Silver Silence (28 page)

H
e is beautiful, Myrddin.”

Myrddin gazed down at the infant in his wife’s arms. Blue eyes, filled with wonder and innocence, stared back at him, unblinking. He extended a finger, and a tiny fist closed around it.

“Arthur is strong,” Myrddin said. “In body as well as in magic.” The babe’s rainbow aura shone like the sun, the moon, and the stars, all wrapped up together. The possibilities of the small prince’s life were endless.

Briefly, Myrddin wondered what color—what magic—would eventually overwhelm Arthur’s aura. What sort of man would the infant prince grow to be? Would he truly become the great king Britain so desperately needed? Myrddin was prepared to do everything in his power to ensure that he did. He was not at all sure he would succeed. But he had hope.

The babe gazed up at him with eyes so innocent and pure that Myrddin’s chest hurt. How long would Arthur’s innocence last? He wished it might stretch into forever.

Gently, he pried the infant’s grip from his forefinger. “I wonder which is wiser,” he mused. “Youth or age?”

Vivian’s lips brushed the top of Arthur’s downy head. Would this child grow to be the man—the king—who would lead Britain through chaos to peace? It was a daunting prospect. He was just a babe.

But in every babe, as in every seed, one power ruled all others.

“Both youth and age are wise in their way,” she told her husband, “and foolish in their turn. But hope…” She smiled. “Hope is the greatest power of all.”

W
hat’s truly wonderful about Arthurian legend is that it exists in so many forms—and with so many contradictions—that each new author who revisits the tale enjoys a great amount of freedom in writing his or her particular twist on the story.

King Arthur’s supposed birth date is a moving target, but for the purposes of
Silver Silence,
I’ve chosen the traditional date of AD 465, less than fifty years after the final withdraw of the Roman Army from Britain, and just a few years before the fall of the city of Rome itself. The isle of Avalon, and the real monastery that replaced my fictional Druid settlement, is located on Glastonbury Tor in southwest England. Tintagel Island, on the northern Cornish coast, boasts castle ruins that postdate my story, but there is evidence of an older settlement beneath the visible one. A Roman road marker has been discovered in the vicinity, so it is not out of the question to imagine the island may have seen an earlier Roman presence.

Silver Silence
remains close to the accepted mythology surrounding Arthur’s conception. As the legend goes, when Uther insisted he wanted to steal the beautiful Igraine from her husband, the Duke of Cornwall, the wizard Merlin assisted his king by creating a powerful illusion that allowed Uther to walk unchallenged into Gerlois’s impregnable fortress—as Gerlois him
self. In the traditional tale, Igraine believes the man in her bed is her husband. In
Silver Silence,
I’ve created a previous history and love between Uther and Igraine, and an abusive marriage for Igraine and Gerlois.

Arthurian scholars generally agree that the Sword in the Stone and Excalibur are two separate weapons. Popular film, especially for children, has found it convenient to merge the two into one magical sword, with the result that many people consider the two to be one and the same. In my Druids of Avalon series, they are separate weapons. The magical sword Exchalybur is forged by Marcus Aquila in the book
Deep Magic.
The Sword in the Stone of
Silver Silence
is an ordinary sword that is accidentally cast into a stone by Rhys’s magic.

If you find yourself wanting to linger in Rhys’s and Breena’s romance, I invite you to visit my Web site, www.joynash.com, where you’ll find free “Before the Book” stories that tell of their early relationship. You’ll also find many other Druids of Avalon special features.

Thanks so much for picking up
Silver Silence.
This book, and all my others, could not exist without readers like you.

All the best,

Joy Nash

A LITTLE LIGHT MAGIC
IMMORTALS: THE RECKONING
(Anthology)

IMMORTALS: THE CROSSING
IMMORTALS: THE AWAKENING
DEEP MAGIC
THE GRAIL KING
CELTIC FIRE