The Hero's Peril (The Sorcerer's Saga Book 5)

by Rain Oxford

  “You’re an elementalist!”

  Sebsan sighed. “Yes, and you’re a Sjau. Now run.”

  “What? How did you know I’m a---”

  “Run!” Merlin interrupted.

  We did. Merlin, Goat, and I ran down the hallway and staircase with Sebsan deflecting assassins behind us. There were a few of them, and they were easily identified because they were all dressed in black with their face and hair masked. Fortunately, not all of them realized what the commotion was and none of those who did were willing to fight an elementalist. Or, that was what I thought.

  In reality, they weren’t attacking because we were heading right into their trap. The main room of the inn was under a strange ward. There were five assassins in it, but none were blocking the door. I figured that if we could make it outside, we would have enough hiding spots to evade them. I aimed my staff at the closest assassin and ordered my magic to attack.

  Nothing happened.

  “The ward! It’s stopping all curses!” That was good as far as I was concerned, because although I couldn’t distract them, they couldn’t kill me with magic.

  Every step towards the exit was increasingly difficult. It felt like being under water, except the water became thicker the more I fought it. It was suffocating my magic. Merlin wasn’t having as much trouble as me; he attacked the closest assassin, who wasn’t slowed by the ward in the slightest.

  Goat tried to ram another assassin, but assassins were highly skilled in combat. Sebsan was not willing to cross the doorway into the room, and instead prevented the remaining assassins from joining the foray.

  Someone shot me in the arm with an arrow at the exact moment another crashed into me from behind. I lost my staff.

  The person kneeling on my back (a woman, I assumed by her weight) clamped my hands together with some metal restraints. Her hands immediately searched my pockets and found my wand.

  “Whatever my mother promised you to capture me, you’re not going to get it. She’ll betray you,” I said, hoping I could reason with her.

  “Betrayal?” she laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  I looked up in time to see Merlin snap a pendent off of his opponent’s neck, and the assassin froze. I twisted around just enough to see that the woman above me had an identical pendant. They were protecting the assassins from the ward.

  Unfortunately, two other assassins advanced on Merlin. “Don’t hurt him!” I shouted when one of them pulled something metal out of their pocket. Only then did I see what it was; metal cuffs. He deliberately dropped them and they flew to Merlin’s paws, clamping his front two paws together and shrinking to fit. He snapped at the assassin even as he fell forward.

  The other assassin pulled out rope and made a noose with it. Merlin wasn’t a mindless animal, but whether he kept his mouth open or closed, the assassin knew how to muzzle him. Merlin chose to keep his mouth open and when the assassin looped it in his jaw and around his neck like a leash, Merlin jerked gently. He would break it, he only needed time.

  Goat was… chasing two assassins, who were running in terror.

  “Don’t hurt Merlin! I won’t fight, but you can’t hurt him.” The two men trying to restrain the wolf stopped and turned to me.

  “If you come peacefully and he doesn’t fight us, we won’t need to hurt him.”

  I looked at Merlin and he nodded. I trusted him to get us out of whatever trouble we faced. As long as we weren’t separated, we would make it.

  “Fine. Merlin and I will go with you peacefully… and the goat.” The goat in question bleated with joy. At that point, Sebsan stopped fighting.

  As if I was a dangerous, powerful sorcerer, three assassins guided me outside to a metal cage on a wagon. Unresisting, I stepped into the cage, but the moment I did, one of them zapped me with a curse and I lost consciousness.

  Chapter 2

  I woke slowly, sluggishly, but kept my eyes shut. I expected to find myself in a cold, dank dungeon cell with my mother waiting for me to wake to begin torturing me. This is a strangely comfortable stone floor, I thought. It felt more like I was in my soft bed at the castle with my blankets and pillow. Was it all a dream?

  I sensed Merlin close and hesitantly opened my eyes. It had not been a dream; I wasn’t home. I also wasn’t in my mother’s basement.

