SEL

The lad from the Camelot patrol was silent as if he had swallowed his own tongue. He probably regrets joining us, Merlin thought. Well, the cells can seem safer than where we are now. Truth be told, Merlin couldn't tell where exactly they were. Their escape from the cells ended up in a stone maze, with immense endless walls that soon turned into cave walls, shifting and changing in the dim light cast by the tip of his wand. These are not ordinary caves, Merlin felt at once. They were paved with magic.

The narrow corridor once led them to a hall where Merlin noticed faded tapestries that reflected the light of his wand with their own ill gloom. There were two doors that led out of the hall, and they had chosen the one which opened a corridor that led them down; Merlin's wand shone brighter, for there were stairs, dozens endless stairs, some circular, some turning into small narrow bridges thrown over what appeared to be endless voids. Their steps and their breaths were echoing heavily, but the lower they went, the broader their echoes grew.

"What can this be?" Merlin wondered. He had a feeling he knew what it was, the place seemed almost familiar.

"When we'd get bored..." Lancelot replied cautiously.

"Who - we?"

"Other mercenaries whom I joined in Tir-Mor," he explained. "When we'd get bored, we'd often tell each other stories, and some man spoke of the doom of Idirsholas. He said that dragonlords had dug caves beneath Idirsholas, but when Ashkanar was exiled, he cursed this castle and something else came to live in the caves, something so dangerous and cruel that it drove even the dragons out of these caves, and it's the reason why people would never try and live in Idirsholas after Ashkanar's flight."

Merlin turned around and saw the Camelot lad look as if he was considering to die from the heart attack. Merlin rolled his eyes. Does Lance really think it's wise to share such stories now? The lad's like to faint.

"Listen," Merlin asked the lad with unwashed hair falling to his shoulders. "What's your name?"

"Osric," the man said, fighting tears.

"Listen, Osric. Where you come from?"

"Woodspeak."

"Osric, I promise, there's nothing to fear. I have magic, a poweful. If there is any doom in these caves, I will defeat it, I will. This is just some secret passage to the caves from the mountain. The caves must have an exit. They were made for dragons, not for this stupid doom or something."

The lad nodded. Lancelot didn't look frightened at all. Of course. He has a sword now. Poor guard of the cells... I fear Morgause can do terrible things to him once she learns we've escaped.

Suddenly, Merlin realized the darkness around the tip of his wand was getting thicker. He tried to raise his wand a little higher and realized the light was not bright enough to reach the ceiling. There's no more ceiling.

"Where are we now?" Lancelot asked and covered his mouth with his hand - so loud was his echo.

"Some big hall," Osric suggested.

"Not a hall. It's a pit," Merlin whispered as his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he spotted the shapes in the distant part of the pit: grey heads with massive jaws. The emptiness between the bones in the place where eyes of the dragons were supposed to be was cavernous. Osric tried to edge away from the skulls.

"Don't worry. They are dead. Been dead for a long time," Merlin said. They must be. There are no more dragons except for Kilgharrah. "And look!"

A source of light appeared ahead of them, so bright it made them shield their eyes. This source kept growing as they hurried towards it: it was an arched mouth of the cave, large enough for a dragon to squeeze himself in. Merlin realized why the secret passages felt familiar. They are just like Kilgharrah's caves. The light was so welcome after the blackness of the tunnels that Osric looked like a wanderer who had traveled through a desert and was about to drink his first water in three days. We barely spent an hour here. Or so it seems.

"Lance, you will walk out of this cave once the sun begins to set," Merlin told him. "These cave exits the rock of the castle, they won't spot you from towers, the rock'd be blocking their view."

"What do you mean? Aren't you planning to walk out of this cave with us? Are you planning to live here now?"

"I..."

Morgause's grimace was on his mind. Why would a lowly servant would want to risk everything for Arthur and for Camelot? I thought there had to be some reason, something I couldn’t see, something you were not telling me. After all, why would you put your own life on the line time and again?

Because I love him. And I won't let any harm come to him. He’s my idiot king.

"I must know what Morgause is up to. I must. Lance, remem..."

"She threatened guards wouldn't find what's left of you!" Lancelot protested, trying to breathe some understanding into Merlin by grabbing him and shaking him by the shoulders. "You want to be lying next to these skulls in this damned cave?!"

"Lance," Merlin put his hand on Lancelot's arm and gave him the most reassuring look. "I am stronger than you give me credit for. It's not only about the dragon. I have magic. And with this wand, I feel I can break skies and make them afire with thunder, and make the lightnings rain on Morgause. I fear her no more."

Or almost no more.

"I will send you two horses by sunset. Just stay in the forest."

