The Dragon’s Price (The Sorcerer's Saga Book 4)
Page 19
“Very good, Ayden. Now walk through the mirror, and remember that you are in control. You will see some strange things and feel your mother’s emotions and thoughts. This is normal. If anything tries to scare you, change it using your staff, your mind, magic words… whatever you want to use. It is your world. All you need is confidence.”
I’m in control. I’m not afraid. I stepped through the mirror. I’m in control. I’m not afraid. I was in the kitchen of my mother’s cabin, but there was something strangely sinister about it. Nothing was in focus, like there were things on the shelves that I couldn’t make out. Movement behind me distracted me and I spun around.
Something stood next to me. It was roughly the shape of a tall man, but it was black with blurred edges, like a shadow. “What is that?”
“Do not fear it,” Merlin said. Although I heard his voice, I couldn’t see him.
“Where are you?”
“I am here with you. You are in your mother’s dream, and you must find her.”
“What is that, though?”
“Ask it. You are in control. It must answer you.”
“What are you?” I asked it. It swayed, as if it was about to fade. I pointed my staff at it and the crystal flashed blue. “Answer me! Who are you?”
“I am death,” the voice whispered abrasively.
“Whose death?”
“Ilvera Dracre’s.”
“Oh.” I lowered my staff. “Then we’re kind of on the same side. Carry on.” The shape vanished. “Does that mean my mother’s going to die?”
“Not right now. Dreams are usually full of metaphors and are subject to interpretation. It may be that she thinks she is dying or that she fears death.”
“Doesn’t everyone fear death?”
“No. Now, find your mother.”
“How?”
“She is near.”
I closed my eyes, imagined my mother appearing before me, and opened my eyes. She was there, in the kitchen, making potions. “You can’t see or hear me until I say you can,” I said to her. She didn’t react.
“Excellent,” Merlin praised. “Can you feel her curse inside you?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Use that. Point your staff at her and cast that nightmare curse on her. In this realm, you can use her magic as if it was your own.”
I carefully studied my staff, which was much more detailed than anything else in the dream. “Don’t learn this spell. I don’t want to use it ever again after this. Expel her magic from inside me.” My magic stirred, pushing her magic out. No, that’s wrong, I thought. My own magic stilled and I focused on my mother’s. It was pure, malevolent sorcery, darker than any of my magic. Singling it out was the easy part, commanding it was more difficult.
“You are overthinking it. Control it just like you control yours.”
I’m in control. I’m not afraid. The calmer I was, the more I felt her curse respond. Confidently, I aimed my staff at her. I didn’t even have to say anything; the curse burst out of me and into her, changing the crystal to red as it did. It struck her and the room exploded with red light.
“Stay calm! You have to go through the mirror again.”
My mother was screaming, so I pushed the sound out of my mind. I closed my eyes and visualized the room empty. When I opened my eyes, the dream had changed, but not in the way I’d hoped; my mother was still there and so was the dark shape, with its dark hand squeezing her throat.
I hadn’t killed my brothers and I wouldn’t kill my mother, but that didn’t mean I wanted to stop a monster from doing so. Then the creature turned to me and it suddenly had two eyes glowing sinister green. I pointed my staff at it. “Both of you, disappear.”
And they did.
I visualized the mirror again, and it appeared quickly, but it only reflected me. “What do I do now?”
No answer.
“Merlin?”
Still no answer. He was gone.
I’m in control. I’m not afraid. The dragon egg needs me. Caldaca needs me. I’m in control. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, but I’m not afraid. I pointed my staff at the mirror. “Send me back.”
The mirror changed to show the creek.
“That’s close enough.”
I stepped through it and appeared where I was supposed to… except there was a mountain across the creek.
“Fine. I’ll check it out, but I’m still in control.” As long as no one else is invading my dream. Once I crossed the creek, I saw the mouth of a cave, so I ventured into it. It was the strangest cave I had ever seen; numerous crystals of varying sizes and shapes emerged from the walls, floor, and ceiling. To one side of the cavern was a bed, a bookshelf, a chair, and a desk. Many of the crystals were glowing brightly.
I turned to leave… only to see that the mouth of the cave was gone. There was no way out that I could see. A rumble started in the center of the cavern and I backed up to the bed. Several of the crystals in the ceiling shook threateningly.
Dark smoke filled the cavern, somehow staying in the center instead of surrounding and suffocating me. When the smoke condensed, I recognized what was happening, so I wasn’t entirely terrified when a dragon appeared.
Well, I was a little terrified.
The dragon was massive, easily consuming the majority of the space. His body and wings were black with dark gray on his talons. Two long, curved horns adorned his head, while glowing green eyes promised great pain to his enemies.
“Who are you?”
“You know who I am, young sorcerer.”
“Cennuth!” The dragon dipped his head in a nod. “What’s going on? Where’s Merlin? Am I in trouble for not saving the egg yet?”
“There is hope yet, but you are running out of time. I can show you how to find the egg of Vokirex.”
“Finally! I mean… thank you,” I said, making my tone as respectful as I could. Merlin had told me there was no one, man or beast, who was more demanding of respect than Cennuth. I was probably already on his bad side for not bowing.
