Arnie, Mervin, & The Blood of Kings

by Pedliham, Luke

  “Well, that’s what I brought you down here for Arnie. You wanted me to tell you everything but unfortunately since the mid-fifties I have been almost unable to hold a conversation without dropping in at least five movie references before I’ve really got going - which can admittedly be somewhat distracting - so I’m going to show you instead! Like a movie. I was going to build up to it all dramatic like but seeing as you’re intent on giving an old man a heart attack my plan has not quite come together like Hannibal’s!”

  “Who’s?” asks Arnie innocently;

  “Hannibal. The A-Team’s leader? Eighties show, bad acting, loads of guns, car chases and people flying through the air in slow motion - but no deaths?”

  Arnie stares back blankly, still waiting for an answer;

  “Forgivable I suppose. It was crap. But you see what I mean – and The A-Team isn’t even a movie and I’m referencing it! I need help…… Anyway look, it’s only possible to show you so much unfortunately. The rest you have to figure out for yourself. You have my word as a Wizard that I will show and tell you as much as I can in order to prepare you for what is to come. O.k?”

  Arnie agrees. Mervin then squats down on the edge of the cold, smooth stone he is stood on and reaches forward inside the circle. He waves his hand over the top of the floor and as he does so the familiar magical golden sheen seems to envelop it and turns it from dark, cold rock into a clear pool of water. There are gold and silver fish of varying sizes swimming around calmly, not bothered in the slightest by Mervin or Arnie and the bottom of is sprinkled with more gold and silver flecks and has lush green and yellow plant life swaying around gently in the current. In contrast, the pool gets much darker towards the centre where it looks deep and quite uninviting.

  “This is why I didn’t want you to fall. If you’re not to be who I think you are you could…..you might…….” stutters Mervin as Arnie looks on expectantly.

  “This pool is purity itself. It heals, rejuvenates and inspires all pure souls that come into contact with it. It is the very life blood of Mother Earth or Gaia. Tainted souls would not feel so rejuvenated or inspired should one come in to contact with it though. If a person with anything ‘questionable’ in their heart or soul enters the pool they will be exposed, cleansed and,….well what happens next depends on the person, but generally speaking – it’s not nice!”

  “Oh! So it’s like magic water or something?” asks Arnie.

  “Yes and no. This pool used to be part of a much larger body of water. A lake in fact. But over time landscapes change, things happen and now all that is left is this pool and maybe a few others that are connected to it. But it’s not magic water as such. There is a magical presence that inhabits the water and that presence will defend itself against evil!” replies Mervin.

  “A presence?” asks Arnie

  “Yes, a very powerful presence. If you were to step into this pool now you would find yourself healed and rejuvenated of any ailments that may,……well, ail you. And if I were to go in I would too. Even an inanimate object like…..”

  Mervin spots a dry stick on the ground and picks it up;

  “..this stick, will be healed, in a way. Watch.”

  Mervin casually throws the stick into the water. Just as he does this however he notices Lady who had been lagging behind while she roamed around sniffing and weeing on things, excitedly bouncing over the rocks towards the pool in pursuit of the stick that Mervin had just thrown into it. Mervin holds up his hand in a vain attempt to stop lady as he and Arnie both scream in unison;

  “LADY!! STOP!”

  Lady of course doesn’t stop and bounds straight past them both and belly splashes straight into the pool after the stick. Mervin and Arnie both gasp and facepalm as Lady paddles back to the edge and emerges from the pool with an aura about her that is glistening and of course the stick that Mervin threw in the pool in her mouth. Arnie looks on flabbergasted as the old stick morphs into a moist healthy looking branch with green leaves all over it and he notices something different about Lady too…..

  “What the…..look at her tail!” exclaims Arnie as he sees Lady’s bobbed tail (a product of her time with her former owners) miraculously grow back.

  Lady trots over to Arnie happily and drops the stick at his feet and starts wagging her lovely new tail in anticipation.

