Ruins of Camelot (9 page)

"Because Merlin was no mere man like myself and the others before me.  Merlin was a true magical creature, a sorcerer.  Back then, there was living magic, practised by a society of witches and wizards that dwelt amongst us and beside us.  They had their own king, a noble wizard named Kreagle, and their own councils, courts, and colleges.  The world of men called upon the society of wizards in times of need.  Kings sought their wise counsel and magical assistance.  This led, of course, to the establishment of the official post of Royal Magic Master, and to Merlin himself, who walked these walls, the first and last true wizard to hold the title.

"But jealousies bred between the kingdoms of men and their wizarding counterparts.  Magic began to be misused, even by the great Merlin, who was rumoured to hire out his services to any kingdom with enough coin to pay for them.  Finally, there came a breach.  Wizardkind broke ties with the world of men.  The kingdom of the wizards hid itself away from us, for our own good as well as theirs.  Their cities were clouded from our eyes so that we could not see them or even remember where they had been."

"But they are not hidden completely," Darrick interjected as Toph paused.  "We all know of distant corners of the Kingdom where witches and wizards mingle amongst us.  They sell us magical tools, enchanted powders, and potions, though carefully and in very small amounts.  We have a store of such things in the academy as you know, Professor, and even in this very castle."

"You speak true," Toph nodded, smiling.  "Wizardkind does move amongst us, though in small numbers.  Most are hidden away, forgotten, conducting their affairs in secret.  Even today, there are tales that a society of wizardry has settled itself in Lord Hayden's abandoned castle, near the rim of Direwood Forest.  It was rumoured to be haunted after his untimely death so that none dared claim it.  Wizardkind fears no ghosts however; thus, the property was theirs for the taking.  I have even heard tell that a small non-magical peasant community lives within sight of
the
castle, working around and even within it, though forbidden from observing any of the mysterious acts wrought by those within its walls."

"Poppycock and codswallop," Gabriella's father proclaimed jovially.  "I sent scouts to inspect Lord Hayden's properties in the years since his death.  They reported nothing more than a hulking ruin surrounded by a band of deluded wanderers.  It may be haunted, but it is certainly not the site of any magical society."

"Pardon me for saying so, Your Highness," Toph commented, "but I suspect that is exactly what any magical denizens would wish your scouts to see.  And I have no doubt that their enchantments would be extremely convincing."

"As you say, Professor," the King allowed, waving a hand and smiling.

"I fail to s
ee what this has to do with G
randmother and me hiding out in the old cottage," Gabriella said, growing impatient.

"Quite right, Your Highness," Toph agreed.  "It is easy to become distracted by tales of the magical folk.  The point is simply this: whilst wizardkind once lived amongst us and greatly influenced our world with their enchantments, they now abide in secret, leaving only the slightest magical footprint upon the affairs of men.  Like the dragons and ancient beasts known to roam the northernmost barrens, we sense their presence mostly by the size of the legends they leave behind, echoing through the veil of history."

"But," the King said, peering aside at his daughter meaningfully, "unlike the dragons of the northern barrens, the magical folk do still make the very rare appearance in the Kingdom.  In the most unexpected and mysterious ways, when we least expect it, they intervene in our affairs."

"I don't understand," Gabriella said, glancing from her father to Professor Toph.  "As you just said, no witches or wizards have set foot within the castle walls for well over a century."

The King nodded.  He drew a deep breath and resumed the story, taking it over from Professor Toph.  "When we discovered you and your grandmother in the hunting cabin, we immediately bundled you into blankets and hid you away in the warmth of a covered sledge.  Before we embarked upon the return trip to the castle, however, a group of soldiers searched the cottage, collecting any remaining provisions and possessions.  It was then that something strange was discovered, something curious enough to call myself and the Magic Master forth."

Toph spoke again then.  "There was sign of a struggle in the snow behind the cottage," he said gravely.  "The fresh drifts had been disturbed at the rear entrance, as if someone or something had been thrown down there and had scrambled away.  Large footprints led off into the wood.  Whether the prints belonged to a mannish beast or a very large human, there was no way to tell.  What was apparent, however, was that whatever struggle had occurred in the snow behind the cottage, it had ended with one party fleeing into the wood and the other departing via a sleigh of some kind, pulled by reindeer."

"Surely, Grandmother
or I
would have recalled such an event," Gabriella commented, smiling crookedly, as if this were a sort of elaborate joke.  "There were no visitors during our stay there.  Of that I am certain."

"Indeed," the King agreed, "my own mother offered the same assurances, and unlike you, she did not once leave the cottage during your occupation there."

There was a tense pause as Gabriella and Darrick considered this.  Finally, Darrick said, "That defies common sense, does it not?  Surely, one of them would have seen or heard if a struggle had occurred so nearby."

"This is what we thought as well," Toph agreed.  "Once the Princess' Grandmother was made warm and given some hot mead, we invited her to witness the markings in the snow behind the cottage.  When she looked at the evidence with her own eyes, she fainted dead away, only to be revived sometime later, during the return trip to the castle."

"What does it mean?" Gabriella frowned.  "Surely, Grandmother would not have lied about such a thing."

"My mother may have been many things," the King smiled, "but a liar she was not."

