Chapter 6: exhibition fight

Something had changed.

The golden sun still shone warmly from a blue sky without clouds. The colourful banners still blew gently in the warm air. Everything was like before.

But to Mary it seemed darker, foggier, more false.

The gleemen, the salesmen, visitors, soldiers, everyone was behaving quite normally. But Mary almost could feel the hesitation inside them. They looked over their shoulders more often now, held their bags close, did not take their eyes of their goods.

The soldiers always had one hand at their swords.

It was not the same rompy mood as it had been before. It was more like a frantic happiness to hide the insecurity.

Gwen pulled Mary to a booth offering fine fabrics. After only a few minutes they were laughing while putting the fabrics on each other to fake clothing. Slowly the memory of the riot slid into the background and the two women had fun. But not just them.

As the other people saw how merrily the Lady and the maidservant were whispering, laughing, making fun, a smile came back onto the faces of everyone else. Soon laughter became loud and clear all over the place again.

By the time Mary noticed this she was already in too good a temper to complain.

Somehow this was wrong but on the other hand there was no way of changing it. Mary knew that she would never have reacted in a different way. The boy's action would have shocked her the same way over and over again.

Gwen pulled Mary from one booth to the next and on and on. There was no time at all for dark thoughts.

"Look", the maidservant all of a sudden yelled and pointed to the crowd in front of them.

Mary did not have to search for long to see what the maidservant meant. Arthur and his knights had gathered together, wearing light armour with their swords in their hands. Bales of straw marked the area of an arena and more and more viewers gathered around.

Mary and Gwen also hurried up to get a good place. On the other side of the arena Mary could see Merlin and nodded to him happily. A smile spread across his face, then he looked at Arthur who had raised his voice.

"Lords and Ladies, servants and maidservants, dear visitors and honoured citizens of Camelot, welcome to the fights of honour. My men think that their prince has become a little rusty due to the times of peace and now they dared to call me out. You shall be witnesses of how I knock this nonsense out of them. So now see how your prince takes down one knight of Camelot after the other." With an arrogant, slightly amused look and clearly struggling not to laugh he looked around and bowed to his knights. Laughter rose from the viewers and the knights. They all pulled back except one of them.

The opponents started circling each other slowly, swinging their swords and heating up the viewers. Then Arthur raised his sword over his head and darted towards the knight, ready for the stroke.

Suddenly a strong prickling went down Mary's back and at the same moment Arthur slipped and fell down on his behind, looking around in shock, surprised, while everyone around started laughing out loud.

The knight Arthur had been fighting was so consumed by his laughter that he was not able to react immediately and so Arthur had enough time to get up jerkily. Confused he looked around.

"Slippery ground", he then said and pointed the knight to get into fighting position.

Just a few strokes later the prince was the winner.

The crowd applauded and Arthur patted the shoulder of the loser, went over to Merlin and took a sip of water.

„So he was lucky that the ground lost its slipperyness", Mary said to Gwen who could only agree by nodding due to laughter.

While the knights worked out a plan on who should be next Arthur talked agitated to Merlin who only grinned and earned himself a slap to the neck for it.

The next knight went into the arena and waited for the prince.

While Arthur was getting ready for his fight Gwen and Mary were trying to get to Merlin. Mary made good process because the crowd made way for the Lady but Gwen did not have it this easy. But when Mary had a look at her the maidservant just pointed her to go on.

The fight already had begun. Mary could get a glimpse on that spectacle, recognizing the playfulness of the fight because the movements were more like a dance instead of a fight.

Finally she saw Merlin close in front of her. Shortly before she arrived a prickling went down her spine again and from the side she could see Merlin's eyes turning gold for a second. She laughed and went to him.

"You damned magician", she yelled out happily and nudged him. Merlin boggled and turned around a bit. His eyes glowed up and a bale of straw caught fire.

Immediately all knights pulled their swords, formed a protecting circle around their prince and the crowd started screaming as they saw the flames.

Then the whispering started. They had heard of a magician. And right after that a bale of straw had caught fire.

Mary turned pale, looked at Merlin terrified and apologetic and he took her arm right away as the noticed some people turning around to them.

"Run", he murmured to her and dragged her into the shadows of the buildings.

Looking back she saw people poiting in their direction. The knights swarmed out.

"What were you thinking?" Merlin screamed at her while running away from the knights.

"But I didn't do anything!" she answered. Merlin turned around all of a sudden, grabbed her arm and yelled out: "You scared me!"

"Why do you have to use your magic anyway?", she replied.

Merlin gasped for air, let go of her, lurked around a wall and dashed back right away. Mary took a look for herself saw the knights searching the houses. She looked at Merlin questioning.

"I didn't want it to be too easy for him", He replied a bit halting and feebly.

"Do I understand this right?", she asked angrily. "I have to be careful about what I say, when I say something and which person I talk to while you are playing magician when you just want to TEASE him? I thought it was incredibly dangerous to use magic or even just to know about it!"

"It is!", Merlin responed. "And I am careful."

"So I've seen", she said insulted.

"You SCARED me!", Merlin said again , now sounded quite defiant.

Like stubborn kinds they stared at each other, neither of them willing to give in. Mary crossed her arms in front of her chest, compressed her lips and stared at Merlin. He on his side just stood their, white as snow.

"You are afraid", she realized.

"Yes, of course", he said. "No one, not even Arthur, can know about who I really am. What I am."

„But why do you use magic for that?", Mary asked confused. Her head was spinning and she did not know or who to believe anymore. Her father had played tricks like this too. She grew up with this being normal. But in this place, here in Camelot, she had been told different. Merlin had told her different. And now he was a magician after all, just like she knew them.

"I cannot help it.", he confessed. "I cannot live without magic. Sometimes I just have to use it." He raised his shoulders to emphasize his words with his entire body language.

Mary sighed.

"Well, it was funny though", she said and grinned.

For a second he looked at her thoughtfully. Then a little cheeky smile became visible on his face too.

"We should try and get back without attracting attention", he finally said. "If we are lucky, no one has recognized us."

"I don't think that anyone really saw anything", she said. "The people in Camelot are way too good at looking the other way."

"That can be good sometimes", Merlin whispered.

He lurked around a corner, turned back to Mary, noodded and offered his hand to her. Mary hestitated for a second. She had a bad feeling about this.

But then she took his hand, grinning, and together they sneaked along, trying not to be seen by anyone.