The Raven's Curse

by Rain Oxford

  I put my hood up and covered my face just as everyone started moving again. After she told us the price, I counted out coins. “Do you happen to know Houda Ameri?”

  “Everyone does. The king’s magician isn’t a person anyone can mistake. Up the stairs, last door on the left,” the innkeeper said, handing Sven a key.

  We followed her directions and found our room quickly. It wasn’t particularly fancy, but it was very clean. There were two small beds with dark brown dressings, a table, and a wardrobe that had its fair share of scuffs. I expected that a lot of the castle furniture was sold to the inn when the royal family was done with it.

  “At least in here, we shouldn’t have to worry about getting attacked by ravens,” I said. “How do we get to Houda?”

  “We’re going to break into the castle, right?” Sven asked.

  “Do not break into the castle,” Merlin argued.

  “No, we can’t do that. That’s the sorcerer way.”

  “What’s wrong with being a sorcerer?” Sven asked.

  “I don’t want to be like my mother.”

  “You want everyone to see you as a wizard?”

  “No, I just want to be myself. I don’t want to do it the wizard way, either. We’ll try to do this without hurting anyone or trespassing. That way, if they attack us, we will have every right to curse them like they’ve never been cursed before. With glitter, itchy socks, stinky cheese, and whatever else I can think of.”

  “Wow. That is one scary list of curses.”

  “Write a letter to Houda and give it to the guards,” Merlin advised. “Convince her to invite you into the castle to talk to her or to meet you outside the castle.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “What does?”

  “I was talking to Merlin.”

  “Oh. That’s a little creepy.”

  “I’ve been told that before.” I dug through my bag for a moment before retrieving a small scroll, a quill, and a bottle of ink. “I’m going to write a letter to Houda asking her to come see us. Any ideas?”

  “I’d suggest telling her the truth. We’re Sjau, so is she, your mother is looking to kill us all, and you know a way of protecting her. If she’s halfway reasonable, she’ll at least hear you out.”

  “You should be more careful about your secret.”

  “You’re right. The guards might read it and if she has more than illusion magic, she will be keeping it a secret. Nobody likes to be an outcast.”

  Houda Ameri,

  My name is Ayden Dracre. I know you have a secret involving your magic. You may not believe me, but I have proof. I have the same secret and I think we can help each other. I am staying in the inn. If you want to know why you are different from everyone else, find me there.

  Merlin was already waiting at the door. “You stay here,” I said to Sven. “Merlin and I will give this letter to the guards.” He nodded and sat down on the bed with a goofy smile on his face. It gave me the creeps.

  Merlin and I left and soon made it to the gate of the castle, where there were two guards on duty. “Hello, can you please give this letter to the court magician?”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “At least ten men a day want us to pass on their confessions of love. It’s getting embarrassing. Seriously, you people need to lower your expectations. The only one who gets more marriage requests is the prince. Not everyone can marry into the castle through royalty and magic. Sometimes, you have to settle for the servants.”

  “This isn’t a confession of love. This is a---”

  Merlin interrupted me with a loud grumble. “Be careful of warning them that their magician is in danger. That can be misconstrued as a threat. Instead, say that you are related and want to discuss inheritance.”

  “I have… reason to believe… that she is my cousin. My aunt just died and left everything to her estranged daughter, who she hasn’t seen in a long time. If Houda is my cousin, she will want to hear me out.”

  “Houda is an orphan.”

  “So is my cousin.”

  “Fine. But if she does get rich, I get a cut.”

  “As long as you make sure she gets that letter tonight. I have to leave by tomorrow night.” We didn’t really have to leave, but I didn’t want him to take forever when there were other Sjau relying on us.

  “It will be done.”

  Merlin and I were returning to the room when I got distracted by a group of six boys. The smallest boy had a harness that attached large wings made of wood, cloth, and feathers to his back. These wings were controlled by strings with two wooden sticks in his hands. As he moved his arms, the wings flapped.

