The Conservation of Magic

by Michael W. Layne

  How ironic it would be, he thought, if he died here at the mercy of the sea after being worried so much about the power of fire. He was probably in the one element where Sigela could do him no harm, but as his adoptive father had once told him, dead was dead, no matter how you looked at it.

  #

  Lagu’s body was so large and always changing that even she could not keep track of everything that was a part of her without concentrating. Millions upon millions of life forms tickled her every second of every day—the fish in the sea, the plants at the bottom of her oceans, and the people. The people always came to her, but few stayed within her for very long. Most simply wet their feet or their hair and then left again, running back to the sand and safety that Terrada offered them.

  Today, Lagu felt something different. It took her a while to pinpoint what it was, but when she did, all around the world, her body shivered. There was a Drayoom close to Annoon, the place she and her siblings called home. In all her years, she could not remember another Drayoom approaching Annoon in this manner.

  As she coiled herself around the struggling Drayoom, Lagu tried to communicate with the creature as he flailed about inside her. She tried just saying hello, and when she received no response, she nudged him to let him know that she was there and watching.

  Normally, there would be no way for a Drayoom to even find Annoon, much less approach it. But, there was something different about this one. Lagu could sense that he had been invited by Terrada. Still, it was a strange thing for Terrada not to bring the Drayoom directly to the island herself. Perhaps she wished the Drayoom dead.

  Lagu could think of no reason why the great Terrada would want any Drayoom dead, unless…

  This was the one of whom the prophecy spoke. Lagu could barely remember the details of the prophecy other than the fact that there would be born two brothers with the blood of Earth and Fire running through their veins. They would bring Sigela back to the world, and everyone on the planet would be destroyed, except for Sigela and her siblings.

  Terrada must have placed him here to kill him. Lagu still did not understand why her sister would go to such lengths when she could have done the deed herself in any number of ways, but Lagu was used to things changing chaotically. If she asked the meaning of every ripple and wave within her own self, she would have gone quite mad long ago.

  The man had reached the rocks that surrounded Annoon and was clinging to one of them. Just like a Drayoom, Lagu thought. Always clinging to what they know and to what feels safe. That was one of the major reasons they would never evolve past their current state.

  With barely a twitch of her tail, Lagu ripped the Drayoom off of the rock and pulled him deeper inside herself. She could barely sense his struggles, but knew that he was not willing to give up his life so easily. With a sigh that started a tsunami rolling across her back, Lagu sucked the Drayoom farther down into her watery depths.

  Even as the Drayoom started to weaken, he still fought with all his might. Lagu concentrated very hard and wrapped her tail around him. Yes, this was one of the Drayoom from the prophecy. She was sure of it. For one who was not a dragon, he did possess great power or at least the potential for such power. It was a shame that he would not be destined for something greater than dying in her arms.

  It would be another thousand years, if at all, before another pair of brothers would be born of both dragons. Until then, the world would be safe from Sigela. Lagu was satisfied that she could do her part, and her siblings would be proud that she had been able to postpone the prophecy.

  The Drayoom was almost dead. Lagu could feel his heart begin to slow and his limbs start to drift. Soon, he would be a part of her forever and no longer a threat to the world.

  CHAPTER 44

  MERRICK COULDN’T HOLD his breath for much longer. He found a last bit of will and tried again to swim to the surface. This time, his head pushed through the water and into the air. He could see that he was at least a hundred meters from the rock to which he had clung only moments ago.

  Merrick struggled with all his might to stay afloat, telling his legs to kick and his arms to move through the sea in long, flowing arcs and to keep his head above water. The land was so out of his reach that it could have been a world away, and his chances of reaching it would have been the same. If only he were touching Terrada, he would know how to draw on his inner magic. But he knew no names for the water, its creatures, or its landscape—didn’t even know if each drop of Lagu had its own name or if groups of them were named for their location.

