FIC: It's not the end of the world (but you can see it from here) (Merlin, 5/6)
Continued from Part 4
The jet got into the air through some piecemeal miracle of aeronautics, luck, and better teamwork than Arthur was comfortable acknowledging. He and Lancelot breathed a unified sigh of relief when the plane finally stabilized above the blackening cloud cover.
Arthur concentrated on the controls, though they had already set the autopilot for China. He fiddled with the video monitor, trying to get the satellite feed back. When it came on, there was no longer any commentary for the footage of Londoners running terrified through the crumbling streets. Arthur stared, compelled to watch in silent, horrified vigil.
After a minute, Lancelot cleared his throat. "I just wanted to say... thank you. For my life. I owe you more than I could ever hope to repay."
"For the truck or the ticket?" His words and tone were ungracious, but he was not sure he was ready for any camaraderie with Lancelot. It was not only the Merlin issue. He had been part of a team for years, and now two of them lay dead in the bleak landscape below. God only knew where the rest of them were.
"I appreciate both a great deal." Lancelot was silent for a moment, watching the image of people clinging to each other and praying in Hyde Park. "And I wanted to say-"
"Oh, please don’t." He had been hoping that Lancelot, as a fellow military man, would understand the benefits of stoic gratitude.
But Lancelot persevered. "If you offered it just to give me hope out there-or for Merlin’s sake-I would understand. There are others more deserving, one of the children, perhaps-"
"My God, is there no end to you?" Arthur stood up and pulled his headset off. "You deserve the ticket and you’ll use it. That is my final word on the subject."
At least the fellow had the human decency to look relieved. "Yes, Your Highness. Thank you. I would not want you to think-"
"I’m going back to check on our many unexpected passengers." Arthur jabbed his finger at the flight displays and then the video screen. "Keep an eye on that and that. Call me if anything goes... worse."
He ducked out of the cockpit without waiting for Lancelot’s acknowledgment. Right outside, Gwen and Merlin were sitting in silence. Merlin sat hunched in on himself while Gwen stared into space.
She blinked up at Arthur as he stepped over to them. "Sir."
"All right, Gwen?"
She blinked again, then nodded. "Yes, sir." She got to her feet. "Excuse me, sir, I should go see if anyone needs anything."
They all looked to be settled well enough from here, sitting further back in the plane. But he did not mind being left alone with Merlin, so he nodded and took her seat.
Merlin stayed hunched over as Arthur sat next to him. He wanted to put his hand on Merlin’s back, both to offer comfort and feel the solid warmth under his fingers.
He did not, and after another minute, Merlin finally straightened up. "I think I could sleep through the rest of Armageddon, if you let me," he said.
Arthur gave a faint smile. "When we make it to China, I promise you’ll have plenty of time to sleep. More than even you could want."
"I’m sure I’ll stay busy. I intend to make myself useful, earn my keep." Merlin tipped his head back and studied the ceiling. "The rest of my staff would be pretty useful, too, you know. Disaster is our specialty."
"Merlin."
"I know. I know you’ll do what you can." Which had not been at all what Arthur meant, but Merlin tilted his head toward him with a small smile. "I heard you talking to Lance. Thank you."
Arthur grunted. Merlin was the last person he was going to talk to about his reasons for that. "It was Morgana’s ticket. I don’t think she would argue with my choice on this, though God knows she argued about everything else."
Merlin smiled again, then moved his head back to resume his examination of the ceiling. "Do you think they’re all dead yet?"
"Who?"
"Everyone."
He thought about the scenes from home still being broadcast by the news crews who had nothing left to do but their jobs. "No, not yet."
"When?"
"I don’t know. When the arks go, I suppose. They were built in Tibet so that we’d be the last ones hit by the water. When that happens, there won’t be anyone left anywhere else."
Merlin’s throat worked as he gave a curt nod. They had never talked about any of this. Arthur had not really talked about it with anyone outside of formal, sterile briefings.
"I keep thinking about my year four teacher," Merlin said a few minutes later. "Is that strange? I haven’t seen her since I was nine."
"I don’t think we have any measure of strange for this sort of thing," Arthur replied, tipping his own head to rest against the bulkhead. "But if anyone could set the bar for it, Merlin, I would bet on you."
"It’s not anything in particular," Merlin went on as though Arthur had not spoken. "Just remembering her classroom, the way there was always chalk in the air, so she’d stop instruction to wave papers around and sneeze. Not that it would be like that now anyway."
"Yeah," Arthur said for lack of anything more profound. He understood perfectly, even if he could not put it into words any better than Merlin could.
Merlin stopped trying; Arthur felt it as a relief and a deprivation. He may not have known what to say to Merlin, but the silence was much heavier. Arthur fought not to get lost in it, until Merlin started talking again.
"I’m glad my mother’s dead." He turned his head away from Arthur. "That’s probably the most horrible thing anybody could say, but I’m so glad."
"I would have gotten her on the ships." His own vehemence surprised Arthur. He needed Merlin to believe it, even if Arthur was not certain himself what he could have done.
Merlin turned back to him with a little smile. Behind them, the smaller children were beginning to fuss and play, already bored by the apocalypse. The sound made Arthur’s chest tighten even as it visibly relaxed Merlin.
"I’m just glad she doesn’t have to see this, that she never had to know," Merlin said, then grinned as a shriek echoed in the big plane. "She’d have been great with the kids, though."
They both turned to watch as a little girl shrieked again and hit the boy next to her. Then she picked up the doll in her lap and hit him again. Arthur smiled and thought of Morgana with less pain than usual.
"Speaking of the continuation of the species." Merlin nudged Arthur in the side and nodded toward the open cockpit door. "Looks like someone’s getting a head start."
Arthur frowned and turned to follow the direction of Merlin’s gaze. He had not noticed when Gwen had slipped past them and gone into the cockpit. But there she was, sat sideways in his vacated seat, talking to Lancelot.
He could not see most of Lancelot from this angle-but he could see his hands, folded around Gwen’s. It was meant in comfort and reassurance, no doubt, but Arthur was a man. He knew a man did not touch someone the way Lancelot was touching Gwen unless he had another interest as well.
Next to him, Merlin gave a little chortle, as though seeing Lancelot touching someone else like that was of no consequence to him at all. Arthur whipped around to turn his appalled look on him. The laugh choked off in Merlin’s throat.
"Sorry, it’s too soon, I knew it," he stammered. "You know me, inappropriate. It’s laughter or full blown hysteria."
Arthur was already shaking his head. "That doesn’t bother you?" he demanded, jerking his head toward the cockpit.
Merlin stared at him blankly. "What?"
"That! Him!" Arthur waved an arm in angry emphasis, though he was not sure at whom he was angriest. He had given up the love of his life without a fight because he thought Merlin had found happiness with someone better than him. But Merlin-
Merlin was still looking at him like he had started foaming at the mouth. "What do I care if Lance has an apocalypse affair? Unless you-Gwen-"
"I assure you, I have never had any interest in Guinevere’s romantic life," Arthur snapped. In fact, for most of the time he had known her, he had not even considered the possibility she might have one. She was simply there, a constant in the backdrop of the royal world.
"Then what-wait, what?" Merlin’s puzzled look turned to a glare. "You thought I was cheating on you? With Lance? Really? With Lance?"
Arthur’s entire face was burning. "No. I didn’t think you were unfaithful while we were together."
"You just thought I left you. For Lance." Merlin’s glare turned to a smirk. "Relentlessly heterosexual Lance."
"He didn’t look that heterosexual to me," Arthur muttered, mortification undercut by a peculiar buoyancy.
"Yeah, that royal gaydar is really sharp. When did you have it installed, the Victorian Era?"
He looked away, jaw clenching. "Merlin."
"Arthur." Merlin’s chin brushed Arthur’s shoulder and rested there for a moment. "It was never you that I left."
He did not answer, just swallowed and stared at Lancelot’s hands still cradling Guinevere’s. It occurred to him for the first time that letting Merlin go might have been more stupid than noble. Except that he had never had a choice: Lancelot or no Lancelot, fighting to keep Merlin would have lost him forever, and Arthur had known it even then.
"Though I can’t quite figure how it would be more of a balm to your overstuffed ego to believe I ran off with another man than for my work." Merlin sounded bemused, contemplative.
"It’s different," Arthur said, petulant. It was both better and worse, to think that Merlin had still loved him even as he left. He could not even resent it any longer--he would not have loved Merlin so much without the part that had taken him away from Arthur.
