Well, obviously I didn't manage that double October update I'd hoped to pull off. I tried, but life kept getting in the way, and this chapter ended up being longer than the last few have been. So I'm not going to make any promises this time, except that I will definitely update at least one more time before the end of 2024, sometime in December.

Even though Arthur only had a few hours' head start, Gwen, Lancelot, and Kenzi soon discovered that he had left them in the dust. One rider generally made better time than three, after all, and Arthur had taken the time to prepare extensively for his journey, whereas they had only grabbed a bare minimum of supplies before rushing after him, hoping to catch up with him quickly. When it became apparent that wasn't going to happen, they were forced to begin stopping at various inns and taverns along the way to refuel.

As they neared the latest tavern on their route, however, a cacophony of crashes and shouting from within made them question whether entering this particular establishment was such a great idea. "Maybe we should go elsewhere," Lancelot suggested, voicing what all of them were thinking.

"Or maybe we should wait a bit to see if things quiet down," Gwen countered, biting her lip anxiously. "I don't think there is anywhere else we can buy food in this village, and we're running very low – again."

"All right, we'll wait, but if it doesn't settle down soon we really should move on. We can't afford to lose too much time," Lancelot reminded her – unnecessarily, since Gwen was already painfully aware that Arthur's life force was ebbing with every second that accursed jewel stayed on his wrist, that every minute counted.

"Move on to where?" Kenzi asked. "I don't know if you guys have noticed, but rest stops have been getting a lot fewer and farther between lately, and the last three we've been in all had that charming 'frontier outpost' vibe – kinda like a combination of the Wild West and the Mos Eisley cantina, you know? I have a feeling we're on the fringes of civilization here, if you can even call this dump civilization, so if we're gonna replenish our road trip snacks, it might be now or never." Walking into whatever fracas was going on in that tavern wasn't the most inviting prospect in the world, but as far as Kenzi was concerned, going without food would be much worse. "Cover me, guys, I'm going in."

She marched up to the door, determined to make someone in there hit pause on the bar brawl long enough to serve her, but before she could yank the door open for what she hoped would be a commandingly dramatic entrance, it flew open of its own accord and a male figure was tossed out, landing face-down in the dirt at her feet.

"Whoa! Are you okay?" She instinctively bent down to help the guy as the words tumbled out of her mouth; then he raised his head, and she froze as she recognized the face that was now only inches from hers. "Gwaine?"

"Kenzi?" A similar look of shock registered on his face, but they didn't have long to process their unexpected reunion before a group of angry men appeared in the tavern's doorway, all apparently intent on tearing Gwaine limb from limb. Fortunately, there were so many of them crowding together that they ended up creating a chokepoint in the doorway, but it was nevertheless obvious that hanging around would be extremely unwise.

Lancelot pulled Gwaine to his feet, Gwen helped Kenzi up, and the quartet fled, weaving around as many buildings as they could find until they were out of their pursuers' sight, then ducked behind a large haystack. A minute later, the mob passed by, shouting about where to look next. When they were gone, the four fugitives let out their held breath in a collective sigh of relief.

"It's good to see you again, Gwaine," Gwen said, "although I wish it was under better circumstances."

"Still up to your old hijinks, huh?" Kenzi added. "I'm having major déjà vu right now."

"Me?" Gwaine asked innocently. "As I recall, you started that fight the night we met."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure it was the dong-heads whose fragile egos couldn't take me schooling them at poker."

"Why were those men after you?" Lancelot asked seriously.

Gwaine shrugged, unperturbed by the question. "As our lovely friend here can attest, some people can't accept an honest defeat. If you beat them in a contest where coin's at stake, they call you a thief. Enough about me, though; the real question is, what are you three doing so far from Camelot?"

"We're on our way to the Perilous Lands."

Gwaine did a double take, then tugged at his right ear. "Sorry, I must have wax in my ears, because I thought you just said you were going to the Perilous Lands." He waited a moment, but no one spoke up to offer a correction. "You're joking… Well, if it were anyone else I'd say you were joking," he amended after taking in Lancelot's decidedly non-humorous expression. "You all must be out of your minds, then. Why on earth would you want to go there?"

