Merlin: Dawn of the Dragonlord

Chapter 16: Fun

Chapter 16: Fun

He had been hunched over Merlin’s unconscious form for so long now that his hands were sweaty and his elbows actually hurt.

“I’m not going to apologize, you know.  You could have been honest with me.  Not from the start, obviously.  I might have killed you then.  But I didn’t know you.  That was before you saved my life a few times, and shown loyalty and bravery in the face of death.  You still are a stupid servant regardless of everything else; even if I’m not sure it means anything given the fact that you’re noble and all that.

Not that I’m not happy about it.  We’re cousins, you know; distant ones, but still related by blood.  It makes sense.  I always knew there was something about you.  Now I know it’s not wisdom.  It’s a kind of nobility.

I can’t say that the whole sorcerer thing doesn’t bother me because it does.  All this time, I just thought that I was really lucky.  Each time an opponent would drop his sword at the last moment or fall off his horse, I imagine that it must have been you doing your magic tricks.  But what does that make me?  What portion of my triumphs do I actually owe to you?  Is there any way to tell?  Am I just an average knight?  Not that you care about that; you’re just sleeping.”

Arthur Pendragon got up, stretched a little, and then started to pace around the chamber, still speaking out loud.  

“You have no idea how hard this is for me, do you?  You had to leave so that I could look like an idiot.  Everyone is just waiting for me to pass judgment.  I know who I’m supposed to be and what I’m supposed to do, but you had to be a sorcerer to make things more complicated.  Gaius said that you were born with magic, but that actually doesn’t make it easier.  Sorcerers are supposed to be black-hearted villains, but that’s just everything that you are not; and nor is Gaius.  What choice do I have then?  Can you tell me that?”

From his small bed near the fireplace, Merlin gave a loud snort and turned on his side.

“Of course you’re not going to tell me.  You’re sleeping.  Couldn’t you at least pretend to care?” said Arthur irritably.

Merlin turned on his back, threw one arm up, his good arm, and began to snore.

“Great!” burst out Arthur.  He was not even bothering to keep his voice down anymore.  “This is turning out to be our best conversation ever: the one-sided kind.”

He had been mumbling incoherently for so many hours now that nothing that came out of his mouth hardly made any sense.  He didn’t know what time it was, except that it was dark.  He had given Merlin some water (from the well below the castle, not from the lake) at sundown.  Now the young warlock was deeply asleep.  More color had returned to his skin, confirming the fact that he would recover from the dark magic that had poisoned him.

“You know I really spilled my gut out so you could at least acknowledge that some of it got through,” said the prince.

Merlin’s only response was to mumble under his breath something that sounded like “yes more mead please”.

Arthur let out a sigh of irritation.

“All right, I’m done,” he said.  “But don’t ask me to repeat it because I won’t.  You’re really hopeless, you know.”

After that, he left in search of his own room.  He found the servant boy, Lucian, lurking in the corridors waiting for him, and it was just as well because he was ready to fall asleep on the floor.

The room that was assigned to him was small but comfortable.  He slept dreamlessly, waking up only once to check on Merlin, but the young warlock was still sleeping.  As Arthur returned to his room, he heard the wolves, but it was only a distant call.