Secrets of the past - Prince Merlin fanfic

Chapter Twenty

"Because he's the prince Merlin Emrious of Airasan."

Arthur looked at Merlin. That couldn't be true. This was one of the king Keane's sick jokes. Because Arthur knew Merlin. He had lived in Ealdor in his childhood. Arthur had met his mother Hunith, while they had been defending their village. And although Merlin wasn't the best manservant you could hope for, Merlin had always volunteered to dangerous rescue missions or he had been giving amazing and thoughtful pieces of advice.

No. There was no way that he would have lied for years. Lying takes energy and it's impossible to not slip any parts of the secret.

Keane's annoying laugh stopped Arthur's thoughts.

"This is so fun," he laughed.

Arthur disagreed. There was nothing entertaining in this situation. But seeing Keane laugh beside Merlin, he could not help but pay attention to how similar they looked. Both of them had pitch-black hair and the same physique. If Merlin was standing, he might be exactly the same height.

Merlin hadn't said a word. He hadn't even tried to deny. And it confirmed Keane's words.

Merlin was a liar and he had betrayed them all.

He was currently looking at Arthur with pleading eyes. Like he was begging forgiveness.

Arthur turned away breaking eye contact. He didn't want to see his supposed friend.

"Oh, are you a little mad for Merlin," Keane teased, clearly enjoying the scene.

He turned to Merlin with fake concern: "Maybe you shouldn't have kept it as a secret. Now, he's so mad that he can't even look at you."

Gwaine was the first one of the knights to say anything. "Why didn't you tell us?" He sounds hurt, not understanding why Merlin hadn't trusted them.

Gwaine, Leon, and Percival were on their knees, surrounded by knights dressed in Airasan's colors; black and blue, little further away was Arthur and Elyan. All of their swords had been taken from them.

Arthur was still turned to the other way but he heard Merlin's shaky voice: "First when I arrived in Camelot, I didn't know you well enough. And for years it just didn't come up. I thought I would never see this castle again so it didn't feel important and—"

"Important!" Arthur raised his voice interrupting Merlin's explaining. "You thought being a prince was not important!"

"You had your own worries so you didn't need my problems too." Merlin tried to give explanations but Arthur wasn't just mad, he was furious. Right now all he wanted to do was protest all Merlin's sayings even if his explanations sounded reasonable.

"I didn't have any problems!" Arthur yelled even though he perfectly knew it wasn't true. His knights gave him a look, probably remembering all the problems throughout the years.

"What about Morgana? Isn't she a problem?!"

"Who's Morgana?" Keane asked politely like they were at a tea party.

"Just Arthur's evil sister, who happens to be a witch and also she kind of wants Arthur dead," Gwaine answered calmly. How they acted so composed? Arthur was trying his hardest not to scream at Merlin.

"Merlin, that reminds me of another thing. Have you told them about the m-word?"

Now, Arthur turned to watch Merlin with wide eyes. Was there still some secrets of his past that they didn't know about?

Merlin had been staring at one of the knights of Airasan, who were guarding Arthur before he switched his fearful gaze to Keane.

"You haven't," Keane happily said. "I want to tell them. This is so great," he was more like talking to himself than to the people in the room.

"I want to let you know that Merlin has—"

"Magic."

Keane glared at Merlin, who had said the last word. His eyes stayed on Arthur while he was trying to comprehend what he heard. More flames of anger and pain were thrown to Arthur. This night was getting more and more chaotic. Merlin being the prince was nothing compared to this bomb.

Magic.

The deepest form of evilness. All the problems in Camelot had happened because of it. Uther had died because of it. And now merlin was saying he had magic.

"You're lying," Arthur whispered, silently praying, he could wake up in his bed and forget about everything.

"Merlin, you should know to not interrupt me," Keane angrily stated.

"I don't care what you think, Keane!" Merlin snapped. "Kill us or go to hell! I'm done watching your stupid games!"

"You're done when I say you're done! And we are not done here because you know what. I'm going to kill every last one of your friends and followers, " he slowly spat. "And I'm going to make sure, you are there to see it and only after that I show my mercy and kill you."

Arthur was quite certain Keane was a psychopath.

"You say that you'll kill me but we all know you'll going to hide behind your big, bad men like always because you can't kill me. You had to put shackles on me because my magic is way stronger than your whole army," Merlin slowly stood up. "You're weak and you could never beat me in a fair fight."

Even though standing looked painful to him, his gaze remained strong. His injuries didn't discourage him. They gave him more strength to fight. And for the first time, Arthur saw the power in Merlin. The strong and fearless prince who was destined to be a king of Airasan.

Keane was shaking from anger. "I'm not weak!" He thundered. The playful Keane had shifted to a wild animal with rabies.

"Then why are you acting like a wimp?" While Merlin was arguing, he had glanced at the knight standing near Arthur for a second time. Now Merlin had even had the tiniest smile on his lips. Keane might think, Merlin was amused by their argument but Arthur saw, the smile was clearly meant for the knight.

Arthur turned slightly to see the knight's face. Relieved feeling overwhelmed him after recognising Lancelot's familiar face. Arthur hadn't noticed him because he was wearing the Airasan's knight's armor.

Arthur scanned through the other knights to notice that also Harry, Noah, and Ethan were disguised in blue and black. It meant that only nine of the Airasan's knights were real ones. Maybe they still had hope. Although, without swords, it was going to be difficult to fight.

Arthur brought his attention back to Merlin's and Keane's dispute. Keane commanded a man, large like an elephant, to take a hold of Merlin. The man had a tight grip of Merlin's black hair while Keane neared them, pulling a massive knife out of his pocket and telling how Merlin wouldn't dare to call him a wimp after he had taken his time.

While Gwaine lunged towards them, the doors were pitched open.