Harley Merlin 11: Finch Merlin and the Lost Map
Bella Forrest
Contents
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1. Finch
2. Finch
3. Finch
4. Finch
5. Finch
6. Kenzie
7. Kenzie
8. Kenzie
9. Finch
10. Finch
11. Kenzie
12. Kenzie
13. Kenzie
14. Finch
15. Finch
16. Finch
17. Kenzie
18. Finch
19. Finch
20. Kenzie
21. Finch
22. Kenzie
23. Finch
24. Finch
25. Kenzie
26. Finch
27. Kenzie
28. Finch
29. Finch
30. Finch
31. Finch
32. Kenzie
33. Finch
34. Finch
35. Finch
36. Finch
37. Finch
What’s next?
Darklight Chapter 1
Darklight Chapter 2
Darklight Chapter 3
HARLEY MERLIN 12: Finch Merlin and the Djinn’s Curse
Read more by Bella Forrest
Copyright © 2019
Nightlight Press
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One
Finch
The golden doors of the Mapmakers’ Monastery loomed over me. How long would I have to wait for the entrance to open? I’d only been here a few minutes, and that already felt too long.
All right, Erebus, you’ve had your fun. Come back now and tell me what the heck I’m doing here.
I stood entranced by the glowing gemstones lodged in the building’s spires. Beyond the cliff’s edge, the sea crashed against the rocks.
“You’ll catch flies if you leave your mouth hangin’ open, son.” The old Southern lady broke me out of my frustrated reverie.
“Sorry… I’ve been zoning out, haven’t I?” I felt like a schoolboy who’d been caught napping.
“You have. Come sit beside this old girl, keep her company awhile.” The old woman patted the seat beside her.
It would’ve been rude to refuse, and older ladies tended to dig me. Even tough old boots could be softened up into doling out some answers, if I played my cards right.
“What’s your name?” I cast her my most debonair smile. “Sorry for not asking before—I think the wind stole away my manners.”
She chuckled. “Blanche Dunham. Pleased to meet you.” She extended a wrinkled hand. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to kiss it or shake it.
“I’m Finch.” I left out my last name and opted for a shake. Both “Merlin” and “Shipton” tended to raise eyebrows, and I wasn’t about to give up my state secrets until I knew Ms. Dunham a little better.
“Unusual name.”
I shrugged. “Unusual parents.”
She laughed like someone who’d smoked twenty-a-day since she was twelve, but it was oddly soothing. “There’s a sayin’, ain’t there, that your parents mess you up, and you mess your kids up, and the cycle goes on. I never had any young’uns, myself, so at least I was spared the weight of naming them. Always thought I’d have gone for somethin’ simple, though—a Mark or a Jenny. I suppose you’d be too young to have little ‘uns?”
“Way too young.” My heart almost fled for its life at the thought. “But you’re right about parents. Anyway, I hate to ask again, but where are we? Like, specifically? Pretend I’m clueless.” Because I am…
“The Mapmakers’ Monastery,” she replied.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “And where is that exactly?”
“Arkoudi, Greece—Asteris, in the ancient days. Right in the middle of the Ionian Sea. If you look, you can see Ithaca. Odysseus’s old stompin’ grounds.” She pointed to a larger island in the distance, partially hidden by the haze that drifted up from the water.
“Greece?” I gaped at her. “Why’s it so friggin’ chilly?”
“Language.”
“Sorry. Why’s it so chilly if we’re in Greece?”
She smiled. “The monastery. It attracts the winds.”
“Very Odyssean, if that’s even a word. He used a bunch of winds for something, right? I’m a bit rusty on my ancient Greek knowledge.”
“You need to take a look at your ancient literature.” Blanche looked across the horizon. “King Aeolos, the Keeper of the Winds, gave Odysseus a bag containing the strongest of winds for his voyage home. They’d almost reached Ithaca when Odysseus decided to have himself a little nap. His men opened the bag, wantin’ to know what was inside, set all them winds loose, and it pushed them right back to where they started. Then he got into all that trouble with monsters and witches and cyclops and the like.”
I smirked. “An actual, real-life windbag? I know a couple of those.” Davin… here’s looking at you, asshole.
“It’s a moral tale, son—it ain’t a jest to be taken lightly. There’s truth in stories, if you know how to read them. Homer uses Odysseus’s error to tell us not to lose sight of our goals till we’re over the finish line, else you’ll end up beginnin’ again.”
“Hmm… interesting takeaway. Is this your finish line? Learning to make maps? I mean, that’s why we’re both here, right?” If she thought we were in this together, she might be more forthcoming.
“Oh yes, son. It’s taken me many a year to locate this here monastery, and I ain’t leavin’ until I’ve discovered how to draw myself a magical map to reveal hidden places.”
“To where, if that’s not a rude question?” I asked, keeping it casual.
