King Henry

Chapter 41 - Visiting Merlin's House

Eleanor thought she already knew what Merlin was going to confess. She expected him to say that his magic wasn't real, that it had all been smoke and mirrors, slight of hand and persuading people to believe what he wanted them to with his mind games. To her, magicians and sorcerers were nothing but sophisticated, talented con-artists. She knew there was no such thing as real magic. That wasn't what he had to confess though. She never expected him to say what he said next.

"I think you're all old enough now to know the truth," Merlin said with an exhale, rubbing his hands over his face and then clasping them over his head as he started pacing. He dropped his hands and looked at them, gathering up some courage before finally saying, "Magic wasn't the real reason your mother had me exiled and banished."

Eleanor looked over and saw the confused expressions on Joan and Richard's faces and then she looked back at Merlin, curious to see what he was going to say next.

"Your mother and I, we were ummmm, we were having a secret affair behind your father's back."

Richard and Eleanor's eyes widened in shock and Eleanor raised her eyebrows. She hadn't seen that coming.

"She ended up falling in love with me, but I didn't feel the same way. I told her I wanted to stop what we were doing because I considered your father my best friend and the guilt I felt for what we were doing to him was eating away at me. I knew he was in love with her and I couldn't even bear to look at him without feeling shame."

He let out a deep exhale, hanging his head and shaking it.

"Your father was a good man and he didn't deserve that. I thought the best thing for everyone involved was for me to just leave and never come back."

"So you CHOSE to leave? You weren't forced to?" Richard asked, with scrunched eyebrows.

"Right," Merlin nodded. "When I told your Mother I was leaving London and never coming back, she went on a tirade and tore my room in the castle apart. She pushed my bookcase over and broke every potion bottle I had. She ripped my favorite spell book apart with her bare hands. I had never seen her like that. She looked like she was possessed by a demon."

"That's where Guinevere gets it from," Richard said, shaking his head. "Their tempers are something else."

Merlin nodded. "That's an understatement. She has a mean streak in her like I've never seen before. There's nothing more frightening in this world than a scorned woman, but even worse so when that woman is as insane as your mother. She screamed in my face and told me that if I ever set foot in London again, she would kill me herself."

Eleanor had witnessed her insanity a few times now so she could hardly blame Merlin for choosing to live in the forbidden forest over facing her.

"After I left, I received word that she had me officially banished and exiled, using witchcraft as the excuse."

"She likes to use witchcraft as an excuse to kill people," Eleanor said, shaking her head.

"There's no limit to what that woman might do. I want to help the three of you rescue Henry, I'm just afraid of how she'll react if she runs into me again. I have a feeling her threats weren't empty."

Joan spoke up and said, "But what if you go in one of your famous disguises?"

"You mean something like this?" Merlin asked, squeezing the emerald medallion that was around his neck and muttering something under his breath.

Eleanor watched as his face slowly morphed and became soft like clay, his features gradually changing into a haggard, wrinkly old man with pits and moles in his skin and worn yellow teeth. His head was now bald except for a few sparse white hairs and his back became hunched over.