by Rain Oxford
“No, I am not. It could very well be another spy. Are you better rested today?”
“Yes, but I had an… odd dream. You didn’t happen to talk with Gmork in a tree about a girl a few hundred years ago, did you?”
Merlin hesitated. “I did. In fact, I dreamed about it last night. Previously, I had a few dreams involving you.”
I stopped and turned to him. “When I was a child? Like when I met Dessa?”
“Yes, as well as when you faced a monstrous black snake and discovered your father’s Rynorm robe.”
“Why are we having the same dreams?”
“Well, we did discuss love and Nimue before going to bed and you have been stressing over your mother’s plot, so I am not surprised we have had those dreams. As for why we have been sharing dreams, it must have something to do with our psychic bond. We never figured out exactly why releasing me from the syrus allowed you to hear me.”
“You and the chimera. Well, I could kind of communicate with him. I figured I couldn’t hear any actual words because he’s not a wizard.”
“Once we break the curse, I will try to find Cennuth. Dragons seem to know all about magic.”
“Maybe before we have more dreams, we should discuss things. I didn’t expect you to put a love spell on a girl you like to make her love someone else.” I was also surprised to see a completely different side of Gmork, but that wasn’t as important.
“I was impulsive at that age. Actually, I was rather impulsive for my first hundred or so years.”
“I didn’t mean that as an insult. It was just really odd because you’re really more like me than any of my family, even Livia. You made a love potion without Katherine’s consent, which is sorcery, but you did it to help Gmork despite liking her yourself, which is wizardry.”
“There is no way I can tell you hundreds of years of my life before you go to sleep tonight.”
* * *
For most of the day, everything was fine. Then, about midday, Merlin stopped suddenly and perked his ears. “What’s wrong?”
“I smell blood. Someone needs help.”
“It’s probably just an animal. We should find Zelli.”
“It is not like you to turn away a stranger in danger, young sorcerer. You have been acting out of sorts for days.”
“I’m just tired of riding, and now walking.”
“As well as forsaking food.”
“We need to be in more of a hurry to save the Sjau.”
“We are making haste, but no person is above another. After all the good men I have watched die for their beliefs, I will not preach heroism. However, I believe I know you quite well by now, enough to realize that you would never ignore a bleeding stranger.”
“I know. Let’s go help them.”
Merlin didn’t give me a chance to change my mind; he took off running into the woods. I dropped my bag and chased after him as fast as I could. Although I fell behind, I was able to follow the sound of his running. Eventually, I caught up to him and found him crouched behind some bushes, watching something in a small clearing.
A girl about twelve was tied up and gagged. Her clothes were high quality and her dark purple robe was thick velvet with a satin lining. Five bandits stood to the side, discussing what to do with the girl. One of them was adamant that she should be held for ransom, while another argued that they should sell her to the first person who would buy her.
I pointed my staff at her. “Levitate,” I thought, imagining her lifting up and floating towards me. Magic poured out of me, through the staff, and across the clearing. Although it wasn’t a frilly display like my wand usually made, it wasn’t effective in the least; it bounced off a ward around her. The invisible barrier flashed with a red light and loud whistle, alerting the bandits. Great.
They were sorcerers.
When I faced my brothers, Magnus, Merlin, Bralyn, and I had to split them up. Plus, I knew their weaknesses and strengths. Taking on five sorcerers at once with just Merlin and me didn’t sound like a good idea.
But I found myself unwilling to turn away.
One of them had a torch, two others had swords, one had a club, and the last had an axe. I never had to worry about being attacked in Akadema, as they tended to steer clear of sorcerers. Besides, Akadema was a fairly poor land. However, they were just as I had read about in adventure tales; somewhat dirty, raggedy, and malnourished.
I glanced at the fear on the little girl’s face and mine just didn’t seem important. I pointed my staff at the sorcerers. Attack. Sinister red magic shot into one of the bandits and turned him to stone. The sting didn’t even bother me this time.
“No!” one of the men yelled. Two other bandits grabbed him as he tried to reach the statue. The fifth bandit ran away. “I’m not leaving my brother!”
I felt an instant pang of horrible guilt, but my staff must have misinterpreted it, for my magic shot through it, into him, and turned him into a small bat. “Why is it always a bat?”
“Ayden, that is not helping,” Merlin said as the little bat flopped around on the ground, trying to fly to his brother.
The remaining two thugs, who had a club and a sword, pulled out wands and shot curses at us. I reacted instinctively and focused my mind on protecting us. A ward formed around us barely in time to reflect their magic. The bandit with a club started for the little girl, only to be intercepted by Merlin. The wolf was fast.
The sorcerer hesitated. Even though he had a wand, he didn’t seem to know what to do about his opponent. Since wolves were so rare and I was used to Merlin, I often forgot about the fact that he was very large for a wolf. He was my friend, so I trusted him, and I thought of him as a wise wizard. To everyone else, however, he was a massive, powerful predator.
