Chapter 4

It was past noon before Merlin found himself back home. Gaius looked up at him as he entered.

"Where have you been?" Gaius demanded.

"Nowhere," Merlin grumbled, looking down at the floor as he passed Gaius.

"I've been worried about you Merlin, you've been gone for hours, you didn't come back last night, I thought something might have happened to you."

"Nothing happened, I just went for a walk. I'm tired, I'm going to bed."

Gaius said nothing as Merlin entered his room; he had noticed large red rings around Merlin's eyes as he walked passed. Gaius was deeply concerned, but decided to leave it until the next day, perhaps Merlin was just tired and needed some rest, but there was something different about him. It seemed that something deep inside Merlin had just died.

Arthur's rotten mood continued throughout the rest of the day, he didn't want anyone to talk to him, he just went over and over in his mind what had happened, what he had seen, what he had done. As evening drew in, the realisation of what had really happened seemed to finally sink in.

Despite the fact that magic was banned, that Merlin had lied to Arthur all that time, he had used magic to save his life, and perhaps even Arthur's life. It wasn't really Merlin's fault that he had to keep the secret, if he had said anything he would have got into serious trouble, he probably would be dead. Surely if magic was something if you were born with, you couldn't stop it. Arthur had always been concerned when it came to arresting and executing anyone who had connections to magic, surely it wasn't their entire fault. Was it possible that he was perhaps wrong about magic? That he had over reacted when he found out about Merlin's secret? Oh no! Hadn't he thrown something at Merlin?

By the time night had drawn in, and Arthur found himself lying in bed, he had decided that the next morning he would go and apologise to Merlin. He had over reacted; he hadn't even given Merlin a chance to defend himself. He had said that he didn't want to see Merlin again, but he knew that he couldn't hide forever.

Arthur's last conscious thought, before he went to sleep, was that it wasn't all a loss, he could apologise to Merlin and then things could return to normal, its wasn't as if Merlin was just going to disappear.

How wrong he was.

The two brothers sat beside each other in the forest, neither said a word. One still had his hands clutched to his face. His brother had tried his best to heal the burn wounds on his face, but a small patch of skin next to his eye was still red and sore, it would leave a scar that he did not wish to think about.

Both brothers were in mourning for their other brother, they had no choice but to flee after he was killed, but returned shortly after to bury him.

"What now?" Asked the brother with the blue eyes who had been badly burnt, his name was Adiemus, he was the youngest of the three brothers and the least experienced when it came to magic. His other surviving brother with borwn eyes, Alik, took a while to reply, he was in deep thought.

"We carry on," Alik said suddenly, "we're so close to reaching our goal, we didn't let anything else stop us in the past. The Prince and his sorcerer were a force that we did not to encounter quite yet, and especially such a powerful one, but we must arm against them and fight against them.

"Yes, we may even be able to use this to our advantage."

"How?" Adiemus asked, confused.

"Arthur, one of the great legends to come, didn't even know that his dear little servant possessed magic of any sort, yet the two are very close. I feel that Merlin may be easy bait for Arthur."

Adiemus looked up into his brother's eyes, and suddenly realised what he was thinking, for a moment he was worried.

"Merlin's magic may be powerful, but he is of no match compare to us." Alik assured his brother. "Arthur may also think that he is strong, but if he finds out his precious Merlin is in danger, he will suddenly become powerless. After that taking over Camelot will be easy."

"Do you have a plan?"

"I always have a plan," Alik smiled, "we shall attack tonight, by the time the sun sets for the seventh time, we will have succeeded."

Merlin lay there, clocked in the darkness, unable to get to sleep. He was exhausted, but the longer he lay there the more awake he felt. He thought he heard Gaius come in at one point, but he had assumed that Merlin was asleep and had left again.

As Merlin heard the door close he thought of all the people that had been affected because of him, that had put their lives at risk because he gave away his secret that he was a sorcerer. He thought of all the people who had died, all the other sorcerers, the innocent people, he thought of the look on Arthur's face and realised on thing.

It was all his fault.

Merlin hated lying to people, hated the fact that he had to hide who he really was, and the way Arthur had treated him that very day when they had returned to Camelot proved to him that what he was doing was wrong. Arthur would never forgive him for what he did.

How many people had to suffer because of him? Merlin knew had to change this, he had to stop getting other people involved when they shouldn't, when they don't deserve to.

A cold wind suddenly blew through an open window; Merlin shivered, but not because he was cold. He hadn't opened his window, when he entered the room it was closed. There was more than just the sound of the wind as well; there was something else.

There was someone else in the room.

Merlin jerked up and looked around his room, he couldn't see anything in the dark, but he was sure that he wasn't alone, he could almost feel their presence, hear the sound of their breathing just behind his ear.

