Sam Gordon is followed by someone dressed like a wizard. He figures the guy to be another San Francisco lunatic until the man meets Sam at his favorite café carrying on about time continuum portals. Assured of the man's insanity, Sam escapes out the back door, which drops him into a strange place.

In a land of green grass and no automobiles, Sam cannot find the door back to the café. He questions his sanity and sets out to find someone who can give him directions. When he is attacked by a swordsman on horseback, a beautiful young woman named Margot, intervenes. She speaks an archaic dialect of Anglo-Saxon — a language Sam didn't know until that moment. Sam travels with them to Camelot and finds himself in King Arthur's court. Working as a blacksmith and studying the druidic arts under Merlin's tutelage, Sam learns he must complete an unknown task before a portal can open to his own place and time.

Merlin's Apprentice is created by B. K. Kerley, an eGlobal Creative Publishing author.

Merlin's Apprentice

Merlin led me north away from the enemy pickets. We entered a grove of trees, and then he stopped before a stone shrine against a hill. On the face of the shrine, a branching tree was carved in bas relief. It appeared heavy, but the druid pushed it aside with ease revealing a tunnel high and wide enough to fit two horses walking abreast. We entered.


The path descended down a short way before leveling out. New torches lay stacked against the wall. Taking a flint and steel hanging from a hook, I struck a flame to one while Merlin levered a counterweight to move the shrine back over the tunnel mouth.


The four-mile journey seemed to take an eternity, but I was surprised at where we came out. I extinguished my torch and left it in the tunnel. Then I looked around at the high ceiling and boarded windows. “Where are we?”


Chapter 20