by Rain Oxford
I figured Gmork wouldn’t be afraid of a ghost, but I decided to let his imagination run wild thinking about what type of monster lived here. I hoped Vactarus did one of his elaborate displays that would cause any sane man to run.
Vactarus didn’t disappoint.
The lights flickered out and the fireplace roared to life. The mansion creaked with wind and there was even a woman’s scream somewhere on the second floor. The fire suddenly flowed out of the fireplace and swirled around the room before stopping in the middle to create a giant version of Vactarus’s head.
The head glared down on us. “Who dares to intrude on my lair?” Vactarus’s voice was loud enough to vibrate through the floor. The head opened his mouth to speak again and then realized who we were. He sighed with frustration. “Oh, it’s you again.”
The fire vanished, the lights lit, and the normal-sized, full-bodied Vactarus appeared in place of the head. “That was a nice trick.”
“Enough to frighten off a sorcerer?”
“No, probably not.”
Then he noticed Gmork, who was hard to see in the dark room. “Another wolf?” Vactarus asked. “Did you curse this one, too?”
“Actually, I didn’t, but yes. Gmork was cursed with the same potion as Merlin.”
“Wizards should really be warned not to cross you. If I didn’t know any better, I would think you were starting a collection.”
“I can still turn you into a bat, you know. Gmork, this is Vactarus Firesword.”
“You’re a ghost…” Gmork said, shocked.
“I am a magician,” Vactarus said, crossing his arm.
“We are on a quest and we would like to sleep without the threat of bandits or worse hanging over us. Can we rest here?”
“As long as Gmork isn’t friends with Merlin.” Vactarus scowled at Merlin, who smirked.
“Gmork and I are no more friends than you and I.”
I rolled my eyes.
* * *
We slept and rested for the rest of the day and night. Knowing that I was getting to sleep easier was a relief. The next morning, however, I was awoken by Merlin and Gmork arguing… from outside the mansion. I opened the window and saw them in the yard. They weren’t physically fighting, at least.
“You will have to figure it out on your own, just like I did,” Gmork said. “Just like I had to figure out immortality on my own.”
“I was trapped in a cave!”
“Where you could learn all the magic you wanted.”
“Can you hear yourself? I had no choice.”
“You did have a choice. You chose to stop visiting me, and you chose revenge. If you get your magic back, you will kill me and rescue Nimue so that you can have her to yourself.”
Merlin growled and bared his fangs. “I am not the one who wanted to kill anyone!” Merlin was angrier over the fact that Gmork was calling him untrustworthy than that Gmork had betrayed him in the first place.
I closed the window and went to the library. Merlin was the wisest person I knew, and if he needed to talk or rant to me, he knew I would be there. Of course, he had kept things from me, but he was more likely to lie if I asked him about it rather than letting him come to me. I knew it would take time before he was willing to share his problems.
Besides, Gmork wasn’t going to be around after this and Merlin would get the closure he needed. It was good for him.
* * *
Merlin found me soon after and we set out for the Dark Forest. It didn’t take us long to reach, but I had a difficult time forcing myself to enter. Except for being a little darker, the forest itself wasn’t all that different than the average forest. As a child, I’d spent a lot of my time exploring forests, but I knew better than to enter troll territory when they were actively hunting.
“It cannot be that bad,” Gmork said.
“How many trolls have you fought?” I asked.
“None.”
“Then you don’t know what you’re up against. They’re big, mean, and tough. They’re not going to be afraid of us.”
“If the only way to get the heart and save Nimue is in there, I am going,” Gmork said, marching inside.
“He’ll get killed in there alone,” I said. “We can do this.” I looked at Merlin for reassurance and he nodded.
We caught up to Gmork quickly. Unlike me, Merlin knew which way to go to find the place where we had first met the elves. I hoped they hadn’t moved, or it could take a long time to find them. When we came upon a river, I thought Merlin had gotten us lost.
“This must have been formed when magic was dying and Caldaca was facing natural disasters,” he said.
“I can float us over it,” I offered.
“Not here. We will find a narrower passage to minimize the risk.”
We followed it north for a while before we came to a stone bridge. In front of the bridge was a sign.
Troll Bridge
Quest-seekers: one gold coin
Revenge-seekers: one silver coin
Monster-hunters: one copper coin
Runaways: one act of sacrifice
Maximum of four people or creatures permitted per party.
No vegetables are allowed past this point.
“That’s new,” I said, getting out a coin. “Should we try to go around it?”
“For that price? Normally, I would say yes, but we have more money than time at this point.”
We approached the bridge, and as soon as I set foot on the stone, an invisibility spell fell away from the troll. He was huge, but not as fat as I had expected. I wondered if that was due to Ilvera’s absence as well. I suspected the sorcerers hunted too much of the trolls’ prey. Other than that, he wore trousers that were too short and thin for him, only reaching his knees. His head was smaller and flatter than mine, which looked ridiculous on his massive body. His blue hair was thin and straw-like, and his black eyes were small.