I aimed my staff at the bandit with the sword at the same time he waved his wand at me. Red clashed with black energy and shot wild, hitting a sapling to the side. When the tree melted, there was just as much horror and shock on the bandit’s face as I felt. Apparently, our power mixed together made acid, and neither of us wanted to be hit with that.
“Do you mind if we just use weapons?” he asked awkwardly.
I sighed with relief. “I was thinking the same thing.” I transformed my staff into a sword.
“Neat trick.” He pocketed his wand and picked up his sword.
“Thanks. I learned it by accident in the endless forest.” I swung my sword and nearly got him, but he dodged it.
“I’ve never been there, but I’ve heard of it.” He tried to stab me with his sword and I blocked it with mine.
“It’s really easy to get there, but a pain to get out of. You either have to have powerful magic or get the fairies to help.” I dodged his next strike.
“So, not a good summer vacation spot, then?”
Although I wasn’t trained with the sword, I was faster and seemingly better nourished than him. Plus, I could tell he relied on magic over a sword, so he wasn’t much more skilled than me. “It’s not really that good anyway. The people there are weird. They build their houses out of straw and candy and throw wads of hair out the windows.”
“What?” he asked, losing the momentum behind his strike and enabling me to block easily.
Before I could take advantage of his distraction, Merlin charged. The man took one look at the snarling wolf, dropped his sword, and ran. I noticed then that the bandit with the club had run away as well. “I think that went well.”
“Turn these two back into men so that we can continue with our search.”
I pointed my staff at the bat (which was still trying to figure out how to fly) and statue. “Turn them back,” I said. My staff did nothing.
“You have to mean it,” Merlin said.
“I didn’t mean to turn him into a bat.”
“You must have.”
“Well, they were attacking you.”
Once again, I waved the staff at the two bandits. Turn them back so I can get back to my quest. This time, white magic welled up i
n me, shot out of the staff, and struck the two bandits, who both turned back into people.
They scrambled to their feet and ran away. “We’ll get you for this, sorcerer,” one of them yelled before they were out of sight.
I turned back to the girl, who flinched away when I approached her. She had curly black hair down to her waist with silver ribbons keeping it controlled. Her eyes were lavender and wide with worry. As I took the gag out of her mouth, I sensed a lot of dark magic in her. She was a sorceress.
“Did they steal anything from you?” I asked the girl. As soon as I did, she screamed, so I put the gag back in her mouth. “Don’t shout, or I’ll leave you here, tied up.”
As if he was worried that I was serious, Merlin went around behind her and started yanking apart the knot.
“If you scream, they’re going to come back and we won’t stop them for a second time. Understand?” She nodded, so I took the gag out of her mouth very slowly. “Now, did they hurt you?” She shook her head. “Why are you out here on your own?”
“What are you? You look like a wizard, but you did sorcery.”
I could have explained that I was a curse breaker, but that wouldn’t impress a sorceress, and I really didn’t need her attacking me when I was trying to help her. “I’m a sorcerer.”
Merlin made a grumbling sound.
She sneered. “I don’t believe you.”
I rolled my eyes. “My name is Ayden Dracre. My family is well known in Akadema and---”
“I know the Dracres,” she interrupted, “and that is not the Dracre robe.”
“No, it’s not.” A lie sprang to mind easily and I didn’t give myself a chance to second-guess it. “I find it easier to travel when people don’t know me for what I am, so I disguised myself and my robe.”
“Oh.” The suspicion on her face vanished. “That makes sense. Our families are allies.” She wiggled around, obviously trying to show off her robe, unsuccessfully. “My name is Zelli Taorec.”
Merlin and I groaned simultaneously. This quest just got a hundred times more complicated. She was the Sjau we were searching for, but I hadn’t realized our families were allies. “I don’t recognize the name.”
“That’s because there are a lot of Dracres. We’re friends with Elena Dracre and her two sons.”
I didn’t know the names of all of my mother’s sisters, let alone all the Dracre allies. “Well, apparently that alliance hasn’t reached the rest of the family. My mother is Ilvera Dracre, and she’s after you.”
“Me?” she honestly looked shocked, and a little bit insulted. “Nobody wants me. I’ve never crossed anyone and when someone wants to hurt the family, they go after my sisters first. Why me?”
“Actually, you’re not what I was expecting.”
She glared at me. “I don’t know who you think you are, Dracre, but you cannot talk to me like that. I may be the youngest, but I’m still a---” She cut herself off with a very uncomfortable expression. I was worried for a moment that Merlin had hurt her, but he continued working her ropes lose.
“You’re still a what?”
“Nothing.” Her head dropped.
“Why are you out here alone?”
She sighed. “I’m not very good at sorcery, and I’m not pretty like my sisters.”
“Your mother sold you?”
She nodded.
I sat down in front of her. “Sorry, I guess.”
She looked up at me and frowned. “You don’t talk like a sorcerer. Why is your familiar untying--- Ow!”
“Merlin!”
“Oops.”
“He’s not my familiar.”
“It doesn’t really matter. Why is he untying me if you’re just going to hand me over to your mother? It seems like you’re just asking for trouble. Maybe you aren’t very good at sorcery either.”
