Merlin - The Legacy #1 (Rise of the Dark)

Chapter 3

  “Ready boy?” Darius said, seeing Merlin coming toward him through the dawn light, the dew on the grass shining underfoot.

  Merlin smiled, feeling his life was finally beginning.

  “Ready.”

  Darius wondered if he'd said goodbye to his mother, but he knew not to ask. It didn't seem likely to him that Merlin had.

  “So,” said Darius, “we have to steal a horse... I mean you have to steal a horse.”

  “I always wanted to ask,” Merlin said, him looking at Darius now fully in his armor again, save for the helmet he was holding under his arm, “where is your horse?”

  “Well, he was here when I arrived. But then the dam nag wandered off and never came back, and I was in no position to be able to stop him. That's loyalty for you! I suppose it was because I had nothing to give him.”

  “But horses just eat grass.”

  “Not my horse. He drank ale. He had a taste for it.”

  “Like his owner obviously.”

  Darius nodded,

  “That was my mistake, they'd never be enough ale for the both of us, but ah well... treat a nag too well, and they lose all respect for you.”

  Merlin didn't really know what Darius was talking about, sometimes he said things that made Merlin feel that Darius was from a different world.

  “So, where can we get that horse young Merlin?”

  Merlin led Darius, his leg just with a slight limp. There is a place, Merlin said, just a few miles away where a farmer has some horses, But getting them was likely to be the problem.

  ...

  “My God boy. How much further?” Darius puffed, leaning his hand on a tree as Merlin walked on.

  “Come on, it's just over that ridge!” Merlin shouted back, not wanting to pause lest his future would fail to materialize.

  Darius shook his head and muttered under his breath,

  “Damn youthful exuberance, I'm already regretting this.” And pushed himself onwards, using the broadsword to cut away any unruly branches that slapped back into his face.

  “Here!” Shouted Merlin.

  “Coming, I'm coming,” shouted Darius, seeing Merlin laying down and peering over to their destination, and then muttered to himself again.

  Crashing himself down beside Merlin, Darius peered over and saw the farm with several horses and other livestock.

  “You think he's got any ale?”

  “We're here for horses!”

  “Right you are, you're the boss, apparently. So what's the plan?”

  Merlin did a double take at Darius,

  “You don't have a plan?”

  Darius rolled over onto his back relaxing himself, and looking up at the clouds drifting by,

  “That's your job. I'm just the organizer. You know, I say we'll do this or that. I have an overall broad view of what we need and how to get it. 'Doing' is your thing.”

  Merlin sighed and began to study the farm, looking for possibilities. It didn't look like it would be so hard, but he told Darius that he'd need to make some form of distraction, while Darius stole a horse.

  “'A' Horse!? Two horses you mean!” Darius corrected, “You don't want to sit across my knee like a fair maiden all the way to the North, do you? At least, I don't want you to. What would people say? I'd hardly strike fear into the hearts of men with you on my lap, now would I?”

  Merlin doubted Darius would strike fear into the hearts of any man or squirrel in the state he was in, and wondered if going anywhere with this knight was a good idea at all.

  “Can you really fight?” Merlin asked, genuinely wondering.

  Darius blustered,

  “Damn you boy! I am a warrior hew from the blood of the ancient warrior tribes that walked this land long before there were even trees!”

  Merlin didn't know sometimes if Darius was serious or just making things up as he went along, but suspected it was the latter in this case.

  “It's just, well... ” Merlin looked Darius up and down, “you don't look as I'd expect a knight to.”

  “And you don't look like I'd expect a squire to! And you certainly don't act like one! Give me some damn ale and you'll see a warrior God incarnate!” Darius rested his hands behind his head and seemed to go into a wistful reverie, “Nectar of the Gods ale is, nectar of the Gods.”

  Merlin shook his head. This was where he was at, and it was too late to go back now. Telling Darius what he should do as he distracted the farmer, he was still doubtful,

  “You think you can manage that?”

  Darius bristled,

  “You just do your thing, and I'll do mine! And then maybe we can finally travel in the manner becoming of a knight and his insolent squire!”

  Merlin walked through the forest around to the other side of the farm, wanting to come up to the rear of where Darius would be stealing the horses. If he could distract the farmer long enough, they could get away clean and get some miles of travel behind them, before the farmer knew any different.

  The middle aged man was putting feed into the chicken coup as Merlin slopped through the muddy path, water squishing into into his leather shoes. Hearing him, the farmer stood up and looked up, slightly wary.

  “Hello sir, sorry to trouble you, but could you tell me the best way to travel to Athan?”

  Merlin knew it would take a while to explain how to get there, and had also decided on acting dumb and deliberately misunderstanding him, just to buy some time for Darius who was unlikely to be as swift as the horses he was stealing. The farmer faced Merlin with his back to the horses coral in the distance, the plowed lines on his face brought about after spending all his life working among the elements,

  “I'm sorry. I really don't know. Never been there myself.”

