by Hiatt, Bill
In an effort to confuse Merlin, I raised myself to faerie speed and scrambled, not toward the rest of my group, but off to one side. Frankly, I didn’t want to risk Merlin trying to fire bomb everyone else before they could get close enough to Shar. Despite his great power, Merlin’s speed was that of a normal human, and it did not seem to occur to him to speed himself up, so for a while at least my efforts to dodge him worked, though it was not long before his hot, slow fire was burning in undulating patches all over the place. Somewhere I could feel Vanora and Nurse Florence pooling their resources for some kind of defensive spell, but I doubted they would have much luck against the kind of off-beat, high intensity magic that Merlin could throw at them. Still, I guessed some protection was better than none.
I wondered what was happening to the guys. By now Shar, whom Zom made immune to any magic fire, even Merlin’s, should be close, but I saw no sign of him. Then I realized I was hearing the sound of swords biting into wood. Looking in the general direction of the sounds, I could see a little over the wall of fire, just enough to make out waving branches, and I realized that some more distant part of the forest had sneaked up while everyone was watching me and had attacked as soon as Merlin was free.
I was wearing down a little, slowing, and Merlin’s fiery attacks were getting closer. Not only that, but the darkness was surging again; Jimmie’s presence was now too faint to stop it, though he was still struggling valiantly against it. I needed more of a plan than just taking evasive action, but my head was pounding worse than ever. I also thought the increasingly pervasive smoke was beginning to get to me. I could smell it everywhere, my lungs ached, and my breathing was getting ragged.
Suddenly Khalid was at my side, dagger in hand. “Tal, what can I do?”
“Get back, Khalid! Merlin may not be able to burn you, but he could switch attacks at any moment.”
“That’s assuming he sees me coming!” he said with a grin, and then he was gone, moving faster than I could right at that moment. He ran fast as lightning across the burning land, then shot straight up in the air, straight at Merlin, dagger glinting in the firelight.
Khalid was faster than Merlin, but Merlin had seen him coming, figured out he was immune to fire, and, with one flash of lightning from his hands, swept Khalid from the sky, sending him tumbling toward the ground at sickening speed. Merlin had not had the time to conjure maximum power; even so, it was clear Khalid was gravely injured—and Merlin could always take another shot.
At that moment I had been on the verge of succumbing to the darkness, but seeing Khalid in trouble, maybe even dying, sent my adrenaline clear off the charts. Without really knowing what I was doing, I shot light into that darkness, much grayer perhaps than what Jimmie had been able to project at his full strength, but enough to check the darkness’s relentless advance. At the same time, I flew with bullet-like speed at the falling Khalid, grabbed him in midair, and cannonballed toward the rest of my party. Merlin might follow, but now I had to risk it. I was not the healer Nurse Florence or Vanora was, but I could tell Khalid needed one. I could see the electrical burn on his left side, not looking so bad on the surface but extending, I was sure, much deeper into his tissues. I could feel him shaking in my arms, shaking almost convulsively.
Unfortunately, I could not easily fly, wield White Hilt, and carry Khalid, so at the moment I was unshielded, and Merlin, as I could have readily predicted, was following, shooting fire in all directions.
“Tal, I need to leave for a minute.
I was shocked to hear Jimmie again. I had thought he was too weak to communicate, but now he seemed revived. Well, he was in me; maybe he was getting secondhand adrenaline. Maybe he had been relieved, if only momentarily, of the strain of fighting the darkness.
“Whatever you need, Jimmie,” I thought back quickly, then turned my attention to dodging Merlin’s fire bolts.
I don’t know what I thought Jimmie needed to leave for, but I suddenly realized he was flying…straight at Merlin! I didn’t exactly have eyes in the back of my head, and I couldn’t see through the eyes of a ghost the same way I could those of a living person, but I could sense enough to realize what was happening.
