Merlin by Jane Yolen Read Free Book Online Page A

command.
    The dog did not move toward them and, after a minute, Hawk-Hobby put the child down, and examined the dead men.
    It was clear to see how it had happened. The wodewose's hands were tightly wrapped around Fowler's neck, so tightly the traitor's eyes bulged and his tongue protruded from his mouth. Out of the wild man's back stuck the haft of a soldier's spear, and around that wound were bite marks. Which of the two of them had died first hardly mattered.
    "Make him live, Dreamer," the child whispered. "Make him live."
    Hawk-Hobby took the wodewose by the shoulder and brought the ruined head close to his own. The wild man was stiff with death, his lips parted in a final agony. It was all the boy could do to touch him.
    "Give him breath, Dreamer," the child whispered again.
    Bending over, though he shook with the horror of it, Hawk-Hobby blew the breath of life into the grimace of a mouth.
    Once, twice, three times he blew. Then waited. Then blew again.
    He closed his eyes and remembered his dream of breath, remembered how it had felt when he had given life to the little bird. He prayed, sudden tears running down his cheeks.
    He blew again.
    And again.
    And nothing happened.
    Nothing at all.
    "Make him live, Dreamer," the child begged.
Let him live
, the boy prayed.
    But his magic—capricious, wanton, unpredictable—did not come at his calling.

15. FAMILY
    HOW LONG THEY SAT THERE BY THE DEAD men, Hawk-Hobby did not know. But eventually the dog came over to him and licked his hand several times as if learning the taste.
    The boy stood. "Come," he said. "It is time for us to go." And the three of them—boy, child, dog—walked together to the edge of the meadow, leaving the dead behind.
    "Why did he not live?" Cub asked.
    Hawk-Hobby shook his head. "I do not know," he said. "I do not know near enough yet. But I will learn." He looked into the child's face, now streaked with dirt and tears. "I promise you I will learn."
    "I will learn, too," the child said to him confidently. "And ee will teach me."
    They went down the path, but in the opposite direction than the soldiers had taken. The dog ranged ahead, then returned, over and over and over again, as if to satisfy himself the two were safe.
    They did not stop until the sun was well overhead.
    In a little glade, where berries grew in profusion, they had a meal. In between one juicy handful and the next, Cub turned to the boy. "Are thee my father now?" he asked.
    Startled, Hawk-Hobby smiled slowly. The idea was new to him. All this while he had been seeking a father for himself. Now, it seemed, he had a son. "If you wish it."
    In answer, the child put his hand in the boy's. "Then perhaps," Hawk-Hobby said, "if we are to be a family, we need to tell one another our true names."
    "But—'ee are Dreamer," the child said. "Robin o' the Wood."
    "No," the boy answered, kneeling before the child. "I am a dreamer, true, but that is not my true name. My name..." He took a deep breath. "My name is Merlin."
    "Like the hawk?" the child asked. "I like hawks."
    "Like the hawk. And someday I shall teach you how to tame them as I was taught," Merlin said. "But now I have many other things to teach you. Such as what your place is in this world. And that you must not rise to the lure. And..."
    "But
my
name, Merlin. What be ee calling me?"
    "Cub."
    "Can I be bigger than a cub?"
    "You will be in time."
    "As big as ... as big as a bear? Then no one could kill what is mine. If I be big and powerful as a bear."
    Merlin smiled. "As big as a bear, certainly," he said. "But if you are a bear, Cub, then we shall call you Artus, for that means bear-man." As he said it, he suddenly remembered his dream of the bear. Perhaps, perhaps this was meant, after all.
    "Artus. Artus. Artus," the child cried out, twirling around and around until he was quite dizzy with it.
    At the sound of the child's name, the dog burst out of the woods and ran about the two of them, barking.
    "Ranger,"