Stephanie Burke - Merlin's Kiss.pdf

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MERLIN’S KISS
An Ellora’s Cave publication written by
STEPHANIE BURKE
 
Chapter One
"Run Arthur, run!" Brieana screamed as they raced through the crowded encampment that had sprung
up around the famous sword.
"If you hadn't called Lord DeLacy an ass-eared lout," the voice behind her whined, "we would not be
running!"
"Arthur! If you had stood up for me," she panted between words as she ducked behind another fall of
rocks, "I never would have had to defend myself!"
"We need to hide!" the pale young man gasped. "I wish I had never thought to take you for a walk in
the moonlight."
"You are right about hiding," she groused as they ran past still another stone formation, ignoring his less
than complimentary comment. "Behind there!" she cried as she grabbed his hand and darted behind a
particularly large boulder. "We need a weapon."
"Well, we would not need one if you had not kicked him in the privates!" he whined again.
Absently spying the hilt of an abandoned sword embedded in the rocks of a rise, Brieana ran to it and
with deft fingers, began to probe the sword base.
"I would not have kicked him if he had not grabbed my person."
Golden-haired Arthur scurried up the hill behind her. "Whatever you are doing, do it faster!" he urged.
"I can hear them coming. He must have the whole garrison with him."
Giving him one last disgusted look, Brieana gave one mighty yank and the abandoned sword pulled
abruptly from its rocky sheath.
"And what do you think to do with that?" Arthur sneered at her while pushing an unruly lock of hair
behind his ear and looking down his nose at her.
"Well, you are supposed to be the mighty warrior," she growled losing patience with him at last. "You
use it!"
With that, she shoved the sword into his hands and began to count the seconds before he would turn
to her for help.
Not everyone knew it, but Arthur was the weakest swordsman in the area. And for the hundredth
time, Brieana wondered why she dressed in the armor of the Black Knight to save his sorry hide in
battle.
Then she took another good look at him as the moonlight illuminated his near perfect features, and she
remembered. She was a fool for good looks and a great body. Certainly she did not risk her very life
time and time again for his mental acuity.
Even as he began to turn to thrust the sword into her smaller, albeit more capable hand, DeLacy and
his men appeared at the base of the hill and froze in their places.
"Excalibur!" he shouted in shock, and soon the murmurs and cries of him and his men drew the rest of
the encamped warriors to view the new king of the Britons. "Arthur has drawn Excalibur from the sacred
stone! All hail Arthur, King of the Britons!
 
As one, the assembled warriors dropped to their knees to pay homage to the one who would be king.
Arthur looked puzzled for only a moment. He was a little dense, not stupid. He thrust the sword high into
the night sky.
"Excalibur!" he roared as he shoved Brieana behind him, nearly knocking her down in his eagerness.
"But I…" As Brieana began to protest, strong hands grasped her shoulders and spun her around.
"My Lord Merlin!" she gasped as she turned to view the powerful mage. "I was just going to…"
"All hail Arthur!" he boomed in a loud authoritative voice.
Brieana had always respected the older man as her friend and Arthur's mentor. She had often thought
him quite handsome and charming, with a deep sense of justice. He would help her.
"My Lord," she said louder as he drew her away from the prostrating men. "I drew Excalibur from the
stone." As she thought about that fact, she came to a startling but wonderful realization. "I am King, uh,
Queen of the Britons! I am the true ruler!" Then turning excitedly to Arthur, she cried, "I am Queen! Tell
them, Arthur!"
Then Arthur was faced with a difficult decision. A decision many great men have been forced to make.
He looked at Brieana's luscious lips and then to the men kneeling before him. Love or power? He stared
at her long curling hair, as dark as raven's wings, and her almond-shaped, green cat's eyes, then to the
teeming mass of masculinity that knelt at his feet ready to do any and all of his bidding. He looked back
and saw love and a little fear reflected in her beautiful eyes, eyes that begged him to do the right thing.
Love, or power? He knew what he had to do.
Facing the crowd, he declared in a ringing voice, "By right of strength and virtue…I, Arthur, have
drawn Excalibur from the stone. I am king!"
"Nooo!"
The fierce roar of approval emanating from the new king's army drowned out Brieana's scream of
denial.
"My Lord Merlin!" she cried desperately as she ran to the sage, tripping over gravel and kicking up
dust, and pulled on the sleeve of his long tunic. "You know the truth! I do not lie! Please tell them!" she
begged as she looked into his bottomless black eyes.
Slowly, he turned away from her.
"Let us leave our 'new king' for now. We have much to discuss." Then to the crowd, "Leave us!"
Shocked, she stared at the back of the man, her closest friend, her confidant, in horror. Betrayed!
Those who she had held closest to her, those that she had trusted, had betrayed her.
Angry? She was pissed! How dare they keep her rightful kingdom from her?
Manipulated! It all now made perfect sense. She had been manipulated by the master.
"You knew, My Lord Merlin." Wide eyed, Brieana faced a most painful truth. "That is why you
planted the idea of a moonlight walk in Arthur's head with your talk of how beautifully the moon shines
down upon the mountains. You planned this!" Her voice broke as she made her accusations, her pain
becoming audible and dreadful to bear.
With a tired sigh, Merlin nodded his head. Resigned, he motioned to his adopted son. "Come here,
Arthur."
"Why did you not tell them?" she railed at her former beau. "I drew the sword from the stone!" Shock
had leached all of the color from her face, but anger had returned it with a vengeance.
"A mere girl like you?" he all but smirked.
 