Jimmie caused Merlin to hesitate, which was odd, considering how little a single ghost could do against Merlin. Then again, Jimmie was taking advantage of the flexibility of his ghostly form and no longer bore even the slightest resemblance either to Jimmie as a child or as a teenager. Instead, borrowing an image from a storybook he had loved when he was six, he was an angel, several stories tall, with a wingspan the greatest of dragons would envy.
“Halt, wizard!” a very un-Jimmie-like voice boomed loudly enough to shake the ground.
Merlin would see through the elaborate display Jimmie was putting on in a matter of seconds, but those seconds proved just enough for me to reach Nurse Florence and Vanora with Khalid. His shaking was subsiding, but, as far as I could tell, only because his heartbeat was faltering. He was just moments away from cardiac arrest when I handed him over. Thank God the guys had chopped most of the attacking trees into kindling, or the ladies of the lake might have been under attack themselves, unable to help.
Shar ran in my direction, realizing Zom was needed against Merlin, and presumably using every ounce of willpower he had not to run over to Khalid’s side. The other guys were more than enough to handle the few surviving trees in the area.
By now Merlin had flown straight through the illusionary angel that was Jimmie and was heading straight for us. Shar continued to hold Zom, but I put my hand on its hilt, and as I had done at Goleta Beach, I shot a brilliant emerald ray of anti-magic straight at Merlin, praying he was not somehow immune. He shouldn’t be, of course, but with someone as powerful as Merlin, one could never tell what surprises he might have up his sleeve.
I could have imagined any number of possible outcomes when that blast connected with Merlin, but what actually happened was beyond imagining. The man, who was perhaps the greatest wizard the world had ever seen, exploded in a burst of emerald flame at the touch of Zom’s power, and clouds of ashes swirled in all directions from the explosion.
For a second I thought we must have destroyed some mere illusion, but I had seen Zom strike illusions before, and they simply vanished, with no explosion, no flame, no ashes. Morgan Le Fay had been hit with the same kind of blast that Merlin had suffered, and she had merely been stripped of her active spells and unable to cast any more for a short time. For reasons I could not begin to explain, the touch of Zom had been fatal to Merlin, despite his much greater power. Perhaps that was it—his power had tried to resist, and the friction between it and Zom had destroyed Merlin. Whatever had happened, he was gone, even his ashes now dispersed by the winds of Annwn.
“Merlin is dead! We’re safe!” shouted Shar. Then he immediately turned his attention to Khalid, over whom Vanora and Nurse Florence were laboring as if their lives, not his, depended upon it.
Yeah, we’re safe—from Merlin. But without him, you’re not safe from me. He was my only hope for beating the darkness.
At the moment, the darkness remained at bay, but I was sure it would not be long before it began to eat its way through my defenses. Despite that, I helped the rest of the guys finish off the last couple of trees. That would not prevent the more distant parts of the forest from moving in this direction, but for the moment, everyone could focus on Khalid.
Nurse Florence and Vanora were both trying to heal him, with Carla feeding energy to Vanora and Eva doing so with Nurse Florence. However much they might have cramped the style of the guys earlier by needing to be defended, their assumption that their energy might be needed had proved well-founded. At least Khalid had not died, so there was still hope, but I could sense his vital signs were very faint; bringing someone back from that close to death was always difficult at best.
I knew what I had to do. I had already discovered that I seemed to be able to master magic cast in my presence even if I wasn’t in much of a position to
pay attention, and I could feel deep within me the spell that Nurse Florence had used to dump practically all of her energy into me. Using it might render me, as it had her, dangerously close to death, but I was confident my life-force would be enough to save Khalid, and since my body was basically uninjured, I figured Vanora and Nurse Florence could more easily bring me back than they could Khalid.
Well, that was what I told myself, anyway. Nurse Florence had only been saved that night by the wish from Khalid’s dagger, and we were fresh out of wishes. Of course, Nurse Florence had only had Vanora to heal her, and I had both of them, so I might be all right.
