Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin or its characters.

Chapter Six

Merlin laid the necklace along his palms and closed his eyes in concentration before opening his eyes and reciting the spell his eyes burning gold as he focused on the necklace, this time Merlin felt the rush of magic and the success of the spell and saw the tendrils surrounding the necklace, as he dropped his hands away the necklace fell as if in slow motion, before pulling away and falling neatly onto an area of the map that was in a wooded area.

Merlin almost leapt from the bed in glee, he quickly marked the area the necklace fell on hoping that this was a success, he needed to get away from Camelot to investigate this.

"Where is Merlin?" Arthur asked Gaius as the Council meeting ended the next day, he had not seen his manservant since he delivered breakfast and a quick excuse of running chores for Gaius before he disappeared.

"Oh, he's running errands." Gaius said carefully, his ward had run out on him that morning asking him to cover him if Arthur asked after him.

Arthur huffed. "Useless." He muttered before leaving.

Merlin had left early in the morning after getting Arthur up, he had borrowed a horse from the stables and tried to cover as much ground as he could in the short space of time he'd be away from Camelot, if he was away for too long it would be suspicious.

Merlin consulted his map again as he brought the horse to a halt where a forest path was thinning, He was sure he was heading in the right way, but the rest of the way didn't seem to have a pathway, he had no choice but to leave the horse behind.

As Merlin walked through the dense undergrowth of the forest he tried to recall what Arthur said whenever he was tracking something in the hopes he might determine the best route to take. He didn't see any crushed leaves or bushes or footprints, there weren't any bent or broken twigs on the lowlying bushes, in fact it seemed he was the first soul to pass in this area for some time.

It was well past midday when Merlin finally found something of use, the forest was growing a little thinner and there was evidence of heavy footfall in the area recently, as Merlin judged by the roughened path that must have been created by a carriage travelling through the thin undergrowth. He carefully followed the path, staying out of the path itself in case there were scouts ahead. Within an hour he found what he was looking for.

An ancient looking castle stood nestled in the centre of this dense forest, seemingly as if the forest grew to hide the castle, Merlin assumed it was abandoned many years previously, one of the tall towers had crumbled away and half of the wall guarding the castle grounds were damaged and left to be overgrown with ivy and wall climbers. As Merlin looked out on the castle he spotted a few people, several people that were likely to be guards stood at sentry positions but were lax in their guard, it was not likely this place be found other than by chance due to its location. He also spotted one or two upper gentry persons walking from one side of the castle to the other. He frowned and wondered whether to get inside to find Morgana or to wait until he spotted her.

Morgana stood at her window again and allowed her mind to wander to the forest and the peaceful calm she had felt during her walk when she was disturbed.

"My Lady." Maydern said silkily, standing a foot within her room.

"My Lord." Morgana replied slightly offended. "You cannot enter a Lady's room like this." She said scandalised, even Arthur had the common decency to knock.

"If we were but two others I agree, but we are to be wed, are we not." He smiled and walked closer.

"My sister seems to be very keen on the idea." Morgana replied turning her back on Maydern.

"And are you?" Maydern placed his hands caressingly on her shoulders.

Morgana flinched and stepped away from him. "You should not touch me so familiarly, I do not know you and we are not wed."

"But we will be." Maydern stepped closer into her space, his eyes darkened by his thoughts.

"My Lord, show some decorum." She said hating that her voice edged with pleading.

"When you are my wife I shall not." He stepped forward once more and pressed her into the stone wall behind her, his lips too close to her face. Morgana turned her face away from his and wished him away.

"Leave me alone." Morgana told her fiercely, only the respect for her sister stopping her from hurting him.

Maydern smirked and let her go, leaving her room with a knowing smirk on his face as Morgana almost trembled at the loss of composure she felt.

Merlin watched the ins and out of the castle ever more creeping closer to the castle itself to get a better view of the place, wondering where he should go to find Morgana, and how likely to be able to get in.

When darkness fell Merlin used the chance to creep inside, thanks to his time sneaking around Camelot he was able to get inside the castle walls through a section of damaged wall and keeping to the shadows he made it to this version of the castle Citadel.

Merlin pressed himself behind a pillar as he heard footsteps around the corner from where he was.

"There will be much reward when the time comes My Lord." Merlin recognised Morgause' voice.

"And which reward are you speaking of?" A man's voice said with a hint of amusement.

Morgause laughed, and to Merlin it seemed false. "Both I suppose, but only once can the reward be shared, Camelot is a prosperous land."

"I know. It is the other reward that I covet more at the moment," He said silkily giving Merlin a chill up his spine.

"Then you know what I want in order for you to gain that." Morgause bartered as they turned at the end of the corridor and their voices faded away.

Merlin frowned as he realised that Morgause was raising support to gain Camelot, but who was the creepy guy? And what could he possibly want?

Merlin stored that information away for now and got on with his first task. He climbed the first staircase he found, knowing that Morgana liked a view, once he got to the second floor he began scouting out the rooms there, most where empty, covered in a light layer of dust that belied the time the castle had been abandoned for, but in one room in the far end of the floor one room had a flickering light coming from beneath the closed door.

Merlin bit his lip as he considered opening the door, if it was not Morgana, he would be found out, if it was Morgana she would either turn him over to Morgause or hopefully hear him out.

Merlin chanced it and carefully eased the handle down the handle moving smoothly, he pushed the door open carefully and peered inside. The room was lit only by a candle placed on a table next to the bed, the bed covers had been thrown off as if someone had just jumped out of bed, as Merlin took a careful step into the room he felt a sharp pain on his head and he fell to the floor.

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