Merlyn - Arthur x Female Merlin [1]

Chapter Seventy-Six: A Death Sentence

Rushing forward Merlyn pushed everything off of Gaius' desk allowing the knights who were carrying Arthur on a stretcher to place him on the table. Gaius was in complete shock at the look of Arthur, who was pale and unconscious.

"What's happened?" he demanded to know as the knights moved out of the way and left the chambers. Merlyn stood on the other side of the table her hand stroking Arthur's hair in worry. Gaius immediately looked at his obvious wound that Merlyn had bandaged as quickly and securely as she could at the time. It took one look for Gaius to know what had happened. "He's been bitten."

"I tried to save him" Merlyn exclaimed in distress.

"You must tell the King" Gaius said.

"The knights are telling him" Merlyn replied as her eyes stayed looked on Arthur's unconscious face. She was terrified that he would never open his eyes again, that she would never see his blue eyes again. The thought was unbearable. "There must be something you can do."

"I wish there was" Gaius replied sadly. Merlyn swore in her head before she looked towards her room. She had to.

"I'll find a cure" she announced. She was destined to protect him, she only had magic to protect him so protect she would. Quickly the girl raced to her room.

"Merlyn!" Ignoring Gaius' warning call, the girl dropped to her knees beside her bed and removed the loose floorboard and yanked her magic book out of its hiding please. Hefting it back into the main chambers she slammed the book down on a spare table, her nervous eyes landing on Arthur. This had to work.

"The King'll be here any moment!" Gaius exclaimed in worry, completely surprised by Merlyn's actions. She was playing with fire and Gaius knew it.

"He can't die. It is my destiny to protect him. We haven't done all the things we're meant to do" Merlyn retaliated, completely baffled by Gaius' obvious dislike of her actions. She had to save him.

"That is a lament of all men" Gaius replied, his mind concerned for Merlyn's life. Even if it was to save his son, Uther would see Merlyn as trying to kill his son. She would die and Arthur would die anyway making her sacrifice worthless.

"Gaius, he's my – he's – he's my everything" Merlyn said, tears in her eyes, the pain she was feeling clear to see by everyone. That look of fear and pain in her eyes was enough to tell Gaius that she wouldn't stop trying to save him.

"Then save him" Gaius said as he stepped back and kept his gaze on the chamber door waiting for the king. Looking down at her tome, Merlyn used her magic to turn the pages at an unnatural speed alongside reading them. Whenever she came across a spell that possibly could work, Merlyn stopped turning the pages and cast the spell at Arthur. However, each and every spell she tried failed. Her magic was useless against the much stronger Old Religion magic that was coursing through Arthur, killing the prince.

When nothing happened once again and Merlyn had run out of spells in her tome, in her grief Merlyn picked up the book and through it across the room with a scream.

"I'm sorry Merlyn the bite of the Questing Beast is a death sentence that no magic can overturn" Gaius said as tears ran down Merlyn's face in quick succession. The look of devastation on Merlyn's face was like a dagger to the heart for Gaius, he had never seen anything like it. It was in that moment that Gaius knew how much Arthur meant to Merlyn, how much she loved the prince.

In silence, Merlyn made her way back over to Arthur and cupped the prince's face.

"A-Arthur?" she asked timidly, "please ..."