Title: Artorius - the lost Prince

Author:JennnyJ

About the story: Roughly based upon the children tale Anastasia

"Boys, I'll have to ask you to leave my quarters if none of you can sit down calmly", Gaius said without turning his gaze away from Guinevere's beaten body. With a satisfied smile he heard how both Arthur and Lancelot sat down in their chairs with a soft 'dump'.
"Gaius, is there anything I can do to help?" Merlin asked as he bit his lip, his bright eyes filled with worry for his best friend.
Gwen had fallen unconscious not long before they rode in to Camelot and she hadn't waked up since then.
"I don't know, Merlin", his uncle answered as he bandaged Gwen's sprained feet. "It seems like she has a few broken ribs and it wouldn't surprise me if there has been some damage to her head – but she has been lucky."
Merlin turned his face away so that no one would see how his features were twisted by the pain and sorrow he felt for the girl lying on the wooden bench.

"She'll be okay", a warm voice said and Merlin could feel how someone squeezed his shoulder in a try to comfort him. "She is strong – she'll get through this."
The dark haired warlock fought away his tears before he turned his head to meet Arthur's blue eyes.
"Do you really think so?" He whispered to his friend, so low that neither Gaius nor Lancelot could hear him.
Arthur nodded: his face mirroring the seriousness in his voice. "I'm certain."
They watched how Gaius walked over to one of his workbenches to wash his hands before he walked over to them.
"She'll have to stay here and rest", he said.

"I can say with her", Arthur offered, taking a step closer the unconscious girl.
"No, Arthur", Lancelot said and rose from his chair. "I'll stay"
Arthur's eyes darkened and he shook his head. "Why should I trust her with you?"
Lancelot smiled and sat down beside the dark haired girl, slowly he stroked her sweaty forehead.
"You have to find Geoffrey, the librarian, he will help you enter the tournament", he said without meeting the blond man's eyes. "I'll let you know as soon as there's a change"
Arthur opened his mouth to protest, the King and the tournament could wait – he wouldn't leave Guinevere with the very man that broke her heart. He wouldn't.
"Arthur, he's right", Merlin said as if he could read his friend's thoughts. "She'll be okay – you need to do this – if not for your own sake so because Gwen would have wanted you to do it."
"You are supposed to be on my side Merlin", Arthur clenched his jaws but nodded, tenderly he stroked Gwen's bruised cheek before he left the physician's quarters behind him.

"Why did you come back?" Merlin asked Lancelot as the door shut behind Arthur; he sat down in one of the empty chairs and noticed how Gaius walked over to his large bookshelf, humming silently for himself.
Lancelot sighed and turned his head so that he met the dark haired boy's gaze.
"I love her, Merlin", he said and shrugged. "I intend to spend the rest of my life with her."
Merlin bit his lip and looked at the unconscious girl; she looked troubled even in this off-mode.
"She has changed, Lance", he said after a while. "She has changed a lot since you left her."
A shadow fell over Lancelot's face as he remember her coldness in Ealdor – he had hoped to win her back but things had gone out of control. And then that boy, Arthur, had turned up.
"I know she has", he said and shook his head. "But I'll make it up for her – we are meant to be, I know we are."
Merlin didn't answer – how could he when he knew that Guinevere's future had nothing with Lancelot to do? When he knew that her heart belonged to someone else.

"I'm sorry, son", Geoffrey said and looked at Arthur over his glasses. "The tournament has already begun, no more entrances – the King's rules."
Arthur swore and rubbed his forehead.
"But you don't understand, I need to participate", he said with a devastated look in his eyes.
"As I've said – we do not allow any late entrances", Geoffrey said. "You'll have to come back next year."
Arthur sighed and walked away from the elderly man; he left the dusty library behind and turned left after the winding steps. Cursing himself he strode around, taking turns here and there, making his way deeper and deeper in to the labyrinth that was the castle.
"What now?" He asked himself and stopped to lean his head against one of the cool windows. He looked outside and a smile formed upon his lips as he saw the lady of Camelot – Morgana – walk up the steps to the castle.
If there was anyone who could help him it would be her, after all – she was the King's ward.

Morgana walked towards the throne room with a cold smile playing over her red lips, it had been easier than she thought to make Artorius leave Camelot.
She couldn't believe how lucky she'd been; there he'd been – the one man she had dreamt of for weeks – in her own chambers. Broken and devastated, it hadn't been hard to win his liking and didn't even take him half an hour to trust her advices fully.
The smile on her lips, however, faded as she heard someone shout her name from behind.
Slowly she turned around, her hand resting on the doorknob.
"Arthur?" She didn't believe her eyes as the blond man walked down the corridor, hands placed in his pockets. She tried to hide her disappointment and forced the smile back upon her lips. "Back so soon? Or haven't you left yet?"

Arthur stopped a few step from the dark haired beauty, he could see that something was wrong.
She had a kind of coldness in her eyes when she met his gaze and he couldn't understand why – the last time they spoke she'd seemed so warm and sweet.
"I need your help", he said after a moments silence and pulled a hand through his golden hair. "You are the King's ward – perhaps, perhaps you can talk to him."
"Talk to him?" The lady Morgana echoed and raised her eyebrows. "And what, may I ask, should I talk to him about?"

"Perhaps", Arthur sighed, he didn't know how to put his thoughts in words. "I need to see him but I do not know how I'll get the chance to meet him – if you don't help me, that is."
Morgana pressed her lips together and looked at the hand which still rested upon the doorknob – the King waited for her.
"I'm sorry Arthur", she said as she opened the door, she looked at him over her shoulder, the dark hair falling like a cascade down her back. "I'm afraid I cannot help you"
"Lady Morgana!" Arthur called after her but she didn't look back and soon the door closed behind her. With a sigh Arthur turned around and walked back to Gaius quarters – he needed to talk to Merlin. And even though he wouldn't admit it even to himself, he was worried for Gwen's condition and didn't want to be parted from her longer than necessary.