"Because Arthur's going there for some rite-of-passage quest princes have to do before they can inherit their throne," Kenzi explained, "but he's been tricked into putting on a magical eyeball bracelet that'll suck the life out of him if he wears it too long, so we've gotta catch up with him and tell him to take it off pronto, which would be so much easier if we could just shoot him a text. Have I mentioned lately how much the lack of modern technology sucks?"

Gwaine's eyebrows rose steadily throughout her barrage of speech, and at one point he glanced at Gwen and Lancelot while mouthing, Magical eyeball bracelet?! By the time she finished, however, he had gotten the gist that Arthur was in grave danger.

"Well then, it sounds like there's not a moment to lose. Come on, the Perilous Lands are this way." Hopefully, the other two would fill in more of the details later, in a way that made a bit more sense.

###

After circling back to get their horses, the four companions continued on their way, into increasingly desolate and deserted territory, until at last they had to stop for the night. Luckily, Gwaine had some travel rations in his pack, and they were able to find some edible roots and berries before the last of the scraggly vegetation died out, so at least they didn't go hungry.

As they sat around a small fire, sharing their meager meal, Kenzi asked, "So, Gwaine, what're you doing all the way out here? I figured you'd be… Well, actually, I had no idea where you might've gone, but I always imagined you someplace with a lot more booze."

"So did I, but after leaving Camelot, I set out to find your friend-"

"Huh? What?" Kenzi almost dropped the rock-hard lump Gwaine had called a biscuit, her dissatisfaction with the food forgotten. "You were looking for Bo?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I was." Gwaine shifted where he sat, looking slightly uncomfortable. "I'd just been banished from Uther's lands, and thanks to a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, I didn't think it would be a good idea to go to Cenred's kingdom either…or Mercia or Gawant for that matter. Those blokes in Nemeth might've forgotten me by now, but I didn't fancy taking that chance, so I decided it was time to go somewhere new. Have myself a proper adventure, yeah? I'd heard there were places up this way where creatures of magic live together in large numbers, so I was looking for a way to get there without crossing the Perilous Lands. That was more of an adventure than I'd bargained for, to be honest."

The girls seemed to accept this explanation without question, but later, when they were asleep and Gwaine and Lancelot found themselves sitting alone by the smoldering embers of their banked campfire, Lancelot said, "You made all that up, didn't you?"

"No, I really have been to all those kingdoms I mentioned, and found trouble in every one," Gwaine assured him. "It just seems to follow me around somehow."

"I don't doubt that, but avoiding people you've crossed in the past isn't the real reason you traveled to this remote wasteland in search of a woman you've never even met. You were doing it for her." Lancelot glanced toward Kenzi's sleeping form, which was almost invisible with the way she'd rolled herself up in her traveling cloak, so that only the top of her head showed.

Gwaine followed his gaze, his face softening slightly as he looked at her. "All right, maybe I was. I…haven't had many true friends in my life, but from what Kenzi told me, this woman, Bo, is a true friend to her."

"She is," Lancelot agreed. "They're more like sisters, really."

"I wouldn't want anyone lucky enough to have something like that to lose it," Gwaine said quietly. "Especially not someone like Kenzi. I want you to know that I didn't have any grand plans of winning her back by bringing her friend home, though. I never had any illusions that she was sitting around pining for me…and it looks like I was right. I take it you're the one who gave her the new necklace she obviously likes too much to take off even when she's riding through lawless outposts on the edge of the wilderness?"

Lancelot acknowledged that he was – not boastfully, but not apologetically either. Their current relationship status was, after all, Kenzi's decision, and he couldn't pretend to be sorry that she had chosen him.

"Good for you, mate," Gwaine replied, sounding perfectly sincere in his congratulations. "She deserves a good man like you, someone she can have a life with…someone who doesn't get run out of every town he passes through in a week or less."

