"Merlin?" Bors stepped into Gaius's surgery and glanced confusedly between Merlin's body, lying prone on a cot in the corner, and Anna, who had changed into trousers and a tunic and was braiding her hair.

"One moment," Anna answered. "Merlin doesn't know how to braid." She tied off the plait and straightened up, and her face shifted subtly. "Yes, Bors?" she said.

"Oh. Um… Leon said to tell you that the troops are lining up, and he wants to know where to place the sorcerers."

"I'll come down," Merlin said, and followed Bors down the stairs and out to the walls of the lower town. He placed the sorcerers at strategic points, gave them some advice for the battle, and then went to join Gwaine at the gate.

"I didn't think Anna had any trousers," Gwaine said, looking at her clothing.

"She doesn't—I'm wearing Merlin's." Anna was suddenly speaking in what was obviously her own persona. "But I had a terrible time finding a pair that would fit over my hips—they're pretty much held up with twine. Merlin isawfullyskinny."

Gwaine shook his head at the change of speaker. "This is bizarre," he said.

"You think it's strange for you?" Merlin exclaimed. "I'm a woman."

Gwaine gave him a cheeky grin. "You'll have to tell me later what that's like." He looked at her and then laughed. "I can't tell which of you is giving me that dirty look."

"Both of us," Merlin answered dryly.

They were silent for a long time, and at last Gwaine spoke again. "I don't like that Morgana has the power to paralyze people like this. It's even worse than her habit of throwing people backward."

"I've never heard of a spell like this before," Merlin admitted. "Perhaps she learned it from the Gaul."

"But she did something like this in the Dark Tower," Gwaine pointed out. "It wasn't quite the same—it held us frozen, but didn't drop us to the ground. And it stopped working when Gwen broke that crystal."

"The Dark Tower would have sapped her power," Merlin explained. "Even I felt its effects, and I hadn't been living in it for the last week. She used the crystal to boost her power so that she could perform an easier variant of the spell."

Gwaine shook his head. "I still don't like it. There seems to be absolutely no defense against either spell—throwing people or paralyzing them. If she decides to use them, we're at her mercy."

Merlin frowned. "Maybe there is a defense," he said thoughtfully.

Gwaine opened his mouth to ask, but at that moment Arthur walked up. "Merlin?" he said, half unsure of himself."

"Arthur," Merlin responded. "Are we ready?"

"As ready as we're going to be. If Morgana has a large force, we don't have enough to fight her off. Not with so many paralyzed."

"What's being done for them?" Gwaine asked.

"There are some soldiers guarding them, and Gaius has them giving the victims water every couple of hours," Arthur answered. "But we need to find a cure," he added to Merlin, "as soon as possible. Gaius says we can't leave them without food for too long." They both looked at Merlin, who looked grim and didn't answer. Arthur looked down for a moment and then put his hand on Anna's arm. "I'm glad you found a way to be with us," he said quietly, and walked away. Merlin watched him go, then glanced back to see a strange look on Gwaine's face.

"You alright?" Merlin asked.

"Yeah." Gwaine gave him a gentle smile. "It's just that when I see that look on Anna's face I'm used to it being directed at me."

Merlin gave him an arrested look, but before he could answer there was a shout from higher up on the wall. "THEY'RE COMING!"

Anna and Gwaine scrambled up to see. True to Arthur's fears, the army that was approaching, while not huge, was obviously larger than their own force.

"We'll have to trust in the town's defenses," Gwaine muttered.

"Or a little fear," Merlin answered, so quietly that Gwaine barely heard him.

The invaders were soon within bowshot, and the defenders, while protected themselves behind the town's palisade, shot volley after volley down at them. The soldiers retreated a little, and their archers began to respond with flaming arrows, which began to catch the palisade on fire.

