The stables were crowded the next morning as Arthur and Merlin went to saddle up for their journey. Myles, Anna, Caradoc, Bors, and Edgar, the wizened keeper of the horses were all gathered about a sleek black Arabian.
"You rode this one on the hunt yesterday," Myles said to Arthur.
"Yes. Was I not supposed to?" Arthur shot a look to Merlin.
"But it's not your horse," Edgar said. "You didn't ride it into Cameliard, and it's not one that belongs to your men."
"Not that I recognize," Arthur said, looking to Merlin again, who shook his head.
"When did you first notice it?" Anna asked, crossing her arms over a green vest.
"Yesterday morning." Edgar looked toward the entrance—Blaise walked in. "I thought it must've wandered away from some nearby town, or traveler to the city, but no one's claimed 'im," Edgar continued. "I asked around."
"And heard stories about a levitating horse?" Anna looked at Blaise.
"Reliable reports?" Blaise asked.
"Nope," Edgar said. "Mostly drunks and lovers strolling midnight lanes. But same story from each one."
"Thank you," Anna said. Edgar and Myles left.
"Blaise, look into this," Anna said.
"Your father know?"
Anna shook her head. "There's nothing to tell him—and anyway, he's trying to keep the council from panicking." She looked at Arthur. "Is there anything you need?"
"Bors should show him the way to the Fortress of Coludd." Blaise grabbed Merlin's arm, pulling him close. "But I think he should stay here."
"He might need me." Merlin looked at Arthur. "What if the serpent is dangerous?"
"Of course it's dangerous, Merlin, it's a giant serpent." Arthur watched Bors select two horses. "If it wasn't formidable, someone would have already killed it by now. Blaise is right, stay here. It's my task, anyway."
Merlin watched Arthur and Bors lead their horses outside, doubt melting into suppressed giddiness upon his face.
"What else did you want to tell me?" Blaise said to Anna.
"The same night of the levitating horse, we tied the halter to my bedpost," Caradoc answered. "The following morning, on which a new horse appeared in the stables, one appeared in my chambers."
"Any other reason to suspect a connection besides coincidence in the timing?" Blaise asked.
"And they're both horses? Not that we've found." Caradoc fingered the hilt of her sword.
"It's only a slight mystery, I know, but the horses had to have come from somewhere. Even if magic is what conveyed them here." Anna stroked the black Arabian.
"Where's the horse that appeared in your chambers?" Blaise asked Caradoc.
"Over here," Anna said, leading them a few stalls down where the roan horse was being kept. "They're both normal, healthy horses."
"We took the roan north yesterday to see if anyone was missing him, but . . ."
"We're riding west today," Anna said.
"Leave them here," Blaise indicated the horses. Anna nodded, grabbing another horse as she and Caradoc set off.
Blaise instructed Edgar to have both horses watched constantly, and to notify him of anything strange.
"What now?" Merlin asked as they left the stables.
"We talk to the nightwatch. They're supposed to be paying sober attention." Blaise strode down the streets with long, habituated steps. Merlin jogged in spurts to keep up with him, darting between peasants and townsfolk, trying to stay at Blaise's side.
"So, my first lesson is in floating livestock?" Merlin said into Blaise's ear, glancing around with wary eyes and nearly tripping over a sleeping dog.
Blaise paused to look at Merlin, half scowling. Merlin fidgeted, glancing around at the passers-by, who didn't seem to care a bit about his presence or words.
"You realize that it's going to be inconvenient to fulfill Ninaeve's condition if we have to spend all our time hiding from—" Blaise saw Merlin's apprehension transform into full blown anxiety. "—your friend the Captain?"
Merlin stared at Blaise a moment.
"Ninaeve?" Merlin said. "Ninniane, her sister? Who are they?"
Blaise turned and continued walking down the street.
"Well?" Merlin was still rushing to keep up. They ascended the castle steps.
