| Previous Chapter | Story Index Page | Next Chapter |
In the Land of Stories Old
And so began a period of adjustment for most everyone who was living in the castle, meaning of course not the king but the seven princes and three princesses who had gotten used to doing everything for themselves and were not quite sure what to do with servants who wanted to do most of those things for them. The elves at first allowed some of this self-sufficiency to continue, as they were all busy cleaning and repairing as much of the huge Black Castle as they could. Some rooms had been made off-limits, of course. The uppermost levels Prince Arthur had mapped and the ones he hadn’t gotten to yet were marked as not to be gone into for the time being due to the traps and other things he’d found. The Princes Vinci had a large workshop and had refurbished the castle’s old bloomery to serve their own metalworking needs. Prince Jack also had a workshop which was completely off-limits, and Prince Merlin had his own study which the elves were allowed in to clean the floor but nothing else. Prince Hans had his own section of the kitchen where his personal pans and utensils were organized, and he had taken over the stillroom as well although he shared that space with Prince Merlin, who not only brewed his special tea and other things there but also brought in the surplus from his gardens which Hans preserved in whatever manner they both thought was best. The elves left the two young men to those tasks for the time being as well, only pitching in when an extra pair of hands or a bit of expert advice might be appreciated.
Prince Arthur had been using one end of the less-formal dining table to work on his maps, which hadn’t been a problem before because they hardly ever ate there and when they did they were all clustered up at one end; now, however, the elves insisted that the dining room be used for its intended purpose at least twice a day, so they provided Arthur with his own space in a room which the guards had once used to have meetings. The rather martial air of the room made him happy as well, so the elves counted that as a win.
Princess Snow presented a problem for the elves, in more ways than one. First, she had no office of her own, no workroom, no lounge or study or reading room or sewing room—and she’d never had any such thing in the past, either. Second, her dressing room was her bedroom, and she had never had a maid whose time was devoted to her hair and clothes and general upkeep save on special occasions. And third, the child really had no idea whatsoever how to behave like a future queen. Her manners were lovely, she was graceful and patient and kind as any princess should be, but she had apparently never been taught to expect people to treat her with the respect due her station. This was all right when she was in the castle with just her father, her betrothed and their friends, but it was not right at all when anyone else was present. The elves ended up enlisting the help of Princess Elana for that part, because she was a good deal more worldly than their sweet, shy princess, and she was also a good deal less tolerant of nonsense, a trait she claimed to be more than happy to teach Princess Snow to utilize herself in formal situations.
And then there were the princess’s clothes. No one in the castle save the king was quite up to snuff in that area by the elves’ standards, but Princess Snow dressed like a merchant’s daughter and Princess Serena like a woodcutter’s. Prince Jack was slowly taking his sister’s wardrobe in hand, and insisting on ‘fancy days’ that were meant to get her used to wearing more elaborate styles, and so the elves extended this to Princess Snow as well and started looking at Prince Merlin, who in fact had no problem wearing nice clothes but had gotten used to his wardrobe being rather threadbare over the past year or so and very minimal in quantity due to all the traveling he’d been doing in the years prior to that. The first time he’d come downstairs to breakfast dressed appropriately for his station, Princess Snow had dropped her teacup and Princess Serena’s had joined it.
Needless to say, Prince Arthur had immediately upgraded his own wardrobe and seemed to have no problem adjusting to wearing somewhat finer clothes every day either; the elves got him to admit that was the way he and Merlin had both dressed in Avalon nearly every day before they’d left home to go adventuring. Princess Elana took her three in hand when they weren’t working, and they in turn ganged up on Prince Hans, who it turned out was the most exacting of the lot regarding his tailoring when given the opportunity. Prince Jack of course hadn’t needed any help, but was quite appreciative of a good tailor; he and Shrub, the tailor elf, quickly became thick as thieves and ended up doing the fabric shopping together. And Jack made all of the buttons required to Shrub’s specifications—pearl, jeweled, gold and silver and brass only, because Shrub did not consider wooden or woven or covered buttons to be appropriate on clothing made for royalty.
