* * *
I ran into the huge mouth of the cave. The floor was smooth, and sloped steeply down as the walls narrowed. The stone glowed yellow and red through the Dragon's mist, lighting my way to a narrow throat-like tunnel that suddenly opened back out into a huge cavern. Enormous stalactites hung from the high roof, equally great stalagmites grew from the floor. The cavern was filled with the sticky steam, which erupted from glowing, violently bubbling pools in the floor. The place was hot, and smelled of oils and pure magic. In the very centre of the cavern, at the deepest part of the bowl and at the edge of the largest pool, was Neave, with Christian by her side. She was far from her usual elegant self: bare-armed, hair frizzy from the steam, sweating hard. Before her, stood up in the churning liquid, was the black shaft of the Spear of Longius. She was casting a spell on the spear, the signs of great strain on her face.
I ran on down the wet, slippery stone towards my sister and nephew. 'They're c-c-c-c-coming,' I shouted. 'M-M-M-Merlin and K-K-King Arthur. They're here.'
Neave didn't react, but Christian's ear's pricked at the sound of my voice. His curly mop of hair moved, and then I saw a broad, unaffected grin on his face.
'M'Uncle!' he said in delight. He pushed himself clumsily to his feet, and toddled to me as I reached the ridge of the pool. I picked him up. His mother's teeth were gritted as she stared at the spear, moving her hands in a series of complex gestures. It was only now that I was very close that I could see five shadowy figures, each of whom seemed to occupy the same space as Neave, each casting the same spell with approximately the same motions. There was a dark woman in nothing but a few animal skins, her face covered in strange drawings; another woman in white furs. The great black form of King Hermaunce, Epicene's father, towered over them.
'N-N-Neave!' I repeated. 'M-M-Merlin's come for the spear.'
Her eyes flicked from the spear to me and back. 'Too soon,' she said through her clenched teeth.
'lady Neave! My love!' Merlin stood at the entrance to the cavern.
At the sound of his voice she let her hands fall to her side, and the others in her place did the same. She looked up at him.
'The time has come, my friends,' Neave said. One-by-one the shadowy figures signaled their understanding and disappeared. I think king Hermaunce nodded at me before he left. Neave reached forward and plucked the spear from the bubbling pool. I felt new textures in the magic of the spear that I did not recognise. It had elements of the power Merlin had given to it, but the overwhelming texture was more the smooth, thick comfort of one of Avalon's heartstrings.
'It's too soon,' she said, running her hands along the spear. 'We're not finished.'
Arthur tripped into the cavern, Excalibur glowing green in his hand. Merlin put his hand on the king's chest, telling him to stay where he was. The sorcerer started down the same path I had followed.
Neave watched Merlin as he strode through the stalagmites and bubbling pools. 'Brother,' she said with determination, 'I have never given you any reason to love me, but I know you love my son. I trust you to keep him safe.'
'Of c-c-c-c-course.'
She reached for her son. His little hand toyed with her hair. She closed her eyes and planted a long, lingering kiss on Christian's – on Galahad's – head. She was entirely filled by her love for him.
There was a tear in her eye when she looked back up at me. A moment of understanding passed between us, brother and sister – perhaps sympathy too. 'Now go,' she said. 'Run. I don't know if this will work.' She walked round the edge of the large pool, her eyes fixed on Merlin. She twirled the spear round her body like an expert spearmaiden.
Merlin stopped in his tracks. 'So much determination, Lady Neave.' He grinned in amusement. 'But you've not succeeded in purifying my toy, you know. It's still mine. I can feel myself in it.'
I crept around the side of the confrontation with Galahad in my arms. Arthur was still standing at the mouth of the tunnel, watching the standoff between Merlin and Neave.
'Go, Drift!' shouted Neave. She fell into an aggressive stance. She was ready to duel with Merlin. The sorcerer, though, simply stood casually tossing his ram's skull staff from hand-to-hand, apparently unconcerned by her coming attack.
I ran up the rise of the cavern towards the tunnel.
Merlin's voice boomed around the giant space. 'We could be happy, you and I, Neave. Do you not desire to be my empress, dear? To have a husband with the power to maintain the world just as it always been. As it should be? Only I can prevent the end of our age, Neave. Only I can stop change coming to the world.'
Neave didn't reply.
I was almost at the mouth of the tunnel. Arthur barred my way. Excalibur glowed bright in his hand.
'L-L-Let me p-past.'
Arthur shook his head, and moved to block the tunnel. 'This should be fun,' he said, nodding back down to fight. 'You should watch your sister die.'
I summoned up all my power, and all the new power I had received from the dragon's breath, and lashed out. I sent a jet of water at him, a jet so powerful that its recoil forced my feet backwards across the cave floor. He raised Excalibur and the jet deflected harmlessly from him, raking a gash in the glowing stone.
'Come on now, boy,' said Arthur. 'That was most unfriendly. Look.'
Neave and Merlin stood opposite each other. Each waiting for the other to strike.
I tried to shield Galahad's eyes from the fight, but I felt the point of Excalibur press into my back.
'Let him see, Lord of the Lake.' I removed my hand from Galahad's eyes and the boy giggled, believing, I think, that his mother and the stranger were playing a game.
