will not help me any further, than I will continue to serve Arthur to the best of my ability without your aid."
"Very well, then," the dragon said. "You have made your choice. Merlin watched as the dragon flew up out of sight. He remained standing on the little ledge by the tunnel for several moments, wondering if he had made the right choice, before he turned and walked back.
"Well thanks for nothing, then," he said over his shoulder. A huff of air far out of sight was the only response he got, though somehow the dragon still managed to make that reply sound annoyed. 'I'll just have to trust that Arthur meant what he said,' Merlin thought. The prince may have been almost a friend, but Uther's views had shaped Arthur's life for too many years for things to be too easy.
In spite of his attempts to reassure himself, Merlin still could not quite get the image of a man getting his head chopped off while Arthur watched on, the first thing he had seen in Camelot, out of his mind.
When Arthur was several corridors away from Morgana's room, he was waylaid by a young servant whose name he could not remember. "The king requests your presence in the council hall, your Highness," the boy said, bowing low.
"Thanks," Arthur said, rolling his eyes as the servant bowed again and scurried off. Even aside from the magic, he really was quite lucky to have Merlin in his life.
Uther, as it turned out, simply wanted to discuss the workings of the realm with Arthur and several of the other high ranking nobles. The rest of the day passed slowly; Arthur mainly remembered the drone of his father's voice and the gleam of sunlight creeping along the plain stone walls, but if you asked him the details of the meeting, he would not be able to say. There were no foreign kings seeking to overtake Uther, and Morgana still lived happily in Camelot. Peace was a strange thing.
The next few weeks passed in a similar fashion. Councils were held, taxes were collected, and reports of the harvests in the outlying villages were read. When it became too much, Arthur had Merlin saddle the horses, and they went out hunting.
On one hunting trip near the beginning of the week, they had a bit of an adventure when Arthur saw a unicorn. He was following a deer when he came across the creature in a small clearing in the woods that felt somehow older and deeper than other parts of the forest. Recalling his last encounter with the noble creatures, he let it alone. He also took note, this time, of Merlin's reaction. The young man gazed at the unicorn in wonder until Arthur practically dragged him away, and Arthur was left wondering once more at the sort of person Merlin was. Even with the knowledge of Merlin's magic, the servant was still a mystery in many ways.
Arthur also watched Morgana and took numerous unnecessary detours about the castle to bump into Gwen. These activities both livened his days, though the way that Guinevere always curtsied to him and never quite spoke her mind frustrated him.
Throughout this all, Morgause failed to turn up again, leaving Arthur on edge.
Finally, at the end of the second week, things began to pick up when Uther summoned him into the throne room.
"Arthur," the king said, his voice stern in the way that only sorcerers and witches could make it, "Sir Bedivere has brought news of a sorcerer in the lower town, using a blacksmith to make weapons. I want you to gather some knights and go with him to arrest this sorcerer and bring him to me."
Arthur bowed to his father and left to do as he was bid. 'Perhaps,' he thought, 'Morgause is finally making her bid, whatever that may be.'
Down in the lower town, night was falling quickly, bringing with it colder weather. While Arthur was busy listening to news of the kingdom, keeping tabs on Morgana, and finding excuses to run into Gwen, the citizens of the city prepared for winter.
In a blacksmith's forge tucked between a seamstress's shop and a butcher, however, a glowing fire kept the room almost too warm. Guinevere's father, Tom, was just putting the finishing touches on a new helm before heading home to his daughter for the night. She had just returned home a few days ago from some strange quest with the Lady Morgana, and he had been trying to spend as much time as he could with her. The helm was for Sir Leon, however, who had irreparably dented his old one when it was knocked off in a skirmish with bandits on the northern borders of the kingdom, and so he had taken extra time away from Gwen that night to finish it. The sun had already fallen well below the horizon by the time Tom deemed his work good enough. He had just finished when there came a knock at his open door. Turning, he saw a strange man entering his forge.
"May I help you?" Tom asked.
The man looked around the forge, inspecting a shield that lay on a far table waiting to be repaired before turning to the helm that still lay before Tom, still shining from newness. "I have heard that you are the best blacksmith Camelot has to offer," the man said, his accent marking him as clearly a foreigner.
