Night was falling when Merlin and Arthur reached Raguenel, probably very shortly after the man they were tracking – Elias - did. Following Arthur's indications, Merlin remained with him, hiding silently at the village's border in order to observe the warlock.
They saw him, still carrying his bag – which proved he had only just arrived as well – immediately head for another young man. After a quick handshake they started to talk.
"That must be one of those warlocks," Arthur assumed.
Merlin shrugged. They were too far to hear what they were saying, but he could guess Elias' apologetic look as he seemed to explain something. As he listened, the other man's expression changed from welcoming to successfully questioning, surprised, upset, very upset, and then downright furious.
The villager harshly pushed the sorcerer's shoulder, shouting at him. Elias seemed to apologize again, but the other man wouldn't calm down and, his arm pointing to the horizon, he gestured Elias to leave. Then, he turned heels and slammed behind him the door to a small house, leaving Elias outside, alone and looking discomfited.
"Merlin, it's too late to hunt, so why don't you go to the village find us some food?" Arthur ordered. "You should be able to go unnoticed among those bumpkins," he continued with a teasing smile. "I'll keep an eye on this new guy in the meantime."
"That would be with great pleasure, Sire," Merlin teased back.
Merlin threaded his way between the village's houses. None of the villagers, attending to their various dusk activities, paid any attention to him. He decided to try his luck and approached a middle-aged woman plucking chicken.
"Good evening, ma'am," he greeted. "I was wondering if you knew who lived in the house over there," he asked, indicating the house Elias's friend had entered.
"It's the house of Aldwin, the carpenter, and his son Dunstan, why? Are they in any trouble?"
"No ma'am, actually I'm looking for someone called Elias, I think I saw him head for that house."
"Oh yes, I know him. He doesn't live here but he comes every once in a while, he usually stays with the carpenter indeed. Nice boy. Is he a friend of yours?"
"Sort of," Merlin replied with a shrug. "Thanks ma'am."
Merlin headed back towards the carpenter's house. There, he found Elias, sitting on the ground, his back against one of the walls, absent-mindedly throwing a ball above his head, looking like someone who didn't have anywhere to go. Merlin had to find a way to warn him. However, he couldn't go straight to him to talk, Arthur should be able to see them from where he was. So he had to find a way to drag Elias to the back of the house, sheltered from view.
Concentrating on the ball Elias was throwing, Merlin managed to divert its track. It dropped to the ground, and rolled for a few yards in the general direction of the back of the house, where Merlin was hiding.
Elias stood up with a sigh and followed the ball, but as he made to catch it, it rolled another yard. Merlin smiled when he saw the young man frown at it and take another step, only to watch it roll further away.
Understanding that the ball wasn't following its natural course, Elias took out a small knife. "Who is this?" he called, advancing warily. He finally noticed Merlin, standing near the house's back door in the dark. "I know you. I saw you at the castle. You're Prince Arthur's servant." His eyes fell on the ball near Merlin's feet. "And apparently, you're a warlock," he stated with a hint of surprise in his voice.
"I'm here to warn you," Merlin began. "The King ordered Arthur to follow you so you would lead him to the other warlocks. He's hiding at the village's border, on the other side of the house."
"The other warlocks? You mean, from the gathering the other night?"
Merlin nodded.
"I don't know them. I mean, we all gather a couple of times a year, but we don't know each other's names, specifically because of, well, this sort of situation. It would be too dangerous to us all." He paused, thoughtful. "I wondered why Uther released me... Now I understand."
"So, you're not planning to meet up with them?"
"Not any time soon," Elias assured.
"Good," Merlin said, relieved. "What about the man who lives here?"
"Who, Dunstan?" Elias laughed lightly. "No, he can't do any magic, luckily for me I guess. If he could, I'd probably be so cursed right now I wouldn't be able to speak to you."
"Why is he so angry with you?"
"Well, maybe because his bride-to-be is in prison, about to be executed, and all because of me?"
"Oh." Merlin suddenly remembered the witch, probably locked up in one of the castle's cells.
"He's planning on leaving tomorrow. This is ridiculous, all he'll manage to do is get killed as well..."
"You can't let him leave," Merlin insisted. "The two of you need to keep a low profile, at least as long as Arthur is keeping an eye on you."
"I doubt he'll listen to me after what happened." He sighed. "I should go with him," he finally changed his mind.
"Then you'll both get killed," Merlin affirmed. "I'm sure we can figure out something about your friend. I can help. And I know people in the castle who can help too," he added, thinking about Morgana, perhaps Gwen as well. "But right now, you two need to stay put."
Elias seemed to hesitate for a second. Then, he knocked at the carpenter's back door right next to them. "Dunstan? Dunstan, come on..."
No one answered.
"May I?" Merlin queried.
"Go ahead," Elias invited with a shrug.
Merlin took a peek through the window. Then, he whispered with a wave of the hand: "Shataa Peressa." Inside the house, a candle blew out.
Dunstan immediately stormed out. "Elias, I swear, I'm not in the mood for any of your stupid magic tricks, so you'd better – who are you?" he suddenly asked when he noticed Merlin.
