The Merlin Chronicles: Box Set (All Three Novels)

by Daniel Diehl

  Jason knew when he was out numbered but didn’t want to risk sending Beverley and an old man to face Morgana by themselves. “Wait, I think I’ve got it. I want to see this place too, so how about let’s all go to the caves on our way to the airport. We can all have a good look around and then I can go on to Ethiopia. How’s that sound?” Shrugs and nods all around seemed to indicate a general consent to the proposal. Considering the matter closed, Jason ended the conversation. “Good. It’s settled, then. Now, let’s all go home and get some rest. We have a lot of work ahead of us and no time to lose.”

  “Congratulations, my boy. You not only solved the riddle but have assumed command and propose to lead your forces from the front. That’s exactly what Arthur would have done.” Before Jason could protest that he was nothing like King Arthur, Merlin's eyes opened wide as he announced, “Sambuca.”

  “What?”

  “I said Sambuca.”

  “What’s that? Is that something from the Gnostic book you didn't tell me about?”

  “No, silly boy. It’s what it said on the label of one of the bottles behind the bar counter. I think I'm going to try it before I wander home.”

  “Ok, whatever you want.” Jason reached into his pocket. “Look, here are my keys. I'll go home with Beverley and see you tomorrow morning.”

  “Good. I should probably take a moment to apologize to your friend, Bunny. I think I gave him rather a fright. You young people have a good night.”

  “Good night, Merlin.” Beverley leaned over and gave the old man a light kiss on the cheek.

  “Good night my dear.” He took her hand in his and locked eyes. “Don't worry, everything will work out for the best.”

  Chapter Six

  Jason flopped back onto the couch and let out a gigantic sigh followed by a huge, theatrical moan. For five hours he had been staring at the computer, absorbing everything he could about Ethiopian history, religion, politics and culture in preparation for his trip. So far he had learned that Ethiopia had seen some of the earliest habitation by human beings of any place on earth; that it had civilizations dating back thousands – if not tens of thousands – of years; that the Coptic Church, which claimed to hold the Ark of the Covenant, was one of the world’s first centers of Christianity; and that Ethiopia had been one of the most stable nations in sub-Saharan Africa until 1974, when a communist coup overthrew and murdered Emperor Haile Selassie and established a dictatorship. In stark contrast with its past history, modern Ethiopia had a repressive government, too many people, rampant inflation, too much poverty, too much heat and not enough water which inevitably led to recurring cycles of drought and famine. The whole day had been like cramming for a test but worse, because Jason only had one, or at best two, days to learn everything he needed to know. Now his eyes hurt and his head ached. Worst of all, the one thing that he needed most was finding some way to communicate with people in Ethiopia and there was no time to take a crash course in Ethiopian.

  “You alright?” Beverley had stopped in front of the couch, carrying an armload of clothes that were about to go into Jason’s worn duffle bag. In response, Jason crossed his eyes and flailed his arms helplessly, making her giggle. “Come on, it can’t be that bad.”

  “About all I know for sure is that while it doesn’t seem to have anything else, Ethiopia has its own airline that flies in and out of Heathrow and the flight to Addis Ababa is going to take eight hours.”

  “How long did it take you two to fly to Mongolia?”

  “Ten hours.”

  “See. You’ve already saved two hours.” Serious now, she set the clothes down on the coffee table and sat down next to Jason. “When do you leave?”

  “Six-forty-five in the morning, day after tomorrow but I’ll have to be at the airport by four-thirty or so. I figure that gives us all day tomorrow to visit the caves and get me to the airport and then it’s off to the Twilight Zone again. I have absolutely no idea how I’m going to get from Addis Ababa to Axum; according to the map there is over four hundred miles of nothing but scorching hot desert between them.”

  “Can’t you fly directly into Axum?”

  “Nope. I don’t think so. Looks like I’m stuck taking an all-day trip on an African train or something.” Then, rolling his eyes skyward; “Please, don’t make me take a four hundred mile ride across the desert on a bus loaded with chickens and goats.” Finally, after a sigh of resignation, “God, I really don’t want to do this.”

