The Wolf's Heart

by Rain Oxford

  The Wolf’s Heart

  The Sorcerer’s Saga Book 6

  Rain Oxford

  The Wolf’s Heart © 2018 Rain Oxford

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover art by Piero Mng (Gianpiero Mangialardi)

  Previously, in The Sorcerer’s Saga…

  I was the seventh son in a family of infamous sorcerers, known for their ruthlessness and malevolent powers. On my world, wizards only used light magic and sorcerers only used dark magic. To my family’s disdain, no matter how hard I tried to cause chaos and destruction, I could only do light magic.

  When I left home to prove that I could be a powerful sorcerer, I ended up releasing Merlin from a magical prison. Merlin was a powerful wizard from another world who had been cursed. Along with losing his magic and immortality, he was transformed into a wolf. Since I was the one to release him, we could talk in each other’s minds. With his help, I learned to accept that I had both wizardry and sorcery and joined Magnus, one of the most powerful wizards of Caldaca. The three of us banished five of my evil brothers to another world. The youngest of my brothers, Thaddeus, was the least terrible and thus I felt he deserved a chance to live in peace. He later redeemed himself and became a great ally.

  People from Caldaca had limitations on what type of magic they could do. Aside from wizards and sorcerers, there were also mages, who were healers; magicians, who did illusion magic; necromancers, who controlled the dead; seers, who saw the future; and rare elementalists, who could control the elements.

  There was a phenomenon in which the seventh son of the seventh son and the seventh daughter of the seventh daughter had great power. Even on worlds without magic, these people had special abilities. On Caldaca, where almost everyone had magic, they had an even greater advantage.

  They were called Sjau, and they could do any type of magic that didn’t conflict with their personalities. Very few people knew about them, and there were only ever seven male Sjau and seven females. When one died, another was immediately born. I was one of them, which was why I could do both light and dark magic. I used this advantage and became a curse breaker. People traveled great distances to have their curses broken.

  That wasn’t to say I was an expert at it. When I attempted to break Merlin’s curse, I ended up enabling us to switch forms instead, so that I would be a wolf and him a man. I was also able to return his ability to speak out loud. Nevertheless, he was teaching me magic from other worlds, including dragon magic, so I was hopeful that we would find a better solution.

  Mason, predominately a wizard/mage, knew more about the Sjau than the rest of us. He and his wizard family were living with Merlin, Thaddeus, and me at Magnus’s castle. My aunt, Livia, was also a Sjau with both wizardry and sorcery, but she had locked her dark power away. It was with great shock that I learned my father had loved her, not my mother. Unfortunately, his mother (Shaerl Rynorm) forbade him to be with Livia and he ended up marrying my mother. It was all because of power.

  My mother, Ilvera Dracre, was the most malevolent sorceress I knew. She manipulated everyone and repeatedly tried to steal the power of the Sjau. We ended up using this to our advantage when we had to defeat an even more powerful opponent.

  Baltezore was an enemy from Merlin’s past who turned out to be an ancient dragon stripped of his true form by other dragons. He was after a very special egg; an egg containing the first female dragon to hatch in over a thousand years. All the magic on Caldaca was produced by a dragon even more ancient than Baltezore, and that dragon was dying. His magic had to be passed to the female so that she could sustain the world. Baltezore wanted that magic, but we needed it. People all over Caldaca started losing their magic, and that was only the beginning.

  When we discovered Baltezore was working with Ilvera, we allowed her to take our power, knowing that she would immediately turn on Baltezore. Convincing all Sjau to work together was difficult, as a few of us were on her side to begin with. Kalyn, a magician and shapeshifter, was a perfect example of how conniving Ilvera could be; she had put a love spell over Kalyn to make Kalyn obedient to Sven. Sven was obedient to Ilvera because she had kidnapped his wife. After a lot of work, we were able to form a united front and pretended to fall into her trap.

  Everything went according to plan until it came to taking back our magic.

