AN: Hello! I'm back, with chapter twelve!

So, if the title of this chapter doesn't give it away, shit is about to go down. Although not quite in this chapter, so I was kind of lying when I said the angst started in this chapter. I just couldn't resist having an unlucky chapter thirteen...

Anyhoo, I will post thirteen soon, although I will be without my computer for most of the weekend. This fic is still going strong! Can you believe we are over half way done? I think there should be twenty-two chapters, so yeah. It really has been amazing, and I love you all!

Finally, I want to say thank you to everyone who reviewed, alerted, favorited, or read! I love you all! Also, because I apparently thought I sent messages to most of the people who reviewed but actually didn't, I want to say I am still incredibly grateful! Especially to the people who gave me some constructive criticism, my editor is no editing this one, so I really do need all the help I can get!

And I don't own Merlin. I am so excited to see what the actual owners of Merlin do with season five though!

Chapter Twelve: The Witchfinder

Arthur was spotted by the night watch as he approached the city. They escorted him back inside after they recognized him as the prince. Once inside he was taken to his father who yelled at him about the dangers of the forest (namely, Emrys) and his duty to the kingdom. He was then taken down to the dungeons where he was to spend the night in the cells, in an attempt to 'cool him off'. It wasn't the first time Uther had used the dungeons as a punishment for Arthur, but it was still unpleasant. It could have been worse though, Uther had never actually hurt Arthur, no matter how angry he was. Arthur figured this would change if he found out about Merlin and their relationship, but he hoped his theory would never be tested. So, a slightly sleepless night in the cell was definitely not as bad as it could have been. It was what happened afterwards that got Arthur worried.

George had come down with the guards who had released him, taking him back to his room where a warm bath and a clean set of clothes were waiting for him. He had gotten clean and then had been summoned down to the council chambers, where Uther had gathered all the council of elders and many of the nobles. Arthur took his place next to his father as the rest of the men waited and his father began to speak.

"Councilors, nobles, and knights, I have called you together today for a very important reason. Emrys has been making a fool of us for much too long. He taunts us, mocks us, but as we have banished all knowledge of magic from the kingdom we do not understand his ways, and we cannot predict his movements and we have been unsuccessful in stopping him. I have decided that this has gone on long enough, and that it is high time we bring in someone who has knowledge we have long since rid ourselves of. That is why I have summoned Aredian, the witchfinder, to Camelot to assist us with the capture of the thief. He has given me his word that he will work tirelessly until Emrys has been brought to justice. I want you all to give him your full support, any orders he gives should be treated as orders from me."

Arthur felt a shudder creep down his spine as Uther stepped back to reveal a man dressed all in black, a wide brimmed hat concealing his eyes. He swept forward, his cloak swishing out behind him as he reached up to remove the hat, exposing two beady eyes and thinning ginger hair. He cleared his throat before saying, "Thank you, Your Highness. Emrys will be dealt with soon, but I will need all of your cooperation. First I would like to talk to the knights in charge of hunting him down and anyone who has had any contact with the thief, the rest of you may leave."

All of the elderly council men and nobles got up to leave, most of them looking happy to be away. Gaius glared at Aredian before leaving, Aredian smirking in return. Arthur had never seen such hatred on the old physician's face as he regarded the witchfinder. Arthur was glad his father allowed him to remain as those not involved with the search for Emrys left, he needed to know exactly what was happening in the search for Merlin. He didn't know anything about Aredian, what if he actually had the skills to take down Merlin? Arthur needed to learn everything he could then warn Merlin of his new foe.

"Who is in charge of the search?" Aredian asked.

Leon stepped forward, saying, "I am. What do you need from me?"

"I need to know everything you know about him so far. What does he look like? Who are his accomplices?"

Leon glanced at Arthur with a look of concern, before saying, "We don't know. No one has seen his face. We do know he is male, tall and lanky, and that he has been residing in the woods around the castle. We believe he has at least three compatriots, but we know nothing about them either. The name Emrys has Druid connotations, so he may be connected to them, but we really don't know much more than that."

"Is that all? For the renowned knights of Camelot you really haven't learned much. Very well. Who has gotten the closest to him?"

Leon looked nervous before saying, "Well, that would probably be Arthur. He was captured by Emrys and escaped after one night in his camp. No one else has actually talked with him, unless you count the day he helped a sorcerer escape. He spoke with the king then."

Uther's brows narrowed as Leon brought up that day, and Arthur tensed a little. He knew Leon had to tell the truth to keep his father from growing suspicious and removing him from the search as well, but he didn't want Aredian to learn any more than what they absolutely couldn't keep from him.

Aredian changed his focus from Leon to Arthur, saying, "You escaped him? How?"

