With all of Camelot passed out and vulnerable and the King nowhere to be found, I must admit that even I was beginning to feel slightly concerned for the sake of Camelot. If there were no people left, there was no Camelot. Cause Camelot is nothing without the people in it, something that I feel my father lacked the knowledge of. Mentioning my father, we still had no clue where he was. Though I had no idea why we weren't running to his quarters first, I didn't put up an argument when Arthur started to lead us towards Morgana's room. All we were probably going to find was a passed out Morgana, and possibly even Gwen.
Being careful to not make a sound, the three of us crept into Morgana's room, our eyes all immediately noticing the passed out maidservant that was laying peacefully on the floor. Her dark brown hair was spread all around her head as she lay still, her chest moving ever so slightly, indicating that Gwen was thankfully alive.
Arthur was quick to shove his sword into my hands before rushing over to Gwen's side and carefully scooping her into his arms and carrying her over to Morgana's empty bed in order to give her some comfort. Feeling a presence beside me, I glanced to my left and saw Merlin standing there, watching how Arthur was carrying Gwen. When he noticed me looking at him, he gave me a smile and wrapped his hand around my own, pulling me into his side. I couldn't help the smile that rose to my face as I saw Arthur move a strand of hair from Gwen's face, carefully adjusting it to the side.
But as Arthur straightened up, the sound of someone banging into the wall came from behind us. We all turned to look at the noise, only to see the closed curtain ruffling by the window. Someone was here. Running quietly back over to me, Arthur grabbed the sword from my hand and carefully approached the curtain. Raising his sword, Arthur pulled the curtain back, grabbing onto the person who was hiding. As soon as I heard the familiar scream of terror and saw the fear plaster on her face, I knew that there had been a misunderstanding. It was just Morgana.
"It's me. It's me, Morgana," Arthur tried to calm her, as she squirmed in his arms. "What's happened?"
"I didn't know it was you," Morgana whimpered, her entire body trembling.
"Calm down, Morgana. Just tell me what happened," Arthur requested calmly.
"People were complaining, saying that they were ill," Morgana began.
"And then what?" I asked, letting go of Merlin's hand and walking over to Morgana.
"They started falling asleep. Everyone. Everywhere I went," Morgana told me, moving over to my side, grabbing onto my hand with her own shaking ones. But then how is it Morgana wasn't affected by it? What made Morgana so different—? Magic. Morgana's magic must be blocking the sleeping curse or whatever had overtaken Camelot.
"Was someone here?" Arthur asked, but Morgana simply shook her head. "Then why were you hiding?"
"I told you. I didn't know who you were," Morgana said.
"Where's our father?" Arthur inquired.
"I don't know," Morgana whispered.
"Arthur, she's clearly distressed," Merlin stepped in, trying to stop Arthur's overwhelming amount of questions.
"She was awake then she must've seen something," Arthur countered.
"I didn't see anything," Morgana said.
"You saw people getting sick," Arthur reminded her. "What did you do?"
"What could I do?" Morgana responded in confusion.
"Morgana, I don't understand! Why is it that you're the only person awake?" Arthur asked, and as Morgana opened and closed her mouth, nothing coming out, I could see just how much she really needed Merlin and I to help her with her magic. Note to self: when this is all over teach Morgana to control her magic.
"Arthur, perhaps we should try and find father. We can continue this conversation later," I suggested.
Silently, Arthur nodded and with one last look at Gwen, he left the room, the rest of us following after him. But as we walked down the empty corridor, Morgana still clung to my arm, Merlin slowed down so he was walking beside us.
"Don't worry, we won't say anything," I whispered to Morgana.
"About what?" Morgana asked sounding genuinely confused.
"The illness," I answered.
"That's not my doing," Morgana defended.
"No, of course not, but you have magic," Merlin elaborated, making Morgana halt in her steps, bringing me to a standstill beside her.
"You haven't told anyone, have you?" Morgana asked, her eyes wide.
"No, and we won't tell Arthur. There must be something keeping you safe and we think that must be it," Merlin said, discussing my own thoughts from before.
"Right, thank you," Morgana nodded.
"I've found him!" Arthur's voice echoed down the corridor.
