A/N: Thank you GuestM Live and PadrePedro for reviewing! We're almost to the end!
Chapter 9
Arthur writhed in a sea of excruciating agony. The hag was taking her time unraveling his soul, savoring each piece she picked apart to feed on. There was no escape, no end in sight. Then out of the miasma of darkness, something slammed into the hag, knocking her away. Arthur gasped and shuddered violently as the filleting stopped. He blinked through blurry vision, a part of him desperately yearning for his friends to have found a way to him.
But to his surprise—and dread—it wasn't anyone like that. It was Morgana. She now stood between him and the Dochraid, a feral child staring down an evil as old as time. The hag hissed in fury, and Morgana cocked her head back and forth, like a cobra. Arthur despaired; two beings were now fighting over him for the right to tear him to shreds. He'd wish for death if this wasn't already the afterlife.
"Go away, you wretched girl," the hag spat, somehow recognizing her despite being blind.
Morgana didn't budge. The Dochraid twitched and sniffed the air. Then she lifted her bony arms, and shadows shot out from the corners of the cavern, spearing Morgana through her spectral form and impaling her to the ground. She screeched and thrashed like a creature possessed.
"Leave her alone!" Arthur found himself yelling. "It's me you want!"
The hag came to stand over them both, blackened lips pulling back in a sneer. "You are of the same blood. She is damaged, but strong. Perhaps I will feed off you both."
The Dochraid stretched out spindly fingers and crooked them like claws. A tendril of aura began to peel off of Morgana, and she screamed, the sound becoming more human than Wraith in that moment. Arthur's chest constricted painfully.
"I'm so sorry," he said brokenly, meeting her onyx eyes as she jerked and twitched on the ground.
The hag stretched her other hand out to him and began to feed off him again. The resounding screams of both Pendragon children reverberated throughout the cave.
A flare of light suddenly filled the air, followed a second later by a blazing horse made of burning light charging in. It head butted the Dochraid, sending the witch flying backward into the cave wall. Arthur's heart leaped with hope and fear. He knew that animal spirit…
Elyan's wolf appeared next, followed by him, Gwen, Gwaine…and Arthur. Or rather, his body, currently inhabited by his father. The Lightspinners had him bound in light, and they were all roped together like the last time they'd ventured into the Veil, keeping their souls anchored inside their physical shells.
Gwen quickly spun thin blades of light and cut through the shadows around Arthur. He bolted upright with a gasp and tried to throw his arms around her, but his hands went right through her. She flinched and jerked back, her expression pinching.
"Elyan," she said, and the two of them removed the light rope from Uther. His spirit was immediately yanked out of Arthur's body, which then crumpled like a rag doll.
No longer bound and gagged, Uther spun back to them in a rage. "No!"
Elyan's wolf leaped forward without command and snapped its jaws around Uther, then threw him toward the back of the cave near the hag. Though blind, she was screeching in pain and trying to shield her scarred eyes from the blazing light sources.
"Pull your animals back," Arthur commanded.
Gwen and Elyan exchanged thrown looks at that but nevertheless recalled their animal spirits, dousing the Dochraid in darkness again.
"How do we defeat the demon?" Arthur asked her.
She looked up with a hiss. "You can't. It is the original darkness. It will devour everything until only shadow and flame remain."
Arthur clenched his jaw. It wasn't that he trusted the hag that had been content to feed off him like a Wraith, but neither did she have reason to lie. If there was no answer to be found from her, then there wasn't any anywhere.
He turned and prepared to lie down in his body.
"Don't just sit there," Uther railed at the Dochraid. "Help me!"
Arthur whirled toward his father angrily. "You want a Pendragon?" he addressed the hag. "Take him."
Uther snarled and surged forward to attack again, but Gwen's and Elyan's light animals were quick to return, barring his path. The two Lightspinners then quickly turned to Arthur and began weaving a net of light. Arthur lay down on the ground, lining his spirit up with his limbs. Gwen and Elyan draped the light net over him and wove it tighter. He tried not to squirm in discomfort as he felt the weighted pressure sealing him in where he belonged. Once he was firmly reattached, they spun the net down into a rope and linked it to their own chain.
Arthur got to his feet slowly and cautiously. He was shocked at the weight of having a physical body again but was immensely relieved as well. He turned and once again tried to put his arms around his wife. The feel of solid contact made his eyes well with tears.
Gwen abruptly pulled back and grabbed his arm. He'd forgotten about the heinous bracelet, the instrument of all this, until she prized it off him and tossed it on the ground. The gemstone that had been softly glowing orange dimmed and went dark.
