AN: Sorry it took so long to get this written... Life has been crazy and I put off class work to get this finished for you all. I hope you like it.
Chapter 6
Getting information from two very groggy servants was an incredibly slow process. Gwen had never seen who had come into the room, but it had taken nearly an hour after she woke up to find that out. George was even worse.
It hadn't been clear at first, but the man had a concussion, which's symptoms had been masked by the drug, and had injured his jaw and gums when he bit off the man's digit. The servant was barely coherent and when he was, his injured mouth caused the words to be slurred and garbled. His focus was so bad that he couldn't even write down what had happened.
When Arthur found out, he was furious and sent scores of men to search the citadel and city for the attacker. He had Elyan escort Gwen home and was given instruction from Gaius to let her sleep off the drug and see to it that she eats. George was dosed with a painkiller and settled in Merlin's room.
Not long after George finally fell asleep, the some knights barged in with a limp and bloody form. The physician ushered them to crude cot of wood and canvas so that he could look the man over. One look and Gaius not only knew that this was the attacker from the night before, but also who this was.
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Cyfruis* had once been one of Uther's spies before Odin offered enough money to override his loyalty to Camelot. His first attempt on Arthur ended with Merlin revealing him in front of several knights and cortiers by tripping and exposing his crouched position with a loaded crossbow in his hands. They had been close to the training grounds, so a stray arrow from the new recruits would have been blamed for the accident.
If Merlin hadn't snuck a look at Cyfruis with a proud smile on her face, the man would have assumed the girl had just been lucky. The prince and the knights saw the spy and one of the ladies of court who was in the group cried out, "That man tried to kill us!" The man took his shot and ran. How the bolt missed the target at that range was mystery, but it proved that his loyalty was no longer to Uther.
He fled the city, but returned a few months later to try again, only to be stopped by the girl again when he snuck in the prince's window. She hit him over the head with something and tied him up with some rope from the wardrobe. The noise of doing so woke the royal brat, who called the guards. He escaped the dungeons easily and changed tactics.
The next few times he made his move outside of the city. Snakes on the paths the prince prefered to use when exercising his horse, drugged water in previously safe watering spots, or even some arrows during patrols. Each time that maid stopped him.
She would notice the snakes before the horses and warn her master or rides ahead and collect them in a sack that was usually meant for game. The maid always seemed to know the water wasn't good or would be sure to test it herself before allowing the prince or the horses to use it. And the arrows, the lass seemed to feel his gaze when he took aim. She would make Arthur stop suddenly, speed up, or even fall off his horse just before the bolt found its target.
After the twelfth time or so, Odin retracted his support for the assassination. On top of that, Uther had a price on his head and Odin spread the word that he wasn't worth the money to hire him. Luckily, Alined ignored Odin's message and hired him to spy on his neighboring kingdoms for a few years.
After the Lady Morgana took over Camelot, he was sent to the city to gather intel. After awhile, the sleazy king decided he knew enough and cut ties with the assassin/spy saying for him not to return to Deorham. From then on, he was an assassin for hire in Camelot.
He had been wary of Lord Agravaine at first, but after seeing three other assassins come and go from the meeting spot, he risked it. When he found out the target was none other than the meddlesome maid, he smiled. This mission wasn't for money, but revenge.
Sneaking in as a guard was too easy and drugging the water was even easier. He hoped she would drown, but it wasn't every likely unless she was worse off than the slimey lord said. What it would do was draw attention to the city and away from the bothersome wench.
He waited until the knight guarding her escorted the male servant away before approaching the chamber. Listening near the door he heard the old man retire into the back room. Cyfruis slunk back into the shadows and waited to see if the knight would return or be replaced.
After four hours, the assassin assumed that there was no one on watch that night and that the physician would be sound asleep. When he eased the door open, he saw the curly haired maid was barely awake and facing away from him. This would be too easy.
Cyfruis loaded a few darts into a thin pipe and shot them at the exposed portion of the girl's neck. When Gwen fell forward onto Merlin, the injured girl woke up. The assassin had used the sedative compound many times in the past and never had the victim woken this soon. He didn't know that Gaius had purged most of the mixture from the witch just hours before.
As he reached for his next weapon, the oddest thing happened. As his hand touched the drugged cloth in a pouch on his waist, he was flung back into the hallway and the girl was thrown from her bed to the cold floor. The man didn't know who had done it, but that had been magic.
Surely Gaius wouldn't have resorted to using sorcery after all these years, but who else would be using magic to save the wench? Not wanting to face the spellbinder who had done this, Cyfruis fled. If he lived, there there was always another chance to get even with the raven haired serving girl.
