Chapter 7: The shadow of a friend

Suddenly they found themselves amidst a group of showmen.

Merlin had been dragging Mary through another street, had turned around the next corner and had run into the gleemen.

The men just shared a short look, staring at Mary with plain anger in their faces.

Confused Merlin looked back at the Lady, questioning.

"Uhm, do you remember we've found out about Camelot's citizens?", she asked him and continued as Merlin nodded: "Those are no citiziens of camelot."

"You have betrayed our boy", a deep voice sounded and a tall, big man stepped into the light. Their leader as it seemed. "He will be executed because YOU turned him in."
Mary stared at him terrified.

"I did not know what I was doing", she tried to explaind with a shaky voice.

"Oh", the man replied sarcastic. "Young, stupid and naïve or what? Everyone knows the punishment for magic."

"And yet you came here, put your boy into danger just to get a little extra money?", Mary flared up. Those humans disgusted her. Training that little boy for commiting crimes by the use of magic, putting him in danger of being caught and now they were looking for somebody to blame. Mary still felt bad but she was not the only one to blame.

She straightened up and made herself as tall as possible. With a grand face, arrogant, convinced by herself she looked down at the gleemen: "You should be the ones to be punished. It's your fault, not mine."

They stared at her, stunned and Merlin inhaled sharply, straightened himself too and clenched his fists. The tension was visible in the air, touchable and scary.

Mary did not feel that comfortable anymore. She had underestimated people before, slipped up concerning the goodness in them. And this time her opponents had shown before what they could dish out.

The lady stepped back a bit, stopped slant behind Merlin and took a little look from the side to him. He looked at her lost in thoughts, but then nodded in approval. He would protect her if he had to.

And he had to.

More men came along from behind. Holding strong sticks, knifes, even a sword and they gave them to their followers.

The leader pulled a wide, double bladed knife out of the sheath hanging on his hip and held it in their direction as a threat.

"You do not betray us without punishment. And no one blames us", he threatened silently and took a few steps towards Mary and Merlin. The other gleemen started closing in, trying to circle them in.

Mary was shaking out of fear. She was completely helpless, had never learned to defend herself. Only Merlin could do something now.

Suddenly Mary felt a prickeling down her spine and Merlin lifted one hand, putting it towards the gleemen, tensed himself and concentrated.

A giant jolt then went through her as Merlin hit the gleemen with congolmerated magic that made the men fly through the air. Some hit the walls, others crashed into each other during the flight and others hit each other hard on the ground. Another tremble shook Mary as Merlin threw a second charge on the gleemen on the ground. She stared in shock at what had happened. Not able to move, not able to talk. So much power…

A third tremble came up, she forced herself to step closer to Merlin, standing by his side, her fingertips on his shoulder, looking into his golden glowing eyes.

"Merlin?", she said softly, calm, shaky.

His head jolted to the side, the eyes staring at her and a cruel smile was on his lips.

"Merlin?", she asked again, weepy this time, begging.

A surprised look came into his eyes and the glowing slowly went away. The smile turned into a scary look and Merlin dashed back, put one hand on his forehead, shaking his head, as if he wanted to get rid of something, took a look around and turned pale.

"The influence of a friend", he whispered in shock.

Then he took her hand and dragged her away to flee from the murderous gleemen coming back to consciousness.

They ran through the streets without a goal, chased by the gleemen and always careful not to be noticed by the knights because they were quite near the market.

Merlin tried to find a way back but their chaseres would not make it that easy for him to find the straight way. The gleemen seemed to have separated and over and over again Merlin and Mary had to turn around because of knights searching the street right in front of them.

Mary felt a constant prickling on her skin. So Merlin was ready to use magic if he had to. He always had some in storage. Over and over again he shook his head, denied aloud sometimes and Mary knew he was talking to somebody.

Maybe to this friend?

She did not dare to ask him. She blamed herself too much. After all, being in this situation was her fault. Once again she had not been carful enough.

She sighed, slowly let go of Merlin's hand and finally stopped.

He turned around to her, breathless and worried.

"What's the matter?", he asked gasping for air.

"I cannot go on", she just said.

Merlin compressed his lips, took her hand again and wanted to continue running but Mary would not let him,

"Would you rather be caught by the gleemen?", he asked angrily.

"That might be better", she answered with a lowered voice.

Merlin stared at her in shock. Mary had tears in her eyes, looked at the ground. She was shaking all over and was pale as the moon.

Merlin pulled her close and embraced her.

"We only have to make it to the market. We will think of something to explain our absence then. And when the gleemen return Arthur will help us", he whispered into her ear.

Again a tickeling went down her spine.

"Who is that?", she asked, getting away from Merlin and looked at him searching.

"Who?", he asked back, pretending not to know what this was about.

"This friend you are always talking to. Who is she?" Mary saw him flinching and she explained: "For a start, I can feel magic being used around me and for another I can see that you are talking to someone. Besides, sometimes you talk aloud."

"I do?", he asked shocked and Mary just nodded.

Merlin let go of her, leaning against the wall of a house and listened for whether someone was coming.

Then he looked at the Lady again.

"Her name is Lilia", he explained. "She came here some time ago and created some chaos. She was powerful. Everyone believes that she died at the stake.

But it wouldn't have been her if she had not come up with a plan for her rescue. She lives on somewhere else, I don't know where. But she is always with me, her life bound to mine. And it seems as if she has an itch to help me. And you. She likes you." He was grinning at Mary but tears had sneaked into his eyes, while he was talking about Lilia. Mary lowered her head.

"I would like to get to know more about her", she said. Another prickeling and Merlin's jerking showed the lady that Lilia was saying something again.

"We have to go", he then said and held out his hand to Mary.

She sighed. But then she let herself be pulled away.