Part 31

The Making of Heaf

Camelot was unusually quiet as Gaius and Merlin made their way to the lower town. They had gathered everything they needed for the task. Arthur had ridden off with Uther to spend the night in the forests around Camelot. Gwen and Brand were firing up the forge and Lillian, still weak but much improved in health was telling stories to her sleepless son. They had decided to make the enchantment after dark in the forge. The plan was that Uther and Arthur would ride into the Forest of Heaf the next morning if all went well. Merlin had been very quiet all evening, he and Gaius had almost sat in silence over supper and Gaius found himself talking to thin air a few times as the young man became more an more introspective. But then as Merlin chose the books and Gaius packed his medicine bag, the boy seemed to wake up. He became talkative and excited. Gaius even thought about giving him something to calm him down.

'I would like to record everything Gaius, like an experiment. I will not be able to remember everything that happens, I will effectively be doing two things at once. Do you think there is any way I could do that? Record it all.'

'Not really Merlin, we will have to just rely on our memory and perhaps what others tell us. Lillian has seen it once. Perhaps we should ask her to observe if she feels well enough.'

Merlin nodded. 'Yes, good! Have we got everything?'

'I believe so, but Merlin. Can I ask if you have truly resolved the enchantment? You are confident what it means, this giving of the lifeblood?'

'Trust me Gaius, I know what I'm doing.' Merlin was alight with confidence.

Gaius looked at him askance. He wouldn't mind so much if Merlin did not now appear to be under the influence of some noxious substance, something quite the opposite of a sleeping draught. But he knew that these high spirits might just get him through the long night ahead so he let him be.

*

Lillian sat at the door half way between forge and cottage. A position she had taken up many times before although more often standing. Now she was thankful that she was well enough to be here at all.

The young warlock entered the forge first. The fire cast a golden glow about him. Though she could not help wondering, if the glow was from him? He was so alive, so young, so full of expectation. Lillian knew what was ahead of him and her heart ached. The old man Gaius stood beside him, looking at the boy as any doting father might. He then moved to the opposite side of the fire, just as she and Aidith once had, so many years ago. In this position they could see each other and mirror the gestures, the words. The girl Gwen, dark and slight was working the bellows. She had proved an able pupil and she and Brand had found quite a rapport in the last few days. Brand could now bring the hammer down on the swords near perfectly as she called out instruction and she nurtured the fire as though it were her own babe.

The two warlocks were in position now. The flames licking higher in the forge reflected on the faces and in their eyes. The young one closed his eyes and the old man did the same. The fire in the forge leapt higher as though it were speaking to them. The girl called out numbers and letters. Brand brought down his hammer once, twice the ringing of the hammer hurt her ears, far off in the town came a rumble like thunder, low and lingering. And the warlock, now shining in his own right muttering under his breath. The girl looked at him, her eyes betrayed something like fear. ' She does not know,' thought Lillian and in that moment the girl looked at her. Lillian mouthed words to her, 'It's all right…don't be afraid' and gestured with open hands, looking straight into her eyes. The girl set her face into a determined scowl, there would be a reckoning afterwards thought Lillian. The distant sounds grew, rose up from deep down below the city. The ringing of the hammer caught up with it, two streams of sound finding a rythmn and in the heat of the forge the two warlocks seemed to waver and shimmer like figures in a heat haze. Yes thought Lillian it was like this, soon, soon will come the trees.

*

When the words began in his head Merlin felt a sweet metallic taste on his tongue, like blood. He wanted to call out, not bury these words within him. They begged to be released but he kept them inside. He could hear in his own head Gaius repeating them and the sound of the hammer punctuating them until they were driven through him into the ground, down to the core of the earth itself. Then he saw movement, he saw in his minds eye, living things rising out of the great forge in the centre of the earth, fully formed, at first like people, limbs and hair and teeth and then like water flowing upwards in a torrent and then like vines, like roots breaking through the soil they came and each dragging after it more words, tangled together, meaningless words that broke apart and reformed until they were his words and the hammer on the stone his heartbeat, his heart at the mercy of the smith, beating with the rise and fall of his arm. The heat of the fires melted into him he opened his eyes and saw only light, like a tenfold sun risen above him. There was no forge, no Gaius, there was only the light and against the light above him the silhouettes of trees breaking into the sky. Coming one upon the other into the sun, soil fell from their leafy heads, boulders and stones tumbled down from their branches. And Merlin? Merlin stood in the doorway of the great oak looking out. He walked into the circle and raised his arms. Trees shifted, earth settled itself down. In the place once named Camelot stood the circle of twelve trees and the Great Forest of Heaf.