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“Sire! Sire! We need you! “Leon’s worried voice echoed from the other side of the door.
Arthur opened his eyes, trying to understand if it was a dream or not when he heard it again.
“Sire! I’m sorry to wake you up but it’s a matter of urgency!”
“I’m coming, Leon,” Arthur answered, his voice still rough from sleep.
A look outside told Arthur the sun wasn’t up yet. Whatever was going on it must be a serious matter if the captain of the guards found it appropriate to wake up the King. He came out of his bed and put some clothes rapidly. If he had to call for Merlin and wait for his idiot of a manservant recently appointed Court Sorcerer to come, whatever was threatening Camelot would have it reduced to ashes before he was dressed.
Then he opened the door to face an indeed very worried Leon.
“Sire.” He curtseyed.
“So? What’s the matter?”
“I think you should come and see by yourself.”
Arthur was really starting to worry. Whatever was happening was enough to trouble Leon. Leon who was always the calmest of his Knight, the one who searched all the options before starting to panic.
“Lead the way, I’m following you.”
Leon led Arthur to the Great Hall in silence but with a decided step. They stopped in front of the closed doors.
“Hum… We found it like that when we’ve done the first patrol in the morning, Sire. I went to you as soon as the guards reported.”
Leon opened the doors and Arthur came in.
The Hall was lit by thousands and thousands candles. That alone would have been strange as there hadn’t been any banquet or feast for days but what made it worrying was that they were floating in mid-air.
“I see…” Arthur stated calmly. Sorcery. In the core of the castle. Even if it seemed harmless it was an attack to Camelot!
“But it’s not the only thing, Sire.” Leon added.
Arthur looked at him. If there had been others magical events during the night, the King started to understand Leon’s worry.
Percival and another Knight chose that moment to join them.
“Sire, the water in the town! It had been turned into mead!” Percival explained. “Every fountain, every well…”
“There are people getting drunk everywhere, Sire,” the younger Knight explained. Arthur needed a little time to remember his name as he was a new recruit.
“Kay, go and tell all the guards to bring these drunk lads to their home safely. Then block the accesses to the fountains and wells.”
Kay nodded and left.
Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose, sensing the start of a headache. Whatever the person behind these strange events was aiming to do, it was clearly meant to weaken Camelot’s defense by occupying most of the guards and Knights. But if that was sorcery, only one person could deal efficiently with it.
“Percival, go and fetch me Merlin!”
“Yes, Sire.”
Arthur turned to Leon and asked: “Has there been reports of other strange events in Camelot?”
“Not yet, Sire. But I’ve sent patrols all around the castle and the town. They should come back soon.”
“Great. I suggest we wait for them and Merlin and then we will see what it is all about. It doesn’t seems like it’s a pending threat but we’re clearly facing some powerful magic.”
Leon nodded.
That’s when Sir Bors came running towards them.
“Sir Leon! Sire!”
“Bors? What’s going on?” Arthur asked, sensing that another magic was at work.
“The lower town, Sire! It’s snowing!” Bors explained, panting.
“What?”
That’s when Arthur noticed the white snowflake melting in Bors’ hair.
“It’s snowing in the lower town but only there!”
“And we’re in the middle of the summer,” Leon noted, with a small hysterical laugh.
“Sire!”
This time, it was Percival coming back.
“Percival, where is Merlin?”
“I don’t know. He wasn’t in his quarters and then I went to Gaius but he hadn’t seen him since yesterday afternoon.”
Arthur sighed. He was sensing a pattern there and wasn’t really happy about it. If the recent event weren’t really threatening, their accumulation and Merlin’s disappearance were starting to be worrying.
Arthur took a deep breath. He needed to think. There had to be a logical explanation behind all this. Why would a mad sorcerer make it snow in the middle of summer? That looked more like a trick! An idiotic game.
“Idiot!” Arthur murmured.
“What?” Leon asked.
“Nothing… But I think I’m understanding what’s going on there! Bors, the snow, was it spotted recently?”
“Yes, Sire. It started when we were patrolling the area.”
“Percival, Leon, follow me. Bors, make sure nobody enter the Great Hall.”
Arthur didn’t wait for an answer before rushing to the lower town, Percival and Leon following him.
As they crossed the courtyard, Arthur nearly tripped on something.
“Hey! What’s that?”
He looked down to find a kitten meowing at him.
“Listen little one, I really don’t have time to pet you! I have a crazy Court Sorcerer to find!”
Percival and Leon exchanged a surprised look.
“He’s talking about Merlin?” Percival asked.
“He likes cats?” Leon noted.
“Stop talking, we need to find him!” Arthur told them before continuing to the town only to cross path with more and more kittens and puppies, all yipping and meowing.
“I suppose it’s another of our warlock’s work?” Arthur asked.
“There’s in fact an unusual amount of little furry things running around, Sire. But are you sure it’s Merlin’s doing?”
“Who else? You know how much he loves cute and furry things! And I can’t imagine an evil sorcerer trying to plague Camelot with an invasion of kittens!”
