Alaia Skyhawk: The name of this one says it all...

Disclaimer: I don't own the Merlin TV series etc, but I do own the star of this fic... LIAM!

Music: Creeping Shadow (Shadow of the Colossus OST)

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Chapter 25: The Start of the Fall ~Part 1~

They felt no thrill at hearing the shouts of the guards, no sense of gleeful challenge, as they would have back in Camelot's lands.

Liam and Kalem sprinted through the streets of the town, several soldiers belonging to King Cenrid hot on their heels. Liam had never been part of thieving runs in these lands before, and the sorcerer had only been twice but never this deep into the territory. It was a stark contrast to Camelot, where guards would just catch you and take you to be sentenced to time on the farms on in the mines. Here in these lands the guards did only one thing to thieves if they caught them.

The two boys were literally running for their lives...

Both of them darted around a corner, taking another sharp turn into an alley and vanishing from sight. When the guards charged through the narrow passage to follow them, all remained silent and still until a small box at the edge of a pile of broken crates began to move. It wasn't even large enough to hide an infant, never mind two boys, which was why it had been ignored, but a grubby hand pushed it aside and revealed its secret, a hole just big enough to squeeze through which led into a slightly larger space beneath the floor of the adjacent house.

Kalem peered out to check the coast was clear, before pulling the box back into place. Liam had had no trouble dropping through the hole, but he'd scraped the skin on his arms as had happened several times since the gang had begun working the town. What made it worse was that the gang's code of conduct was practically gone, with only he, Liam, Jarl, and Katia still following it to the letter. Some of the others had been on the tipping point, wavering as to which way to go, but that had changed a week ago when Kay died.

She'd pushed her luck when trying to steal from an unwatched guard post, or so she'd thought. Most of the hideaways the gang had in this town were barely big enough for the seventeen-year-old but still slender Kalem to get into, so Kay hadn't stood a chance. She'd been cornered because she'd followed the gang's old code and not gone after the weaker and more vulnerable people in the town, and she'd paid for it with her life. Her death had pretty much killed what was left of all the adults' doubts about Gavin's change of ways. Anger was taking over the gang, and Kalem was about ready to quit and take Liam with him.

Crammed into their tiny hiding place, he and Liam emptied the pouch of coins they'd stolen and split them between the ones tied to their legs beneath their clothing. It was their way of making sure neither of them was weighed down more than the other, neither of them having worked solo since the loss of the castle. Kalem wasn't going to let Liam out of his sight in these lands, knowing he'd never forgive himself if he got hurt because they'd stayed as long as they had.

One more quick glance into the alley above assured them it was safe to come out, Kalem wincing as he squeezed himself through the opening with a helpful push from Liam beneath. Once the younger boy was lifted out and the crate replaced to cover the hole, they then quietly and carefully headed for the disused house the gang was using as their den.

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The oiled rag swept back and forth over the smoothed surface, its touch bringing to life the rich grain and colour of the wood. This piece was now finished, and ready to be delivered. All he had to do was contact the noble who had ordered it and say it was ready to be collected, or take it himself.

Alan stood up straight, taking a step back to admire his work. He always felt a certain sense of satisfaction when he finished a commission, but it was something that he might not experience for a while now. It all depended on what his wife said when he asked her about it tonight.

The carpenter went out the back of the workshop, to get the cart sat out there. He then wheeled it around to the front, enlisting the help of the blacksmith next door to lift the heavy cabinet into the back of it. In doing so both of them passed the board on the wall where Alan pinned his commission letters, a board he'd deliberately worked to empty and not refill. His mind turned to his reasons for that, as he walked away pulling the cart a few minutes later. Merchants coming to Ulwin from the lands belonging to Cenrid had come bearing disturbing rumours, rumours about a man and a group well known in these parts.

The rumour was that Gavin, the leader of a once honourable group of thieves who left the poorest people alone, had changed to a man of violence. The merchants spoke of his gang stealing from the poor now, even going to far as to maim any who resisted. When he considered that the gang Gavin led had Ulwin and its lands as part of the territory they roamed, Alan didn't want to stay here any more. If a man, who before winter had been a good one, could change so much in just a handful of months since, then it was likely he would resort to anything.

He didn't want his family living in lands shadowed by such a threat. Living with the threat of Cenrid was bad enough; adding a now potentially insane gang leader to it only made up his mind. Enough was enough, he had to put his family... the family he knew was alive and well... first.

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Wary blue eyes inspected the room beyond the battered wooden door, peeking through a gap left by one of its loosened boards.

Kalem led Liam into gang's den, noting just how filthy most the occupants had become. Prior to losing the castle, everyone had taken pride in staying neat and clean, to show they weren't like the rag tag groups of bandits that roamed practically everywhere. They had been a group that took only what they needed, and only from those who could afford to lose it, but now they had degraded into the very sort they had once set themselves apart from. Looking at the sad remnants of once proud men and women, Kalem could feel only pity for them now. They could have fought against this, kept to their code despite what had happened, but instead they'd taken the easy way out.

They'd given up, and now Gavin was dragging them down. Down to the level he'd been at that day over ten years ago, when he'd shown up on a doorstep in Ulwin and the sorcerer had met for the first time.

