by Rain Oxford
The creature landed right outside the invisible gates, which was way too close to us as far as I was concerned. One thing the legends couldn’t decide on was whether or not the beast breathed fire. If it could, we were as good as cooked already.
Bralyn groaned as he drew the sword at his side. “Why did it have to have fur?” He spoke quietly, obviously not meaning for me to have heard him. Then his expression hardened with determination, but I thought some of it might have been for show. “I will face this---”
“Absolutely not,” I interrupted. “That thing has a serpent as its tail.”
“Don’t tell me you want to reason with it,” he said.
“I’m not a complete idiot.” I raised my wand and staff up above me like I had when I was creating the monkey monster and I summoned it back. Although I was here for sinister reasons, I wasn’t concerned whether I was using sorcery or wizardry this time. I was summoning my monster both to defeat the chimera and to protect myself and my friends. At the same time, my magic was no shallower than it was when I created the monkey.
Once again, white magic from my wand and red magic from the staff clashed in the middle. Out of the swirling magic formed a black shape that grew and solidified into my flying monkey, still with tentacles. If I’m very lucky, maybe the strangeness of my creature will scare off the chimera.
The chimera took one look at the monkey and roared.
I’m not that lucky.
The monkey didn’t need any instructions; he swooped down on the chimera like they were mortal enemies. His tentacles wrapped around the chimera’s thick lion neck, but before his claws could scratch at the chimera’s eyes, he had to dodge the serpent. The chimera had no known weaknesses.
Except dragons.
“I do not think the monkey is going to cut it this time,” Merlin said.
“I don’t think there’s anything that can.” My monster wasn’t going to give up too easily, though. He slashed at the serpent with his sharp claws while he distracted the goat and lion heads with his tentacles. He wasn’t winning, but he wasn’t going down, either. “Bralyn, wait,” I said when the warrior started to advance on the battle. “My monster needs room to fight the chimera without someone getting in the way.” Without giving him a chance to argue, I set my wand and staff aside and pulled the syrus out of my bag. It popped open easily. There was no glowing light, though, just a red velvet liner. “How do I make this work?”
“The latch on the front, do you see it?”
“Yes.”
“Prick your finger, wipe your blood on the latch while the lock is open, and do the reverse of what you did to open it.”
“The reverse of what I did to open it? I don’t know what I did.”
“Shouldn’t you have discussed this before?” Bralyn asked, not taking his eyes off the fight.
“Yes, probably, but I didn’t know it would need to be activated.” I pulled the small knife from my bag and cut my finger. It stung as I wiped my blood on the small silver latch. It was a simple lock. There was a slim, round piece of metal on the base of the chest that rotated. I would close the latch over it so that the round piece would stick through, then twist it so that the latch wouldn’t open.
“Read the inscription on the front,” Merlin instructed.
“But I already read it.”
“Stop arguing. We are running out of time.”
Without closing it, I checked every spot on the chest, but there wasn’t an inscription. “It’s gone!” I didn’t wait for him to explain it to me, though. I picked up my wand and waved it at the syrus. Reveal your secrets.
To my surprise, that worked; words appeared on the front of it.
The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.
I frowned, because that was considerably less substantial than the previous inscription. “What’s with the random wisdom? Was this made by mages or something?”
“The magic of the syrus is older and greater than mine, and I know not where it came from.”
“Can’t you just say you don’t know? Is it ready now?”
“No, there is one more requirement; you must include a genetic sample of the creature or person you wish to imprison. You need blood, fur, a claw, or anything that is a part of the creature’s body. Place it inside the syrus and it will fully charge.”
“Charge? What does that mean?”
“Think of it like lightning forming before it strikes. After that, you need only to get the creature close enough.”
“How close?”
“I cannot be sure.”
“Great. How do I get the blood?”
“What blood?” Bralyn asked.
“I need the chimera’s blood to make the syrus work.”
“Leave that to me.” He charged into the battle.
“But what about your allergies?” I yelled after him. I considered making him invisible, but the chimera would be able to see his body heat anyway. By then, it was too late. The monkey was distracting all three heads, giving Bralyn the opportunity to strike. He was fast; fast enough to do the warrior reputation proud. As easily as if it were holding still, Bralyn cut off the serpent head.
The chimera’s scream was horrific and I felt deep pity. It was only doing its job and the snake was a vital part of its self-defense. Now, if we didn’t defeat it, another enemy would. Then the lion head bit down on one of my monkey’s tentacles and tore it off, which made me angry. I raised my staff, about to defend the monkey, when Bralyn sneezed all over the chimera.
Wiping his nose with one hand, he harnessed his sword and reached for the snake head. The chimera swiped at Bralyn’s head, but the monkey rammed into his larger opponent’s side, sending them both rolling away from the warrior. Bralyn got the head, returned to us, and handed it to me. “Will this do?”
Merlin dipped his head in a nod.
I set my staff down and pocketed my wand. “We just toss it in?” I asked, taking it from Bralyn with a shudder. The scales were dark green, dry, and smooth, while the neck itself was wider than my own body. The head was about the size of Bralyn’s in his bear form. I had no doubt the monster could swallow me whole if it were still alive.