"Maybe you just haven't found the right place yet," Lancelot suggested in an effort to cheer the other man up. "I'm sure you will, though."

Gwaine just shrugged; he didn't know what sort of place might be right for him…but wherever he ended up, he strongly doubted that he would ever find another person like Kenzi.

###

Dawn seemed to come early the next morning, the sun beating down harshly on the travelers as soon as it cleared the horizon, waking them up and driving them onward. The last signs of water and plant life faded as they rode on, until at last they found themselves in what could only be described as a desert wasteland.

"This is it," Gwaine said soberly, the spark of humor and mischief in his dark eyes completely absent for once. "The Perilous Lands."

"Arthur can't be too far ahead of us, then. Come on!" Gwen urged her horse forward with renewed determination, forcing the rest of them to move along with equal haste lest they lose sight of her.

At last, after winding around a handful of bare, rocky hillocks and crossing some dry gullies that might once have been riverbeds, they came to a flat plain that seemed to stretch out endlessly before them…but far ahead, they could just make out a tiny speck on the horizon, silhouetted against the sinking sun, that looked as if it might be the Fisher King's palace, assuming it wasn't just a mirage. If it wasn't, they all knew it was where Arthur was most likely to be.

"Arthur!"

Spurred on by the realization that the man she loved (or at least the place where she would find him) was within sight, Gwen pushed her horse into a full gallop, and the others followed suit, with Kenzi clinging to her horse's mane and saddle for dear life; after Morgana's departure from Camelot, Lancelot had done his best to carry on her efforts at imparting some equestrian skills to the time-displaced city girl, but even though Kenzi appreciated the necessity of getting down with the main mode of transportation in her adopted world, she definitely still preferred cars, and she had never ridden at anything remotely approaching her current breakneck speed.

Luckily, Lancelot kept his horse right beside hers, close enough that he could catch its reins if it realized its rider wasn't really steering anymore, though for the moment Kenzi's faithful old gelding seemed content to simply follow Lancelot's mare. "Don't worry, Kenzi," he called to her over the thunder of their mounts' pounding hooves. "I won't let him run off with you."

Kenzi cracked one eye open, then the other, and smiled gratefully at him, but seeing the speed at which the desert was rushing past made her dizzy, so she turned her gaze up to the blessedly stationary expanse of red-tinged sky overhead – where she saw something that made her stomach plummet (an impressive feat, since she'd thought her stomach had been left behind when the horses sprang into their wild gallop). "Uh, Lance," she shouted, "what are those winged things up there? 'Cause unless I'm hallucinating, it looks like Kilgs was overhyping himself with all that 'I'm the last dragon' bullshit."

"Those aren't dragons," Gwaine yelled after glancing up to see what had caught her attention. "They're wyverns – smaller cousins to the dragons, but just as fierce, and not as intelligent as dragons were said to be."

"Oh, great. So on a scale of one to 'we're screwed', how worried should I be that they're heading straight for us?!"

###

"There it is!" From his high vantage point atop Kilgharrah's back, Merlin pointed down at the black spires of the Fisher King's palace, the first manmade structure they had seen since crossing into the once-great sorcerer's kingdom the day before. "That has to be where Arthur is!"

"I assume so," Dyson agreed, "but what are those things flying around the towers?" Ever alert for any possible threat to his charges, he automatically reached for the hilt of his sword.

Bo followed his gaze and saw what he saw, but her reaction was more curious than concerned. "Are those what I think they are?" Then she thumped Kilgharrah's scaly shoulder excitedly with her fist. "Hey, maybe you have some long-lost relatives that survived Uther's Purge after all!"

"Those are not dragons," Kilgharrah replied disdainfully. "They are wyverns, our smaller, more bestial, and far less intelligent kin – troublesome little things, but I can drive them off easily enough."

"Looks like they're flying off anyway. Something down there's got their attention," Vex said cheerfully, pointing.

As high up as they were, the things on the ground that had drawn the wyverns away looked no bigger than ants, though Dyson and Kilgharrah soon ascertained that they were in fact riders on horseback. "I think the wyverns mean to attack them," the wolf added with a worried frown.