She sighed wistfully. “El Dorado.”
“Great soundtrack. Elton John, I believe. Totally underrated movie.”
Blanche frowned. “Eh?”
“Nothing. I babble when I’m nervous.” I cleared my throat. “What’s in El Dorado for you? Looking for a snazzy pair of gold earrings, or a big chunk of the yellow stuff to take home?”
“Believe it or not, I’m descended from Sir Walter Raleigh. I found out a while ago, and it put me on this path. I’d like to finish what he wasn’t able to, all those years ago, when he set out to find that lost city. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any magic to help him along, so he never made it.” She chuckled wryly. “A bit of gold wouldn’t hurt, either, to pay off the mortgage and see myself comfortable for the rest of my days.”
“Sounds like a good life plan.”
Blanche nodded. “As a young girl, I always thought I’d be some grand explorer, but I found myself in magical administration instead. Not too inspirin’, let me tell you. And now that I’m in the winter of my life, I thought it high time I lived out those dreams. They been waitin’ on me too long. If not now, then it’ll be never, and I ain’t willin’ to go to the grave without tryin’.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “That’s so cool.”
Blanche looked elegant in that way older Southern women often did
, not a silvered hair out of place and wearing a full face of makeup. She seemed friendly in a maternal sense, even if she didn’t have the kiddos to go with it. I didn’t imagine she suffered fools, given how quick she was to call me out on my language. I liked her vibe. To find out that she was a badass granny, using her retirement years to go trekking after the lost city of El Dorado, just made her more awesome.
What am I looking for? El Dorado sounded ace, but gold didn’t seem like Erebus’s flavor of choice. It was too ordinary, too human. Riches beyond one’s wildest dreams—that probably didn’t feature for someone like him, even if he had given himself a physical body to get all snug inside, by draining the Fountain of Youth. It had to be something else. Something more… cosmic. Something befitting a Child of Chaos.
My thoughts flitted toward Saskia and Garrett. They’d be going crazy, worrying about me. Did they think I was dead, crushed under all that rock in the collapsed Jubilee mine? I felt for my pendant—the one Tatyana had given us in case of trouble—but it had vanished. You slippery-fingered frogspawn! Erebus must have swiped it without me noticing.
I had to let them know I was safe, and I wanted to make sure they were okay. Erebus had promised he’d rescued Garrett and Saskia, but that smoky thorn in my side clearly couldn’t be trusted.
I delved into my pocket for my phone and looked hopefully at the screen, but there were no bars to speak of. I waved it around like a madman—everyone knows that’s the way to get a signal in a tough situation. But those two irritating words stayed in the top right corner: No signal. It wasn’t even giving me the option of Emergency calls only. Maybe this wasn’t a red-alert emergency, but I could’ve done with a line to the SDC. I just wanted to let the people there know I was alive, if not entirely kicking.
“Human technology don’t work here, son,” Blanche broke in. “It’s designed that way. No mortal interference.”
I raised my hands, ready to try out some magical interference. Blanche’s shaking head stopped me. “What?”
“That won’t work either, if you’re wantin’ to try a communication spell. The monastery don’t want any contact with the outside world.”
What, is it a sulky teenager? I got up, took out my stick of charmed chalk, and scraped it against the wall of the monastery. It didn’t do a damn thing. No chalk line appeared, as if I had tried to write on glass or something.
“No chalk doors, either?” I sighed.
“’Fraid not, son. All travel and communication magic are banned in these parts.” Blanche offered a sympathetic look. “You got folks worrying about you?”
I shrugged. “I just wanted to let them know I arrived safely, you know?” And that I’m not dead, or strung up like a Christmas ham in Erebus’s lair.
Why would Erebus drop me in a place like this, sealed off from the outside world? Had he deliberately put me here so I couldn’t get in touch with the people I cared about? That was definitely his style. Let them worry, let me worry, let us all have a big worry party for his amusement.
More to the point, where had he run off to? Now that he had his human form, why wasn’t he standing on this cliff, waiting to be let into the monastery so he could draw a map to wherever he was looking for?
“What in the name of all that is good and holy is that?” Blanche’s eyes darted skyward.
A shape bombed out of the azure atmosphere like a UFO on a kamikaze mission. A burning ball headed right for us, streaking along faster than a comet.
A bad joke sprang to my mind, as they often did when I entered panic mode: I was wondering why my friend was throwing a frisbee, and then it hit me. Just like this flaming missile would hit us, if we didn’t get out of the way.
“Blanche, get up!” I ran to her and picked her up like a firefighter rescuing a damsel. She tried to bat me away, but we didn’t have time. Even if we ran for our lives, that object looked like it could obliterate the island, and us with it.
Gathering Chaos into my palms, I forged a springboard of Air under my feet and used it to power us upward. We needed to get as far from that thing as possible.
