by Tom Larcombe
* * *
Chapter 2
“Stop the truck!” the squad leader yelled.
Merlin saw the man controlling the wagon react to the order. As the wagon came to a halt, Merlin filed away the proper name of the conveyance, a truck. Adding meanings to the new words in his vocabulary would be a common occurrence for him over the coming weeks.
“There are wounded over there. Get the men out of the back and have them load the wounded into it. Our stop for tonight will be at an aid station.”
The driver slid out of the truck and disappeared to the rear. Shouted orders rang out from in back and Merlin watched as the soldiers who had escorted him moved five wounded men into the rear of the truck.
“I won't have our soldiers dying from neglect,” the squad leader said.
“That is an admirable aim. I can look at them myself if you like, I have some skill with healing.”
“Perhaps when we get to the aid station. We don't have much time right now and I would like to get you out of any potential danger from the enemy.”
“Once upon a time I hoped that men would stop fighting their wars. It is such a waste.” Merlin said.
“There are just reasons for war. All men would have to disavow it at the same time for such a thing to occur and there are many races who choose violence over peace. I would hope to live in peace one day as well but not at the cost of submission to those who choose to live in strife,” the squad leader said.
The driver climbed back into the cabin of the truck and started it once again, stifling any further conversation. Merlin continued to watch the countryside pass, noticing that the farther they drove, the less damage he saw.
It was nearly dusk when they approached a compound. The driver stopped in front of the gates and waited while the guards spoke with the squad leader. The conversation ended with the guard rendering a crisp salute and opening the gates for the truck. They drove into the compound and the driver shut the truck off and went around back.
Merlin saw the wounded being carried into a building.
“Might I go and see if I can do something for those wounded men now?” Merlin asked.
“Wait several minutes first. The doctors will want to look at them right away and I need to contact my superiors by radio to let them know you've been found,” the squad leader replied.
“Doctors, not healers?”
“Doctors are healers.”
“I must not be understanding your language well yet, they seem different terms to me,” Merlin said.
“Well, I will bring you to the wounded as soon as I can. Then you can meet the doctors also.”
“Thank you.”
“Please come with me. I must radio a report in and I fear that my superiors might have a problem with me letting you out of my sight now that we've finally found you.”
Merlin followed the squad leader to a small shack in the compound. Once inside he found himself staring at another metal device. This one was smaller than the truck and didn't produce a chemical smoke, yet something about it disturbed him. Merlin edged closer as the squad leader instructed the soldier on the message to send.
It feels almost as though they've trapped magic in that thing and are using it as a fuel, Merlin thought. It isn't quite the same though. Whatever powers this device has a distinct feeling of wrongness to it.
Merlin found himself unconsciously backing away from whatever it was. The soldier finished speaking into the device and Merlin took another step back when a voice replied from it.
“You're sure it's him? He answered the question correctly?”
The squad leader nodded at the soldier.
“Yes, it is and yes, he has,” the soldier relayed.
“Good, hold in that location for further instructions. We will fly him the rest of the way to the research facility. Expect orders in less than twelve hours.”
The device went silent again as the squad leader turned to Merlin.
“We wait here until I receive further orders. We can go and see the wounded now if you want.”
“Yes, please. I would like that. What should I call you? I've been using Sir, but to me that means a knight. I know you are a soldier but are you a knight?”
“No, I'm not a knight. I hadn't thought, but with your past Sir would not be the appropriate title for you either. I'm Gunter, shall I call you Merlin?”
“Please do, Gunter. Using your given name is acceptable?”
“Yes Merlin, it is.”
“Can we go and see the wounded now?”
“Follow me.”
Gunter turned and left the shack. He led Merlin to the building the wounded were taken into earlier. The scents of illness and astringent chemicals assaulted Merlin's nose as he entered.
He began to head for the wounded that were lying on cots down both sides of the building. A man in a white coat stepped in front of him and challenged him.
“Who are you?”
Gunter took the man aside and spoke softly to him while Merlin continued towards the wounded. The voices that started out soft raised in volume, and emotion. Merlin wasn't paying attention but he couldn't help notice that the man in the white coat was berating Gunter for allowing Merlin access to the wounded.
Merlin gazed at the first wounded man he found, his senses traveling within the man to determine what was wrong.
“Sir, if I might speak with you?” Merlin said, gesturing towards the man in the white coat.
The man walked over, anger evident in his stride.
“What?”
“This man here. The leg wound has gone sour. There are tiny creatures, smaller than the eye can see, that are infesting it.”
“I know his leg is infected, we have no antibiotics right now so we can't do anything more than keep the wound clean.”
“Antibiotics? Never mind. I can compel the creatures out through the wound but we will need cloth to catch them. If they get onto his skin or back into the wound it may become re-infested.”
“Compel an infection to leave a man? Hogwash!”
Gunter interjected.
