by Rain Oxford
I did. Even though he didn’t exist yet, I called him as if he did. Dark, red and black magic started glowing in the crystal of the staff.
Conjuring was vastly different than cursing or creating potions. Although I called it conjuring when I created food from clay, it was actually just transformation. Conjuring was on a whole other level. The body was created of the land and magic gave it life.
My mother never let me see the Dracre grimoires because she believed that sorcery was supposed to be passed down and she wanted to train us her way. She had never been interested in teaching us anything this powerful. Fortunately, I found several books on it in the library, so I had a general idea of what was happening. I knew I could affect the purpose of the creature by controlling what it was made of, but this method created more of a low-level, do-anything creature.
Bright red energy burst from the staff and white energy burst from the wand to form a crackling sphere of magic above me. Encouraged, I concentrated harder. Soon, the energy started darkening until it was black, after which it began to grow. As it grew larger, it became more solid, until it was the creature from my mind. My wand and staff stopped pouring magic into it.
The beast was dark brown, furry, and about the size of Merlin, with two arms and two legs. Although it looked skinny, I knew it had much more strength than any man. It also had two large, black, bat wings suspending it in the air and a row of four tentacles down each of its sides. The tentacles were black and writhing wildly. The creature itself studied me closely like it didn’t know if I was dinner or not.
“Control it before it gets away,” Merlin cautioned.
I waved my wand at it. “Sit,” I said. Its wings clamped shut and the poor beast hit the ground hard. I winced, but didn’t go to it because it was still dangerous. “What do I do now?”
“Banish it for now. Lock the power in your mind so that he is basically only in your head. Later, you can call him again and practice having him do something simple. You need to teach him to come when you call and that he is not to exist when you have no use for him.”
“That seems a little harsh.”
“No more than making him sleep. Use your wand for this and set aside your staff.”
I nodded. My staff was unstable. Unfortunately, when I set it down, the crystal at the end flashed brightly and shot energy into the wand in my other hand, which vanished. “Oh, no.”
Merlin sighed, and the creature took flight. When the beast dived threateningly at Merlin, I swung the staff instinctively. The creature got out of the way in time to avoid the blow and then flew off into the sky until I couldn’t see him anymore.
“We have to find my wand.” I knew it hadn’t been destroyed; I always felt it when my mother disposed of my previous ones. “I have an idea, but you’re not going to like it.”
“I have a premonition that I will feel that way about all of your ideas.”
* * *
“So, let me get this straight. You found a magic staff with a dark and mysterious background and you used it. Each time, it was unpredictable and dangerous. Then you decided to create a monster using the staff and bind the monster to your wand. Once the monster had formed, your staff shot your wand and the wand vanished, effectively freeing the monster. Is that right?” Dessa asked.
“Well, when you put it that way, it sounds irresponsible.”
Fortunately, the seer tournaments last for days, so we were able to return and find Dessa.
The seer sighed. “Obviously, your staff holds a power neither of you fully understand.”
Merlin made a low growl. “I am hundreds of years older than you, soothsayer.”
Of course, Dessa couldn’t hear him, and I wasn’t about to insult her for him. “The only reason I can think of for your staff attacking your wand is that it was jealous you were using the wand.”
I blinked, not sure I heard her correctly. “Jealous? How can a sorcerer staff be jealous?”
“Set it here on the table,” she said.
I did, carefully. She opened a silver case where she kept one of her crystal balls, pulled out a pair of white silk gloves, and slipped them on. I felt uncomfortable when she ran her fingers delicately over the crystal, as if I was afraid she would break it. Then her eyes turned white, the crystal pulsed with a dim glow, and my skin crawled.
When she finally let go, I stepped between her and the staff. “So, do you know where I can find my wand?”
“I do. Your mother is the only sorceress known to have slayed a dragon.”
“Actually, she was just trying to train… never mind.”
“The staff has sent your wand to---”
“I’m not fighting a dragon,” I interrupted.
“No. It sent your wand to the ruins of a castle that was brought down by dragons. Your wand is hidden in a mound of treasure and is drawing in the monster you created. Thus, you must go and fight your own creation to retrieve your wand.”
“Lovely. Dying was absolutely on my list of things to do today.”
Chapter 7
“It’s just a shortcut.”
“We should stay on the road,” Merlin argued, eyeing the dark forest with suspicion.
“But that will take an entire day. Maybe even two!”
“If we get lost, it will take even longer.”
“You’re a wolf. Are you saying you can’t find your way out of the forest?” I asked. He glared at me, but I headed into it before he could argue again. Since I was not going to be around other people for a while, I took off my robe and put it in my bag.
It was a little darker than the average forest, which was why it was called the Dark Forest, but I had never had any trouble when I went through it. Well, there was the time a troll captured me and took me back to his cave to eat me. I escaped by setting his entire cave on fire. Fortunately, it wasn’t troll season this time.
It was also not as hot inside and the shade was a definite relief. We traveled for a while without incident. “So, will you tell me why me being the seventh son is significant?” I asked when the silence became uncomfortable. I didn’t hear birds, bugs, or anything, and that wasn’t normal.