"Royalty’s always a bit different," Merlin said. His voice was still light, but his eyes were closed, and his face held the same pain Arthur had been harbouring for years. It gave him a weird hope to see it. Merlin had loved him then; he might still.
Arthur started to turn his head away, but a gleam of gold caught his eye from Merlin's collar. Merlin never wore jewellery. On impulse, Arthur reached up a hand and pulled the chain out from Merlin's collar. His blood pounded in his ears as his fingers traced the love token he had given Merlin in the last minutes of their relationship.
Gently, he tucked the pendant back under Merlin's shirt without looking at his face.
He sat very still in the silence that followed, listening to Merlin breathe and waiting for him to say something. He might as well have been a little girl, plucking the petals off a daisy. He could not have been more disgusted with himself until Merlin’s fingers squeezed around his hand, damp and bony, and did not let go.
He waited, not moving, until he was sure Merlin was not going to move. "I know I promised you time to sleep when we get to the ark," he said stiffly when Merlin’s hand remained latched to his. "But maybe we could find some time. To talk."
Merlin turned to look at him, oddly exasperated even as he wound his fingers tighter around Arthur’s. Arthur started to smile even as Merlin started to speak.
"Sir! Arthur!"
Both their heads jerked toward the cockpit at Gwen’s cry, and Arthur reflexively pulled his hand away. He felt a fleeting urge to apologize, but his confusion over what he should or should not be doing with Merlin was shunted aside by the distress in Gwen’s voice as she called his name again.
"Your Highness, hurry," Lance’s voice echoed after. "The King is making an address."
Arthur jolted out of his seat at that and was at the cockpit door in three long strides. He had not known that Uther’s plane had the capability of broadcasting from the air, but he should not be surprised Uther had planned to address his people one last time.
Gwen and Lance were hunched over the small video monitor. Arthur bent over their shoulders, Merlin close behind him.
"-test the strength and courage of the British people like nothing in our history," Uther was saying on the monitor. "Of all the eras of history, I fear God has given to us the darkest burden."
His voice was broken up by occasional bursts of static, but the image was clear enough for Arthur to see the familiar bookcases behind his father. He frowned in momentary disorientation at the bust of Caesar that he had found intimidating as a child and ironic as an adult, there just to the right of Uther’s head. The text in the lower third read, "Live from Buckingham Palace," although that obviously could not be true. Uther had to have left hours ago.
"Oh, Arthur," Merlin breathed against his neck, one hand gripping at his waist.
"As we gaze into that darkness, I stand beside you in honour of all who have come before us. And yes, all who will come after us as well." Uther bowed his head for a moment before he looked back into the camera.
As Arthur met his father’s eyes, everything crashed into place. Uther was not on a plane. "No," he said stupidly. "Father!"
"For know that although all hope seems lost, this world and this nation will endure. Many have already given their lives to make sure of this, including my own beloved daughter."
Uther’s image began to shake, not due to the transmission. The king’s composure also looked shaken for a brief, human moment before he regained himself.
"This is not the final hour," he said. "I entrust Britain now to my heir, the only son of my body and heart. To him is given the worse task: to carry on the trust of his people and lead them out of this darkness. Whatever faith you find tonight, put it in him."
Gwen and Lancelot pulled back out of the way as Arthur bent over the monitor, hands gripping either side of it as if he could pull it from the console and pull his father to safety at the same time. "No, you promised," he said, though he was realizing that Uther had done no such thing.
The shaking grew more intense. Uther looked to the side for a moment, then drew a deep breath. "Arthur, my son, forgive me-"
And in the space of that breath, Arthur saw everything he had ever longed to see in his father’s eyes. All the pride, joy, and love Arthur had worked to gain his entire life but never dared to ask for-and then the picture went sideways. The screen went black.
The scream caught and died in his throat without voice. Slowly he straightened up, aware of the eyes on him, though he could not look at them. Merlin’s hand was an anchor on his back until it fell away, leaving him alone in the rarefied cold. He could hear Gwen’s breath hitching with repressed sobs. He could hear them echoed in his own head.
His father was gone. Britain was gone.
"Le roi est mort," Lancelot murmured into the silence.
Arthur wanted to punch him, but it seemed to help Gwen pull herself together. She set her shoulders and her jaw, then slowly pushed herself to her feet. Lance leaned over to offer his hand, but she ignored his help.
"The king is dead," she said with formal deliberation, the closest thing they had to a government official. "Long live the king."
She bowed her head, and Merlin did as well, the best obeisance they could accomplish in the confines of the cockpit. Even Lancelot managed to get a knee up on his seat and give Arthur a respectful nod.
Arthur accepted it with a tiny lift of his chin. Then he gently eased Gwen out of his way so he could take the pilot seat again. As he reached for the headset, Lancelot fiddled with his own headset, then stiffened with surprise.
"Your High-Your Majesty, another plane is hailing us," he said. "It’s a passenger jet out of Jakarta. They’ve seen tsunamis in the Indian Ocean from the air. They don’t know where to go."
Strangely, that was the easiest question of Arthur’s day. He had no subjects, but he was still a king. "Give them the coordinates for Cho Ming," he said. "Tell them to follow me."
***
By the time they reached Tibet, they had accrued an airborne caravan of lost passenger jets stranded in the air as human civilization was quietly snuffed out below them. Word had spread from the first plane until everyone within radio distance knew that there was someone who knew where to go. With every plane that appeared out of the deceptively blue sky, Arthur’s jaw set a little harder.
As they flew over the Indian coast line, Lancelot let out a strangled gasp. Arthur looked out the front windscreen and saw nothing - until he realized that the coast line was moving inward, keeping pace with them. His insides turned to ice as his eyes focused on the massive tsunami below. This was how Britain had died, and now they were racing the water to the last point of temporary refuge.
"Merlin," he called softly back into the plane.
Merlin appeared at his shoulder. "You need something, Arthur? I couldn’t find any of those little bags of peanuts, but maybe one of the other planes could toss some through the hatch."
Arthur shook his head. "I just need you to keep the children away from the windows for a little while, all right?"
"What-oh, God," Merlin said, looking out before Arthur could tell him not to. His hand clamped down on Arthur’s shoulder, then relaxed as Merlin took a ragged breath. "Right. No windows."
After a while, the water faded into the distance behind them at last. Lancelot breathed a heavy sigh of relief, and Arthur echoed him in his mind. This was not the wave that would end the world, not yet.
They had a little peace and quiet after that, broken only by the drone of the engines and the laughter of the children as Merlin and Gwen kept them distracted. Dusk was falling as they crossed into China, the end of the last day and deceptively peaceful.
Then a flotilla of Chinese military helicopters moved in from the west, joining their course but keeping a fair distance. One of them broke away from the group to buzz the jets until Arthur had identified himself to the pilot’s satisfaction.
A burst of gleeful squeals came from the back of the plane just as the nosy helicopter moved off. A moment later Merlin reappeared in the cockpit. "Arthur, Lance, did you see the helicopters?"
"Yes, we saw them," Arthur said. "I thought I told you to keep them from looking out the windows."
Merlin bent over and pointed so that Arthur had no choice but to look in the direction of Merlin’s finger. "No, I said, did you see the helicopters?" Merlin said low in his ear.
Arthur looked closer at one of the helicopters-and just as Lancelot took a sharp, delighted breath, Arthur saw it, too.
Below the chopper, hanging in a careful sling, was a giraffe.
He looked at the helicopter next to it-an elephant waved its trunk in the wind, trumpeting as though filling in for Gabriel.
"I forgot," he breathed in awe. Of course he had known of the large cadre of scientists that formed the zoological subtask of the project, but that had been far from Arthur’s area of expertise. But they had obviously done their jobs to ensure that humans were not the only species that would continue.
The choppers moved steadily ahead of them until they vanished into the growing darkness of the Himalayas. It was not far now.
They set down at the vast airfield just outside Cho Ming, a few kilometres from the mountain dam where the arks had been built. As Arthur checked in with the other pilots, he watched Chinese soldiers race out to meet the planes, then stare around from jet to jet as confused civilians began stumbling out. He could not help a small grin as his geared-up fight reflexes kicked up his heart rate.
Merlin had already gathered together his flock, which appeared much more reasonable in size when compared to what was gathering outside. Arthur still could not resist stopping in front of Merlin and raising his eyebrows.
In response, Merlin lifted his chin up in stubborn challenge, though his eyes showed only a hint of uncertainty underneath a fair amount of wry amusement. Arthur just shook his head and moved down the ramp, leading the first part of his ragtag band out into the thin, icy air of the Himalayas.
