Luckily, only two villages had informed very searious infections. Plus Camelot. But at last they didn't need to travel around every single one of the lower villages. Other villages had had only less searious infections, so the village's own physician was abel to take care of them.
But they got information from Ehia and Aldor about really strong flue, that had got Gaius's attention. The court physician had backed his own medical back to Merlin and send the boy for his mission. Of course Arthur wanted to go with him. He wanted to make sure that the villagers were allright. But Merlin had a funny feeling. He was pretty sure that Arthur wanted also make sure that Merlin was safe. Funny, because the prince knew that Merlin was very capable to take care of himself.
And because the prince was going, Uther had demanded that the knights will go too to make sure that the prince was safe. Uther didn't care about Merlin's safety, but in this situation it was really important to get the court phusician's apprentice in the village alive. Because if he didn't make it, the sickness would influenced the whole kingdom. That would be really bad, if the whole kingdom falls just because of one epidemic.
It was already dark when Merlin and the knights arrived to Ehia. They all were exhausted after riding the whole day but now they could finally rest. Well, knights could rest, Merlin have to start his mission immediately. They have to do this as quick as possible so they could contiune to the next village. They waited if someone was coming to welcome them, but the village seemed almost deadly guiet.
"Are the all villagers got sick or are they already sleeping?" Leon asked wonderingly. The whole village couldn't be sleeping at this time of the day. Usually at this time people were running their last duties before going to sleep. Now the village was completely silent.
"We shouldn't be here", Merlin whispered so quietly that it was really hard to hear. The knights turned to look at him. The raven haired man had felt really uncomfortable the whole trip, but his magic hadn't warned him about a danger. But in the village his magic told him that there was somethig seariously wrong.
"You are such a girl, Merlin..." Arthur said, but he seemed tensed. Every time when Merlin said something was wrong, something bad happend. That was some kind of unwritten rule. "Swords ready."
The knights came down from saddles and took their swords. They were ready.
"Search every single one of these buildings", the prince said at the same time when the knights split up and shecked all the closest houses. There was no one in none of the buildings. Only blood. Lots of, lots of blood.
"What the hell happend here..?" Elyan whispered as he looked into a house, where was blood on the table and the walls, but not a single body. Lancelot looked into the house over the dark-skinned man's shoulder.
"It's impossible to say. But more important: Where are all the villagers? Are they still alive and who did this?" Lancelot said quietly when they returned to Merlin and the horses. The other knights were coming back too.
"Not a living soul. Only blood and more blood", Percival reported. The knights seemed to get even more tense, but no-one was as shocked as Arthur. These were his people and he had no idea what had happend to them. His duty was keep his people safe. It was his responsebility as the prince and as a knight. Now he felt like he had led down the people of Ehia.
"We stay here for a night. We can't help anybody at dark and if we are too tired to fight. But because that what had attaced in here may return, we all must sleep in the same building. In watch, there will always be at last two people. No-one is allowed to go anywere alone. Is that understood?" Arthur gave the orders and everyone agreed to them. The knights left in groups of two to move more beds in one house, where wasn't that much blood as the others. No-one would need these beds for this night, so it would be okay to borrow those and make them feel as comfortable as possible. Arthur tuned to Merlin, who stayed to take care of the horses.
"You knew about this. You saw a dream about what happend here, right?" the blonde asked, but he didn't seem to blame the warlock. In fact he sounded like he was blaming himself. Merlin avoited the prince's eyes.
"I wasn't sure what it was, but after the nightmare, I felt like I really didn't want to came here anymore. Just like something bad was about to happen. But my magic didn't feel any black magic, so I didn't believe that my dream was true. Only now I can feel the magic, but it's not strong. It's floating in the air like really thin mist. Weak, but still there", the warlock said as he took the horses' saddles. After placeing the last saddle on the ground, he turned to face the prince.
"Don't blame yourself. What ever this is, this is not your fault. This is some kind of reasult of using wrong spell to heal a epidemic. And you don't have any part of this. You protect your people best if you start look for a cure and not fall into self pity. You don't have power to see future so you would have knew this would happen and even if you had that kind of power, there would not have been any way to stop this", Merlin said firmly. That made Arthur's feel of quilt ease a lot. Blonde seemed to show something that looked almost a smile.
"Sometimes I almost think that you are wise, Merlin. But then I remember how many times you had knocked your self down by an accident", Arthur grinned. It was his way to thank Merlin about his advise.
"And sometimes I mistake to think you are a clot-pole. But then I remember that you are a clot-pole", Merlin said back while he let horses be free in a small cow fence. There wasn't much space but at last the animals could laid down and sleep if they wanted. The horses could rest before they have to travel again.
"Will we go back to Camelot or will we go to Aldora at the morning?" Merlin asked as he gave some hay to horses. He gave some to cows too, so there would not be fight of food. They should propably let the cows out of the fence when they were leaving, so the cows could look after themselfes while their owners were missing.
"We will go to Aldora, to see if there has been attacks. And if there is, we safe the ones who are still alive. If not, we warn them and make sure that they are ready to defeat them selfs. However, we must go back to Camelot as soon as possible before this dicease arrives everywhere", Arthur said while he tought how quickly this epidemic spread. In Merlin's dream, it speared when people were bitten. So maybe it was in spit. And it was spearing quickly. If you think that at the beginning there was one person sick. Then she bite one other person. There was two people sick. Then they bouth bite one other person. There was four. Four becomes eight. Sixteen... And now it was at last twelve hours when a whole village has got sick and ran to other villages to influance them all. It would be quickly all over the Albion.
