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I’m going to die, he thought. My father will be furious with me, Merlin will die, I’ll fall to my death and it will all be for nothing.
It was dark enough that he barely was able to make out the rock face in front of him, let alone any hand holds or a way out. Then suddenly everything was bathed in a cool, blue light and a very clearly magical floating orb appeared next to him.
The sorceress must have changed her mind about finishing me off. “Go on then! Finish me off!” he shouted at it, tired of delaying the inevitable.
To his confusion however, the light did nothing but float there, lighting his path. To his even greater confusion it didn’t feel malevolent. It felt… safe. The light started slowly rising and he was able to see the flowers he had come for.
“Leave it, Arthur,” he heard a faint voice.
“ Mer lin?” Well now this was even more confusing.
“Go! Save yourself, follow the light!” Merlin’s voice spoke again as at the same time there was the scuttling of a very large spider headed toward him.
He looked between the light and the flower one more time. “To hell with that,” he said as he started in the direction of the flower.
He strained to reach the flower and the scuddling sounds only got louder. He dared not look down though or they would both be done for. Finally after several attempts at it slipping through his fingers he managed to grasp one of the flowers and secure it in his belt. “Alright, Merlin, lead the way,” he said, though he had no idea if the other man could hear him or not.
He tried to follow only the hand holds were much smaller here and he was having trouble getting a grip when he unintentionally glanced down to see a now large hoard of the spiders coming toward him.
“Faster! Go faster! Follow the light!”
“Damn it, Merlin, I’m trying!” he grunted as he finally got a hold and started to move upwards.
The light kept pace with him as he climbed the wall. “Move! Climb!” When he could finally see the sky above him the light disappeared though the hole.
He didn’t waste time and hauled himself out of the hole as quickly as possible, drawing his sword to fight off any spiders that might have followed him. But to his relief they seemed to want to stay in the cave so he quickly ran off to where his horse was tied and rode off.
****
Getting the flower to Merlin turned out to be almost as difficult as getting ahold of it in the first place but luckily Gwen was there to help and successfully snuck the plant away to Gauis to start on the antidote.
*****
Later, after his father was satisfied he had spent enough time in the dungeons, he found his way to the physician's quarters.
“Gaius, can I speak to Merlin alone for a moment please?” he asked as non threateningly as he could manage.
“Of course, sire,” he said, standing up and patting Merlin on the shoulder as he left.
Gaius closed the door behind him and Arthur moved to crouch in front of Merlin. One look in his eyes confirmed what Arthur already knew; Merlin couldn’t be evil. “You have magic, don’t you?” he asked, cutting to the chase.
“Why would you say that?” Merlin asked, curling in on himself and suddenly looking frightened.
“It’s alright, your secret is safe with me. I didn’t just risk my life to save you to see you burn.”
“What gave it away?” Merlin asked after a moment.
“When I was in the cave, trying to get the flower, there was this light, it felt like you and then I heard your voice and I knew.”
Merlin’s eyes went wide, “I don’t even remember doing that. I must have been too far gone with fever to control it.”
Arthur nodded, “Which proves magic isn’t corrupting because even out of your mind with fever your first instinct is to protect me. But I have to ask; how stupid are you to be practicing magic in Camelot of all places?”
“Well it’s not like I practice magic on purpose,” he said. “I was born like this. As for why I’m in Camelot, my mom thought I’d be less likely to get myself into trouble and figured that Gaius could help me with controlling my magic better than she could.”
“So Gaius knows?” Arthur asked.
Merlin nodded. “Basically the first thing I did when I got to Camelot was save him from falling off his shelfs with magic. Kinda hard to hide it after that. Though I’ve saved you loads of times with magic and you’re just now noticing so maybe I’m better at keeping secrets than I thought or maybe you’re just that thick.”
“I mean you’re a terrible servant so I suppose you must have some skills somewhere.”
Merlin lagged, “So you’re not mad at me?”
“No, I definitely understand why you didn’t tell me and if you were born with it it’s not like it’s something you were purposefully doing. As far as I’m concerned you commit more treason before breakfast with how you talk and I’m obviously not executing you for that.”
“Thank you, Arthur,” Merlin said sincerely. “And thank you again, for saving me.”
“I’ve got to even the field occasionally, don’t I? Can’t have you saving me like some damsel all the time,” he said, ruffling Merlin’s hair. “Can I expect to see you back at work soon?”
Merlin nodded, “Gauis wants to make sure there are no lingering effects but I should be back within the week.”
“Good,” he said as he stood, squeezing Merlin’s shoulder as he moved toward the door. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Looking forward to it, sire,” he said, for once not sounding like an insult.
Arthur nodded as he closed the door behind him. It looked like there were many things his father might be wrong about, but he would have time to dwell on that later. For now at least, he knew he would do whatever it took to keep Merlin safe just as it seemed, the man would do for him.