Forbidden Love - Merlyn [2]

Chapter Twenty-Six: An Announcement

Merlyn had immediately returned home and had double-checked her books to confirm that what she had seen had indeed been a troll. And she was right. Merlyn had then sat in front of her small fire with Gaius in a chair beside them. He too believed Catrina was a troll and he was utterly shocked to discover Merlyn had seen the troll in all its 'glory'.

"What you saw is seldom seen, Merlyn" Gaius admitted. "Trolls despise all other living things, especially humans. They prefer to lurk in the darkness of their nests, feasting on rotten filth." Merlyn knew about this; she had read this disgusting information in her books. But one thing was still unknown, one thing Merlyn just hadn't figured out.

"And Jonas? Is he a troll too?" Merlyn questioned.

"Who can tell what manner of creature he is" Gaius replied. He had no idea either but that wasn't there big problem, Catrina was.

"It makes no sense. If trolls like to lurk in their caves so much, what's this one doing in Camelot?" Merlyn asked. These creatures were not social, they liked their solitude, liked avoiding crowds and yet Catrina had come straight into the middle of a palace.

"Trolls are greedy. Lady Catrina's like the rest of her kind; she lusts after wealth and power" Gaius explained. Merlyn sighed as she realised what that meant.

"Uther's wealth and power" Merlyn mumbled. Catrina had gone straight for the king, no one else had been in her sight. Merlyn felt incredibly stupid - of course Catrina was going after Uther's wealth.

"We've reached the point of no return. Uther has to be told" Gaius announced.

"You're going to tell Uther that his new lady friend's a troll?" Merlyn questioned with a small look of disbelief. There was no way Uther was going to take such an accusation calmly or lying down.

"That's exactly what I'm going to do" Gaius replied to which Merlyn scoffed.

"Good luck."

"Thank you, Merlyn" Gaius said sincerely. He knew that she was not being completely serious but they were both aware he was going to need luck that was for sure.

~8~

Merlyn knew this was not going to end well. Gaius had waited until morning to speak to the king and Merlyn was now waiting for her mentor to return. Knowing she would die of boredom if she didn't do something, Merlyn noticed that Gaius' shelves were running low on supplies so she decided to finally restock them while she waited. Merlyn had done this task many times and it had become second nature to her – the actions to fill the supplies were mundane at best.

As Merlyn was grinding up a collection of ingredients to make a certain concoction of Gaius', the chamber doors opened and in came the man himself. Merlyn took one look at her mentor and knew that his conversation had gone exactly as she had expected, not well. Gaius made his way over to her, his shoulders slumped.

"How did it go?" Merlyn asked out of politeness, she knew how it went but she still had to ask.

"Please don't say anything, Merlyn" Gaius said as he lifted his hand to support his words.

"I wasn't going to say anything" Merlyn replied, raising her hand to her chest in fake shock at such an accusation.

"You were going to say, 'I told you so'" Gaius said seriously, not finding her joking amusing. It was clear the conversation went worse than Merlyn had imagined. Gaius sighed heavily as he took a seat in his chair.

"OK. I was. But I ... I'm not going to now" Merlyn admitted, placing the pestle on the top of the table before she turned and leaned back against the wood, her bottom sitting upon the table whilst her arms crossed across her chest. "I take it Uther didn't take to it well."