The Llanfair heritage – Dragon Hearts II
2. Unhappily ever after
12 months earlier the Pendragons' triumphant return to Camelot should have been a perfect Happy End. But trust the royal house of Camelot to spoil it.
"Under no circumstances you will marry a servant girl and that's final!" King Uther's voice echoed from the walls of his spacious study.
His son's reply was quieter but full of defiance and something coming close to real enmity. "And if I were to disobey you, then what? Would it be your dungeon for me or once again somebody else's?"
Merlin saw this vicious remark hit its intended mark in Uther's heart and wished he had a spell ready to crouch into the wall in his back.
"Arthur, I…." Other than he had always thought the young warlock found it terrible to see the King stammer and search for words. "It's not that I want to hurt you but as things are I…we can't afford to offend our few remaining friends right now."
Uther held up some documents he took from his desk. "Six offers to enter marriage negotiations have arrived since it became known that you are back home, one from Olaf's Court and one from Alined's as well as four others from some of the biggest earldoms in Albion. They're meant as a friendly gesture. Now what would become of this friendship if you were to decline these high born Ladies for a handmaiden?"
Arthur had a fitting repartee on his tongue but Merlin could see that he managed to bite it back. Just. Instead the Prince shook his head. "Father, please do be reasonable. Olaf doesn't mean it anyway. He'd never part with his precious Vivian and surely he wouldn't expect you to allow me to live at his Court. As for Alined's cousin, she's thirty years my senior. Good heavens, I think she's almost as old as you. Last time I saw her she called me a sweet little tom."
Uther chuckled against his will. "You were a sweet little tom as I remember it. It was Beltane and you wore a very cute cat's costume."
"Yes, I was ten years old and I hated every minute of this feast."
"I bet after that, one would have needed a battalion of guard soldiers to force you into wearing anything cute" Merlin thought, very relieved that the tone had lightened.
"And as for the other offers" Arthur continued, trying his utmost to sound as conciliatory as possible, "they are either from our own barons or from nobles who are liegemen of another Crown. To accept them would mean much trouble for us in the long run. Surely you can't want that!"
"I didn't say I was seriously thinking of accepting one of these, I said we have to think very carefully about the reasons we give when we decline them" Uther explained with exaggerated patience as if his by now 23 years old son was an imbecile. "And one of the reasons they would never accept is that the Crown Prince of Camelot cannot marry a Princess because he wants to cuddle some servant girl not only outside but also inside the royal marriage bed!"
Pale with barely controlled wrath Arthur stared at his father. Uther met the hostile gaze briefly but then he looked away. The times in which he had been able to stare his son down had certainly passed.
The Prince inhaled deeply and straightened his shoulders. "I guess there is nothing more to say" he murmured. "At least nothing we wouldn't regret later on." He turned towards the door, waving at the young warlock to follow him. Merlin almost jumped at the opportunity to leave this awful quarrel behind.
"Merlin stays!" Uther commanded. "I have need of him!"
The wizard looked helplessly from one Pendragon to the other and pondered to become invisible.
"Fine then" Arthur said after a second. "As soon as you are finished conspiring with him you could let me know that he's available again, if this isn't too much to ask."
Merlin watched the Prince leave and felt miserable. "What does Your Majesty wish?" he asked, somewhat sourly. Arthur would make him pay for that later, whether it was Merlin's fault or not.
"Oh, sulking, are we? You are more eager to run after the Prince than to stay with the King, is that it?"
Merlin looked up, directly into the blue-grey eyes which always seemed so cold. Both, King and magician, thought of the time in which such a thing as Arthur's manservant and the King of Camelot facing each other eye-to-eye had been unthinkable. But then this had been before an unwitting but criminal careless Uther had handed over his son to a madman.
Arwan Count of Llanfair had dragged the young Prince through a living hell. Nobody in Camelot had had any hope left that Arthur could ever be freed from Llanfair's stronghold Blackrock Castle. There was no doubt whatsoever that without Merlin's and the Druids' help Uther would have perished, knowing that he himself had sentenced his son to a lifetime in slavery.
