The Book of Magic (4 page)

Hallia (Eo-Lahallia)

… She taught him about love.

"More lovely than the starry sky, more graceful than the dancing stream." That is how
Merlin
described the deer woman Hallia. Named Eo-Lahallia by her parents, she belonged to the Mellwyn-bri-Meath clan of
Lost Fincayra
. In one tumultuous season, she lost her beloved brother,
Eremon
, and also met Merlin, who would become her closest companion for life. It took some time for Hallia, whose parents had been killed by men who hungered for venison, to trust him. But, in time, this man she called Young Hawk won her confidence, as well as her heart.

Through Hallia, Merlin learned how to run like a deer. She also taught him the deer people's tradition of circling a story, and the truth about the tapestry of tales called the Carpet Caerlochlann. Most important, she taught him about love. When Merlin left Fincayra, his first true home, to travel to the place called
Camelot
on mortal
Earth
, the most painful part of that decision was leaving Hallia. He vowed to come back to her; she promised to listen to the wind every day to hear his footsteps.

And so he returned to
Avalon
in the Year 27 to marry her. They were wed atop the highest peak in the Seven Realms, which the young wizard named Hallia's Peak. Later that year, their son,
Krystallus Eopia
, was born. Many years later, Krystallus would marry
Halona
, and they would have a son of their own:
Tamwyn
. Along with other surprising gifts, this young lad could—thanks to Hallia—run with the speed and grace of a deer.

How did it feel to run that way? Here is how Merlin described it in
The Fires of Merlin:

I heard more sounds than I'd ever known existed. They washed over me in a constant stream—the continual pounding of my own hooves, the echoing reverberations through the soil, and the whispers of a dragonfly's wings. Then I realized that somehow, in a mysterious way, I was listening not just to sounds, but to the land itself. I could hear, not with my ears but with my very bones—the tensing and flexing of the earth under my hooves, the changing flow of the wind, the secret connections among all the creatures who shared these meadows, whether they crawled, slithered, flew, or ran. Not only did I hear them; I celebrated them. For we were bound together as securely as a blade of grass is bound to the soil.

Kreelixes

Seated under the fabled tree called the Cobbler's Rowan, young
Merlin
finally finished making his first instrument of musical magic: an eight-stringed psaltery. The bard
Cairpré
, along with
Elen
and
Rhia
, watched anxiously as Merlin started to pluck the strings for the first time. Suddenly, a high, piercing shriek sliced through the air like a sword of sound. A dark, winged beast that resembled a giant bat plunged out of the sky—straight at Merlin. A kreelix!

Merlin survived that first attack. But he could never rid himself of the horrid memory of those hooked wings, blood red mouth, veined ears, and gleaming fangs. He learned that day that even the slightest contact with one of those fangs would destroy the power, as well as the life, of any magical creature. For kreelixes exist for only one purpose: to devour magic in all its forms.

Since ancient times, wizards had avoided battling these magic-eating beasts directly, since they could easily lose their wizard magic. And their lives. Only someone as brave as
Basilgarrad
would ever knowingly confront a kreelix. And weapons such as the magical sword Deepercut couldn't be used. (That sword, in fact, was hidden away for over a hundred years, just so no kreelix could destroy it.) How then could Merlin fight such beasts? That secret, alas, had been lost long before his time. He desperately needed to find it—before the next attack.

Light Flyers

These tiny, luminous creatures are among the rarest in
Fincayra
and
Avalon
. They possess frilled wings that pulse with golden light, enough to illuminate a room. They were made by the mudmakers—people who, in the words of
Aelonnia of Isenwy
, wield "the magic of
Merlin
.
"
It is rumored that dozens of glowing light flyers accompany the
Lady of the Lake
wherever she goes, often perching on her hair.

Living Stones

These flesh-eating boulders are among the most strange—and most dangerous—creatures ever to live in
Fincayra
or
Avalon
. As the young wizard
Merlin
(and many years later, the reckless hoolah
Henni)
discovered, living stones can quickly swallow their prey. They fear no other creature—except the great white spider known as the
Grand Elusa
, who cracks open the stones with the ease of a fox cracking open an egg, and eats up to three at a time when she feels hungry.

