Hey Friends! I finished writing chapter 11, which means that I'm updating the story! Yay!
I would just like to take the chance to say oh my gosh! You guys are AMAZING! Never have I gotten so many reviews for just the 2nd and 1st chapters of my story! Keep it coming people!
So I forgot to say, this story takes place in the absolutely enormous time gap between seasons 4 and 5. Just in case you were wondering ;D
Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't know about you people but I don't own Merlin
Wisegirl6
Chapter 3 ~Cavell's Fortress
The were dragging Merlin across the ground by his bound hands when he regained conciousness again. He felt sore and stiff all over. His head and shoulders ached from their constant blows and being slammed into the bars of his cage. Merlin's wrists were rubbed raw and bloody by the shackles that encircled them.
The trader, the same one that had initially knocked him out and kidnapped him, held the end of his chain and pulled him across the rough stone-strewn ground. Every pebble that came into contact with Merlin's body felt like a knife carving into his skin.
Finally, after five minutes of just letting the trader pull him along, Merlin stood up and let the trader lead him to a fortress that loomed above them. It was tall and black, with a large wall that circled the outside, almost like a castle. Merlin guessed this was where they were taking him.
The slave traders paid no attention to Merlin as he walked alongside them. Now would be a perfect time to enact any escape plans that he might have. But Merlin just wasn't up to performing magic; he was in pain, tired, lost, and utterly hopeless. In his current state any magic that he did would probably end up doing more damage to him then the slave traders. And where would he go after that? He had no clue where he was and knew that he wouldn't be able to outrun the traders in his current condition.
With a rough tug from the trader leading him Merlin pitched forward onto the ground. His already ripped clothes caught on stones and dirt, just ruining what Merlin was wearing even further.
The traders around him laughed. Their taunting laughs almost reminded him of Arthur. But these people weren't going to help him, they weren't going to remember him after they sold him, they didn't care about him. They just wanted a bit of free humor to go with their money.
Merlin suddenly felt like crying. His entire life had gone down the drain with that one stupid patrol. He would probably never get out of here and spend the rest of his life as a slave. Merlin was never going back to Camelot. He would never see Arthur again, or Gwen, or Gaius, or Gwaine, or his mother, or any of his friends.
"Get him up!" said Askandar as he doubled back to check on his 'ware'. "Cavell wants us there before nighttime."
Two slavers came up behind Merlin and hoisted him to his feet.
Merlin grudgingly started shuffling along.
After a few more hours of walking they finally reached the outer wall of the fortress. The sun was low in the sky and the incoming darkness just added to the gloom of the place.
A couple of black-clothed guards stood at the front gates. Wordlessly, one of them signalled to the drawbridge keeper, a frail old man, to raise the portcullis. Slowly, it receded, making groaning and squeaking sounds the entire time.
Askandar waited for the trader leading Merlin along to catch up with him before holding his hand out. "Give 'em to me. I'll be going with just Markus and Cobalt."
Merlin watched as his chains exchanged hands. He glared up at his captor. Hopeless or not, he was still going to fight until his last breath.
Askandar responded with a sneer and began pulling him along.
They walked into the fortress' courtyard. Like the outside, everything was made from large black stones. Servants, slaves he corrected himself mentally, were bustling about with their heads down. They were much too thin and wore faded and torn rags.
Merlin wondered exactly how many slaves this Cavell had. The guards at the gate had recognized Askandar pretty quickly, were all these people victims of them and their greed? How often did he sell the owner of this fortress slaves?
The slaves all looked at Merlin with pity.
He just looked back at them sadly as Askandar pulled him up the stairs and into the actual building itself, which was just as foreboding-looking as everything else.
Cavell met them just inside the doors. He was a tall and thin man, with short brown hair and steely gray eyes. He wore standard noble attire, deep red in colour. In retrospect he looked pretty young, only a few years older than Arthur, over 30 at least.
The woman next to Cavell was shorter by a foot at least and had long, styled black hair and intense blue eyes. She wore a silky, sky coloured dress to compliment her eyes.
