Chapter 7

"It's happening again," Sara said. "Just like before when everything started to get cold."

"I never asked any of you before," said Merlin. "Can you remember when this first happened?"

"Everything was fine when I went to sleep," Gaius answered.

"No … I felt it before, although I was up late, just checking lady … Gwen's chambers and ..." Her shivers got worse and Merlin could see her skin becoming even paler, her lips starting to turn blue. He looked around at his friends helplessly and hoped Gaius wouldn't tell him off. He had to warm her up but couldn't think of any way of doing it with without her knowing.

"Sara, look at me. Do you trust me?" He was still kneeling in front of her, his hands still holding hers.

"Y-yes. Of course." She looked at him with pale grey eyes and managed to give him a weak smile. Merlin chanted the words of the warming spell and saw her jump slightly as his eyes flashed gold. Instead of fear, he saw a smile of understanding, similar to the one on Gwaine's face earlier. Her look of adoration increased and Merlin was sure he was going pink.

"Better?" He asked, trying to stay calm and focus on the job at hand. She sighed in relief as the spell started to take hold and nodded at him, but her hands still felt cold to his touch and he worried that the very fact that she had magic might somehow be reducing the effectiveness of his own spells. He decided to cast it again, just to be certain. He pushed his spell deep into her, concentrating hard; willing for this to work and make her feel warmer. This time her relief seemed a little more genuine.

"Much better now, thank you, Merlin." She tipped her head slightly, studying him. "I always knew there was something special about you," she continued. He gave her a weak smile and leant slightly forward so the others wouldn't hear them.

"You too?"

"Yes, but nothing like that. Your magic is … wonderful." He felt his cheeks burning again.

"Your family?" he asked quietly

"My mother was a Duid," she whispered. "My father wanted her to move to Camelot with him so … she did not practice after that but … still she was killed for the knowledge she possessed and then ..." She shook her head, tears threatening. "I was lucky enough to find work here. She never taught me – never wanted to take that chance and so … I doubt anyone would know." She smiled lovingly at him. "Unless they were extra special of course." This time he was able to look at her and enjoy seeing the adoration in her eyes. It made a nice change.

"Sara, will you keep my secret?" he asked.

"Of course I will." She seemed offended by the question. "I would never do or say anything that would cause you harm, Merlin, you must know that?"

"Thank you."

"No, Merlin, thank you," and she moved even closer to him and kissed him gently on the lips. He jumped, surprised more by how cold the kiss felt than the gesture itself. A worrying feeling was beginning to nag at the back of his mind but he was not prepared to face it yet. Absent-mindedly he allowed himself to kiss her back.

He was just about to gently pull away when she abruptly moved off her stool, knelt in front of him, threw her arms around his shoulders and kissed him soundly. Despite the audience and the numerous other important things he should be doing, Merlin found himself wrapping his own arms around her slim waist, pulling her a little closer and happily kissing her back.

When he'd kissed Freya, she had felt warm in his arms and her lips hot against his, even though they had been in a cold corridor under the castle. Her warmth and the delightful burning he'd felt inside him, had easily made him forget the outside temperature. Here, with Sara, he could feel that warmth deep within him – the desire - but her lips were like ice and, even through his shirt and jacket, he could feel the coldness of her arms. She ran a hand across his neck and through his hair and he nearly yelped, as it felt like she'd rubbed a handful of snow on the back of his head. The different types of hot and cold he was now feeling was very strange. As more of an experiment than any feeling of passion, Merlin kissed her deeper to test her body's inside temperature with his tongue. Misunderstanding the move, she returned the compliment and started to move even closer, but now Merlin had no doubt about what was happening and gently pulled away.

"Is this really the time, Merlin?" Gaius asked, sarcasm colouring his words. He ignored his mentor and focused instead on Sara.

"Are you wearing any jewellery? A necklace, bracelet? Something you might have found or has recently been given to you as a gift?" he asked, but she shook her head confused even as he heard Gwen gasp behind him as she understood what he was implying.

