"Okay." Arthur looked around the table. "We have a plan, so stick to it."
He glanced pointedly at Gwaine, who smiled enigmatically and shrugged. "No promises, princess."
Arthur sighed and dismissed them, warning them again to not raise the suspicions of Agravaine.
Gwaine reserved himself to dodging the man for the rest of the plan, for he had his reservations about his self-control. With any other traitor, it would be fine, but this bastard had threatened Merlin.
Generally, Gwaine didn't take that well.
Their plan, sadly, did not include a part where Gwaine got to beat the tar out of Agravaine, even though he had argued strenuously for it. With support from Percival and Elyan.
Gwaine had to admit the more levelheaded plan would most likely work better even if it didn't give the same satisfaction. Not that he would admit that, of course.
"Gwaine," Arthur called after him, "Will you tell Merlin what we came up with?"
"Sure."
Gwaine strolled down the corridor, and realized idly that Merlin must have been gone for at least an hour, perhaps two.
Quite a long time to just be staring at a cooking stag, he thought. Of course it would be a stag - these nobles hardly hunted anything else, other than the occasional boar. Gwaine was thoroughly sick of venison, even if it was much better fare than he was used to.
Actually, he realized, Merlin might consider staring at a cooking stag a good thing. From what he'd told them, it was probably his only 'extracurricular' duty that didn't involve mortal peril.
The thought elicted a sigh from Gwaine. He still found it hard to process that his best and first friend had hidden something like this. No, not friend - his brother, and every time his mind flashed back to the scars his fingers itched to pull his sword and cut the perpetrators to bloody ribbons.
Gwaine blinked as it occurred to him that Merlin had never explained more than two of the dozens of scars on him. The short, rashlike scars, the burn, and the small armada scattered all over suggested many, many more stories to be told. Merlin, Gwaine reflected with a wry smile, was surprisingly adept at saying everything except what you asked for.
Spotting the servant that had come to the room, he asked him where Merlin was.
"He's still in the kitchens, as far as I know."
Gwaine waved the servat away distractedly. At least Merlin was in a crowded space, and not off in some secluded corner alone. Granted, he probably had enough sense not to do that, but Merlin had proved today that he had even less sense than originally credited him, which hadn't been much to begin with.
Entering the kitchens, a nostalgic grin lit up Gwaine's face. So many stolen chickens...
He searched around and came to where the stag - of course - was being roasted on a spit over an open flame. Looking around, he frowned. Merlin was nowhere in sight.
Turning in a slow circle, Gwaine scanned the large room. He couldn't see everywhere, but it was increasingly clear that Merlin was nowhere in the kitchen.
"Sir?"
Gwaine looked down to see a tiny, obviously poverty-stricken kitchen boy who couldn't be more than five, with a baggy round cloth cap on his head.
"Whatcha doin?"
"Looking for someone." Gwaine replied.
The boy scrunched up his face as if processing the knight's words. Then he said, very proudly, "My name's Bedivere."
"Mmm." Gwaine said absently, sweeping his gaze through the crowd again as a seed of worry began to sprout inside his mind.
"Who're you looking for? The woodsman?"
"He's not a woodsman." Feeling definitely sure something was wrong, he turned to the cook overseeing the deer. "Where is Merlin?"
The cook glanced at him. "'Fraid I don't know, Sir. He was here 'round an hour and a half ago. Haven't seen him since."
"I don't like the woodsman." Bedivere announced.
The seed of worry blossomed into a cold feeling of foreboding. "He's...been missing for an hour and a half?"
The cook paused, and said cautiously, "Closer to two hours, I would say, Sir Gwaine."
"I heard him when he came in to the kitchens, he looked at me and said two handfuls. He said it quiet, so he didn't know I heard him. Are you looking for the sick man?"
Gwaine abruptly turned and strode out of the kitchens. Analytically he realized he was sprinting. His feet slammed down on the stone, sending jolts of force rattling around his skull.
He reached his destination in under a minute. He raced down the corridor, and threw open the door to Agravaine's chambers.
Agravaine jumped up at the sudden crash of the door and looked, startled, toward the unexpected intruder. "Sir Gwaine, what-"
He got no further before Gwaine grabbed him by his cloak and slammed him against the wall.
"Where. Is. He."
Agravaine gasped, desperately trying to recover his breath. "I - what?"
Gwaine reared his head back and snapped forward, smashing his forehead into the bridge of Agravaine's nose.
Agravaine produced a sound that was a cross between a scream and a gurgle.
Pinning the man's neck under his forearm, Gwaine repeated in a voice eerily reminiscent of his friend's threat in the armoury, "Where. Is. Merlin."
Blood flowed out of an obviously broken nose as Agravaine wheezed and struggled against the knight's crushing pressure on his throat.
"Gwaine! Gwaine!"
Arms wrapped around Gwaine and pulled him back from Agravaine. Caught off guard, he fell back.
Percival and Elyan held him down as the traitor sunk to the floor, coughing.
Gwaine lashed out at Percival, landing a solid punch in the jaw and heard a crack that signaled a broken jaw. He twisted to squirm out of Percival's grip, but couldn't get away.
"What are you doing?!" Elyan shouted.
Gwaine snarled and redoubled his efforts to get free, to force that snake to tell him where Merlin was, beat it out of him and kill him with his bare hands for hurting his best friend.
There was more shouting, and reinforcements came, holding onto him until he could hardly breathe.
Gradually, Gwaine became calmer under the combined restraints.
Carefully, they let go of him, looking warily at his face for any indication of another berserk attack. Leon and Arthur were the reinforcements, with Guinevere standing a few feet away. A small part of Gwaine's mind noted she must have been with Percival and her brother, then gone to fetch the other two.
Moving his eyes to the crumpled form of Agravaine, Gwaine growled out, "Merlin's missing."