The Raven's Curse

by Rain Oxford

  I was a sorcerer. I was also something else. I wasn’t the smartest, or bravest, or kindest, or wisest, or most powerful person, and that was okay. Being the best at anything was a huge responsibility anyway. I liked who I was. With Merlin’s help, I had accepted my magic, but that wasn’t the same as liking myself.

  Faced with the choice of being myself or being what I’ve always wanted to be, I was going to choose to stay the same. To my surprise, my resolve was so much stronger than my desire to make my mother proud had ever been. It was stronger than the curse. The heat that had gripped my heart so firmly was dissolving away, leaving only calmness. There was no fear or uncertainty in its wake, because I didn’t really need sorcery to fight my fear.

  I changed my sword back into a staff.

  “Ayden?” Merlin asked.

  I realized I had probably freaked him out with my odd behavior. “I’m okay.” The crystal was black as ink and full of cracks. I snapped it off. All the light magic in it was gone, so I threw it into the forest.

  “Did you just break the raven’s curse?” he asked.

  “No, but I think I’ve finally started fighting it. I need to break the curse before it overcomes my willpower, though. So now I walk around the pillar?” I didn’t wait for him to answer. I walked around it three times and then stopped in front of it. “What now?” In answer, Merlin walked backwards to the edge of the forest. “What are you doing?”

  “Magic like this works only for one person at a time.”

  “Magic like…” I turned back to the pillar and gaped. “What in the world is that?!” A mirror had appeared in front of the pillar, but it wasn’t like any mirror I had ever seen. It was black, for one thing, yet just as reflective as a regular mirror. It was narrow at the bottom and flat on top instead of completely round. It was the image in the mirror that made me cringe, however.

  There was a snowstorm going on in the background of the mirror. I was in it, but it wasn’t me at the same time. I had black hair and dark red eyes, much like the rest of my family. My clothes were different and I was wearing gloves. Even the blue crystal of my staff was red again. I glanced at my staff outside the mirror to confirm that it was still blue, and it was. The only thing that was really the same in the mirror was my robe.

  “What is this?”

  “You are seeing what you will be in the future if you stay on this path. That is the sorcerer you will be if you do not break the curse.”

  “That’s soothsaying. How can I be sure?”

  “This is the type of trick dragons love to use. A dragon will not give you anything; he will teach you to get it for yourself. Dragons enjoy making you face your fears.”

  I shook my head. I could feel the curse trying to push its way back into me. It would have been so easy to let it in. It would be better than facing that. “I don’t think I like dragons anymore. I don’t want to do this.” I took a step back.

  “Stop doubting yourself. You are stronger than the stranger in the mirror. Find that confidence I saw in you when you ripped off the crystal.”

  “What do I have to do?”

  “Step into the mirror.”

  “No.” I took another step back.

  “Trust me.”

  “I do trust you. I just don’t want to do it.”

  “I know. Do you want to become that?” he asked. I shook my head. “Then stop arguing with me. I know what you can and cannot do. You can do this. Trust me.”

  I gripped my staff tightly and held it in front of me like a weapon. The expression on my opposite reflection was sinister, whereas I knew mine was insecure. I reached out and stuck one finger into the mirror. It was like breaking the surface of a still pond. When I pulled it back out, there was nothing on it and it wasn’t bleeding or cut off. Slowly, I stuck my right foot through, which felt like stepping into cold water. Next, I sucked in a deep breath, closed my eyes, and stepped all the way through the mirror.

  The first thing I noticed was that I could breathe. The second thing was that the air was very cold. I wrapped my robe around me tighter and shivered. It wasn’t easy to see anything through the snow, which was definitely not like white rain. It was blindingly bright, blew in all directions, and clung to my hair.