  “Aww, look at her Mervin. Why wouldn’t you want her to go in? She’s got a new tail and everything!” he says as he picks up the stick and teases Lady with it.

  “Because it will only work once on any one soul, and that includes Dogs. Only people with the blood of kings can benefit from its powers more than once.”

  “The blood of kings?” asks Arnie.

  “Mmmm hmm, that’s right – the blood of kings.” says Mervin very matter-of-factly;

  “All descendants of the Pendragon bloodline have it in some capacity.” he continues:

  “What’s a Pendragon again?” asks Arnie, his sunken brow demonstrating the seriousness of his question.

  “Pendragon is a name Arnie. Your name!” replies Mervin.

  “What? My name is Gibbs!” replies Arnie in an irritable tone.

  “No, Gibbs is not your real name. It’s your Mother’s maiden name! Your Father however was a Pendragon, although he generally went by the name Pendrick. Not the most creative of aliases I grant you but it worked.” says Mervin.

  “So,……my Father?” prompts Arnie;

  “Yeah. Your Father. He was a good man.” replies Mervin solemnly.

  “A good man?” replies Arnie belligerently;

  “He just walked out and left! Mum never really talks about it because it upsets her but I know that you don’t just up and leave just because……well,….just because! My poor Mum is….”

  “Your poor Mum isn’t as weak as you may think Arnie. And your Father didn’t leave exactly.” interjects Mervin;

  “She’s not? He didn’t?” says an increasingly confused looking Arnie.

  “No, your Mother has been very strong over the years Arnie, against all the odds I might add. You should give her credit and some recognition for that. Sure she has a few character flaws, but then who doesn’t? I mean look, she’s raised you alright hasn’t she? And considering what she bore witness to…..”

  Arnie looks down at his feet for a moment while a slight wave of guilt envelops him for maybe not giving his Mum the credit she was due.

  “Yeah, you’re right. She has done a good job. I shouldn’t…..wait….” Arnie pauses mid-sentence and looks back at Mervin with a furrowed brow;

  “What did she witness exactly? And how do you know how I’ve been raised? I mean,…how do you know what my Mum’s been through or what her ‘flaws’ are? I don’t get it.”

  “Come on Arnie!” says Mervin impatiently;

  “I’ve been watching over you ever since your Father left us years ago. He made me swear that if he ever had a child and something happened to him that I would look out for them. It was as if he somehow knew you would be born and what was going to happen…..”

  Mervin smiles and looks away as he reminisces;

  “Luther was not a man you really said ‘No’ to. He had a strong and forceful nature about him. He was a born leader who emanated strength, persistence and a ‘never say die’ attitude that was…..infectious to say the least. I would have followed him to the end. Unfortunately, along with all those good personality traits came some bad things too like stubbornness, bloody mindedness and unfortunately a smidge more than a little stupidity.”

  “So my Father was stupid?” replies Arnie who is slightly offended by Mervin’s slight against the father he’s never met.

  “….and also, I thought you just said that he didn’t leave exactly?”

  Mervin slowly sits down on the edge of the stones that surround the underground pool, leaning on his cane heavily all the while. He beckons Arnie to come and sit down next to him which he does without once taking his eyes off of Mervin and holding the balanced look of intr
igue and confusion on his face. Mervin puts his arm around him and points to the pool of water. He dips just the very tip of his index finger into the pool and as he does so it creates a golden ripple that quickly shoots over the surface of the water. As it clears a flurry of images appear in the water to illustrate the story Mervin is about to tell;