“You only need some of the blood,” the wolf corrected.
Holding it with both hands, I held it over the syrus. It was draining blood in a very gory fashion, so Merlin told me after just a moment that it was enough.
“This would make a fine trophy for your sorcery collection,” Bralyn said as he took it from me. “Perhaps its venom would be useful as a potion ingredient.”
“I’m not touching that again.” The inside of the chest began to glow, the light afternoon breeze suddenly turned violent, and the sky darkened with angry clouds. “Is this normal?” I asked, having to yell to be heard over the wind. Even though Akadema rarely had summer storms, I highly suspected this was magic-related.
“I have only been through this once and I was not focused on the details at the time. I suggest getting out from between the syrus and the chimera.”
When my monkey creature howled in pain, we turned back to the battle and discovered how bad the situation really was. The snake head had not only grown back, it grew two heads. The chimera now had two snake tails and my poor monkey didn’t stand a chance. Claws, teeth, and horns were making short work of my monster, so I acted on instinct.
I grabbed my staff, pulled my wand out of my pocket, and held them out. This time, I didn’t care if I lost control of my creature; I just wouldn’t let him suffer any more. I let my magic shape itself around my desire, which was to protect the creature I had created. Whether it was sorcery or wizardry or whatever, I didn’t care.
The red magic from my staff was more orange than usual and the white magic from my wand was bluer, but when the two energies met, they formed a deep gray storm cloud. I felt a tingling sensation in my chest as if magic was crawling across my skin. My own magic was pouring from me, into the magical instruments, out into the cloud, back into the wand and st
aff, and back into me. I thought it was a mistake at first, or that I wasn’t powerful enough to pull off what I needed to do. However, as the magic grew hotter, flowed faster, and felt heavier all at once, I realized what was happening. I didn’t understand it, but I knew what it was.
My magic was gaining a sort of buildup and becoming more potent by folding over on itself. I was also starting to shake. As strong as my body might have felt at that moment, I couldn’t move, and I knew the energy inside me was the only thing holding me together. I might as well have been an empty shell with only magic to prevent me from breaking. It was a miserable feeling, but also somehow familiar. It was like being a part of something so much more important by only existing as an extension of that.
I loved magic. It was all I had, all I knew, and the only thing no one could take away.
But it wasn’t worth this. It wasn’t worth being empty.
Merlin had said that no sorcerer was happy. Was any wizard happy? Was anyone who had to live in a standardized way happy? I didn’t want to be told I couldn’t help my friends because it wasn’t sorcery, or that I couldn’t create a monkey monster because it wasn’t wizardry. I wanted to read my books and go on adventures and learn great and terrible magic.
I wanted the choice.
At that moment, I chose to cast aside the rules and constraints of wizards and sorcerers and defeat the foolish chimera who dared to injure my monkey monster.
I wasn’t even aware of what was forming in the cloud until it grew to such great proportions that it towered over me, and then, when I realized it, I knew it couldn’t have been anything else. Somehow, with some power I couldn’t have created myself, I had conjured a dragon.
The majestic creature was not as large as some I had read about, but it was huge nonetheless. Its wings were ominously angular. They were as red as fresh blood on the outward side and stone-gray on the inward side. Its body looked like gray rocks had been half melted together to form its armor. Its head was narrow and angular with two horns curving backward on the top of its head. Its eyes glowed with the same sinister reddish-orange as the magic from my crystal.
While I stood there in stunned silence like a fool, the dragon was assessing the situation. He didn’t wait for my command before turning and attacking the chimera. When he flapped his wings, they emitted smoke as if they were on fire. The dragon swooped down on the chimera without a shred of fear. It was the chimera’s turn to be afraid.
Although the serpent bit at the dragon’s wings and stone flesh, it wasn’t able to break through the armor. The dragon’s talons, however, tore easily through the lion’s hide. “Don’t kill it!” I warned. “Just get it close to the syrus.”
The dragon gave me an irritated scowl, but did as I demanded. He hooked his claws into the chimera’s wings and began dragging the thrashing monster towards the syrus. Unfortunately, the energy inside me was still building. I felt like the dragon was feeding off my own magic, and if I let go for even an instant, the dragon would turn on me.
That was strange, because I shouldn’t have had that much magic in me.
The chimera broke away from the dragon, bringing me back to the battle. Both the dragon and chimera took off into the air, but that only gave the dragon an even bigger advantage. Bigger, as in he was four times larger than the chimera. They dived, clawed, and bit at each other for a while before the chimera turned and tried to fly away. That was when the dragon decided to stop playing.
The energy inside me finally broke and I felt like all my bones, organs, blood, and skin were just going to burn away into ash. I could feel the heartbeats of the dragon inside of me. My father told me they had two hearts, but I had always thought that was just a myth.
The dragon opened its mouth wide and I expected fire to emerge. It wasn’t fire, though. Blindingly bright lightning struck the chimera and the poor creature crashed to the ground hard. It didn’t move again. Unfortunately, I couldn’t move either. When the dragon used the lightning, I felt like it was pulled through me into him. Every part of my body hurt so much I couldn’t even breathe.
