Merlin and the Land of Mists: Book Five: The Battle for Avalon

by P. J. Cormack

  Already it was beginning the boy thought to himself and that was only as it should be now that the Fallen Angel and the Dark Magic had been driven far from Camelot and the World of Men.

  Merlin had also seen that there would be much bloodshed and killing that would, one day, follow this bringing of Cornwall’s young queen to Camelot.

  Merlin decided to say nothing of this to Sir Lauriston du Lac.

  “King Gorlois has brought his new queen, Ygraine, with him to Camelot,” Sir Lauriston said almost as if he could read the boy’s mind which he could not.

  “She’s one of the most beautiful women that I have ever seen. She’s only just sixteen and King Gorlois is old enough to be her grandfather.”

  Sir Lauriston halted thinking that he had perhaps said rather too much. King Gorlois and Queen Ygraine were guests in Camelot and it was not fitting for him to mention the huge age gap that existed between Cornwall’s king and his youthful bride.

  In his mind’s eye, or the Eye of Prophecy as Merlin preferred to call it, the boy could see and recognise the many knights, including King Gorlois, who would, one day, die from this meeting of Camelot and Cornwall.

  It seemed to the boy that, once again, he would hear the screams and cursing as men gave up their lives on Avalon’s fields. It was not a happy thought coming so soon after the carnage and death brought by the Dark Lord.

  What made it worse for the boy was that he knew that he had the power to prevent this bloodshed.

  He also knew that for the future of Camelot, Avalon and the whole of Britannia he could not and must not intervene.

  For a moment the boy saw the dilemma that Mithras Invictus had faced when bringing about the death of Camelot’s much loved Queen Alona.

  Merlin realised that the big knight was staring at him with not a little awe as these thoughts dashed through the boy’s head.

  “So, it has begun,” Merlin whispered to himself rather than to Camelot’s Knight Commander.

  Sir Lauriston knew exactly what was happening when the boy enchanter’s eyes clouded over in this manner.

  The Knight Commander was aware that the boy was seeing things that were not allowed to others to see and which generally meant that something not very good was about to happen. Even so he limited his questions for he knew perfectly well that Merlin would never reveal what he saw in his dreams and visions.

  “I don’t understand, what has begun?” The big knight asked.

  “The Future, it has started with the arrival of King Gorlois and his bride.”

  It was as Merlin had always known that it would be but the speed that events were moving was a surprise - even to him.

  On reflection Merlin saw this was how things had to happen. Just as the Old Order of Elder and Younger gods and Talking Beasts was ending so must Camelot prepare for the Future and no void should be left for this would not be filled by anything good, he was certain of that.

  “Sometimes you can be very hard to follow, Raven Boy,” Sir Lauriston’s voice broke into Merlin’s thoughts.

  “So they tell me,” the boy replied knowing that he could never reveal, even to his friends, the great events that would happen and the part that King Uther Pendragon would play in them, whether the king wished it or not.

  The big knight decided that, once again, it would be a good idea to change the subject.

  “And what have you been doing, Grim?” Sir Lauriston asked turning to face the ghoul who had so bravely saved Camelot, Avalon and so much more.

  “Not much,” Grim admitted, “It’s been very dead.”

  “Like you,” Merlin pointed out to the two hundred year old ghoul.

  “Yes, Grim is dead,” the ghoul agreed. “But Grim is also Great Saviour of Avalon,” he finished with much pride.

  “You certainly are,” Merlin granted, remembering how Grim had led the Lost Army of the Ghouls onto the battlefield when everything had seemed to be lost to the Old Magic. “And you are a Hero of Avalon as well. Even if you do smell.”

  “Grim does not smell,” the ghoul said firmly.

  He actually was well aware that he did smell but that was only to be expected from somebody who had been dead for over two hundred years.

  “You most certainly do,” Merlin told his friend.

  Sir Lauriston tried unsuccessfully to keep the smile from his face as Merlin and Grim bickered amiably.

  The big knight was well aware of the respect that the boy enchanter and the ghoul held for each other.

  “And you, Kraak,” Camelot’s Knight Commander turned to the King of the Raven Kind, “What have you been doing?”

