Yes, the chapter title is a riff on Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? which I used to play when I was much younger. What, it was fun.
Morgana winced when the sunlight hit her eyes, contrasting dazzlingly with the darkness of the hidden passageway. Once her eyes adjusted to the light, she winced again at the sight of a thick coating of gray dust soiling the hem of her formerly pristine nightgown. "Ugh, it must have been filthy in there," she grumbled to herself, suddenly grateful she hadn't been able to see much of the place. It was probably infested with spiders and mice too.
"Secret passages tend to be that way," Will said as he clambered out of the trapdoor after her. "We can't have the staff going in to clean them, or they wouldn't be secret anymore."
Morgana wasn't listening to him. "I need to wash and change before Freya arrives and wonders how I came to be in such a state. Fetch me a clean shift and gown, please."
"Wha-? You want my help dressing?"
"Not really, but since my maid isn't here I'll have to make do with you. And I do not need help dressing. You may hang my clothes over the screen; I can put them on myself." She flounced off into her washroom.
Will's face, which had turned the approximate color of a beet, reverted to its normal shade. "Oh, okay. Good. I'll get your dress."
"I want the purple and turquoise one," Morgana called out, the perils of letting a man with Will's dress sense choose her attire having just occurred to her.
Muttering under his breath about picky noblewomen, Will stalked over to Morgana's wardrobe. His jaw dropped when he opened it and took in her vast assortment of clothing. Whereas all Merlin's outfits were basically the same with a few variations, no two dresses in Morgana's collection were alike. What does she need all this stuff for? Why have so many dresses when you can only wear one at a time anyway? She could get by with two - wear one while the other's being washed, then switch them. So, I'm looking for something purple and turquoise…
The wardrobe held two purple gowns, one made of heavy velvet and decorated with elaborate embroidery, the other made of silk and bare of any adornment except some gold detailing at the neckline. Neither contained a single turquoise thread as far as Will could see. After some debate, he chose the plainer silk one; he liked it better even if it didn't look quite right, having no sleeves. But then the Lady Morgana had worn a sleeveless dress for her first public appearance in Dagon, when Balinor introduced her to the court. She liked to display herself, that one.
Morgana emerged from the washroom ten minutes later, having thoroughly scrubbed herself. Will watched her shift and gown slither over the top of the screen as she pulled them over to her side; then she stepped out from behind it, stuffed her dirty nightdress into his arms, and asked where the rest of her clothing was.
"What d'you mean, the rest of it?"
Her eyebrows arched. "My over-gown, Will! The turquoise one?"
"There's another layer to that thing?" That explained the lack of turquoise embellishments and sleeves. "I didn't see one."
"It's too delicate to be hung, so it's folded up in a drawer. As is the belt I like to wear with this dress," Morgana added as an afterthought.
Following her directions, Will began hunting for the missing components of her ensemble. "I did get the right dress, though, didn't I? You didn't want the other purple one?"
"I only have one purple dress."
"I saw two. The other one's a fancy velvet getup-"
"Oh, that isn't purple. It's violet," Morgana haughtily informed him, her tone implying that Will must be very stupid not to know the difference.
He rolled his eyes so hard it hurt. "Oh excuse me. I never knew that since Merlin doesn't wear violet."
"Not yet, but I may change that. When I'm done with his wardrobe, you might have to learn the names of other colors besides black."
Before Will could retort, a sharp rapping on the window interrupted their repartee. Looking around, they discovered a bird perched on the stone ledge outside the window, tapping its beak on the glass. Morgana opened the window. "Shoo!"
Instead of leaving, the bird hopped onto her arm. She flinched in anticipation of pain, but its talons gripped her wrist very gently. It was almost like the bird was taking care not to hurt her. Morgana curiously brought it closer to her face to examine it. It was a little brown hawk - a merlin - whose eyes stared into hers with an intelligence she recognized. "Merlin?"
The hawk rose into the air with a flap of its wings, vanished, and was replaced by her prince. "Morgana."
She launched herself at him, not even caring that she was only half-dressed, and he melted into her embrace, leaning on her as if he needed support to stay on his feet. He probably hasn't gotten much more sleep than I have these past three nights. In fact, last night he didn't get any rest at all. Poor thing must be exhausted.
"My friend agreed to help with your little problem," he murmured into her hair; then he lifted his head and peered blearily at the room's other occupant. "Will? What're you doing in here?"
"Helping your fiancée avoid a scandal. She fell asleep in your bed after you disappeared, so I had to smuggle her back here through the secret passage you showed me."
Merlin frowned down at the girl in his arms. "You slept in my bed?"
She let go of him, folded her hands in front of her, and looked down at her feet. "I…yes. I meant nothing indecorous by it - I was just too tired to return to my own-"
"Great. You won't mind if I use yours then." He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead, then draped himself across the foot of her bed and was instantly fast asleep.
