Bryan Davis - Eye of the Oracle

Merlin noted a hint of a smile in Devin’s otherwise stoic expression. Devin bowed and spoke in his most formal and reverent voice. “Please give His Majesty my blessings, and I will spend the entire half hour on my knees as well.” The knight gave Merlin a polite nod. “Good evening to you, Master Merlin.” He left the court with the same quick march that brought him in.

When the door closed, Jared turned around. “Do you think it worked?”

“I think so. A man who is not trustworthy rarely trusts anyone, yet, I believe that our ruse has convinced him that King Arthur is in this room.”

Irene stood and brushed her knees. “Then how soon will he attack?”

“He believes he has a half hour, so I would guess we have only half of that before he strikes.” Merlin pulled Excalibur from its sheath. A blinding beam of light shot from its tip and burned a hole through the ceiling. “I will have to use Excalibur to extinguish the enemy, and in the process, I will conduct my greatest experiment.”

“Experiment?” Jared asked.

Merlin cast his gaze on Jared and Irene. “I have tested the sword at length. Excalibur does not merely cut; it transforms. It changes matter into light energy; it transluminates. If I wield it to kill, its radiance will shatter a man’s bones into shards of flashing luminescence, and his remains will be absorbed into a candle’s breath. And his soul? If it is not somehow trapped on the earth, it will be sent straight to the judgment seat of God.

“Jared,” Merlin continued, “you and Irene must enter the tunnel door for safety. When Excalibur’s power fills the room, all who remain will be transluminated. Although I bear the sword, even I will be changed.”

“Changed into what?” Irene asked.

“As with the rest, my body will likely become light energy, though I think I will survive. Whether I will ever regain a body, I cannot say.”

A sudden clanking of soldiers’ weapons and marching footsteps echoed in the outer hallway. Merlin pushed Jared and Irene toward the corner door. “Go! Go!”

The pair of former dragons hurried across the room and disappeared into the secret passage, drawing the access panel closed behind them. Seconds later, two armed men broke through the main entry door and stretched loaded bowstrings back to their ears. Merlin held Excalibur in both hands, its point straight up. “Barlow and Edward, you should know better than to distrust a prophet of the living God!”

The soldiers raised their forearms to shield their eyes from the blinding light. Six others poured through the door and halted as they beheld the sword.

When a full dozen had arrived, Merlin waved the sword in a great circle. The soldiers seemed rooted to the stone floor, their legs trembling like saplings in a storm’s fury. A single beam from Excalibur’s tip multiplied into hundreds. The beams flashed in all directions until they joined together in a massive curtain of light.

Merlin gazed upward. “Now, my Lord Christ, take me on this great adventure to find the dragons’ messiah.” The moment he waved Excalibur, a luminescent surge washed through the court, and particles of sparkling light buzzed through the traitors. As their bodies melted away, shields and armor clattered to the floor to mark where men had once stood.

The surge splashed back at Merlin. Dazzling light blinded his eyes, a tingling sensation covered his body, and a loud buzzing vibrated in his ears. He floated above the platform, his sense of sight transforming. Somehow everything looked like competing sources of light, some brilliant, some almost dark, and others in between.

Looking at himself, he saw his body as a stream of sparkling light, barely recognizable as a body at all. Other similar streams, maybe a dozen or so, floated around the room.

A human form dashed across the floor of the throne room, its light flickering between bright and dim. It looked like Jared, anxiously searching through something on the floor, apparently the remains of the armor the treacherous soldiers had left behind when they dissolved.

Another man marched into the room, a shadow that emanated no light at all. Merlin willed himself closer and saw the image of Devin outlined on the shadow’s face. Jared’s light shimmered as it hid in the drapes behind the throne.

Devin suddenly leaned over. When he stood again, he held a bright object in his hand, long and sleek. Seconds after Devin picked it up, the object darkened, becoming just a sword-like extension of his shadow.

For a moment, Devin disappeared from the room. Jared’s form emerged again, and he seemed to shout, his voice warped. “Devin, you son of a leprous jackal! You recreant thief, plucking treasures from dead men’s bones! Come back here and fight like a man!”

Devin reappeared, this time with a bright object in front of his chest, some kind of pendant that sparkled against his dark silhouette. Merlin felt drawn to it, as though it pulled his weightless body with a strange, tractive power.

The other sparkling masses streamed toward the pendant and vanished. Merlin fought against the flow like a fish struggling upstream. It was no use. The force elongated his body and slurped him toward the pendant.

He tried to watch the confrontation between Devin and Jared. They seemed to be fighting. Jared fell to the floor, but that was all Merlin could see before the room vanished. He tumbled down an avalanche of pure light, hurtling toward a black sphere. He plunged into it, feeling no pain, only a sinking sensation as darkness enveloped him. His body seemed to settle and stop, as though he stood on an endless floor. Twelve masses of sparks stood nearby, huddling close and flashing green, yellow, and red.

Merlin tried to sort out all the amazing images and evaluate his situation. He and the traitors had been transformed into light energy and absorbed into the candlestone as it hung around Devin’s neck. Now they were trapped inside a crystalline prison, riding within the candlestone’s walls as the dark knight’s prisoners, though Devin likely had no idea they were there.

When Merlin tried to speak to the others, a stream of light energy carried his thoughts. “Barlow?” His voice seemed to buzz through the darkness. “Edward?”

“I am Barlow,” one of the sparkling masses replied. “Edward is next to me. . I think.”

“Yes.” Edward’s energy field turned bluish white. “I am here, a young fool at your service. May I ask who addresses us?”

Merlin decided to keep his anonymity, at least for the time being. “You are, indeed, a fool. What helped you learn your lesson so quickly?”

“As soon as Merlin raised Excalibur and its holy light passed over my body, it was as though I could see everything the prophet’s integrity, Devin’s plot, and my own stupidity.” Edward’s energy shrank to a quivering ball of purple light. “I am but a fool. My dear mother will die in disgrace, and I will never be able to wear my father’s name. He deserved better than the stooge who masquerades as his son.”

Merlin’s mass of sparks grew bright white. “Hear me, Edward, son of Edmund. Remember what you learned in the light and never doubt it even if you have to spend years in the dark. Heed my words, and you will eventually earn a place of honor and regain your father’s name.” His energy dwindled back to normal, and he willed himself into motion. “Think about what I have said. I will see you again.”

Elam scooted back into a dark cleft of the secret passageway, watching the beautiful lady as she stooped low, peering out of the slightly open panel. He had already learned her name by listening in on her adoption ceremony Irene, the king’s new daughter. Quiet and cautious, she spied on the happenings in the throne room.