The Wolf's Heart

by Rain Oxford

  Suddenly, Gmork crashed into a massive bear, far larger than Gmork. Kalyn was saving Merlin. She swiped at Gmork, clawing his face and causing blood to spill. Before he could recover, she grabbed him with her bear paws and slammed him to the ground.

  I was impressed, but I knew she wouldn’t have the advantage for long. Gmork had magic and she couldn’t counter with anything. I focused my mind on drawing the staff to me, which was really hard to do with my head full of pain. The more I tried to think, the worse the pain grew.

  But Kalyn and Merlin were going to die if I didn’t do something.

  I forced myself to only think about my staff and how much I needed it. When that didn’t work, I focused on why I needed it. I needed it to protect my friends.

  My staff flew into my hands with enough force to break my wrist at the same time I heard Kalyn shout with pain. Gmork had gotten the upper hand and had pinned her to the ground. When she couldn’t escape his hold, she shrunk into her true form, but Gmork was quick and managed to hold on.

  “Little girls should know better than to challenge wolves,” he said. Hongo snuck up behind him again, this time with his sword already drawn. When Gmork opened his mouth to bite Kalyn, Hongo stabbed him in the back.

  Gmork howled with pain and released Kalyn to get the sword off. I tried to sit up and only caused the world to spin harder. My brain was trying to space out and my eyes wanted to close. In the background, I was aware that Gmork got the sword out of his back. It wasn’t until he went after Kalyn again did my mind clear up.

  The magic in me combined with the magic in the crystal into a single thought. “Skjoldr!” I shouted. A shield formed around Kalyn and before he could stop himself, Gmork struck it. He was thrown back with blue fire consuming his arm. The shield dissolved as quickly as it had formed and Kalyn ran to me to help me up. Between her and my staff, I was able to stand upright.

  She didn’t ask questions when I gestured to Merlin, she just helped me over to him. He was breathing, but only barely. “We need to help him. Find Dreah.” She nodded and ran off to find the mage. All I could do was make sure Merlin wasn’t further hurt in the meantime.

  There were eight of us against Gmork, yet he defeated us as easily as if we were children.

  Merlin opened his eyes at the same moment as I sensed movement behind me. I turned to see Gmork close enough that he could smell his breath. Fury burned in his eyes, blood covered half his face, and his fangs were stark white against the darkness of his snout. He could get to me before I could curse him, but that didn’t stop me from trying. I aimed my staff at him.

  I opened my mouth, only to feel pressure wrap around my throat. It wasn’t a snarl on Gmork’s face but a grin. I couldn’t speak or get any air. My magic swirled inside me, reacting to my desire to be released. Unlike dragon language, I didn’t need to say anything out loud.

  Unfortunately, Gmork had figured that out already, and with a wave of his paw, my staff flew out of my hand. “I will finally break your neck and be done with you once and for all.” There was no kindness or compassion in his voice. There was no reasoning with him. He wasn’t the boy Merlin had been friends with.

  “Stop!” Kalyn said, stopping between us.

  I wanted to tell her to run, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want to be the reason she never returned to her mother. I didn’t want to die, either.

  She held out the jar, still disguised as an apple. “Let him go and I’ll give you what you came for.”

  “I did not come here for food, girl.” The disguise fell away from it and his eyes narrowed with suspicion. “I will not fall for foolish tricks!”

  “This isn’t a trick. I had disguised it as an apple to protect it, but I’m sure if you take a better look at it, you’ll find that this is the real jar. Take it and let us go.”

  The jar floated out of her hand and towards Gmork. When it stopped in front of his face, he studied it closely for a moment. My vision started growing dark. Then a portal formed beneath him, glowing red, and he vanished. The pressure relented and I gasped for air.

  Kalyn was right beside me, patting my back and trying to help me as best as she could without healing magic. “Please…” It was difficult to speak, since my throat still hurt from nearly being crushed. “Tell me that wasn’t the real jar.”