As I took flight, a protesting Blanche in my arms, I smacked into a wall. Not a real wall, but man, did it feel like it as it connected with the top of my head. A ripple of light spread out, revealing a domed shield that was clearly there to protect the island… or keep us from leaving.
I fell back to earth, too stunned to create a pillow of Air to break my fall. Blanche didn’t have that problem—she had me to break her fall. I hit the ground with a thud, staring upward in a daze as the comet grew closer and closer.
Blanche had tried to warn me. This place was completely sealed off from the outside world. It went further than phone signals and magical comms. Now that we were in this bubble, we couldn’t get out.
And that ball of burning light was about to strike.
Two
Finch
The unidentified flying ball of potential death gained speed by the second, glowing faintly blue as it hurtled through the sky. Blanche picked herself up, dusting invisible dirt from the front of her smart navy skirt and mumbling about “foolish heroics” under her breath.
So much for gratitude and helping your elders. Even now, she didn’t seem nearly as concerned as she should’ve. Maybe she knows something I don’t. Maybe the shield will keep it out.
I sat up and crossed every extremity I possessed as the comet made its speedy descent. If the shield held, it’d shatter into smithereens. I braced for an impact that didn’t come. Instead, panic shot through me as the bright ball of light tore through the protective bubble.
I scrambled backward like a weird crab, my ass scraping across the grass in my rush to get away. However, the moment the comet pierced the monastery’s atmosphere, it shrank in size. I’d barely moved out of the way when it crash-landed outside the monastery doors—the ones that refused to open. Sparks of blue light showered the ground.
For a second, nothing happened, and I nearly breathed a sigh of relief. But then, a delayed aftershock exploded outward in a violent pulse that sent me flying. Blanche, too. She lifted her hands and her eyes widened, but it was too late for her to use magic. The shocked look on her face would’ve been comical if I hadn’t worried she would break if she hit something.
I sent out a rapid lasso of Telekinesis, catching Blanche with it and using my other hand to create a wall of Air to stop us from tumbling right off this friggin’ cliff. It buffeted us toward safety.
With another thud, I hit the ground. I managed to keep Blanche in the air long enough to set her down more gently, but fatigue had begun to set in. It ended up being a rougher landing for the old girl than I’d intended. I didn’t entirely know why I had gone out of my way to help this woman, but I supposed I had a soft spot for the older generation. And I didn’t want her losing her shot at El Dorado before she’d even made it through those doors.
“Thank you, Finch. That was mighty kind. My reflexes ain’t what they used to be.” She looked shaky, attempting to fix her elegant up-do. I didn’t have the heart to tell her it was a lost cause.
I shrugged. “My pleasure, ma’am.” Those words would never slip easily out of my throat.
Now that Blanche and I were safe from a sudden dip in the Ionian Sea, I turned my attention to the aliens who’d caused this stress. Didn’t they know my sanity already teetered on a knife-edge? Having to think fast wasn’t easy at the moment, after I’d spent a day down a mine tapping all my Chaos resources.
I expected—and, secretly, half-hoped—for little gray men with shiny black eyes. Instead, an absolute beauty and a hulking beast of a man emerged from the small crater they’d made during their landing.
“I told you it wasn’t safe!” Beast muttered. “What if the hull hadn’t held up? This was a terrible idea. Anything could’ve happened to you.”
Beauty shrugged it off. “What’s the use thinking of what might have happened? Everything held up fine. Are we in one piece, or aren’t we?”
; “If we’d taken a dinghy from the mainland, we could’ve—” Beast started to protest, but Beauty cut him off.
“We’d never have made it through the shield in a dinghy, Luke. It takes great skill and knowledge to reach this monastery. One does not simply row their way in.”
The young woman was a small, waif-like creature, with wavy, dark hair shot through with strands of bright pink and a set of odd, pale gray eyes. Her clothes looked like she’d had a run-in with a thrift store: wide-legged, silky peach pants that stopped above her ankle and a ruffled white blouse ripped off from the 1800s. She wore a cropped, pink furry jacket over the top, complete with a brightly patterned backpack. Weird, but it suited her.
“We could’ve tried!” Beast, who seemed to go by Luke, insisted. He towered well over six feet, with shoulders twice as broad as mine and muscles bulging obnoxiously under a plain white shirt. He had close-cropped brown hair and a chiseled face that might’ve been good-looking if he’d laid off the steroids. A bit too Neanderthal. He had a backpack, too, though in a much more practical, black style. Lucky them—Erebus hadn’t given me any time to pack luggage.
“You should trust me more. I know what I’m talking about,” Beauty replied. “This was quicker and more efficient, and we only made a little hole in the ground. No harm done.” She flashed a sweet smile, and I watched him basically melt into a puddle of adoration. For all his beef and brawn, it looked like this bizarre woman had him wrapped around her little finger.
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