by Rain Oxford
I backed up, using my hands to guide me into the open cell behind me. I had never noticed it there before.
“You’ll see me again when I’m ready to take your magic.” She pointed her wand at me and the door to the cell slammed shut. “I know you have your dagger in your boot. Keep it. Maybe you can catch some vermin to eat, which will only prolong your suffering and amuse me.” She left, laughing.
Any of my brothers would have threatened suicide, but I couldn’t pull it off. I had to survive.
The floor was stone, so I couldn’t dig myself out, and the bars were thick metal. There was nothing in the cell except for a bucket. While I supposed that was a mercy, I was more worried about water.
I tried pulling on the bars, but the metal began growing warm, so I let them go. I had seen my mother use this curse before. If I held on too long, it would burn me. There was probably also a curse on the lock so that I couldn’t use magic on it. My lock pick was in my bag.
This is going to be a tough one.
* * *
I woke as dim light spilled into the room. I kept my eyes closed and feigned sleep until I recognized the footsteps descending the staircase. “Please let me go,” I said quietly.
“And deprive you of the chance to learn? I wouldn’t do that to you,” my father said, stopping in front of the cage.
“Why are you helping her? Your brothers said you hated her.”
“Things are never that simple.”
“I can’t tell whether you are on my side or hers. Your mother wasn’t like her. She was kind.”
“Oh yes, my mother was very kind. So kind that she forced me to marry Ilvera knowing my heart belonged to another.”
“You loved someone? Then why did you marry Ilvera?”
“It was my duty. As mine was, yours will not be easy.”
“You sound like a seer.”
He laughed. “It’s a downside of spending too much time with dragons.”
“Then do you know why it’s up to Merlin and me to save the egg? Do you know anything about the egg?”
“Yes, I do. It’s up to you and Merlin because you’re a Sjau with a psychic bond to Merlin.”
“I’m confused.”
He crouched in front of me, reached through the bars, and gently touched my forehead. “Sleep now, and use Merlin’s power to see the answers you seek.”
I felt his magic flow into me (despite the fact that he wasn’t holding his wand) and pull me down into darkness.
* * *
I was seeing through my father’s eyes as he spied on my mother and aunt. They were my age, but I could still recognize them. Livia looked even less like a sorceress than I did a sorcerer. Her hair was golden blond and her eyes were bright blue. At this point in time, she wore the Dracre robe, but later, she would wear a white one. Green didn’t suit her.
They were both sitting alongside a small brook with their bare feet in the water. Livia was braiding several strands of colored string around the stems of wildflowers that she had picked. My mother, on the other hand, was torturing a toad with a stick. “You can’t stay here forever,” my mother told her.
“I will. I don’t belong with the Dracre family.”
“No, you don’t. You’re a huge disappointment, but you still belong to us. I’m going to tell Mother you’re here and she’ll make you come home. Who else would I test my potions and curses on?”
“I was meant for more than to serve my mother and sisters.”
“Ridiculous. Just look at your hair. You look like a witch.”
“Looks don’t matter. I like your black hair, but I like mine, too. We’re different, and that’s a good thing. You may look like Mother, but you’re not the same.”
“Yes I am.”
“You’re not, and you shouldn’t be. It would be really boring if all sorcerers were exactly the same. Plus, that would be a weakness.”
“You’ll never find a husband.”
“No one would love me for me if I don’t love myself. When I am ready for love, it will find me.”
“You think the youngest Rynorm boy will wait for you?”
Livia opened her mouth, hesitated, and closed it. After a while, she said, “If it’s meant to be, it will happen.”
Ilvera sneered. “Now you really sound like a witch. We don’t wait for what we want; we take it. That’s why I’m going to marry him.”
Livia gasped. “You love him?”
My mother scoffed. “Of course not. I just hate you and I’m not going to let you have him. Besides, he’s going to give me what I want.”
“Power.”
“Yes.”
“Well, I hope you’ll both be happy together.”
“Why would you hope that? I know you want him.”
“I know you, though. I have no doubt that if you’ve set your sights on him, you’ll get him, so if it’s inevitable, you might as well be happy.”
“I hate you so much.”
“I know, but I don’t hate you.”
At that point, my father emerged from his hiding spot, fury boiling out of him. “How dare you decide for me who I will marry, Ilvera! I’ll never choose---” As my mother turned to him with a murderous glared, he felt magic wrap around him and his mouth snapped shut involuntarily. It wasn’t my mother who had silenced his outburst, however.
Shaerl Rynorm appeared between them, smiling kindly at Ilvera and Livia. “Forgive my son; he forgot his manners.” She gripped his shoulder with enough force to make his bones creak, but it would have looked to others like a gentle pat. My father knew better than to show his pain. “I thought I taught you how to speak to women. I guess you need a reminder.”
He shuddered.
When she walked away, he had no choice but to follow. As he did, he fought the curse inside himself. Although Shaerl was immensely powerful, she wasn’t going to remove it for him, because then he wouldn’t have learned. I felt his magic pick it apart exactly like mine would have, but less efficiently. It wasn’t that he was less powerful; he just didn’t have light magic. It was the combination that made me good at breaking curses.
