by Daniel Diehl
Beverley and Jason, who had now stepped forward to meet this strange figure, nodded in acknowledgement of Merlin's words but they could not understand how the Lady of the Lake could exist outside of time any more than she could understand how the rest of the world was bound by it. Most amazing of all, Vivian seemed not in the least perturbed by the fact that she was being talked about as though she was some aberration, some freak of nature.
“You really should meet Arthur. He and Merlin are very good for each other.” Suddenly she tilted her head to one side, musing, creasing her forehead. “But maybe you do meet Arthur in another time. I seem to remember that happening.”
At this point Merlin interjected himself back into the conversation. “Vivian and I first met when I came back to Arthur's court while I was still trying to recover my sanity after seeing the dragons wipe out Uther's army. She was very kind to me and gave me sanctuary here on her island while my mind healed itself. Didn't you, my dear.”
“Yes, I helped you then, too. Just like I did in the before time.”
“Before?”
“It’s ok, Jason, there was no earlier instance. Time confuses her. I think she means years later when she helped me locate the best place to bury my sphere so I could be safe from Morgana's soldiers while I sought a way to permanently seal the dragon gate.”
“I don't want to talk about that, Merlin. I think it will make you afraid...or it did... I can't remember which.” She touched her forehead gently, in concentration, then, changing the subject in mid thought, she stared hard at Beverley. “Would you like to see where I live?”
“Oh, yes, if you don't mind, I...” When Beverley turned her gaze toward the island, she realized it was no longer there or, rather, they were no longer on the rock-strewn Welsh coast. The entire group was now standing on Ynys Enlli and in the distance, in front of them, was the far shore with its rough shingle, the hawthorn bush and, in the distance, the path leading to the car. “What...? How...?”
The fog had disappeared and the entire landscape was now washed with a soft, melon-colored light. By contrast, the shadows cast by the ancient trees and low shrubberies were nearly blue, making the entire scene look as lush and surreal as an illustration created by the hand of Maxwell Parrish.
Vivian smiled, reached out and took Beverley's hand. Before leading her guests deeper into the island, she removed the sparkling circlet from her head and tossed it toward the sea. In mid-arc, an instant before it began falling toward the water, the delicate diadem broke apart, each of the tiny, shimmering fish that had comprised it flopping and twisting through the air and landing in the water with a series of delicate, silvery splashes before swimming away.
“Oh. Oh, my God, that was so beautiful.” Beverley said, squeezing Vivian's hand with a shiver of delight. “How did you do that?”
Vivian only looked at her as though she did not understand the question and giggled, covering her mouth with her free hand and averting her eyes. “Come. See my garden.”
As the sylphan figure wandered across the low grass toward the center of the island, Merlin caught up with her and took her gently by the arm.
“We really do need your help, my dear. Do you think you can try to help us?”
“It’s still her, isn't it? Arthur's sister. Morgana, I mean.”
“I'm afraid so.” Merlin shook his head, lowering his eyes sadly.
“You know you can be safe from her here. You can stay with me and we can be together always. Nothing changes here and you can be young again.” Glancing over her slim shoulder at Beverley and Jason, she added “You're friends can stay too, if they like. Then everyone will be safe.”
“I am afraid it’s not that easy, my dearest. Morgana has become very dangerous. Jason and I must find a way to stop her before she can bring back the dragons.”
While Merlin tried to explain the urgency of his mission, Jason and Beverley realized that their short walk had carried them to the edge of a massive knot garden. Scribing a huge circle that must have covered fifteen or more acres, the maze was incredibly intricate, with openings that led onto twisting pathways, cork-screwing into each other, most of them leading to dead ends. Only occasionally did one of them offer a way toward a large, open grassy area at the heart of the maze. Strangest of all, the shrubs forming the walls of the maze were trimmed so they were hardly knee high. It would have been impossible to get lost here; one need only step across the tops of the hedges and walk straight to the center. Still, the Lady of the Lake led her visitors into the maze, picking her way carefully from intersection to intersection, path to path, pausing now and again to consider which way to turn next. All the while, Merlin was explaining to her the contents of the confused, prophetic passages from the Gnostic gospel, hoping that with her powers of innate knowledge and second sight she could help them unravel their mystery. Finally, he drew her to a halt and stared hard into her eyes to hold her attention.
