Arthur drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. He ignored the others across the table, he was annoyed.

No, that wasn't true. Arthur had been annoyed, very annoyed. Enraged, truth be told. And he'd been even more annoyed ... or enraged ... than he should be, because he also had to pretend to Gwen that he wasn't annoyed, because if he'd told her why he was annoyed, then she'd be annoyed with him, since she was (also annoyingly) protective of Merlin. It was all very complicated.

And for someone who was about to get married, it'd taken Arthur an admirably short time to come to the conclusion that having a soon-to-be wife who was annoyed with him would be a situation that should best be avoided at all costs. So Arthur had stewed in private, or as private as he could do when he was actually in public all the time putting on the face of a king that his people deserved.

The king had not seen his manservant for almost three days. He'd assumed at first that Merlin's continued absence at every single place he'd expected him to be, meant his manservant was busy helping Gaius, who certainly needed help, as the old physician was still weakened from his time in the dungeons and Merlin was apparently the most qualified to take over his role.

That assumption lasted half a day when Arthur had realised Merlin had not set foot in the room set aside for the injured. Arthur had sent George to track him down, but when, despite thorough searches of Camelot's taverns, even the most efficient servant in Camelot's history could find no trace of Merlin, Arthur knew Merlin was not within Camelot's walls.

Still, just to be sure, Arthur had taken up the hunt himself, he'd checked his manservant's room again, the door to Gaius's chambers was locked, but Arthur had a key which he had no compunction using.

As expected, the chambers had been empty. Arthur had kicked aside a shirt on the floor of Merlin's small room and almost managed to stab himself in the foot with his second best sword, but all in all, that only confirmed there was nothing out of place in Merlin's room, and Arthur was still none the wiser as to his manservant's whereabouts.

Arthur had dropped the shirt back over the sword (Merlin could kick his foot on it), and was almost out the door again when the note caught his eye, propped up against a beaker on the table.

He yanked the parchment out of his pocket and scowled at it again, ignoring Gwaine's inquisitive stare, the knight was all too willing to be distracted from the pile of paperwork in front of him. Arthur smoothed the creases out, his eyes skimming over the words again, unnecessary as he knew them by heart now.

G, had help from K at Ealdor but outcome too visible. Going back to deal with it. Unpleasant, don't ask. Back in a day, I hope – will take two Southron horses to swap between to make journey fast. Poor timing, I'm sorry, but I could not put it off. M.

PS: If I'm missed, the tavern thing is – just no. Something, anything else. Please?

On reading, Arthur's emotions had cycled from anger (Merlin hadn't asked permission, or even told me he was going), to understanding (of course Merlin needed to check on his mother), to downright worry (there were small pockets of Southrons still around, the idiot could be in danger).

But then, when Arthur's initial anger had passed but annoyance and the worry for Merlin's safety still churned uncomfortably in his belly, an unsettling thought emerged: just who was "K"?

A knight, or a soldier of some kind? If he was, then why wouldn't Arthur be told about his help? And how had he helped them at Ealdor?

What did outcome too visible mean? What was unpleasant, about it all? And what was the tavern thing about?

Arthur had pocketed the letter, and sent George to Gaius to make excuses about Merlin's whereabouts (an urgent errand for Arthur). And later, when his errant manservant returned, he was going to get to the bottom of this, whatever it was.

Arthur was fed up with being lied to and having information withheld from him. It had happened with his father, with Morgana and Agravaine, and even with Gwen. With the benefit of hindsight, he'd realised he'd paid no attention to the niggling warning signs that all three had exhibited to varying degrees, but he'd learnt from his mistakes, and this note was clearly a warning sign that Merlin too was hiding something.

Merlin had been loyal to him for so long, but if there was something going on that Arthur wasn't privy to, then he was going to find out what it was. Arthur would not rule in a climate of hidden truths any longer, he needed to be absolutely sure those he trusted and relied on were open and honest with him.

