The Wolf's Heart

by Rain Oxford

  “What did Rita ever do to you?”

  “I heard King Flees (which is a terrible name for a royal) was fascinated by goats and had quite a collection. I was hoping she would fall in love.”

  “Oh. Well, that was nice of you.”

  “And that the king would keep her.”

  I sat in the throne and was about to tell Mason to bring in the next curse victim when Nimue appeared. The love of Merlin’s life was young, beautiful, and the essence of innocence. She had deep, sky-blue eyes and golden hair. Her dress was white and lacy, and she wasn’t wearing shoes. She wasn’t injured, but she did look frightened.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  When she answered in another language, I felt Merlin’s worry as his body tensed.

  “What did she say?”

  “Gmork has escaped.”

  * * *

  Mason wanted to go with us, but he was babysitting his youngest sister, so he couldn’t. Thaddeus, not to my surprise, felt Mason needed him more than me. Neither of them thought we should go alone, though. Mason transported himself to Kalyn and brought her to the castle. As a magician and shapeshifter, she was an impressive person. She was also really beautiful, and the first person I had kissed.

  When she appeared in the castle, she greeted me with a hug. Her red hair was pulled back into a braid, contrasting beautifully with her rich blue robe with silver stitches. It was a lineage robe. “Did you find your family?”

  She smiled brightly. “I did, and once I explained why I left all those years ago, my mother forgave me and welcomed me back.”

  “That’s great!”

  “And they want to meet you.”

  “Oh… why?”

  She looked at Merlin, who nodded and said, “I will explain it to him when the time is right.”

  After we explained the situation and introduced her to Nimue, she agreed to help. “Won’t your mother worry about you, though?” I asked.

  “She was there when Mason appeared and said you needed help. She understands that I’ll be back. Does this mean I will get to travel to another world with you and Merlin?”

  “It’ll be dangerous.”

  She smiled. “It wouldn’t be fun if it wasn’t.”

  “The plan is to go to Gmork’s castle to investigate. Hopefully, we’ll find something that will tell us where he went. Before we go, though, I need to get something.” I looked at Mason. “Do you remember Vactarus’s mansion?”

  Mason nodded. “I can send you there, but why?”

  “He has something I need.” Although I could transport myself, I needed to conserve my energy in case I had a sudden battle with Gmork.

  Mason got to work making his magic mirror into a portal. It was easier than transporting blindly, and it was nothing like Merlin’s world-travel portals.

  Vactarus was another one of Merlin’s friends… sort of. They were also enemies. Vactarus was a magician and collector of magical artifacts when he was alive, but I didn’t meet him until he became a ghost. One particular object of his was useful when traveling worlds.

  When the portal was ready, I went to Mason’s room. Mason’s magic mirror was passed to him by another Sjau. It was framed in gold. Considering it was a full-length mirror, that was a lot of gold.

  With the portal open, it looked like the surface of the mirror was a doorway into Vactarus’s dining room.

  Vactarus purposefully made his mansion appear haunted in order to deter bandits. Since it actually was haunted, I didn’t see the point. The ancient table was dusty and set with old dishes, even though there was no actual damage from time or food left out. Behind me, there was a mirror shaped portal displaying Mason’s room.

  Neither the ghost nor his housekeeper was in the dining room, so I went into the living room.

  The room was grand, with a high ceiling and dark colors. Bookshelves lined two of the walls, there were two chairs in front of the fireplace, and a large painting of a black dragon hung over the fireplace. To the left was the door to the front yard. Across from the dining room was a staircase that led to a balcony.

  Wind stirred suddenly as if a storm was brewing inside. A chill filled the room, the dining room door slammed shut, and the fireplace lit itself. Vactarus appeared in front of me. “Who dares to trespass on my—” the booming voice cut itself off. In a calm voice, he said, “Oh, it’s you. How are you, Ayden?”

