Chapter 14

A Bargain Struck

He was led down a long winding staircase that went down several floors, before they entered a long cold and dark hallway. On each side it was bordered with large and small cells. Nearly each one housed one or more persons. Most likely magic users. Merlin cringed. Morgana was no better than Uther.

She needs to be stopped. He grimaced. How was he going to kill her, though, when his body screamed for just one more touch, one more kiss; but at the same time his brain and heart burned with a need to end her.

Unfortunately, there was no way to train his heart to be impenetrable, and sometimes it takes more time for you to accept what your brain already knew. And he knew what she was. He has known for a while, but he chose to believe she could change. He wondered how many times he had forgiven her just because he didn't want to lose her. Even if she didn't deserve it. Merlin learned long ago to listen to people when they were angry because that was when the real truth came out.

Cedric and Jin stopped at the end of the hall and opened the doors of a large cell. Merlin was pushed aside as Jin placed a bucket of water just on the inside of the cell to the right of the door. He motioned to Merlin and then the cage, waiting impatiently for him to step inside. The moment he was, the doors clanged shut.

"Cedric will be back with a fresh pair of clothes." Jin said gruffly.

They left him in the dark taking their torches with them. Merlin sat down heavily against the bars of the cell door and looked around. His eyes adjusted sluggishly to the dark. Without access to his magic he once again felt rundown. His aches started back up with a fierceness he hadn't felt since before he had bathed in the healing waters.

He looked down at his chest and lifted his shirt. Sure enough, blood seeped from his newly sealed scars. The deeper wounds seemed to have reopened. Merlin guessed the powers of the waters could only heal so much. He tugged the shirt over his head and tossed it to the floor. He groaned. His head fell back against a bars for support.

"Merlin!" A young voice exclaimed, relieved.

Merlin's head jerked up and swung around to pinpoint the voice. Dizziness swamped him and his world tilted. He pressed his palms to his eyes. He shook his head and squinted into the darkness. The shadows give way to more defined shapes.

"William?" Merlin asked. He looked around the cell, searching for the others.

"Yeah, it's me." William assured him. He shifted in his spot against the far wall. A rush of Deja Vu hit him.

"Where are your brothers?" Merlin asked once he noticed what was missing.

Silence…

"William?" He asked cautiously. "Where are they?"

"I-I don't know." William whispered.

"What happened after I was taken away?" Merlin watched him.

Silence.

"William." Merlin snapped gently. "I can't help you if you don't tell me."

"A man. Named Jerrod, I think, and another skinny man with dark eyes, who just watched." William spoke softly. "Jerrod-" He took a deep breath. "He wanted to take me somewhere." He shivered. "Said I was just what he was looking for. He was very... um... friendly." he stressed the word. "And when he started to drag me away, Darrin tried to stop him. But he didn't know-" William's voice cracked. "He didn't know that-"

"He didn't know that Fredrick was a sorcerer of dark magic" Merlin finished for him.

Merlin sighed and leaned his head back against the bars again. He was exhausted. Maybe that explained why he had such a sudden wave of rage for the two men. He somehow knew they were lecherous beasts. But he knew he couldn't blame his blood lust on that. His rage came from something far deeper, and far darker. It stemmed from being in love with a woman who would rather watch him burn in agony, than die in peace. From being tortured and humiliated. From having to do the horrible things he has to do to survive. Even as a young boy Merlin has had to fight against his own darkness.

"He cast a spell I have never heard before and Darrin fell to the floor." Williams' breath hitched. "He didn't get back up." William swallowed. "They were furious." He murmured. He remembered the look of malice in their eyes.

"What of James?" Merlin asked, he lifted his head to look at William. He dreaded the answer.

William shook his head. "James got them away from me, and he told me to run. So I did." William said sadly. Some others found me and put me here."

"Okay." Merlin said tiredly. "That's good." He stopped.

What about any of this was good? He couldn't exactly say everything was going to be alright, because he didn't know that. Merlin watched the young boy brood in the corner. His legs were pulled up to his chest with his arms wrapped around them, with his chin resting on his knees.

"It's not your fault William." Merlin said from his spot on the ground near the door.

"But it is, isn't it?" William said, aggravated. All of his life it has only been the three of them, and they always protected him, even at the cost of their own lives. "They were protecting me. I got them killed."

"How old are you, William?" Merlin asked gently.

The boy shifted. "I'm ten." He said almost defensively.

Merlin chuckled in spite of his thoughts. When Merlin was ten he had been faced with a problem nothing but death could solve. Williams' situation wasn't much different.

"You don't know that their dead." Merlin assured. "You're old enough to fight for what you love, so do it. Don't give up so easily." Merlin grunted, sat up and pulled the bucket of water towards him. "Never give up hope until you see proof."

He hated to be so candid with him but William was in a dangerous position and he was either going to survive this or die from this and he rather liked the kid so he better toughen up.

"If someone dies to protect you it's their choice, and it's not your fault. They did it because they believed your life to be worth the risk. So make the best of what you have and don't let their sacrifices go in vain."

