Merlin's Nightmare (The Merlin Spiral) by Robert Treskillard Read Free Book Online Page B

the edge of his hood — blue, green, and white. Merlin’s cloak was entirely black.
    She filled her lungs to scream for help, but fear strangled her throat and froze her limbs.

T he man stepped closer to Natalenya and pulled a dark mask from his face. The moonlight illuminated his bearded chin and cracked, bleeding lips. But something was wrong with his face. Misshapen, but somehow familiar at the same time.
    He opened his mouth wide and tried to speak.
    She fell back a step. His teeth were sharp like that of a beast, and the tip of his tongue had been bitten off — its horrible, bloody stump writhing around in his mouth.
    “Atha-Artha-AAATHA!” he kept calling, and with each sound his lips contorted until his mouth frothed in rage.
    Natalenya sucked at the air until she found enough breath to scream.
    The man looked down and began to reach inside his cloak.
    He must be grabbing a knife! She screamed again, louder, and the man leapt at her with incredible speed, slammed his hand over her mouth, and pulled her tight to his chest.

    Natalenya awoke. Someone held her head, and she screamed again, flailing her fists.
    “Natalenya!” a voice called.
    She reached at the sound, grabbed the man’s hair, and pulled hard.
    “Ow! Natalenya!” the man said. It was Merlin’s voice.
    Letting go, she began to cry. Merlin was holding her. She was safe.
    “Are you well?”
    “No . . . no . . . there was a man.”
    Sudden tension filled Merlin’s voice. “A what?”
    “A man. I thought he was you, I . . .”
    Merlin rose quickly and looked around. “There’s no one here.”
    She sat up and saw she was on the floor in Arthur’s bedroom. “He left, then. He got away.”
    “No one was here. I came right away.”
    “The door, check the door. I had to bar it. He must have fled through the door.”
    “Stay here while I — ”
    The wind blew hard outside, and the thatch shivered above her.
    “No. Take me with you. Don’t leave me.”
    “Fine.”
    Together they walked toward the door, with her holding Merlin’s hand tightly.
    “See . . . it’s still barred. Just as I left it before bed.”
    “Then he’s still here!”
    “Natalenya.” Merlin reached out and stroked her cheek. She pulled away.
    A cry came from their bedroom.
    “Tinga!” Her heart began racing again. All the windows had bars in them. If the door was still locked, then the man was still here.
    Merlin and Natalenya ran, arm in arm, only to find Tingada sitting up, pushing the brown hair from her eyes. Nothing else unusual. Taliesin rolled over.
    Natalenya fell to her knees and grabbed Tinga up in a hug, breathing in the piney smell of her clothes.
    “I’s dreamed ov a big wolf. He tried ta bite me, but I didn’ leth ’im.”
    Merlin furrowed Taliesin’s hair. “Mommy had a bad dream too.”
    She glared at him. “I’ve heard your stories. What if it’s your sister?”
    “You said it was a man.”
    “That’s not what I mean.”
    “We’ve lived in peace for sixteen years.”
    Despite his words, Natalenya saw a slight worry etched in the lines around his eyes.
    “What if she’s come back?” Natalenya grabbed the lamp next to their bed and frantically lit it with a live cinder from the coal box. Turning to Merlin, she handed it to him. “Search the house, please.”
    Merlin nodded, but she could tell he was humoring her.
    As Natalenya waited with Tinga in the dark, a thought came to her, and she looked up. Taliesin often climbed amongst the network of timbers supporting the roof. Once he even climbed out the smoke-hole. Could the man be hiding up there?
    When Merlin returned, having found nothing, she asked him to scale their bedroom wall and shine the light upward.
    He squinted at her.
    “Please.”
    So he climbed the rock wall separating their bedroom from the rest of the crennig and stood upon the top amongst the timbers. She passed up the lamp, and he wrapped his arm around one of the cross timbers so he could hold up the light until it