Merlin's Rings

By W.H. Wheeler

Sylvia Gonzalez, a 21-year-old Los Angeles college student and fencing enthusiast, is indirectly given two rings from Ilana, the modern-day heir of the ancient magician Merlin. When worn, the rings turn any door into a gate to Tokzor, a parallel world. As in Merlin’s time, Tokzor is again ruled by the cruel chitin-skinned Gorkalets, this time under Lord Vislan, who has seized control from a democratic council and enslaved the other two humanoid races of Tokzor, the Rells and the Arlanis. Vislan has a connection with the force of Evil and is becoming steadily stronger. Sylvia has, unbeknownst to her, been chosen to stop the evil. She and April Chang, her best friend, fellow student, and fencing partner, go to Tokzor and find themselves fighting the Gorkalets.

• Language: English
• Publisher: W.H. Wheeler
• Release date: Jul 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476097688

W.H. Wheeler

Stories and language are my passion. In elementary school, I asked my 8th grade teacher what language I should take in high school. She said, "Take Latin. It's a great foundation." Uh huh. I took it and found out it was, shall we say, challenging. I took four years of it and added French and Spanish in the last two years. In college, I got a degree in French language and literature, and had a couple of years each of Russian and Arabic. I've picked up a few other languages over the years, operated an international marketing services and translation business, and done tech writing in aerospace companies. Besides my current mysteries and thrillers, a long time ago I had two "hi-lo" novellas published, high-interest low vocabulary level books for teens with reading problems. They were "Wet Fire" and "Counterfeit!". The publishing company was sold and bought a number of times, and both of the books are still around in various editions. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, I have lived in the Los Angeles, California, area for many years. And, no, I was never a hippie. Probably just as well.

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MERLIN’S RINGS

by

W.H. WHEELER

Copyright 2014 William H. Wheeler

Smashwords edition, March 2014

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction. The characters and events are imaginary, and any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental.

CHAPTER 1

It was dark outside, as Merlin, the aged magician of Arthurian times, sat at his laboratory table, twisting his long white beard and peering into a large bowl of murky liquid. Around the outside of the bowl, letters from the Greek alphabet shimmered with subtly changing colors.

The room was equipped with various wizardly gear: chemistry glassware, scale, bottles of chemicals on racks, boxes, books on shelves, a carrion crow in a large cage, a large book open on a book stand.

Merlin picked up a small bottle and sprinkled some powder from it into the bowl. The liquid fizzed, then became clear. In the liquid was the image of three tall figures whipping seven shorter figures as they worked digging the earth in a field. The tall figures had skin that seemed insect-like, shiny and hard-looking. Their heads were elongated, their faces fairly human in form but with deep creases where cheeks would be, big almond-shaped eyes, and a wide mouth with no apparent lips. Merlin wondered whether the chitin-looking exterior of their bodies was skin or a leather armor… or both.

The figures laboring in the field under the whip lashes were medium in height and seemed to be human, although their arms and legs were covered with longish tan to gray hair. Their faces were clear of the hair that fell long from their heads.

The image dissolved.

What is this? I have never seen such a thing in the bowl, Merlin muttered. He sat back, troubled.

Through a window, the night sky was suddenly illuminated by a burst of light, like lightning but with no sound. For an instant the lab was bathed in the light. Merlin turned his head toward the window. It was dark again. He got up, walked to the window and looked out. Nothing.

* * *

The next day, Merlin was in the garden outside his house, picking herbs. Behind his back, two squat beings with largish heads, one slightly taller than the other, walked silently toward him. Their faces were an olive-green color, their eyes yellowish. There was a protruberance where a human nose would be with several holes on each side and a small, mouth-like opening below it. They were wearing blue suits with pouches on each side and small devices over the chest area, which had various rotary and push buttons. Sensing something, Merlin turned his head cautiously around. He started at the sight of the visitors.

Sirlet gallaling ting, said the taller one.

Relen volodi sen, the other one said.

Merlin cocked his head slightly to the right. You’re certainly not English. Who are you?

The taller being moved some rotary knobs on his chest device, then pressed some buttons.

Netling haletu dalat hedet hedet nalset, he said to his companion. The shorter being moved the rotary knobs on his chest device and pushed the same buttons as the taller one had.

We are from Zil, the taller one said.

Merlin looked puzzled.

The shorter being pointed to the sky. Out there.

We wish to talk with you. See your laboratory, the taller one said.

Very important, the other added.

Merlin got up warily and led them along the path to his house. They went around to a side door leading into his lab. Merlin closed the door behind the two aliens, who were looking around with curiosity. The taller one pointed to Merlin’s lab table. They both walked quickly to it. As they talked in their language, they picked up items and examined them. From one of the pouches in the upper part of his clothing, the taller alien pulled a small, slender device with round, square, and triangular-shaped buttons on one side below a yellow illuminated area. He held it in one hand and occasionally punched various buttons.

You saw the images of Tokzor, the shorter one said.

Tokzor? echoed Merlin.

In the bowl, the taller alien said.

Last night, added the shorter one.

Merlin looked at them warily. How do you know of this?

You are Merlin. We monitor persons of genius, the taller alien said.

And special understanding of universal forces, the shorter one added, cheerily.

What you call ‘powers,’ the taller one said.

Merlin sat down on a stool by the table. The taller alien picked up a magnifying glass from the table, held it next to a bubbling distillation bottle, and looked through it.

I am flattered, Merlin said. Yet you make me fearful of you.

The shorter alien walked quickly to the large book on the bookstand, turned it to the first page, and began reading through the book at enormous speed.

Do not be, said the taller alien. The thing to fear is Tokzor.

What is Tokzor?

The shorter alien turned his head and looked at Merlin. A universe. A dimension, if you prefer. One of many parallel to this one. Now out of balance. Ruled by evil.

So it appeared, said Merlin, stroking his chin.

Evil is a universal force, the taller alien stated firmly.

As is good, the other alien added.

But these forces reside only in sentient beings, the first one said. In Tokzor, evil now dominates the Gorkalet species.

The Gorkalets have enslaved the Rells and other species, the other added. The harmony that was is no more. He turned his head back to the book and resumed flipping through the pages.

Merlin looked off into space, remembering the images he saw of Gorkalets whipping Rells.

Our world has no shortage of evil, he said. Why is this ‘Tokzor’ a problem for us?

In seconds, the shorter alien finished speed-reading the large book and looked again at Merlin.

Evil feeds on evil, he said.

The taller alien took a tubular device from one of his pouches and took a sample from one beaker of colored liquid.

Gains strength unless checked, he said without looking at Merlin.

The shorter visitor’s face seemed to take on a scowl. Tokzor’s evil force is already too strong. If it infects this universe, it may become unstoppable.

How could it infect us? Merlin asked.

Seemingly ignoring the question, the shorter alien walked to the wall and began taking books down from a shelf and speed-reading them one after another.

Between each universe there is a gate, the taller alien said.

Merlin got up and walked over to the window, looked out.

And a gate can be opened, he said pensively.

Precisely.

Where is this gate?

The taller alien turned his attention to the crow in the cage. He put his face right up to the cage. The crow fluttered and squawked raucously. The alien quickly pulled his face back.

The other alien looked up from a book at Merlin.

From this side, any door can become the gate, he said. From the other side, one must come back through the same open door.

Merlin turned around. He walked slowly to the door and opened it. He looked out for a moment at the landscape.

My doors do not become gates to other worlds, he said.

The taller alien continued staring in fascination at the crow.

They can, he said. "There is a way. Can I have the