Disclaimer: If I owned Merlin, Season Five would be here a lot sooner than 20 days x.X
Authors Note: You guys are awesome! I just found out how to reply to reviews (don't judge me; I'm a natural blonde xD). So, I promise to reply to any reviews you guys write me from now on. Thank you so much for all of the support you guys have given me. Special thanks to Darkmiror who went and reviewed like everything I wrote. Thank you so much!

For a brief moment, no one moved. They just stared at the slightly shuddering Merlin on the floor with wide, terrified eyes. Then everyone broke into motion with loud clatters and shouts. Gwaine was already making his way up the stairs, ready to search for help. Elyan scrambled through his pocket for the keys, and unlocked the cell door with fumbling fingers. The moment the cell door sang its telltale click of being free, Arthur practically ripped the cell door off of its squealing hinges in his haste to get to his poisoned manservant. He collapsed to his knees beside Merlin, pulling the convulsing boy closer to him. Arthur lowered his ear to the boy's chest, trying hard to figure out if the rapid heartbeat was a good thing or not. He listened for a bit longer, wincing at every rattled breath the boy struggled to draw.

"Should we call Gaius?" Gwaine called from the top of the stairs. "He might know what to do."

Arthur shook his head miserably, still not tearing his gaze from his friend. "Gaius said there was no antidote. We'd only alert my father—and then he'd make sure that Merlin died."

It was obvious that Gwaine didn't like that answer. However, he knew the prince spoke the truth. He kicked a nearby water barrel so viciously that the clear liquid sloshed out. Percival, who was being more silent than usual, watched it with a curious look.

"Gaius said there was no antidote?" Elyan asked again.

Arthur shook his head. "No…" He finally looked up from the paling Merlin and glanced around at the worried faces around. "But there has to be a way to save him." The prince's throat was suddenly burning as if he had been the one who had swallowed the poison. "There has to be…" he whispered.

Percival finally looked away from the water barrel. "What if we got him to get rid of the poison?"

Apart from Merlin's labored breaths, there was silence in the prison. Elyan was the first to react.

"Percival! That's brilliant!" He threw himself on the floor next to Arthur and Merlin. "Did Merlin say how much of the poison he drank?"

Arthur frowned. "Just a sip, he said."

A grim smile light up the dark knight's face. "We might be able to save Merlin then." He quickly glanced around the dank prison, searching for things that they would need. "Percival, could you get some water?"

Being mindful of the poisoned goblet, Percival filled up a new cup to the brim and quickly walked it over to the group. He was careful not to spill a drop as if the plain water was the elixir of life.

Without even asking his prince for permission, Elyan pulled the boy towards himself, puckering the manservant's mouth with his own hand. Taking the goblet of water from Percival, he brought the brim to the poisoned boy's blue tinted lips and tilted the liquid inside of his mouth. Merlin's throat recoiled at the rushing water, causing him to choke and gag.

"What are you doing?" Arthur protested.

Elyan tried again, rubbing the boy's throat muscles slightly to coax the water down. After some hesitation, the manservant finally managed to get the liquid down. "If we can get Merlin to drink enough water, it'll possibly dilute the poison. It'll also put something in his stomach so we can, ah, dispel it."

"Dispel?" Arthur blinked.

"It means you'll have to make him throw it up," Gwaine clarified. His time at the tavern had made him somewhat of an expert in the matters of removing toxins from the body in any way possible.

"That'll be the easiest and quickest way to get the poison out," Elyan agreed, looking anywhere but at Arthur.

Arthur regarded the shuddering boy with a frown. He wasn't sure how much longer his manservant had left. If they wanted Elyan's idea to work, they had to act fast. He couldn't dwell on the sheer disgustingness of what they, probably he by the equally repulsed looks on everyone else's faces, were about to do. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the customary chamber pot that was a stationary fixture in every cell. He grabbed the age stained rim, grateful that it had not been recently used, and pulled it towards he and Merlin. No one, not even a dying manservant, was going to "dispel" poisons on him. Arthur was a prince, after all.

