THE FOREST OF ESITIA
The rain continued to fall.
Gwen was growing cold, and like everyone else was completely sodden.
The bandits stood around, glaring, as the knights remained bound on their knees.
Gwen was shoved at another bandit, who despite her struggles and fierce protests held her while another bound her wrists tightly.
Osiris, dressed in a dark hood and piercing eyes, paced around, flexing his cold white hands.
"Let her go Osiris." Leon stated.
Gwaine tossed his head angrily, "She is innocent, you can have us but leave her, she is just a woman…"
"Just a woman?" Osiris spat, spinning to glare down at them all, "She is Arthur Pendragons queen…"
The mention of her husband's name made Gwen, who was stood with her back to a bandit who was clutching at the tops of her arms, straightened and shift.
Osiris pressed on furiously, spitting at the knights, "Legend speaks of the lengths he will go to in order to save her… he who like his father outlaws those like me… without the understanding that magic is either a part of you or it is not, that it is nothing a part of you that you can just abandon."
His words made Mordred stiffen slightly and look away.
He would not be magical Mordred anymore, not when he could be accepted for his other gifts.
It was Emrys's destiny to be the sorcerer of Camelot not his.
He would to tread on the toes of a man who already did not seem to trust him if he could help it.
Whatever Mordred did Merlin seemed to think the worst…
And Mordred did not know why.
"Why are you doing this?" Percival demanded of Osiris.
The man reached for something in his pocket with a dark chuckle, walking over to the knights.
He snapped his head in the direction of Mordred and Gwaine and then at his bandits, "Bring them."
Gwaine and Mordred were heaved off of the floor and dragged over to where Gwen was standing.
Percival, Elyan and Leon, still bound on the floor in the rain, narrowed their eyes.
"When you awake…" Osiris lifted a vial of power from his palm and realised the lid, "You are to tell Arthur Pendragon these knights or his wife again, and that he has his father's torment of my people to thank for it."
All the knights, including Guinevere, straightened.
"But we aren't asleep…" Elyan narrowed his eyes.
With a firm gesture Osiris threw a fist full of the power he held at the knights, his eyes flashing gold.
Instantly they slumped into the mud, for it still rained, completely asleep.
Osiris turned back to Gwaine, Mordred and Guinevere.
"The rain will wash away our tracks." He sneered, "This may well be the last place you ever see that you recognise."
With a tainting laugh he threw powder at them, cast his spell, and they slipped into unconsciousness instantly.
Gwen's one thought was of her husband's name.
Then her world went black.
THE GREAT HALL – THE CAMELOT OF DESTINY
This time when the white light disappeared, and Eveline stood at Tanya's side in a new part of the destiny that would await the Camelot where Merlin and Tanya could love, the serving girl was in the middle of a midnight feast.
People, glinting with jewels and sneering smiles, circled one another like dogs around meat that would be as crimson as the banners that lines the walls.
The room was hot and full, and the wine was flowing more.
Knights leant close to serving girls who seemed only too pleased for the attention.
This court of Camelot was not like one Tanya had ever seen before.
The room was full of gossip, and the air was full of smoking scented candles, and heavy with tension and lust.
It did not glitter with the chivalry that Tanya was accustomed to.
As a ghost, she moved with Tanya, invisible around the edge of the room.
"It is darker, sordid..." She muttered.
Eveline nodded, "Yes. Yet it is the Camelot that legend will remember if you and Merlin love."
Tanya stiffened and stopped walking, peering across the room at the sight of the king, dressed in his crown, holding a goblet of wine, stood talking close to a woman Tanya did not recognise.
Her blood hair was glinting with gold pieces and fell around her pale skin.
She was as shallow was the rings under her eyes, and Tanya knew instantly that she was different from the queen Tanya knew in ways other than her appearance.
Eveline stopped walking too, and saw who Tanya was staring at.
"That is the Lady Vivienne." She stated, "Her father King Olaf, died in battle a few months before this time, her elder brother, who took the kingdom for his own, is away fighting in the eastern kingdom, and for her own protection Arthur has her hear in the castle…"
"Here…" Tanya gasped, knowing what Eveline was implying, "Surely not… the queen…"
"The queen knows of Vivien's adoration for her husband… she is his to command, rumour has it that the only other man she was kissed was her late husband, who died last year when on a hunt with Arthur… she is happy to lower herself to be his mistress."