The Chinese soldiers had been joined by a scattering of Western officials, all of them trying to corral the growing crowd of agitated refugees into some kind of order. At the edge of the crowd, Arthur spotted Leon, who had come to meet them but now stood watching the chaos with his usual unflappable aplomb.
Arthur started towards him, but a Chinese colonel stepped in his path with a respectful but harried nod. "Sir. Welcome to Cho Ming. We have been expecting your party." He took a furtive glance over Arthur's shoulder, and his professional demeanour showed a hairline crack. "But who are all these people?"
Soldiers were soldiers the world over. Arthur knew how to deal with them.
"These people are my party," he said. "Have the baggage unloaded from all the planes and bring it to Ark Seven. Work fast, there's no time to waste."
He strode forward without waiting for a response, trailing Merlin, Gwen, Lancelot, and everyone else behind him. The four red boarding cards had once been a reassuring weight, secure in the inside of his jacket. Now they felt insubstantial against the task at hand. He had no intention of pulling them out at all now.
"Your Majesty, thank God you are safe," Leon said as Arthur approached.
"Leon." Arthur clasped his friend's hand, grateful for his presence and the fact that he would not have to be the one to deliver the news of Uther's fate.
"Hi, Leon," Merlin interjected from behind Arthur, out of turn but forgivably chuffed at seeing a friendly face.
Leon nodded to him, then his eyes flicked beyond them. "And thank God, all your... other companions have also arrived safely."
"I think we should get them transported to the mountain as quickly as possible."
"Agreed. I think we’ll need more helicopters."
In the end it took every helicopter they had, in multiple trips, to ferry everyone to the next stage of the journey. Arthur stayed until the last chopper, despite Leon’s unsubtle efforts to get him secured as quickly as possible. It would take a royal bully to get this done, and Arthur was the only one qualified for the job.
Leon had gone ahead of them, and from the air Arthur could see him packing people onto the shuttle trams that would take them the final leg to the ark. In the chaos of thousands of people rushing to each of the arks, no one spared a glance to Leon’s work.
As they stepped out into the industrial cathedral of Cho Ming dam, Arthur captured Merlin’s hand again and kept a firm lock on him. He had read the statistics on how many Chinese workers had fallen to their deaths in the cracks between the great ships and the platforms. He had not gone through all of this just to have Merlin trip and go flailing his way down into the earth now.
"My God," Gwen breathed, distracted and staggered by the vast space. Lancelot nodded in agreement at her shoulder. They could see the arks now, towering in the near distance, humankind’s most important engineering achievement.
Merlin tried to pull his hand free, but Arthur was using it to tow him into the last empty tram car after Gwen and Lancelot. Leon joined them as Arthur pulled Merlin down into the seat next to him. He was finally starting to look mildly harried.
"Everyone is on the way, sir," he said as the tram whirred into motion. "But getting to the ark and getting onto the ark may be very different things."
"Understood," Arthur replied. "Will there be space for them?"
"Space we have," Leon said, with barely a hint of his wish that Arthur had bothered to ask that question before all this. "Although comfort may be lacking, even if people can be prevailed upon to share staterooms."
"Which may be difficult, given what they paid for them," Arthur muttered.
"Why? How much did they pay?" Merlin asked.
"One billion euros per person," Leon responded before Arthur could stop him.
Merlin choked as he turned an incredulous gaze on Arthur. "You paid a billion euros for me?"
"Don’t be ridiculous, Merlin, I don’t have a billion euros," Arthur said and tried not to think about what Uther had done to get four times that sum. "Leon, as long as we can get them on the ark and feed them, people will make room. I’ll give them my stateroom if it’ll help."
Leon cast one brief flicker of a glance down at Arthur’s hand-the hand Arthur had forgotten was still clutching Merlin’s. "Yes, sir," Leon said. "I thought you might lead by example."
"Arthur, what are you doing?" Merlin whispered. It might have sounded like a protest, except for the way Merlin was returning the fierce grip on his hand.
"Beginning my reign the way I mean to continue," Arthur said, for even if he was wrong that Merlin still returned his feelings, Arthur did not intend to begin a new life inside an old lie.
Leon cleared his throat. "Sir, there is still the matter of boarding."
"Yes." As the tram came to a stop in front of Ark Seven, Arthur finally released Merlin’s hand and stood up. "Leave that part to me."
They were milling around in front of the boarding ramp when he stepped out, all of his many people. On the ramp itself stood a single figure, blocking the way. Arthur’s heart sank when he recognized the man’s face: Aredian, an old school chum and military comrade of his father. Arthur had never liked him--and he had forgotten that Uther had gotten Aredian commissioned as captain of the Commonwealth ark.
Aredian drew himself up as Arthur pushed through the crowd. "Your Majesty, welcome to Ark Seven. Please accept my sincere condolences about your father."
"A great loss to us all," Arthur replied stiffly. "Though not the greatest any of us have suffered today."
"Did you have any idea he would do such a thing?" Aredian looked grave, but his mouth curved in a way that made Arthur’s skin crawl.
"My father always did his duty to his people." Arthur took a step closer to Aredian, signalling his intent to move past him. "As shall I."
"And I as well, Your Majesty." Aredian did not move aside, but held up a hand as he surveyed the people behind Arthur. "As part of my duty, of course, I know the ship’s manifest by heart."
"Do you."
"Your Majesty is, of course, welcome to board at your leisure. I assume this young man is Dr. Emrys, who also holds a boarding pass. As does Dr. Mburu and the lovely Miss Smith. I do not know the young man with her, but am I correct in assuming he now holds the ticket of the late Lady Morgana?"
Arthur took another step forward, forcing Aredian to shuffle a step back, though not enough to free the gangway. "He boards at my word. As do the rest of my party."
Aredian looked slightly take aback by the steel in Arthur’s voice and backed up another step. "I’m afraid no one else may board without showing a valid boarding pass. That is the law."
"I am the law," Arthur said with full regal, if not legal, authority. "I am King Arthur, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and this is my ark. If it is my royal prerogative that these people board, then you will board them."
He did not know what Aredian saw in his face, but it made the captain's throat bob. He tried to take another step away, only to realize that Arthur had backed him at an angle to the edge of the ramp. Behind him was only the long drop between ark and rock into the depths of the agitated earth.
"Your Majesty," he said shakily. "Please understand my position."
"I do. Your position seems to be a choice between your life and your manifest," Arthur said conversationally. "I assure you, you do not want to leave the choice to me."
Aredian had been used to dealing with the Prince, not the King. He stared at Arthur for another heartbeat, then finally jerked his head in assent. "Of course, Your Majesty. We will board your party at once."
"Damn right you will," Merlin chimed in from Arthur's right. He had not realized Merlin had come to stand so close at Arthur's side. "And get them some hot towels. And some of those little bags of peanuts."
"Merlin," Arthur said wearily, then shoved Merlin ahead of them onto the ark.
Behind them came Leon, then Gwen and Lancelot and Ector and the rest of the MSF group and the airline passengers. By the time Arthur had reached the back of the long gate area, the refugees had become their own tidal wave that Aredian at his worst could not have stopped, though true to his word, the captain remained on duty at the ramp and saw every one of the unexpected passengers onto the ship.
"I'll get them settled somewhere, sir." Leon eyed the teeming mass of people with equal parts satisfaction and trepidation once they were all finally aboard.
"We'll help," Gwen put in, Lancelot nodding beside her. They looked at Arthur with identical expressions of awe. "That was amazing, sir."
"Very well done, Arthur," Merlin added soft in his ear. Arthur could feel the warmth against the metallic chill of the ship.
Aredian was making his way back toward Arthur when he stopped and put his hand to his ear, listening to something through his earpiece. His expression turned grimmer, and he began pushing his way faster through the crowd.
"Your Majesty, I need to get you to the bridge at once," he said when he reached them. "We’re launching immediately."
"What?" Arthur said, checking his watch. "We should have another hour and a half. What happened?"
"The American scientists discovered a second tsunami heading towards us." Aredian looked at his own watch, which showed the official countdown. "We have no more than a half hour now, probably less. The Chief of Staff recommended weighing anchor at once, and the heads of state aboard all the arks have agreed. Leon, get him up there."
Merlin stayed by his side as Leon led Arthur a few metres down a corridor to a lift that opened when Leon scanned a card. "This will take you up to the bridge," Leon said. "The other heads of state are already there."
"Good." Arthur stepped onto the lift and Merlin stepped in beside him as certainly as if he had been invited. "I wanted to speak with Geoffrey."