  “You see Arnie, the Blood of Kings is ancient, very ancient. It has run through the veins of thousands of people over thousands of years. It is a force of majestic wonder, born of the universe but completely exclusive to Gaia - the spirit of the Earth and the source of your power. It can spur people on to do great things and become great leaders that are so popular and loved, their people sing songs of them for generations. Or it can manifest through its host in a more humble way - as a source of inspiration, serving as the catalyst to the creation of a great work of art or music or literature. Something that inspires all who see it. There are hundreds of people walking around at any one time, all totally unaware that they carry within them the blood of kings. They all serve their purpose and make a difference in one way or the other no matter how slight it may be, but every few hundred years or so a child is born into the bloodline that is something of an enigma even to me and my kind! A child so in touch and close to Gaia, the very blood that runs through their veins is like molten lightening - full of power and potential. It doesn’t matter how diluted it has become over time as all it takes is a trace amount of this royal DNA for it to take over that child’s destiny completely! They will feel everything that Gaia feels - which for the last couple of hundred years or so and especially since the start of the industrial revolution, has been sick, hurting and very unhappy for lack of a better description. Human kind is gradually killing her you see and now she is fighting back. Have you noticed all the natural “disasters” over the past few years? The tsunamis, the earthquakes, the landslides, the floods etc? That’s why you’ve been so fed up and depressed to the point of being sick for as long as you can remember. It’s worse around winter time when Gaia is at her weakest and it’s all right there for you to see with your own two eyes obviously. It’s because Gaia is hurting and you Arnie, you are the enigma! You are the chosen one and you are feeling her pain! It’s you and people like you who will bring about the long sought after balance between man and nature, and you who will oversee the establishment of an equilibrium between the two so the scales do not tip one way or the other. You have so much potential and are capable of doing great things…….or absolutely nothing depending on the choices you make. I had thought Luther,…your Father, was born to inherit this wonderful curse of sorts but,…….well, I was wrong. He wasn’t. You are!”

  Images of a well-built, good looking bearded man, perhaps in his mid-thirty’s appear in the pool. He is in a bar with a drink doing nothing in particular apart from looking a bit down on his luck. Arnie, who had remained silent throughout these revelations, quickly points at the images and say;

  “Is,….is that him?”

  “Yep, that’s him.” replies Mervin proudly;

  “You look like him actually, apart from the beard and size……and age, but you know what I mean. Look, there’s your mum….”

  Mervin points to images of Arnie’s mother only fourteen to fifteen years ago that appears in the water. She looks much younger, happier and healthier. Arnie is taken aback by the images he is seeing in a good way. He now knows what his real father looks like and just from that one small thing Arnie felt more connected to his family than he ever has before.

  “Wow! Look at my Mum though, she’s…..”

  “Beautiful?” says Mervin in a very ‘I told you so’ fashion.

  “Yeah! Beautiful.” replies Arnie as he continues to look on in awe.

  “So, what happened to my father? When did you know he wasn’t ‘the one?” he continues;

  “Well, as with most things in life there is a flip-side to the Blood of Kings. There is a powerful dark side to it as well which has also manifested in human kind. Powered by chaos magic and wanting nothing more than just that – chaos, the people that it manifests in are taken over by it and end up as pure unadulterated evil! They crave nothing more than darkness and lifelessness, because within those things lies the power to manipulate and potentially destroy Gaia! These people would already have had the potential for evil even without the chaos magic, but it seeks them out on a genetic level, hiding within the bloodline for generations if need be, only manifesting when the balance between good and evil shifts. When it eventually does manifest the person becomes twisted and corrupted but more importantly -they become powerful! It was one of these people that tricked and then killed your father. Of course…..it was at that point that I knew he wasn’t the one. I was too late….”

  Mervin puts his arm around Arnie apologetically whilst in the pool behind them the image of a slim, pale, dark haired lady with her face inexplicably blurred out appears but they both miss it as their backs are turned. Arnie remains motionless, open mouthed and looking only at the ground with Mervin’s arm around him for comfort. He looks up after a few seconds, adjusting his posture to a more upright sitting position, as if he is ready for action and says;

  “So my Father’s dead then?”

  “Yes Arnie. In the physical sense. It was his destiny but his spirit lives on in you, as does the Pendragon bloodline.”