Morgana let out a small sigh of indignation. She knew very well how he felt and understood how impossible it was to keep going after one's endurance had been pushed past its limits, but he could have taken off his boots first. Since he didn't seem inclined to wake up and do so, she resolved to do it for him.
"What're you doing?" Will asked as she untied Merlin's bootlaces.
"What do you think I'm doing?" She tugged hard on the right boot and then, once it had parted company with Merlin's foot, peeled his sock off as well. "Ugh, how long has it been since he changed his socks? You could help me, you know, instead of standing there like a lump of wood. Or are you too high and mighty to do anything useful?"
"Are you saying I'm as useless as a lump of wood?"
"Not at all." She smirked at the manservant. "I know of several uses for wood."
Determined not to be unfavorably compared with a stick, Will set aside his armful of clothing. Together he and Morgana flipped Merlin onto his stomach and got his jacket off. This involved a lot of pushing and pulling that she thought was bound to wake the warlock, but he never showed the slightest sign of regaining consciousness. In fact, he was so unresponsive that she would have feared he'd expired if not for the fact that he was obviously still breathing.
"He won't wake for hours," Will told her when she voiced her concerns. "These last few days, he's been too worried about you to take proper care of himself; I don't think he's had anything except herbal stimulants and magic to keep him going. A powerful sorcerer can get by like that for a while, but it wears them down, and then they sleep like the dead for a long time."
"How long, exactly?"
Will shrugged. "You'll be lucky to get your bed back in time to use it tonight."
###
Explaining why Merlin was passed out on her bed was certain to be awkward and likely to land him, or possibly both of them, in trouble, so Morgana simply locked up her chambers and spent the day deflecting questions about her fiancé's whereabouts. She began by intercepting Freya on her way to deliver breakfast, told the maid to serve her meal on the northeast terrace - it was too pleasant a day to be indoors - and gave her the day off, thus removing any reason she might have had for entering Morgana's quarters.
Next she had to deal with Arthur, Lancelot, and Gwaine, who inquired if she knew where Merlin was when they encountered her in the stables. "He went…ah…" Where should she say he'd gone? Anywhere in the castle was out since the men could easily catch her in the lie by verifying whether Merlin was there or not. She wracked her brain for possible destinations outside the castle walls and named the first one that came to mind. "I believe he went to the tavern."
Arthur and Gwaine were outraged at the idea of Merlin going to the tavern without inviting them along. Lancelot, however, was skeptical. "Merlin never goes to the tavern unless someone drags him."
"Well…perhaps he thought it was time to see what he's been missing."
"I've taken him to the tavern plenty of times. He already knows what it's like," Gwaine pointed out, his offended expression slowly becoming a suspicious frown as he examined Morgana's story more closely.
She shrugged. "He's a sorcerer - we can't expect him to think like a normal person, can we?"
###
Morgana subsequently had an unpleasant brush with the ever-venomous Lady Sirenia, who implied that Merlin's absence must mean he was growing tired of her and remarked that most ladies managed to hold their men's attention at least until the day after their wedding…unless they were foolish enough to let the man in question have them beforehand.
Morgana was extremely grateful at that moment that Sirenia was too arrogant to think of befriending Merlin's manservant as a way of getting to him. "Hardly; I'm not the one with a reputation for chasing after a different man every week, so perhaps it is your virtue that should be in question rather than mine. And," she boldly continued, "if I had given myself to Merlin, he would not be tired of me afterward. I'm sorry if your suitors' interest in you has waned once they sampled everything you have to offer."
She checked that her dragon ring was still in place on her right middle finger and braced herself in case she'd just provoked the witch into attacking her, but Sirenia held herself back, though not without visible effort. Morgana breathed a sigh of relief when the red-haired enchantress walked away; while she didn't doubt that Merlin's protection spell would be able to absorb whatever offensive magic that woman could produce, she'd rather not be attacked in the first place.
Not long after that, she met Balinor in the library. He also commented on how no one had seen Merlin all day and asked if she knew where he'd gone, but didn't press her further when she said she did not, for which she was thankful. Lying to Arthur, Lancelot, and Gwaine was one thing - Gwaine was just a stable-hand, and not very intimidating after she'd seen him behave like a drunken idiot, Lancelot, while a knight and Gwen's unofficial suitor, was not overly important to Morgana, and Arthur was her brother in all but blood, so of course she told him fibs all the time, especially if they had the potential to make a fool of him. Lying to a king who would one day be her father-in-law was a much more serious matter; had he chosen to interrogate her, she doubted she could have withstood him.
###
Before retiring to her chambers for the evening, Morgana made one final stop to visit Gwen. She missed her closest friend (and wanted to put off reentering her rooms as long as she could, because she really had no idea what she was going to do if Merlin was still sleeping across her bed).
