He had thought he had heard every ridiculous excuse there was – after all Merlin was his manservant. Merlin was loyal and told the truth when it was important, but when he lied – he lied so badly it wasn't worth shaking the truth out of him. Merlin's lies, as laced with hope as they were that he would be believed, were akin to the boy saying "I don't really want to talk about it, thank you." However, Arthur was considering whether Gwaine was better, worse, or on par with his hapless servant for idiotic ideas disguised lightly as excuses.
"And why," Arthur felt a twitch developing in his left eye, "did you invite four tables of gambling to join you in your efforts to provide clothing for my manservant?" The words felt sticky and unappealing as Arthur said them. This was not his fault for suggesting that people use the pubs as emergency shelters to conserve wood, this was Gwaine's fault.
Gwaine's logic spun painfully Arthur's brain. Each word, punctuated by the sunny smile encouraged the twitch a bit more. The knight was fixated on Merlin. Granted if it weren't for Merlin, Arthur wouldn't of had Gwaine as a knight. Actually, he wouldn't have had Lancelot either and Lancelot had brought along Percival. And, without Merlin...
-twitch-
It must have been some sort of Camelot wide conspiracy to support Merlin, suspected Arthur as conspiracies began to form in his head. His manservant was his friend as well, but had this skinny boy actually have touched enough people donate the very clothes off their backs? Granted there weren't many people like Merlin, if there was one – Arthur would be surprised. There weren't many who believed in the goodness of others the way that Merlin did. He was always looking at the larger view of situations instead of individual pieces. He didn't see a hungry sick old man as one person, he saw the man as symptom of a potential crisis. He treated individuals kindly as if – as if – if any one person were poisoned in any way that Camelot could fall from the abscess. Granted the human body could cease to function and a person could die from infection aaaaand Merlin did live with Gaius. However, Merlin was like this when he first got here. He stood up for Arthur's former servant. He would be seen differently than others. Was it enough though? Was that really enough for that kind of behavior, drunk or not? To ease Arthur's unsettled emotions, he would tell himself that they had been coerced by Gwaine.
-twitch-
There were plenty of knights who had pledged life, limb, and their honor – to Arthur. Merlin had not extracted such oaths and yet..
-twitch-
-twitch-
Arthur dismissed Gwaine, but not before assigning him extra duties. He gave Gwaine the demeaning duty of helping Gaius. Partially because it was insulting to treat a knight like an inventory man and partially because it would help Gaius in an official way. It was the type of duty that wold suit Gwaine. He'd be rewarded because he would be around Merlin, but he wouldn't be able to spin any heroic tales from close proximity to the skinny manservant. He wouldn't be able to impress the ladies at the tavern.
Clipping Gwaine's bragging potential was severe punishment in many ways and it encouraged the widest and most annoying smile on Arthur's face.
After a long painful conversation that Merlin didn't quite understand, he stood facing the messenger unsure of what to say or do next. Ginny wasn't skilled at pretending to be human and Merlin wasn't sure if she had stolen her appearance from a child's doll – he knew he couldn't trust his eyes here. He wanted to ask so many questions, but there wasn't time. Gaius was going to skin him alive – if he was lucky. So Merlin picked only one from the flood of questions that streamed through his head.
"What is this place?"
"A place between. We made it to hide from the Old Religion."
"What did you make it from?"
Ginny smiled serenely, "A bit of this and a bit of that, but mostly … from dreams."
Merlin turned from her, muttering about crazy people, creatures of magic, and nothing making sense. He strode towards Kilgharrah, who had been anxiously watching from a safe distance. Merlin didn't have time to think about what he had been told. He wanted to discuss it with his kin. He knew enough to know that he did not want to stay here even if it did smell nice. Ginny might be interesting, but then again lots of unpleasant people and things had caught his attention in the past.
"We're leaving," announced Merlin to the older dragon as Aithusa came to perch on his shoulder and squawk complaints in dragon tongue about being ignored, being thirsty, and wanting the ridges along his spine scratched. Growing made for itchy skin and Aithusa looked on his Dragon Lord like a living back scratcher.
Kilgharrah rumbled, but did not comment. The ancient dragon was agitated, but focused on the doll-like Ginny who had turned to watch Merlin's retreating form. He bowed his great head for the young warlock to be able to climb to his customary spot behind his head ridges. Merlin settled himself and directed his kin, "Lets go, Kilgharrah."
Kilgharrah took the air and flew forward... not down.
"Kilgharrah?"
Aithusa's claws sank into the shoulder of his new jacket, a white tail whipped around Merlin's neck, and the white dragon began to keen. Merlin twisted to see Ginny's friends join her on the edge of the marble disk. They held hands and then the marble disk shattered. Flecks of silver and gold replaced the space where they had been and plummeted towards the earth like glittering sand.
The storm slammed into Kilgharrah with renewed fury and Merlin tore his gaze from the destroyed magical disk wondering for only a moment what happened to Ginny and her friends. Aithusa wormed his way into his jacket and pressed against his back as Kilgharrah's struggles to navigate became more heroic. The wind stung and the floating magic ice crystals tore at Merlin's exposed skin. Desperately, the warlock stretched out his hand and threw up a shield around the ancient dragon. Instinctively the ancient dragon swerved to dodge bolts of lightning that attempted to strike them down – but Merlin's shield held. Aithusa trembled against his back.