Merlin reached into the bucket and found there was no rag. He sighed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the red neckerchief, almost identical to the one he wore back in Camelot, and dunked it into the water to wash the blood from his hands. Once they were relatively clean, he squeezed the neckerchief out and went about wiping the blood from his face and neck before further cleaning the reopened wound on his chest. It stung but the pain was not nearly on his radar from what he has experienced the last few weeks and he didn't even hiss in a breath from the pressure of the cloth.

He tossed the neckerchief to the ground beside the bucket of rose tinted water. It landed with a wet splosh. The red coloring tinted even darker red from Merlin's blood, soaked nearly every inch. There was nothing to be done about his clothes. The only saving grace was that his pants stayed relatively clean. Still he had to wait in the cold and musty dungeons without a shirt until Cedric chose to bring him some.

"What happened when they took you away?" William asked quietly.

Merlin was quiet for a second contemplating an answer suitable for him to hear. "I had to take a test." he didn't know what else to say. That wasn't a training session, or a test. It was a beat down to cull out the weaklings, and Merlin destroyed that man.

"What kind of test was it?" He asked, wrinkling up his nose.

Merlin didn't answer. He knew sooner or later Morgana would toss them all into that ring and William would find out. William thankfully took his silence as his way of saying he didn't want to talk about it.

Soon Williams' breathing evened out. He finally felt safe enough to sleep now that Merlin was there. Merlin, himself however, couldn't sleep. Instead he got lost in a haunting memory, one he hadn't thought about for years. The first time he had killed... memories could be the worst kind of torture.

There were rumors going around his village about a woman's son who could do magic. Soon it brought a pair of mercenaries to the village. Merlin had assumed they came to eliminate the source of it. They started with Merlin's mother, having birthed him. But no. They had other plans. They wanted to take Merlin and use him as a weapon. As most greedy people did when they found out he had power. He was young enough to be brainwashed to become their little monster.

In the middle of the night the two men dragged them from bed and into the forest. Merlin was only eight years old, younger than William was now.

Merlin shivered at the memory. He remembers the feel of the dagger that was shoved into his hand. The uncomfortable feel of its weight. The mercenary and his partner, he later learned their names to be Wallace and Gregory, were cruel men bent on eradicating the world of magic, one person at a time. They did not care whether it be man, woman, or child, and they weren't above using a sorcerer to take down another sorcerer.

"Do it." The man, Gregory, growled.

He pressed the blade in Merlin's hand closer to his mothers neck. Merlin tried to tug his hand away. He didn't want to hurt her. The man growled and leaned down intimidatingly.

"Do it, or I'll cut your throat instead." Gregory's fetid breath ghosted over Merlin's face and clogged his lungs. He smelled like dried blood, rotten meat and bad hygiene. A smell he would never forget, as it haunted Merlin's nightmares to this day.

"No." Merlin gulped.

"You think you have a choice, that's sweet and all, but it's time you take the knife," He sneered. "And Kill like the monster you were born to be, little one."

Monster. Monster. The word echoed inside his eight year old mind. It warped and manipulated his thoughts like clay. Merlin looked at his mothers tear stained face. Her terrified eyes stared at him unwaveringly. She nodded just a little, she tried to convey to him that it was alright, that he could do it. Merlin shook his head; he couldn't. This was his mother. The woman he was supposed to protect above all others.

He squared his shoulders and threw the knife to the ground. He centered himself. His tiny body trembled with anxiety and utter terror, but he still stood against the bad men. He felt powerless when he had nothing but power. He couldn't fight them in a fair fight when he was a child, but he could give them what they wanted. A little monster. With a powerful cry his eight year old voice shouted, and sent out a shock wave of power that blasted the two men back. They were dead before they hit the ground.

It wasn't until a year later that he found he was fascinated by the ability and strength he possessed and it terrified him. Kill like the monster you were born to be. Gregory's voice whispered in his mind every night. Even after all this time he haunted Merlin.

The last vestiges of the memory dissipated. It left a bitter taste in Merlin's mouth. He shook off the last threads of his past and found a familiar bubble of hot rage that seethed and grew in the depth of his soul. It felt ready to burst. It reminded him how much Morgana fed his darkness. His madness seemed centered around her. This stupid plan of his… it was going to be the hardest thing, by far, he will ever have to do. And, if by some miracle, he survived his gambit, he was going to demand a whole year off from his servant duties; no, two years.

Merlin thought of Arthur. The only thing that brought him a semblance of peace, calmed the rage that writhed within. He wished he could write him a letter somehow. Let him know he was alive, and what he had planned. At least as much as he dared for fear someone else would read it. Or at the very least tell him not to look for him. It would no doubt get him killed. He wouldn't last a day without Merlin's magic to save his royal backside. He needed paper and something to write with. When Cedric brought his clothes, he needed to ask him for a favor.

The clang of iron bars and quiet footsteps alerted Merlin to the coming company. Torch light came into view followed by Cedric, the guard assigned to bring him clothes. He shoved the small bundle through the bars and dropped them on his lap. Merlin scrambled to his feet and let the clothes dump on the dirty dungeon floor.