But frustratingly, whatever the revelation about the note was would have to wait until Merlin's return, as Arthur couldn't puzzle out the meaning of the message.

He studied Merlin's scrawl again. He'd considered asking Gaius if the "K" was a "K", or an "E", and if he knew who this "K" or "E" person was, but reluctantly he discarded the notion, partly because then he'd have to confess to taking the note when clearly it was not addressed to him in the first instance, but mainly as he did not think Gaius would tell him, and he didn't want to give the older man the opportunity to lie to him for Merlin's sake.

Morgana's taunt in the throne room hadn't escaped Arthur's notice: Not even Emrys could save you now. The words had stayed with him, she'd sneered like this Emrys was his ally.

But who was Emrys?

There was something in the way Morgana said it, something odd, traces of both envy and fear, that made Arthur sure this Emrys was a sorcerer, for who else could provoke such emotions from Morgana?

Arthur shifted in his chair, his fingers tracing the M of his manservant's initial.

He wondered, did Merlin know who this Emrys person was? What if the "K" was an "E"? If they'd had magical assistance somehow to escape the Southrons near Ealdor, he wouldn't have put it past Merlin to "forget" to mention such help to him; Arthur was not deluded enough to think he was Merlin's master, he might be able to order around his manservant but that certainly didn't stop Merlin disregarding his orders if he thought something quite the opposite.

And Arthur knew he'd never given Merlin any recent indication that he'd welcome magical assistance, particularly in light of the circumstances of Uther's death. In truth, Arthur wasn't sure how he really felt about it, he'd agreed he'd not persecute the druids, but to actually accept magical aid was another matter.

He hadn't changed the laws on magic since he'd made that promise either, but he had turned the idea over and over many times since. Dislike, distrust and persecution of magic was the foundation of his father's rule, and to go in completely the opposite direction was as good as saying his father had been wrong, and so that could not be a decision Arthur would make lightly.

And Arthur wasn't sure if magical assistance could have been used in their escape near Ealdor, as he didn't truly know how Merlin felt about magic. He'd teased Merlin once about being too terrified to even meet the old sorcerer Dragoon, and it was true he often seemed uncomfortable whenever talk of magic was bought up, no matter how he tried to conceal it. He was all shifty looks and lowered eyes, but despite his riling of his manservant at the time, Arthur did not truly believe Merlin was afraid of magic or magical beings, as Merlin didn't seem afraid of anything, not even his own death when he'd sacrificed himself to the Dorocha.

Merlin was brave, and it had occurred to Arthur that maybe Merlin's discomfort on the subject of magic was not based on fear of it, but on something else. Did he disagree with Arthur's views on magic?

Perhaps strangely, magic was not something they discussed. Despite being willing to have an opinion on most things and happily point out if he thought Arthur was being a cabbage head or prat or his latest favourite insult, on the subject of magic, Merlin was mainly silent.

Arthur wondered why, and then he wondered if he was over-thinking it, he had much to concentrate on, and his manservant's whereabouts and unusual thought processes, should not be taking up so much of his own thoughts.

Arthur carefully folded up Merlin's note again, and placed it back in his pocket, then called over a guard and issued him with very specific instructions; Arthur was going to at least get some answers soon.

The guard left. Across the table from Arthur, Leon and Gwaine were conversing in lowered tones; he'd instructed them to provide a tally of the available weapons in the castle, so for the past hour there'd been a steady stream of young squires in and out of the room as they reported their findings to the two knights.

Arthur had assumed Merlin would help Gaius take stock of his medicines, as there was higher demand for herbs and tonics than usual following the recent upheaval, but in Merlin's absence, Gwen had taken on that task.

She looked up from the stack of parchment in front of her, and caught his eye, smiling at him. "Arthur, I've checked all of Gaius's supplies against the lists he's given me, and we'll need to send someone to get a few things for him to treat the sick and injured, let me see." She consulted the list again.