  The ghost was a head taller than me with long, black hair, a trimmed goatee, and stone-gray eyes. He wore a black robe with a silver crow clasp at the nape.

  “I’m fine. Merlin and I have to deal with another old enemy of his. How are you?”

  He glanced around the room. “Everything around here has been quiet since Sonya went to live with her mother.”

  “Except for when Baltezore attacked you and your housekeeper?”

  “Yes, except for that. Where is Merlin?”

  “He stayed behind to conserve Mason’s energy.”

  His face fell. “I see. What are you here for?”

  “The Siren.”

  He sighed and vanished.

  I went down to the magic room. This wasn’t where he kept his magical artifacts. Instead, it was stocked with tools and ingredients for magic rituals and potions. There were three windows on one wall, filling the room with early morning light. The opposite wall was taken up by a bookshelf full of standard tools of magic, such as candles and chalk. In the middle of the room was the base of a portal painted permanently on the floor. An identical pentagram inside a double circle was painted in the ceiling above it. All around the outer circle was a curtain of crystals hanging from strings, which nearly touched the floor.

  Vactarus, already waiting for me, pointed to a chest on one of the shelves. I opened it and found the Siren. It was a round, silver amulet, the width of my palm, with a black fish and a white fish circling each other. It could translate every word spoken and written for the wearer.

  After I thanked Vactarus, I returned to the dining room and went through the portal. Merlin, Mason, Thaddeus, Kalyn, and Nimue were waiting for me. I put the amulet on. “Can you understand me?” I asked Nimue.

  She nodded. “Can you understand me now?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s a pretty powerful object.”

  “What is she saying?” Kalyn asked.

  “We’re just establishing that we can understand each other.”

  “Do you have a plan to find out where Gmork went?”

  I looked at Merlin, who sat instead of telling me his plan, although I knew he had one. He didn’t offer it up, though, since he wanted me to use my head. I considered what tools we had.

  “I think so.”

  * * *

  Kalyn had never met Gmork, but she could follow our description. How hard was it to describe a bear-sized black wolf with glowing green eyes? When she disguised herself flawlessly as Gmork, Nimue and I tied her up. Merlin had some things to say about it, but I ignored him.

  Nimue and I drew a portal to Gmork’s castle. Portals all had the same base design; they were a pentagram inside a circle. Magic sigils in and around the pentagram determined the location and time they transported someone to.

  “Do you want to open it or me?” Nimue asked me.

  “I will open it. I want the practice.” I cleared my mind, stared into the portal, and imagined seeing the night sky through it. As I visualized the inky black sky and bright stars, I pulled out my wand and pointed it at the portal. Then I mentally rearranged the stars into the lines of the portal. When I did, my energy vanished into it, like it was a hole.

  Then the portal began pulling on my magic forcefully. It was a heavy strain on my magic, but only practice would make it easier on me. In fact, each time I did it, it was less strenuous, much like when Merlin and I switched.

  Merlin, Kalyn, Nimue, and I stepped into it. Pressure wrapped around me from all sides that squeezed tighter and tighter until I couldn’t breathe, and the world disappeared.

  * *
*

  As soon as we appeared in the throne room of Gmork’s castle, we were surrounded by a dozen worried servants. The castle was more rustic than Magnus’s castle with lots of metal, stone, and wood. The black and silver velvet throne chair was the only lavish thing in the room. Behind it was a large painting of three horses running on a mountain. “Why are Gmork’s servants still here?” I asked.

  When a couple of the servants wanted to get a closer look at their defeated master, Kalyn pretended to struggle against her bonds and the servants all scrambled away from her.

  “Since Asiago stripped their magic, they have nowhere else to go, so they continue working here,” Nimue said. “Everyone, resume your duties. We have captured Gmork and will be speaking with each of you individually. Wait patiently for your turn.”

  “Turn for what?” one of the servants asked.

  “Turn to be interrogated.”