  I was in a valley between two mountain cliffs, seemingly in the bed of a river long since dried up. Small and large boulders were scattered around, but other than that, the only thing around me was one dead tree. Even the mirror was gone. “What am I supposed to do now?” I asked, my voice instantly lost in the wind. As if I had startled the storm, everything suddenly stopped. The snow settled on the ground, the wind died, and it was silent. After a moment, I wanted the wind back, because this was spooky.

  The caw of a raven startled me. As I turned to look up into the tree where the sound had come from, I slipped. I stayed down. There was a large raven perched on one of the branches in the tree with glowing red eyes. When it didn’t attack, I clumsily got to my feet.

  “That tree is dead; it’s not going to support your weight for long,” I warned the bird begrudgingly. The bird flapped his wings and flew towards the ground. As he did, he shifted into the opposite reflection of me. He looked just as he had in the mirror, except he wasn’t moving as I did.

  He smirked cruelly. “You’re afraid of your enemy falling from a tree?”

  “You’re not my enemy.”

  “I’m your worst enemy; I’m you.”

  It was the voice in my head, which had tried to fool me into thinking its words were my own thoughts. “You’re not me, either. You’re the manifestation of a curse. You’re nothing but hatred and dark power wearing my skin. Since you’re not a real person, you don’t qualify as my enemy. I’m not going to let you take control of me again.”

  He laughed. “Somebody has found a little courage. Did you know that the raven’s curse can’t be used on wizards?” he asked. I shook my head. “It’s because they’re not strong enough. Wizards are not brave or adventurous. They build their defenses so they can bury their heads under their blankets when the real danger comes to their door. They spend their lives hoping that no one will ever realize they’re all cowards.”

  “I’d rather be a coward than a monster. I know what it’s like to be on the wrong end of my mother; I don’t want to be someone else’s nightmare. Now, tell me how to get out of here. Obviously, you’re only here to talk me to death.”

  He laughed again. “No, I’m here to show you that all your efforts are wasted. You’re right that I am the curse. Stepping into the mirror separated the curse from you, but I’m still here. It’s not going to be that easy to get rid of me. Only one of us can leave.”

  “I’m not going to be stuck here.”

  “Why? Because you can’t break Merlin’s curse here? You really are a fool. You are the source of Merlin’s problems. You cannot break the raven’s curse by killing your mother, but you can break the curse you put on Merlin by dying here.”

  “It can’t be that simple.”

  “It is. Remember; Merlin grew up with dragons and he knows what they’re capable of. This is why he insisted you come in here; he wanted you to lose.”

  “I don’t believe you. Merlin cares about me.”

  “You thought your mother cared about you, too.”

  “Are you going to fight or are you all bark and no bite?”

  He smirked. “If you paid any attention to your brothers as a child, you would know that the best way to get an advantage on your enemy is to talk them down before you ever even start fighting.”

  “But the best way to defeat an enemy is to make them your friend.”

  “And who told you that?”

  “I don’t know. I think I figured that out when I met a vegetarian troll.” I held my staff up into the air and focused my mind on protecting myself. A ward formed around me. It would protect me against most magic, but it wasn’t perfect.

  The dark Ayden laughed. “Are you just going to sit there until I give up and walk away?”

&n
bsp; “I didn’t plan on it, but that sounds good to me.”

  His staff suddenly changed to a wand that looked exactly the same, just much smaller. He pointed it at me and fire burst from it, reaching out across the space and into my ward. I collapsed the ward and dropped to the ground, narrowly avoiding it.

  “You shouldn’t have fought me, Ayden. Being the most powerful sorcerer was the only chance you had of surviving.”

  “I choose the future I want! If I want to be a curse breaker, a wizard, a sorcerer, or even a librarian, I will be!”

  Instead of continuing the pointless talking, he gestured with his miniature staff and smoke flowed from the tiny crystal. A creature formed in that black fog. Before I could even figure out what it was, I let my magic protect me. I felt numbness in my skin as my magic made my skin impenetrable. My magic didn’t stop there, however. My body disappeared from sight.

