If Merlin thought he'd seen a lot of Patroni the day Michael Collins died, it was nothing compared to the infestation that descended upon Camelot the following week. Nearly every corner was occupied by a guard, and every one of the newly stationed Patroni was equipped with a firearm. The security at the neighborhood gates and within tightened significantly so that Merlin didn't dare attempt to visit the dragon, despite the countless questions he was itching to ask after his new interactions with Arthur. The school too acquired a new and heavy guard. Metal detectors were installed at every entrance to the school; even Arthur was obliged to leave his air-soft pistol at home-a side effect which Merlin honestly wasn't too sorry for. Aside from the security increase resulting from the attempt on Arthur's life, a number of Scandinavian ambassadors had arrived to negotiate with Uther. It was the first time Merlin had seen such a gathering, though Gaius told him this was not an uncommon event. The country had only been freed from the rule of The Pure a year after Merlin's birth. England was still reworking its foreign policies after being rocked by its violent civil war. The ambassadors were housed in a high-rise of first-class apartments within Uther's gated neighborhood, and security around them also was increased.

As it turned out, the security increases did not stop there. When Arthur returned to school after the weekend, he was tailed by a young man about a head taller than him with close-cropped reddish brown hair and serious gray-blue eyes. Arthur's shadow wore the silver shield-and-arrow insignia of the Patroni rimmed with a thin outline of gold-a feature Merlin had come to recognize as the symbol of Uther's personal guards. Arthur stalked irritably into Mr. Smith's class and took his seat beside Merlin without a word. His companion took up a position by the door and stood, surveying the classroom impassively.

"Who's your new friend?" Merlin couldn't help asking, suppressing a grin at Arthur's obvious disgruntlement.

"My father assigned me a personal bodyguard," Arthur informed him in a flat voice. Merlin looked over at the young guard.

"Must be a boring job," he commented. The man was standing upright and motionless by the classroom door.

"Probably." Arthur shrugged. "It's a bit scary, actually, how seriously he takes it." Noticing the piercing look that the Patronus was fixing him with, Merlin had to agree. In addition to his eyes that seemed to look straight through everyone, he was wearing Kevlar over his uniform and carried both a firearm and extra clip at his belt. It was hard not to be unnerved by his hawk-like watchfulness. Smith's math class, already subdued by the memory of the previous week, was unusually quiet for the rest of the period, and many of them flicked nervous glances at the Patronus from time to time. Even Smith seemed troubled by the atmosphere, and he dismissed the class a couple of minutes early, with instructions to meet with their groups to finish the previously assigned project. Merlin was more than happy to pack up his books and head for the door. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he couldn't help remembering that a man's blood had been soaking into the same carpet beneath his feet only three days ago, and he half-wished that Smith would have moved him to a different desk. Merlin was halfway through the door when he felt a hand on his arm. The young Patronus was stopping him. Merlin's breath caught in his throat. He doesn't know, he told himself firmly, turning to face the young Patronus guard. He hadn't done anything. He had nothing to be afraid of.

"You're Merlin?" the young man asked. Arthur had stopped just behind him and was frowning at his bodyguard-Merlin couldn't tell whether he was puzzled or annoyed.

"Er... yeah." Merlin held out a hand, trying to summon up a facade of confidence. "Hello. And you are?"

"Leon," the Patronus supplied, shaking hands briefly with the teen. "You're the boy who saved Arthur's life?" It was more of a statement than a question. Merlin felt the color rise to his face and nodded mutely. Arthur coughed behind him. "It's a pleasure to met you," Leon said hurriedly, taking a step back to let him pass. Merlin recovered himself and mustered a smile.

"Pleasure's all mine." He darted an amused glance at Arthur and added with a boldness uncharacteristic of his usual interactions with Patroni, "Keep a sharp eye on him. Wouldn't want my efforts to go to waste." Apparently Merlin had judged the guard right. A gleam of amusement sparked in Leon's eyes, and Merlin knew instantly that he'd gained the man's trust.

"I'll do my best," Leon promised in a solemn voice. Merlin managed to pass off his strangled laugh as a cough and hurried out the door, leaving Arthur to scowl at his bodyguard.

It was hard to say which was more annoying: having the entire school ignore him all day or enduring the whispers of classmates every time he passed them. Merlin made his way down the hall as quietly as possible and still managed to draw several looks. Morgana gave him a brief smile and nod in greeting. At least she wasn't treating him like some weird sort of celebrity. Merlin had been grateful for her friendly company in his history class since the very first day. Despite knowing that his classmates were expressing a strange form of admiration, the surreptitious gossip reminded still the young warlock unpleasantly of his last school year in Armagh. He'd headed straight for his locker the moment his last class let out and retrieved his backpack and jacket. Pausing only to show the Patronus on guard his student ID, he took the quickest route around the school and walked into the neighborhood. He had one delivery to make for Gaius, then he could hole up peacefully in his room and read a book. It would be nice to have an afternoon to himself with no disturbances after a weekend of police interrogations and nearly incessant calls from the press.


