The following days went by in much the same fashion, leaving Merlin ever more bewildered and indeed ever more worried. Arthur behaved normal enough and the same could be said for the noblemen and the knights, but among the serving staff and the guards something was amiss. Some of them were talking as if they knew about his magic, but of course, that couldn't be. If that was the case, someone would have reported him to the king by now. All the same, they kept hinting that they knew something Merlin didn't. To make it even worse, even George, who never gossiped unless threatened, was in on it. Not that he enjoyed it as much as the others did, mind, but he wouldn't budge and answer even when Merlin had asked about it.

Well, if that was the case, maybe it was time to fall back on the old and trusted method of eavesdropping. Merlin didn't like it. They were his friends and he got on very well with practically all of them – Mary being the obvious exception to the rule – so spying on them did not sit well with him, but needs must. So he hid himself away in one of the barely used cupboards of the kitchen one night and waited.

He didn't have to wait long.

'Oh, that does look painful,' Sarah said. Through the cracks Merlin saw her and Allan practically carry Tom into the kitchen. Elen and George followed in their wake, the latter carrying a bucket of water while the former appeared to have raided Gaius's medical supplies. 'Let's get you into a chair and then we can take a look at it.'

George frowned. Even this he managed to do politely. 'I do not understand why you would do this in the kitchens,' he said. 'This is not a clean environment.'

'We could have just taken him to Gaius,' Elen agreed. 'He could have a look at him when he's done with all the fancy folk.'

'That will be ages yet.' Sarah dismissed it without even looking at her friend. 'What kind of magical creature was that anyway, now that you mention it?'

Of course Elen had no clue. Truth be told, Merlin did not even know. He hadn't had time to look through Gaius's books before he had to run out to deal with it, trying to keep out of the way of the frightened townsfolk and meddling knights who had deluded themselves into thinking that they could somehow defeat a creature of magic with ordinary swords and spears. Naturally, they now knew better. And hopefully Morgana knew better than to send another one of its kind in Camelot's general direction.

'Haven't the foggiest,' Elen said airily. 'Doesn't matter either way, does it? I mean, it is gone.'

'So it is,' Sarah agreed. She had taken the supplies from Elen and now demanded that Tom take his shirt off so that she could take a look at the bruise. 'You better hope your ribs didn't get cracked,' she muttered. 'I won't rightly know what to do with that.'

Elen didn't take it quite that serious. 'You know, you don't need to go looking for excuses to ask him to take his shirt off, you know. He's mad about you, probably would do anything you asked of him.'

Merlin couldn't see Tom's face from where he was sitting, but he suspected that, like Sarah's, it was bright red. Everyone knew that those two had been dancing around one another for at least two years now, but neither of them would do anything about it. Clearly Elen had lost patience and decided to take matters into her own hands.

'You should stay out of things that don't concern you,' Sarah snapped, busying herself treating the bruise that was already colouring a spectacular shade of purplish blue. Merlin nearly winced himself. He'd had enough of them himself to know that they hurt. A lot. 'What were you thinking taking on that monster anyway? Weren't you supposed to guard the door?'

'So you know his duties too, now?' Elen observed in a would-be nonchalant manner.

Both Sarah and Tom ignored this. 'I was guarding the door,' the guardsman replied. 'But then the monster tried to get through it. And Merlin wasn't there yet and there was not a knight in sight either, so I didn't have a lot of choice, did I?'

Merlin had often wondered about the unrivalled lack of initiative displayed by the guards. They just stood there, guarding things, looking threatening and occasionally arresting people when the need arose and the king commanded it. But if their orders were to only ever guard the thing they were supposed to guard and never move unless aforementioned thing was under attack, well, that would explain a lot. It didn't make it any more logical or sensible, but it did clarify a few things. Maybe he should mention it to Arthur at some point.

And then there was that other thing Tom said. Merlin wasn't there yet. What did he have to do with anything? Well, quite a lot in fact, seeing as how it was Merlin who had sent the creature packing, but no one ever knew about it. They weren't supposed to know, because if they did, they also knew he was using magic. And that would be bad. Very bad. He'd have to run, back to Ealdor maybe or someplace even more distant than that. And he didn't want to, because Arthur would be dead in days.

'I for one think you did a very heroic thing,' Sarah declared. 'Even if you won't get any credit for it.'

'We could reward you with one of Mary's famous pies,' Elen suggested. 'There are a few left in the larder.'

