A/N:
As promised another chapter.
Enjoy!
Ilandrae
Disclaimer: I own nada Merlin related. However would appreciate suggestions for creative ways to say so.
CHAPTER 11 – GRIEF, HEARTBREAK AND REVELATIONS
The Woods Near Ameldry
It was the sobbing that Merlin heard first. His magic sharp senses catching the soft sound drifting through the trees before he even smelt the smoke, before he tasted the smog in the air, before he saw the burning village.
The others couldn't hear it yet and he hadn't reacted to what he now knew they'd find. They'd only stopped for Leon and Percival to light torches, the light now battering back the gathering gloom. Merlin did his best not to clap his hands over his ears to try and drown out the sounds of grief and loss.
As the sound grew louder and the acrid smell of smoke made itself known, Merlin couldn't help the cold rage that was spreading throughout his body. His magic responded to his emotions, tingling through his blood, and begging to be released. Unconsciously he increased their pace.
The eyes of his companions turned to him.
"I can hear them" was all he said.
"Who?" Leon asked "the bandits?"
Merlin shook his head as his numbing rage grew, "The village. The crying".
"Wha-" but Leon was interrupted.
"Kill them all Emrys" at Mel's savage words the warlock's eyes snapped to hers. His own rage mirrored in the girl's green eyes as her hands clenched on the reins, "Make them suffer".
"Melisandrae," he answered with a grim smile, "gladly".
Quickening their pace once more his eyes remained locked on the path ahead, where he knew in moments the forest would end and the village boundary be revealed.
"Mel, when we arrive you stay with Art. Protect each other".
"And us Merlin?" Percival asked. Both knights seeming to realise that unlike their last adventures, Merlin was the one in charge, "What would you have us do?"
"You do what you see fit. Just don't get in my way".
The forest ended.
Ameldry was burning.
Smoke hung thick in the air leaving the riders peering through the smog to the village beyond. Merlin spied the fiery flickers which still ate at many of the buildings.
Nearing the edge of the village two women were clutching each other, sobbing.
At the sight of them Mel threw herself from her horse, "Mrs Taylor! Miss Morrow!" the two women started at their names.
"Melisandrae!" Mrs Tailor gathered the girl in a tight hug, "Thank the gods you're ok! Where were you dear child? We thought that all of the children were taken by those brutes!"
"I had to go and get Emrys," Mel said extracting herself from the teary woman's grasp. It was then that the two women saw who the young girl was with.
"Great One!" Miss Morrow began sobbing once more and fell to her knees at Bay's hooves as Merlin dismounted, "Where did you go! They said you had left us!"
"I'm sorry Miss Morrow" Merlin helped her up, guilt filling him as he saw that her arm was in a sling, "I would never leave the village without warning. But there were others who needed my help, I had hoped that no one would even notice my absence"
Mrs Tailor approached, seemingly satisfied with Mel's health, "Denarag did. Eran tried to warn as many as possible but we were unprepared when he came. They've taken the children and locked them in the tavern. They intend to sell them and some of the younger women as slaves. The older women they use for their own pleasure, and the men…" she choked a little, "they are killing them"
"They are not simply killing them," Miss Morrow said angrily "they're torturing them. They mutilate them and then they do not even give us their bodies. It is all we can do to place these stakes in remembrance".
It was then that a breeze blew some of the smoke away and Merlin realised that the women had not simply been sobbing. They'd been grieving. Before them two stakes were driven into the grown. Two of many.
The entire field was filled with them. Each one representing another life that Merlin did not save. The rage returned.
He turned back to the women eyes, lighting on Miss Morrows' sling. And though he knew he should save his magic, already drained as it was, he reached out and sensed the broken bone within.
"Gebétan" he murmured and with a flash of gold the bone mended.
Relief crossed Miss Morrows face, "Thank you Great One"
"Do not thank me yet" Merlin said darkly, "Go throughout the village and tell anyone you can find that I am back. And this time, these bandits will not escape my grasp." The two women nodded and made to go but Miss Morrow turned back, "Make them suffer Great One, they took Samuel, they took my betrothed from me and countless others".
But Mrs Tailor took one look at Merlin's face and reassured her young companion "Oh he will Sira. We will not be seeing those bandits again".