  As he desperately tried to figure a way out of his situation, he thought of how useless his magic was to him while he was adrift in the ocean. He didn’t want to summon lightning since he was submerged mostly in water, and the only land he might hope to communicate with was too far away to hear him. Even if it could hear him, what could it do to help? Maybe it could roll large boulders out to fill in the water, but even if the land could accomplish such a task, Merrick was sure that he’d be dead by then.

  His hope faded into despair as he once again faltered and sank beneath the relentless waves. As he continued his descent, he opened his eyes and looked around. Merrick thought that he might have seen a coil of water pass him by again, but he wasn’t sure. As he fell farther, he resigned himself to death. All he had to do was open his mouth and take a deep breath of seawater and he knew it would be over within seconds.

  In a way, the calm warmth that death promised was appealing. No more struggles. No more decisions. Once he was dead, he wouldn’t know anything anyway. He’d just be food for the first flesh-eating fish that found him—finally giving something worthwhile back to the cycle of life.

  Farther and farther he fell. The ocean wasn’t that deep so close to the island, but it was deep enough that Merrick lost his bearings and soon couldn’t tell up from down.

  This was it.

  And then he saw the ocean floor appear through the darkening waters, with its cornucopia of plant life, swaying back and forth in the current. It may have been at the bottom of the ocean, but it was still land. It was still earth. And if it was earth, that meant that Merrick could travel through it—use it to go somewhere warm and dry, where he could be away from danger.

  Merrick kicked his way to the bottom of the ocean and reached out his hand. He was only a few precious seconds from touching it and escaping to somewhere…anywhere…and then he stopped.

  He didn’t want to die, but he wouldn’t run away from his fate—not when he was this close. The Master Keeper seemed to think he could learn something in Annoon, and everyone was depending on him. Mona and Cara both were in the hands of Eudroch, and there was no telling what Eudroch would do to his friends unless he figured out a way to save them.

  Merrick reached his hand out and pushed his fingertips into the silt of the sea floor. He closed his eyes. If he couldn’t move Mohammed to the mountain, then he would bring the mountain to Mohammed. With his last gulp of air escaping in a stream of bubbles, Merrick took a chance that his voice would carry far enough for the ground beneath him to hear. He gave the command for the earth to rise, just as he had learned when building his home back at the Earth City.

  Gradually at first, but then quicker, the earth below him buckled, rose up and lifted him effortlessly. Soon, Merrick was lying stomach down on a pillar of earth that was rising quickly to the surface of the sea. Within seconds, Merrick broke the ocean’s surface.

  He coughed and gagged and vomited from the salt water he had swallowed, but he was alive.

  On shaky legs, Merrick stood on top of the pillar of earth. The waves crashed around him, but the earth held firm under his legs. He balled up both of his fists and shouted at the top of his voice, calling out for other parts of the ocean floor to also rise up. Within seconds, he saw a wide pathway emerging from the sea, leading all the way to the large rocks that encircled Annoon and then to the shore of Annoon itself.

  As quickly as he could, he staggered along the path, the earth falli
ng away behind him as he went. He didn’t know if it was doing that on purpose or if his magic wasn’t strong enough to sustain the entire earth bridge indefinitely. Either way, Merrick didn’t stop, even when he reached the vertical ring of rocks around the island.

  Within a short period of time, Merrick had walked all the way to Annoon’s beach.

  He had made it.

  All he wanted to do was to fall on his face and sleep. As he staggered a few more steps, he realized that most of his body was numb and that the hot sand beneath his toes was the best sensation he had ever felt.

  When he was sure that he was far enough on the island that he would not be taken out by the tide, Merrick fell to the sand with his arms and legs spread open. Even though he was still freezing in his wet clothes, Merrick could feel the heat from the sand warming him. A light breeze drifted across his back, helping to dry his clothes. Within seconds, he was asleep, a smile on his face.

  Merrick awoke to cold darkness.

