Hi Friends! Sorry for the giant break but I was really busy last week and the total lack of reviews really threw me off. I come bearing great news, I finally found a way to connect my laptop to the internet while I'm at my cottage! Victory is mine!
Anyways, thanks to the very few people who did review the last chapter (It was my favourite chapter so far too) and to the people who voted on my poll.
Whatever, on with the fic!
Wisegirl6

Chapter 6 ~The Ambush

"And so concludes our meeting for the day," said Arthur loudly. He could almost hear some of the council members sigh happily as they were allowed to leave the throne room. Arthur himself let out a breath he was almost positive that he'd been holding throughout the entire session. They were beyond boring now that he wasn't here anymore. Arthur and him would always shoot glances at each other like, 'can you believe this?' whenever someone's speech was long or unimportant.

The King stood up suddenly and started for the door, George trailing at a respectful distance behind him. He tried to shake himself of the traitorous thoughts as he strode through the corridors to his chambers.

I ran him through with my sword and dumped his body in a Mercian lake.

Arthur gritted his teeth as the memory hit him. It didn't faze him, though. He was much too used to hearing that certain man's voice and feeling the raw emotion that it always brought on.

"Sire, are you alright?" inquired George, who even though sounded concerned, managed to sound respectful and reserved at the same time.

Arthur took his sweet time before answering. "Just fine."

That was the way it was now with the King and his servant. Before, when Merlin had been Arthur's manservant, the two were good friends. But after Merlin... left Arthur had wanted a servant that would do what he was told and shut up. Someone who would take orders and not question them. Who wouldn't care if the King dropped off of the face of the earth. It was either Merlin or no one at all. But since the King needed a manservant he decided to take up someone who was the exact opposite of Merlin, which is why he had George.

Arthur really hated George. Not because of his willingness to do almost anything, or the fact that he spoiled the King rotten, or the way he would just stand by, stoic and uncaring whenever Arthur was struggling with something, it was everything that George stood for, that Merlin wasn't, and couldn't, be there for him ever again.

"You can leave now, George," Arthur called over his shoulder as he continued on to his chambers. "I will not be needing your services tonight." He heard George murmur 'yes sire' before walking down the hall in the opposite direction.

You should have heard him beg, 'please don't kill me, please!'

By then Arthur had already reached his chambers and was sitting silently on the side of his four-poster bed. His breathing became ragged and his head sunk into his hands as that day came back to him in flashes.

The knights had cornered the...

No, he needed to stop dwelling in the past. As the King of Camelot his people expected him to look to the future, not reflect on the past. Yet, it was so hard to forget. That one day had changed Arthur's life, and not for the better. He would have given anything to change the tides on that one horrible evening. Maybe Merlin would still be here with him if he'd taken a different course of action.

The stop in the city had given the slave traders time to get a head start and...

Even after two years the thought was too horrible to even finish in his head.

It was then that Arthur became aware of exactly how exhausted he was. He felt as if the weight of the world was upon his shoulders and the only way to relieve himself of the burden would be to go to sleep. But, as amazing as the idea sounded, he just couldn't bring himself to go to bed. He just couldn't relive that again.

After the incident Arthur had been plagued with nightmares night after night. There was no way of stopping them, Gaius had tried everything. There was nothing Arthur could do, either live through that same scene over and over again or just not sleep. The King had known that staying awake for the rest of his life just wasn't an option.

After a while the nightmares had gotten better, but after a really bad day they were almost always there.

Arthur was almost afraid to sleep, if he had been experiencing flashbacks while he was awake he didn't even want to know what would happen when he wasn't. The King sat there for awhile. But then, almost as if against his will, he found himself leaning backwards on his soft bed and letting the darkness claim him.

The knights had cornered the slave traders in a small clearing just outside of Lot's Kingdom. For the past two weeks Arthur had been tracking them, Hell-bent on rescuing his friend.

The young King wanted nothing more than to smash all of their heads in until he had gotten to Merlin, but Leon and the knights decided to take a more strategic approach.