Hell, what if I wasn’t? Did I care? Maybe this was my fate: to end my life in a noble way, giving it up for Khalid, sparing everyone else unbelievable danger when I inevitably succumbed to the darkness that I could only have found my way out of with Merlin’s help, help I could now never have. I don’t want you to think I was suicidal. I wanted to live every bit as much as the next guy. But live instead of Khalid, who was only in danger because he insisted on throwing himself into all of my adventures? Live and be a threat to my family and friends for the rest of my life?
I hesitated, but only for a moment. Then I took Khalid’s hand in my own, and downloaded my life-force into him before anyone could try to argue me out of it. In seconds I had filled him, at the cost of emptying myself. I let go of his hand and fell to the hard ground.
As usual, there was at least one thing I hadn’t considered: with my energy gone, I had nothing with which to fight the darkness—and the darkness knew it. It rose up, like a tidal wave that reached clear to the sky and beyond, ready to submerge me, wash me away, forever. All I could do was watch, thinking, “Let it come.” In the end, I would have the last laugh. I could feel myself dying. The darkness might take over, but only for a few seconds. Then it would die with me. Surely, that was what was meant to happen all along.
Abruptly, there was another presence within me. Jimmie, still looking like an angel, had re-entered my body, and was hacking away at the darkness with his sword. His light had revived a little from what it was before, but I knew he could not last long now without rest. Surely that display he had used to slow down Merlin must have taken some effort, and I had seen how fast the darkness had drained him of light before.
What would happen if Jimmie were still in my body when I died? Would he have to experience death again? I needed to tell him to get out before I died, but I somehow couldn’t communicate with him.
Jimmie, Jimmie! Get out!
No dice! The harder I tried, the more remote from him I seemed.
Then I felt another presence, warm and insistent.
Carla? No, Alcina!
Great! Seeing me dying must have overridden my strict orders to stay submerged. I couldn’t seem to communicate with her, either, so I couldn’t order her away, but the damage to Carla was probably already done. If the ties I had created between them had been torn apart, as they had been in Stan when David emerged, nobody but me could fix them—and I was still dying.
Alcina apparently specialized in love spells and controlling marine life. I didn’t feel much healing power within her, though she was trying to do something, perhaps sustain me until someone with more of a healing touch was free. Despite her, though, I could feel myself still slipping away second by second.
Next I felt Nurse Florence. I wanted to scream, “NO! Finish with Khalid,” but I sensed she had. Weary, she was fighting just as hard to save me, but she needed more energy from somewhere. I didn’t feel as if I was slipping toward death anymore, but I wasn’t move any further away from it, either.
Then I felt Stan…no, David. I felt David praying over me. Damn! I told them both not to do this. Could I put Stan back together after yet another rending of the bonds between him and David? I doubted it.
I had hoped that if I had to die, at least my friends would all be all right. Now it looked as if Carla would be a mess and Stan would be a mess. Hell, a few minutes ago I had been ready to die if I needed to. Now the universe, with its usual bad timing, seemed to be trying to tell me I still needed to live…and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to save myself at this point.
Then I got a real shock: I could feel Dan in my head. I recoiled from him. I suppose I should have been happy for any help, but I still wasn’t ready to forgive him, much less to trust him. Fortunately, I realized after just a few seconds that he was not so much in my mind as reaching through it to connect with Jimmie. How he managed that I didn’t know, but they were brothers, and Jimmie did seem to know his way around the supernatural, so perhaps Jimmie somehow drew him in. Anyway, he started channeling his energy to Jimmie, whose light grew brighter almost immediately, pushing the darkness back much faster. Jimmie’s sword cuts also seemed to wound the darkness more deeply; Dan knew how to handle a sword much better than Jimmie did.
Now I could also feel Vanora doing her part with an almost fanatical determination. I guess she didn’t want her predictions about my future greatness to be proved wrong. God, I was at death’s door, she was trying to save me, and I still couldn’t see her in a positive light. Was I just the biggest jerk ever…or was I picking up on something about her that wasn’t quite right?