  The creature created in the smoke was finally formed; it was a massive, black, three-headed cat. It didn’t matter so much that my skin was impenetrable now because any one of the heads could eat me whole, and since “Dark Ayden” wasn’t a magician, I knew the creature was real. I also knew the cat could probably find me even when I was invisible, so I pointed my staff at a nearby boulder.

  I wasn’t great at conjuring, but transformation was one of my strengths. Focusing my mind on what I wanted, I let my magic pour into my staff. Red energy shot into the large boulder and changed it into a large rock creature, which immediately stood up. It was larger than a troll and crudely shaped, but I didn’t care because it was pretty awesome. Its head looked like a regular boulder, except it had two eyes and a mouth. The poor thing didn’t have a nose. Then again, would a nose do a rock monster any good?

  “Kitty!” the rock monster shouted gleefully. All three heads of the cat stopped hissing as shock crossed their faces. The cat took off and the rock monster followed. I shed the invisibility and impenetrable spells because they used up a lot of energy.

  Dark Ayden waved his wand up and shot blasts of magic into the air. I didn’t know what he was doing, but I knew it was going to be bad. I ran over to another boulder, got on top of it, and put my hood and mask up. Then I pointed my staff at it. “Dragon hide,” I said, focusing on protection and imagining my dragon hide gloves.

  My robe grew heavy as it transformed from cloth to magically-enhanced leather. At least, I hoped it was fake, or even naturally shed, because I would never forgive myself for harming a dragon.

  Before I could reflect too much on this, Dark Ayden lowered his wand and a massive rock appeared over him. Well, that would have been a lot simpler. Then it started raining. Only this wasn’t normal rain.

  Snow and rocks sizzled as the rain fell; it was raining acid. The remaining snow melted away under the onslaught. By holding my head down, I was able to keep it from getting on my face, but a few drops hit my boots and started burning holes in them. Since it was fairly slow, I was able to shake off most of the acid rain. Although my boots were quickly becoming deformed, nothing had reached my feet yet.

  Fortunately, the acid rain soon stopped, probably because Dark Ayden saw that my robe was protecting me. It didn’t even leave the sand wet. As soon as I was certain it wouldn’t start back up, I carefully examined my robe for damage. There was none, but I did find a strange piece of white cloth (with a message on it) sewn into the collar.

  Synthetic leather, synthetic dragon hide. No animals or dragons were harmed in the making of this robe. Warning: Will not protect against dragons, knives, arrows, superheroes, rock monsters, jellyfish, rabbits, or insults. Will protect against fire, acid, and a cold wind.

  Well, that was lucky. Dark Ayden started summoning another creature, so I dropped my spell over my robe, letting it change back into cloth, and pointed my staff at his feet. This one wasn’t easy for me. I imagined what I wanted and let my magic do its best, because although Merlin had tried to teach it to me, I hadn’t been successful.

  I hadn’t wanted to be before.

  This time, I didn’t have a choice. Using the acid rain that Dark Ayden had created, I turned the sand he was walking on into quicksand. It was slow, but by the time he realized what I’d done, he had already started sinking.

  He started thrashing at first, but then he just settled down and held up his wand. “I would say nice try, but it wasn’t one,” he said as red magic enveloped him and pulled him out of the sand. It had, however, distracted him from creating his monster. Once he was on solid ground, he started creating a monster again. This time, I decided to see what he was conjuring before I tried to transform anything.

  While he was busy with that, I searched my surroundings until I saw a huge rock in front of a mountain cliff. I ducked behind the rock and watched as the dark cloud formed a massive raven. Massive as in tree-sized. The raven spit something green at Dark Ayden, who dived out of the way. The spit hit a rock and melted it.

  Okay, so it’s an enormous raven that can spit acid. I can handle that.

  “You stupid animal! Kill Ayden, not me! I conjured you!”

  The raven turned to me, easily spotting me over the rock, and glared. “Um… he’s Ayden?”