  “Consider this, my boy,” said Merlin as he stepped out of Jason’s bedroom where he had been staring into his scrying glass since early morning, making sure Morgana did nothing unexpected that might require some last-minute adjustments to their plans. “We are far, far ahead of where we were five months ago when we had no itinerary beyond rebuilding my sphere. Now we have reason to believe that we know where the dragon gate is located and at least a strong possibility of finding the key that will allow us to close it permanently. We have learned more in the last week than I managed to accomplish in the past sixteen hundred years. I don’t know about you, but I call that real progress. You must understand that our search for the key to permanently sealing the gate is nothing less than the real-life equivalent of the search for the Holy Grail which centuries of romantic bards ascribed to poor Arthur and his court. This is a monumental thing we are dealing with here, my boy. This is the very stuff from which legends are made.”

  “I know. I’m not really complaining; I’m just tired. I don’t suppose you could cram a couple of Ethiopian dialects into my head the same way you did Mongolian?”

  “I’m afraid not. If you recall, I had an entire airplane filled with Mongolians whose minds I could tap into to learn their language but I’m afraid I don’t have access to anyone from Ethiopia at the moment.”

  “I don’t think it would help much if you did. Seems they have over ninety official languages. God, no wonder they’re so backward.”

  Smiling weakly, Beverley patted Jason’s knee before standing up, gathering the armload of clothes and heading toward the small dining table where she was collecting everything she thought he might need to spend an unknown amount of time in the searing heat of equatorial Africa. “I can’t help you learn any of the languages, or get you to Axum, but at least I can guarantee that you’ll have clean knickers and all the clothes you should need for an Ethiopian safari. If you run out of sox just wash them out at the nearest oasis, lay them on a hot rock and let them dry in the sun.”

  “Do I get one of those neat pith helmets and an elephant gun for my safari?”

  “Sorry.”

  “Damn.”

  Merlin eased himself down onto the sofa next to Jason and began tugging at the top of the leather pouch which perpetually dangled from his belt. “Considering the difficulties you may face convincing the churchmen of the Coptic religion to allow you access to something that no one has seen in nearly three-thousand years, I think I have a few things that may serve you far better than an elephant gun.”

  Sitting up straight, Jason peered at Merlin’s hands as they dug through the pouch. A moment later one of the old man’s veiny, claw-like hands came into sight holding a fat wad of one hundred pound bank notes. “Here. Take this for petty expenses and use whatever you don’t need for necessities to make an appropriate donation to the church. I guarantee it will open doors which may well remain permanently closed, otherwise.”

  Jason stared at this latest roll of cash with wide eyes. “I don’t want to know where you got this, do I?”

  “Probably not, but just to put your mind at rest I only bought some of those money tickets.”

  “You were reading the numbers on the lottery tickets through the lead paint again, weren’t you?”

  “Nowhere on the ticket does it say that you are not allowed to read the numbers.”

  “I don’t think the lottery commission assumes its customers have Superman’s X-ray vision.”

  Extracting her head from Jason’s knapsack, Beverley smiled
benignly, waved a hand toward Merlin and said, “The lottery commission does say that their proceeds are supposed to go to help the aged.”

  Merlin acknowledged the show of support with a smile and a nod. “Thank you, my dear. My point exactly. With the exception of Morgana – who has more money than Croesus – I have no doubt that I am at least a millennia older than anyone else in the kingdom. Besides, all the well-meaning elder care programs in the world won’t count for much if we don’t have the resources necessary to stop Morgana and seal the dragon gate.”

  Knowing Merlin was right, Jason just shook his head, took the money and stared at it for a minute before walking it across the room to Beverley and asking her to put it somewhere that he wouldn’t forget it when they left.

  “Don’t wander off, Jason.” Merlin called him back with one finger. “I also think you should take the Gnostic book with you.”