The dragon dragged the unresisting monster towards the syrus and when it was close, the light of the chest reached out for the smaller beast. The chimera seemed to dissolve into dust and was absorbed into the syrus. Once the enemy was fully inside, the lid snapped shut and the lock turned.
No longer needed, the dragon also vanished into dark smoke, which then swirled around me faster and faster before flowing into the crystal of my staff. Only then did my own energy return to me in great waves. It felt cool and soothing against the heat left inside me. Like a dozen healing potions at once, the internal damage caused by conjuring and controlling a dragon was undone. I could breathe again.
I also collapsed because I was shaking so hard, but I was alive. In fact, I felt kind of great. Bralyn stared at the spot where the dragon had disappeared, a mixture of confusion and awe on his face. Merlin nudged me in the arm, obviously concerned.
“I’m okay, I think. I just don’t have a clue what happened.”
“Check the dragon’s eye.”
Somehow, I had managed to hold onto my staff and wand the entire time, and now I had to pry my fingers open to let go. Carefully, as my fingers were numb, I pulled the dragon’s eye out of my pocket and gaped. The crystal was completely clear. I tried the breathing trick Merlin had taught me to see the invisible castle, but it didn’t work; I couldn’t see the magic in the crystal.
“It is empty,” Merlin said.
“What do you mean, empty?”
“All of the magic that was inside it last night is gone.”
I was about to ask where it went, when I looked at my staff. The crystal on my staff was now a deep, dark blue, but it reflected shards of rainbow colors in the sunlight like an opal. “Please don’t tell me that’s what I think it is.”
“I believe so. It appears that your sorcerer’s staff is now a dragon staff.”
“Does that mean I can’t do sorcery anymore?” Not that I could do it before.
“No. I expect that it will produce the same magic, except for when you summon a dragon. I suggest you find out exactly what it does before you do any more conjuring.”
“Speaking of…” I looked around for my monkey monster, but it was gone. “Where’s my monkey?”
“He vanished when your dragon took over in the fight. He is probably healing.”
“We did it!” Bralyn said, unaware and unconcerned with mine and Merlin’s conversation.
“Yes, we trapped him. Now how are we supposed to trap Magnus?” I asked, getting back to my feet. I had to use the staff to brace myself on. They both thought for a moment. “If we open the syrus to trap Magnus in it, will the monster escape?”
“Yes. Only one soul can be trapped at a time,” Merlin answered.
Before any of us could come up with another idea, the invisibility spell around the castle disappeared, the ground rumbled ominously, and white magic wrapped around us, blocking out everything.
That’s it? We worked so hard to get here and defeated the monster and now we’re caught? I even faced my brothers! When the light faded, we were in the throne room of a castle. It was a wizard’s castle with absolutely no hint of dark magic.
And it was identical to Livia’s castle, right down to the gold artwork.
Standing right in front of me was Magnus, the greatest wizard of Caldaca. He was tall— taller than any person I had ever met, but not like a troll. Although his white robes were thick, I could tell he was quite thin, even to the point where I would call him frail. In fact, he was old enough in appearance that he should have been taken care of by his children. His hair and beard were as long and white as his robe, his eyes were the lightest blue, and his wrinkles had wrinkles of their own. Then again, he was a wizard, so there was no telling how old he really was.
Perhaps due to his fragile appearance or possibly out of desperation, I thrust out my staff, an instant away from calling my exhausted monkey to figh
t once more. Magnus was faster. A wizard staff, eerily similar to mine, appeared in his hand. This staff was the same height and there was a crystal at the top, but the wood was a little lighter, the sigils were silver instead of gold, and the crystal was clear.
The wizard aimed his staff threateningly at mine and pure white magic emerged. To my shock, it shielded him instead of attacking me. I shouldn’t have been surprised, though; wizards never attacked first. “Wait, Ayden!” he said.
That surprised me in a completely different way. “How do you know my name?”
“I have been waiting for you since you left your mother’s home. I watched your journey.”
I groaned. “You have a magic mirror like Livia, don’t you?”
He frowned at me like I had insulted him. “Of course not, Ayden. Only sorcerers have magic mirrors. I use magic to see through my minion’s eyes.”
“Minion?”
“Yes, my minion, Fluffy.”
His minion appeared on his shoulder and I squeaked a little. It was a fluffy black kitten with small bat wings. I didn’t know whether to be awed by the cuteness or disturbed by the fact that this wizard was watching me for days. “Why were you watching me? How did you know I was coming?”
“A seer told me a long time ago that you would come. I have waited patiently for you to rescue me.”
I felt something deep and cold settle in my stomach. “To what?”
“To rescue me from the chimera that trapped me here in my castle.”
“The chimera that what?”
“You came to rescue me, didn’t you? I was told by the seers that a young man born of sorcerers with both dark and light magic would come to help me when no one else was brave enough.”
Merlin and Bralyn looked at me, watching for my reaction. I waited for the anger and horror to build up inside me, for my staff to curse the wizard, for anything… and then I sighed. “Fine. Whatever. I give up. I am the most pathetic sorcerer that has ever existed and whatever. I’ll be a librarian.”