Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Arthur watched as Merlin continued down the hall to continue to do his chores and duties and thought about his own in comparison. About the duties he had pledged to do in his childhood and had upheld as he grew. Never questioning, never wavering.

He thought of Merlin’s face should he ever find out about what he had done and continued to be expected of him to do. Beside his father, he had never valued a man’s trust nor approval as much as Merlin’s. Arthur didn’t want to see his servant's disappointed face if he were to have to put the children to their deaths in front of him.

He was running out of time but at least he knew Merlin would be away from all of it.

——————————

Morgana had woken extra early that morning to pass along the message of the plan that was made late the night before to Gwen. Afterwards, since Morgana wasn’t supposed to wake until a bit later, she laid back in bed not expecting to actually fall back asleep and wait, she instead was pulled back under to slumber.

It was only a few hours later, she sprung up in her bed gasping as the images from her dream flashed through her mind.

Merlin’s scream in agony.

The children’s faces as they looked ahead of them in horror.

Arthur’s expression broken in rage.

Morgana placed her hand on her head, she looked at her lap and tried to level her breathing but it did nothing to lessen the foreboding feeling emanating from the dream. So many she had seen before come true. So many she had let go and simply ignored. It wasn’t until recently she started to tell select few of the warnings she received at night.

This was not good. She needed to get to Merlin and warn him before it was too late. She would not let anything happen to her friend or to the children. The glare in Arthur’s eyes chilled her, she shuddered to think of whom it was directed at. If he found out…

No, she would reach Merlin in time and warn him.
——————————

Once Merlin was done with his morning chores and the sun was beginning to rise to its peak, the warlock grabbed his cloak from the physicians chambers and headed into the village and down to the house. At the door, Merlin knocked the same pattern, signifying that it was him. There was rustling from inside the house followed by the small creak as it opened to reveal Gwen.

“Merlin.” The maid smiled from behind the door, looking relieved.

”Gwen.” The servant greeted, allowing himself inside, while Gwen quickly closed and locked it behind him.

”Hi, Merlin.” Roland called from across the room, rolling up his bed roll on the floor. He was dressed in another one of Merlin’s old blue tunics, with his curls slightly more frizzy than it had been the night before. Pandora smiled and gave a small wave from next to him in greeting.

“Are you all packed?” He asked, looking around at the supplies that had even laid out the day before, not once again packed in its bags.

“Yeah, so is Pan,” The boy motioned to his sister beside him, looking through one of the supply bags that knights would use for camps. “Miss Gwen made sure we packed enough supplies on the way there.”

“Good. Gwen, you need to get back before anyone notices you're gone.” Merlin turned seriously over to his friend beside him who already had her chore basket in hand.

“Right, I’ll be on my way-“ Gwen turned to leave but was interrupted when Pandora spoke up suddenly, which got the attention of both Gwen and Merlin.

“Uhh, Merlin? I think the knights accidentally left something in the supplies you gave us.” She stated hesitantly, lifting something out of one of the bags.

“What do you- oh.” Merlin watched as Pandora switched a flask before uncapping it and taking a sniff at the contents. He could hear his friend stifle a laugh beside him.

“They left their drink?” Roland asked, confused.

Pandora quickly capped it again, her nose wrinkled in slight disgust.“Their very flammable drink.” She casted a knowing glance at Gwen, who tried to grimace in distaste, and Merlin, who had the sudden strong urge to track down and berate whichever knight was responsible for leaving their alcohol in the camping supplies.

“Those little drunkard pr-“ The servant’s whispered curse cutoff as he once again remembered he was with children and would need to watch what he said. He instead sighed and put out his hand to the children, “Just give it to me, please.”

Right after Pandora had gotten up from the floor and given the flask to Merlin and he put it in the small pocket in his brown jacket, he suddenly remembered, “Oh and if anyone asks-“

“You’re going out all day for special herbs, yes, it’s already taken care of,” Gwen quickly cut off, then continued with a smile, “I have servants and maids covering for you and your chores.” The maid then added, “Oh, and Morgana wanted me to tell you both that she wished she was able to say goodbye but to stay safe.”

”Thank you for everything, Miss Gwen. Please tell Miss Morgana that we will be, and we’re grateful to have met both of you, you saved us.” Pandora finished softly, looking at her brother who was violently nodding his head.

