The Sorcerer's Quest

by Rain Oxford

  As he said this, I felt the sunlight on me, warming me faster than the water I was imagining. “That’s weird.”

  “The reason your body is warming so quickly is because the energy inside you is starting to move. It is becoming active. The energy that filled you from the staff, making you invisible, is being forced out and into the cold water. You no longer need it. Do you feel the water warming?”

  “Yes.”

  “That is the foreign energy being dispersed. The sun is not important, because your energy is taking over. It knows you are safe and no longer needs to be invisible.”

  I directed my focus away from the sunlight as I started feeling too warm. Then, suddenly, I realized I couldn’t see through my eyelids. In shock, I opened my eyes and looked down at myself. “It worked!”

  Merlin’s eyes narrowed. “Of course it worked. I told you it would. The power inside you is stronger than you know. Understand that most spells and curses are easier to break by gently working them off from their weakest points.”

  “So, did you find out how to break your curse?” I asked.

  “No.” Instead of explaining, he turned and walked away.

  * * *

  On the way back to the mansion, I told him about what the seer said to me. “Do you know where the Island of Light is?”

  “I am not that knowledgeable of Caldaca’s geography. If I had my magic, I could find the place, but magic-users here are limited in what they can do. As a wizard of a different world, I can do scrying as well as any seer here can, but I understand why power is limited here.”

  “What is scrying?”

  “Crystal gazing.”

  “So wizards can be seers where you’re from?”

  “It is more that wizards are all magic users in one where I come from. We can specialize in something, like necromancy or soothsaying, but the possibilities succeed that of wizards here. Instead of having sorcerers, we have wizards that are capable of being just as conniving and malevolent as sorcerers.”

  I spent the rest of the trip in deep thought. On Merlin’s world, I wouldn’t be judged for being too nice or for my blond hair. Although my magic would still be the same, people would assume I could do more. Right before we reached the gates of the mansion, I opened my mouth to ask him if we could go to his world.

  “Of course, they also kill wizards where I live.”

  “What?!”

  “Well it is complicated. I have been alone and away from society for so long that I cannot be sure what the laws are anymore.”

  That was the moment I realized world-travel was potentially very dangerous.

  Inside, there was a plate of fish, corn, and potato slices ready at the table for me. I sat down while Merlin went rabbit hunting. “Who cooked this?” I asked Vactarus. Just like the night before, he and Kisha sat at the table with nothing to eat. This was obviously an important tradition for them.

  “Our housekeeper, of course.”

  I studied the dust all over the table. “Housekeeper?”

  “Yes. We want to make sure the mansion stays in a creepy enough state that it scares away bandits without actually falling apart. Since my hat was taken by Magnus, the illusion over the mansion is ever so slowly disintegrating. Soon, there will be nothing left and anyone can find us.”

  I figured he wasn’t trying to pressure me to hurry up and battle Magnus, but I felt guilty for going to see the tournament anyway.

  “When are you going to battle Magnus already?”

  Okay, my guilt was completely gone. “When I’m ready. Do you know where the Island of Light is?”

  “Not on this world. I know where the tunnel of light is, and I’m never going there. I’m afraid I have never seen anything of Caldaca outside of Akadema.”

  “I need to find someone who knows. I need a way to get there, too. I need a plan.”

  “You need a minion.”

  I thought about it. It was definitely something a sorcerer would want, although I didn’t think turning Vactarus back into a bat was a good idea. My mother saw her children as her minions. “You’re right. Do you think I can buy one somewhere?” I certainly wasn’t going to grow my own.

  Vactarus gave me an annoyed stare. “Summon one,” he said, as if I should have thought of that on my own.

  I definitely should have thought of that on my own.

  Merlin returned then with a dead rabbit in his jaws. Well, I thought it was dead, until it tried to scratch at Merlin’s throat with its razor-sharp claws. Merlin shook his head until his prey fell still, and then he hopped up on the chair and set it on the table.

