Prologue

A few days after the battle against Mordred, which led to the defeat of Camelot and the death of King Arthur, thirteen-year-old Rowena Pendragon was led towards her place of execution. She had been told that a special kind of death had been planned for her, the protégé and granddaughter of the wizard Merlin.

Wearing her white burial dress, she was led barefoot down ice cold steps hewn out of the granite rock, only the flickering flames of the blazing torches carried by her captors, relieved the darkness.

With her arms held fast by two men, shrouded by their dark heavy cloaks, she was forced along a pathway of smooth ice. It was the frozen surface of a river. Deep inside the cave, at its centre, loomed the sacred stone upon which gifts were sacrificed to the Gods. Rowena was to be the final offering. The massive tablet of rock stood twice the height of a tall man and was coated in ice.

Rowena was halted at the foot of the stone and her eyes were drawn to the reflection of the flaming torches which danced over the ice making it look alive.

On top of the stone, other black-cloaked figures guarded a wooden structure shaped like a giant coffin. The boards were held in place by poles roped together.

A woman wrapped in a white fur cloak walked into view from behind the rock. It was Morgan-le-Fay, Rowena’s Aunt and her father’s half sister. Morgan gave a signal and one of the cloaked figures drew a knife and severed the ropes. Two other men removed the poles, wooden sides and inner boards to reveal a huge coffin made of ice.

“Welcome to the sacred Cave of the Dragon, Rowena, my dear,” Morgan said. “You will be the last of The Druid Priestesses, I fear. Your grandfather, Merlin, is already locked inside his own tomb of ice and after your death; The Old Ways will be no more.”

Rowena held her head high and spoke proudly. “Morgan-le-Fay, you have betrayed everyone, even your half-brother, my Lord Arthur and the Queen. And what pray of Merlin, Guardian of the Old Ways, the ways that you, as High Priestess, swore an oath to serve?”

“My nephew Mordred is the King now child and you are young and foolish. Did you really believe you could keep your secret from me? Yes, I know who you really are, Rowena the Pendragon. You are the secret daughter of Arthur and Guinevere. But wait, you shiver. How thoughtless of me to keep you here in conversation while your body quivers with cold. No matter, soon you will be wearing a thicker coat. Prepare her!”

A garland of bright summer flowers was placed on Rowena’s head and then she was pushed towards a ladder that leaned against the stone and another smaller ladder was placed against the ice-coffin. She was made to climb up them both. Up onto the altar’s flat surface and then up until finally she was standing on the high, one-stride-thick, outer wall off her coffin.

Below her, men were sawing at the outer edge of the frozen river and she heard their muted cries of triumph when the ice cracked and they broke through. They began to pass buckets of water up the ladder to the other men who emptied them into the casket.

It took fifty-three buckets of water, Rowena counted them automatically, to fill it a third of its depth, for a minute or two everything was still and quiet. Then the tallest, a truly ugly man, drew his sword in both hands and jabbed its blade three times into the coffin. With each jab a sharp tapping sound rang through the cavern. He bowed to Morgan. “The water has now frozen, My Lady,” he said.

“Climb in and lie down on your bed, Rowena!” Morgan commanded.

Rowena accepted her fate calmly, for her death was ordained the moment Camelot fell. Better by far to face a cold death than to be burned alive or worse. She lowered herself into her coffin and lay down but gasped as the frozen ice bed penetrated her thin shift and seeped through her thick hair. Within seconds she was frozen to the ice on which she lay.

Above her, she saw a bucket being tipped and despite her resolve she tried to rise and escape, but was held fast by the ice. She opened her mouth as if to scream, but closed it quickly as the freezing cold water poured down on her. The rush of water dislodged the flower garland in her hair and the bright flowers settled like a rainbowed halo around her head.

The water froze instantly and soon Rowena’s whole body was encased with only her face not yet covered. Morgan’s face appeared above her. She was standing on Rowena’s coating of ice. Morgan smiled; dropped to her knees and kissed Rowena’s frozen lips.

“Fare-thee-well then Rowena, my dear,” she mocked and rose to her feet. “I know Merlin thought you his most gifted student. Therefore you may survive a short while before you die. When this work is done, I will have your tomb raised, so you and that old fool Merlin may watch each others last moments before death!”

Morgan stepped backwards out of Rowena’s sight and a few seconds later more water was emptied into the coffin. It cascaded over her face, covered it and she could hold her breath no longer. She had to breathe!

Then she heared Merlin’s strong steady voice speaking to her inside her head.

“Calm yourself child! Have you forgotten all that I have taught you so soon?”

