30 Expecting the unexpected
So it came to pass that Marwon found Merlin and Gaius in the forest by noontime, in a close embrace and fast asleep.
Looking down at the merrily snoring couple, the Druid noticed that he was in a no-kidding mood. Finding himself alone in the cottage in the morning, with both his friends gone without a warning, had scared the hell out of him. He had searched and searched with growing anxiety but no results, until his magic, indistinct and confused as always but unusually adamant, had whispered that there was something peculiar happening in the forest.
Convinced that his accursed imbecile excuse for a magical power had found a bunny's den or anything even less helpful, Marwon had followed its lead nonetheless, in absence of any better idea. Astonishingly, this time the good-for-nothing nitwit muse he'd been cursed with since birth had been right.
Here they were, in the middle of nowhere, on the damp ground, dirty and unkempt, having a little nap.
Marwon lost it. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he shouted at the top of his voice, shaking them both violently. "Leaving me like that? Are you mad?"
Gaius grinned sheepishly and without opening his eyes, he just rolled on his left side and slept on. Merlin blinked once or twice before he fully opened his eyes. Menacingly he stared at the intruder. "Shut up!"
"Don't you dare speaking to me like that, you brat..." Marwon began, still yelling he did not really know what. He had been that terrified by their absence. However, excusable as it might be, his wasn't an altogether wise course of action.
Merlin's magic wasn't yet fully contained. It was also a little bit on the depressive side, what with the absence of peaceful canyons and rainbow birds and other lovely things. Consequently, on impulse and in utter independence from its master, it leashed out and hit its mark, dead on.
Marwon finished rolling head over heels more than twenty metres away from Merlin, with a swimming head, an aching back and not quite sure he knew what had hit him. With his backside parked in a little rivulet and his legs sticking out in the air the Druid could not be expected to figure it out any time soon, which prompted a still aggravated warlock to help him out and up.
Only when Merlin pushed him to dry land with an irritated huff, Marwon regained his wits. "You're awake!" he screamed, overwhelmed with sudden happiness.
"Oh heaven, thank you, he found out!" Merlin said and not even Arthur Pendragon could have pressed more sarcasm into one single sentence. "How very clever you are."
"No, Merlin, Emrys, you don't get it, you've been unconscious for so long, ever since we freed you from the Rashnijaan and then we came here and then you slept on and on and we did not know what to do, and we did not know what to say..."
"Obviously you still don't" Emrys said, whose head was spinning from the stream of words he was showered with. The normally friendly, gentle and kind warlock named Merlin was still on prolonged leave. The worn out young wizard in his clothes was a wrathful creature and as such he drew heavily on the role model of a certain royal prat to vent his bad mood on the hapless Druid. "Why don't you just hush your mouth until you do?"
"Do what?" Marwon asked, unruffled.
"Know what to say!" Merlin ticked him off.
Marwon beamed from one ear to the other. "But I do. Now you're awake we must go home, find the Rashnijaan, so that you can call in your Dragon so that he can destroy it. After that we must free the Pendragons from Cendred's hold, at least I think they're still there, make peace between Camelot and Cymbria, let Morgyan marry Antek of Llanfair, make Cendred give Antek back his fiefdom, convince Antek that he cannot rebuild Blackrock on the old site for its magic is polluted, find a chieftain for my tribe, and then we can all live happily ever after." The Druid shrugged nonchalantly. "Piece of cake!"
Merlin shook his head in a vain attempt to clear it. Then he banged his left hand repeatedly against his temple, with even less success. He could make neither head nor tail of it. Some of it sounded disturbing, like the part of the Pendragons being in someone's hold or that Khilgarrah was obviously needed for some demolition job. But right now he'd eat his scarf if he knew what the Druid was talking about.
Besides, Merlin had the distinct feeling that he should remember something else, and presto. Something bad had happened, and although it had felt like a dream – or nightmare rather – at the time, it had been real, he was sure of that. It had been very, very bad, a catastrophe that could bring other catastrophes about and it had had something to do with the Pendragons, especially with Arthur and Gwen.
The warlock racked his brain but the memory wouldn't come to him. Damn, he knew he had seen it, he knew he had heard it and he knew it had been a horrible disaster but what it had been or why and how it had happened – nothing. Instead of becoming clearer and better focussed, all his memories from the Rashnijaan faded away, escaped him like water would run through his fingers. He just couldn't help it.
"You said you and Gaius saved me from the Rashnijaan's grasp?" Merlin asked, a little less angry and a little more gentle than before.
"Yes" Marwon simply answered without going into too much painful detail. "It was mostly Gaius' doing, though" he graciously added.
"He was... the wolf... wasn't he" Merlin said, the images running from his mind faster than he could conjure them.
