The Golden Effect

The beginning of the end

EDITED.

CHAPTER 14 - THE BEGINNING OF THE END.

It was a shriek of pain that interrupted her day.

Merlynn had been wandering through the castle, as she always seemed to do when she was allowed a small break each day. She memorized each hall, each path, every door; she knew she would need it some time in the future, so she used that time, and the rest of the time she spent doing errands for both Gaius and Arthur, updating her information on the structure of Camelot.

The sound, it came so suddenly that she was sent reeling back into the wall of the corridor from the shock of it. So loud and raw and clear, it was as though the person who made the noise was inches in front of her, but it was impossible. The halls were empty. Though, as she pondered it, the scream came again. It echoed in her head - that was where it was coming from, she realized. Her head.

Perhaps she was insane like Uther thought she was. But, her mind couldn't scream... and it certainly wasn't a female scream. It was the sound of a child, that she knew. She wondered how it got into her head.

'Help,' the owner of the screams cried and, again, it was in her head. Merlynn paused and searched for the person; he must have been in the corridor to be talking to her! 'Help me, please!'

She searched for him. Through the corridors and out into the courtyard, she searched and searched until she almost gave up from how useless it seemed to have become. Then, she saw him. It was a child - a boy - no older than eleven, she estimated, cowering behind the dog statue that was once live, his body hidden by the forest green cloak that engulfed his body. And he was staring right at her with such intense, blue eyes. His eyes crinkled at the corners, and his mouth pressed together, but no sound left his lips as he spoke again.

'Please, you have to help me,' he begged. That was when she noticed the guards. They entered the courtyard with fierce determination, swords drawn and faces flushed, and she knew that then, the boy was prey - he was to be hunted and, probably, killed. She couldn't have that - he was a boy and he was kin. 'They're searching for me. They're going to kill me.'

'Why?' her own voice projected across the yard to him, an ability she was not aware she was capable of yet. Merlynn didn't stare at him, and instead focused her attention on the guards, who were looking in the opposite direction - she took her chance. She hastened toward him and took him by the arm (the one he wasn't keeping plastered to his body), trying not to create a scene as she made her way to the side door of the castle. "You need to run, please," she whispered. "They'll see you and then see me and I don't need to get killed for this."

He picked up his pace as best as his injured body would allow him to, but she could hear the objections of the guards who must have seen them. Merlynn didn't bother to lock the door behind her and, instead, lifted the boy into her arms to carry him to the first place she could think of: Morgana's bedchambers. She also didn't bother to knock or ask permission to enter the Lady's bedchamber, and instead burst inside, slammed the door shut with the boy's body cradled against her and rest against it.

"Don't you know how to knock, Merlynn?" Morgana asked, but then she noticed the boy and her eyes widened. "Wha -?"

"Morgana, please," she begged in a voice no higher than a whisper. "The guards are after him. He's just a boy, I - I couldn't let him get hurt and now I don't know what to do."

There was a firm knock at the door. "My lady?" Another. "My lady?"

Morgana was silent for a minute or two, staring at the boy with an odd expression, then she nodded and motioned to the curtain at the back of the room. Merlynn didn't even notice Gwen was in the room until she raced passed her behind the curtain and slumped against the wall, the boy on her lap; she pressed a kiss to his forehead and pulled him closer.