The next morning they left for Cornwall, where Merlin was last seen, in the company of the Lady Nimue. Departure would have been later but for Shiro's goading. Why is he so eager to leave, Anna wondered. What's his angle? Brenden had similar concerns.

"You didn't do anything, right?" Anna asked, trying to put more banter in her voice than she felt.

"Of course not, but this is not a holiday. Nor would this be my destination if it were. We have a job to do. First job, then fee, then vacation." He left out the dreams. They wouldn't understand. I'm not sure I do.

"The consummate professional." Brenden shook his head. "I would've liked a bit more local intel, but haste could be to our benefit. Your call, I guess." With that, he urged his roan forward to continue the movie debate with Anna.

After three days of hard riding, they reached their search area. "If I recall, Nimue tricked Merlin into a faerie mound and trapped him there," Anna lectured. Brenden's nod backed her up.

Alain shook her head. "This could be tricky. If these faeries are anything like the enchanted kindred of Aysle, they will be quite elusive. Even if we knew where to look, what we seek might only be visible to the mundane world at some unpropitious time, such as in the light of the full moon on Midsummer's Eve."

Brenden nodded. While no magician, he'd always had a story teller's ear for myths, and had taken to studying arcane lore more out of self defense than anything else. "Well, maybe we shouldn't break out the enchanted heavy artillery until we've scoped the lay of the land and know where best to employ it."

Anna considered Alain's and Brenden's observations. Perhaps the bouncing blue ball of doom could wait. "Unless there are strong objections, we'll quarter the area for two days. If we don't find anything worthwhile, then we'll consider where and how to employ, um, other search avenues." Alain gave her halfhearted consent and the issue was decided.

To everyone's surprise, shortly after the first day's lunch break, they found stout wooden double doors reinforced in brass set in an unusually verdant hillside. Brass still gleamed in the sunlight; these doors were either very, very new or unusually well preserved. Reflections from the bands had caught Montgomery's eye.

"No iron," Brenden noted, probably unnecessarily. "No hinges, either."

"I wonder why no one has come here before? It does not appear to be well hidden." Conn sounded suspicious.

"Not sure," mused Anna. "I see three possibilities. One: It's a trap set for us, and we're going to get clobbered if we persist. Two: We have an elf with us. Maybe that counts for something. Three: We finally caught a break. Our destiny, perhaps?"

"Do you want me to lay odds, Anna?" asked Shiro.

Montgomery allowed himself a cynical snort. Only Conn seemed to put much stock in anything other than the first option.

"Well, whatever awaits, we must press on," insisted Conn, dismounting and leading the way.

Alain dismounted and hurried to catch up to Conn. She began searching for wards. Maybe there is some sort of magical trigger involved. Shiro began searching from the top left edge downward, while Brenden took the right side. Anna knelt before the doors, probing the earth with her dagger. Conn stood guard with Montgomery. After five or so minutes of searching, Anna sighed. "Has anyone found anything?"

"This may require explosives," opined Shiro.

Montgomery addressed Conn. "A moment, please." He walked to the right hand door, placed both hands on it, and shoved hard. The door slowly swung inward on unseen hinges. The door was very, very heavy yet surprisingly easy to move. Cool air washed over them.

"They are unlocked," said Montgomery, as the others vied to see who could slap their foreheads hardest.

"All this magic makes one stupid," Shiro observed. "Elfin company excepted," he quickly added.

Apparently the hill was but a shell, as the doors opened into a large cavern. Stairs arched downward to a stone floor twenty feet below. Through the stalactite and stalagmite forest, something reflective could be seen toward the back of the chamber.

"Ice," Anna smiled. "This is it."

"You realize this is geologically impossible, don't you?" Shiro didn't sound very confident.

"Your point being?"

"Never mind. Might I suggest we draw weapons? This would be a good spot for an ambush."

"You mean an ambuscade. Ambush is a verb, ambuscade a noun. The gods of grammar see to it all ambushes are foreordained to failure." corrected Brenden as he unslung the Schmeisser. Shiro and Anna rolled eyes heavenward. The others followed Brenden's lead, arming themselves even as they good naturedly grumbled at him.

Conn descended first, probing each step with his scabbard before stepping onto it. Alain went next, after casting a spell to detect life. Brenden, Anna, Montgomery, and Shiro followed after doing their utmost to jam the doors open. Once all were inside, they carefully approached the back wall. Shiro led, disappearing behind, under, or inside all available cover. The cautious, tortuous advance took over ten minutes. It seemed longer. Once they reached the ice wall, everyone breathed a little easier.

