by Rain Oxford
I tried to remain calm, but this was definitely the closest I had ever come to being eaten and I had plenty to be frightened of.
Its tongue moved, probably in effort to avoid Merlin’s claws and teeth, and my staff smacked me in the chest. I firmly gripped my staff and focused on fire. Power shot into it and changed it into a flaming sword. Not only was the blade sharp and long enough to do harm, but it was also on fire. I didn’t hesitate for a second; I stabbed the sword as deep into the tongue as I could.
The creature’s mouth opened as it roared in pain. The opening of its jaws created a suction that pulled me towards the creature’s throat, so I braced myself on the hilt of my sword and held on with all my strength. My monkey grabbed Merlin and wrapped his tentacles securely around the monster’s teeth.
The instant the suction stopped, the creature shook its head and thrashed its tongue, roaring. Between the volume, the movement, and the lack of air, I was disoriented. The next thing I knew, the sword and I were slung out into the water. I saw the light of the surface impossibly far up and turned back, looking for Merlin.
The sea monster had an eel body shape with a spiky turtle face. Its head was layered in horns. When its jaw started to close, I panicked, but right before the jagged teeth snapped together, the monkey surged through, Merlin in tow. I started swimming to the surface, but I had gone too long without air and my vision was starting to fade.
Then, the monkey’s arm wrapped around my chest and he shot upward with a speed I could never manage. The moment we broke the surface, all the fear, anger, and relief I’d pushed away since we were attacked flooded me.
Waves crashed over us in a last ditch effort to drown us. My robe wasn’t making it any easier to stay afloat. The monkey flapped his wings urgently, but they smacked water and couldn’t get any lift. He screeched with growing frustration. I broke his hold on me and swam towards my staff, which had reverted to its true form and was floating. When my hand closed around it, my magic welcomed the staff’s power like an old friend. I aimed it at the monkey.
“Levitate.” Blue magic shot out of my staff and into the monkey, who floated into the air. He shook off the water, jerking Merlin rudely, and flapped his wings. Once he was flying sufficiently and independently, I turned in a circle, looking for my wand. I finally saw it and started swimming towards it, but the monkey dived and grabbed me. “I need my wand!” While I could have lived without it, it would have been like losing my arm.
“Ayden, stop struggling,” Merlin warned urgently.
I did. Below us, the dorsal fin of a shark broke the surface. I wasn’t going to risk Merlin’s life for my wand. “Fly us higher!” I said to the monkey. Once again, he ignored me. Instead, he dived, provoking a startled growl from Merlin and a shout of terror from me. Faster than the marine predator could strike, the tentacle snatched the wand out of the water.
A moment later, we were flying high enough to avoid most marine threats. Eventually, the shark gave up and left to find an easier meal. Blood dripped into the water.
* * *
The rest of the trip was bearable. The rushing air dried out my clothes and Merlin’s fur, although it was uncomfortably cold. As night loomed, it became clear that my monkey was tiring. The further the sun sank in the sky, the further he sank in the air, so by the time I saw a tropical island, Merlin’s paws were skimming the water. I doubted we would make it. I grabbed my staff, which the monkey was holding within my reach. Help him, I thought to it. Power rushed from me, through the staff, and into the monkey. The wind changed subtly and the monkey gained height.
Fortunately, it was enough to get us to dry land. Unfortunately, that was all he could handle; he dropped us in the sand, barely missing the water. Groaning, I shook my head and tried to get my bearings. I finally climbed to my feet, intent on scolding the monkey, only to find him wrapped around a tree. He had dropped us for our own good.
“Are you okay?” I asked Merlin.
He stood unsteadily and shook off sand before nodding. “I am reasonably uninjured. Attend to your monkey.”
I grabbed my staff and wand on the way to the monkey, who was unconscious. Although I doubted we were on Kalika, I felt he deserved at least some freedom for saving our lives. I pointed my staff at him. “Set him free.” I imagined the invisible bands around him and felt them dissolve. He wasn’t free, though; there was one more around his neck, which was attached to my wand.
“You are going to have to heal him,” Merlin said, joining me beside the monkey.
“I’m not a mage. I can’t heal.”
“Then we must find healing herbs, because he will not make it on his own.”
There was blood dripping from the leaves of the tree, not because of the crash but the sea monster’s attack. Merlin was right; I needed to help the monkey fast. “Let’s go. I hope we---”
“Keep him warm,” Merlin interrupted. “Assuming he is a mammal, he needs to stay warm, so build a fire and stop him from leaving if he wakes. I will be back with the right plants.”
“It’s not safe in the jungle.”
“We have no other choice.”
“Yes, we do.” Before he could argue, I held up my staff, focused my mind, and let my power wrap around me. The world disappeared and when it returned, I was in Magnus’s castle. I also felt like I had been kicked in the stomach by a horse. I gasped for breath and wiped sweat from my forehead. I had transported myself a number of times, but never this far. Had I tried to transport Merlin as well, I would have failed.
I was in the library, because that was the room I could visualize best in my mind. I wasn’t surprised to see Mason reading on the window seat, since he enjoyed reading as much as I did. Fortunately, he was the person I was looking for.