  Fortunately, I had a galaxy stone, which I learned was a dragon’s heart, infused with the crystal of my staff. All of them had power over dragons, but they each did something different. Mine could make a dragon peaceful, heal them, or call them for help. I could also summon the dragon whose heart my galaxy stone was made from, or I could invoke the dragon’s power. I rarely did either one because it was a dangerous strain on my energy.

  With help from dragons and all fourteen of the Sjau working together, we were able to defeat Ilvera and regain our magic. The black star, a massive hole in the sky that had formed when the ancient dragon died, closed before too much damage was done. Magic was saved.

  At least it was for a time. There was a necromancer named Gmork who could resurrect him. Dragons had two hearts and could live with one. It was part of their culture that two dragons who loved each other would swap one of their hearts, because dragon love was as eternal as they were. When Baltezore’s love, Gadiel, was killed, he combined one of her hearts and one of his to make an artifact of magic. It wasn’t enough to resurrect her, though. Gmork could change that and resurrect them both.

  Fortunately, Gmork was under the same curse as Merlin and had no magic. Merlin and Gmork had been friends as children, but when Gmork turned to dark magic, Merlin refused to get involved.

  Then something changed in Gmork and he decided to kill Merlin. Nimue, the woman Merlin and Gmork both loved, cursed Gmork to save Merlin, but then she turned around and agreed to guard him because he couldn’t protect himself without magic. Although Merlin said he understood, I could see the heartbreak in him.

  Merlin had been teaching me dragon magic since I first accidentally used it against my mother. The main difference between Merlin’s magic and mine was that I needed a wand or staff to direct my magic, whereas his was directed by the mind. Without a tool of magic like my wand or staff, wizardry or sorcery was likely to explode.

  Although I had to focus and imagine what I wanted, that only assisted my wand or staff in interpreting my command. For example, I could tell my staff to turn my skin impenetrable and it could turn me to stone. Thus, I tried not to insult my staff. From my understanding, Caldaca was the only world where people had to have a tool to focus their magic, and the only world where they were limited on the type of magic they could do.

  In order to do magic Merlin’s way, I had to control my magic in a way I never had to before. Dragon magic was different. It was stronger than regular magic, but it required special words, and not everyone could do it. Between Merlin and my galaxy stone, I had managed it several times, yet it was unstable and undependable.

  Dragon magic required the most emotional commitment. Other-world magic was usually the slowest, but most reliable once I figured out how to do it. My magic was the fastest, but I had to rely on my tool to interpret my orders.

  Chapter 1

  I woke with a terrible headache. I opened my eyes and took in my surroundings. I was in a rundown cabin with a straw mattress in the northwest corner, a closed window in the west wall, and a closed door to the left of the window. There was a fireplace in the middle with strange red ashes. Except for the bed, the only items in the room were a staff and a bag on the bed. The wood of the staff was twisted, smooth, and dark with gold-painted sigils carved into it. At the top of the staff was a fist-sized, crudely-cut, black crystal with bright blue and silver speckles inside. Across the fireplace from me was a large, unconscious
wolf with a mixture of brown, white, grey, and black fur. The place was unfamiliar.

  Then again, everything was unfamiliar.

  I had no idea who or where I was, or who the wolf was.

  At the same time I saw the wolf, he opened his eyes. They were glowing red, which was a bad sign.

  Wolves were extremely rare on Caldaca, so I figured this one was either a shifter, cursed, or created of magic. Nevertheless, he could eat me, and judging by the snarl he bared, he was happy to do so. I started to back away slowly, only to be stopped by a sharp pain shooting up my arm. I pulled up my sleeve and took my eyes off the wolf for a split second in order to see what the source of the pain was.

  There was a massive bite mark covering most of my forearm, and the thick punctures were deep. It wasn’t gushing blood, though, so I determined it wasn’t fresh. The wolf stood and growled at me, but instead of attacking, he started pacing along the walls, obviously looking for a way out. After going around the room twice, he stopped at the door and rammed it.