“In each of these crystals, you can see any point in time, much like my kind can. Use your galaxy stone. Ask it to find the egg of Vokirex.”
I focused my magic into the galaxy stone. Although I didn’t have the power of divination like Merlin did, my staff could find things if it had some connection to it. “Find the egg of Vokirex,” I told it. I hoped the fact that I had a galaxy stone was enough of a connection to find the right crystal.
The galaxy stone pulsed with a cool blue glow, but it didn’t do anything else.
“I don’t know what that means.”
“Look for the crystal that answers the call,” Cennuth explained.
Instead of asking him what that meant, I studied the hundreds of crystals. It wasn’t easy to get around the dragon, yet he maneuvered just fine. At about chest-level was one of the largest crystals in the cavern, and it was pulsing with the same deep blue. “I found it. Now what?”
“Now you need to access Merlin’s power to use the crystal. I can teach you.”
“So, everything can be seen from one of the crystals? One of them can tell me how to break Merlin’s curse safely.”
“That is not possible. All magic comes at a price, and the price for such a spell would be steep. Focus on the safety of the egg. Stare into the crystal and visualize the egg.”
I visualized it like Merlin had taught me, despite not knowing where it was. I knew it was red, so that helped.
“While you do, open your mind to Merlin.”
I did as he instructed. I mentally searched for Merlin’s mind. Merlin and I had practiced this in order to send images back and forth in case speaking wasn’t enough. It wasn’t something I could describe and it wasn’t something I could do with anyone else. When my thoughts were sufficiently quiet, I felt Merlin’s mind.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“Still in a dream… I think.” I refocused on visualizing the egg. As I did, I felt Merlin’s magic seep th
rough our mental connection. He’d done this a few times previously when I was in danger and I was out of energy.
The crystal’s glow faded as white smoke clouded the inside of it. “It’s not working.”
“It is. You just need patience. You are doing well.”
With difficulty, I refocused my attention on the crystal. After a long, long while, the crystal cleared the rest of the way and I saw the egg for the first time. It was the color of blood and shiny. At first, I couldn’t see more than a dim glimpse of it, because the only light was from the lava around it. The egg was on a flat stone, surrounded by lava.
Then the egg started to hatch.
A thin, jagged crack marred the smooth surface of the egg and a burning yellow glow emanated from it. The egg wiggled slightly and I was worried it would fall into the lava. I wasn’t afraid that the dragon hatchling would be injured; I just wanted to watch it hatch. Unfortunately, before I could see more, the image clouded over again. “Wait! Come back! I want to see the baby dragon.”
“Focus, young sorcerer. You are here to find the egg.”
“But we just saw it hatch. That means I’ve failed.”
“You have not failed yet. There are many possible futures, yet very few of them ever come to pass. This is one of those possible futures. You can stop it, for the egg is not in a volcano. You need to make the crystal tell you where it is at this moment.”
When I visualized the egg again, I knew exactly what it looked like and decided to also focus on a location. Where are you?
Once again, the crystal cleared, but this time, I didn’t see the egg. Instead, I saw a chest… a very familiar chest.
“I know where it is! I know where the egg is!”
“How do you---”
“I’ve seen it!” I interrupted, nearly bouncing with excitement. “It’s at the home of Vactarus Firesword, Merlin’s magician friend. You can take me there and we can save it in…” As I spoke, I turned and found myself alone. Cennuth was gone. “At least help me wake up,” I said aloud. I must have irritated him with my lack of respect.
Then, silently, Merlin appeared. He was a wolf again, probably because it was my dream and not his. “Ayden, why are we here?”
“Cennuth brought me to help me find the egg. I know where it is! It’s at Vactarus’s mansion!”
“It was not Cennuth who brought you here,” he said gravely.
“What do you mean?”
“Your listening skills have let you down again. This is the cave I was trapped in by Baltezore.”
“Oh… what does that have to do with Cennuth?”
“You know the answer.”
“He couldn’t have been Baltezore; he was a dragon.”
“You are too trusting. I can appear in your dreams as a man or wolf, so why would you think Baltezore is more limited?”
“I don’t know… I’m sorry.” I felt terrible. I wasn’t even sure that Baltezore had tricked me, but I still felt like I betrayed Merlin. In fact, my misery woke me. Even when I had chased Merlin off under the raven’s curse, I hadn’t felt this guilty. Merlin was right; I was too trusting.
Chapter 16
I was in Theobald’s shop and the door was open, letting in early morning sunlight. I grabbed my staff before heading out, where I found Theobald feeding Kirin something that sparkled. Knowing that I would soon have to face Baltezore, I couldn’t risk expending all of my energy on transporting myself to Merlin. Instead, I asked Theobald to show me where a strong sorcerer was. He pointed to the hut across the road from his shop. I knocked on the door and was relieved when Castor answered. “Did you have a nice rest?” he asked.
I knew I looked in worse condition than when I went to bed. “I had an eventful one. I need to ask a favor, and I know you have no reason to grant it to me.”
“If you really are able to save magic, then everyone owes it to you to help in whatever way they can. What do you need me to do?”