  “That looks like it’ll end badly.”

  “Reach for the stars. Some people are very literal. Man was not meant to have wings, but few experiences can beat the thrill of flying on a dragon.”

  “You flew on a dragon?!”

  “I… thought I mentioned that.”

  “Oh, we’re going to talk about this all night long. I want to know every detail.”

  He sighed. When we got back to the room, Sven was asleep.

  * * *

  I was awoken by a frantic knock on the door. Merlin was already sniffing at the door when I opened my eyes. Without a word, I picked up my staff and Merlin reached up with his paw to unlatch the door. When it opened, a woman stared at Merlin in surprise. “Yes?” I asked.

  She glanced at me for a moment before her eyes returned to Merlin. “Are you Ayden?”

  “Yes, I’m Ayden. He’s Merlin. How can I help you?”

  She was a very pretty, young woman about twenty, with light brown hair and gold-brown eyes. Her hair was decorated with small braids and gold jewelry. She also had a golden, velvet robe over a golden dress. More importantly, she had a magic staff. It was a little taller than her, made of rosewood, with a large jade stone embedded in the top.

  “I’m Houda. You asked me to meet you.”

  “Well, I meant in the morning, but I guess now is fine.” I picked up my robe and put it on without thinking. “That’s Sven,” I said, pointing to the unconscious sorcerer.

  “You said you know about my secret. Please explain.”

  I told her about being a sorcerer who grew up with light magic, about meeting Merlin and discovering my real abilities, about the Sjau, and about learning that my mother was after us. When I was done, she was sitting on my bed, looking very uncertain.

  She was quiet for a while. “I was always able to hide my strange abilities. I developed elemental abilities when I was four and everyone thought I was an elementalist, but then I developed illusion magic when I was nine, and everyone thought all the magic I did previously were just illusions. I knew better, though. I was different and I never knew why.”

  “Why do you have a staff, though? Neither mages nor elementalists use staffs.”

  “That’s just another way I’m different. I disguise it as a hat when I need to, but it makes me uncomfortable, so the king thinks I disguise my hat as a staff. I’ve been hiding myself for too long. I was going to leave tonight. I was packing my bag when I got your letter. You will get me away from the castle?”

  “Yes. Why are you in such a hurry?”

  “I did something wrong, something very wrong, and the king is about to find out.”

  “Did you murder someone?”

  “No! But… I’m not going to tell you what I did. I don’t trust you. I didn’t hurt anyone. I did betray him, though.”

  “Do not ask for secrets if you are not willing to share your own,” Merlin said.

  “I haven’t got any secrets.”

  “That is depressing. Call Fluffy and have a golem summoned to take Houda to the castle.”

  “Right. I’m going to call Magnus’s minion. He’ll send a golem to help you get to the castle.”

  “No way. I hate golems.”

  I understood her reluctance; I had thought golems were only used in sorcery. I still didn’t want to send her off without s
omething to guard her, though. “Maybe if you use my mirror to talk to Magnus, he’ll---”

  “I’ll just go with you,” she interrupted.

  “It’s not safe.”

  “It’s not safe for me here.”

  Okay, that’s only a little suspicious.

  * * *

  I knew I was dreaming and that I was once again seeing through Merlin’s eyes. He was sitting in front of a cave at the base of a mountain, waiting for guidance. This was Cennuth’s cave. Merlin felt relief well up when smoke billowed out of it… until he saw movement.

  The creature that emerged from the darkness was no dragon; it was Merlin, and not Merlin at the same time. It was the wolf body, but not the wise wizard I knew. The wolf’s eyes were blood-red and full of pure hate. Then, without any warning, he attacked.

  * * *

  I woke to the sound of arguing and my first thought was that it was my brothers. I burrowed my head under the pillow and reached for the hole I made in the wall when I was little to hide my wand next to my bed. As soon as I felt that there was no hole, I remembered that I no longer lived at home. In fact, neither did my brothers.

