by Gail Merritt
19.
Ends and Beginnings
By the time we reached Vellin, Llewid’s army was already gathering on the crest of a hill opposite the Angirat. The King had invited Llewid to the Palace for a final attempt to avoid bloodshed and the false Green Mantle stood beside Silver Mantle to greet him. We skirted the Angirat and came up the goat tracks to the Talarin. I tried to reach Black Mantle with my mind but there was nothing. I suspected that the brown witch was able to block my thoughts escaping to others. She knew I was here but was confident that she had successfully usurped my identity. I had to rely on my dearest ally, the fox. He slipped inside the tower, through an inconspicuous hole below the base of the kitchen door sill. As we waited, I wondered how many times he had used this exit to conduct his own private life.
He returned with a rather short-tempered Black Mantle. ‘This creature has been telling me a ridiculous tale about another Megwin.’ He looked smaller than ever and Yared growled. ‘And you can keep your opinions to yourself wolf. We can’t all be beautiful and strong!’ His lips tightened. ‘Clearly you are Megwin.’
‘Then, who is that?’ I turned him to face the Palace where the King and his visitors were moving through the gardens towards the King’s private chambers. His jaw dropped. It took longer than I expected to convince him of the truth but after finding he could not contact Silver Mantle, he agreed that the false Megwin was blocking all Souran communication.
‘I have to get into the Palace,’ I told him. ‘Llewid is using this meeting to give his army more time to assemble, or even to get close enough to the King to assassinate him. We have to warn the King.’
‘You can’t get in, but I have an idea.’ Black Mantle led me back into the Talarin, to the small tower closest to the Palace. This was where Blue Mantle and Red Mantle had their private rooms and from Blue Mantle’s room, we took an elaborate mirror, setting it up on the roof of the tower. We were lucky. Silver Mantle had stepped into the garden with Princess Melia, who was crying. The witch could not block everyone, so she concentrated on those members of the Souran closest to the person of the King. She must have assumed that while Silver Mantle was busy with the Princess, she was not a danger to Llewid. That was our chance. We aimed the mirror until it danced on Silver Mantle’s face and she looked up towards the tower. The shock of the two of us yelling inside her head made her clutch her temples. I stopped and began to set the mirror carefully down on the floor, letting Black Mantle explain what had happened. I could see from her expression that the story was making more sense to her than it was to him.
‘So that is why Green Mantle was unkind to the Princess.’
‘What happened?’ I asked. She seemed confused. She was about to tell me, but something changed her mind. ‘She was just unkind. You can see how upset the Princess is. Do either of you have a plan?’ She had skilfully changed the subject.
‘Confront the brown witch and help the King defeat Llewid!’ I cried. She approved of my sentiment, but the depth of my planning did not impress her, and I had to confess that I had not thought of a plan. All I knew was that I had to find a way to merge my two selves once more. Silver Mantle did not comment on that, although she may have been formulating a plan of her own, but other forces were working without our knowing.
In the Dereculd camp, perched prominently above the town, chaos was erupting. As we watched, small black creatures, that turned out to be rats, hundreds of them, were overrunning the camp and several packs of wolves seemed to be attacking the terrified men. Tents and campfires were trampled as three mighty aurochs destroyed anything in their path. When they reached the cliff face, they bellowed triumphantly, snorting, their breath billowing white in the air.
‘Did you know about this?’ I asked Yared. He looked innocent.
In the battlement garden, a crowd had gathered to watch. Llewid and the other me were with them. She sensed me and looked up to the tower. Before I knew it, my feet were slipping towards the edge of the roof. I took control and used the climbing roses in the Palace garden to wrap tightly about her ankles and wrists. This checked her power. The crowd separated, aware that Mantle magic was being employed. Silver Mantle tried to restrain her as she withered the roses until they were brown and brittle. She flung both the roses and Silver Mantle to the ground in one small gesture of her hand. Beside me, Black Mantle was flung into the air. I tried to catch him, but he was already falling to the ground.
‘Forget me. Keep focused on her!’ he yelled as he disappeared below me.
For good measure, I threw Llewid against a wall in the garden and fixed him there with creepers. The witch again tried to dislodge me from the roof, so I decided to join them in the garden. I floated down, avoiding the clods of earth that leapt from garden and pelted me about the head. Blue Mantle was trying to gather cloud to create lightening but the false Megwin had a surprise for him. She brought him to his knees with a flash of electric power. He whimpered, fell forwards and took no further part in the battle. The minor Mantles and novices were either cowering somewhere in the Talarin or offering support by trying to bind the false Megwin with their powers. They had no effect.
‘You can’t defeat me, Megwin, we are as one.’ She sealed me in a bubble of glass. I felt the air disappearing and saw her laughing.
Silver Mantle reached out and the glass broke. ‘You are not Megwin and she not alone! Together, we can defeat you,’ she cried.