"No," Uther's voice rang shrilly from the other side of the light animals blocking view of him. "No!" The scream that followed made Arthur's stomach lurch. The Dochraid got her payment.
He looked at Morgana, still trapped on the ground. "Free her."
"You sure about that?" Gwaine asked.
Arthur nodded.
Gwen and Elyan carefully cut through the shadows around Morgana, and she immediately scrambled away from them into a crouch.
Arthur looked into her crazed eyes. "Our father will finally face the punishment he deserves," he told her sagely. "We can both walk away."
Indeed, Uther's screams were rattling Arthur's nerves, and he turned to leave the cave. His friends followed, the light animals bringing up the rear and shielding them from the horrific scene playing out behind them.
Outside was no more safe, but Arthur took a moment to breathe, then embraced Gwen a second time, following up with a kiss. "I don't know how you found me," he said, voice thick with emotion. "But thank you."
She kissed him back.
"We should go," Gwaine urged.
They turned to follow the light chain back to the Rift and the outside world. They passed circling spirits on occasion, but the light animals served to keep them at bay. The Rift was just ahead when Elyan said in a low tone,
"Arthur."
He paused and turned to look behind them. Morgana was slinking along several yards back. But she hadn't attacked them thus far, and she didn't look so predatory anymore. Just…lost.
Arthur took a step back to face her. "I'm sorry I can't bring you with us," he said mournfully. "You deserved to live, to grow up in the world of light you were born into, not this."
She didn't react, just stared back at him.
"One day I will end up here again," Arthur went on. "And I will look for you."
With that, he turned and walked with his friends through the Rift.
Once outside the Veil, the light rope that had been solid was swiftly dissolved, plunging them into darkness. Arthur blinked, his eyes taking an extra few beats to adjust.
"Was there trouble?" Gwen asked.
"No," Leon answered. "Just a couple of Wraiths." He paused. "Arthur?"
"It's me."
His vision finally adapted as Leon stepped forward to embrace him. Lancelot and Percival followed with hearty ones of their own. Arthur swept his gaze around the area, and his brows furrowed.
"Are we near the Valley of the Fallen Kings?"
"We came for the Crystal Cave," Gwen explained, her expression grim. "The demon attacked Camelot, drained the shield and crystal. We came here to get more, but we were too late; the demon had already destroyed it, sucked every last crystal dry. Then we learned it was Uther in your place. He- you- had been acting strange before that, but we didn't figure it out until later."
Arthur reeled at all that information. "Then, there's nothing left that can save us?" he asked quietly.
Gwen's eyes pinched with tears and she shook her head. The others dropped their gazes in equal solemnity.
Arthur exhaled heavily. He supposed he would be seeing Morgana again sooner rather than later.
With nothing more for them to do, they headed back to Camelot. The sight of the city, dark under a black sky without the shield, tore at Arthur's heart. Gwen told him they'd taken refuge in the siege tunnels, but there was no room to get the horses down there, so they were forced to leave them in the stable unprotected as they made their way below ground. Finding his people so crestfallen and bereft reminded Arthur of the days they lived underground, before the Crystal Cave had provided them their salvation. And now there was no more to be found.
Gaius hurried over to meet them. "Is everything all right?" he asked in a strange tone, flicking a meaningful look at the others.
"Yes," Gwen replied. "We got him back. It was Uther. He had traded places with Arthur and sent him to the Veil."
Gaius's eyes widened in alarm and he whipped his focus to Arthur. "Are you all right, my boy?"
There were so many ways he wasn't, but there wasn't time for that. "I'm myself again," Arthur answered. "And I don't think Uther will be escaping the Veil ever again."
"None of us will be," Gwaine put in grimly. "The Crystal Cave was destroyed. There's no light magic left to call on."
Gaius's entire demeanor slumped with resignation, and he glanced over his shoulder at the people huddled along the tunnel walls. "What do you want to do, Arthur?" he asked somberly.
Arthur's mouth tightened. What could they do? Stay in the siege tunnels? Eke out a meager existence like they had when Camelot had first been abandoned? Face starvation and endless fear of the things that haunted the world above?
When Arthur didn't speak, Leon cleared his throat.
"We have access to the well down here. Water is one of our first priorities."
"We can replant the gardens topside," Lancelot put in. "But the yield won't be as full without light."
"We'll likely lose the animals," Percival added. "They won't fit down here. We should release them, so they don't attract Wraiths into the city."