“Can you transport me to Mokora?”
“I can. However, the only city I know on Mokora is Red Rock.”
“I will take what you can give me. Please transport me and the unicorn to Red Rock. I will send a distraction after my mother.”
“Go ahead and prepare the distraction. Let me know when you’re ready.”
I raised my staff up towards the sky and mentally called for a dragon to help. The crystal pulsed blue. Unfortunately, no one answered, and I soon had to give up, because it was wasting time.
I focused my mind and magic on a creature that could distract my mother. It didn’t need to be able to hurt her, but it needed to be as resistant to magic as possible. I visualized a bat, because they could fly and were of equal size to her ravens.
I visualized the creature with a rope around its neck, wings, and legs. I didn’t like enslaving a creature that way, but I knew the consequences of making a monster without controlling it. The ropes fed into my staff so that I could control it. I envisioned them sinking deeper into the creature and becoming invisible so they couldn’t be seen, felt, or broken until I released the creature like I did my monkey.
I called the creature to me as if he was already alive. Bright blue magic started glowing in the crystal of the staff before it burst free and formed a crackling sphere of magic above me. The energy darkened to black, after which it began to grow. As it grew larger, it became more corporeal, until it was a solid bat. My magic settled.
It was a large bat with a black body and snout, gray head, and medium brown neck. The bat landed on Castor’s hut. “I need you to go and distract my mother. Don’t fight her; you’d get killed. Just irritate her and keep her focus on you until I can be transported to Mokora. Can you do that?”
The bat took flight without answering, then disappeared before he got far.
“I really hope that was an agreement.” After a brief pause to see if the bat would reappear, I turned back to Castor. “This is the best chance I’ll have. Please do it now.” Kirin neighed nervously, so I patted his snout.
Castor pulled a wand from his pocket and pointed it at me. Black magic spewed from it and engulfed me, blocking all light. When it dispersed, Kirin and I were in Red Rock. The town was even more crowded with inventors than when Merlin and I had left.
Not wanted to waste any time, I mounted Kirin. “I know you are a creature of magic. Please, get me to Merlin as soon as possible.” When the unicorn nodded, I prepared myself as much as possible for a difficult ride. Kirin didn’t disappoint; he took off at a full gallop. Even though townspeople jumped out of the way in fear, Kirin easily avoided trampling anyone. As soon as we were out of town and on the main road to the north, Kirin galloped even faster.
* * *
The trip would normally take more than a day. With Kirin’s amazing stride, we made it to the castle by sunset. A sign was posted on the gate informing people that the curse breaker was traveling and not at the castle. The gate opened when it saw me and the unicorn slowed his pace before we made it to the door. Thus, I didn’t go flying off.
I fell off instead, because my legs were numb.
At that point, Merlin, Mason, and my brother opened the door and stepped outside. Merlin immediately came to my side. “Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine,” I lied, “just numb from riding all day.” I was still injured from fighting in the nightmare, but I didn’t want to take a healing potion because it would make me lethargic. “Are you okay? Has Blue betrayed us yet?”
“I am fine, young sorcerer, and we have not been betrayed. However, we need to get the egg now.”
Mason and Thaddeus helped me to my feet and up the steps. “Vactarus had the egg with him all along. Baltezore knows where it is. We need to beat him to it.”
“We need a plan,” Merlin said.
“You need a healing potion and sleep,” Mason said, taking my arm gently to figure out where the blood on my sleeve was coming from.
“Mason’s right. Are you sure it’s not one of Mother’s tricks?”
“In my room,” Mason said.
We headed up to Mason’s room, and as we did, I asked, “Did you get my letter?”
“Yes, and I figured out how to read it. I tried to warn Livia, but she didn’t answer her mirror. My family went to warn Mist’s parents and Koufax that your father might go after them.”
“Wait… who in your family?”
“Well, we thought there might be trouble, so Father took my three oldest brothers to warn Koufax, and Mother took the rest of my brothers to warn Mist’s parents. Then my sisters decided to go find Zelli and try to get her on our side.”
“Who suggested that?”
“My mother. Why?”
“Blue didn’t say anything?”
“We have a silencing curse on her. She can hear us and get to know us, but she can’t argue or make accusations. We’re hoping that will convince her that Ilvera lied to her and get her on our side.”
“Where is she?”
“Houda is taking care of her. She’s the only one Blue isn’t terrified of.”
As soon as we got to the top of the steps, I was greeted by an annoyingly familiar bleating. “Oh, no, not the goat.”
“Oh, yes, the goat,” Mason said, rolling his eyes. “A woman showed up with your goat and said she couldn’t handle the constant crying all night.”
She started chewing on my robe, so I pushed her away, but her response was to lick my hand. “Gross. Why was the goat crying?”
“She wanted to sleep in a bed, cuddling with someone.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen.”
“You tell that to her when she’s pounding on your door all night, waking the entire house with her heartbroken bleating,” Thaddeus said, pulling an apple out of his pocket and tossing it down the hall. The goat frolicked after it.
“Why do you have apples in your pocket?”
“Because it’s the only thing she likes more than my socks. You owe me new socks, by the way.”