"Morgana", King Uther greeted his ward as he saw her walk through the doors. "Who was that man shouting after you?"
He had only heard his voice dimly through the opening of the door but it was as if some of the fog around him disappeared and something within him said that whoever that person was he needed to find him. It was something with his voice that confused him.
Morgana smiled and her dark eyes glittered as she sat down beside her King.
"Oh, no one, my lord", she said and picked some fruit from one of the baskets. "One of the homeless from the marked followed me, he wanted more money but I told him I had none."
Uther leaned back in his chair, his eyebrows pulled together as he fingered with the ring around his finger.

"My lord", Morgana's eyes softened. "I know that the disappointment of yesterdays feast has not yet left you-"
"I thought he would be there", the King said, staring at the distant wall as if he was lost in thoughts. "The girl had his ring – the one ring he'd been given at birth."
Morgana laughed and shook her head.
"Then surely it must be a trick – why would a simple common girl walk around with the symbol of the Pendragon house?"
Uther didn't answer; instead he rose from his chair and walked towards the door which immediately was opened by two servants.
"My lord" Morgana called after him, half way up from her chair. "Where are you going?"
"I need some rest, Morgana", the King said and without any other word he disappeared, leaving the dark haired beauty to her own thoughts.

The King, however, didn't walk to his chambers – instead he turned the other direction to seek the council of his eldest friend.
He knew the way to the physician's chambers so well that he would have found it in his sleep and he stood outside the big oak door in no time with some help of a few secret passages.
As he was the King of Camelot he didn't even bother to knock – he simply walked through the door, searching for Gaius.
"Who are you?" Instead of the old man he faced a dark haired young man with pointy ears. "And where is Gaius?"
The boy just stood there staring at him as if he'd never seen a king before, his mouth opening and closing like a fish.

"Oh spit it out, boy", he grunted as he felt how his mood fell – the more time that passed, the more he could think of the reason he came here in the first place and now, standing here, it felt incredibly stupid.
"He is out looking for Art-"
"I'm here, Sire", Gaius walked in through the same door the King had just entered and he was carrying a basket filled with herbs. "Are you feeling alright? Does your shoulder hurt again?"
The King shook his head as he turned to the physician, happy to not have to talk to that boy anymore.
"I wanted to talk to you about Artorius ring", he said and sat down in one of the scrubby chairs.
The old man sent him a questioning look before he started to sort the different herbs into different piles.

"I don't know if you remember, Gaius", the King said as he watched the man's work. "But Artorius spent an awful lot of time with this blacksmith's daughter – I couldn't help but wonder..."
Uther trailed of as he casted a glimpse of a dark haired girl, lying unconscious on one of the workbenches. "Her – it's her!"
He walked forward, his eyebrows pulled together as he saw her bruised face.
"What has happened to her?" He asked.
"She was attacked by bandits, sir", the pointy eared man said with a bow. "They hit her badly but she'll be alright. With time"
So, he can talk, the King thought dryly. Then, another thought filled his mind – the girl had been prevented from coming to the banquet. What if she, indeed, knew where his son was? What if Artorius was here, in Camelot?
He shook his head, forcing the childish thoughts to disappear – his son was lost and there was no change to that.
"What is it with Guinevere, my lord?" Gaius asked with his eyebrow raised, the King looked at the old man for a while before he turned to the door.
"Nothing, just a silly thought", he said and left the chamber.

Arthur couldn't believe his bad luck – one moment he was walking back towards Gaius place and the other moment he was covered in tomato soup.
The servant, Perry that was, had apologized at least hundred times as he tried to help tidying him up.
Arthur however had soon grown tired of his so called 'help' and said that as soon as he got to the physician he'd be able to change into other clothes – he tried not to think of the fact that this was the only set of clothes that Gwen had given him.
With a grimace Arthur tried to sweep his face as clean from soup as possible and as he rounded the last corner he bumped in to a largely built man – the clash almost sent him out of balance.
"Watch where you are going boy", the voice boomed and Arthur couldn't help but shiver.
"Yes, Sir", he stuttered and bowed his head, "Of course, Sir."
"And make sure to clean up after you, you are leaving soup traces all over the place", the man continued. "You should be lucky I'm not reporting this to your head adviser."

Arthur looked up shockingly as he realized that the man he was talking to thought he was a servant.
"Sir, I'm no servant", he said as his eyes travelled over the elderly man's face. He had a long scar searching its way down his forehead – a battle wound, Arthur assumed – and his eyes were as bright as the summer sky.
"Do I know you?" The man asked with his eyebrows pulled together.
Arthur shook his head, not able to avert his gaze. "No, I don't think so, my King"
It was first now Arthur realized that he stood eye to eye with Uther Pendragon. The one he hoped would be his father. A smile flickered over his lips.
"My name is Arthur", he said and reached out a hand for him to shake.
The King looked at him for a long time, and then he looked at his hand before he turned his gaze back to the young man before him. He was about the same age Artorius would be in, he thought with a vague smile, but then the smile faded.
"I do not make acquaintance with people smelling of tomatoes", he said briskly and walked away, his long cloak swishing behind him – leaving Arthur speechless behind.

Okay, to tell the truth - your reviews made me so unbelievable happy that I had to write another chapter for you. Oh, and I must tell you that Guinevere didn't get raped (I know it might have sounded like she did - but I couldn't put her through something like that. I just couldn't. What she got through was bad enough)
Anyway, it seems like reviewing is actually rewarding itself - so please continue with that. Please. Please. Please.
Hugs. Jenn