  “Why would I need to lug that heavy thing around Africa?”

  “The Coptic Church holds some of the oldest and rarest manuscripts in all Christendom. Remember, their church was already well established and flourishing when Rome was still actively persecuting Christians. We have to assume that they have been avidly collecting scholarly works for a full two thousand years and they would undoubtedly covet possession of a book such as this.”

  “You’re saying that I should give it to them?”

  “I’m saying that while the Urim and Thummim may be the keys that lock the dragon gate, this book may prove to be the key that gains you access to the Ark of the Covenant.”

  “Use it as a bribe if that’s the only way they’ll let me have a peek at the Ark. Right?”

  “Precisely.”

  “As much as I hate to admit it, that really does make a lot of sense.”

  “I’m glad you agree. And now, finally, I have also prepared a small jar of the Panchen Lama’s anti-scrying ointment for you to take along. At this point in time the unguent is absolutely our best ally in keeping Mistress le Fay and her thugs at bay and our own heads fixed securely on our shoulders.”

  “Since you brought it up, what are we supposed to do about the wicked witch of the west until we find the things you need to lock the gate?”

  “The last time around we chased her; this time I believe our best course of action is simply keep an eye on her and go about our business as calmly as we can. As long as she believes me to be dead we should be safe. However, I do think you should both have a good look at the communicating device – just for future reference.” With that, Merlin got up, turned on his heel, headed back toward Jason’s bedroom and motioned for the others to follow him.

  The mirror stood on the old kitchen table that Jason used as a desk, its back propped against a pile of books. The broken details on the heavily carved frame, along with the fragments of gold leaf clinging to it, betrayed the mirror’s centuries of use. The ancient glass was wavy, the silver backing was flaking off and Merlin had broken off the bottom-most corner of the oval glass to take with them to Mongolia. Despite its battered appearance the antique Venetian mirror’s value as a scrying glass lay in the fact that it was made of crystal rather than glass, a factor which had allowed it to absorb the specific charms and incantations necessary to transform if from a humble looking-glass into a window onto the life and activities of any individual who’s specific harmonic emanations its owner had tuned into.

  Now, with Jason and Beverley standing anxiously behind him, Merlin sat down at the desk chair, flexed his hands and began scribing invisible shapes and signs in the air only inches away from the surface of the glass. As his hands moved faster and faster, he began chanting unintelligible words in a droning, sing-song voice. Over and over he repeated the same movements and the same words until the mirror began to cloud over as though a gentle fog was being reflected in its ancient, broken surface. Finally, after nearly three minutes, the fog cleared to reveal the interior of a room paneled in richly polished oak. Along two walls stood floor-to-ceiling book cases and in the middle of the floor stood a huge office desk.

  “Oh, my God, that’s absolutely brilliant. How did you do that?”

  “Half turning to offer Beverley a wide grin, Merlin answered, “Give me two or three years of your undivided attention and I will gladly teach you how to spy on your friends and enemies.”

  “When this is over, you have a deal.”

  As they watched the mirror, a raven-haired woman wearing a crimson dress with a delicate purple shawl draped over her shoulders appeared. She was pacing back and forth in front of the desk, a mobile phone held to her ear with one hand while the other punctuated her words. Leaning toward Jason’s shoulder, Beverley whispered, “Is that her?” Gritting his teeth in anger, Jason confirmed that the figure was, indeed, Morgana le Fay. “My God, she’s beautiful.”

  “Yeah, well, beauty is only skin deep but ugly goes all the way to the bone. Believe me, Bev, that woman is bat-shit crazy and so evil she could make Hitler blush.” While speaking, Jason’s voice remained as hushed as Beverley’s and his eyes never wavered from the mirror.

  “You children don’t need to whisper, you know. She can’t hear us. Tragically, we can’t hear her, either but…oh, look there.” As the image of Morgana moved, the mirror followed her, changing the perspective from which it viewed the room. Now, Merlin pointed to the far left-hand side of the glass.