“One act of sacrifice,” the troll said. His words were slow and dull, suggesting he wasn’t highly intelligent.
“But we aren’t runaways.”
The troll considered this for a very long time without speaking.
“We’re on a quest,” I said, hoping to speed it along.
Finally, he said, “One gold coin.”
I pulled out a gold coin. He held his hand out flat and I dropped the coin on this palm cautiously. “Thank you for using the troll bridge. Come again.” And then he disappeared.
“That went so much easier than I was expecting. I’ve never had to pay to cross a bridge before, though.”
“The trolls maintain the bridge, so that is why it costs,” Merlin said.
“Oh. That makes sense. It’s nice to see trolls being productive. Usually, they just eat people and stink.”
We traveled for a while before Merlin suddenly stopped. “What is it?” Gmork asked.
“They are here.”
A tree vine suddenly snapped and an instant later, Gmork was suspended by his left hind leg. Gmork growled and tried to bite through the vine, but he couldn’t bend that well.
Merlin smirked at Gmork’s struggle. “They must not like you, either. If only I had magic, I could get you down. Oh, well.”
“Elves, we need your help,” I called. I knew the trees were full of them in hiding, but only one dropped down to reveal himself. He was slender and barely reached my chest in height, with long, braided, dark brown hair, brown and green eyes, and pointed ears. He only wore leaves and vines, which helped to camouflage him in the trees. I hoped he was the king, as it was difficult for me to tell them apart.
“We said that your passage would be safe, not that your companions’ would be.”
“We’re here to see you,” I said. “We think you might have gotten part of a scroll that we need.”
The elven king narrowed his eyes. “I have, but such magic is valuable, and I will not hand it over for free.”
“I suspected as much. What do you want for it?”
“My daughte
r was kidnapped by the troll king, Lindow.”
“The same daughter Gibus had transformed into an apple tree?”
“Yes. Save her and return her to me, and I will give you the scroll.”
“I’ll do it, but my friends get to go with me this time,” I said. The elf king nodded and Gmork was released. Merlin groaned.
“We really have to go somewhere else when he has the scroll here?” Gmork snarled, ignoring Merlin. “I could eat this elf in a heartbeat and still have room for more.”
Several dozen hisses erupted in the trees.
“We’ll do the quest,” I said.
“I thought you did not want to face trolls.”
“I would rather face a troll than cross the elves.” I turned to the elf king. “How do we find the troll king?”
“Lindow lives in the heart of a cave directly west of here.”
We headed west.
* * *
Gmork and Merlin talked in another language for a while, and I was pretty sure they were arguing about Nimue. Since I couldn’t understand anyway, I worked on a plan to defeat the trolls when we reached them.
The easiest plan would have been to make myself invisible and slip them Merlin’s gullibility potion, but trolls could smell me and I wasn’t sure the gullibility potion would work on them anyway.
We reached the trolls’ lair before I could come up with a plan. The mouth of the cave was set in the side of a mountain. Outside, three trolls paced around, guarding the lair. Two of them were eating the leg of a large mammal while the other dragged a spiked club. They were all huge with muscle as well as fat. We stayed downwind (which wasn’t pleasant) and out of sight.
Unlike the northern trolls that cook their food, southern trolls fear fire, so we can use torches to keep them at bay… except we didn’t have torches. I could set a fire with my wand, but I would need something that could burn.
Merlin must have been thinking the same as me. “Trolls of Caldaca fear fire, right?”
“Most of them do.”
“Are they intelligent enough to run from smoke?”
“They should be.”
“Then I am going to teach you a new spell.”
“Right now?”
“Of course. You will be extra motivated to succeed. Take out a pen, paper, a black feather, the blue candle, and the bottle of sap.”
I sat on a log and did as he said. When Gmork asked what I was doing, I told him that Merlin was teaching me something. Merlin instructed me to fold edges and sides in certain, intricate ways. It took a while before I realized it was starting to resemble a bird.
“Oh!” Gmork said, also seeing the shape. “He is teaching you the Smoking Crane. I taught him that, but he was better than me at it. Later, I should teach you the Smoke Signal.”
“I am his teacher,” Merlin groused. Gmork rolled his eyes. “When are you going to get your magic back already so that you can help?”
“I am more eager to get it back than you could possibly know.”
“I need to concentrate here,” I said. They both reluctantly fell silent.
Once I was done with the detailed folding, I had to flatten it to write an incantation across the bird’s wings.
By dark feather and smoke of rings,
I chase the wind and do these things.
Fire and Air give life to my wings.
“Adjust the folds.” I did. “Good. Next, use the sap to attach the feather to the underside of the crane.”
I used a stick instead of my finger both because the sap was extremely sticky and also because I never wanted to touch sap again after the sleeping curse.
“Raise the crane to your face and whisper what you want it to do.”
“Drive the trolls out of their cave and away from it,” I whispered to the paper bird.
“Now give it the energy to obey your will through fire and magic. Light the candle and dip the very tip of the wings through the flame. You must blow the tips out instantly, though; do not let fire consume it or it will be unable to fly. As you do this, focus your magic on your intention and let your energy flow into it.”
