The King's Wizard by James Mallory

Author:James Mallory
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780446607919
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2009-05-29T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

THE THRONE OF REBIRTH

The slanting rays of the afternoon sun shone through the door of the room Sir Hector had designated as the schoolroom. Sir Hector himself discussed weighty matters such as the coming harvest and the price of flour with two of his tenants at the back door. Through the door that had been left open because of the heat came the interesting smells of the kitchen where Hermesent was overseeing the preparation of the evening meal for the residents of the tiny farm holding.

Arthur and Kay were at their lessons—Kay bored and fidgeting, Arthur doing his best to listen to his tutor’s words. The heat, the quiet hum of voices, and the smell of baking pies all made it very hard to concentrate.

“Consider the moon. In her fullness, she is a perfect circle, but what constitutes her perfection? It is the fact that in a circle every part is equal, and no part is more important than the rest. Thus we may state that equality is perfection, for the attempt to gain supremacy over another directly convenes the natural law which the moon shows to us. …”

It was amazing how much all this brought back his own days as a student in the Hollow Hills, Merlin thought. What an ungrateful pupil he had been—and how Frik had suffered with him! It hurt to look back at those days of his long-vanished childhood and think about how happy he had been. Even though it had been a joy founded on ignorance of terrible truths, those now seemed to him to have been carefree, innocent days, days when his future stretched before him as a wonderland of bright possibility.

But while his own childhood was long dead, those of his pupils had just begun.

Merlin had presented himself as a tutor for the boys three years ago, when Arthur was seven and Kay was ten. Despite Hermesent’s misgivings, Merlin had no intention of passing on to either boy the magical curriculum that he’d learned in the Hollow Hills, but rather, the things that his own first teacher, Blaise, had taught him when he’d lived in the forest: ethics, morals, how to choose the right path through life.

As well as a little reading, writing, and good plain Latin.

“The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Now by ‘others’ I don’t mean your family or your friends, because it’s easy to do the right thing for them. But for strangers or enemies, people you would ordinarily turn aside from—”

Arthur had raised his hand to ask a question. “But if you do right by them, why are they your enemies? Ow!” he added, because Kay had kicked him.

“You may as well ask why those who know us well misbehave toward us,” Merlin said, frowning discouragingly at Kay.

“Because he’s a little wart,” Kay muttered. The older boy had little patience with Merlin’s lessons and showed it frequently. His disinterest did not worry Merlin. Kay would not grow up to be the next king.

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