"Yes he was" Marwon returned in an eager tone. "Impressive, wasn't he?"
"I still do not get it..." Merlin thought aloud. "How does it all …. connect?"
The Druid laughed. He was hilarious, now that he had one of his heroes back. "Never mind. We'll set things to right now, as I said."
"Marwon, how long was I out? How long since you've last seen Arthur or the others? I need a precise answer!"
"Six months, eight days and one hour" Marwon said, as precisely as he could.
"Six months?" Merlin's knees wobbled. Gods, in six months, a world could go down and be resurrected with all the pieces wrongly placed. How could he have slept for six months while all he'd ever cherished was obviously in jeopardy?
Marwon saw the other's face and decided on the spot that some more encouragement was needed. "Hey, Merlin - you are Emrys! With your power, Gaius' knowledge and my sword – what could possibly go wrong?"
"Everything" Merlin said with heartfelt conviction. "I don't know how, I don't know why, but believe me, in my life, somehow everything always goes wrong." Then he sat down, cross legged and fell into a stubborn, malevolent silence.
Furtively Marwon looked the crestfallen warlock over. What the hell was wrong with Emrys? Shouldn't he be glad all was well now? Instead he was throwing gloomy prophecies right and left!
Yet in his present mood, Marwon couldn't be downhearted for long.
Nor silent.
With a soft chuckle he pointed at Gaius. "What about him? I say, we let him sleep a bit longer. It has been hard for a man of his years. Can't you make him a bit more comfortable while I go and fetch us something to eat?"
"Yeah sure." Truth be told, Merlin was thankful for the distraction. Marwon was right. As they could not plan for the future they might as well concentrate on the presence. If only he could get rid of the nasty feeling that something was very much amiss with the Pendragons and that the case, as usual, was really REALLY urgent.
However, as Arthur himself liked to say – or softly mutter, rather - when his father was carried away once again with his own greatness and fantastic schemes: First things first!
While the Druid trotted off happily in his pursue of food, Merlin's eyes blazed golden and Gaius was wrapped in a few warm blankets and had got a pillow without so much as stirring.
Now Merlin giggled, too. If only he had thought of that trick years ago, he might have convinced the Pendragons of magic's merits during one of their drawn out hunting trips or military campaigns without ever risking persecution. Both father and son valued a warm bed, especially in a cold forest night, although they'd never admit it.
Gaius was still sleeping soundly when Marwon came back with two fat rabbits, a small chicken and a thick bundle of wild herbs for a salad over his shoulder. He had dug out some edible roots, too.
At once, Merlin felt that the Druid's mood had shifted. Something was troubling Marwon. Something strong and disturbing enough to bring a morose, defiant expression into the usually amiable, open features.
However, the warlock found himself distracted by the dangling animals. "You're a Druid" Merlin said, perplexed.
"Oh heaven, thank you, he found out!" Marwon retorted. "How very clever you are."
The warlock swallowed the comeback on his own former rebuke like a good fellow - by simply ignoring it. "Shouldn't you be a vegetarian?" he asked.
"I" Marwon said pointedly "for my part, like rabbits. In the fields, after harvesting. In my garden, after harvesting. In the woods, at any given time. But mostly at noon, or dinner time, if they are on my plate in a good, wholesome sauce. Any questions?"
"But..." Merlin was still confused. "Shouldn't you... I mean, you Druids are such a tranquil, peaceful people... The poor animals..."
The Druid, an unwelcome premier to Merlin, sneered openly. "Oh, yes. The Druids are very tranquil. And so very peaceful. They'd never hurt anyone's feelings, let alone on purpose, never ever. And they go out of their way to be tolerant. Albeit mostly of their own doctrines!"
His obvious irritation notwithstanding, Marwon built a fire and prepared the animals for roasting, quickly and skilfully, while he talked. "Merlin, let me get one thing straight: I loved and respected my father, very much, but, as you surely remember from another not altogether uncomplicated father-son-relationship, a father's persuasions and principles aren't always necessarily his son's."
"Rip." Marwon skinned the first rabbit with one, resolved pull.
"In my case" he continued "this painful contradiction between my love for my father and my individual appetite led me into the predicament of eating what I do not like and forgoing what I do like, during all my life until I left my people."
He rubbed salt he took from his bag pack into the meat of the first animal after he'd cut off the head and done away with the bowels, all the while talking on."I have eaten salad, beets, fruit, leaves until I thought they would come back through my ears. Some of them made me sick, but no one gave a damn."
"Rip" the second fur went where the first had gone, as much as head, tail and intestines.
"I have listened to discussions about the legitimacy of plucking fruit from a tree or waiting until they fall down on their own before we have a right to eat them" Marwon went on. "I tried to contribute by voicing my doubts that the fruit actually cared. It did not make me very popular and I learned to shut up and nod in all the proper places. When I grew into a man that made me sick too, but, guess what? Nobody cared about that either."