Percival hardly managed to restrain his giggles. Arthur threw him a dark look and he stopped immediately.
They finally reached to lower town, now covered in a thick layer of snow but Merlin was nowhere to be seen.
People were starting to get up and looked through their windows, stunned by what they saw.
“We need to find him soon before he does other magical tricks!” Arthur warned.
“It’s strange, don’t you think Leon?” Percival asked, “Merlin has never done something like this before.”
Leon nodded. Of course, since the ban on magic had been lifted at the beginning of Arthur’s reign and magic was now accepted in Camelot, Merlin had sometimes used it to entertain children in town or to play in trick to some of the Knights. He had never used it as such a large-scale, though.
“Hic!”
“What was that?” Arthur asked, turning toward the street from where the strange sound had come.
“Don’t know.” Percival answered.
“Hic!”
“Have you heard it again?”
Leon moved towards the street. The sound came again, louder.
“Hic!”
“It’s coming from there!”
“Hic!”
“That’s him!” Arthur shouted, running toward the next intersection.
Merlin was there, sitting on the floor, surrounded by hundreds of butterflies who kept changing colors with each of his hiccoughs.
“Merlin! What are you doing there?” Arthur asked, kneeling next to him.
“Dooooooooooon’t shout… Head hurts. Hic.” Merlin whined as the butterflies turned orange.
“Merlin? Are you drunk?”
Clearly he was, if the smell of mead surrounding him was any guess.
“Nope! Hic!” he answered, shaking vigorously his head. “Ouch…Hic! It hurts.”
Arthur chased some butterflies with his hands and came closer to his Court Sorcerer.
“Hic!”
“Merlin! What have you done yesterday night?” Arthur asked coldly, guessing he would not like the answer.
Merlin growled, taking his head in his hands.
“Stop shouting! Prattish Prince!”
“I’m King, Merlin!”
“I know but “Prattish King” doesn’t sound so good. Hic!”
Arthur sighed. His head was hurting, too.
“So? What did you do last night?” he asked, slower and quieter.
“Hic! Gwaine took me to the tavern! Was fun! Hic!”
“Gwaine?” Arthur roared.
“Arthuuuuuuuuuur!” Merlin moaned.
Arthur’s anger disappeared when he looked at his poor hung-over friend. He gently put his arms around Merlin’s shoulder to help him stand up and beckoned Percival closer.
“Percival, would you accompany Merlin to his quarters? Make sure he drinks plenty of water and don’t leave him alone!”
Percival nodded.
“Hic! You really have big arms, Percy.” Merlin slurred as Percival manhandled him to go back to the castle.
Arthur looked at them till they disappeared at the next intersection. He stood up and sighed.
“What are you doing about all this?” Leon asked.
“Nothing. Merlin is the only one who can fix all that mess and he’s clearly not in a state to do that. So we’ll wait.”
“And for Gwaine?”
“I have an idea of a proper punishment for him!”
***
The next day, stocks were put up in the Royal courtyard, away from the eyes of the inhabitants of the lower town.
“Sire, are you planning to put Gwaine in the stocks?” Leon asked as Arthur and he were overlooking the preparations.
“Yes, Leon…”
“But why doing this here?”
“Even if he had tried to corrupt my innocent Court Sorcerer, he remains a Knight and I don’t want to humiliate him in front of the citizens… But here, in front of nobles and Knights, it will be perfect.”
Leon still found this punishment strange but he didn’t say anything to his King.
That’s when Merlin came. After having slept nearly all day and all night, he looked better than the last time Leon had seen him.
“Merlin!”
Arthur went to him and put his arms around his shoulders.
“Are you feeling better?”
“I’m okay, Arthur! I already told you so 23 times today! Stop fussing!”
Merlin didn’t try to escape Arthur’s embrace, though.
“Are you sure?”
“Arthur!”
Arthur looked sheepish and that was quite unusual for the King of Camelot. Leon smiled, Merlin clearly held a special place in Arthur’s life… Or in Arthur’s heart.
“So? Why do you need me?” Merlin asked, looking at the stocks.
“You know how to enchant objects so they move by themselves, don’t you?”
“Of course, Arthur!” Merlin answered in a tone that clearly meant Arthur had already witnessed such an enchantment. “Don’t you remember all the time I made your clothes move by themselves?” he added with a cheeky smile.
Arthur blushed and Leon, too, guessing Merlin wasn’t really speaking of doing the King’s laundry.
“So you can make the vegetables throw themselves at Gwaine?”
“Of course… How long?”
“As long as you think he deserves it… You were the one with the headache.”
Merlin grinned.
“I suppose an hour will do.”
“Let’s say an hour and a half,” Arthur added, “I need to see you in private to discuss some important matter.”
Leon turned is gaze away. Whatever these two were planning to do in private, he didn’t want to know it.
“Sire, I’ll go fetch Gwaine from his cell.”
“Thank you, Leon.”
“Can I watch him for a while before our private meeting?” Merlin asked as Leon left.