Merlyn's Final Truth

A Servant of Two Masters P1

Sometimes, Merlyn wished that she hadn't become maidservant to the prince. Granted, she'd found that there were certain perks to the job, but as she followed the knights towards yet another rather gloomy, mysterious valley, she fantasised about what her life could have been like as simply another servant of the court, Gaius' bumbling assistant, her only danger resting in the physician's formidable eyebrow. Admittedly, she had faced tamer beasts than the old man, but she felt her life would be much simpler, less taxing. For example, she wouldn't be about to blindly follow her king into impending danger, something which would certainly put her in a foul mood.

"Arthur, you are not serious." she sighed, passing the cracked stone head of a fallen king.

"What else do you have in mind?" the king asked, smirking sideways at her. This was the fastest way back to Camelot, as much as Merlyn hated to admit it.

"Anything?" she tried, shifting uneasily in her saddle. For a moment, she thought that she saw movement somewhere in the green, sloping sides of the scenery, but dismissed sighting as nothing more than her keen imagination. "Nothing good ever happens in the Valley of the Fallen Kings. No one in their right mind would go in there."

"Exactly." Percival grinned, chuckling at Merlyn's evil look. He'd basically been a druid once; the witch was fairly sure that meant that he was meant to be on her side.

"The route's a secret, Merlyn. That's why we chose it." Arthur tried to assure her, but his attempts were cut short by abrupt shouting from their left side. Merlyn could only watch as what must have been fifty men ran over the crest of the hill, hugely outnumbering them.

Merlyn almost laughed. "Not so secret after all."

"No need to get cocky." Arthur shouted, ridding himself of his cloak and riding forward, his sword glinting in the dim sunlight.

Merlyn drew her own blade, glancing back to find more bandits heading for them, several on horseback, her heart pounding fiercely.

She turned just in time to see Arthur being ripped from his horse, quickly dispatching the man who had forced him to the floor, but entirely missing another charging at him, his sword leveled at his head.

"Arthur!" She shouted, her eyes burning gold as the bandit flew from his horse, dragged away by his reigns. She smiled, but turned too late to dodge the mace aimed at her chest, the weapon cutting through her skin. Falling to the ground, the last thing she heard were Arthur's panicked screams before her world turned into black.

~

Arthur had never been so scared in his life. He'd managed to get away from the bandits with Merlyn, hiding between the trees as their enemies searched for them, his fingers slowly staining crimson with her blood. As they lay in a small ditch, resting before Merlyn's legs gave out from under her, Arthur could feel his heart break as his lover looked up at him, a glimmer of humour in her eyes.

"They need to work through their anger." She grinned, wincing at the movement.

"They just did. On you." Arthur said shakily, watching Merlyn's pained chuckle. He reckoned that the mace may have been poisoned, but he couldn't be sure.

~

"A night's rest and you'll be polishing my armour." Arthur announced as he and Merlyn moved in the direction he hoped to find Camelot, trying to ignore the fact that he was mostly carrying her now. She was weakening, her wheezing breath tickling his ear. "It could definitely do with a scrub."

Placing her down by a fallen tree, Arthur checked her wound, doing his best to will the tears away from his eyes.

"I've seen worse." He lied, trying to convince himself. "Definitely seen worse."