Arthur blushed a little. He really hadn't told his father much, and Uther was watching him with curiosity and anger. Arthur could feel his breath pick up as he said, "Umm.. Well, I umm, they had me tied to a tree, and were planning on torturing me for information about the castle, so I knew I had to get out."

"Yes. But how did you get out?" Aredian said, gesturing for Arthur to speed up.

"I umm," Arthur tried to think quickly, "I waited until they were all asleep, and found a sharp rock, and used it to cut through the ropes. It took a while, but I was able to break through the ropes and knock the man who was supposed to be guarding me with a branch that had fallen off of the tree I was tied to, then I snuck away before any of them realized I was gone."

"That is quite impressive, Arthur. I would have thought that Emrys would have used an enchantment to bind you, but you say he just used regular ropes?"

"Well, yes. Just normal rope." Arthur said, trying to sound convincing. At least that part wasn't a lie.

"Why didn't you kill them when you had the chance? If they were all asleep it should have been easy for you." Aredian said, smirking a little. Arthur was scared. What if he said something that gave everything away?

"They took my weapons." Arthur said, remembering what Merlin had told him to say after their first talk. "All I had was the big stick, and I thought it was more important to get out, I couldn't let them catch me again and risk them learning of Camelot's weak spots."

"So you would have told them?"

"No!" Arthur shouted. "I wouldn't tell them anything! But Emrys can use magic, what if he did something that made me tell, whether I wanted to or not?"

"And you didn't see what Emrys or any of his partners looked like while you were there?"

Arthur was shifting uncomfortably in his seat now, as he said, "They were wearing cloaks, they made sure I never saw their faces."

"What about the one you knocked out?" Aredian asked, smiling now. Arthur met his gaze with one of fierce determination, even as the sweat trickled down his back. "It was dark. And I wanted to get out quickly. I didn't think lighting a fire to find out what one of them looks like would really have been a good idea."

Aredian's eyes narrowed as he met Arthur's glare and said, "He didn't say anything to you? Anything that would let us know anything else about him?"

"Umm, No. Just that he would torture me till I told him everything I knew about the castle's defenses."

Aredian gave Arthur a suspicious look before turning away and saying, "Alright. I think that is all I need to know for now. Your highness, do you think we could have a word in private?"

"Of course, Aredian. Anything that will help you stop this menace." Uther said, gesturing for the rest of the group to leave. Just as Arthur reached the door, Uther turned from a whispered conversation with Aredian and shouted, "Arthur, I want you to go straight back to your chambers. You are not to leave until Aredian says you are allowed. I want a guard posted outside his chambers. Leon, be sure he gets there."

Leon responded with a quick "Yes, Sire." Before meeting Arthur's gaze with a nervous glance and followed him out of the council chambers. They walked together until they reached an empty hallway, and Leon said, "Arthur, Aredian seems suspicious of you. What should we do?"

"Nothing, yet." Arthur said, "He has no reason to suspect me, and even if he does, what can he do? I'm still the prince. Just act as you normally do, everything will be fine."

"Alright, Arthur." Leon said, still looking a little nervous. "I'll try to make sure the guards posted are loyal to you, not your father."

"Thank you, Leon." Arthur said, as they reached his room. Leon inclined his head in a small bow before leaving Arthur to his thoughts.

Arthur had spent a very boring night and morning sitting alone in his room. George had come to bring him his dinner and breakfast, and had left as soon as the food was delivered. Apparently the king didn't even want him to have any human contact while he was being punished, or whatever this was. It had given him a long time to think about Aredian and what he would do about him. Merlin needed to know that there was someone after him who might be slightly more competent than the group of knights lead by a man who didn't want him to be caught. He knew Merlin was strong and smart, but Aredian was tricky, and he knew more about magic than they did.

Arthur was pulled from his thoughts of Aredian by the man himself. Apparently last night hadn't been enough, he needed more information from Arthur.

"What are you doing here, Aredian? These are my chambers, you are not welcomed here." Arthur said angrily.

"Well, your father has given me permission to do whatever I need as long as I am searching for the thief, and right now I need to ask you a few more questions, so I have the right to be here as long as I wish." Aredian said smugly, walking through Arthur's chambers as if he owned them before sitting at his table and drinking his water. Arthur crossed his arms in annoyance and said, "Then you better hurry up and ask your questions so you can get the hell out of my room."

Aredian just laughed, saying, "If that is what you wish, Arthur, I will get down to business. Although I am slightly curious to why you already hate me so much already, but that is beside the point. King Uther says that your opinion towards magic has changed in the past few months. What changed your views?"

"I realized that what my father was doing was wrong after Emrys saved the sorcerer Thomas Collins. Even if Emrys was wrong to break the law, Thomas had not done anything wrong. Seeing him with his mother showed me that he was just like us. It was then I started to question it."

"So, it wasn't after you were captured by Emrys? Because that was when your father said he noticed the change."

