practical magic in MERLIN'S CHARGE

A Story by Peter Joseph Swanson

This is an excerpt from my published paperback novel

Nimm woke up, yawned and then moaned, “Why was I sleeping at a time like this?”

Mother Hubbard asked, “Do you remember anything you said in your dreaming?”

“Nay. What’d I say?”

Mother Hubbard asked, “Do you remember the spell to get you past the gates into the Realm of Dragons yet?”

“Nay.”

“Eee-ucht! I should have had the presence of mind to ask you that while you were babbling on in a trance so freely.”

Nimm stood up too quickly and fainted.

Merlin decided, “We’ll rest here for the night. We won’t fight a Pict witch in this weary condition.”

Parsifal asked, “How will we keep from wandering off in the night if the monster should ring her bell. We’re so close now, we might even hear the monster cough.”

“Aye! O’ Virgin! We’re so close it’ll shatter our ears!”

“Your ears won’t shatter, abbot,” Merlin assured him. “We’ll deasil our camp twice over. No evil will penetrate.”

Mother Hubbard bragged, “And my staff has a crystal. Mine is strongest and best.”

Merlin waved her off with his hand. “Fool. It isn’t the staff that makes the magic, it’s the magic.”

“Men always say that. Make yourself happy,” she replied, unconvinced, as they both drew their own magic circles in a wholesome clockwise direction around the camp.

“Will that be enough?” Abbot Babble Blaise asked, doubting. “I don’t think so. I can just feel it. O’ Virgin!”

Merlin instructed them, “We all sleep with our feet together.”

Arthur asked, “Does that make magic?”

“The best kind, practical.” Merlin pulled a length of cord out of his sleeve and tied their ankles all together so they couldn’t try to wander off without waking all the others.