Hidden Motives

A/N: apologies for the confusion last chapter. I genuinely hadn't meant that to be confusing, but maybe I hadn't made things clear enough in previous chapters. Hopefully this one will shed some light on the situation. Thanks very much for the reviews and please let me know what you think of this chapter.

Chapter 16

Merlin saw the change in Arthur instantly. The Prince stopped suddenly, his body stiffening and swaying slightly before he turned. Merlin felt a terrible sense of déjà vu as he once again saw the expression on Arthur's face. But this was different to when they had found him in the ruins; this time his eyes had a faraway look about them as if he was focussing on something just beyond where Merlin and Lancelot stood. His face twisted from shock to confusion to anger and hurt.

'You will pay for your crimes,' he sneered. The next thing Merlin knew, he was diving out of the way as Arthur swung his sword and Lancelot threw his own up to block the blow. Merlin saw the pain cross Arthur's face as his blistered hands wielded the sword, but it did nothing to abate his fury and Lancelot was forced to push the Prince back with a sharp blow.

'What's wrong with him?' Lancelot asked breathlessly, placing himself between Merlin and Arthur.

'I think…I think it's the enchantment. Sythe's put another hallucination in his head.'

'But Sythe's not even here.'

'The spell…' he stopped as Arthur made another run at Lancelot; the knight blocked the blow, but it forced him towards Merlin. Quickly the knight went on the offensive, pushing Arthur back. 'The spell must work from a distance,' Merlin finished, but he didn't know if Lancelot had heard. He had been drawn back into the fight.

The sound of metal clashing together bounced off the walls of the side passages, far too loudly in a castle on alert from imposters, fires and riots.

'Arthur!' Merlin tried, but his voice lacked its usual strength and the Prince continued to attack Lancelot. Merlin wasn't too worried for Lancelot's safety; the knight could handle Arthur, especially in his current state. It was the people around who were beginning to be drawn to the sound of fighting - through they couldn't place it just yet - that worried him. 'Arthur. This is the hallucination! We're helping you. Sythe is the imposter!' Merlin just about managed to get his words out, but rather than placating Arthur, they only served to make him angrier. He delivered a kick to Lancelot as the knight blocked a slash, which sent the man flying backwards. Arthur took the opportunity to turn on Merlin.

'I trusted you,' he hissed, pointing his sword in Merlin's direction. Merlin held out his hands in surrender; the Arthur he knew would never strike an unarmed man, but something in this Arthur's eyes told him that the Prince's sense of betrayal went deeper than chivalry and etiquette. Whatever Sythe had put in his head was striking a deep chord.

'Arthur, this isn't real. Whatever you think we've done is a lie put in your head to try and help Sythe find out where you are.'

'Enough, Merlin.' He raised his sword. 'I have listened to your lies for long enough.'

Merlin saw the muscles in Arthur's arms tense, but just as suddenly, Lancelot sprung out of nowhere and, for the second time in as many hours, delivered a blow to the side of Arthur's head. This time it did knock him out. He crashed to the floor, completely still.

'I don't think that was the best plan,' Merlin told him as he saw more guards file into the courtyard and saw others heading their way.

'Watching him kill you didn't seem like a good alternative,' Lancelot told him. 'Help me.'

He indicated a second passage and began dragging the Prince into it. Merlin helped and they pressed themselves back behind the door as a group of soldiers from the courtyard headed their way. They were evidently looking for something that could have caused the sounds of fighting that they had just heard, but before they got there a call was put out in the courtyard for soldiers to attend to more riots in the town. A few of them stared suspiciously at the place where Arthur and Lancelot had been fighting a few moments ago, but their sense of duty pulled them away to follow their orders.

'What do we do now?' Merlin asked, pulling the chainmail hood up over Arthur's head to try and disguise him.

'We need to go to Gaius and then you need to take the curse off him. If he wakes up and he's still enchanted, he'll give us away.'

'But I need-'

'It's all in Gaius' quarters: the soil, the book. We kept them…just in case.'

Merlin absorbed the information with relief. It wouldn't take him long to perform the ritual. They had one other problem before then, however.

'How are we going to get him there without being seen?'

'We're just carry him over there,' Lancelot said.

'I don't think carrying an unconscious Prince Arthur is going to be inconspicuous enough.'

'I wouldn't be so sure: look.' Lancelot tilted his head sideways, indicating a small window that looked out onto the courtyard. Instantly, it became clear to Merlin what the knight meant. With the fires and riots, as well as the search for them, the courtyard was filling up with frightened civilians and battle ready soldiers. There was movement everywhere, with people milling backwards and forwards. Uther had not appeared on the balcony to try and command them, Sythe was no doubt fuming somewhere over the disappearance of his prisoner and there was a strange lack of knights around -especially Arthur's closest knights- to bring order. Perhaps Gwaine had roped the other knights into his somewhat chaotic plan.

