Merlin

Boar agreed with his chieftains and declared, 'I have heard you, brothers, and I agree. Now I will do something about this, as you shall see.'

It so happened that the young eagles had grown up and had become restless in the mountains. Said one to the other, 'I am not lying when I say I am sick of living like this while pigs overrun our forest with impunity.'

'You speak my thoughts exactly, brother. Let us go down to the forest and seek redress. It may be that we will win our own back. If not, we will at least be dead and no longer take notice of what vile creatures are ruling in our place.'

At once they flew off, streaking like comets through the clouds towards the forest.

Fox awoke from a happy nap to see a very disturbing sight: an army of pigs arrayed against him, lead by Boar, his thick pelt bristling. 'What news, friends?' Fox asked.

'It seems to us that you have dealt falsely with us,' declared Boar. 'Frankly, this state of affairs cannot continue.'

'Am I to believe what I hear?' wondered Fox. 'How can you say this to me? I have given you all I have, keeping but little for myself to live on – the rest is yours.'

'Indeed, you give us the rest – which is little enough for earning the hate of all the other creatures,' grunted Boar. 'Now we want the best!'

Though they were only swine, they were not ignorant. They knew that Fox had been blaming all the problems of his reign on them. Thinking quickly, Fox said, 'There may be something in what you say. I must think me how best to right this wrong I have done you.'

Boar turned a suspicious bead of an eye on Fox, but said, 'What will you do?'

'I will give you a further half of all I possess, which will make you equal with me. We will rule the forest together, you and I – which, it seems to me, is a far better bargain than your like will find in many long years of looking.'

Boar liked what he heard, for Fox was ever clever at saving his fine red pelt and knew right well the soothing words to say. Still, Boar would not be made the fool; so he said, 'Saying is one thing, doing is another. Give me a token of your troth and I will believe you.'

Fox made tears come to his eyes. 'This, and after all I have done for you. Well, if there is no other way -'

'There is none,' declared Boar confidently.

'Then I will do as you require.' With that he turned and started off through the forest.

'Wait!' cried Boar, and all the pigs with him shouted, too. 'Where do you think to go?'

'Why, you are not so stupid as to think I keep my treasures hereabouts, where anyone can stumble over them?' Fox replied. 'I must go to my den to fetch the token you require.'

'Go then,' sniffed Boar. 'We will await you here.'

And Fox turned tail and ran away.

The pigs waited through the day and then through the evening and then through the night, but Fox did not return. And, when dawn came rose-fingered in the east, Boar roused himself and said, 'I am thinking that Fox is not returning. Nevertheless, we will wait until midday, and if our lord has not shown hide or hair, we shall surely go after him, and he will rue the day he deceived us.'

Needless to say, Fox did not return. For, by midday, he was far, far away, going to ground in his own lands in the west. And in their rage the pigs began uprooting trees and bushes and flinging them into the air with their tusks. Meanwhile, the two eagles, flying over the forest, looked down and saw the commotion the pigs were making over Fox's disappearance.

'Well, brother,' said the older eagle, 'if we are to have our revenge and save our lands, it appears that we must be the first to find Fox, or there will be nothing left of him worth finding.'

So, on they flew to harry Fox in his den. And that is where they are flying even now.

I stood in silence with my cloak wrapped round me. 'My tale is finished. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!'

The warriors filling Vortigern's hall stared at me nervously; the chief druid gripped his staff with both hands in a paroxysm of impotent rage. He had heard my children's tale and understood its hidden truth, and it angered him that I saw so much so clearly. He knew, at last he knew in his very soul, he was no match for me.

There, Joram,' I said softly. 'Now you know the power of a true bard.'

Yes, and soon the rest of the world would remember as well.

You kings asleep in your mead halls, wake! Gather your warbands, arm your warriors, fill their hands with strong steel!

You warriors sunk in your cups at your lord's table, arise! Burnish your weapons, sharpen your blades, scour your warcaps, and paint bright your shields.

You people of the Island of the Mighty, stand! Stop your trembling; take heart, and make ready rich welcome. For the Soul of Britain is stirring again. Merlin is coming home.

BOOK THREE

PROPHET

ONE

Vortigern had gone to ground in the west, in his native lands, choosing high Yr Widdfa's bleak hills for his last battleground. There he hoped to erect a fortress strong enough to keep the young eagles from stripping the flesh from his brittle bones, strong enough to keep the battling boar from uprooting him.

For it was as I had said in my story, fox Vortigern had played his last trick and now cowered in the hills, awaiting the judgement of those he had wronged, and those whose greed he had inflamed. The young eagles, Aurelius and Uther – younger brothers of Cons tans, murdered son of the slain Constantine, first High King of Britain – gathered warriors in the south. Hengist, the boar, awaited the arrival of reinforcements for his Saecsen warhost from his homeland. It would be a race to see which enemy would reach miserable, driven, fox Vortigern first.

Vortigern knew all this, of course, and early the next morning, as Iwas preparing to leave, the High King called me to him.

'I would not detain you unduly, Myrddin, for I esteem you highly. But if you would tarry with me but a little, I would speak with you, and I would deem it a service worth high reward.'

I was eager to be away, anxious now to seek out my mother in Ynys Avallach and let her know I was still alive. It rankled me to delay even a moment more; although I held no ill will towards the High King, there was nothing more to say to Vortigern. I had done what I had come to do, and even now word was winging across the land that I had returned.

I could hear the voices:

Myrddin Wylt is come!… Merlin the Enchanter has appeared!… The Great Emrys is alive again, awakened from his long sleep… Did you see? He defeated the druid bards ofthe High King and had them all beheaded… Heis here, I have seen him, Merlinus Ambrosius, King ofDyfed, has returned for his kingdom!… Did you hear? He has foretold Vortigern's doom!… Merlin lives again!

Yes, the Emrys had returned with the doom of the usurper in his hand. Vortigern, for all his sins and vices, was no mouse. What he had done he had always done boldly, with impunity. If his doom was to catch him up, he was game to hold it off as long as he could, by whatever means possible. But he wanted to know what shape it would take, so to prepare himself to fight or to flee – which is why he sent for me now.

'I have nothing more to tell you, Lord Vortigern,' I said. 'There is nothing else to say.'

'Perhaps not, but I would speak nonetheless,' the High King replied. He lowered himself heavily into his chair, a handsome thing carved with Imperial eagles on the armrests. His bloated face was haggard in the early morning light. 'I did not sleep last night,' he paused and I waited, 'for fear, Myrddin, for fear of a dream… '

He looked at me cannily. 'They tell me you are one who knows portents and dreams. I would have you tell me the meaning of mine, for I fear it greatly and believe it betokens much.'