At my command the surviving roses shed their thorns, each sharp little spike sinking into the brown witch’s skin. She screamed and staggered and I rushed to overpower her. Instead Llewid caught me. He had a knife at my throat.
‘Sometimes the old-fashioned methods are just as effective.’ He was breathing hard. ‘Have no doubts that I will kill her if any of you try to stop me.’ He kissed the side of my forehead. ‘And that would be a pity as I really do like her.’ He spoke to the false Megwin. ‘Summon the army.’
‘There is no army!’ she shouted back at him. ‘The cowards have fled.’
As Llewid turned to look across the valley to his ruined and now deserted camp, the King threw himself at his nephew, causing Llewid to release me; both of them toppling against the battlements. The wall gave a shudder and crumbled against their weight and we watched, horrified as they fell. It happened in the blink of an eye, too fast for even Mantle minds to react.
People rushed to the battlements; others raced to the stairway. I cannot remember how I got down there but, when I did, Silver Mantle was kneeling, bent over the King. Ardin and the Princess were among those who stood by. I alone went to Llewid.
‘This is not how I had planned it.’ He coughed and blood splattered in his mouth and on my face. ‘Are my Megwin or the one I freed?’
‘A part of me was always yours.’ I took his hand and allowed my tears to fall.
‘You have always been too trusting, little Meg.’ His voice struggled to leave his lips. ‘You trusted me, she trusted me, and I betrayed you in order to free her. Ardin betrayed you too. And what about Silver Mantle? Do you trust her? Do you trust someone who made a stone princess to steal away your love? Where is the statue from the garden, Megwin? Ask yourself that.’ He winced and closed his eyes. ‘Take care, my Megwin.’ With the squeeze of my hand, he died.
They carried them both back to the Palace, the King and his rebellious nephew. I followed, unaware that Black Mantle had joined me. No one spoke much. The King’s body was taken to his chambers while Llewid was put in a room close by. I watched Silver Mantle follow the King’s body up the stairway but at the top she stopped and returned to Ardin. For a moment she had forgotten that Silver Mantle served the monarch. There was a new King and her place was with him.
I returned to the garden. The witch was gone. No one had seen her escape and few of us cared at that time. I looked about at the devastation and absent-mindedly began to repair the mess. It was while I was returning the plants to their appointed places that Llewid’s words came back to me. Where had the statue gone? I look
ed back towards the Palace and began to shake.
‘You need to rest.’ Black Mantle had followed me. ‘Do not speak or think anything until after you wake.’ I obeyed him and returned to my room in the Talarin. I slept, with the fox and the wolf curled beside me on the bed.
◆◆◆
The King and Llewid were buried on the same day, both in the royal graveyard and both with fitting ceremony. The people were happy that the two kingdoms were to be united under their new king, Ardin, whose coronation was already being planned, first in Magra and again in the high citadel in Dereculd. The Souran were in great demand and excited novices argued over the decorations for street parties. It reminded me of similar squabbles for Ardin’s birthday. That seemed so long ago. I did what I could to restore the lands destroyed by Llewid, but it would take a long time for all the scars to heal. My heart was mourning for more than the passing of two kings and the steward of the Lord of Brak. Silver Mantle tried to cheer me but there was a dark shadow over all our conversations. I knew where the stone statue had gone, and I knew who had transformed her. Of the brown witch there had been no sign. Perhaps she had disappeared at the moment of Llewid’s death, perhaps we were one again, but I doubted that because I felt certain I would have known it, felt her in my mind, might even welcomed her back to argue over revenge and misery, for that I had certainly dreamed.
◆◆◆
Two days before the coronation I took my leave of the future king. It was an uncomfortable audience and neither of us knew what to say. The time for us had passed and all that was left was a fragile regard for each other. Perhaps some day our friendship would return but until that time both of us were thankful that I had other places to go. I passed the Princess on my way to the stables. She looked fragile but cold and I secretly wondered if she knew her true origins, or was that the terrible thing that the false Megwin had told her to make her cry?
‘She does not know, and I would not be that cruel,’ Silver Mantle said at my shoulder. ‘She believes her story.’
‘A pity that you care less for the feelings of real people,’ I said flatly.
‘She is real to Ardin,’ she cautioned me. ‘She is everything he needs in a wife.’
‘And children?’ I asked. ‘Will she give birth to pebbles?’
It made Silver Mantle smile for a moment before her look became serious. ‘Ever the sharp and witty response, Megwin. That was not Princess Melia’s purpose. She will suffice until someone more suitable comes along.’
‘Then she’ll be sent back to the garden?’
‘Exactly.’
‘You are playing with Ardin’s feelings.’
‘This is not a game.’ Silver Mantle walked into the stable yard with me. ‘The future will unfold as it will, for all of us. Who knows what we will happen in the future, and where our paths will take us? Will you hate me forever?’
