A/N: Sorry if anyone spotted this up earlier, but I had a few quick edits to make so I deleted it again. Anyway. Thank you SO much, all of you that are still reading this, have favourited and put this on their story alerts, and a huge Thank You to TheImpossiblePen, Lady Willamina and BlackThorne(anon) for reviewing. It means a lot XD
Also, TheImpossiblePen has helped me so much with this chapter as my new Beta.
I wouldn't have had it ready to post tonight with you!

Chapter 4

Merlin smiled a little and strapped the sword belt around his waist, catching up to Percival with nimble steps as the knight started off into the forest.

The trees were close together in this part of the forest and Merlin hadn't taken five steps before he could no longer see the small clearing they had set up camp in. The silence that engulfed the pair was eerie and still. Bird calls from the canopy above their heads were few and far between but provided some relief from the quiet.

Seeing that his friend was either ignoring the silence or had yet to notice, Merlin kept close to Percival and stepped where the knight stepped to avoid falling over for as long as he could. The moss covering most of the ground prevented their footsteps breaking the quiet, and a sense of unease filled the young warlock.

It was too quiet here.

Back at the camp there had been the sounds of the fire crackling as it ate its way through the wood they fed to it, as well as their own voices on top of that most of the time, so none of them had noticed the quiet until now.

If Percival didn't know any better, he would think that he was alone as he stepped carefully between the trees, tracking a deer that had passed through this part of the forest about an hour previously - possibly the only game nearby. Merlin was almost as quiet as himself and hadn't tripped over anything yet, barely making a sound as he followed in Percival's footsteps.

The sharp snap of a twig, the crunch of old, fallen leaves being crushed beneath a pair of knees and the sudden muffled curses from behind him made the larger man chuckle, his shoulders shaking with the effort to remain silent. Okay, so Merlin had tripped once. It was still definitely a record.

"Ouch." Merlin quickly got back to his feet and brushed his hands off on his shirt. He was glad that he had managed to stop himself from falling flat on his face and had merely grazed his palms on the hard-packed earth. His hands now stung, but he pushed it to the back of his mind as he carried on after his friend.

"You okay?" Percival asked once he was sure the mirth was hidden behind the genuine concern for his friend.

Merlin nodded, checking his palms again – the skin was red and raw, with bits of dirt smeared over them. They'd need washing when they got back to camp, but he'd survive. "Yeah, I'm fine," he replied easily, giving Percival a bright smile. The knight shook his head and turned back to the hunt.

A weird feeling had been creeping up Merlin's spine for a few hours. He had barely noticed it earlier when he had felt as though someone was watching him back at the camp where Arthur and Gwaine were, but now the feeling was pervasive. He had been feeling it since the bandits had attacked earlier. Knowing Percival wouldn't go too far from the camp, Merlin had opted to move away from his two companions to see if whoever was watching him would follow.

He didn't know whether to be relieved, worried or downright scared when they did. Or at least, the feeling of being watched stayed with him, so he assumed they'd followed close behind. Now if only he could find them…

"This one has power," she murmured to her companion as she watched the pair moving quietly through the forest, thinkingthemselves to be more aware than they were.

"He has magic that we have not met before. He may be a danger later on," he agreed with a curt nod. "Should I dispose of him now or are we going to wait for them to cross the border?"

"We cannot," she hissed. "They would be less likely to carry on if one of them went missing."

"But he has already sensed us. See how he is more cautious than the other? We got too closeto the camp without the aid of our enchantments," he retorted. "He will alert them to our presence."

There was silence for a moment, as if there really was nobody standingin the shadows that had formed in the forest.The pair had been following the group since they had left Camelot, just waiting for the right time to move in on them, slowly closing the distance between them. They used the shadows as their cover, creating a shield of enchantments that let none look upon them.

"Then you will take his place,"she ordered, a finality to her voice that her companion did not dare argue.

Merlin peered over Percival's shoulder and through the gap between the trees in front of them. The deer they had been tracking stood grazing less than two yards away and they had almost walked straight into it. Luckily, the knight had stopped before the animal had sensed them, and the wind had mercifully cast their scents back behind them.

Motioning for Merlin to move back just a little, Percival readied a bolt in his crossbow and took careful aim at the animal. The creak and click of the crossbow was unnaturally loud in the equally unnatural quiet of the forest and the deer raised its head, staring straight at the pair crouched holding their breath as its ears twitched. Neither man moved for fear of making some kind of noise and scaring off their prey. It would be hours before they found anything else that would last them as long as this deer would, and Arthur would no doubt blame Merlin and his clumsiness for allowing their dinner to get away.

Finally, the deer deemed it safe enough to carry on eating and did just that. Ears twitching at every noise, the slender animal dipped its head to the grass a second time, and Merlin and Percival let out slow breaths of relief.

The soft crunch of leaves behind them drew Merlin's attention even as the other man raised the crossbow in his hands once more. All Merlin saw when he turned his head to look was trees, trees and more trees. He was probably just tired, he told himself, turning back to watch Percival lean forwards to get a better aim.

She cursed her companion as he stirred the foliage on the forest floor, but it seemed that the young magic-user was not quite as aware of them as he had seemed, for he wasn't able to see past their enchantments. Not that many could even when they knew the pair were there.

"Quickly, Damien!" she scolded.

There it was again!

