by Rain Oxford
“Where is your friend?” I asked, turning to Merlin. Then I jumped back with something between a squeak and a feminine shriek, because it wasn’t Merlin who stood right behind me.
The man was a head or so taller than me with long, black hair, a trimmed goatee, and stone gray eyes. He wore a black robe with a silver crow clasp at the nape. None of this was what made me shout. Instead, what made my skin try to crawl off and hide under one of the chairs was the fact that the stranger was not completely corporeal.
“You’re a…” My voice cracked.
The man narrowed his eyes. “I am Vactarus Firesword!” He held out his hands in a grand gesture and a deep blue glow formed above his palms, which illuminated his face.
“You’re a…” My voice cracked again.
“I am the most powerful magician to ever become stranded on Caldaca.” The blue glow formed into twin orbs.
“You’re a…” My voice cracked for a third time.
“I am the master of this castle.” The twin spheres of light suddenly burst into blue fire.
“You’re a…”
“Ayden!” Merlin admonished.
“Ghost!” I finally got out.
The flames died and the magician crossed his arms and glared at me. “Yes, I’m a ghost. Do you have a problem with that?” His tone told me in no uncertain terms that there was only one answer that wouldn’t result in my immediate death.
“Um… no. I’m a sorcerer, so, you know… I see g-ghosts all the time,” I lied. Merlin sighed in my mind. “I’m Ayden. If you’re a magician, where is your hat?”
“It was stolen by Magnus, the wizard.”
“He killed you and took your power?!” I asked, horrified.
The ghost magician pursed his lips and looked at the fire. “Well, no. I tripped over one of my rabbits and fell down the stairs. Magnus took my hat before I learned to control my new ghost powers. Now I can never leave my home, so I cannot get it back.”
“Oh, sorry for your loss,” I said. Merlin made a sound of disapproval. “I mean… that’s not my problem because I’m a sorcerer and I have no sympathy.”
“A sorcerer knows how to choose enemies and allies. Vactarus is a very powerful magician and although magicians only use illusionary magic here, he was once a world traveler and has therefore attained many artifacts you can use as a sorcerer. You are not yet strong enough to steal from someone like Vactarus, but you have a common enemy.”
“So I should make an alliance with him?” I asked.
“Who are you talking to?” Vactarus asked.
“Merlin. He’s the wolf and he can talk to me.” The ghost studied Merlin carefully. Merlin sat on his haunches and smirked. I shuddered.
“I knew a wizard named Merlin once. He stole a cushy job I wanted. We dueled and when I won, he was supposed to buy the drinks. Instead, he ran off and left me with the bill.”
“He did not win the duel,” Merlin argued.
“I really don’t care,” I told the wolf. Vactarus scowled, thinking I was talking to him. “I mean… tell me about it later. I’m going to defeat Magnus and prove myself to be a master sorcerer. If you would be willing to provide me with something I can use to fight him, I’ll bring your hat back to you.”
“You?” He studied me and obviously found me lacking. “You have no chance of defeating Magnus.” Merlin growled at him and he scoffed. “What are you going to do, wolf, bite me?” In response, Merlin went over to one of the chairs and sunk his teeth in to the leather cushion. “No!” the ghost shrieked in utter horror. “Not my custom relaxed leather! It took fifteen virgin maidens to make leather so supple and smooth that also matched my silk curtains!”
Merlin let go of the cushion and glared at the ghost again. “So, you’ll help me?” I asked.
The ghost’s shoulders slumped. “Your wolf is as uncouth as the wizard I knew who had the same name.”
“I am not uncouth,” Merlin assured me.
“He’s not my wolf,” I assured Vactarus.
“In the basement of my manor is a secret room full of riches I attained from many different worlds. You may have one artifact, only one, and you cannot change your mind later. You can also use the field behind my house and my ritual room to practice your attack. In exchange, you will bring back my hat.”
I glanced at Merlin and he nodded. “Deal.”
“Then I will return shortly.” He vanished.
I grinned widely. “Yay! I got my first accomplice! Or are you my accomplice?”
