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

by Rain Oxford

  “I’m Ayden, this’s Merlin, and that’s Yuri. Why did Zuras attack you in the first place?”

  “To cover his tracks.” He got a few deep breaths in before explaining. “Zuras hired me three years ago to make an item. He locked me in here in something he called a force field and said he would only release me when he returned for the item.”

  “How did you get food and water?”

  He uncovered a small chest on the table and opened the lid. Out popped a tiny reptile. Saphorus here was with me when Zuras sealed me in, and he could slip through the force field. He’s been bringing me food and water.”

  “No one else could get in?”

  “No one else could even see my home or hear me yelling for help.” He rubbed Saphorus’s head lovingly.

  “Is that one of those…”

  “Gobrin? Yes. He’s a native to this world. He’s just a small variation and he only eats animals that are smaller than him. He was injured as a hatchling and abandoned by his nest. I took him in.”

  The ice around Yuri’s head, shoulders, and chest had melted away, so he was struggling to break the rest of the ice. There was also steam coming off of him.

  “What did Zuras want you to make?” I asked.

  “A paintbrush.”

  “A paintbrush?”

  “Yes, a paintbrush.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know.” Hawk picked up a stack of paper from the table, causing a glass and gold ball to roll off and hit the floor. Instead of breaking, it vanished and appeared back on the table. Hawk ignored it. “He gave me an extremely peculiar spell to make the brush with, though. Maybe it will mean something to you.”

  He handed it to me, but it was nothing more than a mess of symbols and numbers, so I laid them out on the floor. Merlin studied them for a few moments and nodded with understanding. “You know what he’s doing?” I asked.

  “Not a clue,” he answered. “I have seen some of these symbols, but the magic is not any kind I know.”

  “Zuras is probably the strangest sorcerer I’ve ever seen. For one thing, I haven’t seen him do any magic; he’s only using magical devices.”

  “Aside from his endless pockets, I agree. I think he might be summoning those gadgets with magic. The devices or ‘inventions’ themselves, however, are not magical. Furthermore, I have a hunch as to where he might be getting his ideas.”

  “It doesn’t matter where he’s getting his ideas. It matters that we stop him.”

  “You are thinking two-dimensionally, young sorcerer, which is not like you. We can predict his moves if we know what his plans and styles are. He is not an idiot.”

  “He seems like one to me.”

  “And if you continue thinking so, you will be defeated.”

  “This was my design,” Hawk said, handing me another paper. “He got the actual paintbrush and decided to kill me to make sure no one would know what he was after. I fought back, and that’s where you came in.”

  The handle was gold and glass, with magic symbols etched on it. Inside was another glass tube, surrounded by metal gears and triggers. I was more concerned with the symbols on the handle. “It looks like a wand.”

  “Yes, but I only used the magic he told me to. I don’t know what those sigils do, because they’re ancient.”

  “We know a few people who might be able to figure out what they’re for. Can we keep these?”

  “Yes. I don’t want to ever see them again. It only took me two days to make it. I’ve been trapped here for three years for nothing.”

  “When you cross realms, time can be severely distorted,” Merlin reminded me.

  “Now, can we go after Zuras?!” Yuri was so anxious he was shifting his weight from foot to foot. Of course, that might have been to shake the rest of the ice out of his trousers.

  “Yes.”

  “Transport us to him.”

  “No. We don’t know what he’s doing. He could be in the middle of being eaten by a monster.”

  “Animal,” Merlin corrected me. “These gobrin are not monsters; they are simple, nature-driven animals. We just happen to be on their menu.”

  I picked up a glass box that had what looked like spider webs made of gold inside.

  “Don’t touch that,” Yuri said irritably, snatching it from my hands rudely. “You’ll break it.”

  “I wasn’t going to break it! Besides, this morning, you were all for going to find the engine room because it sounded like trouble, so---”

  “Stay out of the engine room,” he interrupted. “It’s dangerous.”

  Merlin shrugged. “Maybe Yuri is insane.”

