Diviner Captive
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…
Arthur walked to stand in the middle of the room where his manservant had just stood just minutes ago in a daze. He hadn't been looking when Merlin had been forced to lend his magic to the transportation spell because he had turned his back not wanting to look at him in that point of time. The sound had caught his attention but by the time he turned around they were already gone.
The observers had all left in the panic caused by the explosion. The throne room was in ruins. They'd been attacked many times before but the thick stone of the main part of the castle had always stood firm and never fallen. The guards and knights present were waiting anxiously for orders on what to do now.
Uther growled to himself, making anyone standing close to him take two steps away. "Arthur gather your knights and search Gwrthfyr's guest chambers, and the princess's too. Find any useful information you can get your hands on. Any other magical items he may have brought with him are to be taken down to the vaults."
"Yes, my lord." Arthur signaled for the Knights of the Round Table to follow him. This was something he'd done many times before and he was glad his father commanded him to do it now so he would have a distraction and no time to think.
Uther turned to the guards after his son had left. "I want you to take all Dyfred servant's left into custody. They'll be questioned on anything they over heard or saw." He received nods before everyone left to do his bidding.
The king grabbed the backs of the collars of two guards. " You are going to go search Gaius' chamber's as well as the boys room." Uther commanded Jarrett and Finley.
…
Since there were two rooms and four of them they decided to split up. Arthur and Gwaine searched the king's chambers while Elyan and Percival searched the princess's chambers.
Gwaine took much glee in ripping apart the room, going for the man's prized wardrobe first. He received a glare from the prince when he started to rip the clothes apart at the seams. It may seem fickle but he needed something to take his anger out on.
Arthur searched with much more purpose since he wanted answers.
He frowned at the metal case sitting openly on a table. It had clearly held the magical collar they had used on Merlin. There were symbols of the old religion carved into it. He didn't know what they did or meant so he thought it best to bring it with them so Gaius could look at it.
He turned his attention to the table meant for eating that had papers scattered across it along with some books. The papers on top were reports involving the peace treaty but once he removed the book he found a clearly marked Camelot file on Balinor. 'So that's how he managed to get all that information. Going through our own records.' The prince thought to himself with anger.
Geoffrey had insisted to his father that they must keep records of everything so nothing was lost or forgotten over time. He also thought that if it was written down what happened straight away it was the truth and it couldn't be blown out of proportion by word of mouth. His father indulged the old librarians wishes and gave him permission to do so.
Now it was being used against them.
Gwaine enjoyed tearing that stupid fur trim off the king's favorite Dyfred blue robe that he had warn so often. The fur managed to slip from his fingers, dropping to the bottom of the wardrobe, hitting what sounded like a thick pile of parchment. The sound had gained his attention so he leaned down to examine. He brushed the fur to the side so that he could read the name that was written clearly on top in bold letters.
"I just found one of Camelot's own record files on the table on Balinor." Arthur announced to the other knight in the room while curiously flipping through the pages. He'd never actually bothered to read one of Geoffrey's records before, didn't even think his father had bothered either. The old librarian mostly wrote them for himself.
"Well I just found a file on Merlin." Gwaine rebutted. The prince knew the knight was gloating in his head about how he had managed to one up him without even trying. Once he had managed to get back to his feet Gwaine carried the folder over where it made a loud thump when it hit the surface of the table.
Arthur observed the huge difference in the sizes between the files.
He had conflicting feelings about reading Merlin's or not. He wanted to know if there was anything he didn't already know about his manservant in there but he knew that the words written would just bring up strong memories of their adventures together.
It seemed Gwaine did not since he immediately flipped it open to a random page and started to read.
"What are you doing?" Arthur demanded while letting his own file flip closed as he crossed his arms.
"I missed the first three years of yours and Merlin's interactions, I want to see if you got into such crazy situations then as you do now." Gwaine explained as he scanned the page with his eyes.
The prince pulled the folder out of the knight's reach.
"Hey!" Gwaine shouted as he tried to get it back but the royal was strong enough to hold him away.
"You don't have time right know for pleasure reading. We are supposed to be looking for evidence of any more magical objects." Arthur berated him. Really he just didn't want to think about the reason they were searching the king's room and the file was sharply reminding him.
"Fine." Gwaine sulkily agreed.
They both went back to searching.
…
Elyan sighed as he discovered another trunk full off dresses. How many did you need he thought. In his opinion it was probably a waste of time to search the princess' rooms because she may be annoying but she wasn't an evil mastermind. All they found so far was the normal girly things.
Percival was checking the drawers of the makeup table when he heard a noise coming from down the hallway. They never bothered to shut the door. At first he thought it might be Arthur and Gwaine but the king's room was in the other direction. "Elyan can you be quite for a second? I think I hear something."
Elyan stopped ruffling all the dresses so they could listen. The noise was like a muffled yelling for help, like the person was kind of far away or behind a door. Percival started to follow it out of the room and into the hallway. Elyan decided to join him just in case he needed any back up, and he was curious.
The large knight came to a stop in front of a broom cupboard. There could be heard banging and yelling from inside. They both nodded to each other as they unsheathed their swords. Percival opened the door and was surprised by who was on the other side.
