Merlin's Mirror - Andre Norton

Merlin's Mirror - Andre Norton, ebook, CALIBRE SFF 1970s, Temp 1

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Andre Norton - Merlin's Mirror
1.
The beacon still called from deep within the rough-walled fastness of the cave. Its message was fainter
now. Each planet year had put more strain upon this mechanism, though its creators had attempted to
make it ever-lasting. They believed they had foreseen every eventuality. They had — except the
weakness within their own rule and the nature of the world from which the beacon called. Time had been
swallowed, was gone, and still the beacon kept to its task, while outside the cave nations had risen and
decayed, men themselves had changed and changed again. Everything the makers of the beacon had
known was erased during those years, destroyed by the very action of nature. Seas swept in upon the
land, then retired, the force of their waves taking whole cities and countries. Mountains reared up, so that
the shattered remains of once-proud ports were lifted into the thin air of great heights. Deserts crept in
over green fields. A moon fell from the sky and another took its place.
Still the beacon called and called, summoning those who had vanished and left behind only legends,
strange, time-distorted tales. And now there was another period of chaotic darkness in the affairs of men.
An empire had crashed under its own unwieldy weight and the strain of years. Barbarians ravaged,
picking its carcass like vultures. Fire and sword, death and the living death of slavery marched across the
land. And yet the beacon called.
Its heart-fires were dim now. From time to time the call faltered, as a man in mortal danger might gasp for
breath between shouts for aid. Then that call, so faint now, was finally heard far out in space. A strange
arrow of metal caught the impulse, and deep in this ship's heart installations which had been silent and
unresponding for centuries were activated. The arrow altered course, using the beam of the call as a line
to draw itself down.
There was no living thing aboard that ship. It had been devised with desperate hope by entities close to
the extinction of all they held important, more important than their own lives. They had sent six such
arrows of life into the void, their only desire being that at least one of the searchers might find a goal their
records said existed. Then they were overrun by their enemies.
Relay after relay clicked into life without a quiver of fault as the arrow sped toward earth. It represented
the fruits of a thousand years of experimentation, the highest triumph of a race which had once traveled
the starlanes with the ease of men walking familiar paths on brown earth. Made for one duty alone, it was
now about to go into the action for which it was programmed.
It smoothly shifted into orbit about the planet and prepared to descend in answer to the beacon call. As it
flashed across the sky men below watched its passage with primitive awe. The knowledge which had
once been theirs was long since buried in myth.
Some cringed in skin tents as their shamans beat drums and howled strange guttural chants. Others stared
wide-eyed and spoke of shooting stars which could be omens of good or evil. It neared the mountain
where the cave of the beacon was hidden, then it broke apart.
The husk which had carried the so-precious cargo through space opened and from it issued other
objects. They did not plunge instantly into the sea which was now fast coming under the arrow; they spun
away rather, as if with volition of their own, winging for a mountainside.
They hovered for an instant or two in the air before drifting easily to the ground. And if anyone in those
heights witnessed this, he did not speak of it again. These particles were protected by a distortion of the
 fields of visibility. The makers had taken all precautions they could foresee to protect their project.
Once on earth the jumble of objects produced appendages of their own and crawled steadily, with a
mindless need to unite with the failing power of the beacon. They made their way into the cave.
In some places it was necessary to enlarge the passageway and that, too, had been foreplanned. But at
length they were all sheltered in the depths about the beacon, where they proceeded to go to work.
Some of them cut bases in the rock, settling themselves in with cable roots from which they could never
be' torn. Others rose from the surface of the cave, hovering back and forth like great mindless insects,
except that they trailed coils of communicating wire from one based installation to the next.
Within a space of time which they had no reason to measure the net was complete; they were ready to
begin the work for which they had been programmed. If this world had not been receptive there would
have been no beacon. Therefore, in the memory banks of the largest of the based machines lay
information that a systematic sampling would bring into use.
One of the hovering fliers swung to the entrance of the cave, sped outside. There was no moon that night;
clouds hung heavy in the sky. The flying thing was not much larger than an eagle, and its distort had gone
into action when it had emerged in the open. Now it began to scout in ever-widening circles, the
photoeye it carried sending a stream of reports back to the cave.
There was a dusting of snow on the heights and the winds were sharp and cold, though the flying thing
noted temperature only as another fact to be transmitted.
The fire in the center of the clan house was high. From the balcony which circled the sleeping family
rooms, Brigitta could look down at the men gathered below on benches. The mingled smell of stable,
cow byre, wood-smoke, food and drink was as thick as the smoke. Yet there was a solid, secure feeling
when the clan house was closed at night against the outer dark, when the hum of voices flowed from
chamber to chamber on the upper floor.
Brigitta shivered and drew her cloak closer about her shoulders. This was Samain, the time between one
year and the next. Now the doors between this world and the Dark could open, and demons could caper
through or crawl malevolently to attack man. There was safety here by the cheer of fire, in the voices she
could hear, the snort of one of the horses stabled in the outermost circle of stalls below. She picked up
the tankard she had set on the bench beside her and sipped at the barley ale it contained, making a little
face at its bitter taste but relishing the warmth within her when she swallowed.
