A/N: Finally, it's up. I'm sorry, this one took longer than the others, and I'm not sure if it's particularly well-written, considering it's about midnight. If you see any errors . . . this story is not beta'd, so feel free to point them out to me.

This chapter is dedicated to Compliment Giver, who definitely lives up to their name! THANK YOU!

As always darling readers, R&R

P.S. Here's your reminder that it is a good thing I DO NOT OWN MERLIN. And sad for me. Oh well. Enjoy!

Arthur POV

How? That was a question running, with some frustration, through the King's head. How, in the name of his ancestors, did the girl manage to escape? The cell was one of the ones left from the Great Purge. The bars were steel-coated silver and gold, the area around it strewn with plants that were supposed to repress magic, to leech it from the air.

She was just a child. How had she escaped from a cell that had held many more sorcerers, probably deeper than she in those dark arts? The answer seemed pretty simple. She had insider help. But no one had gone into the dungeons last night. No, the guards didn't see anyone enter the dungeons, Arthur corrected himself.

Arthur wasn't sure what he would have done to the girl. Someone caught messing with anyone else's animals without magic would normally have to work off his debt. But because the girl was a sorcerer . . . he would have been expected to put her to death. It wasn't like he wanted to. He had terrible memories of when he was a child, watching people his age and younger killed by the flames. It gave him nightmares, sometimes it still did. But laws were laws, and magic evil. He'd been too young to understand that then.

"Arthur?"

Arthur looked up from where he'd had his head hung over his desk to see Merlin standing at the door holding a basket of clean clothes, and with concern written on his face.

"What is it Merlin?" he asked, and winced at the tired sound of his voice.

"You alright?"

Arthur felt an eyebrow rise. "I'm fine, Merlin. Why do you ask?"

"You . . . you're being very quiet."

"Just because I don't love the sound of my own voice doesn't mean there's something wrong," Arthur responded absently. "Merlin?"

"Yes Sire?"

"That girl. Yara Mair," Arthur noticed how Merlin flinched slightly as Arthur said the name. Poor boy must be terrified of the sorcerer, in fact, Merlin looked almost terrified whenever magic was so much as mentioned. "She escaped last night. I want you to gather the knights together. We're riding out in an hour to find her."

Merlin bowed low, which was unusual. "Yes Sire," he said, and exited the room.

LANCELOT POV

The knock on his door startled him, and Lancelot called for the person to enter. He carefully set his sword, which he'd been sharpening, on the table beside him as Merlin entered.

"Arthur wants you and the others with us to go looking for the girl. Apparently she escaped last night." Merlin closed the door behind him and slid down the strong wood. Lancelot got up and went over to his friend.

"I don't suppose she got out on her own, did she?" Wordlessly, Merlin shook his head, and Lancelot sighed. "My friend, you have a breath-taking lack of self-preservation," he said wonderingly.

Merlin smiled up at him, and Lancelot was abruptly reminded how his friend had worried Gwaine and him earlier. The boy's face was white and drawn. Exhaustion battled with a deep sadness, and the terror that only Lancelot and Gaius could know was there. The terror of being caught. Of having Arthur, his friend and king, sentence him to death by the pyre. Lancelot was one of the few people that Merlin had confided his fear in. Perhaps the only person.

"Hey man, you alright?"

"I'll be fine," Merlin said as he took the knight's hand. Lancelot hoisted the servant onto his feet, painfully aware that the boy probably shouldn't be that light.

"You're sure?" He didn't want to pry, but Lancelot had a feeling Merlin needed to talk to somebody.

"I couldn't take the chance that Arthur would kill Yara," Merlin said quietly. "Quite apart from the fact that she's not evil and I like her, Arthur killing a child would . . . I could never forgive him. I can't take that chance. I need to trust Arthur, I know that. But what he was going to do . . . I just, I . . . ." Tears were falling down Merlin's cheeks now, and Lancelot brought his friend into a hug. He pressed the boy's face into his shoulder as he began to sob.

Lancelot understood what Merlin was saying. With Yara gone, Merlin could at least pretend that Arthur wouldn't kill her. If she hadn't escaped, and Arthur had killed her . . . Merlin wasn't sure if he would have been able to continue fighting for the king.

"You know," Lancelot said quietly once the sobs into his shoulder had quieted. "I liked that girl. She had some pluck, she must have been very brave to speak to Arthur the way she did."

"She didn't have any family left to be worried about. Just her own life," Merlin's reply came, muffled by the knight's tunic. The servant pulled back, wiping at his eyes with the long sleeves of his rough shirt. "You'd best get ready to ride out. Arthur wanted to leave in an hour half an hour ago."

Lancelot sheathed his sword, but before he left, he turned back to Merlin. "You good now?"

"Much better," came the reply.

STILL LANCELOT POV (IN THE FOREST)

None of the other Knights of the Round Table seemed to understand why Arthur wanted to spend the day hunting a young girl. To be honest, even Lancelot wasn't quite sure. The king had seemed to be letting go of his hatred of magic, dulling his feelings to a simple unease. But now . . . this. Why the sudden change of heart? Of course, he didn't know what the king had been planning to do with the girl.

"Is Queeny gonna have us out 'ere all night too?" Gwaine complained when Arthur informed them that they should also keep an eye out for game.

"However long it takes to find her, Gwaine," Arthur said, without turning around.

"No offense, Sire, but this is an enchantress we are dealing with," Percival said quietly. "She'll be long gone by now."

"Not necessarily," Arthur said haughtily. "She claimed that enchantresses couldn't do the really powerful magic, which would include teleportation. And she's on foot. At least, no horses were missing from the stables this morning."

Lancelot wondered how Arthur knew teleportation would be beyond the abilities of an enchantress, but dismissed it. After all, it kind of did make sense. One could logically assume that moving through space like that would take a tremendous amount of energy.

The sun was dipping under the horizon when Leon found a trail. "Someone light, small, probably our sorcerer," he said quietly, examining the small footprint in the damp soil next to the small pond.

"We'll pitch camp here," Arthur said, "Pick up the trail in the light. She can't get far in the night."

A/N: For those of you who love Angst, I PROMISE, the next chapter will have it. I hope you liked the chapter, and review. Or even review if you didn't like it. Help me make it better.