I did, although it was difficult to fill it with my magic and not let the wing light on fire. However, it soon started smoking, and when I did the same to the other wing, the smoke spread. Suddenly, the entire bird was smoking without burning.
“Now release it.”
I did. Instead of falling to the ground, the paper wings started flapping and it hovered in midair before flying away, towards the cave. The crane easily evaded the trolls’ detection and fluttered into the cave.
“Now we wait,” Merlin said.
We didn’t have to wait long, though. Soon, the ground rumbled. The guard trolls stopped pacing out of confusion. A moment later, thirty trolls rushed out, shouting in fear. “Fire!” one of them shouted. That was all the information the guard trolls needed to join the stampede. I felt sorry for the poor animals that got in their way. After another few dozen fled the cave, the smoke crane emerged and flew to me, only stopping when it was hovering in front of my face.
“Tell it that it did well.”
I did, and then the crane burst into ash. Before I could ask what happened, my magic returned to me. “Did it feel pain?”
“No. It has simply fulfilled its purpose. Are you ready?”
I shook my head. “This is going to end terribly, but we’re going to do it anyway.”
“For Nimue,” Gmork said.
“I think if we put this much effort into stopping Erica, we would already have saved Nimue.”
Without any further complaining or arguing, we entered the cave. Fortunately, it wasn’t completely dark; there were glowing crystals in the wall. We followed as the wide tunnel grew narrower and narrower.
“I feel like I am growing,” Gmork said.
“That is what you get for chasing rabbits,” Merlin responded.
The cave split into five tunnels. “Which way should we go?” I asked.
“We will split up,” Gmork said.
“Right; that makes sense. You take the four on the right and Merlin and I will take the one on the left.” When he rolled his eyes and took the bridge to the far right, Merlin took the center path and I took the one on the far left. I encountered a metal gate blocking off a room of treasure. Based on the piles of bones in front of it, I figured it was usually guarded. It didn’t matter to me, so I backtracked and took the tunnel next to it.
This one led to a wide-open cavern. A river cut through it with three separate bridges. Aside from that, there were three treasure chest, a set of armor, a sword, and a bunch of rats. I checked the chests out of curiosity and mostly just found dead rats. I got a few coins out of it, though. I stayed away from the armor and sword, figuring they were all that remained of the last man who had snuck in.
I crossed the middle bridge and found another tunnel hidden behind a natural column. There, I found three massive straw mattresses on the ground. Obviously, it was a bedroom. As I turned to leave, I spotted a small barrel with writing on it and picked it up.
Dragon Oil
Made from the highest quality dragon hide,
Dragon Oil makes any substance fire and magic repellent.
Perfect for armor, treasure chests, and locks!
I sighed. “I’m sure this isn’t going to cause problems later.”
“I believe I have found the tunnel we need,” Merlin said in my mind. “And there is a problem.”
I joined Merlin in the middle tunnel, which led to an open cavern. However, the cavern was blocked by a metal gate. Of course, it was locked. The cavern was littered with bones, jewels, and fancy clothes, as well as a number of treasure chests. To the far side of the cavern was a cliff drop, probably from the quakes caused by the black star. The same narrow river as in the previous room ran through the center of this room, along with three identical bridges.
Off to the right side of the gate, I could just make out a lever. “That must be the way to open it.�
�� I reached my wand through the bars and focused my magic. “Pull the lever.” My magic shot out and sparked off the lever. I groaned. “Dragon oil.”
“What?” Merlin asked.
“I found a barrel of oil in another room that makes things fire and magic repellant. They’re not as dumb as I thought.”
“Perhaps there is another way in.”
I studied the river for a moment and how it ran under the wall into the following room. “I may have an idea if Gmork hasn’t found another way.” The words were barely out of my mouth before Gmork joined us. “The other tunnels only lead to bedrooms, treasure, and rubbish piles.”
I set my bag and staff down, then stripped off my robe.
“What are you doing?” Merlin asked.
“Going swimming, apparently. Stay here.”
As quickly as I could, I ran back to the other large cavern. There was nothing separating the two rooms underwater, but the stream was pretty fast. Then again, I had done worse. I took a deep breath and jumped in. It was cold and loud, but I swam against the stream with all my strength and speed. There were tree roots and rocks lining the bottom and sides of the river, so this helped tremendously.
Only when I absolutely had to breathe did I surface. To my great relief, I had made it, and climbed out surprisingly easily.
“Good thinking,” Merlin praised as I approached.
Surprised by how cold it was underground in Akadema, I wrung the water out of my clothes. As I reached for the lever, Gmork growled. “Watch out!”
I turned to see the danger just in time to duck out of the way of a club. The troll who had swung it as me was the largest of any troll I had seen, both in height and body mass. He had short, blood-red hair and matching eyes, and was only wearing a fur skirt. I did not need to see the grease and bits of meat stuck to his massive gut.
He swung the club again and I retreated.