The maid gave a small smile to the children then turned and walked to the front door, Merlin then grasped just how much Gwen was risking herself, knowing the fear of being accused of using magic, she knew the fear of death being close. Yet she still chose to help the children, to help Merlin to risk being in that same position of imonate death. Merlin wavered on feeling warmed, full of gratitude for her and feeling the cold guilt seep into mind for putting her in this situation.

Just when Gwen was going to walk out from the door, Merlin rushed toward her, lowering his voice and holding on to the edge of the wood, “Gwen. Before you go… Thank you. Truly. I don’t know if I would have been able to pull all of this off without you or Morgana’s help.” Merlin wavered on his words, not even sure if he was allowed to say it, before finally admitting, “You truly are one of my greatest friends.” He wished he could express to her how true it was.

Gwen gave him an odd look, “Of course, Merlin. We will always be here for you, and we did it for them. They needed help, it wouldn’t have been right to just let you do this yourself when those children desperately needed help.”

“Thank you, Gwen.”

“There’s no need to thank me, just be careful.” She warned firmly, her brows creased in concern.

“We will. I’ll keep them safe.” Merlin tried for his most reassuring smile, matching her tone.

“Good. Keep yourself safe too.” Not waiting for Merlin’s rebuttal, she turned and walked into the street.

The warlock just sighed to himself, closing the door in front of him and he turned back to the children who were already standing, each with a satchel slung over their shoulder. Both a determined look on their faces. Both prepared for the journey until they could reach their freedom.

“We’re ready, Merlin.”

—————————————

“Lady Morgana, what is it?” One of the knights posted outside of Morgana’s chambers asked as she exited its doors.

“I just need to pick something up from the physician.” She replied smoothly, trying her best to look calm and casual, starting to walk past the knight. However, he simply took a step in front of her, blocking her path.

“We can get those for you, my lady.” He stated sternly and professionally.

“No!” Morgana quickly reined in her outburst and reiterated, “No, I can get it myself, really.”

“It would be no problem, my lady, if it is your medicine then-“

“It’s not my medicine. It’s something else.” Morgana interrupted, her temper rising and panic seizing her, essentially killing any attempt at social niceties.

“What is it?”The knight asked skeptically.

“It is something that would be inappropriate of a woman to discuss with a man that is not a physician.” Morgana crossed her arms and watched as the knight in front of her blushed sputtered trying to regain his composure, while the knight behind her could be heard by his armor stiffing from the unexpected come back. She schooled her expression to keep from laughing at them both.

“Ve- Very well, you may be on your way.” The knight finally stuttered out, moving out of the ward’s path, allowing her to uncross her arms and march down the halls in the direction of the physicians chambers.

Almost running down the hallways, and up the narrow stairs, she reached the front door of the physician’s chambers and burst through, “Guias!”

“Lady Morgana? What’s wrong? What’s happened?” The physician moved down from the top of the stairs in the chambers, and suddenly, Morgana felt guilty. She knew the physician was already terribly anxious already because of the current plan of Merlin sneaking out the kids. She knew that she was only adding to his worry, but she couldn’t keep it to herself this time, not when her friend and those children could be at risk.

“I think something’s going to happen to Merlin and the children. I had one of my dreams, and I know that you always say that they mean nothing but with all that’s going on.. I just don’t want any of them to get hurt-“

“Morgana, stop.” She then noticed Gaius’s pale face and grew more concerned as he seemed to be having an internalized battle within himself.

“But-“

Gaius interrupted her again, this time speaking urgently, “We don’t have much time, if your dream comes to fruition..” He trailed off before sighing, “It’s time you knew the truth of your dreams.”

—————————————

After double checking supplies and packing up the rest of the things they had brought to the house, Pandora and Roland pulled their cloaks over their shoulders. It was an hour past noon, and that was when the schedule said there would be a clear path they could take to the forest.

“Are you both ready?” Merlin asked, one hand on the metal doorknob and the other pulling his hood over his head.

Pandora, with her auburn hair now tied in neater braid courtesy of Gwen if Merlin had to guess, looked down at her brother meeting his eyes. There must have been a clear understanding going back and forth between those gray eyes because when they met their eyes with Merlin’s blue ones they nodded almost in sync.

