The Last Wizard

by Jane M. R.

  The roof of the chapel is not high enough. The Ballroom where I danced with Brine, then. The top of the spires might be high enough. I have no other options if it isn’t.

  I exit the chapel, the streets spinning with orange Faewraith and skirts and suits as people dive into shops to hide. A few were not successful. A Faewraith flies at me but I relocate myself across the street, and do so again and again to get me faster to the Ballroom.

  I focus, and relocate my right boot heel to the top of the tallest spire on the Ballroom. The sudden height gives me vertigo, impacting the part of my brain that is still sizzling with life, the sunny breezy running fingers around me so it disrupts my balance. I still don’t know why I’m doing this. I know it’s hopeless. Never mind. I know why. I’m doing this because I’m dead either way.

  I launch myself off.

  Air punches my eyes and ears. I speak the spell to ask to relocate with a dragon.

  Nothing.

  Ground rushes me.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

  BRINELLA

  I can’t stand to sit here and wait. I don’t hear anymore noises in the chapel above, so against Zadicayn’s good advice I climb the stairs. Likely the Faewraith have found the cluster of people in the Ballroom gathered for my reception. My parents were still at the house when I left, so I hope and pray and plead they are okay. And that Zadicayn is successful. But if he is not, I won’t be far behind him. Thankfully. I can’t go through that trauma again. I’m certain some wiring in my brain has been permanently altered because of it.

  I enter the chapel and a massive shadow passes over the windows. Trying to figure out what it is, a stone-shaking roar gives me a good idea. I pick up my skirt and run outside. The Faewraith have massed into a tornado, swirling around…

  A dragon?

  It worked!

  And since it had worked, Zadicayn would be sitting in the Fae Realm right now, pacing restlessly, hoping beyond hope the dragon could chase the Faewraith away.

  The green dragon flies in swooning arches above, summoning people out of the safety of the buildings to watch. The Faewraith are chasing the dragon, great maws clapping, craving the massive magic center in the dragon’s head.

  Some of the Faewraiths’ wings already glowed; light filling the disks on their wings. According to Zadicayn, that would declare some humans had met their deaths today.

  The green beast whirls and spins, actually looking as if enjoying himself. Then he opens his glistening teeth and crunches the closest Faewraith in his mouth. I sicken as I watch the dragon chew, blood droplets raining down. It’s likely the first meal the dragon has had in a long time.

  The Faewraith turn and fly the other way, now being chased by the dragon. The green beast gnashes down on another one, and another one, chewing twice and swallowing. The air fills with pops as Faewraith rip out of the Human Realm. But not all are quick enough and the dragon makes a good meal out of them before they are all gone.

  The dragon lands in the town square, crouching on all fours, baring teeth at the humans watching who appear terrified but unable to run or even look away.

  The dragon looks at me. He makes some sound I don’t understand. I recognize him from the Fae Realm. His name is Varlith? Maybe he is unable to speak in a language we can both understand while in the Human Realm.

  He lays his large chin on the street. Sounds leave the dragon’s mouth and with a pop he vanishes, replaced by Zadicayn whose third-eye appears to have been matched in location to the dragon’s, because his head ends up in the same spot.

  I’m moving toward him when I hear the concussion of a gun the same time something slams into me and I fall, landing on my palms. A teeth-clenched scream follows, and I roll over to see Jaicom sprawled next to me, holding a bloody pant leg.

  “Jaic…” I look around, spying Aklen dart behind the clock tower.

  “Brine!” Zadicayn slides to a stop next to me, looking down at Jaicom who relaxes and goes silent. Passed out. “What tis this?”

  I look back where Aklen fled. Did Aklen just shoot his own son? Was Aklen trying to shoot me? Did… did Jaicom just save me?

  Zadicayn doesn’t know what a gun is. I don’t have time to explain because shouts holler from all over the city square. The parish constables are forming a ring around us, cutlasses drawn. Whatever “crimes” Zadicayn had done before his death were nothing compared to his coming back to life, summoning the Faewraith, and turning into a dragon.