No living stone ever had trouble digesting its prey until Merlin came along. When the young wizard fell asleep against a stone, he awoke to find himself entirely consumed. But not digested, for his powerful inner magic prevented that from happening. The living stone coaxed him, "Be stone, young man. Be stone and one with the world." But Merlin refused, insisting, "I am too much alive to become stone! There is so much I want to do—to change, to move, all the things that stones cannot." The creature eventually set Merlin free, but not before it gave him a whole new perspective:

You know so little, young man! A stone comprehends the true meaning of change. I have dwelled deep within the molten belly of a star, sprung forth aflame, circled the worlds in a comet's tail, cooled and hardened over eons of time. I have been smashed by glaciers, seized by lava, swept across undersea plains—only to rise again to the surface upon a flowing river of land. I have been torn apart, cast aside, uplifted and combined with stories of utterly different origins. Lightning has struck my face, quakes have ripped my feet.
Y
et still I survive, for I am stone.

Lleu of the One Ear

As a young orphan in
Lost Fincayra
, Lleu was brutally attacked by
Sword Arms
, a warrior who had sword blades instead of arms. While he lost an ear in that encounter, Lleu's pluck and perseverance deeply impressed someone just a few years older— the young wizard
Merlin
. They became friends, and Lleu provided essential aid to Merlin in their climactic battle with
Rhita Gawr
—a battle that allowed the Fincayrans to regain their
lost wings
.

After the world of
Avalon
sprouted from Merlin's magical seed, Lleu of the One Ear followed
Elen
and
Rhia
in founding the
Society of the Whole
. He became one of Elen's first disciples, joined by
Cwen
, last of the treelings, and (to the astonishment of many who had seen her fiercely attack enemies)
Babd Catha
,
the Ogres' Bane
. Lleu joined Rhia and Merlin in an extraordinary journey inside the Great Tree, in the Year of Avalon 131, which led to the Drumadians' discovery of
élano
— the essential life-giving sap of the Tree and a source of unfathomable power. Based on this experience, Lleu of the One Ear wrote his masterwork,
Cyclo Avalon,
which describes the workings of élano as well as the seven sacred
Elements
and the
portals
throughout Avalon. For centuries, this book remained the primary text for all Drumadians.

Lost Wings

Long ago, in the earliest days of
Fincayra
, men and women could fly. Though mortal, they had "the wings of angels," as young
Merlin
learned from the bard
Cairpré
. What happened to those wings? Why were they lost? That mystery stayed with Merlin throughout his
Lost Years
, as tormenting as the perpetual ache between his shoulder blades. To solve the mystery, the young wizard needed to journey to the
Forgotten Island
—and to the source of his own deepest fears. At last he succeeded, in the adventure called
The Wings of Merlin,
and won glorious wings of his own. Then he surprised even
Dagda
by offering to give them to an enemy. For Merlin understood that, by doing so, he would gain more than he would lose.

Lost Years

Merlin
's Lost Years were the crucial formative years of his youth, kept secret for centuries. During those years, Merlin grew from age twelve to seventeen—and changed dramatically, from a half-drowned boy who washed ashore on a strange coast to a masterful young wizard. At the beginning of those years, he was a homeless, nameless lad with no clue about his past or future. By the end, he was well on his way to becoming the mage of
Camelot
, the mentor of
King Arthur
, and the greatest wizard of all times.

