- The next morning, Merlin wakes up to find a nice new set of duds by his bed. Best part? An awesome red-dragon brooch.
- Merlin looks princely in his swank clothes and thinks of the irony of it: he never had cool things to wear when he actually was a prince, and now that he's just an underling, he's all gussied up.
- Merlin asks Cadal—who is now his servant—what he thinks Ambrosius will do with him.
- Cadal has no idea. But he does reassure Merlin that Lord Uther won't be around much. Merlin's glad—Uther's kind of a jerk.
- Turns out that Uther's also a little annoyed that Ambrosius treats Merlin so well.
- And Ambrosius really does hang out with Merlin a lot in the evenings: playing chess, chatting, playing music.
- Ambrosius eventually explains the vision Merlin had of the bull on the night they first met. It was no ordinary white bull that Merlin had seen: it was Mithras.
- The birth of Mithras, as Ambrosius tells it, sounds a whole lot the birth of Jesus Christ: it's winter, there's a cave (read: stable), there are shepherds. It's also all about bringing light to the earth.
- Mithras is the god of soldiers because he is the god of strength, courage, and self-restraint.
- Because Merlin had also spoken of bread and wine when he described his vision, Ambrosius' men thought he knew about the secret rites of Mithras—which he shouldn't know.
- Ambrosius does want Merlin to become an initiate or new member of the cult of Mithras. He feels that it will increase Merlin's power.
- Merlin's just happy because Ambrosius treats him like a prince, which is way better than he had been treated at his grandpa's house.
- Cadal becomes Merlin's servant, and the two become BFFs pretty quickly. Merlin rides around town with Cadal and revisits the creepy stones he first saw when entering the town.
- Merlin watches as Ambrosius, Uther, and King Budec work to put together an unstoppable army to take down Vortigern and his Saxon horde. They want vengeance for the death of Constantius. They work to make the soldiers versatile: they do military drills, sure, but they also learn trades—like blacksmithing, farming, horse-training—so that they will be able do everything for themselves.
- Soon, Merlin gets a tutor called Belasius. He's an awful person, but he's really smart. And if it's all about power, then Belasius' character doesn't matter. He just needs to teach Merlin a lot.
- One day, Belasius lets Merlin off early because he's done really well on his math problems. But he warns Merlin to stay on the roads and be home by dark.
- Cadal hates the whole idea of Merlin riding out on a day like this, since it's rainy and gross—but Merlin gets all imperial on him and insists on doing what he wants.
- So off Merlin and Cadal go to the soaking wet forest, with Cadal worrying about what his master Ambrosius would say.