"If any of you speak a word about this to anyone," Arthur began in a withering tone. Gwaine would have made a joke if it wasn't his best friend whose life was on the line. A sudden hitch in Merlin's breathing brought the prince back to more important matters. Screwing his face into the most disgusted expression, Arthur pried Merlin's mouth open and practically thrust half of his hand in the boy's mouth and down his throat. He drew it back instantly when Merlin's thin frame began to convulse badly again. Arthur pushed his friend's face towards the open chamber pot, trying not to be sick himself. After a few unnaturally loud retches in the nervous silent, the formerly poisoned manservant slid to the ground with an exhausted groan. When his erratic heartbeat and breathing settled into a normal pattern, and he slowly sank into a deep sleep, the other men around him each drew in a relieved breath.

Arthur shed his own emerald cloak and tucked it under the sleeping boy's head. He turned to Elyan and gave him a shaky smile. "I think you missed your calling, Elyan. You should be the next court physician."

The knight accepted the compliment with a slight blush. "Back when I was roaming from place to place, I accidentally ate some poisoned berries. Luckily for me, someone came along who knew what to do."

Now that they were out of the woods, Gwaine's snarky attitude was returning. "Now what do we do, Your Royal Purgeness?"

Arthur gave him a nasty glare, but didn't comment on the new title. "That assassin thinks her job is done. No doubt she'll return to whoever sent her and inform them of Merlin's death. The other assassins should also be dismissed."

"So Merlin's safe for now?"

The future king of Albion pursed his lips. "I still don't know what my father will do. I doubt he'll ever let Merlin out of here. Sooner or later, whoever employed the assassins will figure out what happened and they'll send more after Merlin."

"What are we going to do?" Percival asked softly.

"I plan on doing what I originally planned on doing with Gaius. He's the one who came up with the plan to get me out." Arthur grinned slightly.

"Gaius?" Gwaine sputtered, apparently finding this the most surprising thing of the night. "Gaius is behind this?"

"For such an old man, he's surprisingly devious."

Elyan was also having a difficult time comprehending that the court physician was such a mastermind. "Well, what was his plan then?"

"After the assassin 'killed' Merlin, he or she had to take his body back as proof to whoever sent them."

"But—"

"That assassin girl could barely take a punch she was so small. There's no way she'd be able to carry Merlin through a castle and back to who knows where!" Gwaine objected.

You'd be surprised, Arthur thought grimly, resisting the urge to rub at the bruise growing across his backside. "Remember though, only we know what the assassin looked like. My father has no idea who she was. He'll believe that whoever the assassin was, he or she was capable of taking Merlin with him or her. The king wouldn't know that I snuck Merlin out of here."

"Are you sure?" Elyan started slowly. "It just seems that it would look a bit suspicious when he finds out that a person was poisoned and kidnapped while knights of Camelot just stood there. He'd expect some sort of injury on us."

Arthur reached into his pocket, pulling out a small wrapped package. "Gaius thought of that too."

Gwaine took one look at the contents of the package and groaned. "Don't you think we've had enough of that for one night?"

Before Arthur had even left the boundaries of the lower town, Sir Leon already had the sentries ring the warning bells. Walking as fast as his armor would allow him to, he intercepted the king on the way to his son's room.

"My Lord!" Sir Leon called out. Uther paused in midstride and turned to face one of his most trusted knights.

"Sir Leon. What is going on?"

The knight forced a rueful expression on his face. "It's your son's manservant, Sire"

Uther looked furious for a moment. He resumed his angry march to his son's room, forcing Sir Leon to jog beside him. "Has my son escaped? How could you have le—"

"Forgive me for interrupting, My Lord, but Arthur is still in his room. Gaius gave him something for his sickness, and he has been, ah, sleeping off the effects. Apparently the healing draft…had a bit of a punch to it." Sir Leon could not believe what he was saying at the moment; words were tumbling from his mouth, and he couldn't stop them.

Uther stopped again in the middle of the hallway. "Then what is it?"

"The assassin managed to get into the prison. The assassin," Sir Leon paused, unsure of how to phrase the next part, "completed their assignment."

