Читать книгу Legacy: The Mark of Merlin - Gerald Pruett - Страница 5

Prologue

In Carmarthen, England, beneath a full moon and approximately nine months before Merlin’s birth, a ten-year-old girl climbed down from a wooden lab-type table. The girl was wearing everyday clothes for the time period, and once her feet had touched the wooden floor of the twenty by twenty-five foot room she marveled over her physical appearance.

“This will work nicely,” the girl said in a low volume voice after a second of examining herself.

“What’s going on?!” a woman’s scared voice was heard from across the room. The girl turned towards the forty-year-old woman. The woman was on her feet while looking in a nearby decorative mirror and lightly dragging her fingers over her face. “I’m an old lady and I look like Marbella!”

“You’re not an old lady,” the girl told the woman.

The woman faced the girl before saying in a frightened voice, “You… you look like me… the way I should look.”

“Breena, it’s me Marbella. You’re in my body and I’m in yours.”

“How did this happened, Marbella?”

“I’m a sorceress and I needed a different body…”

“You did this? You made me into an old lady?”

“You’re not an old lady,” Marbella insisted. “And unfortunately—for you anyway—I can’t allow you to live to become an old woman.”

“You’re going to kill me?” Breena asked worriedly. “But you’ve been nice to me. You said that we were friends.”

“It’s not anything personal, Breena… or should I say Marbella. The king had found out that I was a sorceress and now his men are hunting me. So I needed a new body. Witches and warlocks don’t possess the power that I need and therefore, I needed a young sorceress or a young wizard’s body to hide in and your body was the only sorceress’s body available.”

“But… but I’m no sorceress,” Breena insisted.

“Oh, but you are… or were,” Marbella told her. “When you were only two the king had your father along with several others executed for sorcery. Your mother didn’t want to tell you, and normally I would’ve waited until you were eighteen to switch bodies with you, but as I said, the king’s men are hunting me and I’ve lived too many centuries to die now. Anyway, Breena, I’ll try to make this as quickly as possible for you.”

Tears flowed down Breena’s cheeks as she said sullenly, “I don’t want to die.”

“Neither do I,” Marbella said before casting the incantation to destroy Breena. The incantation was short and within seconds, Breena screamed as she was being consumed in a burst of flame.

Once Breena had disappeared from sight, Marbella stepped up to the decorative mirror and recited another incantation.

When the glass of the mirror clouded over, she instructed, “Show me the wizards and sorceresses who will be born during the next forty years.”

When a group of people with russet skin appeared in the mirror, Marbella ordered, “Show me their land and how to get to them.”

Marbella’s eyes had widened in horror when the mirror had shown her that the only wizards and sorceresses who were to be born in the next forty years were located in what will be known in the future as the New World.

“That’s across the monster-infested seas, and in a part of the world I’ve never heard of before. Show me something closer.” When the mirror couldn’t show Marbella anything closer, she continued with, “Okay, Breena will not be the last sorceress who I’ll switch bodies with. So if a wizard or a sorceress won’t be born within the next forty years, then I’ll have to change that. I’ll summon a spirit of a dead wizard… of a powerful wizard, and I’ll have that spirit impregnate a few women. That should give me a few options. And hopefully the king won’t discover them and have them executed before they reach eighteen.”

During the passing minutes, Marbella prepared the incantation and then cast it to bring forth a spirit of a powerful wizard.

It took thirty minutes to prepare the incantation and summon the spirit. Once she had sent the spirit to the sleeping women throughout Britain someone began to pound on the front door.

Marbella quickly moved to hide the evidence that sorcery had been used and just as she was hiding the last of the evidence, the sound of the front door being forced open was heard.

Marbella moved towards the door and saw ten soldiers piling in. When the leader of the group saw Marbella, he uttered, “Good Lord, Breena! What are you doing here?!”

“Marbella invited me.”

“Marbella is a sorceress,” the leader quickly informed. A staged expression of surprise came across Marbella’s face. “So you shouldn’t be here, and you shouldn’t be out at all after dark.”

“It’s dark out?!” Marbella uttered in her staged sincere tone.

“It is…”

Again Marbella’s sincerity was staged as she interrupted with, “Wow, the time had slipped away from me!”

“I’ll make sure you get home safely,” the soldier assured her. “Right now though, I need you to tell me where is Marbella.”