‘I thought I would,’ I said and then smiled. ‘No, I don’t hate you. You did what you thought was best for your king, just as the false Megwin did for Llewid. I’m thankful that I don’t have a king to please. For the first time, I think that I am beginning to appreciate being Green Mantle, who serves the land and its creatures.’
‘When I am gone,’ she said, ‘Ardin will need you beside him.’ Her eyes were full of pain. Was this reward awaiting every Silver Mantle, the poisoned chalice that she hoped to pass to me? As we embraced, I promised myself that I would never wear the Silver. As we parted, her thoughts promised that I would.
My path began that day. I hugged a tearful Blue Mantle and kissed Black Mantle. Gilbert was eager to be off and the fox had taken his place in the saddle pack. We rode out of Vellin and into legend, flowers springing from our path, birdsong accompanying us, and the wolves of Lore were our escort.
Glossary of Place Names
Angirat - A high escarpment above the city of Vellin. The King’s Palace and the Talarin of the Mantles are the only buildings.
Bashiria - Most remote of the Five Kingdoms, not one of the original ‘Five’. Capital city is Orestin, north beyond the Western Wastes.
Blemar - An independent northern kingdom, in the far north.
Brak - Market town in the Northern Meeds. Governed by Lord Remwith.
Dereculd - One of the Five Kingdoms, to the south of Magra. Capital city is Pellian on the Weddon River, throughout history it has sometimes part of a larger Magra and sometimes ruled by a separate king from the House of Magra.
Gaheil - Town on the River Listi. Famous for its caves.
Grat Hills - The north-western boundary of Magra.
Listi, River - Rises in the western mountains, below Mount Befell. Flows south through Vellin and reaches the sea at the most southern boundary of Magra and Dereculd.
Lore, Forests of - Extensive forests in the Southern Meeds that once stretched from the western wastes to the sea, dividing the kingdoms of Magra and Dereculd. Now mainly south of Gaheil and west of Vellin. Uninhabited.
Magra - First of the Five Kingdoms. Capital city is Vellin. Bounded in the north by the Kingdoms of Urvik and Thanis and in the south by the Kingdoms of Mosagin and Dereculd.
Malister - Town on the edge of the Northern Meeds. Famous for deer hunting.
The Meeds - Regions of the Kingdom of Magra, typified by heathland, marshes, woodland and hills. Split into the Northern and Southern Meeds. Governed by Lords of the Gathering.
Mosagin - Southern scrublands. One of the Five Kingdoms often influenced and sometimes rules by the kings of Dereculd.
Sarn, River - Rises in the Grat Hills and flows east through the Northern Meeds to the sea, at the town of Sarnmouth. Prone to flooding.
Stovin - Northern Meed town.
Thanis - One of the Five Kingdoms, lies north of Magra.
Urvik - One of the Five Kingdoms, to the north of Magra
Western Wastes - wilderness, part desert with few roads or inhabitants. Natural boundary between Magra and Bashira.
About The Author
Gail Merritt
Gail Merritt is a retired teacher, who has lived in several parts of the world before settling in Gippsland. When she is not writing, she spends her time in her garden, watching ducks on her pond, walking through the forests and continuing to learn. She loves all kinds of literature and when pressed confesses to having attended at least one ComiCon event!
She writes adult books as H. G. Merritt.
The Mantle Chronicles
Megwin, a young girl who can talk to animals and make plants flourish is developing her powers and navigating the dangerous world of mantle magic. From the Royal Court, to the inhospitable marshes, from fiery volcanoes to treacherous storms at sea, she slowly uncovers her past and how she is linked to the ancient forces of the land.
Silver Mantle
The College of the Mantles finds their new novice a challenge. Megwin is younger than any have been before her and she is already powerful. She becomes the protégé of the most important of the Mantles, Silver Mantle, but Megwin finds the rules hard to follow and inadvertently missuses her powers.
Green Mantle
Now she is Green Mantle, Megwin is called upon to uncover the cause of a terror disturbing the wild marshes. On her quest she gets help from some unlikely and unexpected sources and encounters the secretive Sisterhood.
Red Mantle
When Red Mantle goes missing, Megwin joins a search party that travels far beyond the borders of Magra. They discover that Mantle magic is not enough when facing deeper, natural forces and Megwin uncovers a secret that might change her life forever.
Blue Mantle
King Ardin is seeking adventure. He has built a fleet and wants to sail to the fabled Green Islands. By accident, Megwin finds herself a passenger. She takes the opportunity to meet the creatures of the sea and angers the Mantles by disobeying their rules. When they reach the islands, they are not what anyone expected.
Black Mantle
There is something happening in Rynth. The people and the animals are fl
eeing. It will take more than Mantle magic to restore the land and protect the ancient powers from a dangerous threat. The Mantles unite with new allies to defeat an enemy that needs no battlefield to destroy them all.