More Than A Servant

Chapter 16

"Ugh!" Morgana yells slamming another book shut.

Merlin flinches awake, as he was almost asleep a second ago.

"Could you possibly be frustrated more quietly?" He asks groggily.

"How could there possibly be nothing useful written about these handcuffs?" She ignores his question. "They're just supposed to block magic."

"So?"

"So?! Merlin, you growing weaker by the second. You can barely stay conscious for more than an hour."

"And you're so concerned because?"

"Because..."
Wait- why is she so concerned again?
"Because... umm... you never told me who Emrys is."

"Right..."

That is definitely not the whole truth, but Merlin does not have the energy to fight her on it right now. Plus, she's right. He can tell he's getting weaker. Staying awake is becoming harder and harder.

"You know..." Morgana starts, opening another book. "You could join me."

"What?" He asks, shocked.

"You could join me. You could leave Camelot and not have to live in secret anymore. It's doubtful that you will ever be free to use magic under Arthur's rule."

He just looks at her, confused. This doesn't sound like the Morgana he now knows. There is no threat in her voice. If anything she sounds soft and unsure. Almost like she's afraid of how he'll react.

"I can't. I can't just leave Camelot and Arthur. It's my responsibility."

She doesn't look up. She knew he would say something like that.

"It won't be like this forever," he starts, "There will be a time when we do not have to hide for who we are."

"How could you possibly believe that Merlin? He's Uther's son!"

"He's not Uther. He's a good king."
Morgana doesn't respond. She just continues to look through her book.

About an hour passes and eventually Merlin falls asleep. Morgana finally finds a page on these magic blocking handcuffs. From the looks of it, the cuffs don't drain magic unless one attempts to use magic with the cuffs on. It simply traps the magic inside. That shouldn't have a huge effect should it? She reads on. They seem to have a greater effect on those with more powerful magic. In fact, if they were put in a creature of magic the creature would lose consciousness and probably die. Well, at least that's not Merlin. However, if the cuffs are affecting him this much, he must be pretty powerful. Plus, they are continuing to drain him. There's got to be another way of going about this...

She freezes as the wheels start turning inside her brain. What if there was a way that he wouldn't have to wear the cuffs, but he couldn't necessarily escape? Somewhere that he could use his magic, but not actually do any damage. Morgana smiles to herself. She has a lot of work to do.

***

The next day, Arthur and his group of knights have been searching the forest all day, and still have found nothing! He was starting to lose hope of finding anything, when he hears twigs breaking. He signals to his knights and they form a battle formation facing the sound. He starts to move into the forest to see what it is, when Gwen comes bursting through the trees running straight into him and almost knocking him over.

"Arthur!" She gasps.

"Gwen?" He releases her. "What are you doing here?"

"How did you find us?" Elyan asks, concerned. He goes up to her and gives her a hug.

"It's kind of hard to explain... but I found Merlin!"

"What?! How?"

"Well..." she starts. She knows that she can't risk blaming Agravane at this point, so she comes up with another story.
"I was helping Gaius by collecting herbs when a saw a person with a hood sneaking through the forest. They looked suspicious so I followed them. They arrived at this small hovel in the woods and Morgana came out to meet them."
Arthur's eyes widen at this, but Gwen continues.
"They talked for a few minutes, then the person left and Morgana went back into her hovel. I sneaked over to look in the window and I saw Merlin tied up in a chair. She has him."

Arthur can't tell if he's more relieved or worried.

"Gwen... that was dangerous. You could've been caught or killed! I can't lose you too." He adds quietly.

"You won't. The important thing is we found Merlin. I can lead you to him."

"Okay men!" He yells roll the knights. "We now know where Morgana is. She has Merlin. We are going to rescue Merlin and end Morgana's reign. Get ready to move out."

The men start gathering their supplies and getting ready to leave. As they're doing this, Arthur pulls Gwen aside.

"When you saw Merlin, how was he? Did he seem hurt?"
Even though Arthur was scared to know the answer, he had to ask.

"Actually, he seemed okay. I mean he was tied to a chair with manacles, but overall he seemed unharmed."

Arthur breathes a sigh of relief.

"Good. Thank you Gwen, that was very brave. But please, never do something like that again without me there."

"I won't. You don't have to worry about me." She smiles at him. "Now let's go save Merlin."