“I suppose I should. Because seven is regarded as a magical number, it is said that the seventh son of the seventh son will have natural abilities in magic, as long as the line is not broken by daughters or death. How that affects you, with your sorcery, I cannot be sure.”
“Wouldn’t that mean I should have more magic than the rest of my family?”
“Quite possibly. However, seven is not sinister, so the seventh son should not be inherently corrupt.”
“Wait, so I’m this way because I was the seventh born?”
“Not completely. It did not make you inherently good, either. I have always believed a person’s kindness was a derivative of nurture over nature, but knowing your mother, you might just be the exception.”
“What?”
“I said I do not know why you are nice.”
“So why didn’t you just say that before?”
“I believe your mother married your father because he was the seventh son of his line with the intention of stealing your power.”
“She never said anything to me about the seventh son having more magic. Besides, stealing someone’s magic is not that easy. There’s no way my mother would risk having a child who was more powerful than her.”
“Have you ever heard of someone named Livia?”
“Isn’t that who Vactarus mentioned?”
“You have an impressive memory. Like you, she was born to a family of sorcerers and she could do both light and dark magic. Unlike you, however, she embraced her magic.”
“I can do sorcery, I’m just not good at it.”
“So you believe the problem is that your curses always go awry and not that you can only produce light magic?”
“I… well… I think it’s both. Sometimes, I can do a curse, but if I do manage dark magic, it still ends up helping someone. Otherwise, my magic just t
wists what I say around to do something nice.”
“How are you with fire? Can you set a fire?”
“Usually. Sometimes I have to do it without magic, though.”
“Sometimes?”
“Well… when it’s for personal gain.”
“So, when it is sorcery then,” he said. I nodded. He stopped and indicated a certain tree with his paw. “Set that tree on fire.”
“No way! It’s just a poor tree.”
“It is a dead tree. There are no leaves on its branches. I suspect a parasite, in which case, you could be saving the trees around it by burning it.”
“Or it could burn down the forest.”
“Thus, proving you are capable of sorcery.”
I groaned and aimed the staff at the tree. I imagined the dead branches on fire, illuminating the darkness of the forest, while also hoping deep down that I didn’t set the forest on fire. Magic flowed from me into the staff. Right before I could give the command to my magic, Merlin tensed and his fur started bristling. “What’s wrong?”
“Something is watching us.”
“Seriously? What is it? I am absolutely not fighting a dragon. If I see one, I’m going to gawk and coo and try to pet it. Unless it tries to eat me. If it tries to eat me, I’m going to run and then think back on the occasion fondly.”
“You are rambling.”
“Of course I’m rambling!”
“Stay here,” he said before disappearing into the cover of some thorn bushes.
“Great. Now who am I supposed to ramble to?” I listened for anything odd aside from the fact that there was no sound at all. With each moment, I grew more nervous. It occurred to me that we should have stayed on the main road.
“Ayden, run,” Merlin said.
“What? What’s going on?” I asked.
He didn’t answer, but I heard growling and snapping. The sound of an animal snapping its teeth was unmistakable. I ran towards the sound. Before I could see Merlin, however, I tripped. When I tried to stand, something wrapped around my ankles and pulled.
I looked down, saw thick vines making their way up my legs, and knew what trouble I was in. “Oh, gods.” I reached inside my bag for the knife I always kept in it, but ended up dropping the sack and my staff as the vines hoisted me up into the air by my feet. “Merlin… can you help?”
It was silent for a moment.
“Not really.” His voice sounded strained even in my head.
Realizing that his hearing was much better than mine, I spoke at a normal volume. “Are you tied up, too?”
“Yes. Once we know what we are up against, we can---”
“I know what we’re up against, and there’s not much we can do. I’ve faced these beings before.” Actually, I’d been captured by them before, but it really wasn’t my fault. It was my brothers who tied me to a tree in the middle of Blue Lakes Forest.
“Well, well, it’s not every day two wizards intrude into our forests,” an unseen voice hissed. I heard Merlin growling again, but I still couldn’t see him.
“I’m not a wizard. I’m a sorcerer! And Merlin is a wolf.”
“He may be cursed, but we can see he is a wizard, as we can see you are no sorcerer.”
I crossed my arms and glared at nothing in particular. I probably didn’t look that intimidating with my blond hair blowing in the slight breeze and all my blood rushing into my face. I was going to have a massive headache from this. “You want to come out here, let me grab my staff, and say that to my face?”
“You are a foolish wizard.” Despite his answer, he hopped down from a nearby tree. If he stood next to me right-side-up, his head would barely reach my chest. He was also very slender, fine-boned, wearing clothes made of leaves and vines, and had pointed ears. His hair was dark brown, long, and braided, while his eyes were the same mixture of brown and green as the forest. His complexion was darker than the elves of Blue Lakes Forest.
“I haven’t done anything to you or your forest, so just call off your vines and let me and Merlin go.”
More elves came out of hiding— at least two dozen. The first one, who was probably their king, narrowed his eyes at me. “I have had enough problems with sorcerers lately. If I let you go free, more wizards will follow.”