Dropping his sword from an attack position. "Lancelot!" He took in his appearance. The man's tunic was covered in wine with bits of food stuck in it. "What happened to you?"
"Thank god you found me. I thought I'd be in there forever." Lancelot thanked them as he leaned on Percival's shoulder for support.
"What were you doing in a broom closet? You should know that you can get trapped because they lock on the inside, living here so long." Elyan inquired. He'd wondered where the other knight had gotten too.
"No time for an explanation. I've got to warn Merlin before it's too late." Lancelot said disoriented as he tried to stagger down the hallway.
Elyan took in the large lump on the back of the man's head. "There's nothing you can do now." He exclaimed confusing the knight who stopped in his tracks. It seemed the man had been attacked before anything had gone down so he knew nothing.
"Why? How long have I been out for?" Lancelot asked frantically. "Is Merlin ok?!"
Elyan spoke softly to Percival. "I think you should bring Lancelot to Gaius while I inform Arthur of this, he'll probably want to question him."
Percival nodded in agreement before walking over and putting one of the knight's arms across his shoulders to support him. He started to lead the man towards the infirmary. Lancelot wouldn't stop asking questions but he decided it was best to stay silent until the prince could talk to him.
...
Elyan opened the door to the Dyfred king's guest chambers.
The room looked like a tornado had ripped through it. Nothing was in its rightful place anymore and many things were destroyed on the floor. The only thing that looked organized was a table that probably held anything they had found useful. He could tell it had been thoroughly searched just by looking at it.
He couldn't see anyone though. "Arthur?" Elyan called questionably.
"Yeah. Did you find anything?" The prince answered as he emerged from behind a pile of clothes that had been hiding him. Gwaine also revealed him location when he stood up from where he had been kneeling to see under the bed.
"We found something, just not in the princess' room." Elyan stopped for dramatic effect.
"Well…" Arthur said impatient for the information.
"Percival could hear a banging noise, so we followed it down the corridor, only to find Lancelot who had been locked in one of the broom closets. Judging from his appearance I think he'd been knocked out and placed there before the whole scene in the throne room, but he was babbling about warning Merlin about something." Elyan informed the prince.
"Where's he now?" Arthur demanded.
"I sent Percival to take him to the infirmary because he had a large knot on the back of his head. I thought you'd like him to be coherent when you questioned him." Elyan explained.
As soon as he knew the location, Arthur was out the door. The two knights followed him.
…
Percival knocked on Gaius's door but received no answer. He shrugged his shoulders before entering. He saw that the infirmary was empty so he walked Lancelot over to the patient cot and placed him carefully on it. Then sat in a chair to wait for the physician to come back.
"What happened to Merlin?" Lancelot demanded again, but more coherently this time. It seemed he was already slowly recovering his wits without any healer's aid.
Before Percy could finish opening his mouth to answer the door was slammed open. "What are you doing in here?" A guard that Percy vaguely remembered was named Jarrett asked.
"I should be asking the same of you." Percival asked heatedly back. Not liking their presence in Gaius's and Merlin's living quarters after what had just happened.
"We've been ordered by the king to search the physician and his assistant's quarters. Step aside." Finley demanded as he moved to search a shelf of books behind the large knight.
"No." Percival answered, he moved to stand in the guard's way when he tried to walk around him. Finley sent him an annoyed look but smirked as he heard the sound of his partner searching a row of medicine bottles and breaking one by accident.
"Hey be more careful." Percival demanded as he walked over to stop him from destroying anything else. It would be hard for him because it was two against one. Hopefully Elyan will return with the others soon.
…
On the way to the physician's quarters they came across the physician himself. It seemed he was going about on his normal rounds of delivering the nobles their medicine.
"Gaius!" Arthur called out to stop the man in his tracks. The smile he was greeted with on the physician's face showed that he hadn't heard about what happened to his ward yet.
"Yes my lord, is there something I could do for you?" Gaius asked, shifting the bottles he had in his hands to a better position.
Arthur all a sudden felt uncomfortable confronted with Gaius' presence. He knew how much the man cared for Merlin. He was debating on what to say. Should he just inform him of Lancelot's need of medical attention and inform him later about his ward?
The knight's understood that this was a delicate situation so they shouldn't say anything and let the prince deal with it.
When Gaius saw the uncomfortable expressions on everyone's faces he knew something was up. "Did something happen I'm not aware of?" He asked suspiciously.
Gwaine shifted from foot to foot under the man's stare. Feeling very guilty keeping something that would probably effect the man himself the most." Merlin's been kidnapped!" He shouted, feeling better to get that off his chest after.
The sound of breaking bottles could be heard echoing throughout the corridors.
"Gwaine!" Everyone shouted simultaneously. They were going to break it more delicately later.
Gaius had dropped all his medicine bottles in shock. "Who took Merlin? Why?"
Arthur sighed before addressing the physician. " I think it's best if we returned to your quarters. Lancelot was attacked and needs to be looked over. Percival already took him down there. After you do that I'll explain."
Gaius nodded in agreement before walking in the direction of his quarters.
Arthur slapped Gwaine on the back of the head. 'What' the knight mouthed so the physician couldn't hear their squabble. The prince shook his head at Gwaine before following after Gaius.
…TBC