  That made me wonder if they were safe. According to Merlin, sending them somewhere without magic would make them powerless, which was for the protection of everyone else. The problem was, people without magic knew how to live without magic. My brothers didn’t.

  Merlin took the pillow, so I sat up. Sven was arguing with someone who did not look at all like Houda. “Who are you?” I asked.

  They both turned to me. “You didn’t let her stay last night?” Sven asked.

  “I’m Houda. Oh, right. I have a disguise over me so that people won’t recognize me when we leave. I forgot that I didn’t do it last night.”

  Houda was still a woman, but that was where the similarities ended. She now had dark brown hair and matching eyes. She was also much shorter than me, slightly plump, and had sharper angles on her face. Her raggedy tunic was a dull tan color and her dirt-covered pants were brown. In her right hand, she held a very small, black, curved wand.

  “What are you arguing about?”

  “Sven has a problem with magicians.”

  “I don’t have a problem with magicians! I just don’t trust women magicians. Women are inherently liars---” That was when Houda slapped him and he fell very hard and with a very unmanly squeal of pain.

  “You may not have any sisters, but you should have known better than to say that,” I said. Sven got to his feet with great difficulty. I pulled the magic mirror out of my bag. “I wonder if this works for a sorcerer,” I said, as an afterthought.

  “What is it?” Sven asked.

  “It’s the magic mirror I told you about. It’s not easy to use, though, so---”

  “I can do it!”

  “No, you can’t. You don’t have a wand.”

  “Can I use your wand?”

  “I don’t have a wand either!”

  “Oh, right. Can I use your staff?” He reached for it without waiting for permission and before he even touched it, a spark of energy jumped from it and shocked him. “Ow! That hurt!”

  “If he’s a Sjau, then I’m not one,” Houda said. “Seriously, could you have found a dumber sorcerer?”

  I would have defended Sven, but I agreed with Houda. The man made me look brilliant in comparison. Houda probably could have made it to the castle without help, whereas I didn’t trust Sven to put his boots on without someone there to make sure he didn’t hurt himself.

  “Maybe it will work with your magic,” I said to Houda. “Like I said, I’m trying not to use magic.”

  She rolled her eyes and took the mirror. “It’s a good thing I never married a sorcerer; I’d hate to have to do everything all the time.”

  “You were nice yesterday.”

  “I think you have enough niceness for the both of us.”

  “Keep pushing me and you’ll see a completely different side of me. Point your staff at the mirror and tell it to show you the location and names of the Sjau.”

  “But what magic do I use? Just pointing my staff at it doesn’t do anything.”

  “Well, release your magic into it. The mirror will use your magic to show you what you want to see.”

  “That’s a lot like how elemental magic works. Movement guides the magic and tells it what to do, as opposed to illusion magic, which is controlled by the mind.”

  “So magician magic isn’t all that different from sorcery and wizardry. Can you show me how to do elemental magic? Merlin thinks we might all be capable of more magic than we know.”

  “It can’t hurt to try.” She pointed her staff at the mirror. Nothing happened.

  “I’m hungry,” Sven said. “Do you have any clay?”

  I sighed. “I’m trying not to use magic, remember?”

  “Oh, right. So you don’t have any?”

  “No. You’re going to have to wait until we leave.”

  “But I’m hungry now.”

  “Then go downstairs and get something to eat. And don’t get arrested!”

  He jumped up and ran out with excitement. It might not have been a good idea to let him out on his own.

  Houda tried repeatedly to make the mirror work without any luck. “Tell her that she needs to stop forcing it,” Merlin advised. “She does not believe what she is doing will work, and that is why she is failing.”

  “Merlin says to stop forcing it and trust that it’ll work. Don’t give your magic any instruction. Just release it into the mirror and tell the mirror what you want. Think of the mirror as a wand. In fact, put the staff down and use the mirror instead. I don’t know if that’ll work, but it might.”