"Oy, Merlin, heads up!" someone shouted. A hard object glanced off of Merlin's shoulder, and he turned about in time to see a frisbee skitter across the recently shoveled sidewalk. Several boys were fanned out across the street in a semi-circle. Merlin sighed. He hadn't known that Arthur's cronies used this street as one of their hangouts or he would have avoided it. One or two of the boys chuckled, but most were just looking at him like the rest of the school, with an odd, guarded curiosity about the boy who'd saved Arthur Pendragon's life.

"Merlin!" Speak of the devil, Merlin thought, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the sound of the familiar voice. It seemed he couldn't get away from the boy. He tensed when the blond approached. Arthur might have been halfway friendly to him that morning, but he usually showed a different side around his idiot friends. "Care to join us?" Arthur asked, retrieving the frisbee only feet from where Merlin stood. The warlock stared at him. Was Arthur really extending the olive branch to him?

"Er... can't, thanks. Have to deliver stuff for Gaius," he said. Arthur shrugged.

"Alright. See you later." He tossed the frisbee to one of his companions. That was weird, Merlin watched the disc spin away across the street. He tore his eyes away and turned his steps back towards the guest apartments.

No one answered Merlin's knock at the door of Suite 21. Merlin stood uncertain in the hallway, wondering whether he ought to leave the bag at the front desk or come back later. Gaius always preferred his deliveries to be received in person. Medication, like everything else in Uther's neighborhood, was highly regulated. He knocked again; still no answer. He was about to go when a voice spoke behind him:

"Are you looking for Ambassador Bayard?" The speaker was a young woman with dark hair and eyes a startlingly contrasting shade of blue. Something about her put Merlin on edge. She seemed nervous, shifty.

"Er... yeah. Is he in?" the warlock asked.

"Not at the moment." She brushed brusquely past him and unlocked the deadbolt on the door. "I'm his personal assistant. Can I take a message for him?" Merlin noted with a touch of confusion that this woman had a clear English accent. Wasn't Bayard the Norwegian ambassador?

"Doctor Wilson (1) said he requested this," he said, offering her the pharmacy bag. The young woman reached out to take the bag, and Merlin drew back in surprise when she unexpectedly leaned closer to him.

"You're a friend of Arthur Pendragon's?" Her voice had dropped into a low, urgent whisper. Merlin cringed.

"You... could say that," he said, suddenly very uncomfortable.

"Warn him," Her fingers wrapped themselves around Merlin's arm when he tried to pull away. He felt her breath on his ear. "He is not safe. There are some here who would see Uther and his son dead."

"Y-you should tell the Patroni," Merlin stammered. "I'm just a neighbor of Uther's. Nobody will listen to me." Panic flared in her eyes, and her grip became painfully tight.

"He'll kill me. He'd be furious if he saw me talking to you." Her voice trembled. "Look out for Arthur. Don't tell them I told you. Please." Merlin nodded shakily. She released him and pulled back abruptly and urged, "Go-go before he sees you here!" Merlin didn't need telling twice. He was down the stairs before the young woman had even shut her door.

Merlin avoided Arthur and his friends, going around the back of the apartments on his return to Gaius' apartment. This new development could be of critical importance to the negotiations. Norway had been at odds with England since the year that Uther deposed The Pure. Several of the archons(2) had fled to Norway after their initial defeat. A detail of Uther's special forces had pursued them into the country, disregarding the strict international laws established against the English after their first civil war. Several Norwegian citizens had been killed and many more injured in the short but ruthless conflict between the sorcerers and Uther's forces. While no state of war had ever been declared, tension between Uther and all of the Scandinavian countries had run high from that day on. The country had suffered greatly from this breach. With England still struggling to rebuild its social infrastructure and draw in new imports, they could ill afford another offense either from against any of the Scandinavians. At a guess, Merlin assumed that Bayard's assistant was from the country and trying to rescue the negotiations. Why she was working for Bayard to start with, and why she had told him...

Gaius was occupied in his clinic room when Merlin came in. The warlock grabbed a scone from the kitchen and headed straight for his room. The moment he opened his laptop, a Skype chat box popped up. ANSWER MY CALLS. Merlin blinked. It was Will. He hadn't heard from Will in a long time, but this chat box was filled with text. The chat box updated again: Where are you? I haven't got very long! Will was still online then. Merlin sat down at the desk and clicked call. The answer came almost instantaneously.

