Gold
Chapter Four
"MERLIN!" She screamed!
It was the middle of the night again when Merlin leapt out of bed, the sheets tangling around his legs and he fell to the floor with a thump, the sound of the woman shouting desperately in his head still ringing in his ears. He wasn't mistaken this time.
He must have also shouted in his sleep as Gauis barged into his room a second later, flinging the door open, fearful for his ward.
"Merlin!" he said, taking the two steps to the young man, "are you alright?"
Merlin struggled against the blankets, but managed to extricate himself. "Gauis, I saw a woman- the woman, I'm sure of it- the Queen Alianor!"
He got up and looked at Gauis with a slightly manic look about him which Gauis had seen before and didn't like at all.
"Now hold on a minute Merlin," he said, holding his hands up to try and promote a feeling of calm, "what are you talking about?"
"Queen Alianor," Merlin said again, "I've been hearing her in my dreams for some days now and I'm sure that she's in trouble," he said, trying to get his urgency across to Gauis.
"Merlin," Gauis replied, exasperated, "you're just dreaming of the story we were telling Arthur earlier. Sometimes, things that happen during the day affect our dreams, but they aren't real."
Merlin gave him a withering look. "I know that Gauis," he said, with his own exasperated tone, "but I've been dreaming about her long before you told us of the legends, and it's been years since I was in Ealdor at the harvest festival to hear the stories there." he ran out of the room suddenly, surprising Gauis, who took the opportunity to put the blanket back on the bed and to sit on it. It was the middle of the night after all and he was tired. Merlin came running back in with a piece of parchment which he'd drawn on. "I saw her clearly. I saw what she looked like, and I saw her crown, and more importantly, I saw this mark on her neck. Somehow, I just knew it was the mark of a High Priestess of the Old Religion." He shoved the parchment underneath Gauis' nose, who took it and peered at it. It was a small spiral within a circle with three lines underneath, fanning downwards from the circle.
"You saw this?" Gauis asked, incredulous.
"Yup," Merlin said.
Gauis looked at him for a moment. The look of absolute conviction in the young warlock's eyes was enough to convince him, "This is indeed a mark of one of the orders of the High Priestesses- one of the most ancient, and the one that one of the older legends says that the Queen of Arosslegne was a member of." He looked at the symbol again. Then he looked back at Merlin. "You'd better tell me what you've been dreaming of," he said.
Merlin nodded and sat next to his mentor.
"It started about a week ago with a voice in my head like Kilgarrah used to do, but that was it. At first, I thought it was just a dream as well, but every night, she's been getting louder and more desperate in her voice. Also, I've started to see her, but it was hard at first, like looking at someone through a heavy mist." He stopped to take a breath.
"Go on," Gauis prompted.
"Not only that, but tonight, what made me wake up, was her shouting at me for help- really shouting, and for the first time, I saw her perfectly in all detail. You know," he said, realising, "for someone who is so old, she looks very young. Anyway," he said, shaking his head to clear it, "I also saw an image in my mind of a castle, which peeled away to become a ruin. There was a spring inside the old castle which had provided it with fresh water. In my dream, I found myself following the spring to a perfectly flat and smooth rock face and suddenly, I was inside in a room that shone like the brightness of golden sunshine," he finished.
For a moment, Gauis raised an eyebrow. "You're beginning to sound almost poetical Merlin."
Merlin frowned. "I know, and I'm wondering if they're not my own words- I felt that she told them to me."
Gauis leaned back and then got up, struggling a little with his age. "Well then," he said, looking down at Merlin still sitting on the edge of his bed, "it's just as well that Arthur's decided to find the tomb for himself. He's joining Sir Leon tomorrow after all. You can help him. Now, go to sleep," he said as he left the room to go back to sleep himself, closing the door behind him.
Merlin sat there, wondering about the Queen and whether she would let him sleep. He plumped up his pillow which began to look inviting, so he decided to risk it. He lay back down and pulled his covers up under his chin.
Now that Arthur and Merlin were going to find the tomb, the Queen seemed to know it- somehow- and she let him sleep, speaking soft words to him that he didn't hear but soothed his soul and his body.