Trials | Merlin FanFiction (Merthur)

Chapitre Deux

"What on earth are you doing there again?" Gaius said, stopping by Merlin, who was covered in rotten turnip and shifting from foot to foot to try and relieve his aching back. "What did you do this time?"

"Oh, you know," Merlin said airily because telling the truth, despite what everyone said, was overrated. "I, um. Dropped something. Breakable something. And it broke."

"Merlin," Gaius sighed, "you really need to be more careful."

"I will be," Merlin promised. He shook his head, and a fly that had been trying to crawl in his ear buzzed away. "I swear. Really."

Gaius sighed a long-suffering sigh and wandered off. Merlin eyed a small girl who had just trotted up, carrying an enormous lidded basket.

"Hi, there," he said, smiling, and hoped it wasn't apples. Apples hurt.

She gave him a gap-toothed smile and opened her basket. Inside was something leafy and wilty. Cabbage. He could live with cabbage.

Arthur was gone for three days, during which time Merlin spent most of the time working for Gaius, running errands around the castle, and making quick trips to the herb gardens and the forest for fresh supplies. He didn't mind so much--it gave him a chance to get out in the fresh air, which wasn't always the case when he was attending someone who spent half his waking hours in armor and training in the salle. Plus, it gave him the chance to catch up on the latest gossip.

And it turned out that the entire castle was buzzing about the new arrival.

"His daughter-to-be's a love," one of the seamstresses said, an old woman named Morwann, "but he's a bit, well. A bit impatient. Wanted his good linen mended right then and there, for the banquet, and had poor Clovis--she's that new girl, you know, Maeve's youngest--anyway, Clovis was whipped for it." Merlin nodded thoughtfully and picked up the bundle of Arthur's mending. He'd discovered that his tasks for Arthur grew immeasurably easier--and less likely to get him executed--when he enlisted the help of others to finish them. Arthur might have complained, but he'd been so pleased to see his tunics and hose being mended with almost invisible stitches that he hadn't made a fuss. Merlin kissed her cheek, and let her swat him on the ass as he left.

The workers in the stables were all fascinated by Aelfric's horses--particularly, as it happened, a rare Spanish blooded stallion that rumor said was worth a prince's ransom, and a present to Uther. Merlin looked in on it once, and it tried to bite him. After that, he kept away. Uther and Aelfric went riding together, though, according to the stableboys. Twice they had gone totally unaccompanied, not even by a groom.

The housekeeping staff were in a quiet uproar because Aelfric had brought his own staff with him, wooden-faced men and women who cleaned his rooms and fetched his food and linen from downstairs and did not mingle with anyone.

"I've seen them," one chambermaid confided, over a cup of ale in the late afternoon sun, "seen them wandering around. His servants. We've been told not to interfere, though, so they go where they like."

"Who told you?" Merlin asked, curious.

"Mistress Aldercy," she said, and Merlin frowned. Aldercy was the castellan, and took her orders directly from the steward, and through him, from Uther. Strange, that Uther would tolerate newcomers to move so freely inside the castle, with no constraints on them.

"Are they looking for anything, do you think?"

At this she flushed nervously. "Oh, I don't know," she said. "I mean, I'm not really sure," and she glanced around, fearfully, and leaned closer. "But I think they are. Snooping. I saw them, once, coming out of the court genealogist's chambers, and I know he wasn't in."

Well. That was interesting. "Thank you," Merlin said gratefully, for the risk she was taking as much for the information, and she bobbed quickly and hurried off, leaving Merlin to finish his supper in quiet thought.

That night, he volunteered to help serve in the hall. The cook didn't argue, just put a platter in his hands and sent him straight out, and Merlin offered food and poured wine and kept his ears sharply open. Uther and Aelfric seemed to be chatting again, loud laughter and shouts and good-natured arguing, but they were too far away for Merlin to hear anything.

A server caught his arm, jerked his head toward the high table. "They're short--Sir Abelard says you're to wait on the ladies," he said, because Merlin was one of the few servants who was actually trained for the high table. Merlin didn't argue.

"Uther," Aelfric was saying, as he poured well-watered wine for Morgana and for Allis, the woman betrothed to Aelfric's son, who joined them at the high table this evening. Her affianced, Cynric, sat where Arthur had sat the night before, and Merlin had to fight to keep his expression neutral. The entire hall was buzzing with almost inaudible whispers, that Uther seemed to be entirely oblivious to. "I cannot thank you enough for your gracious hospitality in seeing my son wed at your magnificent court."

"I am honored," Uther said, smiling, "I consider your family as close as my own, my old friend."

Aelfric smiled, a flash of something in his eyes that was gone almost immediately, and Merlin looked down at the floor to keep himself from reacting. The sense of foreboding doubled, leaving an uneasy restlessness behind. He fidgeted, and couldn't quite make himself stop.