Always Be With You - Merthur

Chapter 19

Arthur Pov.

The sun was already coming up when Arthur arrived close to Camelot. A strong feeling of dread hung in the air, making his hair stand on end. Merlin was still not responding to anything and Arthur's neck was starting to hurt from glancing at him every now and then to make sure he hadn't suddenly died.

It might be best to take a different route than the front gates. He thought, scanning the castle walls for any sign of Cenred's men. There were a few guards on top of the nearest wall that could spot him. It was a good thing for him that the upcoming sun cast large shadows everywhere, providing him with multiple hiding spots, starting with the large willow next to one of the towers.

He left both of the horses in the forest nearby where they knew their surroundings and likely wouldn't run off anywhere. From the wound on the back of Merlin's head, Arthur could tell that he wasn't unconscious from nearly being choked to death, which was in no way better, he was still not awake.

The rush of wind from behind him felt like it was trying to tell him to hurry up, so Arthur looked up to see if the patrol had gone. No, two were still there, but one seemed to be talking to the other, neither of them paying attention anymore.

Idiots.

Still, Arthur thanked whoever might be out there for that, took a deep breath, quickly sprinted across the distance from the forest to the castle and pressed himself against the wall, holding Merlin close so they wouldn't spot him too.

It was like the universe was on his side. About time. Arthur thought. He'd had enough bad luck in one day to fit into a whole year. The only good thing was that Merlin wasn't dead. Yet. He needed to get him to Gaius. Luckily, that wasn't as long a walk as Morgana's chambers, so he could be there fast.

Eventually, Arthur decided to take the tunnel he and Merlin had used a few years back to rescue that druid boy from execution. Arthur couldn't help but wonder... Would his father really have killed him without hesitation? Or would he have let him go, at least only ban him from Camelot? He was a kid after all, only 11. He certainly hadn't looked evil in his eyes. He actually seemed nice.

Exactly how much did Uther hate Magic practitioners? When He was 20, his sister had told him about that one time he had executed a kid around the age of 15, the same age as Morgana was back then. He never actually saw that happen, his father had only told him that justice had been served and nothing more.

Morgana didn't join them for dinner that evening which wasn't like her. When he found her the next day she wouldn't talk about anything that happened and locked herself in her room before he could face her.

Gwen had gone into her room with a bag - its contents unknown - nearly running into Arthur in her hurry to get there when he left because Morgana told him she didn't want him to see her. That was something he had frowned upon. Why couldn't he see her? Was there something wrong? Guinevere hadn't payed much attention to him besides murmuring a quick appology and dissapeared into the room.

With the speed with which she did that, Arthur had figured that she'd done it before, so this had happened more than that one time, but he and Gwen didn't talk yet, that only started after they met Merlin.

Everytime Morgana would skip dinner, Arthur got more curious what was going on, but Uther wouldn't say anything and Morgana seemed to find it a sore topic, so he decided to leave it alone eventually. That was years ago. Maybe he should ask her sometime, try again.

The stone walls inside the tunnle made every one of Arthur's footsteps echo further than he could see. It was extremely cold in here, he shivered automatically when a ghust of wind flew past them. Everytime there was a noise, Arthur stopped his tracks, listening for the sound of boots or anything that might indicate they weren't alone.