Arthur's mind had just turned to mud. His thoughts were coming slowly and dully as he realised that trying to negotiate a deal which involved Merlin, after everything this Liam had seen, would be nearly impossible. But Arthur was never one to let the impossible stop him before, after all it was he who had pulled a sword from solid stone.

As Arthur's brain slowly started to re-join the normal pace of reality he realised that Barabbas and Liam were right in the middle of talks about how much he was worth.

"I'm offering you fifty gold pieces Barabbas, nothing more"

"But really Liam, he's the king! Surely he's worth more in the area of one hundred pieces of gold?"

"Barabbas, you know why I want the king. I don't have unlimited amounts of gold, but I do have the means to utterly destroy anyone who gets in my way" The threat was very real and hung in the air between the two men as Liam stared Barabbas down.

"Excuse me" Arthur politely interjected through the thick air of confrontation. Liam turned to Arthur with a smile on his face, seemingly amused by the young king.

"Yes little king?" Liam replied with sarcasm. He obviously didn't think very much of Arthur, but it seemed to be more disdain than hatred.

"I know that I will be leaving with you today, that is not in question" Arthur paused to make sure Liam was really listening to his proposal.

"Go on" Liam replied sounding slightly intrigued, like an adult who was humouring a child.

"What is in question is how I will behave for you. I give you my word that I will be the very picture of obedience if you will also include my friend Merlin here" Arthur gestured to where Merlin stood awkwardly by his side, shuffling his feet, causing Liam to raise his eyebrow "in whatever deal you make".

Liam was smiling, obviously finding the situation and the king's attachment to his friend mildly amusing.

"You know, if you knew my reputation I highly doubt you would be so eager to make such an offer" Liam questioned, as though trying to persuade Arthur to retract his offer. Arthur stood his ground, keeping eye contact with the intimidating man. After a few seconds of thought Liam turned to Barabbas and said,

"Fine. Barabbas, I would also like to include that other boy, Merlin, in the deal. I will give you one hundred gold pieces" Barabbas, who was obviously just trying to drive up the price before, almost skipped as he eagerly accepted Liam's offer.

Merlin was feeling the strangest mixture of relief and fear as they were unchained from the manacles. He would be staying with Arthur, something which he had given up as a near impossibility, but the way Liam talked about his 'reputation' scared Merlin more than he cared to admit, even to himself.

Arthur was also relieved. As Liam summoned someone to come and tie the two boys' hands in rope Arthur knew he would almost certainly be able to escape now. Liam didn't seem to have anywhere near as many men as Aiden or Barabbas and even all those muscles didn't guarantee Liam to win in a fight against a swordsman like Arthur.

Liam and his acquaintance, who was leading the new purchases, were escorted to their horses outside by some of Barabbas' men. Arthur was looking at the acquaintance's sword just in front of him. It was going to be so easy to grab it once they were away from here. When they got to the horses Arthur saw that they were drawing a cage, obviously intended for them. Barabbas' guards weren't leaving and Arthur saw his chances of escaping suddenly diminishing.

He had to make a move.

Arthur lunged forwards and grabbed the man's sword, hands still tied, and plunged it straight into the man's heart. He swung around to continue fighting when a huge fist filled his vision and everything went black.

Merlin watched as Liam punched Arthur, sending him crumpling to the ground. He let out a yell of indignation as they were hauled into the cage and locked in. It was then that Merlin realised that with Arthur unconscious he could finally get them out of here.

"Onlúcan" Merlin muttered, hand extended to the lock of the door, as his eyes burned gold. Nothing happened. Merlin glanced around at Liam as he gave orders to move out, making sure he hadn't done something to block Merlin's magic, but he didn't seem to have noticed Merlin doing anything suspicious.

Merlin breathed out slowly through his nose, trying to calm himself, to concentrate. However, that was the moment Arthur decided to regain consciousness. Merlin cursed to himself before rushing over to check on his friend.

"Are you okay?" Merlin asked, noticing the bruises starting to form around Arthur's left eye.

"What happened?" Arthur seemed confused, glancing around as though not knowing what was happening.

"You tried to escape and Liam punched you in the face," Merlin answered Arthur's question bluntly. Arthur cringed as though in pain, but he was really just embarrassed at the memory, everything had come back to him now.

"I'm fine Merlin," Arthur slowly started to sit up and was able to see that other than Liam there was only two other men. Arthur was relived for a moment before he remembered he was locked in a cage. He reassured himself with the idea that there would be plenty of other opportunities for escape with so few men to defeat.

Merlin on the other hand felt a strange sense of being drained of energy. He must have been hungrier than he thought. Having now established that Arthur was indeed fine, Merlin slumped down and leaned against the bars puzzling over why his spell hadn't worked. Perhaps he just hadn't used his magic in so long, and was so hungry that he needed to warm it up a bit. However, with Arthur now conscious the ability to practice was gone yet again. Merlin made a mental note to himself that the next time Arthur went to sleep he would use his magic to help them escape.

