The Raven's Curse

by Rain Oxford

  That was a good idea, since he was going to be quite seasick for the entire trip. “Do you think you can stay awake?”

  “I am certain of it. Eat some food and get some rest.”

  “I’m not hungry,” I said, starting a fire. Instead of arguing, Merlin ran off. I figured he was going to get himself something to eat, but he soon returned with a brown rabbit. Rabbits were vicious pests that attacked farm animals and could be very difficult to get rid of. Since Merlin usually hunted them, I figured they were popular to eat on his world. As soon as I saw it, I realized I was hungry.

  “Eat,” he said, setting the rabbit down in front of me.

  “Thank you.” We were quiet as I prepared and cooked the rabbit. “Most of the time, when you tell me about your past, you make it a lesson. Tell me something good that happened to you. Some game you played with your friends or a non-dangerous adventure you had.”

  He thought about it for a while. “There were not many people I considered friends.”

  “Well, you had to do something for fun. Life isn’t just an endless stream of work, is it?”

  Again, it took him time to answer. “When I was very young, I lived in a small village. Nobody wanted their children to play with me because they knew I had magic. Then, when I was eight, we had five newcomers, one of which was a blacksmith named Dantur. I became his apprentice, and we would build weapons, armor, and other tools, which we would sell to other villages. One day, while he was distracted with business, I snuck away and stumbled upon a group of children playing in the creek. They were not sure about me at first, but one of the girls told her friends to stop being uncivilized. Her name was Madelyn. After all these years, I can still remember her name, long, curly blond hair, light green eyes, and luminous smile.”

  “Did you visit her a lot?”

  “Every chance I could. Despite the fact that she was a fair amount older than me, she always made sure to include me whenever I was there. We got into quite a lot of trouble, too. She and I would explore the forest alone. We found a very special river that cut down the middle of a small mountain. We would dive into it and explore the underwater caves until night made it too dangerous. The dive itself was dangerous, as both sides of the mountain were lined with jagged rocks. Unfortunately, that is where the story ends if you want it to be a happy conclusion.”

  I did want it to have a happy ending, but I also wanted to know the truth, because Merlin’s history is what made him who he was. “Did she get hurt on one of the dives?”

  “Not exactly. A few times, I caught her acting very strange. She would shake like she was afraid, sweat, and struggle to breathe. She always told me she had been running. I believed her. One day, I visited the village and could not find her. I asked her brother, who was my age, and learned that she was sick. She had actually been sick for a long time, but for the past month, her health declined by the day, and they had no idea why. I did know, unfortunately.”

  “Because she was diving?”

  “Yes.”

  “You don’t do happy stories very well, do you? Did she recover?”

  “No. However, I did get one more chance to speak to her. She had refrained from telling me about her illness because everyone treated her differently. She thanked me for giving her joy in her last days.”

  “I guess it is a happy story after all. If I only had a few days to live, I would want to have fun, not stay in bed and worry about it.”

  “I told you I lived with Cennuth, the dragon who taught me magic, Caedmon, who taught me to survive, and Brynjar, who taught me language and math. Caedmon was a warrior who fought for what he believed in before he joined Cennuth. He believed our death was predetermined. No matter what we did, nothing would change the date we died. Thus, we should take risks and live our lives to its fullest potential.”

  * * *

  I woke to Merlin’s fierce growl and automatically tried to reach for my staff… except I couldn’t move. I opened my eyes and found I was shrouded in thick fog. My arms and legs were numb and unresponsive. “Merlin, I can’t move!”

  “You can. Wake up.”

  “I’m awake, I just can’t move. There’s fog.”

  “It is a spell. You have to wake up.”

  In the mist, I saw glowing red eyes. Instead of being afraid, as I should have been, I was calm. It wasn’t the serenity I felt when I faced Veronica for the first time, though. I tried again to move, but I couldn’t. I heard the sound of Merlin growling and fighting. “Where are you?”

  “I am right beside you. Ravens are attacking us.”

  “I can’t see you, but I can hear you.”

  “You need to wake up.”

  I started to argue when I saw a deep blue light fill my vision. “What is that?”

  “Your staff is doing something.”

  Suddenly, I felt his mind very strongly, and then my vision changed. I saw myself lying in the dark. There wasn’t any fog, but there were ravens attacking Merlin, my bag, and me. I realized at that point what was happening, and I mentally pushed Merlin out of my mind.

  Sleep curses were a lot more complicated than wizards thought, for sorcerers made it look easy to scare others. For one thing, it required something from the victim, like hair, nails, or blood. Of course, my mother would have that from when I lived with her.

  The second reason it was complicated was that it was impossible to force someone to stay asleep without a potion. Sleeping potions were simple in that they shut down a person’s body and they could only be reversed with an antidote. The victim could go a long time without needing food or water, but they would eventually die without it. Sleeping curses separated the person’s mind from their body.

  Some sleeping curses made a person think they were awake when they weren’t, whereas some induced a dream so pleasant that the victim didn’t want to wake. Either way, the key was that the victim wasn’t supposed to know they were asleep, because it was possible to wake up. That was why the victim couldn’t feel or hear anything from the outside world and why it was so confusing that I could hear Merlin fighting. It made sense that I would hear Merlin in my mind, but not his fighting.

