Secrets of the past - Prince Merlin fanfic

Chapter Twelve

"What? Merlin is missing?" Gwaine slowly repeated Arthur's words. The king's stress was growing even more.

All the knights were sitting in a red tent, now eyes on Arthur, who had come in. The king didn't have any plan for finding Merlin but others needed to know. All though, they all seemed to be calm with the fact that he hadn't seen Merlin.

"You know Merlin. He sometimes disappears. I bet his just talking to some of the Airasan citizens," Percival suggested while everyone except Arthur nodded along.

If everyone else were confidential that Merlin was alright, maybe he had overreacted. And after all, he didn't want to show them his affections towards his servant. So with all of them looking at his reaction, he gave a laugh and tried to brush it off: "Yeah, maybe you're right."

Now was definitely not the right time to have an awkward discussion about his and Merlin's relationship. And they would surely suspect that something was going on if he freaked out every time Merlin was gone for a few minutes.

Luckily they turned the conversation away from the topic after deciding they should start worrying if Merlin didn't show up in the morning. Besides, everything was alright, right?

__________

The cold and hard ground felt unpleasant under Merlin's body. Why was he on the floor? He slowly squinted his eyes open, taking in his surroundings.

In front of him were bars and a couple of feet away were the same cell where the same people were. Now they weren't looking at him like earlier. Instead, they were all together in one of the corners, probably trying to find a good spot for sleep. Although in these cells, were no good spots.

He had seen them before... something. Lifting his head, Merlin tried to sit up but immediately regretting it because of the throbbing pain in his skull. Like someone was still punching his brains with a hammer.

In an act of healing it, he tried to raise his hand but was stopped by metal shackles that tied his hands together tightly with cold metal. Although they didn't look like normal shackles. There were dim glow in them and usually when shackles looked old and dusty, these were unused.

"What?" He quietly said to himself before it came to his mind. Magic. His eyes widened at the same time, he bushed himself up to sitting position. There was no other explanation than that they knew who he was.

The prince tried to find his magic and free his hands of the chains, with no results. Obliviously, the glowing chains were blocking his magic.

"Andrew," he called out loud. What happened to him?

"Your loyal friend?" Said a man's hoarse voice with sarcasm. "You better choose your friends more carefully," he laughed.

Merlin turned his gaze to see the same man from earlier, now closer to the bars of his cell. The women were still in the corner but also staring at him.

Andrew betrayed him? How was that possible? Merlin should've had even a tiny gut feeling. Clearly, he wasn't so expert on reading people than he thought.

The man changed his position on the dirty ground and leaned on the wall. "You know you look just like the royal tyrant, leading this very lovely and wonderful kingdom." Actually, Merlin didn't know that. He hadn't seen his older brother since childhood. But now he realized why they seemed to be scared of him the moment they saw him.

"Well, I'm not him," Merlin answered without enthusiasm. And hopefully, he wasn't going to be like him.

"Well, clearly. That stupid piece of junkyard wouldn't be in a cell," the man continued without hesitation. It was quite surprising, how the people talked about the king Keane. The lack of respect in the man's words was evident.

"Who are you?" Merlin asked raising an eyebrow. Why had Keane wanted him here?

"Ah, that's a good question. Who am I? Who are we? What the purpose of us? What's the meaning of this life? Of these filthy shackles? Of my crumbling ass? Of..." he was cut off by a woman's ailing hushing. They looked at each other before the man sighed.

"Right. Well, I'm nobody. I'm someone, who tried to stop some bastards from raping my cousin's little girl. I didn't succeed and then end up here after the assholes reported some crap of me to the royal asshole. The funniest part is that my ass is gonna be dead in few days so who cares," he murmured looking down. "Not exactly sure when but if I don't starve, I'm gonna have a meeting with the executioner."

This man's life was on a downhill. And for what? At least not because of justice. Nothing of this was right. And it proved to Merlin how much his people needed saving from Keane.

"You didn't give me your name," the black-haired boy commented. The words made the man raise his head. He looked directly at Merlin's eyes with thankfulness.

"Tom."

"Well, Tom. I promise, I'm going to get you and your friends out of here," Merlin said smiling with confidence. This made Tom's eyes widened even more while the women turned their heads to Merlin's direction looking more interested. Although they didn't seem so convinced about Merlin's words.

"And how the hell you think you're gonna do that. You are also chained and..." he was interrupted by a familiar yell which made Merlin stiffened completely. When the happy voice echoed through the halls and a warm smile spread on Merlin's face, he realized what the voice was repeating:

"Merlin!"