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“Do we have to?” I could tell right away that he did not like that response. But I will stand on this hill until the end of time, the hunting trips were pointless.
“Yes Mer-lin, we have to,” Arthur lifted his arms so I could put on his shirt of the day.
“The trips are fun, for the knights anyway.” I could feel his smile from a mile away.
I huffed “Exactly, they are fun for the knights because you just get to sit around the fire listening to Gawain's latest experience from the pub,” at which Arthur sighed in support. Don't get him wrong, he adored Gawain's and his stories. After a moment of thinking of the horror stories over the years I continued, “And you get to eat amazing food, and you most importantly just get to sit around. I on the other hand, need to set up all the sleeping quarters, I need to find food and them make the food, and then clean up all the dishes-”
“Okay Merlin stop. You do not do that much.” I couldn't even believe he just said that, I'm pretty sure he got the message from the look I know I just gave him. “Okay fine.” As I was about to make another comment about how he should really learn to appreciate those around him, there was a knock at the door.
“Enter,” Arthur said.
One of the newer knights had entered with this look on his face like he was still scared of Arthur, that thought itself almost made me laugh. “Your Highness, you have confirmation from the stables that we have enough horses ready for you, Sir Gawain, Sir Lancelot, Sir Percival, Sir Leon, Sir Elyan and your manservant, for your hunting trip later this afternoon.” He turned to me with that gleam of victory in his eye, he knew I couldn't get out of it now.
Turning back to the knight at the door Arthur thanked him “Thank you Sir Render, that is all.” The knight nodded and exited without a clue in the world to the fate he had just confined me to.
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From the moment we left the castle I knew something was wrong, and unlike what Arthur had loved to say, I'm almost never wrong. Not about feelings like this. Of course it was Gawain who noticed I was being quiet.
“Merlin, what's on that brilliant mind of yours.” Arthur scoffed at the word ‘brilliant’, that clotpole.
I just sighed, there was no point in saying that nothing was wrong, none of them ever took that as an answer “I just have a bad feeling, Gawain.” I could imagine how Lancelot straightened his back and looked around, like he always does when I have one of my ‘feelings’.
Arthur rolled his eyes so hard that his whole head moved, “Don’t listen to him Gawain, Merlin is just being dramatic because he doesn't like going on hunting trips.” Arthur was claiming it was dramatic, he really needed an ego check.
To my surprise, it was Elyan who spoke up in my defense. “Well, when we look back every time that Merlin said he ‘had a feeling’ something did end up happening.” The knights were silent for a moment, like they were all thinking back to all the times I had been right. Almost as if it was a collective thought, all the knights straightened up and were on alert.
Arthur, who was also more alert, says “Let’s just keep moving. I want to go to the clearing that's a little further away. It’s going to start getting dark soon.” He didn't say it, but I could tell that he was paying more attention to our surroundings.
Lancelot brought his horse up closer next to mine while I slowed down to get away from Arthur. “You okay, what are you feeling?” Lancelot really was a good friend.
I looked around before even thinking of answering. I caught Gawians eyes from his horse behind us, he quickly looked away. Brushing it off, I turned back to Lancelot “I just have a really bad feeling, like something bad is going to happen soon.”
Lancelot nodded “It's okay, I’ll stay on alert, let me know if it gets better or worse. Or if you need to go do something I’ll cover for you.” I smiled and thanked him quietly before moving back next to Arthur so that we could get to where we needed to go.
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It only took another hour and a half to get where Arthur wanted to go. It was a beautiful clearing, it was an open space of land that would give them more than enough room to spread out their tents. The trees surrounding the area gave us the privacy I knew the knights liked on hunting trips. There is also so much life, there are flowers blooming everywhere, and little bugs that looked like if it was darker then they would glow.
I could feel the magic all around me, but it didn't stop the feeling in my stomach that was only getting worse.
As everyone got off their horses, they were grabbing their tents when Arthur came up to me, “Cheer up Merlin, this is supposed to be a relaxing trip” He said, punching me in the arm. He really needed to learn his own physical strength.
Before I could come up with my own remark, Leon spoke out from the end of the line of horses “If you wanted to cheer him up my king, I would try not punching him” Percival was laughing next to him. It was nice to see them all acting like equals, it seemed like out here in the woods was the only place that they could.
I put a huge smile on my face and turned towards the knight “Thank you Leon, it's nice to know that someone else thinks that way.”
Elyan added on next,“Trust me Merlin. We all think that way.” He was smiling at me and I smiled back, he really was kind hearted. Arthur was making sounds of annoyance, when the feeling in my gut got so much worse.
