Now
Em sat up and stared at the thatched ceiling of the hut. Every bone in his body ached. Sighing, he eased his bruised body out of bed and stumbled into the front room. There, a beautiful girl with green eyes and raven hair was boiling water for tea and porridge. He stared at her, wide-eyed.
"What are you doing here?" he burst out. "Why aren't you at Móraí Emery's?"
"I'm just being a good cousin, cooking you breakfast," she replied with faux sweetness. Em's eyes narrowed. He threw open one of the shutters, hoping to let in a breeze to dissipate the sticky heat inside the hut. More warm, humid air spilled in. Em groaned.
"Where's Freya and the children?" was his next question.
"With Aunt Maud. Freya says her morning sickness is awful. Aunt Maud's trying to figure out a way to ease it," the girl responded.
"But why are you cooking me breakfast?"
"Alvarr said he pummeled you in training yesterday, and I figured you probably wouldn't be up to it."
He raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "Are you poisoning me? I don't trust your cooking."
"Don't be such a girl, Merlin," she said, rolling her eyes. When she glanced up, she saw how stricken he looked and quickly apologized. "Sorry, Em, I didn't mean—"
"No, Morgana, I get it," Em managed. "Old habits die hard, right?"
"Just like we did," Morgana mused. When Em stared at his boots, she reached for his hand—the four-fingered one—and intertwined it with hers. "I'm a tactless fool," she declared.
Em fidgeted a bit. "You're good, Annie. It's been nearly three years. I should be over it. Sometimes, I just feel like we betrayed him, that I was selfish." He shook his head.
"We did it to protect ourselves," Morgana said fiercely, gripping her cousin's hand tightly. "Don't you ever doubt that."
He offered her a crooked grin. "I'll work on it." He let go of her hand. "Now, assuming you aren't tryin to assassinate me with your awful cooking, what can I do to help?"
She laughed brightly, in a way she hadn't been able to do back in Camelot. Em found himself laughing too, despite everything.
Then
Gaius stood up. "I'll go speak to the cook. She owes me a favor or two—I make a potion that relieves her indigestion. Cook's an unpleasant woman, but she's fair and runs the kitchen efficiently. Meanwhile, you can deliver a few potions and medicines to some of the nobles. Address the women as 'my lady' and the men as 'my lord'."
"I—I don't know my way around here," Em said. The palace was a miserable rabbit warren.
"There's signs. You'll be fine." Gaius grabbed a shoulder bag from one of his worktables and placed a labelled few vials and small bottles in it.
Sighing, the boy took the bag and whistled to his dog. "If I get lost, it's your fault, Uncle," he warned.
Gaius laughed for what felt like the first time in ages.
Em read the labels on the medicine—Lady Morgana, Sir Leon, and Lord Brutus. He had to ask a liveried servant the directions to the nobles' wing of the palace. The plain gray stone interior of the servants' wing soon gave way to decadent marble passageways decorated with artwork and plush rugs. Down some halls, ornate tapestries decorated the walls. Em stopped to stare at them for a bit. He probably looked like a slack-jacked country bumpkin, but he did not care. In a sense, that was what he was.
Em soon realized it was one thing to get to the nobles' wing, but another thing to actually find each noble's individual chambers. The rich wooden doors were not even labelled or numbered. He grumbled under his breath in Druidic and went to search for a servant or guard to ask.
He was turning a corner when he ran directly into a knight who just happened to be turning the corner at the exact same time. He bit back a curse as his forehead clunked against the knight's armored chest. He backed up a step, and was forced to look up to get a good look at the slightly taller knight. He took in the knight's blond hair, blue eyes, scowling face—
Wait—this was no knight, this was…
"Sorry, milord!" Em practically squeaked, bowing a bit to Prince Arthur. He adjusted the way the messenger bag that Gaius gave him sat on his shoulder to hide the slight trembling of his hands.
The prince simply eyed the terrified boy for a long moment. Bandit, who loved meeting new people, brushed past Em, tail wagging and tongue lolling.
"Watch where you're going, boy," Arthur glanced down at the dog and wrinkled his nose. "What are you doing with a street curin the nobles' wing, you crooked-nose knave?"
Em fought the urge to scowl. "I'm delivering medicines for my uncle—the court physician—, sir," he muttered.
"'Sire'," Arthur said.
"Pardon?"
"You call a prince 'sire,' not 'sir,'" Arthur said loftily. "Well, either way, be about your business and never bring that filthy mongrel back here again." He brushed back Em and Bandit.
"Yes, sire," Em called after the prince. He sighed in relief.
He waited until the sounds of the prince's footsteps faded until he said to Bandit, "What a clotpole."
He eventually found a guard positioned by a window overlooking the square in front of the palace. "Can you tell me how to find the chambers of Lady Morgana, Sir Leon, and Lord Brutus? I'm new here, and I'm completely lost," he said with a sheepish grin.