  She did as I said, closed her eyes, hesitated, and said, “Show me where the Sjau are, with their names.” The mirror slowly changed to show a map covering most of Caldaca, with fourteen dots. Three of them, of course, were gathered together. I also saw Gideon with Evelyn and Mason back at the castle without Koufax.

  The odd part was that Sotis Drsys and Kalyn Goldom were together. “Maybe some of us are seers,” I said.

  “It worked!” Houda said when she opened her eyes.

  “You did a good job explaining it to him,” Merlin said.

  “I learned a few things about teaching from you.” I pulled the list out of my pocket. “The next person on the list is Jeb Draumr, so we need to find a ship to take us north.”

  “I look forward to dropping my disguise,” Houda said.

  “Can you hold it in your sleep?”

  “No, so I have to sleep alone.”

  “But I already saw you without your disguise. You can’t even sleep around us?”

  “Not a chance.”

  Okay, that was a little more suspicious.

  Chapter 14

  When we went downstairs, Sven was not at the bar. In fact, no one had seen him all morning. We spent a good portion of the morning searching before we found him at the front door of the inn. “Where have you been?”

  “I was in the outhouse. The wind blew the door closed and I couldn’t get out.”

  I wasn’t even surprised. Sven and Houda argued as we left the kingdom and got on the main road to go northeast. Houda complained about being hungry, tired, too hot, and too cold. She was obviously used to being spoiled, but every time I opened my mouth to say something, Merlin would interrupt me with a grumble of disapproval.

  “This is good practice for you if you ever plan to settle down with someone,” Merlin said at one point. I decided not to respond, since I had told him many times that no woman would be interested in me because I was a nice sorcerer.

  By the time the sun was high in the sky, I was looking for a place for Merlin and me to lose the bickering pair. When I asked Merlin privately if we could send them to the castle without a golem guard, he said that it would not be the wizard’s way. He also said we could do it anyway. However, before I could tell them it was best for us to split up, Merlin and I both realized Houda would p
robably abandon Sven in the woods. Surviving my mother’s plan was going to take all of us working together.

  If one of you is a seer, maybe they can help you defeat your mother.

  I don’t want to hurt her. I just want to stop her from hurting me.

  A seer can help me stay ahead of her.

  That’s true.

  You can use Merlin’s special potion to remove her magic

  Well, at least that wouldn’t hurt her.

  “Ayden, whatever you are thinking, it is not you.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I can feel it. Should I tell you another story?”

  I started to turn him down when I remembered I really liked his stories and they usually made me feel better. “Yes, please.”

  Before he could say anything else, he froze. “Something is coming.”

  I rolled my eyes. “There’s always something. What is it? More ravens? Elves?”

  “Worse. It smells like a rabbit.”

  “Seriously? You worried me for nothing. I’m not afraid of rabbits anymore. Sorcerers aren’t afraid of small---”

  The rest of my statement was drowned out by Sven’s scream of utter horror as he jumped behind me for protection. I looked forth and shrieked as well, mildly less humiliating. Yes, it was a rabbit, but it was also the size of a horse. When the black rabbit growled, I forgot about being afraid and aimed my staff at it.

  My magic reacted on instinct alone and blasted the monstrous creature with a bolt of lightning. The creature vanished, leaving only confusion and a deep pain in my chest. “What in the world just happened?”

  “Someone who knows you are afraid of rabbits sent a monstrous one to force you to use magic. How is your chest?”

  “It hurts. Probably worse than ever. It feels like something is pressing against my heart and… squeezing it. It feels heavy.”

  “You need to rest.”

  “No, we’ll keep moving,” I argued. I actually wanted to rest, but I couldn’t stop myself from arguing anyway.

  “I will catch you a rabbit to eat and then tell you a story. I have a really good one about the time I ended up being hung. Do you want to hear it?”