Chapter 69 I don't own Merlin. Hope you like it! Anyone have any information on research opportunities in Italy? I tried to apply for the DAAD in Germany, but I wasn't eligible for most of them and the ones I was eligible for were all for computer science, and I'm not that great at computers in all honesty :( Anyways, read on, have fun, hope you guys can figure out where I'm going with this….
"You need to go see Gaius, my love. That's the fourth time you've been sick tonight." Owaine said worriedly as he rubbed soothing circles on her back.
"It's just the head injury, Owaine. Please don't worry." Cassie replied after taking a few sips of water to wash the taste of bile down.
"It's my job to worry about you, Cass. Didn't you read the fine print when we wed?" Owaine joked as he helped her up again.
"No, my love, your job is to keep me happy. And you do a very good job at it. Most of the time." Cassie replied jokingly, wrapping her arms around him.
"And when do I not keep you happy?" Owaine asked, wrapping his arms around her waist.
"I can think of a few instances. Luckily for you, they aren't very frequent." Cassie replied, following his lead and clinging close to him. "I'd kiss you to prove it, but not right now. Neither of us would enjoy it very much."
"Go to Gaius. Please. I'll just keep worrying about you. I have to go, this is my last day of night duty this month. I'll be here all night tomorrow." he said with a soft kiss on her cheek.
"Okay, I'll go. But only for you. I don't much feel like seeing anyone else right now." Cassie relented, walking with him to the door hand-in-hand.
"I can go with you to the Physician's Tower if you'd like?"
"No, thank you, my Knight. I can go alone." Cassie said with a smile as they walked down the corridor and stopped at the corner.
"I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yes you will. Where will you be all night?" Cassie asked with a small smile.
"Mostly in the lower town with a group of guards, why?"
"I just wanted to know if I might surprise you. But the Lower Town doesn't have many places to hide." Cassie replied with a quick wink before leaving towards Gaius' chambers, smirking as she heard his voice call after her softly.
"...[th]e plight of the Druid boy that's causing your forehead to wrinkle like a lizard's elbow." Cassie heard Gaius say softly as she approached their slightly open door.
"Would you let something terrible happen if it meant you'd stop something even worse happening in the future?" Merlin replied in a deflated voice.
"I suppose it depends on what the 'terrible' and 'even worse' things were." Gaius told him sagely.
"One of them's bad, really bad. And the other, it's unthinkable." he said.
"It sounds as if you've already made your decision. You can only do what you believe to be right, Merlin. I just hope it doesn't involve you putting yourself in terrible danger." he said, the care he felt towards his ward clear in his voice.
"For once, you don't have to worry. I'm going to do nothing." Merlin told him, his voice betraying him as Cassie stood on the other side of the door eavesdropping.
She waited a few more moments before knocking and walking in.
"Cassie! W-what are you doing here?" Merlin asked, stuttering in nervousness as he wondered if she'd heard everything.
"Can I talk to you, Gaius. Alone." She said, not meeting Merlin's eyes when the guilt mixed with the anger and hot tears as they burned in the back of her eyes.
"I'll… just go do something else while you talk." Merlin said lamely, walking out the door and trying to catch his friend's eye as he did so to no avail.
"What was it you wanted to talk to me about?" Gaius asked, his voice disapproving at her coldness towards his nephew.
"I didn't, Owaine wants me to talk to you. I've been sick all day and he's worried about me. I've told him it's just the head injury but he won't believe me. Insisted I talk to you."
"Come here, let me check you over." Gaius said, motioning towards the bench for her to sit down as he began to gently prod her scalp.
"You'll forgive them, won't you?" he asked as he checked her pupils after a few minutes' silence.
"I don't know." Cassie said simply, letting him continue his examination.
"Their heart was in the right place." he said softly after he finished examining her.
"Doesn't matter. They hurt me." Cassie said dully, biting back the tears that threatened to spill out. "And not just physically."
"I understand being angry at them for what they did to you. But it was all to save that child." Gaius said softly.
"No. It was to save a Druid." Cassie said angrily, spitting the word out hatefully. "There's nothing wrong with me, right?" Cassie said, moving on angrily.
