Merlin
Chapter 5: Merlin
It had probably been a bad idea, Merlin thought in retrospect, to allow the children to pursue the magical arts without guidelines of some sort. He had dealt with its consequences the hard way when he'd returned from a short trip out to a nearby Glen only to find that somehow Salazar had sprouted pig's ears as a "favor" from Helga for the stunt he'd pulled earlier when her dress had gone from bright blue to a horrendous multicolored monstrosity.
After that it had been difficult to sit them down and explain the dangers of experimenting with each for their spells. He tried to illustrate with a story of his own failures (of those there were plenty). He recounted, names omitted of course, the instance of Arthur's enchantment at the hands of rather malevolent goblin. It hadn't exactly been his fault, but it was close enough. Another thing Merlin had begun to notice was that their magic cast too wide a net.
As children, it made sense that they had no filter for their magic, which was often most influenced by their own emotions. My word did they have the most volatile emotions. Rowena would get upset if she found she could not understand something despite her hardest attempts, when this would happen it resulted in many a broken pot and the odd shattered glass. Salazar's emotions would get most riled if he felt that his pride had been wounded, for a 5 year old (– or 6 year old, Merlin wasn't quite sure of the age here, neither were the children), he seemed to have quite a lot of it. Godric and Helga, Merlin soon found out, were the more gentle of the foursome. Godric prized strength above all, while Helga seemed to favor fairness. When Godric grew agitated it seemed to Merlin that the very forest would respond in kind, unless Merlin intervened, contrarily when Helga was distressed, her surroundings would engage un something Merlin was rather inclined to call the "Waltz of panic". It was reminiscent of a tornado, only nowhere near as deadly, seeing as Helga never actually intended to harm anyone or anything.
It should have been no surprise then, that Merlin and the others could sense Helga's approach before seeing her. The forest suddenly came alive, birds bursting out of trees and woodland animals running for higher ground as if a tidal wave were coming. When Helga came crashing out of the brush, Merlin looked up, caught by surprise at the disheveled look of the child. There were twigs and leaves in her hair and a smear of something red on her ankle just peeking out from under skirt.
"Mistress -" The redhead doubled over, hands on her knees, the basket of herbs forgotten at her feet, coughing. Merlin knelt in front of her, brushing the debris from her hair, one hand on her shoulder, steadying her.
"You're sweating, Helga. What happened? Why are you in such a hurry?"
"You have to hurry Mistress! They're going to die if you don't?" Merlin stiffened a little at her words. What had the child seen? He thought it best to get all the information before running blindly into the wind.
"Who's going to die, Helga? You have to clear if you want me to understand. What did you see?" Helga straightened and tried to calm herself. The leaves and twigs of the forest stopped swirling around them, dropping softly to ground, while Rowena, Godric and Salazar ran out trying to gather the materials they'd been working with when Helga had run in causing them to fly right out of their hands.
"All of them! They look like knights, lots of silver amour and big red cloaks, like yours! With a big gold cat on their shoulders. Oh there's blood everywhere. You have to hurry!" Merlin's blood ran cold under the images that ran unchecked through his mind's eye. It couldn't be! The last time -
Merlin didn't give his treacherous thoughts another look and flew back into the house, coming out in an instant with 6 of the homemade stretchers that he and Godric had spent the better part of a day making.
"Godric! Salazar!" Merlin barked out orders as he gathered his wits. The children, small as they were, quickly snapped to attention.
"I'm taking Helga and Rowena to see what this is about. In case we have patients, I want you to boil water – yes, in the big cauldron – and quickly shred the white cotton that the village Elder gave us yesterday. We need enough for bandages and sweating cloth. Prepare the patient rooms. I know we only have four beds, but think of something, shift my bed in the room, it's wide enough for two. Be quick about it, and don't use magic whilst I'm gone, is that understood?" He pinned them with a steely look, at which Godric and Salazar nodded furiously.
"Yes Mistress." Merlin looked for Rowena and Helga and found them at the ready. He curtly motioned for them to follow him and then took off running into the forest, following Helga's instructions on where to find them.