“Everyone shut up” I said so suddenly that everyone did shut up and look at me. “Do you guys hear that?” I know for a fact that I didn't hear anything but the magic in the air had shifted so I knew there had to be something around.
All the knights started walking closer, hands near their swords, “Merlin, what is it?” Lancelot asked near me in case I needed to make a quick exit.
“There are people near, a lot of them.” The more I focused, the more I could feel the different energies coming closer and they were not good energies. Gawian was next to me on the other side of Lancelot and he was pulling out his sword, this caused the others to pull theirs out on instinct. That's when I heard it, and I'm sure everyone else did too, feet hitting the ground like they were running. Next you could hear the yells. And next, everything was chaos.
Coming from the trees that I thought would bring privacy are now only hiding the people running out from them. There seemed to be around 100 people, most of them looked like bandits. I've never heard of a bandit group this large.This had to be something bigger, something planned.
As the knights ran to the center of the clearing, I ran behind a tree that was on the same path that we came from so that I knew no one could come up behind me. Questions were running through my head.
Who were these guys?
What did we do to them?
What do they want from us?
Who were they working for?
But I needed to focus on taking down the bandits, as best as I could from behind the tree. I was knocking them out when the time of the knights hits. I was making bandit's trip to give the knights an upper hand. I was dulling the bandits weapons so that my knights wouldn’t get cut open and the pain distract them.
But then again, my knights were severely out numbered, and the bandits were overpowering them. I started to get more direct with efforts to save the knights.
Percival was getting attacked by five guys at once all from different angles but Leon needed his help so I blasted all of them away from him, knocking them all out. Percival paused in confusion and looked around, he couldn't see me but I saw him, looking around until he saw Leon and he ran over to help him.
The one downside to getting more direct with my attacks was the bandits were also noticing. They were noticing so much that they had started yelling out how someone was using magic and no one could pinpoint where it was coming from. Of course they couldn’t tell where it was coming from. I thought bitterly I'm not that stupid, these bandits were also starting to piss me off and I just wanted to be done with it.
Within a second, the bandits had overpowered Leon and Percival, cuffing them and tying up their feet. When Gawain tried to run over to help them, three tackled him to the ground, doing the same to him as they did the other two. When Gawain let out a shout, whether it was of anger or pain was unknown it was just loud, and it caused Eylan, Lancelot, and Arthur to stutter for a split second. Unfortunately, a split second was all the time the remaining bandits needed to take them down as well.
I needed to think my way out of this, I couldn't use my magic without telling the bandits that there was a sorcerer in the woods. I also was not willing to let my knights get hurt, but for the moment they are just tied up and being forced to kneel in a line. I know that Arthur hates that with all his bones but he can deal with it right now. There seemed to be four main bandits in charge of the group. And they were all huddled in a group looking over a piece of paper. They were most likely checking off names by the way that they would look at the paper then scanning the knights then talking among themselves.
It was about ten minutes of the knights not saying anything and the four bandits whispering to each other for one of them to speak up “ Hey, there are supposed to be seven of you, but only six of you are here.” he had put his hands out resting his elbows on his hips and letting his wrists fall outward, “Want to tell me where the other one went?”
They were talking about me, I was ‘the other one’. And this was bad if they knew who normally went on these trips, well in their defense, I did seem to go everywhere the knights went, even if it was somewhere a manservant should not be going. That also means that they are going to be looking for me. It was Arthur who spoke up,
"He's long gone. He's on his way back to Camelot to tell the rest of my knights where we are, and they will destroy you.” Well, Merlin almost wanted to laugh. He was not about to leave Arthur or the others alone with this many bandits. With the amount of bandits the knights and I knocked out, there were only about thirty-five left standing.
The one bandit— who I am going to call bandit one– who first asked where I was only looked bored. “Right, the famous knights of Camelot, the knights who always get out of impossible situations, you want to know what we call you around these groups?” he asked even though he was going to tell us anyway. “We lot call you, the knights who always have luck on their side, because that's the only reason you get out of as many situations as you do?” I could feel my own anger rising, them thinking that the knights had only survived this long because of luck?
I was so much better than luck.
Leon, who had been a knight longer than anyone else that had kneeling, was the first to argue, “We don't need luck, we are the best knights in all of Albion.”
Bandit one just continued to look bored, “Right, so where did the other one go, we need all of you for our revenge.” Well at least that gave us a reason as to why they were after us. They wanted revenge, the question was what did they want it for. With how much hurt and pain Uther caused, and how much of a dollophead Arthur was, the reasons were endless.
Eylan’s voice was strong, so confident in himself, “Like we said he’s far away from here on his-”I felt bad that I had to crush that confidence.