Merlin just sighed. I didn’t care; I was ecstatic to be getting a real magical weapon. A moment later, a young girl appeared right in front of me. This time, I refused to scream. Instead, I mustered every ounce of manliness I could… and squeaked quietly.
Because the young girl was also a ghost.
Her hair was blond and pulled up in pigtails, her blue eyes were huge and doll-like, and her pink cheeks were emphasized by her pale skin. The blue dress she wore was rough on the edges and dirty. She smiled at me. “My name is Kisha.”
Vactarus appeared beside her and I squeaked again, less quietly. “Kisha, my daughter, will show you to the vault.”
Kisha blushed, smiled shyly at me, and played with the hem of her dress. I squeaked louder until Merlin frowned at me worriedly. That was quite a sight to see, but Merlin seemed to have mastered wolf expressions.
Kisha waved her hand and started towards one of the doors. “Follow me.” Merlin and I did.
I opened the door, which revealed a dark hallway. “So… how long have you been… Vactarus’s daughter?” I asked, using my natural talent to make everyone in the room extremely uncomfortable.
She laughed. “I’m not really Vactarus’s daughter. I was already a ghost here when he took control over the manor. When he died, he sort of adopted me.” She walked through another door.
I heard a soft click as the latch released before the door swung open. Merlin and I entered cautiously, immediately having to step down some old, crumbling, stone steps. We followed the steps down until we reached the bottom. I pulled out my wand and let energy flow through me. Since I was very against being trapped in the dark, my magic instinctively knew what to do. The tip of the wand lit up with bright white light that chased away the darkness.
“No white magic to see here,” Merlin muttered sarcastically.
In front of us was a stone wall with magic sigils on it. Behind us were only the steps we had descended. “What do we do?” I asked. Kisha was gone and there wasn’t another door.
“Unlock the entrance the same way you did with the syrus.”
I waved my wand at the wall with the sigils on it. Reveal your secrets. Nothing happened. I tried again. Please open. Again, nothing happened.
“These sigils are not weak, but this door can be opened. You have to really want this.”
I glared at the wall and thrust my wand towards it like I was going to stab it. “Open!” I demanded out loud.
Suddenly, a vertical crack formed in the middle of the wall and grew larger. It was a very straight crack, so I knew it was intentional. I was very glad I wasn’t bringing the manor down on top of us. Once was enough for me.
More cracks split the wall until they formed blocks instead of a solid mass. Then, the blocks rearranged themselves to shape a doorway to another secret room. I held my wand out to see inside, since the tip was still glowing. Inside was a larger room, piled high with treasure chests, weapons, and magical items.
“Very good,” Merlin said. “Now, pick out something that feels right to you.”
“What if I pick out something that only does light magic?”
“There is nothing associated with white magic in this room.”
Trusting him, I got to work scouting out the magical items. There were crystal balls, staffs, talismans, rings, etc… I opened a chest and promptly jumped on a nearby table, only to sigh with relief when I saw that it was merely a mummy. At the angle it was stuffed in the chest, it had looked like a large d
oll. “I don’t know what this stuff does.”
“Listen for what speaks to you.”
I opened my mouth to argue, only to trip and hit the floor with a harsh grunt. Instinctively, I reached for the staff I had tripped over. Two things happened when my fingers wrapped around the wooden rod: I felt an electrical tingle shoot from the staff, through me, and into my wand; and clouds formed above us. It began raining inside.
Chapter 3
Merlin glared at me, so I let go of the staff. Unfortunately, doing so didn’t make the rain stop. “Well, this is sorcery, right?” I asked.
The clouds lit up as lightning started to form.
So I grabbed the staff and did what any reasonable person would have done in my situation; I ran like my butt was on fire. I tripped over a chest and ended up rolling the rest of the way out of the room. Merlin leapt out just as the room lit brightly. The blocks rearranged themselves again until it was a wall once more and then the cracks resealed.
I flicked my wand until the end started glowing again. Merlin was still glaring at me. “I didn’t mean to do it.” He turned and pranced up the steps. His tail was smoking.
