Meat cooked in a godless amount of butter…Īnd there was his castle rising above the whole scene, keeping watch over the city.

Layers of odors that he hadn’t even known he’d missed stampeded his senses. A normal day in Camelot should have been bustling with crowds, crying babies, forges clanging, and those incessant flutists-a shrill reminder that music wouldn’t improve for centuries. It wasn’t off in some hazy distance, surrounded by dragons and dreams. He stood, shoved his glasses into place, and looked around. He hit the flagstones of a central square with a resounding smack. When he reached the top, he gripped the edge, hoisted one leg, and rolled over. A bit of absurdity came with the territory.

“Dignity is for knights,” he scoffed under his breath. The well was narrow enough that he could jam himself between two opposing sides, scuttling upward and hurting his back and his neck and his dignity most of all. He braced his arms and legs for a long climb. He would worry about that later for now he had to get out and see if their great gamble had paid off. Trying to keep everyone together in a time portal with completely different laws of physics had drained him. “Nothing a little magic won’t fix.” But when Merlin went to dig some up, he was near empty. The walls had been hacked in a pattern that spoke of plans and intentions and humanity. “No? Just me?” He splashed around, finding rough stone, and high above, a hole punch of blue sky. He had rocketed through the time portal, an endless skydive without parameters or parachutes, before it dumped him in this flooded, cramped circle of stone. The chaos of waves left him torn between gasps and muttered curses. Merlin crash-landed in the past with a great, undignified belly flop.

Amy rose capetta and cori mccarthy