“Lady, have you been listening to me? Have you heard what I said?”
“Yes, my love, every word. And it pains me deeper than you can ever know to tell you that I cannot help you. I know nothing of these holy men who are not holy nor of knights who are not knights. Nor do I know of any water which induces a state of oblivion.” Giggling, she added, “Although it does sound very pleasant, don’t you think?” Finally, shrugging her tiny shoulders she said, almost as an afterthought, “And of course you already know all about the cave.”
Gently, Merlin took her by the shoulders and turned her so she was facing him full-on. “What do you mean, I know about the cave? I don’t know what you mean.”
“You were there, or will be, and I will be there with you. We will go there when you are a boy.”
“My dear, I didn’t know you when I was a boy. We only met when I took refuge with you after my wanderings.”
“No. The cave is where the dragons live. You told the king about them. Don’t you remember?”
“I know the dragons come out of a cave, Vivian. What I need to know now is where the cave is located so I can keep the dragons from coming out and getting loose into the world. Please, tell me where the cave is.”
Growing silent and obviously frustrated, she pulled away from Merlin and rubbed the end of her tiny nose with two fingers as a single, huge tear ran down one cheek. Finally, she looked up at the old wizard and studied his face before turning to Beverley. “Men always want to know things. Have you ever noticed that? They want to know things and then they take the knowledge and go off and do things with it. Why can't they just accept things as they are?”
Beverley stepped forward and said quietly “I know that sometimes it must seem like that, but this really is important. If there is anything you can tell us that might help, we’ll be very grateful.”
Vivian stared at her, and then back at Merlin. Then she let out a large, ragged sigh that seemed bigger than she was. “I had hoped” she said in a tiny voice, “that Morgana would go away, or simply stop bothering people with her ambitions and schemes, but she hasn't, has she?”
“No, my dearest, she hasn't, and I fear she never will until someone stops her. And it would seem that the someone who has inherited that duty is my friend Jason. Can you help us?”
“Possibly.” She moved on through the maze, staring at the ground in an attempt to distract herself from what she was saying, but continuing to talk. “The dragons are the children of darkness and Morgana has fallen under their spell completely. She has become one of them, in spirit at least, if not in body. The only way to defeat their darkness is with the pure light of perfect truth which can only be found in the physical reality of God's promise.”
“I don't understand, child. What is this physical manifestation of God? God has no physical form.”
“That fisherman was looking for it, too, you know.”
“What fisherman?” Now, even Merlin was confused by this new riddle which Vivian apparently thought was connected to the enigmatic puzzle of the dragon gate and the Gnostic gospe
l.
“The fisherman with the keys. Oh, what was his name? I can't recall...”
“The fisherman with the keys? You don't mean St. Peter, do you?” Beverley was grasping at straws, but it was the only thing she could think to say.
Vivian smiled and her eyes brightened with remembrance. “Yes. That was his name. Peter. He had two keys, didn't you know that?”
Merlin looked back at Beverley and Jason, both of whom were as confused as he was. Jason stared back, shrugged and shook his head, while Beverley tried to piece Vivian's fragmented thoughts into a coherent whole. After a pause, she held up a hand to get the others’ attention.
“St. Peter is always shown holding the keys to the kingdom of heaven. I've always wondered why they show him holding two keys. According to the church, there is supposedly only one way to salvation, so why is he shown with two keys rather than just one?”
Vivian worked her way a few yards back through the maze to where Beverley and Jason stood and looked up at Beverley, searching her face. “Because” she whispered in a low, conspiratorial voice, as though she was sharing some great secret, “one is for good and one is for evil. They work together, yet against each other, two halves of a whole. Do you understand?”
