by Rain Oxford
“I’m not sending you there alone.”
“Your magic will be useless against Gmork, young sorcerer. It would crush me if I let you get hurt by an enemy of my past… again. He has already cursed you once. Although people on my world usually become immune to a curse after they are cured of it, that is not always the case.”
“How do you think I would feel if you got killed because I sent you there alone?”
“I haven’t known you two for long, but it is obvious to me that you can do anything together,” Kalyn said.
“Gmork may not know all of my tricks, but he knows me. If you will not send me there to speak to him alone, your alternative magic might be our best defense. He does not know your magic like I do.”
“At least he won’t come after us now that he has what he wants,” Thad said. “It gives us time to prepare.”
The words were barely out of his mouth before Gmork appeared in the dining room. I expected him to attack or accuse Merlin of something. I did not expect what he actually said.
“I need your help.”
Chapter 9
When Thaddeus pointed his wand at the wolf threateningly, I pulled his arm back. “Wait. Let him explain himself.”
“Thank you,” Gmork said.
“I didn’t say we wouldn’t attack at all,” I said, grabbing my staff, which was always next to me at the table. With a thought, I transformed my staff into a sword.
Gmork’s eyes narrowed. “Hear me out. I destroyed the woman who cursed my mother.”
“How?” Merlin asked. “That was centuries ago.”
“I am a necromancer, Merlin. Use your imagination. That was the only reason I wanted the amulet. Before I could decide on who else to use on, a witch appeared and stole it.”
“What do you mean?” Thad asked. “Witches don’t steal.”
“He’s from a world where witches can be as dark as a sorceress,” I said.
Thad huffed. “Other worlds are so strange. Next, you’re going to tell me they only have one moon. Or that wounds can be healed without magic.”
“None of that matters. The witch stole the amulet and took my mother.”
“What do you mean she took your mother?” I asked.
“You told me you were too late to save her,” Merlin said.
“I lied in order to rush you. Now I need your help to get her back.”
“Why would we help you after what you did to Ayden?” Kalyn asked.
“I gave you the instructions for the cure.”
“They didn’t work!”
“Obviously, they did,” he said, gesturing to me with his paw.
“What did the sorceress want with the amulet?” I asked, more interested in figuring out what was going on than worrying about the past.
“She wanted me to get something else for her. That was also why she took my mother.”
“How did she even know you had the amulet?”
“I do not know. She sprang quickly, though, like she knew ahead of time where I would be and how to manipulate me. I suspect she could see the future.”
“Why should we help you?” Mason asked.
“It is not your help I want,” Gmork snarled at him. “I need Merlin.” He turned to face Merlin. “Many years ago, you promised to help my mother. You failed to break the curse, but you can help now.”
Merlin stared at him for a moment before nodding. “I will help, but for her sake, not yours, and you will give up the amulet willingly to me.”
“Deal.”
“And if you ever hurt Ayden again, I will tear out your throat.”
A shiver was shared by all in the dining room.
* * *
We appeared on a crossroads. A flower-lined path led east into a pleasant-looking forest, where birds sang happily in the trees. Everything else was open plains and grain fields. There was a sign explaining where we were.
Endless Forest
Dead End
Do Not Enter!
Turn Back!
There was another sign with arrows.
To the north: Food
To the south: Comfortable Lodgings
To the west: City of Branson
To the east: Certain Death
“We are not going in there,” Gmork said.
“Yes, we are.”
“Why?”
“We’re about to face someone who can take our magic, but can still use her own. Thus, we need a creature that is impervious to magic and can fight without magic,” I explained.
After Merlin and I replenished our supply of magical tools, we had come up with a plan out of Gmork’s earshot. It was harder for him to betray us that way. Of course, it would have been easier if we knew who we were up against. All we knew was that we couldn’t let the amulet remain in enemy hands, and Sigrid didn’t deserve to suffer.
“I am losing faith in your ability to help me,” Gmork said.
“We’re not doing this to help you; we’re doing this to stop the sorceress and save your mother.”
“I thought wizards from your world were selfless and endlessly forgiving.”
“I’m not a wizard. I am a curse breaker. I trust Merlin, not you. Now that you’ve gotten all of us into this mess, we need help. We need help that doesn’t rely on magic. Now go.”
“I see a lot of Merlin in you.”
I looked at Merlin, who shook his head. “You are much better a man than I was at your age.”
Gmork entered the forest and we followed. “Which way do we go?” Gmork asked.
“It doesn’t matter. We can go any direction. We find the beast by wanting to find him. I’ll do it, so just follow me.” I focused my mind on the chimera as we walked. Soon, we came upon a sorceress’s cabin. It was made of gray stone and enclosed in blood-red ivy. Fortunately, I wasn’t afraid of the sorceress because I knew she was powerless. She was also my cousin. “Come out, chimera.”
Instead of emerging like a civilized beast, it soared over the roof of the cabin and landed in front of me. Gmork scrambled back, but I didn’t. It was no different than the posturing my brothers did. Sure, it could kill me easily, as could they, but if I showed fear, it would have already killed me. Instead, by standing my ground, I made it curious.