A few hours later they neared a grand house. It wasn't a castle or a palace but it was still huge and obviously expensive. Arthur thought back to Liam saying that he didn't have unlimited amounts of gold, it sure didn't look that way to him. They didn't go through the huge gates towards the house but rather around the outside of the walls towards the back of the property. They pulled up at a smaller building a few yards from the wall at the back of the property. A small gate showed another way into the estate.

Liam jumped off his horse and strolled up to the cage. He gave Arthur a small smile before pulling a knife swiftly from his boot and holding to Merlin's throat. Arthur made to move towards Merlin but Liam smirked,

"I want you to allow my friend here," he motioned to one of the men who was travelling with him, "to escort you out of this cage and into another. If you are not obedient, as you had promised you would be, I will slit your little friend's throat and let him drown on his own blood." It wasn't an empty threat, in fact Arthur had the feeling Liam would actually enjoy killing Merlin. So Arthur did as he was told, hating not having any control over the situation yet again.

Merlin was desperately trying to perform some subtle magic. With his eyes closed he was willing Liam's knife to burn red, for Arthur's ropes to fall off, for anything to happen, but his magic just wasn't cooperating. Merlin opened his eyes and found Arthur being led into the small building. Liam had moved around to the door of the cage and was looking expectantly at Merlin,

"Aren't you coming?" He asked exasperatingly. Merlin got up and allowed Liam's other man to escort him into the building behind Arthur. Inside the building was a singular room with a huge fireplace at one end and a cell at the other, where Arthur was currently fuming. Merlin was thrown in after him and the door slammed shut with a bang.

Liam sauntered in as his two men took seats around a small table near the fire. He stood in front of the cell and took in his two new possessions.

"I suppose you're wondering why I was so interested in procuring you, King Arthur," Arthur glared at Liam, waiting for his curiosity to be satisfied.

"Emrys" was Liam's simple response. Arthur's face furrowed in concentration, that name sounded vaguely familiar. Merlin's face on the other hand fell into a stony, unreadable expression.

Arthur suddenly remembered Morgana mentioning Emrys during their last encounter.

"You're in league with Morgana," Arthur stated as though he had known all along.

"Well, not really "in league" but yes, she is involved," Arthur shook his head, running a hand through his hair at the more serious turn their position had taken.

"What about this 'Emrys'?" Arthur asked, trying to maintain his composure.

"I need you to tell me everything you know about him, most importantly where Morgana can find him." Liam stared patiently at Arthur, waiting for him to respond.

"You're asking the wrong person, I have no idea who Emrys is let alone where to find him" Arthur responded with exasperation.

"I find that hard to believe. Morgana told me all about the two of you. Imagine the King of Camelot being in league with a sorcerer."

Arthur was openly gawking now, unable to believe what he was hearing.

"You're mad! You are obviously wasting your time because I cannot help you." Arthur stared at Liam as though waiting for him to agree and set them free. Liam, however, ran at the bars of the cell, hitting them with his hand and flew into a rage.

"Don't lie to me! Morgana is a seer, she knows things! You will tell me everything!" Liam had a mad look on his now reddened face as he tried to stop his breaths coming in such fast, violent gasps. He seemed to have regretted losing his temper and stepped away from the bars, turning his head away from them. After he had regained some composure Liam turned back to Arthur and said quietly,

"Don't think you can rely on Emrys coming to rescue you. Morgana has placed a spell on me so that no magic can be used within a mile of me without my consent." He smiled with glee as though he had just delivered some devastating news to the king. Arthur, however, was coming to the conclusion that Liam was insane.

"We'll begin your interrogation at dawn" Liam declared before sweeping from the building.

Merlin was in complete shock. This was all his fault. The worst thing was knowing he could stop all of this if he just confessed who he really was. Though then he and Arthur would probably just be killed by Morgana straight away. No, that was a really bad idea. At least he knew why his magic hadn't been working.

Arthur looked over at Merlin and saw the look of deep concentration on his face.

"Don't worry Merlin. I don't have any idea who this Emrys is either," Merlin gave Arthur a smile to try and convince him that that was actually what he was concentrating on.

"What will you do?" Merlin asked. Arthur shook his head.

"Well that man is obviously completely insane so we'll just have to bide our time until an opportunity presents itself," It was a pretty lousy plan, but that's really all they had been able to do since this whole fiasco started.

One of the guards near the fire, who could obviously hear all that the boys said, sent Arthur a glare. They weren't very talkative fellows. Arthur lowered his voice,

"I'm so sorry Merlin"

"What for?" Merlin asked, honestly perplexed.

"This is all my fault. I should never have been so selfish as to ask you to be bought with me."

"No Arthur. I'm happy I'm with you, how else can I protect you?" Arthur let out a small, fond chuckle at Merlin's persistent idea that he somehow protects him.

"No, you're right. I'm glad you're here too. This isn't either of our faults. This is all because of Emrys."

Merlin nodded in agreement and felt his insides burn with guilt

So many questions! Why did Liam agree to buy Merlin? What is Liam's relationship with Morgana if they're 'not in league'? Will they ever escape? Tune in next time! Lol

Again, thank you so much to everyone for favouriting, following and reviewing. You are the reason I keep writing! :)