"Aim for the archers!" Arthur shouted, but the flames were already licking their way up the wood. Inside the wall, women created bucket brigades to bring the water down from the town well, passing the buckets up to women on the wall who, at risk of being hit with enemy arrows, leaned out to pour the water down the outside of the palisade, putting out the fires and soaking the wood. Gwaine saw Sifa narrowly dodge an arrow and dump water down the palisade on a particularly large burning patch.

The two forces had soon reached an equilibrium. "Why isn't Morgana attacking with magic?" Gwaine asked, shouting over the din.

The words had no sooner left his mouth than there was an explosion and splintering wood flew everywhere—Morgana had blown the gate off of its hinges.

Time seemed to slow down. Even as he fell back before the blast, Gwaine saw Anna, with Merlin's expression of grim determination, take a step toward Arthur, who was now standing in the breach alone. Then she stopped. An internal struggle seemed to occur, and Anna—Gwaine didn't know how, but he knew it was her—turned toward him and raised her hand. Her eyes flashed gold, and a huge chunk of splintered wood, which had been flying directly toward him, changed course in midair and missed him by an inch. Anna had overridden Merlin, had used his magic to save Gwaine.

"HELP ARTHUR!" Gwaine shouted at her, almost angrily. She looked at him in shock for a moment, and then turned and ran toward the breach. Just as she reached it, Arthur was blown backward, and Morgana stepped into the hole where the gate had been, her soldiers streaming single-file through the gap on either side of her. Camelot's soldiers ran to intercept them, and Anna stepped forward between Morgana and the King. Almost casually, Morgana raised her hand to fling Anna backward. Her eyes glowed golden—

—and nothing happened. Morgana stopped in her tracks and stared at this girl, who was the only one who had ever been able to counteract that spell. "Who are you?" she snarled.

"I am Emrys," Anna answered.

Morgana couldn't help the start she gave at the mention of the name. "Impossible," she answered quickly. "Emrys is a man."

"I am a man," Anna answered. "I am possessing the body of this woman."

If possible, Mogana turned even paler. "Impossible," she said again. "Only the high priestesses could truly possess someone—and they could only possess one another."

"Impossible for others, perhaps," Anna answered, her voice carrying easily over the noise of the battle that swirled around them, leaving the two of them as a calm eye in the storm. "But I am Emrys." She fixed Morgana with a penetrating eye. "What do you want here, Morgana Pendragon?"

Morgana stared at her in what looked like terror, then raised her hand. Anna's eyes flashed gold and Morgana flew backward, knocking down two of her own soldiers as she landed. Everyone about them fell strangely silent, staring at the spectacle of an unknown girl in men's clothing knocking down the High Priestess, the woman none of them had ever seen bested in a fight. Morgana sprang to her feet—and did something none of them, except perhaps Merlin, expected:

She turned and ran.

Her soldiers looked at one another in confusion. Finally, the commander looked at Anna and made a decision. "RETREAT!"

Camelot's forces shouted in triumph as they began to harry the retreating soldiers. Merlin turned away to help Arthur up.

At that moment, one of Morgana's foot soldiers, annoyed that a retreat had been called when they were winning, drew back his sword to deliver a blow at Anna's back. "NO!" Gwaine shouted, running toward her—but he was too far away to intercede. Just as the blow fell, something arrested it: Sifa had swung her wooden bucket between the sword and Anna. The blow knocked the bucket out of her hand and threw Anna off balance and onto her hands and knees. Sifa now faced the angry swordsman alone and unarmed. He slashed at her and she fell. Gwaine reached her and parried the swordsman's final killing blow. He drew back to give the attack, and the swordsman flew backward through the air and into the palisade with a sickening crack. He fell to the ground with his neck broken, his head lolling. Sifa lay face-up on the ground, choking on blood.

TBC


AN: Sorry for the long delay in updating (again!). Kind of a busy week—I had a friend staying the weekend because we were in a wedding on Saturday, and now I'm on a short family vacation—in fact, I'm sitting on the porch of a bed and breakfast updating this!

Stay tuned to find out what happens to Sifa and how they get the soldiers un-paralyzed…