"I am good at what I do," Tom said, trying not to let his excitement show.
"And what is it that you do?" the man asked, rather arrogantly, in Tom's opinion. Still, if the man wanted to buy his services, then he would be polite. A few more customers this week might just get him enough money to buy that new dress that his Gwen had been eying in the market before her jaunt with Merlin the previous week.
"I mostly do repair work for the king's best knights," Tom replied. "I make a lot of their weapons, as well, and not the blunt and boring ones they use in practice, but the ones they use in tournaments and proper fighting." A note of pride entered Tom's voice. There was good reason that the man had heard that Tom was the best.
The man nodded, apparently satisfied. "I have a rather… unusual request," he said, and brought a roll of parchment out of an inner pocket in his vest. Laying it on an unused portion of table, he unrolled it to reveal a strange design. "Can you make a mould for this?" he asked. "It will be filled with lead when it is finished, so it must be made strong."
Tom glanced over the design. "Did you make this yourself?" he asked, intrigued by the strange pattern.
"I designed it for a friend," the man said, his tone cold. "If you make this quickly, I will pay you in gold."
The new helm clattered to the ground, picking up dust that marred its lovely shine, as Tom accidentally knocked it off the table while spinning to look at the stranger. "Gold is more than I usually charge," he said, wondering if perhaps he should just shut up and take this man's money. It would not be his fault if the man turned out to be some idiot noble without a clue as to the real value of anything. The man's clothes were plain, but he could have borrowed them for his journey from whatever lands he called home.
"Make this as quickly as you can," the man said, his tone perfectly serious, "and I will pay you in gold regardless of your usual prices."
Giving up on convincing the man to pay less, Tom bent over the parchment once more, studying it. "I can have it done within the week, sir," he said.
The man straightened. "Good," he said, before turning to leave. "I'll be back in one week, then." He headed for the door, but Tom halted him with a question.
"Wait," Tom said. "What's your name?"
Turning back briefly to Tom, the man considered him for a moment before speaking one word. "Tauron." Tom blinked, and the man was gone.
Arthur gathered together several of his best knights and allowed Sir Bedivere to lead the way to the blacksmith's forge where the sorcerer had been spotted the week before. As he passed through the corridors, he spotted Merlin and dragged the sorcerer along. If they were going to catch a sorcerer, he wanted to have a sorcerer on his side, too. If this matter involved Morgause, then he definitely wanted Merlin to be there with him.
The lower town was dark, with windows shuttered against the cold. Most people were inside; those who had braved the growing cold for some reason or another quickly moved out of the way when they saw the Camelot knights striding by in their bright mail and crimson cloaks. The warmth and voices indoors hardly seemed to penetrate into the streets, and the sound of the knights' boots on the dirt roads was unnaturally loud in Arthur's ears. This would be his first encounter with a sorcerer since he learned that another sorcerer had been the one to keep him alive against magic for all the battles he had thought he won. This would also, possibly, be his first encounter in this new time with the woman who had stolen his sister away. It was all enough to keep his mind occupied with thoughts, so that he did not notice where Sir Bedivere was leading the men until it was too late.
The knights burst into the forge with yells and a clashing of swords and metal. They swept half-finished swords and bits of armor off of shelves with little regard to the blacksmith's livelihood; with a shock of horror, Arthur realized that he recognized the blacksmith. As the man yelled and the sorcerer (of course!) managed to escape in the confusion caused by the knights, Arthur recognized Guinevere's father, being subdued by Sirs Bertrand and Marhaus.
"He can't be guilty!" Merlin said by his side, just as shocked. "Arthur, you have to tell your men that they've got the wrong person!"
Trying to do just that, Arthur broke through his men and held up a hand to Bertrand, who had just knocked Tom to the floor. "Hold on," he said, using his most kingly voice. "This man is not a sorcerer, surely?" Bedivere stepped forwards.
"He was consorting with a sorcerer, sire," the knight said. "He was making weapons for a man named Tauron, who is known to be working against your father."