“Who said I’m handing you over to my mother?”
“You said she was after me.”
“She is.”
“You’re not going to defy her. She’s your mother.”
“Only by blood. I’ve come to warn you she’s after you and to offer you protection. As to why she’s after you, it’s because she wants to take your magic. I’m just a little surprised. I was expecting you to be… less of a sorceress.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. Why would she want my power?”
“You never noticed anything odd about your magic? You didn’t feel… different than your family?”
“Of course not! I’m a Taorec.”
“She is lying.”
“I know. Wait to untie her until I’ve explained everything,” I said in his mind. “It’s because you’re the seventh born daughter,” I told Zelli. I explained everything about the Sjau, including the fact that I couldn’t do sorcery until I accepted my wizardry. She clearly didn’t believe a word of it.
She groaned and leaned forward until her face was touching the fallen leaves. “I’m surrounded by lunatics.” She sat back up. “First of all, I’m a proper sorceress. Second, I have less power than my sisters, not more, and definitely not wizardry.”
I sighed. “We’re all different. That’s what Mason said. I figured you would be more like Livia and me since our families are sorcerers, but apparently, that’s not the case either. As to why you have less power, I don’t know.”
“She is likely suppressing some of her magic like you did and is therefore not reaching her full potential.”
“Merlin says you’re probably suppressing part of your magic like I did.”
“I’m not.”
“Well, then you’re a good target for my mother, and since you no longer have your family’s protection, I think you should accept Magnus’s.”
“I’m not accepting help from a wizard.”
I shrugged. “Alright. I came to warn you and I’ve done that. Let’s go, Merlin.”
“At least untie me!” she shrieked.
She will immediately run to your mother and tell her that you’re warning everyone.
No, I have to give her the benefit of the doubt.
But leaving her tied up in the forest would prevent her from telling your mother.
No! How can I even be considering that? I wasn’t used to arguing with myself, but those were very strange thoughts for me to have. Merlin was frowning at me worriedly and I realized I had been standing there without saying anything. “I have wizardry, so you must not want my help.”
“You said you were a sorcerer. A wizard wouldn’t leave me tied up.”
Merlin frowned at me. “What are you thinking, young sorcerer?” he asked.
“I’m thinking she might join with my mother. She’s a sorceress who needs more power.”
“She might turn on you, but if you leave her tied up, it will be you that is making an enemy. You cannot force people to change. You can show them there is another way, however, and maybe they will learn from you. Like you, she never knew mercy or kindness from her family. The difference is that you learned about them from your books. You can be the one to teach her kindness by showing it to her, but it will still be her choice whether or not to learn it.”
I nodded. “Untie her.”
Merlin did, quickly. When he stepped back, she pulled the rope off and stood. “Thank you for the warning and for helping me with the bandits. I owe you, but don’t expect any money from me.”
I didn’t expect anything from her, but saying so would have been an insult. She didn’t have any money because her family sold her, and she probably wasn’t even allowed to use her family name anymore. I was surprised she was able to keep her sorcerer’s robe. Of course, it was probably the reason the bandits targeted her, as she was clearly born of wealth.
“Well, good luck. If you change your mind about wanting protection, Magnus is a very open-minded wizard. He isn’t like most wizards; he had a necromancer as a friend when he was young.”
Merlin and I left and returned to my bag. Fortunately, it hadn’t been taken. When I pulled out the mirror
, Merlin put his paw on my wand to keep me from picking it up. “We already know where Blue is. Trust me, Ayden, we should have gone to save her.”
“Alright, we’ll go to her next, but if she doesn’t need help, we will find the rest of them in order of who’s closest. How are we supposed to get there? It’s at least five days by ship, depending on the weather, and we don’t have our boat anymore.”
“We will have to find a town large enough to have merchant traffic. We can start by returning to the coast and following it until we find something.”
Chapter 8
We didn’t reach the beach before nightfall, but we also didn’t encounter any problems. At least, not until we stopped for the night. “Should I put up a ward? Maybe it’ll keep us from being attacked by Veronica’s ravens again.”
“The ward you create only protects against magic, so it should not be capable of holding off the ravens. Furthermore, I still do not believe Veronica has retained her magic. I think your mother is using the ravens to spy on us, possibly in order to get to the Sjau.”
“But it’s Veronica who has the ability to control animals.”
He sighed. “Are sorcerers incapable of controlling animals?”
“Actually, we can, but it’s not simple. Free will is one of the hardest things to control. It’s easier to create a creature than to control a living one.”
“I see. In that case, I believe the ravens are a manifestation of your mother’s magic.”
I considered it. “I guess that would make sense, but how can she track me?”
“Have you noticed that the ravens keep finding us after you use magic?”
“I didn’t. So, if I don’t put up a ward, they shouldn’t find us. If I do, they shouldn’t be able to attack us because the ward will keep magic out.”
“True, as long as you maintain it in your sleep. Unfortunately, I doubt we have lost them without Kirin’s assistance. Nevertheless, save your energy. I will stay awake and guard us against the ravens.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“I will make up for my lack of sleep when we get on a ship.”