Although he would ultimately make his home on
Earth
, the world of
Fincayra
—where he spent his Lost Years—claimed most of Merlin's youth. And also, perhaps, his heart. For Fincayra rose out of the ocean mist to welcome him; Fincayra helped him discover his magic as well as his deepest passions; and Fincayra gave birth to another magical realm—
Avalon
, which sprouted from a seed planted by Merlin himself. During his years on Fincayra, Merlin learned his greatest lessons: the wonders of Nature, the
Seven Songs of Wizardry
, the importance of seeing beneath the surface of things, and the remarkable power of love. And during those years, he gained many of his life's dearest friends—including
Rhia
,
Trouble
,
Cairpré
,
Hallia
,
Eremon
,
Elen
, and
Shim
. Small wonder, then, that when Merlin finally saved Fincayra, he shuddered at the thought of ever leaving it. For the world of his Lost Years had become his first true home.

Merlin (Olo Eopia)

Long ago, on a remote and rugged coast, a half-drowned boy washed ashore. The sea had robbed him of everything he'd once known. He had no memory, no idea at all who he was. He didn't even know his own name. When he first opened his eyes to the sight of the sea, the rocky shore, and the screeching gulls overhead, no one could have possibly convinced him that he would survive that day to become a wizard. Yet he would, in fact, become Merlin: the person celebrated in three worlds—
Fincayra
,
Avalon
, and
Earth
—as the greatest wizard of all times.

During the
Lost Years
of his youth, Merlin gained much—and also lost much. Along with his dear friends
Rhia
, the hawk
Trouble
, and the giant
Shim
, he witnessed the
Dance of the Giants
. He solved the mystery of the
Seven Songs
, regained the
lost wings
of Fincayra's people, traveled through a magical Mirror to meet his future self, and (thanks to his beloved
Hallia)
learned to run with the grace and speed of a deer. He encountered the wise and peaceful spirit
Dagda
, and became a lifelong enemy of the warrior spirit
Rhita Gawr
. In time, he found his mother,
Elen
, his father,
Stangmar
, and his mentor, the bard
Cairpré
. And he also learned, through painful struggle, the difference between sight and insight. Along the way, he discovered that he possessed both the dark and the light—just as he held other qualities that might seem opposites: youth and age, male and female, mortal and immortal. At last, Merlin won his true name—Olo Eopia, "great man of many worlds, many times." It is a name, as Dagda told him at the moment of Avalon's birth, for someone who is truly complete, just as the cosmos is complete.

Before departing for Earth—where he would become the famous mage of
Camelot
and the mentor of a young king named
Arthur
—Merlin planted a magical seed. That seed grew into a tree so vast that it became a world of its own: the Great Tree of Avalon, home to people as diverse as
Tamwyn
and
Elli
,
Scree
and
Gwirion
,
Palimyst
and
Basilgarrad
. Merlin often returned to Avalon, sometimes in disguise. Yet even when he left that world for many years, his influence remained. That could be said, as well, for Merlin's other home, the mortal realm of Earth.

Nimue

When
Merlin
battled this sorceress in the
Haunted Marsh
of
Fincayra
, he was trying to save the magical Mirror that had revealed his future. And more: He was fighting to save his own destiny. For he had just met someone from the distant future—someone he had never expected to meet—who had told him how to avoid being trapped forever by Nimue in a
crystal cave
on
Earth
.

As Nimue smirked at him malevolently, Merlin thought how much she had changed from the apple-cheeked girl he had met years before in
Pluton
's bakery during the quest of the
Seven Songs
. Yet perhaps only her outward appearance had changed. For during Pluton's explanation of the magic of Naming, she had tried to steal
Merlin's staff
. And now, in the Haunted Marsh, she again wanted that staff . . . as well as his life.

It would take more than the young wizard's emerging powers to prevail. It would take the love of the deer woman
Hallia
, the loyalty of the dragon
Gwynnia
, and the surprising gratitude of marsh ghouls—whose arrows could douse the light of day. And it would take one thing more: the help of Merlin's disobedient shadow.

Ohnyalei, the staff of Merlin

When young
Merlin
gained his staff from a magical hemlock tree in the
Druma Wood
of
Lost Fincayra
, he couldn't have guessed what awesome power it would one day possess. Yet even as the staff's magic grew, it never lost its original sweet yet tart fragrance of hemlock. That smell, more than anything else, always reminded Merlin of his first true home.