"Are you sure?" his friend continued, now moving closer to the pair. "The diamond we've been looking for. Perhaps it's been sewn into you clothes? Is it on your hair pin perhaps?" Sara quickly removed the plain pin to show Gwen and was now pressing her hands against her dress, looking for any tell-tale bumps.

"No, that's not right," said Merlin, his brain racing. "I would be able to sense something like that if she were wearing it." He thought back to their passionate kiss and the different temperatures he'd felt. "Sara, I'm going to try another spell," he said then. "I'm going to push even more heat into you, try to force the cold out but, I should warn you, that it might be uncomfortable and there may be something that tries to fight back."

"W-what's happening to me, Merlin?" He thought he saw tears forming in her eyes but then his were misting too. He had to believe there was another way this time.

"There is no other way."

Morgana's face swum before him and the way she had snarled those words whilst facing him with a sword in the undercroft that time. He worked hard not to growl in frustration at the memory. No, there was always another way … he'd proved that time and time again, even if she had given up far too easily. He pulled Sara into another close embrace, this time resting his chin on her shoulder so that he could chant the spell and push every bit of warmth and heat and magic that he had into her, whilst the cold started to seep into him, making him shiver.

She gasped and clung onto him harder. One part of Merlin was delightfully distracted at having such a pretty girl pressed up so intimately against him and thoughts of Freya surfaced, as well as Gwen and the rather pleasant kiss he'd received once from her. Then again, her smile … and the way she bit her lip when she was embarrassed; and Lancelot and his total, unwavering faith and Gwaine and the way he laughed at Merlin's jokes and always, always clouted him on the shoulder and Arthur and … No, now was not the time to get distracted. He continued to constantly cast the warming spell, pushing his magic against the cold hard magic he could sense inside her. It wouldn't budge - he couldn't move it, counter it or break it - not where it was and not now that it was, apparently, working very hard to fight back. It was trying to push itself into Merlin, trying to defeat him. He desperately cast the spell again, moving back slightly as he did so to look at her beautiful, tearful eyes.

"Did you eat anything, Sara? Anything unusual? Something a stranger gave you … something that seemed a little odd?"

"Eaten!" Gaius exclaimed. "She swallowed it?"

"No I ..." her expression changed. "Y-yes. There was this little cake on the table … I thought it was from … it said, 'T-to a special servant who is … so m-much more', and I thought …"

"Where did you find it? Who was it from?" he pressed.

"In Gwen's chambers … in a box. N-no name. I thought … perhaps … a secret admirer …?" She looked up at him with a shy smile and he grinned back despite the fear and cold that was starting to drill into him. "I-it's all my fault?" she stammered.

"No! Of course not. Anyway, it wasn't meant for you, it …"

"... it was meant for me," Gwen suddenly realised, her hand going quickly to her mouth. "Morgana must of left it for me assuming that I'd believe it was a gift from Arthur."

"And Sara, who's never known you as anything other than Lady Guinevere assumed it was for her. The perfect revenge for all three of us," growled Merlin. "Gwen's the cause and, if I were to discover the enchantment she would assume that I'd be forced to do the same to Gwen as I did to her."

"Merlin?" Gwen asked confused and he shook his head, suddenly remembering that his friend still didn't know the whole history between him and Morgana - did not know what he had been forced to do the last time a spell like this had threatened Camelot.

"T-thank you, Merlin," said Sara. "Thank you for t-trying … b-but it looks like even you can't fix this." Her eyelashes were sparkling with ice as well as tears and she was beginning to freeze again and now, Merlin, Gwen and Gaius were all starting to shiver violently too. The source of the enchantment was now inside the room; inside the very shield that Merlin had created to protect them, the whole room was rapidly becoming very much colder and nothing the young warlock had tried had been able to stop the Ice Diamond from continuing it's evil enchantment.

~o~0~o~

A/N Sorry this one is short but I just had to end at that nice little cliff hanger because I'm mean like that! ;)