This is long over due. However many things have got in the way, I have had far, far too much work to do and then I've been part of a play which has taken up all my time.

After episode 9 I got a tad sad with Merlin and a bit disenchanted with this, I think you'll see why. But I love this story and I hope you do to and as this is the penultimate chapter I really hope you read and review. I'm so sad this is drawing to a close and hope you all enjoy it.

Chapter 18; The Beginning of the End

Rose marvelled at the intricate stonework, the gargoyles and the beautiful stained glass windows that she understood spread a rainbow of light across the castle's courtyard when it was sunny in summer. Today however was a mild, February morning and spring had not quite yet begun. Merlin and Rose were sitting on the stone steps looking out at the courtyard, the statues, the hustle bustle of people, horses and carts and watching as life passed them by. Not that they weren't very content, they had been remembering stories – aided greatly by Rose's gifts – of their childhood and parents, of the first time they met and the last time they had spoken before Rose's parents had been killed. Passers by could hear laughter and giggling, playful shouting and hushed whispers, they could see grins and smiles and two heads close to each other discussing various secret adventures that had taken place. Merlin and Rose were in their own little bubble.

They had been recalling an adventure involving a field, a picnic and various sheep when Merlin had asked Rose about her parents. He understood that it was a delicate and sensitive topic and she needed time to compose herself, it was as she was doing this she had realised that after several months of living in Camelot she had never really looked at the castle itself, of the place she called home.

"Death isn't something anyone looks forward to."

Merlin nodded, he knew he had thought about it but not ever with joy or excitement.

"My mother could see it though, she knew her time was up, and she saw me," Rose paused and gulped down the lump that was forming in the back of her throat "She saw me burning with them."

Merlin could not imagine the pain of knowledge that you would have being confronted with the image of your own death, and then to add salt to sore wounds the image of your beloved daughter being encompassed in the flames beside you.

"She could have pleaded for my life but by that point she was disenchanted with Uther as a king and knew little good would come of it, so she packed me a bag, put it on my pack, told me she loved me and then to run.

"But I didn't, I watched from behind the trees in the forest, I saw them…"

Rose remembered it so clearly as if she was there now. She remembered the large oak tree she had hidden behind, the green foliage and brown bark keeping her safe and secret, she had remembered the way the bark felt against her palm, and how she had peered round the trunk, a cape over her dress, a pack on her back. She remembered the guards and the Knights standing by two stakes, she recalled the way her parents had been pushed, brutally out of her home, their small, humble hut and roughly guided to the assembled bonfires. How they had been tied to the wooden poles and stared at the logs beneath them. How they had kept their silence, composed, almost relaxed how they hadn't dared look into the forest but they both knew she was there.

Rose remembered the Knight stepping forward, holding the torch with his scarlet cape billowing in the wind, how his colleague had read the edict and thrown it into the pile of wood, how he had lit her father's then her mother's stakes. She remembered wondering why they weren't together, why they couldn't die next to each other. No one stepped forward and though she longed to run forward and stop it, to pull of the Knights cloak and beg him to step, to scream and cry, to pull at the burning logs with her bare hands she had been a small girl of a mere six years and had been rooted to the spot. While a few fellow villagers spat at the Knights feet and said prayers for her parents souls no one actually did anything, they simply watched as two magicians, two now banished sorcerers were enveloped by the flames.

When she had seen the light go out of her mother's eyes and the flames had reach their furthest height Rose had lifted the hood of her cloak and had run. She did not wait to see the charred remains. She did not want to go near there again. She had run and so her travels had begun. She had begun to seek Merlin.

Though she did not speak these words Merlin understood and then as if by magic he heard his name called. He heard Rose's too. So he took her hand in his, wiped the tears from her eyes and led her to the dragon.

"You cannot merely stop!"

"No, you majesty, I am asking your permission to stop."

"What if I say no?"

"Then I will stop anyway."

"Then I will raise taxes, I will raise your rent, I will make you poorer than you ever been before."

Gwen looked at Uther, a man who had grown hard and cruel, a man who had employed her in a business that she no longer wished to be a part of "If that is what you wish. For I would rather be the poorest of the poor than guilty of causing deaths."