"But the rumours of court…"
"Rumours tem from somewhere, but what can the queen do bar listen them talk?" Eveline glanced across the room at where the queen was stood beside the long table piled high with food.
Her hands were folded around her own goblet of wine, and while her dress was fine and of deep violet silk and pearls, it showed more flesh than Tanya had ever seen the queen of her time exhibit.
Her hair was long and flowing, ethereal in a mix of plaits and curls.
Her gown exposed her shoulders, much of her back, and her neck.
The fitted corset made her breasts swell, and showed her narrow waist, even with the loss of many pregnancies.
Tanya watched her sadly, "She looks so thin…"
"She rarely eats, and is often ill… but never the less, extraordinarily beautiful."
"Yes." Tanya whispered, turning her eyes back to where Vivienne and eh king were.
The woman had her back pressed up against one of the pillars, where the king was now leant over her shoulder.
Tanya could tell from the way that she tilted her head back that she was shifting her corset and tis contents into his gaze.
She scoffed and looked to Eveline.
"And this is what the court of Camelot has become?" She tried not to demand, "Full of mistresses, gossip and scandal, even between the king and queen?"
"Merlin abandoned much of his destiny, so great became his love for you." Eveline stated, "He is very rarely here, and Arthur has let his kingdom fall apart with his guidance… you are here even less. The queen has every few people now. A cold winter took Gaius, and war in the eastern isle took her brother Sir Elyan… with you and Merlin gone, together, I daresay she is alone and heartbroken…"
Both their eyes flitted to where Arthur chuckled at Vivienne and drained his wine goblet.
The blonde haired woman ran her tongue alone her bottom set of teeth.
"For it cannot be easy, to see her husband this way, when she loves him very much." Eveline murmured.
Sure enough, as Vivienne leant close to Arthur, a hand on his arm, Gwen stiffened and looked down at the contents of her wine goblet.
A single tear slid down her cheek and splashed into the contents.
Tanya swallowed.
The queen drew in a breath and straightened upright, the tear drying on her cheek in the heat of the room.
She forced her heart back together.
She would be strong.
She was queen after all.
"But she is his wife…" Tanya breathed in shock.
"Kings belong to their people. Not their wives." Eveline stated.
"But he loves her," Tanya pressed, "IN my time he loves her."
"He still does."
Tanya stared at her, "Then why is he like his father?"
Eveline straightened and let her eyes scan the room, inviting Tanya to do the same.
"It was Merlin's presence that brought them together, his influence and friendship that made Arthur realise that he is not his father." Eveline stated, "And it is Merlin's absence, his choice to love you with all that he is, to give his loyalty to you rather than Arthur, to make you the most important person in his life, rather than Arthur and his destiny… that will turn Arthur back into Uther's son."
Tanya straightened and stared at the king and queen, so separate, so hurt, so broken, so different…
Eveline hissed her words slightly.
"It is Merlin's love for you, his devotion, which will force them apart."
THE FOREST OF ESITIA
"Leon!"
The knight awoke with a groan to someone shaking his shoulder hard, his head smacking down in the mud, face turned towards the rain.
"Leon!"
The knight opened his eyes to see the king crouched over him, shaking him.
Leon peered around, his memory coming flooding back when he saw the rain, the mud, and the absence of the queen, Gwaine and Mordred.
Merlin was helping Elyan and Percival upright as Arthur heaved Leon to his feet.
"Where are Gwaine and Mordred?" Arthur demanded, "What happened, where is Guinevere?"
Leon took a moment to get his thoughts in order.
"We were ambushed my lord…" He said, shaking his head against the pain behind his eyes, "By a sorcerer, a man who could command the elements, he brought about this rain…"
"Osiris." Elyan stated.
Arthur glanced at him before back to Leon.
"He… He said that he would take the queen, that you wouldn't see her again, or Gwaine or Mordred… that he took them because your father killed so many sorcerers." Leon tripped over his words slightly.
"He said that the rain he created would wash away their tracks." Percival said.
Arthur snapped his head around.
A soaked Merlin nudged the mud with his boot, "well he got that right…"
"Which way did they go?" Arthur demanded, striding to where his horse was tethered.
"We do not know… sire… perhaps it would be wise to head to the citadel, gather more men, then we can, sweep the forest…" Leon suggested.
"Arthur…" merlin started, walking after the king.
A large water droplet hit his nose and he sighed heavily lifting his eyes up to the sky.