Askandar pushed Merlin to his knees in front of the two nobles. "Lord Cavell, My Lady."
"Ah, Askandar, It's good to see you," Cavell said with a cold smile. His voice was cruel and seemed to drawl on longer than any other person Merlin had ever met. "The last three you dropped off didn't make it through the first week." His smile changed to something closer to anger.
Askandar visibly shrank back. "I'm sorry, M'Lord. But, I can promise you that this one will be worth every penny spent." He kicked Merlin hard in the side, earning a small grunt of pain.
Cavell gestured to the lady beside him, "Isobel, would you like to look him over for me?"
She stepped forwards with her hands clasped tightly behind her back. Isobel bent down beside Merlin so that they were face to face.
Now that she was closer Merlin could see how much she resembled Cavell. Isobel didn't physically look like him but she had the same hard look to her eyes and cold edge to her voice. Appearances can be deceiving after all.
Isobel reached her hand out and gripped the bottom of Merlin's chin, tilting his head from side to side. "Stand up," she ordered.
Merlin did as he was told, shakily getting to his feet.
Isobel looked him over like she was gauging a pig for slaughter. She walked a full circle around him before looking back at Cavell. "This one should be fine."
Cavell nodded his approval at her choice.
The last thing Merlin saw before blacking out again was Isobel's eyes flashing gold and Askandar's smiling face as he was handed a satchel of coins.
Merlin had deja vu. It seemed like he was being knocked unconscious all too frequently.
This time, however, he was indoors, in a small black stone room, chained to a chair in the center.
Directly in front of him stood Isobel, in all of her terrifying cold beauty.
"You have magic?" he managed to choke out after a while.
Isobel's expression was unchanging. "I do."
Merlin supposed that made sense. They illegally kept slaves, why couldn't they have an illegal sorceress as well?
Her voice changed immediately, hardening like stone," My husband and I have an unusual method for dealing with slaves here." Isobel began pacing the room, walking slow, calculating circles around her prisoner.
It took a second for the information to sink in, Isobel was Cavell's wife! Merlin found that hard to believe because of the age difference between them, Cavell was almost old enough to be her father!
Isobel, unaware of the turmoil of thoughts in Merlin's head, continued speaking, "I could easily bend the slaves to my will by breaking them, But Cavell though that would be unnecessary. He thinks that slaves are much better when they have a mind to fight, when they aren't empty. What use to us is a slave who can't feel?"
Merlin had no clue where the sorceress was taking this conversation but he found himself almost leaning forward in his seat to hear more.
"So I came up with an alternative."
Merlin's breathing was ragged as two guards dragged him to a small cell in the underground of the castle. Apparently being a slave meant sleeping in the dungeon too here.
His thoughts were forced back to the scene that had unfolded in that little black stone room. He didn't want to know what she had done to him, but Merlin knew that it wasn't good.
The guards locked the door behind him as they shoved him through a narrow hole in the wall that was meant to be a door.
Merlin could hear them as they tramped back down the hallway.
Immediately he was on his feet again. He needed to know what that witch had done, what that spell had meant. "Hello?' he called softly to the cell across from him.
A man's face appeared in the small window at the top of his door. He looked up at Merlin skeptically. "Are you new?"
Merlin nodded, "Do you know what Isobel did to me?"
"Did you swear anything?"
Merlin wasn't sure what the question meant. He opened and closed his mouth several times before the man cut him off.
"I said, did you swear anything? Did she ask you to do something and you said yes?" the man asked again, more forcefully this time.
"What does it mean if I did?"
The man looked somber,"You sold that witch your soul."
Yeah, I personally really like the ending to that chapter. It's awesome. Anyways thanks for reading!
Don't forget to review! More reviews means faster updates!
Wisegirl6
P.S. Sorry for the mix up with the story dialogue. There was supposed to be a line-break in between two sentences to show a time skip. Sorry if that confused you!