"We wondered about these things ourselves," Toph said.  "It was quite an odd circumstance.  That was before we discovered the emblem however."

"Emblem?" Darrick said, leaning forwards in his seat.

The King nodded.  "I commanded a full search of the cottage, seeking any clue to what might have happened there.  Only then did we find the strange object lost in the shadows beneath the cottage's bed."

"A sigil pin of some kind," Toph explained, "perhaps meant to secure a cloak.  It was black, made of some unknown alloy, surprisingly heavy.  In the cold of the room, it was strangely warm to the touch.  It was round as the moon, with an asp curled on its front.  Two emeralds marked its eyes, glittering rather more than could be accounted for by the dim light of the room.

"It had been dropped there recently, for none of the dust from beneath the bed had accumulated on its surface.  To be sure, we knew that such a thing did not belong to either you, Princess, or the Queen Mother.  We asked the guards who had accompanied us if any of them had ever seen the object or the symbol it bore, but of course, none of them had.

"The truth is," Toph said in a confidential tone, "that even in that moment, I recognised that the sigil was of magical origin.  We made deductions and concluded that, for reasons completely unknown, some witch or wizard had, in fact, visited the cottage during your stay and had used their arts to cloud your grandmother’s mind and assure their secrecy."

"But why?" Darrick asked, shaking his head in wonder.  "How would they even have known anyone was there?"

Professor Toph smiled slowly and shook his head.  "We can only guess.  Suffice it to say, the magical folk have ways of knowing things that we cannot imagine."

Gabriella frowned at the box, now beginning to guess what might be inside it.  "Whoever it was," she said, "did they mean us harm… or good?"

The King considered this.  "After my mother's response to the sight of the snowy footprints, I did not wish to show her the mysterious sigil.  Eventually, however, my curiosity got the best of me.  I invited her to my chamber and produced the pin.  When she gazed upon the black shape and those glittering emerald eyes, it was as if she fell into a sort of trance.  Only when I placed the sigil back in its box, out of her sight, did she regain herself."

"I was present on this occasion," Toph added.  "I asked the Queen Mother if she had ever seen the sigil before.  She nodded yes.  When asked if she could tell us where she had seen it, upon whom, and what had transpired on that occasion, she was silent.  She either did not fully remember or was prevented from answering by the power of some enchantment.  In the years that followed, I occasionally questioned her again, gently but methodically, in the hopes that the spell might lift.  Alas, it did not.  There was only one thing that the Queen Mother assured us of, certainly and with great emphasis."

"What?" Gabriella asked impatiently.  Darrick shushed her.

"That it had been a male
wizard," the King answered gravely, "and that if he had not come, both you and my mother would not have lived to see another day.  For reasons completely unknown to us, and by means we cannot guess, this mysterious magical visitor somehow saved your lives."

The group considered this revelation in silence for a long moment.  Finally, Professor Toph cleared his throat and touched the small box again.

"For this reason, the mysterious snake sigil was kept and treasured, as much for its providential significance as its magical origin.  We knew not what to do with it but could not justify its disposal.  Finally, however, your father had an idea."

The King smiled and nodded for Toph to open the box.  Gabriella watched intently, curious to see what the object actually looked like.  Carefully, Toph dipped his hand into the box's velvet-lined interior.  What he withdrew, however, was
two
small, black sigils, each dangling from a length of fine silver chain.  Carrying them, he came around the desk, approaching Gabriella and Darrick.

"I determined," the King explained, "that if the mysterious talisman had been there to save your life as a child, then perhaps it should go with you as you begin your life as a woman."

"I broke its power," Toph said, holding the pendants out, one each, towards Darrick and Gabriella.  "Divided, it is still magical, but only as a shadow of its former self.  Now, reforged into matching halves, it is become anew.  It represents you both, for like you, it is separate but of one heart."

Gabriella was slightly afraid to touch the dangling pendant, but when Darrick reached for his, easily and with obvious interest, she gingerly accepted her own.  It was black, heavy in her hand, and still slightly warm to the touch.  Hers was fashioned into the shape of a falcon in profile, its wings half-furled.  Darrick's was in the form of a dragon, its tail curled around its flank.  It was evident that both pendants, if placed together, would fit like puzzle pieces.  One green emerald eye glittered from each half.

"Wear them from this day forth," Toph said solemnly.  "Let them be a symbol of the love you bear for one another.  They will be a bond between you: a beacon of help in time of need, a talisman of fortune as long as you both shall live, filling in the space between them with your living love."

Gabriella looked at the black pendant in her hand and then up at the eyes of Professor Toph where he stood before her.  Despite his confident words, she thought she detected a note of nervousness in his smile. 
This was my father's idea,
she thought to herself. 
Professor Toph is not comfortable with it.  Only he knows the powers such a sigil might bear even in its broken state.

Next to her, Darrick bowed his head and slipped the silver chain around his neck.  Gabriella looked aside at him, saw the black dragon shape where it lay on his chest.  She blinked at it and then smiled.  It looked very handsome there.  In fact, it looked exactly right.  He saw her looking and met her gaze, giving her that crooked, irreverent grin that had once so infuriated her and since commanded her deepest affection.

"Put it on, daughter," the King said gently, proudly.  "It is my gift to you.  Wear it all the days of your life, both of you.  And may those days be very long and filled with happiness."