Genre: friendship
The Game of Rats
"What could you do? You are just a servant!"
"But I have been The King´s servant for years now, did you know that?" asked Merlin his voice thick of fake sweetness.
"That doesn´t make any difference peasant. And to answer your question, no, I didn´t know which speaks volumes of your value." Spat the lord. Merlin just smiled.
"Then I can tell you there´s loads of things you know nothing about, other than position. Like the fact that the castle of Camelot can be ruled from elsewhere than the throne room too." Merlin was still smiling but the smile was way darker than in the start.
"That´s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!" shouted the lord.
In this point every single human being in the tavern was staring the duo in the middle. The most intense was the stare of a really worried Gwaine who sat just behind Merlin. The visiting lord had been insulting Gwaine and no matter how unbelievable it sounds, he had actually gotten under the knight´s skin. That´s when Merlin had stood up from his seat and walked straight between Gwaine and the lord.
"What a naive little lord you are. I will tell you some facts about Camelot and why you should never again insult my friends." Now Merlin´s voice was low and dangerous. Gwaine had trouble recognizing it.
"I know who you are, where you came from, why you are in Camelot and when you are leaving. I know your schedule during your stay which means I know where you are no matter the hour. There is tens of servants in the Castle and that´s the amount of ears and eyes I have. If you had known who I am you would also know that I´m quite popular among the people in the castle. Let's start from the kitchens shall we? Your breakfast will be delivered just after the sunrise. The cook will let me get your breakfast tray without a question, it´s perfectly normal that I serve the visitors along with the King. By the way, did you know that I´m also the apprentice of the court physician Gaius? Just the other day I helped him to make five different kinds of poisons for his experiments. So there I am, poison in my pockets and your breakfast in my hands. If there´s guards on your chamber´s door they will smile and greet me good morning and let me in even if I had living rats on my tray. What do you think about that? I can have you sick or dead before the sun´s first rays reach the sky."
By this point the lord was speechless and looking much more wary. Rest of the folk in the tavern ware quiet and looked quite dumbfounded.
"After your breakfast you have this tour around the city with The King and after that you will have lunch together. And I will be there with a pitcher.
What.
A.
Coincidence."
Merlin was actually good at acting. Not everyone can sound honestly amused and at the same time smile with murder in your eyes. The servant was standing in his full height, confidence in his posture. The lord was starting to look a little pale.
"The stables are not exactly my duty to take care off but the King likes to make me muck them nonetheless. So if I go there and tell the stable boy he can take a break that leaves me alone in the stables. I can take care of your horse, prepare it for you to leave Camelot in the evening. What if there´s something wrong with the saddle? What if you drop off your horse the moment you try to mount and break, lets say, your leg? What happens next? Someone will escort you to the physician´s chambers and tell you; the physician is out of town at the moment but don´t worry. He´s apprentice is here.
Oh no.
You broke your leg so badly that it will never work again.
Or maybe you bled to death, I´m only an apprentice after all."
Gwaine couldn´t believe it. Merlin was threatening the noble for him and damn it, he was intimidating! Now Merlin stepped really close to the lord, looming over him. Had Merlin always been so tall?
"Do you know what is the best part? I don´t have to do anything by myself if I don´t want to. As I said before I know where you are from so I also know where you are heading from here. You can´t reach your country without passing a druid camp, a well hidden one. I have good friends in there. So if I do let you leave Camelot we will hear later this week that a certain lord never made it back home. He was attacked by an unknown beast during his journey.
Royalty might be blind and deaf in the castle but what they won´t notice, I will. When people like you enter Camelot my hundred pairs of eyes will watch your every move. When you realize your destiny is in my hands you might try to flee. There´s no point. I´m a well trained servant. I have experience of hunting down rats."
The Game of Rats
Loser: the visiting one
Hello darlings! I still don´t own Merlin and I still want to own your thoughts, as in please please review.
Thank you for reading my little stories, I hope you had fun and that you will stick around.
