The Prince's Assistant

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Sometime later, when the exercises had become more intense, I had long past being bored and had started to play with the grass, hoping something, anything, interesting would happen soon. When a shrill voice was heard through out the training grounds, if not the whole city.

"Arthur! Arthur! I must speak with you!" Arthur flinched back from the voice and looked to me with a desperate look in his eyes, before it disappeared and was replaced with a mischievous gleam. I hadn't been with Arthur long but I was sure I wouldn't like what he was thinking by the look on his face. The voice was getting louder and more desperate.

"Merlin," he said, slyly, "be a good lad and tell my fiancé, when she get's here, that you haven't seen me since this morning and that you don't know where I am, got it?" I gulped and quickly nodded. He sighed turned and quickly  disappeared from sight. Just as he disappeared, the girl with the banshee like voice walked up to me and looked at me in disgust. She, on the other hand, was absolutely stunning. She had golden, blonde tresses piled on top of her head with just a few curls framing her elfish looking face. Her eyes a clear, icy blue, high cheekbones, tiny nose and a body any girl would be jealous of and any man would die to have her as his own, was stunning. She was absolutely breath taking.' It's a good thing I'm not a guy,' I thought vaguely. I was pretty sure that if I'd been born a guy I would be melting at her feet right now, like the guys on the training grounds were.

"Where is my fiancé, servant?" she snapped at me. I looked into her face and saw the disgust again but I also saw repulsiveness in her eyes, I wasn't that bad looking, was I? I shifted uncomfortably, cursing the day I became Arthur's stupid assistant. If I have to deal with this "Lady" on a daily basis I'm sure I'd die early, sighing I answered her.

"My lady, forgive me, but I don't know where his majesty, the prince, is." I bowed respectfully, like any servant was supposed to. I wasn't really lying, I really didn't know where he was right this very second. She huffed loudly, un-lady like, I might add, upset with my answer.

"I sincerely doubt that, boy. Don't think I don't know he's hiding from me," well if he's hiding from you shouldn't that tell you something? "When he comes out from his hiding place, tell him that I wish to speak to him." She didn't even give me the chance to reply before she left, glaring at anyone who looked at her, her maid stumbled after her. I released the breath I'd been holding, relieved. If I was Arthur, I would hide from her too. She seemed like a spoiled brat to me, but if she never opened her mouth, she could be an angel. I turned around, to go find Arthur, but the man Arthur had been training with, grabbed my arm before I could leave.

"You either must be pretty brave or pretty stupid, kid, no one wants to be on the bad side of Lady Guinevere," he said. He had dirty blonde hair and brown eyes, he was average height for a man, if not a little taller, his muscular frame made many of the men here look scrawny. "The names Caleb," he stuck his hand out. I smiled slightly at and shook his hand.

"Thanks for the advice and I'm Merlin." He nodded like he already knew that, then he shooed me away.

"Go find our wayward prince, Merlin," he laughed, I smiled and waved to him as I started to walk in the direction that Arthur had gone in. I wonder if I'll be able to find Arthur without getting lost. There's no telling where he might be and with the castle as big as it is, just by glancing in each room would take ages, there's no telling if he even went into the castle to begin with. I sighed, might as well get started.

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Sometime later, after searching through the rooms on the bottom floor of the palace, it was almost time for supper. I probably wouldn't be able to find Arthur, until he came out of his hiding place and who knows when that'll be. Sighing, I push open the last door left in the hallway and stop. Inside the room were rows and rows of shelves filled with books, the walls were also covered with books.

I was in heaven.

Other than the books, there were a couple of chairs next to a fireplace, the mantle around the fireplace was carved out of cherry-wood. The design was of flowers braiding themselves together, roses, daisies, and carnations were all there, there were some other flowers there that I didn't recognize. There were a few small things decorating the top of the mantle, a few pieces of paper dotted across the mantle along with a small volume of legends. I walked reverently into the room I'd never seen so many books in one place. The few books that I had seen were my mom's were about magic and I had read them a million times, because we never went into the village unless we had to and we never really had extra money to buy books. I walked farther into the room, reaching out I ran my finger on the spines of the books I passed, reading the titles. Legends, romances, literature, history, every book  genre imaginable was here. I hope the people don't mind me reading them, but then again I would read them with or with out their permission.

Chime. Chime. Chime. Chime. Chime. Chime.

I jerked away from the books as the church bells rang, the sudden sound startling me from my quiet search through the bookshelves.

Six bells, six o'clock, meaning dinner. Dinner, food.

I stumbled over my feet in my hurry to get to the kitchen. Even though I was Arthur's servant, I still had other duties to attend to, one of those duties was to help the kitchen staff get ready for and serve dinner. I'm so dead, that evil, devil like cook was going to kill me. He'd glare at me through out dinner then he'd get me alone, murder me and put me in a soup and serve it to the lords and ladies. I ran faster, the thought of being soup, helped my legs move faster. I paused outside the kitchen doors, calming my breath, pushing open the doors I saw the cook, a short ,round man, screaming orders at a serving girl. I stealthily made my way around the other people in the kitchen grabbing a pitcher to make it look like I'd been there for awhile. I paused not sure exactly what I was supposed to do. 

"Child, take that pitcher out there and start filling up cups. It doesn't matter if the person is completely off there rocker just nod your head and poor." An older lady said as she pushed me gently out of the kitchen and into the dinning hall. I smiled gratefully at her and walked the rest of the out of the kitchen. In the hall, I stayed by the wall until someone gestured for a refill of their drink. I stayed in that hall for three hours waiting on people and let me tell you it is not fun, but you do get to hear alot of people gossip about one person or another. I walked down the dark hallway that led to Arthur's bedroom. I didn't even bother to knock when I came to his door I just pushed it open and stormed in there. How dare he make me look for him all day and not even show up for dinner or at least let me know where he was? Like I thought during dinner, he was in his room just lying on his bed. 

"Finally, you get here. Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to get here?" He snapped the second I opened the door. My mouth opened in shock, how self-centered was this guy? I mean, come on he's been here for how knows how long and he didn't have the decency to have some one come and find me? 

 "Oh, forgive me your majesty," I bowed mockingly, "I have better things to do than watch after your royal highness all day." He stood up, outraged, and stalked toward me. For every step he took, I took a step backwards. When I hit the half open door and it closed as I kept going back, when the door closed I realized my mistake. I shouldn't have backed up. He put his arms against the door and leaned in until his face was less than an inch away from my face. His breath hit my face each time he breathed. I looked up into his face fearfully, realizing that he could have me killed for speaking the way I did.  He spoke quietly, but his voice was hard and unwavering, threatning.

"What did you say?"