The guard was able to point him in the right direction, and he even petted Bandit. "Handsome dog," he commented.
"Thanks." In a low voice, Em added, "Prince Arthur called him a filthy mongrel no more than ten minutes ago."
The guard simply shook his head. Em thanked him again and managed to find Lord Brutus's chambers. He bowed and scraped and milorded, and managed to complete the task without embarrassing himself. Feeling confident, he headed towards Lady Morgana's chambers.
He rapped on the door three times. He heard shuffling inside, and a pretty girl with dark skin and curly hair opened the door. Her dress seemed much too plain for a lady's gown, but who was he to judge? "Can I help you?" she asked.
"I have your medicine from Gaius, milady." Em bowed and held out the vial.
She laughed when she took the vial, and the bright sound made Em want to laugh too. "Oh no, I'm not Lady Morgana! I'm her handmaid, Guinevere. Everyone calls me Gwen. You must be new here, since you haven't seen milady. I don't think I recognize you, and I always remember faces."
"I'm Merlin, the court physician's nephew," Em said with a wide grin. He shook her hand. "I have instructions for how to take them. Would you mind explaining them to the lady?"
"There's a quill and parchment in here. Would you mind writing it down? We're both terribly forgetful. Gwen, bring him in," a voice called from inside the chambers.
"Yes, milady," Gwen said with a fond smile. "Come in," she said to Em. Em ordered Bandit to sit. He followed her inside, impressed by the decadent four-poster bed, ornately carved furniture, and richly woven rugs.
On the bed a young woman in a green dress lounged, reading a book. Em immediately recognized her as the lady who watched the sorcerer's execution from the window. Her green gaze settled on him, and he bowed.
"Are you new? I haven't seen you before, either, and Gwen and I know most of the people who work in the palace," she said.
"I arrived just this morning, milady. My uncle is the court physician," Em explained.
Bandit chose that exact moment to start whining about being left in the hallway. His pathetic whimpering reached Morgana's ears, and she tilted her head. "What might that crying sound be? It sounds like some sort of animal. Gwen, go take a look in the hall and see," she said to her maidservant.
Em said softly, "That's my dog, milady. I told him to sit in the hall—I know I shouldn't have taken me with him to this part of the castle, but I saw folks with dogs trailing after 'em in other parts of the castle so I didn't think it'd be an issue, honest"—what a lie that bit was—", and he's well-trained, he'll quiet down when I tell him to—"
Morgana held up a hand. "Gwen, let him in." She grinned at Em a bit. "I love dogs. What are you two called?"
"Me and my dog, milady?" Em asked. He realized the stupidity of his question, and said before she could confirm her request, "I'm Merlin, and I call my dog Bandit."
By then, Gwen had opened the large oak doors and Bandit came trotting in. His plumed tail wagged. Em was annoyed when Morgana got off the bed to pet him, when she hadn't even done that when he walked in. But she was a lady of the court, and he was only the most powerful sorcerer in centuries a servant of peasant birth. She could do whatever she liked, he supposed.
This train of thought was cut off when Morgana started to chuckle. Her green eyes sparkled, and Em, he thought of—
He was probably seven. His móraí was teaching him his Druidic alphabet and each individual letter's pronunciation. He liked the sound of her lilting voice. It soothed him. Emery uttering a simple sentence sounded like a lullaby to him.
She pointed to the first letter on the piece of parchment she had neatly written the alphabet on. "Say this five times, acushla."
He tried saying it, over and over, but he couldn't make him tongue obey him and say it the right way. Frustrated and angry, he kept repeating his garbled attempt at pronouncing the sound until Emery was half keeled over from laughing so hard. Her emerald eyes sparkled with amusement—
By nature, Em thought, this noblewoman was the spitting image of his grandmother.
A/N: ARTHUR IS HERE! I am so, so excited to introduce the new story format. I have decided to write in two different timelines, one labeled "then" and the other "now". "Then" follows Em's adventures in Camelot, and "now" follows Em and the rest of the gang three years after he fakes his death. I hope this isn't too confusing. I've always loved this style, but I know it isn't everyone's favorite thing. Let me know what you guys think!
Also I'm really sorry I took forever to update. Basically, life happened and the craziness of it all gave me a bit of writer's block. However, I have a lot more free time and hope to publish a chapter later this week. That will be the last update in June, as I am going on a long trip. I am very excited and I hope to draw inspiration for this story from the places I am visiting.
As always, thank you to everyone who favorited, followed, and reviewed. 114 follows is CRAZY! Also reviews put a big grin on my face.
A list of Hunith and Balinor's kids (someone asked for it lol):
William (Will)
Gilanders (Gilli)
Alvarr*
Adelina*
Emrys (Em)
Mordred
Sefa
Daegel
(* after the name indicates an adopted child of Hunith and Balinor)