Merlin was overbearingly chipper as we made camp for the night. I guess it didn’t take a wizard of legendary power to tell I was feeling a touch wrung out by recent experiences.
At my insistence, he’d guided me through the use of my Qi to help dig Ealdgyð a proper grave. He’d grumbled, at first, as to further wasting of our ‘precious training time’, but following a full and frank exchange of views – I’m not proud that I think I made him cry a little – we decided I was right.
It turned out that if I coated my hands in my Qi, they dove through the earth like every metaphor involving knives and butter you can come up with. I’d checked with him that burial was appropriate at this time in history. I thought it was, but then I was acutely aware that much of my historical knowledge was through ‘Horrible Histories’, and whilst their songs were bangers, it was sensible to check with a primary source.
Plant her or burn her: I doubt her spirit cares. She was alive, and now she’s dead. Such is fate.
“What happened to your body?”
There was a pause. As far as I know, it’s still rotting in my tower—the perils of being utterly terrifying and asking for some ‘me’ time. The fact the realm seems moderately calm suggests no one has found me yet.
We’d briefly experimented with my generating a fireball for a no-fuss cremation, but as Wizard-Kilgore had waxed rather too lyrical about the smell of burning Qi in the morning, burial it had been.
After laying her to rest, I used a Qi-enforced finger to sketch some words onto a cairn I placed above the mound. I wasn’t sure what I’d written translated all that well into Anglo-Saxon but Merlin assured me it did.
So, we’d abandoned the village leaving a newly raised barrow complete with a giant gravestone. It read: Ealdgyð: I am a Woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal Woman, that’s me.
Angelou works for all time periods, Merlin murmured as we slowly walked away.
As we walked, we discussed where to take the next stage of our journey. I’d initially wanted to wait for the women and children to return, but we had no way of knowing how long they’d seek to stay away. Likewise, trying to pursue them through the trees would be a foolish and frustrating endeavour. If Merlin knew what and where the ‘Dark Stone’ was – and I suspected he did – he wasn’t letting on.
That led us to our second major disagreement of that early morning. “We need to warn the other villages about what’s coming,” I’d said. The look in the eyes of the Dicks was not one that I was going to forget easily.
My dear, even if I knew the direction their army would choose, I still would not help you.” I started to interrupt, but he spoke over me. Disembodied voices do that a lot. “I did not bring your soul to this realm in order to run hither and thither around isolated border villages. You’re thinking too small about all this.
“I don’t think what was planned for the women in this village is ‘too small.’
Neither do I. But what I can sense is coming will make a little raping and pillaging in the outlying regions pale into insignificance. What you see right now as a terrible outrage will become these people’s daily experience unless we are strong enough to stop it. I need you to help me to forestall a cataclysm that will fall across the lands. Once the world knows I have … passed, then what occurred here will become minor compared to the destruction wrought by those that no longer have to fear my wrath.
“Big M, I like you, and from what I’ve read, you were quite the spell flinger. But I feel you’re slightly over-egging the ‘I am death, destroyer of worlds’ vibe. I mean, you threw a fireball at a crow yesterday, and you’ve still not stopped moaning about it. At this stage, you’re coming across a bit Ross-playing-rugby-to-impress-Emily.”
The road around me shimmered, and I was stood on a battlefield – directly in the middle of two rapidly converging armies. Before I could shout in alarm, time slowed and then stopped as Merlin spoke.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
I may need to be careful with my use of Qi to affect the real world, but it is reasonably easy to pull your spirit back into my memories. This is the field of Carlion. The stories will tell that this was a great victory for Arthur and that I counselled mercy for the fleeing rebels. The truth was different.
I can’t tell one group of mud-smeared warriors from another. There are no flags to be seen, just hundreds upon hundreds of angry, shouting men paused in the act of running towards each other. One side had a massive numerical advantage; even my limited tactical knowledge could tell you that.
Arthur was still a boy running from his nurse when this battle was fought. Despite my attempts to broker peace, many of the tribes would not accept Uther as the Pendragon. They did not recognise his marriage to Igraine as valid. And, most of all, they would not countenance Arthur as heir. My prophecy was clear, yet they still would not be satisfied. Six of them – the mightiest, of course - raised their armies and brought them to lay siege before Carlion Castle.
“And you tipped the scales? That’s the point of showing me this? You showed up, and it made them realise it was better to surrender than to fight you?”
No. I killed them all.
Time restarted with a colossal lightning flash that struck inches from my feet. I looked up and saw a dark figure floating ten, fifteen feet above my head. Corporeal Merlin had some swagger, I can tell you that. Blue energy crackled the sky around him for a moment and then lashed out, cracking like a whip, to strike the larger force.
He did not speak. He did not give them a chance to change their minds. He just quickly, efficiently and with great precision slaughtered them all.
I watched, in horror, at the impact of those strikes on the press of humanity so close to me. People exploded. They melted. They were burned alive within suits of armour.
Fortunately, Merlin had clearly decided to pay the extra Qi for the entire 4D experience, and I was treated to every smell and sound of the massacre.
“How many?” My voice was strained even to my ears.
The six kings each bought thirty thousand spears to Carlion. None of them left the field alive. The realm is still recovering from the devastation this wrought upon the population.
The vision faded, thankfully, and I was back on the road we were following away from the village.
That was twenty-five years ago. That was the last time anyone, other than the odd raiding party, thought to push back against Uther’s rule. But his time of passing draws closer, and I intended to be at Arthur’s side when that occurred in order to ensure stability. Without me and the certainty of eradication I embody, I fear we will see Carlion repeated up and down the country.
“But that doesn’t happen. I know about King Arthur. Excalibur. Guinevere. He’s crowned and rules for years, and then there’s the bust-up with Mordred, and he goes for a rest in Avalon.”
And am I there for all that?
“Yes. Ah, I see what you mean.”
I fear someone is seeking to alter history. I am not such a fool as to have allowed myself to pass from this realm easily. There is another’s hand in my death. But, what is more, even should I have erred so grievously as to allow myself to have died of old age, this version of my spirit should have been able to identify an heir quickly. There should not have been any necessity for me to scrape the bottom of the barrel for the last two in this realm with any potential.
“Hey! And ‘hey’ on Wulfnoð’s behalf too.”
I am sorry, my dear. But that is the truth. Significant efforts have been made to break with settled history. I have been pushed from the board, and nearly all possible replacement pieces have been removed. It is hard to conceive the power required to seek to achieve this, and I do not know why. What I do know, though, is that someone must stand at Arthur’s side when he takes the throne. If not, the realm will descend into chaos.
“And you think you can skill up my Qi use in time to keep everyone in line and stop a civil war?”
Goodness me, no. But I think with your Qi and my know-how, we can give the impression of ungodly power long enough for Arthur to get everything in hand. Hopefully, before anyone spots we’re bluffing. Be under no illusions, my dear; we are not the main characters in this little story. Our job is to make sure Prince Arthur becomes King Arthur and that he has the time and space to unite the country against the Saxons. Lacking a body of my own to accomplish that, I need your help.
I felt a little deflated at that.
When I had been cycling my Qi, there had been a moment when I felt I was capable of anything: that I had taken the first step on a journey towards challenging the heavens. To hear that all Merlin saw in me was as part of a relatively low rent confidence trick did not quite fit the bill.
“So, we’re basically going to ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ the Dark Age?”
Only if we change the entire plot so Bernie possesses Larry and Richard to ensure Vito becomes the Godfather. So, no. Not anything like that.
“Solid reference knowledge, there, Big M.”
I try.
Hey, it was not like I had much else going on at the moment.
“Okay. I’m in. So, what’s the first lesson?”