"Come, we must look for something to eat before the dark", Arthur said trying not to thing that there would be someone, who was being eaten at the moment. It was the worst end to everyone and Arthur didn't wish even his worst enemies to meet their end like that. Merlin made sure that animals were okay before he ran after Arthur.
Arthur and Merlin looked randomly into one house. After making sure that there wasn't blood thirsty undeath body behind the door, they stepped inside the house and started to look for something to eat.
"Here is some porridge with extra flavour of blood", Merlin raported after peeking in one pot. The boys looked at each other with nervous look. They didn't need to say outloud why they wouldn't eat that blood-porridge even if it was the last food in the village. If the illness spared in the split, it might speare in blood too. Besides it felt disgusting to eat porridge where was more likely it's cooker's blood in it. Not very tempting.
"Let's go to check the village's other side. Maybe there is something that hasn't been filled with blood", Arthur said turning back to the door. Merlin nodded shortly and took his leave after Arthur.
Merlin saw it only for a blink of an eye from the window, but it was enough for him. He quickly pulled Arthur away from the door, forsing him to sit down on the floor with him. Arthur seemed frightened and annoyed when he looked at the warlock.
"What on earth are you..." the blonde started, but Merlin put his hand over Arthur's mouth looking scared. Arthur didn't even protest because now he heard it too: someone or something was moving right behind the door. Heavy, raw breath told them, that the door between them and the thing was so thin that even the sounds came through it like it was only paper. The limping steps stopped right behind the door but the breathing became quicker, like the creature was trying to smell the boys.
Arthur's heart jumped so fast that it was really painful. His grip of his sword became tighter when the creature hold it's breath like it was trying to hear them now. Merlin was sure that it heart his and Arthur's heards pumping like crazy. Or at last it heart their heavy breaths. They bouth jumped when they heard the creature start breathing again and it was moving back and front behind the door. What the hell it was doing?
Arthur looked at Merlin with guestioning look. It hadn't left, but it wasn't right behind the door anymore at last. Was it about to take its leave?
Arthur cried out of the pain and from shock when the door suddenly flew open and hit him on his back. The only thing that he could do, was try to bush back. Merlin was frozen of horror. The door had broken because of the hit and couple of the planks had fallen off. About 30-years-old man's bloody face looked at them with so much anger and hungry. His bloody hand was trying to catch Arthur from everywere it ever could. It seariously put everything it had so it could reach the prince and pull him closer, so it could eat Arthur's fresh meat. Arthur looked at the raven hair.
"Don't just stare there, do something!"
Merlin jumped. He was really powerfull warlock, of course he could beat one living corpse. He just didn't have any idea of any kind of spell that could kill something that was already dead.
Without thinking or saying any spells, his eyes turned to gold. The monster flew back and crached on the fall of house other side of the street. Merlin took his chance and pulled Arthur away wrom the broken door just in time when the beast ran back to them. This time it just ran thourgh the door like it was nothing.
Arthur rised his sword and pulled Merlin behind his back to safety. The boys moved away from the creature as far as they could. But the house was really small. They didn't have any place to run. They were trapped.
The monster yelled with its raw voice when it started to ran towards the boys. Arthur hit it with his sword right through its stomach but the beast didn't seem to even notice it. It crapped from Arthur's shoulders, trying to pull him closer to its mouth. The prince had his hands full when he tried to stay away from the zombie's teeth.
"Àcwele!" Merlin shout the spell as loud as he could. His eyes turned gold again when his magic attaced the beast. Merlin usually tried not to use his powers with all streight so it would be hidden from Arthur, but now the prince knew about his magic and he was in danger. The moster must be destroyed.
The living body actually explored when the magic hit it. The blood flew away from Arthur, just like Merlin had hoped. Arthur pulled his sword out of the chopped body and took couple steps back breathing heavily.
"Is it really dead?" the knight asked skeptically. That thing had woken up from the death before, it wouldn't be impossible for it to do that again.
"It's hard to say, but at last it won't be able to bite without its head. Or move without hands and legs", the warlock said also breathing heavily. He couldn't bring himself to remember when he had been this scared before. Luckily the zombie stayed dead this time.
Merlin looked at Arthur with worry. If the prince was bitten, it would be his fault. Merlin was the one who had frozen in middle of the battle. The blonde looked at his hands too, but all the blood was the creature's
"I'm fine, it didn't bite me", the prince said. Then he turned to look at the corpse. Or at last what was left from it. "Do you think that there is more this kind of suprises in this village?"
"It is possible. Look at this leg", Merlin pointed at the zombie's off ripped foot that it has been limbing before. The leg has been bitten almost completely off. "This wound is about two or three hours old. That means that who ever this person was, he was able to survive from these monsters many hours. But eventually he was attacked..."
Merlin jumped when he heard steps coming closer to them. This time it was the knights instead of a zombie. Merlin didn't remember when he had been this relieved of seeing the knights.
"Are you allright?" Elyan asked after looking at the corpse with disgusting on his face. The sight wasn't bretty at all. The warlock and the prince nodded.
"We should go to sleep already. We look for the food when it's not dark anymore. Here might be more these bastards so it's best if we are together when it's really dark", Arthur said when he leated his men back to cottage, that had became theirs for this night.
Merlin made the last, apologizing look on to the corpse. After all, it had been a person just hours ago. Person who might have seen how his whole family was being eaten alive right in front of his eyes. And he couldn't do anything. Then hours later ending up to be this kind of monster himself too.
But there was no time to grive. Now it was time for action. The warlock turned to follow the knights. This night would be long and sleepless.