Defeating the Darkness (A Merlin Fanfiction)

Chapter 20

"Damn... Are they all dead? Or unconscious?"

Merlin heard voices behind him; it was more soldiers. "Quick; get behind the bushes!" He herded the knights behind a particularly thick patch of shrubbery. 

Holding onto the reigns of their horses, the group crouched down and hoped that Cenred's men couldn't see them. There were a bunch of them a few hundred feet back, investigating the scene that Merlin and the knights had just left.

"Nah... They're not dead. Where the hell did they go?"

Merlin tried to pry apart a few branches without making too much noise so he could see what was going on, but Gwaine batted his hand away and put a finger to his lips.

There was a sound like something being thrown at a tree and a deep voice said, "Get the girl back here, we could use her if we spot them again."

Crackling twigs told Merlin that the men were walking away and once the noise died out, he peered over the bushes to make sure they were gone. 

"That girl was sent by them. We walked right into a trap," he said.

"Yeah, well we got out of it easy enough," Elyan replied. "Anyway, even if she did lead us to a bunch of soldiers, I think she pointed us in the right direction anyway. Did you see the line of soldiers? There must have been two hundred of them in a line. They're probably barricading the castle; I bet it's back there; they wouldn't waste three hundred soldiers out in the woods for no reason other than to catch intruders."

The rest of them agreed and decided to scout out any possible entrances to the castle from afar. 

The group retreated back in order to keep a safe distance from the line of soldiers and started moving forward.

"Let's just keep going this way-- maybe if we go far enough, we will be able to see the castle and the back of it won't be guarded."

"Why would they only guard the front?" Merlin questioned.

"Well, I'm just thinking, they probably expected Arthur to come riding into Cenred's domain after they used the rock on Camelot, and he would come from the direction we just did; so Cenred and Morgana might have just wanted to guard the side that's facing Camelot."

Merlin understood, but still thought that Morgana wouldn't be foolish enough to guard only the side of the castle facing Camelot. Suddenly, a thought struck him.

"Hey... We expected Morgana's army to be weak from using the de industria petram, right? But they didn't seem weak to me."

"Yeah, I agree that they didn't look like the rock was taking its toll at first," said Gwaine. "But did any of you notice-- I was fighting a few guys and they put no strength into their blows."

"Yeah, same for the guys I was fighting," Elyan said. "That just shows that Morgana is here, she got David to pick up the rock for her, and is using Cenred and his army to do her dirty work."

"There!" Leon called, up ahead. The rest of the knights and Merlin went to where we was and looked up; two massive towers were extending up from the trees.

"The castle." Merlin said.

"Now the question is whether it will be guarded or not," Gwaine grimaced. "Let's go see."

They decided to leave their horses where they were and come back for them later; it would be best to go on foot from there.

Pushing through the trees, the group slowly made their way towards the castle.

"Ugh--these-stupid--thorns--" Gwaine grumbled as he tried to extricate himself from a tangly flower bush. Percival laughed at him as he finally pulled free and stumbled over his own feet while doing so. A few minutes passed, consisting of Percival mocking Gwaine and Gwaine telling him to shut up, until Merlin shushed them.

"There."

Through a few more feet of trees stood the huge dark castle, shooting up from a barren clearing. This entrance was guarded, but much less than the front. 

"I think this is the side entrance," said Leon, looking around.

"Good," said Percival. "It'll be less obvious when we break in than entering through the main doors."

"Okay, let's go," Leon ordered. There were only about five guards at this entrance, so they didn't even have to sneak up on them; just by walking into the clearing, the weak guards hurdled towards them and the knights took care of them without Merlin having to use magic.

"That was surprisingly easy," said Gwaine, looking around suspiciously as if more guards were going to come out. But none did, and Merlin hurried towards the wooden doorway,. 

Merlin turned the handle, but, as expected, it was locked. He looked behind him; the knights were coming towards him.

"Hey, is that a guard?" Merlin pointed over his shoulder towards the trees. As the knights drew their swords and yelled, "Where?!" Merlin turned back around and quickly used his magic to unlock the door.

"Uh, never mind. Just a bird. Let's go, it's open." 

"Really?" said Gwaine. "That's wei--"

"Just go, Gwaine," said Percival, pushing him through the door and into the dark chamber beyond.

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Hey guys! Thanks for being patient with me and my horrible updating skills. I hope three chapters today partially makes up for it XD I'm going on vacation until Sunday but I think I'll still have time to write. Also your comments are very helpful for letting me know how I'm doing so thanks!