* * *
Vactarus, Kisha, Merlin, and I sat at the kitchen table in an awkward silence. When we had emerged from the secret room with my new staff, the ghostly hosts insisted we have dinner. Of course, Vactarus and Kisha neither ate, nor cooked, so they were sitting and watching us. The fact that the table was covered in dust and set with old dishes didn’t seem to bother them. Merlin, who was precariously balanced on the chair, had hunted a rabbit to eat right in front of me. I was eating… an apple and broccoli.
Somehow, I knew if I asked Merlin to share, he would tell me to hunt down my own rabbit because that was what a sorcerer would do. That, or conjure one. I looked at the sharp claws of the dark black rabbit carcass, shuddered, and ate my broccoli. I didn’t want to touch one of them let alone eat one.
The staff, which was propped up against the chair to my right, rattled slightly, as if to get my attention. I reached for it cautiously, and as soon as I touched it, energy shot through me and into the apple in my hand, which suddenly changed into the drumstick of some large bird. I really am a sorcerer! “Look!” I said, letting the staff go and waving the meat in front of Merlin’s face.
He sniffed it and frowned deeply. “Tofu?”
“What’s tofu?” I asked. I didn’t let his hesitation dampen my excitement. I finally conjured meat and all it took was getting a new magic tool.
“Tofu is… a very good source of protein. You did a good job,” he said, sounding more hesitant than anything else.
That confirmation ramped up my excitement another notch and I bit into the meat. It was hot and juicy, but as I chewed, it turned cold. I chewed a little more. And then chewed some more. “Is it supposed to be so…?” I trailed off, unable to come up with a word to adequately describe the elastic flavor or bland texture.
“Yes, it is,” Merlin assured me. “We should find out more about that staff before anything dangerous happens.”
Having grown up with six older brothers, I was no stranger to danger. “What can you tell me about this staff?” I asked Vactarus, picking it up to study closer. The wood was twisted, smooth, and dark with gold-painted sigils carved into it. They weren’t anything I recognized from my family’s grimoires, but they were definitely black-magic in nature. At the top of the staff was a large, crudely-cut, blood-red, clear stone.
The ghost leered at it. “Oh, it has quite the story. I first came across it on a land that only had women. They got the idea to use it to conjure men to keep them warm and safe in the cold winter nights. I, of course, felt it was my duty to take one for the team, so to speak. I showed them all kinds of fun. In fact, half of them lost their---”
“Please don’t finish that sentence,” I interrupted. Energy shot from the staff into Vactarus. Unlike my usual magic, which was sparkly, light, and bounced around freely, this was dark and twisted, like a thorny vine, and it went straight for its mark. To my shock, the magic struck the ghost and his mouth snapped shut. No matter how hard he tried to open it, his lips wouldn’t part.
“Wow. I have never been able to make him stop talking,” Kisha said with awe.
I set the staff down on the dusty table and wiped my hands on my pants. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to---”
Merlin made a sound of disapproval.
“I mean… I’m not sorry because I’m a sorcerer and I have no sympathy.” I picked up the staff carefully and aimed it at the magician. Kisha and Merlin both ducked under the table, Merlin by diving gracefully and Kisha… by phasing right through the table. “Be able to talk again,” I said.
Nothing happened.
I repeated the command while waving the staff dramatically.
Nothing happened again.
Well, something happened. I shrieked and jumped out of my skin when I felt Kisha’s ghostly hand gently caress the inside of my thigh. “Merlin, what do I do?!” I asked, forcefully stopping myself from crawling onto the table.
Kisha patted my knee and backed off. “Sorry, handsome, I dropped my fork.”
“You weren’t eating anything!”
“I was planning on eating something, but Vac wanted to join us for dinner.”
“Merlin!” I squeaked.
The wolf sighed in my head. “Use your wand.” Quickly following his advice, I set the staff down, pulled out my wand, and aimed it at Kisha. “On Vactarus,” Merlin said.
I grunted and aimed it at the magician. “You can talk,” I said.