That made Leon hesitate and hold the doors open. "I'm sorry, I assumed you had heard. I'm afraid the Prime Minister and the Cabinet did not make it. Their plane went down when Mount Etna erupted."
"What? Fuck."
Leon gave him a gentle look. "It's up to you now to speak for the people of Great Britain, sir."
The lift doors closed before Arthur could protest that nobody had ever voted for him for anything more than Britain's most eligible bachelor. As the lift began to rise, Merlin looked at him with simpleminded confidence. The knot that had started to loosen in his chest tightened up again as the lift doors opened onto the bridge.
The chancellor of Germany, Katrina Tregor, was the first to spot them as they walked toward the knot of European leaders and ark officers gathered around the nerve centre of the ship. She turned to embrace him, kissing each of his cheeks in a rare display of affection, though she had known him for many years. "Arthur, my young king. I'm glad you're here. That Aredian was starting to get unbearable."
"Don't worry, Arthur already put him in his place," Merlin answered for him.
Before Arthur could kick him, Tregor gave him a sharp look. "I like you," she said. "Who are you?"
"Chancellor, this is Dr. Merlin Emrys," Arthur said. "My good friend."
"A doctor," she said, shaking Merlin's hand. "We may need more of those than we had planned. This entire situation has gone completely to hell."
"And about to get worse," the French President, Claude Bayard, muttered as Arthur joined them at the central console. They all looked up at the large digital clock displayed over the navigation consoles, steadily counting down the time left until the water finally went over the roof of the world. Time to impact: twenty minutes.
Tregor put a hand on Arthur's arm. "I am sorry about your father, Arthur. He was a good friend and a good king. We have suffered heavier losses than we dreamed. The Italian Prime Minister also chose to stay with his people, and hundreds of other passengers simply did not make it."
"Does that mean there's extra space?" Merlin said, exchanging a glance with Arthur.
The ship's first officer overhead them. "No, I'm afraid not," she said, pausing on her way to the communications console. "Only four of the eight arks were completed in time, and then we lost Ark Three during the initial crust displacement."
Merlin looked sick. He stepped back and turned away to stare at the smaller monitors that showed each of the arks beginning to close their massive gates and lower the anchor supports that would hold the ships in place against the first impact of the waves.
Arthur turned to speak with the Canadian Prime Minister, Thomas Cenred, who had made his way around to pay his respects. They had just shaken hands when he heard Merlin cry out behind him.
"Arthur! There are people outside, they're rushing the ships!"
Everyone whirled around. "Put it up on the main screens, Lieutenant," Tregor ordered.
The screens flickered back to life, showing the outer view of Ark Four, the American ark, and the flood of people racing for the gate as it lifted. None of them made it.
"It's the people who were supposed to be on Ark Three," Cenred said. "My God, we just left them in the holding area."
"Poor bastards," Tregor muttered under her breath.
Merlin looked to Arthur. "They're right there, why can't they just lower the gate back down and let them on?"
"I don't know." Arthur stared back at him, helpless. They had saved so many, but now many times that number were trapped just outside, and he did not know what to do.
Aredian strode back onto the bridge just as the communications officer turned to look for him. "Captain, Ark Four is hailing us. They are requesting another conference with all world leaders."
The captain nodded, and the view screen switched to showing the bridges of Arks Four and Six. The conflict amongst the Americans was immediately apparent.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Dr. Adrian Helmsley, chief science advisor to the late President Wilson."
"Could you please turn up the volume, Mr. Hoffmann?" Tregor said, staring at the screen where Helmsley and Chief of Staff Anheuser faced each other across the bridge of the American ark.
Helmsley looked earnestly up at them. "I know we've all been forced to make difficult decisions to save our human civilization. But there's nothing human and nothing civilized about what we're doing here."
"Dr. Helmsley's passion is admirable," Anheuser snarled with a distinct lack of sincerity. "But I will remind you that we have very limited resources and extremely limited time."
"Arthur," Merlin whispered again, urgent in his ear.
"I know, Merlin," he hissed back as Helmsley continued his plea for humanity. He reached back and took Merlin's hand again. Fifteen minutes remained on the clock, but he already felt buffeted by crashing waves. He needed an anchor to remind him what was real and important.
"In order to save the human race, we have an obligation to stick to this plan," Anheuser was arguing. "Which every nation on this flotilla signed up for."
The argument devolved into shouting, and Arthur let go of Merlin to go watch the smaller monitors. He looked down at the mass of people weeping and pleading, though no one could hear them but God.
Arthur had no idea who these people were or where they had come from, whether they had paid for their tickets or been chosen by committee. But they were human beings, the last human beings, and for this moment, each of them was Arthur's subject.
He looked back at the screen as a woman stepped forward from behind Helmsley. Arthur recognized her as Laura Wilson, the daughter of the late American President. "If my father were here," she said simply, "he would open the gates."
Tregor turned away from the screen and in unspoken concord, the rest of them gathered around her, only heads of state except for Merlin silent at Arthur's elbow.
"We must let them in," Cenred said at once. "Dr. Helmsley is right. It is our human obligation."
"There is so little time," Bayard said, and Alined, his Spanish counterpart, nodded reluctant agreement. "We also have an obligation to the people already on board. This is a gamble, and if we lose, we lose everything."
Tregor turned to Arthur and raised her eyebrows. "Your Majesty?" she said, and they all turned to him.
He looked up over their heads to the screen where Helmsley and Anheuser waited for the verdict. He looked at Laura Wilson as he started slowly to speak. "If my father were here, he would say no. But whatever reign I have, I will not start it with an act of cruelty. I say yes."
Tregor smiled. "I thought you might say that. We've already managed a few more passengers. What's a few more on top of that?" She looked around at the others. One by one, they each nodded their agreement. Behind him, unseen, Merlin touched his back.
On the second screen, the Russian President was also stepping forward to speak for his ark. "The people of Russia, along with China and Japan, agree to open the gates."
Tregor spoke for them, and Arthur joined the others at her back. "The United Kingdom,
Spain, France, Canada, Germany--and I believe I may also speak for the Italian Prime Minister--we vote to let these people come in."
Helmsley turned away to give the orders. Merlin breathed a gusty sigh against Arthur's shoulder, and Arthur closed his eyes in equal relief. The gates opened again, and the last of humanity came aboard the arks.
"Close the gates," Aredian ordered as soon as the last of the passengers had crammed on board. "Five minutes to impact, people, move fast."
"Green lights across the board, Captain. Anchor supports are secure."
"Now we just wait," Arthur muttered. He stepped back away from the other heads of state to stand next to Merlin. By mutual accord, their fingers tangled together and clutched until it hurt.
"Four minutes," Merlin said. "Then it'll all be over, right?"
"One way or the other."
"Captain, Ark Four is reporting technical difficulties," Lieutenant Hoffmann said. "They can't close their gate."
"If they can't close the gate, they can't start their engines," Aredian said. "They'll be sitting ducks when the waves hit."
They watched in horror as the clock counted down the final minutes of the world. The American ship continued to sit with the gate ajar and engines silent.
"Waves spotted from the south and east," Aredian said quietly when thirty seconds remained. "Brace for impact."
Merlin braced himself against a wall, and Arthur braced himself against Merlin, uncaring what anyone might think of their arms around each other. In the end, after everything they had gone through, there was still no guarantee that any of them would make it past this.
Aredian watched the control displays while the rest of them watched the waves get closer until they loomed over the mountain. "Five," he said. "Four. Three. Two. One."
Then the ship shuddered and groaned with the force of the water crashing into steel and doing its best to rip it apart. The deck surged under their feet. Arthur tightened his arms around Merlin and closed his eyes.
He finally allowed himself to stop counting the seconds, standing in Merlin's embrace as the world came apart around them. Finally the ark stopped shaking.
"We're steady and intact," Aredian reported. "Ark Six reports the same."
Arthur lifted his head and stepped back, looking into Merlin's eyes, wide with the same fear that still pounded through Arthur's veins.
"What of Ark Four?" Tregor asked, only a trace of unsteadiness betraying her own fear.
"Waterborne, and still without engines," Lieutenant Hoffmann reported. "And heading fast toward the rock face."
"Everest," Aredian said darkly. "They won't clear the summit."
And for a horrifying moment, it seemed that Dr. Helmsley would pay too dearly for his compassion. The American ark sped toward the top of Everest. The bow scraped the crest, started to crumple against the rock--and then slowly the great ship pulled back as the engines finally came on.
A ragged cheer went up around the bridge. It was done. The end of the world was finally over.
