To You I Pledge (BBC Merlin)

Chapter 8 - A Visitor

The shards of glass hung in the air, twisting like tiny knives and glinting in the light and they moved closer and closer to Arthur. Merlin tried to stop them; he threw all his strength at them, but they just kept moving, agonisingly slowly, but moving nonetheless. Arthur seemed to be oblivious to the danger, just standing there smiling benevolently and ignoring all Merlin's shouts about the danger. He had to save Arthur, it was what he was born to do, but he couldn't. It was as if there was something missing, something he didn't have and he wasn't strong enough.

The shards of glass touched Arthur's skin, slowly digging in. Deep red blood began to run down Arthur's perfect skin and it was too much for Merlin.

"Arthur!" he yelled and woke up with a jolt, the name still on his lips.

His shoulder had been giving him some severe pain after a particularly stupid move on his part and Gaius had given him something to make him sleep. It had clearly been a bad idea, because unlike the pain medication that had just made him sleepy, this had put him right out and given him nightmares. He really didn't want to see Arthur being torn apart when he closed his eyes.

What shocked him more, however, as he began to recover was the fact that the person sitting in the chair was not who he thought it should have been. He had to have been well and truly out of it not to notice the door opening and he remembered Gaius being there and now a woman was sitting there just watching him; a woman he had never seen before. She was dressed like a lady and had long golden hair and blue eyes that he was sure he should have recognised.

"Bad dream?" she asked in a quiet, gentle tone.

"Yes, My Lady," he said, knowing that there was something that he should be realising, but unable to track it down in his still sleepy mind. "My apologies, but who are you?"

He could not understand why anyone else would have been allowed into the room, not unless Uther had decided something that he didn't have a hope of understanding. The woman smiled at his question, but it had an air of sadness.

"I am a friend," she said and there was something about her that made Merlin believe that she really was.

She just looked at him for a few moments, her open gaze taking him all in and he did not have the heart to interrupt her.

"You love him a great deal, do you not?" she finally said and for a moment Merlin did not completely understand her.

Then he remembered whose name had been on his lips when he woke.

"If you are speaking of Arthur, My Lady," Merlin replied, feeling awkward, but somehow needing to speak, "then yes, I love him. He is a great man."

When she smiled this time, his visitor's face held no sadness, only amusement.

"You need not try to hide the truth from me, Merlin," she said, eyes glittering with humour in a very familiar way that Merlin still couldn't figure out, "we are not speaking of the love of a man for his prince."

If he'd been a little more awake he might have panicked, as it was he was only rather shocked.

"You are good for him," the woman told him in a very motherly tone; "I approve. I was beginning to despair he would never see what was in front of him; he is very much like his father in that way. It took Uther over a year to propose, a year! Can you imagine?"

Merlin shook his head, trying desperately to figure out who this mysterious woman was. He had never seen her before and yet she spoke as if she knew him and Arthur as well as Uther. She appeared too young to be an Aunt or that generation of Arthur's family and Arthur had never spoken about cousins. It was very confusing.