Lost in Phantasm (Merlin Fanfiction)

Part 13: "Straight From The Unicorn's Mouth"

Arthur, in escaping the room with the smithing tools, found himself running right into the castle stables. What luck! He could get a horse now, and ride off to the safety of--

Arthur stopped in his tracks and grimaced. "Merlin!" he groaned; how would he know whether to look for Merlin, or even if his servant, in escaping from the merfolk, had managed to leave the castle as well? 

A soft whinny erupted from one of the stalls. Arthur saw the tip of a horn protruding from the door; it was blood-red. The unicorn! Arthur realized his good luck: if the unicorn typically protected the Phantasmagyth, it could probably sense where each part was-for example, the Chain ostensibly still in Merlin's possession. If he could get the unicorn to look for the Chain, he would find Merlin, too!

Arthur ducked into the stable. He could faintly hear the grunts and growls of the Underworlders searching for him. He snuck down the row till he reached the unicorn's stall. The great white creature blinked at him, obviously remembering him from their shared imprisonment in the hands of the trolls. Arthur glanced down and saw that the wound on its leg had been covered over with a brace made of meirshell.

"Don't worry," Arthur assured it, "I'm here to get us out!"

The unicorn seemed to understand, for instead of bolting immediately when Arthur opened the door, it stood and waited for the young king to climb on.

"All right," Arthur said, "Now, let's find Merlin!"

The unicorn did not move. Its ears and nose twitched as if it sensed something. Arthur almost did not want to kick at its flanks like a common horse. "Come on," he urged, as the noise of the Underworlders drew closer to the stables, "you want to get the Phantasmagyth back, don't you?"

The unicorn picked up its head. Arthur smiled; he must have found the right word. "Phantasmagyth; you know that word? Go on! Find the Phantasmagyth."

Arthur half expected the unicorn to exit the stable and comb the fields outside; surely Merlin would have made it that far by now. Instead, the unicorn headed straight for the door that Arthur had just used-the one that led straight back into the castle where Pierson was waiting!

"No!" he tried to pull on the unicorn's mane, to turn it around, something! "Not that way!"

Rearing up, the unicorn put both silvery hooves against the door, and it collapsed under its weight. With Arthur clinging close to it, the unicorn charged through the excited groups of Underworlders littering the halls, evidently headed to whichever piece of the Phantasmagyth was more important. Arthur wondered if it would be the gyth and Pierson, or Merlin and the Chain. 

Arthur and the unicorn entered a room and found a gang of ogres trying to squeeze themselves into an opening just barely narrow enough for a person. The unicorn neighed loudly in challenge. Arthur flourished his sword, and as the ogres turned to attack, he lunged and swiped and slew them all. A smaller figure dropped out of the opening.

"Merlin!" Arthur cried in surprise and relief.

Merlin fought to get his breath back as he looked up and smiled.

"Thank you, Bandiras," he murmured, "Good work."

"Bandiras?" Arthur watched his friend, worried that his brain must still be waterlogged. "Merlin, it's me, Arthur."

Merlin had completely missed his friend, his attention focused on the rumblings and whinnying of the unicorn. "I know," he answered no one that Arthur could see. "I'm glad you came, all the same. That's right, who knows what might have happened if he hadn't imprisoned the Merfolk?"

"Um," Arthur held out a hand for his friend, "I'm up here, Merlin. Now come on, the Underworlders are close behind us!"

Merlin finally looked up and blinked, "Arthur?" he noticed his master for the first time. "What-how did you escape? I thought for sure that Pierson-"

Arthur hauled Merlin up behind him, "He is, and there's no time; I'll explain on the way! All right, unicorn, let's go!"

The unicorn turned its head and whinnied.

"What do you mean?" Merlin asked.

The unicorn stamped and neighed again.

Arthur frowned at the way Merlin glanced at him and said, "No, I don't think so. I haven't found any around here. There's really no reason he could have gotten it."

The king of Camelot (if they could ever make it back in one piece) rolled his eyes. "Is there something I'm missing, Merlin? Because for all I can tell, it looks like you're actually conversing with the unicorn."

Merlin looked at Arthur, and realization dawned in his face. "As a matter of fact, according to Bandiras, here, you are missing something: fairy dust."

"What the blazes does fairy dust have to do with anything?" Arthur stormed, but Bandiras suddenly neighed and wheeled, charging out of the room.

"Fairy dust in your mouth and ears helps you speak and understand every creature, for there are some: the merfolk, the fairies themselves, and the unicorns, for example, who do not speak the human tongue."

"You got to meet the fairies, then? Was this before or after the gryphon carried you off and left me to be captured by trolls?"

Merlin shook his head as Bandiras whinnied to him. "We can tell each others' stories once we get to safety. Do you have the gyth?"

"No, Pierson took it from me."

"Who is Pierson?" Merlin asked as they trotted down another corridor. The atrium was just on the other end of the hall.

"The wizard," Arthur answered, "Turns out he is not a wizard after all, just some crazy human who thinks the jewel will give him ultimate power."

This brought the dark-haired young man up straight. "You let him take it?" Merlin cried.

"It's not like I had a choice, Merlin. He put it on that chain of his and had me chased out of the room!"

Bandiras charged out the door.

"Wait!" Merlin cried. "Bandiras, is it possible the wizard discovered another Chain to make a new Phantasmagyth?"

Bandiras slowed in the courtyard. They could not hear anyone following them at present.

"Well that's a relief," Merlin remarked.

"What is?" Arthur panted. These hairsbreadth escapes were really wearing on him.

Merlin turned to respond to Arthur. "Bandiras says that the gyth will attach to any chain made of Phantasmian metal, but it would not be as powerful as the true Phantasmagyth."

Just as he finished saying this, all three heard a high-pitched squeal. A vampire bat the size of a full-grown man emerged from the top of the castle. Perched on its back was Pierson himself, with the alternate Phantasmagyth hanging around his neck. Underworlders began pouring out of doors and crawling out of holes in the ground.

Arthur urged Bandiras out of the melée.

"I really don't see how this is any less powerful!" he hollered at his servant.

Merlin had no chance to reply. In the space of a single breath, the black shadow of the bat swooped over them, and once again, Arthur had the misfortune of seeing his servant and friend carried away in the claws of a malevolent creature to an unknown fate.