Merlia

The rescue

Arthur galloped through mountainous country on his horse, watched by that evil sorceress as she drew her hood over her head and departed for the next phase of her plan. Unbeknownst by both of them, Merlin seemed to be aware of what's going on, as he muttered Arthur's name in warning as Arthur approached the trap that Cara had set for him.
     He heard crying in a forest clearing and approached Cara sitting on a fallen log. "Are you alright?" He asked. She moved away from him and he said, "don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you." They heard a strange sound as the cockatrice emerged from the forest and roared at him. Warning the girl to stay back, Arthur engaged the creature in combat, and remembering that its bite is poisonous, killed it by throwing his sword into its heart. But of course, Cara was disappointed.
     He turned to her and asked her about the bruises on her arm. "It's my master's doing," she lied. "I ran away from him. What about you? What're you doing here?" "I'm looking for the mortaeous flower." "The mortaeous flower?" She asked as if surprised. "Yes," he said. "Well," she told him, "I know this forest very well. I can show you the way to the cave, if you'd like." He agreed warily to follow her into the darkness.
     The mortaeus flowers grew on the cave wall on the other side of a deep crevasse that can be crossed by a narrow ledge. As he inched forward, Cara muttered a spell and the ledge collapsed beneath him. "What're you doing?" He yelled to her, though luckily he managed to jump for the other side and cling to the rock face. "Who are you?" He demanded. "Do not worry, Arthur Pendragon. Soon you will be joined by some friends." "If you want to kill me, why don't you just do it and get on with it?" She laughed and said, "it is not your destiny to die at my hands." As she said those words, she left Arthur alone in the darkness. Not more than a few seconds, a crawling sound got closer to Arthur. It seemed that the friends that sorceress meant were a large group of spiders.
Back in the physician's chambers, Gaius had sent Amelia for some more herbs, and watched in amazement as Merlin conjured a glowing ball of light in his hand. "Arthur," said Merlin, "this way. Hurry!" "What are you doing, Merlin?" Mumbled Gaius to himself. Back at the caves, Arthur saw an identical ball of light materialize before him, urging him to climb toward the top of the cave. Despite being beset by giant spiders, and perhaps subconsciously hearing Merlin's pleas to leave, Arthur collected a flower from the cave wall and secured it in his porch. Then he began to climb and emerged in the forest at the top of the cave. Back at the castle, the light disappeared from Merlin's hand.
     As Arthur rode into Camelot, he was angry to find that the guards had been ordered to arrest him. Uther visited him in his dungeon cell. "You disobeyed me," he yelled. "Of course I did," Arthur yelled back, "a man's life is at stake. Do not let Merlin die because of something I did." "Why do care so much? The boy is just a servant." Arthur got angry at the statement. So what if he was a servant? Isn't he a human being? "He knew the danger he was putting himself in, and he knew what would happen if he drank from that goblet, but he did it anyway. He saved my life. There's more. There was a woman at the mountain. She knew I was there for the flower. I don't think it was Bayard who tried to poison me." "Of course it was." Uther didn't believe his son and still thought that it was Bayard who tried to poison him. Arthur pulled out the flower and handed it to Uther. "Gaius knows what to do with it," he said. "Put me in the stocks for a week, a month even, I don't care. Just make sure it gets to him. I'm begging you." Uther took the flower and crushed it as Arthur yelled "NO!" "You have to learn that there's a right and a wrong way of doing things," lectured Uther. "I'll see you're let out in a week. Then you can find yourself another servant." He dropped the flower in front of Arthur's cell and left.
     Arthur didn't want another servant because Merlin was more than a servant to him. He was his friend, his best friend; even though he wouldn't admit it. He tried to reach out for the flower and grasp it—though he still had no way of getting it to Gaius. Upstairs, Amelia and Gaius heard about Arthur's predicament and had no way of learning whether he had the antidote or not. Glancing down at Merlin struggling to breathe, Amelia felt that she as well was struggling to breathe! What was happening to her? When he drank the poison, and was choking, she felt it too. How can this be, she thought. Gaius had said that Merlin had a day and then his life would be over. But now, as the poison started spreading fast, he had a couple of hours. When she couldn't handle it anymore, she declared that she had a plan of her own...
Amelia headed down into the dungeons with a plate of food and explained to the guards that it's for the prisoner. Arthur glanced up as she entered the cell and recognized her. He ordered her to put it down on a small table, but when Arthur got up to inspect it, "I can not possibly eat that. Take it away." Amelia retrieved the plate, and smiled secretly to see that Arthur had placed the flower amidst the food. When she left, "hey, wait!" One of the guards called to her. He was actually after a snack. He took the bread from the plate and didn't notice the flower there. "We can't waste the food," he said as he stuff his mouth with the bread. Amelia turned around and up the stairs she went. As another serving girl entered with food for Arthur, she made a bolt for it and straight to Gaius's chambers.
     Merlin's state was getting worse. Gaius was starting to think that Arthur didn't get the antidote when Amelia rushed in. "I got the flower!" She gave it to Gaius and he sent her to bring more water so he could use some of his own magic on the antidote. A little nervously, he performed a spell over the flower, poured the potion into a cup, and forced it into Merlin's mouth. He and Amelia watched in horror as Merlin stopped breathing and both blamed themselves as Gaius confirmed that he had no heartbeats. "This is all my fault," Amelia cried as she hugged Gaius. "If I had brought the flower earlier he would've been alive." She felt incomplete without Merlin. Even though they've known each other for a couple of weeks, she felt like she'd known him for her entire life. She couldn't bare losing him, and she knew that just now. "No, dear," said Gaius, "only if I had made the antidote correctly..." They embraced each other in tears as Merlin took sight of them.
     "That's disgusting. You should be ashamed of yourself. You're old enough to be her grandfather." Overcame with relief, Amelia leaned down and hugged him—much to Merlin's surprise. All he could remember was drinking the wine. "If you ever did that again, Merlin,"said Amelia, "I'll make sure you die at my hands. You get that?" He laughed and said, "yes, ma'am."

