The Raven's Curse

by Rain Oxford

  Man-two and Man-three helped Man-four up and they followed Amir to the door. Right before he left, Amir turned to me and glared. I heard the message in his eyes clearly. If he saw me again and Bloodbath wasn’t there, I would be in trouble.

  Funny. When I was a wizard, trying to be a sorcerer, I made a bunch of friends. Now that I know what I am, people want to kill me. “It’s nice to see you again,” I said to the pirate captain.

  “Likewise. How have you been?” He sat in Amir’s seat and started eating what was left of Amir’s food. “Have you eaten?”

  Merlin climbed up into one of the seats, not giving me a choice. “No,” I said, putting my hood back up. I left my face uncovered.

  The pirate was just as I remembered— heavyset with long, tangled, greasy black hair and a beard that was out of control enough to lose things in. He had a wide, dirty face with a long, crooked nose and eyes the color of sea foam. The only thing different about him stood out as odd.

  “Is that a fish hook in your ear?”

  “Of course. It’s the newest pirate fashion.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, it would look funny in my nose.”

  “That’s true.”

  Bloodbath raised his hand and made a motion with his fingers. A moment later, the tavern keeper brought over two plates of food. He left without a word and returned with three mugs. Once we were left alone again, Bloodbath told us about his adventures since we last saw him. Unlike most pirates, Bloodbath didn’t need to pillage, as he was pretty rich. Instead, he just sailed the seas, scaring people and spending the cold nights with women. When I asked him why he didn’t just go where it was warmer so that the nights weren’t so cold, both he and Merlin stared at me like I was insane.

  Bloodbath missed his son, but Jevwen was following his dreams and the pirate was proud of him for it. After that, I told him about everything that had happened to Merlin and me since we last saw him. By the time I was done, we had all finished eating.

  “You are one strange person,” Bloodbath said.

  “I know.”

  “That does explain your robe, though. I almost didn’t recognize you. I’ve heard about your reputation.”

  “Is it that bad?”

  “Being a curse breaker is not bad, but being the only one means everyone wants you for themselves. Moreover, no one knows what your limits and weaknesses are, so there are a lot of rumors going around.”

  “Maybe I should have just stuck to being a sorcerer.”

  He shrugged. “If you could have, you would have. You’ve got to be yourself, and I don’t think you can help nearly as many people as a sorcerer as you can a curse breaker.”

  “I don’t want to help everyone. I’m not a wizard.”

  “No, but you can help anyone,” Merlin said. “Although you may not want to spend your days helping whoever comes along, you have the ability to help the people you want. Of course, that takes practice, which is what you are doing by helping everyone who comes to the castle looking for you.”

  He was right; I was getting closer to breaking his curse. “So, anyway, as I said, I’m looking for one of the Sjau on Akreda. Would you be willing to help us? Since I’m trying not to use magic, I can’t really give you tofu. I know you don’t need gold. Is there anything non-magical I can give you?”

  He shook his head. “There are only two things I really want, and neither of them you have. However, I have nowhere in particular to be, so I suppose a trip to Akreda can’t hurt. I’ll take you there. Maybe after you get your magic sorted out, you can send a crate of tofu.”

  “Thank you.”

  He stood up. “Let’s get going. We can work on your swordsmanship.”

  * * *

  “By the way, you said there were two things you wanted. What are they?” I asked as we walked to the docks.

  “The first thing is that I want my son to be happy. Second, I want to raise a baby dragon.”

  “A dragon?!”

  “Well, I know it’ll leave when it grows up, but I always wanted a dragon, ever since I was a little boy. I want to feed it and teach it to fly. I’m even willing to shave my beard so the dragon doesn’t accidentally burn it off. Too bad, though,” he said sadly. “I’ve never seen a dragon in real life.”

  “Actually, I might be able to help with both. First, my cousin, Sonya, can look Jevwen in the eyes and send him on the path to true happiness. Second, I told you I met an ex-dragon trainer on Mokora. He’s pretty old. He said that we should help others if we can. If you ask nicely and offer to help him, maybe he’ll teach you how to take care of baby dragons and give you one of his eggs to raise and protect.”

  “That’s a great idea! Thank you!” he said, slapping me in the back.

  I knew it was supposed to be a nice gesture, but I was pretty sure he popped something out of place. Of course, I didn’t say anything about my newly broken bones. “No problem.”

  We reached the ship then and Bloodbath introduced me to three new pirates and one necromancer I already knew. “Asiago! I’m surprised you’re still here. How have you been?” The captain left us alone to chat. Asiago did look to be happy, which may not have been a good thing considering he was a necromancer.

  “I’ve been doing well.”

  “Did you ever find true happiness?”

  “In a manner of speaking. I found a group of necromancers. In fact, I’m pretty sure one of them was my father.”

  “Oh. Well, where is he?”

  “I don’t know. I discovered that at the end of every summer, people of dark souls travel to an island called Wolf’s Bay. Not everyone goes, but it is great fun. It typically consists of necromancers, sorcerers, vampires, ghosts, a few magicians, and anyone else who wants to cause a little chaos and mischief. You should come.”

  “I think I would stick out.”