Arthur's heart fractured further with each new point of discussion. It hurt to lose their home. It hurt deeper than anything, more than the betrayal of his father. History was repeating itself.
"We could go out fighting," Elyan spoke up.
Gwen shot her brother an incredulous look. "That's suicide."
"I know, but so is staying here like this. One is just a slower death than the other, but they'll both end at the same destination."
They all fell silent at that. No one really had a counter argument to it. Arthur also didn't know what to say. He had faced such a decision before, when he'd chosen to set out on a long-shot quest that had more chance of ending in failure than success. It had seemed just as hopeless then as it did now.
"What if there was a chance of defeating the demon?" Freya's voice spoke up from the back.
They all turned to her in surprise. Arthur felt a brief moment of renewed disappointment when he saw there had been no change in Merlin's condition.
Lancelot walked over to his sister. "What do you mean?"
She worried at her lip. "Merlin made contact with me in a vision."
They all shared dubious looks at that.
Gaius gave her a sympathetic look. "Freya…"
"It was real," she insisted. "He said the demon is like a portal to another realm, like the Veil. His dragon isn't dead but trapped there, its energy still feeding the demon."
Gwaine quirked a confused look at her. "That doesn't make sense. It has a physical form; we've seen it."
"On the outside, yes, but the inside is different." Freya scowled and shook her head in frustration. "I don't understand how it works, but I believe Merlin. He thinks we can destroy it with all of our light combined from the inside."
Leon's brows shot upward. "You mean let ourselves get eaten?" he said incredulously.
She grimaced. "I know it sounds insane, but what other course do we have except to stay down here languishing in starvation and disease?"
Arthur's heart was heavy with the knowledge that neither choice was good. He supposed it did all come down to how they wanted to die.
"Um," Gwen interjected. "After Uther's trickery, how can we be sure it was Merlin you really saw?"
Freya frowned. "I don't know what you're talking about, but I know Merlin's spirit. It was him."
Arthur ran a hand down his face. He wanted to believe, if only because it meant his friend wasn't gone, not yet.
"The Crystal Cave is gone," Percival put in. "There will be no more spirit seeds to infuse future generations with the power to fend off Wraiths. Maybe the power can be passed down, but we are a long way away from testing that." He shrugged one shoulder. "I agree: it's this or give up."
"Sacrificing ourselves for nothing is also giving up," Leon countered.
"Most of our lives have been sacrifice, often for nothing," Lancelot said bitterly.
Arthur looked to Gaius for his counsel.
The court physician looked contemplative for a long moment, then sighed. "I am old, and have lived through the worst of both worlds. I have neither the magic of the Old Religion anymore, nor that of Lightspinners." He gave them all a sage look. "Whatever future you choose to pursue, it is for you."
Arthur huffed internally. That wasn't the direct advice he'd been hoping for. But, if they were talking about the future they wanted to pursue…then yes, Arthur wanted to pursue the best one possible. Even if it was a lost cause. Better to fight for the lost cause than to be one.
He turned back to Freya. "Did Merlin happen to mention a plan to go with this crazy idea?"
She grimaced again. "Not really. It was difficult for him to hold the connection. But he did say to hold back the light until we were inside…wherever inside the demon is. And then unleash it in full force. Like a poisoned capsule." She arched her brows at Gaius in question.
He pursed his mouth thoughtfully at that. "Well, that does sound like something Merlin would say."
Arthur felt a thrill of hope, fear, dread, excitement—he wasn't sure. He turned and raised his voice to get the attention of everyone in the tunnels. "We have a plan," he said loudly. "A last-ditch effort that will either kill us all…or defy the laws of nature and give us victory. I will not order anyone on this suicidal mission. If you choose to stay and wait out the end, or flee, I will not think ill of any of you. But if you choose to come with us, to attempt this one last fight, we will be stronger for it."
There were murmurs of uncertainty, fear, and confusion, which was understandable. What Arthur was proposing was madness. The corner of his mouth twitched as he thought perhaps he had a little bit of Uther in him after all. But at least he used it to protect his kingdom, not his own self-interests.
"I will come," Freya said, her voice carrying down the tunnel.
That triggered another round of shocked whispers. Shy, gentle Freya, a gardener on the outside but with a fearsome beast within, was volunteering first. Arthur watched as very slowly, the effect rippled, and another person got to their feet in support. Then another, and another. Arthur's heart swelled as the tunnel was soon full with everyone on their feet, pledging their loyalty.
He nodded gratefully at them all. Time to prepare for humanity's last stand.