The others might have tried to speak to Merlin, but if they did he couldn't hear them over the roar in his head. Launching himself back onto Bay he took off, full gallop into the village.
He rode past burning buildings and the countless still bodies on the road. Out of the corner of his eye he saw people come alert as he rode by and he heard the whispers of his return begin to spread.
The others rode behind him, he knew, but Merlin's attention was caught by what was ahead as they neared the village centre.
A hundred cruel expressions turned to Merlin as he and his group clattered to the halt. All the men were roughly dressed and roughly armed, and obviously annoyed at the interruption judging by the sneers directed their way. The bandits had been watching the entertainment.
Before them stood a hastily constructed stage, upon which were the men of Ameldry. Some were still breathing, some merely whimpering. Others were simply still, unmoving. All were heavily tortured, mutilated and in pain.
There was one man one stage who was not a villager, who stood there unscathed. The warlock was satisfied to see the fear on Denarag's face as their eyes met.
"I warned you Denarag" Merlin whispered and despite the distance, he knew the bandit leader heard him.
Merlin's blood was rushing, ears ringing, skin tingling, his magic wanted out. Wanted to tear them all apart and unleash that icy rage.
The warlock slid from his horse, and ignoring the sound of a hundred swords being drawn he started his spell.
As he incanted the ground began to tremble, an unseen wind whipped throughout the village and the air grew heavy with moisture. The torches that Leon and Percival had discarded on the ground guttered and then the flames grew, burning on nothing.
"Éar áscian mé
Byre fylst mé
Lagu flód
Nied bryne
þurh áwierdnes
ðú diht fierdstemm"
With the last word Merlin's eyes burned gold and the elements he summoned were released. The trembles in the ground turn to shakes and the ground cracked, great chasms opening under bandits who fell into the voids. A wind spiralled in front of Merlin and spun into a tornado, picking up men, horses, and weapons alike and spitting them out the top. The moisture in the air increased and the well burst forth dragging bandits to drown in its depths and discarding them over the edge. And the fires that burned around the village jumped from bandit to bandit, burning all, until blackened, they were still.
As chaos reigned and men were slaughtered not a single villager nor Camelotian friend was harmed, though Merlin's face creased whenever the destruction neared an ally. He felt the drain on his magic at summoning pure elements. Combining pure elemental and combat magic was never the smartest of ideas, the elements are wild and yearned to be free, to destroy everything as they wished. Merlin was using his will to reign them in, directing their fury towards his enemies.
But as Merlin spied Denarag trying to flee, his fury grew once more. Stalking forwards he drew his sword. The elements lessened their onslaught but continued their rampage.
Denarag only looked at him in shock.
"You!" he gasped backing away from the advancing warlock. He barely got his sword up in time to block as Merlin swung at his neck.
"What did I tell you Denarag?" Merlin scowled and swung again, "What did I say when you got away from me last time?"
"B-but the knights!" the bandit gasped as he struggled to hold back Merlin's increasingly powerful blows. He glanced at the red caped figures who were crossing swords with any who escaped the magical carnage surrounding them, "H-how?" desperation was clear on the bandits face as he realised the grave mistake he had made in crossing the warlock.
Merlin grinned savagely "Wouldn't you like to know" and his sword met the bandit's neck.
Merlin allowed the storm to settle. He reigned in and released the pure elemental magic back into the earth for it to dissipate. As the last of it was returned he fell to his knees, the use of such powerful, uncontrollable magic while he had not been at full strength taking its toll.
Merlin stayed there, kneeling for a few moments, trying to blink the spots out of his eyes. He struggled to his feet and looked for any of the bandits that might have escaped his magic.
But he needn't have worried, the two knights had taken care of any who had tried to flee. He also saw Art and Mel; they had listened to him both standing together. Art with his sword and Mel with her dagger they fended off any bandit who came near them, aided by the remaining villagers who had decided to join the fight.
Percival and Leon approached Merlin who still swayed slightly on his feet. They both had looks of awe on their faces.
"That was incredible Merlin" Percival said as he wiped his sword on a fallen bandits clothing.
Merlin felt no remorse for the carnage surrounding them, "I already let them flee here twice before. I warned them not to come back".
Merlin turned as he heard Mel call out "Father! Father! Mrs Taylor where's my father?"
Merlin's heart fell as he saw the pitying look Mrs Taylor gave Mel as she stood before her.