"Hush!" Merlin's voice thundered across the now empty land. Turning to Brieana, he calmly replied,
"Arthur could not have drawn Excalibur from the stone. That would have taken true strength of
character."
Proudly, Arthur nodded and looked down his nose at Brieana as the insult flew over his beautiful, but
nearly empty head.
Disgusted, Merlin shook his head before turning to Brieana.
"What is done shall remain done. There is now no way to alter this course."
"And that is that!" Arthur added with a self-righteous smirk.
"Insolent pup!" Merlin roared. "Guard your tongue, boy! She has saved your ungrateful backside in
battle as the Black Knight and has made you a hero in the process."
Arthur looked blank for a moment, then his eyes snapped back to Brieana as a dull red highlighted his
cheeks.
"I was wrong about DeLacy," Brieana stated with the last of her anger. "Arthur, you truly are the
ass-eared lout."
Then she turned to Merlin in confusion.
"But why, My Lord Merlin? You, who always counseled us to follow the truth and right way of things.
But then you…you…"
This final betrayal of trust did what no insult or warrior could do. Tears welled up in her green eyes and
rolled down her face.
"I had so many dreams. You even encouraged me to put them to paper and not miss the slightest
detail. My Lord, why?"
The strength leaving her limbs, Brieana sank to the rocky ground and cried silent tears.
Merlin sighed with true regret. He hated using people and cursed the necessity of it this time. Because
of him, the strongest person on this whole accursed island cried, defeated and broken, at his feet. His
heart ached as he looked at her bent form. No more! No more manipulations.
"My Lord Merlin…"
"Brieana," he began to explain as he bent to cradle her cold still form to his shoulder. "They never
would have accepted a woman. Not in this day and in this age. They would only follow a man. And since
there was no one else available, I chose Arthur."
"But what about my dreams, My Lord? To finally have something of my own?" she rasped in a gravely
voice. "I have nothing now, no home, no family, for Arthur surely would not want me now!" She
remembered the look on his face as he found out who was protecting him in battle. She gestured to the
'new king' who was preening and fighting off an imaginary beast with the most powerful weapon of their
time. "I have nothing!"
Merlin knew that she was right. He had neglected to plan for this eventuality while he sought to secure
the future of the land.
"I have lost what was destined to be mine by birth and by legend. Then you tell me it is because I was
born a woman? What about my round table, my society of honest and noble warriors? I am a woman,
yet you admired my ideas as I wrote them down and presented them to you! You, who taught me
warfare, admired my knights and their laws modeled after the truths that you yourself taught me after my
family perished at the hands of unsavory warriors. You, who taught me justice; is this justice? Justice is
denied me!" Dismay filled her as she mentally whirled in a volley of conflicting emotions. "Where is your
justice now?"
 
"I have wronged you," Merlin admitted. "Now I will try to right that wrong and deliver to you some
measure of justice."
He rose to his feet and moved away from her. In a loud voice he cried, "Rock of Ages!"
After a moment, a rough gravely voice boomed from everywhere, and yet nowhere, "Ah, Merlin, my
good friend! It is good to see you. It seems just yesterday when you requested that I hold onto the Lady
of the Lake's gift to you, until an honest and true leader and warrior appeared. I can see that she stands
beside you. Yes, she is a true leader of men."
At the sound of the booming voice, Arthur immediately ran to stand behind Merlin and fearfully looked
over his mentor's shoulder at the mountain.
"I thank you, my friend, but I find that I must ask another boon of you."
"Anything, my friend!"
"The world is not ready for a female leader, not ready to take orders from a woman."
"This is true, my friend. In all of the time that I have existed, no man has yet to heed advice from a
woman. Many a great battle could have easily been won or avoided by listening to the counsel of a
woman. The centuries meld together in my mind, my friend, but what you say is true. I may cease to exist
before a woman is allowed to rule."
"A sad fact, my friend," Merlin commiserated. "But in seeing to the future of the Britons, I have
wronged this one. I may never live to see a time when a woman is respected enough to hold so strong a
power, but with your help Brieana, the true sovereign of Briton, will. Please take and hold her in safety
until a time when she will be given the recognition and honor that she deserves. Hold her safely until that
day."
"It will be done, my friend."
As Brieana's gasp of fright filled the air, Merlin added another request. "Also, let only a man of equal
strength, honesty, power, loyalty," and looking over his shoulder at the cowering Arthur, he added quite
loudly, "and courage release her!"
"It is done, my friend," spoke the mountain.
Shocked speechless by what was unfolding before her, Brieana was easily pulled to her feet and
maneuvered to the edge of a silently appearing precipice. After mumbling a low incantation, Merlin pulled
a golden torc, seemingly from thin air, and held it up so that she could see the rubies and emeralds that
studded its surface. Reverently, he pulled her long dark hair aside and placed the torc around her neck.
As it touched her bare skin, Brieana felt a shock that shot from the top of her head down to her toes, but
she had no time to dwell upon that curious phenomenon, for Merlin began speaking.
"I apologize, My Lady, and now seek to right the wrong that I have foisted upon you this day. I have
tried to give you more than I have taken away from you. In truth, I pray that you can forgive me, my
heart. Now Brieana, I seek to make your dreams come true."
With that, he muttered something under his breath and pulled her into his arms for a passionate kiss
involving searching tongues and firm masculine lips. Arthur coughed nervously behind them as Merlin
ravaged his former intended's mouth. He broke the kiss as Brieana began to respond, and tenderly
brushed a lock of curling hair from her face.
"Be happy," he whispered, before pitching her over the edge.
"Merrlinnn!" she screamed as she fell, only to be caught in an amazingly soft, yet strong stone hand
that had reached out of the heart of the mountain itself. Immediately, Brieana fell into a deep sleep,
compliments of Merlin's extraordinary kiss, as the hand gently fisted around her and rejoined with the
 

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