The smoke begins to dissipate quickly once the window is open, and within a few minutes the room is back to normal. Thoth leaves the window open and turns away from it, not noticing the merlin fly away, and frowns at all the shattered glass on the floor which is now creating a hazard to the animals. He squeaks sharply at a mouse which scurries too close and hops over the mess, looking around for the broom he’d nicked the week previously. His intent had been to cut the broom up to use the parts for various things, but it looks like he’s going to need it for its original purpose now. The broom is jammed against the door, which is probably why the king had difficult entering. Thoth seizes it and sweeps the majority of the broken glass into a corner of the room, where it will stay until he remembers it’s there. His mind has already turned to more important things… like what the heck the king of Shaman is doing in his bedroom.
Thoth doesn’t get visitors. Tristan is his only friend, and even he never comes in here. Usually Thoth and Tristan just sort of bump into each other, or Thoth is the one who finds his friend in his bedroom. Nimueh learned long ago to stay away from his bedroom, Poppy never visits the castle and Eselda is banned from coming in (not that she’s ever tried – she usually gets distracted by the stables on the way up to the castle). There’s nobody else of importance left in his life. He shoots Arthur a suspicious look, suspecting that he’s probably in trouble, and trying to work out what he might have done recently which merits Nimueh calling in backup. Nothing immediately springs to mind, which doesn’t necessarily mean he hasn’t done anything – Thoth’s sense of discipline is somewhat lacking, and he usually fails to understand what he’s done wrong and why. Whatever it is, either it’s really bad or Nimueh is expecting a really bad reaction from him in order to call Arthur here.
He takes the goggles back as they’re offered, couples them up with his own and hangs them both meticulously back on their hook – an indication to Arthur that the jumble is organised chaos and not simply mess. At the king’s question, he hesitates. One of the boy’s more endearing faults is his inability to understand how someone could fail to be interested in education, and he naturally assumes that everyone wants to learn about everything as much as he does. He’s shrewd, however, and even Thoth can see that a king would be far too busy to take time out of his day to learn about chemistry from a twelve year-old – especially when he never has before. The king. Thoth has only spoken to Arthur on two occasions: the first time he had shouted at him, and the second he had tried to steal his horse. Not a great track record. Arthur hadn’t seemed that bothered about the potential horse theft, though, so they did at least part on reasonable terms.
Thoth hesitates, understandably, visibly caught between the desire to take up on the rare opportunity to lecture and the astute suspicion that that’s not what Arthur is here for. Before he can make up his mind, Arthur continues with a question and statement which immediately sets off alarm bells. Definitely in trouble. Coming to the swift conclusion that the best defence is a good offence, Thoth immediately launches into one.
“Stephen was the one who ripped the tapestry on the fourth floor, not me,” he begins. “The cook’s cat is on the island on Lake Lilith, but I didn’t put her there. Tarquin was lying about the bats, and it was Tr – err, I was the one who stole the buns from the kitchen.” Thoth has never been able to lie; his cheeks colour slightly and he looks thoroughly guilty as he makes the painfully obvious attempt to cover for his friend. “I’ll apologise to the cook.”
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