As he ran, he grabbed a handful of the locust darts and held them at the ready in case he was seen. He hid in the shadows as best he could as he slowly made his way out of the castle. He was forced to backtrack several times when his route held pairs of patrolling guards. In the end it took him over two hours to find an unguarded exit.
That was when he ran into a very angry and ticked off George.
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It wasn't until he had eaten half of his meal that he realized what Gaius and Gwen had done, but by then it was too late. He could feel the heaviness weighing down his eyelids, so he forced them to stay open just a little longer and discretely disposed of the rest of his stew into Gaius's bowl since Gwen was staying up with Merlin. Once that was done, he let his eyes close.
After that he barely remembered anything before waking up in his own bed. He suspected that Gwaine had been the one to take him home, but that was just a feeling. The one thing he did know was that Gwen and Gaius were going to regret drugging him.
It was nearly dawn when the servant reached the citadel. And he guessed it had been nearly seven hours since the two people he had called his friends had drugged him. It wasn't even the fact that they had dosed him with a sleeping draft that angered him, it was the fact that they had had someone take him all the way to his mother's house on the outer edge of the city. He would have been fine sleeping on the floor in Merlin's room if nothing else, but they sent him home to the place that reminded him of what he had lost and what he would do to keep it from happening again.
Just as he was entering the lower servants' entrance he collided with a face that he never thought he would see again. In that moment, George understood and that caused him to act without thinking. His mouth opened to call for guards or anyone nearby, but was stopped by the assassin's hand.
George didn't think twice before clamping his teeth into the palm of the attackers hand like a starving dog fighting to keep a piece of meat. Cyfruis jerked his hand away, jarring the servants jaw painfully. The man ignored his hurting mouth and lunged himself at the person who had harmed the woman he loved.
George dug his nails into Cyfruis face at the same time the former spy jammed his fist full of darts into his adversary's neck. George turned his head and grabbed the hand between his teeth while clawing at the assassin's eyes. And that was the last thing the servant remembered before his back and head collided with the passage wall.
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Gaius stared at the figure on the cot for only a moment before send he sent one of the knights to get the king. For the first time since the purge, Gaius was tempted to not treat the patient before him. In fact, he was quite proud of the damage George had inflicted.
The man's face was in shreds and his left eyelid was nearly torn off. Both of the traitor's hands were coated with blood from bite marks and the missing end finger. What didn't make sense to the physician was why the man was unconscious. His injuries were painful, but not so much as to make him pass out nor could it be from blood loss.
"Where was he found? Was he unconscious when he was found?" Gaius questioned as he turned to the three knights still in his chambers.
They were young knights who had given their positions after the city was reclaimed from Morgana and Morgause. Two of them had been guards at the time and the other, a squire. None of them had expected to be knighted by the Prince Regent, now King, but they and nearly a dozen more had been promoted over a year before.
Sir Evan was the one who answered Gaius's questions. "He was found at the foot of the inner wall. I believe he may have wandered off the edge due to his hindered sight."
Gaius nodded. The wall on the palace side was only waist high, while on the side with the city, it was a nearly a thirty foot fall. It would have been easy for the injured assassin to have toppled over the edge, especially given the condition he was in and that he would have been facing the rising sun as well.
As much as he wanted the renegade spy to suffer for his actions, the physician knew that they would need information that only the bleeding man could supply. So while he waited for Arthur to arrive, he got to work making sure that assassin would live to provide the answers needed. He just hoped that if Agravaine had been behind this, that the noble wouldn't attempt to end the man before he could expose the true loyalties of the king's uncle.
The real issue that pressed on Gaius's mind was whether the young royal would believe his uncle was a traitor, or would he deny the facts in front of him like he had always done with family in the past.
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After the guard turned knight told him the girls' attacker had been found and was currently under Gaius's care, Arthur thanked the man and had him send word to the other search parties. As soon as he heard that the poisoner was in need of the physician's care, the king couldn't help but wonder what all George had done to the man.
He knew that the servant had bitten off one of the man's fingers and according to Leon, the man had had blood all over his hands and arms as well as his face. What could a servant half drugged, both by gaius and the attempted assassin, have accomplished like that? Arthur wasn't sure if he was proud of the man, or scared.
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AN: *Cyfruis is a butchered version of the Welsh word for sly.
So what did you guys think? Should I have this story break canon even more an it already is? Should I have the assassin die without ratting out Agravaine? Should I expose the Lord? Please let me know in a quick review. Any ideas are welcome!