"He needs more chervil, yarrow, nettle and comfrey, and a few other things too but they're the main ones. Gaius wants Merlin to pick them, he knows where they can all be found, but he said you already have Merlin off somewhere? Actually I don't think I've seen him for a day now?" She gave Arthur an enquiring look but he avoided the question and made a point of studying the parchment, his eyes skimming down the neat list she'd detailed.

Gwen let it pass, and Arthur guessed she was suspecting that Merlin was involved in secret wedding preparations, which would have been true if he'd been here. Arthur cleared his throat. "Does Gaius require all this now? We'll have to send a few knights out too, the woods are still too dangerous."

"He needs the nettle and comfrey in the next few days, he said he can wait for the rest. And he said Merlin's the only one who knows what variety of nettle he likes and the size of the leaves to pick, although I've gone a few times with Merlin, and I think I know enough to be able to collect it, if Merlin's too busy."

Arthur was non-committal. "I'll take that into account, but if Gaius can wait a few days then we'll leave it for now."

Merlin should be sitting with them too, he'd been the one who had constantly nagged Arthur that a good king had to be able to delegate, and trust that others too could help him in his rule. Arthur had been smugly proud of himself at the looks that flittered in rapid succession across Merlin's face, dismay, embarrassment, uncertainty and pride, when Arthur had told him just before he'd disappeared that it would be his role to take stock of damage to homes and businesses in the lower town after the Southron's destructive looting spree.

Yet given Merlin's absence, Arthur wondered if he'd been wrong to trust him with such an important task. He sighed. "Gwaine, Leon, your turn."

Gwaine eyed his king and tossed several sheets of parchments he'd been holding on top of the large pile in front of Leon, and stretched his arms above his head, yawning. Arthur gave him a pointed look, impatient. "Are you done?"

Gwaine yawned again, the knight had not been too interested in the administrative detail he'd been assigned to, but he'd needed something to keep him occupied while he was still injured, and if Arthur took secret delight in watching him squirm with boredom, then that was the king's prerogative, not to mention it was Gwaine's own fault for disclosing that he could read and write in several languages quite well, and therefore was more than up to the task he'd been given.

Gwaine threw Arthur's question back to Leon, giving the other knight a lazy glance across the table. "Well?"

Leon was amused but answered readily enough, turning to Arthur. "Sire, yes we're done."

Leon picked up one of the sheets of parchment Gwaine had dropped. "The Southrons broke into the large storage room in the north quarter, but they didn't find the one on the lower level of the dungeons."

Gwaine scratched his nose and added, "So he means we still have plenty of crossbows, they made a mess of the bolts and the extra strings, but they're salvageable."

Leon nodded his agreement. "And there are swords all over the place, the Southrons left nearly three score in the armoury and didn't touch ours. Some of them are fine workmanship too. And we should have at least ten score arrows at our disposal, but we'll need a fletcher to finish them off."

"What of our usual fletcher?"

Gwaine answered. "No, old man Will broke his arm in the turmoil, so he's not up to it now. However," he grinned wickedly, "luckily for you all, I know someone who'll do, I drink with Will's nephew, he'll manage the fletching."

Leon shuffled through another sheet. "But the bows that were kept in the north quarter are too damaged, you'll need an artillator, and someone to make some more of the bodkins, they disappeared. Obviously Elyan could help out with the bodkins if we can't find anyone, but ..." he turned to Gwaine and added dryly, "Gwaine probably has someone in mind for this too?"

"I do, I know just your man. Might go off to the tavern and find him now Arthur, it's a bit urgent don't you think, what do you say?"

Arthur gave him a pointed look, and Gwen said, "Gwaine, what did Gaius tell you about your pain medicine and alcohol?"

He gave her an irrepressible grin. "Not to mix it, which is why, you see, I've stopped taking the medicine."

