Chapter 6: Change of Plans
I'm sorry this chapter has taken so long to get up. Been watching more Merlin interviews then episodes and have been laughing my head off to much to write haha Plus busy weekend, no time to write. I'll try and update more often this week, but we'll see how that goes. I wasn't expecting to put this up tonight, but luckily I can't sleep so this chapter is going up two days early! Haha
Please read the little notes at the bottom before the spell translations. Some important stuff I explain better there.
Disclaimer: I think you get the picture now. I don't own anything even closely related to Merlin.
"We must be prepared for tomorrow night." Morgana announced.
She stood in front of a group of people. A few looked like common bandits, a few others looked like soldiers, but most looked like the common everyday people, if you ignored the hooded capes.. Most of the group—about ten to twenty people, give or take—where men, though five women stood together off to the side looked at Morgana with disgust, as well as hints of envy. The men, most of them at least, didn't look pleased to be listening to orders from a woman, but none rose to say anything against her.
"The knights of Elmet* will be ready, Lady Morgana." One of the knights announced, holding his hand up dramatically to his heart.
Morgana grinned slightly and nodded at him. She hadn't questioned whether or not the army of Elmet would get involved. She had known beyond a shadow of a doubt that they would. Elmet, like most of the kingdoms of the divided Albion, wanted nothing but power and more land. Camelot, with its new young king, was ripe for the picking, especially for so small a kingdom as Elmet.
The five women all glanced at each other before nodding as one. One, dressed in armor as if she were a knight as well, took a step forward and met Morgana's eyes.
"The Warriors of Bernicia** will be waiting tomorrow." The woman said with a stiff nod.
Morgana nodded back just as stiffly. She was glad to have the fierce tribe of women warriors on her side, but they made her nervous. She wasn't going to turn her back on them, that was for sure. She could see the envy in their eyes, and though it made her happy—in a strange, cruel sort of way—to be envied for being powerful, it made her nervous as well. Not that she would admit that of course.
A man in a scarlet cloak stood up, folding his hands carefully and slowly inside the folds of his to-large cloak. He looked around at his fellow members in cloaks. He looked around at his fellow men in cloaks, earning a nod from each of them. He then turned back to Morgana and spoke.
"We of the outcast Druids will gladly and proudly be by your side in the attack against Camelot."
Morgana's cruel smile grew across her face. Of all those gathered, she had wanted the Druids the most. Outcasts for wanting to bring magic back to the land through violence, they weren't afraid to use any means necessary to achieve their goal. Which was exactly why Morgana wanted them on her side.
"We will meet…" Morgana started to say, before a piercing pain began in her head.
She gasped and grabbed at her temples, falling to her knees as the pain increased. It felt as if her head was tightening, pressing in on her, killing her from the inside out. She gasped again, this time in relief as the pain all but disappeared.
"What are you doing to me?" She asked, not realizing she wasn't speaking out loud.
"My Queen," Morgana recognized the voice as that of Merlin. "We have trouble."
"What kind of trouble? How are you talking to me?" Morgana asked as she kneeled on the floor in front of the group of people, eyes staring blankly at all of them.
"I found a spell that lets the caster talk to whoever he calls for." Merlin explained the second question first. "Gaius and Gwaine are suspicious. They believe I am enchanted and are planning to prove it somehow to Arthur."
"How did you find this out?" Morgana asked, anger seeping into her voice.
"I overheard them talking." Merlin answered.
"How long ago?"
"About ten, fifteen minutes."
Morgana didn't say anything for a few moments as she got lost in her thoughts. She could see the people moving around her and all but the Druids seemed concerned, though not overly concerned. As her thoughts began to fall into place, one thought suddenly forced itself to the front. Conversation spells were extremely hard and took powerful magic to perform. Her eyes widened and her eyebrow rose slightly as she realized Merlin must be more powerful than she had at first thought. Setting that aside for the time being, she finalized her immediate plans.
"This changes things." She said, still not realizing that she was talking in her mind and not out loud. "Be at the gate at midnight tonight. Your orders are as before, just moved up to tonight. We can't risk Arthur finding out. One day might be too long."
"As you wish my Queen."
Morgana smirked and rose to her feet as the connection ended. She looked out over the group of people who were all looking at her in curiosity. Her smirk grew bigger as she began to settle their curiosity.
"There has been a change of plans."
*According to the Merlin wiki page, Elmet is one of the kingdoms in Albion and since I don't remember ever hearing of it or it being mentioned in the show, I figured I'd use it in this story. Since it hasn't been mentioned (And there was nothing about it on the page) I'm going to just make stuff about Elmet up. If anyone has any real information on it, feel free to share. If no one knows anything about it, then I guess I'm safe making stuff up about it haha
**Ok, completely made Bernicia up, it's just a name that came up on spell check haha What it is is just a group of warrior women. That's pretty much it.