Replacing our quick walk with a run, the three of us rushed after Arthur's voice and towards my father's quarters. When we entered, Arthur was sitting father up who had passed out on his desk.
"Father?" Arthur questioned, trying to wake him.
"See, he's alright," Merlin said, trying to offer some light in the situation.
"He is not alright!" Arthur exclaimed seriously, but by the way he was holding father's chin, essentially squeezing his cheeks together so it looked like he was pouting, I had to bite down on my lip to stop myself from smiling.
"He's just asleep," I commented. Arthur let go of father and his head collapsed back onto the desk making us all just stare at him in silence.
"Look, all we have to do is find a cure, a way to wake them," Merlin suggested.
"Who could have done this?" Arthur pondered, leaning against the table, and staring directly in front of him. Once again, Arthur's gaze then landed back on Morgana who had been nervously watching him. "You're the only one who's not been affected, Morgana. There must be a reason."
"I don't know," Morgana admitted, looking over to Merlin and me for help.
"That's all you keep saying. You must know something," Arthur said, frustration evident in his voice.
"No. They just fell asleep. One by one," Morgana answered, panic rising in her voice.
"It's obvious. When she started feeling sick, Gaius gave her a potion. Right?" Merlin spoke up.
"When she was sick? She never said that," Arthur replied.
"She was one of the last to be affected," Merlin continued, confusing me with how he'd come up with that logic. "Somehow the potion must've helped."
"What about everyone else?" Arthur inquired.
"Gaius was probably also feeling too ill by then. He wouldn't have had the chance to treat anyone else," I answered.
"Chelsea, take Merlin to see if you can find the potion," Arthur instructed us. "I'll search the survivors in the lower town." Merlin and I began to walk towards the door. "Oh, and Chelsea!" I turned back to look at Arthur patiently. "No fooling around."
Rolling my eyes, I gave him a sarcastic smile before turning back to Merlin and walking out of the room. Now that there was no one to see us, Merlin grabbed onto my hand and pulled me after him towards Gaius's, constantly having to manoeuvre or jump over the sleeping bodies. When we got to Gaius's, Merlin wasted no time at all getting his spell book from his room.
As I looked down at Gaius, it made me think that maybe there was one benefit to this sleeping curse. Gaius was finally able to sleep without worrying about Merlin or anyone else. His mind was at rest for a little bit.
"I've got it," Merlin told me, running back into the room, a large book in his hands. After flicking through the book for a while, we finally found one that looked like it would work, hopefully. "Alright, Gaius, this is going to wake you. Mind holding this for a moment?" I took the book from Merlin but made sure that he could still see the spell he intended on casting. "Ic ácwice þé."
Gaius quickly sat up straight, a wide smile on his face, staring straight ahead of him.
"Gaius!" I exclaimed happily. We'd found the spell first time! But when Gaius didn't move nor react to us in any way, I looked at Merlin, my smile fading.
"Gaius?" Merlin said, crouching down to look at him. He waved his hand in front of Gaius's face but he still didn't react. "Alright."
Flicking through the book, I started to try and locate any spell that looked even the slightest bit helpful.
"We can try this," I muttered, showing Merlin the spell. He moved away from Gaius and stood just behind me, leaning over my shoulder to look at the spell.
"Which one?" Merlin asked.
"This one," I pointed out the spell at the bottom of the left page.
Merlin read the spell quietly under his breath, making me suppress a shiver when I felt his breath against my cheek. Giving me a little smile, Merlin walked back towards Gaius and leant on the table.
"Ic þé bebíede þæt þú ne slæpest," Merlin said but it didn't exactly have the correct affect as Gaius's chair leg snapped and he collapsed to the floor, making me jump and cover my mouth as I looked over to see Gaius, eyes still wide open, laying on his back like a swatted fly.
"Well, maybe not," Merlin muttered before walking over to the other side of Gaius and crouching down. Beginning my search again I had a different idea. What if we could wake Gaius with water. Only a little bit though, not too much. We don't wanna accidentally drown him. "Come on, Gaius, we need you to wake up. We really need your help."