"Arthur's manservant is dead?" The knight wasn't sure if his ears were playing tricks on him, but he thought the king sounded almost sad. It had always been amusing to the king to hear the idiot's babbling. A part of him would miss that, he felt.

Sir Leon nodded.

"And the guards you posted?"

"Gaius is seeing to them now," the knight answered.

Uther's head bobbed slightly in a stiff nod. "We'll go down there at once." Sir Leon barely had the chance to utter a 'Yes, Sire' before he was rushing after his king again.

As the king and his knight made their way to the dungeons, rumors had already started to spread about the castle's most recent death. Sir Leon heard gruesome story after gruesome story as to how Merlin had reached the end of the road. One particular story that slightly turned Leon's stomach dealt with kitchen shears and braided intestines. The vibrant imaginations of the other castle workers quite frankly appalled the knight.

These stories did not go unheard of by the king. "Do you know how the boy was killed?"

"I…I haven't been down there yet. Gaius will surely be able to tell you though."

Bringing up the name of the court physician again caused Uther to fall silent. He was now realizing how painful it could possibly be for Gaius to perform an autopsy on his ward. Before the true target of the assassins was known, Uther was terrified for his own son's death.

Sir Leon noted the slight lines of guilt that spread across the king's face, but didn't mention anything about it. The knight was grateful when they finally reached the door. He opened the heavy iron door and held it for his king. When Leon finally stepped into the prison, a faint, unidentifiable odor assaulted his senses, and caused him to involuntarily wrinkle his nose. What is that?

Uther descended the stairs slowly, stopping when he saw Gaius hovering over an unconscious Elyan.

"What happened to them?" he asked as he glanced from the unconscious knight to a barely lucid Gwaine to an owlish looking Percival.

Gaius straightened up with a bone weary sigh. "The assassin drugged them. It was a mere sleeping draft, however, so they will recover in time."

Uther nodded and proceeded towards the cells. Gaius followed, throwing Sir Leon an undecipherable look. Sir Leon squatted in front of the three men, looking between the two conscious ones, wondering who he'd get a better answer from. Elyan was out of the question since his small frame was still fighting off the draft, but Gwaine had had plenty of practice with mind numbing substances, and the sleeping potion had dissipated quickly through Percival's huge body. However, it was unlikely that Percival was going to say much, and Gwaine looked almost as if he were still drunk from a few days ago.

"What happened?" he whispered to them, hoping one would give him a coherent answer.

Surprisingly, Percival was a bit more prone to chattiness when he was under the influence of questionable substances.

"Merlin drank the poison," he started, his voice still slurring from recently waking up.

"Roylie Pratty and us thought he was going to die," Gwaine added. Sir Leon stared at his friend for a moment, wondering if the man truly was drunk.

"But we made Merlin throw up, so he's okay now."

"Don't tell Siree Leo though," Gwaine chuckled darkly. "Or the Royal Purger will get mad."

Sir Leon had no idea what Gwaine was babbling about, but he was glad that Merlin seemed to be well enough. He was going to ask Percival another question when Uther's call brought him to attention. He stood up slowly and made his way towards his king.

"Where are all of the other prisoners?"

Sir Leon glanced around him at all of the empty cells. Their plan to move Merlin wouldn't have worked if there were witnesses. "They were moved to another location for their own safety. We did not know how determined these assassins were." This answer satisfied the king and he turned back to Gaius, who was crouched over a dented silver goblet.

The knight surveyed Merlin's cell and the crime scene with a nervous twist in his gut. The dented cup and a pool of ominous dark liquid dwelled in one of the corners. In another spot, various pieces of smashed food laid discarded. The cell door had been ripped open with such force that Leon thought it would soon need a new bolt.

"Do you know the cause of his death?" Uther asked softly. Gaius lifted the once poisoned chalice and sniffed the remaining drops inside of it. With a single finger, he picked up a drop, set it on his tongue, and immediately spat it out.

"Merlin was poisoned." He set the goblet gently back on the floor. "This particular potion would have caused instantaneous death in a matter of minutes. Hopefully he would have fallen unconscious before the excruciating pain settled in." The man forced a dull, mourning tone in his voice. To those who didn't know the true story, Gaius was a man who had just lost a son.