“I need…” I panted. “I need a healing potion.”
He stared at me, frozen with shock. “Who are you?” he finally asked.
It took me a moment to understand; I still had a disguise over me.
“He’s Ayden,” Thaddeus said, entering the room with two plates of food.
At that point, I’d caught my breath. “My monkey monster is injured. I need a healing potion. And how did you know it’s me?” I asked Thad.
“You’re my brother.”
“But I’m in disguise.”
“You have my tattoos to help you hide from our mother, but she can still find you when you transport yourself,” he warned instead of explaining.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Mason added.
“It doesn’t matter right now. I need a healing potion for my monkey monster!”
“It’s just a familiar, and not a very useful one at that,” Thad argued.
“You don’t know him! He wasn’t something I transformed or a friend I rescued. I created him, so he’s my responsibility. He also has a mind of his own; he’s not expendable.”
“I’ll grab one from my room. I think I have one that will work on a magic creature like him.” Mason left the room nervously.
“I always thought sorcerers were the most powerful people by far, until I escaped Mother’s control. Now I see that everyone is powerful in one way or another.”
“I don’t know what your point is,” I said. This was why I didn’t want to be alone with my brother; it was awkward at best. He wasn’t as terrible as my other brothers, which was why I let him escape when I sent the others to another world, but he never did anything to help me.
“It wasn’t easy for me, either, you know,” Thaddeus said, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking.
“You’re a sorcerer.”
“So? Once you were born, my life meant nothing. Mother always said we could torture you as much as we wanted, but we were not allowed to kill you. Our brothers had permission to kill me. I had to do what they wanted. Even then, I did what I could to protect you.”
He was right. “When you all had me trapped at Red Rock, back when I was still on your side, you whispered something to Zeus. It looked like whatever you said ha
d changed his mind, but it didn’t, so I thought it was a trick. Then, when you and Mikron confronted me at Magnus’s castle, you made Mikron back down. How?”
“Over the years, I have done things for each of them, so they owed me.”
At that point, Mason returned with a potion bottle. “You shouldn’t transport---”
I ignored his warning and took the bottle. “Do I have him drink this or rub it on his wound?”
“Have him drink it, but you’re not going to be much help to him if your mother---”
I transported myself back to Merlin and the monkey. The world spun around me, but at least I’d made it. Although Merlin immediately started scolding me, I wasn’t paying attention. With great difficulty, I stumbled towards the monkey, opened his mouth, uncapped the bottle, and poured the potion down his throat. The monkey’s mouth snapped shut, nearly crushing my fingers. He lashed out, one of his tentacles struck me in the chest, and I was thrown back.
Merlin growled and stood between the monkey and me. “He’s just afraid and injured,” I said.
“And that makes him more of a danger to you than he normally is.”
The monkey thrashed for a while before finally settling down. Merlin let me go to him. I tossed my robe over him to help keep him warm, but my robe hadn’t made it out of the sea monster’s attack unscathed, either. It was fire-resistant, not magic-proof. The black fabric was charred in several patches.
“Should we still start a fire?” I asked.
“Yes. It should deter more creatures than it attracts. I will collect wood.”
“What about shelter? I don’t know anything about what threats might be here.”
“It would be more dangerous to try to move the monkey. He could have broken bones.” He left and I sat next to the monkey. I was thankful he had grabbed my wand, despite knowing he hadn’t done it for me. He couldn’t have been freed from its power without it.
“Thank you for helping Merlin and me escape the sea monster,” I said quietly, knowing the unconscious monkey wouldn’t hear me.
Soon, Merlin returned with his jaws full of driftwood. Once he set it in a pile beside me, I waved my wand at it and focused on fire. Sparkly orange magic flowed from my wand into the wood and set it on fire.
“Healing potions on your world are stronger than those on mine. How long will it take for the potion to fully heal him?” Merlin asked.
“I don’t know. It depends on how injured the monkey is, how susceptible to magic he is, how well Mason made it, and what he made it with. It’ll probably take all night, and he’s going to feel worse before he feels better.”
“In that case, you should try to get some sleep.”
“You don’t want to tell me how foolish I was for transporting myself?”
“In order to be wise, you must first be foolish. In order to be brave, you must first be afraid. You chose to risk your life to save your monkey. I have no right to dissuade you.”
“So… you’re not mad?”
“I am.”
“But you just said…”
“I am frustrated because you risked your life without hesitating. I am frustrated because I was absolutely no help to you in the face of real danger. And most of all, I am frustrated because I cannot be mad at you. I already knew how devoted you are to your friends.”
“But that’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
“For the most part, yes. I suspect that your heart is your greatest strength, as well as your greatest weakness.”
“My mother always said love was a weakness.”
“It can be, and it can also be a strength. Your enemies will try to use it against you. That is not to say you are wrong to follow your heart. There have been many times in my life when I have been disappointed by people who took my friendship for granted or outright betrayed me. I know you will never do either one, but that does not mean others will show you the same loyalty.”
“I understand that, but why are you upset? The monkey can’t betray me because I don’t expect anything from him.”
“I am being selfish.”
“Selfish? You? How?”