“I think I see what you mean. Like the yin and yang, light and dark, positive and negative. But what does this have to do with Morgana and the dragons and the cave?”
“The fisherman never had the keys. He wanted them, God told him to find them and the Christian people believed he had the power the keys contained, but he didn't. The keys had already been lost ages before…or possibly ages later.” Vivian stared off into the nothingness, trying valiantly to separate past from future. Finally giving up, she sighed a tiny sigh, shook her head and smiled at Beverley. “Anyway, the keys he holds in the pictures are just symbols of the real keys, so it doesn’t matter.”
By now, Merlin and Jason had clustered around Vivian and Beverley, clogging the narrow pathway between the hedges, listening to the strangely youthful woman who was far older than even Merlin could imagine. She looked around at them, her eyes wide with anxiety, knowing that they expected things from her and unsure of what she should say.
“The real keys, the ones he never found, are still in God's covenant with the humans. That is where you can find them, along with the other parts of the covenant; inside its physical manifestation. The coffer...the box where they put them...don't you understand?”
“No. We don't understand. Please, Vivian, can't you be just a bit clearer? Can you just concen...”
Beverley excitedly cut Merlin off. “Wait. Wait. Vivian, look at me. Do you mean the Ark of the Covenant? Is that what you’re trying to describe?”
“Yes. The big gold box the Hebrews carried around with them.”
“Oh, my God.” Jason cringed. “I am not going after the Ark of the Covenant. This is starting to sound way too much like an Indiana Jones movie. I can see the headlines now: ‘Young archaeologist discovers Ark of the Covenant: George Lucas Sues for Copyright Infringement’.” Jason was mumbling to himself and only stopped when Beverley scowled at him. “Sorry, Bev, but after all the crap I’ve already been through this is just way too weird to deal with.”
“Jason, after all the crap you and Merlin have already been through, this should sound almost logical.”
Jason rubbed his unshaven chin, alternately nodding and shaking his head. “I'm sorry. It was a stupid thing to say. I guess I'm just a little slap-happy from lack of sleep.”
Only inches away, Vivian had continued talking over their exchange. “…and there were two birds on the lid. Did you know that? Lovely golden birds with their wings spread up over their heads.”
Now it was Jason’s turn to interpret the Lady's vague ramblings. “Birds? You mean the angels that are supposed to be mounted on the lid of the Ark?”
“Is that what you think they were?” Vivian broke out laughing; the sound was like some bright, tinkling, fairy music that rang as clear and true as a sparkling glass bell. “No. They’re birds, silly. Sometimes you Christians are so confused. But yes, you are right. That is where the keys are. In the box. The Ark of the Covenant. All you have to do is take them out and they will allow you to seal the doorway against the children of darkness.”
“The dragons?”
“Yes, of course, the dragons.”
“Why didn't you tell me this before?” Merlin had grabbed Vivian's arm and swung her around to face him. His pain was obvious, at once heart wrenching and terrible.
She smiled sadly, clutching the greasy fur of his coat in desperation. “Because I didn't want you to leave me. I love you and I knew if I told you where to find the keys to the gate you would leave me to find them.”
“Oh, you poor thing. So instead you helped me lock myself in a crystal sphere for fifteen centuries.”
“Is that a very long time?”
“Yes, my dear child.” He reached out and stroked her hair sympathetically with one hand. “It is a very, very long time. Had you told me then, if I could have found them, I might have been able to close the gate and come back to you while I was still relatively young. Now it’s too late. I’m old and closing the gate is the last thing I will have the strength to do.”
Vivian's gaze began to cloud with sadness, but as her eyes wandered over the hedge rows of the maze toward the open plot in the center she brightened, a childlike smile replacing the look of frustration. “Would you all like to come inside and see my tower? Merlin has been there many times. It is where I nursed his wounds when he was dead.”
Since there was clearly no house to be seen, Bev and Jason both looked confused but Beverley desperately tried to keep Vivian both calm and focused. “That would be very nice, Vivian. Maybe there we could talk this out.”
