Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin.
Chapter two: The Poison of Dark Magic.
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Merlin sat on a stool beside the bed Percival was lying unconscious on, he was busy examining the snake bite on Percival arm. The poison from the snake's bite had discoloured the veins around the two puncture wounds.
Merlin had been trying spell after spell to remove the poison but nothing he tried would work, which wasn't too much of a surprise as there were hundreds of healing spells for snake bites and unless you could identify the snake, picking the right one was near impossible.
In fact between them, Alice and Gaius owned a collection of five spell books dedicated to healing snake bites and no two spells in any of the books were the same. Elyan had given them a description of what the snakes had looked like, which had helped, but not by a lot. There were about seven different types of snakes it could have been and five times as many different spells for curing their bites.
Merlin hadn't even tried half of them yet and he was beginning to get frustrated with the lack of results.
Across the room from where Merlin was sitting, Alice and Gaius were working on an antidote they hoped would slow down the poison. It was a remedy which was often used to slow the effects of most snake bites, it was a universal remedy in many respects, but it didn't cure the snake bite.
"This is no accident," Gaius shakes his head slightly as he works.
Alice nodes in agreement, "The way young Sir Elyan described the snake's behaving, is no way I have ever heard of a snake acting before."
"Sorcery," Gaius concludes.
"It is quite possible," Alice agrees. "But enchanting animals in such a way is no easy task."
Merlin glances over his shoulder at Alice and Gaius having heard their conversation. Alice was right, if the animals had been enchanted, it must have been done by someone with powerful magic. Morgana was more than capable of doing it and she had every reason to attack the Knights and Queen. But that didn't seem Morgana's style, unless...
Merlin quickly placed his hand over Percival wound, hardly noticing how Percival flinched at the contact as it caused pain to his wound. Merlin shut his eyes and concentrated and let his magic move freely.
It sent a shudder through him as his magic came in contact with the dark magic flowing through Percival's wound. Opening his eyes and jumping to his feet, Merlin hurries over to Leon and repeats the process getting the same result.
Taking a step back, Merlin thinks for a moment before quickly making his way over to one of the countless bookshelves which lined the walls of the room. It didn't take him long to find the book he was looking for.
A book about dark magic had how to treat injuries caused by it.
He flicked though the pages and it didn't take him long to find what he was looking for. A snake summoned from the ground by dark magic. The snakes which had bitten Percival and Leon hadn't been a normal snake, they had been born of earth using dark magic. And that was definitely more Morgana's style.
"There is dark magic coursing through their veins," Merlin informs Alice and Gaius, as he makes his way over to them and places the open book on the table in front of them.
"If this is true," Gaius mutters, as he looks over the page. "Then right now they should be dead."
"They were lucky." Merlin answers glancing at Percival and Leon.
"I fear there is more to it than luck." Gaius replies gravely.
Merlin shuts his eyes for a second and nodes. "Morgana?"
"She definitely has the abilities and power to cast such as spell as well as the reason to do it," Alice answers Merlin's question. "But you already believe it to be her."
"I need to tell Arthur," Merlin matters before hurrying out the door.
)o(
Merlin approached the door to Arthur and Gwen's shared chambers and he didn't bother to stop and knock, he just pushed the door open and entered. Arthur was sitting on the end of his and Gwen's bed twirling one of Gwen's hair pins between his fingers.
It was a present he had given Gwen to wear on her first public appearance as Queen, it had belonged to his mother and had been gifted to her by his father on their wedding day. Gwen had treasured it and she often wore in her hair.
"Learn to knock will you." Arthur spoke as Merlin approached him, but he didn't look up.
"Sorry," Merlin mutters. "I wanted you to know that Leon and Percival are safe. Alice and Gaius are working on antidote. They will soon be on the road to recovery."
And it was true. The page Merlin had found in the book about the snakes, had also included an antidote and both Alice and Gaius were skilled enough to make it.
"That's good news," Arthur nodes slightly.
"Arthur… There is evidence of sorcery." Merlin informs Arthur with a slight hesitation. "We suspect Morgana is involved, she is definitely powerful enough to have done this… The snakes which attacked them were summoned using dark magic."
Arthur looks up at Merlin, before glancing away and getting to his feet.
"You can go Merlin," Arthur tells Merlin as he walks over to the window.
Merlin doesn't move from where he's standing and just watches Arthur.
"I lost Guinevere once before…" Arthur mutters to himself.
"You are not going to lose her." Merlin speaks up.
Arthur glances at Merlin again, but he doesn't look convinced.
"You're not," Merlin repeats taking a step forward. "We will find her. I swear it."
Merlin holds out his hand and Arthur stares at it for a moment before clasping Merlin's hand with one of his own. Merlin smiles slightly, Arthur still had hope.
"We will bring her home," Merlin promises.
)o(
The following morning Gwen lay asleep on the forest floor, as Morgana knelt beside her. Observing Gwen more a moment, Morgana tilted her head to the side slightly before reaching forward and brushing her hand over Gwen's cheek, causing Gwen to wake with a start.
Upon seeing Morgana sitting over her, Gwen quickly forced herself to sit up and move back away from Morgana, the best she could. But it wasn't easy to do with her wrists tied together with a length of rope.
"Good morning, my lady," Morgana smirks.
"What do you want with me?" Gwen demands, ignoring Morgana's seemingly pleasant greeting.
"I thought we could play a little game," Morgana answers, the smirk never leaving her face.
Gwen glances around warily, as if she expected something to jump out and attack her right then.
"A game?" Gwen asks warily.
She still had nightmares about the time Morgana had turned her into deer and Arthur had hunted her. Was that the type of game Morgana had in mind?
"A game to find out just to find out how much Arthur loves you," Morgana get's to her feet.
"It won't work," Gwen shakes her head, realising what Morgana had in mind.
"You underestimate his feelings for you." Morgana sneers.
"He's not stupid," Gwen argues.
"We'll see." Morgana smirks once more.
"He'll know you've taken me," Gwen disagrees. "He'll know it's a trap."
"He will," Morgana all but cackles. "But he'll still come."
)o(
Hey, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I am so sorry I haven't updated this story in a while, it sort of slipped my mind. I'm aiming to update this story either tomorrow or the next day, in order to try and make up for lost time as I aim to update these stories once a week. Until next time,
Blessed be,
TreeOfLife1997.