After a few more days of walking, the wanderers started to draw even with the coast. Merlin noticed the trees thinning out, the wind growing stronger. He inhaled and tasted the sharp tang of the sea.

"Look!" cried Karanth. "There it is!" As they reached the top of the final rolling, grassy slope that separated them from the ocean, Merlin stopped and stared in awe. Only once before had he ever seen the sea, and he had had other things on his mind at the time. But now, he could truly appreciate how enormous it was.

Before them lay a shining expanse of water, ruffled by the constant stream of wind and the pull of the tides. It stretched all the way to the horizon; if someone told Merlin that he was standing on a tiny strip of land in an ocean that stretched all the way around the world, he would have believed them.

The three of them kept walking along the beach, looking for a good place to make camp, for the sun was starting to dip below the trees behind them. Nowhere seemed perfect, but in the last light of day Galahad looked up and saw a village on the shore.

"There!" he yelled. "I can see a town, we can rest there for the night." The others agreed and they began the trek towards the little village on the sea; not one of them noticed how the moon shone fiercely down and reflected off of two cold lapis-coloured eyes watching from the shadows.

When they reached the town, they saw no one in the streets. Upon further wanderings into the centre of the village, they saw that everyone was congregated in the town square. They seemed to be encircling someone or something.

Galahad pushed his way through the crowd, the others trailing close behind him. Two figures he glimpsed in the midst of the circle. One, a sobbing woman. The other…

"Don't let Karanth see," he hissed at Merlin, who was staring in horrified shock at the limp form of the girl. The warlock shook his head, as though shaking off the remnants of something, and gently led Karanth away before she could glimpse the scene.

She had been attacked. That, Galahad could see. But by man or beast, he could not tell, for the girl's body bore marks of both. He wondered what on earth could have happened here.

One man was trying to console the woman. He asked her over and over if she could identify the one who had done this terrible thing. She just sobbed and shook her head.

But then, the woman looked up, and her eyes met Merlin's. They clouded with terror, and she screamed. The man, thoroughly confused, asked what was the matter.

"I-It was h-him," she shrieked. "H-He m-murdered my daughter!"

And she raised a trembling hand to point at the astonished Merlin.

oOo

Galahad's sword was out in a flash of steel.

"Leave him alone!" he shouted at the men who had a hold on his friend. "He's done nothing!"

"The woman is a witness," one said. "It was him." And they dragged the sorcerer off into the dark.

"Merlin!" screamed Karanth. "What do they want with him?" she whimpered to Galahad, who fumbled for an answer.

"I― he― there's been a mistake."

"There certainly has," said a voice. "Put that away." Galahad looked down at his sword and, rather sheepishly, slid it back into its sheath.

"Where have they taken Merlin?" The voice from before stepped out of the shadows. It belonged to a tall, grave-looking man with iron-coloured hair tied back with a piece of ribbon.

"I assume you are referring to the accused murderer. Friend of yours?" The man took one look at Galahad's face and went on, his question answered. "He'll most likely be held in the town jail, for now. I can see you think he's innocent. Why is that?"

"He can't have committed the murder, he was with me."

"And me," piped Karanth. "Besides, Merlin's never murdered anybody. He's too nice!"

"And so we play the game," sighed the man. "You'll try to prove his innocence, of course, by finding the real murderer, and when you do you fail to provide any actual proof of it. I've seen it all before." Galahad opened his mouth to argue but the man was already gone, off on his own business.

"We've got to find the murderer," Karanth said forcefully, "'cause Merlin hasn't done anything, somebody else did, and we're gonna find that somebody and tell him to stop being so mean and―"

"Look, Karanth," Galahad said, "I've no idea what we're up against here. Because if that woman thinks Merlin murdered her daughter, that means either she's a dirty rotten liar, or…"

"Or there's a murderer out there who looks exactly like Merlin," finished Karanth. She looked up at the moon and scowled.

It hung in the sky, smiling down at her bitterly.

Then the serenity of the silent square was shattered. Galahad turned just as a dark figure leapt at him, knocking him the the ground and winding him. Karanth screamed. The brigand grabbed for his sword, but the figure snatched it right out of his hands. Galahad managed to kick it away, but now he was weaponless.

The combatants rolled as they fought, in and out of the torchlight, until it was all over with a loud whack and Galahad's attacker fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Thanks, Karanth," panted the brigand. She nodded and dropped the stick she'd beat the attacker over the head with. They both cautiously approached the still figure, until they were close enough to make out who it was.

"No," Karanth whispered. "No, it can't be…"

It was Merlin.