Merlin frowned as he turned to see what had disturbed the bush behind him, just as Percival pulled the trigger on the crossbow and let the bolt fly with deadly accuracy towards its target. A part of the warlock was extremely glad for the distraction that let him miss seeing the poor animal's death.

Again, there was nothing. Merlin berated himself for being so edgy. There hadn't been an attempt on Arthur's life since they had taken back the city and the blond had been crowned King. Instead of relaxing, Merlin found himself more tense than ever. It was as though someone had prevented any ill-wishers of the crown to get close enough for the unnamed protector of the king to get wind of them simply because they knew nothing would touch the King, or even come to his attention, if Merlin had anything to do with it.

"Come on," Percival beckoned to the distracted younger man, handing him the crossbow and breaking his cover to make sure the deer was dead. It would be cruel to allow the animal to suffer if the arrow had not killed it yet.

"Hurry, or we will lose our chance!" she growled, angry that Damien had stalled so much.

The warning was in vain, however, as a mere moment later, her comrade made his move.

Noises behind him made Merlin turn fully, this time. It couldn't be just anything if he had distinctly heard movement three times already. But he didn't get time to contemplate the fact there was yet again nothing there as the figure of a tall man – taller than himself, but still smaller than Percival – emerged out of thin air right in front of him. A gloved hand quickly covered his mouth and a muttered word sent him drowning in darkness.

~#~

The fire crackled merrily in the clearing where Arthur and Gwaine still sat, both idly staring at the fire. The smell of smoke gently wafted around them with the breeze, but to them it wasn't overbearing. Instead it was a comfort that showed they'd survived another day of travel and didn't have to worry about covering their tracks. They knew it probably wouldn't last long, that Tam's Kingdom could well be more dangerous than anywhere they had been so far, but for now it was a welcome balm for their worries.

Gwaine was surveying the area they had settled in, taking in the way that there was more moss than grass on the ground between the trees, but there was a layer of leaf mould that was due to the harsh rains that had swept through Mercia barely a week before the party from Camelot had entered its borders.

Both men sitting beside the fire were bored, but neither was really up to getting up and finding something to do. The horses had been tethered to a tree at the edge of the camp, the saddlebags gathered at the base of said tree. Leon and Elyan had removed their cloaks before leaving for the village, and the red bundles were poking out of one of the leather bags.

Finally, it was Gwaine that once more broke the silence with a question that had been nagging at him for a while now.

"Why are you even here, Arthur? You said you couldn't miss this quest, but why? Merlin was right when he said you shouldn't leave Camelot for so long in one trip. Surely this is something we knights could have done in your stead? Or we could have come out to find the Grail's exact location before you joined us and took it, yourself..."

Arthur contemplated the matter in silence for a while, before sighing and running a hand through his hair. It would be better to just tell Gwaine what had happened. He was supposed to trust these men, after all.

"There have been a lot of reports that the people are not happy with my ascension to the throne, and some of the things I have done during my short rein," he began, the fatigue obvious in his voice.

The young King had thought that he'd done a very good job, considering that he had spent the first couple of months mourning Gwen's death and doing next to nothingwhen it came to his proper duties. But it hadn't been long before he had started to see where his troubles would lie and where he had to start making compromises. Arthur Pendragon was determined not to turn into the tyrant his father – God rest his soul – had become, but Uther's tyranny had at least had some order to it. This order had to be dismantled, slowly, piece by piece, and re-established into a new regime that was still easy for the people to accept but was fair—and just in a way that Arthur knew in his heart was right. Some of his acts as King hadn't sat well with some citizens, however.

"There has even been word that some of the other kingdoms think that I'm too young, or too inexperienced and soft to be King. I don't know if the first years are supposed to be the hardest, or what, but I do know that I must prove myself to be better than they believe me to be..." Not that that was the whole reason Arthur had insisted on personally leading this quest, but Gwaine didn't need to know any more than that. The knights didn't need to know that their King was forever full of self-doubt and hadn't been as confident as he appeared since the death of his beloved Guinevere. He had failed to protect the one person closest to his heart, and he desperately needed to prove to himself that he was still strong enough to carry on without buckling under the pressure of the expectations of everyone around him.

Gwaine huffed and shook his head, picking up a stick from nearby and poking it into the fire, sending sparks spiralling into the air like hundreds of tiny candle lights dancing in the updraft of the flames. "You see? This is preciselywhy I dislike nobles," he grumbled darkly. "The council didn't say anything against these so-called reports, did they? They just sat on their backsides, sending you on a worthless quest into unknown lands. You need to get away from them more, Arthur," Gwaine shook the charred stick at the blond, as though lecturing a small child.

"Why would they say anything against the reports? I have told people to not just tell me what I want to hear and instead tell me the truth. So, if the reports are true, why would they speak against them?" Arthur shot back.

Gwaine tilted his head at the other man, wondering whether the crown he wore most days had sapped the intellect out of Arthur. Perhaps the crown had grown to be too tight after all, seeing as Arthur's head had certainly swelled beyond its normal size... "And what if the reports were composed of lies?" he asked boldly, knowing he may well be crossing a line that they kept to even in the most relaxed circumstances.

If the thunderous look on Arthur's face was anything to go by, Gwaine had definitely pushed the line. ...But maybe he hadn't crossed it completely. "Then there are less people whom I can trust, in my court and I have been lead to be a fool," Arthur ground out angrily.

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