by Rain Oxford
“Never talk to my son like that!” Bloodbath demanded, putting his hand on Jevwen’s shoulder in a show of support. “I saw that Ayden single-handedly fought the monster and transported us to somewhere safe.”
“Safe or stranded?” Lasender inquired.
“We have lost ships before. We will survive this and that’s thanks to Ayden.”
“I’m not really sure what I did,” I said. Merlin studied the crystal in my staff, which was now almost completely clear with just the slightest red coloration in the center. I didn’t think that was a good thing.
“This is a very good thing.”
“How is it good? It doesn’t even look like a sorcerer’s staff anymore.”
“It is more powerful than ever. It has bonded with your power and is now your staff as much as the wand is.”
“But I need dark magic to be a sorcerer.”
“You need dark intentions to be a sorcerer. The magic will do what is in your heart, so if you desire it enough, you can do dark magic. It still has its own personality, though.”
“Well, that’s… bothersome.”
“What are you talking about?” Bloodbath asked.
“Sorry, I’m just talking to Merlin.”
“Oh. You really need to figure out how to not do that. You sound a little insane.”
“I want a wolf to teach me to be a sorcerer,” Jevwen said. Everyone looked at him and his eyes widened dramatically. “I never wanted to be a pirate.” He slapped his hands over his mouth as if he hadn’t meant to say that.
“I suspected as much,” Bloodbath said.
“I’m sorry. I never wanted to disappoint you.”
“That’s why he never told you what he was doing when he went off on his own once a year at the---” one of the pirates started.
“You promised not to tell him that!” Jevwen screeched, interrupting him.
The pirate blushed furiously. “I don’t know why I said that.”
I held up my staff as if it would get their attention. “I don’t think this is the time for---”
“I was really hoping Jevwen never became the next captain, because I didn’t want to have to kill him to take my rightful place,” one of the other pirates interrupted.
“What?!” Bloodbath asked, drawing his sword and aiming it at his crewmate.
“They must be in shock,” Merlin said. “Shock can make people act unusual.”
“Yeah, that must be it.”
“It’s really upsetting to know you two are talking behind our backs,” Bralyn said, then slapped his hand over his mouth like Jevwen had.
I think something’s going on. Please don’t be my fault.
“This is most definitely not your fault,” Merlin said, obviously having heard my thoughts again.
“I think we should build a fire,” Bloodbath said.
It was pretty dark as neither of our moons was full. “I don’t know. My mother always said that a fire in the dark is the fastest way to give away your location. We don’t know anything about this land or what it might be inhabited by.”
“I’m afraid of the dark,” Bloodbath said quickly, then slapped his hand over his mouth like the others. Everyone stared at him with wide eyes.
“That clears up so much,” his son said.
“Something is definitely wrong. I didn’t mean to say that. It’s true, but I didn’t mean to say that.”
“Seal their mouths. This must be some kind of truth spell,” Merlin said.
I shuddered at the thought. “Merlin thinks it’s a truth spell.”
“If we’re under a truth spell, then I would tell you that I didn’t join you just because you took my mission,” Bralyn said. “Oh, no.” His face paled.
“I already knew you were lying about that.” Before I could say anything else, my skin crawled. “I think we’re being watched.”
Merlin sniffed the air. “I believe we are surrounded.”
“But we haven’t started a fire, so how did they find us?”
“Maybe they spotted the massive ship that appeared in the middle of their island.”
“We should be fine, though; we’re on a ship.” I looked over the edge and saw nothing suspicious, but the tropical trees weren’t thick enough to hide people. “Maybe I can use magic to get the ship back into water before something bad happens.” At that moment, I heard a small bang and a glob of green goo splattered across my entire front, including my chest, hands, wand, and staff. “Yuck! What is this?” I asked, dropping the staff and wand to try to wipe the slime off. Instead of coming off, however, it hardened. A moment later, my arms were stuck across my chest.
Other shots rang out and soon the entire crew was stuck in various positions around the ship. Merlin was the only one able to dodge the globs. Then arrows with ropes tied on them flew over the edge of the deck and bit into the wood. A moment later, the ship was flooded with small men. By flooded, I mean there were seven of them.
“Get off my ship!” Bloodbath demanded.
The men only came up to my abdomen, but they were built sturdy and covered in thick furs and wool hats as if they were used to a cold climate. I was sweating just thinking about it. They had, of all things, pickaxes that they grasped like weapons. From the dirt caking their bodies and the raggedy clothes they wore, I assumed they worked underground.
One of them pointed his axe at Bloodbath’s throat and said in a harsh tone, “Silent be pirate death make you will.”
Every pirate stopped struggling and turned their heads to stare at him in confusion. “What?” Bloodbath asked.
When another stranger tried to advance on me, Merlin growled at him and stepped in front of me. The man aimed his pickaxe, but Merlin didn’t look afraid. “Can you reach your staff?” he asked, his tone completely calm. Although irritation could carry over, I wasn’t sure I would hear worry through the mental link.
“No, and I couldn’t even grab it if I could.”
