Obstacles
by Soledad
Disclaimer: Arthur, Merlin and the other characters belong to the BBC. I'm just borrowing them to have some fun. No copyright infringement intended, no money made.
Part Two
After returning to Camelot, Agravaine had to turn his attention to his tasks as the Vice-Regent of the realm. Not that they had been too onerous – after all, he had a lot of practice in running a tight household, and keeping things on the roll in Camelot was different in magnitude only. But there was a lot to do, there were quite a few people to talk to and half a dozen documents to read through and sign. Even if those documents had been set up by Arthur and Master Geoffrey, originally.
Thus it was in the late afternoon when he could finally leave the King's study in search for Guinevere. Unsurprisingly, he found her in Uther's chambers. She spent there most of her time in Arthur's absence – when she was not helping Gaius with something.
Agravaine entered the King's antechamber quietly and waited, leaning against a sturdy oak table, for Guinevere to come out of Uther's bedchamber. From his vantage point, he could hear her feed the broken man white lies about Arthur being on a hunting trip and returning soon. It was… interesting to hear, and it gave him food for some thought.
Uther's dependence on his son in his current, fragile state of mind was promising, to say the least. It meant that as soon as Arthur had managed to die heroically for Camelot, Uther would follow, making the way free for Morgana. And since there was no-one else of the Pendragon bloodline, people would accept her, for the lack of any other solution. She might not have made herself very popular during her short reign – still, even those who had suffered losses due to her vengeful acts would prefer a Pendragon to some foreign conqueror.
With Uther and Arthur gone, there would be very few remaining obstacles; very few people who could still bring up the peasants against Morgana. Gaius was one of those, but Gaius was an old man, and old men suffered unfortunate accidents all the time.
The most faithful knights would hopefully die in Arthur's defence on this mad quest of theirs; if not, they would be easily dealt with. Most of them were commoners anyway, in blatant disregard of the Laws of Camelot; no-one would shed a tear after them.
The boy Merlin, should he survive, due to the unexplainable luck of all half-wits, would be summarily executed for having poisoned Morgana all those years ago. Agravaine knew about that, and he knew that Morgana had not forgotten, nor forgiven the boy for it.
He whole-heartedly agreed. Peasants should not be allowed to raise their hand against royalty; and if they did, one had to make sure they wouldn't get another chance.
That left him with Guinevere and her insolent ways to defy her betters. Yes, she might manage to create an insurrection in the lower town. Agravaine was determined not to take that chance. He needed to remove that last obstacle from Morgana's way to the throne; and the funny thing was he didn't even need to arrange for an unfortunate encounter between her and the Dorocha for that.
All he needed to do was to discredit her in the eyes of the people. If Morgana wanted her dead, that could still be arranged later.
He wiped the dark smirk from his face in a hurry when he saw Guinevere emerge from the King's bedchamber. He straightened and stepped away from the table to intercept her.
"Your devotion to the King is most impressive," he said with a benevolent smile.
Guinevere startled, not having spotted him before; her face took on a somewhat petulant expression that, frankly, made her look dumb.
"I do it for Arthur… I mean, for Prince Arthur," she corrected herself hurriedly, belatedly realizing that it was unseeming for a lowly servant to speak of the Prince Regent of the realm in such an overly familiar manner.
Agravaine's smile never faltered. "Even so; considering that your father was executed by the King's orders for being in league with a sorcerer…"
"My father was innocent!" she protested vehemently. "That sorcerer misled him! He would never harm the King… or anyone!"
"Of course not," Agravaine's features started hurting from the constant smiling; and at such a simple wench at that! "But that's not why I sought you out. There is something I would like to discuss."
Guinevere looked up at him warily. She might have been a mere serving girl without any kind of education, but she was shrewd and manipulative enough to realize when she was being manipulated, so he had to thread carefully.
"I wish to apologise," he continued, with as much honesty as he could muster, while the only thing he truly wanted was to threw her in the stocks, preferably without clothes to cover her shame, or have her flayed alive. "Yesterday… I feel I let the Prince down."
That earned him a condescending half-smirk from the little upstart, and he had to grit his teeth for a moment before he could continue.
"I'm grateful that you spoke out. Your… intervention spared me a grave mistake."
"I did not mean to be discourteous, my lord," she answered with false modesty, and it took Agravaine all his considerable willpower not to backhand her with a force that would send her flying across the antechamber and crashing into the opposite wall.
Not meant to be discourteous indeed! He'd had servants flogged to the death for far less insolence!
But this was the little slattern that had bewitched the Prince Regent, so he had to be careful. For some reason, a lot of people seemed to like her, and as long as Arthur still lived, she'd be dangerous. Morgana had seen that better, he realized.
"Well, you weren't," he said with a benevolence that was every bit as false as her so-called modesty. "Not in the least."
He paused, gauging her reaction before risking his next step.
"Guinevere, if you would permit, I would be grateful to seek your advice," there was doubt and suspicion flickering across her face, so he hurriedly added. "You understand the people; better than I can ever hope to do. You are one of them. You know how they think, what they feel. You can help me with that."
That seemed to be the right thing to say, if her self-satisfied little smirk was any indication.
"I'm not sure I…" she began demurely, but he interrupted.
"If nothing else, I know you'll be honest with me."
Which was a nice euphemism for stupid and rude, but seeing how her smirk deepened, she clearly didn't realize that. He stepped closer to her, calling up all that worldly charm that had always helped to get whatever serving wench had caught his temporary fancy into his bed.
"It's not appropriate to talk here and now," he said with a glance in the direction of Uther's bedchamber. "But… perhaps this evening you could come to my chambers."
Her eyes widened almost comically at that. She took a deep breath, which nearly caused her breasts to escape the too tight confinement of her bodice; she had certainly done her best to make her womanly charms noticeable in the manner of the court ladies. Agravaine's eyes were caught by the walling of said charms for a moment; then he mentally chastised himself for being so easily distracted.
"Please, Guinevere," he added in his best persuasive manner. "These are dark times. I'm going to need help if I am to guide us through them."
She actually bought it! She honestly seemed to believe that a lord of the realm, twice her age and so far above her both in rank and in experience as the mountains, would, in any way, need her limited insights in order to rule as Vice-Regent of Camelot. Was she merely stupid or did she suffer from delusions of grandeur, just because the Prince was in lust with her?
Agravaine wished Arthur had simply bedded her right at the beginning. Since then, the novelty would have worn out already and the young Prince would have tossed her back to the moat where he had found her. That would have meant one obstacle less for him; she certainly wasn't worth the effort. But since the Brat Prince actually believed to be in love with her, Agravaine was forced to deal with the unfortunate affair himself.
Arthur might survive the quest, against all hope. His luck was legendary, and Agravaine needed to have a plan ready for that unlikely turn, too. Should the Prince survive, he would have to be kept from foolishly marrying his little wench.
Until he, too, could be dealt with properly – and irrevocably.
The girl, of course, had no idea what kind of game was being played with her as one of the pawns. She was basking in satisfaction over her newly won "importance". Enough to become careless.
"Very well," she said with a magnanimous smile. "I'll come."
Agravaine bowed deeply. He needed a moment to arrange his features into a smarmy smile. "Thank you."
Guinevere smiled at him benignly, which was more than what he could take. He turned around and hurried to leave, nearly knocking Gaius over on his way out.
~TBC~