by Rain Oxford
“Ayden is a true friend who attempted to break the curse.”
“Can he give me back my body?”
“No.”
I stepped between them. Ancient wizard or not, Merlin didn’t have sharp teeth, and my wolf took that to mean he needed to be protected. Unconcerned, Merlin grabbed my right ear and tugged gently but firmly. My wolf’s attention was instantly redirected.
Merlin started making potions and explained every step so that I could learn. Somehow, it was much easier to pay attention than usual. When I told him this, Merlin said that my wolf didn’t have an attention problem.
He also gathered a collection of rings and pendants. I figured they were magical, like my mother’s rings, but he said they would only work for him, and only while he had magic. I didn’t have a lot of confidence in them.
* * *
Merlin created the portal to the crystal cave. The portal was pretty normal. The cave we appeared in was extraordinary, but I had actually seen it in my dreams before.
The interior walls were covered in crystals, most of them clear or white. The cave was set in a mountain overlooking the sea. There was a bed, a bookshelf, a reading chair, and a writing desk stocked with pens, ink, and paper.
“What are we looking for?” I asked.
“Anything he might have left since my entrapment.” He picked up a book. “Like this.”
I didn’t ask if he was sure it was new; he spent more than a hundred years in the cave. I let him skim through it for a while before asking what it was.
“A grimoire, similar to the one I had you make, except it also contains information on his travels and ramblings. Most of it is in the dragon’s language.”
“Which you can read.”
“It is the most difficult language I had ever learned, and I am not fluent in dragon literacy. This, though…” He set the book down and gestured to the open page. There was a drawing of a creepy mansion, surrounded by foreign writing.
“What does it say?”
Instead of answering, he studied the floor. “Stand back.”
Gmork had to back most of the way out of the cave while I just got on the bed. Merlin grabbed a dagger off the table and sliced his arm. In all the lessons my mentor taught me, he never asked me to spill blood except to trap the chimera in the syrus. I knew Merlin did blood magic, but he had kept me out of it for my own good.
The scent of blood was strong and I expected the wolf to feel hunger. After all, wolves were carnivores. Surprisingly, the wolf felt as much sympathy as I did. The wolf thought of Merlin as family and wanted to protect him from harm. If it was an enemy that shed blood, however, I had no doubt the wolf would become uncontrollable.
The blood hit the floor and spread. As it did, it thinned out to create the lines of a portal. It took most of the space, including under Merlin. “Maybe you should move,” I said, worried.
He took a step back, but before he could get out of it, the blood started glowing. “This might have been---”
The rest of his words were lost as he disappeared.
“Merlin!” There was no answer. I didn’t hesitate. With my wolf-inherited agility, I leapt off the bed and landed on the portal. The world disappeared around me. When it reappeared, I was in a dark room.
The floor was wood and the walls were dark wood and red brick. It was a living room with a couch in front of the fireplace, a bookshelf, a low table, and two comfortable reading chairs. Above the fireplace was a painting of a study, which I thought was odd. There were also two doors and a staircase.
Fortunately, Merlin was there. “I think this is what we’re looking for,” he said, showing me another drawing in the book. It was a wooden chest with metal straps. The only thing abnormal about it was the silver sigils all over it. “We need to switch back now.”
I nodded. He knelt in front of me and looked me in the eye. As long as we voluntarily switched, it wasn’t a terrible experience. The first time, it was agonizing as my bones, muscles, and organs transformed. Even worse was the mind-numbing itch as fur grew. However, with each switch, it was easier, because my mind separated from the experience, like I was dreaming it or remembering something that happened long ago. I could feel and hear my bones snapping and reforming, stretching, shrinking, and growing, but it wasn’t at the front of my mind.
As it usually did, it took a while before my brain reconnected with my body and I found myself on the floor, draped in my robe. The most unfortunate thing about switching the curse wasn’t that Merlin and I had to be close to do it. Unlike with shapeshifters, our clothes didn’t disappear and reappear.
I got dressed quickly. Merlin had found a tunic among Magnus’s things that had metal snaps instead of ties, so that it wouldn’t tear when he shifted into a wolf. Unfortunately, it was way too large for me.
By the time the change was finished, Gmork had appeared. “Maybe we should call Baltezore’s shade,” he suggested.
“No,” Merlin responded instantly.
“What is a shade?” I asked.
“His ghost, basically.”
“Then I agree with Merlin. That’s too dangerous.”
“I can control him,” Gmork argued. “That’s what I do.”
“I’m sure you’re a good necromancer, but you betrayed Merlin. I will never trust you. Plus, you’re on baby-bat level of magic right now, aren’t you?”
He didn’t have a clever answer, so he stayed quiet. We started searching the house for the chest depicted in the book or anything else that could be or could contain the heart. Even though it was the home of a villainous dragon, I liked the style. It wasn’t glamorous like Magnus’s castle or spooky for the sake of it like my mother’s cabin.
One of the first rooms I checked was a magic room. It had three bookshelves in the middle of the room that formed a triangle. Inside that triangle was an extremely elaborate magic circle with a pentagram. Somehow, the perfectly-drawn pentagram had a square center, which I had never seen before. When I stepped in it, it started glowing red. Then the floor, ceiling, and walls lit up with sigils.
