The first thing Merlin realised when he woke up was how difficult it was to breathe. He could only take little gasps of air through his mouth which barely filled his aching lungs.

"Merlin?" he recognised Arthur's voice and an agonised sigh of relief left his chest at the familiar sound. Merlin felt dizzy, even with his head laid on solid ground and his eyes shut tight. He opened them experimentally and everything swam around him. It felt absolutely terrible but Merlin had to see what sort of state Arthur was in after being left alone with Liam. Merlin lifted his head off the ground slightly and gradually the sight of Arthur chained to the wall swam across his blurred vision. He laid his head back down on the ground and saw something shimmer near his face. Feeling well and truly ill he closed his eyes again.

"Merlin? Can you hear me?" Arthur spoke again, concern radiating from his every syllable. Merlin managed to produce a noise from the back of his throat as he willed his head to stop spinning. Arthur remained quiet, knowing that Merlin wasn't in any condition to hold a conversation and definitely not to unlock his chains.

Arthur couldn't tell exactly what was wrong with Merlin but he definitely had a broken nose and from where Arthur was chained, looking down on Merlin's head, he could see blood and wooden splinters in Merlin's hair like a chair had been broken over it. Arthur could hear the difficulty Merlin was having breathing and guessed that on top of his broken nose he also had at least one broken rib. Merlin stayed on the ground, gasping for air, for another few minutes before suddenly starting to move, as though trying to stand.

"What are you doing?" Arthur questioned irritably, wanting Merlin to rest. Merlin didn't respond. Merlin picked up the key which was sitting in front of his face and started to drag himself towards the stone wall, groans escaping his throat with every movement. When he reached his destination he leaned his weight against the wall and slowly got to his feet, keeping his eyes closed. Merlin paused for a moment,

"Merlin?" Arthur asked for what felt like the hundredth time as Merlin stood with his eyes closed swaying dangerously. He stayed there breathing very deliberately for a few minutes before starting to edge himself along the wall towards Arthur. Arthur couldn't believe that despite all of Merlin's injuries he was still putting Arthur before himself.

As Arthur looked on incredulously Merlin barely noticed. He was placing all of his concentration on staying upright and trying to stop the world from spinning. Standing up had made his head start to pound in addition to his other problems and he was desperately trying not to throw up. He was finally within reach of one of Arthur's shackles. He fumbled with the key as he vaguely heard Arthur giving him words of encouragement. He closed his eyes while still trying to unlock Arthur, with his arm raised his blood pressure had dropped and he had to fight the urge to pass out for a few moments while his body adjusted. Finally he heard a click. He let out a painful breath of relief as he handed Arthur the key and slipped down the wall and onto the floor.

Arthur quickly unlocked his other shackle and swooped on Merlin, wanting to help relieve his friend's distress. Merlin was still conscious but had his eyes closed and was obviously in a lot of pain. Arthur registered somewhere in the back of his mind that his leg wound was crying out in pain but he never took his eyes off Merlin. Arthur didn't really know where to start in helping Merlin, but the most glaring thing to him was the blood smeared all over his face. Arthur got up and rushed over to where their bucket of drinking water stood, carrying it back over to Merlin. He carefully undid Merlin's neckerchief, making his friend screw up his face and let out a groan in the process. Arthur flinched at hurting his friend.

"I'm so sorry Merlin! Sorry, sorry, sorry," Arthur kept repeating the word the whole time he spent tending to Merlin. He dipped the fabric into the water and started to gently dab the blood off Merlin's face. When the blood was gone it revealed dark bruises around Merlin's eyes and nose and the extent of the swelling was more evident. Arthur didn't really feel as though he had actually helped Merlin in any way, but then a small,

"Thank you," came from his friend along with a weak smile. It broke Arthur's heart to see his best friend still trying to please him while he was in such a state.

"Don't talk," Arthur gave the words as an order, knowing how much it must have hurt Merlin to speak those two words. Arthur, knowing he couldn't do anything else for Merlin's broken nose, started to look at his head wound. There was a small bump, nothing too severe, but splinters were sticking out of Merlin's scalp. Arthur very carefully started to remove each of them, some of which were quite deeply embedded. Merlin stayed quiet the whole time, sometimes screwing up his face in discomfort but never once complaining.

Once Arthur had checked the extent of the bruising on Merlin's chest and made an educated guess that only one rib was broken he piped with false cheer,

"There, you should be right as rain now," Merlin opened his eyes and gave Arthur a look that showed he appreciated his friend's attempt at cheering him up. Merlin felt slightly better now, he had adjusted to his new limited form of breathing and his head had stopped spinning. With Arthur's help and a short return of his spinning head he was able to prop himself up against the wall and take in Arthur's leg injury.