"Cedric," Merlin hissed, he reached through the bars and grabbed onto his armor. "Wait. Please."

Cedric turned back to Merlin with a sneer. "What?" He growled.

Cedric looked behind him. Merlin wanted to laugh for some insane reason. Even Morgana's men were frightened of her. He didn't blame them, any woman's ire was bad, Morgana's was even more so. She was a woman who fed her demons.

"Do you know what happened to the two other boys that came with us? Darrin and James?"

Cedric paused at the names. He had heard about the incident. He shook his head. "I'm sorry. I haven't seen them." And if he was being honest, Cedric didn't think they were okay.

Merlin looked hard at him. He could tell from the stern set of Cedric's jaw, to the obvious unspoken words that carried under what he just said. He didn't think they were alive. He shoved the pain down and grabbed onto his armor tighter when he turned to leave.

"Wait! Can-um- you get me some parchment, maybe?" Merlin asked uncertainty.

"Why? Gonna write a suicide note?" Cedric sneered.

Merlin tensed, his eyes narrowed unfavorably at him. Cedric wasn't a bad man, but he had a certain notoriety to keep up if he was going to survive in Morgana's camp.

Merlin looked at Cedric with a deep knowledge that astounded than any servant or slave he has met. Maybe Cedric's assumption was right and Merlin was the man he thought he was, and that was dangerous for both of them. Either way, he was determined to find out, and if he was right, he would either kill Merlin, or take him away just so Morgana doesn't get her claws any deeper into him. Cedric could see Morgana's influence thrived, and it would with what Merlin has been through. If Morgana succeeds in her efforts to recruit Emrys to her cause, there would be no room for peace. And if he was correct in his knowledge and assumption that this man before him was that great Worlock they were all doomed if Morgana wins.

"Can you?" Merlin pleaded. He ignored the rude comment, and grit his teeth.

"Maybe." Cedric said. He shook Merlin off his arm and crossed them over his wide chest. "What are you willing to do for it?"

This stopped Merlin. He knew he needed to trade something for it, but he honestly never thought he would get this far to actually need that something.

Idiot, a voice that sounded an awful lot like Arthur hissed in his head. He obviously needs something to bargain with. "I have nothing to trade."

"I think you do." Cedric countered.

Merlin through for a moment. He remembered the looks he gave a few of his cohorts. The hatred. Maybe there was something there. "I saw the way you watched the brothers, Jerrod and Fredrick." Merlin stated. "I saw the way you reveled in their pain. You seemed unusually satisfied when you saw their blood spilled." Merlin observed softly. He took a step up to the bars. "What did they do to you?" Merlin wondered as he watched Cedric's eye twitch. Merlin tilted his head to the side observing him with narrowed eyes. "Or was it someone you loved?" Merlin surmised. "A younger brother, maybe."

Cedric clenched his hands at his side. Merlin waited. Now he knew Jerrod and Fredrick's kind of perversion, from what William had said, and what Merlin could surmise, he would hazard a guess he was spot on. There were deprived, perverted men.

"What is your point?" Cedric rumbled.

"I have a proposition for you. You get me some parchment, and deliver a letter to the same place Morgana found me in the woods. You were with her, you should remember it." Cedric nodded. "And for your troubles, I will exercise your demons." Merlin bargained, referring to Fredrick and Jerrod.

Cedric looked at him for a long while. "Are you sure you can do that? Be an assassin?"

Merlin nodded. "You give me an opening and it will be done, as long as you hold out your end of the bargain."

"There is a party tomorrow night. The royals and nobles will be gathered to view the contenders in the culling. You might be able to slip away for a few moments unnoticed, and as long as Morgana is preoccupied," He paused. "It could work."

"Do we have an accord?" Merlin insisted. He felt an urgency he didn't understand, but obeyed nonetheless.

Cedric nodded once. "Yes."

"Good. Bring me the parchment as soon as you can." Merlin said. "And tomorrow night, be sure to supply me with a weapon."

"A weapon?" He asked, confused.

"I can't use my magic." Merlin sighed, exasperated, and tapped a finger against the collar around his neck. " I need a weapon." He bent down to pick up the small roll bandages that were brought with the clothes, probably for his raw knuckles, but he instead wrapped it around his chest to help stanche the slow trickle of blood from his newly reopened wounds.

"Right." Cedric agreed. He stared at the wounds on Merlin chest. He watched the blood slowly seep from the lacerations down his toned abdomen. He then glanced at Merlin's wrists. There were red angry wounds around them from the cuffs. "Will you be able to do this?"

Merlin tossed his shirt over his head and further covered himself. He faced Cedric through the bars, "Do not make the mistake of underestimating me." Merlin said softly. "Do not worry about me. I will do as I said, but will you?"

Cedric nodded, looking at him warily. "I'll be back as soon as I have what you asked for. Be ready for tomorrow night."

Merlin watched Cedric leave, plunging the cell once more into darkness. He sank down to the floor to catch some sleep and wait for him to return.