Secrets of the past - Prince Merlin fanfic

Chapter Nine

The king of Camelot was riding in the front of the group. They had left almost immediately after sunrise, stopped only once to eat and now the evening began to dawn. They were quite near to the Airasan's kingdom so Arthur stopped and motioned the knights of Airasan to lead them to the hideout. They knew the path. While Sirs Lancelot and Harry took the lead, Arthur ended up to ride beside Merlin. When their gazes met, there were no spoken words, they just smiled at each other.

"The hideout is just behind that...," Sir Harry was cut off by loud yell:

"Stop! What business you have here?"

"We bring king Arthur and the knights of the round table to help us," Sir Lancelot responded. Few men with bows and arrows walked into sight. They recognised the knights of Airasan and greeted them. After that, they bowed a little for Arthur before leaving in the same direction where they came. Sir Lancelot followed them with others behind him.

Arthur noticed that Merlin wasn't anymore beside him. He turned his head and saw Merlin riding in the back. He looked a little nervous. 'Maybe he's afraid.'

Now Arthur watched how the men walked in something invisible. They just calmly disappeared. It was definitely magic and Arthur felt foolish because he should have guessed they were going to use magic. He needed to admit the hideout was better hidden than any of the places Arthur had seen. Now he followed Sir Harry to the invisible veil while trying to calm himself. Everyone else acted like it was normal so he didn't want to show his nervousness. He got to the other side and started to look around. It looked like the same forest except there were a lot of more people who were sitting next to campfires and tents and chatting with each other. There were men, women and also children. No one paid attention to their coming. But because Arthur hadn't seen those people before entering the veil, now they probably were under some kind of big invisible craw.

After him, first Leon and Elyan and then the rest of them appeared out of nowhere.

"We'll take you to the prince James," one of the men said. Arthur started to follow him closer to the camp. Now some of the people noticed their coming but didn't do anything else than stare.

They walked in front of a big tent. Few servants came and took their horses just before someone came from inside the big tent. The knights and servants of Airasan bowed for him, so Arthur guessed the stranger was the prince. He had black, curly hair and a friendly face, and he looked quite young even though he stood with dignity and calmness.

"This is prince James of Airasan," Sir Lancelot said with awe. "King Arthur and these are the knights of Camelot; Sirs Leon, Gwaine, Percival and Elyan," he continues motioning at each in turn.

"Welcome and thank you for helping our kingdom," the prince said.

That's when Arthur realised one of them was missing. Merlin wasn't there. He looked around but it was true. He didn't see Merlin anywhere. Maybe he had gone with other servants or something. He had come through the veil so he was definitely somewhere in the camp.

__________

Earlier

Merlin had just ridden from the veil after Harry. He was surprised by how big the camp was. He had expected some people but now he saw over a hundred people and probably there were even more. Merlin had never imagined that so many people would stand on their side.

"We'll take you to the prince James," one of the men, who had led them said. Merlin's joy was growing. Finally, he was going to see his brother. Although, it would be suspicious if it seemed like they knew each other so Merlin was already planning how to warn his brother of not telling everyone who Merlin really was. He had also needed to keep a low profile so no one would pay attention to him in case they recognised him.

"Merlin, can we talk?" Merlin turned his head and saw how brown-haired knight of Airasan —who he hadn't known before they came to Camelot— was looking at him. Merlin nodded because he was curious why the knight wanted to talk with him and after that, the knight led them further away from the group which left to meet the prince James. They didn't notice that two of them left behind.

The knight called for a couple of servants who came and took the horses. While Merlin was following the knight he realised he actually didn't know a much about him. They had never talked privately. He only knew that the knight's name was Andrew.