The Raven's Curse

by Rain Oxford

  We were in a sorcerer’s territory.

  And then something hit me in the back of the head and everything was dark.

  * * *

  The first thing I heard when I woke was a very pleasant voice singing. Oddly enough, I recognized the song, despite the fact that it was in a language I was unfamiliar with and I didn’t remember ever hearing it before. I opened my eyes.

  I was in a small, dark cabin. On the north wall was a fireplace with a large stewpot over the crackling flames. To the right of the fireplace was a small bed. Rows of shelves lined the wall to the left of the fireplace, which were full of potions, potion ingredients, strange tools, and some grimoires. Along the east wall were items hanging from the wall and a small window with old, stained shutters.

  The door was on the south wall. I was chained up on the west wall with my staff leaning against the wall just out of reach and my bag on the floor. In the middle of the room was a large, sturdy table. Lying chained up on top of it was Merlin. The only other person in the room was a woman facing the fireplace. I could see her long, curly, messy black hair and that she was wearing an old, faded, gray robe with strands hanging from her wrists. Her voice was a lot more pleasant than her appearance.

  I thought Merlin was asleep until the woman turned away from the fire with a pair of pliers and a steel hook. She came across as old from behind, but her face was smooth and lively. “You are being so good,” the woman said soothingly when her song ended. “I just need a few teeth and then we can move on to claws.”

  I realized then that there was blood around Merlin’s muzzle. “Stop! Merlin is my wolf! You can’t have his teeth!”

  The woman glared at me and stroked Merlin’s ear, as if she was trying to comfort him. He winced with pain. “You stay out of this.”

  “Get away from him!”

  She set down her tools. “If you didn’t want me to use him to replenish my potion supplies, you shouldn’t have brought him to me. You know how many potions require the teeth, claws, and blood of a wolf,” she said.

  “How would I know that?”

  “Because you’re a sorcerer.”

  “How do you know I’m a sorcerer?”

  She approached me and I winced when she stroked my shoulder gently. “I can smell the Dracre blood in you. This is not the Dracre’s robe, though. Are you a runaway?”

  “You know my family?”

  “Of course I do! I am a Dracre as well.”

  Oh, no. This isn’t going to be good. “What’s your name?” I knew very little about my mother’s sisters and even less about their families, so I didn’t know if my mother was really the cruelest of the Dracre family, as she often bragged. There was only one person my mother looked up to.

  “My name is Rocana Dracre.”

  I groaned and my stomach churned. Rocana was the only one of my aunts my mother ever spoke of specifically. Although Rocana was already living on her own by the time Ilvera Dracre was born, she was the only person who had ever defeated Morina Dracre. She was my mother’s oldest sister.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  “Ayden Dracre.”

  “I haven’t heard of you.”

  “I’m not surprised. I’m not exactly my mother’s favorite.”

  “Maybe not, but you can still be useful to me. Who is your mother?”

  I opened my mouth to tell her the truth, wondering how long she would torture me before killing me. The child of Ilvera would be a trophy kill for anyone in the Dracre family. Of course, most Dracres were the enemy of the other Dracres from what my mother told me. Still, it wasn’t like I could lie. “Livia Dracre,” I lied.

  Her thin lips twisted into a sinister grin, yet for some reason, I felt less worried. “This is perfect,” she said. “I’ve been waiting many years for this opportunity.” She went over to the fireplace and got down a small chest. When she opened it, I heard the hissing of a snake. “I have a job for you, Precious.” She reached into the box and pulled out a long, thick, black snake, which wrapped around her arm. She wasn’t holding it by its head and it wasn’t biting her.

  I should have told her the truth.

  “Go to my youngest sister and tell her that I have her son. If she ever wants to see her son again, she will give me what I want.” She looked at me and frowned. “Are you her only child? Do I need to send an ear or something so she knows which of her sons I have?”

  “No! No, I don’t have any brothers.”

  She shrugged and the snake vanished. “Why did you come here, anyway? Did you come to assassinate me?”

  “We weren’t looking for you. Also, Livia wouldn’t send anyone to assassinate someone. We just happened to… land here.”

  “Nonsense. Nobody wanders into a sorceress’s territory on accident.”

  “It was an accident, though.” She picked up the hook. “Don’t hurt him.”

  She laughed. “He’s just a wolf.”

  I opened my hand for my staff and focused my energy.

  “Stop,” Merlin insisted. “It is not worth your safety. I have suffered worse injuries.”

  “We don’t know what she’ll do when Livia says she doesn’t have a son.”

  That was when the snake appeared, wrapped around Rocana’s shoulder. In its mouth was the last thing I had ever expected to see— a doll. “Finally!” Rocana screeched, dropping the hook and grabbing the doll. Despite being overjoyed, she was gentle and cradled it like a baby. The doll was very old, with dirty black hair and Dracre-burgundy eyes.

  “What is that?”

  “My son,” she said before kissing the doll’s forehead.

  “She’s insane,” I said privately to Merlin.

  “Not without just cause. That doll’s hair is real. The doll is modeled after a real baby.”

  I knew what that meant, and I felt miserable for Rocana. “What was his name?”