Now I could feel myself getting a little stronger, but the change was so small that it might just have been my imagination. At the very least, I had stuck my friends with hours of hard labor to rescue me…and who knows when another group of trees or some other menace would attack? With me in my current state, they would be at a disadvantage in a combat situation.
Before I had time to worry about that, however, I got hit by the biggest mystic power surge I had ever felt in my life. It was as if every spell caster in Annwn had simultaneously started pouring energy into Nurse Florence and Vanora. I was filled with blinding light that tore through the darkness as if it were old and rotting cloth. It gave me such a jolt, however, that I sank into unconsciousness before I could figure out what was happening.
CHAPTER 17: ONE “LAST” TWIST
I returned to consciousness gradually. First, I was aware of lying on the ground. Then I started smelling things burning nearby. Merlin’s fires must still be blazing. I could sense several people around me, but that jolt of power had given me such a psychic overload that I couldn’t read more than their presences, at least for the moment. I opened my eyes and saw it was still night in Annwn. Carla—or was it Alcina?—was bending over me.
“He’s awake!” she shouted to everyone else. Then she turned quickly back to me. “Tal, you’re going to be all right,” she told me gently as she put her hand on my cheek.
Tal? Not Taliesin?
My mind reading was coming back a little, but only in tiny flashes. Still, it seemed to me as if the person looking into my eyes was Carla. How could that have happened? Perhaps it was better not to look a gift horse in the eyes.
“You will not ever do something like that again!” I couldn’t move my head much, but I recognized Vanora from the voice and general tone—giving orders, as usual.
“If I have to save Khalid, or anybody else—except maybe Dan—I will.” I was going for an authoritative tone, but my voice came out in a whisper, my intended strength lost. The Dan part? Maybe that was a joke, maybe not. I wasn’t completely sure myself, though I guessed I would have to save him, if only for Jimmie’s sake.
Nurse Florence came and knelt beside me. “When are you going to stop acting on impulse like that?”
“Maybe in my next life,” I whispered and grinned a little bit. At least I thought I was grinning. My face felt kind of numb.
“If you are up to it, Tal, you have a visitor.” Suddenly I snapped into a higher state of alertness. A visitor in Annwn? Gwynn perhaps? But how would he have found us? I tried to sit up, but the effort was not entirely successful, and I had to lie back down again.
“Yes, I’d like to see the visitor,” I managed. “It seems rude not to.”
Nurse Florence smiled and stepped aside. Suddenly
bending over me was—no, I had to be hallucinating! I had seen Merlin explode, yet here he was, and looking quite sane and perfectly non-demonic. Just the opposite, in fact. He was once again the benevolent, dignified figure that I remembered, every gray hair in place, beard neatly trimmed, robe spotless except for the subtle arcane designs upon it. In his right hand he carried the highly polished wooden staff that I also remembered well. Before the explosion he had not had it.
“I saw you die,” I whispered lamely.
Merlin laughed heartily. “Taliesin, surely you don’t think you could have defeated me so easily! And I’m hurt you think I would ever let my demonic side take over.”
“Then what was…”
“Oh, just a little creation,” said Merlin dismissively. “He was intended to be a test for anyone who managed to release me from the tower.”
“He almost killed Khalid!” I said, suddenly angry.
“That would be a good reason to avoid taking children on quests,” said Merlin, with just a hint of scolding in his voice. “Rather an odd group of companions you have. The warriors make sense, though their armor is certainly strange, and they appear to be rather a young group. I suppose the two ladies of the lake make sense, though, as you might imagine, I wouldn’t trust a lady of the lake myself. But a child, a child ghost, two ordinary women? When we were at Camelot together, you understood our duty to protect women.” I could see Eva in the distance, clearly annoyed, clearly wanting to say something. Merlin’s presence, however, was so overwhelming that she did not.