  “Growing new feathers,” Kraak replied drily.

  “I think we all got a bit singed that day,” Sir Lauriston du Lac admitted thinking back to how they had so very nearly lost their battle with the Fallen Angel and his Dark Magic.

  “Grim whacked and bashed,” Grim said remembering how the Ghoul Army had fallen on the Dark Lord’s Army of the Dead and had driven them far from Avalon’s shores.

  “You most certainly did,” Sir Lauriston agreed remembering how the ghouls had hurled themselves so ferociously against the Dark Magic.

  “Grim was Great Saviour of Avalon,” the two hundred year old ghoul said for about the two hundredth time.

  “Grim,” Merlin said.

  “Yes, Raven Boy,” Grim asked turning to look at the boy enchanter.

  “Shut up.”

  As grateful as Merlin was for Grim rallying the Ghoul Army the boy felt that he had heard that Grim was the ‘Great Saviour of Avalon’ rather too many times in the last hour. About a hundred times too many the boy thought.

  A look of annoyance crossed what was left of the ghoul’s face.

  “Grim is Great Saviour of Avalon,” Grim told Merlin. “You can’t tell Grim to shut up.”

  “Yes, I can,” the boy replied.

  “No, you can’t,” Grim repeated.

  “Yes, I can,” Merlin assured the smelly ghoul.

  Grim’s answer was to blow a very long and very loud raspberry at the boy enchanter.

  “Right, that does it,” Merlin said as he decided that it was very much the time to re-establish the correct order of things.

  Merlin stood up and a glowing ball of multi-coloured fire appeared in the boy’s hand.

  “Remember this?” He asked the ghoul.

  “A hurting ball.”

  Grim knew the magic, fiery balls only too well. He had spent the latter part of his life – or rather his death ducking them whenever Merlin had found the ghoul to be particularly annoying.

  “A hurting ball,” Grim said never taking his eyes off the spinning globe of fire. “You cannot throw a hurting ball at the Great Saviour of Avalon.”

  “Watch me,” Merlin said releasing the fiery ball so that it shot with great speed at the ‘Great Saviour of Avalon’.

  Sir Lauriston and Kraak watched with interest as the glowing balls hurtled one after the other at Grim.

  They had both seen Merlin play this game before and they were well aware that the boy enchanter took great care not to actually hit his smelly friend.

  Even so it was very funny to watch Grim as he ducked and dived to avoid the spinning globes that burst all around him.

  “Ow, ow, enough, Raven Boy – enough, Grim will shut up,” Grim said putting his hand over his mouth.

  Merlin hurled one final ‘hurting ball’ at the ghoul making it explode harmlessly against a tree so that sparks and glowing embers burst all around in a shower of shining gold.

  At least it would have been harmless if Myfanwy had not chosen that exact moment to materialise by that very same tree so that the sparks fell and glowed all over and around her.

  “Ow,” she said as she brushed the still smouldering embers away.

  “What’s going on?” Myfanwy asked looking accusingly at the boy enchanter.

  “Sorry, Myfanwy,” Merlin said while not looking the least bit sorry.

  “What were you doing?” the Dr
uid girl gave Merlin one of her very best piercing stares.

  “Warming the Great Saviour of Avalon’s backside for him,” Merlin replied with one of his rare smiles.

  “The Great Saviour of Avalon,” Myfanwy queried.

  “Grim is Great Saviour of Avalon,” Grim stated while keeping a wary eye open for any more ‘hurting balls’.

  “Have you washed lately, Grim?” Myfanwy asked while wrinkling her nose at the unpleasant odours that were wafting off the ghoul.

  “See,” Merlin said in mock triumph. “I told you Grim. You stink.”

  “Grim does not stink,” the ghoul predictably replied.

  “Yes, you do,” Merlin and Myfanwy said in perfect unison.

  A shadow passed over Merlin’s face as he remembered the grave events of the last three months and the Battle for Avalon that had been won but was so very nearly lost.

  It had cost the lives of many of Camelot and Avalon’s inhabitants and none of them had suffered more than the Druids as they had fought to hold back the Dark Magic so as to give Merlin and his friends at least a chance of victory in that Great Battle.