  Hawk carefully took it from Yuri. “Actually, this is both delicate and dangerous. Thank you for saving me, now please get out of my shop.”

  We went out to the car and Yuri led us onto the road. Yuri was quiet, only speaking when he needed to give Adel directions. The heat of the day should have dried him, but it was too humid. It didn’t help that storm clouds were forming in the sky. Well, it did help to cut down on some of the heat.

  “Thank you for what you did back there,” I said after a while.

  It didn’t get the response I was hoping for. “I didn’t do anything,” he said despondently.

  “What do you mean? You jumped in the way of that ice pistol. You saved me.”

  “You and Merlin did all the work while I rolled around on the ground. I was useless.”

  “Were we at the same fight? You saved me.”

  “I didn’t stop the sorcerer or get my parent’s egg back.”

  “Is it me, or did his mood completely change way too quickly?” I asked Merlin. Before he could answer me, I sensed the ward and felt the air around us change, as if we had passed through a thin shield of water. “Did you feel that?”

  “Yes.”

  “Stop the car,” I said to Adel.

  “What?”

  “Stop the car! He set a---”

  A loud explosion cut me off and a tree fell across the road. Because she had listened to me, Adel was able to stop the car in time to avoid being crushed under the tree. Zuras floated out of the cover of the forest and halted above the fallen tree. Actually, he wasn’t floating; he was standing on a floating metal plate. His robe billowed in a nonexistent breeze.

  “You are a tenacious team, I’ll give you that,” Zuras said. “But no matter how many times you pursue me or thwart my villainous plots, I will always be two steps ahead of you, so---”

  “But my arms reach that far,” I interrupted.

  He stopped talking and his eyes widened as if I had somehow offended him. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “If you’re only two steps ahead of me, I can reach you.”

  “No, I mean… you know what I mean.”

  “Yes, but my point is that the way you talk is strange.” He raised his head to glare down at me, which again, I thought was strange.

  “I have decided to show you mercy,” Zuras continued, as if to distract me.

  “We don’t want mercy; we want the egg you stole,” Yuri said. He didn’t look like he was in any pain.

  “Don’t interrupt me!” Zuras shouted hysterically. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply to calm himself.

  I aimed my staff at him, but Merlin put his paw on my hand to stop me. “You do not want to accidentally hurt the egg.”

  “If you agree to stop chasing me, I will give you the dragon egg,” Zuras said with false tranquility.

  “Okay. If you give us the dragon egg, we will leave you to your business of collecting paintbrushes.”

  “And whatever he got at the monochromatic world,” Merlin added.

  Zuras untied the large sack from his side and held it out. It floated to me. Yuri snatched it out of the air and worked the egg out of the sack. The egg was deep, brilliant blue with gold veins. It was gorgeous, but it didn’t radiate power like the other eggs I had seen.

  “Well, now that that’s settled, I’ll be on my---”

/>   “It’s fake,” Yuri interrupted.

  “It’s clearly a dragon egg!” Zuras insisted.

  “It’s an illusion,” Yuri insisted.

  “Sorcerers can’t create illusions,” I said.

  Merlin growled, but it was almost imperceptible. It was what I called his self-growl; the sound he made when he was frustrated with himself. “I know I have met him before, but I have too many memories and I cannot figure out how I recognize him. I do not know his name, and that is what is throwing me off.”

  That gave me an idea. “Zuras, what is your family name again?” I asked.

  “Lyons,” he said instantly.

  “That’s a northern name, right? Are you from Akadema?”

  He hesitated for a moment before nodding, “Yes.”

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it.

  Zuras glared. “What is so funny?”

  “Nothing,” I said, pulling myself together. “I just didn’t realize how easy it was for someone to fake being from my world. No one ever questioned you, did they? You practiced a fake name, but you didn’t bother to learn the geography of Caldaca. This is a fake.”

  He smirked and said, “No, it’s not.”

