Remember the Spell

This is an excerpt from my published paperback novel

Merlin said, “You should remember that spell if this works. There are many many people in this sorry sorry world who’d like to not dream at night. Many folk dream of the wrongs their mothers and fathers did to them, or the pain of working the field, or whatever keeps them crying all day long.”

“The simple folk don’t already have their spells?”

“I have no idea what the simple folk do, but they don’t do much other than cry about it, drink a lot, and dance in circles around fires singing superstitious songs. Such folly. So remember that spell for them all.”

Arthur was surprised. “But, didn’t you remember the spell you just said?”

“Nay.”

Arthur let out a loud exasperation. “Neither did I.”

Merlin shrugged. “Then that was the end of that. Let your troubled peasants suffer.”

“How can you not remember the spell you just put upon me? You’re a great wizard.”

“I was distracted,” Merlin admitted, pulling hard on his beard. “I had a memory of the future. Your future.”

Arthur perked up. “It must be because I’ll be a great man! Only greatness comes at you out of time. Nay?”

“Many men who are great aren’t remembered. You’ll not be a great man. But you’ll be remembered. And so for that, you’ll be a very great man.”

“That’s a riddle,” Arthur protested. “What makes a great man?”

“A great man is always a step ahead of the times. A great man does the wrong thing at the right time or the right thing at the right time. It’s all about the times. A great man isn’t destroyed by domestic difficulty or a new set of new enemies that are very different from the old known ones he was so familiar with from childhood. A great man builds an empire and doesn’t see it slip through his own hands, but is able to pass it on to ungrateful children so they can be the ones who squander it.”

Arthur became irritated. “I’ve chased my bad dreams away. Now, to have a calm peace of mind, I’ll need to chase you and your sad waking conversation away, a conversation that would put any child into despair.”

Merlin feigned that he was inculpable. “What could you possibly mean by that? I’m only acting as a tutor.”