Arthur groaned and opened his eyes. The last thing he remembered was... Morgana... she had Gwen... He sat up, to find himself in one of th cells, surrounded by a ring of worried faces. Leon, Elyan and Percival were staring down at him.
"Arthur?," Gwaine called from the next cell, "Are you alright?"
Arthur tensed his muscles and flexed.
"I think so..." he called back. "What happened?"
Percival answered.
"After you came down, and ran towards Gwen, those Demons attacked. Morgana shot a blast of magic at you and you fell. Soon afterwards, Leon and Elyan did. Gwaine told me that the fighting only continued for a few moments afterwards. Our weapons couldn't touch them."
He grimaced and sat next to him.
"Everyone got cut or bitten," he continued, "Some worse than others. You've been out for nearly an entire night and day..."
He motioned to the slash on his arm and the bite marks on Leon's shoulder. Then he pointed to Gwaine.
"He is one of the worst... No Gwaine, not just generally..."
Gwaine grinned.
"Aww, come on guys," he joked, "I pride myself on that..." he paused mid-sentence and groaned, gripping a spot on his chest. "Damn, that hurts..." Arthur stood up and waked over to the metal bars that made up the partition between the cells.
"Gwaine? How bad is it?"
His eyes widened as Gwaine moved his hand to let him see.
"I've had worse..." Gwaine assured him, "but never from a bright red gremlin..."
Arthur shook his head, grinning ruefully,
"Always the joker, huh Gwaine...?" He stopped, "Wait, where is Gwen? And Gaius? And Merlin?"
_
Merlin groaned as Gaius pressed a wad of pulp to his wound. Arthur had just left, and it seemed that he wouldn't be helping out this time. Gaius bandaged the wound and told him to rest. Merlin sighed, he wasn't very good at lying around...
He scanned the room, bored already, and his eyes rested on the small water-skin where Arthur had been sat. Damn, he would be needing that. He glanced around, to see that Gaius had left the room. He groaned as he got to his feet, but he stood. He managed the few steps to the table and grabbed the skin, shaking it. He was pleased to hear that hardly any of it was gone. He opened it and took a mouthful, feeling warmth spill through him. He made his way back over to the bed and lay back down, just as Gaius came back in.
Immediately, he could see something was wrong.
"Merlin, we need to go..."
"Wait, whats..."
"No time... Morgana's won. The Demons are scouring the castle."
He helped Merlin to his feet, handing him his knife and his bag.
"Come on..."
He led Merlin out of the room, down the stairs, but stopped at the last corner, pressing in one of the torch brackets.
"In here..."
Merlin didn't question him, stepping through the gap, into a narrow twisting staircase. He waited for Gaius to shut the door and squeeze past, heading down the staircase. Merlin muttered a spell, and the staircase lit up with a pale red glow. A few minutes later, and Merlin found himself in a dark tunnel. "Gaius..." he murmured, "Where are we?"
"In the catacombs beneath the castle," he replied, "The tunnels lead to the underground reservoir, the dungeons, the lower town and outside the walls."
He sat down against the wall, and Merlin slumped down beside him.
"Gaius... What can we do about Morgana?"
"Right now? Nothing." he replied, "We need to get out to the lower town. We can hide there. Then we can decide what we're going to do. As it is, you can't do very much like this."
Merlin glanced down, and saw the bandages. Now that his adrenalin was going down, he realised that it was hurting. He sighed.
"I'm not going to be going anywhere Gaius. First of all, I'm not going to be able to walk more than a few steps soon, and second of all, we don't know that we will be able to get back in after we get out." He noticed a door leading off from the chamber and stumbled over to it, muttering the spell again and lighting it up. It was a small bare room, but it would be suitable for what he wanted. "Gaius, I'm staying. Does Morgana know of these tunnels?" "No, they haven't been used since the great purge. Sorcerers used them to escape from Camelot. I hadn't thought of them for years..." he got to his feet. "Well, if you're staying, I'm staying. It's not like we would be safer anywhere else."
Merlin opened his eyes sat up.
"Gaius," he called, pleased to see that he was already awake, "How long was I asleep?"
"Just over twelve hours..." He cut off at the glare on Merlins face.
"You were meant to wake me after a few hours. We don't have time to waste."
"You need the rest Merlin. And I have managed to find out most of what happened from the kitchens. One of the tunnels branches off not too far from there."
Merlins anger changed to worry.
"But Gaius, What if you had been caught?"
"Well, we needed to know what was going on. How else can we make a plan? Arthur and the rest of the knights are in the dungeons. The rest of the men are locked in the rooms in the back wing of the palace. Morgana has launched a full scale manhunt for you, so we'll have to be careful... Any ideas, Merlin?"
Merlin grinned at him,
"Oh yeah..."