"Bad luck for them, then," Vex answered unconcernedly. "They picked the wrong place to come sightseeing."

"I doubt they've come just to take in the view," Morgana said skeptically. "I can't imagine anyone coming here unless they had to."

"You're right…" Merlin squinted down at the tiny figures below, using magic to enhance his eyesight until he could see their features clearly. "It's some man I've never seen before…and Gwen, Lancelot, and Kenzi! They must've come after Arthur too! Kilgharrah, turn around – we have to help them!"

As the rest of his passengers (except Vex, who had no idea who those people down there were) joined in urging him to do something, Kilgharrah banked to the right, veering away from the castle and soaring out over the open plain, his powerful wings propelling him over miles of desert in a matter of minutes. Once he was close enough, he released a jet of flame that scattered the wyverns, whose piercing shrieks as they wheeled and dove to avoid his fiery attack forced everyone to cover their ears. Kilgharrah then proceeded to chase after them, nipping at them and whacking them with his tail until they fled in terror. With a snort of satisfaction at having put the obnoxious little upstarts in their place, he spread his wings and glided toward the ground like a leaf on the wind.

###

"Now that's a dragon," Gwaine commented in a hushed voice, watching in awe as the magnificent golden beast, which easily dwarfed the largest of the wyverns by a wide margin, swooped in and drove them off, though his awe soon turned to dread as it began its downward trajectory. "And it's coming after us now! Run! If we all go in different directions, maybe we can confuse it-!"

To his astonishment, however, none of the others seemed the least bit inclined to flee; instead, they all dismounted and stood there holding their nervous horses in place while they calmly watched the dragon descend.

"We don't need to run; it's just Kilgs," Kenzi informed him with a confoundingly blasé attitude. "Besides, I wanna talk to him."

"You want to talk to a dragon?" Gwaine repeated disbelievingly. He knew Kenzi was brave, even reckless, and maybe he was the same way sometimes (most of the time, if he was honest), but not even he had ever been so suicidally foolhardy as to attempt to converse with a dragon…or at least, he wouldn't have been if he'd ever met one. What really boggled his mind, though, was the question of why Gwen and Lancelot, who he had previously considered very sensible people, weren't dragging her out of harm's way or even arguing with her. Still, he stayed with the apparently insane trio, determined not to abandon his friends like a coward even if that meant burning alive with them.

The dragon alit with more grace than Gwaine would have imagined such a huge creature could be capable of, but it didn't charge them or open its giant maw to send its flaming breath at them; instead, it bent its forelegs, lowering the front end of its body to the ground. Then the most unbelievable thing of all happened: five human figures climbed down from the dragon's back, and Gwaine's friends let go of their horses and ran toward them. Four of the dragon's riders ran to meet them as well so that they practically collided somewhere in the middle, and then they were all hugging and exclaiming over how good it was to see each other again.

The only one left out of this joyful reunion, besides Gwaine (and the dragon, who no one seemed particularly eager to embrace for some reason), was the great beast's fifth rider, a man with rather untidy black hair, mustache, and goatee who was hovering at the fringes of the group, looking as lost and bewildered as Gwaine felt. Naturally, Gwaine approached him, circling around the mass group hug to do so.

"Hey, mate. Do you know any of these people?"

"Never seen any of your lot before; in fact, I only joined up with mine last week, after the princess took me into her service with an offer I couldn't refuse."

"Princess? You have a princess?" Turning his gaze back to the other new arrivals, Gwaine saw that there were two women among them, though neither of them were dressed in anything remotely resembling royal regalia.

"Yeah, that's her right there." The other man pointed to a fairly tall woman who was squeezing Kenzi so tightly that she had almost lifted her off her feet. "Princess Isabeau, or Bo to her friends. The other girl is Morgana, there's Merlin in the red scarf, and the big strapping fellow's called Dyson. He and I are the princess' personal guards. Name's Vex, by the way."