  It shook, but it didn’t break, which was extremely impressive. I stood slowly. “I’ll open it.” He growled at me. “I don’t know why you bit me, but I don’t want to hurt you. I just want to know what happened.”

  He charged me and I blocked my face with my hands. He turned slightly and smashed through the window shutters instead of me. It was a loud and jarring sound. I took a moment to calm down before opening the door.

  It was daytime and warm with a pleasant breeze, but that only made the absence of people stranger.

  The town consisted of a dirt road and ten obscenely colorful cabins, surrounded by forest. The cabin I was in was bright pink, and it was in the best condition. The sky-blue one across from me was missing a roof. Except for the condition and colors, the cabins were strangely similar. All five cabins on the east side of the road were one-story with a window, door, and porch. All five cabins on the west side of the road were two-story with a covered porch, door, and large window.

  There were a few drops of blood leading into the forest, so at least the wolf wasn’t causing more damage. Yet. I followed the road across town, not seeing anyone. It was obvious that the damage to the cabins wasn’t caused by natural decay. I was paranoid of any movement, afraid of more wolves. Not knowing how I got into this situation was disturbing.

  “You there,” an urgent whisper called. I turned and spotted a woman from the window of a one-story yellow cabin. “Hide with me. It’s not safe outside.”

  I entered the cabin through the hole in the wall and joined her. The cabin walls were lined with crates of farming and cooking equipment and the bed was covered with dust. The woman was pretty with long, dark red, curly hair and eyes the color of honey. She wore a well-fitted, brown leather vest, a black undershirt, a ruffled brown skirt, and boots. For the first time since waking, I felt familiarity. I knew her. “Thank you,” I said.

  “You’re welcome. Who are you?”

  “I don’t know. I woke up in the pink cabin with a wolf.”

  “Wolves are extinct.”

  I pulled up my sleeve to show her the bite. “This one is very much alive. Anyway, I don’t know who I am or how I got here. Who are you?”

  She shook her head. “I have no idea. Just like you, I woke with no idea who or where I am. You’re blond with blue eyes, so I bet you’re a wizard.”

  “Oh. That doesn’t feel right, but I guess I wouldn’t know. You have dark red hair and sand-gold eyes. What does that make you?”

  She pursed her lips. “I don’t know. I don’t have a lineage robe, or I’ve lost it. Maybe I don’t have magic.”

  “That’s not likely. How do we remember about magic and not who we are?”

  She shrugged. “Do you remember where you were born?”

  I shook my head. “I know the world is Caldaca, but I don’t know where I live.”

  I was wearing a tan tunic and dark brown slacks that were thick, which suggested that I was from a cold climate. They were low-quality, but well-cared for. My family robe was brilliant red with gold embroidery, which suggested my family was wealthy. Unfortunately, I didn’t recognize the family emblem. I checked my pocket and found a wand. It was a straight wand made of rosewood with elegant sigils engraved in the handle.

  “Yes, I’m definitely a wizard. It looks like I come from the north. Based on your clothes, I would say you come from the south.”

  “Or the cold doesn’t bother me.”

  “We should search for more people. Surely someone out there knows where we are, or better yet, who we are.”

  “I doubt there is even anyone alive here.”

  “We’ll only know if we look.”

  We left the cabin and wandered through the village. The wolf howled, but he didn’t show himself or attack. The two-story cabins were fancier on the inside than the one-story ones, as they had kitchens, bedrooms, and nice furniture.

  We found four people in the two-story green cabin, which was undamaged but dusty. One was a tall, thin man with dark brown hair and gray eyes. He wore, black clothes, a leather vest, a robe, and a hat. The other man was not as tall, but he was much more muscular, with light brown hair and medium brown eyes. He wore a dark red shirt and black pants with leather arm straps. At his waist was a sword. There was also a slender seventeen-year-old with short black hair and blue/green eyes. His white shirt and clean black trousers were conservative and high-quality. The last person was a short woman in her early thirties with blond hair and green eyes. She wore a gold lineage robe with white clothes.