Soon, he was able to speak. “I don’t want to marry Ilvera. I want to be with Livia.”
“Unfortunately, child, you are too young to know what’s best. You cannot be with Livia.”
“Why not?”
“You are thinking with your heart, and that is not the Rynorm way. The Dracre family has pride. We have wisdom. You cannot have Livia because she is one of the Sjau and the two of you together would disrupt one of the most ancient treaties of magic.”
I had read about the treaties of magic as a child. When magic was still new to the people of Caldaca, wars raged across the world. This was also the time dragons were hunted most actively. Of course, at the time I found my father’s books, I hadn’t known people gained magic from the white star, so I hadn’t understood why people fought.
Treaties were written in order to agree upon limits and goals among the different types of magic users. However, these treaties were forgotten more and more with every generation. When I read about them, they were no more than a legend.
“What do you mean?” my father asked.
“Ilvera is a terrible enemy of magic, but you need her to save it.”
While my first thought was that she must have been friends with a seer, my father knew otherwise; dragons were even greater fortunetellers than seers. “What does the Sjau have to do with the treaties of magic?”
“You know that people developed magic when the white star came.”
“Yes.”
“What you don’t know is that people had magic before that.”
My father froze. “What?”
She halted, her expression exasperated as if he was a child throwing a tantrum. “It did not come naturally to anyone, but dragons had very special servants. People had many children in those days because most didn’t survive. In order to earn protection from the dragons, they forfeited their seventh-born child.”
“Why the seventh born?”
“It is a number the dragons chose. The dragons taught these children magic, but not all of them were worthy. Those who learned magic were called shamans, and they could do all kinds of magic. Those who were unworthy were sent back to their families in shame. For your child to be a shaman was the highest honor.”
“That sounds like it should have worked. What happened?”
“People got greedy and revolted against dragons. They wanted the protection of magic without sacrificing their children. They stole dragon eggs, killed dragons, and taught themselves magic.”
“Wouldn’t they lose more children without dragon magic than they did by sacrificing one?”
“They did, especially when dragons retaliated. War broke out between people and dragons, which lasted five days and devastated the population of people.”
“Dragons are not very forgiving,” my father said thoughtfully.
“No, they aren’t. They were merciful, however. They performed a ritual that enabled there to be fourteen shamans in all of the world.”
“They were the seventh daughter of the seventh daughter and seventh son of the seventh son?”
“Yes. The families of those shamans were revered, while everyone else had to survive without magic. Dragons protected them in exchange for animal sacrifices and treasures, but it was never the same.”
“And then the white star gave magic to everyone and people turned against dragons again,” my father said.
“That’s right. The age of dragons was over, but shamans remained. They became the Sjau and hid in shame instead of being honored. Now, very few people know anything about them.”
“Like the Dracre family?” he asked. She nodded. “But that doesn’t explain why I can’t marry Livia.”
“Because she is a Sjau and you are the seventh born son of the Rynorm family. We are descendants of numerous shamans and thus have always had a special bond with dragons. That is why, when magic fails on Caldaca, our magic will fade slower. Every Rynorm daughter has tried to create a Sjau in order to maintain our dragon alliance, and every one of us has failed. We don’t know why. I was supposed to be a Sjau, but my older sister died, breaking the line.”
“You want me to have sons with Ilvera?”
“She has learned of the Sjau because of Livia and wants a Sjau child.”
“But he would be a Dracre, not a Rynorm.”
“That’s not the point. Sjau are the ones who are going to decide the future of Caldaca when magic dies. You need to raise a Sjau because that gives you power through him.”
I felt his internal battle between duty and heart. “Why does it have to be Ilvera?”
“You’ll have to find that out for yourself.”
“I don’t want to be the seventh son. I don’t want this responsibility. I want to be a storyteller.”
“You are above that. You were born for a purpose.”
“I want to explore the world, invent things, and write about my adventures.”
“You cause me shame even suggesting that.”
“Ketsu is a painter! How is that more shameful than a storyteller?”
“Ketsu is not the seventh born. Speak of it again and I will punish you.”
Being your son is punishment enough, he thought. Though not bold enough to say such a thing to his mother’s face, he did suggest, “Maybe it’s not the Dracre family that has too much pride.”
* * *
I woke slowly, alone, and just as confused as I had been before. The memory had answered a few of my questions, but it had also created new ones. I finally understood why I was involved with the dragon egg; my magic was actually given to me by dragons, not created naturally like everyone else. It explained why the Sjau weren’t losing magic and why some people were losing it slower than others. However, my father told me it was up to me and Merlin because of our bond. How was Merlin involved? Why weren’t the other Sjau being ordered by dragons to save the egg? And why did Merlin and I have such a strong bond that we could use each other’s magic?
It couldn’t have just been because I cursed him, since I had no such bond to Gmork, and it wasn’t because I released him from the syrus, as I could barely speak to the chimera I imprisoned and released a month later. Nasku had said we would have to learn that on our own.
I couldn’t get those answers locked in a cage in my mother’s basement.