"It's ok Dunstan, he's on our side," Elias explained.
"On our side regarding what?"
"We're being watched. I was followed. They're trying to catch other sorcerers."
"Oh that's brilliant. Just getting better and better."
"It will be just fine as long as we stay here nice and quiet."
"I told you, I'm leaving tomorrow!"
"It would be a really bad idea to go to Camelot," Merlin chimed in.
Dunstan stared at him. "Again, who are you?"
"Dunstan," Elias interrupted. "I just travelled from Camelot, it's night, I'm hungry, and you know I have nowhere else to go. Could we discuss all of this inside? Please?"
After a few seconds of hesitation, Dunstan finally waved them to come in. Merlin followed, with a quick thought for Arthur waiting outside in the cold. A very quick thought. An hour later, he headed back to Arthur's observation point.
"That's about time! What took you so long?" Arthur complained.
"Nothing," Merlin shrugged off. "Anything new?"
"No, the guy didn't move all evening. Is that all you've got?" Arthur was staring at the chunk of bread Merlin was holding.
"I'm afraid so. You can have it, I don't feel very hungry tonight," Merlin lied. In truth, after the meal he'd just had at the carpenter's, he was full.
Arthur snatched the bread from him and sighed. "Why do I keep taking you along with me?"
Merlin just smiled.
Morgana carefully walked down the staircase leading to the dungeons, carrying a piece of cloth and a basin filled with water.
The guard stood to attention as soon as he saw her. "My Lady!" he exclaimed with surprise. "Are you here for a visit?"
"I came to tend to your latest prisoner," Morgana replied.
"The witch?"
"Yes, the witch. She's wounded."
"The King wouldn't even ask a servant to do that, let-alone his ward," the guard remarked.
"I'm here of my own volition," Morgana retorted.
"I'm terribly sorry my Lady, but I'm not allowed to let anyone in the cells," he apologized.
"She's been sentenced to the stake. What harm could a little comforting do?"
The guard sighed. "No more than five minutes then, I could be in a lot of trouble if anyone heard about that. Come with me."
Morgana followed the guard closely along the corridor sided with cells.
"Hey, you here to take care of me, bird?" a filthy man in one of the cells said on a suggestive tone as they passed by, looking her up and down.
Morgana ignored his disgusting look, until they finally reached the witch's cell.
"Five minutes," the guard reminded as he unlocked the door.
The young woman was curled up in a corner, staring at the ground with an empty look. She was rather pale and looked both sullen and depressed. Of course she would, Morgana realised. She knew herself condemned, with no hope of mercy from the King. She didn't even acknowledge Morgana's presence when she walked towards her. She only gave her a quick look when she knelt next to her, but immediately looked away again, still silent.
Morgana dipped the cloth in the basin and, without a word, proceeded to clean the woman's slashed eyebrow.
"I could take care of that myself, you know," the woman said after a few seconds.
"Yes, I know," Morgana replied softly. "I saw how you healed your brother Elias."
The prisoner frowned at her as she moved a little away from her touch. "I beg your pardon?"
"Elias. The young man that was taken prisoner with you. You were both interrogated by Uther. He's your brother, right?"
"No, he... Actually he's my cousin, but... How do you even know his name?"
"You must have mentioned it during your interrogation," Morgana simply answered, observing the guard from the corner of her eye.
The woman shook her head. "I'm pretty sure I didn't..."
"Then how else could I know that?" Morgana said with an insistent look.
The woman's frown deepened for a second, until it suddenly dawned on her. "The presence I felt in the forest the other night... You're -"
"Here to let you know," Morgana interrupted just in time, giving an imperceptible nod towards the guard in a silent recommendation to the other woman to watch her mouth, "that you're not alone."
Morgana resumed cleaning the woman's wound, and saw her give a weak smile. She had so many burning questions... "The other day, you said you didn't know any offensive magic," she finally chose. "Are you and your friends druids?"
"No," the woman said with a slight laugh. "We're just... foolish idealists..."
"My Lady," the guard called.
"I'm done," Morgana replied, knowing that her time was up. As she stood, she turned to the prisoner one last time. "Keep hope," she told her.
"I'll try. Thank you."
Arthur threw the remaining of his food to the ground with irritation. "It's been four days. None of those two have left the village since we arrived, and they nearly haven't spoken to anyone. This one," he continued, indicating Dunstan, "has kept building that house, and it's going so boringly slow he clearly isn't using any magic." Arthur sighed. "This is a dead end, none of them are going to lead us anywhere. We'd better get back to Camelot," he surrendered.
Merlin didn't say a word. He just smiled while watching Arthur pack.
"Will you just stop with that smug smile!" Arthur exclaimed. "I'm not giving up because deep down I don't want to expose those sorcerers! This isn't amusing, my father is going to be extremely displeased."
Merlin kept smiling. "Whatever you say, Sire," he teased.
He dawdled behind when Arthur walked away to fetch the horses. With a glare and a frown, he made a wooden plank fall to the ground on the building site. Dunstan looked up from his work and glanced around until he noticed Merlin.
Merlin smiled, winked at him, and followed Arthur into the woods.