The Dark Age

by Traci Harding

  ‘None whatsoever,’ she confirmed with adoration.

  He guided the gown over her shoulders and down her arms. ‘Then, so be it.’

  His lips pressed into her cleavage and a fever beset Katren’s body, her nipples hardening in the warmth of his hands.

  Calin looked up, filling his eyes with the sight of her. The sentiment he felt reminded him of a fable he’d once heard. ‘And her beauty was so overwhelming that he could no longer deny his love for her, and thus he confessed with all his heart that he did so.’

  Katren’s eyes filled with tears at his lovely proclamation. She gently held his face between her hands to vow, ‘And with his realisation he made her very joyful.’ Brockwell’s lips then enfolded her own to convey his feelings more eloquently than any spoken word.

  The first rays of dawn found Tory and Maelgwn by the embers of a fire in the outer bailey. Most of the villagers had left, and the world was peaceful and still in the wake of the night-long celebration.

  ‘Good morning!’ Calin announced very loudly and with much cheer, giving the pair quite a start.

  ‘Well it was,’ Tory said sarcastically as Calin took a seat beside them. ‘Where be thy better half?’

  ‘Asleep.’ He grinned broadly. ‘I thought it best to let her rest before the trip back to Powys.’

  ‘We shall miss thee both, Calin, very much.’ Tory reached out to grip his hand.

  ‘Aye, we will.’ Maelgwn patted his old friend on the back.

  ‘Excited as I am to be a king, I must confess, I do not want to leave. I imagined I would live out my life in thy service, Maelgwn. I have rarely been parted from thee for more than a day since thee returned from the monastery.’

  ‘Life be like that sometimes. But if we always knew what to expect in advance, then what would be the point of living at all.’

  ‘Quite right,’ Tory confirmed. ‘Less than a year ago, I certainly did not suspect where my life was taking me, but I am mighty glad it led me where it did.’ Tory smiled up at her husband who was being particularly attentive this morning.

  ‘And we will be back here come Samhain, I suppose.’

  ‘Aye, and we shall see thee before then at the meeting of the alliance on Lughnasa. What be wrong?’ Tory asked when she saw that Brockwell still looked concerned.

  ‘Art thou still planning to return home come summer solstice?’

  ‘Aye, I must. But while our visit to the future shall span a whole year, we shall only be gone from thy reality for an hour. Thee will not even miss us.’

  ‘I wish thee would take me with thee.’

  ‘Nay, Calin. I realise thy woes, but I do not know how my parents would cope with their dead son appearing together with their missing daughter and her new husband, who just happens to be a sixth-century king. I think it all might be a bit much. I can take care of myself, believe me. Nothing will go wrong.’

  ‘Well then, the stones art not far from Powys, so I shall go to them in any case, to bear witness to the event.’

  ‘As thee wishes.’

  ‘Speaking of events …’ Maelgwn spied Tiernan and Ione as they came strolling in through the outer-bailey portcullis with their arms wrapped round each other, appearing lost in their own little world.

  ‘Well I never.’ Calin gave half a laugh.

  ‘We shall have to start calling thee Eros soon,’ Maelgwn said as he nudged Tory affectionately for another good deed well done.

  ‘I had nothing to do with it.’

  ‘That be what thee said about Calin and Katren, and look how they ended up,’ Maelgwn joked.

  ‘Shh …’ Tory didn’t want Calin becoming wise to the conspiracy.

  ‘I know thee all drew me in, thyself, Katren and my mother,’ Calin admitted. ‘But as thou had already promised to train me the perfect wife, I thought it would be downright rude to ignore such a gift.’

  ‘Sure, sure …’ Tory and Maelgwn made sport of his tale.

  ‘Good morning, Majesties.’ Tiernan and Ione finally reached them.

  ‘So it would seem,’ Maelgwn teased, while Calin whistled and cheered.

  ‘We were just heading to the beach for kata, art thou coming, Sensei?’ Tiernan inquired.

  ‘Aye.’ Calin jumped to his feet, to second the notion. ‘Please, it be my last day.’

  Tory looked at Maelgwn who nodded with a smile.

