FREE Short Story
Merlin, the Lady of the Lake, and the forging of Excalibur - there's a cost to making a King.
100% Privacy Guaranteed. Witches' Honour!
Merlin, the Lady of the Lake, and the forging of Excalibur - there's a cost to making a King.
100% Privacy Guaranteed. Witches' Honour!
I read lots of Arthurian myths and legends for Rise of the King. There are so many stories containing knights, witches and wizards, it all becomes quite confusing. I’ve always been fascinated by Vivian, Nimue and Morgan Le Fey. They are three strong magical women, who are cunning and skillful, and on Morgan’s behalf, depending whose stories you read, a lot of malevolent intent.
In some tales Nimue and Vivian are the same person – a priestess of Avalon, and /or The Lady of the Lake. I decided to keep these characters separate.
In Call of the King (Tom’s Inheritance), Vivian is the Lady of the Lake. She summons Tom to the Other, in order for him to travel to Avalon to wake King Arthur. Many of the old tales tell of Arthur being carried to Avalon after he is mortally wounded, escorted by the nine priestesses, one of whom is Morgan le Fey. There he is laid to rest in a deep sleep until he is woken again in a time of great need. In my story Vivian demands Arthur’s final resting place will be on Avalon, in exchange for obtaining Excalibur for Merlin, but Merlin requests that Arthur must be woken by a descendant, and Vivian casts this great spell. However he is woken, not to return to Britain, but to remain in the Other to deal with an enemy. Vivian is powerful, and serves as the guardian of Avalon, the island that straddles the mortal world and the world of the Other.
In The Silver Tower (Twice Born), I wanted to introduce some more Arthurian characters to the new world in which Tom and Arthur find themselves. Nimue seemed a natural place to start. She lived on Avalon with Vivian, a priestess and witch, human, not fey. She has ties to Arthur and his old court of Camelot, but she has secrets of her own. I also wanted to develop the world of the Other, and explore the different magical races who live there, some of whom have lots of magic, and others only a little. The Realm of Air and the sylphs who inhabit it also appear in the book, and they are quite different from the fey of the Realm of Earth.
There are lots more characters in Twice Born, as well as the old ones from book 1. I had lots of fun writing it, I hope you enjoy reading it!
Twice Born is out on February 10th 2017 – not long now!