Defeating the Darkness (A Merlin Fanfiction)

Chapter 17

Merlin called for the dragon again, standing in the clearing as a chilly breeze silently twirled around him. Kilgharrah had to come to him. He was a dragon lord; and as much as the great creature wanted to, Kilgharrah wouldn't be able to resist Merlin's call. 

So why wasn't he here?

Once it was clear the dragon wasn't coming, Merlin slowly started to walk back towards the citadel. Kilgharrah had always been the source of hope in the back of his mind; when nobody else could help him, he could always depend on the dragon for guidance. And when he didn't come, Merlin felt alone and vulnerable. 

Merlin slipped into the obscure entrance within the citadel that he frequently used for late-night escapades and headed towards his and Gaius' chambers, trying to minimize the echoes of his boots on the stone floor. He tried not to think about Kilgharrah. Surely he was not dead; wouldn't Merlin have felt it? He was the dragonlord, and had a strong connection with the last living dragon.

Slipping into his chambers, Merlin saw a beam of moonlight illuminate Arthur's chest calmly rising and falling, and was pleased to see that some color had returned to his face. Gaius had given up his bed for Arthur and was soundly sleeping on a cot near him.

Merlin stumbled through the darkness into his bedroom and toppled onto his bed. After a few minutes, he gave up worrying about Kilgharrah, Morgana, and Arthur, and fell asleep, getting more rest than he had in the past few days put together.

In the morning, and extremely messy-haired Merlin stumbled out of his room to see Gaius dropping the same purple liquid into the mouth of a slightly-squirming Arthur. 

"He's moving!" Merlin hurried over to the bed.

"Yes," Gaius said. "But don't get too excited; he's still unconscious and won't regain his full strength for some time, much less accompany you and the knights to fight Morgana."

Merlin sighed. "I know. Just glad I didn't kill him back there."

Merlin wolfed down his breakfast while receiving disgusted looks from Gaius and hurried to his room to pack after Gwaine came into their chambers and teased Merlin that Morgana would destroy the other half of Camelot by the time he got his act together.

Just before leaving, Merlin crammed a few bottles of herbs and potions into his pack that could come in handy if someone got hurt on the journey and said goodbye to Gaius. Then he took one glance at the still-unconscious Arthur and slipped out the door to meet the knights outside. 

"You ready, Merlin?" Elyan called, tucking his sword into his belt.

Merlin nodded and grinned, swinging up onto his horse. When all the knights were ready, they rode in a line outside the castle gates; Leon, then Merlin, Gwaine, Elyan, and Percival. The usual gang, but without their king.

When they were at the border to the darkling woods, Leon turned around.

"Wait. How are we going to get to Morgana? We don't even know where she is. Did we even think about this at all?"

The other knights looked around, feeling stupid. 

"Oh yeah. I guess in order to destroy Morgana and her army, we need to know where they are located," Gwaine groaned.

"Well, we could go to where I saw Daniel in the woods," Merlin suggested.  "I know which direction he ran, and my dream told me he was running to Morgana when I saw him. It's not an exact indicator of where Morgana is, but it's a start."

Leon was hesitant to follow that path just based off of Merlin's presumptions, but Gwaine loudly reminded him that he had no better lead, so they headed north.

As they rode, Merlin silently cursed himself for not picking up the de industria petram before they had left camp that day. The stupid mistake had literally caused the destruction of half the kingdom and provided Morgana with exactly the weapon she needed to bring Camelot to its knees. 

Trying to take his mind off the subject, Merlin instead thought about Kilgharrah and what could have happened to him; but he soon found that whatever he thought about made him anxious and guilty, so he tried not to think at all. 

When they came to a stop at the end of the first day of traveling, Percival approached Merlin as he was sitting down heating up water.

"Hey, man." The knight took a place on a log across from Merlin. 

"Hey."

"So..." Percival traced patterns in the dirt. "Do you have any idea how we are going to defeat Morgana and her supposed army?"

Merlin looked up. "Uh, i dunno, the usual; just run up with swords I assumed."

"But you don't think that will be enough, do you?" Percival stared intently into Merlin's eyes.

Merlin cocked his head. "Uh, what else would we do?"

Percival didn't answer but continued making eye contact with Merlin, who finally realized what the knight was getting at.

"Oh... you mean, like... magic?"

Percival nodded. "I just think it sounds crazy for us five men to run up to Morgana, a powerful sorceress, and her army, whether they be weak or not. Is there anything you can do to... i dunno, increase our odds?"

Merlin grinned. "Yeah, I always think of something."

"Okay. Thanks, Merlin." Percival smiled thankfully and walked away.

Merlin smiled to himself, happy that Percival was confident enough in his magic being used for good that he could ask Merlin to use it.

And for the first time in a while, Merlin slept that night feeling reassured with the knowledge that Arthur would heal, and that Percival had confidence in him to defend them against Morgana; although worries of Kilgharrah still uncomfortably lingered in his mind.

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