Merlin: Dawn of the Dragonlord

Chapter 15: Fever

Chapter 15

Arthur Pendragon awoke with a start. He had been dreaming of Camelot and Guinevere. Merlin had been in his dream as well, sitting next to him on the Round Table with a sort of bright aura shining through him. It was quite a beautiful light until it began to fade and suddenly Merlin was no longer there and Arthur came to an abrupt awakening.

The first thing that he noticed was pain on his lower back and a bump on his head. Then he realised that he was lying on the hard stone floor with nothing but a small pile of hay for a pillow. He had been put there with his chain mail still on, which could explain the soreness to the upper part of his body.

"Good, you're awake," said Galahad's voice and Arthur distinctively heard the irregular footsteps coming towards him.

"I fell asleep?" he asked as he was sitting up. His brain still felt a little drowsy.

"I'm really sorry about that, Sire," said Galahad. He handed a piece of bread to the prince. "I only know a few spells and that's because it was my father's wish that I studied them. I don't usually use magic, but you were going out there when Merlin especially told us all to stay in so..."

The recollections of the previous night began to flow and Arthur sprang to his feet.

"Merlin! Gwaine! Where are they?"

"Calm down, your royal jumpiness!"

Arthur's eyes immediately found the speaker. Gwaine was sitting with his back and his head against the wall. He kept his eyes closed. Arthur had never seen the knight looking so tired and weary. He braced himself for what he was about to hear.

"Where is Merlin?" he asked.

"He's fine," said Gwaine, opening only one eye to scrutinize Arthur. He then added, "I knew that he would hesitate to use magic in front of you that's why I offered to stay. A good thing I did too. That's a Hell of a nasty curse."

"Merlin's tried many spells," continued Galahad, "but the daemons are the embodiment of the dark magic that lurks within the Black Lake. There isn't much hope to ever get rid of them. He thought that the Great Dragon would help, but it seems that Kilgarrah is too far away to answer to Merlin's call."

"But where is he?"

Arthur was glancing around the Great Hall. Most of the refugees from last night had gone, but there were a few women cooking on the round fireplace and a few servants making the place tidy again.

"Apparently he sent him to Camelot to look after you," answered Galahad meaningfully.

"Not the dragon! Merlin!" replied Arthur, slightly irritated.

The knight seemed taken aback. "He's sleeping I guess. It's been a long night. We don't have many rooms but Merlin took the Court Physician's chambers in the Western Tower. We haven't had a physician for a long time."

Arthur was more than irritated now. "Does he think that he can be Dragonlord, knight, sorcerer and physician as well?" burst out the prince.

"No, actually," said Galahad. "He would be a great physician if given the chance, but the villagers are too afraid of him."

"Afraid of Merlin?" repeated Arthur indignantly. "How can anyone be afraid of Merlin?"

It was Gwaine who gave the answer. "You haven't seen what I saw last night. Even I was afraid of him." When Arthur only gave a derisive snort, Gwaine sat up straight to look the prince in the eyes. "He's more powerful than we imagined, and those things out there, these daemons, they know. It's like they want to feed on his magic. He can't keep doing this every night. He'll die."