The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin

Behold Taliesin of the radiant brow

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

Hail, Taliesin, I confess I should not like

to miss the chance to fight under your blessing once more.

Then you shall have it.

Ah!

Your father has given audience to a large group

of strangely dressed Britains.

Our father, Morgain.

King Elphin Ap Gwyddno,

I present to you my daughter,

the Princess Charis savior of our people.

I know the price for the power you display.

I'll never spill blood for power.

You will be my bard proclaiming my reign

in the world of men.

Taliesin.

You are my father, that the gods should war for my soul.

The treasure is my son, a bard of extraordinary talent.

It wasn't my intention

to intrude into your thought.

You intruded it into my soul.

I know what the bull god offered you,

Cernunnos has offered me the same.

And?

I made the same choice you did

Then damn us both.

True power is killing what you love, little girl.

Not letting it kill you.

Death before slavery!

Elphin, you can't let this happen.

Elphin, no, we don't have to do this now. Come on.

We don't have to do this.

We don't have to do this!

Stay back, stay back, stay back!

You're supposed to be our king!

No, Ah!

Annubi!

Help me.

I was with my Lord in the heavens

when Lucifer fell into the depths of hell.

I carried a banner before Alexander.

In each, I called the stars by name

from North to the South.

I was an architect of Nimrod's tower.

I was three times in the prison of Arianrhod.

I witnessed the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

I upheld Moses through the sea.

I was with my Lord in the manger of oxen and asses.

I called stars by name from North to South.

I was Architect of Nimrod's tower.

I received my awen from Ceridwen's Cauldron.

In the dark times men may find Him and see the light.

In the dark times men.

I received my awen from Ceridwen's Cauldron.

Taliesin?

Some people call me poet and bard,

henceforth I shall be known as prophet Taliesin I am,

and my name shall remain until doomsday.

What have you done? My Lord, we have done little

but listen to his declarations all night.

Taliesin, Taliesin?

There you're, Hafgan.

Father, I have met the Great Light,

the Supreme Spirit, the Lord of All Worlds.

There are many spirits, Taliesin.

Yet my Lord reigns over them all.

I know that gods war for you, son.

My God has died for me.

Maybe so, but I need you now.

There are pressing matters at hand.

Pressing matters?

Father, nations not yet born must come to know him.

Enough!

We're leaving, boy.

What's happened?

The Atlantean King would make slaves of us.

Avallach spoke in ignorance.

Men have had their throats cut for less.

Come. We are no longer welcome in these lands.

The Savior of Her people should not

be lurking in a crypt.

Don't call me that.

You should not be ashamed

of the name you've earned.

Your brother secured the ships.

Only because you beset him.

None of us believed your prophecy.

It's a sorry god that demands the blood of his people.

And a sorry people who give it.

And yet,

if I had given myself to Bel...

No, it was arrogance

that doomed Atlantis.

My arrogance.

And would you doom us again?

Why have you sent the Cymry away?

I offered them a great gift, a new start.

Land of their own.

You offered them slavery, Father.

I only asked that they defend our people.

They are a warrior race after all.

And what are we?

We? We've seen enough war.

What you asked would've made them less than a people

and Elphin less than a king.

King without land is no king at all.

All of this is an illusion,

an echo of a voice that has died.

And soon that echo will cease.

But it has not ceased yet.

Do you love him then?

I don't know.

You ride with purpose, Singer.

Charis, I had to see you.

And so you have.

What is it?

My people are leaving these lands and-

Sh, whatever has gone wrong,

we can make it right, together.

Makieviea.

Why, Morgain?

To show you, my love,

I have power too.

Think of what we could be together.

What we could accomplish.

What of your foal?

The one we saved in birth?

I don't hear it.

She's asleep.

I'd like to see. Do not mock my sacrifice.

Men are weak, Taliesin.

Unwilling to pay the price for better world.

But not you.

I will do whatever is required.

But you, your gifts come so easily.

Do not presume to know what I have sacrificed.

I would know. I would know you.

I would know your ways.

I would be your wife, Taliesin,

your lover, and your queen.

Together we could build the world more powerful

than Atlantis itself.

Atlantis rests the bottom of the sea, Morgain.

There is a new power at work in the world.

I've seen it.

A God who does not ask us to sacrifice

what we love, but who sacrifices what He loves for us.

I pray you find Him.

Ah!

Charis?

I've never seen these men before.

Irish sea wolves.

No doubt they came up Mor Hafren looking for easy plunder.

Clearly they didn't find it.

If you'd seen me in the bull ring,

you would not look at me that way.

Marry me, Charis.

What?

I will not be separated from you,

not by my father or yours.

Then you have heard.

Even now my people prepare to ride.

Charis, look at me.

I love you.

Do you not speak to me of love.

Why? Are you not worthy of it?

I told you, my life ended out there.

But here, Charis. Here, it begins again.

We are each given only one life, Singer.

No, we're given another

if we'd receive it.

Pretty words, perhaps you should put them

in one of your songs.

Charis, Listen...

Charis, what has happened?

I was attacked while riding.

The Cymry, while you show them generosity,

they scheme against you.

He is a fool who can no longer tell friend from foe.

That was not the Cymry but the Irish raiders.

Father, I would speak to you alone.

He poisons your mind, Father.

You are out of line.

Are you hurt?

Had the singer not been there...

Had the singer not been there, I would not be here.

What reward would you have me give him

that compares to what I've already offered his people?

Taliesin seeks no reward, nor would he accept any.

What then?

You must reconsider your offer to the Cymry.

Must?

Give them the land unencumbered by any condition.

Must?

We will not survive without them.

Enough!

I know it has been lonely for you.

Taliesin is an ally. Nothing more.

You swear?