"Thanks. That's Lancelot and Gwen over there with Merlin, Dyson, and Morgana, the other girl who's talking your princess' ear off is Kenzi, and I'm Gwaine." He concluded the introductions by holding out his hand for Vex to shake.

Vex didn't take it, though, merely stared at Gwaine's outstretched hand as if he'd never been offered a handshake before, which was in fact the case. Even though mesmers didn't need physical contact to control a person's body, most people preferred not to get too close to them, and they certainly didn't give mesmers the opportunity to gain any more leverage over them. For this man, who Vex was fairly certain was human, to freely offer his hand without the slightest hint of fear… It was unthinkable, and he had no idea how to respond.

Fortunately for him, he didn't have to, because at that moment Kenzi's loud voice asked, "Bobo, am I seeing some kind of trippy desert mirage here, or is that Vex over there chatting it up with Gwaine?!"

"Yeah, that's him. It's a long story, but he's one of the good guys now…or trying to be, anyway," Bo added in an undertone.

Kenzi still looked unconvinced, maybe even a little worried about Bo's sanity – she had been in a coma for a long time, after all, and Kenzi had heard that comas could mess with people's heads long after they woke up – but before she could grill her any further, Gwen spoke up. "As happy as I am to see all of you, we need to get inside the castle. Arthur is in trouble-"

"We know," Morgana assured her. "That's why we're here."

"Oh, did you have a vision?" Gwen asked as everyone began moving forward, the more skilled warriors in their party drawing their blades and holding them at the ready.

"I did. You know, Gwen, I've often wondered where my dreams came from, why I was cursed to glimpse the future when there were so many times that it was beyond my power to change, so many terrible events I was unable to prevent…and now I know. I've learned many things in the Blood King's lands," she said softly. Maybe it wasn't the best moment to bring this up, as they advanced on a long-abandoned ruin that doubtlessly held untold dangers within its crumbling walls, but Morgana had been aching to share what she'd discovered about her heritage with her oldest and best friend for a long time now, even as part of her worried over how Gwen would react.

Needless to say, her former maid was flabbergasted, her astonishment nearly as great as when Morgana had first told her of her magic, but there was no fear or revulsion, and when she recovered from the initial shock she declared that it didn't matter if Morgana wasn't entirely human, that what was in her heart was far more important than her blood, and half-fae or not, she still had one of the best hearts of anyone Gwen had ever known.

Bo, meanwhile, had her own bloodline-related revelation that she couldn't wait to share with Kenzi, whose response was much less eloquent. "Wait, wait… You're telling me the Blood King – the big cheese, the mastermind behind all the fae laws, The Man – is actually Trick? Our Trick?! Your mysterious and frustratingly cryptic mentor, dispenser of the most delicious booze in the world, Trick? Not only that, he's also your grandfather?! What the hell?!"

"I know, it's a lot to take in."

"It's more than a lot. Bo…this is huge! You've uncovered another branch of your family tree, and it's someone we already know and love…who isn't trying to lure you over to the dark side or kill you, which is always a plus. Seriously, though, having Trickster as your grandfather must be awesome. He is still cool, right? I mean, I get that people can practically have a total personality transplant in a thousand years – obviously, since you're currently trying to rehabilitate freaking Vex, or should that be pre-habilitate since I guess he hasn't made Lou Ann drown her stepkids yet…" Kenzi's voice trailed off momentarily as she was once again forced to deal with time travel confusion, before she brushed it aside; she was getting pretty good at that. "But Trick is still Trick, right?"

"More or less. He's different as a king, obviously, but at least I still know he cares, and I feel like this version is actually more honest with me than our Trick was sometimes. I guess he doesn't have to keep as many secrets now that he's not trying to fly under both the Ash's and the Morrigan's radar."

Recalling the delicate game Future Trick had played with the fae elders, attempting to subtly influence them where he could while keeping his true identity under wraps, reminded Bo of her own complicated relationship with the future holder of one of those titles, but she decided not to open that particular can of worms just now; if seeing Vex among her companions had thrown Kenzi for a loop, Bo could just imagine what the goth girl would say when she heard that Bo was hanging out with Evony on a semi-regular basis and not totally hating every minute of it, and they were getting close to the Fisher King's palace. Kenzi would need all her wits about her once they were inside, but there was one more thing they needed to talk about first.

