CHAPTER 7

There were many things that happened near-simultaneously, and Arthur would only piece them all together afterwards. First and foremost, the castle shook. The very earth Camelot was built on rumbled and shifted with such violence that Morgana was tossed to the ground, and her spell over Arthur and Olaf was released. This shaking coincided with the thrust of a battering ram, which the knights had hastily assembled to knock down Merlin's door, lending strength that sent Leon, Percival, Elyan and Gwaine tumbling inside with a cohort of palace guards.

Arthur snatched up his sword and advanced on the dazed witch, but Morgana - seeing herself sorely outnumbered - took advantage of the falling stonework and masonry to escape.

"After her!" Arthur tried to shout, but the rumbling of the castle was too loud and, before he could pursue her himself, a chunk of Merlin's ceiling struck his shoulder and sent him face-first to the ground. Desperately he twisted onto his back, but it was too late. A large, dislodged piece of the brick wall was plummeting towards him and all he could do was raise his arms in a useless defence.

Which was when, just as suddenly as the room had begun quaking into pieces, it stopped.

Everything was silent, save for Arthur's ragged breaths. Slowly, cautiously, he lowered his arms. A heavy fragment of loose brick hung above him, frozen in time. He scooted out from under it and stood, looking around him in bewilderment.

Morgana was nowhere to be seen. The palace guards and the knights were all paralysed in varying states of distress, some pinned under pieces of collapsed ceiling and others paused in the act of pulling their comrades from harm's way. Arthur turned to his left and saw King Olaf, hand outstretched in the act of warning Arthur of the impending danger. And, over by the wardrobe-

"Merlin."

His friend was pale as a ghost, eyes an inferno of gold and arms raised as they often were when he was spellcasting. Upon them Arthur could see a pair of metal cuffs engraved with burning runes.

"Was that you?" Arthur asked shakily. "When the castle moved, was that you?"

Merlin didn't respond, attention on the broken room. Arthur watched on in awe as, at once, all the loose fragments of the castle floated back to their proper positions and fused back to smoothness. By the time Merlin was done, it was as if nothing had happened.

"Merlin?" Arthur stumbled forwards, shoulder throbbing from where the stone had struck. "Merlin, are you alright?"

Time resumed. There was a loud quarter-second delay where everyone continued their previous motions and noises, followed by a shocked hush as they took in what was, to them, an instantaneous transformation.

All except Arthur, who had reached Merlin and now gripped his shoulders in an attempt to gain his friend's attention. "Merlin? Merlin!"

Blood leaked from the warlock's left nostril. Ever so slowly, gold faded to a weary, bloodshot blue. "'Rthur?"

The King was expecting the collapse and caught Merlin before he could strike the floor, lowering him gently onto his back. He was still awake, but as he had been when he had fallen out of the wardrobe; disoriented, shaking, breath coming in gasps.

"S-Something's... wronggg..." He clutched feebly at Arthur's arm. "Some...thinggg..."

"Get Gaius!" Everyone had stood completely dumbfounded by the sudden turn of events, but their king's sharp command spurred them into action. "Now! And find Morgana!"

"M-Morgana!" Merlin, jolted into motion by the name, tried to sit up. "Shhh-shhee's-"

"She's gone." Arthur pushed Merlin back down, shuffling so the warlock's head and shoulders rested in his lap. "You got rid of her."

Merlin blinked up at him. "... Arthur...? S- Some... something's... wrong..."

"It's the cuffs."

Arthur jumped; he had entirely forgotten Olaf. The King of Amata looked almost as pale as Merlin.

"The cuffs?" Arthur looked to the metal on Merlin's wrists where the engraved runes still burnt with the fiery orange of a blacksmith's forge. "What do they do?"

"I've not seen any since the Purge, but they're designed to suppress a sorcerer's magic. Lord Merlin he- he made the castle move." Olaf stared, awestruck, at the man he had so vastly underestimated. "I've never seen anything like it, certainly never with the magic shackled. The power he must have."

And, almost as if to prove Olaf's point, George appeared in the doorway and announced breathlessly, "Sire! There's a dragon in the courtyard and it- it says it wishes to see Lord Merlin!"

"A dragon?" Olaf yelped, but Arthur barely heard it, for a deep, resonant voice echoed in his head.

Arthur Pendragon. Bring the young warlock to me.

And then a younger voice.

Father!

"George I think you have it wrong." Arthur managed a trembling smile. "There are actually two dragons in the courtyard."

To be fair to George, Aithusa was significantly smaller than Kilgharrah. The young white dragon was scarcely bigger than a horse whilst Kilgharrah... well, Kilgharrah was probably about a sixth of the size of the castle. With the knights searching for Morgana, the palace guards reassuring the visiting Kingdoms that the danger had passed, and Olaf gathering the Kings together to do the same, it was only Arthur and Merlin who stood, albeit unsteadily, before the Great and baby Dragons.