  The food in my stomach rebelled. “Merlin, will you teach me to summon a beast to help fight Magnus?” I asked.

  “Do you think you have the mental strength and inner peace to control a beast?”

  “Inner peace? That’s a wizard thing.”

  Once again, I could feel his irritation. “That is a control thing. You cannot control another creature if you cannot control yourself. How easily you picked up my guidance today showed me that you have the skill; you need only to use it.”

  “Then let’s go do it.”

  “Patience, young sorcerer; the only thing worse than an angry wolf is a hungry one.” With that, he started eating his rabbit.

  “I think I’ll just wait outside.” I narrowly escaped without losing my dinner. I also learned that I would rather conjure something than hunt my own food.

  For a while, I studied the designs on my wand and staff. My wand was as elegant and wizard-like as always. My staff, however, seemed to be a little different than before. The wood was a little smoother, as if it had been polished. The crystal at the top was also slightly lighter than the deep red it had been before. Of course, it was sunset, so my light was starting to fade.

  I thought about what I could do to Magnus with my staff. The three times I had used it, it didn’t go as planned. Although my wand only did white magic, it was reliable. Magnus was the most powerful wizard known, so I knew I couldn’t just defeat him with magic. What made my family so famous was my mother’s skill in coming up with diabolical plans. I was smarter than my brothers, which only angered my mother more because I was the least ambitious. I didn’t want to take over Akadema any more than I wanted to curse people and sell them the anti-curse at a ridiculous price.

  It wasn’t even that I didn’t know what I was doing. The first potion I ever had to make was supposed to make someone’s hair fall out. However, I thought the ingredients were gross, and I was very young at the time, so I used different ingredients to make an uncontrollable laughing potion instead.

  Defeating Magnus would not be a matter of who had the stronger magic. To prove I was a masterful sorcerer, I would have to set an ingenious trap.

  Chapter 6

  By the time Merlin arrived, only the two full moons provided light. “Are you prepared?” he asked. I nodded. “Very well. Sit, and focus on the energy inside you. Before you can conjure a creature of great power, you must be able to control it,” he said.

  I didn’t like the sound of that. As I turned my focus on my energy, Merlin started sniffing at the ground. “What are you looking for?” He ignored me and began digging something up. I realized what it was an instant before he dropped a carrot in my lap. “No!”

  “Rabbits are minor nuisances as long as you avoid their claws and teeth.”

  That was easier said than done. I didn’t even have time to jump up and shout something very unmanly before the high grass started to rustle. The field was entirely to their advantage, because I couldn’t see them and they could smell me. One rabbit came close enough that I could see him. He was light brown in color and not the largest I had seen. He wasn’t looking at me or advancing on me, which I knew was a trap; he was studying me, deciding if I was worth fighting or not.

  When the rabbit made a little hop towards Merlin, the wolf growled. Then, with a final sniff in my direction, the rabbit hopped away.

  I sighed. “Maybe I was wrong
about rabbits. That was totally---” My words were interrupted by my shrill scream of horror and agony as the rabbit pounced on me from behind and sunk its claws into my back. When I reached for my staff that I had dropped, another rabbit leapt out of the grass and sunk its fangs into my hand. By dropping and rolling, I was able to dislodge the rabbit from my back, but I also lost some precious skin when I tore my arm away from the second rabbit. My wand stabbed me painfully in the side, so I pulled it out and waved it around myself. Protect.

  The wand answered, but in the most unlikely way; magic shot from the wand into the staff, and then from the staff into me. What came out was a mixture of the sinister red energy of the staff and the elegant white energy of the wand. I felt my skin become cold and tingly again. A third rabbit appeared and bit my hand, but this time, I didn’t feel it. In fact, to our mutual shock, the rabbit’s teeth didn’t break my skin.

  When the first rabbit tried to claw at my face, he had the same problem. Unfortunately, he also had a solution; he kicked me in the face. Magically impenetrable skin or not, it hurt.