As I predicted, it studied me rather than eating me in an instant. It had the head and body of a lion with large tan-colored, feather wings and a goat’s head protruding from its back, and a serpent for a tail. While the description sounded ridiculous, it was perfectly designed to fight a magical opponent. It was terrifying in appearance, strong, fast, and most importantly, it was invulnerable to magic. Its only natural predator was a dragon.
Hopefully, there wasn’t also a dragon waiting for us at Gmork’s castle.
“I know you can understand me. We need your help.”
I felt his thoughts in my mind. Although they weren’t actual words I could understand, I knew he wasn’t willing.
“We’re facing a sorceress and our powers are useless against her. You can’t be hurt by her magic. Help us.”
“What do chimeras eat?” Merlin asked me.
“I don’t know.”
“If we did, we could bribe it.”
“You can convince him better than me.”
“No. You defeated him, trapped him, and then freed him. He is more likely to respect and obey you than anyone else.”
I took a moment to consider what I knew about chimera from my books. “They like guarding things and people. I know. Chimera, the sorceress we need to defeat has an amulet. This is a terribly powerful amulet that must be kept safe from any magic user. If you stop her, you can have the amulet.”
I looked at Merlin and he nodded, assuring me that the plan was good with him.
After a moment, the chimera bowed his head.
“Create the portal,” Merlin said aloud. “We will go first, because sending the chimera in first could escalate the situation and lose us the element of surprise.”
“I can’t create the porta
l here,” I said. “All I have to make it with is paint. Gmork, you will have to do it.”
“I…” he trailed off, his eyes full of shame. “I cannot.”
“Why not?”
“I took a potion that amplified my power for several days because I thought you were going to be more of a threat. The drawback is that during the following several days, I am severely limited.”
“That’s why you were so hard to fight?” I asked. He nodded. “And now when we need you to fight someone else, you’re useless?”
He scowled. “I am not useless. I am still a powerful wolf with centuries of knowledge. I can still do magic, I just cannot form portals. Nimue had to send me to you.”
“She’s helping you?”
“She was protecting my mother while I was gone, so she sent me to you for my mother’s sake. We can just go in there,” Gmork said, gesturing to the cabin.
“No, not unless we want to be killed. That’s my cousin’s house, and she’s a sorceress. We’ll need to find somewhere else.” We started searching. Soon, we came upon a house made of candy, which I had seen before. We decided not to bother with it. Second, we came upon a castle that was built of ice. “That can’t be comfortable,” I said.
“It must belong to someone who is not bothered by the cold,” Gmork said.
“I like snow, but not that much.”
We moved on. Then we found a log cabin with the door wide open. From the porch, I could see only one person inside. There was a table with three chairs and three bowls of porridge across from the door. To the left was a fireplace. To the right were three beds, two being large and one was small. A girl was sleeping in the small bed.
“That’s the girl who was hunting the werewolf,” I said.
“What?” Merlin asked.
“Never mind.” I painted the portal on the porch. “I really hope the owners don’t mind us doing this.”
“I think they will mind the intruder worse,” Merlin said.
“You don’t think the girl lives here?”
“Considering the scent I am detecting, no, I do not think she does.”
When the portal was complete, I activated it.
We appeared in Gmork’s throne room, which was exactly how I remember it. However, instead of servants gathered around, there was only a woman sitting in the chair. From the dark magic emanating from her, I knew this was the sorceress who had overthrown Gmork so easily.
It was still odd to see a sorceress without black hair. Her long, golden brown hair and light green eyes would have been pretty if I couldn’t see the hate in her eyes. She was slender with a long black dress that didn’t flatter her. Her black shoes were small and had dangerously sharp heels. Her dark red nails were long and sharpened like claws, and the rings on her fingers looked just as threatening.
She reminded me of my mother and Baltezore together.
When I felt Merlin’s shock, I looked at him. “I take it you know her?”
“How are you here?” he asked her.
She laughed. “Oh, you mean because my father said he killed me? He tried. I knew he would, which is why I made a decoy.”
“I do not understand. He sacrificed you to allow the female egg to be hatched.”
She smirked. “That was his mistake. His power could rival any dragon’s, but I was smarter. Although he created the curse, I knew how to bend it to my will.”
“Wait, wait,” I said. “You’re Erica Baltezore?”
She smiled pleasantly. “The one and only.”
“Are you okay?” I asked in Merlin’s mind.
“I believed she killed my mother only by order of her father, but she is more ruthless than he was.”
“Look at the great and powerful Merlin, now no more than a puppy. Tell me, puppy, did you enjoy killing my father?” She sounded excited about her father’s death, not angry.
“Of course not,” Merlin said. “He killed my mother, stole my childhood, and ripped me away from my family. However, I could have stopped him were I wiser. Revenge is only a curse upon its seeker. It was not me who killed him, but rather than Ayden and his friends baring the weight of his death, it is his own fault.”