“Ok then.” With that, Merlin led the two out into the village street and locked the door behind them.

One the way to the forest, the three of them weaved their way through the dense crowds and through back alleys whenever they saw an incoming group of knights on patrol. Merlin carefully made sure he timed each one, following the schedule exactly how it was. If nothing else, at the very least the knights were punctual. Each of them made sure their hood covered their face as they passed by others, hanging on to it like a lifeline when the wind blew and keeping their head low, never making eye contact with anyone should they be recognized.

Eventually they reached the very edge of the village and crossed the threshold, it was only then that they felt they could finally breathe. The three of them exchanged grins as they continued on the path further into the forest. Merlin felt like laughing at the relief of at least being out from the suffocating amount of people and instead surrounded by the flush green around him. Leaves rustled in the winds and the quiet hum of life continued.

It then occurred to Merlin how strange it was that there weren't more guards posted in that section to exit the main kingdom. How strange it was that everything had worked out perfectly, without any issues at all. How strange it was that it was so quiet they had yet to pass by anyone else taking the same route.

Merlin stopped in the middle of the dirt trail garnering confused looks from the children.

Merlin lowered his voice, the children strained to hear, “Something’s not right… Get behind me!” He yelled, yanking the two of them to the side, as an arrow zoomed past where the young girl had been. For once. Just once, he wished his bad feelings were wrong. Merlin raised his hand up in the direction of where the arrow flew and casted a spell in the highest branches of a tree. From the tree, fell an archer dressed in light armor and a Camelot red cape.

”It’s a trap.” Merlin barely muttered the words before suddenly yelling and clangs of metal erupted from behind the walls of trees and dozens of knights charged at the three magic users.

Instinct and adrenaline fueled his reflex as he instantly began throwing spells all around him and the children, his magic flowed as one with the blood in his veins. One raised palm threw back three knights, knocking them unconscious, the other dropped heavy branches from the trees onto the heads of knights still in the forest while also getting rid of the archers hidden in the trees.

There were too many knights for Merlin to keep track of by himself, he wouldn’t be able to hold them off for much longer, he had to find a way to get them out of there. A sudden yell from behind him caused him to turn his attention to several knights tripping over roots that sprung from the ground. It was then that he noticed the children’s raised arms, and the golden hue that glossed over their eyes.

Pandora and Merlin locked eyes, nodded to each other in understanding. Merlin knew that she would do whatever she could to keep her brother safe, even if it meant facing against trained soldiers. He recognized the determination she had, and respected and shared it. With Roland in between them, Merlin and Pandora faced back to back, circling. Pandora, with Roland helping her, used the roots of the trees around them to sprout from the ground to unbalance the knights while Merlin pushed them back with his magic. Distantly, he heard the thrum of hooves approaching as well as the neigh of a horse. It wasn’t long before the soldiers realized it was a failed endeavor and instead formed a circle around the warlocks, keeping their distance but still maintaining their stance of attack.

“In the name of Camelot, you shall surrender yourself and face the consequences of using magic on this land.”

Every fiber in Merlin’s being froze at the sound of the ice cold thunderous voice. The voice that never ceased to remind Merlin of how the owner of it was trained. The voice of a general and a leader that whomever found themselves facing against would feel immediate intimidation.

“Turn yourselves in now, or we will have to bring you in by force.” The voice of prince Arthur once again warned in its withdrawn tone, not showing an ounce of emotion.

No, no, no, no, was the only thing processing in the oldest warlock’s mind as he moved in the direction of the prince in front of the children, blocking them from the prince’s view. He couldn’t be there, he wasn’t supposed to be there. He was supposed to be on the other side of the kingdom, patrolling. Merlin kept his head down, letting the shadows from the hood shield his identity, only granting himself to look up slightly to see a large group of knights on horses, with the prince leading them on his own stead.

“Reveal yourself, sorcerer.” The prince ordered harshly, from whilst his horse grew agitated, stomping its foot on the ground.

Matching the horse, Merlin’s magic thrummed in sync with his rapid beating heart rate, only ever growing with how wrong everything had gone in such little time. They were surrounded by knights in every direction ready to attack at any moment, if they somehow managed to get past them, they had horses that could easily catch up with them. They needed a distraction, something to startle and spark a frenzy that would allow them to escape…

Merlin lowered his voice only intending for the children to hear him, as he felt them slightly lean forward he whispered, “When I saw so; run and don’t stop.”