Marbella gestured towards the door while saying, “She stepped out to get some water. That was some time ago though.”

A second soldier stepped up and suggested, “Marbella could’ve seen us coming and took off.”

“Possible,” the leader said. He then barked out, “Torch the place!”

“Is that necessary?” Marbella quickly questioned. “I mean, since Marbella is gone, what will torching the place solve?”

“It will make anything in here useless,” the leader said. “So if she’s outside watching us, and waiting for us to leave so she can gather her magical charms then she’s going to be leaving this region empty handed.”

Marbella gestured towards the mirror while saying, “I like that mirror. It’s pretty. So can I have it?” When an uncertain expression came across the leader’s face, Marbella begged, “Please?”

The leader sighed before turning towards one of his men and saying, “Make sure that Breena gets home safely and assist her with the mirror.”

“Yes, Sir,” the soldier said.

Marbella hugged the leader in a staged gratifying manner while saying, “Thank you.”

“Okay, well, you need to get home,” the leader said while breaking her hug.

“I will,” Marbella assured him as the soldier assigned to escort her home was removing the mirror from the wall.

“And next time, Breena, keep better track on the sunlight. You shouldn’t be out this late.”

Marbella nodded while saying, “I will.”

The soldier assigned to escort Marbella stepped up with the mirror in his hands while saying, “Let’s go, Breena.”

“Bye,” Marbella told the soldiers.

“Bye,” the soldiers echoed before Marbella could follow her escort towards the door.

As Marbella was living Breena’s life during the passing days, she learned that Breena would get cryptic psychic dreams.

Marbella had switched bodies with a sorceress who was also a seer once before, so although Breena might not have understood what she was dreaming, Marbella certainly did.

As the days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, Aldan and five other women were showing signs of being pregnant; however, when Marbella consulted the mirror, only Aldan was going to give birth to a wizard.

After Merlin was born, and during the passing years, Marbella kept an eye on Merlin, and kept him from harm.

By the time Merlin had reached the age of eight, Merlin had discovered that he had magical powers. Marbella was surprised that Merlin’s ability was emerging before he reached adolescence. She also had quickly instructed Merlin to keep his powers a secret, and as an incentive for him to do so, she offered to teach him a few things in the art of magic.

As instructed by Marbella, Merlin had kept his secret, but after Merlin had reached the age of ten Aldan had learned about Merlin’s secret as well.

After Merlin had reached the age of fifteen, Marbella woke with a terrible psychic dream of Merlin being too powerful of a wizard for her to swap bodies with.

Marbella quickly got out of bed and stepped up to the mirror. After casting the incantation, Marbella instructed the mirror, “Show me what would happen if I attempt to swap bodies with Merlin.”

Marbella’s eyes had again widened in horror when the mirror had shown her, her death if she would attempt to switch bodies with Merlin.

“Show me what would happen if I attempt to swap bodies with any of his children.”

Again the mirror showed Marbella her death if she would attempt to switch bodies with any of Merlin’s children.

“Merlin and any of his children will be too powerful for me to swap bodies with.” Marbella then rhetorically asked, “How can I fix this problem of these wizards and sorceresses being too powerful for me to swap bodies with?”

Marbella was slightly stunned as the mirror showed her the answer. She then smiled before saying, “That’s it. The powers of Merlin’s children must be split and I know exactly how to go about it.”

During the following six nights, as Merlin slept, Marbella would cast an incantation that gave Merlin terrible nightmares. In his nightmares, Merlin’s evil-doing children would be as equally as powerful as he, and his children would kill him in the future along with turning the world into a hellish wasteland.

Because of the nightmares Marbella was giving Merlin, Merlin was only averaging three hours of sleep each night, and after a week of not getting enough sleep, Merlin sought out his twenty-six-year-old magic tutor for advice.

Marbella was outside feeding her chickens when Merlin staggered up to her. She saw right away that Merlin looked exhausted.

“Are you feeling well, Merlin?” Marbella asked before Merlin could say as to why he was there. “You look terrible.”

“A reoccurring nightmare has been keeping me from sleeping at night, and I feel as terrible as you seem to think I look.”

“Perhaps I can help. What is this nightmare that you’ve been having?”

