Merlin

'Which would be madness itself, would it not?'

The stranger laughed again and instantly I hated the sound.

'Speak plainly now,' I said, challenging him, 'what do you want of me?'

He met my challenge with his empty smile. 'Just to speak with you a little.'

'You have come a long way for nothing, then. I do not wish to speak to anyone.'

'Perhaps you would not mind listening,' he replied, picking up a stick. He scratched in the dirt for a few moments, then looked up at me suddenly and, finding my eyes on him, said, 'I am not without influence in this world. I could do things for you.'

'Do this for me then, if your influence extends so far: go away.'

'I could do great things for you, Myrddin Emrys. Tell me what you want – anything you desire, Myrddin, I will do it, or see that it is done.'

'I have told you what I desire.'

He moved closer. 'Do you know who I am?'

'Should I?'

'Perhaps not, but I know who you are. I know you, Myrddin. You see, I am an Emrys, too.'

At his words, a slow, inexorable dread crept over me. I felt very old and very weak. He reached out to me and his touch was cold as stone. 'I can help you, Myrddin,' he went on. 'Let me help you.'

'I need no one's help. This place is a palace,' I told him, lifting my hand to my barren surroundings. 'I have all I need.'

'I can give you all you desire.'

'I desire peace,' I snapped. 'Can you give me that?'

'I can give you forgetting – it amounts to the same thing in the end.'

Forgetting… that would be a blessing. The hateful images pursue me, they haunt my waking, they steal my sleep. To forget – ah, but at what price?

'It seems to me that I might forget the good along with the bad,' I told him.

The stranger grinned happily and shrugged. 'Good, bad – what of that? It is all the same in the end.' He leaned still closer. 'I can do more for you. I can give you power, Myrddin. Authority such as you have never dreamed existed. It can be yours.'

'I am content with such power as I have, why should Merlin the Wild need more?'

His answer was quick, and I wondered how many others he had tempted with his vapid promises. Oh, yes, I knew who he was now. My time with Dafyd was never in vain. And, though I was no longer certain of the Guiding Hand, I could see no sense in going over to the enemy.

'Myrddin,' he said, making my name a mockery on his lips, 'it is such a little thing for me to do. I would do it in an instant. Look,' he raised his stick and pointed out across Celyddon's dark folds to the east. 'There is where the sun rises, Myrddin. There is where the heart of the Empire beats.' And I seemed to see, glimmering on the far horizon, the imperial city with its strong walls and palaces. 'As emperor, you would i rule the world. You could destroy the hated Saecsens once and for all. Think of all the suffering you could save. One wave of your hand, Myrddin, that is all it would take.' He held out his hand to me.

'Come with me, Myrddin, together we could make you the greatest emperor this world has ever seen. You would be rich beyond all riches; your name would last for ever.'

'But Myrddin would not,' I told him. 'You would see to that as well. Be gone, I am tired.'

'Are you such an honourable man?' he spat contemptuously. 'Are you so righteous?'

'Words, words. I claim nothing.'

'Myrddin… look at me. Why will you not look at me? We are friends, you and I. Your lord has left you, Myrddin. It is time to find one more trustworthy. Come with me.' His fingers were nearly touching mine now. 'Come, but we must go at once.'

'Why is it that when you speak I hear only the vacant howl of the tomb?'

That made him angry. His face changed and he was formidable. 'You think you are better than I am? I will destroy you, Myrddin.'

'As you destroyed Morgian?'

His eyes gleamed maliciously. 'She is beautiful, is she not?'

'Death wears many faces,' I said, 'but its stench is always the same.'

The heat of his anger leapt up instantly. 'I give you one last chance – in fact, I give you Morgian, my finest creation.' He assumed a soothing aspect as he thought of this new tactic. 'She is yours, Merlin. Do what you like with her. Yes, you will be her master. Take her. You can even kill her if you wish. Destroy her as she destroyed your father.'

Black anger swarmed before my eyes like wasps. My body began to shake. I tasted bile on my tongue. I jumped to my feet. 'You destroyed my father!' I cried, hearing my voice echo in the long valley below. I stood and put two fingers in my mouth and whistled high and long. 'Leave while you can.'

'You cannot send me away,' the creature said. 'I go when and where I will.'

At that moment, the she-wolf came running up the trail, snarling, ears flat to her head, fangs bared.

He laughed. 'Do not think to frighten me away. Nothing on earth can harm me.'

'No? In the name of Jesu the Christ be gone!'

The wolf closed on him. He turned and dodged aside as she leapt, jaws slashing for his throat. Still, he had moved, and was already fleeing back down the mountainside as Wolf gathered herself for a second leap. She would have given chase, but I called her to my side, where, still snarling, I patted her head until the hackles melted into her back and she was calm once more.

So, my first visitor left me without a farewell. I was still trembling when Wolf growled once more, low in her throat, a warning growl. I looked down the defile, thinking to see the stranger returning. And there was someone approaching, but even from a fair distance I could tell it was another.

He was a gaunt stick of a creature, rough featured and hairy, wearing pelts of at least six different beasts. He stumped up the mountainside with the long, regular strides of one used to long journeys afoot, looking neither right nor left, but coming on apace.

And well he might, for a storm had sprung up out of nothing, as it can do in the mountains. Rags of black clouds were flying down the mountainside and I could taste rain on the cooling wind. Mist rolled over the rocks, taking the visitor from my sight.

I waited, comforting the she-wolf at my side. 'Be still, Wolf, we will hear what this one has come to say. Perhaps this guest will be more to our liking.' Although that did not appear likely, because of Taliesin's promise, I was of a mind to see it through.

He came in sight again, stepping from the mist when he drew near, and hailed us in a bold voice. 'Hail, Wild Man of the Wood! I bring you greetings from the world of men.'

'Sit down, friend, there is water if you thirst.'

'Water will serve where wine is scarce,' he replied. I watched him as he scooped water into his hand and slurped it up noisily. He did not appear a man over-used to holding the guest cup, but what of that? Did I look a king of Dyfed?

'It is thirsty work, climbing this slate mountain of yours, Myrddin.'

'How do you know my name – if it is my name?'

'Oh, I have known you for a very long time. Should a servant not know his master?'

I stared at him. His face was long and horsy; his brows black, his cheeks red from the sun and wind. His hair hung to his shoulders, loose like a woman's. I know I had never seen him before.

'You speak of masters and servants. What makes you think I have anything to do with either?' I asked, and then framed a more pertinent question. 'How did you know where to find me?'

'The one who sent me told me where to find you.' That was all he said, but his words made my heart leap within me.

'Who sent you?'

'A friend.'

'Does this friend have a name?'

'Everyone has a name – as you well know.' He scooped up more water and then wiped his hands on his skin jerkin. 'My name, for instance, is Annwas Adeniawc.'

A most unusual name – it meant Ancient Winged Servant. 'I see no wings, and you are not as ancient as your name implies. And there are indeed many masters in this world, and even more servants.'