"Order! Order, please! We must have order if we are to proceed," Lord Albany said. He was in charge of the proceedings, which were quickly getting out of hand.
Merlin looked around the room. All of the lords and ladies and others who had an interest in the succession of the king, and status enough to win entry, were crowded into a council chamber which had seemed huge when empty.
"Almost everyone here has an equally weak claim to the throne—everyone but Thano and I. We are married to the former king's daughters. He intrusted his most precious possessions to us, so he would have wanted us to rule," Lord Buri said.
"So are the two of you going to rule together? Or will you go by who is oldest, or which daughter is oldest? Will she rule or will you? The old ways are best. Let's line up our armies and whoever still stands in the end will be the king," a gruff, frightening fellow Merlin did not recognize said.
"No!" shouted Mithian. "Do you want to leave the country weakened so that some opportunistic warlord can come in and take what we have? We have banded together for mutual protection. For the good of all. Surely there is some way to decide without war."
"Princess Mithian, who do you think should be king? You brought your half-brother here to the castle. Is that because you want him to be king?" someone asked.
"No, I do not think Ian should be king, nor does he. But I want it to be acknowledged that he has a claim on the throne, as do his heirs," Mithian said.
"Those boys are too young to be king, and their father is too inexperienced," Thano said. "Buri and I have been involved in governing this kingdom for most of our lives. One of us should be made king."
"My grandfather was king, same as you, same as your wife's father. By right of being a descendant of a king, I have the same claim to the kingship as you. Whoever becomes king could marry Mithian, and then be on equal ground with anyone else here," said one of Mithian's cousins.
"But you are already married!" said an anonymous voice, and the room erupted in laughter.
"I am not some prize to be awarded to the next, or any, king!" Mithian said. "I allowed my father to make arrangements for me to be married because he loved me and had my best interests at heart. I know only a few in this room who can say the same."
Suddenly an old bard stood. He seemed older than any man Merlin had ever seen, but he commanded the room's attention, as a bard should. "In my youth, a bard stood for much more than he does now. His was the duty to remember laws, and rituals, and officiate over every festival day. When King John died, there was a question of who should succeed him. It was almost as much of a mess as this—but not quite," the bard said. The room laughed at his little joke, and then he went on. "I was a young man then—an apprentice, if you can believe it. The Master Bard asked me to go to the great library and fetch him a scroll. The scroll was inscribed with a spell to choose the man who destiny had decided would be king. The court wizard performed the spell, and King Gareth, grandfather to many in this room, began to glow with a white light. He went on to become the best king this kingdom had ever known."
"Do you still have this spell?" Lord Buri asked.
"The scroll itself was burned, in the time of the purge," the bard said.
"Why bring it up, then?" Lord Buri snapped.
"Because I remember it still. I could teach it to the Warlock who helped Princess Mithian overcome King Tobias," the bard said.
"What would stop him from simply making the person he wants to be king glow white?" a lord asked.
"Why would he?" asked Mithian. "The only people he knows here are Ian and I, and neither one of us want to be king. The rest of you are strangers to him."
"He is Arthur's man. He will change the spell so that it identifies the weakest king, so that Arthur can overcome this land," a voice cried out.
"Now wait just a minute!" Merlin said, his voice coming out louder and more authoritative than he had intended. The crowd was silenced immediately. "I have been accused of being here to take advantage of Mithian's grief as I rob her, being here to molest her, being here to control the proceedings of this court for my own ends, and trying to weaken your state so that it can be destroyed by King Arthur. I know you all have been taught to mistrust magic, but believe me, I have no need of such subtle methods! If I wanted to, I could shake your castle to the ground,"
Merlin looked around at them all darkly, showing them he was serious. "I could call a dragon to attack without mercy until every one of you is dead. Why do I not do these things? For one thing, I am not evil. For another, Mithian is my friend, and she asked me to help. However, I'm beginning to wonder if this kingdom is just a lost cause."
"Besides, if the bard can remember the spell from his days as an apprentice, he can certainly tell us if the Warlock meddles with the words," Mithian said in a small voice.
"Shall we vote on the bard's plan?" asked Lord Albany.
The majority of the men raised their hands in support of the plan. Merlin left the room with the bard, and went into an antechamber to learn the spell.
"Malek is my name. It is a pleasure to see magic in the kingdom again. It does have its uses. Nothing settles secession matters like a good destiny spell," the man said.
"I am Merlin," Merlin said.
"I thought you were Emrys," Malek said.
"That is what the druids call me," Merlin said.
The man grunted his agreement. "I have heard tales of your coming. I don't know any tales of another sorcerer who could have put those idiots in their place. Honestly, I've been their bard for sixty years, and I've never seen the lot of them set down so wonderfully. I'm going to write a jolly satire about it."
"Is this spell hard, do you think? I sometimes have to practice a spell several times before I get it right. I wouldn't be all that scary if I had to do it ten times before it worked, now would I?" Merlin asked.
"I hadn't considered that. The great Emrys needs to practice, does he? Well, go and run to the bard's mansion and practice on the three candidates for my position. I've had a devil of a time figuring out who should be Master Bard after me. They're all so mediocre," Malek said. "Go on, now, I'll tell them you're meditating or something."
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Merlin asked.
"What the devil are you talking about? Do you want a lolly or something?" Malek said.
Merlin chuckled a bit. "I should probably learn the spell first," he said.
"Oh, right. Of course. Here it is," he said, and he recited a spell.
Merlin repeated it back, and was corrected in places he had gotten it wrong until he knew he had it backwards and forwards.
Then he got directions to the Bard's mansion and assembled the bards who were in contention to be the next Master Bard. They sat in chairs in front of him, and he performed the spell once. It worked. Merlin nearly rolled his eyes. Of course it would work the first time—he'd been taught by a bard this time, not a book, so all the pronunciation was worked out for him.
Merlin assembled all of the candidates for kingship around a table. The room was crowded with people watching. Merlin was a bit nervous, but he closed his eyes and said the spell.
When he opened them, Donal was glowing, as he had somehow known he would be.
"Well, a fat lot of good that did us. What is he, ten?" one of the lords said.
"We agreed to stand by the outcome of the spell," said another. "If he was the only son of the king, we would appoint a regent, so why not do that?"
"But that means we're back where we started! Does the bard have a spell to choose who gets to be regent?"
"Can I say something?" Donal asked Merlin.
"The future king would like to speak," said Merlin.
"Thano and Buri both have experience in governing. Why not have them be the regents?" he asked. "And they're my uncles and my cousins, so they have good reason to help me."
Merlin thought back to Agravaine, but said nothing. Surely Mithian would look out for her nephew and not let anything like that happen. Although even Merlin hadn't been able to prevent Agravaine's betrayal…
However, Buri and Thano seemed happy with the arrangement, and conferred briefly. "We would be agreeable, providing Donal makes us his chief councillors when he becomes king."
"How can I do that? I don't know if you'll be any good, yet," Donal said.
The room erupted in laughter, and there were scattered comments about the boy's kingly wisdom even at ten.
"Besides, my older brother will always be my chief councillor," Donal said. "But if you are good regents, and don't try to wreck anything or kill me or anyone I care about, then you will always have a say in what I decide to do as king."
Thano and Buri agreed, and the new government was formed.