  I reached for my staff again, but one of the rabbits kicked me in the side of my abdomen, causing me to ball up in pain. By sheer determination, I didn’t loosen my grip on my wand. I waved it at the carrot that was just out of reach, as the rabbits apparently wanted to fight me for it instead of just taking it. However, when magic shot from the wand and hit the carrot, tossing it high into the air, the rabbits focused on it instead. I had just enough time before it hit the ground to roll and grab my staff. Attack.

  The staff obeyed my unspoken thought and blasted them with burning red energy. The rabbits turned to stone.

  “Where did you learn that?” Merlin asked.

  “I didn’t. I remember reading something about it in one of Vactarus’s books, but I didn’t know how to do it. The staff did it.”

  “If so, then the staff is much more powerful than I originally thought.”

  “So I can summon a monster now?”

  “Tend to your wounds and rest up. We will begin at first light.”

  Although my skin was still cold and impenetrable, the cuts that the rabbits caused before were still bleeding. “What do I do about it?”

  “Bandage it, of course.”

  “What about healing potions?”

  “By all means, if you know how to make one and can conjure the ingredients, do so,” he said. I didn’t know any, so he continued. “You should ask Vac if he has any bandages and something to clean your cuts with. First, you need to release your spell. Do exactly as I told you before.”

  I sat down harder than I meant to and realized that I felt a little too heavy and pretty tired. It took longer without him telling me, but I did manage to imagine everything as I had before, and when I opened my eyes, I felt normal.

  “You learn quickly.”

  “Thank you. What did you get at the tournament to disguise my hair?”

  “I found a world traveler who had good black ink. That should last about five to seven days unless you wash your hair out. If nothing else, it might help you to appear more intimidating to Magnus or a villager.”

  “Yes, and if we run into my brothers again, I can hide my face and maybe they won’t recognize me. I can put it in now.”

  “Wait until we find out where the Island of Light is. We may be many days off and I only have enough to cover your hair once.”

  Merlin left and I returned to my room, where there was a bathtub set up with steaming water. And there was a dead girl in it.

  “I’m sorry, did I come into the wrong room?” I asked, knowing I hadn’t.

  Kisha laughed. “No. I just wanted to talk to you and the bath was so inviting.”

  “How did it get here?” I was pretty sure I would have noticed a bathtub when I left that morning.

  “The housekeeper brought it.”

  “Can you feel the warmth of the water?”

  “No, but I can pretend. Come in.”

  “I don’t think that would be a good idea. I’m going to the library to read.” She didn’t say anything, but she looked a little sad and lonely. “How long have you been a ghost?” I asked.

  She looked at the water and shrugged her ghostly shoulders. “For longer than I can remember. I think this was my home originally. Vactarus named me Kisha because I couldn’t remember my actual name.”

  “Do you remember how you died?” I asked. She shook her head. “Do you ever make it up?” She looked at me. “If you don’t remember your own life, you can pretend. You could have been a dragon trainer or a wand maker.”

  She smirked. “Not likely. It’s pretty obvious that I died young.”

  “That doesn’t mean your life wasn’t exciting.”

  “I guess you’re right.”

  “Maybe you can even have an exciting afterlife. I’ll try to think of something.”

  She smiled brightly. “I don’t know why you want to be a sorcerer so much. You are a nicer man than anyone I know.”

  “It’s not that I want to be a sorcerer. I am a sorcerer; I was born in a family of sorcerers. I’m just a failure as one, and there’s no place in the world for someone who is a failure at being what they are.”

  “I would rather you be the way you are now than to change yourself. You haven’t been here that long, but I liked you the first time you opened your mouth. That’s special. Also, Vac trusts you to get his hat back. Vac doesn’t trust anyone, and a sorcerer would use that against him. It’s better to be a failed sorcerer than a failed friend.” With those parting words, she vanished.

