After 1800 years, you’d think he’d have it all figured out.
He certainly thinks he does.
MERLYN’S MISTAKE
The limited series
TEN
IN WHICH A NEW STORY BEgins
Before Frankie can breathe his last, the tree grows strong enough to provide fruit.
Once the fruit drops, it heals Frankie – of course it does, people! It’s the Fruit of the Tree of Life and he’s the romantic partner of Vivica now! Are you kidding me? He has picked up the information from Nimue during the ceremonial handing-over of the symbolic weapon [currently episode seven] that the Jade dragon hidden in the hilt holds the seed of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and she’s figured out that getting it free and planted might be the place to start. The hilt cannot be cut by Frankie’s pocket knife. It is held together by the thread of Anansi himself, the African trickster god. That thread cannot be cut by metal blade nor flint. Fortunately, they have with them. . .
Smedley R. Aknid, offspring of the Spider Anansi.
With the release of the second seed and all the magics and beings trapped within that construct, the gunfire settles down significantly. The scrubby Welsh beachfront around Nimue’s mountain lake has already begun to transform about them.
Once the roots of the trees meet and together reconnect Wales to Faerie, Merlyn realizes just how badly he damaged the natural cycle of magics believing them undiminishable. Now, he can make certain that none will threaten these trees. With the full power of Faerie ready to be drawn upon for the weaving of spells, having just seen these soldiers shoot Frankie into near oblivion, having been drawn through memory and battle, through firefight and firestorm, he makes the decision. He will NOT slay these misguided, mis-informed soldiers in rage and punishment as he did the Romans who had destroyed his world centuries ago. He would start this story with disarming gentility.
He gives the soldiers who have been injured in the fight fruit to salve their wounds. To those who want it, our heroes give the Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Percy, a friendly ally among the enemy, airlifts out with the Agency soldiers, some with fruit-sparked consciences, some with fruit-sparked health and senses, some with both, some with neither.
With traffic open between Faerie and Wales through the branches of the trees, Smedley’s father, Anansi emerges from the branches to retrieve his son and thank Vivica for taking care of him, only to find out that the young god spawn prefers to stay with his mortal friend.
Merlyn, newly re-empowered after millennia of deprivation, manifests a doorway at the shoreline and opens the way for his team to embark on those adventures that await in a world repopulating with the creatures of mythology and mutually recyclative forces of magic. . . and conscience.
At the intersection of Roger Zelazny and Jim Butcher stands a small monument to individual agency, This magical, funny book that calls not for accountability but responsibility. As painful truths come to light, Merlyn’s conscience compels him to redress old wrongs only to realize that he has endangered all the people he loves. Still, despite machine gun fire, plane crashes and giant spiders, they will stand by him.. When he needs them, even his old Faerie ally Nimmue will be there to do her part. Still, if he can’t unravel the last riddles woven into the Arthurian Excalibur construct they may be too late to save themselves or the world.
“Brody’s writing is brilliant.”
Robin Williams
In the words of the wise, ancient magician himself, “If I see a way that I might save the world and I don’t at least try, then I’m sort of dick.”