“Doctor, get Merlin some cloth. I've been instructed to watch what he does and I would like to see this.”
The doctor stalked off, returning with a handful of gauze bandages. Merlin looked at them dubiously before folding them over, repeatedly, until he thought they were thick enough that liquid would be unable to pass all the way through.
He removed the dressing on the wound and examined it. The infestation was bad, the smell of it rank once the wound's dressing was out of the way. The wound was leaking fluid so there was already an exit out of the man's body.
That's a relief. This man, I suppose he is one of their doctors, would attempt violence were I to cut the wound open to drain it, Merlin thought.
He held the folded gauze against the wound and sent his senses into the man's body. He herded and chastened the infesting creatures, driving them towards the open wound. The gauze he held to the wound began to moisten and turn yellow. The stench increased as the fluids and creatures that plagued the wounded man seeped out. Merlin was exhausted long before he was done but he kept up his efforts until he could no longer detect any creatures inside of the man.
He slumped into a nearby chair and looked at the doctor.
“If you re-dress that wound with a clean bandage, he should be noticeably improved by morning.”
Merlin turned his head with an effort, finding a bin that held other used bandages. He added the gauze to its contents.
“Gunter, it seems that I am not as strong as I once was, nor even as strong as I thought. Is there a place that I can rest? Perhaps some food to eat?”
The thought of food sent Merlin's stomach surging with eagerness.
“Food first if possible. Depending on how you look at it, I have not eaten all day or possibly in many years. Speaking of such, what year is this? How long did I sleep?” Merlin said.
“The dates aren't easy to translate but our best guess is th
at you slept for somewhere around thirteen hundred years,” Gunter said.
Merlin's jaw dropped. He stared at Gunter, speechless.
“Merlin? Did you still want something to eat?”
Merlin nodded and followed as Gunter turned and left the infirmary. As he followed Gunter out of the room Merlin heard the doctor muttering under his breath.
“Poppycock! Thirteen hundred years, compelling an infection to leave a man, what garbage...”
Merlin shook his head. Even in his own time there were those who would not believe. Why should a new age be any different?
* * *
Merlin collapsed on the bed. It was the only furniture in the room he was shown to when he finished eating. He stretched out and thought for a moment.
Why am I so exhausted? All my senses seem to be diminished as my hearing is when listening through a thick fog. My headache was gone earlier, it left during the ride in the truck, but now it's returned. There is something wrong, either with me or with my surroundings. I'll need to determine what it is but not now, right now I need sleep. Sleeping for centuries should leave you not needing more right away but at the end of the day the body will demand what it thinks it needs.
* * *
Merlin woke to the sun streaming in his window. Only now did he register the difference in the light he saw last night and the sun. He was used to a steady light at nights, his magic allowed him that luxury. Now he realized that the rooms and halls of this building all held a steady illumination from within. He peered at the light on the ceiling.
It looks like a crystal in a shape I've never seen before. It glows with a different light than the sun, but a steady one.
As he drew closer Merlin realized something else as well.
It's powered by the same thing that their radio was. Do they use that everywhere? If so, that may explain the way I feel.
He left his room and returned to the hall he ate dinner in the night before. As he suspected, they were serving breakfast now. He sat down to eat and Gunter joined him.
“So Merlin, it seems my superiors have a disagreement as to what to do with you and where you should go.”
“Do I have a say in this?”
“Not yet, I'm sure once they determine where you should be that you'll be listened to. Until then, this aid station is as secure as anything in the area. So we are to wait here.”
“I'll need to be outside some today. The sunlight increases my energy and I'll need it to aid your other wounded.”
“That was miraculous. The doctor in attendance last night has asked me to beg your forgiveness. He also asked if there was some way you could teach him what you did. I told him that he must ask you.”
“Well, if I am to aid any more wounded I will need some time undisturbed in the sun. Preferably away from the smell of the trucks and the noises of the compound.”
“There's a large fenced off area behind the buildings. The only things back there are some fruit trees from the house that stood here before. Would an orchard set in an overgrown meadow be an appropriate area for you?”
“That may well do, I should like to go there next if I may.”
“Well, just let me finish my food and I'll show it to you.”
Gunter led Merlin out behind the aid station. He gestured around the area. Several acres were enclosed by a low stone wall. Wire fencing topped the stones of the wall, an obvious recent addition. The very top of the fence was made of a circling wire with sharp looking protrusions.
“The fence is disconcerting but the rest of the area will do nicely. I will probably choose one of the back corners if there is good sunlight there.”
“Feel free, but please stay in the compound. I was correct and my life now depends on your safety.”
Merlin thought of Arthur and the increasing demands which eventually led to his flight from Arthur's kingdom.
“Certainly, I am far too familiar with superiors who make ultimatums.”
He moved into the orchard. Gunter's eyes followed but the man made no move to accompany him. When Merlin found a section far enough away that the sounds and scents of the compound were muted, if not gone, he looked for an area with sunlight.