"What happened?" Merlin quietly asked. Arthur gave Merlin a look which showed how annoyed he was at Merlin disobeying his order but answered,

"I tried to escape and the guard got me with his crossbow. The arrow must have been dipped in something because I passed out and the next thing I know I was back in here." Merlin gave Arthur a sympathetic look before saying,

"Give me your leg and that bucket," Merlin was used to bossing his master around. Arthur didn't really want Merlin working while he was still in so much pain but he was relieved that Merlin was feeling better, so he moved his leg and the bucket of water over to Merlin and braced himself. Sure enough the first thing Merlin did, without warning, was pull the arrow out of his leg in one swift movement. Arthur let out a yell but quickly regained his self-control and settled on expressing his pain through his sharp breaths.

"Sorry," Merlin echoed Arthur's word from before, but Merlin was obviously more used to hurting people in order to help them through his work with Gaius.

"S'okay," Arthur breathed out in one breath in an attempt to hide his pain. It didn't work. Merlin rolled his eyes slightly at Arthur still not wanting to appear weak. Merlin dabbed at the wound with his soaked neckerchief and then used it to bandage Arthur's leg.

"It's not too bad," Merlin said to a stunned Arthur.

"Not too bad!" Arthur replied disbelievingly.

"Well, they could have injured you a lot worse, or killed you. It looks like they tried their best not to injure you too badly," they exchanged dark knowing glances. They were going to hurt Merlin instead.

"Thank you Merlin," Arthur said, examining Merlin's expert bandaging, even with only a neckerchief to work with. Merlin didn't reply, he looked like he was about to fall asleep.

"Come here," Arthur ordered. Arthur propped himself against the wall with his good leg next to Merlin and gestured for Merlin to use it as a pillow. Merlin laid down as he was told and settled his head on Arthur's lap. Arthur seemed to have suddenly realised the closeness of the situation and quickly cut in,

"This is between us. No one else can know that a king was used as a pillow by a servant." Arthur declared in his pompous king voice. Merlin smiled a little as he looked at the two guards who had been watching their every move before drifting into an uneasy sleep.

Both the boys spent a restless night with both their injuries and the growing dread as morning drew near of what Liam had in store for Merlin. The guards had replaced their drinking water after they had put so much blood in their last lot and they were both awake and sharing a drink when Liam walked in the next morning.

"Good morning," he said vaguely as he watched one of guards hurry over and train their crossbow on Merlin just as he had done the previous day. Liam unlocked the cell gate and grabbed Merlin by the scruff, pulling him out of the cell. Merlin stood as tall as his broken rib would allow him, never taking his eyes off Liam's and refusing to be bullied.

"I do hope you enjoyed the injuries I bestowed upon you yesterday," Liam taunted, eyeing Merlin's swollen nose and bruised eyes. Merlin remained quiet, not wanting to give Liam what he wanted.

"You're not going to talk to me? That's okay, I don't need information from you," Liam turned to give a look to Arthur while Merlin contemplated the irony of those words.

"So, little king, tell me where Emrys is and no more harm will come to your friend here," Arthur looked so torn, it killed Merlin a little. He had no information to save Merlin with, even if he wanted to.

"So be it," Liam looked almost happy that Arthur hadn't talked, like he had been looking forward to whatever it was he was about to do to Merlin. He pulled a knife out of the boot which was still stained with Merlin's blood while the other guard, Neil, came over and pushed Merlin into a chair. Neil started to untie Merlin's right shoe, completely perplexing Merlin, while Arthur had started to yell for Liam to stop. When Merlin's shoe had been removed Neil moved around to the back of the chair and held Merlin's shoulders, keeping him in place. As Liam started to kneel Merlin realised what was coming. He screwed up his eyes and looked away, not wanting to struggle for fear of losing more than just a toe. Merlin felt the cold steel touch his toe as Liam lined it up and then in one go Liam pushed down hard, sending the blade straight through flesh and bone, cutting off Merlin's smallest toe. Merlin couldn't help but yell as the pain started to pulse through his foot.

Liam picked up the toe and walked over to Arthur to give him a closer look.

"This is his smallest toe, but he has nine more, most of which are bigger and would take a bit more time and effort to remove. I can keep going and put your friend through more pain, leaving him unable to walk properly ever again, or you can tell me where Emrys is."

Arthur was thinking as fast as he possibly could, trying to find some way of stopping this torture. Something suddenly came to him and in his desperation he failed to consider the consequences.

"Okay! Okay, I'll tell you where to find Emrys" Arthur said, making Liam's face light up in triumph and Merlin's in shock. "He lives in a house on the northern outskirts of Nadir." Merlin realised what Arthur was doing and was momentarily relieved to be escaping imminent pain.

"Nadir?" Liam echoed thoughtfully. "I will go and investigate this Nadir but I will tell you this. If I find out the information you have given me is false I may just slip some valuable information to the Lady Morgana; say, the location of some Camelot knights who are out in search of their king?" With that he stormed from the room, while the guards to threw a bleeding Merlin back into the cell with a dazed Arthur.

Dun dun dun! Lol, thank you everyone yet again for favouriting, reviewing and following, I know I say it every chapter but it really does keep me writing! I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)