  “I’m surprised you never heard of it, since you grew up in a sorcerer family.”

  “My mother isn’t very social.”

  “Maybe you would have turned out a little more like a sorcerer if she was. Anyway, it was all-you-can-drink blood and wine, dancing naked around the campfires, and gambling. There was a suicide ceremony, people renewed their vows, and we sacrificed a goat.”

  “Why would you do that?!”

  “We couldn’t find a virgin. There were flyers up and everything. Someone’s little sister was a virgin, but she was seduced two days before the event by her bodyguard who was supposed to keep her pure. We had to settle for a goat.”

  “Was it at least a virgin goat?”

  He looked frustrated. “He was until the day of the ceremony. Anyway, I met the woman of my nightmares there.”

  “Really?”

  “I spotted her across the cemetery. A bunch of cats stalked her as she walked up and down the aisles, getting rid of the pesky wildflowers. She was a sorceress. Later, when everyone was sitting down to eat, she sat next to me and said she saw me at the cemetery. We talked for hours. My head hurt every time she opened her mouth and the things she said made my skin crawl. Then she caught a jellyfish right out of the water with her bare hands and ate it without offering to share.”

  “I see. I hope you didn’t let her get away without some way of tracking her down.”

  “Oh, I tried. I couldn’t get blood, hair, or nails from her. I don’t even know her name. She said if I came to the next gathering, she would either marry me or lock me in her dungeon. I asked her why not both, but she just walked away. I think she has some terrible secret she is keeping from me.”

  “Lying is the basis for any strong necromancer/sorceress relationship. Plus, waiting so long to see her again will add some pining, and when you two meet up again, the depth of your relationship will be easy to define because one of you will have suffered and the other will enjoy having made the other one suffer.”

  He laughed. “There’s no mystery there; I’ll be the one suffering. The problem is, they’re going to change the time of the gathering due to flooding. It’s
going to be at the winter solstice from now on.”

  “What is the gathering called?”

  “Well, in the five years it has been going, nobody could decide on the name. They considered ‘the League of Just Us’, ‘Gathering of Tormented Hearts’, and ‘Road Kill’.

  “I like the second one, but I think it needs to be shortened.”

  * * *

  The next morning, not to my surprise, Bloodbath woke me up before the sun was up in order to resume my sword training. What did surprise me was how good I was. After practicing without a break until sunset, it was Bloodbath who was worn out. “You must have been practicing,” he said.

  “I haven’t.”

  “Then it is your confidence. I suspect this has to do with your change in behavior.”

  Merlin, who was sitting off to the side, nodded his agreement.

  I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know why I even told you about that. Of course you’re going to blame it on that. Maybe I’m just tired of being treated like a foot stool my entire life.”

  “Think very carefully about the way you said that,” Merlin said.

  I opened my mouth to argue when I realized what Merlin really meant. It wasn’t the words I used but the way I said them. “I’m sorry. I sounded a little like a sorcerer just then.” I sat down right there on the deck as I thought over everything I did, said, and felt since I left the castle. “My confidence was the first thing that changed. Then I got irritated at everything. After that, I started thinking about getting more magic, and even using your magic to defeat my mother. I should be thinking of helping you and the Sjau, when instead I just want to stop my mother. That’s not like me. That’s like a sorcerer. A really nice one, of course, but definitely a sorcerer.”

  “The line is a little more defined for you than it is for me,” Merlin said. “I can only assume this is caused by your mother, since she is the only one who would benefit from this.”

  “But my mother hasn’t captured me and Mason said she couldn’t change my personality from a distance. Besides, you don’t think it’s happening to everyone else? What about those people who are losing their magic? What if the Sjau are changing, too.”

  “As you are a Sjau, I realize that your magic will turn dark as your heart darkens. However, in this case, you change a little more every time you use your magic. Any change in your magic itself is only reflecting your heart.”

  “I don’t see how using magic can make me more of a sorcerer.”

  “Neither do I. In all of my hundreds of years of studying magic, I still do not have all the answers. I do believe the pain in your chest is a side effect or even a warning, though.”

  It was at that moment that I realized why I had those dreams from when I was a child. “I faced a massive snake and I didn’t even flinch.”

  “You did. You were obviously a brave child.”

  “But I’m not anymore. Lately, I haven’t cared about others accepting me or getting hurt. Maybe I was more of a sorcerer as a child. Maybe my brothers’ torture made me less of a sorcerer. After all, one of the biggest reasons I turned to Magnus’s side is because I didn’t want to be like my brothers. I already discovered that I need sorcery just as much as I need wizardry.”

  “They are two sides of the same coin.”

  I stood up. “Okay. I can handle this. I won’t use magic unless I have to. We’ll use my fearlessness to our advantage. I’ll use sorcery to help the Sjau. I just need you to make sure I don’t go too far.”

  “Do you trust me that much?”

  “Always. You would never deceive me or lie to me.”

  “Ayden, I have not always been---”

  Bloodbath smacked my back again. Not hearing Merlin, he interrupted the wolf. “It’s a good thing you have someone you can trust like that,” the pirate said. “I wish my son trusted me more. Unfortunately, he knows too much.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I’ve done some shameful things and I lied about them.”