“Does that mean you hold no grudge against me?”
Merlin hesitated before lying. “Yes.”
She laughed. “That’s so sweet. I’d hate for there to be any bad blood between us because of my father. When I crush you like the little bug you are, I want you to know that it’s all me.”
“Why do you hate me?”
“As long as you’re alive, you are competition. I hate competition.”
I whistled as Merlin had taught me to do. Erica didn’t get another word out before the chimera appeared. “It’s her!” I said, pointing to Erica. The chimera attacked.
It didn’t get very far, unfortunately, as a sword flew down from a decorative mount on the wall and chopped off the serpent’s head in an instant. I gasped in shock and horror as the lion head roared in pain. The goat’s head tried to ram her, but the lion wasn’t cooperating. The serpent would grow back, but it was still a miserable sight.
When the chimera could stand its pain, it rushed her again. This time, it hit an invisible ward and they both went flying back, but Erica got to her feet quickly. The chimera was losing a lot of blood.
Magic wasn’t supposed to work on a chimera, but dragons were different, and Erica was half dragon.
Erica formed a sphere of glowing, gold, crackling energy between her hands and flung it at the chimera. It didn’t kill him, as I suspected it would have any other creature, but he roared again with pain and collapsed. The sword flew to her hands and she advanced on the poor beast.
“Stop!” I shouted, jumping between them with my staff aimed at her.
“Ayden!” Merlin shouted. “Get out of the way!”
“I brought him here; I’m not letting anyone kill him.”
Erica grinned and lowered the sword. “You either have a death wish or you are a complete idiot.”
“I don’t have a death wish,” I said. She waved her hand at me my body froze.
“I will let the chimera live and keep him as my pet. You three… well, I don’t need a couple of puppies and a boy as pets.”
I had enough control to move my eyes and mouth, but I couldn’t lower my staff. I considered telling her how wrong she was. However, Merlin had taught me to think before I spoke, and this was not the time for taunting the enemy.
The sword vanished and she raised her hand at Merlin before hesitating. “I’m not going to kill you yet. You three will get the heart that my father hid and bring it to me.”
“Why would we do that?” I asked.
She made a gesture with her hand and Sigrid appeared, bound with glowing bands around her wrists and ankles. She was barely recognizable, though. Her once silky, inky black hair was now thin, dry, and gray. Her loving eyes were now full of pain and misery. Her smooth and fair skin now had a grayish tone and hung loosely as if it was tired, suggesting she was ancient. She had lost so much weight that she was like a skeleton with skin.
It was heartbreaking to see. This wasn’t what Erica had done to her; life had caused this.
“Mother!” Gmork couldn’t go to her, because he was as frozen as we were.
“Let me go,” she said, tears streaming from her eyes. Her voice was as dry and weak as an old woman’s.
“I’ll let you go when they return with what I want,” Erica said.
“I will save you, Mother,” Gmork said.
“Where are we supposed to find the heart?” Merlin asked.
She scowled at him. “You should know.”
“How would I?”
“You were the one my father wanted to follow in his footsteps. You were the one he believed in. I was born to be sacrificed.”
“I am sorry that your father was a horrible person,” Merlin said. “I had nothing to do with it.”
“You’re getting that heart for me or Gmork will lose his mother all over aga
in. You wouldn’t want that, now would you?”
Merlin looked at Gmork. Gmork snarled, trying desperately to break Erica’s spell and save his mother.
“We’ll find it,” I said, surprising Merlin.
Erica considered me for a moment before nodding. “Then get to it. Don’t be gone too long, though, or I might just kill her out of boredom.”
She motioned with her hand and Sigrid vanished. Her spell released us, too, and we left without another word. The chimera followed us, but as soon as we got outside, he took flight and disappeared into the sky. I hoped he would recover quickly and live a good life. It wasn’t his home world, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy it.
When we reached the gates, Merlin turned on Gmork with anger. “You lied to me!”
“Which time?” Gmork asked.
“Sigrid is dead.”
I gaped. Gmork snarled.
“She is not dead! She did… die. I was too late in administering the cure for the sleeping curse. I had to hunt down Gaya and… it was a messy matter. The point is, I had everything right, but I was too late. However, by then, I had mastered necromancy, so I brought her back.”
“At what cost? Have you seen her?”
“What does that matter? She is alive.”
“You and I have a very different definition of alive,” Merlin said. His tone changed from angry to sad.
“Who taught you the cure?” I asked.
“No one. I read it in a book.”
He was lying.
After taking a calming breath, Merlin asked, “What is your plan, young sorcerer?”
“It’s not to go after the amulet. I think we should sneak in and free her. If you two can draw Erica away, I can probably transport myself to Sigrid.”
“Transport? Like a portal?” Gmork asked.
“No, it’s my world’s magic.”
“There’s no need for that,” Gmork said. “I know my castle. It has numerous secret passages. We can sneak in and save her.”
“You do that,” Merlin said. “Ayden and I will wait out here.”
“What? Why wouldn’t we go in?” I asked.