  I considered taking a bath while the water was hot. After all, the housekeeper worked so hard to heat the water. Instead, I headed to the library to read up on conjuration. Access to such a grand library was worth a cold bath any day.

  * * *

  Once again, I woke to a plate of eggs and potatoes. I barely had time to eat it before Merlin started calling me. With a sigh, I dressed and gathered my wand and staff. There was a bottle of ink outside my door, so I slipped it into my bag before heading out to the grassy field.

  Merlin was already waiting. “Where are the rabbits?” I asked, hesitating when I saw that the statues were missing.

  “They reverted to normal overnight. Now, put your wand away, take your staff in both hands, and concentrate on your desire to defeat Magnus.”

  I did. I will defeat the wizard and become someone nobody can doubt. I will never have to worry about my mother killing me for being an embarrassment to the family. I will be allowed to have books and do magic I want to do instead of curses and poisons. The crystal of the staff began to glow, but it wasn’t nearly as red as it had been the night before when I fought the rabbits. I will be free of my mother…

  No. I would just be a more powerful pawn of my mother’s. She would kill me if I’m not useful to her, but she wouldn’t just let me go if I became powerful enough to be useful. The energy swirling in the crystal faded. Defeating Magnus may be the only way to prove myself, but that’s only the beginning. When I defeat him, I will have to face my mother.

  When I visualized Ilvera Dracre in my mind, the crystal burned deeper and redder than ever before and energy shot into the air. A figure began to take form, only to split into two shapes. I started to panic; I couldn’t control two monsters if they turned on me!

  Then, to my astonishment, the dark masses formed into two people standing right in front of me. It was a man and a woman, both of whom were dressed in the strangest clothes and studying me with even more curious expressions. Merlin growled, but they didn’t seem to notice. Then, the woman looked out over the field. “I can see Russia from here!” she said excitedly.

  The man in turn said, “Let’s make Russia great again!”

  “Too evil!” Merlin said, his growl deepening even more.

  I knew that, though. Some part of me knew this was a disaster waiting to happen and that same part was reaching for my wand without thought. It was my wand that I used this time. White magic s
hot straight at them and with a burst of sparkles, they were gone.

  “That was easy,” Merlin said.

  “And oddly satisfying. Were they from another world?”

  “Yes.”

  “That poor world!”

  “Well, every world has its bad apples, I suppose. This time, use both your wand and your staff. They worked together last night to protect you. Come up with a creature you want and picture it in your head.”

  I thought of a bat first. However, as good as they were in warning people of danger, they weren’t the best in attacking. Then I thought of a bear. They were big and powerful… too powerful. I couldn’t control a bear. A monkey, on the other hand, was a good middle ground. They weren’t too big and yet were very strong. Also, they were adorable in a weird way. “Okay, I know what I want to summon.”

  “See it very clearly in your mind, and as you do, imagine there is a rope restraining it. This rope bounds its wrist and ankles, or tentacles, or whatever it has, and its neck.”

  I was fine until he said that; suddenly, my monkey had tentacles. I did bind them, though, as well as his limbs and neck.

  “If it has wings, make sure those are restrained.”

  And just like that, the monkey had wings, too. I bound those clumsily.

  “Those ropes are all fed into your wand, so that you can control your beast by controlling your wand. Then, imagine the restraints are sinking deeper into the creature and becoming invisible. They’re there, and they can still control the beast, but they cannot be seen or felt and it does not have to stay with you. You can call it to you, however. Because the ropes cannot be felt, they cannot break.”

  This took some time. I wasn’t an idiot; I wasn’t going to rush this. Monkeys were strong, but my bloodline produced powerful sorcerers for many generations. I could do this. I would do this. The ropes in my mind embedded into the beast’s limbs and around its neck. They would be controlled by my wand no matter how far away it is.

  “Now, hold that in your mind. Feel a sense of complete control, raise your wand in your left hand and your staff in your right, and call the beast to you.”