I wasn’t an idiot, so I stepped out of it, and everything stopped glowing. I spotted the chest from Baltezore’s drawing. “I found the magic room!” I said. A moment later, Merlin and Gmork joined me. “There’s the chest,” I said grabbing it off the shelf hesitantly. “It kind of looks like a small syrus.”
“It appears that this requires something different to open it, though,” he studied the metal latch that held the box closed.
“What’s wrong?” I asked when he frowned.
“This has been broken into. This is clearly a blood lock, though, so how that is possible is… Erica. Erica must have broken into it.”
“If the heart is in there, and she has opened it, then why did she send us after it?”
He shook his head. “Perhaps this is a trap… unless Baltezore had other relatives. The blood would have to be very close to Baltezore’s.”
“Should we take this back to Erica?” I asked. “We can’t use it like this.”
“No. We will have to open it. Switch with me.”
“Do you have the energy for that again so soon?”
“I will make due.”
I knelt and let him change us. This time, even I felt tired. He wasted no time, though. After slipping on my robe, he took the dagger out of my boot and cut his palm, since his arm wound had healed during the shifting. I winced.
His blood dripped onto the box and it popped open. “What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means this was meant for me.”
The room filled with bright light and the last thing I saw was Gmork bolting out the door. When the light faded, Merlin and I were standing on a grassy field with a black dragon. Behind the dragon was a cliff. “Where are we?” I asked.
“This is where I thought I ended the war on magic,” Merlin answered, as confused as I was. He gestured to a boulder. “That is the stone containing dragon magic that transforms any wizard killed into a drag
on.”
The black dragon was impossibly still. His eyes were cold blue, his body and wings were smoky gray and black with dark gray on his talons, and two long, curved horns adorned his head. He was one of the largest dragons I had ever seen, which was due to his age. Everything about him suggested danger.
After a moment, the wolf’s attention drew mine to the fact that there was no wind. Even the grass was still, as if this were a dream rather than reality.
“Cennuth, why are we here?” Merlin asked.
At the sound of his name, the dragon began moving and his chest swelled with a breath. “You are here because you are looking for the heart of Baltezore.”
“Do you have it?”
“No.”
“Are you even here?”
“No.”
“How are you talking to me, then?”
“I have taught you great magic, but there is still much you have to learn, young wizard.”
“Are you trying to stop me from getting the heart?”
“I am here to make sure you are the only one who can get it. When Baltezore died, I knew my only chance to protect the heart had come to pass. It is the most dangerous weapon against dragons and magic itself that has ever existed. I knew Erica would be after it, so I risked everything to reach it first.”
“So you hid it?”
“No. It was already hidden somewhere that no one could get to without a specific scroll that Baltezore had. Erica could get to the scroll, though.”
“So you hid the scroll?”
“I had to do more than that. Baltezore’s daughter is a ruthless and intelligent enemy. I tore the scroll into five pieces and hid each piece so that only you and Ayden can find them. I did this instead of simply destroying it because you are the only one I trust to defeat Erica. You are the only one I trust not to fall for her tricks. She must never get her hands on the heart. If you need the heart, then we are all in more danger than we know.”
“How do I find the pieces?”
“I will only give you the first clue. The answer you seek is as close as the painting on the wall, but to find it you must shine the truest light of all. I trust that you will protect this most dangerous of weapons, young wizard. Remember the primary law of magic.”
“What law?”
“Magic comes at a price.”
With that, the world faded to darkness.
* * *
Light returned a moment later and we were back in the magic room.
“Painting on the wall…” Merlin said, thinking.
“In the living room, there was a painting.”
Before I could leave, Merlin knelt on the floor. “I do not have the energy at the moment to maintain this form.”
I let him switch us back. Although I liked the ability to hold things, I would miss the wolf’s confidence and agility. I opened the door and saw Gmork in the hallway. “Your bravery astounds me,” I said.
He snarled. “I never said I would risk my life to find the heart. Merlin even said it was probably a trap. If you both die, then at least I will still be alive to save Nimue.”
I went to the living room and stopped in front of the painting on the wall to examine it more closely. It depicted a study with a wooden desk. On the desk was a scrap of paper. “That’s it? That’s too easy. We just have to find that room.”
“I already have,” Gmork said. “Follow me.” We did, and soon came upon the same study. It had wall-to-wall bookshelves, a writing desk, a world map, and a reading chair.
However, the scroll wasn’t on the desk. Instead, there was a flat, round, crystal. “Maybe this is supposed to be part of the scroll,” I said. “Or maybe we have to move it somewhere.”
Merlin pulled open the drawers of the desk with his paw. “I cannot imagine that being a mistake.”
“But why would there be the scroll in the painting? Or for that matter, why is there a painting of this room?”
He hesitated. “Cennuth said it was as close as the painting. This room is further from the magic room than the painting. Perhaps he was being more literal. Bring the crystal.” He ran out of the room before I could ask him what he meant. I pocketed the crystal and we followed him back to the living room. “Get the painting down carefully.”