  “Jamie. I left my parents and sisters to move to the north after I married Hacan. We were very happy. That is, until my mother found out I had a baby with Hacan. She thought I would realize he was beneath me and kill him before I had a child with him. For me to besmirch our bloodline with a man such as Hacan instead of the man she picked out for me was unforgivable. She killed them both and made it so that I couldn’t have children.”

  “That’s horrible. That’s worse than anything my mother has ever done to me.”

  “When my younger sister, Lidyra, tried to choose a husband our mother didn’t approve of, she came to me for help. I refused, so Lidyra tried to run away with the man she loved, but our mother caught her. I killed my mother so that my sisters could have their own lives.”

  More than ever, I knew something was wrong with me, because part of me wanted to go and fight my own mother, and the other part wanted to comfort Rocana. “Let us go,” I said. She frowned, unsure. “Livia did as you asked.”

  She nodded. “I will let you go on one condition.”

  “You’re not keeping Merlin.”

  “I make the rules!” she shouted, her face twisting with anger. She sounded so much like my mother then that I flinched. Her face filled with surprise and she took a deep breath, visibly calming herself. “Stay for dinner, and I will let you go.”

  “What?”

  “Stay for---”

  “Why?”

  “I have not had a visitor for a very long time and you remind me of my son.”

  “How do I remind you of your son? I have blond hair and blue eyes.”

  “Ayden, just agree with her so she will let us go.”

  “Fine. We’ll stay for dinner. Please let us go.”

  She picked up the staff that had been leaning against the fireplace and waved it at me. The chains glowed red for a moment before opening up and falling off me. She did the same to free Merlin. I grabbed my staff.

  Merlin struggled to get off the table and favored his right forepaw. “Think before you act, young sorcerer,” Merlin cautioned, obviously knowing my plan.

  “She’s insane an
d wanted to tear out your body parts.”

  “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

  “Why did Livia take your doll?”

  “She didn’t. Ilvera stole it and Livia took it from her, but she refused to give it to me. All because I threatened her.”

  “Yes, that’s totally unreasonable. So, who’s— I mean what’s for dinner?”

  “Raven stew.”

  “Ravens?”

  “I hate ravens. Ilvera uses them as spies. I hate Ilvera, too. That little brat has been a thorn in my side since she was born. Mother loved her most because she was so vicious. Then Livia was born with so much more power. Mother worked hard to make Livia cruel. Eventually, my youngest sister became like two different people. Around my mother, she was a furious cobra; beautiful, vengeful, and deadly. Around anyone else, she was patient, loving, and forgiving. Ilvera hated Livia’s blond hair and blue eyes, but Mother thought it was the perfect disguise.”

  Rocana took the pot off the fire and set it on the table. After that, she got three bowls and three spoons off the shelf. She seemed to take great delight in setting the table and filling the bowls. I sat down and Merlin gingerly climbed into one of the chairs. “What did she do to you before I woke up?” I asked.

  “She filled a vial with my blood. If she wanted to, she could cause me great harm with blood magic.”

  “If I defeated her, I would definitely have enough power to break your curse.”

  “I do not want it broken at the expense of anyone else. It is my burden to bear. If we find a way to break it without sacrificing you or anyone else, then I will be grateful to have my magic back. Furthermore, if you were acting yourself, you would be appalled at the idea of killing her and stealing her power.”

  “I am… not… I know I should be. I just really want to defeat my mother so I can stop worrying about her appearing right in front of me and killing me. The weird part is that I’m not afraid of fighting her, I just want it over.”

  “It is undoubtedly part of the curse.”

  “You did say you would accept me however I wanted to be.”

  “As long as you are being true to yourself, I will always support you. However, this is not you, and we will get rid of it. Honestly, I am just worried about your wellbeing.”

  “I know.” I had to trust Merlin. “Rocana, can you see if I have a curse on me? I think my moth— I mean Ilvera, put a curse on me.”

  “If she put a curse on you, you might as well not even bother trying to break it. She wasn’t the most powerful of my sisters, but she was the most conniving. Even our mother could not control her. She was always plotting something and no matter what, we all fell into her traps flawlessly.”

  “She told me you lost your baby because you crossed a fairy circle.”

  “She lied.” Still cradling the doll like a baby, she prepared three bowls of stew and sat down. “Eat,” she insisted.

  Merlin sniffed it tentatively. “Is it safe?” I asked.

  “Yes.” He started eating, so I tried it.

  Surprisingly, it tasted good. “So, do you know anything about Ilvera’s children?”

  “Only that if I ever get my hands on one, they would be my next stew.”

  “Oh… that’s… understandable. If she was such a problem for you, why haven’t you ever gone to kill her yourself? You’re her older sister, so I bet you could.”

  “When we were young, it was because of my mother. Afterwards, it was because of her husband.”

  “Kille Rynorm? You know of him?”

  She laughed. “Know of him? Everyone in the family knows of him. He’s the Dracre legend and he’s not even a Dracre. Nobody in their right mind would cross that man. In fact he’s the reason I use a snake as my familiar; it terrifies all my sisters.”

  “What do snakes have to do with my fath— I mean Kille?”

