"THEY will believe I entrapped you." Coventina, the great water goddess, turned her head, unable to look at him. "I am not entrapped, my love. I am simply resting from the darkness of this world," Merlin said. He touched her smooth cheek so that she had to turn back and meet his gaze. "And since when have we cared what others say, Viviane?" His use of the nickname he called her at their most intimate moments couldn't even make her smile. "It is a curse to have the ability to see into the future," she said. "In many ways, love." "Yes. But have you always seen this for you? For me? For us? Why let me love you, knowing what you have known?" "'Tis a man in the far future, a healer named Phil, who proclaims love is what it is. It has no future or past, but simply the present." "This healer does not impress me," Viviane said. "We have a past, and we could also have a future. See it. Believe in it." "I cannot see our future, my love. It pains me too much when I am not allowed to alter what I see." His sigh was deep. "The future of Arthur and Camelot pierced me enough that more wounds feel unbearable." She gazed at his wonderfully familiar face and saw the goodness, strength and kindness that had first drawn her to him. But she also saw something