And much to the surprise of the young royals, the residents of the town below the castle almost immediately took notice of these changes. Mostly by being more respectful, but not always: Prince Merlin was now forbidden from going into town either by himself or with his princess unless at least one other prince was also in attendance and armed. The dead guards had gotten quite a bit of amusement out of that, and a few of Prince Merlin’s training sessions with them had become rather more lively than usual as a result. The elves, it must be said, did not like the training sessions at all and only tolerated them because their mage-prince wouldn’t budge on the subject: they didn’t bother him about the rest of his schedule except to make small suggestions for improving it. And it hadn’t escaped a few people’s notice that they never let him use magic if they could help it.
Which was concerning to some—Arthur, mostly—and which Merlin eventually brought up himself over dinner one evening. “The wedding is in seven days, and everything has been taken care of except for one detail, which I managed to get a handle on earlier today,” he announced. “For the entire day before the wedding I’ll be asleep and so will most of the guards. It was difficult to get them to agree, but I was finally able to make them understand the necessity.”
“You will need to conserve as much power as possible, of course,” Hans acknowledged. “The schedule is not enough?”
“Not quite,” Merlin admitted. “Elana helped me go over the calculations. In order to accomplish everything I’ll need to do that day without risking an incident, I’ll have to let my magic build up uninterrupted for at least a full day beforehand. And even if something does happen, you don’t have to worry about accidentally waking me—Rose said you won’t be able to.”
Rose was the oldest of the family of elves, and it also hadn’t escaped anyone’s notice that she’d basically taken charge of anything to do with Merlin. Arthur was nodding. “We’ll have enough swords here if somethin’ happens,” he agreed. “Dad and Bors will be here by then too. The guards you’re leavin’ active will be on the gates, right?”
“Right.” Merlin took a drink of his wine. “But even they won’t be doing anything but watching unless they have to. And hopefully we won’t see any more raiders between now and then, either, because I’m going to need every bit of magic I can conserve.”
“You jinxed us,” Pino told Merlin four days later, watching the guards take on the latest batch of raiders who had decided to try assaulting the castle; they were fighting viciously and Merlin was already starting to lose some color, not a good sign. Which was why Pino had taken on magician-guarding duty, because letting Merlin fight alongside the guards this time could not be allowed to happen. Noki had taken the princesses to a safe location with the elves, King White had gone with them, and Kio was with Hans making sure no raiders made it past the antechamber and into the castle proper. Arthur was currently taking his frustrations out on the raiders and so was Jack, which had the added benefit of keeping the guards’ involvement to the bare minimum. “You said you would need as much magic as possible, and now you will need to sleep until the ceremony is ready to begin in order to have it.”
Merlin sighed. “I know.” He was wearing his own sword and had several slips of inked parchment stuffed into his sash just in case, but even the dead guards were working to keep the raiders well away from him. They’d wanted him to join the princesses, but everyone had known what his reaction would have been to that suggestion. Not to mention, sending him with the princesses would have also put him with the king, and no one in the castle alive or dead thought that was a good idea.
Because the closer it had gotten to the wedding, the more moody and temperamental King White had become. When he did have anything to say to anyone his remarks tended to be cutting, and his baleful looks in Merlin’s direction had become obvious enough that they’d finally caused Snow to drag him off for a private talk which she came back from shaking and in tears. Elana had at once taken her to the kitchen with Hans and Rose, and Captain Gerard had told Arthur he’d take care of the problem himself before marching off to confront his former king. King White kept mostly to himself after that and didn’t speak to anyone unless he had to, and Elana told her boyfriends later that what King White had said to Snow—and said about Merlin to Snow, apparently—was practically unforgivable.
Pino would have happily tossed the king to the raiders, after hearing that. The man was a craven coward and weak-willed besides, and he’d raised his daughter to expect to be dismissed and disrespected because he himself had little respect for women and he simply couldn’t imagine that any other man could or would do better. Pino already knew King Uther was going to hate Winter White practically on sight. Although as it turned out, they didn’t even have to wait for that. A commotion was heard from beyond the gate, and the body of a raider came flying back into the entry along with a deep, familiar voice. “That’s what you get when you point a sword at a Pendragon, you worthless vermin.” And then King Uther was striding into the middle of everything, shoving another raider onto a guard’s spear…and then doing a double-take when he realized that the spear had actually killed the man. “Well that’s somethin’ you don’t see every day.”
