The Secret Memory

Four

Arthur woke up to Merlin blasting out his name.

'Merlin...you don't want to announce our location to nearby bandits.' Arthur closed his eyes against the bright sunlight. He hardly got much sleep last night.

'How can you sleep like a log out here?' asked Merlin, putting their breakfast together. 'Especially when all you have is a log to sleep against.'

Arthur made himself sit with his knees up. 'Why, you managed to do just that, last night.' And thank God he did, instead of waking up and ruining the plan.

They finished off their meal quickly and continued their journey on foot.

Arthur stopped when they reached a small ring of trees in the woods, up an incline. He looked down at his foot. The tip of his boot was inches away from the trigger of the trap. He made a show of appearing lost, scanning the area with his fists on his hips. 'I believe we continue straight. But we must be vigilant. Raiders are always setting traps around here.' Then he took a step.

Merlin's eyes dilated. 'Arthur!'

Merlin watched as Arthur rose into the air, foot first, a rope looped around that ankle. That wasn't all. A dagger was rushing towards Arthur, right at the exposed part of his throat above the chainmail.

Merlin stood frozen, arms apart as if he was ready to launch into the air.

The tip of the dagger bounced off Arthur's neck harmlessly, just as an upside down Arthur twisted away from the weapon. It was now dangling harmlessly from the rope. He grabbed the part of the rope tying his foot and used it to swing onto the tree, then started climbing up the trunk. He was hindered because of his tied ankle, but he managed to reach the branch where all the ropes were tied. He hoisted himself on this branch and got out his own knife from his belt.

'You alright?' Merlin called from below.

Arthur said nothing and hacked at the rope around his ankle, balanced on the branch. Once free, he began climbing down the tree, jumping the last bit to the leaf strewn ground.

'We better go,' said Merlin. 'The raiders who set it up might be close by.'

Arthur walked right up to Merlin. 'You could have stopped that.'

'What? What do you mean?' Merlin asked out loud.

With magic. He answered in his head. In fact, his brain was buzzing with the spell to stop the ropes in mid-motion when he saw that dagger. He was a blink away from using the spell. He took longer than usual; Arthur was right there. If the ropes were better secured or Arthur didn't move out of the way in time that dagger would have skewered its victim.

Arthur pinned him with a stare. Then moved off. 'You could have stopped me walking into the trap.'

Now that was outrageous. 'How was I supposed to know there was a trap there?'

'I don't know, Merlin, you usually have your funny feelings, don't you?'

Merlin's brows twisted as he followed behind Arthur. They trudged along in silence, somehow those raiders forgetting all about their trap. Something that never seemed to bother Arthur.

***

That was a stupid idea. Lying on the ground, Arthur folded his arms and turned to his side. All that effort in setting up the trap, for nothing. They had walked through the afternoon in relative quiet. Merlin even tried to make a few playful jibes to get Arthur talking. But Arthur had other things on his mind. He kept going back to what he saw at the antechamber. Was he merely jumping to conclusions?

'I'm just going to wash these,' Merlin said to his back.

'Right. Try not to wake me up with your clumsiness.' He heard a huffing sound before Merlin marched off to the stream to wash their dinner utensils.

He closed his eyes, but with his mind racing, he wasn't going to fall asleep that quickly. But he could pretend to sleep. Arthur sat up and spotted Merlin at the stream. His back was a silhouette against the moon streaked water.

Arthur opened his flask of water and poured it on the campfire. He stomped down on the dying fire to quell it completely. Then he closed his eyes and pretended to sleep.

A few minutes later he heard a quiet 'what?' The night air was chilly -they were meant to keep the fire going.

Arthur heard objects being put down on the ground. Then knees kneeling. He almost held his breath before remembering he was meant to be dozing. But he concentrated hard, for a whisper, an exhale, something that would indicate a spell being cast.

Nothing. Then he heard the crack of sticks crashing against each other. A whip of a flame coming to life.

He turned to his other side and opened his eyes. Merlin was not using magic.