  He spit acid, and there went my rock. I jumped back in time to avoid getting splattered and pointed my staff upward. I let my magic shape itself around my desire, which was to protect myself.

  The magic that poured from my crystal was deep blue and formed a dark gray cloud identical to my opponent’s. The raven tried to stop me, but I dodged his spit without getting distracted, thanks to Merlin’s relentless teachings.

  I felt the magic flowing from me, to the staff, to the cloud, and then return to me. This wasn’t the first time I had felt it, but it was very strange. The energy started to flow faster and build potency. I felt stronger, even though I was beginning to shake and I couldn’t move. I knew I was vulnerable if the raven struck, but he seemed to be more interested in what I was summoning.

  “Kill him!” Dark Ayden demanded. The raven ignored him, still watching the dark cloud as a red and black mass formed.

  The shape was quickly becoming as large as the raven. When the cloud dispersed and my magic settled, I was able to move again, but only barely. Its wings were angular, red on the outward side, and stone-gray on the inward side, while its body was stone-gray. Its head was narrow and angular with two horns curving backward and reddish-orange, glowing eyes.

  Unlike the raven, my dragon didn’t wait for instructions; he attacked his enormous opponent enthusiastically. As his wings flapped, they emitted smoke like they were on fire. It was a battle of claws versus talons, fangs versus beak, and fire versus acid. Every time the dragon used fire, I felt like it was being pulled through my body. The raven was apparently tougher than the chimera had been, because it didn’t take nearly as much damage. In fact, with every strike, the dragon did less damage.

  And it wasn’t the dragon’s fault.

  I realized for the first time that it wasn’t a dragon but a manifestation of my magic, just like how my father created a giant snake. However, it was draining my energy too fast. I hadn’t fully recovered from my fight with Sven and I didn’t have as much strength as I had going into the fight with the chimera.

  When the raven spit acid into the dragon’s eyes, I collapsed to the ground in blinding pain. The dragon roared because, although it was just a creature made of magic, it could still be injured… just like I could be injured through it. Fortunately, the acid wasn’t actually burning away my face.

  And then my staff was ripped out of my hand. I felt my connection with the staff break at the same time I heard the snap of the wood. “No!” It was stronger than the sensation of my mother destroying my first three wands. My vision returned as my dragon vanished. The energy forced its way into me. Unlike the first time, this was not a pleasant experience, for there was very little energy to be returned to me.

  There was only the manifestation of the curse, who didn’t seem to have lost any momentum, and the giant raven
. I abandoned my broken staff, retreated towards the mountain behind me, and found another rock to hide behind.

  I knew I’d only have a moment. I wished I had something, like my magic black ball, but I had left everything at the castle. A sense of helplessness tried to overtake me. What could I do without my wand or staff? Without Merlin? I was all alone, hiding behind a rock, and powerless, all because my mother wanted my magic. Why?

  Because darkness is stronger than light.

  I tried to focus my mind like Merlin had taught me. It was hopeless, but I did it anyway. I knew I would fail, but I did it anyway. Merlin said that I would be able to do magic without a wand or staff if I learned to focus my energy through something else. I didn’t believe him, because I couldn’t do magic like those from his world, but I did it anyway. I focused with every fiber of my being to make my skin impenetrable.

  I was out of energy.

  When Dark Ayden walked up to me calmly and faced me, I tried not to be afraid. I tried to focus on my magic. I hated being afraid. Sorcerers weren’t supposed to be afraid of anything. He pointed his wand at me, stabbing pain filled my entire body, and I saw only blackness.

  * * *

  “Wake up.” The voice tore me from my sleep so violently I gasped. It was a voice I would dread hearing for my entire life. Only, I was having a dream of a memory; I wasn’t really asleep. I knew this because everything was blurry and extremely familiar.

  “Mother?” I heard myself say. I watched the entire scene from my own eyes, without being able to control myself, because it had all already happened. I watched as my mother taunted me, told me that my power belonged to her, and explained exactly how she planned to do it.