“Not today, Vivian. I’m sorry, my dear, but we simply don’t have time to go inside. Maybe another day.” Merlin looked over Vivian's head toward Beverley and shook his head vehemently, but Vivian caught his movement and looked up at him.
“You liked it, didn't you, my love. Did you like my house?”
“Yes. Of course, but we really are in a hurry. Now what more can you tell us about the Ark and the keys.”
“Nothing. You must find the box with the birds, open it and take out the keys. They are the only way to close the dragon gate permanently.”
Merlin embraced Vivian so tightly it looked like he would crush her tiny form against his chest. He was crying silently. There were no tears, but Jason and Beverley could see his chest heave with the effort of ragged sobs. Embarrassed for history's greatest wizard, who was, after all, as human as anyone, they turned away and headed back toward the outer edge of the maze. Finally, Merlin released the tiny child-woman, kissed her on the forehead and turned to rejoin his friends.
“Please, don't go, Merlin. How will I find my way back to my tower without you to guide me through the maze?”
To no one in particular, Jason muttered under his breath “Why doesn’t she just step across the hedges?”
Vivian looked up sharply, raising her voice across the distance between them. “That would spoil all the fun. Don't you have fun where you come from?” Finally, she called out, “Merlin, when the dragons are dead and you are young, will you come back and love me?”
Looking very old, Merlin turned to wave at her once and then shooed Jason and Beverley through the maze, only glancing back over his shoulder once more to see the retreating form of the Lady of the Lake, the tip of one index finger pressed against her teeth in concentration, picking her way toward the open space at the center of the vast, low maze.
When they reached the edge of the island and were well out of Vivian’s hearing distance, Jason turned to Merlin, a scowl on his face. “So what was all that about you knowing about the cave and being dead?”
“If I knew anything about the cave I’m sure I would have remembered it at some point over the last thousand years and I’m quite certain I’m not dead…at least not yet. C
onsequently, I can only assume she was remembering my death from the future.”
“Ooo, that’s kind of nasty.”
“At least, according to what she said, it would seem that we will eventually locate the cave.”
The three of them stood there for a moment, looking silently out across miles of ocean, unsure of how to address Vivian’s prediction of Merlin’s death. Eventually, Beverley was the first to ask how they were going to get back to the shore.
“Follow me. Stay close.” Merlin stepped off the low bank and onto the leading edge of the water, Jason and Beverley following him, half a step behind. Before their shoe soles touched the water, they were already on the opposite bank, the island and its strange inhabitant again invisible, enshrouded in mist and fog nearly two miles into the churning waters of the Irish Sea.
Beverley stepped close to Merlin and tucked her arm through his, leaning close to his side. “Who is she? Really?”
“No one knows. They used to say she is one of the last of the fae, what you call the fairy folk, probably a naiad, a water spirit. Neither entirely human nor entirely spirit, but something in between.”
“You mean there really are fairies?”
“So it would seem. Certainly the Welsh who followed the old religion believed in them, and even the early church never entirely discounted their existence. In the Book of Genesis it does talk about ‘the sons of men and angels’. Some religious scholars claimed fairies were a cross between humans and angels, and the early fathers of the church held long debates to decide what these creatures really were and how they fell into the over-all scheme of heaven and earth.”
Jason grunted, nodded and mumbled “Was that one of those stupid ‘how many angels can dance on the head of a pin’ type of arguments?”
Merlin nodded his agreement with a small, knowing smile. “It was just about that fatuous. But what they finally decided was rather interesting. The church finally agreed that when Lucifer mounted his war against God, there was a group of angels who refused to take sides. Consequently, they were not bad enough to be cast into hell but neither were they good enough to remain in heaven with God and the angels. As punishment for their neutrality, God condemned them to an existence somewhere between the angels and humans, living in the eternal, but only half-real, world of the fairies. Never again angels, but never becoming human. Never dying but never really living. I don't know if it’s true, but it certainly would explain a lot. And there is no doubt that Vivian lives at all points in time simultaneously; remembering the future as well as the past while the present is always as dim as a fleeting memory.”