Gaius entered the council chamber to speak with Uther who was preparing for war with Mercia. He tried to convince the king that it wasn't Bayard who tried to poison Arthur; but it was someone else. "It wasn't Bayard. The poison was magical. And I'd recognise the hand that made it anywhere: Nimueh." Uther tried not to believe him. "You must be mistaken." "I wish I was." "It can't have been. We'd know her. That witch's face is not easily forgotten." This Nimueh must've been an old enemy of Camelot. "She's a powerful sorceress," said Gaius. "She can enchant the eye that beholds her. We never knew it was her." "Have you any proof?" "The poison used against Merlin was made more potent by the use of magic." "Are you saying that she conspired with Bayard to kill Arthur?" Uther still thought that Bayard had something to do with this. "No, Bayard is innocent. Look at what's happening. This is what she's wanted all along. A war to bring strife and misery to Camelot."
     Uther commanded a halt to his soldiers, and Gaius commended him on his decision. A while later, Arthur, Morgana and Uther watched from the battlements as Bayard and his men rode away from Camelot, the situation presumably salvaged by some last-minute diplomacy. Arthur confessed to Morgana that he was helped on his adventure by a strange guiding light that he credited with saving his life. Morgana left and Uther approached to speak with his son.
   "Arthur? The woman you met in the forest, what did she tell you?" "Not much. She was too busy trying to get me killed. It was strange, though." "In what way?" Asked Uther in confusion. "I was at her mercy," answered Arthur. "She could have finished me off, but she chose not to. She said it wasn't my destiny to die at her hand." "You must've been scared." "Had its moments." "Those who practice magic know only evil. They despise and seek to destroy goodness wherever they find it. Which is why she wanted you dead. She is evil." Arthur shot his father a surprised look. "Sounds as if you know her." "I do. To know the heart of one sorcerer is to know them all. You did the right thing. Even though you were disobeying me. I'm proud of you, Arthur. Never forget that." The wrong thing Uther does is judge a sorcerer from one experience. There are people with magic who'd do anything to help others, but Uther wouldn't see that.
     Arthur visited the physician's chambers in order to check on Merlin, and Merlin thanked him for fetching the antidote. "Yeah, well, it was nothing. A half decent servant is hard to come by. I was only dropping by to make sure you're alright. I expect you to be back to work tomorrow." Really? That's what he cared about? As Merlin always called him: he is a prat. "Oh yeah, yeah of course, er, bright and early. Arthur, thank you." "You too. Get some rest."
     Gaius pointed out that there aren't many who would have done what Arthur did to save the life of a servant. Merlin asked why Nimueh went to all the trouble of framing Bayard when she could have just kept quiet and poisoned Arthur. Gaius told him that her plan wasn't just to destroy Camelot – her main goal was to kill Merlin. "Seems someone else knows you're destined for great things, Merlin."