***
Part 6
The jet got into the air through some piecemeal miracle of aeronautics, luck, and better teamwork than Arthur was comfortable acknowledging. He and Lancelot breathed a unified sigh of relief when the plane finally stabilized above the blackening cloud cover.
Arthur concentrated on the controls, though they had already set the autopilot for China. He fiddled with the video monitor, trying to get the satellite feed back. When it came on, there was no longer any commentary for the footage of Londoners running terrified through the crumbling streets. Arthur stared, compelled to watch in silent, horrified vigil.
After a minute, Lancelot cleared his throat. "I just wanted to say... thank you. For my life. I owe you more than I could ever hope to repay."
"For the truck or the ticket?" His words and tone were ungracious, but he was not sure he was ready for any camaraderie with Lancelot. It was not only the Merlin issue. He had been part of a team for years, and now two of them lay dead in the bleak landscape below. God only knew where the rest of them were.
"I appreciate both a great deal." Lancelot was silent for a moment, watching the image of people clinging to each other and praying in Hyde Park. "And I wanted to say-"
"Oh, please don’t." He had been hoping that Lancelot, as a fellow military man, would understand the benefits of stoic gratitude.
But Lancelot persevered. "If you offered it just to give me hope out there-or for Merlin’s sake-I would understand. There are others more deserving, one of the children, perhaps-"
"My God, is there no end to you?" Arthur stood up and pulled his headset off. "You deserve the ticket and you’ll use it. That is my final word on the subject."
At least the fellow had the human decency to look relieved. "Yes, Your Highness. Thank you. I would not want you to think-"
"I’m going back to check on our many unexpected passengers." Arthur jabbed his finger at the flight displays and then the video screen. "Keep an eye on that and that. Call me if anything goes... worse."
He ducked out of the cockpit without waiting for Lancelot’s acknowledgment. Right outside, Gwen and Merlin were sitting in silence. Merlin sat hunched in on himself while Gwen stared into space.
She blinked up at Arthur as he stepped over to them. "Sir."
"All right, Gwen?"
She blinked again, then nodded. "Yes, sir." She got to her feet. "Excuse me, sir, I should go see if anyone needs anything."
They all looked to be settled well enough from here, sitting further back in the plane. But he did not mind being left alone with Merlin, so he nodded and took her seat.
Merlin stayed hunched over as Arthur sat next to him. He wanted to put his hand on Merlin’s back, both to offer comfort and feel the solid warmth under his fingers.
He did not, and after another minute, Merlin finally straightened up. "I think I could sleep through the rest of Armageddon, if you let me," he said.
Arthur gave a faint smile. "When we make it to China, I promise you’ll have plenty of time to sleep. More than even you could want."
"I’m sure I’ll stay busy. I intend to make myself useful, earn my keep." Merlin tipped his head back and studied the ceiling. "The rest of my staff would be pretty useful, too, you know. Disaster is our specialty."
"Merlin."
"I know. I know you’ll do what you can." Which had not been at all what Arthur meant, but Merlin tilted his head toward him with a small smile. "I heard you talking to Lance. Thank you."
Arthur grunted. Merlin was the last person he was going to talk to about his reasons for that. "It was Morgana’s ticket. I don’t think she would argue with my choice on this, though God knows she argued about everything else."
Merlin smiled again, then moved his head back to resume his examination of the ceiling. "Do you think they’re all dead yet?"
"Who?"
"Everyone."
He thought about the scenes from home still being broadcast by the news crews who had nothing left to do but their jobs. "No, not yet."
"When?"
"I don’t know. When the arks go, I suppose. They were built in Tibet so that we’d be the last ones hit by the water. When that happens, there won’t be anyone left anywhere else."
Merlin’s throat worked as he gave a curt nod. They had never talked about any of this. Arthur had not really talked about it with anyone outside of formal, sterile briefings.
"I keep thinking about my year four teacher," Merlin said a few minutes later. "Is that strange? I haven’t seen her since I was nine."
"I don’t think we have any measure of strange for this sort of thing," Arthur replied, tipping his own head to rest against the bulkhead. "But if anyone could set the bar for it, Merlin, I would bet on you."
"It’s not anything in particular," Merlin went on as though Arthur had not spoken. "Just remembering her classroom, the way there was always chalk in the air, so she’d stop instruction to wave papers around and sneeze. Not that it would be like that now anyway."
"Yeah," Arthur said for lack of anything more profound. He understood perfectly, even if he could not put it into words any better than Merlin could.
Merlin stopped trying; Arthur felt it as a relief and a deprivation. He may not have known what to say to Merlin, but the silence was much heavier. Arthur fought not to get lost in it, until Merlin started talking again.
"I’m glad my mother’s dead." He turned his head away from Arthur. "That’s probably the most horrible thing anybody could say, but I’m so glad."
"I would have gotten her on the ships." His own vehemence surprised Arthur. He needed Merlin to believe it, even if Arthur was not certain himself what he could have done.
Merlin turned back to him with a little smile. Behind them, the smaller children were beginning to fuss and play, already bored by the apocalypse. The sound made Arthur’s chest tighten even as it visibly relaxed Merlin.
"I’m just glad she doesn’t have to see this, that she never had to know," Merlin said, then grinned as a shriek echoed in the big plane. "She’d have been great with the kids, though."
They both turned to watch as a little girl shrieked again and hit the boy next to her. Then she picked up the doll in her lap and hit him again. Arthur smiled and thought of Morgana with less pain than usual.
"Speaking of the continuation of the species." Merlin nudged Arthur in the side and nodded toward the open cockpit door. "Looks like someone’s getting a head start."
Arthur frowned and turned to follow the direction of Merlin’s gaze. He had not noticed when Gwen had slipped past them and gone into the cockpit. But there she was, sat sideways in his vacated seat, talking to Lancelot.
He could not see most of Lancelot from this angle-but he could see his hands, folded around Gwen’s. It was meant in comfort and reassurance, no doubt, but Arthur was a man. He knew a man did not touch someone the way Lancelot was touching Gwen unless he had another interest as well.
Next to him, Merlin gave a little chortle, as though seeing Lancelot touching someone else like that was of no consequence to him at all. Arthur whipped around to turn his appalled look on him. The laugh choked off in Merlin’s throat.
"Sorry, it’s too soon, I knew it," he stammered. "You know me, inappropriate. It’s laughter or full blown hysteria."
Arthur was already shaking his head. "That doesn’t bother you?" he demanded, jerking his head toward the cockpit.
Merlin stared at him blankly. "What?"
"That! Him!" Arthur waved an arm in angry emphasis, though he was not sure at whom he was angriest. He had given up the love of his life without a fight because he thought Merlin had found happiness with someone better than him. But Merlin-
Merlin was still looking at him like he had started foaming at the mouth. "What do I care if Lance has an apocalypse affair? Unless you-Gwen-"
"I assure you, I have never had any interest in Guinevere’s romantic life," Arthur snapped. In fact, for most of the time he had known her, he had not even considered the possibility she might have one. She was simply there, a constant in the backdrop of the royal world.
"Then what-wait, what?" Merlin’s puzzled look turned to a glare. "You thought I was cheating on you? With Lance? Really? With Lance?"
Arthur’s entire face was burning. "No. I didn’t think you were unfaithful while we were together."
"You just thought I left you. For Lance." Merlin’s glare turned to a smirk. "Relentlessly heterosexual Lance."
"He didn’t look that heterosexual to me," Arthur muttered, mortification undercut by a peculiar buoyancy.
"Yeah, that royal gaydar is really sharp. When did you have it installed, the Victorian Era?"
He looked away, jaw clenching. "Merlin."
"Arthur." Merlin’s chin brushed Arthur’s shoulder and rested there for a moment. "It was never you that I left."
He did not answer, just swallowed and stared at Lancelot’s hands still cradling Guinevere’s. It occurred to him for the first time that letting Merlin go might have been more stupid than noble. Except that he had never had a choice: Lancelot or no Lancelot, fighting to keep Merlin would have lost him forever, and Arthur had known it even then.
"Though I can’t quite figure how it would be more of a balm to your overstuffed ego to believe I ran off with another man than for my work." Merlin sounded bemused, contemplative.
"It’s different," Arthur said, petulant. It was both better and worse, to think that Merlin had still loved him even as he left. He could not even resent it any longer--he would not have loved Merlin so much without the part that had taken him away from Arthur.