“Dad!” Arthur exclaimed, mostly beheading the raider he’d been fighting with and then raising his sword to block the knife of another. “Just give me a minute…”
Pino turned his head and saw a slip of paper already in Merlin’s hand. He forced that hand back down. “Not unless you have to!” he ordered. “Captain Gerard, the king!”
“On it, Your Highness,” the captain’s hollow voice growled from beside him. He flickered, then appeared flanking Uther and Bors, and blocked a raider’s blade with his own before either man could react. “Men, finish them!”
Pino knew he hadn’t imagined the surge of power that hummed through the worn stones of the castle as more ghostly guards appeared and cut down the rest of the raiders, and so he was ready when Merlin’s knees buckled and caught him before he could hit the floor. He turned a scowl on Arthur when he swore. “Shut your mouth!” he called over. “You expected him not to protect his family?”
“We were doin’ just fine!” Arthur called back, wiping his sword on a dead raider’s pants before shoving it back into its sheath. He nodded to Captain Gerard, though. “Thanks, Captain.”
The ghost bowed. “It was my privilege to protect the King of Avalon,” he said. He offered Uther a bow as well, and then set about getting his men to strip the bodies of anything of value before dragging them off to be burned.
Uther looked at Bors and sighed. “I think Merlin’s letter left out a few things.”
“You think?”
“I can think of at least fifty,” Pino muttered, and nodded to the older men when they came striding over. “He is fine, Your Majesty, just drained. We were afraid this would happen, and even planned for it, as the raiders keep coming and no one can figure out how they are getting up here without being seen in the town.”
“Yes, the magistrate is at his wits’ end,” Jack agreed. He bowed to Uther and Bors. “Welcome to the Black Castle.”
Uther laughed in spite of himself, and Bors chuckled. He went to one knee and touched Merlin’s pale cheek. “You boys expected this to happen?”
“We did, if there was another attack,” Arthur confirmed grimly. “We talked about how we’d handle it if it happened just four days ago, in fact. That’s why all the guards weren’t out and Merlin was over here,” he bent over and picked up the little inked slip of parchment with a frown, “and not supposed to be usin’ magic.”
“Because he is already expending enough of it maintaining the guards,” Jack elaborated. “He will be fine, he just needs to sleep.” He sighed. “For a few days, most likely.”
“A few days?!”
“Until the day of the weddin’, possibly,” Arthur said. “He’d already planned to sleep for the entire day beforehand, to build up as much of a reserve as he could. We were really, really hopin’ to not have a raider attack before then.”
Bors just shook his head and gathered Merlin into his arms with Pino’s help, and then he stood up. He wasn’t quite as tall as his imposing royal husband, but those few missing inches in height were more than made up for by the breadth of his chest and shoulders. “All right, boys, first things first. This one needs to be in bed, you two need to clean up, the guards have already got the mess under control…and where’s King White?”
Pino grimaced. “He goes with the princesses and the elves and whoever is guarding them. Today, that is Noki.”
Uther frowned. “Lovely,” he said, touching Merlin’s cheek himself. “Well boys, why don’t you take me to wherever this hidey-hole is so I can meet my future daughter-in-law’s father. I’m sure he’ll be happy to know everyone’s all right.”
“He will be happy to know that he and his daughter are safe now,” Pino corrected pointedly, and then took Bors’ elbow. “Come, I will show you the way to Merlin’s room. Which is quite unfortunately on the third floor.”
“I’ve carried more weight farther,” Bors told him. To be honest, he was having to hide his dismay at how light their youngest son felt in his arms. “Uther…”
The King of Avalon rolled his eyes. “I’ll remember that I need to set an example for our son by holdin’ my temper,” he said. “Now come on, boys, let’s go introduce me to the cowardly bastard.”
Pino and Bors both snickered, and Jack grinned at Arthur. “I know I have said it before, but I greatly envy you your father.”
| Previous Chapter | Story Index Page | Next Chapter |