“I told you I’m not---” I stopped myself when I realized what he said. “Wait, what problems with sorcerers?”
He scowled. “Sorcerers passed through here just yesterday. Six of them! Do you know how many animals they hunted and foliage they ruined?! Worst of all, they cursed my daughter when she wasn’t enamored by them.”
“Six sorcerers? Did they all happen to have black hair, wine-colored eyes, and green robes?”
“Yes!” he hissed. All of the other elves hissed with him, creating a creepy echo effect.
My brothers were here? I changed my opinion of him instantly, since I knew why the elves were so irritable. There was nothing my brothers could do better than irritate someone. “Listen, those sorcerers are the Dracre sons. They’re my enemies, too.”
His scowl faded a little. “So, you expect me to let you go because we share a common enemy?”
“I would hope so.”
“I am not in a merciful mood.”
“Once they get what they’re after, they’re going to turn around and come back this way. I won’t hurt anything in the forest; I don’t even hunt. I eat apples and broccoli mostly. Merlin hunts, but he doesn’t eat much and we’re in too much of a hurry. Besides, he doesn’t have any magic. You have nothing to lose by letting us go and we could stop those sorcerers from coming back.”
“I want them to come back. I will force them to retract the curse on my daughter.”
I grimaced. “What kind of curse?”
“They turned her into a tree,” he hissed. Again, the other elves echoed the creepy sound.
I sighed internally with relief. “That would be Gibus’s doing. I can break it.” Whereas my other brothers preferred illnesses and embarrassing curses, Gibus tried to be ironic. He had also cursed pretty much every woman in Akadema for not immediately throwing herself at his feet. Undoing his work was always left up to me.
He narrowed his eyes. “How?” he asked, unconvinced.
“I’m looking for my wand, which is in the ruins of a castle about a day’s walk north. That’s why we wanted to come through the forest; we wanted to get it before the Dracre sons get to their destination. It looks like we’re really behind, though.”
“I know the castle ruins of which you speak.”
“Once I get my wand, I’ll come back here. I can break Gibus’s tree curse any day, but I need my wand to do it.”
“What guarantee do I have that you will come back if I let you go?”
“Keep the other wizard,” one of the elves suggested.
I tried to glare at him, but I couldn’t tell which one had spoken. “Merlin is no one’s collateral.” I had every intention of returning to break Gibus’s curse, but I had no idea how to defeat the monster. I also didn’t like ultimatums.
“When they let you go, grab your staff and curse them,” Merlin suggested.
That was what any sorcerer would have done, but I had no idea what my staff would do or how many elves were still camouflaged and hiding. Also, Merlin must not have had elves where he was from, because everyone knew how powerful they were. Their magic was tied to nature, as seen with the vines. Arrows and spears were their primary method of defense, but they were clever. I could curse a few of them and it would stick, but I didn’t know what my staff would do, and I certainly couldn’t stop every single elf in the forest simultaneously.
“If you truly mean to come back and help us, then you should be willing to leave your companion.”
“Merlin?” I asked, wishing once again that I could speak in his mind like he could mine. “Can you still hear me?”
“Yes, I can hear you both.”
“Are you okay with staying here?”
“Absolutely not.”
/> “He says it’s okay,” I told the elves. Showing them that we trusted them would go a long way towards convincing them to trust us, even if we didn’t really trust them.
He nodded to one of the other elves and a moment later, the vines slowly lowered me to the ground and finally released my ankles. I stayed down. Although my brothers saw submission as encouragement to torture their victim more, the elves were a reasonable race.
“Go then, and return with your wand by sunrise to break the curse over my daughter.”
“I will return, but if you hurt Merlin, even a little bit, I will tear every one of you to pieces and burn your forest down on top of you.” I grabbed my staff and bag and stood. The elves looked surprised. “Merlin, I’ll be back before sunrise.”
“You had better be,” he said. “For the record, this is not how a sorcerer behaves.”
* * *
Even though I walked as fast as I could, it was dark by the time I reached the main road on the other side of the forest, and the warm afternoon had turned into a cold night. I put my robe back on. Fortunately, I could walk faster on the clear path.
Soon, I came upon the decrepit ruins of what was once a grand castle… surrounded by homes. I groaned. Fighting the monster to get my wand back and getting treasure in return was one thing, but sorcerers were not supposed to save people. Then again, I created the beast, so I was responsible for the damage it caused.
I sighed. “Nobody can tell Merlin ever,” I said aloud.
The houses were small, well-built, and in most cases, on fire. I spared a moment to hope that the creature I created wasn’t a fire-breather before I headed into the thick of the mess. What few people that hadn’t already fled were frantically trying to gather their valuables and put out fires.
I caught the arm of a man running past me. “Good evening. Sorry to interrupt your panicking, but can you please tell me that you are being attacked by a dragon… or maybe a werewolf?” Anything that I didn’t create.
He straightened his shirt to appear more dignified, but the fact that his sleeves were burned off and he was carrying a sack of grain in his arms like a baby defeated the purpose. “Actually, we were attacked by a flying monkey with tentacles.”