"Priestesses," Blaise said as they entered. "Very powerful." Blaise rounded on Merlin. "Do you know what'll happen if I'm unable to teach you?"
"Yes."
Blaise continued down the corridor, following a circuitous route. Merlin wondered what their destination was. As soon as he knew they were alone, he spoke again.
"But magic's illegal in Camelot—Arthur can't know."
"So we should prioritize your secrecy over Cameliard's safety?"
Merlin hesitated long enough that Blaise turned around, eyes narrowed.
"Please tell me that Arthur's ignorance is not more important than peoples' lives." Blaise's mouth was the only part of his face that seemed to move as he pronounced each word—his eyes were locked on Merlin and his body was as rigid as rock.
Merlin dropped his gaze. "It's not."
Blaise began walking again.
"But Ninaeve said 'as long as he's at Arthur's side'," Merlin caught up to Blaise. "Which means that my place is at his side, whether here or in Camelot. So please—we can say I have to be your apprentice as a physician."
"Is Arthur an honorable man?" Blaise again stopped, cornering Merlin. "You don't trust him—so does he not care about what's right—is his sense of goodness a masquerade?"
"NO." Merlin stepped forward—he was nose to nose with Blaise. "Arthur's the most honorable man you'll ever meet. And I do trust him—I trust him with my life."
"But not the details of your life." Blaise sneered, resuming his stride.
"Uther would have me executed. Please." Merlin said when they paused in front of a door.
Blaise said nothing. He knocked, sizing Merlin up and down. The occupant opened up, eyes squinting. Blaise apologized for waking him, and commenced questioning him as if Merlin was not there. The knight, too, barely acknowledged Merlin's presence, keeping his answers terse. Each of the nightwatch were thus interviewed, but only one had spotted a horse hanging in the air—he had seen it descending from one of the castle towers, but had lost track of it amongst the rooftops.
The tower was the same in which Caradoc had chosen her chambers.
"Why did she choose chambers way up there?" Merlin asked as Blaise handed him book after book from his library. "And if a horse came out of her room, how did one get in by morning?"
"The simplest explanation is that someone waited for a horse to appear in the halter, then switched it. Which is curious. And disturbing."
"Wouldn't the simplest explanation be that the guard was hallucinating?" Merlin glanced at the covers of each book Blaise passed to him—a pile was growing on the table.
"No, the easiest explanation would be that the guard, and everyone else who claimed to have seen floating livestock, was hallucinating. But we'd still have to figure out why those specific people saw that specific thing." Blaise descended the ladder and looked at the stack. "And it wouldn't explain why another horse randomly appeared in the stables the same night—assuming the events are related."
"So someone takes the horse out the window, takes it to the stables, and puts another horse in its place in Caradoc's chambers? But nobody saw a second horse flying up."
"No." Blaise sighed. "Let's figure out why later—focus on how. To be honest, I've never had a need to levitate an animal."
"Would levitating an animal be different than levitating something else?"
Blaise stared at Merlin for a moment, and then rushed out the door. Merlin ran after, as Blaise scurried through town collecting a dog, a rat, and finally asking Edgar for the calmest horse available. Merlin had only to carry the rat, as the dog was quite obedient and Blaise led the horse, Felix, outside the gates to a clearing far enough away to avoid drawing an audience.
Merlin felt a tug in his hands as the bag containing the rat pulled away.
"Let go," Blaise said. Merlin opened his fingers. The dog started whining.
Merlin watched as Blaise, his hand outstretched, slid the bag out to a space between them. The bag opened and the rat floated out. As it entered the open air, it let out a squeak, flailing its paws and struggling as if it was trapped. Consternation invaded Blaise's face, and the rat dropped. A yellow flash lit up Blaise's eyes, and the rat was caught, hovering just above the dirt. It was also dead.
"Guess you scared it."
