There were no spellbooks in Camelot. Not anymore.
"I kept one for the longest time," Gaius told him not long after he arrived. "I wish now I'd held on just a little longer. All the raids made me too cautious, I'm afraid."
"What did you do with it?" Merlin asked as he devoured his stew. Working for Arthur was exhausting.
"The only thing I could," Gaius said heavily. His eyes flicked to the fireplace.
Merlin set his spoon down. Suddenly, he wasn't so hungry anymore.
. . .
Gaius taught him what spells he could, but Gaius had never learned most of what Merlin needed to know. Teaching him to light a fire, Gaius could do. Teaching him how to animate snakes on a knight's shield, not so much.
"It has to be possible. If Valiant's doing it at will, then I can do it too."
"I'm sure you could, Merlin, but without getting close enough to hear the spell - "
"I've done magic without spells before," Merlin argued.
It had to be possible. Valiant could do it. According to one of the legends Gaius had taught him, Cornelius Sigan had done it.
He thought about practicing on one of the statues littering the palace, but Valiant's snakes were already enchanted; they just needed to be woken. A better parallel would be on of Sigan's gargoyles.
So he went up on the battlements and picked out the smallest one he could find. It was crouched above another one and was about the size of a cat.
He leaned against the stone wall and tried to imagine it in flight.
Long ago, there was a mighty sorcerer who befriended the great King Brute, and he brought the very stone to life to defend the castle at need. Yet enmity grew between them when Sigan was betrayed . . .
Life to the stone. Life to the stone. Defend the castle. Life to the stone.
A knight has turned traitor again.
The gargoyle screeched to life and flapped around his head. Merlin grinned at it.
Then he looked at how high the moon was in the sky and realized how long it had taken. He couldn't risk the delay with the snakes.
"Okay," Merlin said to the gargoyle. "Plan B."
. . .
The tournament proceeded for only a minute before the gargoyle swooped down from where it had hidden at Merlin's command.
There was a startled shout from the crowd. It dove towards Valiant's face.
Valiant raised his shield. The snakes lashed out at the gargoyle.
The gargoyle's claws sliced through one. It bit off and swallowed the head of the other before swooping upward again.
Arthur ended the fight quickly after that.
. . .
Uther ruled that the gargoyle must have been a familiar Valiant had lost control over, so Merlin didn't know what Gaius was so upset about, really. He slipped back up to the battlements where the gargoyle was once again stone. It must have returned after completing its mission.
Unlike before, it looked distinctly pleased with itself.
Merlin grinned. "Good boy."
He wondered if Gaius would explain what a familiar was, and if maybe when magic was legal the gargoyle could be one.