"Royalty’s always a bit different," Merlin said. His voice was still light, but his eyes were closed, and his face held the same pain Arthur had been harbouring for years. It gave him a weird hope to see it. Merlin had loved him then; he might still.
Arthur started to turn his head away, but a gleam of gold caught his eye from Merlin's collar. Merlin never wore jewellery. On impulse, Arthur reached up a hand and pulled the chain out from Merlin's collar. His blood pounded in his ears as his fingers traced the love token he had given Merlin in the last minutes of their relationship.
Gently, he tucked the pendant back under Merlin's shirt without looking at his face.
He sat very still in the silence that followed, listening to Merlin breathe and waiting for him to say something. He might as well have been a little girl, plucking the petals off a daisy. He could not have been more disgusted with himself until Merlin’s fingers squeezed around his hand, damp and bony, and did not let go.
He waited, not moving, until he was sure Merlin was not going to move. "I know I promised you time to sleep when we get to the ark," he said stiffly when Merlin’s hand remained latched to his. "But maybe we could find some time. To talk."
Merlin turned to look at him, oddly exasperated even as he wound his fingers tighter around Arthur’s. Arthur started to smile even as Merlin started to speak.
"Sir! Arthur!"
Both their heads jerked toward the cockpit at Gwen’s cry, and Arthur reflexively pulled his hand away. He felt a fleeting urge to apologize, but his confusion over what he should or should not be doing with Merlin was shunted aside by the distress in Gwen’s voice as she called his name again.
"Your Highness, hurry," Lance’s voice echoed after. "The King is making an address."
Arthur jolted out of his seat at that and was at the cockpit door in three long strides. He had not known that Uther’s plane had the capability of broadcasting from the air, but he should not be surprised Uther had planned to address his people one last time.
Gwen and Lance were hunched over the small video monitor. Arthur bent over their shoulders, Merlin close behind him.
"-test the strength and courage of the British people like nothing in our history," Uther was saying on the monitor. "Of all the eras of history, I fear God has given to us the darkest burden."
His voice was broken up by occasional bursts of static, but the image was clear enough for Arthur to see the familiar bookcases behind his father. He frowned in momentary disorientation at the bust of Caesar that he had found intimidating as a child and ironic as an adult, there just to the right of Uther’s head. The text in the lower third read, "Live from Buckingham Palace," although that obviously could not be true. Uther had to have left hours ago.
"Oh, Arthur," Merlin breathed against his neck, one hand gripping at his waist.
"As we gaze into that darkness, I stand beside you in honour of all who have come before us. And yes, all who will come after us as well." Uther bowed his head for a moment before he looked back into the camera.
As Arthur met his father’s eyes, everything crashed into place. Uther was not on a plane. "No," he said stupidly. "Father!"
"For know that although all hope seems lost, this world and this nation will endure. Many have already given their lives to make sure of this, including my own beloved daughter."
Uther’s image began to shake, not due to the transmission. The king’s composure also looked shaken for a brief, human moment before he regained himself.
"This is not the final hour," he said. "I entrust Britain now to my heir, the only son of my body and heart. To him is given the worse task: to carry on the trust of his people and lead them out of this darkness. Whatever faith you find tonight, put it in him."
Gwen and Lancelot pulled back out of the way as Arthur bent over the monitor, hands gripping either side of it as if he could pull it from the console and pull his father to safety at the same time. "No, you promised," he said, though he was realizing that Uther had done no such thing.
The shaking grew more intense. Uther looked to the side for a moment, then drew a deep breath. "Arthur, my son, forgive me-"
And in the space of that breath, Arthur saw everything he had ever longed to see in his father’s eyes. All the pride, joy, and love Arthur had worked to gain his entire life but never dared to ask for-and then the picture went sideways. The screen went black.
The scream caught and died in his throat without voice. Slowly he straightened up, aware of the eyes on him, though he could not look at them. Merlin’s hand was an anchor on his back until it fell away, leaving him alone in the rarefied cold. He could hear Gwen’s breath hitching with repressed sobs. He could hear them echoed in his own head.
His father was gone. Britain was gone.
"Le roi est mort," Lancelot murmured into the silence.
Arthur wanted to punch him, but it seemed to help Gwen pull herself together. She set her shoulders and her jaw, then slowly pushed herself to her feet. Lance leaned over to offer his hand, but she ignored his help.
"The king is dead," she said with formal deliberation, the closest thing they had to a government official. "Long live the king."
She bowed her head, and Merlin did as well, the best obeisance they could accomplish in the confines of the cockpit. Even Lancelot managed to get a knee up on his seat and give Arthur a respectful nod.
Arthur accepted it with a tiny lift of his chin. Then he gently eased Gwen out of his way so he could take the pilot seat again. As he reached for the headset, Lancelot fiddled with his own headset, then stiffened with surprise.
"Your High-Your Majesty, another plane is hailing us," he said. "It’s a passenger jet out of Jakarta. They’ve seen tsunamis in the Indian Ocean from the air. They don’t know where to go."
Strangely, that was the easiest question of Arthur’s day. He had no subjects, but he was still a king. "Give them the coordinates for Cho Ming," he said. "Tell them to follow me."
***
By the time they reached Tibet, they had accrued an airborne caravan of lost passenger jets stranded in the air as human civilization was quietly snuffed out below them. Word had spread from the first plane until everyone within radio distance knew that there was someone who knew where to go. With every plane that appeared out of the deceptively blue sky, Arthur’s jaw set a little harder.
As they flew over the Indian coast line, Lancelot let out a strangled gasp. Arthur looked out the front windscreen and saw nothing - until he realized that the coast line was moving inward, keeping pace with them. His insides turned to ice as his eyes focused on the massive tsunami below. This was how Britain had died, and now they were racing the water to the last point of temporary refuge.
"Merlin," he called softly back into the plane.
Merlin appeared at his shoulder. "You need something, Arthur? I couldn’t find any of those little bags of peanuts, but maybe one of the other planes could toss some through the hatch."
Arthur shook his head. "I just need you to keep the children away from the windows for a little while, all right?"
"What-oh, God," Merlin said, looking out before Arthur could tell him not to. His hand clamped down on Arthur’s shoulder, then relaxed as Merlin took a ragged breath. "Right. No windows."
After a while, the water faded into the distance behind them at last. Lancelot breathed a heavy sigh of relief, and Arthur echoed him in his mind. This was not the wave that would end the world, not yet.
They had a little peace and quiet after that, broken only by the drone of the engines and the laughter of the children as Merlin and Gwen kept them distracted. Dusk was falling as they crossed into China, the end of the last day and deceptively peaceful.
Then a flotilla of Chinese military helicopters moved in from the west, joining their course but keeping a fair distance. One of them broke away from the group to buzz the jets until Arthur had identified himself to the pilot’s satisfaction.
A burst of gleeful squeals came from the back of the plane just as the nosy helicopter moved off. A moment later Merlin reappeared in the cockpit. "Arthur, Lance, did you see the helicopters?"
"Yes, we saw them," Arthur said. "I thought I told you to keep them from looking out the windows."
Merlin bent over and pointed so that Arthur had no choice but to look in the direction of Merlin’s finger. "No, I said, did you see the helicopters?" Merlin said low in his ear.
Arthur looked closer at one of the helicopters-and just as Lancelot took a sharp, delighted breath, Arthur saw it, too.
Below the chopper, hanging in a careful sling, was a giraffe.
He looked at the helicopter next to it-an elephant waved its trunk in the wind, trumpeting as though filling in for Gabriel.
"I forgot," he breathed in awe. Of course he had known of the large cadre of scientists that formed the zoological subtask of the project, but that had been far from Arthur’s area of expertise. But they had obviously done their jobs to ensure that humans were not the only species that would continue.
The choppers moved steadily ahead of them until they vanished into the growing darkness of the Himalayas. It was not far now.
They set down at the vast airfield just outside Cho Ming, a few kilometres from the mountain dam where the arks had been built. As Arthur checked in with the other pilots, he watched Chinese soldiers race out to meet the planes, then stare around from jet to jet as confused civilians began stumbling out. He could not help a small grin as his geared-up fight reflexes kicked up his heart rate.
Merlin had already gathered together his flock, which appeared much more reasonable in size when compared to what was gathering outside. Arthur still could not resist stopping in front of Merlin and raising his eyebrows.
In response, Merlin lifted his chin up in stubborn challenge, though his eyes showed only a hint of uncertainty underneath a fair amount of wry amusement. Arthur just shook his head and moved down the ramp, leading the first part of his ragtag band out into the thin, icy air of the Himalayas.