"That's why we started with the rat." Blaise called to the dog, muttering into the dog's face. He repeated the exercise, the dog blithely hovering as high as Blaise wanted him to go. When its paws again touched solid ground, the dog licked Blaise's hands.
"What did you do?"
"Calmed him." Blaise moved over to Felix, who took a few wary steps back. "Sshh-sh-sshh," he soothed, reciting his spell to the horse. No sooner had Blaise finished the incantation then Felix ascended into the sky. Blaise turned to Merlin, "what are you doing?"
But Merlin didn't hear him. Delight infused his face as he raised the horse ever higher, above the trees, where he moved it forward and back with a wave of his arm.
When he returned the horse to the ground, Blaise said "I suppose you assumed I was going to be impressed by that?"
Back in his chambers, Blaise grabbed a book from the middle of the stack. "Learn to do the first step, then you can show off with the second step," he shoved the book at Merlin.
It was a volume on the charming and control of animals.
"Third spell," Blaise glared.
Merlin nodded, crossing his arms with the book couched firmly against his chest, as if Blaise might change his mind and snatch it away.
Arthur wanted to travel through the night, but Bors refused to lead on without sleeping. Arthur stared up as the gibbous moon imbued the grass around him with an eerie incandescence so similar to that from the crystal vines. A light that might again burst from the walls of Cameliard if he failed. Bors breathed beside him. Arthur closed his eyes.
In the darkness of the pre-dawn morn, Merlin crouched beside a pigsty with Blaise's book. He had read through the night, excited by the copious spells—all on charming animals. Incantations to calm them, put them to sleep, hypnotize them; spells on husbandry, on increasing fertility, on inducing sterility; potions for fattening, for strengthening, for sleek coats; how to call an animal or send it away to a specific place—some spells were complex, nearly songs, others were mere phrases, fragments. In the morning darkness, he called one sleeping pig to come.
It came. He sent it to a corner. He summoned another one, it came. He summoned them all at once, and they gathered before him like a crowd awaiting a proclamation. Merlin smiled and told them to go about their piggy business.
He walked toward the stables. He saw a sleeping dog, and without turning or breaking his stride, muttered the spell. The dog awoke and scampered to him, following at his side. Merlin smiled. He put the book in the dog's mouth, and sent it off to Blaise's chambers, watching as the dog ran down the lane and around a corner.
He stood where he was and muttered a summoning spell. He waited. Nothing. He moved further along the direction of the stables, and again muttered the spell. Nothing. He moved until he could see the stables. This time, he started the spell with the name Felix. He heard a commotion in the stables as a horse kicked against wood. Merlin ran in, calming Felix, first with a spell, then by stroking his nose.
"It's okay. I'm sorry, but the other one didn't come when I called to him." Merlin looked at the stable door. "I guess I should have realized." He picked up a brush and moved to the roan horse that had appeared in Caradoc's chambers. The horse, however, was not interested in being brushed—it whinnied and neighed, shaking its head and snorting until Merlin stopped trying.
"Fine."
Merlin returned to the outside of the stables, leaving the door wide open. He called to the roan, but it didn't come. He summoned it again, but it remained in the stables. Merlin peered inside, but there was nothing hindering the horse. As he walked back to his spot outside, he summoned Felix. Felix trotted after him. He summoned the other horses, all at once, and they came—the roan trailed behind.
Merlin gestured to the roan, reciting the spell to send it back to its place inside—recited so quietly he was barely whispering. The roan did nothing. He chose a spell to send it down to the end of one of the streets, enunciating each word loudly. The horse looked at him, but then obeyed.
Merlin called the horse to return, but it stood at the end of the lane, staring back. Merlin repeated the spell, again enunciating each word, as well as beckoning with his fingers. The horse returned. Merlin patted the roan's nose, but it seemed to have no desire or patience for such friendliness—so he sent the horse back into the stables. He sent the rest of the horses, one by one, back into the stables. Each one did as commanded.
"You probably just said the spell wrong the first time," Blaise said when Merlin had told him about the roan's strange response.
