Hiding

Chapter 3

Arthur woke up when sunlight started flooding the clearing. Immediately, he was on the alert. He was supposed to take second watch last night. Merlin should have woken him up. He looked around, trying to find the imbecile, because he'd either fallen asleep on his watch or had stayed up all night—neither of which were good. Or, he thought as dread filled his gut, something had happened to him. Maybe this is was the tingly feeling in his magic was about. He didn't want to call for his servant in case someone was still out there, but he couldn't see Merlin anywhere, and he wouldn't have wandered very far for any reason—Merlin was smarter than that, and his horse and bedroll were still there, so he hadn't simply left.

The only reason Arthur could think of to explain why Merlin hadn't woken him up for his watch and wasn't anywhere to be found was that he had been taken during his watch. Arthur wondered briefly why Merlin hadn't woken him up if he thought something was wrong. Then again, there were all sorts of ways to make sure someone didn't see or hear you coming, or to make sure they were unconscious before your approach. In his spell book alone there were countless ways to sneak up on someone. But right now, he had a missing manservant that he really needed to find.

Upon closer inspection, Arthur couldn't find any suspicious-looking tracks going in or out of the clearing. Even his limited ability to reach out and sense other's magic wasn't turning up anything—no residual magic from covering their tracks, no magic in the air to ensure no one would see the enemy coming, nothing. He supposed it either wasn't magic, or whoever was using magic was also using it to hide any traces of magic. In that case, Arthur knew it had to be a very powerful magic user that had Merlin, which was very, very bad.

After all, Merlin was basically a defenseless kitten most of the time. There was no reason to believe he was strong enough or even loyal enough to stand up to torture and not give away Camelot's most guarded secrets, of which Merlin had quite a few, being the prince's manservant. Arthur secretly hoped Merlin would prove loyal to him and to Camelot, but if his kidnapper wanted secrets and Merlin wouldn't give them any, Merlin would get hurt, and for some reason that hurt just as much as thinking that Merlin held no loyalty to him.

In other words, thinking about Merlin getting hurt made Arthur's heart ache far more than it should for a mere servant, maybe even more than it should for a friend. Which he and Merlin certainly were not, of course. It wasn't proper. Or rather, that was the excuse he used when he found, in the deepest, most secretest parts of his heart, that being just friends wouldn't ever be enough for him. But no matter what his relationship to his servant, that servant needed to be rescued, if for no other reason than he held far too many of Camelot's secrets to be in the hands of a potential enemy.

Which raised another question in the back of Arthur's mind as he packed their camp up and started to lead both his and Merlin's horse back toward the city—why Merlin? The Crown Prince of Camelot was sleeping right there, just as defenseless as Merlin was when he was taken. Arthur held more secrets than Merlin. Arthur could certainly fetch far more in ransom money than Merlin ever would. Arthur was far easier to recognize—or perhaps that was the point? Someone in the royal household that wouldn't be easily spotted if word got out that he was missing?

The wort part, Arthur thought, was that he didn't know why they had taken Merlin. Information? Money? Slave trade? He had initially assumed it was because Merlin was his manservant, but there was no denying that Merlin wasn't exactly hard to look at, and that he would probably fetch a fair price if someone wanted to sell him into slavery. If slavers had him, he might never see Merlin again. But slavers were never that meticulous when covering their tracks, and most didn't possess the powerful magic he'd deemed necessary to have erased any trace of anyone but Arthur and Merlin ever being there. So no, it was an enemy of Camelot that had him, it had to be.