"Did you know?" Arthur asked Tom. The man shook his head, and Arthur could easily tell that the horror and fear in his eyes was genuine. Even if it had not been, he could not imagine letting Guinevere's father be arrested. Though Arthur had not paid much attention to Gwen before her father's death, he finally realized something that had been nagging at him for a while. Guinevere was far happier when he made excuses to talk to her than he remembered her being when he first started getting to know her. It did not take a great leap to realize that her father may well have been the cause.
Sir Marhaus picked something up from the dusty ground where Tom had dropped it. "Sire, he had this on him," Marhaus said, showing the object to Arthur. It was a small pouch of gold.
"Still," Arthur said, "we cannot arrest a man for being paid for his work."
"Paid in gold, Sire?" Marhaus asked, clearly disbelieving.
Bedivere stepped in then, making Arthur want to strangle him. "Sire, whether or not he was consorting knowingly, he was still working for a sorcerer, and by the law that makes him guilty of treason. We are obligated to take him to your father for judgment."
In spite of Arthur's further attempts at reason, the knights dragged Tom up to the castle. Arthur glowered the whole way back through town. He was going to have words with his father. When they reached the castle, he dismissed a worried looking Merlin with a few curt words, and then stalked to the throne room behind the knights.
Of course, his father did not even wait to hear what Arthur might have to say. Several knights were sent out immediately to track down Tauron if they could, and Tom was dragged to the dungeons with a death sentence before Arthur could get a word in edgewise.
"You are wrong, you know," Arthur said quietly. Uther turned to him in surprise.
"Wrong about what?" the king asked.
"Tom is not a guilty man. He knew not what he was doing, and even if he did, he might have been coerced. Sorcerers can enchant mightier men than simple blacksmiths, as you know well." Arthur stared at his father. He had made peace with the fact that his views and his father's were different, but he would not allow this injustice to occur no matter how much he valued the old man.
The doors to the throne room burst open as Uther opened his mouth to respond, and Morgana stormed in.
"Is it true?" she asked, anger evident in her voice. "Have you arrested Gwen's father?"
Uther turned to his ward and spoke sternly. "He was consorting with a sorcerer, Morgana, and that means he is a traitor."
Morgana laughed. "Please! Gwen's father is no more a traitor than I am!" she cried, and Arthur winced. That statement did not speak well of Tom, in his opinion. "Tell him he's made a mistake, Arthur," she said, turning on her brother.
Arthur swallowed and straightened to his full height. "That is what I have been trying to tell him, Morgana," he said. He addressed his next words to his father. "You are making a mistake in sentencing Tom. Magic can be used for evil, certainly, but that does not mean that everyone who associates with it accidentally is also guilty of evil."
Unfortunately, Uther failed to agree. "I will not be ganged up on by my son and my ward," he said, a note of danger entering his voice.
"Then maybe you should show some sense and release Tom!" Morgana cried, inciting Uther into a rage of his own.
"You will go to your room, both of you." He glared at Arthur and Morgana, and the latter glared right back.
"If this is how you treat your citizens, it's little wonder that they use their abilities to fight you."
Arthur choked as Morgana spat her last retort at the king before whirling about and stalking from the room, ignoring Uther's furious commands that she remain in her room until she could learn to behave herself and respect her king. Arthur also ignored his father and ran after her.
"Morgana," he said, catching up to her two corridors away, next to a tapestry of one of Camelot's few female rulers engaged in battle with a dragon. She whirled around to face him, and he bit back his fear at the anger in her eyes. For the first time, he began to feel as though he might understand what had driven her to become the witch that terrorized Camelot's future.
"What?" she bit out, and Arthur breathed deep to calm himself before answering.
"Though I don't disagree with what you told my father," he said, taking Morgana by surprise, "the way you said it is unlikely to make him listen. Father has always been set in his ways, and you will not change his mind by yelling." Morgana glared, clearly about to argue, but Arthur raised a palm to stop her. "I did not say you should give up. I do not intend to let Tom be executed."