  “Gmork already told us which of you were behind his plan,” I lied. “We wanted to give each of you a chance to confess what you know before we punish you.”

  * * *

  We spent the rest of the day talking to servants. Most of them were frightened, but they didn’t know anything. Then we talked to Nimue’s closest assistant, Halo. He was a thin, brown-haired teenager. He had lost his family and wandered by Gmork’s castle. Gmork took him in, and he stayed out of the way until Gmork was turned into a wolf. After that, he was the only one who would help Nimue with Gmork, because everyone else was terrified of being eaten.

  “He’ll kill me if I tell you anything.”

  “We will do worse to you if you don’t,” Nimue threatened. Kalyn growled, selling her disguise.

  “Switch with me,” Merlin suggested. “I will convince him to tell us.”

  “You’re a huge wolf. That’s scary enough.” Behind Halo’s back, I made a gesture to Kalyn. The illusion of the rope around her mouth snapped and she lunged at Merlin. The ropes around her wolf body, however, were not illusions, so she couldn’t reach him.

  As planned, Merlin lunged at her. His eyes glowed red and he suddenly grew to match Gmork’s size. Since Kalyn didn’t need a tool of magic, she easily made it look like Merlin was doing magic. Kalyn pretended to cower away, so Merlin turned his growl on Halo.

  The servant squeaked. “Alright! I’ll tell you!” Merlin retreated a few steps. “I was bringing him his evening meal when I overheard him talking to someone.”

  “Who?”

  “A shade.”

  “A what?” I asked.

  “It is basically a ghost,” Merlin explained. Out loud, he asked, “What did he ask the shade?”

  “He wanted to know the location of an amulet.”

  Merlin’s expression conveyed shock.

  “What amulet?” I asked.

  “The Amulet of Srea.”

  “Oh, no.”

  “What’s wrong?” I asked Merlin.

  “We have to stop him.”

  “Do you know where he went?”

  “Yes. I hid the amulet myself.” To Halo, he said, “You can go.”

  Halo ran and Kalyn dropped her illusion over Merlin.

  “What should we do?” Nimue asked Merlin. “Do you know what amulet he was talking about?”

  “I do. Ayden and I will go after the amulet.”

  Kalyn transformed into her normal body and the ropes fell away. “What am I missing?”

  “Merlin and I are going after a magic amulet because Gmork found it. I don’t really know anything else, yet.”

  “I am going, too.”

  “I will go with you,” Nimue said.

  “No,” Merlin said. “You should go back to Caldaca, where Thaddeus and Mason can protect you. I do not want Gmork capturing you again.”

  “I’m not a child!” she insisted.

  “I’ll make you a portal so you can escape to Caldaca if you need to,” I said.

  “If Gmork escapes through it, then he will be free to terrorize Caldaca,” Merlin said. “Nimue, draw the portal somewhere secret so that you can escape if it comes down to that.”

  “I can help you,” Nimue argued.

  While they discussed it, I took off the Siren to give them privacy and told Kalyn what Merlin wanted to do. Unlike Nimue, she didn’t argue. I trusted her to be able to take care of herself, but I also knew that if Nimue was killed, Merlin would be heartbroken.

  “I will stay here in case he returns,” Kalyn volunteered. “If he does, I will protect Nimue. I would tell you to be careful, but you’re smart and stubborn. I know you will risk yourself to help people. Your heart is stronger than steel or stone.”

  Merlin convinced Nimue to stay behind and instructed her to clear the portal behind us. Then he showed me how to make the portal to another world by sending the image to my mind. We went to Gmork’s magic room.

  The castle had two towers, one of which was blocked off with beams of wood and heavy metal chains. The second tower contained a tri-level magic room. Each level had a rough stone floor with a wooden, winding staircase in the center. The first level contained mostly magic books, the second was full of dark ritual instruments and other weird items, and the third was full of potions, chemicals, and potion ingredients.

