The Old Magic by James Mallory

Author:James Mallory
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780446559164
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2009-05-29T21:00:00+00:00

“Frik?” Merlin asked one day. “How do you know if you’re living a good life?”

“Good?” the gnome asked blankly.

“You know,” Merlin prompted. “How do you know if you are doing good? Living the right sort of life and acting with justice and mercy toward everyone?”

Frik removed his bifocals and polished them briskly on the tail of his gown.

“What does justice have to do with anything?” Frik demanded irritably. “Oh, Master Merlin, I do hope you’re not too attached to those sorts of ideas about good and justice and right. They’re for humans, not for wizards.”

“But Aunt A—”

Frik whisked around the table in an eyeblink and covered Merlin’s mouth before he could utter the fatal words.

“Mmmph!” Merlin said.

“I really do think it would be so much better if we just didn’t mention that name, don’t you?” Frik said hastily. “And as you’ve been such a particularly good pupil, I’ve arranged a very special treat for you. A sort of a field trip. You’ll like it.”

“Where are we going?” Merlin asked eagerly, willing to drop the ticklish subject for the moment. Frik might well have made up this field trip on the spur of the moment to distract him, but after the length of time he’d spent in Mab’s palace, the chance to see anything else was intoxicating.

“Come with me,” Frik said mysteriously.

With a shimmer Frik changed from his cap and gown to a new costume that included shorts, a butterfly net, and a tan-colored hat shaped a little like a mushroom cap, and led Merlin out of the library and down a long hallway lined with dark gilt-framed pictures of various notables wearing crowns and dour expressions.

Eventually they stopped before a large carved door.

“What’s in there?” Merlin asked.

“Open it,” Frik said.

Merlin pushed the door open. Despite all that he had seen here so far, he gasped in awe.

Through the door lay the trees of an enormous forest. The trees grew right up to within feet of the open door. Outside, the day was dim and misty, and each tree was so tall that Merlin could not see the tops, for they soared into the mist and were lost.

“This,” said Frik importantly, “is the Forest of the Night.”

“But it isn’t night,” Merlin pointed out.

“Well, of course it isn’t night,” Frik said fussily. “It’s never night here—not without sun nor moon it isn’t. ‘Night’ is just a sort of expression. A metaphor, you might say, for the deeper reaches of the human mind.”

“The forest is in my mind?” Merlin asked, becoming more confused by the moment.

“No, of course it isn’t! It’s in everybody’s mind. Impossible boy,” Frik muttered to himself, striding through the doorway.

Merlin followed, and soon was caught up in the smells and sounds of the forest. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed the woodland until he’d come here. Mab’s palace was lavish beyond his wildest imagination, but it was all indoors, and something deep inside him chafed at the confinement. It was as if he couldn’t breathe freely except in the wilds.

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