Morgana gave him the same searching look she had used in the woods after Ealdor, when she questioned him about the magic that had saved Merlin's village. Finally, her shoulders slumped and she nodded. "You are right about Uther," she said, anger still lacing her voice as she spoke the king's name. "I will keep that in mind next time he decides an innocent man deserves to die." The bitterness on her voice struck Arthur.
"I swear to you, Morgana, that Tom will be safe," he said, unusually gentle. "Let me walk you to your room, and then I will make sure that Tom sees true justice, not the fate my father has decreed."
The two set off, side by side, back down the corridors. Morgana did not speak again, and Arthur used the silence to wonder again at how much of her descent into cruelty and madness had been motivated by the compassion and her fear. When they reached her room, she turned to him before entering.
"Thank you for walking with me," she said. He inclined his head.
"I did not want you to go to sleep tonight in a rage," he said, only partially lying. "You have been doing so much better lately since your nightmares ceased. It would be a pity if Uther's actions brought them back."
"Well then," she said, "I should thank you even more for that. You know, Arthur, if you don't watch out, you may yet reach a point where that servant of yours will no longer be able to call you a prat."
She disappeared in to her room after that, and Arthur turned towards Gaius's chambers. His promise had not just been made to placate Morgana. He fully intended to get Tom out of prison, and there was no better way to break out of jail than with the help of sorcery, if his memories of the future were anything to go by. He ascended several staircases until he reached the highest tower in the west wing of the castle, where Gaius and Merlin lived.
On entering the room, it took him a few short seconds to locate Merlin, who was exiting from his small room at the back of the physician's quarters.
"Merlin," he said sharply. The man in question turned, seeming surprised to see the prince.
"What do you want, Arthur?" Merlin asked, but Arthur was already speaking.
"I want you to save Guinevere's father," he said, ignoring the shock on his manservant's face. "I know you can do something for him, and I won't have him executed. He didn't know what he was doing, and anyway, my father is wrong about magic. Help him, Merlin." At his sorcerer servant's continued silence, he tacked on a curt, "Please."
"Just so I've got this right," Merlin said in a whisper, "you want me to use my magic to save Gwen's father?"
Arthur rolled his eyes. "Yes, Merlin, that's what I said. And why are you whispering. Unless I'm very much mistaken, I'd be willing to bet that Gaius already knows about your little hidden talent."
Merlin pointed at the bed in his room, beyond the door he had just exited. "Gaius knows, but I don't think he would approve of what you're asking. Luckily, he's out getting some water to make Gwen a soothing tea. Who, by the way, happens to be sleeping in my room, and she does not know."
The words, "sleeping in my room," overrode the rest of Arthur's concerns. "What do you mean, she's sleeping in your room?" he asked dangerously. He stamped down ruthlessly on the hurt he felt. Surely Guinevere and Merlin were not romantically involved? He glared over Merlin's shoulder, just able to make out Gwen's prone form upon Merlin's tiny bed, now that he looked for her.
"I mean she was exhausted after crying about her father's arrest, so I offered to let her use my bed so that she can be near friends," Merlin said, confused at Arthur's tone.
"Right, of course," Arthur said, toning down his volume to let Gwen sleep. Of course the two weren't together. His Gwen would have told him if something like that had ever occurred.
"Anyways," Merlin continued, still looking at Arthur strangely, "I would love to help Tom, but wouldn't it be better for him if you convinced Uther to let him go? Escaping with the help of magic will hardly make him seem innocent."
"Unfortunately, I'm not sure my father can be convinced to change his mind before Tom is executed." Arthur grimaced as he spoke. He loved his father, but protecting his people was more important than family loyalty. He had learned that lesson with his father's ghost and Morgana's schemes.
"What am I supposed to do once I've freed Tom?" Merlin asked. "He can't just go back to his work."
"Take him to Ealdor," Arthur said, not realizing till the words were out of his mouth how perfect it would be as a place of refuge. "As my father said when your mother came to him for help, we cannot send knights to Ealdor without risking war with Cenred. If you can take Tom to Ealdor, I can distract the guards from sounding the alarm long enough for the two of you to get out of the city."
"You will make a great king one day, Arthur," Merlin said, looking at the prince with suspiciously shiny eyes in spite of the smile on his face. "I'll help you."