I pointed my wand at it. “Levitate.” Not surprisingly, my wand decided to show off in the most embarrassing way possible by shooting a stream of pink glitter at the painting. Fortunately, the actual spell worked and the painting floated off the wall. I focused on the art gently drifting down towards us and it did so. I grabbed it, since I was the only one with thumbs at the moment, and propped it against the wall for Merlin to study.
After a moment, he said, “Turn it over so I can see the back.” I did, but there was nothing on it.
I touched the painted scroll gently to see if I could detect magic. It felt like regular paint, though; there wasn’t any energy that reacted to mine.
“Cennuth said we needed the truest light.”
“Fire?” Gmork asked.
“Sunlight,” I said. They both looked at me. “What?”
“How do you know that?” Merlin asked.
“Fire and glowing energy is made from magic. Sunlight just exists.”
“Fire is not made from magic, but other than that, your point is valid. Take it outside.”
I did. The large home was on a mountaintop, and there was no village or unnatural structure in sight. Mostly, it was hills, mountains, and grass. For a dragon, it was probably wonderful. For a dragon who couldn’t fly, it seemed like torture to me. I wondered why he chose to live there.
Sunlight didn’t reveal anything on the back of the painting, so I leaned it against the porch and sat in the grass with frustration. “Maybe we have to burn it.”
“Let us exhaust our other options before we possibly destroy it.”
“Maybe we need to hold it up against the sun so that we can see through it.” I reached for it and missed the frame because I was looking at Merlin. Instead of tearing the painting, however, my hand touched nothing at all. I gaped at it; my hand was sticking through the painting as if it was a hole into the room.
“I think it is safe to say this was what he was talking about,” Merlin said. “I will enter the painting and get the scroll.”
“Maybe I should go,” I said.
“Why?”
“I have hands,” I pointed out as politely as I could.
He frowned.
“The great and powerful Merlin cannot even complete his own quest?” Gmork mocked.
Merlin growled at him.
“You went to him for help when Erica got the amulet from you,” I pointed out.
“Yet Merlin lost it to me, so he’s no better,” Gmork argued.
“Merlin is a thousand times a better man than you. No one is perfect at everything and everyone needs help. I’m not judging you for needing our help. I’m judging you for the horrible things you’ve done. Even my mother wouldn’t have betrayed a friend the way you betrayed Merlin.”
“You said sorcerers do not have friends,” Merlin said.
“But if they did, she would have more class than that. She has allies.” Without any more arguing, I put my feet through the painting until I was sitting on the frame like a window ledge. I was high enough off the floor of the room that it would hurt to fall, but not so far that I would break anything. I twisted so that I could hold on and lower myself as much as possible. Then I let go and managed to stay on my feet. However, I was suddenly in the study again with no window to get out. “Merlin?”
“I still see you, young sorcerer.”
“I can’t say the same.” I went to the desk, where the scroll piece was, just like in the painting. The paper was yellowed and thick, about the size of my hand, with three neat rows of symbols. As I touched it, my magic reacted, sensing very powerful, dark magic in it. I put it in my pocket and went to the door. Unfortunately, when I opened the door, there was only a wall. Panic surged through me. Being in a
room with no windows or doors was going to haunt my sleep, assuming I ever got out of there. The only thing worse would have been being trapped in my own body.
“Come back to the painting.”
“I don’t know where it is.”
A moment later, a wolf paw appeared, sticking out of the wall. I lined up under it and pointed my wand at myself. “Levitate.” I did, but although I could touch his paw, the wall was as solid as brick. Panic grew and my power started wavering. Before I risked crashing, I lowered myself to the ground. “Please do something.”
“Stay calm. I promise I will get you out of there.”
There was a moment of silence, so I asked, “What’s going on?”
“Just brainstorming. Gmork thinks we should take the painting back inside, out of the sunlight.”
“Would that work?”
“I do not know. I am afraid it might cut off the magic completely and trap you in there permanently.”
“Maybe I can make a portal. Toss my bag in here.” He did, and I got to work painting the portal home. However, I couldn’t bring myself to activate it. “If I do this, how will you get back to me?”
“I will not be able to. I cannot do magic myself. Not that kind, at least. Furthermore, I doubt you would be able to recreate the portal to reach me. We would be separated.”
“No!”
“It is better than you being trapped in this room forever. I should have gone instead.”
“You being trapped here instead wouldn’t do either of us any good. And neither would joining me, which I know you’re considering. You need to save Nimue.”
“I will not sacrifice your life to save her. It is possible that because this test was designed for me, I must be in the room.”
“But if you’re wrong, you’ll be trapped with me.”
“I remember the portal back here. We can go home to Caldaca and then return here to finish our quest.”
I didn’t miss the fact that he called it “our” quest instead of his. “What if the portal doesn’t work?”
“Then at least we will be trapped in a room full of books rather than a cave of fortune-telling crystals.” He didn’t argue anymore; he just leapt through the painting and appeared in the study. With perfect ease, he landed on his feet.