Excalibur Page #3

The Duke of Cornwall watches a force of armored knights riding

forth from Uther's war camp, with banners flying. It passes

beneath the castle and on toward a distant cliff.

DUKE OF CORNWALL

(to a lieutenant)

It's Uther and all his best knights.

He leaves behind little more than

fledglings to guard his camp.

His eyes are as cold and as pale as ice.

EXT. CLIFF ABOVE THE SEA - TWILIGHT

Uther and his knights, and Merlin on a mule, ride to the

high promontory and dismount. Here, overlooking the sea, is

a circle of ancient stones, carved with strange runes and

hieroglyphics, and as the wind moves through them it moans

and sighs.

The knights watch as Merlin and Uther, leading his horse,

walk toward the stones. Merlin strides into the circle,

turning to look at Uther, who hesitates.

MERLIN:

Come.

Uther starts to make the sign of the cross, but Merlin halts

him with a gesture. Uther's hand drops, and he enters the

circle with his horse.

Merlin and Uther look out across the sea, to Tintagel Castle

high upon the cliff.

Merlin solemnly raises his arms toward that distant castle,

and chants in an ancient language, the sounds of which he

marries to the roaring and whining of the wind. The wind

becomes stronger, and Merlin's incantations become more

intense, and the wind in turn becomes wilder still. Until

Merlin is charged with a fierce, nonhuman power, as the wind

buffets his slight frame.

And then, for all to understand:

MERLIN:

I hold the balance of all things in

my summoning. Arise mists. Come fog.

EXT. VISTA FROM THE CLIFF - TINTAGLE CASTLE - TWILIGHT

From the horizon a front of fog advances toward the castle

to envelop it, and continues across the gulf to the circle

of stones.

EXT. GATE, TINTAGLE CASTLE - TWILIGHT

The portal opens and a small force of armored men, led by

the Duke of Cornwall, exits. A fog is thickening all around

them.

EXT. CLIFF ABOVE THE SEA - TWILIGHT

The advancing front envelops Merlin and Uther, eddying around

the stones. All else is obliterated.

MERLIN:

Mount your horse.

The King does.

MERLIN:

Ride straight to the castle, across

the sea of fog.

Uther spurs straight for the edge of the cliff, then reins

in his horse abruptly.

UTHER:

But the cliff, the sea...

Merlin rages, crazed.

MERLIN:

Ride across! Across the bridges of

desire. Your lust will hold you up.

For I have just woven it into the

fabric of the world. This is magic -

making solid what is in the mind,

and unsolid, that which is already

solid.

He gives the horse a stinging blow with his staff.

The horse and Uther charge forward into a gallop and stepping

off where the hidden edge of the cliff would be, hoofbeats

ceasing and the horse dropping for the blink of an eye, they

gallop across the fog.

EXT. MERLIN'S FOG

Galloping on no visible terrain, Uther and his horse advance

through the restless fog, and as they recede rider and animal

become a wavering, changeable form within the cloud.

EXT. GATE, TINTAGEL CASTLE - NIGHT

Horse and rider pull up at the gate.

RIDER:

(calling)

Wake up in there. It is I.

If it was not for the electric blue hue burning in the eyes

of the man entering the castle, the same magic hue that

Excalibur left upon the air when wielded, the resemblance to

the Duke if Cornwall would be perfect.

After a moment the portal opens.

INT. INNER GATE, INTAGEL CASTLE - NIGHT

He passes into an inner court, the portal closing behind.

Armed men emerge cautiously. Thinking that it is their Duke

they help him dismount.

'DUKE' OF CORNWALL

Have the horse ready. I ride out

before sunrise.

An inner gate opens and the 'Duke' goes through it.

EXT. UTHER'S WAR CAMP - NIGHT

The real Duke and his men ride through the fogbound camp,

cutting the ropes of the tents, stabbing the men trapped

beneath the canvas. When a frightened crow flies squawking

into the face of the Duke's horse, which rears. He is unhorsed

and falls, and impales himself on a tent stake.

Dying, the true Lord of Tintagel Castle rises and staggers

forward, blood pumping from him.

INT. CHAMBER, TINTAGEL CASTLE - NIGHT

A little girl of four awakens from a nightmare, a small lone

figure in her canopied bed. Her eyes are ice, like her

father's.

MORGANA:

Papa... Papa...

Igrayne is soon at her side, lifting the child from the bed,

holding her tight.

MORGANA:

My father is dead...

INT. IGRAYNE'S BEDCHAMBER - NIGHT

The 'Duke' enters. The room is empty, but the door to

Morgana's room is open.

INT. MORGANA'S CHAMBER - NIGHT

The 'Duke' stands in the doorway. Igrayne herself is

surprised.

IGRAYNE:

Look, here is your father. It was

just a dream, little one.

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