Early one for you this time. Due to not knowing when shifts etc are going to be, and they seem to be regular, I'm just going to post whenever I can!

Thanks again for the support.

There was a coolness in the air as they simply sat there, but as the sun began to set, Merlin knew they needed to get back to the others. His arm was burning, although thankfully the bleeding had stopped, and he was worried about Arthur. He knew that Gaius needed to redress the wounds and check that Dunran hadn't done any long term damage with his latest attack. But it was more than that. There was something not quite right, and all Merlin knew was that he wanted Arthur back amongst the knights, where he would be safe.

The prince was leaning on him completely, the burn pulsing now and again as it forced the magic around his body. Despite what he had said to Gaius, Merlin knew the time had come to see if they could do anything about it. Arthur had spoken, he had tried to drink. And more than that, he had personally killed one of his tormentors. If there was anything that was going to make him feel significantly safer, it was that. Merlin knew it was time to begin to push things with Arthur's healing. It was time to go home.

"Come on, Arthur." Drawing the man carefully to his feet, Merlin held tightly onto the prince's arm. The easiest way would have been to drape Arthur's arm over his own shoulders, but that would mean his free arm would be against Arthur's back, something that Merlin wasn't prepared to try in the slightest. Instead, he just took the slower approach, encouraging his friend to keep putting one foot in front of the other as he guided him back to their camp. As they walked, Merlin couldn't help glancing over his shoulder. He couldn't help but feel like they were being watched. Once he knew Arthur was safe and settled, he would have a proper look around. A magical look.

It surprised Merlin how long it took them to get back considering his mad sprint down into the clearing in the first place. But finally, the low murmur of voices reached their ears and the smell of something cooking hit their noses. Arthur tensed, but Merlin merely tightened his grip.

"It's okay, Sire. I promise. I'm right here." He just hoped they had moved Rand out of sight, for Merlin was not sure how Arthur would react to the slave. Stumbling into the area, there was a sudden hush until Lancelot jumped to his feet with a wide smile, unclasping his cloak and draping it around Arthur. Gaius looked concerned about the open wounds and the material, but they had managed to heal enough that it caused Arthur no problems as Merlin carefully lowered him to the floor in front of the fire. Arthur immediately moved closer, trying to drink in the warmth from it, shivering slightly.

Merlin watched him for a moment before looking around him. Someone – he suspected Elyan – had indeed moved Rand. It was clear that he was still tied to the same tree, but he was on the far side, giving the Knights some privacy. Leon was awake, a rough looking bandage around his head as he crouched on the other side of the fire, stirring something in a small pot whilst shooting Arthur concerned glances. If Merlin's eyes weren't deceiving him, the man also looked guilty. The servant knew that Leon would be thinking that he should have done more to protect Arthur once again, and too tired to go into the familiar argument, he ignored the man.

Percival was also awake, and although he looked far from his usual undefeatable self, he had more colour in his cheeks and the fact that Gaius was trying to get Gwaine to sit still for long enough in order to tie off the bandage showed the physician was clearly happy with the large knight's progress.

"Merlin?" Said warlock glanced over at his guardian, finding that he turned too quickly and the world seemed to lurch a little. A steadying hand on his elbow revealed Lancelot helping him move over to the physician, and without a word, Gaius took hold of his injured arm.

"Don't, Arthur..."

"Can wait a moment, he's enjoying the fire. Now stay still." At Gaius' words, Merlin glanced over his shoulder. The physician was right. Arthur did seem to be enjoying the fire, shuffling slightly closer to it, his eyes reflecting the dancing flames. Merlin still wasn't happy about the way the man seemed to be shivering though.

"But Gaius, he's..."