"Where have you been?" Will demanded sharply, appearing on the screen. Behind him, Merlin recognized the dusty looking shelves of the Armagh library-a good ten minute bus ride from their neighborhood.

"Running errands for Gaius." Merlin shrugged. "Sorry. Didn't know you were waiting for me on Skype. Why didn't you message me?"

"You should've been messaging me," Will said, scowling. "And I had a hell of a time getting here to call, you know. Half the services are down right now."

"Again?" Merlin said in disbelief. Services in Armagh went down every once in a while, but not usually more than one at once.

"That's not the point, Merlin," Will growled. "What happened? Why didn't you send me an email or call or something?" Merlin stared at his friend.

"Nothing happened. I'm fine!" he insisted.

"Really?" Will said icily. Merlin heard the tapping of Will's keyboard, and a link appeared below the video-stream. Will fixed Merlin with a pointed look. "Explain this then," he ordered. Merlin clicked the link. 'Breaking News' flashed across the screen. A shot of his school appeared. Snow spiraled down out of the sky, colored by the lights from a myriad of emergency vehicles. The camera panned across the lot to where Uther, Gaius, Smith, and a high ranking Patronus officer were standing close together conversing by one of the patrol cars. A reporter's voice spoke over the background noise of shouting and the crackle of police radios.

"Emergency responders received a call from Camelot's main secondary school this morning after an instructor heard a gunshot in the hall. Students in Thomas Smith's class were held up for several minutes while a renegade sorcerer threatened them with a live firearm. Authorities report one casualty in the shooting-Mark Johnson, a duty Patronus guarding the school, killed when he refused the shooter access to Smith's classroom. The shooter's main target, however, was the son of the Prime Minister, Uther Pendragon. Pendragon's son was saved by the quick thinking of his classmate, Merlin Astur." (3)

"This is what we saw on Friday," Will's voice interrupted the reporter. "Look," The camera shot changed, and Merlin found himself looking at his own huddled figure sitting in the back of the ambulance next to Arthur. Both he and the other teen looked considerably more pale and subdued than he remembered. The two boys were only visible for the barest second before Uther Pendragon and the medical personnel obscured the camera's view.

"Astur and Pendragon are currently unavailable for comment, and both medical and security personnel refuse to give a statement on their status."

"And that's all the information we got," Will announced angrily as the clip ended. "Phone and internet lines were down all bloody weekend," he continued. "Your mum went all over the neighborhood trying to find a working line. Internet only came back up at the library today." Merlin paled. He'd spent most of the weekend being grilled by Patronus officers, filling out his full police report, and avoiding eager reporters both on the phone and every time he ventured outside. Calling home hadn't exactly been foremost on his mind.

"God... Will, I had no idea. Honestly. I'm fine. I wasn't hurt at all."

"You looked awful, Merlin!" Will snapped. "The report was really vague, and they said there was a sorcerer. We thought-" He trailed off, his tone losing its heat. The implications of his statement were clear. Merlin shuddered. "Merlin, what happened?" Will asked tensely.

"Nothing." Merlin paused the video clip on the shot of him and Arthur, shaking his head. He really did look pale, and several medics were crowded close about him and the other teen. "We were both fine. Just... a bit shell-shocked, I guess."

"So you didn't-"

"I tackled Arthur to the ground. That's all. I didn't catch any bullets for him." The video-stream froze.

"Hang on... 's not work-" Will's voice began breaking up.

"Will?" Merlin leaned forward, tilting his head to catch the choppy sound. The words 'Call dropped' appeared on Merlin's screen. Will's message appeared in the chat box:

Bad connection. I have to go. Merlin sighed heavily.

I'm sorry. I should've called, he wrote.

Doesn't matter, answered Will. You couldn't have gotten through anyway. Merlin bit his lip.

Tell mum I'm safe, he typed. I'll call you both as soon as the lines are up again.

Of course, Will wrote. Stay out of trouble, idiot. With that, Will's status changed to offline.


AN: (1) Gaius is played by Richard Wilson in the show. Ergo, in my fic he is called Gaius Wilson.

(2) This is my little nod to Ancient Greek history. Archon is a Greek word meaning 'ruler'. The Thirty Spartan tyrants who ruled over Athens after it was conquered were called Archons. The Pure was also a band of thirty sorcerers and sorceresses ruling over England, and in like manner, they were called archons. Yes. Yes I do love history-especially Greek history. Why do you ask? ^^

(3) Merlin's last name, Astur, is the Latin word for 'hawk'. As you may or may not know, a merlin is a type of hawk. :)