'Gwaine's given us the perfect distraction,' Lancelot continued when Merlin turned back. 'We may as well use it, even if this wasn't its original purpose.' Merlin couldn't agree more and quickly moved over to lift Arthur's legs, while Lancelot grabbed him under the arms. With that done, they made their way across the courtyard, men running in all directions, doing hundreds of different jobs, and frightened women and children pushing through the crowds searching for help or maybe the face of a loved one. No-one gave them a second look as they carried a seemingly injured solider towards the physician's quarters. There were more important things to worry about.

Minutes later, they burst through into Gaius quarters, making the old man jump and turn in alarm. His relief at seeing them outweighed his annoyance at the invasion into his quarters.

'You found him,' he said, hurriedly spreading the spare blankets over the bed so that the Prince could be laid on it. 'When the bells sounded, I feared the worst,' he said gravely.

'No, we were already out by then,' Merlin explained.

'I'm worried to see Arthur in such a state,' Gauis continued, checking the Prince over. 'What happened to him?'

'Lancelot knocked him out,' Merlin explained hurriedly, rushing around in search of the magic book that he would need and the soil that he had spied tucked away in the corner. He had already gulped down a cup of water from Gaius' table and it had soothed his throat.

'What?'

'When Theo discovered he was gone, he induced another hallucination in Arthur,' Lancelot explained. 'We were heading back when suddenly he tried to attack us.'

'Hallucination? What are you talking about?'

'The enchantment Gaius; the one we thought I was under. It was never me that Sythe used it on; it was Arthur. He used it to learn how he should react to situations to make sure he was convincing. I need to get the curse off Arthur as quickly as possible.' He opened the sack of soil and clumsily tipped it out onto the floor. 'I need oil Gaius.' The physician had seemed somewhat shocked at Merlin's explanation, but the request snapped him out of it.

'Here.' He handed Merlin the jar of oil from his cupboard and Merlin set to work, referring frequently to the spell book to make sure that he copied the required glyphs out exactly and in the correct order and pattern.

While he was doing so, Gaius applied salve to Arthur's blistered hands, treating them carefully, before bandaging the deep cut that Lancelot had given him in the ruins.

'Merlin, I need this chain off,' Gaius called. Distractedly, Merlin flicked his wrist and muttered a spell. He heard the clunk of the chain as it was pulled away by Lancelot and dropped to the floor. A heavy sigh from Gaius caused Merlin to look up for a moment; he easily caught sight of the deep gashes that had been torn through the Prince's flesh. It was evident that he had fought so hard to escape. Merlin could only imagine the desolation he had felt at being so helpless. Pushing that from his mind, Merlin continued with his task, leaving Gaius to treat and bandage the wounds.

'What happened, Gaius?' Lancelot asked. 'Theo shouldn't have realised we were here or that Arthur was gone yet.'

'I believe Gwen's disappearance had something to do with it,' he said sadly.

'She's alright though?'

'Yes, Gwaine assured me that she was safe and hidden a few hours ago. But I believe Sythe wasn't happy with the note he received saying that she was ill and so couldn't come to see him.'

'He said something to you?' Lancelot asked, his confusion clear.

'Oh yes, he stormed into my quarters saying that she was not at home and demanding to know if I knew where she was as I was the physician.'

'He must know that Arthur would never act like that.'

'I'm sure he did, but he was angry. Somehow she had messed up a game that he-'

'Yes,' Lancelot interrupted, 'when we rescued Arthur he was desperate to know where she was. Sythe had threatened her.'

'Then perhaps her disappearance raised alarms in him,' Gaius said heavily. 'Maybe he realised that she had guessed or believed that somehow Arthur had informed her.'

'So he went to check,' Lancelot said in defeat.

'Whatever his reasons, we are now faced with a more difficult and dangerous task. Sythe will not take the fact that he has been fooled lightly. Loosing the upper hand will anger him greatly.'

'Then we need to convince Uther quickly and rally our forces against him.'

Merlin heard the significant silence from Gaius and knew what it was for. The armies of Camelot might be enough to counter Sythe, but not without huge casualties. Once again, he would have to find a way of defeating a powerful sorcerer. The enormity of his task, suddenly overwhelmed him, but a tremor in his hands sent a surge of fresh determination running through him; he would find a way; he had to find a way.

'I'm ready,' he called to the others as he put the stopper back in the jar of oil. 'I need some of Arthur's blood.' Quickly, Gaius made a small incision in Arthur's arm and dripped the blood into a phial. He handed it to Merlin.

Gently, so as to ensure that the blood soaked into the soil, Merlin tipped it into the centre of his pattern of glyphs and then scanned over the words of the spell book once more. Taking a deep breath, he uttered the words that would break the enchantment. As before, he felt the magic stir deep within him. As before, he saw the glyphs dance and sparkle with dark flames. But unlike before, he saw the blood in the middle bubble and heard frightening noises from across the room.

