The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin

The treasure is my son, taliesin,

and in his voice will be born a kingdom of summer.

I do not love the bard.

It's only his power I desire.

The supreme spirit, the lord of all worlds,

my lord reigns over them all.

You are young.

To your eyes, perhaps.

My people carry our years more lightly than others.

Ave, Maria!

I would be your wife, taliesin.

Together we could build the world

more powerful than Atlantis itself.

Atlantis rests at the bottom of the sea, morgain.

Taliesin, he has declared his love for me.

What have you found?

A hawk!

A Merlin.

I've seen a land shining with goodness.

It's the kingdom of summer and I will be its king.

The baby's dead.

Jesu!

God in heaven.

My son has the eyes of a hawk!

Of a Merlin.

No!

They say that Merlin is mad.

They say he was a king in dyfed,

that his rule was just and his hand was strong.

They say he was a bard,

the son of a Princess of lost Atlantis,

and a cymry prophet of great renown.

They say the future and the past are known to him.

That the fire and the wind tell him their secrets.

That the magic of the hill folk and druids

and daughters of bel come forth at his easy command.

They say he slew hundreds.

Hundreds, do you hear?

That the world burned and the ground trembled at his wrath.

Lord death thanked him for his terrible harvest.

Death!

You have taken all of the others.

Why have you not taken me?

Go back the way you came!

Do not raise your hand against me again, daned,

if you would keep it.

How do you know my name?

I know a great many things.

Silence! It's a trick!

A trick, iddec?

Is that what you believe?

Duach!

What is it?

He knows us!

He knows nothing you haven't already told him.

And you! Do not test me!

I'm a powerful druid.

I would speak lightly of power, friend,

for I know whence your power comes.

Whoever they were, they've moved on.

You know well who they were, son of vortigern,

the very saecsen raiders...

You and your father gave a foothold in our land.

You told him who we are!

No, my prince! I swear it!

I do not care for their manner, my lord.

Perhaps we should not go with them.

We have nothing to fear from these men, pelleas.

And I am eager to meet the man

who has made himself king over all others.

It's the quickest way I know to announce to the world

that Merlin emrys has returned to the land of the living.

My father will like you.

Perfect! There you go.

Provisions are being gathered,

but we need time to build a wall.

We haven't got time.

Up against the wall, right now!

You said it would be done.

And it will be, great king.

Riders approach!

Help you, my lord.

Open the gate!

We need to put a plug. Right there.

Right there!

My father and my king,

I bring you a great gift and the answer to your troubles.

No! There must be some mistake.

The man I seek was already old when I was a child.

This cannot be the Merlin.

They say Merlin is of the faer folk, my king.

They call him emrys.

Immortal!

Is that so?

I'm known by many names, vortigern.

You will call him, "high king!"

Pascent!

And do you know why I have sought you?

Work on your stronghold is going badly.

Your druids blame an evil spirit for the failure

of your masons to build a decent wall.

Go on.

They tell you the blood of a virgin-born man is required

to secure your foundations.

Is that not the way of it, joram?

Ready!

Is there any doubt this is the man we require?

He is full of tricks, sire.

Do not let him confuse you!

My enemies ride against me.

I would fortify this position,

but each night my walls...

Crumble and fall.

Are you indeed a fatherless child, Merlin emrys?

Or perhaps just another bastard without a father?

My father was taliesin ap elphin ap gwyddno,

names that were once lauded in this land.

Names of great renown in cymry long, long ago.

But, sire, taliesin was no mortal.

He was an otherworldly being.

That will be news to my mother.

There are no evil spirits at work here, vortigern,

and no man virgin-born, save one only.

Your problem is taking council from liars and fools.

What proof do you offer that the wall is not cursed?

Underground?

Oof!

Underground.

You sure?

I grow impatient, Merlin.

He'll spill your blood to build his wall.

Aye. Vortigern is a pitiless man.

And desperate.

But nothing will happen to me

that is not appointed to happen, pelleas.

You did not bring me back to the world of men

to watch me die in this pit.

Enough! These men mock you!

And they waste what little time we have left.

Pascent!

No evil spirits.

No underground dragon.

The spring washes the earth away

beneath the weight of your stone wall.

Traitor.

Traitor!

These men, whom I entrusted with my life,

have shown themselves false before me.

These men were so eager for your blood.

Surely they will not mind my asking for theirs.

No! No! No! No!

I am an old man, Merlin, and a fool.

You have my apology and you will have my reward.

I'll accept nothing from your hand, vortigern.

Am I so distasteful to your eyes?

Whatever you would give to me,

you have taken from another.

You have done much evil.

And much evil will be done to you.

He's gone home!

Have I not held the land in peace these last years?

Given the saecsen safe harbor to plunder our land

is not holding the peace.

I saw no other way.

You traded strength for peace,

but there'll be no peace without strength.

Father, you would free these men

after they humiliated you in your own court?

I humiliated myself, as did you.

You just killed your own counselors on the brink of war.

False counselors!

And an unwinnable war.

I had a vision.

A waking dream.

I saw the pit that Merlin dug.

I heard his pick...

As it struck the stone, only instead of water...

A great cavern lay beneath.

In the cavern, were two great stones like eggs.

Inside the eggs,

two dragons came forth to battle one another.

The first was white as milk.

And the other...

Red...

As blood!

And they fought each other, the dragons,

and their battle was terrible to behold.

Sorely they wounded one another,

and when they could fight no more,

they dragged themselves back into their eggs and slept,

but only to fight again once they were rested.

What of this dream?

Merlin?

Merlin?

Master?

The dream, Merlin.

What of this dream?

Do you really want to know?

Flee, vortigern.

If you would live, you must flee.