The Merlin Chronicles: Box Set (All Three Novels)

by Daniel Diehl

  “Are any of your monasteries in Tibet still in operation?” Merlin was obviously fascinated with the narrative and would not rest until he had heard the monk’s tale in its entirety.

  “Oh, yes. During the 1980s some of the abandoned houses were allowed to reopen. Our own was one of them.”

  Throughout this dissertation Merlin sat in rapt attention, fascinated at his first view of this strange belief system whose original home had been built no more than a century after he entered his own exile in the tiny crystal sphere. “Tell me something about your beliefs; the tenets of Buddhism.”

  Lu Shi smiled and shook his head slowly from side to side. “I am hardly qualified to instruct you in the complexities of Tibetan Buddhism. Perhaps you would like to speak with our Panchen Lama, the leader of our house. He is a man of great wisdom and I am sure he would welcome the opportunity to talk with you. We get so few western visitors.” Lu Shi looked at his fellow monks all of whom now spoke at once, muttering together in low tones, shrugging their shoulders and shaking their heads. “It would seem that none of us can remember having a western visitor at our humble house. In all likelihood, you would be the first.”

  Merlin cast a quick glance toward Jason. “Perhaps...” he said slowly before rejecting the thought. “No, I’m truly sorry, but we must continue our journey and time is of the essence.”

  “I have never known a westerner who is not in a hurry to be somewhere or to do something. You live in a strange world.”

  You have absolutely no fucking idea how strange this world really is, my friend, Jason thought to himself. And unless we get our asses out of here and back to England pronto it's likely to get a whole lot stranger. All he said aloud, however, was “So, where is your monastery at?”

  “The Temple of the Clouds - for that is what we call our house - is located on a mountainside along the banks of the Oron Gal River. It is not far from the Russian border, but can only be reached by a lengthy footpath. Perhaps that has helped keep us in relative safety all of these years.

  Safety is good. I’d like to find some of that about now. Again, Jason’s brain was thinking something entirely different from what was coming out of his mouth. “If this rain doesn’t stop soon none of us are going to make it to the Temple of the Clouds. We’re going to be washed away. I can hardly see the road.”

  No sooner were the words out of Jason’s mouth than the interior of the car was flooded with blinding blue-white light as a massive bolt of lightning rent the sky, illuminating the slashing wall of rain and filling the air with the scent of ozone. Seconds later it was followed by an ear shattering peal of thunder. Stunned, Jason inadvertently swerved the big Jeep, barely managing to get it under control before it plunged into the flooded ditch at the side of the road. Wave after wave of water washed over the car. While the monks huddled together chanting, even the normally imperturbable Merlin clutched his knees so hard his knuckles turned a waxy white.

  “Merlin. I hate to disturb you, but I don’t know whether to stop here in the middle of the road and wait for this to pass or to keep moving and hope I don’t run into a ditch.”

  Merlin’s answer was cut short by the appearance of two figures standing only a few feet ahead of the car. Through the downpour Jason and Merlin could just make out that they were both male. One was dressed in a blue tunic and trousers and the other in a nearly identical red outfit. On their heads were matching wicker hats that looked like immense, inverted flower pots. Only the lower half of their faces were visible beneath the brims, but in the eerie illumination of a lightning flash their menacing leers were terrifyingly clear. There was no way for Jason to avoid hitting at least one of the figures but even before he could react, they seemed to separate, gliding effortlessly to opposite sides of the car. As the Jeep pulled ahead, fishtailing down the road, the figures glared malignantly through the side windows. Staring in disbelief at the nightmare visions, the monks began to shriek and clutch each other in terror. Over and over they repeated the single word tulpa, tulpa, tulpa

  “Jason.” Merlin shouted above the pounding storm. “They look just like the figure we saw in the sandstorm.”

  “You’re right. Except for the clothes they’re identical. What the hell are they?”

  Lu Shi leaned forward, grasping the back of the driver’s seat. “They are tulpas. Evil spirits called up by a sorcerer to bring destruction upon the unwary. Why are they after us? Have you made an enemy of a sorcerer?”