"Anyway, enough about me. Don't think I haven't noticed your new accessory," Bo said with a pointed look at the gold filigree heart around Kenzi's neck. "That's not the kind of necklace you'd buy for yourself."

"True, cute little gold hearts are kinda blah for me, aren't they? I prefer pieces with more edge."

"But you're wearing this one," Bo continued with barely contained impatience at Kenzi's coyness, "which means it must have sentimental value. Spill already! Did Lancelot finally get his ass off the fence and make a move, or was it the new guy, Gwaine? Seeing you two together made my succu-senses tingle, so now I'm dying to know what's been going on in Camelot since I left. Don't make me tickle it out of you!"

"It's been pretty much same-same; Uther's still a magic-hating control freak with a giant stick up his butt – hey, can you believe he tried to pull his political matchmaker schtick again, this time on Arthur?"

"What?" This tidbit of information surprised Bo so much that she was temporarily sidetracked from her burning curiosity over Kenzi's relationship status, as her gaze darted toward Gwen – who didn't look nearly as heartbroken as she would've expected her to be if Arthur had gotten engaged to someone else.

"Yeah, only Uther didn't realize that the perfect little princess he'd picked out had a sidhe, which is a tiny little super annoying blue fairy, piggybacking in her brain as part of a plot for the fairies to stage a stealth coup of Camelot; G-man said it would take her over for realz as soon as she and Arthur said 'I do', so we had to get rid of it before she went full Linda Blair and puked pea soup all over us, and then she turned out to be a pretty chill person who didn't want to marry Arthur either. She and her dad went home with zero drama, and Arwen is still on as Camelot's worst-kept secret – to everyone except Uther, who's still convinced Arthur's gay for some reason."

"Of course he is," Bo said with a snort of laughter, "but what about-?"

Unfortunately for her, Kenzi was having way too much fun dragging out the suspense. "Speaking of love on the down low, you're not gonna believe who else has a secret flame: Gaius!"

Bo's reaction this time was even more pronounced, as her eyes bugged out and she nearly stumbled, barely catching herself in time. Her mouth opened and closed several times, but she was apparently stunned speechless, since no sound came out.

"Her name's Alice," Kenzi went on, relishing the thrill of imparting such juicy news when it was usually Bo who had all the adventures, "and she's actually very well-preserved for a gal who's gotta be at least a septuagenarian – not that it makes it any less gross to think of Merlin's uncle having old-person sex-"

"Thanks, Kenzi. I could've lived my entire immortal lifespan without that mental image in my head," Bo said with a grimace.

"At least you didn't have to watch them flirt right in front of you. I'm still trying to scrub the sight off my eyeballs, but I swear it's seared into my retinas." Kenzi shuddered before picking up her story. "Turned out Alice was being controlled by a nasty little underfae called a manticore, though, that made her try to kill Uther, because who doesn't want to kill Uther? – and natch, she had to run for her life. Lance and G-man took her to the druids, so at least we know she's safe and I don't have to watch her and Gaius being all lovey-dovey anymore, which was as simultaneously vom-inducing and annoyingly cute as those stupid Precious Moments figurines with the sad cartoon eyes."

"Well, I'm sorry it didn't work out for them, but now that you've updated me on everyone else's romantic drama, will you please tell me what's going on with you and Lancelot, or you and Gwaine, or if there's a third contender I don't even know about yet?! You're killing me here!"

Kenzi glanced sideways at her best friend, taking in her look of avid anticipation and the barely veiled desperation in her voice, and decided she had tortured her long enough. "I met Gwaine in a bar one night-" She omitted the minor detail of exactly how many evenings she had spent in various taverns in the weeks following Bo's departure, not wanting to worry her or make her feel guilty when it wasn't her fault she hadn't been there "-and he ended up crashing in the castle for a few days and helping us out with our first case without you. It was nothing major, just a couple of small-time lowlifes using magic crystals to disguise themselves as knights so they could try to get back at us for kicking their asses after they accused me of hustling them at cards – which I totally did not, by the way…"

"Kenzi!"

