Ammit was acting extra vigilant as we walked through the deserted streets of the City. I had let her off her leash, she would scout ahead for a few yards then come back and walk beside me. She had a serious expression on her face and she completely ignored any command I gave her.
The Institute was exactly where Archimedes had said it would be, It was a building which would have been at home in the Italian Renaissance, a three story white stone building with rows of windows interspersed with columns and spires.
I pushed open the large wooden front door with much effort, the large iron hinges groaned and squeaked as the door swung.
Ammit darted ahead of me like a furry snake, I heard her bark after a few moments. Somehow she managed to convey that all was safe by the tone of her bark.
I entered the building, first walking through a small anteroom then into a large open area. The room was lit from the light streaming in through a row of windows. The sunlight showed a wooden parquet floor covered in geometrical designs, the walls were of white plaster.
In the center of the room there was an enormous table, fully twenty feet square. There was a map of the world on its top, it was laid out like a giant orange peel that had been carefully cut out in one piece.
I walked to the table, Ammit was busy investigating all the rooms corners with her nose.
A light globe flicked to life as I reached the tables edge, it lit up the bright colors of the map. I noticed that the map had no borders for counties or symbols for cities marked on it, just geographic features. I saw a small piece of wood on the maps edge, it was shaped as a rectangle.
I picked it up, there was a name written on it in Egyptian Hieroglyph's it said Napoleon. There was a rectangular depression on the edge of the table the same size as the wooden block. I fitted the block inside it.
The Map suddenly changed, showing only northern Europe, cities and borders now appeared, I saw symbols representing ships on the oceans.
Ammit barked, she had found another door. I walked over and opened it I saw another large room full of shelves. The shelves had books scrolls and various artifacts on them, the shelves were all labelled with names, some familiar some not.
Hannibal, Ramses the second, Qin.
I saw the shelf for Napoleon and beside it one named King Artur. I had heard of some of the other names, but I was quite familiar with King Arthur having watched many entertaining films and TV programs. There was a wooden block for activating the map table, I picked it up as well as a thick manuscript. It's title was Merlin, how he was stopped.
I read the authors name, Morgana Le Fay.
"Now that's interesting," I said to Ammit.
I walked back to the Map table then switched Napoleon's rectangular block with King Artur. The map changed again, the ship symbols changed showing smaller ships with triangular sails.
I opened up the book, to a random page. I saw a spell I recognized, there was a command word written at its beginning.
I said it out loud.
A woman appeared, she was not quite solid I could see through her partially. The spell was a record and playback device, a person could store a speech or greeting then play it back later.
The woman was quite young in her early twenties, she had long curly, bright red hair, there were freckles all over the pale skin of her face.
She started to speak.
"It's always hard when you have to take down someone you used to respect."
A flash of anger disturbed the forest of freckles on her face.
"It starts like it always starts, this megalomania... it begins innocently enough, demands for respect, anger at imaginary slights, then it progresses... a belief that only you understand the truth, that no one else does because they were not chosen by the gods... like you were."
She paused.
"As a former student of Merlin, I watched the progression of his madness, his brilliant mind overcome by paranoia, his suddenly secretive nature."
Morgana conjured up a small slowly rotating globe, it was a model of the earth. She pointed to a large island next to Europe.
"The Land of the Engels... brutal... backward... filthy... perfect for cultivating an army of mindless brutes to conquer the world."
Morgana dispelled the globe and conjured up an image of a skinny seedy looking man, he had a scraggly beard and on his head was a primitive iron crown festooned with polished uncut gemstones.
"King Artur... weak... vacillating... easily manipulated... for all his brilliance Merlin was following a well worn path to world domination."
She dispelled Artur and conjured up another image, this of a woman with waist length blonde hair. I felt my own eyes narrow as I examined her, her large breasts were spilling out of a poorly fitted dress, a dress that through its sheerness left almost no detail of her anatomy to the imagination.
She was pretty enough but with a vacant expression. She gave me the impression of someone who was loose with her loins, what was the modern word, Shelley was always using it... skanky. Like the nefarious women I would see on those awful TV shows everyone watched now.
"Behold the instrument of Merlin's manipulation of Artur," Morgana continued speaking.
"Guinevere... greedy... lustful... and in some peoples opinion... vaguely attractive... if you like that sort of thing."
The angry expression was back on Morgana's face.
"Lustfulness... that was her weakness, and her weakness was Merlin's weakness. He needed Artur to hide his magical manipulations from the City of Magic, creating the illusion of a great leader raising a large army and then conquering the world.
The reality was of course, an army equipped with enchanted weapons and armour, assisted with magic cleverly disguised as coincidence and good fortune, and a weak king being told what to do and when to do it."
Morgana dispelled Guinevere and conjured up an image of a tall bearded man. A strange look passed across Morgana's face for a second, a kind of intense lust. I examined the man more closely, he was passably handsome, but there was a certain indescribable charm about him though, a charm that was probably more intense in person. He struck me as someone proficient in seducing women.
"Lancelot prince of the Lake Lands... was what I named him. I found him in Nomanz the land next to the Engels, he had been sentenced to be drawn and quartered in the main square of a large town. His crimes... well these are not things a lady speaks of."
Morgana's face turned bright red.
I suspected all the men whipping the horses at his execution would all be married or have young daughters.
"As you will see in my written report he was the key in defeating the scourge of Merlin."
The apparition of Morgana faded away, I looked back at the book, I flipped through the pages reading a phrase here and there. It soon became clear to me what Morgana had done, she had made a bargain with Lancelot, rescuing him from execution in return for his co-operation. He had infiltrated Artur's inner circle in part because Morgana's magic had made him appear as a warrior of unmatchable prowess.
Once inside Artur's castle he had used his considerable charm to seduce Guinevere destroying Merlin's hold over Artur, then Morgana used Guinevere's influence to cause Artur to fight a battle with disastrous consequences.
Morgana's report was kind of fuzzy on what exactly happened to Merlin afterward's.
I looked at Ammit she looked back at me.
"Chick's are weird huh?"
I could understand why Merlin wanted to hide his machinations from the world, but why would Morgana care, I would have just gone over to him and told him to stop or else.
Then it hit me, Morgana had the same problem I did, magic needed to be hidden, at her time it was an actual policy of the City of Magic.
As long as Merlin was being completely discrete he could only be stopped by the same methods he was using.
"AH HAH!!!" I said.
Ammit barked in agreement.