  The room wasn’t decorated in white, silver, and gold, like Magnus’s castle. It was much more rugged. The bed, just as large as mine at home, was in the corner of the room, adorned with soft blue and gold bedclothes. Somebody valued their sleep. The frame of the bed was grander, designed to be both masculine and elegant, as opposed to all of the furniture in Magnus’s castle, which was designed to be pretty and bright.

  Next to the bed was a reading chair with fabric that matched the bedclothes. A massive armoire on the wall opposite of the bed was made of delicately carved wood. Beside the armoire was a large fireplace. Swords and axes accented the wall, which were painted with people, castles, hills, and a few dragons.

  Four things that were most definitely absent from the room were my wand, staff, robe, and bag. I had forgotten to grab my bag from the room before running, but they would have taken that as well anyway.

  I spotted a candle chandelier above, but without my wand or staff, I couldn’t light it. Still the room was well lit by the open window. Merlin was curled up on the foot of the bed. I figured he was probably exhausted from fighting, so I tried to get up without disturbing him. My foot encountered fur and an alarmed bleating answered.

  Merlin popped up and landed on all fours, growling. “Goat, hush!”

  Merlin leapt down from the bed and growled at her. She instantly stopped. “Do you have any idea where we are?” Merlin asked.

  “No, not a clue. Why would I?”

  “They have not done anything to harm you since we arrived. That means that your death is not their main objective.”

  “So they’re not going to kill me?”

  “That is not what I am saying. They might be planning to torture you or threaten you, but they could have killed us both on the way here.”

  I was surprised that someone had taken my robe, but fortunately, no one had further undressed me in my sleep. I checked the wardrobe and found ridiculously fancy clothes made of richly colored silks and delicate leather. I’ll stick to my clothes. “Is it safe to sneak out?” I asked, checking the window. We were in a castle, at least five floors up. I didn’t like my chances.

  “There is a guard outside the door.”

  “Switch us. We can sneak out.”

  “That still requires passing the guard.”

  “Yes, but since they took my wand and staff, I can’t do magic. You can.”

  I could do things even Merlin couldn’t, like transport us places, but the tradeoff was that I was reliant on my tools. Merlin’s theory was that we needed focal tools because that was how we were taught, but that I could learn to focus my own magic. I never got anywhere with that, so Merlin taught me extreme visualization. That had proved vital; I could sometimes do magic through an imaginary wand.

  “Very well.”

  We both sat on the floor across from each other and I prepared myself for the pain. Before it could come, however, the door burst open. “You’ve had enough rest,” the guard said. He was a tall, muscular man, as guards often were, with dark brown hair and dark blue eyes.

  Not a wizard or sorcerer.

  His tunic and trousers were dark blue with a gold family crest over his heart. He didn’t wear a lineage robe, which meant he didn’t belong to a well-known family. Or it meant he had a lot of enemies. Whereas lineage robes began as a sign of pride, they were often worn to prove alliances. With my Rynorm robe on, no one who was an ally of the Rynorm family was allowed to attack me without repercussions from their own family as well as mine. On the other hand, I was expected to know all enemies of the family by their robe and attack them on sight, which was absolutely never going to happen.

  “It’s time to face your mother.�
��

  “You’re not serious.”

  “I couldn’t be more serious.”

  I looked at Merlin. “You have a plan, right?”

  “Hold your breath on that.”

  I sucked in a breath and held it.

  “Not literally. I will figure something out on the way. For now, stay calm and do not antagonize anyone. You still have time to make friends who might help you.”

  That was a great idea. I was good at making friends. I stood and gave the guard my brightest smile. “Okay, lead the way.”

  He gaped. “Wait, what?”

  “I’m not going to make your job any harder than it has to be.”

  “Oh… well, thank you. Would you like a drink before you face her? You haven’t drunk anything since they brought you in.”

  “No, thank you. Dehydration is the least of my worries right now. What I really need is my wand.”

  “Well, that I can’t give you.”

