by Logan Byrne
A gnome with grease smudged on her cheek sat inside the airport booth as Charlie and I walked up. “Two days until flights,” she said, barely looking up while flipping through her magazine.
“We have this,” I said, sliding the card Gorlon had given me under the wire window.
“I see Gorlon sent you over. The cost will be two silver coins each, and you must pay in advance to secure your spot,” she said, grabbing some tickets from her left .
“Here,” I said, reaching into my pack and pulling out four silver coins. I slid them under the window and the feisty gnome bit them to check their authenticity. As if I’d have the audacity to give her fake coins in these parts.
“Coins have been validated. Be here in two days at nine in the morning. We’ll leave then, and the flight will take fourteen hours,” she said, before stamping two tickets and sliding them under the glass.
“Wouldn’t it be quicker to teleport or something?” Charlie asked.
“I’m a gnome, kid, I don’t exactly have the ability to do that sort of stuff,” she said, with a slightly annoyed tone, as if she couldn’t believe he asked that.
“I meant you,” Charlie said to me, mumbling, as I put the tickets in my pack and we walked away.
“I don’t know where I’m going, and besides, it will be fun,” I said, trying to make the best of the situation. “We’ll get to see all of Africa from the air.”
“From what, that?” he asked, pointing at an aircraft sitting a couple hundred yards away on a dirt runway.
“That’s not it,” I said, believing whole-heartedly that there was no way that hunk of scrap was our plane.
“Oh, really? Where’s the plane, then? Because that’s all I see. We’re going to die,” he moaned.
“It’s not that bad,” I said, trying not to freak him out. In reality, it was that bad. The plane was silver—or at least the parts of it that weren’t weathered were silver, with half-rusted rivets, but it was just plain old. It wasn’t big, enough to fit about four or five people, as long as they weren’t large, and the tires looked dry-rotted and partially deflated. For a species that tinkered for a living, this gnome sure could’ve done a better job with her work.
“If I die, I’m killing you,” Charlie said sternly.
“Shut up and let’s get a room somewhere. We have two nights here, and we need to get some kind of shelter,” I said.
I looked around, seeing a motel with an intermittently flashing vacancy sign out front. “Great place for me to catch fleas,” Charlie said.
“Then don’t shift,” I said, shaking my head. He was already giving me a headache and we’d barely been gone an hour. How was I going to get through a couple more days?
“Looking for a stay?” a haggard woman asked from behind the counter of the motel. Her back was hunched, her skin oddly pale considering where we were, and her long fingernails were covered in sand and dirt.
“We need something for two nights,” I said.
“We only have one room available, I’m afraid,” she said, grinning.
“That’ll be fine. How much?” I asked.
“The price is one silver coin for both nights. ‘Tis a bargain, is it not?” she asked, with a soft cackle that made me feel uneasy.
“Just pay it,” Charlie said, when I glanced at him to make sure he was okay with it. There weren’t many places to sleep around here, and I figured it was better to be in a seedy place like this than on the street trying to sleep against a wall. That would be the opportune time to be robbed.
“Thank you, my darlings. Here is your key,” she said, before sliding over a skeleton key with the number fourteen engraved on it.
“Thank you,” I said, nodding, and we walked towards our room. I heard a cat screeching from somewhere nearby, and a burly man yelling at somebody, maybe his wife, before we walked up to our room and unlocked the door.
“Great,” Charlie said, as a rat scurried away as we walked inside. “Field work is just so much fun.”
“Get used to it, this is how things are when you’re doing missions like this. Maybe my spell book will have something to help,” I said, tossing my bag on the bed and creating a small dust storm. The stuffy air in the room was filled with sand and dust.
“I should’ve listened and stayed in the precinct,” Charlie said, in his typical doomsday tone.
“Here, a cleaning spell. See, this isn’t so bad, we have some help,” I said, taking out my wand. I looked at the diagrams, memorizing the wand movements, before clearing my throat. “Tersus Sursum,” I said, flicking my wand around three times.
The dust was sucked up into a ball floating in the center of the room, the dirt being scrubbed away, before it all vanished, leaving the slightest scent of lavender behind. Astonished, Charlie stood up, shifting, before sniffing around with his enhanced sense of smell. “It’s gone, it’s all gone. I can’t believe you did it.”
“I guess those housewives really did a good job when they invented this spell,” I said, laughing a little. I hopped back on the bed, where the pillows were fluffed and smelling like they’d just been washed, before putting away my wand and kicking back my feet. Maybe we could make this work after all.
3
Handmade items hung all around us as Charlie and I walked through the markets of Marrakech. It was an ancient city, and by far the closest glimmer of mortal civilization to the oasis. We’d left there, at least for part of the day, mostly because we didn’t want to anger the locals. They looked at us funny, as if they knew we were auditors, and I thought it made Charlie a bit uneasy since he was convinced we would be attacked at any moment. Besides, we were in Morocco! How many chances were we going to get in life to wander aimlessly through an ancient outdoor market? I wasn’t sure we would get many other opportunities, so I wanted to capitalize on it.
“People are looking at me funny,” Charlie whispered as we walked down the central market corridor.