  Jason and Merlin exchanged hurried glances before Merlin turned his magnetic eyes to Lu Shi’s ashen face. “Precisely what kind of evil spirits are these beings?”

  “They are elementals. The spirits of earth, fire, air and water. These would appear to have been air and fire. Together they are called the Four Storms and are undoubtedly controlling the rain and lightning.”

  “This is Morgana’s work, Jason. I don’t know how, but it is.”

  “What do we do now, boss?”

  Merlin only paused an instant before ordering “Open the sunroof.”

  “We’ll drown. I won’t be able to see a thing.”

  “If they’re elementals I may be able to control them. Their power is limited and whoever is guiding them can’t be very far away. Now do it.”

  Shaking his head, Jason depressed the button on the overhead panel. As the tinted glass slid back, a curtain of water washed over Jason’s head and flooded the front seat. When it opened far enough, Merlin crawled onto the seat and stood up, exposing the upper half of his body to the blast of wind and water like a ship’s figurehead of Poseidon, plowing through an ancient ocean. With arms upraised, his sodden hair and beard streaming behind him in slapping, wet ropes, Merlin stared defiantly into the storm with arms raised, shouting incantations in Latin. “In nominos Patre, et Fili, et Spiritu Sancti...” Over and over Merlin called on the Holy Trinity to come to their aid and dispel the evil powers besetting them.

  Jason wondered if Merlin had finally slipped a cog and thought he could part the waters like Moses. Would Christian magic even work against Chinese demons? To his amazement, in no more than two minutes the rain began to slack off. With visibility improving Jason realized the road clung to a narrow ledge poised between a steep hill on the left and a deep ravine on the right. If he had swerved more than a foot he would either have overturned against the hill or toppled over the cliff.

  The rain had slowed but it had by no means stopped. Torrents of water still cascaded down the hillside so fast and deep that, if he stopped the car, he was in danger of bogging down or being washed over the edge of the precipice by the sheer force of the flood. Hunching over the steering wheel, fighting to control the car, Jason’s concentration was interrupted by Merlin’s excited voice filtering down through the sunroof.

  “Jason. Over there. On the cliff.”

  Wiping the rain from his eyes and leaning forward, Jason could make out four faint figures. Clustered just below the rain-soaked crest of the hill were three of the elementals, the one in blue, the one in red and another in brown. What the hell is that third one? The one in brown?”

  “That is the tulpa of the earth.” Jason could feel Lu Shi leaning forward against the front seat, staring through the windshield.

  “What does he do?”

  “I do not know but like the others he is very bad.”

  “Merlin...”

  “I heard. But look above them, on top of the hill.”

  Jason and the two monks in the back seat leaned as far forward as they could. At the crest of the hill stood a man dressed in antiquated Mandarin robes; across his mouth spread a grin that looked uncomfortably like a rattrap. Almost mirroring Merlin’s stance, the man’s arms were raised in the air and although his voice was inaudible, it was obvious that he was shouting angrily into the storm.

  Lu Shi grabbed Jason’s shoulder so hard the pain made him wince. “Ling Chu. That is Dr Fu Ling Chu. He is a very evil sorcerer. Some say he is centuries old and has never been defeated. We are in great danger.
We must pray for our deliverance.”

  Jason heard every word but his attention was divided between this frightening information, the water-washed road, and concern for Merlin.

  “Merlin. That man...”

  “I heard. That’s the same man we met on the road. He must be working with Morgana.”

  “Oh, shit. What now?”

  Jason’s words were nearly drown out by a mighty clap of thunder as a lightning bolt slammed into the hillside in front of the Jeep, sending torrents of mud and stone cascading onto the road. An instant later, another bolt landed in nearly the same spot. Its impact sent tremors shuddering through the road, shaking the car and its occupants. The waterlogged dirt on the hillside flew away from the point of impact and for yards in every direction the hill began trembling and creeping downward.

  “This is not good, Merlin.”

  “When I tell you, you get everyone out of the car.”