The Chinese soldiers had been joined by a scattering of Western officials, all of them trying to corral the growing crowd of agitated refugees into some kind of order. At the edge of the crowd, Arthur spotted Leon, who had come to meet them but now stood watching the chaos with his usual unflappable aplomb.
Arthur started towards him, but a Chinese colonel stepped in his path with a respectful but harried nod. "Sir. Welcome to Cho Ming. We have been expecting your party." He took a furtive glance over Arthur's shoulder, and his professional demeanour showed a hairline crack. "But who are all these people?"
Soldiers were soldiers the world over. Arthur knew how to deal with them.
"These people are my party," he said. "Have the baggage unloaded from all the planes and bring it to Ark Seven. Work fast, there's no time to waste."
He strode forward without waiting for a response, trailing Merlin, Gwen, Lancelot, and everyone else behind him. The four red boarding cards had once been a reassuring weight, secure in the inside of his jacket. Now they felt insubstantial against the task at hand. He had no intention of pulling them out at all now.
"Your Majesty, thank God you are safe," Leon said as Arthur approached.
"Leon." Arthur clasped his friend's hand, grateful for his presence and the fact that he would not have to be the one to deliver the news of Uther's fate.
"Hi, Leon," Merlin interjected from behind Arthur, out of turn but forgivably chuffed at seeing a friendly face.
Leon nodded to him, then his eyes flicked beyond them. "And thank God, all your... other companions have also arrived safely."
"I think we should get them transported to the mountain as quickly as possible."
"Agreed. I think we’ll need more helicopters."
In the end it took every helicopter they had, in multiple trips, to ferry everyone to the next stage of the journey. Arthur stayed until the last chopper, despite Leon’s unsubtle efforts to get him secured as quickly as possible. It would take a royal bully to get this done, and Arthur was the only one qualified for the job.
Leon had gone ahead of them, and from the air Arthur could see him packing people onto the shuttle trams that would take them the final leg to the ark. In the chaos of thousands of people rushing to each of the arks, no one spared a glance to Leon’s work.
As they stepped out into the industrial cathedral of Cho Ming dam, Arthur captured Merlin’s hand again and kept a firm lock on him. He had read the statistics on how many Chinese workers had fallen to their deaths in the cracks between the great ships and the platforms. He had not gone through all of this just to have Merlin trip and go flailing his way down into the earth now.
"My God," Gwen breathed, distracted and staggered by the vast space. Lancelot nodded in agreement at her shoulder. They could see the arks now, towering in the near distance, humankind’s most important engineering achievement.
Merlin tried to pull his hand free, but Arthur was using it to tow him into the last empty tram car after Gwen and Lancelot. Leon joined them as Arthur pulled Merlin down into the seat next to him. He was finally starting to look mildly harried.
"Everyone is on the way, sir," he said as the tram whirred into motion. "But getting to the ark and getting onto the ark may be very different things."
"Understood," Arthur replied. "Will there be space for them?"
"Space we have," Leon said, with barely a hint of his wish that Arthur had bothered to ask that question before all this. "Although comfort may be lacking, even if people can be prevailed upon to share staterooms."
"Which may be difficult, given what they paid for them," Arthur muttered.
"Why? How much did they pay?" Merlin asked.
"One billion euros per person," Leon responded before Arthur could stop him.
Merlin choked as he turned an incredulous gaze on Arthur. "You paid a billion euros for me?"
"Don’t be ridiculous, Merlin, I don’t have a billion euros," Arthur said and tried not to think about what Uther had done to get four times that sum. "Leon, as long as we can get them on the ark and feed them, people will make room. I’ll give them my stateroom if it’ll help."
Leon cast one brief flicker of a glance down at Arthur’s hand-the hand Arthur had forgotten was still clutching Merlin’s. "Yes, sir," Leon said. "I thought you might lead by example."
"Arthur, what are you doing?" Merlin whispered. It might have sounded like a protest, except for the way Merlin was returning the fierce grip on his hand.
"Beginning my reign the way I mean to continue," Arthur said, for even if he was wrong that Merlin still returned his feelings, Arthur did not intend to begin a new life inside an old lie.
Leon cleared his throat. "Sir, there is still the matter of boarding."
"Yes." As the tram came to a stop in front of Ark Seven, Arthur finally released Merlin’s hand and stood up. "Leave that part to me."
They were milling around in front of the boarding ramp when he stepped out, all of his many people. On the ramp itself stood a single figure, blocking the way. Arthur’s heart sank when he recognized the man’s face: Aredian, an old school chum and military comrade of his father. Arthur had never liked him--and he had forgotten that Uther had gotten Aredian commissioned as captain of the Commonwealth ark.
Aredian drew himself up as Arthur pushed through the crowd. "Your Majesty, welcome to Ark Seven. Please accept my sincere condolences about your father."
"A great loss to us all," Arthur replied stiffly. "Though not the greatest any of us have suffered today."
"Did you have any idea he would do such a thing?" Aredian looked grave, but his mouth curved in a way that made Arthur’s skin crawl.
"My father always did his duty to his people." Arthur took a step closer to Aredian, signalling his intent to move past him. "As shall I."
"And I as well, Your Majesty." Aredian did not move aside, but held up a hand as he surveyed the people behind Arthur. "As part of my duty, of course, I know the ship’s manifest by heart."
"Do you."
"Your Majesty is, of course, welcome to board at your leisure. I assume this young man is Dr. Emrys, who also holds a boarding pass. As does Dr. Mburu and the lovely Miss Smith. I do not know the young man with her, but am I correct in assuming he now holds the ticket of the late Lady Morgana?"
Arthur took another step forward, forcing Aredian to shuffle a step back, though not enough to free the gangway. "He boards at my word. As do the rest of my party."
Aredian looked slightly take aback by the steel in Arthur’s voice and backed up another step. "I’m afraid no one else may board without showing a valid boarding pass. That is the law."
"I am the law," Arthur said with full regal, if not legal, authority. "I am King Arthur, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and this is my ark. If it is my royal prerogative that these people board, then you will board them."
He did not know what Aredian saw in his face, but it made the captain's throat bob. He tried to take another step away, only to realize that Arthur had backed him at an angle to the edge of the ramp. Behind him was only the long drop between ark and rock into the depths of the agitated earth.
"Your Majesty," he said shakily. "Please understand my position."
"I do. Your position seems to be a choice between your life and your manifest," Arthur said conversationally. "I assure you, you do not want to leave the choice to me."
Aredian had been used to dealing with the Prince, not the King. He stared at Arthur for another heartbeat, then finally jerked his head in assent. "Of course, Your Majesty. We will board your party at once."
"Damn right you will," Merlin chimed in from Arthur's right. He had not realized Merlin had come to stand so close at Arthur's side. "And get them some hot towels. And some of those little bags of peanuts."
"Merlin," Arthur said wearily, then shoved Merlin ahead of them onto the ark.
Behind them came Leon, then Gwen and Lancelot and Ector and the rest of the MSF group and the airline passengers. By the time Arthur had reached the back of the long gate area, the refugees had become their own tidal wave that Aredian at his worst could not have stopped, though true to his word, the captain remained on duty at the ramp and saw every one of the unexpected passengers onto the ship.
"I'll get them settled somewhere, sir." Leon eyed the teeming mass of people with equal parts satisfaction and trepidation once they were all finally aboard.
"We'll help," Gwen put in, Lancelot nodding beside her. They looked at Arthur with identical expressions of awe. "That was amazing, sir."
"Very well done, Arthur," Merlin added soft in his ear. Arthur could feel the warmth against the metallic chill of the ship.
Aredian was making his way back toward Arthur when he stopped and put his hand to his ear, listening to something through his earpiece. His expression turned grimmer, and he began pushing his way faster through the crowd.
"Your Majesty, I need to get you to the bridge at once," he said when he reached them. "We’re launching immediately."
"What?" Arthur said, checking his watch. "We should have another hour and a half. What happened?"
"The American scientists discovered a second tsunami heading towards us." Aredian looked at his own watch, which showed the official countdown. "We have no more than a half hour now, probably less. The Chief of Staff recommended weighing anchor at once, and the heads of state aboard all the arks have agreed. Leon, get him up there."
Merlin stayed by his side as Leon led Arthur a few metres down a corridor to a lift that opened when Leon scanned a card. "This will take you up to the bridge," Leon said. "The other heads of state are already there."
"Good." Arthur stepped onto the lift and Merlin stepped in beside him as certainly as if he had been invited. "I wanted to speak with Geoffrey."