Two of the men picked up one of the pirates and tossed him over the side of the ship. In moments they got everyone but Bloodbath, Bralyn, Merlin, and me. Three of the men were trying to do the same to me, but Merlin was standing in their way like only a huge and carnivorous beast could. Unfortunately, my wand and staff were kicked further away during the struggle.
One of the men managed to tie a rope around Merlin’s snout and two more were able to wrestle him down. A fourth man grabbed me to try to throw me over. Working hands or not, I was used to fighting for my life. I elbowed him in the nose and kicked out his knee, then winced when he collapsed, howling in pain. “Sorry,” I whispered, hoping Merlin didn’t hear me apologize to the enemy.
A fifth man came at me with a knife, and that was when I heard the last sound I ever would have expected on a pirate ship; a bear roared. Everyone froze with shock right before a huge brown bear threw himself in front of me and struck the small man with his massive paw. Obviously, the man was tossed right off the ship.
“You’re the bear that fought the monster!” I shouted. Of course, he looked like any other bear, but there was something oddly familiar about him. At that point, I saw the green residue on his fur as if he had been bound by the goo and had broken it. I also noticed the absence of Bralyn. “You’re a werebear?!”
As if to confirm my accusation, he sneezed all over the three men who were trying to subdue him.
“You’re a werebear who’s allergic to fur?”
One of the men used Bralyn’s allergy to his advantage and buried his axe in the bear’s arm. Bralyn roared again and clawed the small man across the chest, but the axe remained lodged in his flesh.
“Stop!” I shouted. For some reason, everyone did. “We don’t even know who you people are or why you’re attacking us. If you can’t tell, we aren’t here intentionally. We didn’t come to invade or attack you!”
“This is the perfect time to prove you are a sorcerer,” Merlin said.
“I don’t have my wand or staff.”
“The magic is inside
of you. Think of the curse of stone you placed on those rabbits. Remember your exact thoughts and feelings, just as if you had your staff in hand.”
“But I didn’t think of turning them to stone; I just wanted to stop them from attacking. Besides, I can’t turn people into stone, because I don’t know if it would permanently hurt them.”
“A sorcerer would do it.”
“I know!” I yelled, angrier with myself than upset with him. I knew what I should do— what my mother would demand I do.
For my entire life, I thought I couldn’t do dark magic. Suddenly, I knew I could. My problem wasn’t my magic but my conscience. I wanted to make my family proud. It was all I ever wanted… but I didn’t want to be like them. They hurt people and enjoyed it. They always won the day, they always got their way, and people respected them. Nobody respected me, not even strangers. I was a failed sorcerer, and apparently, I couldn’t even help my friends because I didn’t want to turn my enemy to stone.
“If you cannot curse someone who is attacking you, there is no way you can fight Magnus.”
“Magnus is a wizard who can fight back. Merlin, do you believe I’m capable of being a sorcerer?”
Before he could answer, one of the small men asked, “Speak you remain foolish?”
“What? That doesn’t even make… oh… I’m talking to Merlin. You can’t hear him because he talks in my head, but I’m not talking to myself.”
“You understood that?” Merlin asked incredulously. The stranger’s eyes widened as well.
“It’s a simple scramble spell. They do it at some of the seer tournaments to keep the oracles from sharing ideas. It changes the order of words and often the words into synonyms. In fact, my mother has used it sometimes to keep people from telling her secrets if she can’t kill them outright for some reason. It can be activated by someone trying to tell a secret or it can be on all the time. If you let me get my wand, I can help.”
The man with his axe to Bloodbath’s throat turned to me. “Much us! But we having opportunity speak my entire mind to survive.”
“Ah, I see. How did this happen in the first place?” Now everyone, including the strangers, was gaping at me. “He said that they are better off this way because they can’t stand telling the truth constantly. I bet they can’t even understand each other.”
Distracted, the men let Merlin go. “Who are we at the course and a female version brought prevent house for a queen, and we went, you curse is to say, Arcana not.”
“They invited a woman into their home who was on the run from an evil queen and when she left, she cursed them to prevent them from telling her secret,” I translated. “So, then the truth curse was already here?”
“I saw a woman, not now to this cursed country queen of the good news that they had, but with anti-chain of the curse is not able to see. Been we have years for waiting, leaving the ship, but the cries every visit. Exstructus not only use the army to escape.”
“Okay, this one is a little confusing. The queen wanted to make sure someone would tell her if they saw the woman, so she cursed the lands, but when the anti-curse was released, it didn’t reach this island. They’ve waited for many years for a ship, but everyone who visited left screaming. The only thing they could do was build weapons to use to escape.”
“Can you break the curse?”
“I don’t know. Breaking my brothers’ curses is one thing. I don’t know this queen. I can easily break the scrambling spell, but that probably wouldn’t be a good idea.”
Bralyn sneezed again. Since the small men were too shocked over me understanding them to fight, he turned and clawed the green stuff that was holding me captive. It shattered and fell off of me easily. In turn, I gently pried the pickaxe out of Bralyn’s arm.
He shifted back. “You really make me paranoid when you do that.”
“Me, too,” Bloodbath added.