I called to my staff on the desk. Either it was too far for my magic to reach without exploding, or I just wasn’t focusing well enough, because it didn’t respond. If I had my bag, I could have picked the lock. Instead, I was going to have to use my head.
With my dagger, I scratched the symbol of transformation into one of the bars. I only needed to break one in order to get through. Fortunately, the candles never seemed to burn down, or it would have been a lot more difficult to manage this.
As Merlin had taught me, I visualized my wand in my hand. I knew every detail of my wand, every sigil. In my mind, I studied every familiar mark, nick, and groove in the reddish-brown wood. I even imagined the weight of it and the texture of the wood in my hand.
My surroundings slowly disappeared as my focus narrowed, just like when I was lost in a book. Once I visualized my wand so strongly that my magic began to respond, I pressed the tip to the symbol on the bar. “Transform into wood.” I imagined my magic flowing through the wand and changing the bar. Energy stirred inside me, trying to find the outlet. I didn’t let that break my focus. “Transform into wood.”
My magic started flowing through the wand. I imagined the metal transforming into wood over and over again… until I realized it was no longer metal. With my focus broken, my imaginary wand vanished, but it had worked; I had done magic without my wand and nothing blew up.
“Focus, Ayden,” I reminded myself, since Merlin wasn’t there to do it for me. I kicked the wooden bar, easily snapping it, and scrambled out of the cage as fast as I could. Afraid my mother would appear at any moment, I grabbed my staff, focused my mind, and called for help. A deep blue glow pulsed out of the crystal, assuring me it was calling to any nearby dragons.
To my surprise, a dragon appeared before me… only, he wasn’t what I expected; it was the hatchling I had met on Kalika.
“Thank you for coming. Can you help me escape?” The hatchling shook his head. “Okay…” I glanced around for a plan and spotted my father’s old crates. I had only looked in them once, but I knew they contained numerous discarded treasures.
As quietly as I could, I searched the crates. When the dragon chirped at me, I frantically shushed him and grabbed the first thing I could use; an old scroll. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a quill or ink, so I had to improvise.
I reached out my hand to the hatchling. “I need you to get a message to my grandmother, and I don’t have anything to write with.”
He knew exactly what I meant and opened his mouth. I carefully sliced my finger on his longest fang, stifled a whimper of pain, and wrote my letter. As much as it stung, I had suffered much worse.
Shaerl,
I’m trapped in my mother’s basement and I need help.
Ayden
“Please take this to Shaerl Rynorm,” I told the hatchling. He clutched it in his talons, flapped his wings, and vanished. “Please work,” I whispered into the darkness.
After a moment of forcing myself to think positively, I started looking for a backup plan. I even focused my magic into my wand and staff and told them to find a way out. Not surprisingly, it didn’t work.
* * *
Eventually, I had to rest. I had no idea if it was day or night, but I was pretty sure I had been there for more than a full day. I had definitely made a mistake in trying to transport to the castle, even though I learned about the Sjau because of it. It was more important to stop the death of magic than to know why I was the way I was.
As I slept, I felt Merlin’s presence, yet other than reassuring me that he was alive, it didn’t help me escape.
Either he was too far away, or my mother’s power prevented me from hearing his voice. I wished I could at least tell him that I was alive.
At one point, while I was going through some potions, the sound of glass breaking upstairs startled me. I tried to ignore it and find a potion that could help me. They had been in a crate for many years, though, so I couldn’t be sure if any of them were still good. It occurred to me to turn myself invisible, but that had failed to work before and I couldn’t risk my mother catching me and taking my wand and staff away again.
I heard my mother yelling and thought it must be with my father. With my wand and staff ready in case I needed to defend myself, I crept up the steps and pressed my ear to the door. If I can get my father on my side, I really have a chance. Unable to hear anything, I pressed the tip of my wand to the door. “Make it so that I can hear them. And do it right this time, or I’m dead and you’ll be snapped in half,” I warned the wand. I didn’t know how to imagine sound getting louder, though, so I just gave my wand power and hoped it worked… at least better than it had the last time.
The wand transformed into a tall glass in my hand. It took me a moment to remember I had read that it could be used to hear through a door or wall. I just wasn’t sure how. First, I held it up to my ear, but that didn’t work. Second, I put it against the door base-side-down. Again, that didn’t work.
“Maybe the books are wrong,” I said. Then I flipped the glass around and put my ear to the base of it. “Oh.”
“Get rid of the Minof family,” my mother said. She paused, as if listening to someone, but I didn’t hear anyone else. “No! You have to keep Mason there, or it will set us back. I need all of the Sjau. I have Ayden here. It’s up to you to trick Sven and his ‘dark council’ into going to the castle, as we’ve planned. Does anyone suspect you?” Again, she paused for a moment. “Good. I’m going to forge a letter with Ayden’s handwriting, asking my sister for help. Livia will be too worried to question it. Kille will get the others. Let me know the instant you have captured Sven, Sotis, and Kalyn, and I’ll bring the rest of the Sjau. Make sure you get rid of the Minofs by then, even if you have to kill them to do it.”