  He wasn’t sure how long he had been out, but the sun was down, and his once comfortable bed of sand had grown hard. Forcing himself to get up and turn over, Merrick sat in the cold sand with his arms around his knees. In the moonlight, he could see a dark forest several meters away from him where the beach stopped and the island proper started.

  Merrick got up slowly. His body was stiff from the swim, and he hurt in parts of his body where he had never hurt before. As he was checking himself for injuries, he remembered that Ohman and Cara had warned him about using divinium to release his inner magic too often and of how the stone aged the user prematurely. He rubbed his aching lower back, understanding the divinium’s secret and its curse at a visceral level. The magical stone allowed him to accomplish more than he would normally be able to do, but it did so by draining the power from his internal battery at an alarming rate.

  It was clear to Merrick that he had used a great deal of his own magic escaping the perils of the open ocean, probably spending several years of his life escaping that watery grave. Even though his body might argue, he told himself that it was better to be older and alive than to be young and dead.

  As he stretched his back again, he heard a crackling noise and turned to see what it was. Down the beach a short ways, a large bonfire licked its flames and funneled black smoke into the air.

  He walked down the beach, approaching the fire slowly, scanning for signs of Eudroch or for anyone else from the Fire Tribe. As he neared the fire, the heat from its flames comforted him. He wanted to believe that coming upon the fire was a stroke of good luck, but he knew it was more likely to be one of Eudroch’s tricks, meant to distract him or to put him off guard.

  Even so, he saw no one as he drew nearer to the fire. He felt the warmth and safety of Sigela’s heat beckon. Hesitantly, he sat down only a few meters from the flames and held his hands up, palms facing them. Shielding his eyes from their light, Merrick looked back in the direction of the dark forest. In the distance, above the tops of the trees, he could make out a gigantic wall of some sort, and beyond that, a volcano—its tip disappearing into the moonlit sky beneath a field of dark clouds. Within those clouds, flash lightning danced about. Maybe one of those flashes was Eudroch, come to stop him from learning his creation name—or more likely, to steal his creation name the moment that he figured it out.

  Merrick hoped that Eudroch needed him and his name to complete the ceremony that would bring Sigela back to the world. If true, that alone would keep him safe for the time being. He was still wary of the fire and its tempting safety, but he closed the final distance between him and the bonfire and sprawled out on the sand next to it, lying on his side. If the fire was some kind of trick from his brother, that was a chance he was willing to take. The warmth from the flames enveloped him as he lay there with his eyes closed, listening to the softly lapping waves sliding up and down the shoreline and to the leaves of the nearby forest rustling in the gentle breeze. Even though he should have felt rested from his recent nap, his eyelids drooped as if made of lead as he listened to the sounds around him. Everything was speaking to him—the wet sand popping with tiny creatures each time the waves receded, the distant cooing of night birds, and the crabs burrowing in the sand beneath his body. Within seconds, Merrick was asleep again, dreaming of both Terrada and Sigela and wondering why they had such hate for each other when both of them were so needed by both Drayoom and human alike.

  #

  It was not Terrada’s first choice to dump the boy at sea. She would have liked nothing more than to have brought him straight to her bosom, but Terrada was old, and she had learned to trust her instincts over her wisdom long ago. The boy had much potential, but he had not had nearly enough time alone to learn his own magic. Terrada’s intuition had told her that he needed to face himself before he could face his brother.

  She had brought the boy as close to her as she could while still assuring that he would have an opportunity to learn the lessons that most people spend a lifetime gathering. Adversity and struggle were often the kilns of people’s true mettle, and Merrick would have plenty of both as he tried to make his way to Terrada’s heart at the center of the island.

  If he lived, he would be stronger for his journey.

  Terrada shuddered slightly, and the land shivered in far away places as the Earth Dragon contemplated the future of the world if he did not survive.

  Terrada sent a silent thought to Merrick—knowing that he might not fully comprehend it.

  “Remember, my son—my sister’s fire may warm you, but it will also burn you if you sit too close to it or for too long next to its flames.”

