Excalibur Page #10

MERLIN:

(melodramatic)

The book without pages. Open before

you, all around us. You can see it

in bits and pieces, for if mortal

men were to see it whole and all

complete in a single glance, why, it

would burn him to cinders.

ARTHUR:

What?!

EXT. FOREST AND ELSEWHERE - DAY AND NIGHT

MERLIN:

The dragon! There...

A deep cleft at the edge of the forest, where far below lava

boils with a phosphorescence that lights up a great cloud,

billowing upward.

MERLIN:

Coiled in the unfathomed depths, it

emerges...

Merlin points to the sky where roiling clouds appear to be

unfurling of immeasurable wings.

MERLIN:

...It unfolds itself in the storm

clouds...

A terrific wave batters a coastline, spray shooting up, and

as the wave recedes it exposes dark rocks and deep crevices.

MERLIN:

...it washes its mane sparkling white

in the blackness of seething

whirlpools...

Merlin spins Arthur around, and they are transported into a

storm swept forest. Lightning strikes.

MERLIN:

...its claws are the forks of

lightning... its scales glisten in

the bark of trees...

The trees shine with wetness, as a great wind tosses their

crowns, the branches groaning against each other.

MERLIN:

...its voice is heard in the

hurricane...

Arthur is awestruck.

EXT. FOREST - DAY

Arthur and Merlin are back in the same spot, having in fact

never moved at all, but traveled on the spell of Merlin's

words alone.

MERLIN:

...it is so much more than a scaly

monster. It is Everything!

Arthur's eyes shine with the brilliance of the vision.

ARTHUR:

And if I am to be King of everything,

lord and commoner, beast, leaf and

rock, I must use its voice, its claws,

its power.

EXT. BATTLEMENTS, CASTLE OF CAMELYARDE - NIGHT

Leondegrance, Lord of Camelyarde, is shocked by what he sees

in the distance. His daughter Guenevere, a beautiful girl of

sixteen, draws close to him, terrified. With his surviving

knights, Leondegrance is making his last stand. The walls

have been breached, parts of the castle are burning.

EXT. OUTSIDE THE CASTLE - NIGHT

A bellowing dragon advances. Its eyes burn, its scales gleam

from light shining from within. It snorts fire from its

nostrils.

Uryens and Lot, Caradoc and Turquine, the great knights in

command of the siege of Leondegrance's castle, back away

speechless as the monster descends upon their unprepared war

camp. All around them, squires and lesser knights flee in

panic and confusion.

Only a dozen or so remain with their leaders. The group backs

up against the swampy moat that surrounds the castle, waiting

with swords drawn.

The dragon moves closer, and now it becomes apparent that it

is nothing more than a force of knights and footmen. Their

shields glinting in the moonlight are the dragon's scales,

torches its burning eyes. And the snorting flames from its

nostrils are only Merlin doing a fire-eater's trick.

The dragon form dissolves, and a banner rises bearing the

emblem of the Dragon, and under it, Arthur and Ector and Kay

lead a charge of twenty knights.

In Arthur's hands, Excalibur leaves an electric glow upon

the air.

EXT. BATTLEMENTS, CAMELYARDE CASTLE - NIGHT

GUENEVERE:

Father, it's the boy King.

LEONDEGRANCE:

It is. I will fight my way to his

side.

EXT. OUTSIDE THE CASTLE - NIGHT

Arthur and his men charge into the enemy ranks. Lot's and

Uryens' people are pushed into the moat. Although the water

is only waist-deep, the fallen, weighed down by their armor,

drown. The horses of the attackers are brought down, Arthur's

among them. He pulls out from under it, limping. Bleeding

form wounds, cutting, slashing, thrusting, he falls back

from the havoc of the charge.

A small distance exists now between the foes, a brief respite.

Uryens and Lot, exhausted, bleeding, and fierce in their

rage:

URYENS:

War-wise fighters, grown gray in

battle, checkmated by a boy.

LOT:

It's Merlin's trickery, nothing more.

I won't swear faith to that wizard's

brat.

Arthur and his men have been joined by Leondegrance and his

knights, few in number.

ARTHUR:

Let's finish this with a show of

force. We have no more tricks and no

more advantages.

He rushes alone at the enemy, shouting at the top of his

lungs, Excalibur flashing over his head, prepared to die.

EXT. BATTLEMENTS, CAMELYARDE CASTLE - NIGHT

Guenevere watches...

GUENEVERE:

No...

EXT. OUTSIDE THE CASTLE - NIGHT

SIR ECTOR:

No... Arthur--

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