Arthur froze as the Green Knight calmly retrieved the wizard beard from the dirt, the gash in the knight’s chest sealed around the blade.
Slowly, Merlin raised his head, surprised to be alive. He watched the Green Knight hold up the shorn beard, a deep steel in the knight’s eye. Only then did Merlin understand his plan.
“Listen to me, Japeth. Let’s talk first,” he said. For the first time, the wizard looked scared.
The Green Knight noticed. “So it is still here. You told me you hid it in your beard when you promised it to me. All these years. You could have moved it somewhere else . . .”
“Don’t do it, Japeth,” Merlin begged.
“Thank you for giving me your Wizard Wish, Merlin,” said the knight, his voice steadying. “I know you wanted me to be happy. But I need this wish now. More than you.”
“There are other ways—” Merlin insisted.
The Green Knight pressed the wizard beard to his heart. “I wish to give up this bitterness, this envy, this hate. I wish to feel love and forgiveness and peace. I wish to be restored to the man I’m meant to be.” He looked right at Merlin. “I wish to be . . . free.”
“No!” the wizard cried.
Instantly the green started to fade from the knight’s skin. His muscles deflated, his veins shriveled, his sculpted cheeks sagged, until the Green Knight was nothing more than a soft-bellied, pallid, middle-aged man, out of place in an enchanted wood. Sir Kay took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling, his focus lifting to the sky.
“So this is what it’s like . . . ,” he whispered.
He closed his eyes, the last tints of green draining.
The sword in his chest quivered.
The wound reopened, blood flooding his chest.
Kay opened his eyes as bright as the sun.
“Goodbye, Merlin,” he said.
Then he fell down dead.
Merlin ran to his side, scooping him into his arms.
But it was too late.
The wish granted.
The deed done.
Not Merlin’s death chosen . . . but the knight’s own.
The wizard wept softly, cradling Kay like a child.
His spell trapping Arthur broke, dropping the king face-first into dirt.
Arthur scraped himself to his elbows.
The wizard wouldn’t look at him.
“Merlin—” the king appealed.
The wizard thrust out a hand, silencing him. When he spoke at last, it was in a cold, harsh voice. “Kay could have had a second chance at life. I would have convinced him. I would have helped him. He might have finally had a path to become the man he was meant to be. But your sword gave him a way out. You gave him a way out instead of letting me fight for him.” Merlin paused, his back to the king. “People will say you killed the Green Knight. That you are the hero of this tale . . . But we both know the truth, Arthur. You broke your word to me. A king’s word.” The wizard’s voice crackled with anger. “Too many trusts broken between us. Too much gone wrong.”
Slowly Merlin lay Kay down and rose into the light.
“I no longer have a Wizard Wish or the choice of when to end my days. But I can choose to end this. I’m leaving you, Arthur,” he said, standing over the king. “Our time together is done.”
Ender’s Forest went silent and still.
Merlin and Arthur gazed upon each other for the last time . . .
The scene evaporated into darkness.
So too did the box around Agatha and Tedros, the prince and princess floating back down in the black room, a dim, cold star on the floor between their feet.
“Merlin’s beard,” said Tedros, choked with emotion. “That’s where Merlin hid his wish. That’s what the Green Knight wanted. Merlin’s beard is the answer to my first test.”
Agatha looked at him, lost in a fog. “We have to get Merlin’s beard?”
“To show Dad I know the truth,” said Tedros. “‘Three tests. Three answers to find.’ He wanted me to learn that slaying the Green Knight wasn’t a victory. It was his greatest mistake. A mistake I have to learn from.”
Voices amplified in the hall. Footsteps clattered closer.
“Beaver saw ’em. Said the girl was that rebel Agatha,” a guard echoed. “Apparently she slayed the beaver’s cousin in a camel attack. Traveling with that traitor prince. If we kill ’em, imagine the reward—”
Tedros dragged Agatha into shadows.
“How can we get Merlin’s beard?” the prince questioned, still clammy and pale. “Merlin’s trapped in the Caves of Contempo—”
“Where the witches are supposed to be,” Agatha remembered. “They have to rescue him before Japeth figures out the test, before he gets to Merlin . . .”
The guards’ voices were nearing the exhibit, their steps closing in.
“We need to get in touch with the witches,” Tedros said urgently. “We need to know if they have Merlin!”
“We need to get out of this library first!” Agatha pressed.
Frantically, they searched for a door, a window—
But it was too late.
Five guards turned the corner, Matchers reflecting in Tedros’ and Agatha’s faces, crossbows aimed at their necks.
“No, don’t!” Agatha screamed.
Guards cocked their triggers, arrows poised to fly.
“Fire!” the leader yelled—
The wall bashed in behind him, crushing the guards in a heap of rubble.
Agatha and her prince gaped as the dust cleared, sunlight filling the giant hole.
A big, hairy man-wolf peeped through, Nicola and Guinevere on his back.
“What’d we miss?” Hort chimed.
9
THE COVEN
The Cave at Two O’Clock
“‘Now go and find it where wizard trees grow,’” Dot panted, an open scroll in her fist. “What does that mean?”
“Merlin was Arthur’s wizard during the time of the Green Knight. Maybe the answer has to do with Merlin,” Hester surmised, a few last scrolls blizzarding upside down, from her feet past her head. “More reason to rescue the wizard quickly.”
“But Merlin’s in the Caves of Contempo,” Anadil noted, hustling across Borna Coric’s night sky. “What does that have to do with trees?”
“Ani’s right,” Dot added. “Doesn’t say find the wizard. It says find where wizard trees grow—”
“Which Merlin will surely know,” Hester snapped, passing beneath the last upturned shops, strung between inverted beanstalks. The shops were closed, the crowds back in their upside-down cottages. “Should have been to the caves by now,” said Hester, glowering back at Dot. “If someone didn’t force us to stop at All Night Pies.”
“Excuse me, I had to eat after that wedding spellcast,” said Dot. “My nerves were in pieces.”
“Well, at least we know Tedros and Agatha are still alive,” said Hester. “Let them worry about the first test. Our mission is to get Merlin out of the caves.”
“If Merlin’s even there,” Dot noted. “Dovey was the one who told us to go to the caves. She could have been wrong, first off. Plus, those caves are dangerous. People go in and ten minutes later, they come out 50 years older. It’s been weeks since Merlin’s been gone. And he’s old to begin with.” She shook out a few scrolls that had flooded up her skirt. “Imagine when it rains here. Everyone’s knickers must be drenched.”