Arthur wasn't hiding in Gwen's house and sulking. He wasn't in the woods near where the unicorn had come back to life. He wasn't standing on a tower or on top of the wall overlooking Camelot. Merlin was running out of places to look, and in desperation, he checked in the physician's chambers and his own room. He didn't think Arthur would be in there, but there was always the off chance.

At last he had to admit that he had lost his king. At least those bells had stopped ringing.

Merlin sighed, and grabbed a heavy sack from under his bed, beginning to throw things inside.

"Merlin, what do you think you're doing?"

Merlin looked up at Gaius in the doorway. "Packing," he said.

"I can see that, but why?"

"I'm going looking for Arthur," Merlin replied easily, climbing to his feet. He didn't have a change of shoes, but he'd thrown his other shirt and neckerchief into the bag. "I should bring bandages in case he's injured," he said, walking towards the door to the outer chambers so he could grab some out of Gaius's wares.

The old man trailed behind the warlock. "Where do you plan to look?"

"I'm not sure yet," said Merlin. "I plan to check for any clues in his room, and if that fails…" He shrugged. "I may ask Agravaine."

"Merlin," warned Gaius immediately. "Don't be rash. You don't want to push Agravaine… He could be a dangerous enemy."

"He already is," Merlin pointed out. Then he turned back to Gaius, having grabbed several herbs and bandages from the shelves. "Goodbye, Gaius. I'll be back." He gave the physician a quick hug and was out the door before he could hear another protest.

\-_-BREAK-_-/

Merlin leant over the drops of blood, sitting on the floor next to them. He'd already tried several spells on them, after checking to be sure that no one was around. He was reasonably certain that the blood had come from Arthur, which was a fact that he did not like at all. However, it didn't reveal anything about what had happened.

Merlin sighed and looked around the chambers. He could sense magic in here, and not just his own. His magic was always floating around in here, naturally, from old spells. But this was different—it tasted different, and seemed malicious. He couldn't put his finger on it. He didn't like it.

Merlin sighed and stood up straight. How was he supposed to search if he didn't even know where to start? He bit his lip, his hands clenching into fists.

The door opened behind him, and he jumped, spinning around.

It was Gwaine, followed by Leon, and then Elyan and Percival.

"Oh," said Merlin, "it's you."

"What're you up to?" asked Gwaine suspiciously, coming forward.

"Looking for clues," replied Merlin immediately, sighing. The knights' eyes drifted down to his bag and back to Merlin.

"You're going to go looking for the king," Leon guessed immediately.

"By yourself?" Elyan said with surprise. "How do you even know where to look?"

"I don't," said Merlin. "But he's not in Camelot and he can't just be nowhere." He pushed past the knights, not really concerned with any of them at the moment. But he didn't get far into the hall before Gwaine caught up.

"I want to come too," said Gwaine.

Merlin raised an eyebrow. "I don't think that…"

"No offense, Merlin, but you know you aren't much with a sword, and you might need me," Gwaine said, his manner offensive – but then, that wasn't unusual. Gwaine lived off of being offensive.

The other knights followed up behind him, looking – Merlin was sure – quite imposing. They were all big and tall in their chain mail, with their swords. Merlin was not impressed. "Fine," Merlin said. "Gwaine can come, but that's it. The rest of you will want to stay and make sure Agravaine's search party doesn't fail miserably anyway."

"Where are you going to search?" Percival said, looking bewildered, his forehead drawing together.

"Somewhere," said Merlin, not feeling up to explaining. For heaven's sake, Arthur was in trouble! Why were they even still standing around? "I hope we find him soon." He nodded to Leon, Elyan, and Percival, then turned on his heel and began to speed-walk.

"You're worried," Gwaine said, right next to Merlin's shoulder, walking quickly to keep up with him.

Merlin nodded tightly. Worried? He felt like he was coming apart at the seams. Arthur was gone, and Merlin didn't know where to find him, and he was in the same place as that dangerous magic… He shuddered.

"Alright, Gwaine," Merlin said. "Usually I wouldn't ask this, but if you're going to come with me, then you can't ask questions. I know what I'm doing."

"Really?" Gwaine looked like he didn't believe it, flipping his hair out of his face.

\-_-BREAK-_-/

Merlin found Agravaine alone, which was good. He was standing right outside his chambers, straightening his clothes in a way that seemed to be a family trait—Arthur always did the same, and Uther used to adjust his gloves all the time.

Merlin left Gwaine back a bit inside a small alcove in the wall, telling him to stay put and shut up, not to do anything. Gwaine looked suspicious but agreed.

"Lord Agravaine," Merlin said, walking right up to the man.

Agravaine smiled, a little slimily. "Ah!" he said. "I don't suppose you've remembered anything about the king's whereabouts?"

"Where's Arthur?"

"I'm sorry…"

"Where is he? What have you done with him?" Merlin felt his hands clench into fists, his nails digging into his palms. His head was screaming that he was crazy. His gut was telling him not to look away, to look Agravaine right in the eyes.

Agravaine looked politely baffled. "I don't know what you mean."

"Fine. What has Morgana done with him?"

A smirk quirked on the older man's face before he wiped it away. "Are you accusing me of being in association with…? The king said you didn't trust me, but honestly." His kind smile faded as he added, "You could be arrested for that."

Merlin waited five seconds in silence. He kept his eyes locked on Agravaine's. He was angry. Angrier than he usually was at Agravaine, since Arthur's uncle usually only served to annoy him or frustrate him. After those five seconds were up, he looked away. I don't think he knows.

He turned and walked away. Merlin kept his posture upright, aware that he was turning his back on the enemy, but Agravaine let him go, staring after him.

Merlin's face was stormy as he walked down the hall, and picked Gwaine back up and kept walking.

"What was that about?" Gwaine asked in confusion.

"I might tell you later," said Merlin. "One more place to check," he said. "And it's not in the city."

\-_-BREAK-_-/

Morgana wasn't in her "hovel," as she called it. And unfortunately, Arthur wasn't either.

Gwaine wanted to know what this place was. Merlin told him it was a bad memory and dragged him out of the hut. He looked around quickly for Arthur, but when he didn't see heads or tails of him, he beat a hasty retreat. He didn't want to have a showdown with Morgana right now.

"Now what?" asked Gwaine as they walked away.

"Now we just start looking," Merlin told him. "We look for clues. We have to find Arthur within a few days."

"Why the limit?" asked Gwaine, again violating his promise not to ask questions. Merlin was okay with that at the moment though.

Merlin picked a direction and began to march through the forest. "Besides the danger he's probably in? Well, if we leave Camelot without leadership for too long, it's open for attack. And I don't trust Agravaine to make the right decisions. If Gwen was still in Camelot, she would call him out, but since she's not, I'll have to trust that Gaius will keep things going…"

He paused as what he just said sank in.

"Oh, gods," he said, closing his eyes. "Asking Gaius to defy authority. Let's find Arthur quickly."

A/N: Before you get angry about the Gaius comment, mostly kidding there. Anyway. I don't like this chapter too much (I feel that Merlin is OOC in his worriedness, which is NOT a word), but everything had to get started. I want to get to Arthur next chapter, so I wanted to get this all out of the way.