  “How did he die?” asks Arnie solemnly;

  Mervin inhales deeply, holds it and exhales a long breath as he readies himself to answer the question;

  “Well, he was in love Arnie, and love can do strange and wonderful things to people. I saw it more as lust rather than love but Luther swore it was in fact love and, well,…who am I to argue. Love can inspire. It can motivate, regenerate, reenergise and be the most wonderful thing ever, making all else seem trivial and redundant. But as sorry as I am to indulge the cliché – it can also blind people. Not in the literal sense obviously, [although I did see a man shoot another man in the eye with an arrow because he was staring at the milkmaids backside] but that’s backside the point…..BESIDE the point! Look, love can distract people from what really matters is what I’m trying to say, and that is basically what happened to your Father. He was distracted from the task at hand by a beautiful young woman called Elaine. Your Mother. It seems history has a way of repeating itself…..”

  “She was beautiful wasn’t she?” says Arnie thinking back to the images he saw in the pool not a moment ago.

  “Yes! Absolutely.” replies Mervin quickly and without hesitation.

  “Going back fifteen years or so she was quite something I can tell you. Beautiful inside and out. It was because of what happened to Luther that she started to…..well, you know…fade. Anyway, about what happened to your Dad! He was connected to Gaia just like you and had the tools, the skills and the potential to be great, but he also had his vices. One night when he was trying to escape the perpetual nagging of a silly old man he indulged a little too much in one particular vice which then led to him indulging another vice. Know what I mean?”

  “Er,….no, not really.” replies Arnie.

  “Ok, I’m trying to be as child friendly as possible here. Er….right, your Dad was having a bad day ok? He went to a place where men and women often find solace during hard times!”

  “A pub?” says Arnie in a very blasé manner;

  “Exactly! I can see your no stranger to pubs then. I mean – well I hope you’re a stranger to pubs but I can see you know about them at least. Anyway, I digress - after a few meads Luther spotted a very good looking lady over the other side of the pub and decided that as he was feeling so blue that he would go and talk to her with a view to indulging his other vice. Not that he needed much of an excuse…..”

  “Which vice is that?” says Arnie inquisitively;

  “Oh,….it’s the one I’m not prepared to expand upon Arnie. Thankfully educating you with regards to that part of your journey isn’t in my remit. Anyway, at first she didn’t really want to know him at all. He didn
’t have what she considered “the right stuff” so Luther, being the type who doesn’t take no for an answer, had a few more meads and made a call to a close friend who was able to assist him in impressing said lovely lady. So they ended up spending the night together both very inebriated on one thing or another and Luther at least - fell deeply in love. So much so in fact that he went back a second night and third and fourth and completely forgot about the things that matter, specifically his training and he let his guard down. Subsequently he left himself defenceless and it was at this point, on his fifth time of going back that it became apparent that Morgan, my own personal Darth Vader, had been watching and following him for quite some time. And when he….did the…..thing with Elaine, Morgan’s hatred for him grew even more for reasons I won’t bore you with right now. She tricked him using the same magic I had into believing she was this young lady he had fallen for and then lured him to a place where she poisoned his mead with a lethal dose of mandrake root. All the while your mother looked on tied up, gagged and helpless. That reason, among others, is why she is the way she is. Damaged basically! She wasn’t as into Luther as he was her because of course she was already………well, it doesn’t matter, but they definitely connected on some level and what Morgan did to her was just…….well it doesn’t bear thinking about!”

  Arnie looks at Mervin with a confused expression as Mervin had clearly skirted around one or two parts in his story in order to make it more palatable. Arnie however doesn’t need to be treated with kid gloves at this point as his desire to know the truth is stronger than all else.

  “Sorry, I think I lost you a couple of times there. I have a couple of questions like, why did my mum not immediately like Luth…..my Dad and then all of a sudden like him? What did this Morgan do to her? What Magic did you and Luther use to con my mother into bed, and what in the name of HECK,…..is mead?”

  Mervin visibly recoils at Arnie’s belligerent line of questioning and replies;