"Look there." Alain gestured to water puddling on the floor by the ice, about 40 yards away. They approached cautiously. A man-sized tunnel went about 10 feet into the wall. Aside from a few copper flecks on the tunnel floor, it was empty.

"Shit. MI-6 is going to love this one." Brenden's breathing was ragged as he forced himself not to lash out and break anything. "Would anyone care to bet on this being a coincidence?"

"Now what can we do?" inquired Montgomery, his voice strained.

"There is a way," began Alain distantly, grappling with an idea, "but it is risky. At least no horses will be involved."

Brenden and Anna understood immediately. Before they had gone to battle Victor Manwaring, Alain sacrificed a horse attempting an Occult ritual. It had worked, just, and she had been able to track him to his lair quickly, which proved the margin between victory and disaster. Now she was proposing to dabble in this again.

Brenden recalled half seen things dancing in a blood-fueled bonfire, eerie, hollow piping on the wind, and shuddered. "Montgomery, perhaps we should return to the entrance, to make sure no one seals us in. Best not to be underfoot. Elvish magic in a faerie mound, and all." The less he knows about Alain attempting the Occult, the better. He probably wouldn't commit bloodshed, but let's not lead him into temptation, lest he deliver us from evil. He, Black, and Shiro left for the staircase and the doors. As their footsteps faded away, Alain prepared for her task. First, she gathered up the bits of copper into a pile. Then she began tracing concentric circles on the ground. She abruptly stopped tracing the fourth circle after a third of an arc.

"I am an idiot. A complete and utter idiot. This is not the way to do things. Conn, sit there. Anna, light two more torches and make a large fire out of them. The solution is obvious." Alain's foot erased her incomplete tracings and scattered the piled copper flakes. "Yes, Conn, you are fine there. Now, hold still. Excalibur did not fall into our hands by accident. Nor did we reach this land on a whim." She turned to Anna. "Option three was the correct one. Conn represents all that is noble in our land, and yours. Yes, you do, Conn, quit shaking your head." Alain didn't even turn around to look at the Ayslish warrior. "Now then, it is obviously his destiny to rescue Merlin, so we will look into Conn's future, to see what lies ahead.-- that is enough flame, Anna. The ice reflects the light quite adequately. -- Where was I? Ah, yes. Having observed this, it will become true, and we may proceed without recourse to sinister magics."

"Ummm, right," Anna stammered. Alain's logical sleight-of-hand left her hopelessly baffled.

"Of course I am right. That is, after all, the essence of magic: What is observed is real. What is real can be observed. At least I hope I'm right." She whispered the final sentence.

Alain stood over Conn, so their shadows merged. She began to chant quietly, almost a lullaby. After thirty or so seconds, Anna realized that with each flicker of the light, Alain's shadow was fading. Eventually, it disappeared altogether, and Conn's shadow grew darker. Alain ended her song with a slight quiver in her voice. "This, I think, is not the intended use for this cantrip, so I have assayed to enhance the effect. Now, Conn: Where and how will you make the first turning to reach Merlin?" Conn's shadow began to move independently of him, and pale shadows of scenery, like a faded movie backdrop, moved around it.

"That's the entrance to the hill!" exclaimed Anna enthusiastically.

"Likely so," said Alain, still maintaining her concentration on her magic. "Mark his turnings," she ordered.

"Left, it looks like. Second left fork, looks like."

"Fine. Now, Conn, where and how will you make the second turning?"

"The left fork in the trail."

Outside, Brenden waited in some trepidation, lest the cloudless sky erupt with lightning and thunder, or spirits issue forth from the earth and commence to wail, or some other unpleasant overt manifestation of the Occult give the game away to Montgomery. But the sky stayed clear, and save for the songbirds, the hill remained quiet. Finally, Anna, Alain, and Conn mounted the stairs.

"Well? How'd it go?" he asked. "Did anything happen?"

Alain grinned from ear to ear. "Better by far than I first thought. I believe we have a path." A moment later, she smuggly added, "After all, I have observed it."

"Where to, then?" prompted Shiro.

"A castle. A dark and evil castle on a crag in the east country." Anna sighed. "Why couldn't it be just some crofter's cottage? No, some bigwig has to appoint himself our enemy."

"As Master Shiro would say, 'That is why they pay us the big bucks.'" No one was quite sure at whom Montgomery's nasty grin was directed.

"Let us be off, then." Conn was already mounting up to ride in the direction Alain's spell had foretold.