  “Do either of you know who you are or what happened here?” the tall man asked.

  I shook my head. “I was hoping you could tell us. I take it none of you remember anything?”

  The man nodded. “Well, you’re clearly a wizard, so we’ll call you Wizard. He looked at my companion. “What are you?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Do I look like I know that?”

  “Your hair is red, so we’ll call you Red. I have a hat, so we think I’m a magician.” Unlike wizards or sorcerers, magicians needed hats to focus their magic, not wands or staffs.

  “I had a letter on me,” the teenager said, holding it up. “Assuming it’s addressed to me, my name is Jevwen. I don’t think I’m a magic user.”

  “I have a bunch of potions in my pockets,” the woman said. “I might be a mage.”

  “I don’t have a wand on me, but I’m clearly a warrior,” the last man said, gesturing to his sword. Although most warriors had magic, they usually weren’t taught to use their magic. Thus, warriors rarely had wands or called themselves magic users. Children could be sold to a warrior guild, but the majority of warriors came from warrior families, because their culture was very different from others.

  “Isn’t it a little strange that in a destroyed village, there would be one wizard, one mage, one magician, one warrior, and two people who are different? Why don’t any of us have families here?”

  “Maybe we don’t live here,” Warrior suggested. “It could be that we are all on a quest and joined forces.”

  “That makes a lot of sense,” Red said. “However, it means that Jevwen and I are either not part of the quest, or we have some abilities we just don’t know about yet.”

  I nodded. “Something obviously happened to us to make us lose our memory, so there has to be a way to reverse it. We need to find out who did it and why. Warrior, Jevwen, and Mage, you three search the town for more people. There is a wolf in the forest, so be careful. Magician, come with Red and me. We’re going to follow the road out of town and see how far this curse reaches.”

  The others agreed and we split up. Red, Magician, and I headed north on the dirt path. A few times, I saw the glowing eyes of the wolf watching us, but he didn’t attack. The sun was getting low in the sky, bringing an evening chill. Magician shivered in his thin black robe, yet Red, who wore no robe, wasn’t cold at all.

  At the northern edge of town, we found a well with thorny vines covering the base of it.
“A sorceress well,” I said.

  “What’s that?” Red asked.

  “It’s a warning to other sorcerers to stay away. It means that a sorceress lived here and she didn’t want dark-magic visitors.”

  “Like how a fairy ring is a warning against harm?” Magician asked.

  “Yes. All kinds of people can live here, but sorcerers and sorceresses are trespassing. Even necromancers should avoid it.”

  “How do you know this?” Magician asked.

  I shook my head. “Maybe it’s wizard knowledge.”

  “Or you could be an avid reader,” Red said.

  “That seems more likely. Wizards are unlikely to know much about sorcerers. Avoidance is their favorite way of dealing with enemies.”

  They both frowned at me and we continued walking. “Do you know any magic that take our memories like this?” Red asked.

  I considered it. Unfortunately, not a single spell came to mind. I couldn’t even remember how to light a fire. “I can’t remember how to do magic.”

  “That’s horrible.”

  “I thought magic came naturally for wizards,” Magician said.

  “Magic comes naturally to us, but we still have to learn to use it. How well we do it depends on our natural skill and our wands, but it also takes practice. Interesting. I remember that.”

  “That just confirms that you’re a wizard,” Red said. “I still have no idea what I am or how to use magic.”

  “Magicians have to learn magic, too,” Magician said. “I feel like I can still do something, though.”

  When the village was out of sight, the walk became creepier. The wolf followed behind the tree line as if waiting for one of us to trip. Then, suddenly, the wolf was gone, yet my feeling of dread grew. We kept walking.

  Unfortunately, when we saw a village ahead, my heart sank even further. Red stopped. “What…?”

  I walked the rest of the way just to be sure of what I was seeing and they followed. It was the same village.