Bound

Chapter 2

The knights all watch in horror as the woman stalks toward Merlin, who is trying to do everything in his might to get free. Arthur watches as more guards begin surrounding his friend, holding him in place. Why on earth is she going after Merlin? And, possibly more concerning, what do those cuffs do?

Arthur looks around to his fellow knights. Percival has four on him now to keep him from getting free. Lancelot, Leon, and Elyan are all shouting for them to let Merlin free. All Arthur can understand from Gwaine is a slew of cursing. Arthur himself attempts reasoning with the woman.

"Look, you don't have to do this! He's a servant, he has no value to you! I am Arthur Pendragon Prince of Camelot take me instead!"

It doesn't work. The woman reaches Merlin, who can do nothing but plead for her not to put them on. The knights' yells are completely pointless. As she reaches Merlin to put on the cuffs, time seems to stand still. It's as if the earth itself went silent. Then the knights hear this gut wrenching scream from Merlin tear through the woods. None of them can see his face, but from his body language they can tell he's in pain. Then he goes completely limp.

"NO!" Arthur yells.

After a moment, the woman turns to face him still wearing an evil smirk on her face.

"What did you do to him? I swear IF YOU KILLED MY FRIEND-"

The woman raises her hand and the knights find that they can no longer speak.

"Your servant is perfectly fine. He is only asleep. He'll likely wake up in a few hours. I will need him when he wakes so he will be joining me."

Arthur struggles against his guards, but to no use.

"My Lady, do you want us to dispose of these men?"

"I believe we discussed this earlier. If we kill knights of Camelot, we're dead. Even with our latest treasure."

"Then what are we to do with them? Let them go?"

She hums to herself, thinking. After a few moments she comes up with an answer.

"No. They know too much already. Besides, we can't have them following us and rescuing him," she looks at Merlin.
"Tie them up. They will come with us."

Next thing all the knights knew they had their hands tied behind their backs and bags over their heads. Then they proceeded to walk for who know how long. It must have been an hour at the least by Arthur's estimate. Then they were ushered in a building and down a set of stairs.

One by one, their bags were removed and they were shoved into one cell all together. After a moment to gather his bearings, Arthur starts yelling at the guards once again.

"Where is Merlin? What have you done with my servant?"

No sooner than he finished the words did he get his answer. The woman walked in followed by a guard who had Merlin slung over his shoulder.

"Put him in there," she said pointing to the cell across from them.

"Why are you putting him in there? Shouldn't he be in with the rest of us?"
Lancelot tried to reason.

"Why, for protection," she answered.

"Protection? Protection of who?!" Gwaine demands, but he doesn't receive an answer.

The woman walked out of the dungeon with guards in tow. The rest of the knights could do nothing but look at each other confused. No one seemed to catch the contemplative look on Lancelot's face.