"They deserve it! They bring it upon themselves, they are sorcerers and no good can come of magic!"

"Perhaps but I don't want to be a part of this anymore. I don't want to be responsible. I don't want to feel the way I do now."

"Then you are a fool Guinevere, I will make you scrub the floors till they gleam, I will make you tidy every single room in this castle, wash the plates until you can see your face in their reflection, turn out the stables of mess, clean the linen till it is white. I will work you hard!"

"Then I shall work hard, I will make the floors the cleanest they have been, make the beds the tidiest so no one will want to sleep in them for fear of messing them up, I will look at my guilty face in the royal crockery, make the horses more comfortable than myself and make the linen pure white. As you wish, King. I will work like a slave so long as I do not spy on others."

"Then it is settled. Be here for sunrise tomorrow and you will work hard."

"Yes, your majesty."

With that Gwen curtsied and went to leave the King's room, with the knowledge that from now on her life would be hard but she could have her dignity in tact.

"Oh and Gwen,"

She turned to face the grey haired King, his crown laid on the table ready for Arthur's head, his hands gripping his throne, for support, his face full of lines and his eyes desperate but menacing.

"They are not safe."

Gwen left the room.

She had to do something else her two friends would be killed and it would be her doing.

Merlin held the torch high above him and Rose followed the light down the numerous stairs. She knew where she was going for she had seen it; she was prepared as she could be. She held Merlin's hand and waited to find the opening to the cave, to the great dragon.

"We're here!" Merlin called out and Rose looked around her at the grey rock and heard the clanging of a chain as the dragon landed in front of her. She stared at him as he smiled at her and he laughed. She must have squeezed Merlin's hand hard as he whispered an "Ow!" and she let him go.

"At last the warlock and the witch are here."

"Don't call her that." Merlin said.

"Has she not got the power of sight, can see not see the future and the past as clearly as if it were present?"

Merlin nodded in a silent 'yes'.

"I have magic, yes." Rose spoke up.

"Indeed you do and together you two are strong. Very strong. Too strong."

"Is that what you called us here for?"

The dragon ignored Merlin's interruptions and looked at the girl. She stared him in the eye.

"You can hear it, the dripping, and the insistent sound of water. Don't ignore it, do not fight the darkness, do not cling to the light."

Merlin looked from Rose to the dragon, back and forth, trying to understand this hidden, secret message that he did not get. There was a message being passed between these two that he could not hear, could not grasp. He did not appreciate it but he knew it was significant, important. He sighed.

"Is that it?"

"That is all." The dragon conceded. "For now at least."

"I can't believe you never told me!"

"What was I supposed to say? 'Oh, and Rose there's a dragon underneath the castle and sometimes I talk to him'"

Rose giggled. She and Merlin were sitting on his bed looking at magic books.

Merlin whispered words and suddenly the candles all blew out. Rose took a sharp intake of breath. Merlin just grinned. He whispered more and more words, words of the old religion, of a secret group, words few could speak and even fewer could understand.

Soon the cupboard had opened and a sheet of linen was in the air, taking the shape of a dragon. Rose looked at it enchanted as it flew over to her and took its place in between Merlin and herself. Merlin smiled and then gently blew on it and it fell down, now a mere sheet on the bed.

"You were scared!" he teased, knowing it would gain him a reaction from Rose.

"Was not!" she retorted as there was a knock on the door. Rose's head flipped round with lightning speed to see who came through it. It was just Gaius. But Merlin was worried, he had noticed her fear when she heard the knocking, but when he asked her she simply waved it off.

Gaius poked his head round the bedroom door.

"While I'm sure you two are having a lot of fun in here Arthur said the stables are in want of cleaning and Rose if you're not busy I have some deliveries that need to be made."

Merlin and Rose nodded. They should have known the fun couldn't last for long. Least of all when it involved magic.

Merlin tried to make sure the new hay was laid out perfectly. He didn't want any ground showing, the stables had a fresher smell though it could be improved. Without thinking he muttered a spell and the stables smelt as sweet as roses.