  “What tis this?” Zadicayn asks again.

  “Zadicayn, this is Jaicom Whaerin.” He looks at me critically. “And I think he just saved me from getting hurt. I’ll explain later.”

  “Yea? Then we take him with us so I can return the favor for saving thee.”

  “No… no he’ll be okay. People will find him and help him.”

  “Nay. If he saveth thee from harm, I be responsible for the damage and needeth to help mend his wounds.” Zadicayn picks Jaicom up, resting him on his shoulders. He looks at me. “This tis it. If ye cometh with me, I nary wit when ye can return.”

  I don’t hesitate. I take his hand.

  “Jaicom!”

  I look across the square. Crisy only isn’t running at us because of the advancing constables. Her hand is pressed to her face.

  “We will bring Jaicom back!” I shout. “He’s hurt!”

  From behind Crisy I see my father. His face has my heart yearning to explain everything and then the pop in my ears has me relocated on the roof of the clock maker’s shop. Beneath us in the square, the constables are looking all around. I see my father too, trying to find me. I want to shout, to tell him I will see him soon but that might be a lie. My hurt is relocated with me back to the ground behind the shop, closer and closer to the canyon and the Fae Gate.

  Reaching the Fae Gate, I knock ten times and it opens. Zadicayn has me go ahead of him. I do so, trying to muffle the fear that today will be the last time I saw my father.

  I enter the vale, Zadicayn behind with Jaicom on his shoulders, and the Fae Gate closes. Zadicayn draws his finger across the stone which makes me believe he is changing the patterned code to enter the gate. Jaicom’s leg is bleeding on Zadicayn’s long coat. We continue into the castle, all the way down to the Fae Arch. Inside the Fae Realm, Zadicayn lays Jaicom down on a bed in a spare room just as he starts to stir.

  “Aaaahh…” he breaths, opening his eyes and sitting up on his elbows. He notices both of us, and then the room he is in with the curtain bed. “Brine? Where am I?” He looks a little more critically at Zadicayn but says nothing.

  “Jaicom, this is Zadicayn… the wizard.”

  “I thought so. But last I saw him he was… dead.”

  “I know.” My wedding dress is doing a wonderful job at reminding me that Jaicom is currently my husband and today was our reception. “Lot’s to talk about. For now, it looks like you’ve been shot and we brought you here to try to mend it.”

  “I was shot?” Jaicom starts slapping himself all over while my eyes slide to his pant leg around his right calf. “Where? What makes you think I was shot?”

  We are in the Fae Realm. I forgot one does not feel pain here. “Right leg.”

  Jaicom looks down, finding the hole in his wedding suite pants and hauls it up to his knee. I look away from the chunk of skin and muscle missing before I get sick.

  His eyes lift up to me. “My father was aiming to shoot you. I couldn’t reach him but I could’ve reached you so I did. I pushed you out of the way. I heard the gun go off and I was certain I was shot because my leg hurt like a bloody sinner but I wake up here where it doesn’t hurt so I thought he had missed, after all. But clearly he did because I have a hunk of leg missing yet there is no blood. Care to explain?”

  I want to question why my father-in-law wanted to shoot me. “To start, Zadicayn isn’t dead anymore.”

  “I see that. I’ll decline knowing the explanation. I probably wouldn’t understand it.”

  “Okay…” I look up as Zadicay
n quietly and slowly backs out of the room. He likely realizes who I was wearing the dress for and is giving me a moment to say what I need to say to my husband. Clearly, I came with Zadicayn so he’s got every reason to believe I’m not going back with Jaicom. “Zadicayn is a Fae Wizard.”

  “I know.”

  How much does Jaicom Whaerin know about the wizard he helped keep locked away? “And there is this place called the Fae Realm where the Fae live and are the ones who give permission to use magic.” I sound like a bloody story teller. Okay children, gather ‘round. Let me tell you of this magical place… His uplifted eyebrows confirm it. I would have reacted the same way had I heard it before I saw it for myself. “Anyway, I’ve been to the Fae Realm with Zadicayn. Nothing dies there. And because nothing dies there is also no pain and no blood. We are in the Fae Realm right now.”

