Lost in Phantasm (Merlin Fanfiction)

Part 8: "The Wizard's Castle"

By midafternoon, Merlin and Lily were halfway to the Troll Castle. They had stopped to enjoy a meal of strange fruits and berries Merlin had never tasted before, and a sort of juicy grain Lily called farran-wheat.

"We should arrive before moonrise," Lily gauged, "It shouldn't be too bad, though I would have liked to get there before nightfall, what with the Underworlders prowling the darkness."

Merlin slammed an edkidna—a fruit with a thick yellow rind—against the ground, and the rind slipped off easily, leaving the orange, melon-like flesh.

"Nightfall and moonrise?" he echoed, "There's a difference here?"

Lily smoothed her hair away from her face and nodded. "Here in Phantasm, the sun is on a fixed course, but the moon is not. The moon is actually a hive for large insects, called Moon-Beems, which glow when they move. The sunset awakens them, and they begin moving about their hive, which makes the moon-hive rise in the sky and glow. When the sun returns to the horizon, the activity of the Moon-Beems ceases, causing the moon to set."

Merlin tried to imagine what this might look like.

"I guess I'll have to see it to understand," he mused.

"Are you ready to continue?" Lily asked.

Merlin nodded and clambered back into Lily's hand. She stood up and gasped.

"Calebryanicolinathanderson!" she cried, waving frantically.

"Lilianabriellamaria!" A young giant boy ran toward them. Lily set Merlin on a nearby cliff as the boy threw his arms around her.

"Dear brother," Lily murmured tearfully, "I was just coming to try to rescue you!"

"Oh, sister!" her brother cried, "I nearly thought I would never see you again! It was Arthur! He saved me, and you'll never guess—" His eyes fell on Merlin and he gasped. "Why, there's another one!"

Lily and her brother sat down on either side of Merlin's cliff.

"Calebryanicolinathanderson, this is my friend Merlin, a human." She smiled down at Merlin, "Merlin, this is my brother. You can call him Caleb."

"Your brother—the one we were on our way to rescue?"

"Yes; what were you saying just now, Calebryanico? How did you escape?"

"There was a human there, sister; the trolls had captured him the other day. He had a sword, and he unlocked my chains."

Merlin sighed with relief. "That sounds like Arthur! That means he's alive!"

Caleb ran a shaky hand through his hair, "For now, anyway. I tried to take him and the unicorn with me when I escaped, but I tripped and fell, and—well..."

"Calebryanicolinathanderson," Lily burst out quickly, "You mean there was a unicorn in the troll castle?"

"Yes; it was wounded in the leg; he had been there for quite a while."

Lily seized Caleb's shoulder. "What color was its horn?"

"Well, the trolls painted it over with different colors a few times, but I think it was red."

"The Red-Horned Unicorn is the one that guards the Phantasmagyth, isn't it?" Merlin asked.

Lily nodded, but she didn't take her eyes off her brother. "All right, last and most importantly, I want you to think as hard as you can and remember: did Arthur have a gyth with him?"

Caleb frowned. "I don't know," he said slowly, "I never saw. He did have a satchel." Caleb blinked, "Wait, how did Arthur get the gyth? Where is the Chain, then?"

Merlin looked up at Lily, who had suddenly turned pale and sad. "If the trolls caught Arthur and the unicorn, he would—not knowing about the gyth—probably try to bargain with it."

"Yeah, he would," Merlin confirmed. Arthur, when his own kingdom and his people were not at stake, routinely would value his life over a trinket. A desperate thought struck him. "Would the trolls—do they... You don't think that if they got the unicorn and Arthur showed them the gyth, that they would...y'know..." He could not bring himself to say it.

Lily sighed, "No, they wouldn't. It's much worse.

"I fear the trolls may have brought Arthur to the Wizard's Castle."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Miles away, Garrgan and his troop arrived at the gates of a large castle. Arthur thought how much it reminded him of Camelot. It only lacked one thing: people. The whole area was completely desolate. Garrgan removed Arthur's bonds as the gate opened on their approach.

"It won't matter now whether you escape," he whispered to Arthur. "You're the Wizard's guest now; you can't get out till he lets you. I'd be on my best behavior anyway. I might be waiting to kill you, but he won't, if you do anything he doesn't like!"

The doors opened on their own as the troupe progressed through the atrium and down a long hallway to the Great Hall. The walls were coated with a strange, smooth white material, and embedded with large tubular tanks of bright-blue water. Arthur watched the wavering light, mesmerized. He did not expect a large creature to suddenly float into view—and then it bumped against the glass.

Arthur jumped; the creature was almost human! Webbed hands, a face (with fish eyes and gills instead of a nose), and long legs ending in flippers gave a human-like appearance, while the blue-gray skin and brightly-colored hair streaming back or bound tightly with seaweed gave them an ethereal effect.

The trolls laughed and jeered at Arthur's reaction. "Yar-har-har! Measly human has never seen a mermaid before! Not what you was expecting, eh?"

Mermaids? Arthur shook his head. Now he was quite sure he'd seen everything this world had to offer.

Garrgan reached the last door, but this one did not open. The troll-chief knocked.

"Who iss it?" a creaking, singsong voice called from somewhere in front of the door. Arthur and the trolls cringed instinctively, looking around for the one speaking. All of them thought the same thing: was the Wizard invisible?

"Oh Great One," Garrgan spoke, still unsure where to look, "I bring you gifts. Look, I have the gyth, and the unicorn! Here is the human who had both these things."

He dragged Arthur to the front of the group.

"Ahh, a khyoomaan," the voice sounded almost hungry. "I khave been waiting for sssoo long; at lasst, thiss day khass finally comme." The door opened, but no one moved.

"Come in, khyooman," continued the eerie, languid voice, "Enter into the preyssence of the Wizzarrrd!"