  ‘Alright!’ Calin cried as he took off towards the beach after Tiernan and Ione, the King and Tory not far behind.

  PART THREE

  REALITY

  21

  SECRETS FROM THE STONES

  The month leading up to the summer solstice flew by. The new recruits had begun their training, the school in the village was opened, and Tory helped Maelgwn prepare for his journey into the future.

  Taliesin had remained at the court to lend a hand, and Tory was delighted to be able to spend more time with him. She often tried to quiz him about what he knew of her journey home and why it was so important that Maelgwn came too. The Merlin was unable to answer her questions, however, as the situation she would return to in the future was sure to have changed.

  Taliesin didn’t want to influence any decisions Tory might make by discussing some of the possible outcomes of her journey. The only thing the Merlin would say was that he was quite sure Tory would make contact with him.

  ‘I was not so experienced then as I am at this point in my evolution,’ he warned her. ‘You will find my insight lacking a tad. But be patient, for I shall make sense of it all eventually.’

  ‘Make sense of what, Taliesin?’

  ‘What you tell me.’

  ‘Which will be?’

  ‘What’s important.’

  Riddles, that’s all Tory ever got from him. ‘Don’t you have any advice for me at all?’

  ‘Yes, I have,’ he answered, becoming more focused. ‘Stay in tune with yourself, Tory, and use your new-found abilities of second sight and truth saying. As you know, the forces of evil run rampant across the earth in your time and they are in a more sophisticated form than ever before. So stay alert to those around you, and beware of whom you take into your confidence.’

  Tory was alarmed by his warning. But when she tried to question him further, the Merlin maintained that he had no real reason for the caution. He advised her to pay heed to his words and learn to trust in the universal scheme of things.

  This was easy for him to say, she thought. Taliesin had been trusting and using creation for eons, while Tory was a mere novice at this immortality thing. It was rare that she felt physical pain anymore, or tired, and the elements certainly didn’t bother her. She had no need to worry about hurting herself, or what she ate. Which left her free to ponder the answers to the secrets of the ages.

  The High Merlin explained that Tory’s first encounter with the divine, at her wedding, had set her apart as one of the Chosen by enhancing her second sight. This enabled her to see the truth in others and future events. Tory’s episode at Arwystli, however, had empowered her to such a level of awareness that she could not only see the future, she could change it.

  This level of awareness was the plane of thought where most negative thinking had been eliminated. It was made up of two regions: the first was the region of abstract thought, where plans and ideas form the blueprints for earth life. The second was where these thoughts became concrete. Here, will was one’s strongest form of expression.

  ‘So basically,’ the Merlin concluded, ‘you have to understand, or rather believe, that whatever you want to happen, will … as it always has. You know all this, Tory, it is the very nature of personal reality. Just put your beliefs into action.’

  Following Taliesin’s advice Tory resolved to visualise a wonderful homecoming. To test her new abilities granted from the powers that be, she convinced herself beyond any doubt that her parents would be waiting for her at the stones when she arrived home. She couldn’t imagine how this would ever come to pass, but then these details were a problem for the uni
verse to sort out.

  Those members of the court of Aberffraw who were to be present at the stones on summer solstice were invited by King Brockwell to stay at Arwystli, as it was much closer to the site. The party could easily reach the ‘King’s Men’ stones by midnight, when the astrological conditions were forecast to be correct for the time travel. Brockwell had invited all the masters, even Vortipor and Cara made the trip up from Dyfed to be present. Tory couldn’t see what the fuss was about, however, as they would only be gone an hour.

  On the morning they were to leave, Taliesin provided Maelgwn with a change of clothes for the trip: jeans, a shirt, a jumper and trekking boots. Tory whistled in approval when she saw him in his modern attire. ‘I cannot take thee back to the twentieth century looking like that!’

  ‘Why not? Be something amiss?’ Maelgwn already felt awkward in the restrictive clothing.

  ‘Nay, but thou dost appear most tempting. The modern women will find thee way too delectable, I fear.’

  ‘Thee need have no fear,’ Maelgwn said, as he took hold of her. ‘If any other woman sought my favour, thou art well aware I would have to decline.’