"King Arthur." Kilgharrah bent his front knees and dipped his head. Arthur could see every detail of the burnished scales on the dragon's neck; it was quite something to have such a powerful creature treat him with this sort of fealty. "I am glad to meet you at last. Though I regret the circumstances which have brought about our meeting."

Whilst Kilgharrah was the picture of dignity and respect, Aithusa flapped about agitatedly, nudging Merlin with plaintive cries of, "Father!"

"Aithusa..." Merlin placed a hand on her side and, where before his fingers had been restless and twitching, now he stilled with a contented sigh. "You've grown."

"She has been greatly distressed, young warlock," Kilgharrah announced gravely over Aithusa's mewls and growls. "We felt the absence of your magic and feared the worst. We flew here as fast as we could, but from afar we saw the ground beneath the castle move. I take it that was you?"

Merlin sprawled onto the white dragon, eyes closed and breaths evening as this contact served to reassure him in some way. Aithusa folded her wings tightly to allow him access, lowering to the ground so he could rest on his knees. "Hm?"

"It was," Arthur confirmed, as it was clear Merlin was in no state to. "And he- he stopped time. Everything froze except for the two of us."

Eyes the size of dinner plates blinked down at the King, reminding him of his hunting dogs when a rabbit managed to wriggle from under their nose. "This is powerful magic indeed. I do not believe I have ever heard the like."

Father is clever. Aithusa's voice sounded proudly in Arthur's mind again and she nuzzled Merlin which, much as Kilgharrah made him think of a dog, reminded him now of a cat. When her snout passed over the shackle on Merlin's wrist she hissed uneasily. Bad...

"Olaf said they stop his magic. Is that why he's so confused?"

"Merlin is a creature of magic, like Aithusa or I," the Dragon explained. "These cuffs are not unlike those your father bound me with, beneath the palace. For many years I was as Merlin was, disorientated and distressed. To us, magic is as natural as breathing. Without it, the very fabric of the world is changed." Kilgharrah lowered his head close to Merlin, whose breaths had synced to Aithusah's, but whose body was still wracked by the occasional, violent shudder. "I am so very sorry, young warlock."

Merlin raised his head to better see Kilgharrah, but continued clutching Aithusa tightly as he spoke. "Feel better already... with the two of you so near."

"We are kin. Our souls call to one another."

"But there must be a way to break these," Arthur insisted. "Didn't Merlin once break your own chains? How did he manage it?"

"He used a sword from the Knights of Medhir. These restraints are yet more powerful than mine, however... They cannot be from Camelot, as they have been created with dark magic." The Dragon hesitated. "There is another sword, one forged in my own breath. I swore I would never make such an item again, for fear it would end up in the wrong hands."

Arthur dimly remembered one of the stories Merlin told during that long, drunken night before his investiture ceremony, where he had slurred something about the Black Knight and a magical sword which had slain him. "Where is this sword?"

"I hid it." Merlin's eyes focused on Arthur's, something that gave the King comfort. "It's... far. Several days' on horseback... Unless..?"

This last was said hopefully to the Great Dragon who huffed, frustrated but undeniably fond.

"So long as it does not become a habit."

"You mean-" Arthur looked disbelievingly between Kilgharrah and Merlin. "You'd ride him? Isn't there some danger you'd - I don't know - fall off?"

The ground reverberated with Kilgharrah's deep chuckles. "I would not let him. And won't you be there to ensure he doesn't slip?"

Arthur blanched at the prospect of having to ride the dragon, but Merlin saved him from embarrassment by interjecting.

"Arthur can't... leave Camelot... 's the Summit."

Embarrassingly, Arthur had forgotten all about the Summit and the other Kings. "I'll send one of the knights. Gwaine or-"

Merlin shook his head, but stopped when the motion became too much for his fragile balance. He squeezed his eyes shut and grappled blindly for Aithusa, whose snout butted his fingers affectionately.

"Not Gwaine?" Arthur probed when Merlin's strained breaths became too much to bear, making a half-hearted attempt at their usual light hearted banter. "We won't miss him. He'd likely have just been whiling the night away in the tavern..."

"Has to be you," Merlin's voice, though hoarse, was steadier than it had been before. "I enchanted the blade so only you can retrieve it."

"You never make things easy, do you?"

Merlin risked slitting open one eye so he could pin Arthur with a playful, if pained, glare. "Wouldn't give you the pleasure."

Arthur chewed his lip a moment. He couldn't leave the Kingdom without a leader, not now he had the three other Kings to contend with.

As if reading his mind, Merlin murmured, "It's fine Arthur. I'm not dying. Just... uncomfortable."