Carefully arranging his crystals in the patch of sunlight he found, he laid down in the center of them and began to clear his mind in an attempt to clarify his thoughts.
* * *
Merlin came back to himself. The position of the sun indicated that he'd spent several hours lost in his thoughts. His crystals were recharged slightly, having soaked up a tiny bit of power from the sun. Sunlight was a slow way to charge them but far cleaner than death magic.
If only there were dragons about I could store a clean charge quickly but I've seen no signs that any of them are still alive, never mind in the area, he thought.
He felt much better than the day before. His discovery that the power source used in the radio and lights depleted his own energy levels had led him to develop a shield to prevent that. He would prefer to simply avoid the power source but his observations told him that doing so might not be possible. So, a portion of his mind developed the shield while the rest of it sought to find a mental balance that would allow him to adapt to the new time he found himself in.
He took stock of his own condition and discovered that his energy levels were recharged far more than those of the crystals. He stood and headed for the building holding the wounded.
When he came out through the trees Gunter was sitting at the back of the building.
“Merlin, I had begun to worry about you.”
Gunter peered at Merlin as he came closer.
“I do believe the color is coming back to your hair.”
“Back? I hadn't realized that it was gone.”
“Merlin, a common term for a man who looks like you did yesterday is graybeard. It's a descriptive term. But now your beard and hair are shot through with brown instead of being a solid silvery gray.”
“I've always had brown hair, with perhaps a hint of gray in recent years. I suppose it must have been the length of the sleep I took.”
“Perhaps. I wouldn't venture to guess what thirteen hundred years could do to a man, assuming he could live that long. Anyhow, when we reached dinner time I would have come to find you. As I said, they're holding me responsible for you.”
“Thank you for not doing so. I was in a thought trance of sorts. Things are different here and now and some of the differences have been causing me problems. For example, the power source for the radio and the lights does strange things to me.”
“Electricity? You'll find it in lots of places, more all the time.”
“Electricity you say?”
“Yes, it's used in the radio, in the lights, in many of the comforts within the buildings. A form of it is even used in the truck we rode in.”
“That's strange, the truck didn't bother me at all but the other things do seem to cause me problems. What is the difference in forms you mentioned?”
“I don't know the specifics but the type in the building is called alternating current and the one in the truck is called direct current. I know the names but you'd need to ask someone who has studied it what the exact difference is.”
“Perhaps I shall. Can we see the wounded now? Depending on the severity of their injuries I may be able to help several of them today.”
The two men visited the infirmary and Merlin used his powers to help several of the wounded. In some cases he healed an injury entirely, in others he assisted the man in a way that would allow him to heal faster on his own.
After they completed the rounds of the wounded, Gunter and Merlin went to dinner. Forewarned, Merlin used his new shield and discovered that it did remove the problem. It was slightly draining to hold but less so than not using it would be. He knew it would become easier for him to hold as he became accustomed to using it.
After dinner Merlin sat in the side yard, simply enjoying the breeze. He saw Gunter enter the radio shack and, due to several of
Gunter's statements regarding his superiors, decided that he should hear what was said.
A small enchantment allowed him to send his sense of hearing to the door of the shack. He was just in time to hear an interesting exchange.
“ –apparently growing younger. Once he spent several hours in the sun he was able to heal several more of the wounded just as he did last night.”
“Keep a close eye on him. It would mean your life if he got away.”
“He isn't a prisoner, at least that's what I was told.”
“No he isn't but he also isn't used to things in this time. How easily could he be injured or killed if he stumbled across a mine or a firefight?”
“Less easily than you might think. The man has some sort of inner strength and aplomb that suggests he has yet to meet the difficulty he cannot overcome,” Gunter replied.
“Just watch him. They still haven't agreed as to where he's going.”
“I thought they were taking him to the occult research center?”
“They were but now another branch has shown an interest in him.”
“I know better than to ask any more questions. I'll watch him, we'll help the wounded here, and you know where we are when it's time to issue us travel orders.”
Merlin allowed the spell to lapse.
So, there were plans for me but now their plans are being changed by another group. It sounds like their army may be divided by politics. I'll file that away for future reference.
Gunter left the radio shack and walked over to Merlin.
“They still don't know what to do with you. Shall we turn in for the evening?”
“Yes, but I was wondering. There is a small building over there that looks like it might have been servant's quarters. There is none of that electricity in it. Might I be quartered there?”
“Certainly, although I'll need to join you. I'll get some oil lamps so we can see.”
“That won't be necessary. I can provide light, at least for the main room.”
“Then I'll get my gear and join you there.”
A few minutes later Gunter entered the building and found a yellow light, indistinguishable from sunlight, illuminating the main room. A pair of crystals attached to the lantern holders glowed with the light of the sun. He stared in awe for a moment before looking to Merlin.