The Kingdoms (Prince Merlin Fanfic)

Chapter 15: The Roots of Henbane

As we began searching in the very few books I'd brought. We checked on our sleeping companions only to notice that their breathing and heartbeats were slowing down. If we didn't find a cure to wake them up fast, they would surely die. Ethan had fallen asleep in front of the fire, where he'd swapped places with Gwaine, which meant he'd fallen asleep on his watch without waking anyone for the next shift. If he had tried to wake someone to swap with him, he would've noticed that they weren't waking up, but he hadn't. It seemed that he had tried to take watch for the whole night. Elyan, Jon and I were flipping through the pages looking for an antidote for the enchanted quicksand. "I've found something!" Elyan jumped up.

"What is it?"

"'Those who have been forced asleep by the henbane flower will experience a coma-like sleep and laboured breathing. Their heartbeat will slow, and will eventually die. To make an antidote, you must simply take the roots of the flowers and crush them to make a tincture,'" he read.

"Where in the world are we meant to find that?" I asked.

'Is there a picture?" Jon responded.

"Here," Elyan passed him the book.

He examined the drawing for a moment, then exclaimed, "I saw these! On the way here, just by the big trees."

"Now we're getting somewhere," I announced, "Jonathan and I will go find the flowers and bring them back."

"Quickly," called Elyan as we hurried away.

"Shall we race?" Suggested Jon.

"I'm going to win," I smirked. We ran through the trees, the leaves rustling under our feet as we proceeded. I was winning by a fair amount. "Told you," I laughed when we reached the trees Jon had previously tried to jump off.

"You've had practice from running around for Arthur," he scoffed.

"No, I was always the fastest." Both of us were panting, still breathless from the exercise. "Alright, where did you see them last?"

"Right there," he pointed to a bush of yellow-patterned flowers. I bent down and pulled the whole bush up.

"You've never been good at healing," Jon commented.

"Being a physician's ward has its benefits."

"I can't wait until we get to Naeder and rebuild the citadel. Then you will be presented, and they'll say your name, 'Emrys Merlini- whatever your full name is. The looks on everyone's faces will be hilarious."

"And I'll have to deal with Arthur," I sighed.

"His reaction will be worth it, though," added Jon. I rolled my eyes. We stomped through the grass and reached our camp where Elyan was crouched in front of Gwen.

"Did you get it?" He asked without turning around.

"Yeah, I just need to prepare it now," I replied, beginning to make the tincture, as well as including a few extra healing spells to make sure it works.

"They're burning up. They have a fever," Elyan said. He was trying hard not to look at me, which made me feel suspicious of him.

"Elyan?"

He turned around and fixed me with a cold glare, "You keep hiding things, Merlin." I frowned at him, about to ask what he was talking about. "Don't act oblivious. I know you're Prince Emrys."

"Oh." Well, alright.

"I don't understand why you keep hiding things from us. Firstly, your magic. I understand you were scared to be executed because Arthur has been hunted by magic and lost his parents to it, but now that he knows, why bother hiding this? What's the worst that could happen? It makes me feel that you're untrustworthy or that we aren't being good enough friends to you, so you keep things from us. We've only just begun learning about magic, Merlin, and we're eager to see that it can be used for good, not just the evil it has been labelled as. Maybe you could be luring us into a trap. I don't know. But I am loyal to Gwen and Arthur, so if they trust you: I trust you. Now Arthur doesn't know of your true title, so how am I to know you are trustworthy?" I gazed at Elyan in surprise. It was unexpected to hear someone be wary of me. Me trying to lure them into a trap because I have magic.