The knights and their King hid in the forest around a small dirt path, awaiting the slave trader's arrival.

A grieving mother. Sara, whose son had also been taken by the same traders had informed the royal that the slavers, led by the fearsome Askandar, had passed through their village not days before. She had recognized immediately as the same people who had sold her son Peter. 'I hope you succeed in rescuing your friend, Sire. Because if not you will forever remember their faces, they will be engraved in your mind from that moment on.' The woman had sounded so sad and utterly hopeless that Arthur had had no clue what to do. She was obviously someone whose entire life had been ripped away by those cruel men.

Arthur tensed in the bushes, hearing the sound of someone, or a lot of someones, coming down the path. The plan was to cut the slavers off and ambush them from all sides. Arthur though it was ironic considering how they'd captured Merlin in the first place.

As soon as the first trader appeared the knights were upon them. Arthur sprang into the fight, unsheathing his golden sword. The slave traders were caught completely off guard and almost unable to defend themselves at all. Within minutes of their attack most of the mercenaries had either fled with whatever they could carry, or slaughtered where they stood.

Arthur pulled his sword from the back of a fallen slave trader in time to see one of the knights, Gwaine, hoist a wounded man up from the ground by his long overcoat. The young King didn't really care, so what if he was giving the man a piece of his mind; maybe roughing him up a bit.

Arthur wanted to do exactly the same thing.

The king walked forwards so that he was just behind Gwaine and his captive. Sara's accurate description as well as his past knowledge from fighting the same man when they had kidnapped Merlin immediately made Arthur recognize him as the leader of the troupe, Askandar.
Arthur felt his blood boil in outrage. This was the man that had orchestrated this entire plan to capture his manservant. Even though they probably hadn't meant for Merlin to be their target they had still stolen him away from his life without a second thought.

"Tell me where he is!" The shout broke through Arthur's contemplation. "Where is he?" snarled Gwaine, fury etched into every line of his usually carefree face.

It took Arthur a moment to realize who the knight was referring to, but it soon became obvious. He cursed himself mentally for forgetting the entire reason that he was out here in the first place: Merlin. The King hadn't once looked for him since the attack had started.

Askandar decided to play dumb. "Who?" he gurgled, a few drops of scarlet blood falling from his lips to stain the ground. The man was injured badly, probably dying. A wound like that through the stomach would give him only a few more precious minutes of life.

"My servant," hissed Arthur through clenched teeth. "You and your men attacked our patrol and captured him two weeks ago." He stepped forward so that he towered above Askandar, who was still being half held up by Gwaine.

The knight raised the slave trader higher in the air and brought Askandar's face close to his. "I'm not going to ask again," he said, venom dripping from every word. "Where. Is. Merlin?"

Askandar blinked. A moment of silence passed before his face broke into a wide, sadistic grin. "Oh, him," he laughed. "You should have heard the way he begged me, 'Please don't kill me, please I'll do anything!'" he mocked them, making his voice unpleasantly high.

"Where is he?"

Askandar pulled his face away from Gwaine's and looked directly at Arthur. "He was too much trouble. Not worth it. I ran him through with my sword and dumped his body in a Mercian lake."

The King stumbled back as if struck, Merlin, cheeky, sarcastic, annoying Merlin, was dead?

The King bolted upright in his bed in Camelot. "It was just a nightmare," he repeated to himself quietly. Sadly, it was a nightmare that didn't stop plaguing him once he woke up.

Awwww, I feel kinda bad for Arthur, nah jk I don't. Lol. Anyways, I might be updating more this week because I'm at my cottage and its really cold, mostly. So please check out my new community here on Fanfiction, its called The Best Of The Merlin Archive and it has EVERYTHING, slash, romance, crack, gen, everything.
Also, don't forget to vote on the poll on my profile because it decides which story I will write after Wayward.

Please tell me what you think, love it? Hate it? Wanna marry it? Want it to die painfully? Do tell. PLEASE REVIEW!

Thanks for reading,
Wisegirl6