Author's note:

Thank you all for the reviews! I don't answer to all of them but it keeps me going.

Chapter 10: A Good Book

He waited until the end of the evening to venture out of his bedchambers. When the corridors seemed mostly empty, and the guests at the banquet were well into the second or third course, he quietly closed the door behind him and started to walk up the stairs to the court physician's chambers. It wasn't a very long way but he couldn't be seen carrying a book therefore he chose to hide it under a chain mail.

When he pushed the door opened, the physician almost cried out in surprise.

"Sire! I wasn't expecting anyone at this late hour," said Gaius, standing up and bowing slightly.

"I didn't mean to startle you," said Arthur, bolting the door behind him.

He noticed immediately that Gaius was half-smiling and glancing in the direction of the wrapped up chain mail.

"If it is mending you need, I suggest you go to the smithy."

But the prince wasn't paying much attention to the joke. His eyes had darted towards the small door at the end of the chamber, the door on which he used to bang whenever he needed something done quickly. Somehow, Merlin was always there when he was looking for him. He always jumped and dropped whatever book he was reading, but he was also always ready to do whatever was required. Nobody, Arthur had recently discovered, could get anything done quite as rapidly as Merlin; when it mattered, of course, not the trivial things like mending clothes or getting his dinner. He had been assured by Gaius that magic was seldom used for chores and that had been a comforting thought.

"I miss him too, Sire," said Gaius softly.

Arthur's mind raced back to where he was and he started to remove the chain mail from the precious book. Gaius's expression went from mere amusement to total shock.

"Where ever did you get that?" whispered the old physician in wonder.

"There were rumors… So I sent Lancelot on a quest, but that was some months ago. He had to go through five kingdoms to find this. He only just came back. Did you know a book like this existed?"

The physician was stroking the brown cover. "I thought they were all destroyed, that your father had made sure of that."

"It sounds like him," said Arthur darkly.

He sat down on a stool and gestured for Gaius to do the same. The light was dim in the physician's chambers and there was a small but steady blaze in the fireplace. It seemed like the perfect setting for the secrecy that the presence of the book required.

Arthur placed his two hands on the cover. "You know what this is then?" he asked Gaius, lowering his voice as low as he could.

"The Book of the Dragonlords," said Gaius, mimicking Arthur's whispering.

The prince turned the first page. He had never been found of reading. He had no patience for learning either; only training. Yet he had read this book from cover to cover in less than forty-eight hours. It wasn't a voluminous book and it didn't have much writing in it; it was mostly family trees. However the information in the first paragraphs was priceless.

"According to this," he began to say, "There were five original Dragonlord families. Each kingdom sent an heir to meet with the High Priests of the Old Religion and the princes were given the power of knowledge and the power to rule over the dragons. This alliance was supposed to put an end to a hundred years of war on both sides: dragons and men would be united through magic from that moment on."

Arthur turned the page and he couldn't help but smile at Gaius's reaction.

"I knew the legend of course, but to be able to read it with my eyes…" said the physician.

"Wait until you hear the rest," continued the prince eagerly. "These are the family trees and see that line? It is the trail of the Dragonlord gift through the generations."

He allowed Gaius a few minutes to study the blue line that was traced along the trees of names.

"It doesn't split," observed Gaius.

"That's right," said Arthur. It was definitely weird to be the teacher for once. "The gift is passed from father to son, but only to one son, and not necessarily the eldest or the youngest."

"So it means…"

"The father can choose on whom to bestow the gift."

He saw Gaius's face turn into a frown as he peered at the line of the sacred gift from page to page.

"It breaks," he said.

"I noticed that too," said Arthur. "The gift can die out if the Dragonlord has no heir or if the gift is not passed down by choice."

Gaius leaned back and crossed his arms.

"We know that Merlin received the gift from Balinor, so I really don't see where this is going, Sire," he said stubbornly.

Arthur had to stop himself from bursting out in laughter. He flipped the pages until he found the family crests that had caught his attention before. And then he pushed the book in front of Gaius.

"Here they are," he announced. "These are the five Dragonlord houses." He was tracing the names with his fingers. "They were: Bagatelle, LeNoir, Veronus, Brittanicus and… Pendragon."

Gaius had been in shock before, but it couldn't be compared to the expression of consternation that he was wearing now.

"Are you absolutely sure?" he said weakly, taking out his glass to enlarge the name.

"The gift died out, you see?" said Arthur ardently. He found the blue line and showed Gaius the part where it ended. "King Ulrik Pendragon was a Dragonlord but he failed to pass down the gift to one of his three sons; this was about four generations before my father."

"I take it that you didn't know this," said Gaius.

Arthur shook his head. "They told me that King Ulrik went mad and challenged his first born son to a duel. The king was killed of course; he wasn't a match for the young prince. Now I know that there is another side to that story."

Gaius gave him one of his most comprehensive looks. "I don't think I need to explain to you the reasons why your father kept this a secret."

"Yes, I know," said Arthur, turning the page a little forcefully and making no effort to hide the bitterness in his voice. "Imagine if anyone were to find out that the noble house of Pendragon had anything to do with magic. With all those treaties we signed? We would go to war for sure."

Gaius was speechless, but Arthur was already showing him another page.