  “Of course it was. I couldn’t risk giving him a fake. He would have killed you for sure. As long as we’re alive, we have a chance. When we start sacrificing each other is when we’ve really lost.”

  When I could stand on my own, I helped Merlin to his feet. He was covered in blood, but he stayed on his feet. “He needs a healing potion,” I told Dreah as she finally came out into the open.

  “Not yet,” Merlin argued. “There is no time. Gmork could return any minute.”

  “Why? He has what he wanted.”

  “But he cannot open the jar. It is sealed by magic and only I know how to open it.”

  “That’s good news.”

  “He knows who I care about, though. When he finds out he cannot open it, he will first confront me and if I don’t tell him, he will go after you or Nimue. We need to erase my memory of how to open the jar.”

  * * *

  “This is rather simple to do,” Merlin said.

  “Oh, no. Every time you say that, you precede to teach me one of the hardest spells I’ve ever learned in my life.”

  “Get out your grimoire.”

  I blushed. “I left it at home.”

  He scowled at me.

  “Well, I need it constantly these days, so it wasn’t in my emergency ‘the world is about to end’ bag.”

  We had chosen the pink cabin to do the spell in. Hongo insisted that a sorcerer would never set foot in something so pretty. Dreah healed Merlin and me just enough that we weren’t at risk of passing out or bleeding to death, but not so much that she would be useless when Gmork attacked again.

  Merlin had me pull out black, red, and green ink, as well as a quill pen and a scroll. These weren’t normal magic ingredients, so it was a good thing he had grabbed them from Gmork’s magic room. Of course, it was suspicious, too. “Did you know we were going to have to do this spell?”

  “I suspected it. It is better to have and not need than need and not have. Write what must be forgotten in the center of the scroll with black ink, but keep it short.”

  The magic jar

  “How is this?” I asked.

  He frowned at it. “While it was not quite what I was thinking, it will work nonetheless. You may have to remind me why we are here, but since I am the only one who knows how to open it, he will never be able to get his paws on the amulet. Next, draw a seven pointed star around the script in red.”

  “Not a pentagram? Is this different magic than usual?”

  “It is the same style of magic. It is our intentions that are different.”

  Trusting him to know what he was talking about, I drew it carefully. “How is that?”

  “Good. Now, draw seven sigils between the points of the star in green.” A mental image of the sigils appeared in my mind. “Be very careful, young sorcerer. If these sigils are drawn or placed wrong, it could have dire consequences.”

  I drew them as carefully as possible. When I was done, he approved them.

  “Finally, fold the scroll three times and drop it in the fire. I must breathe in the smoke.”

  I put away the supplies, set a fire in the middle of the cabin, folded the scroll, and dropped it in the fire. I wasn’t prepared for the fire to suddenly turn red and roar up until it was taller than me. Merlin and I both scrambled away from it. “Was this supposed to happen?” I asked, trying not to panic.

  “No! Run!” He was panicking.

  Before I could take more than two steps towards the door, the fire died and filled the cabin with smoke. The next thing I knew, I was falling.

  Chapter 7

  Present…

  “Wow. That went pretty wrong,” I said.

  “Indeed.”
r />   “I can’t believe I thought you bit me.”

  “I would have had you not been so defenseless. I sensed you were not a threat.”

  “How did the others lose their memories? They weren’t in here to breathe the smoke?”

  “There must have been enough smoke to seep out of the cabin. It was probably Gmork’s trapped that stopped it from going further than the village.”

  “So we can help everyone?”

  “Yes. Now that I know how we did the spell, I know how to reverse it, and it will be easier than using mirrors. All they have to do is ingest some of the ashes.”

  “I hope they’re still there. After that, should we redo the spell and try to get it right this time?”

  “I am afraid that would be inviting worse trouble, since I have no idea what exactly went wrong.”

  “We have to go check on Kalyn.” He nodded and we returned to town. When I started to step out onto the road, Merlin caught my robe in his teeth and held me back. “What?”