"I am sorry for your loss, Gaius," Uther started uncertainly. The court physician watched the king pick his words with barely veiled surprise. Very rarely was the king ever sorry for anything. "I know my son will also be saddened by the news." Gaius nodded slowly. "But you must understand that this was for the best. The future of Camelot was at risk with those assassins out."

"I understand, Sire," Gaius tilted his head. "No single life is more important that the fate of this kingdom. "

The king smiled at his court physician. "I'm glad you see it that way, Gaius." Suddenly a thought struck the ruler of Camelot. "Where is the body?" he asked, turning around to try to find the dead manservant.

"The assassin must have taken it to prove it to their employer that Merlin…is dead."

Uther nodded again, deeming this a perfect reason. "He had been an adequate servant, despite his flaws. Perhaps we will honor him with a funeral." He hesitated again. "I believe Arthur would like that…?" Again, Gaius could see the king feeling slightly guilty for sending the manservant to his imminent doom. The king also felt bad for how he had treated his son. He now realized how much of a betrayal locking up Arthur had been.

"He would, Sire," Gaius tilted his head again. The two men left the prison and went back up the stairs.

"I should visit Arthur now," Uther began. "To tell him that his confinement is now over."

"I wouldn't, Sire," Gaius quickly objected.

The king eyed his doctor suspiciously. "Why not? Is there something I should know, Gaius?"

Gaius lowered his eyes in the perfect image of a subservient servant. "Not at all, Sire. It is just that," he paused, "Arthur has been under quite a bit of stress lately. His sickness, and now after what's happened to Merlin…I fear it may be too much for him. At the moment he is resting, and it'll probably be best if we wait to tell him."

Uther nodded. "I understand. I shall speak to him later then." He started to walk away, and then he stopped, turning back to face the court physician. "I hate to ask…"

Gaius frowned at his king. Uther's been acting a bit too strange lately. He forced a curious expression on his face. "Yes, My Lord?"

"Do you happen to know anyone who could be Arthur's replacement manservant? If you are right about my son, he may need more assistance than usual for the next few days."

Gaius smiled thinly at his king. "I know just the person."

When Merlin woke up, he had the biggest headache imaginable. He turned slightly, groaning as it felt like blades stabbed his cranium. The warlock couldn't remember where he was. When he slowly cracked his eyes, he saw it was dark, and he was outside. Blinking slowly at the dull stars above him, he struggled to figure out why he was suddenly outside.

Am I on a hunting trip?

That would explain why his body ached, but it didn't explain the pain in his stomach, the burn in his throat, and his pounding head. Slowly his other senses returned to him. He was completely engulfed by something soft and warm. His fingers twisted idly in the soft cloth, again wondering where he was. He rolled over and nearly cried out at the pain that lanced through his skull. It was so intense that had he had anything in his stomach, he surely would have lost it then and there.

Ugh… Food. Thinking about food only made him feel worse, even though he was fairly certain he hadn't eaten in hours. He glanced around at his surroundings, squinting at the burning fire that he had been laid in front of. Someone suddenly dropped a log on the flame, causing the small clearing they were in to be illuminated. As Merlin's aching head tried to cope with the sudden bright light, he could see two oblong shadows moving. His eyes drifted close again as an inescapable wave of exhaustion flooded through his mind and body.

Voices sounded around him, forcing him to pry his tired eyes open again. One of the shadows finally took the shape of a certain arrogant prince. Merlin tried to match the other voice, but his brain was moving too sluggishly to work right. He knew the speaker was familiar—hopefully a friend, too—but he just couldn't place it.

When it became too hard to remain conscious, Merlin decided that it had to be a friend, else why would Arthur be with them…? He closed his eyes and blissfully fell back into unconsciousness.

Thank you so much for reading! :D Sorry if Uther or anyone is a bit OOC o.O I suppose you'll see why soon.
(Psssst... Does anyone have any good ideas for a cover for this story...? I really love covers :3)