"Shivering? I noticed. It's cold and he's only wearing a cloak, think about it, Merlin. I want to check him before dressing him though, means that he won't have to go through the motions twice. Now stay still." Merlin huffed irritably as Gaius began prodding the wound, causing the warlock to clench his teeth slightly. The cut was stinging with more intensity now. Merlin didn't realise how much the adrenaline had deadened the pain until now, but as Gaius pressed down again, he hissed slightly, jerking. Merlin wouldn't be Merlin if he didn't try to escape from an examination.

As Gaius turned to get something out of his bag, Merlin took his chance. He pulled his arm from the man's slackening grip and jumped to his feet, speeding back over to the fire and sitting down next to Arthur. When the physician turned, he simply grinned innocently over at him from the other side of the clearing.

"Merlin."

"What? You've cleaned it, haven't you?" Merlin responded cheekily, catching Gwaine's eye and found that his grin was even wider. Dunran was dead. He would never hurt Arthur again. And the prince had spoken, and even tried to drink something, despite the consequences. For the first time in over eight months, Merlin felt like things were beginning to go right for them.

"Leon, would you care to hold my ward still?" Merlin flinched slightly as Gaius addressed the Knight, knowing by the way Leon's eyes suddenly sparkled slightly that he was having similar thoughts to the warlock. Things were beginning to go right again, meaning that Merlin had no chance of being able to fend off the Knight. Instead, he tried to scramble back a pace, but a hand latched around his ankle.

"Stay." A voice croaked, and the whole clearing sucked in a sharp breath. It was still weak, no stronger than his first word, but no one could deny that Arthur had spoken. There was the slightest command in his voice, clearly wanting his servant to do as he was told. It was only because of how well this group of men knew the prince they even identified it at all, for Arthur certainly did not sound like himself.

"S...Sire?" Arthur wasn't the only one who didn't sound like himself, Merlin had never heard Leon sound like that either. Arthur didn't say anything else, just continued to hold onto Merlin's ankle. His eyes flickered over to Gaius though, and the physician smiled, the first true smile Merlin had seen on him for eight months, even taking into account how little he had been in Camelot himself as he searched for Arthur.

Merlin pretended to put up a bit more of a fight against the physician, more to see what Arthur would do than anything else. Gaius seemed to know what he was doing, but that didn't stop the man from giving him a playful swat around the head once he had finally finished tying off a bandage around the deep gash on Merlin's arm. Arthur didn't move though, nor did he loosen his grip on Merlin.

When he was done, Gaius turned to Arthur. The prince made no sign that he had seen the movement, but Merlin the grip tighten a fraction. It just showed how far Arthur had to go before he was back to his normal strength, for Merlin still easily prised it away, lowering himself so that he was more on the same level with the curled up prince.

"Arthur, you have to let Gaius have a look at you. I'll be right here, I promise. But he needs to put something on your back."

Arthur, however, frantically shook his head, and Merlin felt his heart catch at seeing the tears once more in the man's eyes. He thought he had spent them all before they had returned to the clearing, but it seemed eight months of holding back and hiding how he was feeling was catching up on the man. Gaius sighed deeply, letting his hand rest soothingly on the back of Arthur's leg, only to have the prince jerk away violently. Gaius frowned, anger springing into life.

"Did he..?" He didn't want to say it out loud, but Merlin knew what he meant.

"I don't know, I didn't get there in time."

"He was going to," another voice cut in. Gwaine was watching them, once again looking uncharacteristically serious. The scene he and Lancelot had charged in on was not going to be leaving him any time soon. "But I don't think he actually did it."

Gaius looked down at Arthur with such sadness that Merlin felt his own heart catch. But Arthur would not look at him. Instead, he was moving away, backing into Merlin, moving his hand from the warlock's ankle onto the bottom of his shirt again, holding on tight.

"Arthur? Arthur, shh, it's fine, it's only Gaius. You're safe." But Merlin's reassurances, even coupled with the hand stroking Arthur's hair comfortingly did nothing. Arthur continued to shake. But after a moment, Merlin was beginning to sense something. This wasn't the nerves from before, the fright of strangers after what he had been through. This was sheer terror. His eyes fell on the still bleeding shallow cut across Arthur's arm from Dunran's dagger, and he groaned out loud. He knew he could sense magic.