"No" he breathed.
"I'm sorry Mel" the seamstress' voice broke a little at the terrified look on the girls face. Mel only increased her frantic looks around the square.
"No. No. No" the girl repeated over and over again. Mrs Tailor tried to speak again but Mel kept shaking her off.
"No. No. No. NO!" Mel screamed as her eyes snapped to one body that was on the ground. She shoved past Mrs Tailor and ran to it "FATHER!" the girl collapsed against her father's body and sobbed. "No. You can't leave me papa. Please don't leave me. I need you. No. I did what you told me. I got Emrys, he saved everyone. Please papa… please… no" the girl buried her face in her father chest.
"You know what your father was like" Mrs Tailor took a cautious step towards the devasted girl but faltered, "He fought back. H-he… he was one of the first that they killed".
There was silence, broken only by Mel's sobbing as no one could to anything but watch.
Eran had been a friend, one of the few he had been able to call a friend the past ten years. So, he let his own the tears fall as well.
A quick glance sideways revealed the same tears falling from Leon and Percival, and almost every villager.
Leon and Percival wept for a girl, ripped from her papa too soon. The villagers wept for their leader, the loss of which they would feel for many years. Merlin wept for his friend, who he knew he could never replace, another soul he didn't save.
Mel wept for her father. The man who had always been there for her. When she had been sick, he cared for her. And after she was well, he played with her, he entertained her, he let her visit the sorcerer when all other parents said no, he treated her like she was older than she was and never thought he knew everything. She wept for her papa, and something broke inside.
And it was then, in that moment of perfect heartbreak, that the bandit made his move.
Dropped, by the tornado, he had broken a few bones. But those he ignored as he grabbed Mel and held a dagger to her throat. "Don't make a move! Anyone!" he shouted as he stared at everyone gathered. He eyed Merlin "And no magiky business either".
Even if he wanted to, he couldn't. Merlin was still shaky from his overuse of magic and he had none left. If he used anymore, he risked spontaneously combusting. But before he or anyone else could make a move… Mel did.
"YOU KILLED MY FATHER!"
The bandit hadn't realised that the girl held a knife, his mistake. Mel drove her dagger behind her and into the man's side. He released her and Mel turned on him. She stabbed him in the chest, sobbing in rage. She stabbed again. And again. And again. She kept stabbing, blood spattering everywhere, all over her. But in her grief fuelled rage the girl just kept driving the knife into the bandit's chest, long after he had stopped moving.
"Mel," Merlin said loudly but the girl didn't hear. Merlin started to walk shakily over to her.
"Mel," he tried again a little louder but still she kept sobbing and stabbing.
"MELISANDRAE!" he shouted as he stood almost next to her.
The girl stopped and looked up. Merlin's own heart pulled again when he saw the devastation and loss on her tear streaked and blood splattered face.
She sobbed and threw herself into Merlin's arms. He sank to the ground and held her, "Oh Mel" he whispered as he hugged her, trying to clean the blood from her face, "I'm sorry" because it was all his fault. She just cried and cried and cried.
Next time Merlin really needed to make sure everyone was dead.
Another wounded bandit struggled to his feet. He didn't bother trying to bargain. He swung his sword at Merlin and Mel where they were on the ground.
Merlin saw the steel arcing towards him and Mel, cursing inwardly. He had nothing left. His magic was depleted, and he had stupidly left his sword on the ground where he had collapsed earlier. Anyway, there would have been no way he could untangle himself from the girl in time to block the incoming blade. The knights and villagers were too far away to help so Merlin turned, putting himself between Mel and death preparing for the end.
But it never came.
With a clatter the bandit was thrown from his feet and into a wall with a sickening crunch. He fell to the ground and lay still.
Merlin turned and smiled as he saw who had done it. Meters away stood Art.
The small boy standing with his arm outstretched and a fierce gold glow fading from his eyes.
Very interesting indeed Merlin thought.
A/N:
RIP Eran but it was required for plot advancement soz.
Spells:
Gebétan – Mend
Éar áscian mé Earth hear me
Byre fylst mé Wind aid me
Lagu flód Water flow
Nied bryne Fire burn
þurh áwierdnes Through destruction
ðú diht fierdstemm You shall serve
Stay Strong,
I ;)