Merlin turned around and found himself face to face with a man with bright blue eyes, the same man who he'd unleashed a ball of fire at that very day.

"Hello Merlin," Adiemus smiled cruelly, Merlin began to back away. "There's no point putting up a fight Merlin." Adiemus said as Merlin heard a thud just behind him, and turned to see Alik facing him. "You're outnumbered."

"No, keep away from me." Said Merlin slowly, backing away from both the brothers who were slowly advancing upon him.

"There's nothing you can do Merlin, we don't want any more blood to be split now do we?" Said Alik.

Merlin shook his head, he didn't know what these two men were doing in his room, but it wasn't for a good reason, last time he had encountered them they had tried to kill him and Arthur, by the look on their faces, they weren't here to apologise.

He looked around, there was nothing he could use to defend himself in his room, but the breeze had made his door swing open, which led into the kitchen. Merlin could just about see through the dim, a few metres away, a knife lying on the kitchen table.

Gaius woke up to a very peculiar noise, something was happening in Merlin's room; he could hear voices and movement. He had assumed Merlin was asleep, and if Merlin did get up in the middle of the night he didn't have conversations with himself. Confused, Gaius got up and went to investigate.

There was another strange noise, and Gaius narrowly missed a knife flying through the air, he watching it as it flew through the open door and into Merlin's hand.

Inside Merlin's room it was dark, the only light was from the moon shining through the window, but he could see clearly enough. Merlin was standing face to face with two men that he had never seen before. However it wasn't the fact that these men who Gaius had never seen had suddenly appeared in Merlin's room, it was the fact that they both looked exactly the same, they were even wearing the same clothes. What was going on? He was about to say something when all three turned and looked at him.

"No," Merlin shook his head defiantly, whether it was to the two men or to him Gaius wasn't sure. "Stay out of this one Gaius!" Merlin suddenly cried, and the door slammed shut in Gaius' face. He reached for the door handle and shook it, but it was locked.

Merlin managed to dodge out the way as one of the brothers came flying at him, but he didn't have time to get away from the second. Alik slammed into him, and Merlin suddenly found himself on his back, with a tall terrifying man towering over him. He lashed out with the knife to defend himself, but Alik had suddenly disappeared.

Merlin slowly got to his feet again and looked around, the two brothers had disappeared; another cold breeze blew through the room.

Suddenly one of the brothers appeared in front of him and knocked the knife out of Merlin's hand, it spun across the room, once more Merlin was defenceless. The brother launched himself at him; Merlin managed to catch a glimpse of a pair of crazed, wild brown eyes before he was knocked off his feet and all the air was knocked out of him.

Alik was on top of him, trying to pin him to the ground, Merlin fought back, he kicked and punched at mainly empty air, his foot suddenly caught Alik in the stomach. With a cry of pain Alik lashed out at Merlin's face.

Merlin felt a sudden stinging pain; something warm and wet was trickling down his face. As Alik fell back slightly, clutching his stomach, Merlin managed to push away from him and stand up and catch his breath. He looked around; the brothers had disappeared once again.

There was such a long silence Merlin thought for a moment that perhaps the two brothers had actually left the room, he peered around, the moon had disappeared under a veil of cloud, the room had grown even darker.

Merlin was just about to use his magic to produce some light, when suddenly something slammed into him, pushing him against the back wall and smashing his head against the cold, hard stone. For a moment everything was a blur, it took a few moments for Merlin to work out what was happening.

Something heavy and much stronger than him was pinning down his arms, preventing any escape. Someone had clamped their fingers around his nose, he couldn't breath. He opened his mouth, gasping for air, trying to struggle against the man who was holding him against the wall.

This was the moment Adiemus had been waiting for, he pulled a small horn-shaped object from out of his pocket. It was made of silver and covered in different carvings and was corked at the top. He uncorked it, revealing a strange smelling dark liquid, and poured it down Merlin's throat.

In the darkness, Merlin didn't realise what was going on until he felt a thick foul smelling liquid slithering down his throat, he tried to spit it out, but could already feel the warmth spreading down his neck and into his stomach.

Suddenly, Merlin found all his energy to be drained out him, the room began to spin and fall into total darkness. He found that he couldn't even hold his own weight, he would have fallen to the ground if something hadn't grabbed him. The dark world began to collapse into itself. It was over.

An angry voice suddenly echoed through his head, they're trying to kill you, fight back! The voice seemed to bring Merlin back to his senses a little; he tried to use his last burst of energy to produce a spell before the darkness took over completely, he had to fight back. But then another voice crept into his mind, what's the point? No one will care if you disappear. Arthur doesn't care anymore. And with that his last ounce of strength left him, he closed his eyes and thought no more as the two brothers took him away.

Gaius finally managed to pull the door open, he thought he could just see something disappear out the window, but there was no one else in the room.

Merlin had disappeared.