Merlin and the Land of Mists Book Three: Galahad
Page 14
It was an explanation that Galapas had not wanted to make for he knew how Camelot’s king would react to the suggestion but the High Mage was an honest man and would not lie to Camelot’s anointed king.
“How?” King Uther’s voice was full of menace but Galapas knew that he had to continue with what he believed was a very strong possibility as to the cause of the arrival of the Forces of Chaos.
“When Myrrdin Emrys sent Galahad to us,” the High Mage continued, “He broke the Rules of Time. This may have caused a Rift in Time that the Lord of Chaos was able to exploit.”
“So by his actions this Myrrdin Emrys puts my kingdom in danger if not the whole of our world?” Even Galapas could understand his king’s anger for the one thing that King Uther Pendragon had always done, often at great personal danger to his own life, was to defend Camelot and Avalon from any enemy that dared to threaten them.
“Perhaps,” the High Mage answered warily.
“But it was Merlin and Galahad who drove back the Lord of Chaos,” Queen Alona put in.
“They tried,” Galapas corrected his queen, “And they had a dragon that fought for them. But it was not Merlin and Galahad who saved Avalon – it was Mithras Invictus.”
That certainly brought the meeting up with a jolt.
“The Bull Slayer,” King Uther Pendragon said almost in disbelief.
“Mithras Invictus himself,” the High Mage continued, “For only the second time in the last thousand years the greatest of the Elder gods walked on Avalon’s soil. It was he that drove away the Forces of the Chaos and healed the Rift in Time.”
“So the Lord of Chaos cannot return?” Sir Lauriston asked the relief plain in his voice.
“It would be very hard for him,” Galapas said bleakly, “Mithras Invictus cut the Lord of Chaos’ throat from ear to ear very much as he killed the Bull.”
Queen Alona thought that it was best to gloss over that gory detail for this was rather more information than she would have liked to hear.
“I thought that Mithras Invictus had left Avalon,” she said, “And that he cared very little for Camelot or any of us.”
“That is very true, my lady,” Galapas replied grimly, “But he still cares very much for his son.”
“Always Merlin,” the king predictably exploded, “I am sick and tired of hearing his name.”
“Uther don’t you see,” Queen Alona said quite sharply to her husband. “Don’t you see, Merlin was risking his life for Avalon. Without him Mithras Invictus would not have returned.”
Unfortunately there was no stopping King Uther Pendragon, “I will hear no more of this,” he thundered. “We have our own armies to defend Camelot and Avalon. I will not rely on the whim of a Being who has had his time and is not relevant to my kingdom anymore.”
Galapas was not sure that this was a good way to describe Mithras Invictus who after all was the most powerful of the Elder gods – and certainly the most cruel.
“Sire, it is not wise to speak such…” Here Camelot’s High Mage was cut off by his king.
“Silence,” King Uther Pendragon thundered, “I will not be lectured to by you, Galapas.”
“My apologies, sire,” the High Mage quickly put in, “I meant no offence.”
The king was not to be placated and a vein was throbbing at the side of his neck which was never a good sign.
“And since he does not answer my summons,” Camelot’s king continued, “Hear this – Merlin is banished from Camelot on pain of death. If he dares to set foot here he will be executed on the spot. Now leave me – all of you,” he thundered.
And there was little point any of them saying anymore, Galapas, Sir Lauriston and even Queen Alona left Camelot’s Great Throne without saying a word. They left one very irate King Uther Pendragon alone with his thoughts.
HERE ENDS THE THIRD BOOK OF
‘MERLIN AND THE LAND OF MISTS’
THERE WILL BE THREE MORE.
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BOOK FOUR – ‘THE DRUIDS’
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MERLIN AND THE LAND OF MISTS
BOOK FOUR ‘THE DRUIDS’
CHAPTER THREE
AVALON
THE CRYSTAL CAVE
“I don’t understand why Queen Alona had to die,” Merlin shouted at his father, the Elder god, Mithras Invictus, “She was a good lady who was kind to the people of Avalon – and I happened to like her.”
For once the Guardian Spirits had not tried to play their games with Merlin, one look at the boy’s angry face that so resembled that of his father, the greatest and cruellest of the Elder gods had sent them scurrying for safety as the boy had summoned Mithras Invictus in a voice that could not be denied.
The Crystal Cave that was the shrine of the Elder god had seen plenty of shouting matches between the Elder god and his son but even the Guardian Spirits had never seen the boy enchanter in such a towering rage. These Spirits were not without power themselves and could become howling banshees in less time than it takes to tell it but they were more that aware that, compared to the power of the Elder god and that of his son, they were as nothing.
“Why did she have to die?” Merlin yelled again at his father, “She was young and beautiful and everybody loved her.”
“Even so she had to die,” the Elder god bleakly told his son.
“But why?” It made no sense to the boy for Queen Alona had been the one good moderating influence on her husband, the increasingly unstable crowned king of Camelot, King Uther Pendragon.
“You will not question my decisions, Merlin,” Mithras Invictus roared at the boy enchanter in a voice that had terrified whole armies let alone an eleven year old boy.
“And if I do,” Merlin shouted back almost equally as loudly, “What will you do, will you kill me as well, father?”
Such was the force of the anger of the god and that of his son that earth tremors could be felt as far away as Camelot and the Great Stones of Avalon.