  ‘Am I?’

  ‘Of course, I probably wouldn’t understand her proposition.’ Maelgwn copped a hit for his wit.

  ‘Thee would understand well enough. Women art not backward in coming forward where I am from.’

  ‘Oh really?’ He laughed. ‘I never would have guessed.’

  The party reached the stones with plenty of time to spare. They set up camp, ate and drank their fill, then sat around reminiscing about that extraordinary day one year ago when Tory and Maelgwn had first met.

  Tory had one photo left in her camera and asked Taliesin to take a photo of all the masters together. She’d wanted the High Merlin in the picture, but he regretted to inform her that he would just ruin the exposure.

  Midnight approached, so Tory dragged her belongings into the ring of stones. She bid everyone goodbye in turn, asking them what they would like her to bring back for them from the future. She had become a mite teary eyed by the time she reached Brockwell, and his request set her tears flowing.

  ‘Just thy good self.’ He embraced her.

  ‘I shall see thee in an hour.’ She smiled to console him as they parted. Yet with the thought that she would not see Calin for a whole year in her time, she had to turn back to hug him again. ‘I will miss thee, Bro.’

  ‘Then let me come.’

  Tory saw Katren’s shocked expression at the suggestion and so advised, ‘Nay Calin, thy home be here, for now. I shall see thee soon, I promise.’

  The Merlin moved to escort Tory to the middle of the circle, where Maelgwn awaited her. ‘Just make it back to this place one year from tonight and I shall take care of the rest. Tory, I would ask that thee note any changes in the twentieth-century Britain you are about to encounter, compared to the twentieth-century Britain you left behind, no matter how small or insignificant the difference might seem.’

  ‘I will.’

  ‘The Goddess will guide and protect thee both.’ He embraced them, showering the couple with his calming energies.

  ‘See you in the twentieth century, dude,’ Tory called after him, giving Taliesin the thumbs-up.

  At his station behind the King’s stone, the Merlin focused himself, uttering an incantation under his breath. He raised his arms and floated upwards until he was suspended over the huge stone. A loud thunderclap sounded and all eyes looked at a turbulent storm cloud erupting in the otherwise clear night sky. A charge of lightning shot from it to meet with Taliesin’s extended palms, and flowed into his body in a steady current.

  ‘What’s he doing?’ Tory was distressed, watching as the great force surged through his being. Maelgwn pulled her close to him and the mist began to rise, spreading around them as it twisted its way towards the raging storm cloud above.

  ‘He’s creating a circuit,’ Tory answered herself in a whisper, astounded by the spectacle. Hollywood was never this good, she decided.

  The masters watched the centre of the circle until the light, generated from the mist, became too intense. The haze spiralled up into the cloud, like a tornado being sucked up from the earth, and left the circle void of its occupants. Thereupon, the large cloud seemed to vanish into the heavens. Those who bore witness to the phenomenon were left gaping in its wake, and made themselves comfortable to await the final outcome; the next hour was going to be a long one.

  Tory woke to find herself curled up in Maelgwn’s embrace, the morning sun streaming down upon them. She had trouble raising her head, feeling as groggy as she had after her first experience of time travel. Eventually, she freed herself from Maelgwn’s grasp, knelt up and looked around. But she was rather disillusioned by what she saw. ‘It didn’t work, shit!’ Tory stared at the stones that stood in their original form, just as she’d left them in 520 AD. ‘Where the hell are we now, then?’

  Maelgwn sat up. ‘What be that noise?’

  Tory listened a moment. ‘What noise?’

  Maelgwn stood to focus on the sound, and pointed to the sky.

  Tory gazed up and jumped to her feet, excited. ‘Power lines. Maelgwn, I am home!’ She overwhelmed him with a hug.

  The King’s attention was then diverted by another foreign sound, as he heard a car approach and pull up on the road opposite the stones. ‘Plane?’ he guessed.

  ‘Nay, planes travel through the sky. That be a car.’

  Maelgwn drew his brow as this made no sense. Why not call this a plane, when it moves across it?

  ‘We had best get moving.’ Tory quickly collected her bags, not wanting to explain to some custodian of the site what they were doing there. So much for the powers that be! Looks like I’ll have to find my parents on my own.

