A Darker Magic This Way Comes
A Darker Magic This Way Comes
Dolossus: a male fox whose name means ‘crafty’. He was hand-raised by Merlin since he was a pup and Merlin sends him on special or dangerous assignments. As with all of his animals, Merlin can move into his consciousness and see the world as Dolossus sees it wherever his fox is on assignment.
Roget: Emily’s Australian long-necked turtle who lives in a terrarium at night and spends the day in Emily’s bra.
Kelso: a bird-obsessed, orange and white Brittany spaniel who is totally faithful and protective of Emily.
Squeak Primo & Squeak Secondus:
a pair of mice who live, most of the time, somewhere below Merlin’s shoulders, but above his feet.
Crook: a male black and grey jackdaw who resides on Merlin’s left shoulder. Despite his crippled leg, he works constantly with Merlin.
Merlin: a large female falcon, a merlin, who resides on Merlin’s right shoulder. She has strange orange eyes and Merlin is, of course, called after her, rather than the other way around.
Mot: a giant female bat used as transport by Morgana but unfortunately she has been deliberately infested with rabies. She adores Toby who has to constantly avoid her kisses, not to avoid infection because I have not told him she was rabid but because he thinks its inappropriate affection
Merlin: born early November 433, about 30 miles from Exeter (Isca) near Okehampton in his father’s village. Extremely tall at 6 feet 3 inches, in a time when few men were more than 5 feet 4 inches, he is raven-haired with intense blue eyes, and called Ambrosius Marcus Cotta by his father but Myrddin by his mother. As a Roman soldier, he will change his name again to Ambrosius Merlinus. A child prodigy with 80% recall of everything that he reads and hears, as a young adult he matures into an accomplished poet, linguist, engineer, mathematician, scientist, architect and astrologist. He is able to unlock the future, to fly the pathways of the air, and has been schooled by a Pictish shaman in the Wyed ways of the wood. His Welsh mother trains him in shape-shifting, in complex spells and enchantment, and Michael, the Archangel, trains him in aerial display and combat with a Darker Magic.
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Moloch: a prince of Darkness with blazing vermillion eyes, he has no form or substance and moves like a wraith. His purpose is to suborn all those who work for the Light, to enslave Britannia and to place Morgana and her progeny on the British throne.
Morgana: as yet unborn as Ygern’s daughter, she exists in this novel as a shape-shifting spirit. She is called by her future name and keeps her real name as a secret, believing that if it is revealed it could affect her power. She is a malevolent, voluptuous sorceress.
Emily Charlotte Hughes: Only child of Professor Julia Hughes and Dr Rhys Hughes, she attends the Exeter Academy, a Jesuit school in Exeter, Devon. She started learning ballet at age three, around the time she rode her first pony. She hides her considerable intellect behind a smile and a wonderful laugh, but she cannot hide her grace, beauty and easygoing nature. Besides dancing, riding, swimming and surfing, she loves studying the stars. Emily has the tawny look of a Celt.