Pendragon

'It is not for me to lead such warriors,' I demurred. 'Though I would gladly stand beside the best of them, the call is not mine to give. Certainly, a worthy king can be found to lead them.'

'If that is what you wish,' she said, and stepped aside. And I saw behind her another warrior, a lordly form, a figure I knew well.

'Arthur…' I gasped. 'Say he is not dead.'

'I have already told you,' Ganieda replied.

'As long as men love courage-I know,' my voice grew tight with desperation. 'Please, say it all the same.'

'He lives,' she stated firmly. 'But he, like all the others, awaits your call. And he will lead the war host of Britain in the battle to come. Use them well, my soul. They are the last, and when they are gone the world will never more see their like.'

She turned and began walking swiftly away. 'Now come with me,' she called, 'there is more I would show you. But we must hurry, for my time with you is almost finished.'

Taking a last look at the sleeping warriors, I hastened after Ganieda and soon found myself in another gallery-this one of uncut stone, a natural tunnel. After several hundred paces, we entered a rough cavern. Water glimmered dully in the centre of the floor; ragged teeth of stone dripped water into the black pool, drop by solitary drop.

Ganieda stood at the edge of the pool. 'Come stand beside me, Merlin,' she said, beckoning me nearer. 'Look upon the water.'

'A Seeing Bowl,' I remarked, thinking the pool filled with the black oak water of druid lore.

'It is the Seeing Bowl of Annwn,' she confirmed. Dread filled her voice; she stretched forth her hand. 'Look you, and tell me what you see.'

I looked and saw the dull glimmer of the water's surface, agitated by the steady slow drops from the stone teeth above. But beneath the ripples I perceived a young woman. 'It is a maiden,' I said.

The maiden turned as if looking up at me from the pool. But no, she could not see me, for she turned away again and began walking. All at once I could see all around and beyond her. 'She is moving through a forest,' I continued. 'It is an ancient forest and the path is narrow, but she knows it well. The maiden hurries, but not from fear. She is not afraid, for she knows where she is going. Ah, there, she has come into a meadow in the wood…'

I watched, fascinated by this Virgin of the Forest as she entered the meadow which contained a pool fed by a clear-running spring. She walked to the pool, holding out her hands. Two men appeared among the trees; by their look and manner I understood that they were dying of thirst. The dying men saw the water and rushed to the pool.

The first man fell on his knees at the spring, dipped his hand and drank, but the water turned poisonous in his mouth and he died, clutching his throat. The second man approached the Virgin of the Forest and consulted her, at which she produced a cup and offered it to him.

Taking the bowl between his hands, the man filled the cup from the spring. He drank from the cup and his life was restored; he left rejoicing in the wisdom of the maiden.

The image changed and I saw the maiden once more, but grown: she stood with one foot on high Yr Widdfa and the other on the banks of Mor Hafren; her head touched the sky and stars glinted in her tresses. In one hand she held a forest, and in the other the cup, the marvellous cup. And as she walked across the land, the spirits of the ancient Britons awakened. And the Island of the Mighty flourished once more.

Ganieda led me from the pool. We moved farther into the cavern, descending all the while, penetrating deeper into the heart of the earth. Through cracks and crevices on either side, I glimpsed the ruddy glow of molten rock seething up from below. In the lurid light I beheld strange creatures frozen in stone – massive muscled behemoths with bony shieldplates and claws the size of scythes, their strange and ponderous bodies trapped in postures of predation or defence; menacing reptiles, their hideous flat heads bristling with spikes. I looked with dread fascination upon them, and wondered at the dire purpose of their creation.

Deeper and still deeper we went, past seams of gold spangling the walls of my Underworld palace, gleaming in the flames of subterranean fires. I beheld halls of crystal and precious stones. Turning neither right nor left, Ganieda led me through the endless halls of Annwn until at last we came to a rock ledge, where she halted.

The place proved a shore of stone, rimming a limitless underground sea which I viewed by virtue of seething patches of burning oil afloat on the surface of this Underworld ocean. We stood together overlooking the dreadful deep, where no breath of wind ever stirred, nor sea-swell billowed, nor ebbtide flowed. It was a vast, dark water grave under a stony sky, an iron-hued firmament, solid, unchanging, inviolable.

'I must leave you now, Merlin, my heart,' she said, turning to me, her eyes full of sorrow at our parting. 'Where you are going I cannot return, and where I am going you cannot enter.'

'No, Ganieda – not yet.' I reached out for her, but she stepped away.

'Even so,' my beautiful one replied, 'we must part. There is nothing more I can do. If you are to live, you must go back the way you came.'

She took two steps backwards, placed her fingertips to her lips, kissed them, and raised her slender white hand to me. 'Fare well, best beloved,' she said. 'Remember, I will come for you one day.'

'Please, Ganieda,' I cried, grief surging up like a wave within me, 'do not leave me! Please!’

‘God be with you always, Merlin.'

With that she disappeared, leaving me to stand alone on the stone ridge above the underground sea. But not for long, for I began to run to the place where I had last seen Ganieda. My foot slipped on a bit of broken rock and I fell, striking my knee on the ledge with a tremendous crack.

I squeezed my eyes shut against the pain and when I opened them again, the darkness was gone. The luminous sky had likewise vanished, and I stood at a ship's solid prow once more.

FIVE

Barinthus bellowed out a warning, and the ship shuddered to a stop in the silt of a nearby bank. Aedd and Gwenhwyvar disembarked at once, sliding easily over the rail and wading the few paces to shore to wait while the other ships landed and the horses were brought. I watched diem as if still in a dream, and then moved to join them.

As I stepped towards the rail, Llenlleawg stooped where I had been standing and retrieved a cloth-wrapped object. 'Emrys,' he called after me. 'Will you leave your harp behind?'

My harp? I stared at the bundle in his hands. How had that come to be there? I returned to where he stood and lifted the cloth to reveal the harp I knew full well I had left behind in Arthur's camp.

You must go back the way you came.

Knowledge came to me in a rush like a gust of wind, and with it came certainty. Yes!

I raised my head and lifted my voice in song:

I am the True Emrys, Immortal, I am old;

I am forever young.

I am the True Emrys, Immortal,

Gifted of the Giving Giver

With a perceiving spirit.

I am a bard,

A Battlechief of Knowledge;

Though blind, I will continue to see God.

I do not vouchsafe the secrets of my craft

To unenlightened creatures.

I am a wise guide;

I am a righteous judge.

I am a king whose kingdom is unseen.

I am the servant of the Great Light;

Though blind, I will continue to see God.

All saints and angels,

All things in heaven and earth bear witness:

Word Singer, World-Singer,

Myrddin ap Taliesin am I.