The sound of his voice took her mind off the water that was still being poured into her coffin and flowed over the ice that covered her.

“Calm yourself and repeat to me the Way of the Wise.” He sounded angry now. His voice, hard-edged and grating like an iron sword being scraped on a stone, yet at the same time, kind, as when she was a child and not paying attention.

Automatically Rowena began repeating the words Merlin taught her ever since she was an infant.

“Listen and hear before speaking. Speak the truth always unless it would cause the hearer needless pain. If you are unable to aid someone then add not to his or her burden. Look to nature and understand the wisdom of the Gods. To measure the worth of a man, look not to his wealth nor listen to his words, but observe instead his deeds. Truth and Justice are the symbols of freedom. Protect them with your life’s blood and do not shun the fight even if it carries the certain pain of death!”

As Rowena repeated the words she felt peace enfold her. She became aware of her casket being moved and realised she had no need to breathe. Her powers were protecting her. Soon she was standing upright in her tomb, which had been lowered onto the frozen surface of the subterranean river.

Morgan and her follower’s left the cave and as the light from their torches died away, the faint luminous glow cast by the ice onto the rocks barely relieved the darkness.

Merlin stood before her, trapped in his own ice-tomb and unable to move. Rowena saw the pain in his eyes and again his voice entered her mind.

“Your father, Arthur is dead and Guinevere, your mother has been banished to a convent, Rowena. Galahad and the other Knights of the Round Table are all dead. King Arthur’s circle of power has been broken.”

“But how could she, when you are the most powerful wizard in the world?

“Morgan has achieved her revenge by defiling the Path and the Old Laws that I myself had taught her. I was a fool to believe that someone so evil could ever change! But despite her mastery of the black arts, she still could not kill me. So instead she tricked me into entering the Dragon’s Cave and entombed me in this ice. She has denied me my greatest sources of power, fire, water and the moon. But my power is still strong enough to keep me alive for as long as I desire it.”

“No, ‘tis a tribute to your power that I too am still alive, Merlin.”

“Yet my child you will die and soon. Unless . . . unless I sacrifice all my power to set you free.”

“No! You must not! You are the Guardian! It’s better that I die, than you.”

“The Old Gods have been banished by the Christians; and now all I have left to protect is you, Rowena Pendragon, the true Queen of the Britains!”

“No, Merlin, it is too late!” Rowena cried, “None knew of my birthright except you and my mother. Not even my brothers knew that I shared their blood!”

“Do not be bitter, child. You would have been dead long since had Morgan learned of your birthright.” His voice grew more insistent “Set you free, I will!”

Rowena wanted to cry as, in her head she heard Merlin start to sing. Now his voice was soft, rich and melodious, she concentrated on his words.

“Let the sacred moon beam strike the fire and reflect through frozen water the truth of my desire.

By the sacred Mistletoe, holy Yew and Rowan tree, I, Merlin, summon thee.

Rise one last time, My Lady and come thou now to me!”

From the farthest depths of the river a sword rose and broke through the ice. It possessed a brilliance that was almost blinding and Rowena half closed her eyes as it cuts a circle through the ice. The great disc of ice was tossed upwards and fell to the side to reveal a black hole.

Rowena stared in awe as a beautiful woman slowly rose up through the hole; her shimmering white robes flashed and sparkled like the dew on a spider’s web in the rays of the rising sun.

“My Lady of the Lake,” Merlin said. “You heard my summons.”

“Yes, I heard your summons Merlin. You offer your life for that of the maid. But the Gods have refused your offer. You will not die by the hand of Morgan-le-Fay, but sleep beneath our sacred mountains until this Britain of ours rises as a free nation once again!

The girl too will live but she will not escape from her tomb until a thousand years and almost half as long again have passed. She will emerge into another age. A maid who knows the Old Ways and who knows, perhaps she will reawaken the Old Gods and teach the people the ancient Way of the Britains. Do you accept the will of the Gods’ child?”

“Yes, I accept, but can you not allow Merlin to sleep in the free air, as a free man?”

The Lady smiled as though in approval of Rowena’s words. Raising her sword in both hands, she brought it down; its keen blade struck the block of ice that held Merlin. The block was split into two halves, which fell away on either side of him and Merlin fell weakly to his knees. Still smiling, the Lady glided around the ice that held Rowena marking a circle at its base with the point of her sword. Rowena heard the ice below her crack and slowly her tomb descended into the underground river.

“Sleep now and fare-thee-well, Rowena Pendragon,” The Lady said.

Rowena’s eyes closed and as she fell asleep, her coffin of ice sank slowly out of sight.



Rowena awakes in 2007: To find out what happens next you will need to read the book.

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