"Ah. Here we go. Try this," I said, crouching down beside Merlin, the book resting on my knees. Merlin peered over at the book before nodding to himself. "Don't do too much, though."
"Of course not," Merlin replied as if it were obvious. "Brimstréam."
At least two bucketful of water fell onto Gaius's face, yet he still didn't wake up. What were we going to do? Just as I started to flick through the book one more time, the sound of urgent footsteps appeared and I had no doubt in my mind about who it was going to be. Slamming the book shut, I quickly shoved it under a chair just before Arthur came bursting through the door.
"Come quickly," Arthur requested.
Setting off straight away, the two of us left Gaius where he was and ran after Arthur. The whole way to wherever it was Arthur was taking us, I tried to find out where we were going and what was wrong but Arthur didn't answer and only kept running. Once at the top of the battlements, it was clear what the problem was and I needn't Arthur to tell me what it was.
Eight cloaked figures were riding towards Camelot as we stood there. But the thing that was curious was that it was eight Knights of Medhir rather than just seven. Apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed this.
"The legend speaks of only seven Knights of Medhir," Merlin said. "According to Chelsea, that is."
"Rude," I muttered under my breath at his doubt.
"Then who's the extra rider?" Arthur asked.
"I don't know, but Camelot is completely defenceless," I reminded him.
"We have to get back to father," Arthur said. Silently, I nodded before once again we set off for father's chambers where Morgana was hopefully safe.
With all the extra adrenaline pushing through us, it took us little more than a minute to reach father's rooms again to find Morgana sitting at the table, her hand resting on the hilt of a sword. Sighing a breath of relief, I felt at least one thing was going right. Morgana was safe and so was her secret.
"This is the first place they'll look for him. We have to move him," Arthur said.
"What's going on?" Morgana asked, rising from the table.
"We're under attack," I informed her. "No time to explain."
"Chelsea, Merlin, grab his legs, carry him," Arthur instructed.
Sharing a glance with Merlin, the two of us walked over to Arthur and each grabbed one of father's legs while Arthur held him by the shoulders. Stumbling slightly as we shifted around the chair and table, I was surprised by the sudden increase in weight from him.
"Someone's been sneaking extra puddings," I commented, attempting to shift my hands so I had a better hold.
"Chelsea now is not the time for jokes," Arthur warned me.
"Just trying to diffuse the tension cause it's reaching boiling point here," I answered.
But even with me and Merlin holding his feet up, the weight of father was a little too much as we had ended up basically dragging him along the ground.
"You're not meant to be sweeping the floor with him! Pick his feet up," Arthur ordered.
"His feet don't seem to be the problem," Merlin retorted, earning a burst of laughter from me while Arthur glared at us both.
"Morgana, lend us a hand, will you?" Arthur requested.
She placed the sword against the wall before coming over and helping lift him up but even with Morgana's help he was barely off the floor. As we moved down the corridors, father started snoring loudly and if it wasn't enough struggle trying to contain my laughter then, when we accidentally dragged his head into a bowl of apples, I couldn't help the laugh that escaped. From the corner of my eyes I could see Merlin smiling at it as well.
"It is not funny, Merlin and Chelsea would you stop encouraging him," Arthur scolded.
"Come on, Arthur. You gotta admit that this is a little bit funny," I replied.
"What part of this is funny?!" Arthur exclaimed. I was about to respond but father interrupted me with another loud snore that caused both Merlin and Morgana to smile. "Did you find the potion Morgana took?"
"Uh... no," Merlin shook his head.
"We didn't have enough time," I added.
A few minutes later and we had reached Arthur's room where hopefully we would be safe for a while. And as soon as we had entered the room, the three of us dropped father's legs and let our arms relax.
"We can't leave him here. We have to lift him onto the bed," Arthur complained.
"Why? He's asleep. He won't know," Merlin answered, making me smile as I walked over to the window.
"Merlin!" Arthur warned.
"Well, I'll get him a pillow," Merlin said.
As I was standing beside the bed, I picked up a pillow and rather than chucking it to Merlin, I threw it so that it collided with the back of Arthur's head.
"Oops," I muttered as Arthur turned to glare at me.
"He's the King!" Arthur exclaimed.