“My dreams have been telling me that any children I would father would be as equally as powerful as me and each of them will be corrupted with evil. I decided a few days ago not to have kids, but the nightmares keep coming.”

“Yes, well, there are sorceresses out there more powerful than you are, Merlin, who would bewitch you to get them pregnant, so planning on not having kids and not having kids can be two different things.”

“There must be a way to stop it,” Merlin insisted.

“Stopping them just might make them angry,” Marbella told him. “I say let them have what they want times two.”

“What are you talking about?!” Merlin demanded. “That would be worse.”

“Twins, Merlin,” Marbella began. Merlin gave Marbella a confused look. “I know of an incantation that you can cast on yourself that would cause any of your children to be born as a twin, and each twin would only have half of your powers.”

“So one twin alone wouldn’t be powerful enough to cause the destruction that I had witnessed in my dreams.”

“Exactly,” Marbella agreed.

“But not twins; triplets,” Merlin corrected.

“Triplets?” Marbella echoed curiously.

“I would feel more comfortable if my children were born as triplets.”

“Okay, well, the incantation that I have is more for twins to be born, but modifying it to where triplets would be born shouldn’t be a problem,” Marbella said.

“How soon can we do it?”

“You shouldn’t be in such of a hurry.”

“If you had the dreams that I’ve been having, you would be in a hurry as well,” Merlin retorted.

“Right,” Marbella said with a slight grin. “Give me thirty minutes to modify the incantation.”

Merlin nodded before following Marbella into her cottage.

During the first few minutes of Marbella modifying the incantation Merlin doodled images of the moon and stars on a piece of paper.

Two rats then caught Merlin’s attention. He magically summoned the rats to him with only a gesture of his hand, and as he picked up one of the rats, Marbella stared curiously at him.

When Merlin saw the look that he was getting, he asked her, “What?”

“That rat just came straight to you,” Marbella pointed out.

“Yes,” Merlin said in a confused tone. “They don’t come to you if you would summon them?”

“No,” Marbella said also in a confused tone. “What other animals can you summon?”

“I can get any animal… and any bird to come to me, or even get them to do what I want.”

“Fascinating,” Marbella said in an impressed tone. “You have excellent control over the four main elements; better than anyone else I’ve seen, in fact. And now you had just demonstrated that you have command over the beasts.”

“My children shouldn’t… it’s too much power for one person to wield,” Merlin said. “Control over two of the elements is fine or even over the beasts, but not everything.”

Marbella grinned before saying, “Okay, you had just given me what I needed to complete the modified incantation. Your children will be born as triplets. One will have control over the elements… Fire and Water; another over the Earth and Air, and the third over the beasts.”

Merlin grinned before saying, “That sounds good. Do it.”

Marbella thought for a second before nodding and beginning again on writing out the modified incantation.

Before Marbella was able to get too far into it, Merlin added, “I should be able to identify which ability each one of them has.”

Marbella’s eyes wandered as she thought of how to do it. She then caught sight of Merlin’s doodle.

A grin came across Marbella’s face as she pointed out, “Your doodles are always about the moon and stars.”

“Yes, well, I feel connected to the moon and stars,” Merlin defended.

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with it. The full moon gives strength to our powers, and I just brought it up because the moon and stars seem to be your mark. Some sorcerers throughout the ages have even placed their mark on their children by magically creating birthmarks among them. It wouldn’t be difficult at all to place a moon and three stars birthmark among your children. And the darkest star of the birthmark will tell you what your child’s power will be.”

Merlin nodded before saying, “Okay. Do it.”

Marbella nodded with a slight grin before continuing.

Marbella was done with the modified incantation within ten minutes and within a few minutes after that, Merlin cast it on himself.

Once Merlin had left the cottage, Marbella had consulted her mirror and learned that her plan had worked as well as she had hoped for.

As the years slowly passed, Merlin had never discovered Marbella for what she really was, and several generations later, Marbella—after she had switched bodies with a younger sorceress for the fourth time after Merlin’s birth—had discovered that her modified incantation was slightly flawed. On every third generation among Merlin’s descendants twins were being born, which had weakened the line further.

To counteract this unforeseen blunder, Marbella reintroduced a forgotten ritual that a wizard would use to steal powers from another wizard, thus causing the Wizards Wars among Merlin’s descendants that lasted for centuries.