  “What?” Jason understood Merlin’s orders perfectly, but simply could not believe his ears.

  “You heard me. Just wait till I tell you, then get out QUICK.”

  “But what about...”

  Either because he did not hear, or because he was simply ignoring Jason, Merlin did not wait for the end of the question. Lifting free of the seat, his feet levitated past the wide, terrified eyes of the monks, sailing effortlessly through the sunroof. Clutching at each other, shouting, waving and gesticulating wildly, the monks were nearing the point of hysteria by the time Jason could bring the Jeep to a halt, without spinning-out in the torrent of water cascading across the road and over the precipice. By the time the car stopped the monks were jumbled together against the driver’s side of the car, their faces pressed tight against the windows, staring wide-eyed at the figure soaring through the rain and wind toward the ominous shape of Fu Ling Chu. Over the din of the storm a single word reached Jason’s ears as clearly as though Merlin had been seated next to him. The word was “NOW!”

  “Out. Out. Everybody out,” Jason shouted, sliding across the water-drenched seat, jerking open the passenger door and dropping into a knee-deep torrent of rushing water. Transfixed by the strange apparition, the monks completely ignored the order. When the next peal of thunder rent the air, even Jason abandoned his rescue mission long enough to jerk his head around to where Merlin hung suspended in the air thirty feet above the road.

  High overhead, Merlin’s figure shimmered through curtains of rain as he stood with arms outstretched, bolts of twitching, jumping energy cascading from his fingertips. Some twenty feet in front of him the beams joined to form a single, dancing charge that rivaled the power and intensity of the lightning. The beam headed directly toward Ling Chu, but if the old sorcerer felt any fear, it did not show on his face. Still screaming into the wind and rain, the Chinese sorcerer swung his arms in front of him, palms outward, as though fending off Merlin’s attack. Waves of power pulsed from his hands with such intensity that the very air undulated, shimmering like ripples on a pond.

  When the two energy waves met, sparks from Merlin’s beam exploded in every direction, nearly blotting out the sky with glowing balls of fire, like a thousand Roman candles. Ling Chu’s force-field bent and twisted beneath the strength of Merlin’s assault. Energy impulses ran from above the audible range to so low that it made the ground quiver like it was made of jelly. Jason and the monks clapped their hands over their ears and it was all Jason could do to keep from collapsing. Marshaling every ounce of strength he possessed, Jason pulled himself along the side of the car, grabbed the rear door handle and jerked it open. “Get out. Get out.” He screamed, “Everybody out of the car.”

  Terrified, first one monk, then the rest, came to their senses and piled out. The two in the rear compartment tumbled over the back of the rear seat, falling into the river of mud flowing beneath the car. Above them, Merlin was pushing back Ling Chu’s protective shield, the sorcerer’s efforts weakened by the dual demands of fighting his attacker and controlling the demon spirits. As Jason and the monks pulled themselves through the slimy torrent, the tulpa spirits of fire and earth began moving down the hill toward them. Leering and grinning, the fire demon gnashed his teeth as a blinding lightning bolt smashed into the hillside where the figure of earth stood waiting. At the point of impact the sodden turf gave way, slipping downward in a heaving brown wall.

  Now only feet away from his opponent, Merlin surged ahead with a Herculean effort to break the Chainman’s shield. Seizing Morgana’s ally by the throat, Merlin drove forward, pushing Ling Chow and himself into the shelf of loose, shifting mud along the edge of the cliff. As Merlin’s knees drove into Ling Chu’s belly, the hillside gave way, collapsing downward, ton upon ton of oozing muck, grass and stone, heading directly toward Jason and the monks.

  “Move, move, move,” Jason screamed at the top of his lungs. Running, tripping and picking themselves up again, the five men stumbled toward the rear of the car, desperately trying to escape the avalanche. When the front edge of the mudslide hit the road it was pushing a four-foot high wall of water ahead of it, ripping the footing out from under Jason, Lu Shi and their companions. Swimming, gasping for breath, falling and rising again, the five fought their way to the surface, gulping air and spitting mud in a desperate attempt to keep from being sucked beneath the magma and swept into the gully.