“I think they’re just surprised to see outsiders like us,” I whispered back.
The smell of hookah and saffron filled the air as incense tickled my senses. Charlie rubbed his nose, trying to block it out; his mortal form’s nose was a lot more sensitive than mine. I guess that was what he got for being a jaguar shifter and having those cat-like senses.
“Look at this,” I said, pointing at a hand-woven blanket that hung from the top of a shop’s wooden structure. It was composed of brilliant colors, reds, yellows, oranges, and even some purple. I reached out, feeling it, the rough material creating static between my fingers.
“Interested?” a man asked, smiling, as he walked out from behind a small counter to the side.
“Oh, yes, it’s a very nice blanket. You speak English?” I asked.
“I speak many tongues. One must if he is to sell to all people,” the man said, the pungent scent of his Drakkar Noir cologne singeing my nose hairs.
“How much is it?” I asked.
“Two hundred dirhams, my dear,” he said.
“Two hundred, huh? That’s quite a lot,” I said.
“Only just over twenty American dollars. Surely that is a fair price for such a beautiful handmade item such as this,” he said, reaching out and touching the blanket. It was nice, I’d give him that, but in my search for a nice trinket, I’d realized I didn’t have any mortal money on me. Pote gave me magical money, and I didn’t think they’d love me handing that out to mortals.
“You know, I don’t even have any money. I can’t believe this, I forgot it in our hotel,” I said, looking at Charlie.
“Well, can’t win them all,” Charlie said, shrugging, obviously not impressed with either the blanket or the man trying to sell it to us.
“That’s a shame. Why don’t you come back later and we’ll work out a deal,” the man said, before going back to his little counter.
“I only have the money Pote gave us,” I whispered to Charlie as we walked away.
“I know. We don’t have any mortal money,” he said.
/> “Then why didn’t you remind me?” I asked.
“Funnier not to,” he said, smiling, and I rolled my eyes.
“Charlie,” I said, stopping him, as I stood there and looked at a woman hobbling around her shop. It was dark inside, the light seeming to skip her space. She stopped too, turning around to look at us. She stared at me, a small smile on her face, before she motioned at us with her finger. She slipped into the shadows, and my intrigue grew.
“We aren’t going in there, Lexa,” Charlie said.
“There’s something about her, I know it,” I said.
“Lexa, this is insane. We aren’t going into a dark shop with a creepy hunch-backed woman covered in warts. Haven’t you ever read Hansel and Gretel? We’re going to end up in some oven!” Charlie whispered frantically.
“I’m going in,” I said, before walking towards the shop.
“Lexa, don’t you dare!” he whispered loudly as I walked inside. “Damnit!” he said, before running and following me in.
The shop was dark inside, as if it were night. I looked behind us at the market outside brimming with life, before I walked towards the back of the shop. “I was wondering when I’d run into another of your kind,” a shrill voice said.
“Who’s there?” I asked, before the woman walked out from behind her counter.
“You are the one,” she said, walking up to me and grabbing my hand. “Yes, I can feel it inside you, I can,” she said, giggling a little.
“Who are you?” Charlie asked.
“My name isn’t important, child. You possess the mark, that much is very true,” the woman said, swaying back and forth.
I snatched back my hand. “What are you talking about?” I asked defensively.
“Don’t be scared, child, I’m not going to hurt you or tell those who seek to hunt you. I would never betray my kind,” she said, walking over and reaching behind her counter. She pulled out a wand, the wood old and slightly rotted, before presenting it to me. “You see, I’m like you.”
“What is this nonsense about the mark, though? Why would you ask such a thing?” I asked.
“I can smell it on you, my dear. I have met many who possess such raw power, but you are different, that much is true. You are the girl, the one who will bring peace from the grip of suffering,” she said. I looked her straight in the eyes and listened to her voice. Her tone was true, and her voice didn’t falter. She was telling the truth, at least in her mind, and for some very odd reason, I trusted her.
“How?” Charlie asked.
“You will be the one to wield the crystal wand. Only then will he fall,” she said, cackling slightly.
“I don’t know what that is,” I said, confused.
“Only she who is descended from Merlin will be able to possess the wand he left behind. Fight the golems, and it shall be yours. Should you fail, his evil will multiply, and your worlds will fall,” she said, before floating backwards.
The darkness started to twirl around us, the light from outside mixing within, as sparks erupted and everything disappeared. The entire shop, the darkness, and the woman inside were all gone. I looked around us, and we were standing in an alleyway connecting to the market. I stared at Charlie like I’d seen a ghost. “Was that real?” I asked.
“I’ve come to question if anything in our realm is real, Lexa. If you’re asking if I saw the woman and the dark shop, the answer is yes,” he said.
“What did she mean? Was she talking about him?” I asked, referring to Kiren.
“I don’t think you should put too much stock into what some ghostly old hag had to say. Right now we have a different mission, and we need to see it through,” Charlie said, before picking his bag up from the ground. “Come on, let’s go.”
•••
After spending our afternoon in Marrakech, Charlie and I left the mortal city and retreated back to the oasis, mainly on account of his stomach. “You really need to learn to bring your snacks when we go out,” I said, as we walked to a café near our motel.