  “What were the Druid casualties, Myfanwy?”

  “Not good,” the Druid girl answered. “Fifty died and as many seriously injured.”

  “Gwydion?” Merlin asked.

  “My father lives,” Myfanwy told him. “He was at the forefront of the fighting and men died all around him. I think that it is something that he will never forget.”

  “We should remember all those who died in keeping Avalon safe and driving out the Dark,” Merlin told the Druid girl and there was no smiling now. “And the Druids will need your father’s strengths to rebuild once more.”

  The Druids had already suffered terribly in the past. A hundred years earlier the all-conquering Roman army had swept across Britannia and had been determined to burn down the sacred oak groves of the Druids as well as slaughtering every Druid that they could find.

  “We’re good survivors,” Myfanwy told the boy. “We’ve needed to be.”

  “You have been and you will be,” Merlin’s fierceness took Myfanwy by surprise for the Druids worshipped other gods and certainly not Merlin’s father, the Elder god, Mithras Invictus.

  Briefly Myfanwy wondered whether the Bull Slayer would have been as content as his son was in allowing the worship of other gods.

  “And Uther, the Deathbringer king, what of him?”

  Now it was Myfanwy’s turn to ask the question for she knew that Camelot’s king had no love for the Druids.

  “King Gorlois has come to Camelot with his young bride, Ygraine.” Merlin told her his voice bleak. “It has begun and I can say no more.”

  “Because it is not permitted?” Myfanwy asked for she knew that it was not given to many to look into the Future as Merlin did. You would need to be a god or the son - or daughter - of a god, she corrected herself, to see as he did.

  “Because it would be unwise,” Merlin said knowing exactly what was passing through the Druid girl’s mind.

  “I cannot stay for very long,” Myfanwy said. “I must return to my people, I am needed at Druids’ Wood. There is still so much to do there. I just wanted to see you all again,” the Druid girl added while gazing around at Grim and Kraak as part of her wondered whether she would ever see the King of the Raven Kind and the ghoul again.

  Everything was changing in Avalon and she guessed also in the world beyond. Something told her that the Talking and Mythical Beasts of Avalon would not exist for much longer in her country and perhaps not anywhere in this world.

  The Old Order was changing and the Old gods also were gone. The Druid girl did not find that a comforting thought.

  Myfanwy suddenly noticed that Merlin was staring at her almost as if he could read her mind.

  The boy enchanter came to an instant decision for he knew that there were debts to be paid to those who had stood so determinedly against the Fallen Angel and his Dark Magic.

  “Tell your father that you and he should be at Druids’ Stones in three days’ time,” the boy told her.

  “Why?” Myfanwy asked.

  It was not hard for her and her father to leave Druids’ Wood and go to the Druids’ Stones but it seemed a strange thing for the boy to request.

  “Myrrdin Emrys has left me a Gift of Magic,” Merlin told her gravely. “It can only be used once. It is Great Enchantment and I would like you and Gwydion to be with me at its Using. Grim and Kraak will accompany us for the Spell was woven for them as well. Don’t forget, Myfanwy,” the boy continued for it was vital that the Druid girl understood what he was asking. “It is a very Great Gift that Myrrdin Emrys has bequeathed to us.”

  “You have my word that I will be there with my father,” Myfanwy said picking up on the importance of what it was that Merlin was asking her to do.

  With that Myfanwy disappeared with her usual huge explosion that showered gold sparks all over Merlin and his friends.

  “I wish she didn’t have to be quite so spectacular,” the boy enchanter said while struggling to keep the smile from off his face.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  DRUID STONES

  THREE DAYS LATER

  Myfanwy and her father, the High Druid Gwydion, were waiting, as Merlin had asked them to, at Druids’ Stones.

  It had taken very little persuasion for Myfanwy to convince her father that they should do what Merlin had asked. The High Druid was well aware that the boy enchanter was the Dark Child as predicted by the Druid Lore. He was also fully aware that Camelot and Avalon would not have survived without Mithras’ son and the Magical and Mythical Beasts of the Old Magic who had come to fight and possibly to die by the boy’s side.