  “I know,” I said quickly. “I don’t want you to get in trouble or anything. I just don’t like to be so defenseless.”

  “Don’t worry. You’ll be fine.”

  “Really? That’s a relief.” Actually, that was all kinds of confusing. I didn’t know whether he misjudged my mother or if there was something to stop her from attacking me. Merlin, Goat, and I followed him out.

  The castle was not decorated like a wizard’s or sorcerer’s. It was clean, though poorly lit, with rich, dark colors and paintings of battles and dragons. It would have been easy to sneak around at night. We made our way down several flights of stairs until we reached the ground floor. By the time we arrived at the throne room, I was ready to run. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy; I could not leave my staff. I was afraid of what someone like my mother could do with my galaxy stone, even if it only obeyed me.

  I couldn’t immediately see the woman sitting in the throne because a guard was in the way, but the man in the lesser throne next to her was not my father. I let the guard lead me into the middle of the room, made a gesture behind my back, and sensed Merlin moving away. When I turned to face the thrones, I froze. I knew how to deal with my mother as much as I knew she was likely to kill me. I knew what she wanted.

  The two people sitting before me were strangers. They were both in their fifties, tall, and blond with blue eyes. The man’s short, clean hair was almost white. The woman’s long hair was golden blond, almost copper, with a slight curl. Her dress was brilliant blue with gold designs and accents. Her husband’s clothes were the same blue, but with brown leather and less obvious gold on his buckles and buttons. Her diamond and gold crown seemed more like an accessory than a symbol of power. It was obvious that they were wizards as well as the queen and king of the kingdom.

  Although I didn’t know many witches personally, I couldn’t imagine Mason’s sisters or mother ruling over people. That isn’t to say they would be incompetent. They were highly intelligent and always happy to help. I simply didn’t think they would like the position. Wizards were so good-natured that they were easy to take advantage of. When they did rule a kingdom, they had sorcerer advisors, along with seers, mages, and (if they were fortunate) elementalists.

  Merlin, who was trying to sneak behind the thrones, was stopped by another guard. He was too big for that tactic. He casually joined me. The goat had disappeared somewhere on the way into the room. “I’m a little confused,” I said.

  “Look up,” Merlin said.

  I looked above the thrones and saw a painting of the two strangers and a wizard about my age. In fact, he looked a lot like me. What I was doing there was becoming less and less clear. Both the queen and king were staring at me, waiting.

  “What am I doing here?”

  “What do you mean?” the queen asked.

  “I mean, why did you bring me here?”

  “How can you ask us that?”

  She was starting to get upset, and I didn’t like making a woman upset. “Who are you?”

  That was clearly the wrong thing to say; the heartbreak on her kind face stabbed me in the chest. “I’m your mother.”

  I opened my mouth.

  No sound came out.

  I shut my mouth.

  “We have been looking for you for five months, Yuri,” the man said, his voice thick with emotion. The queen didn’t look like she could speak. “When you went missing after the sorcerer---”

  “Wait,” I interrupted. “Who’s Yuri?”

  “You are! Your name is Yuri Romanus, now stop playing around! Do you know how terrified your mother was?”

  “I’m not Yuri Romanus…” I trailed off as the familiarity dawned on me. “I’ve heard that name before.”

  “Of course you have! You’re Yuri!” The king was losing his patience, which was worrisome, because wizards had endless patience.

  “There must be more to this than we understand,” Merlin said. “The prince must look so similar to you that not even his parents can tell you apart.”

  “How can that be?”

  “I have no idea. It could be a trick.”

  “If it is a trick, what is the purpose?”

  Merlin shook his head.

  “Maybe... Maybe I should play along?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine. I have never been in a situation like this. If it turns sour, we will run, find a hiding place, and switch.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said aloud. “I don’t mean to upset you. The truth is… I lost my memory. I woke up in the woods with no idea who or where I was.”

  Both the king and queen gaped.

  “Quick thinking,” Merlin praised, “but now you have to pull it off.”