  “They do not remember you. They still think I am the enemy and you fell prey to a curse.”

  “Right… I’ll sneak in, then. They won’t want to eat the ashes if we say so. We’ll have to convince Kalyn to give it to them.”

  “Do you think Kalyn will trust us enough?”

  “Yes.”

  “She doesn’t remember you.”

  “That doesn’t matter. She knows me anyway. We have to get their memories back before sunset.”

  “Assuming that Gmork does not get impatient and attack early.”

  I made myself and Merlin invisible and headed to the dark blue cabin. Unfortunately, halfway there, Gmork appeared in my path. He might not have been able to see me, but he could smell me. Since he wasn’t attacking, I had a chance to notice a scroll hanging from a chain on his neck.

  “I see that you got your memories back,” he said. “Tell me how to open the jar.”

  “I do not know,” Merlin lied.

  “You are lying!” Gmork snarled.

  “Why do you want the amulet anyway?” I asked, trying to buy time.

  “That is none of your business.” Gmork motioned with his paw and I felt a sharp pain in my left hand. I looked down just in time to see a flash of metal reflecting the moonlight before it was gone. “Now that you are out of my way, things will go according to plan.”

  “This is nothing,” I said. “It didn’t even hurt.” In fact, it was numb.

  Gmork smirked. “It is not supposed to. It is not the blade itself that is dangerous but the sap on it that is now entering your bloodstream.”

  I didn’t have to ask what he meant; the numbness was spreading quickly through my hand and into my arm. Unfortunately, as my heart sped with worry, the numbness spread faster. I had to calm myself.

  “What did you do to him?” Merlin demanded.

  “Ayden is about to fall victim to the same sleeping curse my mother had.”

  Merlin’s eyes widened with shock and I could feel the horror filling him. I wanted to tell him I would be fine, but I didn’t want to lie to him. I didn’t have time to be afraid.

  The numbness reached my chest at this point and my heartbeat slowed. Then my breathing slowed. Other than that, I felt no lethargy or fatigue to indicate that it was a sleeping curse.

  “I have found the cure, however,” Gmork continued, “and I will give it to you after you tell me how to open the jar. I will know if you are lying.”

  The numbness crept into my abdomen. My legs grew weaker with every beat of my heart until they wouldn’t hold me up anymore. When I collapsed, the numbness quickly spread to them. It was also seeping down my right arm, making it impossible to even hold my head up.

  Merlin was by my side in an instant, but as the curse reached my throat, I couldn’t speak. Then it filled my head and everything fogged over.

  * * *

  I wasn’t actually unconscious, though. I saw my body asleep on the ground. I was seeing through Merlin’s eyes. This had happened several times through dreams, but never like this. I felt the pain Merlin felt and his worry over me.

  “Merlin?” I called his name in his mind like normal, yet he made no sign of having heard me. “Can you hear me? I’m right here.”

  No response.

  “There is a flaw in this curse, Merlin,” Gmork said. “I found the cure and used it on my mother, but it was too late. Unlike most sleeping curses, this one does not prevent death. You had better decide quick if this secret is worth your apprentice’s life.”

  “How did you become this?” Merlin asked.

  Gmork narrowed his eyes. “If my presence offends you so much, I will leave.”

  “No!” Merlin said. “Tell me how to break the curse.”

  Gmork smirked. “I am surprised you did not figure it out yourself. How do I open the jar?”

  “Paint the four sigils of the elements evenly spaced on the side of the jar and the spirit sigil on the bottom. Then align it with the compass. It will open.”

  “That is all?” Gmork asked, suspicious.

  “I never expected anyone to find the jar, let alone figure out how to paint sigils on it. I thought it was clever. How do I break the curse over Ayden?”

  “Mix the hair of the person who cursed him, the tears of a person who would shed them over his loss, the apology of a person who betrayed him, and the blood of someone he loves into a bowl, along with some standard ingredients. Burn it as you say an incantation. When it becomes a thick paste, rub it over his wound.” With a little difficulty, he tore off the scroll from around his neck and tossed it to Merlin, along with some of his fur.

