Lord Richards was not a stupid man.
He didn't like the king's decision to throw away a profitable treaty with Nemeth for the sake of some serving girl. He didn't like the way the young king pushed the already fragile kingdom by forcing the nobles to accept common born knights. He certainly didn't like the complacency towards magic that allowed Emrys himself to continue on as the king's manservant.
That last he didn't entirely blame the king for. The king was a busy man; he couldn't be expected to keep up with everything his servant did, and what man, when he looked at that idiot, would ever jump to magic as a conclusion, no matter what the evidence? If Lord Richards himself had taken years to discover the truth, than he could hardly expect a youngling like Arthur to figure it out on his own.
So he didn't blame him for not spotting it off hand, but he did blame him for not purging the staff every so often. That would have taken care of the problem.
Purge the servants, marry for the good of the kingdom, stop risking a civil war over a few brawlers . . . Lord Richards had plenty of thoughts.
But Lord Richards was not a stupid man.
Which was why, when some of his fellow nobles were caught muttering and subsequently had to face the wrath of the king, he was not among them.
Which was why, when some of his fellow nobles were caught plotting and subsequently disappeared while Merlin was going "herb picking," he was not among them.
Which was why, when the knights started throwing their weight around on the training field, he wasn't among the humiliated knights.
Well, that and the fact that his bad knee had kept him from fighting for years. Cursed wounds didn't heal easy, and not even Gaius could heal everything sent against men who had fought for Uther in the Purge.
Lord Richards saw Agravaine fall and brash young knights go home blushing, and he learned from others' mistakes not to attack directly.
He didn't accuse Gaius of anything despite the books he knew the man still kept.
He didn't try and kill Merlin.
He didn't even say rude things about the Queen.
All of those things would fail and thus be utterly pointless, and Lord Richards was, above all, not a stupid man. He might have come home with a bad knee, but the rest of the men who'd been in that attack hadn't come back at all. He knew when to attack and when to wait, and now was a time to wait.
Wait, until good luck and well paid spies told him where Merlin - Emrys, whatever the boy's real name was - where that boy hid his book of magic.
Another man would have gone and told the king, but that had been tried, and after so many times accusations against Merlin had been proven false, Richards doubted Arthur would believe a signed confession. Emrys might have him bewitched, for all he knew.
No, the king was a lost cause.
But the knights. Brash. Young. Eager for glory. Eager to win the respect of the court.
They would be happy to take out a sorcerer.
Whether or not they actually won wasn't his problem. Either they would take Emrys out, and they would probably be far smaller in number for their troubles, or Emrys would wipe them out and possibly reveal himself in the process. Either way, he won.
He started with Gwaine. Percival was too quiet to do much good at stirring up the others, Elyan might approach the Queen - and through her, the king - about the matter, and Richards still had a soft spot for Sir Leon. He might have the chosen the wrong side in politics, but Sir Leon was a good man, and he'd earned his place in the knights. Richards would rather not see him dead at Emrys' hands.