  I got to work on the portal and gave Kalyn instructions to get rid of it as soon as we were gone. Meanwhile, Merlin gathered magic supplies he said we would need for the next step. “Ayden,” Kalyn said. I looked at her. “Be safe.”

  “You, too.” I finished the portal. “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “To Brynjar’s home world.”

  “What does it look like?”

  “It has vast seas and harsh winters. In the summers, however, it is quite beautiful. You have to watch out for the mosquitoes, though; they will carry you off.”

  “What’s a mosquito?”

  “I will explain when you see one.”

  I activated the portal.

  Chapter 5

  We appeared in a forest, not any different from one on Caldaca. The temperature was mild, but there was a cold wind. It was daylight and I heard birds. Merlin gestured north with his paw. “This way, I believe.”

  “Am I dressed appropriately for this world?”

  “Yes.”

  “What’s the story of the amulet?”

  “Gmork and I got into many adventures over the years that we were friends. We were always looking for trouble and played pranks on each other and everyone else. When his uncle visited, he gave us a treasure map to a powerful magic object. This object was supposed to grant its owner unlimited power.”

  “Is that uncommon to your world?”

  “Yes, it was uncommon to mine and Gmork’s world.”

  “Oh. Caldaca has many magical items like that.”

  “Obviously, we were skeptical, but the hunt was too enticing for us to care what the treasure was. We spent months following the clues, which were more intellectual puzzles and riddles than following directions. The day we were so close, when we were certain we were finally going to reach the treasure, Gmork’s father came down sick and Gmork had to stay home. I said I was fine with waiting, but he insisted that I go. We argued about it for a while, but eventually, I gave in. I did not want to ruin our friendship over it.”

  “And you found it?”

  “Yes. However when I touched it, I was thrown into a vision. I learned how much damage it could cause and knew I had to hide it. I put it somewhere I was sure it would never be found and told Gmork it was gone. He believed me. We rarely mentioned it again except to comment on how much fun it had been to look for it.”

  “What was so terrible about it?”

  “It did not just give the owner power; it stripped the magic from everyone around him. Of course, it only takes magic from someone when they are in range, but it is enough to give the user a devastating advantage.”

  “That sounds horrible.”

  “Throughout the years I was trapped in the crystal cave, it always bugged me. I worried that I had not h
idden it well enough. After getting out, I created an unbreakable jar to contain it and then hid it in a better place.”

  “Here?”

  “Yes. I taught Gmork most of the portals I learned, but never the one to Brynjar’s home world.”

  We reached a valley surrounded by mountains. To the north was a village around a large, beautiful lake.

  “This is different,” Merlin said. “We might have a problem.”

  “Why?”

  “A few hundred years ago, this was a forest, and the amulet was hidden in a tree.”

  “What do we do?”

  “Ask someone if they know anything about it, I suppose.”

  We started walking towards the village.

  * * *

  We slowed before we reached the town. “Change your staff into a sword.”

  I visualized it transforming and told it, “Change into a sword.” It did, but I was pretty sure it was obeying Merlin over me. “Are they afraid of magic here?”

  “They believe only their gods can do magic. Mortals are not supposed to be able to do magic here, so they believe anyone who can do it is more than a mortal. There are also dragons.”

  “Great.”

  “The dragons here are older and less kind than those on yours or my world. I believe this is also Cennuth’s home world, but he has never told me for sure.”

  At that point, we entered the village and saw people going about their business. There was no magic in sight. Some people whispered to each other as they stared at us, but no one approached. Although the small houses were crudely built, they were well-maintained and designed to protect against bad weather.

  The people were dressed in colorful clothes and leather, and everyone had a weapon or two on them. They were also fit and muscular, like warriors, but not particularly tall. In fact, it was hard to spot the women, because except for their lack of beards, they were pretty similar. Most of the people were blond or had light red hair. Surprisingly, they were all fairly clean and even had well-groomed hair.