Nobody could think that Marwon Arenboarth's son was a changeling, but for one thing: His magic wasn't that of a Druid but it sure had once been meant for a kitchen fairy. In almost no time at all he had the rabbits roasting and turning over the fire. A delicious smell spread on the small clearing, especially as the animals had been stuffed with most of the herbs – so much for the salad theory – and the minced roots. The fat from the unfortunate rodents dripped into a small cooking bowl, filled with water, the rest of the vegetables and the best parts of the chicken.
Fleetingly Merlin thought that Arthur would turn green with envy about the Druid's hunting skills. He would have wanted to say so to Marwon, but he had no chance to put in a single word.
"Since we left my tribe" the Druid continued, never taking his eyes from their dinner "I have had no real appetite for salad, if you follow my drift. I've lived, for the first time ever, by what I like, and what I think. I've begun to appreciate what I find wise or right and to shun what I find stupid, intolerant or narrow-minded."
Marwon looked at the slowly roasting rabbits with a loving eye. "You do not believe me? You think all Druids are born angels? Well, let me tell you that bullies do come in all disguises. Take, for example, the understanding bully. 'Oh, Marwon, I appreciate you speaking your mind like that. It's such a sign of even you slowly maturing from the insensible, irresponsible person you've always been. Just a pity that you cannot say something really constructive so far.' Or the conscientious bully. 'Marwon, it grieves me to see how negligent I must have been of my duties to teach you what's right and what's wrong. Obviously you do not have a conscience at all. It makes me so very sad, I don't know if I'll ever be happy again.'
"Which" Marwon continued with a sarcastic grin "was illogical. If I did not have a conscience, why manipulate me by playing on it? A week it weighed me down, her unhappy looks whenever she saw me, her face, long as a fiddle. After that, I figured it out. I told my father, and he had me punished for disobedience and lack of due respect for my teacher."
Merlin pondered to say something soothing, for every time Marwon's feelings won the better of him, the fire raged up and threatened to spoil the food. However, it always stopped in the very last moment and so Merlin decided to stay quiet.
The Druid, on the other hand, was in full swing. "There is also my favourite" he snapped at the chicken soup. "The compassionate bully. 'Oh, Marwon, look at little Caddy. You've made her so very sad. She has been looking forward to this discussion, she wants to be part of us, and you spoilt it for her. What do you say, children, should Marwon apologize to Caddy for speaking out like he did? YEEEEEES."
The Druid looked up briefly and met Merlin's gaze across the fire with a mirthless grin. "Of course Marwon should apologize. Marwon should always apologize. To Caddy, who had the intelligence of a headless worm or to Toddy whose brain had the size of a nutshell or, most of all..."
"To your father" Merlin finished the sentence for him.
Marwon blushed a deep purple. "Don't get me wrong, Merlin. My father was a great man. I've said so to Gaius and it's true. But, you know, sometimes, just once in a while..."
"It would have been nice to see him on your side for a change" Merlin second guessed the rest of it once more.
The Druid shrugged uncomfortably. "He never was. I suppose, he couldn't risk it. He was our leader, you know. He couldn't go against everything my people believe in. It would have antagonized the elders, and the others." He grinned ruefully. "Reminds you of somebody?"
Merlin just nodded. Indeed, it did. He'd heard and seen it all before.
Marwon got up and turned his back on Merlin. His fingers, so much stronger than they looked, played with a twig he'd picked up until it broke with an audible snap. "Fact is" he said angrily "I'm not a Druid any more, if I ever was one." He hesitated before he continued "When all this is over, when you're back home in Camelot, ... do you think Arthur could find a place for us there? For me, Agneta and our son?"
Merlin withdrew a step or two in shock. "Wow, Marwon, slowly now. If this is about eating rabbit meat every once in a while, I'm sure there are other solutions for that..."
"This is not about rabbit meat" Marwon shouted. "This is my life I'm talking about. Did your Arthur never complain of the strain his position put on him? Did he not quarrel with his father, did he not wish he'd been born somebody else?"
"Yes he did" Merlin retorted punitively. "But he shouldered his responsibilities in the end. Always!"
"Until he put his responsibility for you before his duty to his father and it earned him a ticket to Blackrock's torture chamber! What about your responsibility for him, back then?"
Merlin was about to grab the other by the collar and give him a good, old-fashioned thrashing – not that he'd stood a chance against the by now seasoned warrior in physical combat, but things like probability were far from the warlock's mind right now – when he remembered what Arthur had suffered during his captivity in Blackrock. All this had come from Merlin's idiotic decision to abandon his Prince at the lakeside instead of waiting for him there, as he had been told to do.