He gave them both meaningful glances, with only an almost nonexistent nod in response. Their gray eyes stormed with hints of golden magic acting as lightning.

In a flash of movement, Merlin reached into the inside pocket of his jacket pulling out the flask of alcohol and bringing it to his lips, drawing every last drop of it in his mouth, and moving his magic to focus on his free hand.

Before the knights could react to the action, or the children could question why Merlin was doing what he was doing, the oldest warlock connected his pointer finger to his thumb in the shape of an ‘O’, brought it up to his lips, only instead of the fermented drink being sprayed when he spit out the liquid, inferno erupted from Merlin’s mouth.

Merlin moved in a circular motion around him and the children, causing shouts and yells to rupture from the knights, all running from the flames. The horses, startled by the hot flares, brayed and bucked, desperate to get away, many of the knight’s including the prince were knocked off their horses.

In the chaos that ensued after Merlin finished circulating, with several knights that had caught on fire and were running away while some knights were struggling to retain control of their steads, he turned to the children and yelled, “Run!”
Within a second, the three warlocks raced into the woods to the side of them.

Merlin had taken no more than five long strides when he heard a swoosh and a piercing and tearing pain struck Merlin in the inner, left shoulder blade. He hadn’t realized it was his own when a pained cry left his already strained throat. He stumbled over the forest floor only for a moment before he was once again running with Roland and Pandora in front of him.

“Merlin!?” The children yelled out in alarm, looking behind them, dangerously slowing their pace.

“I’m fine!” Merlin snapped far harsher than he intended, agony racked through all of his upper left side, leaving him feeling dizzier by the second. “Keep your head ahead and don’t you dare stop running for a second!”

The children followed Merlin’s instructions, increasing their speed, while for Merlin he felt his head get lighter and his legs start to feel more and more heavier, his vision started to swim when he realized they started to get further and farther away from him.

He needed to catch up with them, was his last thought before he lost consciousness.

———————————

“I hit him!” One of the knights exclaimed from somewhere Arthur couldn’t see. It didn’t matter to him either way, the point was that the sorcerer would be weak at that moment and would therefore be easier to catch up with. With only a grunt of discomfort from his fall, the prince stood and sprinted in the direction where the magic users had disappeared to.

“I’m going after them!” Was the only statement Arthur made to his men, not waiting to hear their warnings of how it would be too dangerous while they were still recovering from the attack from the eldest sorcerer. With only one attack, they were able to make all hell break loose and breach through more than two dozen knights that should have had them cornered, it would have infuriated him if there wasn’t also a part of him that was relieved the children escaped from him.

He swept those thoughts to the side as he heard ahead of him, groans of pain. With years of skillful hunting, he had learned to stalk quietly in the forest toward any unsuspecting prey, at that moment he used all that he learned as he got closer to the groans until he saw only a couple of trees ahead of him a cloaked figure laying on the forest floor with a arrow protruding from their back as they struggled to get up, using a nearby tree as support.

Arthur placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. As he neared, the prince took notice of the peculiarly familiar buckled boots the sorcerer had, then at a closer look, he saw that they also had bandaging on the wrist they were using to support themselves. Arthur stopped in his tracks when he was just a few feet away from the sorcerer and the hood of the cloak fell to their shoulders to reveal a mess of shaggy raven hair, along with big ears poking out, identical to the ones that belonged to the person who promised him just that morning he would not be anywhere near the forest.

———————————-

Merlin’s head throbbed as he struggled to get up from the dirt, the arrow in his back screamed in anguish as he felt the tip of it lodged in his muscled and the blood stream down his back. Using the closest tree as balance, the warlock was finally able to stand at least partially correctly. He had no idea how long he was laying on the cool earth, but as he looked around he deduced it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. He allowed his hood to fall back to his shoulders as he took steadying breaths. First thing he needed to do was check on the children, Merlin took a few more breaths intending to go back to mentally connect with the children when he heard a branch break from behind him.

“Merlin?”