  His eyes cast around the old room inside the castle. “Missing a few unicorns and fairies, isn’t it?”

  “The Fae Realm is a mirror of our own. This is Zadicayn’s castle but on the Fae Realm side.”

  “Okay.”

  Either I’ve just overwhelmed him or he’s in denial. “… So Zadicayn brought you here to help fix your leg. You can’t bleed out and it will not hurt until you go back to the Human Realm side. Our side.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me before you’re in love with the wizard?”

  This catches me off guard so I stutter around for a response. I want to ask how he knows but, clearly, it’s obvious. Jaicom was present at Zadicayn’s death and saw how badly I fought when we got married.

  “To tell you I was in love with a wizard whom I had freed from the vault your ancestors had locked in there?” His lips purse so tightly they turn white. “I know about your ancestors. Your family’s drive to pull the magic out of the wizard’s amulet was for your own use.”

  “And I know about Durain handing over his task to you, which is why I asked the question.”

  This nearly floors me. “You what?” I grope around for the question I want answered first. “Then… then why didn’t… why didn’t you kill me like your family killed the Isendell family because they simply knew about Zadicayn?”

  He grins. “Well, wife, since I guess we are still currently married. Let me tell you something… I’ve been trying to free the wizard myself since my father first let me in on the secret.”

  “Wait, wait… you mean to tell me that finally after three hundred twenty-four years you are the one to pretend to go alone with the other families but be fighting against it in the shadows?”

  “Yes.”

  “Prove it.”

  “Prove it?” His laugh is out of place. “Okay. At my sister’s debutante, when I took you down to our vault, inside the vault, and you saw the key. Did you think I did that just to show off our wealth?”

  “Yes. But… hold on, I begged you to show me your vault.”

  “I know. Now here’s my sin… I wanted the wizard free but I could not do it myself without my father killing me and passing this horrible secret onto my sister. We know Durain stole the first third of the key from Corrana. He did it sloppily, so he was discovered. By the time my father, Brocen, and Corrana found him, he had hide the key and would not tell them where he got it. They would have tortured him for the information but they needed it to look like a natural death. If they couldn’t find the key it would be better to leave it secured in a lost and unknown place. So they poisoned him. Those three families – yes, my family – have a tenacious history with keeping the wizard a secret.

  “You and Durain were very close. Had grown up together. Related. Few people know you are both decedents from the wizard’s sister.”

  My gut curls. So I am related to Zadicayn like he said once. His great great… a lot of great niece. Too many to even connect our blood anymore.

  “Just like we have kept the secret of the wizard within the close confines of just our families, those trying to free the wizard have done the same within their own. So you were the first suspect that Durain had passed the key too. And because of this, you became the person I was going to help further.”

  “Without implicating yourself.”

  “Without implicating myself. So as I could, I had to make it look like it was you all along and not me. Because if I died, not only would my sister be hoodwinked into this awfulness but the wizard would remain locked up. So I helped. Showed you where you could find the Whaerin key and Crisy enabled you to see the Garfair key.”

  The air is punched out of me. “She was in on this scheme of yours too?”

  “She lost her mother to this. Now, because I did such a good job at placing the blame on you, you became the tallyho for everyone trying to keep the wizard secret. Remember the day of Durain’s funeral and I showed up at your house unexpected?”

  “Yes,” I say with great hesitation.

  “Did you notice my father’s distaste when he looked at you during the funeral?”

  “Yes…”

  “I stole his coach to come pick you up. My father concluded that, if they could not get Durain’s stolen key because he suspected you had it, he could at least stop you from going any further in trying to free the wizard. So the day of the funeral he decided he was going to kill you too.”

  Oh. My. Bloody. Priest.