  “What is that?” Jason leaned forward, straining to understand what he was being shown. Beyond Morgana’s desk, resting on the floor in front of two sections of the bookcases which had been thrown open like a pair of French doors, half of a polished, brass colored, circular object was visible.

  “That, my young friends, is the disk from the communicating device.”

  “So that’s what she uses to talk to those horrible things with.” Jason craned his neck forward, squinting down on the small, semicircular object near the bottom of the mirror.

  “It is, indeed. Here, let me see if I can provide you with a better view.” Grasping the left side of the fragile mirror frame in one hand, Merlin pulled it forward slightly. As the mirror moved, the angle from which they viewed the room shifted. A few more degrees and the entire alcove that housed the communicating device had become plainly visible. Although the disk had been removed from its position above the ranks of ancient crystal knobs and levers, and the piles of scrolls and manuscripts had been removed to provide more room for Peter Haskell’s men to work, the rest of the equipment seemed to remain in place. The crystals and the brass tray on which they were mounted were still there, as was the computer keyboard. Behind the spot on the wall where the disk had hung, in the space below the keyboard, and in cupboards on both sides, stood bank upon bank of hard drives, external modems, backup memory and dozens upon dozens of other assorted pieces of hardware.

  “My brother Jonathan would just die to see that set-up.” Beverley had no idea what any of the equipment was but, like Jason and Merlin, it was obvious to her that even with the best engineers available it would take days, if not weeks, to move and reassemble anything this complex.

  “Unless you two want to stay and watch, you might as well continue with your packing. I’m going to keep an eye on her for as long as possible. I don’t want any surprises while we wander around through that cave tomorrow.”

  Leaning into Jason’s shoulder, Beverley said quietly, “I think I have everything packed for you. If you have time maybe we could do something…since we’re going to be busy tomorrow and then you have to leave.”

  “Do you mind if we escape for a while, Merlin?”

  “Not at all. You young people go about your business. If you need me I’ll be right here; if I need you I can call Beverley on her mobile.”

  “Tell you what, Bev. Let’s bring a map and we can lay out a route for tomorrow. I know it’s not the most romantic thing but we need to figure out where we’re going.”

  “Ok. I have an A-Z map in the Mini and I’ll bring it along, but we have to go to Betty’s and you have to buy me on
e of their nice cream teas.”

  “Deal.”

  The day had proven warm, dry and sunny by late February standards, so Jason and Beverley ambled slowly from the flat on St Mary’s Terrace, toward the heart of York. Going through Museum Gardens, past the ruins of the medieval convent and behind the archaeology department’s King’s Manor, they eventually came to the walking path that skirted the River Ouse.

  Turning away from the chill of the river, they came back toward the center of the old, medieval city on Cony Street and followed it southward for a few hundred yards before turning left onto Stonegate where they stopped in front of Mansion House, the official home of the Lord Mayor. Beverley seemed to have an endless fascination for the grand, red brick Georgian house and when the city’s Rolls Royce, with the flowered crest of the House of York painted on the door, stopped almost in front of them, they paused to watch. The uniformed driver got out and walked around to open the curbside door and simultaneously the double front doors of Mansion House flew open allowing the Lord Mayor and two assistants to dash down the few steps and trundle into the big car. The Lord Mayor paused just long enough to turn and offer a quick smile to Beverley and Jason, his massive gold collar of maintenance sparkling in the hard February sunlight. Jason and Beverley returned the greeting and the ceremonial head of York’s city government pulled away from the curb and disappeared up Stonegate.

  “That was nice of him.”

  “Considering that we are about to go save the world, again, he should have stopped and given us both a huge sloppy kiss and bought us the most expensive dinner in town.”

  “Come on, silly.” Beverley grabbed Jason’s hand and pulled him up Stonegate toward the bowed front window of Betty’s Tea Rooms. Hauling Jason through the shiny, black front door, she pointed toward a table near the window and looked enquiringly at the woman behind the counter.