  Merlin groaned internally,

  “Oh, I see.”

  “Why do you want to go there?” The farmer asked, giving Merlin a crumb of conversation to work on.

  Over the farmers shoulder, Merlin could see Darius lumbering his way down the ridge, and then halfway down, it looked as if Darius had stopped for a rest.

  “I have heard there is work to be had.”

  The farmer nodded, but didn't reply. Merlin had hoped he'd ask him what kind of work he was looking for, but the farmer seemed entirely disinterested. Looking around quickly for anything to give him inspiration, he said,

  “Those are some nice chickens you've got there.” pointing toward them, as they vied for the seeds.

  The farmer looked down at the chicken coup and back at Merlin, his face frowning,

  “Really? I'd never personally thought so myself. Like chickens do you?”

  Merlin glanced behind the farmer again, trying not to be obvious.

  Darius was attempting to navigate his portly body over the wooden fence in his heavy armor, but not having much luck; one of his legs was on one side and wobbling, while the other was teetering on the other. Darius' gripped slipped, and he fell crashing to the other side in a heap.

  “Chickens!” Merlin said as loudly as was reasonable, trying to cover the noise Darius' armor made as he crashed down, “why yes, I think they are fascinating creatures. They are like birds that can't fly.”

  “They are birds that can't fly.” the farmer replied.

  “Well, yes, I know, but what an amazing kind.”

  “Why, exactly?”

  Merlin had to think fast; he didn't know why. He'd never spent any time thinking about chickens, and was now regretting it.

  “I mean just look at them,” Merlin tried muster the most intensely fascinated look on his face that he could, “from this one bird comes eggs that provide sustenance to all. Now if they could fly, we wouldn't be able to eat their eggs. But as it is, we can partake of their life giving properties freely, and also eat them for meat if we wish.”

  The farmer tilted his head to the side, not quite knowing what to make of the dark haired scrawny lad in front of him. He seemed a little strange,

  “Where did you say you were from?”
The farmer asked.

  Darius was trying to catch a horse, but they had all been startled by the noise he had made, and were now on the other side of the coral and he was trying, unsuccessfully, to catch one by running after it. Merlin wanted to shout at him, but couldn't.

  “I'm from somewhere down the south.”

  “Somewhere?”

  “Gahain actually.”

  “Gahain, but there is lots of work to be had in Gahain, why would you go elsewhere?”

  Darius had caught a horse, but in trying to catch another, had lost hold of it, and so lost both.

  “I wanted a change of scenery, I like to travel.” Merlin was grabbing at straws, and had never in his life had such a ridiculous conversation.

  “Did you see any of King Rakellian's men? I've heard they are doing unspeakable things, but I don't believe it.”

  Finally Merlin had found something he could talk about.

  “Yes! I mean, yes, as far as I know they headed this way. They have said they will do battle with King Aron, King Rakellian has allied with King Tanaris.”

  The farmer shook his head,

  “Wars, and more wars. When will this land ever be free of them?”

  Merlin could only wonder when the horses would be free of the coral. But finally Darius managed to get two horses with a makeshift harness he'd fashioned, and had opened they gate and was proceeding to walk them slowly up the ridge.

  “Well, I must be off, it's getting late.” Merlin said, turning to leave.

  The farmer looked up at the mid-day Sun,

  “Late? This is late for you?”

  Merlin really just wanted to go, but it appeared the farmer had started to enjoy his company.

  “It is,” Merlin turned himself halfway back to the farmer, trying not to be rude, “I get up very early in the morning. So early in fact, some people call me 'the owl' back down South where I'm from.”

  “Really! Well, I don't suppose you'd like to work on a farm would you? I could give you free board and food, and I have chickens of course.”

  “No, no, that's most kind of you, but I really must be heading off to Gahain.”

  “Why? I mean, what has Gahain got that isn't here. The life of a farmer isn't so bad. My wife can cook for you, and you know, we have no children.” the farmer looked down, as if feeling sad, “I'd like to give the farm to someone when I die, but I have no heirs.”

  A few days before, Merlin would have jumped at the chance, but now, he had only one desire. To become a knight and impress Carmane.

  “That's really very kind of you,” Merlin said, quite moved by the farmers words, but feeling guilty about his horses that were now disappearing over the ridge.

  As Merlin looked at the man who looked older than his years, he wondered what to say, he saw a pair of starlings picking at the seeds in the field close by. They were shortly joined by a smaller one, poking in the soil between them, and he knew.

  “There is someone else coming for you. I don't know who, I don't know when. But you will get your hope. But it is not I.”

  The farmer was shocked. The way the boy had said it with such certainty, his face seeming to transform in expression to someone way beyond his years and wisdom, left him speechless.

  “Farewell.” Said Merlin, seeing his chance to leave, and waving goodbye to the farmer before turning his back, and briskly walking back the way he had come.