A sunny yellow ball of energy popped out of the tip of my wand, bounced off the table, and hit Vactarus. His mouth opened easily. He snapped it shut, obviously afraid that I would curse him again. Merlin and Kisha returned to their chairs. I sat back down in my seat, picked up my tofu bird, and continued eating. It was foul.
“So, about the staff,” I prompted.
Vactarus licked his lips nervously, which was an odd habit for a ghost. “The women gave it to me in exchange for my attention, but I sold it on the next world I came to, which only made sense; it was rubbish at the time. Then, about a year later and ten worlds away, I met a lovely young woman whose family owned a winery. We spent many days in lounging in---”
“Get on with it,” I said.
“Oh, yes. Anyway, we married and some old lady gave it to me at the wedding. I knew it was the same staff because an item like that cannot be forgotten. It was different, though. There was power in it that was not there when I first saw it. Someone had used it to do very powerful, very dark magic, and that left a stain in the wood and the crystal.”
“The crystal?” I asked, looking at the stone on the top. Although it was shaped like a crystal, I had only ever seen black ones used by sorcerers and white ones used by wizards. I had no idea they came in colors.
“Yes, it is a crystal. Surprising, I know; it looks like a massive ruby. It was white when I first saw it, and it only had strands of red when I attained it at my wedding. Nevertheless, my beloved and I were not meant to be. Within a fortnight, she realized she could not tame my need for adventure and danger, so she asked me to leave. Unfortunately, the girl she caught me talking to— which was absolutely not my fault. I was seduced and had no idea her intention was to strip my---”
“Get on with it,” I said.
“Oh, yes. I sold it again, since it was the only thing I had been able to grab. Then, about three years later, I saw it in the keep of a most malevolent wizard. The crystal was pure red at this point, and produced an essence as if it was self-aware.”
I glanced worriedly at the staff, half afraid it would randomly start blasting curses at us. “So you got it from him?”
“Of course not. I ran away. I had far too much to live for to risk myself for something I neither wanted nor needed. It was about two years later that I found it while hunting for the well-guarded treasure of a dragon. This is the first time I have ever seen the blasted thing ever work for an
yone.”
“Really? Maybe it likes me.” I had never been liked by an inanimate object before. I took another bite of my meat and was certain the texture was actually getting slimier.
“I’m confused,” Vactarus said, flinching when I looked at him. “You said you were a sorcerer, yet you don’t act like any sorcerer I know. Furthermore, why do you have blond hair?”
“Tell him it was a disguise spell gone wrong,” Merlin advised.
I did, which seemed to placate the ghost. I wished I could speak in Merlin’s mind like he could in mine. I also wished Kisha would stop batting her eyelashes at me. The staff rattled, but I ignored it.
I was able to eat about half of the bird before I couldn’t bring myself to stick another bite of the gelatinous meat in my mouth. Kisha then showed us to a couple of rooms. Along the way, I noticed an inconsistency with the mansion. Several of the paintings were clean of dust and others weren’t. There were books and tea cups left out on tables, but nothing rotten. If I had to make a guess, I would say the place was set up to look abandoned.
My bed, though covered in dust, was easily five times the size of mine at home and infinitely softer than the cold dirt. The dark walls were crumbling and the grimy window was covered in cobwebs. The hardwood floor could have used a good sweeping… or scrubbing. I stepped around the large, dried puddle of blood. Dried blood didn’t bother me; my mother used blood all the time in her potions. Other than the bed, the sparse furniture consisted of a small table beside the bed with two lit candles and a chest across from it. Surprisingly, the chest contained clean, yet stale clothes that fit me pretty well.
When Kisha left Merlin and me alone without hesitation, I was relieved. I set my wand on the table and leaned my staff against the wall next to it. “Can you teach me to talk in your head like you can mine?” I asked.
He sat. “You have the skill already, yet you do not know how to use it. I picked it up naturally because it was my only means of communication. You released me from the syrus, and in doing so, you bound us. What all that entails exactly, I do not yet know. All I know is that I am unable to use magic and I have much to teach you.”