Walking out from behind the tree the four bandits and the knights all snapped their heads towards me “I'm right here.” The looks on both the groups faces were polar opposites. One full of fear, their eyes widening, and the others cracking into huge grins, excitement pouring off of them.
One of the bandits near bandit one stated “Well, Well, Well you're not very close to Camelot are you?” Bandit two is an ass, that much is certain.
I shook my head and looked around trying to see if there were more than the thirty-five you could easily see “No, I guess I'm not close to Camelot.” It did not look like there were any hiding places where you could not see. That was good, I can easily take out thirty-five men.
The new bandit who is now bandit three grabbed another pair of cuffs from his pockets and started walking towards me. I let him for now. Also when looking at it these four are the only four really doing anything, the others are just standing in the tree line waiting for someone to try and run.
“Wait!” The king's voice caused bandit three to stop and look at him, “Really, he's just a useless servant. Even if he made it back to Camelot alive alone in the woods no one would believe him that we are in trouble. Trust me he is not worth the effort.” I, all the knights, and Arthur knew that was a lie. I had been around Arthur for so many moments that I legally shouldn't have been that the courts had trusted my opinions almost as much as the knights. If I went back stating that they were all being held captive by mediocre bandits, then they would make it a training exercise for the junior knights.
For a split second the bandits seemed to be considering it and I couldn't let that happen, “No take me too. I think you'd rather have no loose ends that could come back in the future right?” I asked it like it was a question knowing that they would agree to it.
Bandit three looked back briefly to the others and when they all nodded he continued towards me, unlocking the cuffs. I put my hands out so that he could cuff me, I looked towards Arthur and the look on his face was crushing me. His eyes looked like the last of his hope had been ripped away from him, I guess in his mind it had. I shot him a smile, hoping it would help bring back some of that earlier hope. “Merlin” Arthur whispered so quietly that it seemed like he just mouthed the word. Without thinking about it I shot him a wink, of course he didn't know that I would get us out of this before any damage came to him or our knights.
God when did I start thinking of the kingdom as ours.
Arthur's face just seemed to crumble more. I looked and caught Lancelot's eyes, they were very easy to read.
‘You better have a plan’ which was stupid he should know I never have a plan.
There was about ten minutes, if he had to guess, where the bandits were just talking among themselves. It was really starting to get on my nerves, so in my own fashion I spoke up “What are you going to do with us, because my knees are really starting to hurt.” I could hear the internal, or in Percival’s case external, groans from all the knights.
Banit one spoke up again, this guy is clearly the one with the most authority in this situation, “Well, don't you have a mouth on you boy?”
That nickname ticked me off, he couldn't have been much older than me. “So I've been told, by a lot of people actually.” The growing faces of slight annoyance on the fours faces was very pleasing to watch. “Can you answer my question though?” If my guesses about these bandits were correct then they would think we were all below them so they will spill information like it is beer at the pub.
They all looked between each other quickly, then bandit three began speaking, “You really don't recognize any of us?” That confused me because I had not felt a spark of recognition for any of their faces. I briefly looked at the knight's faces and saw the same confusion I had felt.
Deciding I was going to piss these bandits off, I replied, “No, I'm afraid I only remember important people.” The anger on their faces was immediate and so was my feeling of joy. Before responding they looked at the knights to see if any of them were going to say anything.
They weren't going to say anything. After watching me catch a few too many very important people around my finger, they learned to let me do the talking. It was just one of the many things I had to learn to protect Arthur.
The second bandit seemed to get more angry than the rest of them, “We are the people who have been on the other side of your luck, which we learned today wasn't really luck.” I was wondering when they were going to bring up the magic, also what does that even mean?
They all looked around for a moment before Bandit one took control of the situation again. “Yeah all this time we thought it was luck, turns out you just have a sorcerer on your side.” This could be very bad very quickly. They could very easily narrow it down to me who was using the magic. “A sorcerer in the woods waiting to strike."
The very little hope in these guys I had faded before the words fully left his mouth. They still thought whoever was using the magic was just waiting in the woods. These guys are idiots.
All I could do was sigh and drop my head. I quickly brought it back up not wanting my eyes away from the bandits who were still in front of my kneeling knights.
Arthur, being the dollophead that he is, decided to speak out. “We don't have a sorcerer on our side.” technically he was right, I’m a warlock not a sorcerer but it still made me want to laugh.
Bandit four -who had not spoken a single word- stepped forward and punched him in the face. My mind went black for a second as the knights gasped in shock.
