Betrayed and Broken

Fighting

Then his eyes went back to normal and he smiled at Arthur, lazy danger swirling in every tensed muscle, "What a fine idea, Arthur. Besides, it'll be nice beating you in a battle." Arthur started to get nervous when Merlin didn't seem at all perturbed about it. He couldn't be that good, could he? And Arthur wouldn't even be able to tell if he was using magic because his eyes were always gold. Suddenly the king regretted making this request.

The two sides (Merlin on one and Arthur on the other) bowed to each other before scrutinizing the opposing side, trying to sense who would move first. Suddenly, Merlin swung at Arthur, his sword slicing through the air where Arthur had been seconds before. The former manservant was already twisted around and taking another swing at Arthur before the older man had time to lift his sword. The former king barely blocked the second blow with Excalibur before Merlin rolled into a ball, sliding underneath Arthur and coming back up behind him, already swinging his sword.

Arthur dove to the side, rolling as he tried to avoid Merlin's quick slashes. Finally, the knight managed to catch Merlin's leg and knock the sorcerer over. He was more than displeased when Merlin simply flipped back into a standing position before Arthur was even halfway up. The king frantically blocked Merlin's vicious strokes as he tried to get off his knees and into a more easily defendable standing position.

While Arthur was focusing on standing, he didn't notice Merlin's sudden swing to the left, knocked the air out of Arthur's lungs and forcing him to lose his breath. Within an instant, Merlin had jammed the hilt of his sword into Arthur's hand, knocking Excalibur from the king's grip. Merlin held his sword to Arthur's throat and asked in a voice shaking with power, "Do you surrender?"

Arthur raised his hands and said carefully, "I surrender."

It seemed to take a moment, but Merlin pulled his sword away from Arthur's throat and went to sheath his sword. Lancelot called out quickly, "Wait! Can I see your sword?"

Merlin nodded and held it out slightly, allowing his friend to look at it, but not actually hold it. Arthur took the chance to look at it too. It was a dark gray color with silver edging and silver runes etched all along its blade. The hilt was wrapped with brown leather marred by burned in runes. When he looked closer, Arthur noticed that the part of the hilt not covered by leather seemed to be made of onyx. Percival's fingers hovered over it and he whispered, "What is it? It's beautiful."

Merlin answered, "She's called Moralltach, which is Celtic for Great Fury. The Celts named it that when I got, um, a little upset with some people. Moralltach is made out of stygian iron edged in silver on a hilt of onyx and blessed with a dragon's breath."

Gwaine whistled under his breath, "Wow."

Arthur refused to compliment the sword, choosing instead to loudly mock Merlin for calling it a girl before remembering that he was going to kill Merlin later and that bantering with him probably wasn't the best idea. The king was subdued for the rest of the afternoon thinking on that fact.

Later, as they all sat around the fire enjoying one of Merlin's new meals, Gaius said, "I think that we are all up to the strength needed to start our trek back to the castle. Morgana has no doubt done some nefarious things while we were gone and we need to stop her before she does any more. Merlin, have you thought of anything further than us all being escorted to the throne room."

Merlin, who had suddenly become cold and angry, said, "There really isn't much else to do but hold Morgana off until the others have taken out the guards. I would appreciate it if you would all leave the throne room so I don't have to worry about casualties while fighting the Witch, but I have a feeling you wouldn't do that. Other than that, I guess I'll convince her people that I shouldn't be messed with and that they should either swear fealty to Arthur or go away." He shrugged and went back to his food.

"You guess?" Arthur exclaimed, "That's all you have? You'll probably do that and you guess you might do this? What was the point of going to get you if you can't think of a plan?"

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Merlin started, his eyes going darker and his face drifting into shadows, "I just hadn't realized when I decided to help the people who betrayed me and tried to kill me that I would have to not only do all of the actual hard fighting, but also think of the plan and try to figure out a way to leave Camelot without you trying to stab me in the back after I helped you."

There was silence for a moment as everyone processed his outburst. Arthur was shocked. Somehow Merlin had known of what Arthur was planning on attempting. Then Arthur realized that he had first thought of it before Merlin had agreed to join them. The manservant was still so selfless, wanting to help people even though he knew that the person he was helping was planning on killing him the moment he turned his back. It was humbling to think about.

Gwen turned her sweet face to her husband and asked hesitantly, "Arthur? What is he talking about?"

The King of Camelot glared fiercely at the upstart, dangerous sorcerer and ground out, "Nothing. He didn't mean anything by it. Everyone get some sleep. We're leaving early in the morning." With that, he left to go set up his tent, leaving his dishes for Merlin to take care of.

MMMMMM

Morgana laughed cruelly, staring down at the people before her. They had been such fools falling into this trap. In a week, she would be queen of all of Albion and magic would truly be free, for the first time in a long time. She would make sure that everyone was accepted and she would rule with an iron fist just like her sister had taught her. Thinking of Morgause always put a damper on things, so she turned her mind to other things.

Kneeling on the floor in front of her, King Alined, King Olaf, Princess Mithian, Queen Annis, and King Lot stared up at the madwoman, terrified.