The two men exited Gaius's chambers, and Arthur ran right into Morgana coming up the corridor.
"What are you doing, Morgana?" Arthur asked, extricating himself from his sister.
"I've come to check on my maid, and I thought she might be visiting her friend," Morgana said, looking at Merlin. "How is she?"
"She's doing alright. She's sleeping now." Merlin pointed back towards his room. "You can go check on her, if you would like."
Morgana avoided both men's eyes as she spoke. "That's alright. I am glad to hear that she is doing well, but I have a task of my own to take care of. I will be back later."
A sudden suspicion entered Arthur's mind. "Morgana," he said, his tone clearly indicating that he was on to her. "If you remember the promise I made earlier, I really think it would be best for you to check on Gwen right now. Uther is already angry with you, and it would be best if you were otherwise occupied for the night."
Merlin groaned. "Yes, Arthur, just tell everyone what we're up to, why don't you? It's not like you're the one who'll get his head cut off if we're caught," the servant muttered. Morgana looked between them, and finally smiled.
"Don't worry, Merlin," she said, lowering her voice conspiratorially. "I won't tell anyone that you and Arthur are sneaking off to a tavern on the other side of town."
Arthur smiled back at her in thanks, and she slipped in to Gaius's rooms.
"Does she know as well?" Merlin asked, suspicion heavy in his voice.
"She doesn't know your secret," Arthur said, "but she knows we're breaking out Gwen's father. We should get going. You're not going to get Tom free by standing around all night."
The two set off, through the maze of corridors that made up the castle. At the stairs leading to the dungeons, Arthur halted. "I should disable the warning bells," he said, knowing well how difficult it was to get away once those began to toll. He pressed a key into Merlin's hand. "This will open the cells. I trust you can take care of the guards without hurting them. I'll meet you by the grate where I helped Mordred escape in a few minutes." The thought of the knight who had killed him made Arthur shudder, but Merlin did not notice in the dark.
"Right," the sorcerer said, swallowing. "I'll see you in a few minutes." They parted ways, and Arthur ran as silently as he could to the warning bells, which were activated from a small, hidden room down a side corridor on the ground floor.
It took two minutes to disable the bells by cutting the rope that held together the pulley system that rang the network of bells placed throughout the castle towers. As he did so, Arthur reflected that it was a wonder no one else had ever broken the system before. It had given him both grief and aid, and he was not sure which was stronger. He made a note to keep the matter in mind, and left the castle, warning bells effectively silenced.
He ducked and weaved his way through the castle and the town then, to the exit of the tunnel Merlin was hopefully travelling through with Tom. His armor shone in the moonlight, and he cursed himself for forgetting to bring a dark cloak to hide himself. Luckily, he made it to the grate by the forest without being spotted, however. He only had to wait a matter of minutes after that before Merlin appeared, with Tom behind him.
The grate had been replaced improperly after Mordred's escape, and Arthur was able to pry it open without too much trouble. Merlin scrambled out first, and Arthur reached down a hand to help Tom out onto the grass.
"Can I not say goodbye to my daughter?" he asked, staring mournfully at Arthur.
Arthur's heart broke for Gwen and her father, but he kept his voice level. "I'm sorry, Tom. I will continue doing what I can to get your name cleared with my father, but until then you are not safe in Camelot. Speaking to Gwen would only put her in danger at this point." He looked Tom in the eyes, and continued. "I promise you, though, when I am king, you will be allowed wherever you want in Camelot as a free man."
Tom clasped Arthur hand, bowing his head. "Thank you Sire, for your help," he said. "Look after my Gwen."
"I will," Arthur said, meaning every word. "Now, go. I have done what I could to give you time, but you should still go quickly. The knights will have horses if they follow you, so you'll need as much head start as you can get."
Merlin and Tom moved off to the forest, then, but Merlin turned one last time to Arthur before they disappeared. "I'll see you in a few days," he said. "Try not to get yourself killed without me in that time."
Arthur nodded to Merlin, and the manservant and the fugitive vanished from sight in the shadows of the trees.