Gwen folded her arms and gave the knight a severe look, but Arthur could see she was struggling to keep a straight face. Then there was a knock on the closed door, and at Arthur's nod, the guards opened it, and Geoffrey of Monmouth entered.

Arthur had thought about this Emrys person a lot during the past few days. He'd thought of asking Gaius about him, because if Emrys was a sorcerer, then Gaius would probably know. But it occurred to Arthur, as much as he did trust Gaius, he could not be sure that the old physician would tell him. So instead he'd instructed the guard to fetch Geoffrey.

"Geoffrey, good of you to come. Take a seat." They exchanged small pleasantries for a moment then Arthur got down to business. "I need to find out everything I can about someone by the name of Emrys. He could be a sorcerer."

"Emrys." Geoffrey turned the name over and pondered for a moment, nodding to himself. "Sire, an interesting question indeed."

"It is? Why?"

"Your uncle asked me about him months ago. Yes." He acknowledged the growl of dislike from Gwaine. "And you're correct sire, he is a sorcerer, or more accurately a warlock. Agravaine knew he was a sorcerer too. Several months ago, he specifically asked me what information I had concerning a sorcerer by the name of Emrys. I remember it well."

"That's odd. What did you tell him?"

"I told Agravaine nothing."

"You had no information?"

"That's not precisely true, sire. When Agravaine inquired initially, the name Emrys was vaguely familiar to me, but I couldn't say I'd heard of him, as such. But later." He paused for a moment and stroked his beard with the tip of a finger. "After he asked, I discussed his request with a close friend, and this proved to be very fortunate indeed, as this person was adamant that I not give Agravaine any of the information he was seeking."

"Who was it who told you this?" Arthur thought he knew.

"It was Gaius, my lord."

Arthur nodded, unsurprised.

Geoffrey continued, "I thought he was mad at the time, but he would only say that Agravaine may be mistaken about something, and it might not be in your best interests if he was to know anything at all about Emrys. At the time, I saw no reason Gaius's concerns about Agravaine could be warranted, but I've known Gaius since we were boys, and he's never given me any reason to doubt his loyalty to Camelot. And of course it turned out he was right."

"You can tell me something about Emrys, then?"

"I can. I have some information, but it may not be very useful for you. There's some detail about him in an old manuscript." Geoffrey coughed uncomfortably. "To be precise, the manuscript is really a druid text, but the introduction was written by your great, great grandfather, which is why your father never ordered it burnt, despite its subject matter. It talks of Emrys being the most powerful warlock of his time, who protects the Once and Future King. It says, that with the assistance of Emrys, the Once and Future King will build a united Albion. The two are bonded in some way, the writing gets a bit obscure but it likens the them to two sides of the same coin, rather an odd way to describe it, if I may say so."

Arthur felt a strange sensation ripple down his spine at the revelation. "And do you believe this time is now, or soon?" The terminology Once and Future King was not new to him.

"I cannot say, Sire." Geoffrey was regretful. "And if Emrys exists right now, I don't know who he is. As he's said to be a powerful warlock, he may well be a druid, perhaps you could ask them. They're likely to have their own predictions on this."

"Thank you Geoffrey, you've been very helpful."

The man nodded on his way out, and Arthur turned to Gwen, Leon and Gwaine, who'd stayed silent during this conversation. Arthur waited until the door had shut, then he stretched back in his chair and carded a weary hand through his hair.

And he wondered again, what if Merlin's cautious note did refer to magic? What if Merlin had accepted magical help during their escape from the Southrons near Ealdor? As Arthur glanced around the table, it occurred to him he did not know Gwaine or Leon's views on magic either, with Gwen he'd discussed it previously. Regardless, they were his counsel to trust, and if he'd put more faith in them after his father's death instead of putting so much sway by Agravaine, Camelot would have been better off.

Arthur wanted Merlin's counsel too, he would talk about it with him, but Merlin wasn't here now. So Arthur decided he would ask for Gwen, Leon and Gwaine's input now, he'd ask Percival and Elyan to join them later too, they were still on patrol for at least another hour yet.