"What else do you notice here?" he asked the physician, pointing at another family crest.

But the old man kept looking at him dreamily, as though he was seeing him in a brand new light.

Arthur let out a sight of irritation. "The houses of Pendragon and Brittanicus are connected. Look!"

Gaius leaned closer to the pages. There was no mistaking it; the trees of Brittanicus and Pendragon were intertwined. Arthur glanced up at Gaius.

"We're cousins!" he declared.

Gaius was shaking his white head. "Most of the noble families share a connection through marriage. You are stretching that notion a little too far, Sire."

"Not that much," pointed out the prince, "the Brittanicus appear with my grandfather's name on my father's side."

Gaius sunk low in his chair while the idea settled in. It had taken a few hours to Arthur to acknowledge that there was any sense in what he was reading. It had taken him a while too to accept the fact that Balinor had been Merlin's father. Immediately after Merlin's departure, Arthur had cornered Gaius and demanded to know how it was possible that Merlin was a Dragonlord. He had listened to the story, never interrupting the old man, and then he had left without a word. He had wanted to break everything in sight that night; the betrayal was hurting more than he could express. Yet there was another part of him that was just amazed at the amount of courage that Merlin had shown. How hard it must have been to watch his father die, to have held his last breath, to have closed his eyes after only one day of knowing him. Arthur could only imagine the pain of not being able to share the grief with anyone. Somehow, that story had leveled his anger. In his heart, he couldn't call Merlin a traitor, though it was hard for him to explain why. His anger wasn't directed at Merlin; it had never really been. It was the secrets and lies about anything to do with magic that were bothering him. It was bothering him more and more every day.

He closed the book delicately.

"Why shouldn't I call him my cousin? All of the most ancient and noble families have ties with the five Dragonlord houses," he said softly. "Merlin has more noble blood in him through his father than all of my knights. Yet he has magic too. How am I supposed to deal with that?"

Gaius was staring at him with a look of fondness on his face. "It's only normal that you have all of those questions, Sire. You will be king soon."

"My father is not dead or dying. He's recovered."

Gaius rose to walk towards the fireplace. Arthur noticed at that moment how old and bent the physician was. The past few months of caring for Uther's shaken mind in addition to Merlin's absence had not been good to him.

"Morgana's betrayal…," Gaius began to say. There were shadows dancing on his pale face. "She may have won in a way. He is a changed man."

"He is fit to rule nonetheless," replied Arthur stubbornly.

Gaius glared at him meaningfully. "The people are counting on you to do the right thing when the time comes."

Arthur's reply died in his throat. He was holding the Book of the Dragonlords securely on his lap. The day when he would become king was coming nearer, but he knew that his mind would never be at peace if he didn't do this first.

"He shouldn't have had to make this decision for me," he said, rising from his seat to stand besides Gaius in front of the fireplace.

"Merlin's reaction was… unforeseeable," said the old man with a touch of sadness in his voice.

"If I can't protect him, what kind of king will I be? If I can't protect an idiot servant who has done no harm his entire life… Is Camelot to become a place that innocent people fear or fly from?"

Gaius glanced at him slightly in shock and the prince felt as though his intentions were drawn on his face. He could never hide anything from Gaius; the old man could see right through him.

"Are you aware of my father's new rule?" asked Arthur.

The physician nodded. "Anyone caught performing magic is to be killed on sight, without trial."

The words were like daggers through Arthur's heart. The notion that his father would go that far, would go against the laws of justice that were the foundations of Camelot was simply beyond him.

"I'm going to order the knights not to obey that rule," he announced. He knew that he was walking into a dark and difficult path, but he could not see himself doing otherwise.

"Sire, I feel deeply honored…"

Arthur raised his hand, stopping the old man in mid-sentence.

"But I will not do it until I have set things right with Merlin. I don't need his approval obviously, but as weird as it may seem I need his… wisdom. He can show me the other side of the coin. If there is war and magic is involved, I'll be lost without a guide. Do you understand?"

Gaius bowed slightly. "It is perfectly clear, Sire."

"Do you really think he would have gone to Aria's Cradle?"

"I don't think we need to doubt Gwaine's word about that," said Gaius with certainty. "It makes sense that Merlin would seek to find out about his origins."

Arthur nodded. Without realizing it, he had made his way towards the door with his chain mail in hand. It was the last one that Merlin had polished before leaving Camelot eight months ago. The Book of Dragonlords was lying inconspicuously on Gaius's table; it looked no different from the other books in the physician's work environment and would fit in perfectly there.

"Keep it safe," he said with a meaningful glance. "My father must not find out that I have such a thing. I will leave instructions to Sir Leon and I hope that you can back up my story, but I cannot ask you to lie for me."

The physician bowed low. Being one of Uther's strong supporters had not altered the old man's values of loyalty and justice. Arthur knew that Gaius could be trusted, especially whereas Merlin was concerned. He had after all kept Merlin's magic a secret for years regardless of the dangers to himself.

"How will you find Aria's Cradle?" asked Gaius as Arthur had a hand on the doorknob.

Arthur couldn't help but smile. "I'll just follow the trail of clumsiness; Merlin should be right at the end of it."

And on those words, he left.