That made Leon hesitate and hold the doors open. "I'm sorry, I assumed you had heard. I'm afraid the Prime Minister and the Cabinet did not make it. Their plane went down when Mount Etna erupted."
"What? Fuck."
Leon gave him a gentle look. "It's up to you now to speak for the people of Great Britain, sir."
The lift doors closed before Arthur could protest that nobody had ever voted for him for anything more than Britain's most eligible bachelor. As the lift began to rise, Merlin looked at him with simpleminded confidence. The knot that had started to loosen in his chest tightened up again as the lift doors opened onto the bridge.
The chancellor of Germany, Katrina Tregor, was the first to spot them as they walked toward the knot of European leaders and ark officers gathered around the nerve centre of the ship. She turned to embrace him, kissing each of his cheeks in a rare display of affection, though she had known him for many years. "Arthur, my young king. I'm glad you're here. That Aredian was starting to get unbearable."
"Don't worry, Arthur already put him in his place," Merlin answered for him.
Before Arthur could kick him, Tregor gave him a sharp look. "I like you," she said. "Who are you?"
"Chancellor, this is Dr. Merlin Emrys," Arthur said. "My good friend."
"A doctor," she said, shaking Merlin's hand. "We may need more of those than we had planned. This entire situation has gone completely to hell."
"And about to get worse," the French President, Claude Bayard, muttered as Arthur joined them at the central console. They all looked up at the large digital clock displayed over the navigation consoles, steadily counting down the time left until the water finally went over the roof of the world. Time to impact: twenty minutes.
Tregor put a hand on Arthur's arm. "I am sorry about your father, Arthur. He was a good friend and a good king. We have suffered heavier losses than we dreamed. The Italian Prime Minister also chose to stay with his people, and hundreds of other passengers simply did not make it."
"Does that mean there's extra space?" Merlin said, exchanging a glance with Arthur.
The ship's first officer overhead them. "No, I'm afraid not," she said, pausing on her way to the communications console. "Only four of the eight arks were completed in time, and then we lost Ark Three during the initial crust displacement."
Merlin looked sick. He stepped back and turned away to stare at the smaller monitors that showed each of the arks beginning to close their massive gates and lower the anchor supports that would hold the ships in place against the first impact of the waves.
Arthur turned to speak with the Canadian Prime Minister, Thomas Cenred, who had made his way around to pay his respects. They had just shaken hands when he heard Merlin cry out behind him.
"Arthur! There are people outside, they're rushing the ships!"
Everyone whirled around. "Put it up on the main screens, Lieutenant," Tregor ordered.
The screens flickered back to life, showing the outer view of Ark Four, the American ark, and the flood of people racing for the gate as it lifted. None of them made it.
"It's the people who were supposed to be on Ark Three," Cenred said. "My God, we just left them in the holding area."
"Poor bastards," Tregor muttered under her breath.
Merlin looked to Arthur. "They're right there, why can't they just lower the gate back down and let them on?"
"I don't know." Arthur stared back at him, helpless. They had saved so many, but now many times that number were trapped just outside, and he did not know what to do.
Aredian strode back onto the bridge just as the communications officer turned to look for him. "Captain, Ark Four is hailing us. They are requesting another conference with all world leaders."
The captain nodded, and the view screen switched to showing the bridges of Arks Four and Six. The conflict amongst the Americans was immediately apparent.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Dr. Adrian Helmsley, chief science advisor to the late President Wilson."
"Could you please turn up the volume, Mr. Hoffmann?" Tregor said, staring at the screen where Helmsley and Chief of Staff Anheuser faced each other across the bridge of the American ark.
Helmsley looked earnestly up at them. "I know we've all been forced to make difficult decisions to save our human civilization. But there's nothing human and nothing civilized about what we're doing here."
"Dr. Helmsley's passion is admirable," Anheuser snarled with a distinct lack of sincerity. "But I will remind you that we have very limited resources and extremely limited time."
"Arthur," Merlin whispered again, urgent in his ear.
"I know, Merlin," he hissed back as Helmsley continued his plea for humanity. He reached back and took Merlin's hand again. Fifteen minutes remained on the clock, but he already felt buffeted by crashing waves. He needed an anchor to remind him what was real and important.
"In order to save the human race, we have an obligation to stick to this plan," Anheuser was arguing. "Which every nation on this flotilla signed up for."
The argument devolved into shouting, and Arthur let go of Merlin to go watch the smaller monitors. He looked down at the mass of people weeping and pleading, though no one could hear them but God.
Arthur had no idea who these people were or where they had come from, whether they had paid for their tickets or been chosen by committee. But they were human beings, the last human beings, and for this moment, each of them was Arthur's subject.
He looked back at the screen as a woman stepped forward from behind Helmsley. Arthur recognized her as Laura Wilson, the daughter of the late American President. "If my father were here," she said simply, "he would open the gates."
Tregor turned away from the screen and in unspoken concord, the rest of them gathered around her, only heads of state except for Merlin silent at Arthur's elbow.
"We must let them in," Cenred said at once. "Dr. Helmsley is right. It is our human obligation."
"There is so little time," Bayard said, and Alined, his Spanish counterpart, nodded reluctant agreement. "We also have an obligation to the people already on board. This is a gamble, and if we lose, we lose everything."
Tregor turned to Arthur and raised her eyebrows. "Your Majesty?" she said, and they all turned to him.
He looked up over their heads to the screen where Helmsley and Anheuser waited for the verdict. He looked at Laura Wilson as he started slowly to speak. "If my father were here, he would say no. But whatever reign I have, I will not start it with an act of cruelty. I say yes."
Tregor smiled. "I thought you might say that. We've already managed a few more passengers. What's a few more on top of that?" She looked around at the others. One by one, they each nodded their agreement. Behind him, unseen, Merlin touched his back.
On the second screen, the Russian President was also stepping forward to speak for his ark. "The people of Russia, along with China and Japan, agree to open the gates."
Tregor spoke for them, and Arthur joined the others at her back. "The United Kingdom,
Spain, France, Canada, Germany--and I believe I may also speak for the Italian Prime Minister--we vote to let these people come in."
Helmsley turned away to give the orders. Merlin breathed a gusty sigh against Arthur's shoulder, and Arthur closed his eyes in equal relief. The gates opened again, and the last of humanity came aboard the arks.
"Close the gates," Aredian ordered as soon as the last of the passengers had crammed on board. "Five minutes to impact, people, move fast."
"Green lights across the board, Captain. Anchor supports are secure."
"Now we just wait," Arthur muttered. He stepped back away from the other heads of state to stand next to Merlin. By mutual accord, their fingers tangled together and clutched until it hurt.
"Four minutes," Merlin said. "Then it'll all be over, right?"
"One way or the other."
"Captain, Ark Four is reporting technical difficulties," Lieutenant Hoffmann said. "They can't close their gate."
"If they can't close the gate, they can't start their engines," Aredian said. "They'll be sitting ducks when the waves hit."
They watched in horror as the clock counted down the final minutes of the world. The American ship continued to sit with the gate ajar and engines silent.
"Waves spotted from the south and east," Aredian said quietly when thirty seconds remained. "Brace for impact."
Merlin braced himself against a wall, and Arthur braced himself against Merlin, uncaring what anyone might think of their arms around each other. In the end, after everything they had gone through, there was still no guarantee that any of them would make it past this.
Aredian watched the control displays while the rest of them watched the waves get closer until they loomed over the mountain. "Five," he said. "Four. Three. Two. One."
Then the ship shuddered and groaned with the force of the water crashing into steel and doing its best to rip it apart. The deck surged under their feet. Arthur tightened his arms around Merlin and closed his eyes.
He finally allowed himself to stop counting the seconds, standing in Merlin's embrace as the world came apart around them. Finally the ark stopped shaking.
"We're steady and intact," Aredian reported. "Ark Six reports the same."
Arthur lifted his head and stepped back, looking into Merlin's eyes, wide with the same fear that still pounded through Arthur's veins.
"What of Ark Four?" Tregor asked, only a trace of unsteadiness betraying her own fear.
"Waterborne, and still without engines," Lieutenant Hoffmann reported. "And heading fast toward the rock face."
"Everest," Aredian said darkly. "They won't clear the summit."
And for a horrifying moment, it seemed that Dr. Helmsley would pay too dearly for his compassion. The American ark sped toward the top of Everest. The bow scraped the crest, started to crumple against the rock--and then slowly the great ship pulled back as the engines finally came on.
A ragged cheer went up around the bridge. It was done. The end of the world was finally over.
***
Part 6