Merlin took a step backwards, inviting Neave to stab at him, but she was wise to the trap. She took a step backwards.
'This is boring,' said Arthur in my ear.
Merlin flexed his empty hand, and suddenly the distortion I had witnessed at the edge of the lake, and again behind the gates of Tintagel, shattered the Cave of the Dragon. The whole place turned from red to black, the teeth of the stalagmites and stalactites twisted this way and that, the floor seemed to heave beneath my feet, as if we really were in the mouth of a giant creature. The weird perspective put the standoff between the wizard and my sister right to the forefront of my eyes. Neave leapt to one side to evade the sharp edge of a stalactite biting down on her. I realised to my horror that Merlin had turned the whole of the cave into a weapon to use against her. Under his influence it had become a heaving mouth, ready to swallow her down.
Neave rolled out of the way as the roof and floor of the cavern squeezed together, trying to crush her. Then she jumped back as a new stalagmite erupted from the floor. She span, and the shaft of the spear clashed against the ram's skull staff. Neave avoided a swipe from the butt of the staff and rolled backwards. She crouched, the red tip of the spear pointed at Merlin's belly, but was thrown off her feet when the cavern floor suddenly flexed beneath her.
Merlin advanced, his staff in both hands. 'If you will insist on refusing me, my dear,' he said, his voice loud in my ears. He pointed the ram's skull at her, and huge jet of flame shot from its half-mouth.
Galahad began to cry. He hid his face in my hunched shoulder.
When the glare of the bright flame had faded from my eyes, Neave had disappeared, as had the spear. The cavern had returned to its undistorted proportions, though the colours of the place were still unnatural.
'Well done, Merlin! Bravo!' shouted Arthur.
But the sorcerer did not celebrate with him. He scanned the cavern. 'She's still here, the wench.'
'Where?' said Arthur nervously.
'This damned dragon's breath!' shouted Merlin. 'I cannot see her.'
But I did. I saw her wet footprints on the cave floor, creeping from the edge of the pool, around Merlin. She was using the water within her to reflect light in strange ways, to make herself invisible.
When she was directly behind Merlin she reappeared. She thrust the Spear of Longius hard at the sorcerer's back. Merlin arched as the red point of the spear crunched through the muscle and bone of his ribs, stabbing straight towards his heart.
Merlin's staff dropped from his hand. The ram's skull shattered on the cave floor.
And the wizard laughed. Neave stepped back.
The sorcerer turned to face her, his oily eyes aflame. 'Oh my dear, dear girl,' he said, teasing the spear out of his chest. It made a sucking sound I could hear even over the bubbling of the pools 'There has been no heart in that place for many, many thousands of years.' He pointed the spear at her. 'Now –'
He lunged at her with the spear, stabbing towards her stomach.
'Ha!' cried Arthur, thinking that Merlin had won. I feared that the sorcerer had scratched her, that he would drain Neave of her power, leave her an unthinking thing like Garnish and Epicene and our mother.
But Neave danced round the spear and grasped its shaft in one hand. The other was under Merlin's chin. A cannonball of ice shot from her free fist, and dealt him a hefty uppercut that made him stagger. She managed to wrench the spear from his grip as the wizard fell backwards.
'Go, Drift!' she shouted.
And my sister hurled the spear. Not at Merlin, but high, high into the mouth of the dragon. It flew quite straight through the steaming air, and when it first touched the rock, when it cut into the dragon's flesh, the beast roared in pain. Each of the glowing pools erupted into a geyser of pure magic. The fabric of the cave shook. Stalactites fell from the ceiling, gouging great gashes in the floor. The cavern filled with scalding steam. The whole place was collapsing.
I felt Excalibur remove itself from my back. Footsteps ran away from me. King Arthur was fleeing back up the tunnel, yelping in fear.
I looked at my sister, too far away for me to help. She held up her hand in farewell, and a single drop of water flew through the air from her finger and kissed the lips of her son.
'Neave!' I shouted, though I'm sure she cannot have heard me.
Merlin was struggling to his feet. For the first and only time I saw a look of fear on his face. Neave jumped at him, her fists bunched. There was a huge jet of steam, and I saw them no more. The roof of the cavern came down upon them.
Galahad screamed into my ear. I turned up the quaking throat of the dragon and ran. Arthur was far ahead of me, almost in the misty daylight. Rocks and boulders rolled down the steep tunnel, shaken loose from the walls by the cave's death rattle. I leapt one, and then stopped as a huge chunk of the roof broke loose and came crashing down inches before me, throwing up a huge cloud of dust.
'Cover your ears, Christian,' I told the whimpering child in my arms.
I coughed, but was able to climb over it and squeeze us through a gap narrower than the crawlspace that had trapped Agravaine in the mines below Tintagel. Galahad writhed against me, struggling to free himself. I put him in front of me as the steam gushing from the cavern scalded my back. If the child made another sound I could not hear him over the dragon's final throes.
We were thirty feet from the entrance of the cave. Arthur was already in the daylight, still running away.
We were almost there. Ten feet.
There was an almighty crash, and a huge spasm in the rock. Behind me, I heard what could only have been the final collapse of the giant cavern.
Five feet.
Then the roof came down on us, and the world went black.