“I can’t help it, I have to eat! I am part big cat, after all. Cut me some slack,” he said, his hands in his pockets, as I pulled out money for the waiter.
“I’ll have the vegetarian platter,” I said, handing him fifty copper coins.
“The meat selection, please. I’m a jaguar, so don’t skimp on me,” Charlie said sternly, as if this man lived to make his life unpleasant.
“Here,” I said, handing him another sixty copper coins. “Thank you.”
“Our money is weird, isn’t it?” Charlie asked, sipping the iced water the waiter brought us when we sat down.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“All these coins, it’s highly inefficient. The mortals do a better job. Did you know they have these things, plastic cards, that have all their money on them? Imagine that, never having to lug around a sack of coins again,” he said.
“Ours is fine. Maybe we could have some paper money, but it’s worked for thousands of years,” I said.
“Yeah, that’s the point. It’s been around that long, and it’s due for an overhaul,” he said.
Magical money was a bit antiquated, but it worked. The coins were made of metals with actual value, like copper, silver, and gold. One hundred copper in a silver coin, and one hundred silvers in a gold coin. Sure, making change was a bit of a mess—but who was I kidding, Charlie was right. Mortals did have it figured out.
“Here are your dishes. Enjoy,” the waiter said, coming back just minutes later with our food.
“Good enough for you?” I asked, looking at Charlie’s massive pile of turkey legs and chicken wings.
“Amazing,” he said, before shifting and tearing into his meal. That was the thing about eating with Charlie—whenever we were in the magical realm, he always insisted on eating in his jaguar form. He said it was easier to eat, and he could process food better, but I think he just wanted to hide under the excuse of being an animal.
“What do you think that lady meant earlier?” I asked, before popping a piece of falafel with tzatziki sauce in my mouth.
“You’re still on that?” he asked, rolling his eyes. “The lady was out of her mind, if she was even really there.”
“You said you saw her, you can’t deny it,” I said.
“Yeah, but maybe it was one of those shared visions, like you can do with dreams. I don’t know, Lexa, the entire thing just seems a bit weird. I’ve never even heard of a crystal wand, have you? It sounds made up,” he said.
“I’d never heard of what we’re hunting now, either. Just because you aren’t aware of something doesn’t mean it isn’t real, Charlie. Besides, she knew about my special thing,” I said, leaning in and whispering the last part.
“I’ll give you that one, it was a bit weird. I just wouldn’t get too excited, I guess. You don’t need some special wand to win in battle, and you aren’t an heir to Merlin,” he said.
“I might be,” I said, picking around my couscous.
“If it helps you sleep at night,” he said, before shifting back into his human form and sinking back in his chair. “That was good.”
•••
“I need you to do some research for me,” I said to Faus on the phone later that night.
“More?” he asked, sighing.
“I promise this will be worth your time, trust me,” I said.
“Fine, what do you need?” he asked. “Just know that I have a lot going on, so I can’t get to it right away unless it’s an emergency.”
“No, no, it’s not an emergency. Look up references to a crystal wand. Something about Merlin crafting it and hiding it somewhere,” I said.
“I remember reading something about it a long time ago, but it’s mostly lost on me now,” he said, as I heard him tapping on his desk.
“So it’s real?” I asked, excited.
“Well, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t with fables. All I remember was something about guardians there to protect it
so that only those who meet some requirements may pass, or something like that. I’ll try to search for more information on it, though. The library would have some references,” Faus said.
“Thanks, you’re the best. Talk to you soon,” I said, before hanging up the phone.
Giddy, I lay back, watching the ceiling fan spinning slowly as a layer of sweat glistened on my body. I closed my eyes, imagining the scenes, me versus Kiren, as I wielded the one wand that would vanquish him back to the depths of darkness. It was something out of a storybook—the young witch who possessed the mark of Merlin. Descended from him, she was the first to find the wand, using its powers to vanquish darkness and evil.
“Looks like we have something,” Charlie said, looking at his phone.
“What?” I asked, perking up, the visions of glory fading from my imagination.
“Pote sent us a mission for while we’re sitting here before our flight. She wants us to find somebody, a woman who’s crucial to the resistance,” he said, showing me the message.
“She’s not saying why this woman is so important,” I said.
“Would she ever? You know the way she is. All she said is to find her, and then they would send people to come take her back to the camp. Here’s a picture,” he said, scrolling down and showing me the photo.
She was beautiful, her skin tanned with a faint sea of freckles across her nose. Her eyes were the lightest shade of green, and her hair was chocolate brown. She looked young, maybe our age, maybe younger. “Should we go?” I asked, sitting up in my bed.
“I guess it’s better than sitting around,” Charlie said, walking towards the door.
•••
“I wish we had more information to go by, this place is actually sort of huge,” I said an hour and a half later as Charlie and I leaned against a sandstone building near our motel.
I burned the image of the girl in my head, scanning every person who walked by. Charlie shifted only his eyes, trying to catch a glimpse, but it was no use. If we had a scent to go by, he could find her in an instant, but all we had was a small picture and light description. It wasn’t going to be easy.