After my split second of shock wore off, an anger I had never felt before replaced it. I broke my cuffs and stood up facing the fourth bandit. The shock had no time to settle on his face before my magic dragged him back in line with the other bandits. I forced them all to kneel in a similar fashion to the knights just my magic was not allowing any of their bodies to move, not just their hands.
I could see my golden eyes in the reflection of fear in the four bandits' eyes. Bandit one whispered “What?” Out of the corner of my eye I saw that the bandits in the trees, who I honestly forgot about, had started rushing forward. Without looking at them I waved my hand in front of my body and released a surge of magic, making sure it didn't affect the bandits in front of me or my knights. The surge sent the remaining thirty-five back into the trees far enough that they had either passed out or went running for their lives. I didn't bother trying to stop them, they wouldn't cause any real issues anyway. The bandits' eyes tracked the movement since none of the rest of their bodies could move.
Bandit one started to stutter, “B-But the- the king said you h-had no sorcerers on your side.”
A sharp laugh left my mouth, “Yes, and I'm a warlock not a sorcerer.”
These bandits seemed to be at least a little bit educated. Bandit two decided to speak up this time “Who are you?”
“I am Emrys, God of Magic and you just made the mistake of messing with my knights.” My eyes filled with power as theirs were filled with fear. Fear because I knew I had built a reputation over the years.
“I will ask you this once, who sent you.” They all started speaking at once, I cut them all off. “No you,” I pointed to Bandit one, he had been truthful with so far. “Talk.” The other three had stopped talking and he nodded.
“We had just planned this ourselves, there have been a lot of us you have bested Lord Emrys. We are not working for anyone.” He was speaking quickly. He also had the confidence of a man who truly believed he could flatter his way out of this situation.
Nodding my head slightly, “Right well that makes my job easier.” That means the problem ended here with the four in front of me. Flicking my wrist bandits One, Two, and Three’s necks snapped. The crack had echoed in the otherwise silent forest, all the wild life had been long gone since the beginning of the ambush.
Bandit four released a sound very close to a whimper in fear, and all I could think was good he hurt Arthur turning and walking in front of him I made sure to tell him just that “You think you could just get away with that. You thought since you had the king temporarily bound, you had power? Any power at all?” The bandit had tears running down his face and he shook his head silently ”Hmn, your mistake is responsible for your friend's death. Your outburst of anger will be why your death is painful and slow.” That caused an audible sob and once he let out one, the sobs would not stop. They were getting loud. I lifted my hand up, open, and felt my magic flow out of me slowly encasing his whole body in it. Then I slowly closed my hand feeling his body be crushed. I could feel his bones start to fracture, the strain on his muscles the further I closed my hand the more pain he was in.
When my hand was a closed fist in front of me the bandit was a bruised, broken person in front of me. I didn't know if he was dead quite yet, it was very likely from his skull being crushed but if he wasn't he would be very soon. Staring at the four bodies in front of me I took the magic that was left in their bodies and released it into the grass, just like I did after all my kills.
That's when I remembered that the knights were right behind me.
I knew that over the years I had lost most of my humanity, especially if it had to do with people who were threats to my people. And even if everything I did was for my knights and my Arthur it doesn't mean I ever wanted to show them what I had to do for them. I also never wanted their first impressions on my magic to be how dangerous it can be. Without looking at them I broke all of their cuffs and walked away. I needed to find my horse so that I could grab my stuff so that I could leave before I was exiled or killed. Not that I believed that Arthur's first response would be to kill me, it's just what the man grew up with and I was not sure how far those views had truly shifted.
I could hear someone getting and following me. “Where are you going” Lancelot's voice was low but I could hear him very clearly.
“Leaving.” I was trying to keep the emotion out of my voice, my efforts were fruitless.
Lancelot grabbed my arm, stopping me from walking away any further, “Merlin wait, let’s think about this.” He didn't seem to understand the situation.
Without turning around where I knew all the other knights were, I couldn't face them. “What's the point Lance, I just revealed my magic in the worst way humanly possible.” I could now hear the many pairs of footsteps catching up. When I heard the sound of a sword being removed from its scabbard. I tensed up waiting for a blow that couldn't kill me, unless it was from Arthur's sword itself.
“Not another step princess” I spun around so quickly that I was dizzy for a few seconds as what I was seeing came into focus. Gwaine’s back was towards Lancelot and I and his sword was pointed at an unarmed Arthur. A few steps behind Arthur were the other knights looking between Gwaine and Arthur. Sure the knights, especially Gwaine had never taken treason seriously, Arthur never really cared either. But this was crossing the line of what they were able to get away with. Gwaine continued, “You will need to kill me before you get anywhere near him.”