There were other women on the balcony benches, but none shared hers. Brigitta was the chief's daughter
and so took honor here. When the flames flickered they caught the gold bracelet on her arm, the wide
plaque necklace of amber and bronze lying on her breast. Her red-brown hair flowed free, nearly
touching the floor behind her as she sat, its color contrasting pleasantly with the strong blue of her cloak,
the embroidered length of the saffron yellow robe beneath.
She was arrayed for a feast, yet this was no true. feast. She bitterly resented the news which had drawn
the men to council and left the women to watch and yawn, gossip a little. It was even stale gossip, for
they had been together for so long now that there was nothing new to say about each other or events.
Brigitta moved restlessly. War — war with the Winged Hats — that was all a man could think about.
There was little betrothing or marrying nowadays. And she was growing older with every moon. Yet her
father had not singled out any lord for her. There was gossip behind hands about that also, as. well she
knew. If they had not already, in time they would give her some flaw of tongue or mind which would turn
 possible suitors from the door.
War. Brigitta gritted her teeth and the look with which she regarded the company below had little
kindness in it. Man thought of fighting first and always. What did it matter if the invaders crept along
valleys miles away? What difference should it make to the people of Nyren, safe in their upland fortress?
And now this babbling about the evils wrought by the High King. She drank again.
So he had put aside his wife to wed the daughter of the Saxon overlord.... Brigitta wondered what the
new queen looked like. Vortigen was old; he had grown sons who would be quick to raise sword for
their shamed mother. A messenger had brought the news that they were summoning near and far kin to
that very effort now. But the Saxons would form a shield wall for the new queen, too. It was all war! She
could not remember back to a time when there was not the clang of weapons about the clan house. She
need only raise her head a little to see the line of weather-cleaned skulls set along the roof eaves above,
the spoils of wars and past raids.
She did not think that Nyren would have much sympathy for the High King. Ten days ago another
messenger had ridden in to be received with a far warmer welcome: a lean, dark man with cleanly shaved
face, wearing the breastplate and helmet of the Emperor's men. The Emperor was long gone, though it
was said that emperors still ruled overseas. But the Imperial Eagles had been lost from this land since her
father was young.
It seemed that at least one leader still believed in the Emperor. The dark man had come from him to ask
Nyren's men for his war banner, just as the messenger who had spoiled the feast tonight. That one had
had a strange, tongue-twisting name, after the style of the Romans. Brigitta said it aloud now, proud that
she knew enough of the old speech to say it properly.
"Ambrosius Aurelianus." She added the equally strange title he held, for he did not claim any kingdom,
Dux Britanniae. Lugaid had said it meant Leader of Britain in the other tongue. It was a lot for a man to
claim when half the land was filled with Vortigen's new kin, the Winged Hats from overseas.
Her father had been schooled at Aquae Sulis in the old days when the Emperor Maximus had ruled not
only Britain, but half the lands overseas. He remembered how it was when there was peace and one only
had to fear the Scotti raids or trouble along the border. So he was one who had inclined to the Roman,
one of those Vortigen had hunted out of the cities because the High King feared their influence.
Thus Nyren had returned to the clanship of his fathers, had drawn around him those of kin blood.
Perhaps he had only been waiting ... Brigitta sipped her ale again. Her father was one who kept his own
counsel, even among the kin.
She studied him now where he sat in the high seat of the clan house. Though he wore the dress of the hills
it was in more somber colors than that of the men around him. His tunic of fine linen had been worked by
her own hands with a pattern copied from an old vase, a wreathing of leaves in threads of gilt and green.
His trousers were of dark red, his cloak of the same shade. Only the wide torque of gold about his
throat, the two brand-bracelets on his wrists and the seal ring on his forefinger, equaled in splendor the
ornaments of his fellows.
Yet he held authority among them, and no man entering the clan house and setting eyes on Nyren need
ask who was chief in this place. Brigitta felt the swell of pride as she watched him now, displaying not a
flicker of emotion as he listened with surface courtesy to the words of the High King's messenger, who
was leaning forward, plainly ill at ease as he tried to impress this small chief, as the High King might rate
Nyren.
 But the influence of the lord of this clan reached beyond the walls of his kin house and many among the
hills listened closely to any words of his. For his wisdom was great and he was a wily and successful
raider and war leader. He might have called himself king, after the fashion of others hereabouts, but he
did not choose to do so.
Brigitta stirred again impatiently. She wished that her father might speedily send the High King's man
about his business, that they might feast at their ease with no troubling from the world outside on this
night.
She could catch the roar of the wind above the sounds of the court hall below. There was a storm, and a
storm on this night was unlucky. It might well carry the hosts of the Dark to wreak their evil will on men.
Now she looked for Lugaid where he sat near her father. He had the old knowledge and he had set up
the spirit protections about them this night. Though his unshaved beard was white, his lean body was not
stooped, nor did he have the signs of age about him. His white robe was bright in the firelight and one thin
hand stroked his beard absentmindedly as he, too, listened to Vortigen's man.