  “You mean, pretend to be a wizard? That’s not that difficult for me.”

  “Actually, I meant you had to act confused and docile, but then I remembered that such is your normal condition.”

  “When I’m a wolf again, I’ll show you docile.”

  He laughed in my head, not at all worried by my threat.

  I refocused on the royal couple, who both looked extremely perturbed. Not that I blamed them, of course. “I’m sorry I worried you both, but I don’t know what happened.”

  The queen addressed her closest guard. “Get Kenja.” She turned back to me. “You don’t remember anything?”

  “Nothing up until I woke in the forest. Can you tell me what happened and… who I am?”

  The king and queen looked at each other. I was certain that if this was a trick, they were not in on it. They told us how Yuri had run away when magic started to die and returned unsuccessful, how they were attacked and Yuri almost died, and how the black star came and went, leaving him immortal.

  That was extremely interesting to me. I didn’t want to be immortal myself, but the fact that I had taken Merlin’s immortality always weighed on me. Every time he was in danger, every time he was injured, it was my fault. If Yuri had somehow figured out how to achieve immortality, maybe I could help Merlin.

  “Five months ago, we were attacked again by a powerful sorcerer. You disappeared that night.”

  “I disappeared? Did the sorcerer take me?”

  “We don’t know. We were hoping he would ask for a ransom, but we never heard from him.”

  “So… you sent assassins after me?”

  “We thought you were in danger and decided that if anyone could save you, it was them. The first time you went missing, the other kingdoms found out and tried to capture you themselves, so this time, we kept your disappearance quiet. Except for the assassins, no one outside the castle knew until they brought you back yesterday.”

  At that point, the mage arrived. Kenja was a kind old man with fluffy white hair, moss-green eyes, and more wrinkles than I could count… not that I tried more than once. His eyebrows were so thick they partially covered his eyes.

  We were taken back to Yuri’s bedroom and Kenja checked me for injuries by staring into my eyes while feeling every crevice of my head. I wanted to ask him why it was necessary to be weird, bu
t I decided it would have made it weirder to talk about it.

  “I haven’t found anything wrong with you,” he said, replacing the bandage around my arm. I hadn’t even realized anyone tried to patch me up after the assassin shot me with an arrow. The wound was still pretty bad, though, so I knew no one had tried healing me before. “Your memories could return any moment.”

  “I doubt it,” I said.

  “Ayden,” Merlin warned.

  “Now, I suggest a bath, clean clothes, and rest,” the mage continued. A girl walked in. She was thin with braided blond hair and light blue eyes. Her simple, knee-length dress was the same blue that everyone else seemed to be wearing, with the castle’s gold emblem over her heart.

  “Give the prince a bath, clothes, and food, and put the wolf in the field.”

  I expected Merlin to growl. Instead, he walked over to the side of the bed and settled down as if for a nap. “What are you doing?”

  “A wild animal would snap at them and they would be afraid of me hurting you. By playing the part of the house-trained, loyal pet, they will be less inclined to ‘put me outside.’ Furthermore, how are they going to move me? I have fifty pounds on the little bloke and one of the strongest bite forces in the animal kingdom.”

  “Oh.” I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I was getting pretty good at faking it. “Don’t mess with Merlin. He stays with me. You can take the goat, though,” I said.

  “What goat?” the girl asked, not taking her eyes off Merlin.

  I pointed to Goat, who had snuck onto the bed and was chewing on the bandage around my arm. The mage and servant immediately tried to shove Goat away, but she was a tenacious little pain.

  Another woman entered. She was older than the blond girl and less thin, with medium brown hair and light brown eyes. There was something about her that I liked, but I couldn’t figure out what, since she hadn’t even spoken yet.

  She snapped her fingers, somehow getting the attention of Goat. When the goat looked at her, she unbuckled her right boot, deliberately stripped off her sock, and held it up. Goat leapt up from the bed and reached her just as she tossed it out into the hallway. She closed the door behind Goat.