  I grimaced. “And he found out about them?”

  “He did… because I told him. I thought that it would help us. Instead, it made things worse. He said he wished I hadn’t told him and then he left. I haven’t seen him since.” He walked away.

  “What were you saying, Merlin?” I asked.

  He hesitated. “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

  Chapter 11

  It was a good trip. I wasn’t tempted to use magic, the ravens hadn’t followed us, and everyone was careful not to irritate me. At first, I thought Bloodbath had told his men too much about me, but in fact, the captain had just ordered them to be nice to me. Asiago then told them all I was a powerful sorcerer who would turn them to toads if they angered me. That might have had something to do with it.

  Since I wasn’t struggling with sorcery, Merlin continued trying to teach me meditation. When I started thinking negatively again, I told Merlin.

  “Does it sound like someone else’s voice?” he asked, visibly concerned.

  “No, it sounds like me, but it doesn’t feel like my thoughts, because they’re so negative.”

  “I know of people who hear voices in their heads, but it is usually much more obvious. It may be that your mind is rejecting this affliction and separating your conscience and emotion into---”

  “Merlin, please. I’ve been trying to focus on nothing so long my brain hurts.”

  He sighed. “It is possibly the beginning phases of a split personality, but I suspect---”

  “What’s that?”

  He groaned. “If you would try not to interrupt me, I would appreciate it.”

  “Sorry.”

  “It sounds like your mind is trying to separate the darkness and light by rationalizing one with the other.”

  “Oh.” I didn’t really understand, but it wasn’t bothering me at the moment. The one thing that did worry me was that the crystal on my staff had a red tint to it.

  * * *

  “We’re docked.” After five days of being woken by the captain’s voice, it didn’t startle me. I sat up and stretched. By the time I stood, the captain had already gone up to the deck. Everyone, including Asiago, was already awake. The island was larger than Livia’s, but not by much. If anyone knows anyone around here, it shouldn’t be hard to find Gideon.

  “Assuming the next person will be on another land, we’ll stick around to wait. You know where to find us when you’re ready.”

  “At the ship?”

  He scoffed. “At the tavern.”

  * * *

  The town looked decent enough, if a little boring. It was way too clean, the buildings were all alike, and there wasn’t a single child in sight. In fact, I didn’t hear anyone laughing or chatting and there wasn’t much color. “This reminds me of the old warrior camps I’ve read about. A long time ago, nobody wanted to be warriors. Supposedly, it was because people lost their honor, but I think it was because being a warrior was no fun.”

  “I can see that.”

  “Well, the world needed warriors, so the mages, kings, and sorcerers got together and came up with a plan. They started taking boys and girls from their families and training them on small islands. The sorcerers would wipe their memories so they couldn’t find their homes or miss their families. To stop this, the fairies started protecting the children. That’s why a sorcerer can’t cross a fairy circle.”

  “I am rather surprised mages would agree to this.”

  “Mages aren’t selfless like wizards. They were even less selfless back then, although people think they really were doing it for a good cause. When they couldn’t get any new warriors because of the fairies, they married the warriors together and forced them to have children.”

  Merlin made a sound, obviously knowing where this was going and not liking it.

  “With every generation, warriors became better warriors. They never had any outside contact, so the sorcerers, kings, and mages could make them believe the only way to live was the warrior way. That’s
why warriors tend to run in families; everyone else has different beliefs and values.”

  “Please tell me it is not going on to this day.”

  “No, it’s not. Magic got introduced to the bloodlines.”

  “From the mages and sorcerers?”

  “Yes. The descendants of the mages and sorcerers who kidnaped children, actually. They didn’t know how bad off the world was without warriors and started mixing with the warriors. Of all the stories of history I’ve ever read or heard, this caused the fastest breakdown of any society. My father said that mages regretted that they took children from their families, which is why they now control the warrior guilds. They do it to protect warrior rights.”

  “Caldaca does have a very colorful history. I suppose that is to be expected with a society so dependent on magic.”

  I stopped at a stall selling cabbages. “Excuse me. Do you happen to know Gideon Sloan?”

  “Are you going to buy something?”

  “I don’t have any money.”

  “Then go away!”

  I felt anger rise in me again and knew it had to do with me becoming more of a sorcerer. Even though I got angry sometimes, I could usually control it. This time, I felt like the anger was in control. I pointed my staff at his throat. “You dare tell a sorcerer to go away?”

  I used the trick Merlin taught me to check for magic, as it was second nature to me now. Fortunately, the man didn’t have any magic to speak of, or this would have been a very big mistake. Even if I was acting more like a sorcerer and I came from a super strong sorcerer family, I didn’t have the experience to defeat a serious sorcerer.

  His eyes filled with fear as he realized his mistake. People made assumptions based on someone’s appearance all the time, which was why everyone assumed I was a wizard on sight. This was normal. However, with my face covered, he couldn’t tell what I was.

  “Aren’t you a little small for a sorcerer?” he asked.

  Okay, maybe he could. Magic welled up in the crystal, causing it to glow red. “I’ve got more than enough magic to teach you manners.”