Gwen's feet, though still sore, were healing fast thanks to Alice's ministrations. "Alice thinks they'll be all better by this time tomorrow," Gwen said happily, unwinding her bandages to show Morgana how much her wounds had improved. The cuts were closed but still covered with scabs and pink, tender new skin. "Right now walking is still a bit painful."
"You're supposed to be resting! You had better not be overexerting yourself," Morgana said severely.
"I haven't been, really. It's just-" Gwen ducked her head sheepishly "-I got tired of asking for help getting to the privy."
"Oh. Do you need help now, with…with that? I could…" Morgana offered uncertainly, and with no small amount of embarrassment. She hadn't considered this particular result of Gwen's feet being hurt; when she'd taken on the role of Arthur's nurse his injury had only affected one arm, so he'd never required assistance reaching the privy or with the things one did there. It was unclear which of them would've been more mortified if Morgana had had to help him with that.
"No, I've already been," Gwen said quickly. "I'm just looking forward to moving freely again. I understand now why Arthur became such a pain when that dragon hurt him - and he had to stay in bed much longer than me since he had broken bones. I felt sorry for him then, but even more so now that I have an idea of what he went through."
Morgana frowned. Why were they discussing Arthur?
"He's been to see me once or twice; other than you and Lancelot, he's the only visitor I've had. Oh, and Freya's been around to help with things I couldn't manage. He - Arthur, I mean - isn't very good at comforting people when they're hurt, but I suppose we ought to give him credit for making an effort, don't you think? He even poured me a drink of water this afternoon, can you believe it? When he said he was thirsty I almost expected him to tell me to get him a drink, not ask if I wanted one too."
"That is…remarkable. For Arthur, I mean. For anyone else it would only be common courtesy."
Gwen agreed, yet Morgana saw in her friend a pronounced lack of enthusiasm for mocking Arthur and complaining about his prattish behavior the way they used to. She also noticed that, while Gwen waxed on about the improvements in Arthur's character, she had only mentioned Lancelot once, in passing. Could Gwen be losing interest in her knight?
Actually, Morgana reflected after bidding her friend good night, she wasn't sure Gwen had ever been that interested. It was always Lancelot pursuing her, after all. The fact that Gwen seemed to reciprocate might be due to her simply being too nice to reject him, or too flattered - he was a brave, honorable man, the sort most girls would love to have courting them. Gwen appeared to have a genuine affection and respect for him…yet she'd never said she was in love with him.
I may have to reevaluate my opinion on him being the perfect man for Gwen. A frown creased Morgana's brow as she recalled how prominently Arthur had figured in their latest conversation. If Gwen was indeed losing interest in Lancelot, surely she wouldn't transfer that interest to Arthur? No, of course she wouldn't. Gwen knows better. She's far too good for him.
Morgana reached for the doorknob in front of her and let herself into her chambers. Only after she was inside did it occur to her that she'd locked the door that very morning, so she shouldn't have been able to enter without using her key.
"Good evening, my lady."
She jumped. Merlin was perched on her dining table, wide awake and refreshed; any resemblance to the pale, gaunt man with bloodshot, bruised eyes who'd stumbled into her arms last time she saw him was nearly gone, except that he was still unhealthily skinny. "Merlin…and Freya?" The maid was in Morgana's chair, her body angled toward the prince's; they must have been deep in conversation before Morgana interrupted.
"I thought I'd better bring your dinner even if you did dismiss me for the day, so I came in and found Merlin here instead of you. You could have told me what was wrong with him, my lady; maybe I could've helped."
"I'm sure she was only doing what she thought best. I feel better anyway now that I've rested and…uh, I ate your dinner, Morgana." Merlin dropped his gaze from her eyes to her throat area. "I'm sorry. I'll swipe whatever you'd like from the kitchens."
"Can you not simply ask for more food? You are the crown prince after all."
"Where's the fun in that? Come on, Morgana, where's your sense of adventure?"
She opened her mouth to say her sense of adventure did not include sneaking around at an hour when most decent people were in bed…then Merlin turned his unbelievably compelling blue eyes on her. Minutes later she was following him through a maze of darkened corridors, her hand clasped tightly in his, and envying Freya for being too sensible to let Merlin drag her into his late-night escapades, especially when it became clear that he had more than food on his mind. "Merlin, I may be wrong - I wouldn't presume to know this castle's layout better than you - but I don't believe this is the way to the kitchens."
"You're right, it's not. We'll get your food later."
"Then where are you taking me?" Morgana asked impatiently; she was hungry, and this little jaunt seemed pointless if it wasn't going to end with her getting something to eat.
"To your first lesson in magic. Your teacher has just arrived, and we do not want to keep her waiting."
Didn't get to the magic lesson after all, but as you can see it's coming up. We did get some surprise pre-Arwen though; what do you all think of Morgana's observations on the Lancelot/Gwen/Arthur dynamics? And did you enjoy the canon reference with Morgana saying Merlin was in the tavern when no one could find him?