'We could not.' Predictably that was George. 'It would be theft, Miss Elen, and we would be punished accordingly.'

Allan chuckled. 'The king does not put people in the stocks for helping themselves to supper, George. Have no fear on that account.'

'I do not fear the king,' George protested. 'He is a very fair king. But the owner of these kitchens would not be so forgiving.' He sounded as if he had experience in the matter, but how rule-abiding George had ever managed to find himself on Mary's bad side was probably a greater mystery than the one that had caused Merlin to hide in this dusty cupboard.

'She has never punished Merlin before,' Sarah remarked. 'And he's forever stealing pies. Granted, he does it when she's not looking…'

'And we've all helped him get to them in the first place,' Elen pointed out.

Sarah went on as if she hadn't heard her friend at all. 'But my point stands. She's not as heartless as she pretends to be, you know. She just has very strong principles.'

George shook his head. 'Everyone makes allowances for Merlin.'

They did? Merlin was thoroughly surprised to learn it. He certainly never noticed that before. Maybe someone should pass this piece of information on to Arthur.

'Aye, but he has earned them a hundred times over,' Allan said.

'Oh, only a hundred times?' Sarah asked.

'Probably more,' Tom agreed. He sounded like he was speaking through clenched teeth, but of course Sarah was still prodding at his injury.

'Hm, I always did wonder – now that we are speaking about Merlin – why have we never told him that we know?' Elen was leaning against a table right in Merlin's line of sight. She was looking very pensive. 'I mean, I understand why we wouldn't let on that we do in the king's presence, because would just be plain stupid, but why avoid telling Merlin himself?'

'Oh, that one is easy,' Allan said.

He however was not the one to explain what he meant. Sarah beat him to it. 'Imagine you're Merlin and you've got this fear about being discovered. The first thing you do when someone tells you that they know you have magic is make a run for it. He'd be halfway back to his mother's village before we'd get the chance to explain the whole thing. And then I'd have to whack him over the head with the ladle to stop him from leaving and that would be such a shame.' She glanced wistfully at the kitchen utensil in question. 'I still haven't got the dent out after the last one.'

'So when you said you did whack that maid over the head, that was not a joke?' George asked tentatively.

She grinned. 'Wouldn't you like to know?'

'Well, I haven't seen her for ages,' Tom said.

'Oh.' George took one step back, probably as a precaution.

Merlin would have very much liked to have done the same, but as it happened, he was stuck in the cupboard with no way out. They knew! They all knew! That could not be possible. He was always so careful…

Come to think of it, that wasn't exactly true. He was careful around Arthur and the knights. Well, he had to be. But servants and guards were everywhere. And he could not be completely certain he had never done something when absolutely no one was looking. Clearly Mary had him figured out and so had Sarah. It would also explain Allan's expressed thanks for helping him catch the thief a few days ago, because he had seen it happen.

Really he felt like such an idiot.

Was this how Arthur felt on a regular basis?

Still, it didn't make sense. Why would they all be so accepting? Why would they make allowances for him? All they knew was that magic was evil and that it was outlawed. So why would they make an exception for him?

'You know, Merlin, I can almost hear your questions, you're thinking that loud,' Sarah said. 'You can come out now.'

They had known he was here?

Well, pretending he wasn't eavesdropping wouldn't do him any good now. So he stepped out. 'No pies here,' he announced, smile plastered on his face. As if he had really come to the kitchens in search of pie. As if he hadn't just overheard a conversation not meant – or was it? – for his ears.

No one bought it.

'Sit down, you,' Elen invited, although it sounded more like a command than a request. She pulled out a chair. 'And let us put you out of your misery. It's time to explain to you how Camelot really works.'

He must be dreaming. He must be. Something like this did not just happen.

When he didn't move of his own volition, Allan moved over and manhandled him into the chair. Every instinct he had was telling him to get out of here as fast as his legs could carry him, but everything they had said before made him hesitate. If they had all known for so long and hadn't told Arthur, then maybe they weren't intending to tell him at all. That in itself was rather unbelievable, but it was also the only slightly reasonable explanation for the current events.

'We tell this to everyone, you see,' Allan said. 'Once they have proven themselves to us, naturally.'

'And once we're certain that they won't run and blab it to the king,' Tom clarified.

'And we are sure they are able to handle it,' Elen added.