"You're fine. Physically. May I ask what your problem is with the Druids? They are a peaceful people. The-"
"Peaceful? They are anything but! I've told you before. I've told them before! You all know exactly what they did. If murdering hundreds of people in the dead of night means peaceful, then I'm as sanguinary as a ruthless tyrant! Goodbye, Gaius." Cassie said, getting up angrily and stalking out the door, muttering good riddance under her breath as she opened the door and walked down the stairs of the tower towards the nobles' wing.
"Ca-" Merlin started to say, standing up at the bottom of the stairs when he heard her approaching, looking taken aback when he saw the furious look on her face
"Leave me alone, Merlin!" she snapped, turning around angrily and slapping him without a thought, her hands flying to her mouth in surprise as she shook her head with comically wide eyes. "I-I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hit you!" she said, raising her hand tentatively where she had left a bright red mark.
"No, Cassie. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done nothing. I should have stopped them." he said, dropping his hand from where it cradled his stinging cheek.
"You should have. Let the boy die. Whatever you're planning, don't do it." she said, looking into his eyes pleadingly.
"I'm not-
"Don't insult me, Merlin. I know you all well enough by now to know you're planning something. Let the Druid die!" she said, looking at him beseechingly.
"Why? Why do you want him dead?"
"He frightens me." she answered truthfully in a small voice, showing him her vulnerability in that moment, hoping he wouldn't betray her trust in him.
"He's a child."
"Los niños también pueden ser malvados." she answered quietly.
"What does that mean?"
"Just because he's a child, doesn't mean he's not going to become something else." Cassie replied. "Let the Druid die. It's not like anyone will know, anyway."
"I'd know. And Arthur." he responded out loud, thinking to himself 'And Morgana.'
"Do what you want. You already know my opinion. He doesn't deserve to live." Cassie said angrily as she saw him wavering, turning around and leaving him standing there.
"Why does Cassie hate the boy so much? She's never met him before, he couldn't have done anything." Merlin asked as he walked back into his chambers.
"It's not the boy, himself. It's the Druids she dislikes. The Druids that live in her Kingdom aren't like the ones here. They're the ones that stole into the night and killed everyone." Gaius answered, looking up from his worktable as his ward crossed the room.
"She'll never forgive us." Merlin said sadly, realizing that the girl really would never forgive them and hanging his head as he walked up the stairs and into his room.
BREAK BREAK BREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAK
"Thank you." Morgana said softly as Gwen finished helping her dress for dinner with the King that night, turning around and noticing the dubious expression on Gwen's face. "What is it? What's wrong?" she asked with a furrowed brow.
"You're risking so much for this boy. You don't know anything about him. You don't even know his name." Gwen told her passionately, her face pale in the candlelight.
"There's a bond between us." Morgana answered as if that were obvious.
"Stronger than the bond you have with Uther?" she asked incredulously.
"It's… like nothing I've ever felt before. Perhaps I was always meant to help him." Morgana said, trying to find her words for a few moments before she could answer.
"How can that be?" Gwen exclaimed worriedly.
"I don't know." Morgana said softly, shaking her head as she looked into her friend's eyes searchingly. "I can't explain it."
"And what of Cassie? Is this bond stronger than the bond you have with her?" Gwen asked after a few moments of consideration.
"I don't know." Morgana answered tearfully after a few moments of consideration. "I truly can't explain it. Cassie's like my sister, but the boy….he's important to me."
"More important than us?" Gwen asked her with raised eyebrows.
"No, just...important. Cassie will forgive us eventually. But I can't let the child die! No matter what her reaction was, I refuse to believe she would have let him die because he has magic!" she said feverishly.
Gwen sighed and shook her head as Morgana looked on, her thoughts spinning a mile a minute before she declared, "I must go to Uther."
"Good luck." Gwen said after a few seconds of watching her walk away forlornly, nodding imperceptibly as Morgana thanked her with a silent nod.
"Merlin better not mess this up." Arthur muttered under his breath as he descended the Wrought Iron Stairway, stopping halfway to lower a smoking bag of herbs to the guards and watching with a cloth over his mouth and nose as they passed out. He quickly went the rest of the way and grabbed the keys to the cells, opening the young boy's.
"Don't be scared. I've sent word to your people, I'm taking you to them. You must come with me." Arthur said reassuringly as he looked at the young boy huddled against the cold stone wall of the dungeons staring blankly ahead, holding his hand out for the young boy to take and pull himself up.