  CHAPTER 45

  “WE STILL HAVE THEM,” Eudroch said, motioning to Cara, Mona, and Balach.

  “We have nothing,” the Queen replied.

  “You overestimate my brother. He cares for them too much. He will do nothing to put their lives in danger.”

  The Queen turned on Eudroch, snarling.

  “He didn’t seem to care about what would happen to his friends while he was escaping. I think you underestimate your brother and what he is capable of.”

  “We still have his creation name,” Eudroch said, his voice more uncertain than before.

  The Queen looked glanced at her feet.

  “As I said, we have nothing.”

  “You said you knew his name, Mother. You told it to me yourself. The same name the Master Keeper gave you. Were you lying to me?” Eudroch said with a malicious tone.

  “The Keepers only discovered part of his name. Not enough to do us any good. You must find Merrick, wherever he has gone and bring him back—alive. It is Sigela’s will!”

  The Seer, who had remained quiet, although with an open mouth at times, stepped forward. Before he could say anything, the Queen turned on him.

  “I should have you killed. You told me that he would be bound—unable to use his magic.”

  “Your Majesty,” the Seer calmly said. “Merrick did not leave using his own magic. He was assisted by Terrada herself. Even my most powerful bindings cannot halt a dragon’s magic. There is only one place Terrada would have taken him—somewhere you yourself are familiar with, I believe.”

  “Of course…” the Queen whispered to herself. “He hasn’t escaped his destiny—he’s gone directly to it.” The Queen turned to face Eudroch, her anger replaced with excitement. “Don’t you see? The two of you were conceived and birthed in Annoon, the place where the dragons themselves dwell. That is where you were separated and that is where you must be joined together again. Terrada has saved us from making a grave error. We must follow Merrick to Annoon immediately.”

  “The only way to go there is at the invitation of a dragon. Do you know how to call on Sigela for such a favor?” asked Eudroch.

  “There is but one thing I require. One of your men. Your best, of course, should suffice.”

  Without hesitation, Eudroch pointed to the tallest and most muscled of his warriors. If the Drayoom felt anything other than his strict
duty to obey Sigela’s will he did not show it. Calmly, the warrior stepped forward.

  “What must I do to help fulfill Sigela’s destiny?” he asked.

  The Queen motioned for the warrior and the others to gather around the lava altar. Once there, she told the warrior to lie on the fiery altar, his arms at his side.

  Mona glanced at the Drayoom’s proud face then looked up at Eudroch.

  “Before we go, dispose of Ohman’s brood,” the Queen said. “She is too dangerous to take with us or to leave here. The boy, as well. But leave the human. We will take her with us. She may still prove of use when we find Merrick.”

  Mona tried to step between Cara and Eudroch, to protect the woman she had once seen as her rival, but one of the Fire Warriors immediately stopped her with his large hand.

  “If you kill either of them, I will never help you. I will do everything I can to stop you both.”

  The Queen and Eudroch laughed at Mona’s sudden outburst.

  “I believe that when the time comes,” Eudroch said, “you will resist helping us, even if we spare the lives of your friends.”

  Mona stared at Eudroch, unable to find the right words to convince him of her sincerity. In truth, she wasn’t sure she could go through with helping Eudroch even if it meant saving Balach and Cara.

  Suddenly, Balach spoke up.

  “If you let us all live, I promise that I can make Mona help you willingly.”

  Mona turned and stared at Balach.

  “And, how will you do that, young one?” Eudroch asked, his eyebrows raised in curiosity. “Perhaps we should kill both of the women and take the boy with us. He certainly has enough courage, and I believe that Merrick looks upon him as a younger brother.”

  “Merrick doesn’t care about me…not really. I used my…magic on him to make him love me like a brother. That’s why he fought so hard to protect me. Because I compelled him to. I was afraid of his magic—afraid that he would kill me if I didn’t use my own power to control him.”