Bralyn moved to grab my staff and wand while Merlin stood between the men and me. When Bralyn handed my tools to me, I sucked in a deep breath of relief. My first thought was that I should punish the small men by restraining them and throwing them off the boat. However, before I could even let the plan form, any anger I might have had for them faded. They hadn’t hurt me, my friends, or any of the pirates as far as I knew… except for Bralyn, and he didn’t even seem bothered by his wounded arm. I sensed desperation in the strangers.
“Alright, listen. I’m a sorcerer who transported the ship here and I can transport you to the bottom of the ocean. If you release all the pirates and stop attacking, however, I can help you all. It’s not like the ship is overcrowded.”
“You want them to come with us after they did this?” Bloodbath asked me in disbelief. Of course, he was still restrained.
“Either we bring them with us or I can try to break the truth spell.”
“Or you can curse them and be done with it, as a sorcerer would.”
“I know, Merlin, but it’s even worse knowing they are just trying to escape, like us.”
He sighed. “Like I said before; I agreed to teach you how to be a sorcerer, not force your hand to make you one. If you want to be a sorcerer, then curse them because they got in your way. If you want to be a decent person, then explain the mutually beneficial plan I know you have already thought up.”
“What do you think I should do?”
“I think you should follow your heart and stop labeling yourself.”
“Release the pirates and we will be happy to help you,” I said. “If we work together, we can get this ship out of here and the curses broken.”
The small men all looked at each other, unsure. Finally, one of them said, “If you do not love to leave us here, so we agree with their treatment.”
“Great! Then let’s do this. Do you want to leave the island on the ship or do you want the curse broken?”
“Have valuable if many island resources.”
“Right. Then I will get to work breaking your curse as soon as you let the pirates go.” All but one of the men climbed down their ropes and started hacking at the green substance while the remaining man released Bloodbath.
“Tell your men to be gentle with my son,” the captain snarled at him. “If he gets so much as a scratch, I’ll break your arms off and tie you to the sail.”
I didn’t worry about them getting along. As far as I was concerned, this whole encounter was going well. Yes, I had stranded us on an island, but I saved us from the Charybdis. Yes, I turned down an excellent chance to prove that I was a sorcerer, but I possibly made seven new allies. And most importantly, I was on an island with a truth spell over it and I hadn’t blurted out anything embarrassing.
“Why did you not tell me about the bear?” Merlin asked.
“Um… it slipped my mind.”
“Really?”
“No, of course not. I lied. I’m a liar. I’m lying. Get over it.” Everyone stared at me. “Sorry, just something I lied to Merlin about.”
“You lied when you said it slipped your mind?”
“Yes, I just said that.”
“Then you just now lied.”
“So?” I asked. He gave me a look until I suddenly got it. “Oh. I am the most powerful and evil sorcerer and I cause pain and destruction as often as possible.” I paused, waiting for some backlash or compulsion. “That’s odd. How come I can lie?”
The small man’s face was ashen, as he obviously thought I was telling the truth.
“You couldn’t be evil if you were enchanted by a sorcerer to have all your kindness removed,” Bloodbath said.
That hurt. “There’s no reason to be mean!”
He grimaced. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Any sorcerer I’ve ever heard of would have tried to kill me and take my ship. You bargained. Many people see weakness and kindness as the same thing and will try to walk all over you.”
I pushed aside those negative thoughts. To end this truth spell, I had to find the weakness in it. Fortunately, I already had a clue; it wasn�
��t working on me. “Merlin, can you lie right now?”
“No.”
“Then it’s not magic that’s keeping me safe from the compulsion spell. Everyone leave me alone for a while so that I can think.” I climbed down the rope and then walked away. Once I was out of sight of the boat, I sat down and leaned against a tree. My staff and wand felt so right in my hands, but this was a deeper curse than I was used to dealing with, so I had to focus.
I let the quiet peace of my surroundings seep into my mind and my magic seep into the world around me. There was dark magic and white magic, but magic was magic and I was still highly trained in it, even if I was terrible at using it to cause mayhem. I felt my magic encounter the natural forces of the world peacefully. In fact, the only conflict I sensed was between my wand and staff.
There’s the weak point. I could feel it. The spell was created out of hate and paranoia. The person who cast the spell did so with almost no structure. She may have been powerful, but as far as being a sorceress went, she was an idiot. For one thing, someone could avoid spilling their secrets by simply not thinking about it. If they thought of a secret, however, they had to tell it.
In this very unusual case, the weakness was that the caster was reacting with hate and fear. My mother always told us that the fastest way to fail was to fear failure, and that was exactly what the caster did.
I have only ever heard of a spell like this; it was a spell that a person could break with love.
Why I was immune to it, I didn’t know. It wasn’t because I was more powerful than the person. There were several ways to come at breaking the curse, but none were as simple as using the caster’s weakness against her.
Merlin joined me then. “I know you wanted privacy, but I thought now would be a good time to step in. You have figured out what it takes to break the spell, correct?”
“Yeah. There are several ways, but---”
“But love and loyalty is the spell’s weakness,” he interrupted.
“How did you know that?”
“I may be trapped in this form and without magic at the moment, but I am still a wizard. Am I correct in assuming you have never loved a woman before?”