Arthur's gaze swept around the table and rested slowly on each of them, one by one. "There's something I'd like to tell you."

Even Gwaine must have caught his serious tone, because he only nodded expectantly.

Arthur said carefully, watching them closely, "When my father was dying, Merlin and I found a sorcerer whom I hoped could heal him."

He caught the quickly suppressed shock on Leon's face, and Gwen reached across the table and briefly pressed her hand to his.

"It was Dragoon, the old man. The one that escaped in the courtyard a year ago."

Gwaine's mild curiosity sharpened. "You let that old man near your father?" Gwaine shook his head. "He's crazy, Arthur. And dangerous. I wish you'd mentioned it at the time, I met a sorcerer once, he wasn't a bad sort, might have been able to help Uther, instead of that crazy old man."

Arthur shook his head. "No, it wasn't like that. I admit, at first I thought he'd killed my father deliberately, but it wasn't that at all. He tried to save him, but a pendant had been placed around my father's neck that was cursed. It reversed the affect of Dragoon's healing spell." Gwen squeezed his hand again, the memory of his father's death pained him still.

"I knew nothing about the pendant until Gaius told me two months ago. I've spoken of it to no one, although I'm sure Merlin knows. I kept quiet because I didn't know who the traitor could have been that would have done that. Now I believe it was Agravaine, working with Morgana."

"Arthur that's terrible, that she would do such a thing." Leon shook his head.

But there was another thing Arthur wanted to discuss, and again he wished Merlin was here. What if the "K" was an "E", and Emrys was the old man, Dragoon, and Merlin knew this? Was that what the note was about? How many names did sorcerers have anyway?

It could be true. Arthur very much doubted he had more than one magical helper, and Dragoon had wanted to help, he'd known that to be true now for more than two months, yet in that time as much as he'd looked for it, he'd seen no sign of any further magical assistance, nothing except maybe that odd note from Merlin.

Gaius had shown him the necklace, and explained how it had not been the old man who'd killed his father. The conversation with the old physician had come out of the blue, at a time when he'd been taking the frustrations of his rule out on Merlin far too much. He remembered the evening well, it had been one of those few times his harshness and temper actually seemed to affect his eternally cheerful manservant; Arthur had felt immeasurably guilty when he'd seen the stark but quickly hidden distress on Merlin's face after yet another snapped order and unjustified reprimand.

At the time, he'd wanted to apologise for his bad temper, to explain to Merlin that he didn't mean it, but he couldn't get the words out, and all he could manage to do to make up for it was dismiss Merlin early for the night, but, as a consolation it had only served to make Merlin quieter and more defeated. It had been that night that Gaius had knocked on Arthur's chamber door well after the tenth bell.

When Gaius had told him about the necklace that had really killed his father, Arthur had shared the information with no one at the time, not even Merlin. And although he'd suspected Merlin was well aware of the necklace's existence, Arthur could not bring himself to mention it, not with the one person he called his best friend. He was too ashamed, ashamed of Morgana's failings and his own.

The necklace was further proof that she had turned away from him irretrievably, that her hate was real. It was proof of something wrong in the foundations of their family, it it made him worry that there was something wrong with him, that perhaps the way he'd treated her had something to do with the evil she was now.

He rubbed a weary hand across his forehead and pushed away the self-doubt, he'd been down that path often enough. Arthur knew he owed the old man an apology, but unsurprisingly he'd not seen any sign of him since Uther's death. Gaius knew the old man, or at least he'd known where to find him, Arthur had thought about pressing Gaius for further detail, but something held him back.

But that wasn't all, there was something else concerning him. He hesitated for a moment then ploughed ahead. "There's something else that I wanted to talk to you about." This conversation he suspected would be more difficult than the one that preceded it.

"It's about Merlin."