  After endless, terror-filled minutes Jason and a bedraggled clutch of monks hauled themselves out of the slime onto what remained of the bank. Dragging in one ragged breath after another, Jason felt like his lungs were going to burst. It took a moment to clear his head enough to think straight, but when he did his first thought was of Merlin.

  “MERLIN.” He screamed, rolling over, scrambling to his feet. “MERLIN.”

  Jason looked around blankly, his eyes wide with disbelief. The rain had stopped completely and the last of the angry black clouds were already dissipating. The river of rainwater, which only moments before had threatened to wash out the road, was nearly gone. So was the Jeep. Plodding heedlessly through the remaining water and muck, Jason pushed his way toward the far edge of the road. There, lying on its side fifteen feet below, he could see the undercarriage of the car - its wheels thrust skyward like some huge, dead animal. Still trying to make sense of things, Jason turned toward the collapsed hillside. Except for a vast crater scooped out by the mudslide there was no sign of the titanic struggle that had taken place there. The elementals had vanished as had Ling Chu and Merlin. Somewhere behind him, Jason was vaguely aware of a voice. As he turned toward the sound, Lu Shi’s hand rested softly on his shoulder.

  “Your friend?”

  Jason shook his head numbly. He couldn’t think, he couldn’t focus his eyes, he couldn’t even breathe. He hurt like someone had kicked him in the stomach - hard. Finally he spoke. “The monks?”

  “I fear we have lost Son Chu.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Not yet. First we must search. Then we decide if it is the time for sorrow.”

  Jason nodded but all he could do was sink to the wet ground and stare blankly at a rivulet of water making tiny eddies around one of his shoes.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Silently, morosely, Jason and the three surviving monks picked their way through the mud and slime, anxious for any sign of Merlin or Son Chu. Caked from head to toe with muck, their movements were slow and deliberate, like men in a nightmare who cannot move fast enough to escape some dark, pursuing terror. But the terror had already caught up with them and all that was left was a numb sense of emptiness and confusion.

  Plodding heavily, so as not to trip over a submerged branch or stone, Jason’s legs ached from the effort of fighting the knee-deep sludge. In the last forty-eight hours he had been beaten, jailed, threatened with a horrible death, shot at, nearly drown and now he had lost Merlin and was left to face the wrath of Morgana le Fay. Nothing but habit and unfocused frustration kept him going. After an hour of looking for any sign of life or, worse, the bodies of Merlin or th
e monk, he uncovered a skinny brown arm. The hand attached to it was missing three finger nails, but the two remaining were at least three inches long and filed to sharp points. He knew instantly he had found the body of Dr Fu Ling Chu and allowed the hand to flop back down into the mud. Elevating his knee as high as he could, he positioned his boot over the motionless hand.

  “Son-of-a-bitch. You filthy son-of-a-bitch.” Again and again he drove his foot onto the hand. Even with two feet of slime to cushion the blow the sound of Ling Chu’s cracking bones rent the air like a pistol shot. Finally, his fury and remaining energy spent, Jason took two stumbling steps backward and sank to the ground weeping. He wept for Merlin, he wept for himself and he wept for a world that now had no one to defend it from the dragons; but mostly, he just wept.

  “It is Jason, is it not?” Lu Shi’s voice was so soft and gentle it was hardly audible. Jason never looked up but acknowledged with a nod. “You must not do this to yourself, Jason. There will be all necessary time to grieve, but this is neither the time nor the place.”

  “Did you find your friend?” Jason mumbled into his hand.

  “No, like your friend Merlin, Son Chu seems to have been washed away. It would be good if we could locate them to bring closure to this phase of their existence, but their bodies are not the important thing. Their spirits are now free of the web of illusion which makes up this plane of existence.”

  Jason didn’t understand what Lu Shi was saying, or what it meant, but the human contact was at least some small comfort. “I just can’t believe it. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. He’d waited so long. I don’t know what I can do to stop her without him. I just... It’s just... He should be here...”