Within Your Heart

Merlin ran through the castle as fast as he could manage. He took a brief moment to stop off at the room he had been shut in to grab his coat before fleeing the castle. Lancelot and Gaius were arguing at the bottom over the stairs about who had lost Merlin, when he rushed past them. Lancelot called after him,

“Where are you going?” Merlin turned, eyes still wide and panting heavily,

“I don’t care what I promised. I’m not staying here any longer. You can’t make me.” With that he turned and ran once more.

“Wait. Please,” Gaius called after him, but his plea was ignored.

He ran out into the dark and snow and found the stable where he had left Morgana. He only took a brief moment to realise that the horse had been stabled properly and was happily chewing on some fresh hay, before haste pushed him on once again. He saddled Morgana and pulled her away from her food, much to the horse’s displeasure.

“Come on Morgana, we’re going home.” The horse snuffled against him, agitated by his obvious distress. He mounted her anyway and without a look back he dug in his heels and gripped tightly to the reins as Morgana galloped out of the courtyard.

Merlin wasn’t paying attention to where they were going, just clinging on. He hadn’t realised that they were going the wrong way. Morgana ran blindly into a clearing where a wolf jumped out in front of her. The black horse reared in fright. Merlin didn’t realise what had happened and was thrown from the saddle. Despite the snow covered ground, he landed hard and hit his head. Curling up in pain, his vision blurred as he tried to see where Morgana was. He could just make out the horse rearing in fright and realised she had managed to tie up her reins in branches. Merlin tried to pull himself to his feet despite his vision swimming. He quickly realised that a few of the wolves had turned their attentions on him, finding him an easier target. He braced himself against a tree and tried to summon his magic, but it was being as elusive as his vision. It swam around his head and slipped through his fingers like water. One of the wolves made to pounce, Merlin closed his eyes and waited for the jaws to bite into his flesh, apologising to his mother that he would never see her again. Instead, he heard a roar and a whimper. He slowly opened his eyes again, to find his vision had steadied slightly and a sight he would never have believed to be true. Arthur was there. The wolves tried to attack Merlin once more and Arthur flung them away. The others attacking Morgana came to aid their pack and leapt upon Arthur, biting into him, scratching. After throwing off a few more, the wolves decided that this prey was too much for them and ran off yelping into the trees. Merlin saw blue eyes turn towards him, give him a fleeting glance over then close as the large form crumbled to the ground.

Merlin took this as the opportunity to get away. He ran over to Morgana, stumbling in the snow and ignoring the pounding in his head. He pulled her reins free and calmed her down. He climbed into the saddle and paused. He looked at the slumped form in the snow and regret welled up in his chest. There was no way he could leave now. Arthur had just saved his life. He climbed off of Morgana and led her over to Arthur.

-x-

“You’re both safe!” Gwen sighed with relief. Merlin led Arthur through to the sitting room. The fire was already burning brightly. Merlin sagged under the prince’s weight, but it didn’t stop him helping, despite his own pains. He lowered the beast into the large chair in front of the fire. Gaius had hopped off to get some of his herbs and potions to help with their wounds after Merlin had said they had been attacked by wolves.

Merlin sat in front of the fire trying to warm up again. The silence in the room hung like a thick fog. Arthur was glaring at Merlin and Merlin was glaring at the fire.

“Alright, here we are.” Gwen broke the silence like a breath of fresh air. “Warm water for you both. Gaius has already added something but I don’t know what it is. It smells nice though.” She hopped in front of Merlin, followed by a bowl with a cloth in it. Merlin nodded. Gwen’s face fell, sensing the tenseness in the room.

“Thank you, Gwen,” the slim boy murmured eventually, picking her up and pouring the water into the bowl. He agreed with Gwen, the water did smell nice; it was already soothing his nerves. He carefully turned to face Arthur, noticing he was trying to attend to his own wounds by licking them clean. Merlin took a brief note of the long tongue that lapped at the wound on Arthur’s arm. He felt himself blushing, but not entirely sure why. He put it down to the heat from the fire, ignoring the fact that he was still shivering from being cold and wet. “You shouldn’t do that you know. It might get infected and you could lose your arm.” Blue eyes glared at him, while the long, lizard tongue lapped at the matted blood. “Here, let me.” Merlin wrung out the cloth and moved over to Arthur. The licking motion stopped; tongue half hanging out of the sharp toothed mouth. The glare that Merlin received only made him more stubborn to do his task. When the cloth touched the wound Arthur roared.