"Alright, two pillows," Merlin said, gesturing for me to throw another.
"Don't even think about it," Arthur warned as I picked up another pillow with a small smirk on my face.
"Morgana, catch," I said, throwing the pillow to Morgana. But she hadn't been expecting it so as it flew towards her, her reflexes kicked in and she whacked it with her hand only for it to hit the back of Arthur's head again. "Nice catch."
"I am surrounded by idiots," Arthur groaned to himself as Merlin moved the pillows to under our father's snoring head.
But as I watched them lower him onto the pillows, I sudden wave of heat crossed past me, making me lean up against the bedpost and place a hand to my forehead. I was surprised when I pulled away to feel sweat on my hand. Was I getting ill? No, surely not. I had magic so that would've meant I should be safe. I looked over at Merlin and Arthur to see they had also felt the sudden change.
"Are you alright?" Merlin asked, looking over at me.
"You feeling the same?" I countered.
"We're getting sick," Arthur realised and I noticed Merlin's eyes flicker over to Morgana, clearly having the same thought that I had had. "We can't let that happen. We must keep father safe and hidden."
"Why don't we disguise him?" Merlin suggested.
"That might just work," Arthur agreed.
"We could dress him as a woman," Merlin offered, making me laugh at the thought of him in a dress. I don't think he exactly had the right build for a dress. Though, if he were I reckon red would be his colour.
"That, on the other hand..."
"We could dress him as a servant," I said, walking over to the two of them.
"That's better," Arthur nodded.
"I'll get him some clothes," Merlin decided.
"I'll come with," I added, ignoring the stare from Arthur. "Yes, I know. No fooling around."
Running to the door, Merlin opened it and after taking my hand in his again, we ran to go and find some clothing for the king to wear. We had only made it a couple corridors away when we saw a single Knight of Medhir walking our direction, its cloak flapping ferociously behind him.
Adrenaline rising through my veins, I grabbed onto Merlin's hand and pulled him after me towards an empty room. Shutting the door behind us, Merlin went to open his mouth to say something but I was quicker. Placing my finger in his lips, I pressed my ear against the door and listened for movement.
As I concentrated on what was going on outside, I felt Merlin gently kiss the tip of my finger, making me silently shake my head and point my other finger at him in warning. But he just smiled. He smiled! We were trapped in a room, hiding from Morgause and her knights and he was damn smiling!
The sound of footsteps outside grabbed my attention, something that Merlin also heard. His eyes widened and his smile faded before he grabbed onto my hand this time and pulled me towards a closet in the corner of the room.
"You have got to be kidding me," I muttered.
"Not today, darling," Merlin replied, opening the door.
Sending him a glare, I climbed into the closet and moved over so Merlin could fit in. I could not believe that this was happening. Just as Merlin closed the door, the sound of the other doors opening became apparent to us. Through the small gap in the doors, I could see a figure moving around.
"What's happening out there?" Merlin whispered into my ear.
"Shh," I shushed him, not wanting the knight to hear us.
"What? I couldn't hear what you were saying," Merlin insisted, but I quietly slapped him to try and get him to stop talking. "That was rude. All I did was ask—"
Knowing I couldn't risk Merlin giving us away, I turned to Merlin and gently kissed him, stopping him from saying anymore. Obviously it worked as Merlin didn't say another word, instead putting his mouth to better use. His hand trailed up to my hair, sinking into it and pulling me closer. His mouth moved against mine at a painfully slow pace as though he knew what my plan had been and was trying to annoy me on purpose. But as I was about to pull away to try and listen for the knight, Merlin increased the pressure of his kiss, tilting his head and quite suddenly it all changed. The rawness that I felt from the kiss left us both breathless, our chests rising and falling heavily as we pulled apart. Even with where we were, Merlin had a way of making it feel like it were only us and nothing else mattered, it almost felt romantic in a way. Though there was nothing romantic about anything in this situation. We were stuck in a closet with a heavy breathing knight just outside.
As I listened to the outside world, I was relieved to hear nothing. Absolutely nothing had never sounded so welcome. The knight had gone but now... now we had another issue. Getting the king out of the castle...
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