I never wanted any of them to risk their lives for me. “Gwaine put down your sword, it's not worth the high treason you will be charged with.”
Gwaine did not even flinch.
“No can do Merls.” I hear Arthur exhale, I finally look at his face. Where the punch had landed is slightly swollen and horribly red. I can already see the purple forming. It made the anger flare up in me all over again, it didn't matter that the person was dead, I wanted to kill him again.
Arthur's voice was a lot softer than I thought it was going to be, “Just let me talk to him Gwaine.” Gwaine slightly turned his head so that he could see my face. He must have seen something on it because he lowered his sword and stepped to the side creating a clear path.
Arthur walked up to me at a pace that would be considered running in the castle walls. His hand grabbed my arm, I couldn't help but tense until I saw his eyes tracing up and down my body like he was searching for something. I slightly untense my muscles allowing my eyes to also trace his body looking for any other injuries than his face. Luckily all I found was a few graze marks littering his arms since he wasn't wearing full armor.
After Arthur's eyes found mine again he finally spoke to me “I have so, so many questions.” I wanted to laugh. I was still too tense.
So instead I said “ I know, I know. I'm so sorry Arthur, just let me explain.” Arthur has had so many meaningful conversations with me about how he feels like everyone betrayed him. And I was not going to be another person on that list even for a second. “Yes I have magic Arthur, but I use it to protect you. I only use it to protect you and our knights, and-and our kingdom.”
I really hope no one comments on the use of the words ‘our’ in that sentence
Arthur's face stayed the same but I’ve known him long enough to notice the way his eyes light up “For me?” his voice is barely above a whisper. And all I could do was nod. “How long have you had it?” his voice was still quiet.
“I was born with it, Arthur. I've had it my whole life.” I matched his volume because it felt wrong to talk any louder, I also didn't know if I could trust my voice not to crack.
After Arthur took in the words his eyes filled with fear and my body filled with fear. “Merlin, why the hell would you come to Camelot?” Arthur was bordering on shouting now and the change threw me in a loop.
“What?” The fear in my body was now confusion.
“You came to Camelot while my father was king, while you had magic and the first thing you did was start a fight with me in the middle of town.” Arthur's eyes were frantic with panic and he paused for a second before adding on, “Which looking back at you definitely cheated.”
I finally let out a laugh, “100 percent” with the tension between us lessened, there was still so much we needed to talk about, so many questions that needed answering but we could do that in his chambers with the safety of night around us.
Eylan spoke up from somewhere behind Arthur “Emrys?” his voice held so much confusion.
“Long story”
Percival was next “God of Magic??” his voice was even more confused than Eylan’s.
“Even longer story”
Leon tried to mumble but it came out very clearly, “This explains so much” It seemed like the other two agreed from their nods
Arthur suddenly snapped his head towards Lancelot “Sir Lancelot, anything you want to tell us? Anything considering the fact you very clearly knew about Merlin's Magic.”
Before Lance could respond Gwaine shouted out “I knew too!” I felt confused so I also turned towards him.
“How I never told you, and you never said anything about it.”
Gwaine looked so proud of himself when he said “Yep I figured it out all on my own.”
Lancelot then, ignoring Arthur's question, asked Gawine how long he had known.
“A whole year.” Gwaine looked towards Lancelot a smug expression taking over his face
Lancelot replied as flatly as he could, "I've known since the day I met him.”
I don't think I have ever seen Gawain's face fall as quickly as it did at that moment. All the other knights started laughing at him then walked away trying to rally up the horses leaving me and Arthur.
Arthur could tell I needed to say something else, we could always read each other so well. “I never wanted to lie to you, I never wanted to hide things from you. I wanted to tell you everyday and I'm sorry that I couldn't. I need you to know that.”
Arthur stepped closer again, “ I know Merlin. I can't imagine what it has been like for you.” Before I could stop them I felt the tears welling up in my eyes.
“I was so scared. I knew that if I was found out while Uther was alive I would be killed without hesitation but then when he died we were already so close and I didn't want to ruin that. Arthur, I wouldn't be able to survive if you hated me.”
Arthur put both of his hands on my shoulders forcing me to look at him “Merlin I could never hate you. Sure when I first saw you break your cuffs and pull that bandit away from me I was hurt. I was confused. But then I heard you talk about not allowing them to hurt our knights and everything clicked into place. All the situations that we should not have been able to get out of, all the mysterious problems that went away. And I just knew that it was you who did that. You have been the one protecting us for years.”
I just nodded even though he said he knew that they were me. I wanted to confirm them.
Arthur then smiled, “ I knew we had something better than luck on our side all these years.”
How could I not smile back?