“Your pardon, John Taylor. It seems I have been away so long I have forgotten my manners. No doubt the Nightside has changed much since my time.”
“Not that much,” said Kae.
“But it must have changed some, to produce a man like John Taylor, worthy to bear Excalibur,” Arthur said firmly. “The elves are the enemy now, so let us concentrate on them. I remember Mab, of course. Magnificent creature. Such a shame, what happened between her and Tam O’Shanter.” He saw the blank look on our faces. “I see that not all the tales from my time have survived the ages. Very well; I had not been long on the Throne of England, when it seemed to both Merlin and to me that I needed a Queen at my side, and especially one who would help unite my fractured land. So we settled on Queen Mab of the Fae, in the hope that such a union would put an end to the long enmity between Man and elf, and allow me to concentrate my armies on the lesser human foes that threatened my new-won land.
“Queen Mab let it be known that she was not entirely opposed to the idea; and so I sent an envoy to the Fae, to work out the details. A certain young man, new-come to my Court, one Tam O’Shanter. Not a knight as yet, but he aspired to be one and had already made his name famous throughout the land through many deeds of daring and chivalry. So I gave him this task, to prove himself worthy. Thinking also, that since he was not an actual Knight of the Round Table, and had never drawn a sword against the elves, the Unseelie Court might find it easier to accept him. He was supposed to win them over, with his charm and devil-may-care attitude, so much like theirs. He wasn’t supposed to fall in love with the Queen; and she wasn’t supposed to fall in love with him.
“It all went wrong so very quickly. They must have known their love was impossible, that it could never be accepted, but that only made them declare it all the more openly. A Queen must marry a King; that is the way of it. Tam, my brave young Tam, duelled with an elf who challenged the Queen over her choice, and killed him. And then that elf’s brothers killed Tam, in honour’s name. And that ... was that. Mab was never the same afterwards. She grew increasingly ... strange, even for an elf, and broke off all contact with Camelot.
“I’ve never had much luck with women.
“King Oberon and Queen Titania, you say ... Can’t say I recognise the names, but the only contact I had with elves after Mab’s rejection was killing enough of them to put them in their place. They had to be stamped on, hard, so I could be free to deal with human enemies. And even that went wrong. I spent so long on the move, away from Camelot, fighting my battles all over England, that my people came to believe I didn’t care about them any more. That’s how Mordred was able to raise his army. And the land I made was split apart by civil war. Always the worst kind, that sets brother against brother. And father against son.”
He stood there a while, his gaze far away, and none of us said anything. We were in the presence of history and legend, something greater even than the Nightside was used to. Eventually, Arthur shrugged off the past and looked directly at Kae.
“So, brother, what have you been doing, all these years?”
Kae explained quickly how he had fashioned the London Knights, to protect the people and keep King Arthur’s dream alive. Arthur nodded, and cut him off again.
“Who better to keep a dream alive than the man who inspired it? Brothers, together, fighting for what is right.”
“Can I ask?” I said. “Very respectfully, of course, but ... Why do we need King Arthur, specifically, to stop the elves? I could name any number of people in the Nightside who’ve fought angels, gods, and other-dimensional entities. Myself included.”
“Right,” said Suzie. “Elves die as easily as anyone else. If you aim properly.”
“But only Arthur can stop the fighting before it starts,” said Kae. “He was the only one the elves ever respected, and feared enough, to listen to. They often came to him at Camelot to sort out their disagreements when they couldn’t do it themselves. Mab and Oberon and Titania will listen to you, Arthur. They will recognise your authority and your impartiality.”
“And my willingness to kill the whole lot of them if I can’t get them to see sense,” said King Arthur.
“That, too,” said Kae.
“I like him,” said Suzie.
“My knights are ready and waiting, to do what is necessary,” said Kae. “At your command, of course.”
“They’re your knights, Kae,” said Arthur.
“Then command me, Sire,” said Kae.
“Where is Merlin?” Arthur said suddenly. “He knows the Fae better than anyone; we could use his advice. I did think he’d be here, waiting to greet me, when I came up out of the grave he put me in.”
“Merlin is dead and gone,” I said. I looked at Kae. Neither of us had anything more we felt like saying.
“Damn,” said Arthur. “He always had the best ideas.”
We showed him the other grave, and he stood beside it. “Yes, he was here. I can feel it.” He knelt, surprisingly gracefully for a man in full armour, and trailed the fingers of one hand through the grave dirt. “Merlin, couldn’t you wait for me, old friend?”
And then he stood up abruptly and stepped back, as his touch triggered a message left behind by the grave’s occupant. Merlin appeared before us, a vision of a man long dead, floating on the air above his own burial place. But this Merlin looked young and in his prime, and very much alive. How he saw himself, perhaps. He grinned easily, his hands planted on his hips, as though he’d pulled off the best trick in the world. He looked straight at King Arthur, as though he could somehow see him, even across the years. And given who and what he was, perhaps he could.
“Arthur,” he said, his voice seeming to come from a long way away, “one last confer, before I lay me down to rest in the grave that’s waiting for me. There are things I know, things I have Seen, of the world that’s coming. It isn’t what either of us thought it would be, but then, that’s life for you. Welcome to the future, Arthur. You won’t like it. But don’t let it get to you. The details may change, but people are still people. Unfortunately. Stick to the job in hand, and you’ll be fine.”
“They say the elves will war upon themselves unless I can find a way to stop them,” said Arthur. “How am I supposed to reason with the most contrary people that ever were? What if I can’t find a common ground for them?”
Merlin smiled briefly, as though he’d heard every word. “Then raise up the armies of Man, Arthur, and lead them in a war against the elves. Wipe them out, down to the last of their kind. There is no other option.”
Arthur shook his head stubbornly. “I have seen enough of war, and extinction, down the centuries. I have dreamed history, and much of it was a nightmare. I have fought elves in my time, it was my duty as defender of my people; but I never wanted to see them gone from the world. They had many fine qualities. They were beautiful and brave, magical and marvellous. They were glorious in their day.”
Merlin smiled. “You always were the wise one, Arthur. Do as you think best, my King. You always did. Good-bye, old friend. Good-bye.”
And he was gone. One last vision, of a man who was so much more and less than he could have been.
“Good-bye, Merlin,” said Arthur. “May you know peace, at last.” He turned abruptly away from the open grave to face the rest of us. “Merlin did his best to teach me some simple magics, when I was younger and he was older, though I confess I was never a very attentive student. But I did learn a few useful things. I think it is my turn to show you a vision, my friends, of the elves that were.”
He moved his left hand through a series of sudden, abrupt gestures, and a great vista opened up before us. The end of the cellars faded away, replaced by a great green expanse that stretched away to a distant horizon. A huge, dark, primordial forest stood out against the skyline, shadowy and secretive, mysterious and menacing. Untamed. A vision of old England as it was in Arthur’s day. Standing between us and the forest was a great elven city: tall towers connected by delicate walkways, gold and silver buildings, shining bright in the sunlight, with vast glowing domes and wide-open chambers, all of it magnificent to the eye. The lines were smooth and flowing, more organic than constructed, grown more than built. The whole city sparkled in the clear light, looking like every fairy tale we ever believed in as children. Breath-stoppingly beautiful, alive and protective, in a way few human cities ever are. Beside the city lay a great natural open harbour, where massive elven sailing ships lay at rest, so intricately made and fashioned that they were works of art in their own right.