Forbidden Love - Merlyn [2]

Chapter Seventeen: I Love You

Arthur and Leon entered a large hall that was filled with cheering bandits of all shapes and sizes yet each and everyone of them smelled awful, with rotting teeth along with ragged clothing. Merlyn had been surrounded by this for days and Arthur couldn't help but blame himself. The question was what were they celebrating. Looking through the crowd, Arthur realised that there was a cage in the middle of the hall but it was what was inside that scared him. Merlyn was sat in the middle of the cage with her arms clearly tied to the person who was behind her, not only that Merlyn had clearly gone a few rounds with people over the last few days if her injuries had anything to say and to top it all off there was a Wilddeoren in the cage that was smelling its way over to her.

There were a thousand things wrong with this picture. Arthur swore before he immediately spotted that the cage was open-topped. Without much thought, he unsheathed his sword and climbed up the cage, throwing himself over the top and landing on the ground perfectly. At his sudden landing, Merlyn's eyes shot around to him. The moment her eyes locked with his clear blue ones she knew it was him.

"Arthur" she whispered breathlessly. Immediately Arthur pulled down his mask. He crouched down beside her and cupped her cheek whilst his hand that held the sword sliced between Merlyn and the other man, cutting the ropes. Merlyn felt tears gathering as she kept her eyes locked on Arthur in relief and turned her head into his hand. Once her hands were free, Merlyn snapped. "Where the bloody hell have you been?"

Arthur chuckled as he pulled her to her feet and pushed her behind him whilst he turned to face the Wilddeoren that was even closer to them – thankfully it was confused by the amount of smells in the room. Suddenly, another pair of feet entered the cage. Merlyn's head snapped over to find Leon dressed in bandit clothing like Arthur. "Leon."

"How you doing Merlyn?" Leon asked as he stood in front of Lancelot, placing himself in front of the Wilddeoren after all he and Arthur had the swords. Suddenly. Arthur looked over to the other prisoner and realised he recognised the man.

"What are you doing here, Lancelot?" Arthur questioned as he kept his sword trained on the Wilddeoren.

"We can chat later" Merlyn exclaimed. "The only way out is through that tunnel behind the Wilddeoren." One problem was that the grate was closed. Whilst Arthur and Leon fended off the Wilddeoren with their swords, Merlyn found the rope that connected to the grate. Making sure people weren't watching Merlyn concentrated on the rope and with force of will her magic came to the surface, her eyes glowed golden and Merlyn lifted the grate open.

"Stay behind us" Arthur ordered as he noticed the grate open. The man had a sneaky suspicion that was Merlyn's doing. Quickly, Leon and Arthur were able to guide the group towards the open grate. "Let's go!"

"After them!" Hengist ordered as he himself opened the cage and made his way inside, a couple of men followed behind him. He of course had to fend off the Wilddeoren as well giving them all the chance to get into the tunnel. Arthur ran slightly ahead in order to find the right way out. Whilst Leon, Lancelot and Merlyn went to follow.

"Go with Arthur! I'll hold them off" Lancelot ordered.

"We are not doing this again" Merlyn stated strongly as she grabbed Leon and Lancelot's shoulders. "Everyone in the tunnel now." The two men stumbled ahead of her before they heard Hengist.

"Little Warrior!" Turning around Merlyn saw Hengist beginning to follow them. With a smirk, Merlyn lifted her hand.

"Learh fearnancai!"

Her eyes glowed a brilliant gold once more and Hengist watched in horror as the rope that held the grate snapped forcing the grate to fall, ultimately trapping him with the Wilddeoren. Leon and Lancelot looked at Merlyn impressed, magic truly was something special.