  “So I stole his coach and raced to your house to act like I had a sudden, unexpected interest in you so I could keep you safe from him while I convinced him you knew nothing about the wizard or the keys. And my father believed me. And so I continued to court you to make sure he’d leave you alone. Just a while longer and then I would gently put you down. And then the day of the Whaerin family business anniversary, you were seen dancing with a young man who no one had seen before. Out of town? Maybe. But his hair cut isn’t in fashion even in London and his clothes didn’t fit in with ours.

  “So it was odd, and the way you were looking and talking to each other hinted you knew each other previously to that day. Yes, my father has hired Private Eyes to spy on you. And since my father was already on edge about the first third of the key missing and still believing you had it, he automatically assumed that he was the wizard and you had freed him. So going to try and kill you after the anniversary, I asked your father to marry you. Because even though my father and his ancestors were horrid people and killed on a mere suspicion, they held one thing true that the others were not allowed to kill the spouse. If a spouse had to be disposed of because they disagreed – like Brocen’s wife –”

  I make a small sound but he drives on, “then that job is left up to the husband. Brocen’s wife disagreed vehemently when Brocen told her – we warned him to keep it secret like we’ve kept it secret from my mother and sister. But he told her anyway. So my father and Corrana convinced him he had to kill her to keep the secret because if you are not in support of something like that, you are against it. So he did. So if you were married to me, you’d be safe from them, and then I would have the job to continue to refuse you knew anything about it. But then the wizard’s amulet was stolen from the lumber house.”

  I’m nodding because he already suspects me of helping with that. “And that trickled down into all of us realizing our keys were fake. The wizard was free. Now we had the task to put him back in the vault. Despite our engagement, the day Zadicayn died my father shed all of his moral bearing and was going to kill you because the secret we’ve held for so long and any change we had at harnessing the magic from the amulet was gone. So I married you to keep you further protected. Take you as soon as possible away from my father. But you don’t like following rules.” He gives me a critical look. “And you escaped on the horse to town and the moment my father was alerted he went hunting for you, but I caught the bullet for you instead.”

  I’m staring at the wall. My mouth dried up. “I always wondered why some days you acted like you didn’t want me around.”

  “I wasn’t very good at hiding it all the time.”

  “You’re in love with Crisy.”

/>   “I won’t ask how you know that.”

  “But you were going to marry me to protect me against your father?”

  “… Yes.”

  And I realize it. The difference between being in love with someone and just loving them. I’m in love with Zadicayn. And I love Jaicom.

  He wasn’t expecting the embrace I threw on him, because he’s hesitant to pat my back.

  “You are a good man, Jaicom,” I say, muffling my voice against his wedding jacket because I’m certain Zadicayn is listening outside the door. “You weren’t in love with me, but you wanted to protect me anyway and were willing to give up someone you were in love with to marry me. Simply to keep me alive. That is noble. And honest. And… and I love you for that.” I break the embrace. “You will make a great husband for Crisy. I might even feel sorry it isn’t me, but I was spelled by a wizard.”

  “Can I just comment on how odd that is? Really… he’s over three hundred years old and lived in the Middle Ages.”

  “He also owns this castle and rides dragons.” And stopped my menstrual cramping which probably tops the list, but that is not necessary to mention.

  “… Okay. Fine. So he trumps me.”

  “And he’s keeping Joseara Isendell alive after your father cut her open to bleed her out –”

  “She’s alive?” He sits up further.

  “Oh, yes. She didn’t die in the fire like everyone thought. And you may not know this, but your father –”

  “I know Joseara Isendell didn’t die in the fire. I was with my father when he cut her. I also saw the wizard rescue her.”

  “You were there?”

  “Couldn’t implicate myself, remember? Doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt to watch that. I’m glad to hear she is still alive. Thank you, or, thank Zadicayn for that.”

  “No. Thank you, Jaicom. For everything. Now, if you’ll do me gracious favor and annul our marriage?”

  “Done. Now get the wizard back in here to fix my leg so I can go home.”