"Okay, maybe I did just a little, but they were definitely cheating too, so is it my fault that I just happened to be better at it? Anyway, there was some sparkage between me and Gwaine, but then Uther kicked him out and I realized that we'd probably have ended up bringing out the worst in each other anyway. Plus, if I'm being completely real about it, I think part of the reason I was into him was that Lance was being all distant, not wanting to be my fake boyfriend anymore because he was worried about blurring lines and, like, taking advantage of the fact that I kinda went to a not-so-great place for a while after you left in a coma and we didn't even know if you guys were alive even though I knew you had to be okay – it was super noble of him and all, but sometimes it can be frustrating how much of a standup guy he is."

"But you love him anyway," Bo stated; it was so obvious from the way Kenzi talked about him, the look of fond exasperation in her eyes as she faux-complained about his noble character, that she didn't even have to ask.

"Yeah, I do," Kenzi admitted, ducking her head self-consciously at the heartfelt confession that was so at odds with the tough, unflappable persona she usually tried to project. "And once he decided to stop being all stupidly self-sacrificing and actually go for what he wants, turns out he lurves me too."

"That's great! I'm so happy for you, Kenz; he really is one of the most unambiguously good men I've ever met, and you deserve someone like that. And he's obviously crushing it in the gifts department," Bo observed with another look at Kenzi's necklace; it might not fit with her usual goth aesthetic, but it was very pretty. "You are happy with him, aren't you?"

"Of course I am…" Kenzi's voice trailed off as she debated whether to bring up what he'd said regarding their future, because she desperately wanted her best friend's advice – but what did she expect Bo to say? She was in a relationship with a kind, considerate, honest, charming-but-not-in-a-sleazy-way man who treated her like gold, so if he was ready to consider making it permanent thanks to the very different cultural norms he'd grown up with, wasn't that a good thing even if it felt way too soon to her?

Before she could make up her mind, Merlin, who along with Dyson had been catching up with Lancelot and getting to know Gwaine as they advanced on the castle, circled around to the tail end of the group, where Bo and Kenzi had fallen back in order to gain some relative privacy. "What are you talking about back here?"

"Kenzi was just catching me up on all the hottest Camelot gossip," Bo said brightly. "Did you know Gaius has a girlfriend?"

Merlin's reaction to this piece of news was much like Bo's, except he actually did trip over his own feet, forcing her to grab his arm to save him from falling flat on his face. "Wh-what? Gaius?!" he blurted out.

"I know, I was floored too. It's a long story that I'll tell you all about later, but right now we should probably get our heads back in the game, because we're almost at the castle and we need to focus on finding Arthur. That's what you came to tell us, right?"

"Huh? Oh, right, Arthur. Yes, we need to find him and get the eye of the phoenix off him before it's too late." Merlin shook his head as if to clear it, though he was still extremely disconcerted by the revelation about his uncle. In the years he'd lived with Gaius, the elderly physician had become the closest thing to a father figure he'd ever had, and for a long time had been the only person he was able to confide in about matters relating to his magic. He had always felt very close to the man and had assumed he knew everything about him that was important to know, so finding out that he'd been completely oblivious to something as significant as Gaius having a significant other naturally came as a huge shock, as if the earth had abruptly shifted beneath his feet…but he couldn't afford that kind of distraction right now.

Right now he needed to pour everything he had into saving Arthur, who was still his best friend despite their long separation, who had given him a purpose at a time when he'd felt adrift in the world, who he still believed in wholeheartedly even if his entire life no longer revolved around the prince's destiny – who would die if they didn't find him soon.