And find them he did. It was less than a 5 minute run, when Merlin ran into the carnage that Helga had described. Merlin froze. It was as Merlin had feared. It was Arthur's patrol. They had reached something like a small cliff in the forest that overlooked a clearing where clearly some kind of battle had occurred. It was mind numbing that Merlin hadn't heard or sensed the blood shed that had happened, but he ignored that thought for now. Second guessing himself would never help him now. He skidded down the slope, while calling for Helga and Rowena to find a safer way to descent.
Bodies lay everywhere, if he had to guess, aside from Arthur's own force of five knights, he had been taken by surprise by a company of 15. Merlin could see Arthur from where he stood, collapsed next to Percival, hand on his chest. Merlin assumed he had been in the process of checking whether the large man was indeed alive, when unconsciousness arrived to claim him. He summoned the stretchers that he had levitated to follow them.
"Helga, Rowena. As carefully as you can, do not touch their wounds, straighten their bodies, so the stretchers can comfortably lift them. Check for breathing amongst the others." It was a terse few moments before both of the girls called back that each of the knights were breathing before could sigh in relief. Of course, they were Camelot knights, they could hardly let themselves be bested by what seemed like roadside bandits at most.
Merlin frowned at that, toeing the dead bandit in front of him. He was greasy and bloody, and most definitely dead as were the other bandits. Well, at least Arthur's thorough, he thought ruefully. He turned to find all of Camelot's Knights loaded on to stretchers, he glanced around the Glen, knowing he couldn't very well leave this to be found by anyone from Carhaix. The raven haired witch knelt to the ground, placed her palm flat on it and closed her eyes, willing the earth to speak to her. When she opened her eyes moments later, she knew of a cave only a minutes walk from where she stood.
"Wait here girls. I will only be a moment." Merlin raised his arms, lifting the limp corpses of the bandits and their weapons in the air. She strode purposefully through the foliage until she came upon the cave she knew would be there. It was not exceptionally deep, but it would serve the purpose that Merlin needed adequately. He stepped inside, dropping the camouflage glamour he had cast around him, (the last thing he needed was the villager's seeing him carry a small brigade of dead people through the forest). He grabbed a stone from the cave floor and stood at the mouth of the cave, carving protection seals into it, dropping it when he was done. As a last second thought, he went back to the bodies and lifted a lance from the collection.
The earth had felt almost sick, when Merlin had tried to read it and he was willing to bet that whatever was wrong was connected to the bandits.
When he returned to the glen, Helga and Rowena were waiting, fidgeting nervously until he came back through, their countenances visibly relaxing in relief. Merlin said nothing and instead, mouth set in a grim line, rushed back to the house.
When they approached Grindle's hut, Merlin saw to his satisfaction that his instruction's had been carried out and the resourceful boys were already in the process of making poultices, foreseeing the need in the presence of wounded Knights.
Their eyes widened when they saw stretchers carrying the injured Knights, but they wisely held their tongues and instead ran ahead to open the doors and assist Merlin in easing each knight in to a bed. Merlin shrugged off his cloak and donned the smock he usually wore over his dressed when attending sick people. He tied his hair up in a ribbon to keep it out of the way.
Arthur was of course the first to receive medical attention. Merlin instructed the others to attend to the rest, cutting off their shirts and assessing the extent of the damage.
He lifted Arthur's shirt, grimacing in sympathy at the short but deep enough cut to his abdomen, that seemed to be the worst of his injuries. Merlin stopped in thought, considering a possibility, he hadn't given much credence to.
"The rest of you. Do you any very large wounds? Something that should fell a man in one blow?"
There was a pause, and then quick shuffling as they checked each patient again. Then:
"No, Mistress. Nothing more than a few deep cuts."
