Ever My Merlin

Ever My Merlin - By Priya Ardis

PROLOGUE

I helped my brother up the stairs of our small cottage. We were playing in the woods. He followed me everywhere, but I didn’t mind. He had small hands; mine were big. I was the big brother. I would always take care of him.

I turned the handle that latched the back door. Behind me, my brother stumbled on the stairs. I turned back around and caught him before he could fall. The door opened a crack. I helped my brother up the stairs leading into a small storeroom. Across the dirt-floored room, another three steps led up to the cottage.

The Lady sat at a round table and chopped, chopping a potato. I don’t know how she managed to hold on to the precious bit of food. Crops liked to grow for her. I’d overheard more than one desperate villager whisper about our bounty, yet no one ever tried to steal or wrest it from us.

Maybe I did know why. One time I took a few leftover bits of food and tried to trade it for a sword. I never saw her so angry. Her glowing green eyes took the breath from my body. It wasn’t until I saw dark spots in my vision that her eyes snapped back to normal and my breath swooped back into my lungs. I knew I almost met my death that day, but in the end, I was simply admonished for possibly exposing us to outsiders.

I was about to fling the back door open when the voice of a man stopped me. We never had a man in our cottage before. We never had any visitors in our cottage before. The Lady was our guardian—I didn’t dare call her mother—for as long as I could remember. I had little recollection of anyone before her. Only the three of us—the Lady, my little brother, and me.

“Are they here?” the man asked.

“No, son. They’re out in the woods.” The Lady cut another slice of the potato.

I took a few steps into the cool darkness of the storeroom. I could see her above me. My brother started to make a gurgling sound. I put a finger to my lips to tell him to shush. He nodded and repeated the gesture, delighting at the game.

“The elder takes care of his brother well,” she said.

The giant of a man sat down in a chair across the table from her. He wore the uniform of a Roman soldier—a breastplate of unusually shiny metal, a leather skirt, and leg armor. His cloak was an imperial purple. On a bare-muscled arm he wore a gold armband in the shape of a fish. Sandals covered his feet. A gold crown sat atop dark-blond hair with a winking green gemstone. “Do I hear censure in your tone, Mother?”

“An observation, Poseidon,” she said.

“No one calls me by that name anymore, Mother.” The man paused. “Our time is near. You cannot delay much more. We have already lingered too long. Our father has demanded our departure and he is right. We have other places to be.”

The Lady continued to cut the potato placidly. “Yet, I am not done. The boys need me.”

“Father is not happy with you. What you’ve done—”

“I’ve saved this world.”

“At what cost? You’ve brought a plague upon this land. The pandemic will take half their lives in exchange—”

The Lady said harshly, “Better than every single life. There is always a price to be paid when you cheat time. Besides, I will not leave them completely defenseless. I have a plan.”

“Oh, yes.” The man laughed. “The sword.”

“The world will see a dark age, but our garden will flourish again, despite our abandonment.”

“It will not be abandoned. Father realizes our time here is at an end. The world has grown, and in time, they will gain their own power. Anyhow, it was not his choice. It was written in the stars. You have only delayed it. The universe will not rest until it finds a balance. Kronos’s Fury will rebound.”

“I will not give up without a fight.” Chop. She cut the potato in two neat halves.

In the storeroom, I winced at the hard sound, yet my heart swelled. The Lady would protect my brother and me, no matter the cost.

“They can save themselves, Mother,” the man said.

I didn’t like him.

She answered. “Your father doesn’t understand. Sometimes when you see too far, you can forget to look at what is most near. Fate must be helped along, my son. We must make sure the boys are protected. They will be needed.”

“One boy, Mother. There was only meant to be one,” the man replied. “I do not know how those idiot wizards somehow managed to cause the conception of two.”

In the cold blackness, my grip tightened on my brother. I really didn’t like this man.

“You can only leave the gift to one, Mother,” he continued. “We do not have the strength for more. Who will you choose?”

“I have already chosen.” The Lady moved on to a new potato. With one clean slice, she cleaved it open. “However, the two are tied so closely together. This will be hard for them—”

“You orchestrated their conception for this purpose.” The man’s tone hardened. His green eyes almost glowed as he watched the Lady. “My brothers and I were close once also. You must do what is right as we did.”

“I am well aware what is at stake.” The Lady paused in her cutting and laid down the knife. “We must all do what is necessary, but it does not mean we should forget our hearts. Are you and your brothers ready to do your part?”

The man stared at the Lady, his mother. I wasn’t sure what they were talking about. I knew this moment could change everything. The Lady looked steadily at her son. Finally, he sighed. “You know I would do anything for you. So will Jupiter.”

The Lady smiled and picked up the knife again. “And Hades?”

The man shook his head. “Pluto does not agree, but is too busy to be a problem. Jupiter has gone to see Father, but you know as well as I that Father will not part with the apples.”

“It is merely a ruse,” the Lady said. “Your father doesn’t know about the ones I sent Hercules to steal.”

The man paused. “Are you absolutely certain you want to do this? Father has strict rules against playing with two worlds.”

“Sometime you have to break the rules to save what is most important.”

“And the other way—”

“It is too risky,” she said dismissively, with a wave of the knife.

The man sighed. “I hope you are correct about this boy, Mother. So much hinges on it. I will go to my island after I leave you. I must give them their final instructions.”

“You will not be the least bit sorry to leave your son?”

The man’s face blanched. “We always knew this day would come. Triton is of this world. He belongs here.”

She looked down at the slices of potato. “It will be as difficult for you to let go of the boy as it was for me to let go of you.”

“I survived.”

“Vivane also reminds me a good deal of you, but he is more vulnerable. He is of this world. He has you in him, but he is not ours. Remember that. Teach him to be a warrior, but do not break him. You must return him in seven years’ time. Merlin’s training will be completed by then as well.”

“Triton knows what he must do,” the man said.

In the pit of the storeroom, I stood frozen to the spot. I made an effort to breathe. She was giving me away. She was keeping my brother, but she was giving me away.

My brother would be alone.

A jagged sword of anger surged from inside a deep pit—toward a mother I could barely remember, a father who’d never been there, and the Lady. I remembered the day the Lady came into our hut. My mother cried when she told me to be strong. She told me to always look after my brother. Then, she took a bag of gold coins from the Lady and let me go. The only one who cared about me was my brother. I knew that. And if I cared as much about him, I knew what I had to do.

My hands fisted, a physical reaction to the decision. They squeezed the small fingers laying innocently in mine.

“Vee,” Merlin protested.

The day I was dreading had finally come. I looked down at him, his round baby face and big eyes. The Lady wanted him. I knew I had no choice. We never had a choice. Neither of us.

We’d been betrayed.

With a sharp breath, I let go of his hand. Stomping away from him, I went up the stairs. As usual, Merlin ran after me. His little legs stumbled on the first step. I resisted the urge to help him. I kept climbing.

The bright, green eyes of the Lady widened when she saw me at the threshold. “Vivane?”

Behind me, I heard Merlin fall. A thud sounded as his back hit the dirt floor. An angry wail filled the air. I didn’t turn around. He had to figure it out on his own now. He had to be strong. He had to learn to stop counting on me.

The Lady stood up in a hurry. “Vivane, your brother!”

My name wasn’t Vivane. I wasn’t needed as an older brother.

I looked at her… I looked at the man. He watched me with steady green eyes, the exact same shade as the Lady’s.

I declared, “I am Vane.”

And I was alone.