“That hurt!”

“Oh stop being a baby!” Arthur’s face was a picture and Merlin just managed to hold back his laughter. He continued in his task, ignoring the grunts of pain that Arthur made.

“No one has ever spoken to me like that,” he muttered finally.

“Maybe that’s why you’re such a prat.”

“You’re the idiot who didn’t listen to orders.”

“I’m not your servant. You can’t order me around.”

“It’s my castle. My orders.”

“If it wasn’t for your ‘orders’. We wouldn’t be hurt.”

“If you hadn’t run off, we wouldn’t be hurt!”

“If you hadn’t scared me, I wouldn’t have run off!”

“If you hadn’t been where you shouldn’t I wouldn’t have scared you!”

“Prat!”

“Idiot!” They glared at each other once more until Merlin broke their staring match, head turning away.

“Thank you,” he murmured finally. “For saving me, I mean.” Arthur nodded. After another awkward pause, Arthur finally spoke up breaking the silence once more,

“I scared you,” he murmured with what passed for a grin. Merlin threw the cloth at him with a huff.

For the first time in years the enchanted objects in the castle truly smiled and hope bloomed once more.

-x-

“Edwin. Good to see you again,” Uther drawled in a tone that suggested he was anything but happy to see the mutilated man in front of him. Edwin smirked and nodded silently. Both men hated each other, but when money was involved their differences could be ignored. Edwin sat at the table opposite Uther and slowly removed his gloves, casting a quick look at the servant boy standing beside the self proclaimed king. He sneered at the boy. Mordred ignored him.

“So, Uther. Tell me please. Why is it that I have been dragged out of my asylum in the middle of the night?” He crossed his hands in front of him. He moved his head forward slightly, moving closer to Uther. “I was told you would make it worth my while.” Uther reached under the table. Edwin flinched slightly. Uther dropped a pouch on the table and a gold coin rolled out. Edwin slammed a burned hand on it, and then picked it up, inspecting it. He grinned once more. “I see.”

“I have set my sights on a certain young Merlin Emrys. But he’s turned out to be more stubborn than we could have anticipated.”

“He pushed him out the door,” Mordred butted in, then slapped his hand over his mouth in horror. Uther turned to glare at the boy.

“I will deal with you later,” he hissed, then turned back to Edwin. “Everyone knows Hunith Emrys is crazy. Only tonight she was in here going on about a monster in a castle,” Edwin sniggered.

“Hunith may be a little crazy but she is harmless,” Uther growled slightly.

“But the point is, Merlin would do anything to protect his Mother.”

“Even sleep with him.” Again Mordred slapped his hand over his mouth and backed away slightly as Uther shot him a look full of venom.

“So you want me to lock Hunith up unless Merlin…” Uther nodded. Edwin gave a smile to rival Uther’s. “That is perfectly evil. I approve.”

-x-

Hunith finished packing a bag. She stood up straight and wiped her wrist across her forehead.

“No one will help me. I will do it myself. Don’t worry my Merlin. I will find you again and free you from that… monster.” She put her hands on her hips and sighed heavily. She grabbed a cloak that lay on the bed and wrapped it around herself. She grabbed the bag and headed out of the house.

Soon after, Uther arrived with Mordred and Edwin following. Uther walked into the cottage calling out for Hunith or Merlin. Having no reply and searching the house from top to bottom Uther quickly came to the conclusion that both residents had left. His demeanour quickly sank back into irritation. He turned to Mordred.

“I have thought of a fitting punishment for you. Stay here and guard this place. Come find me when they return. They will return, they can’t stay away forever.” He gave a disgruntled look to Edwin.

“But sir, I can’t stay here. I’ll freeze.” Uther glared at the boy.

“I provide you with the clothes on your back. What else do expect me to give you?” Mordred remained silent. Uther rode off. Edwin smirked and followed.