"Send us two horses? Bloody how?"

"When Morgause wanted Arthur to find her, she somehow enchanted his horse, so that she knew the way. I will do the same. Just... give me your hair. Both of you."

"You'll work no ill on us? With this hair?" Osric asked with a trembling voice.

"No. I will help you go to Woodspeak. Lance, please, see that he comes home. And remember, if you hear news of Arthur's rebellion when you come to Camelot, make sure Gwen and Gwaine go south with you."

Lancelot shook his head.

"Merlin, you know what?"

"What?"

"You're completely insane. Stay safe, old friend, I beg you."

Merlin hugged Lancelot and rushed back into the darkness, his heels scraping against the rough stone as he tried not to stumble upon dragon teeth.

"Who is this Arthur the warlock spoke of? What rebellion did he mean?" Merlin heard Osric's voice behind his back.

"I don't know," Merlin heard Lancelot lie.

***

Merlin's acend of the stairs was quicker, so quick in fact that his footsteps produced no echo, only soft scrape against the stone. The tunnels, bridges and passages were a lot easier to understand. This is simply a path to the dragon pit from the main keep. It's no labyrnith at all. When he finally revisited the hall with faded trapestries where they had chose the right door, Merlin pushed the left one open. It had a corridor, too, but ended soon with an iron gate. Merlin directed his wand at the gate and let a gust of terrible force tear the iron doors apart with a clangor that resembled a wildereon shriek in the tunnels of Andor.

Behind the iron gates was a square chamber with four doors, eached barred with iron as well. Merlin chose the leftmost door and started waddlng along in his wand light's way. The tunnel was of bone-chilling coldness despite the end of July. After some time, though, he stared feeling a different, warm air flowing in the dark. Merlin started walking slowly, for the height of the ceiling was decreasing, and walking upright was a bigger problem than he could imagine. Soon he began counting steps in his head in case he'd have problems finding his way back. And then - voices.

Their were rising from beneath his feet, and Merlin had to lie and press his left ear to the cold stone. They were muffled and too hard to distinguish at first. Merlin crawled a little further, to a place where the stone seemed the thinnest and the words became clear.

"...has amassed great army, they say. Two thousand swords at least," it was the same voice he had once heard in the crypts in the castle of Camelot: sweet like honey mixed with mint, but firm in its core. That old woman. "My useless cousin was meant to put them at the king’s command but he never returned from behind the White Mountains. Vyda will never stomach the lift of magic ban."

The lift of magic ban? Who will lift a magic ban? Only a king can do such thing. Merlin could hear his own breath.

"She will not live long enough to witness it," Morgause voice was as certain as though all the future was known to priestess. "I mean to remove her and her army from the face of the earth."

"Oh, how awkwardly do your views complement each other in this matter," old woman laughed. "I think she would want to do the same with the druids. You know, when Uther's first raids failed because the druids went into hiding, so deep into the woods that even Uther's brave knights would suffer pools of piss in their breeches when they'd try and find camps, Vyda arrived at the castle and demanded burning all the forests and the druids with them. She would tell Uther that he needed to trap them and kill them while he could. Otherwise druids woukd spread through this land like a disease, she insisted. She is mad. Was many years ago, and is as mad as a hunting hound now. What fears me is that if Vyda and Ryence join forces..."

"They will not. I will see to it," Morgause said.

"My lady!" this voice belonged with a man.

"Speak," Morgause replied lazily.

The man's voice betrayed the shock of the man.

"There is a rider. Of House Dindrane, from the castle of Camelot. He carries peace banner. He needs to see Anna Dindrane, he says. Claims the king is dead."

Ryence?! Dead?! What is happening? Is Arthur storming the castle? If so... Merlin felt he couldn't waste a moment. I need to be with him. I...

"Morgause?" the old voice betrayed nervousness. "Is this your doing?"

"I have nothing to do with it. Nothing. I swear. I swear on the tombstones of the Isle of the Blessed. Bring him in!"

"If this is Vyda’s work..." the old voice complained. "But this can’t be! The castle is infested with Gingawaine’s bannermen and guards. Removing the king would change nothing!.. It would only make matters worse, for his sister will assume regency..."

Merlin heard enough. Ryence is dead, or so this rider from the castle of Camelot wants them to believe.... But if he is dead, of he somehow died, then it's the best chance, the best time, Arthur has to reveal himself and the lords will all recognize him...

Could it be that Arthur had killed Ryence? No. We agreed on it. I swore an oath. He made me swear an oath, he asked me to come to Gedref. I must go to Gedref at once!

Arthur, Arthur, I'm coming, don't do anything stupid, please!