"I said it the same as with all the other horses." Merlin sat at the table watching Blaise examine the book, which now had deep teeth marks where the dog had refused to yield it.
"Look, we all have to practice to learn, it takes time. Pride yourself on the fact that you mastered these spells faster than anyone I've ever heard of—and accept that nonetheless, we all make mistakes." Blaise looked up from the mangled book to see Merlin open the book lying on the table. "You could've also gotten distracted," Blaise smacked him.
Merlin closed the book and pushed it aside. He reached out across the table, stretching his arms. Then he put his head down.
"You should go get some sleep—real sleep," Blaise said, putting the books back on the shelf. "Go on—there'll be plenty of time later to show off."
Merlin wasn't sure how he got back to his room, only that his thought before his head hit the pillow and dragged him off to sleep was where's Arthur?
The Fortress of Coludd lay buried in among the rocky cliffs and overhangs along the shore. Waves crashed, leapt, splashed and sank away—Arthur and Bors could feel the salt spray as they regarded the tiny peninsula on which the Fortress stood. Even from the distance they were at, they could see the disrepair crumbling the walls. The path that first descended, then climbed up to the front gates was overgrown with grass and weeds.
"You should stay here," Arthur said, straining his neck to look at the way the Fortress seemed to merge with the cliffs—had the builders dug deep into the ground, or was the Fortress so old that dirt and underbrush had piled up?
"Are you going to waste energy trying to force me to?"
Arthur looked at Bors. Bors looked at Arthur. They dismounted.
The gates weren't that far away.
Anna and Caradoc had ridden south, a brief sojourn in each town they passed, trying to hit every populated area Caradoc could remember. They asked about missing horses in each place. Horses occasionally disappeared or were stolen, they were told. But no roan nor black Arabian.
They returned in the evening, the setting sun elongating their shadows in motion. Anna went to greet her father and found him staring out a window at the sky. Julia and Erik sat at the table behind him, bare place settings before them.
"I certainly hope your pet is as good at cleaning up messes as he is at making them." Julia spoke up into the air, pretending she hadn't seen Anna.
"I think he's established the answer to that question." Leodogran leaned his head over to let Anna kiss his cheek. "Hello, my girl," he cupped her chin.
"And yet you stare so forlornly out the window." Julia had a knife clenched between her fingers.
"If there's anything I can do to help . . ." Erik glanced from Julia to Leodogran to Anna still in trousers and a vest, hair falling out of her braid.
"That's quite alright," Leodogran said, taking his seat.
"Blaise says the Captain made the offense, he must make the amends." Anna sat down, and servants came forward with food and wine.
Polite conversation passed, and Anna excused herself—fatigued from the day, she said. Instead of retiring to her chamber, however, she detoured to the stables. She spoke briefly to Edgar, and then went inside, where she found Merlin whispering to one of the horses. The horse lifted its back leg. Merlin whispered, and the horse lowered its leg. Merlin whispered again, and the horse lifted its front leg. Merlin again incanted some inaudible spell, and the horse lowered its leg. He petted its nose, glancing toward the roan horse before noticing that Anna was watching him.
"I think it's wiser to let the horse control its own movements," she said. "If you try to do the galloping for it, you'll just get thrown."
Merlin smiled, looking around. "You're right, of course." He backed away from the horse, and headed out the door. Anna caught up with him outside.
"Was I not supposed to see that?"
"I—I don't want to get into trouble."
"With whom?" Anna pulled Merlin's arm, forcing him to stop and face her. He glanced around.
"I—um—Blaise. I was just supposed to practice calming animals."
"That's a useful skill," Anna nodded. "Is Blaise teaching you magic? I've never known him to accept a student before."
"Really? I would've thought a lot of people would want to learn from him—there aren't many sorcerers to learn from these days. Is he not very good?"