Meanwhile in the library, Gaius and Geoffrey leaned over an old dusty tome wearing matching expressions of exasperation. Geoffrey glanced anxiously from the page to his friend, whilst Gaius held his magnifying glass stationary over one section of writing: "and the King of Ages will be lost until He has been returned."
"This is an annoying passage," complained Gaius. "Where did you find this book?"
Geoffrey shifted in his chair and sighed, "I remembered last night that King Uther had captured a book of druid legends and prophecies. It took me forever to find it, it had been placed in a trunk with some other – illegal writings."
Magic Books.
"Normally, the druid writings in this section of the book focus on The Once and Future King, this is the first reference to the King of Ages."
Arthur, who had been summoned by the elderly scholar, sighed and leaned his weight against his elbows on the table. "I'll take your word for it. I can't read this writing."
"It's written in the language of the Old Religion," explained Gaius as he read down the page. "I can see why you are concerned, this is a very heavy prophecy."
"Read it to me," demanded Arthur.
The scholar cleared his throat and read clearly, "Albion's Destiny will tremble as the Old Religion writhes in pain. The new king will fumble and all futures will hang on the hopes of dragon wings. If and when The Once and Future King will rise. If and when The King of Ages will rise. The lands will prosper as never before and man will rejoice. The lands will tremble in his mercy and man will rejoice. The lands will claim Him or He will claim them and man will rejoice. If Destiny shatters, the King of Ages will be lost until He has been returned. If the King is lost – man will suffer."
"This makes no sense to me," complained Arthur in what he hoped was a calm voice. The druid leader who'd come to visit him had called him, The Once and Future King. He wasn't sure if he liked the new title or the heavy responsibility that came with it. He secretly wished that he could ask the druid for his opinion about the book.
Gaius squirmed in his chair.
"I asked you to find references to Emrys," whined Arthur, knowing his was acting more and more childish.
"There is more, but there is some damage to the book. Some of the pages have been torn or crumbled from time. This is a very old tome," Geoffrey said reverently as he his eyes stroked the pages before him as if he could visually drink in ancient wisdom. "I need more time to go through this book to see if there is any mention of Emrys. There are a few more books like this that I need to read. It's going to take some time."
Gaius perked up, "I can help. I can easily read the Old Religion. George has done a lot of work for me and now with Gwaine being assigned to me, I have the time for something like this. I'm having Gwaine do my deliveries."
Arthur didn't say anything about Gaius's history of dabbling in magic or about the wisdom of giving Gwaine responsibility.
"Do what ever it takes. I don't know how long the break in the weather is going to last," commanded Arthur as he stood and stretched.
"Have you found him?" Gwaine asked George and the servant shook his head no.
"No one has seen him. He's gone."
Gwaine huffed. He didn't mention Merlin's magic to George and it wouldn't help by asking the castle servants to find him a black cat or what ever creature Merlin might have decided to turn into. The servant smoothly filled a jar with crushed mint leaves, "Remember, Merlin's recovering. Rumor has it that he has been making time with one of the maids. I suspect he's making use of his time off of work to spend with a girl. I wouldn't worry. Merlin's rather intelligent."
Gwaine raised his eyebrows and studied the servant and then he lied, "Oh. Yeah. Her. He's told me about her..."
"You know which maid? As I said, it's only a rumor," supplied George.
"Oh, no. Merlin never mentioned and I admire a man who preserves the honor of his lady. He's a good man. He's not the kiss and tell type," grinned Gwaine through his deceptions, "Merlin's always finding time to sneak away for her."
With nimble fingers, George began chopping the roots of dried chicory root into two inch sections. He lined the bottom of a baking tray with the pale dried roots. When he was done with that he started lining the bottom of another baking tray with more roots.
"What's that for?" asked the knight.
George shrugged, "Gaius didn't say. I'm just following instructions. I'm supposed to roast the dried roots at an even modest temperature, same as bread, for half of the afternoon. After I'm done, I'm supposed to fill in for Merlin again and tend to the polishing."
Polishing was said with emphasis.
Merlin was exhausted, he could not shield against all of the wind for if he did then Kilgharrah would fall. Magic was a tricky thing. Keeping them shielded against the lightning was difficult and he was beginning to have suspicions about the snow. He knew it was magical, but now he was beginning to think it was more than pretty or decoration. It was part of the attack. The cold sapped Merlin of his strength as the cold knifed through his clothing cruelly. Like the first flight, he found himself close to drifting off to sleep, but he resisted for the sake of his kin. Kilgharrah's flew sluggishly and with much difficulty.
"Warming spell,"muttered Merlin.
"A bit late for that," Kilgharrah answered.
Merlin's heart sank. He hadn't thought of how the cold would feel to his kin or how it would interfere with his flying. Returning to Camelot was proving more difficult than leaving. Merlin's eyes watered against the wind as his shield began to falter. On the horizon he could see Avalon..
"Kilgharrah!" cried the warlock inspired with an idea, "Head towards Avalon!"
The dragon rumbled in complaint and Merlin felt it through his legs even before the words drifted to his ears after the insult in dragon tongue passed, the question was posed, "Have you decided what to do with the Sidhe then? Is it really the time to go to them?"
"Head towards Avalon!"
It might have been a good idea to talk it over first. It might have been a good idea to have a plan. The Sidhe were a cruel and vicious people. Merlin had killed their king. Merlin had mastered their magic. Merlin used the lake to hide a great sword. He had entombed a woman there for eternity. He had gone off with his life as if the Sidhe had not mattered much to him and now he was returning to Avalon and this time – he would ask them for a favor.