  Maelgwn threw on the backpack and followed her as she set off through the fields. Tory considered that walking along the road might overawe Maelgwn, so they would stay in the fields until he became accustomed to the different noises. She decided they should first see if they couldn’t find her elusive Aunt Rose, so she pulled out her old road map.

  ‘Tory?’

  A voice from her past resounded through her brain and she stopped dead in her tracks. No, that’s impossible, it couldn’t be! she resolved as she turned back to view the stones.

  ‘Tory, it is you!’

  ‘Brian!’ Tory dropped everything and ran to him.

  ‘Tory.’ He caught her as she flung herself into his embrace. ‘Where the hell have you been! I thought I was coming here to pay my respects to your memory, and here you are!’

  ‘I don’t believe it!’ They laughed, elated, echoing each other’s mind.

  I promise I shall try not to die on thee next time round. Tory grinned broadly as she recalled Brockwell’s pledge. She was so blown away to see Brian she could barely speak, and she turned to her mystified father. ‘Dad,’ she cried, and ran to his awaiting arms.

  ‘Child, you had us so worried.’

  ‘I missed thee so.’ She used the old tongue, backing up to hold him at arm’s length. ‘And I have so much to tell thee.’

  ‘Where hast thou been this past year?’ Renford implored her. ‘When we found the hire car and no trace of thee, we …’ He shuddered to think of what he’d suspected. ‘Let’s just say we feared for thy safety.’

  Maelgwn, who had walked back to them, dropped the luggage on the ground. ‘Calin, Myrddin, what art thou doing here?’

  ‘What!’ Tory smiled as she corrected his mistake. ‘No, no, no. This be my brother, Brian, remember the photo? And this be my father, Professor Renford Alexander,’ she announced with pride. ‘Brian, Dad, I’d like you to meet Maelgwn of Gwynedd, my husband.’

  Her father’s pipe dropped from his mouth. ‘Tory, this be no time for thy fairytales. Dost thou want thy poor father to have a heart attack?’

  ‘Tory, I swear to thee, this be Myrddin,’ Maelgwn insisted, looking at her father. ‘I would know thee anywhere, High Merlin.
’

  ‘Whoa there,’ Brian said. ‘Tory, are you telling me you’re married to this huge dude here?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Awesome.’ He shook Maelgwn’s hand with a dumbfounded look on his face. ‘Hey, bro.’

  Tory then turned to her father, playfully placing her hands on her hips. ‘And I am not spinning one of my tales. He be exactly who I claim, and I can prove it.’

  ‘I am honoured to meet thee, sir, again.’ Maelgwn held out his hand in greeting. Myrddin had been his favourite of Taliesin’s long list of esteemed colleagues, and the King felt sure this was he.

  The professor, noting Maelgwn’s fluent use of the ancient tongue, gripped hold of his new son-in-law’s hand with his own. ‘Spirits preserve us! The honour be all mine, son. Welcome to the family.’ He began to chuckle; whoever this tall, dark man turned out to be, Renford was more than happy to make his acquaintance. ‘Well, we had best get thee both back to your aunt’s, we can speak in more comfort there.’ The professor escorted Maelgwn to the car, making polite conversation in the King’s own language.

  ‘It’s so good to see you.’ Brian took up Tory’s saxophone case in one hand and put his other arm over her shoulder.

  ‘Ditto.’ She smiled. Strike one up for the powers that be.

  Brian drove a large four-wheel drive these days, which surprised Tory. ‘What happened to the bike?’ she said.

  ‘Wrapped it round a tree,’ he confessed, tossing her luggage in the back. ‘You live and learn.’

  ‘If one is as lucky as it seems you are,’ Tory said with a grin, considering that he had had at least two narrow escapes from death.

  Maelgwn was more exhilarated by the car ride than Vortipor had been when he had first experienced flight. The noise blasting from the cassette deck didn’t escape his attention though, as his frown clearly indicated.

  ‘Terrible, I know,’ Tory’s father agreed. ‘It be music, supposedly.’

  ‘Metallica,’ Brian explained, getting into it.