The Magic of Camelot

By nightfall, we came to the old tower. It wasn’t much to look at. Once, it had been a Roman fort, but had long since been abandoned and had fallen into disrepair. To be honest, it looked as though no one had been there in years, and I wondered if I had been mistaken about the identity of Amoure’s captors.

I closed my eyes and cast about magically, and there was definitely a magical presence. In fact, my light probing was sensed, and a blast of magic smacked into me, knocking me from my horse. Instantly, Gingalin was off of his steed and helping me up.

“Be careful now, Gingalin. I cannot sense your lady yet, but the magicians are home, and they know we are here.”

He nodded and drew a sword, though he had no armor or shield. He was only a squire, but had the steely resolute look of a warrior already. Must have been in the blood.

We took no more than half a dozen steps toward the crumbling tower when there was a rumbling from deep in the earth. We stopped, but the rumbling continued, and in moments it grew to a terrific shaking, knocking us both from our feet. In a panic, the horses galloped away, but we were too busy holding ourselves on our knees to go after them. When the earthquake ended, we stayed on our knees for several moments, not trusting that it was really over. Warily, we got to our feet and turned back toward the tower.

We advanced again, with more caution and ready to throw ourselves to the ground at the first sign of a tremor. The ground did shake after a moment, but not from any earthquake. We heard heavy footfalls and looked with dismay as a huge creature came around the side of the tower.

I had half-expected a dragon, with what Gingalin had said, but it was a troll that was coming toward us. I stared in amazement, for I had never seen a troll before. His skin was gray and covered with matted hair. He had the shape of a man, but was at least eighteen feet tall, and the head, in contrast, was bald and looked disproportionably small on the massive shoulders. He carried a tree trunk for a club but wore no clothing, and was quite obviously male. The monster stopped as it saw us and grinned with a drooling leer.

I started to back away from it, but realized that I could still hear footfalls, though it had stopped to look at us in hungry anticipation. Slowly I turned, and was horrified to see a second troll, twin to the first, come around the other side of the tower and lick its obscene lips with a bloated tongue.

I touched Gingalin’s arm and he glanced at me, seeing the second one as well as he glanced my direction. He blanched, and paled a bit. I imagine I looked as frightened as he did. Two trolls. Even lone trolls were reputed to kill and eat travelers on the rare occasions they were encountered. How would we ever escape two of them, nonetheless continue on to save the girl? A sense of despair welled up in me, and I couldn’t speak for fright as they both advanced on us slowly. I had never seen a troll in reality, but these were every bit as horrible and terrifying as I had imagined they would be.

That thought sobered me. I looked back sharply at the troll that was moving in from the right. It looked like I thought it should. In fact, it looked exactly like I thought it should. I had never seen one, never known anyone who had, and yet here was one as perfect in detail as the one in my mind’s eye. An illusion! It had to be an illusion. How else could it look so like the image I’d constructed of a troll? Looking at them with magical sight, I could confirm that they were magical, not natural creatures.

“It’s not real, Gingalin,” I whispered.

“They look and smell pretty real to me.”

“That’s the point. They are illusions. This is from a picture in my mind, and I have never seen a troll. They aren’t real. They are mental images. They can’t hurt you if you don’t believe they can.”

“Are you sure?”

“Do you trust me?”

They were very close now, only a dozen feet away, one on either side. He didn’t look at me, and remained crouched in readiness with his sword up and at the ready, but replied rather more calmly than I expected, “Yes.”

“Then lower your sword. Trust me, Gingalin. They cannot harm you if you don’t believe that they are real.”

Honestly, I was only ninety-five percent sure that they were illusions. Some tightly curled ball of doubt squirmed in my belly, telling me to believe what my senses had perceived, despite the evidence that my brain was certain of. Suddenly, Gingalin stood up straight and lowered his sword. The giant creature laughed in triumph and brought his club crashing down on the young squire. As the wooden bludgeon descended, Gingalin took a deep breath and simply closed his eyes, allowing it to fall on him. Even though I was sure it was an illusion, I was still surprised to see the tree trunk pass through him. Exultantly, I turned to the second advancing troll and raised my hand, waving away the magical construction as easily as a wisp of smoke.

Gingalin opened his eyes to see that the trolls were both gone. He turned to me in wonder and smiled.

“Oh, you are good!”