Merlin

By Jane Yolen

The boy wizard’s adventure comes to a triumphant conclusion in this magical tale by the acclaimed author of the Pit Dragon Chronicles.

In flight from the magic visions that plague him, Merlin falls into the hands of the wodewose—wild folk who, according to legend, live in the company of wolves and devour children. But far from being wild, the wodewose are an enormous family of the unwanted, the abandoned, and the homeless. For once Merlin has found a place where an orphan like himself belongs . . .

Praise for Passager

“This first book of the Young Merlin Trilogy will have readers awaiting the sequels.” —The Horn Book

“Steeped in hawks, mews, and wood life, the trilogy evokes a romantic, dreamy time. But its unadorned language lets the story emerge in a guileless way that will captivate young readers. This is a fine read-aloud.” —San Diego Union Tribune

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 1, 1997
• ISBN: 9780547995052

Jane Yolen

Jane has been called the Hans Christian Andersen of America and the Aesop of the twentieth century. She sets the highest standard for the industry, not only in the meaningful body of work she has created, but also in her support of fellow authors and artists. Her books range from the bestselling How Do Dinosaurs series to the Caldecott winning Owl Moon to popular novels such as The Devil’s Arithmetic, Snow in Summer, and The Young Merlin Trilogy, to award-winning books of poetry such as Grumbles from the Forest, and A Mirror to Nature. In all, she has written over 335 books (she’s lost count), won numerous awards (one even set her good coat on fire), and has been given six honorary doctorates in literature. For more information, please visit www.janeyolen.com. 

Book preview

Copyright © 1997 by Jane Yolen

All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [e-mail] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

hmhbooks.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Yolen, Jane.

Merlin: the young Merlin trilogy, book three/Jane Yolen.

p. cm.

Companion book to: Passager and Hobby

Summary: Merlin, now twelve years old, begins to come into his magic, while being held captive by a band of wild folk.

ISBN 0-15-200814-4

1. Merlin (Legendary character)—Juvenile fiction.

[1. Merlin (Legendary character)—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.6UIMdf 1997

[Fic]—dc20 96-11683

ISBN 978-0-15-200814-7 hardcover

eISBN 978-0-547-99505-2

v2.0421

For Karen Weller-Watson, who has her own magic

Merlin:

The smallest British falcon or hawk, its wingbeats are powerful and, despite its size, it seldom fails of its prey.

Dark.

Night.

It is your turn, Green Man. Set down your cards.

I have you beaten, little hear. I hold a ten and a face.

You have cheated.

I never cheat.

Except when it pleases you.

You do not believe me, child?

I believe you have a ten and a face. But of what suit? Flowers? Game hirds? Or the wild men of the woods? If they do not match, Green Man, I will heat you yet.

You think too much on winning. On losing. Child, this is a game.

I like games, Green Man. I am good at them.

Being good at games should not be your only goal. You must think on other things. There is more to becoming an adult than games.

"Then I do not wish to become an adult. I wish to remain a child and play games. I am good at them."

Such cannot be. The world grows old, and we with it. All life turns on the great wheel: dark to light to dark again.

Can you not change that, magic maker?

Even I cannot.

Then what will be left of childhood when we are grown old and gone?

"Dreams are left, child. Dreams."

"I do not want to be someone else’s dream, Green Man. I mean to stay awake."

Light.

Day.

1. FLIGHT

PURSUED BY DREAMS, THE BOY FLED FROM the town. They were not his dreams; they were the town’s dreams, rough and hot and angry and full of blood.

He squirmed through a bolt-hole in the stone walls, a hole big enough for a badger or fox. Though twelve years old, he was a small boy and he just managed to fit. Sliding down the grassy embankment, he kept an eye out for the green wagon in which his family—or at least all the family he could claim—had left the town hours earlier.

But as it was night, he somehow got on the wrong path, and he did not come upon any sign of them. Not the wagon which—even in the dark—would have been unmistakable as it was painted and shaped to look like a castle on wheels. Nor the man who claimed to be his father but was not. Nor the woman who made no such claims. Nor the mules who pulled, nor the horse and cow.

He was on his own. He was alone.

Everything, he thought wildly, everything conspires to keep me on my lone. By this he meant he could not go back into the town because of the dreams and because the lord of the town, Duke Vortigern, had told him to go. And because the Duke’s own spy, a man named Fowler, hated him and would make him a prisoner if he could. And Fowler’s even fouler dog knew his scent and would savage him on command.

And by this the boy also meant that the man in the wagon, Ambrosius, feared the boy’s powers, and his woman agreed. They had run not from the Duke’s anger but from their own fear.

I shall have to go into the woods, the boy told himself.

The woods did not frighten him. The entire year he was eight, he had lived abandoned in the forest by himself. He had lived as a wild boy, a wodewose, without clothing, without warm food, or bedding, or the comfort of story or song. Without words. Without memory. But he had survived