  There was no way this was my mother’s doing; she wouldn’t have left such an opening.

  I closed my eyes and forced myself to focus on something I could only do awake. I had two levels of focus; everything or one thing. When I tried to listen to someone talk, I couldn’t help but to notice everything around me, from the wind to the creaking of floorboards. Every sound, movement, and smell distracted me.

  However, when I focused on one thing hard enough, like a book I was reading, everything else faded away. Unfortunately, this was so strong that I often forgot to eat or sleep, and I was completely unaware of any danger around me. This was dangerous around my brothers, but I was able to fully enjoy books at Magnus’s castle. Of course, the first few times this happened, Magnus and Merlin were very worried.

  I was able to get lost in books deeply enough that if a character was injured, I felt it, and I usually did for the rest of the day. What made it so hard to wake up was that I couldn’t feel the real world, as my mind was so far away from it. To wake myself, I had to force my mind to reconnect. I imagined Merlin approaching me and biting me on the left, upper arm. That wasn’t enough to wake me, though, so I told Merlin to bite me in the same exact spot. The pain had to come from my mind and body.

  “Why?” he asked, obviously thinking I was insane.

  “Just do it.”

  A moment later, while I was imagining a sharp pain, I felt Merlin’s fangs dig into my arm. It was enough of a shock to wake me, although I was too disoriented to be of much use. Merlin returned to fighting the ravens, who were trying to take my bag. There wasn’t much in there that I couldn’t replace. I reached for my staff, which none of the ravens were interested in, surprisingly.

  As soon as I touched it, magic welled up inside me and burst through my staff with a deep red pulse. Stabbing pain shot through my chest as if I h
ad been hit with something. All of the ravens cawed and collapsed to the ground. After a moment, they struggled to flap their wings and flew away.

  Merlin whimpered and I turned to him. He was on his side, clearly having trouble getting his feet back under him. “Merlin! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to do it!” I wasn’t sure what I’d done, but I certainly didn’t mean for Merlin to get injured from my magic. I knelt beside him, not sure if touching him would hurt him or not.

  “The world is spinning, but I am otherwise uninjured.”

  I held the staff over him. “Help him.” My staff ignored me, so I shook it. “Help him!” This time, magic the color of gold shot from the crystal into Merlin. After a moment, he lifted his head. “Are you okay?” I asked, setting the staff aside.

  He slowly rolled onto his stomach and stood. “I seem to be, but you should not have used magic for my sake.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I did. It was an accident.”

  “It was a disorientation spell, but not like any that I was taught. Magic like that takes great skill and practice. You did it unintentionally.”

  Before I met Merlin, I would have taken that as a huge compliment, meaning that I was more powerful. However, I’d learned that wasn’t the case, for when I did magic unintentionally, it was the magic that was in control. “Have you done it to people before?”

  “Not outside of practice. Magic comes at a price, at least on my world. When a person uses dark magic, it eventually comes back on them. On Caldaca, that is not the case because sorcerers and wizards balance each other.”

  As he spoke, I gathered up everything that had been spilled from my bag. When I realized something was missing, I groaned. “My wand. They took my wand.”

  “Why your wand and not your superior staff?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. Maybe they couldn’t carry it.” I highly doubted that was the case, though.

  * * *

  We returned to the beach in a defeated silence and followed it westward.

  “If the ravens are real, it’s probably Veronica who sent them,” I said. “If they’re not, it’s got to be my mother. If that’s the case, we need something to fight them with. I’d actually prefer it if they were real ravens. Even if I conjure a monster, it’s not going to hold up against my mother’s magic. I need a way to get more power.”

  “The answer is not power.”

  “You can say that; you had more than enough magic before.”

  “Not enough to stop myself from being cursed.”

  “Well, Gmork exploited your weakness.”

  “Love is not a weakness.”

  “If only my mother had a weakness. Since she doesn’t, I’ll just have to get more power.”

  “I really do not like where this is going. Could you really kill your mother?”

  I thought about it for a while and sighed. “No. She made my life miserable and she wants to steal my magic, but she’s still my mother. Plus, if I had more power, she would just want to steal it more.”

  “Could you steal another person’s magic?”

  That one I didn’t even have to think about. “No. That’s not like me at all. I don’t know why I even suggested it. I’m sorry for what I said about your curse, too. It was rude to say that.” Instead of saying anything, Merlin seemed deep in thought. “What’s wrong?”

  “Hopefully nothing. You have been acting strange since we left the castle.”

  “I’m just stressed. You would be as well if your mother was out to kill you. Then again, we still don’t know it’s her controlling the ravens.”

  “Why did the ravens steal your wand instead of your staff? Perhaps we will find a soothsayer who can tell you how to get your wand back.”

  As much as Merlin disliked seers, I knew he must have been very worried if he was suggesting we get help from one. “Don’t worry about it. I have my staff. If I need my wand, I can make a new one— a better one, even, since I have sorcery and wizardry now.”