  As he said this, the color of the egg faded. “Oh. It’s a gobrin egg. You stole a similarly disguised egg and disguised it, knowing we wouldn’t expect it because we thought you were a sorcerer from our world without illusion magic.”

  “I guess I played my card too early, but I figured out your hand as well. You’re able to find me because your twin there can detect the egg. When I hid it, you had no idea I was here.”

  “How do you speak my language? I mean, I figure you could have learned it, but you also understood the voice on the last world and Hawk.”

  “I took a potion— I mean an experimental substance… harvested from the venom of a radioactive… scorpion,” he said, obviously making it up on the spot.

  “That’s original,” Merlin said sarcastically.

  I didn’t care about that, because I had a chilling thought. I looked at Merlin and his expression told me he was thinking the same thing. “Is Alice deceiving us? Is she working with Zuras?” I asked in his head.

  “Although I doubt she is the only person who could make such an impossible potion, she is likely the only person to put in the effort to do so. Before we accuse her of helping him, however, we might consider the possibility that he stole the potion.”

  “But it would help to explain why Yuri looks like me and why we’re here if Alice caused all of this.”

  “For what purpose?”

  “For her own amusement. If she could create a potion that can make someone understand any language, surely she’s powerful enough to do this.”

  “I agree, but placing the blame is the simple solution, and the simple solution is rarely the right one.”

  “So, he can do light and dark magic?” Yuri asked me.

  “That’s the beauty of it! I don’t need magic to defeat you! Magic is for weaklings. I use my superior brain!”

  “But you’re using magic to hover.”

  “No, I’m not! This is another one of my amazing inventions; it’s my anti-gravity disk! And with it, I will take over---”

  “We really don’t care,” Yuri interrupted. “Give us the real egg.”

  “Never.”

  “He doesn’t have the egg on him,” Yuri said.

  “So what?” Zuras asked. “I know wizards from Caldaca can’t do any dark magic.”

  “No, they can’t.” I aimed my staff at him. I didn’t want to kill him, but there were many other ways to incapacitate an enemy. “Atrið kvilla!” Blue lightning struck him and left him… standing in midair.

  He smirked at me. “Am I supposed to be afraid of that?” he asked mockingly.

  Merlin frowned at me. He knew what I said, but it wasn’t a spell he had taught me. I shrugged. “No, I shouldn’t think so.”

  He reached into his pocket and retrieved another control board. “Then prepare to die at the hands of Master of Mayhem! I’m no longer going easy on you; now I’ll defeat you with my sonic vib…” he trailed off. His face paled and he started wobbling on his disk. “What did you…” that was as far as he got before he fell off the disk, hit the ground, and threw up.

  “What did I do? I only made you a little motion sick.”

  “You cursed him?” Yuri asked. “You’re a sorcerer?”

  “It’s hard to explain.”

  “Are you a sorcerer or not?! It’s not that hard!”

  “Well… technically, yes, but can we discuss this later? We’re kind of in the middle of---”

  “No! You tricked me! You lied to me! Why? What did I ever do to you?”

  “This is a really bad time to---”

  “For honesty?! Now is a bad time for honesty?!”

  “Actually, I agree with Ayden,” Adel said.

  Furious, he hopped out of the car and drew his sword.

  “Focus on Zuras or you will lose the advantage you have!” Merlin warned.

  I pointed my staff at Zuras. Turn him to stone. I focused on what I wanted and released my magic.

  Zuras wasn’t as much of an idiot as I’d thought; he grabbed the disk and used it as a shield, which apparently deflected energy. My curse bounced off the metal and struck the car. The car, unlike the disk, was affected by the curse; it turned to stone. Merlin, Adel, and I got out of the car. It definitely wasn’t drivable anymore.

  “You don’t like magic?” Yuri asked Zuras as Zuras got to his feet. “Well, I’ve lost my wand, and I’ll still beat you.”

  “You have crossed the line between bravery and stupidity,” Merlin said, although Yuri couldn’t hear him.