On the bed, Arthur's body was contorting violently, his whole form shuddering as his back arched and his limbs kicked out. Hurriedly, Lancelot and Gaius held him down, while terrible gasping noises escaped from his throat. And then suddenly, he began to shake uncontrollably, looking like nothing more than child's doll being thrown about. His head banged against the pillow and he gave strangled screams.

Everything in Merlin was telling him to end the spell and stop the torment that Arthur was obviously being subjected to, but he didn't stem the flow of magic; he had to free Arthur from Sythe's grip, no matter the pain it put the Prince through.

But as it went on, Merlin felt his will fading. Each choked cry shot through Merlin and he felt the terrible guilt of knowing that he was doing this to Arthur. But eventually, something changed. Arthur continued to thrash wildly, but now there was something different about the way he looked. A deep red glow seemed to emanate across his body and slowly, individual tendrils, looking like the roots of trees or the veins of leaves or the rivulets of water running across a dry land, began to drift out of his body. The earth spirits; the spirits whose power Sythe had summoned and used to induce Arthur's visions.

They twisted and turned as they moved and Arthur's whole body arched up as if being pulled by them, but suddenly they surged forwards; their auras racing towards the soil in the centre of the glyphs, entering the blood, which had now stopped bubbling, and then spreading out across the soil until the last vestiges of them disappeared. The flames dropped in a spilt second, as did Arthur's body which fell back onto the table with a soft thud.

'It worked,' Merlin breathed slowly; allowing the tension to drain out of him. Across the room, Gaius and Lancelot carefully let go of Arthur, as if half expecting him to begin thrashing again, but he remained completely still. They both turned to look at Merlin, relieved smiles on their faces.

'It worked,' he said more firmly.

But their relief was short lived as shouts began to sound from a few levels down. The noises were unmistakable.

'No, no, no,' Merlin said.

'They're searching this wing,' Lancelot said in alarm. 'We have to hide.'

'There isn't anywhere to hide in here!'

'Then wake Arthur up,' Gaius told them, his tone firm. 'They won't go against their Prince.'

They both nodded at the simplicity of the plan, but there were other more suspicious things currently scattered about the room. All three of them shared an unspoken agreement and then raced into life.

As quickly as he could, Merlin muttered a spell to put all the soil back into the sack. It flew into the bag as Merlin hid the spell book at the back of the book case and returned the oil to its position. Meanwhile, Gaius and Lancelot hurriedly put Arthur back in his clothes and moved him off the bed so that they could straighten it out.

'The spell you've just done, Merlin,' Gaius hissed.

'What about it?'

'You can't show that to Arthur to prove he's free of the enchantment.'

Below them the pounding of footsteps became more urgent. Merlin felt his heart begin to race; he had witnessed the more thorough searches that Camelot's soldiers had carried out and knew that they would not hesitate to crash through the door if they found it to be locked.

'I need parchment!' Gaius raced across the room with more speed than Merlin had ever seen him move. Meanwhile, he retrieved the book once more and opened it to the spell page. He whispered the words of a spell that he had come across during his many hours of writing Arthur's speeches. It was a way of copying texts and pictures without having to write them all out again. He quickly copied the first half of the spell onto the new parchment and then, using another spell which enabled him to write without having to use a quill, Merlin created an alternative counter curse: a potion that could be made with a series of random ingredients that Arthur wouldn't have a clue about. The Prince would looked at the new spell and be unaware that magic had been used to break it.

The rattle of chainmail seemed to shimmer in the air about them, closer still. Merlin slammed the book back onto the bookcase, hiding it behind several huge volumes, and rolled up the parchment, throwing it on a table.

'Merlin!' Lancelot whispered. He threw the helmet that Merlin had been wearing to him. Both of them had discarded them the minute they got through the door. Merlin remembered feeling a moment's relief as he was finally rid of the uncomfortable head gear. Now, he jammed it onto his head and fastened it tightly.

More sounds of pounding feet, only a floor down now.

'Wake him up, Merlin,' Gaius told him urgently. Merlin nodded and raced over to where the Prince now lay on the floor. Quickly, he whispered the healing spell that would stir Arthur from unconsciousness. He sat back on his haunches and felt his fear increase ten-fold as the Prince remained still.

'Merlin!' Lancelot hissed.

'It should work, it should work.' He tried it again to be met with the same result. 'No, no, no, no,' he cried. The footsteps were so close. Gaius quickly got up and slid the bolt in place.

'That won't stop them,' Lancelot said.

'Arthur!' Merlin whispered harshly, shaking him forcefully. 'Wake up, you clot pole. I'm sick and tired of you sleeping on the job.' No movement. Merlin felt desperation flood him. There was no possible way that they could give Uther a reasonable explanation as to why an unconscious Arthur was lying on the floor surrounded by two supposed traitors who were out to kill him. If Arthur didn't wake up then everything was over.

Dozens of feet, so close.

'Arthur!' Merlin tried again.

The banging of fists on the door echoed around Gaius' quarters.

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