  “Ilvera always loved ravens and learned to conjure them, but they couldn’t do much more than spy on people. Kille himself would conjure snakes. Usually, they were massive black cobras with enough venom to wipe out the entire population. If anyone bothered him enough, he would simply send a snake after them. The entire family lives in fear of angering him.”

  And we had already been attacked by a giant snake twice. “Are you sure there aren’t other sorcerers who conjure snakes?”

  “It takes a lot of power to conjure a creature. Ilvera has amazing skill to conjure multiple ravens, but that’s much easier to do than conjure one large raven. Any other sorcerer would use multiple little snakes. Creating one monstrous cobra is pretty much impossible for anyone else. No one is dumb enough to threaten his wife.”

  “But didn’t you say you would cook his children?”

  “I doubt a man like him cares what happens to his spawn.”

  “I think we may be in more trouble than we thought,” I told Merlin.

  Chapter 17

  After a strangely pleasant meal, we left. I was barely out the door when a fist-sized bat landed on Merlin’s head. Merlin growled, but the bat just held out his leg. Tied to his tiny foot was a small scroll. As soon as I untied the note, the bat flew off.

  “You have bat carriers?”

  “How else would we get messages back and forth without magic? I’m pretty sure that was a same-day rush bat, because it looked pretty fancy. It’s so expensive, though.” I unrolled the note. Although the penmanship was pretty bad, I could read it.

  Ayden,

  Houda is in league with Ilvera. She attacked me when I went to warn her about the food. I managed to escape, only to be trapped again by Houda while I was trying to find you. I’m tied up in Certainty and they’re going to kill me at sunset.

  “If Sven is such an idiot, how can he write? I was under the impression that he couldn’t even read,” Merlin said.

  “Never mind that. We’ll never make it back by sunset.”

  “I can. I will run there and save him.”

  “We don’t know what traps there might be.”

  “That is precisely what I was thinking. How was he able to write a letter if he is restrained? Why would Houda have tied him up?”

  “I don’t think that’s what’s most important right now. Sven has no reason to betray me.”

  “He could be trying to steal your power.”

  “He’s not smart enough for that and he’s too nice. We have to try to save him, and we need magic to do it. I can transport us there. If you don’t want to come, you can wait here for us.”

  “This could be a trick from your mother.”

  “It’s not my mother’s handwriting.” Of course, she could fake it with magic, but telling him that would not help my argument.

  “You should not---”

  I didn’t let him finish his sentence. I raised my staff in front of me and focused on the vampire town. Energy poured out of me easily, into my wand, and wrapped around me. Pain stabbed at my chest, but I didn’t stop. Before Merlin could argue, I was already gone. I opened my eyes and found myself standing in Certainty.

  Although the town appeared to be cheerful and colorful again, I felt something murky about it. The illusion had been shattered. Also, my chest was hurting pretty badly, which irritated me. I put my hood and mask on and started searching for Sven.

  I first went to the tavern to see if there was a note stating that it was closed for the execution, but there was none. The tavern was open, so I entered and found the same exact townspeople in the same exact seats as the day before. It was even the same man behind the bar. Once again, every person in the room turned at once, smiled, and waved.

  I pushed aside the icky sensation and approached the bar.

  “I knew you would be back! Can I get you some broccoli?”

  “No. I’m never eating broccoli again.”

  “Are you feeling down? Maybe you should visit our mage, who’s right down the street. Her name is Rose, and she’s just fantastic. Maybe she can help you with your hair.”

  “My hair?” I pulled the mir
ror out of my bag and groaned impatiently. My hair was very dark blond with streaks of black and my eyes were such dark blue they almost looked purple. “It’s getting worse.”

  “What is?” the tavern keeper asked.

  “Nothing,” I said, putting the mirror away. “That man who came here with me yesterday is back. Where is he?”

  “Are you sure he’s back?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then isn’t he here?”

  “Don’t give me that. Just tell me where Sven is. I’m holding onto my patience with a thread and you’re wearing that thread thin. I’m very close to being the sorcerer of your nightmares. Just tell me where he is.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t know anything helpful.”

  “Tell me something!”

  “Okay… all I know is that he’s in a cave at the eastern edge of town.”

  “That’s what I wanted to know!”

  “Oh. Are you sure?”

  “Yes!”

  “Then you don’t want to know that he’s being guarded by a huge monster?”

  I growled. “I wanted to know that, too.”

  “So… do you want to know that our vegetables are in there and we can’t get to them until---”

  “No! I don’t want to know about your vegetables.”

  He frowned. “Well, that’s not very nice.”

  I rolled my eyes and left. The cave was not hard to find on account of the monster guarding it. This beast had the body of a black dragon with three heads— a wolf head, a serpent head, and a… fish head.

  “What are you supposed to be?” I asked the creature.

  The wolf head growled, the serpent head hissed, and the fish head… blew bubbles.

  “Maybe you should go back to the water. I’m going to get around you now, so step aside.” It didn’t. “Seriously, I’m a sorcerer and I’m not backing down.” Once again, they growled, hissed, and blew bubbles, so I aimed my staff at it. “Attack.”