The warlock whipped his head around to meet face to face, blue eyes locked on blue eyes, with the prince of Camelot. In excruciating silence, the only thing he could do was watch as his prince stared at him with a sea of emotions stirring, outrage, disgust but the most prominent of them was betrayal. Merlin was deathly aware of the grip that the prince tightened around the hilt of the sword.

Neither spoke on either end when despite his heart beating so fast and his magic boiled anxiously and uncomfortably through his whole body, Merlin swallowed and croaked out pathetically. “Let me explain.”

“You…” The prince started but then stopped himself. He looked down then back up at Merlin. The expression Merlin could once read so well, was replaced with the one devoid of any emotion at all. And when he spoke again, he used the voice he had never directed at Merlin before that day, the tone that was reserved for those outside of his walls and in front of his weapons. His enemies. Oh, how he hated that voice.

“You lied to me.”

Merlin felt as if he could cry. He wouldn’t be able to tell you if it was from heartbreak or from… relief.

But as they continued to stare at each other Merlin couldn’t help but wonder, what do you do in that situation? When you’ve been found out by someone you care so much about and you have no idea what they will do next. When you're both just there staring at each other while you pray that they don’t hate you. When you're stuck in the stand still of what happened and what will happen. Because once it’s there there's no way to take it back, the person now knows. They know you’ve lied to them. And you have to just be there staring at them to see their reaction, because you can’t look away, you have to know what they think. You didn’t plan on them finding out this way, not like that. Maybe sitting them down once you have all your courage and slowly explaining to them who you are. But right then, there’s the voice in your head telling you to run while you can but your body just freezes in fear and, if you allow yourself, just a shred of hope. That maybe, just maybe they won’t turn you away. That maybe they will still see you the same way.

That shred of hope for Merlin then tears into blisters at the sound of metal unscathing from its sheath.

Merlin had no idea what to do in that situation. Had no idea what to do when his prince pointed a sword at him.

“In the name of Camelot-“

“Sire, please listen-“ Merlin pleaded, as he felt the last of his strength leave him. He wanted Arthur to stop looking at him like that, to stop talking to him like that.

The prince continued forcefully over Merlin’s pleas. “You shall surrender yourself-“

“Please, don’t do this-“

“And face the consequences of using magic on this land.” Arthur practically yelled, hollow. As if he was speaking to any other stranger, with no connection to him. As if he was nothing to him.

“Arthur, please!” Merlin dropped to his knees still hanging on to the tree when his legs could no longer support him. He hadn’t realized he had started crying until he saw the prince’s eyes widen in surprise as it followed something going down his cheek.

Arthur opened his mouth to say something when suddenly a branch from the tree Merlin was leaning on fell right next to Arthur, startling him to trip into a vine that automatically grew, first weaving its way around his ankles tying them together, then continuing to grow rapidly around his body. The prince used his sword to cut the vine, only for two more to shoot out to catch his wrists, causing him to drop his sword. Arthur’s struggling only seemed to tighten the plants as it pulled him to his knees, he grunted in frustration as he tried to stand.

Merlin’s heart leaped in panic as he saw the prince struggling to get out of the plant and was about to cast a spell to ward it off when he heard a familiar voice calling out his name from behind him.

“Merlin!” The boy exclaimed, relief flooding his features as he saw Merlin, appearing from seemingly nowhere.

“Roland? What are you doing here?” Merlin questioned, beyond confused but also beyond relieved as to how the child could have found him along with a dozen other questions.

”Well, we weren’t gonna leave you behind.” The child said stubbornly with a pout, crouching down Merlin’s level.

”Where’s your sister?” Merlin asked, realizing he didn’t spot the auburn haired girl with him.

A grunt from behind him interrupted his worry when Pandora herself walked beside her brother, “Right here, I'm not sure how much longer I can do this.” She struggled, with both her hands raised in Arthur’s direction and her eyes a golden hue. Arthur stilled when he saw the child was the one that was the source of the plants.

Roland then carefully helped the older warlock get up from where he was kneeling near the tree so he was instead focusing his body weight on the young boy. Merlin turned to walk away but stayed looking at Arthur. The prince simply stared back without saying a word.

“Merlin, we need to go!” Pandora called, already walking away.

Merlin takes one last long look at Arthur, with his gold hair glinting in the sunlight that filtered from the leaves above, tied on the floor then used a spell to put him to sleep before he could decipher what the last expression at Merlin meant.