  “Just a few days ago, you said you would never leave your wand behind.” He started to say something else, only for his ears to perk. “I hear people.” We followed the sound for a while before Merlin spoke again. “You should eat something.”

  I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Would you stop nagging me about food? I’m not…” I realized what I was saying and stopped. Merlin had also stopped, though I couldn’t read his stare. Usually, I was very good at reading Merlin’s expressions. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that. I know you just want to help me.”

  “Something is happening to you.”

  He’s so paranoid.

  I shook my head. He’s only concerned about me. “I’m sure I’m just stressed or tired.” There was no need to tell him I kept having weird thoughts, or that those weird thoughts almost sounded like they weren’t coming from me.

  We had to go through a small forest, though it didn’t take long, and we came out into a decent-sized city. “Cover your face,” Merlin reminded me.

  “Right.” I put my hood and face mask up. “I don’t really expect anyone to recognize me this far north, though.” I stopped the first person we came across. “Excuse me. I need to get to Tetaryn. Is there a ship that can get me there?”

  He was about to speak when a broom ran past us, quickly followed by a young boy shouting for it to come back. Merlin grumbled something, but the only word I could make out was “mouse.”

  “Talk to Gelyn in the smithy. Her father has a ship that can get you that far, but it won’t be cheap.”

  “Thank you. Where is the…?” Merlin was already walking away, so instead of finishing my question, I followed the wolf. He found his way to the smithy easily, probably by following the sound of metal clashing.

  The smithy was a small, outside shop. The only person there was a young woman firing a sword. She was pretty with dark brown hair in a thick braid and medium brown eyes. She was about my height and fairly muscular for a woman.

  “Hello. Are you Gelyn?” I asked as she plunged the sword into water and turned to me.

  “Yes. Are you looking for a weapon, armor, or something special?” She glanced at my staff, undoubtedly pegging me as a wizard or sorcerer.

  “Actually, we were told you could help us find a ship to take us to Tetaryn.”

  “Us?”

  “Merlin and me,” I said, indicating Merlin as he sat down next to me.

  “I don’t think wolves should be on ships.”

  “He doesn’t like them, but we have to get to Tetaryn.”

  She pointed to my staff with her sword. “Aren’t you a wizard?”

  “I’m trying not to use magic at the moment. There’s a powerful sorceress after some people and I’m trying to warn them before she gets to them. If I use magic, it’ll be easier for her to track me.” If Merlin was right that the ravens were a manifestation of my mother’s magic, then it made sense that they were tracking me through my magic.

  “That is a long and difficult trip.”

  “We don’t have a lot of money.”

  “You don’t have any blacksmith skills, do you?” she asked. “I could use an extra hand around here.”

  I examined some of the tools around me. “Is it hard to learn? You hit the metal thing with the hammer thing and stick the other thing in the fire. I’ve read about blacksmiths, but the books never got very detailed.”

  Merlin groaned and put his paw over his eyes. “I think I could do it better with paws.”

  “Never mind that,” Gelyn said. “My sister could use some help cooking. Can you cook?”

  “I transform anything edible into bread, potatoes, apples, broccoli, or tofu.”

  “Remember that you are trying to reserve your power, young sorcerer.”

  “I remember.”

  Gelyn sighed. “What are you good at?”

  “I’m a curse breaker. I mean, I’m not great at it yet, but I’m learning.”

  “That could be useful. Talk to my father at the docks. He ne
ver speaks to anyone unless I’ve sent them his way. His name is Ijuin. However, he is gone for now and will not be back until morning. You can spend this time helping us with a problem.”

  “Problem? You need a curse broken?”

  “Yes. It’s a terrible curse. We don’t know who cast it or why.”

  “Who is cursed?”

  “Everyone.”

  “What do you mean? Everyone in your family? Everyone in this city?”

  “Everyone in Monhal. At least, all the magic users are.”

  Merlin and I looked at each other. This time, I could read his expression easily; he was suspicious. “Will you direct us to someone with magic so we could check out this curse?” As I said this, a little girl ran in and rushed into the woman’s arms.

  “This is my daughter,” Gelyn said, picking the child up. “She’s a witch, and yes, she’s suffering from the curse as well.”

  She had dirty blond hair and dark bluish-green eyes. Based on her raggedy clothes, I assumed her family wasn’t rich. Most people were born with about half their potential power and developed their full strength at around eleven. Of course, people could attain more power from magical objects or by taking it forcefully from others through murder.

  I didn’t sense any magic in her from a distance. “Can I see?” I asked.

  She reached out for me and I took her hand. As soon as my magic flowed into her, she gasped. I felt her wizardry, pure and gallant, but it wasn’t very strong. I definitely didn’t encounter any curse.

  I let her go. “You’re not cursed.”

  “I’m losing my magic,” she said.

  “All the magic users we’ve talked to in the last month are losing it, although some more quickly than others,” Gelyn said. “What else could it be but a curse?”

  “I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s not a curse.”

  “You won’t help, then?”

  “I didn’t say that. I’m completely willing to help, I just don’t know what it is yet.”

  “Ask her about Zelli’s family,” Merlin said.

  “Are you sure everyone is losing their magic? Even the Taorec family?”