"Uncomfortable is a gross understatement," Kilgharrah growled impatiently. "Why do you hesitate, Young King? Surely the Queen is fit to handle such matters?"

Merlin smiled weakly as Arthur's eyes near bulged out of his head. Over the King's panicked spluttering, he explained, "Gwen's not...Queen yet. There's no regent and the other Kings wouldn't take guidance from a serving girl... Just need to wai-" Merlin broke off as another tremor ran through him. He whimpered softly and gripped Aithusa as it passed. Once it was over he slumped, breathing heavily.

The sight of Merlin in this state made Arthur feel physically sick. "We can't wait. Guinevere is not my wife, but perhaps... Perhaps there is another way."

The castle's shaking was thunderous, so thunderous it woke the whole of the Lower Town. The Camelot citizens came to stand outside their houses, looking nervously to the castle and whispering to each other about what could be happening. All but Gwen, who pulled on a shawl and set off at once for the palace.

She was stopped by a guard at the portcullis.

"I'm a Camelot servant," she told him impatiently. "I have duties to attend, I can help-"

"We're not allowing anyone in or out," the guard cut across her unsympathetically. "Go home and wait until you're asked for."

"But what happened? Was it Morgana? Is Arth- Is the King safe?"

The guard shrugged. "The danger has passed. That's all we've been told."

"I'm not leaving until you let me in."

"Then you'll have a long time to wait."

And wait she did, until eventually Gaius appeared.

"Gaius!" she exclaimed, desperately glad to know he, at least, was safe. "Do you know what's happening?"

"No idea," he responded grimly. "I was assisting with a birth in the lower town. I've had to leave Gilli with the family, poor boy. I am the Court Physician," he sternly addressed the guard. "Let me in or I shall report you to the King."

The guard grumbled, but stood aside to let them through.

"Run on ahead Gwen," Gaius instructed. "You're faster than me. Check the council room, then Arthur's chambers, then-"

But Gwen, her sight better in the darkness than the elderly physician's, grabbed his arm and pointed towards the great silhouette she had just seen looming in the courtyard. "Gaius, what is that?"

Not what, but who my lady.

Gwen jumped. "What- What was-"

"Kilgharrah... stop showing off..." A thin, exhausted, but blessedly familiar voice piped up. Cautiously, Gwen and Gaius drew closer until finally they stood before the Great Dragon. At his feet was a much smaller white dragon and, clutching to the dragon as a drowning man might clutch onto a raft, was Merlin himself. He looked thoroughly bruised and worse for wear.

Gaius rushed to his ward's side with barely a glance to the enormous beast who overlooked them. "What happened?"

"M'gana... but don't worry." Merlin smiled drunkenly in a poor attempt at reassurance, raising an arm to demonstrate a glowing metal cuff at his wrist. "Everyone's... alive."

As Gaius fussed around Merlin, Gwen curtseyed to Kilgharrah.

"Merlin has told me a lot about you," she said. "A pleasure to meet on, erm, speaking terms."

"The pleasure is all mine, my lady."

She blushed and stammered, "Oh I- I'm o lady-"

"Not yet, perhaps." The dragon turned its sights on Gaius, who was rifling through the potions in his bag. "You cannot help him, physician. It is the cuffs that restrict his magic and as you well know-" Gaius winced, though Gwen wasn't sure how exactly Kilgharrah's words had impacted him. "-there is nothing to be done until we can remove them."

"I can at least tend his other wounds!" Gaius retorted angrily, and bent Merlin's head forward to examine a dark, ugly swelling above his nape. "Morgana's work, I take it?"

Merlin breaths hitched in an irregular beat. "W-where's... Arth..ur?"

"He will return soon, young warlock." Kilgharrah bent his neck to ground level, reptilian expression pitying as he beheld the state of his Dragonlord. "I should have known it was not only mine and Aithusa's presence that served to ground you, but the King's also."

Gwen was about to probe for further details on Arthur, but her attention was diverted by Gaius's soft gasp.

"Merlin, your eyes..."

Gwen had seen Merlin cast magic many times since his investiture, and had quickly grown used to the sight. But now his eyes were two suns, burning deep into his face. He moaned and collapsed in on himself, clutching desperately at his forehead.

"Merlin?" Gwen reached for his shoulder, but he jerked away with an incomprehensible groan. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Distance yourself, young Queen." With one gigantic claw, The Dragon brushed her and Gaius to the other side of the courtyard. "Without the King to balance his magic, it is seeking ways to escape him. This was why the castle shook."

"I am not a Queen!" Gwen said, though her commanding tone suggested otherwise. "And Merlin is my friend. Let me help him!"

But before she could rush back to his side, Merlin's magic finally burst from him in a shimmer of blinding light.