"Glarer." His eyes flashed silently gold.
The rain stopped.
Leon and the others peered around.
Arthur looked up at the sky and Merlin pretended to look as surprised as they were.
The king swallowed and set his jaw, "Leon, Percival, Elyan, go back to the citadel and make sure that Gaius gives you the all clear, then gather the patrol and have them sweep in four parts, east, north, south and west of the citadel… I will follow the road down this way, away from Camelot…"
Leon nodded and Percival did to.
Elyan did not look happy but he let it go.
Merlin swung up into his horse beside Arthur's.
The king shifted.
"If you want to continue to look for Tanya I wouldn't blame you Merlin."
The young warlock thought for a moment.
He remembered her running away from him in tears.
He shook his head and tried to smile, "I am sure she is fine…"
Arthur nodded and kicked his horse into a gallop.
Merlin sighed heavily.
"I think I have done enough."
THE GREAT HALL – THE CAMELOT OF DESTINY
Tanya and Eveline were stood by the long table that was filled with food.
The queen lifted her goblet to her lips, stretching her long neck a she straightened, pushing her breasts to swell against the top of her firm violet gown.
Her husband walked up to her side, reaching around her to lift a scrap of chicken from a plate.
"You are looking striking." He muttered, straightening and staring hard down at her, his eyes raking over every bit of her that he could see, and the promise of the parts that he couldn't.
She turned her head sharply away from him and let her eyes cast to Vivienne, who had her hands on another knight now.
"You know the gossips wonder how you could have lowered yourself to her?" She lifted one eyebrow and it burned Arthur's heart.
He pushed such feelings away.
"But then…" She laughed coldly and quietly, only to him, as she turned her eyes back on him, "I know the truth…"
"What truth?" He muttered, draining his goblet.
She hissed at him, stretching up on her toes towards him, "That there is no one in Camelot who you won't lower yourself for, my lord."
The venom she put behind the words she spat made Arthur's eyes glint.
He leant close to snarl in her ear.
Tanya watched with wide eyes they interacted.
He leant over his wife and she flinched and turned her head away a fraction, but would not step completely away.
She would not be broken like he broke her heart.
"There is not a woman in the whole of Camelot who I cannot have…" He hissed.
She glared at him as hard as she could and straightened herself, flexing her hand around her goblet.
"And as your queen there is not a man in Camelot that I cannot have."
He lifted his hand to cup her cheek, and while she flinched away, he grabbed the back of her head firmly, tangling his fingers in her hair in a way that made her close her eyes against the sting of tears.
He stared hard into her face, his voice as stony as the eyes she had once loved so much now were.
"Will you come to my chamber tonight?" He demanded in a low voice, moving his hand from her hair to trail down her bare shoulder to the open space of her back.
She swallowed as his fingers pressed hard over her skin, in a touch that had once been so gentle, and now was nothing but possessive.
"Your marriage right?" he hissed.
She swallowed and pulled back, making to sweep past him but he set his jaw and grabbed her arm hard, pulling her back to him sharply.
She gasped in pain and he held her arm tight, narrowing his eyes at her furiously.
Tanya gasped and made to step forwards by Eveline, stony faced, caught her arm.
"What…" Tanya gasped.
"What are you going to do?" Eveline hissed, "You are a ghost, invisible… say and do nothing and just watch and learn of the future that awaits you and your friends."
Tanya swallowed and looked back to the queen as Gwen tried to pull her arm from Arthur's grip.
"Arthur…" She whispered.
He pulled her harder to him.
"You are my wife, my queen, in practice and by law and you will honour me." He hissed, "You will honour me the way a wife is required to husband, and even more so her queen, is that clear?"
She lifted her eyes to stare at him.
"Yes." She whispered shakily.
He dropped his hand from her arm but immediately lifted it to cup her cheek and tilt it back so she had to look at him.
"Kiss me." He stated, "Tell me that you love me."
She swallowed and stretched up on her toes to kiss him lightly.
Tanya watched, tears in her eyes, for there was none of the passion that filled the kisses and tender gazes of the king and queen she knew.
"They are the king and queen you know," Eveline reminded her firmly, "this is their future at the moment, when you and…"
"When Merlin and I are in love, living together, putting each other first. I know." Tanya swallowed.
She watched the queen carefully.
Yet despite all of it…
It was clear that on some level, they still loved one another.