True enough, Uther had kept his side of the bargain. The ban on magic had been lifted and the Druids were no longer persecuted. Merlin and Gaius had been allowed back into Camelot. With Uther's authority severely weakened and Camelot still suffering from the losses in territory, revenue and money she had sacrificed in the vain hope to ransom Arthur out of Blackrock's dungeons, Merlin had found more than one opportunity in which the Pendragons had welcomed a little unofficial support from the first sorcerer the King had learnt to trust in more than twenty years.
"Since when do you object that I and your son are friends?" Merlin now asked boldly. To let UtherPendragon see how intimidating he still was for the warlock would be a foolish thing to do.
To the wizard's surprise the King gave up his authoritative pose and sat down heavily on the nearest chair. "Actually I have to rely on this friendship more than I would ever care to admit if I had a choice" he said wearily. "I fear I have lost my son. Now I need you to help me at least keep the heir to Camelot's Crown or all I ever did will come to nothing."
As always when this impregnable fortress of pride, authority and strong will showed a shred of human weakness, Merlin's easily impressed, compassionate heart went out to the man. Sometimes more so than it reasonably should, considering that the magician's first loyalty was – and always would be – with the son, not with the father.
"I don't think you have lost him. Maybe it's a little bit ….difficult to talk to Arthur but you still mean the world to him. Of that I am sure."
"And why is it, oh almighty warlock, that I can no longer speak with my own son properly? What do you think?"
Merlin swallowed nervously. "You never spoke to him properly. You just gave orders and he had to obey. I think you can't order him around like that anymore. He still loves you but he no longer fears you. After what he has been through there isn't much left he could be afraid of. Nothing can be worse than what he has already suffered as Llanfair's prisoner. And….and…perhaps…"
"Perhaps what?" It was hard to decide whether Uther was enraged or fascinated.
With increasing apprehension Merlin continued. "Perhaps it would be easier to keep the heir apparent if you would think of him as your son more often. I mean….what I want to say is… as your son loves Guinivere more than his own life why can't you forget what is befitting the Crown Prince?" There. He had said it.
Uther grinned humourlessly. "And if anybody objects or starts a conspiracy I could rely on you to transform him into a poodle? Do you think it's as easy as that?"
"Gaius also says…" Merlin shot back heatedly, only to bite his lip in mid-sentence. Oh-oh.
"And what does my Court Physician prescribe for the malady my relationship with the Prince is suffering from? And come to think of it, why would Gaius think he is entitled to discuss my private affairs with you?"
"Ground, please open up and swallow me" Merlin thought and he was lucky that his magic wasn't listening.
"Well, first of all, you seem to do it all the time these days and second, Gaius is your friend, he always has been. And third, he thinks that the marriage should take place as soon as possible. And Geoffrey thinks so too!"
The last remark baffled Uther thoroughly. Why would his Lord Privy Seal, the old shrewd politician, support this erroneous idea? "Well, if Geoffrey thinks this to be a good idea I will discuss the marriage with him."
Merlin didn't believe that he had heard correctly. Trust this man to surprise you, again and again. "Can I go now?" he asked hopefully.
"Off you run" Uther said. "And don't forget to tell his most sulking Highness that he is to attend tonight's dinner. Doubtlessly our baron guests have come to snivel for something they could use to their advantage at our expense and I intend to teach them otherwise, most kindly. For the duration of this happy event I expect my son's support, sulking or not."
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Merlin hurried to the door.
"And tell Geoffrey that I want to see him at once, in here"
"Of course, Your Majesty!" The warlock took the door handle now.
"And don't forget that I want to see you tonight in the hall, too. It'll give the barons something to agonize over. Rumours about you are flying all over Albion by now, I reckon. Let Arthur think about where to put you. Gives him something to do."
"He'll be beside himself with joy, Your Majesty!" Merlin opened the door.
"And Merlin, one last thing!" The wizard's shoulders fell while he turned round. "Yes?"
Uther smiled most friendly into the wary dark blue eyes.
"You might want to take a few moments to think if a King is hindered to put a most insolent and disrespectful young man into the stocks only because this young man has some magical abilities!"
"I certainly will, Your Majesty."
Merlin muttered angrily under his breath on his way to Arthur's rooms but only after he had left the King's study for good. Old habits die hard.