  I doubted Yuri would have listened anyway. Yuri leapt on top of the tree and pointed his sword at Zuras. Since Zuras wasn’t floating, it meant Yuri was on higher ground. Zuras frowned as if he didn’t know what to think of Yuri, either. “Tell me where the egg is!” Yuri demanded.

  “And if I don’t?” Zuras asked.

  “You will,” Yuri answered.

  “And if I don’t?” Zuras asked louder.

  “You will!” Yuri answered louder.

  Zuras wasn’t impressed. While I was distracted by Yuri’s abrupt change in attitude, Zuras pulled another ray-pistol out of his pocket. I aimed my staff at him, but Yuri was between us and it would have been too easy to hit him instead of Zuras.

  Zuras pointed the ray-pistol at Adel. It produced a green light that hit her. She was suddenly lifted in the air. “Not so fast!” he said as Adel floated closer to him. “Kill me, and the girl dies, too.” Adel fought, but there was nothing to break free of. When she was set down right in front of him, the light died and he grabbed her arm. “Back away!” he demanded.

  Reluctantly, Yuri did.

  Dragging Adel with him, Zuras got back on his disk and started to rise, only to immediately go pale. As soon as he was above me in the air, he threw up.

  “Oh, gross!” Adel shrieked, trying to get away from him without falling off the tiny disk.

  “Hold still or I’m going to throw up again, and next time, it’ll be on you.” He was definitely a little green at this point. “Be prepared! When we meet again, you will be---”

  And then he threw up again before disappearing into the trees.

  “That didn’t work,” I said.

  “You think? Sorcery never solves problems!” Yuri said. “It creates problems! That’s why it’s sorcery!”

  “Actually, that doesn’t make---”

  I cut myself off as Merlin shook his head frantically.

  “I can’t believe you lied to me!”

  “Well, to be fair, I only met you---”

  I cut myself off again as Merlin shook his head even more frantically.

  “What are you objecting to?” I asked him in his mind.

  “The prince is not himself right now. I suspect he has not been himself this entire time. Arguing when he is in this state will only exacerbate
the issue.”

  “You know what’s wrong with him?”

  “I have a theory.”

  “I can’t even look at you!” Yuri yelled before stomping off into the forest, still carrying the fake egg in his arms.

  “Does your theory explain why Yuri and I look identical?”

  “No, it does not. We need to get out of the open. We can follow the road under cover of trees and return to Hawk. Perhaps he knows another way to get back to the caves.”

  “What’s the point in returning to the caves? We need to save Adel.”

  “They have scouts. They can send out a search party for her. Furthermore, I doubt Zuras knows much about this world; he will most likely return to the mirror he came from to leave.”

  “But by the time we get there, we’ll be too late.”

  “Based on his characteristics and reactions so far, I suspect she is alive and well… for now.”

  “For how long?”

  “Strictly based on the pattern we have seen, he took her because she’s the only woman who has been with us and she will be safe until we find her, at which point she will suddenly become in grave danger. Do you feel up to transporting us to the caves?”

  I shook my head. “All three of us across that distance? I don’t have that much energy left. Something could go horribly wrong. I might have enough energy to summon my dragon, though. I bet he could fly us to the cave.”

  “It would be a waste. His wings are too large; he would not have the clearance to get into the sky.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It is not your fault. You have been protecting us since we arrived and we are supposed to be a team. Do you want to switch for a while? It would be easier for you to travel without carrying anything.”

  I shook my head. “We don’t know how much rest we’ll need between switching, and we could be attacked at any time by… anything. Besides, you need to tell me what your theory about Yuri is.”

  “Soon. First, I will go and placate the distraught prince.”

  I found a spot to rest and try to recover my energy. I sat in the soft, damp dirt and focused on being calm. It wasn’t easy knowing Yuri had run off on his own, especially since he was the only one who could find Zuras, assuming Zuras had the egg with him again. Also, we had to save Adel and we weren’t getting any closer by sitting around. I fell back with a frustrated groan.