'Of course we made a mistake a few times,' Sarah went on, ladle in hand. 'They just couldn't cope or they wanted to tell the king. Very unfortunate. There was this lovely guardsman a couple of years back who thought it was his duty to tell the king, which was Uther at the time, so that wouldn't do at all. Long story short, Allan was trying to knock some sense into him and it went sideways a bit. He now lives in one of the outlying villages, can't stop drooling and he can't even remember his own name.'

'I've also heard it tell that his grave is outside the city walls?' George looked politely confused.

'No, no, that was the other one, a year or so before this one,' Sarah corrected him.

Merlin in the meantime was feeling like he had gone to see a play and had come to the performance late, so that he had missed half the plot. 'I don't understand.' And that was still something of an understatement.

'Well, we're telling you this to make sure you understand how serious we take this,' Tom explained. He tried to move a bit and then quickly thought better of it. 'We wouldn't want you to think your secret isn't safe with us. You'd only run and Camelot really cannot afford that.'

As it was, Merlin wasn't certain he didn't want to leg it after all, but no one had tried to kill him… yet. He supposed he could hear them out. And they had always been nice to him before…

'But, you know?'

Sarah snorted. 'Of course we know! You've not exactly been careful, Merlin. And your Dragoon disguise is really not that much of a disguise as long as you talk and behave exactly the same! We're not all like the king.' She said that as if it was something to be proud of. 'Not that I don't like the king, but he can be a bit… well, blind, you see. It's not his fault, I suppose. Given who his father was I think it runs in his family. So on some things, we have to do his thinking for him. And where it comes to you we are all agreed we're quite a lot more sensible than the king and the knights and the nobles.'

The way they were all talking betrayed that they thought that what they did was perfectly logical. In Merlin's opinion, it really wasn't.

'But Arthur's the king,' he pointed out. And a prat and a really good friend as well. 'Shouldn't you have told him? Not that I'd want you to, but that's what most people would do if they ever found out.'

'Not most people, most nobles,' Allan corrected him. 'And we are not nobles. We are simply in the service of Camelot. There is a difference.'

If there was, Merlin didn't see it.

Sarah noticed. 'Who exactly do you think we serve, Merlin?' she asked.

Well, that was a question he had an answer for at least. 'Arthur.'

To his surprise, she shook her head. 'No, quite wrong, I'm afraid. You see, we are here to serve the kingdom, so we have to do what is best for the kingdom. And it is in all our best interests to keep you alive and to keep you here, so that you can do what you do best.'

'To keep the king out of trouble,' Tom said.

'To keep the enemy out,' Elen continued.

'To keep the king in a good mood,' Sarah added cheekily. 'And only you can do that. No offence to George, but he tried and he was rather bad at it.'

George looked offended. 'The king was simply not accustomed to the high standards I believe should be standard practise for all serving staff.' It was good to know that some things at least did not change. 'Though I have attempted to raise standards, I fear I have been unsuccessful.'

'So, that's what we need you for,' Allan concluded.

Merlin contemplated asking what the guards were for, if not protecting the kingdom, but thought better of it. 'So you won't smack me with the ladle?' he asked, eyeing the object in Sarah's hand warily. She was not known for making idle threats. When she threatened to do something, she did it, no doubt about it.

'Why, were you going to report yourself?'

Merlin rolled his eyes. 'I'm not an idiot.' No matter what Arthur might think.

She nodded as if she had not expected any different. 'Well, there we are then. All settled. Now, how about those pies Elen mentioned? I could do with a late night supper. Who knows, if we eat when Merlin's here, Mary might even let it pass without a lecture.'

Good surprises very rarely happened in Merlin's life. Arthur had a tendency of thinking up the kind of surprise that had him sore and tired by day's end and invading sorcerers never did so for his amusement. They never surrendered when asked either. And even Gaius's idea of a surprise consisted of having to sort out potions and collect herbs. In short, good things like this just didn't happen.

Except that, just this once, they did.

So if he was just a bit more cheerful that next morning when he went to wake Arthur ('rise and shine, sire, it is a beautiful morning!') well, who would care? Of course, Arthur clearly did ('Merlin!') and he was never one to hide his bad mood ('Can't you come up with anything new?') whether that meant he threw stuff at Merlin's head (a pillow and a goblet) or voiced his displeasure at the top of his lungs ('Where's the rest of my breakfast? I don't need to lose weight. I am not fat!'). But for just one day, nothing could dampen Merlin's spirits.

It was a wonderful feeling.

Thank you for reading. As always, reviews would be much appreciated.