  I wanted to know how an apology was a potion ingredient, but Merlin wasn’t fazed by that.

  Although Merlin couldn’t completely unfurl the scroll with his paws, he could tell that it explained how to break the curse in more detail. “How am I supposed to get these ingredients? I cannot make a portal to get home.”

  “That is your problem.” With that, a portal formed beneath Gmork and he vanished. A moment later, a current ran through the air as Gmork’s trap dissolved.

  “How did he get so powerful?” Merlin asked aloud. Then he sighed and shook his head. “I have to save Ayden.”

  I heard his thought as clearly as if he had said it in my mind. He gently tugged on my robe to turn my unconscious body on its back. It wasn’t so much a thought as an intention, but I could feel it just the same. He thought I was trapped in my body and he wanted me to be as comfortable as possible before running for help.

  I wished I could have told him not to bother. By the time he was satisfied with my sleeping position, it was too late.

  “The wolf!” Methos shouted from the second story window of the green cabin. Merlin groaned. “The wolf killed the wizard!”

  Merlin had a choice between running to the woods, running to Kalyn, or staying. The forest would offer protection, but he would never abandon me like that. Kalyn would understand him and try to help. However, he was afraid of what they would do to my body and whether he would be able to get back to me to break the curse.

  He chose to stand guard over me as the others all ran out of their cabins and crowded around him. Kalyn’s expression was shocked and heartbroken. The others were angry. Only Merlin’s teeth and claws prevented them from attacking him, and it wouldn’t last long. Hongo drew his sword.

  “He is not dead!” Merlin said.

  Kalyn acted like the only one who heard him. “What happened?” she asked.

  “An enemy attacked and placed a sleeping curse on him.”

  “That’s obviously a lie,” Methos said. “We were right! You did this!”

  “Calm down,” Pelo said. “He was very concerned about the wizard’s health earlier. Maybe we should give him a chance to explain.”

  “I just saw him eating the wizard!” Methos shouted.

  “You misinterpreted the situation,” Merlin said.

  “I don’t see any bite marks,” Hongo said.

  �
��Ayden really trusts Merlin,” Kalyn said.

  “Who trusts who?” Methos asked.

  “Yesterday, the wolf said his name is Merlin and that he got his memories back,” Jevwen explained. “The wizard’s name was Ayden.”

  “Ayden and I regained our full memories.”

  “Then you will break your curse over us?” Methos asked.

  Merlin didn’t argue, because it actually was our curse that did this. Merlin warred with himself on the right choice to make. If he told them, Methos was liable to destroy the ashes. If he didn’t, he couldn’t get their help to save me.

  “The curse left ash residue. If you consume those ashes, you will gain your memories back.”

  “Where are they?” Pelo asked.

  “In the pink cabin.”

  “How do we know you’re not trying to poison us?” Methos asked.

  “Are all magicians as suspicious as you?” Kalyn asked him. She left to go get the ashes. When Methos turned to go after her, Hongo grabbed his arm to stop him.

  “Red will bring the ashes here.”

  “What if she poisons it? She’s in league with them.”

  I was really starting to dislike Methos.

  Kalyn returned with a clay mug. “How are we supposed to eat ashes?”

  “You can put it on your tongue, but I imagine the least unpleasant way would be to mix it with water.”

  “I’ll get some water,” she said, handing the cup to Pelo. Methos tried to kick the cup out of her hand, but Hongo pulled him back.

  “I want my memories back so you settle down!” Hongo said.

  “Can’t you see that she’s trying to poison us?”

  “She’ll go first,” Jevwen said.

  “I’m not drinking it!”

  “Suit yourself.”

  Kalyn returned with a spoon and pail of water, poured some water into the cup, and mixed it with the spoon. Without being told, she took the cup and sipped the contents. After a moment, she wobbled with lightheadedness and Hongo took the cup back.