Letting his hand ghost over the wound, Merlin let a word roll almost silently off his tongue, getting a feel of precisely what Dunran had done this time. The spell was revealed, and Merlin thought he could cry from the sheer unfairness of it all. It took ones concerns, and turned them into full blown terror. No doubt because of the secret he knew the warlock was hiding, Dunran had hoped to destroy Merlin even if the dagger didn't do the trick for him. The time for being careful was over, Merlin knew he had to break the spell, now, or Arthur would never be able to fully move on. They had begun making progress; they couldn't go back on that now!

He caught Gaius' eye, and the old man seemed to realise there was more going on than was apparent on the surface. He nodded at his ward, and sprang forward. Rolling Arthur onto his stomach, it was as if he couldn't feel the prince's struggles, or the accusing stares burning into him from the rest of the Knights. The man was practically sobbing in sheer terror, but Gaius knew that as soon as Merlin had removed the spell, Arthur would calm down. It didn't mean it hurt any less though.

In the pretence of keeping hold of a flaying arm, Merlin gripped Arthur's limb just above the elbow and below the cut. Keeping his eyes cast down so no one would see him, words of the Old Religion rolled off his tongue, his eyes burning gold as his own magic rushed out to meet the darkness within Arthur. He could feel the magic of the brand as well, but pointedly ignored it for now, knowing that he had to do one thing at a time. It wasn't so much that his own power wasn't strong enough to combat it, more that he was worried what using that amount of magic on Arthur considering his state would do to the man. When it came to the burn, Merlin was going to follow Gaius' lead. They were going to remove it, of that there was no doubt. But only when the physician was sure Arthur could cope without it.

Gaius kept letting his eyes flick up to Merlin, adjusting the speed he was working at to make it seem like they would finish at the same time. Eventually, Merlin sat back with a slight gasp, hands trembling as his eyes faded back to blue. Dunran had truly meant to destroy him. If he had been battling against his own fears, there was no way his magic would have been able to focus enough for the length of time he needed in order to go against the darkness. Arthur almost immediately calmed down, his cries dwindling away, but he still kept close to Merlin. Gaius had explained that the warlock was the first person Arthur registered as not being a threat. He was going to be clingy for a while, and that just fuelled Merlin's desire to get his prince back to his confident – and arrogant – self. This just wasn't Arthur.

"You should get some rest." Gaius muttered quietly, securing another bandage around Arthur's arm, but watching Merlin. Even so, he could still feel Arthur's gaze following his every move, exhaustion spiralling deep within his eyes.

"I need to stay with him." Merlin muttered, his hand once more resting against the back of Arthur's head. He found his eyes strayed over to the tree, where Elyan was keeping close watch, Leon leaning against another tree close by and clearly preparing himself to help should the younger Knight need it, despite the blood soaked bandage around his head. "What about Rand?"

"He's not who he was..."

"I know that, Gaius, he tried to kill me, remember?" Merlin's angry outburst caused Arthur to flinch and Gaius to raise an eyebrow.

"I'm perfectly aware of that, my boy. But what I meant was... something in him snapped when Dunran died. I think the man used dark magic to break him, meaning that if Rand was to kill his tormenter, he would have died along with him. He is barely more than an empty shell now."

Merlin felt sick, his hand automatically tightening on Arthur. What if he had done that to the prince? Arthur's freedom could have been his destruction! But something told Merlin that that wouldn't have happened, they were making too much money out of him to let him be bound to one man alone, no matter how much Dunran was paying. He swallowed hard, meaning to repeat his question of what they do with him, when Arthur suddenly rolled away from him.

"Sire?" Gaius' confusion was mirroring Merlin's completely as they watched Arthur crawl across the floor. He wasn't getting very far, he didn't have the strength, but he was making a damn good try.