  “And Merlin would only say that this Myrrdin Emrys has left us a great gift?” Gwydion asked his daughter for what, seemed to her, to be about the hundredth time.

  “A Gift of Great Enchantment, he called it,” Myfanwy confirmed, “And Merlin told me that it could only be used once.”

  “Hmmm,” the High Druid said for what also seemed to the Druid girl to be about the hundredth time. “I wonder what this ‘Great Gift’ is. It seems as if this Myrrdin Emrys carried enormous Power with him.”

  Right on cue and with a flash and a bang that even Myfanwy had to admit was pretty good, Merlin, Grim and Kraak materialised among the Druids’ Stones.”

  “Greetings, Gwydion, Myfanwy.”

  Merlin did not need spectacular fireworks to appear and disappear but he guessed that Myfanwy would be suitably impressed by his own show of whizz bangs and bright sparkling lights.

  “Merlin, it is good to see you again,” Gwydion was the first to speak as was fitting for he was High Druid and the Druids held the Dark Child who was Mithras Invictus’ son in great esteem.

  “Where is this ‘Great Gift’ of magic that Myrrdin Emrys gave to you?”

  Myfanwy, as she always did, came straight to the point. Pleased as she was to see Merlin, Kraak and Grim, she could see no sign of any ‘Great Gift’.

  “Patience, Myfanwy,” Gwydion said trying, as always, to rein in his headstrong young daughter. “Greetings to you Grim and Kraak,” the High Druid continued, “The Druids give thanks to you.”

  “Without Grim and Kraak there would have been no victory,” Merlin gravely told the High Druid.

  “Grim is Great Saviour of Avalon,” Grim said, just in case anybody had missed it the first five hundred times around.

  “And a Hero of Avalon, don’t forget that,” Merlin reminded his smelly friend.

  “And a Hero of Avalon, Grim does not forget,” the ghoul agreed while trying, without success, to look suitably humble.

  “But where is this gift of magic, Merlin?”

  Myfanwy was now almost hopping from foot to foot in her impatience. She had a shrewd feeling that Merlin was deliberately drawing out revealing just what this gift was so as to infuriate her.

  “It’s in the Future,” Merlin told her and the Druid girl was none the wiser as
to what that meant.

  “I don’t understand,” she said sounding slightly annoyed and well aware that the boy enchanter was teasing her.

  “Nor do I,” Gwydion had to agree, “How can this Gift be in the Future? You mean that it is yet to come?”

  “It is yet to come,” Merlin confirmed. “Perhaps I should have said that it is a Gift of the Future.”

  “I still don’t understand,” Myfanwy complained. “You know you can be really annoying at times, Merlin.”

  “I know,” the boy agreed. “Good isn’t it?”

  “Sometimes I could slap you,” the Druid girl said and Merlin noticed that her face was now going a very interesting shade of deep red.

  “I’d like to see you try,” the boy enchanter said knowing that this would annoy Myfanwy even more.

  “Myfanwy, behave,” the High Druid told his daughter in no uncertain manner. “Please explain, Merlin.”

  Merlin decided that he had strung it out quite long enough. Now was the time to ‘put them out of their misery’.

  “Myrrdin Emrys has left me a Talisman,” he told them and now his voice was deadly serious. “A Talisman of the Future. It will allow us, just this once, to travel forward in Time, to travel to the Future.”

  “Where to?”

  As always Myfanwy was the first to ask the question that they were all thinking.

  “Ssh, Myfanwy. Let Merlin continue,” for all his knowledge of the Druid Lore Gwydion had never heard of travel between Times except by the most Powerful of the Elder gods.

  “Actually it is a good question,” Merlin told the High Druid.

  “Well, what’s the answer?” Myfanwy looked as if she was about to burst at any moment.

  “The Talisman will take us to the Court of the Once and Future king,” Merlin said. “But we will be as spectres. We will not be seen nor can we have any effect on what we see. We will be there purely as observers – nothing more. It is a great Gift that we have been granted and it requires the Deepest of the Old Magic to perform it. Only Myrrdin Emrys has this enchantment and only he will ever have the Power to pass through the Portals of Time in this manner.”