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Chapter Six
When Merlin grew stronger, he told the servants taking care of him that he no longer wanted or needed the sleeping draught in the evenings. Daegan had no objection and it was discontinued. An unhappy consequence of this was that Merlin found himself waking after midnight, unable to get back to sleep. He was homesick and depressed, tormenting himself with the thought that Gaius had taken a new assistant, one using his room and sleeping in his bed. He imagined also that Arthur had a new servant and had ceased even thinking about him or wondering where he was. Servants no longer sat with him through the night so he felt free to indulge himself in bouts of self pity, telling himself that people had long since stopped searching for him and had gone on with their lives.
The older woman who had become his primary caretaker was aware of his depression and told Daegan about it. The upshot of it was that Daegan rethought his decision to keep Justin and Merlin apart. He knew at some point that the artisan would return to Camelot and Prince Arthur would be told where his missing servant was, but Justin, perfectionist that he was, was weeks away from finishing. Daegan had no way of knowing that Arthur would find out his servant's location by other means.
~§~
"Arthur is tearing the kingdom apart looking for you," Justin said.
"He is?" Merlin said, happily. The words were balm to his wounded soul.
"And," the gray-eyed man continued, "he's been quarreling with everyone - the knights, his father….."
Daegan and Lachlan had accompanied the warlock earlier to the main dining hall where Justin was working, unsure if he could find it on his own and knowing he was not yet back to full strength. The dark-haired young man had cheered up considerably upon finding a friend at Drachenfels. Daegan had stood for a while at the entrance idly watching them then studying the progress of the gryphon. Lord Torr had been a fool, he thought, letting thirty years pass before acknowledging his only child. He was pleased by the thought that Justin's presence here was almost surely infuriating the noble.
~§~
The woman, ancient in years, poured herself some tea, then set the pot carefully back down. Her face was deeply lined, white hair wound and pinned in a chignon on the back of her head. The king - no, prince, she corrected herself, Uther still lived - would be arriving this morning. She had seen him in her mind's eye, riding with two of his knights as she had lain awake in the night. Reluctantly leaving her warm bed for the chill of the early morning, she had built up the fire in the grate and gone about her morning chores, pulling her long fringed shawl more tightly about her shoulders.
She wondered if he knew she had helped King Alined capture him to stop the stars from falling.
~§~
The three riders reined to a halt. They found themselves surrounded on all sides by forest, the narrow trail they'd been following having played out. The peregrine falcon, cream-colored with gray markings, had flown up into a nearby tree and sat there regarding them with dark eyes.
"I'm betting that this woman doesn't get many visitors," Gwaine grumbled, "living as she does at the back of the north wind."
The three of them glanced up at the raptor. It seemed in no hurry to go anywhere. "It seems to think we're here," Lancelot said.
"Maybe we are," Arthur replied. He dismounted and kicked at some fallen leaves and scattered dry pine needles. "There must be a path somewhere close." Being with Gwaine and Lancelot in the middle of a forest with a goal to reach and at long last a glimmer of hope that he could find his friend had done wonders for Arthur's spirits.
It was Lancelot who found the overgrown footpath. They secured the horses and continued the short distance on foot. The small, weathered structure was nearly hidden from view, surrounded as it was by trees and heavy brush.
a/n: Blodwyn fixing herself tea is an anachronism as tea did not become widely popular in Britain until later.