brunettepetTitle: Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures
Rating: PG
Pairing/s: Arthur/Merlin if you squint
Character/s: Arthur, Merlin, Gaius, Uther
Word Count: 200
Prompt: 127, Protect
Morgana had cursed Uther to see treason at every turn. The King had Arthur, Gwaine, Lancelot and Leon in line for the chopping block in under an hour. He turned a deaf ear to Gaius’s increasingly desperate assertions that the sentences were influenced by magic.
Arthur thought it might happen one day but he hadn’t expected Merlin to be so spectacularly blatant. This was no fortuitous tree branch or rock fall. Merlin cast a blazing counter spell in full view of the court.
“He saved me, father, surely you can see he is an asset to Camelot,” Arthur bargained.
Uther was enraged but recognized that without the sorcerer’s interference he would have watched four innocent men put to death, including his own son.
Grudgingly, he gave in to Arthur’s pleas for mercy, but insisted the boy be fitted with a collar of cold iron to keep him from using magic. “Unless it is demanded of you by your King,” Uther declared. Merlin’s “Yes, sire” rang through the court.
Later, in the Prince’s chambers, Arthur reassured, “It will be different when I am King. You will help me protect my people when I rule.”
“As long as I live,” Merlin answered.