“Perhaps,” Mithras bleakly told his son, “If you force me to do it.”
Merlin was well aware that the Elder god could do exactly that for Merlin’s mother had been mortal and so he knew that he too could die.
“Well do it,” the boy dared the Elder god, “Don’t just threaten me, do it – kill me.”
“You are insufferable,” Mithras Invictus said in a quiet tone that was even more threatening than when he had raised his voice.
“Well if I am,” the boy angrily replied, “Then I get it from you.”
“Uther’s queen had to die,” the Elder god was as a judge passing a death sentence, “She had to die for the future of Avalon.” Mithras Invictus spoke dispassionately as if explaining his decision to an idiot which his son most definitely was not.
“You care nothing for Avalon,” Merlin bitterly told his father, “You’ve told me that yourself.”
“Perhaps I don’t,” Mithras Invictus agreed for he knew that the boy spoke the truth in that he had lost interest in Avalon and now spent very little time in the Crystal Cave. “But there is more at stake here than even you can understand. Perhaps one day – but not now.”
“Only because you prevent me from seeing Camelot’s future,” the boy retorted. “Is that not so?”
“It is my wish,” the Elder god thundered back once more at his son, “And that should be reason enough for you.”
“Well it isn’t,” Merlin snapped back, “And why did you prevent me or Galapas from healing her?”
“Galapas does not have the power.”
“Perhaps not,” Merlin admitted, “But I do.”
“I prevented you because I wished to,” the Elder god again spoke as if explaining his decision to an imbecile. “I would not allow it,” he continued, “Alona could not have been the Dragon Mother that Avalon needs. She had to die so that, one day, another can take her place and from her will be born the Dragon, the Dragon of the Pendr
agons.”
“Why did she have to die so horribly?” The boy asked and even the Elder god could hear the hurt and pain in the boy’s voice.
“I do not like Uther Pendragon,” the Elder god again spoke coldly with not a hint of remorse for the pain that his son was suffering. “Uther Pendragon does not respect my shrines and makes no sacrifices to me. I wished him to suffer.”
“Her hair fell out, there were boils all over her body and she choked to death on her own blood. That was cruel – even by your standards, father,” Merlin bitterly told the god.
“I am the Bull Slayer,” Mithras Invictus roared back at his son and his body ran with all the power of the Elder gods, “I am cruel, it is what I have always been and what I always will be. Did you think that it would be easy for you to have a god for a father? If you did then it is time that you grew up, Merlin.”
“There have been plenty of times when I wished that I wasn’t the son of a god, I promise you that, father,” the boy replied and it was a truth that came from his very soul.
Even the elder god was stung by the depth of feeling in the boy’s voice, “You have regretted being my son?” He asked.
“Not so much until now,” Merlin grimly told his father.
“There is too much of your mother in you,” the Elder god said bluntly.
“And I thank the stars for that,” Merlin replied, “I would not want to be like you.”
“It is time for you to leave,” Mithras told his son in a voice that would brook no argument.
“I will leave when I decide to,” the boy told the Elder god in an equally authoritative manner.
For a moment the Elder god and the boy who was his son continued to glare at one another and they were as alike as two peas in a pod even to the defiant way that each of them stood held by their anger.
“And perhaps there is a great deal of me in you as well,” the Elder god ruefully admitted.
“I sincerely hope not,” the boy almost spat back for the cruel death of Camelot’s beautiful queen had been a hurt to him that was almost too much for him to bear.
“You are very young,” Mithras Invictus told his son, “It is easy to be sentimental when you are young.”
“Queen Alona still should not have died,” Merlin replied fiercely, “At least not like that.”
“Would you have the Dark Lord and his Blood Riders ravage Avalon for the next ten thousand years?” The Elder god asked equally as fiercely, “Seen the Army of the Dead suck the life force from every living man, woman and child in Camelot, Avalon and the whole of your World?”
“No, of course not.”
“Then you must trust me in this, the queen had to die,” and once again there was a finality in the way that Mithras Invictus said the words that made Merlin’s blood run cold.
“But to die so horribly,” Merlin repeated and the words seem to come from the boy’s very being for he had been truly fond of Camelot’s lost queen.
“I told you,” the Elder god persisted, it was as if Mithras Invictus lacked the humanity of his son to understand the great unhappiness that the god had brought not just to Merlin but to everyone who had ever met King Uther Pendragon’s gentle queen. “I told you,” the god repeated, “I wished Uther to suffer for I know what he will do and what he will become. He is a small and tainted man, if I did not need him then I would make him suffer a death a thousand times worse than that of his queen. But his time will also come to die, on the Blood of the Bull I promise you that.”
All of a sudden there seemed to be too much anger in the Crystal Cave that was the shrine to the Elder god, there was far too much anger and Merlin was sick of it.
“I think that I want to leave now,” the boy told his father.
Mithras Invictus bowed his head slightly to the boy that resembled him so much but who was also so different in a myriad of ways, “I know this is not easy for you, my son. But one day you will understand and also believe this – I will never let any harm befall you.”
There seemed very little else to say so with a shrug of his shoulders Merlin turned away from the Elder god who was his father and made his way back towards the hills of Avalon and Manta Gore.
END OF THE SNEAK PEEP
“Merlin and the Land of Mists”
Book Four - ‘The Druids’
is available now.