He smiled; roses for Rose. He shook his head; he shouldn't think about her in such a way, she was like his younger sister. His best friend, she had no family and he was it, he would not jeopardise that in any way. He couldn't and he shouldn't but sometimes she caught him off guard, sometimes when they were reading books of enchantments he would look and see her intently scanning the page intently, with her eyebrows knitted together or biting her life absent-mindedly. Sometimes when she was eating her stew a bit would miss her mouth and roll down her chin, embarrassed she would wipe it away quickly and her cheeks would turn bright red but he found it rather endearing to be truthful. The way she smiled, or laughed at his stupid jokes, they way her curls bobbed while they were walking side by side, and the way she squeezed his hand in fear, they way he could share his secrets with her and open her eyes to the wonder of magic. They way he could be himself with her and no one else.

He had his doubts she felt the same way though. She could see the future, surely she would be able to see if something happened between them and surely she would have said something. As much magic as he possessed Merlin couldn't read the future and he couldn't see the past, and this frustrated him. Rose looked to him as her protector and ally, and he would not let her down. Perhaps a few years from now, when she was older and had seen all Camelot had to offer, perhaps when she had learnt all magic and they had spent nights staying up learning yet more enchantments, perhaps then something would happen. Until then he tried to push such thoughts to the back of his mind and try to contain it.

Arthur walked in to the stables and smiled at Merlin hard at work.

"Merlin, have I ever said to you how much…" Arthur breathed in and was overcome with the flowery smell "Merlin, what have you done in here?"

Merlin smiled, put his broom and fork to the side and looked at Arthur.

"You try to clean up and make the place look nice and this is what you get for your effort."

"Merlin, I did not appear to sound rude I'm sorry, it's just…why are you grinning like a fool?"

"You apologised to me. You said 'I'm sorry'!"

"Let's not get carried away here Merlin, I was merely… stop smiling!"

"You said sorry!" Merlin repeated in a sing song voice.

"Right, that's it…" Arthur ran at his friend and Merlin with a look of fear on his face legged it out of the stables, only to return a few moments later with a great number of horses following him.

"Hurt me and the horses will hurt you, Arthur."

"Don't be ridiculous Merlin I am their master"

Merlin whistled and the horses all trotted over to the appropriate areas of the stables, Merlin walked over and tied the ropes attached to them to the metal rings on the wall. Arthur looked at him in disbelief.

"While I have been mucking out I would like to think we've bonded."

Merlin grinned at Arthur.

Arthur nodded "I think we have."

With that he left and Merlin smiled, he had been talking about himself and the horses but Arthur had spoken of their bond. Merlin felt as if it was the start of their friendship. Or at least the acknowledged start.

As always with the end of her rounds and errands for Gaius Rose found herself opening Morgana's door. She was surprised not to see her friend looking up at her from their chairs by the fire; upon entering she was surprised not to see her friend at all.

"Morgana?"

Rose turned at the sound of footsteps. It was Gwen.

"Morgana's not here. She was called down by Uther just moments ago."

"Oh ok, well Gaius wanted her to have this," Rose put the vial of liquid she knew Morgana would not drink on a nearby table and looked at Gwen "That was all." Though they both knew it was not.

Gwen nodded and watched as Rose went to leave.

"I'm sorry"

It sounded as if she was apologising for Morgana's absence.

Rose pulled the door open and then turned to look at Gwen and smiled at her.

"I forgive you, Gwen."

Gwen sighed as the door clicked shut. She closed her eyes and breathed in and as she breathed out, opened her eyes and they were full of purpose.

"We have no choice." He looked at the men under his control. At the Knights he and his son had trained. He turned to his left and looked at his ward and his right at his son. "By sunrise I want her caught. If not caught then dead. This Kingdom has no place for magic and Camelot will not harbour witches."

Uther looked at his Knights as they nodded. Nothing would stop him, not this girl.

The stew was good and the atmosphere warm and cosy.

Rose looked to her right at Merlin tucking into his food and she thought of the adventures they had shared and she looked at Gaius across the table and thought of the food and home he provided her with. She smiled. Then she heard the insistent dripping, the constant run of water.

Then she heard the door bang open and looked up at Morgana who spoke the four words.

"You have to run."