The Merlin Effect Read Online Free PDF Page B

overcome with relief that his dear Wintonwy was safe. In gratitude for saving her life, he asked Emrys to make a wish—any wish.
    “To spend the rest of my days at your court,” answered Emrys without pause.
    “Then you long no more for eternal life?”
    “No, my king. I long only to live my life anew at Wintonwy’s side.”
    Bowing his head, the emperor declared: “If my daughter agrees, your wish shall be granted.”
    Soon the castle came alive with the announcement of their wedding. While Wintonwy prepared for the ceremony, Emrys labored to make a wedding gift of unrivaled elegance. On the eve of their marriage, he unveiled it, a drinking horn whose beauty surpassed anything he had ever made. It was shaped like a spiraling shell, and it glimmered with the light of stars seen through the mist. And, remembering his mountain home, Emrys endowed the drinking horn with a special virtue. Anyone who held it near could smell the fragrant air of the mountaintop, even if he did so at the bottom of the sea. He named it
Serilliant
, meaning
Beginning
in the mer people’s tongue.
    Emrys offered it to Wintonwy. “I give you this Horn, the most lovely of my Treasures, as a symbol of our love.”
    “Our love,” she replied, “is all we shall ever need to drink.”
    The Emperor Merwas then came forward. “I have decided to give to Serilliant a special power, the greatest I have to bestow.”
    “What is this power, my father?” asked Wintonwy.
    “It is…a kind of eternal life, but not the kind most mortals seek. No, I give to this Horn a power far more precious, far more mysterious.”
    “Can you tell us more?”
    Merwas lifted the Horn high above his head. “I can tell you that the Horn’s new power springs from the secret of the newly born sea, the secret we mer people have guarded for so long.”
    As he spoke, the Horn swiftly filled with a luminous liquid, as colorful as melted rainbows. Then Merwas declared, “Only those whose wisdom and strength of will are beyond question may drink from this Horn. For it holds the power to—”
    Merwas never finished his sentence. The castle gates flew open and Nimue, leading an army of sea demons, drove down on the helpless mer people. The sea demons, growling wrathfully, slew anyone who stood before them.
    As Nimue aimed her black dagger at Merwas himself, Emrys raised the sword of light in wrath and charged. But just before he could strike her down, Nimue held up one vaporous hand. On it rested the ring that Emrys himself had once worn.
    “Look into thissss ring,” commanded Nimue. The ring flashed with a deep ruby light.
    Emrys froze.
    “Now,” she continued. “Drop your ssssword.”
    Unable to resist the power of the ring, Emrys shuddered, then dropped the sword of light.
    “Good.” The enchantress laughed. “I could kill you, but I will not becausssse you have been quite usssseful to me. You wounded the sssspider monsssster, allowing me at lasssst to enter the realm of Shaa.”
    Emrys wanted to pounce on her, but he could not find the strength to move.
    “Go,” ordered Nimue.
    Haltingly, Emrys turned and left the castle.
    When at last the invaders departed, both Merwas and his beloved Wintonwy lay dead. The few mer people who survived fled the castle, leaving it abandoned forever. They scattered far and wide, becoming the most elusive creatures in all the sea.
    Yet Nimue’s triumph was not complete. The Horn somehow disappeared during the battle, and neither she nor her sea demons could discover its whereabouts.
    Emrys, stricken with grief, eventually made his way back to his alpine lair. There he resumed the life of a recluse, but never again did he create any works. He did not even try. For the rest of his life he bore the pain of the love he had found and so soon lost. Worse yet, he bore the pain of knowing that but for his own folly, fair Wintonwy would still be alive.

V
T HE B ALLAD
    W hat a sad story,” said Kate, swaying with the rocking of the boat.