"This way." Arthur said in a low voice as they rounded a corner with a lit torch in the tunnels continuing with fast paces and bated breath.
"Merlin! Merlin!" Arthur hissed into the night, turning to the boy and reassuring him with, "Don't worry, he'll be here." 'I think, I hope.'
The boy just stood there, his eyes wide and scared as they waited in the silent night for seemingly endless minutes, jumping as the warning bells began to sound and stomping out the torch with a muttered "Damn it, Merlin!"
"I think they went that way." they heard a guard say in the distance, waiting anxiously as they saw the golden light of the torch approaching their tunnel.
"Emrys. Emrys. Where are you, Emrys? Emrys. Help us. Please! They're coming." Mordreed spoke telepathically as he watched the shadows growing closer to where they were hidden.
"Look over there. Look over there. Check in there." they heard a guard say and the curt response of "Yes, sir." from another guard, the slight ring of the sword being drawn reverberating loudly in the young boy's ears as his and Arthur's blood rushed and his heart pounded furiously.
"But you look down here." a guard called out from around the corner.
"I'm scared, Emrys. They will kill me. Don't do this. Don't ignore me. I know you can hear me. I thought you were my friend. We're the same. I don't want to die. Emrys! Emrys! Emrys!" he pleaded silently, fearing for his young life unbeknownst to the young Prince helping him.
Merlin sat on his bed, the remorse eating at his soul as he waited for the telltale warning bells. Once they sounded, all he could do was lie down on his bed and stare guiltily at the floor, restraining himself from acting on his need to help others, especially a young boy who was not unlike him. But when he heard the boy's voice in his head the first time, his resolve faltered, until he remembered the very words of the Great Dragon and pressed himself even further down into his mattress.
"I'm scared, Emrys. They will kill me. Don't do this. Don't ignore me. I know you can hear me. I thought you were my friend. We're the same. I don't want to die. Emrys! Emrys! Emrys!" came the boy's voice once more, making Merlin grab his head as if trying to keep the boy out of his thoughts.
But he just couldn't do it, Merlin practically leapt off his bed, felw down the stairs and scrambled down the drawbridge, hiding from a group of guards led by Owaine before silently running to where he was meant to meet Arthur and the boy.
"Hey!" Merlin whispered quietly, making the two behind the bars turn around quickly in relief.
"Where the hell have you been?!" Arthur whispered furiously, leaning close to the bars to demand the answer from his manservant.
"I had trouble getting out of the castle." Merlin lied cooly, knowing Arthur would forever consider him a coward if he knew the truth and ignoring the boy's narrowed eyes.
"Well, get this grate off, they're coming!" Arthur whispered, backing up quickly as Merlin left to pull the grate off with the grappling hook and the horse.
Once free, the young boy and Arthur ran out and mounted the horse, Merlin handing the boy up to be in front of Arthur.
"If my father asks where I am, I've gone on a hunting trip. You'd better make yourself scarce, or they'll execute you in his place." he said,
"Goodbye, Emrys. I know that someday we will meet again." the boy told him, looking Merlin dead in the eye as he sent those words into his mind, before turning to face forward as Arthur galloped away leaving Merlin standing there staring after them.
"My Lord. I regret to report that the Druid boy has escaped from the dungeon." the guard said after he once again opened the door.
"What!? How?" the king demanded, his voice hard and suspicious as he received the news and stood up angrily.
"My Lord, he was assisted by some accomplices. The guards are searching Camelot as we speak." he answered as the King rounded the table.
"Find him and his accomplices and kill them." he said angrily.
"Yes, My Lord." the guard said, bowing and leaving promptly.
"If I discover that you were somehow involved in freeing this boy, the consequences will be extremely severe." the King said dangerously after the guard left, looking right into Morgana's eyes as if reading them.
"My Lord, you know I respect you too much to ever betray you like that." she replied easily letting her eyes show all the trust that she could.
"I made a promise to your father that I would protect you." Uther began to say as he leaned forward and kept eye contact with his ward. "But if you cross me again, I will break that promise without a second thought." he warned coldly, straightening up and walking away as she followed his path with her eyes scowling the moment he walked out the door and breathing in deeply, resentment beginning to fester at his ruthlessness.