"Arthur, what is it?" Merlin rose, took a few steps forward and crouched down again, next to where Arthur was adamantly trying to crawl away.

"S...sundown." Arthur muttered. Merlin blinked at him in surprise. Out of all the days he had spent by the prince's side since he had found him, this was the first time Arthur was reacting to something as ordinary as that. Merlin knew full well he wasn't afraid of the dark, the fire had gone out more than once and Arthur hadn't reacted. So what..?

"He's coming..." Arthur's injured arm could no longer support his weight and he pitched forward, only being saved from hitting the ground by Lancelot appearing out of nowhere and a hand wrapping around the prince's chest, holding him up. Gently, he eased him back into a sitting position, where Merlin immediately took over, holding onto the man and trying to get him to relax.

"Who's coming, Arthur?" He asked gently, sharing concerned looks with Lancelot and sensing the rest of the Knights were paying attention.

"P...poison..." Arthur gasped; sweat beading his forehead as he tried to pull out of Merlin's grip. The warlock ground his teeth together in silent fury. Were they ever going to leave him alone? He didn't know who Arthur meant. It was possible he had met the man, but he had no idea. Before he could think of anything to say, Lancelot's face clouded over.

"Poison?" Merlin mutely nodded, blinking slowly as he tried to rid his mind of the image of Arthur dying whilst there was nothing he could do. There would be no Rand coming to the rescue this time. Merlin knew that if anyone should end up with a drop of this poison near them, they were going to be in serious trouble, for the warlock would not be able to save them. Luckily, he had forgotten that he was in the presence of Knights.

"Take up positions." Leon's voice made Merlin jump, but a slow smile split over his face as he watched the men he had come to regard as friends all jump to do Leon's bidding. He held on tightly to Arthur as the Knights split up, even Gwaine and Percival stumbling their way to their designated positions. Nothing was getting close to their prince tonight.

Merlin felt Arthur relax against him slightly, and felt his smile widen. It seemed the prince too had enough faith in his knights to realise that this time, they weren't going to let anything happen to him. He was beginning to accept the safety they were offering, and catching Gaius' eye, the physician had noticed it as well, especially if the way he was nodding approvingly was anything to go by.

Cradling Arthur awkwardly –he was almost tipping the prince forward to make sure no weight was put on his back – Merlin navigated them into a more comfortable position. Eventually, he ended up with his back against a tree, Arthur almost sprawled across his lap from where he was refusing to let go of Merlin's shirt once again. His hand stroking the man's hair comfortably, Merlin winced as he felt Arthur relax enough for the burn to flare into life.

He caught Gaius' eye over the fire, and the physician glanced pointedly between his ward and the prince. Merlin sighed. He knew what Gaius wanted him to do, and if he felt Arthur was ready to have another magical force invading his body, then Merlin trusted him. He just didn't want to destroy the sense of safety Arthur had managed to find. But as the prince whimpered slightly against the burn, Merlin let his power fill him up.

His hand resting on Arthur's head as a channel, his eyes burnt brightly. Words were not used, he didn't need them. Instead, he focused in just pouring his magic into the prince. For a moment, he felt Arthur stiffen beneath him, but to Merlin's delight, he relaxed again. And kept relaxing. As the burn flared into life, Merlin shut his eyes, letting his magic guide him. It swept through Arthur's body, nullifying the shocks being sent out one by one. The burn was still active, but Arthur couldn't feel it.

Finally, Merlin felt the prince's breathing even out. He glanced across at Gaius, who nodded encouragingly, tears in his eyes. The expression said it all. Arthur was asleep.

For a while, Merlin continued to channel the magic into his friend, soothing the aches and pains caused by the latest attack. But eventually, he too gave into his body's demands for respite, and drifted off to sleep, the Crown Prince of Camelot using his legs as a pillow as he slept properly for the first time in however long.