“I would prefer that you did not put your life in jeopardy so easily. I do not want you to get hurt.”
I pulled out the wineskin and groaned. Something, either a sea monster’s fang or one of the monkey’s claws, had pierced it and drained our water. “Do you think there might be a river here?”
“I highly doubt it. We will have to get water another way. If you can wait, it would be better to look for water in the morning.”
“I can wait.”
“Good. Check on the mirror.”
I nodded and checked my bag. “We’ll need more food, too,” I said, tossing the bread and cheese out. The small amount of bread we’d saved had been reduced to a salty ball of slime. When I took the mirror out of my bag, I was relieved to see that it was undamaged. “Show me how to find the Rynorm family at Kalika, in the Moaning Mountains,” I said, pointing my wand at it. Once again, the map formed and showed me that we had traveled most of the way. “I think I should free the monkey,” I said, putting the mirror away. “Even if he can fly after just one night, I doubt he would be able to carry us.”
“I agree. In that case, we must find a ship across the ocean.”
Shivering without my robe, I fell asleep uneasily.
Chapter 6
I woke to a ghastly creature with glowing green eyes, standing on my chest and leaning over to stick his face right in front of my eyes. I did the only reasonable thing; I screamed. I also tried to push him off me without touching him. In turn, the creature screamed hysterically in my face, his sharp teeth glinting in the dim moonlight, and he waved his hands out to his side mockingly.
“What are you?!”
“You!” he shouted in a shrill voice. I screamed. He shouted, “Scream!”
I screamed. He screamed. “What do you want?!”
“You!”
I screamed. He screamed. “Help!” I shouted for Merlin.
“Help!” he screamed.
“Merlin!”
“Merlin!” the creature echoed in an even more hysterical tone.
“Are you going to eat me?!”
“Eat!”
“I’m so confused! I don’t know if you’re here to kill me or if you’re trying to learn to speak!”
“Speak!”
“Stop screaming!”
He screamed.
I screamed.
A dark blur crashed into the creepy creature and sent him flying off me. I leapt up and realized the monkey had whacked the creature with his wings. I rolled out of the way before his front paw landed in the spot my head had been resting. The creature was gone by the time I got to my feet. “Where’s Merlin?”
The monkey raised his head and made a monkey howl. A moment later, Merlin’s howl answered back. Merlin appeared from over a hill. He had been searching the beach.
“What happened? I heard you screaming.”
“A creature attacked… or something. I’m not sure.”
“What?”
I explained what happened, although that didn’t clear much up.
“If he had meant to harm you, he probably would have while you were asleep. It might have been a creature that was unfamiliar with people and was simply curious.”
“Have you slept?”
“Some. I had another dream.”
Meaning that he had a vision of something in the past or future. “About the egg?”
“No, I think not. I dreamt of drowning. We need to get off this island.”
I opened my mouth to suggest that we try to leave immediately, then hesitated. I’d read as many books as I could get my hands on since I learned to read, and my favorite ones were the tales of warriors and adventurers who traveled the lands, defeating monsters and discovering new sights. If this island really was unexplored, it could be my chance to be in their shoes for once.
Merlin either heard my thought or read it on my fac
e. “There will be time enough for that later. The black star draws near whether we make progress or not.”
“I know.” I picked my robe up, put it on, and stroked the monkey’s head. To my surprise, he let me. “Do you think you can fly yet?”
In answer, he flapped his wings and took to the air, only to cry out in pain and crash, showering me in sand. I couldn’t take more than a single step towards him before Merlin sunk his fangs in my robe and pulled me back. “He is a dangerous creature in pain; he could hurt you.”
“Maybe there are more people here. If we can find a ship, he can rest on the way.”
“I concur. However, we should search the beach before venturing into the jungle.”
Since Merlin had already started searching eastward, we headed west. The plan was to let the monkey rest and come back for him, but he scrambled after us before we got very far. I didn’t argue, because I wasn’t sure he was safe on his own.
* * *
We travelled for the rest of the night until the sun was starting to rise. The sand was difficult to walk in and I had to stop frequently to dump out my boots. As soon as the sun heated the air, the situation got worse. Akadema was warm for most of the year, but it was drier and didn’t have much loose sand. I hadn’t completely recovered from transporting myself across such a great distance, and the island wasn’t making it easy.
When the endless sand was broken up by some large rocks, the monkey slumped against one and whimpered. I patted his neck gently. “We need to find some food and water.”
Merlin nodded. “It seems we have no other choice but to risk exploring the jungle.”
“Stay here, Monkey. You need rest. We’ll bring back some food… but what do you eat? Meat?”
“He probably eats fruit if he eats at all.”
“Are we sure he eats? I don’t think he eats when I…”
“When you banish him,” he said when I wouldn’t. “It does not hurt him any more than it hurts you to sleep.” When Merlin had taught me to conjure my monkey, I was supposed to create nothing more than a temporary manifestation of my magic— a mindless creature that obeyed my every word. My staff, which at that time wasn’t bonded to me, created an actual living creature instead. Thus, I hated banishing him, which was dispersing his body temporarily and absorbing his presence in my mind.