He's A Magic Man (The Children of Merlin) Read Free Page B

fifteen-year-old wanted to be talked to in that tone.
    Tammy sniffed. “It talks about putting a brand on that lovely horse. I hate that song.”
    “It might be about a woman rather than a mare,” Drew observed when she saw Lanyon getting ready for a familiar dissertation about the genius of Roger McGuinn’s twelve-string arpeggios or Clarence White’s killer riffs. That stopped them both in mid-retort. They stared. “Which means I don’t much like the sentiment either, Tammy.”
    “It’s historical,” Lanyon sputtered. “They weren’t enlightened back then.”
    “So I’ve heard,” Drew said dryly. Jane brought out a huge bowl of trifle. “Well, this is as good a time as any,” Drew said, and tapped her spoon on her water glass.
    Kee frowned. “You sound like you’re at some Moose Lodge dinner, or something.”
    “Like you know anything about Moose Lodge dinners.” Devin smirked.
    “It was the worst thing I could think of, offhand,” Kee admitted.
    “All right,” her father said. “Let Drew talk or your mother will have a heart attack.” The family turned expectantly toward Drew. They knew this research meant a lot to their mother. And Drew knew it might change some family dynamics. She had to go carefully.
    “In order not to bore some members of the family—” Drew began.
    Lanyon interrupted with a “ Puh -lease, Lord.”
    Drew frowned at him. “I’ll give you the abbreviated version.” No one touched the trifle. “A mention of what might have been a predecessor of Tarot occurred in 1227. You can look it up on Wikipedia. Bern, Switzerland, issued an edict against playing tarot games in 1367.”
    “So tarot was an actual game?” Kee asked.
    “Italian. Called tarocco back then. Most sources say using it for divination didn’t come in until a lot later.” Drew glanced to her mother and saw her disappointment. Drew took a breath. Might as well get through the hard part. “There are a lot of hokey origin theories out there: that the decks were based on the cave paintings in France (which were pictures of aliens, of course) or that they were given to Egyptians by the god Thoth.”
    “So, all hoo-ha?” Lanyon asked , casting sidelong glances at his mother.
    “I knew this was a waste of time,” Kemble muttered.
    “Thank you, Drew,” her mother said, her features under tight control. “You worked so hard on this.” For all her towering strength, their mother could be vulnerable.
    “Hold on.” Drew put up her hands. “Genius at work.” She leaned forward. “I wondered why a Swiss city was so upset over Italian cards. Was it just wasting time, or was it sin? So I looked at Church documents. Lo and behold, a Father Valeré preached a whole sermon on the evils of trying to understand God’s will through the use of tarocco cards. That means they were used for divination even in the fourteenth century.”
    “Okay, so they were hokum back then too.” Lanyon shrugged.
    “Doesn’t mean they came from Merlin,” Kemble said.
    Drew frowned at them. “Okay, okay. Here’s the big reveal.” She leaned forward. “Father Valeré said the cards were a revival of the evil of the pagan Germanic invaders in the sixth century. That’s why everyone was so upset.”
    “So what?” Devin asked. “I don’t get it.”
    She’d known this was going to be hard, but really! “Well. It might mean tarot cards were used for divination in the sixth century by Germanic tribes.”
    “I thought you said this was the short version,” Lanyon accused.
    “Anglo-Saxons were Germanic,” she said slowly, and carefully. “Merlin and Arthur were fighting Saxons.”
    Recognition started to light fires in the eyes around the table. “So. I started researching Anglo-Saxon interactions with the local Britons. At a burial site in Cornwall, they found Saxon references to something called ‘the Arcane’ that told the fate of men.” Drew grinned. “ And this ‘Arcane’ was said to come from a powerful local