"They happened on the same day, so it would be easy for him to be confused." Arthur said, glaring at Aredian.

"Your opinion still changed after Emrys threatened to torture you? The king also says you have defended the thief, shouldn't you be the first to condemn him after what happened to you?"

Arthur felt the blood drain from his face as Aredian asked him questions he didn't have answers to. He was silent for a moment as he tried to think of an excuse. He finally thought of something and said, "Emrys could have killed me, but he didn't. He did threaten me, but he has helped many of the people, even if we don't want to see it. I am supposed to defend the people, not stop them from receiving their only source of wealth after my father takes all their money in taxes. And some of the accusations Uther has made about him are ridiculous; I just think there may be more to him than the criminal my father sees."

Aredian nodded, a chilling smile on his face, and switched subjects saying, "The king also said you were the only one with the Lady Morgana when she died, what did you say happened?"

"We were attacked by a group of Serkets." Arthur said, thinking about the day he had spent with Merlin and Morgana but keeping his face somber, "They killed her. I barely got away."

"Why were you two out in the woods in the first place?" Aredian asked, looking at Arthur with a smirk, as if he had caught him.

"She wanted to get out of the castle after the explosion in her room. I went with her to make sure she was safe, but I failed." Arthur replied, trying to look as remorseful as possible.

"Ah, yes. The explosion. The king says you disagreed with the theory that that was the work of Emrys, even though it clearly showed all the markings of an expert magic user."

"He would never do anything like that!" Arthur shouted, before realizing what he had just done, and felt himself pale more.

"How would you know what he would do?" Aredian said, the smirk growing.

"I mean, it's just in all his letters, he said all he did was for the people. He wouldn't hurt anyone." Arthur stuttered, trying to make up for his outburst.

"I thought you said he was planning on torturing you? Wouldn't that be hurting you?"

Arthur felt his heart rate increase slightly as he tried to give Aredian a suitable response, "Well, what I mean to say is he wouldn't hurt anyone without a reason. Attacking Morgana would get him nothing."

"Except for a large ransom from Uther. It seems clear to me that Emrys was behind this attack, unless, of course, Morgana herself was the magic user."

Arthur was pretty sure he was paler than Merlin as he gave a nervous laugh and said, "Morgana, a witch? That's impossible. She was Uther Pendragon's ward! She would never learn magic."

"Well, I would have said that Arthur Pendragon would never think that magic could be anything but evil, but you have obviously changed." Aredian said, and took a moment to glance around the room before returning his gaze to Arthur and switching topics once again. "You snuck out a couple of nights again. Where did you go?"

Arthur smiled a little at the thought of Merlin at the lake before saying, "I went out to train. I wanted to practice in the woods, to understand what it would be like to fight in rough terrain. I guess I got a little carried away, and lost track of time."

"You didn't think it would be a good idea to take one of your knights along with you?"

"I wanted some time alone, so I went alone. If you are going to question me about every time I've snuck out of the castle we will be here for quite some time."

"Very well, Arthur. I think I have gotten all the information I need. I must say, it has been quite illuminating, to say the least."

"And the guards? Am I allowed out of my chambers?" Arthur asked as Aredian moved towards the door.

"I think that can be allowed. Just don't leave the city." Aredian said, before giving Arthur one last smirk and leaving. Arthur took a deep breath and went to lie down on his bed. Who knew talking to that horrid witchfinder could be so bloody exhausting.

Aredian left the prince's chambers with a smile on his face. This was going to be easier than he expected. Prince Arthur was obviously lying, he knew more about Emrys than he was letting on. Whether he had been enchanted to or willingly betrayed his father Aredian wasn't yet certain, but he did know that it wouldn't be long now till he caught the thief and earned his reward.

There was still the problem of the knights of Camelot, but they would have to be dealt with later. It was difficult to tell where their loyalties lay, with the prince or the king. Many of them seemed to be rather close to the prince, especially the one leading the search. If Arthur had already gotten to him it might explain why Emrys hadn't been caught yet, although Aredian wasn't exactly complaining. If the knights had done a competent job he wouldn't get paid for bringing down one of the most infamous sorcerers of their time.

So, Aredian ordered his men to their positions, took up his own, and waited for his trap to set itself.

Arthur waited until it was dark before he left his room. He had to warn Merlin, no matter what it took. Just as Aredian had said, there were no longer guards outside his chambers, so it was easy enough for him to sneak out. As soon as he was outside the castle walls he squeezed the stone hanging around his neck twice, hoping Merlin would get the message quickly so he could get back before anyone noticed. What he didn't notice was that someone was watching him. He didn't see the cruel eyes gleam in the moonlight or hear the cold voice whisper "Follow him." as he ran towards the lake, so Arthur had no idea what danger he was drawing Merlin to. All he could think about was making sure the man he loved was safe, while he unwittingly put him in far greater danger.