As soon as he reminded himself what was at stake, Merlin's focus returned with icy clarity, and he made his way to the front of the group, whose progress had stalled now that the castle's very large, very solid, and seemingly immovable iron doors were rearing forbiddingly in front of them with no other means of entrance visible anywhere – Gwen looked to be nearly beside herself with frustration – and hurled a spell at the impenetrable barrier. The towering iron doors shivered like curtains rippling in a gust of wind, then crumbled into dust at his feet.

Turning back to his friends, who all looked rather impressed at his display of power (even if Vex was doing his best not to show it), he said, "Come on, let's find Arthur. Who's with me?"

Bo and Morgana immediately stepped forward to flank him, and everyone else fell into formation behind them. Grateful to have the women he loved at his side, Merlin strode into the dimly lit, eerily echoing halls of the long-deserted palace.

###

Thanks to his head start, Arthur had already been exploring those halls all day, not counting the hours he'd spent looking for a way inside. The Fisher King's palace was enormous, and he could tell that it had once been a place of unmatched splendor and grandeur; even now, when it had long since fallen into horrible disrepair, he still felt a sense of awe as he pondered what it must have been like in the old days, at the height of the Fisher King's power.

The problem was that its size made searching the place a very time-consuming task, and with no idea of its layout, Arthur didn't know where he was most likely to find the trident. He supposed the only course of action available to him was to continue checking in every room that looked like it might contain something valuable, but that was rapidly becoming tiresome…or maybe he was just tired.

Though he'd been trying to ignore it, the truth was that Arthur's energy levels were nowhere near what they should be, and had been waning faster ever since he set foot in this place. He'd tried to rationalize his malaise by reminding himself that it had taken a long, arduous journey to get here, that he hadn't slept well the night before since the exposure of the flat desert terrain had made him uneasy, that he had exerted himself quite a bit in his final push to reach the castle today – and yet, in spite of all these perfectly valid arguments, he couldn't help thinking that the way he felt now was unsettlingly similar to the sensation he'd experienced when the Knights of Medhir were besieging Camelot and Morgause's sleeping curse was slowly yet inexorably taking hold of him.

Of course, that was ridiculous, because there was no way he could be under an enchantment now… Unfortunately, telling himself so did nothing to alter the fact that his strength seemed to be lessening with every step he took, and even with the centuries of dust and cobwebs that covered every piece of furniture, the chairs in the great dining hall he'd found himself in looked very inviting. If I could only sit down for a minute…

Just as he started to pull one out, however, a quietly mocking voice reached his ears. "Well, well, Arthur Pendragon… I must say, you've looked better."

That voice sent fingers of ice trailing down his spine, causing his hand to jump to his sword as he whirled around – and there, stepping out of the shadows with her silvery armor and golden hair gleaming in the reddish evening light that struggled in through the dusty windows, was the one person he had most hoped never to see again. "Morgause!"

"You didn't think I would give up so easily after your foolish friends and my misguided sister thwarted my last attempt at bringing Uther to justice, did you? It took me some time to regroup and formulate a new plan, but now I have you in my power at last – and this time, there is no one here to save you."

As much as Arthur hated to admit it, she was right about that; he hadn't seen another living soul since he'd entered the Perilous Lands, and apart from the two of them, there were definitely no signs of life in this dismal, forsaken place. Even worse, now that she was here, he felt the certainty that he was indeed under some sort of malign spell creeping over him like a slow poison working its way through his veins. He had no clue how she had managed it this time, but he was sure a sorceress of her power could find a way, especially since she was only targeting a single person rather than an entire city – and it really was the only logical explanation for how drained he felt, like a leaky bucket whose contents had almost completely trickled out, leaving him a dry, empty husk.

Nevertheless, just as he had during their last confrontation, he lifted his sword and prepared to go down fighting – until Morgause uttered an incantation, and as the jewel set in his wristband flared with a brilliant inner glow, the last shreds of strength he was drawing on deserted him.

So that's how she did it, he thought numbly, barely even feeling the impact as his body hit the floor. He wasn't even sure if he'd managed to hold on to his sword, as his brain seemed to have lost contact with his limbs…but he did feel the cold bite of steel under his chin as Morgause pressed the tip of her sword to his throat.