Anna laughed. "Blaise is very good—he'd have a reputation if it was wise for sorcerers to be known. But since very few places tolerate it . . ." she stared off, and Merlin nodded in agreement.
"Tell me," she said, "you don't happen to know any details about the halter Lord Erik gave me?"
"I might be able to find out—I helped Blaise research earlier."
Anna thought for a moment. "Edgar says that the roan won't let anyone but Cara ride him. Especially men—anytime a man tries to mount him, the roan seems to panic. Blaise said the halter gives the best horse for the person," she furrowed her brow, "and I was wondering if it charms the horse in some way to only accept that one rider."
"Can I show you something?" Merlin said to her. He raised his hand and recited the summoning spell. Nothing happened.
"What are you showing me?"
"I'm summoning the horse that appeared in Cara's chambers."
Anna looked toward the stables. "Looks like you need more practice."
"Really? How about this then?" Merlin again muttered the spell, keeping the cadence and volume the same as before. Felix came trotting up. Merlin turned to Anna, "if I call them all one by one, the roan will wander out, like he's just following the crowd—"
"Like that?" Anna pointed to the stable door. "How long have you been practicing this?"
The roan trotted up to them. Merlin patted its nose and said the spell to send it back inside—the roan obeyed. When it was halfway to the stable, Merlin muttered another spell, but it continued on its way.
"What were you trying to do?"
For an answer, Merlin sent Felix back toward the stables, muttering the same spell when Felix was halfway there. Felix turned and trotted around the stables—and then reentered.
"Blaise thinks I'm not concentrating."
Anna contemplated this information, her eyes darting back and forth without seeing. "Walk with me," she said, linking her arm in his and pulling him toward the castle. "Can you seal windows?" She leaned close, whispering to him. "And I don't mean just turn the locks with an incantation. I mean seal windows to be unopenable?"
"I might be able to find a spell."
"By tonight?"
Merlin nodded.
"Can you also get armor that fits you?" She was still whispering as they walked, glancing around and staring at every passer-by.
"Sure. Why.?"
"Come to my chambers as soon as you get them." Anna released his arm and hurried off. Merlin stared after her, looking at the square around him as if it could offer some clarification.
Blaise was poring over some tome when Merlin entered his chambers. He didn't seem surprised by Anna's request, merely opened a book and handed it over. "Don't steal the armor—it'll draw attention. And let me know what you discover," Blaise called as Merlin charged from the room.
Merlin tried to borrow Taran's armor, but he found that Taran and Cadoc had left that afternoon to follow Arthur to the Fortress of Coludd.
"How do they know the way?" Merlin asked.
"Apparently most people know the way—it's something of a legend in this kingdom," Sir Brandt said, leaning over awkwardly on his bed to pick a book up off the floor without disturbing his broken leg. "Anyway," Brandt grunted, "you can borrow my armor if it means that much to the Princess. It's not like I'm using it."
Caradoc was just getting into Anna's bed when Merlin entered.
"Don't you know how to knock?" she said.
"Seal the windows—tight," Anna said to Merlin as she tossed the halter to Caradoc.
"Can I ask what we're doing?" Merlin went over to one of the windows and opened the book Blaise had provided.
"Best means best—I'm wondering which horse will show up tonight." Anna watched Caradoc tie the halter to the bed.
"But we already know the horses were switched."
Anna waited as Merlin put the spell on the first window. "We suspect, we don't have proof," she said.
"And if the prankster tries again . . ." Caradoc lay back and pulled the covers up.
"We'll be waiting." Anna indicated her own armor piled on a table, next to the spot Merlin had dumped Brandt's upon entering. "I've also posted guards to watch each window." Anna began suiting up as Merlin finished sealing the windows. "You can stay awake all night, right?" she asked as she helped Merlin adjust Brandt's armor.
Merlin nodded, and they posted themselves outside Anna's door.
"Isn't this a little . . . inappropriate for a princess?" Merlin said.
"Guards don't talk," said Anna.