All fight left the warlock. "I guess we're both not good at shouldering our responsibilities, you and I" he admitted hoarsely. "On occasions."
"So its decided then" Marwon said confidently. "As soon as Gaius has sufficiently recovered, we'll go back to Cendred's castle, bring things in order and then you'll talk to Arthur about me! I think I can do no good as a Druid, but I can do a lot of good in Camelot."
"Like helping me shoulder my responsibilities for the royal prat?" Merlin asked.
The warlock forgot his anger from a moment ago. He wanted to smile, rather. It would be fun to have this man around. Another peasant among the aristocrats, another pair of watchful eyes for royalty's always endangered back. And, after what he'd said about the things behind the Druids' famous unity of mind and opinion, Marwon's antipathy against resuming his role as their leader didn't look so cowardly.
It didn't always take a blade to hurt a heart. Sometimes, words could be so much sharper. The scars went just as deep.
And didn't Merlin/Emrys know what it meant to be a misfit amongst one's own people?
"You think I'm not deserving of the job?" Marwon now said, clearly hurt by the other's apparent amusement.
"Who am I to argue with the great Marwon, warrior of warriors, and the upcoming star of Camelot's chivalry?" Merlin retorted. "It's just a pity that we have to find Arthur and the Book of Demons first. Or so you said?"
Marwon flinched in anticipation. He had definitely come to like playing the hero. Besides, the sooner they got their job done, the sooner he and his family could leave the Druid village for good and start their new life. "You know where it is?"
"No" Merlin wanted to say but just this instance he realized that it wasn't true. He knew exactly who had taken the Rashnijaan. In fact, it was the only thing he did remember from the last six months, eight days and meanwhile more than one hour.
"Count Antek has it" he told Marwon. "When we were trying to escape from Markentower, Antek went back to the cellar for the damned thing, hid it under his shirt. Arthur couldn't see it, he was in the lead, with Gwen directly behind him. Morgyan had seen Antek run away and come back, of course. She never took her eyes off him. I was the last in the row, Antek passed me by on his way upstairs, to Arthur. I sensed the accursed Book's presence, without thinking I reached out and touched the thing, through his shirt and all. Next second I was out as a light. When I came to... or thought I'd come to..."
"Your spirit was caught inside the Rashnijaan" Marwon said. "Gaius and I found you, or rather your body, in a corner of the Cymbrians' headquarters in Markentower. You were unconscious and could not be roused. I started negotiating your release..."
"You? What did Gaius do? Usually it's him who sweet-talks his way out of tight spots."
"He couldn't sweet-talk right then, and his barking would only have complicated matters..."
"Barking?"
"Would you stop interrupting me? It's not very polite."
"Sorry!" Merlin raised his hands in surrender.
Marwon cleared his throat irritably. "Where was I? Oh yes, I negotiated your release, quite successfully, if I say so myself. There was only one soldier, a notorious drunkard, who thought you belonged to him. I challenged him, defeated him and..., well the others did not miss him much and off we went, with you on a cart I'd borrowed from the stables..."
"Wait, wait, wait" Merlin interrupted. "You mean you killed a man in sword combat and then you stole a cart right from under their noses?"
"Does that recommend me for guard duty in Camelot?"
"If I were you I'd be silent about the cart, but the dead man – the best recommendation ever!" Merlin said, and he meant every word.
After that, Marwon regained his old, joyful mood completely, as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his soul.
Together Druid and warlock finished two rabbits, one chicken soup, all the vegetables and the bread Marwon had brought from home. When Gaius woke up, he bitterly complained of the empty bowls and plates, but there was no helping it. He had to wait until they reached their cottage by nightfall before he could have some dried fish and some badly mistreated strawberries.
When they all went to bed, intending an early start in the morning for the long way to Cendred's castle, Gaius couldn't restrain himself. Stealthily he got up again and sneaked to Merlin's bed.
The warlock pretended to be fast asleep until Gaius had finally looked his fill. It was difficult, especially when the old man fetched another blanket and tucked his ward in. But Merlin managed somehow. A last, gentle pat on the head and Gaius retired.
The warlock waited until he could be sure that Gaius had really gone back to bed before he elbowed Marwon, who had put up his bed by Merlin's side for some unknown reason of his own.
"What is it?" the Druid asked sleepily.
"Don't you dare forget, when we're in Camelot, that I'm the Crown Prince's manservant. I wash his socks. Don't you touch them!"
"I'm allergic to soap" Marwon answered. "And I can't do menial tasks. I'm a Lord Druid's son, I have a station in life!"
"You and Arthur" Merlin hissed, "you two have an awful lot in common. You're both inconsiderate, arrogant prats."
"And here I was" Marwon giggled "thinking that the great Emrys would never find that out!"