Merlin's mind raced. Stupid! Why didn't I think of this before?! Merlin got up and picked up the lance he had taken from the knights' attackers. The tip was covered in rusted blood. He tentatively licked an uncovered portion of the lance tip after sniffing it. He immediately pulled back and spit it out in a nearby chamber pot, grabbing a cup of water to rinse his mouth, wiping the drippings off with his sleeve. He dropped the weapon on the floor and kicked it to the side in disgust.
"Nightshade." Merlin went back to Arthur, leaning down to check for a heartbeat which thankfully was still going stubbornly. Merlin went to the shelf that contained his collection of herbs and picked out mulberry leaves, a hearty handful and pulled out a small cauldron from the shelf next to the fireplace in the room.
"Keep using cloths to keep the fevers from overpowering them. I'm going to make an antidote for the poison."
Helga paused in wiping Elyan's forehead, to see Merlin filling the pot with vinegar and mulberry leaves, placing it over the hearth to boil. He turned back to the men lying in their cots, Arthur, Percival, Elyan and Leon in their cots, with Gwaine and Lancelot lying in Merlin's bed which Godric and Salazar had dragged in, closest to the door of the room.
He stood in the center of the room and breathed out slowly. He needed to find a way to slow down the poisons progression until his antidote was ready. He raised his hands, opened his eyes, letting them flash golden and hoping to whatever lord was listening to help him save his friends. He dropped his hands and went back to his antidote, stirring, waiting for it to boil.
20 minutes later, the antidote was ready, the water having turned a murky brown color and the sourness of the vinegar changing to a teeth chattering bitterness instead. Merlin had watched over his friends worriedly, asking Helga and the others to keep their foreheads damp and try to bandage some of the wounds. He spooned the antidotes in 6 different bowls, and went around, feeding each man until the bowls were empty.
To Merlin's relief, within 5 minutes of ingestion, the antidote seemed to have a noticeable effect. The fever dropped and each man appeared to be breathing easily. Merlin hazarded a glance out the window in the hallway and saw to no surprise of his that the sky had turned dark in the interim of boiling medicines and bringing down fevers. The kids had lit candles in every corner of the room, on the wall mounted fixtures, casting a warm glow in the room.
Sensing that they were no longer in danger's way, Merlin sent each child to bed with an affectionate one armed hug. He was sorely glad for their help and guiding them helped focus his mind. They closed the door softly behind them and Merlin settled in for what would surely be a long night. None of them had regained consciousness yet, but he had no doubt that they would eventually.
He went to each man and applied the aloe vera salve he kept bottled, to each cut and abrasion on their bodies. Arthur had gained most of his on his arms, likely from his attempts to parry attacks.Percival, Elyan and Leon had sustained wounds on their legs as far as he could tell, from wrapping them. Lancelot appeared to suffer from only one, a deep injury, probably from a slicing motion of a sword on his thigh needed stitching.
Then came Gwaine. Merlin hissed in sympathy as he peeled back the young knight's shirt. He had four cut marks across his abdomen that had stopped bleeding but still looked raw and angry. Merlin reached into the basket of fabric at his feet and dipped it into the clean basin of water on the table next to the bed. He wiped at the cuts, again and again until his stomach was clean, the wounds appearing as dark red lines. Merlin picked up the jar of aloe vera jelly and set about covering each cut generously in the gel. The cool temperature on his skin made Gwaine squirm in his sleep, despite the thin sheen of sweat still covering his body and face, just like the rest of them. The poison was making sure to cause as much pain as it could on the way out.
"Honestly. I've only been gone a week." Merlin muttered churlishly, placing a strip of cloth over the first wound. "How could you lot go and nearly get yourselves killed in the span of a week? 'Knights' you call yourselves." Merlin shook his head. How was he supposed to live his life in peace when the men that called themselves the protectors of Camelot could barely function a week without him.
Merlin finished another line of bandaging and got up to fetch a new roll when a large, masculine hand grabbed his wrist. With a small yell, Merlin was yanked back down over Gwaine, his hand bracing him up, black hair spilling over his shoulders.
Gwaine's eyes were half open, then brown eyes hazy as he stared up at the witch above him.
"Merlin?"