The Romans had striven to stamp out the old knowledge and while they were in power men such as
Lugaid had moved secretly, keeping to their own silences. Now they were honored once more among
the kin and their words were listened to. Brigitta doubted that Lugaid would favor the High King, for he
and his kind held the ancient mysteries of this land and they liked the Winged Hats no better than they
had the Romans.
The ale was strong and made her a little dizzy. She shoved the tankard aside, her eyes now drowsily
watching the play of the flames on the great hearth below. In and out they danced, swifter, more
gracefully, wilder than any maid could weave her way across the grass on Beltaine Eve. In and out. . . .
Now the wind was roaring so loud she could hardly catch more than an echo of the murmur from below.
It was dull anyway. This feast which had promised so much in the way of excitement had been spoiled by
the stupid affairs of war. Brigitta yawned widely. She was both bored and disappointed. Distant kin had
come riding in yesterday, and she had had a wan hope that among them her father would find a suitor he
approved.
She tried now to search out those strangers below, find one face which was to her own liking. But they
were only a blur of flesh, reddened by the flame play; the gaudy colors of their plaid and checkered
clothing bewildered her. Though there were both young men and seasoned warriors, none had caught her
attention when they arrived. Of course she would have gone dutifully to the one her father named.
That he did not name any was her present grievance. They would march to war, all those possible
suitors, and many would die, so there would be far fewer to choose among. It was a sad waste. She
shook her head, muddled by the ale she had drunk, the half-hypnotizing play of the flames. Suddenly she
could stand it no longer.
She rose from her bench and went back into her chamber. The opposite door of her room opened out
on the parapet of the wall, their outer defense. It was tightly closed, yet through it the whistle of the wind
came even closer. A lamp burned very dimly in the far comer. She shrugged out of her robe and, in her
chemise, her cloak still about her, she burrowed into the covers of the bed against the wall. She shivered,
not so much from the chill of the stone against which that bed was set as from the menace of the wind
and the tales she had heard of what might ride its gusts this night of all nights. But she was also sleepy and
her eyes soon closed as the lamp sputtered out.
 Below, in the warmth of the fire, Lugaid's hand was suddenly stilled. His head turned so that he no longer
regarded Nyren or the man so eloquent in his plea for the support of the hill chief and his people. It was
as if the priest of the Old Ones were listening to something else.
His eyes were wide, startled. Yet there was no sentry horn sounding, or if there was, only his ears caught
it. His hand moved from his beard to the emblem embroidered on the breast of his robe, the spiral of
gold, as if he hardly knew what he did or why his fingers traced the lines of that spiral from outer edge to
inner heart. He might have been half-consciously seeking some answer of vast importance.
Now his eyes lifted to the balcony on which the women sat, and he deliberately looked from face to
half-seen face until he came to a gap in their number. Sighting that, he gave a small gasp. Then he glanced
hastily right and left. He might have feared that his involuntary sound had betrayed him in some manner,
but the rest of the company was intent on Nyren and the uninvited guest. Lugaid drew back a little, his
eyes closed, a look of deep concentration on his bearded face.
Planet time meant nothing to the installations. The flying things reported, memory banks sorted, classified,
worked to feed information to the more sophisticated final judge of the project. A decision was made,
twice tested. Then the most delicate and complicated portion of the space-carried equipment was
prepared.
Once more one of the fliers spiraled out. It made a wider swing, its distort on full. The farthest reach of
that swing carried it across another spur of rock reaching skyward. The beacon which had summoned
the installation out of space and time had died. Only now, deep within other rocks beneath, another signal
woke to life. Undetected by the flier, it began to pulsate, its wavelength sweeping higher and higher as its
energy built and roared to full power.
Outward into the high heavens sped a new beam, climbing starward. It would take a long time, perhaps
years for that warning to be caught by those who patrolled there. But it could not be quenched. Ancient
battles might begin, lesser in force now than of old, because both adversaries were depleted to a
thousandth, a millionth of the power they once possessed. Time and exhaustion had not, however,
wearied their resolve. They were as implacable as ever. Though now they must face each other with new
and lesser strength, yet they would do it.
The flier wheeled, coasted through a fierce wind, fluttered along within its grasp as a leaf might. Yet it
was not powerless; it had a task it must do and nothing man or nature could devise in this time could
prevent it from accomplishing that act.
Brigitta slept heavily, yet it seemed to her that in truth she waked. The wooden wall of the kin house was
no longer about her. She stood instead on a path she knew well, the one which led to the spring of
prophecy where the goddess might bless with eternal good fortune someone who flung an offering. Nor
was this the dread night of Samain with its dark, veiled hunters waiting to ensnare mankind. About her
now was the green freshness of first spring, of Beltaine when the fires would burn high and maids and
men would leap over their flames hand and hand, united in worship of those forces which increased
rather than diminished the tribes.
There was a golden light about her that did not come from the sun overhead. It made a spear point which
reached to her sandaled feet, though the source remained hidden by bushes just leafing with the spring.
The glow leaped up from that triangle of light into her heart, so she laughed joyfully and began to run
through the brilliance, a great excitement filling her. Never had she felt so free, so alive, so entirely happy
as in this moment.
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