Kalem ushered Liam to where their bags and blankets were, indicating with a small gesture that he wanted him to quietly and discretely begin packing. He'd had enough of Gavin, and what he was doing to the people who had been their extended family, and he wasn't going to hang around any longer. The coins he and Liam had stolen today, and also saved from previous days, would let them get started in Ulwin if they were smart about who they approached for work. With any luck they could put the gang and this growing nightmare behind them.

He walked over to their leader, holding out a leather pouch which actually only held a fraction of his and Liam's takings for today. Gavin never had any reason to suspect the pair had been concealing and hording coins in preparation to leave, and so he accepted the pouch with a small nod. Kalem watched as the man counted the coins, watched as a small pleased smile showed on the man's face before the metal disks were added to the bag containing the gang's funds. It was likely they would depart from this town soon, what with having picked it nigh clean. The people here were now scared to leave their homes at night, but just as scared to risk reporting the thefts to Cenrid's soldiers in the small garrison nearby. Gavin had taken advantage of that, but even he would admit they needed to move soon. Staying too long in one place was how many a foolish group of thieves got themselves slaughtered.

The coins now put away, Gavin called out to everyone present, his voice drawing the gang's remaining members to gather around him. His next words proved Kalem's assessment to be right.

"We'll be leaving the day after tomorrow, after we do one last job here. We should have no trouble pulling it off if everyone does their part, and it will keep us in enough coin to get rid of our rags and get some proper gear and weapons. If we pull this off, then every other gang for a hundred miles will know that we're to be respected."

All of the members present, except the four youngest, murmured in agreement to Gavin's words. Kalem and Liam just frowned, while Jarl and Katia kept to the back of the gathering looking uncertain. They didn't like the way the gang was going, but at the same time were too fearful to leave the security it represented. The gang were their family, and they were torn as to which way to go.

Kalem had no such reservations, but kept his opinion hidden for now as he raised his voice in query.

"And what is this 'job', that's so big and impressive that it would do that?"

Gavin started to smile, a smile of dark satisfaction... It made Kalem's spine crawl.

"It's the time of year when Cenrid starts collecting his taxes, and it just so happens that some of those taxes arrived at the garrison today. They'll stay there until the end of the week, when the armed convoy will come to collect it. We're going to collect it first."

To one side of the gathering, Uren frowned.

"The garrison? But that place is packed with almost fifty men. There are only fourteen of us, and we have only a few weapons. Even if we sneak inside, they'll kill us in no time at all once they spot us. The place will become our tomb."

The dark smile returned, Gavin chuckling.

"But you're forgetting something, Uren. We have something they don't, something which swords and armour can't defend against."

The moment those words were uttered, Kalem went still, his stomach now an icy pit... Was Gavin really suggesting that he..?

"You want me to kill them all... don't you."

His quiet words had all eyes turn to him, Gavin eyeing the gang's sorcerer flatly.

"These are hard times, Kalem, and it's about time you started pulling your weight instead of slacking off with excuses. You'll do as you're told, boy."

Kalem stared at him, wordless, barely able to believe what he was hearing. He then strode towards the gang leader, defiantly shaking his head.

"I refuse... I will not use my magic to murder. It exists to protect, and that is what I've done with it all these years since I first learnt I had it. Nothing you say will change that."

Gavin slowly rose to his feet, scowling as he stared with icy eyes at the youth who stared unwaveringly back. Kalem had no fear of him, they'd had stare-down matches like this before, and he honestly believed that Gavin would act as he had all those other times.

Except that he didn't...

Kalem was too stunned by what happened to react to it, too shocked to block the brutal backhand swing that Gavin levelled at him. The blow flung him to the floor of the abandoned house, dazed and disorientated, and there he lay as Gavin began to scream at him in rage.

"You dare go against me? Me, who raised you when you were handed to me by your father!" A booted foot lashed out, hitting the seventeen-year-old in the gut and knocking the wind out of him. "I should have left you to rot on the streets you ungrateful little bastard!"

No one moved, no one dared, while Gavin continued to lash out at the floored boy. It might have only been a few seconds, but it seemed an eternity before a young voice shouted out in protest.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE! STOP HURTING HIM!"

Liam threw himself at Gavin, grabbing onto his leg so that he couldn't kick Kalem anymore. All it did though was infuriate him even more, the gang leader seizing Liam by his hair before throwing him at the nearby wall. The twelve-year-old hit it with a thud and a cry of pain, sliding down it with his hands to his face, his lip split and bleeding from where he'd hit it.

The sight was enough to shock everyone, even more so than the beating inflicted on Kalem. Liam was the child of the group, their youngest member, and the one that everyone was supposed to look out for and protect. There was one person here who took that far more seriously than the rest, one who viewed Liam as the brother he'd never had.

Seeing the bewilderment on the boy's face, the pain and fear in his eyes, something inside of Kalem seemed to snap. In an instant the inside of the house was filled with the blasting winds of a gale, a gale that pushed everyone to the walls yet strangely left both he and Liam untouched. Pinned as he was to one of the walls, held there even after the rest of the gang had been released, Gavin could only stare at the furious sorcerer before him. Could only stare into the blazing golden eyes that seemed to pierce into his very soul.

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Alaia Skyhawk: Yes, I'm ending it there... aren't I nice? (evil grin) See you all in tomorrow's update!