The Conservation of Magic

by Michael W. Layne

  “Mixing in new blood should have increased the number of healthy births,” she said.

  “The first mixed children were born with abnormally high intellects and high levels of power evident at an early age. At first, parents were joyful, thinking they had birthed superior offspring who would grow up to do great things for their families. But as their sons and daughters grew, they began to show signs of what you would call schizophrenia. Their power and their intelligence, combined with their increasing unpredictability and disconnection from reality led to havoc and ended in many deaths and even more hard feelings between Drayoom factions.

  “Each of the families accused the others of poisoning their blood. Their only common desire was to exterminate the children—the monsters—they had birthed. Three of the Drayoom families believed this, but my people believed that a being of mixed blood would one day free the Fire Dragon from the sky, and fulfill one of the prophecies from before the Great War. Each family interprets it differently, but all Drayoom believe.”

  “Believe what?”

  “That the great Fire Dragon in the heavens shall be released from her bondage by the two Sons of Earth and Fire. The brothers will become as one, and the days of molten fire will be upon the world. Sigela’s followers will flourish and have domain over the planet, while the rest of the Drayoom and the humans will be extinguished.”

  “All because the Fire Dragon comes back from her exile in the sun?

  Eudroch laughed deeply.

  “Sigela will not simply leave the sun and return home. She will bring the sun with her.”

  I am one of Sons of Earth and Fire, and Merrick is the other.”

  Despite Eudroch’s unexplainable powers, he was also quite insane.

  “Pull over here,” Eudroch said.

  Mona did as she was told, taking the off ramp to a park-and-ride that was empty except for a few darkened cars. She parked and turned off the engine.

  Eudroch looked down at his feet, his eyes showing just a hint of dampness. He raised his head slightly to meet hers.

  “When I am around you, I can feel the echoes of his presence. You hold him in your mind and in your heart. I understand that you do not give your trust easily, but I’m trying to save Merrick’s life. You must believe that, no matter what else you might think of me.”

  She turned to Eudroch.

  “Where are we going now? Back to Old Town again? His apartment?”

  “He is nowhere nearby. I believe he has left this area and maybe even this part of the world. I think it’s time I went home to check on a few things before we continue our search.”

  “Do I want to know where home is?” she said.

  “I believe you refer to it as Mexico.”

  Mona looked at him, speechless. She didn’t even have a passport, much less the time off from work to go halfway around the world.

  Eudroch reached over and touched her shoulder. She instantly felt the familiar tingle of electricity building inside her body. She closed her eyes, having only a second to fear what was about to occur, before the world around her exploded in bright white light and a deafening crack.

  #

  The last thing Kay remembered was a loud bang and the smell of raw eggs. She tried to pry herself up from the living room floor, but couldn’t move. She coughed and watched as bright red liquid splattered her hands.

  She tried to recall more of what had happened. Mona and that boyfriend of hers had been outside kissing or maybe having a fight. She couldn’t be sure, but she remembered the young man screaming something at Mona right before the white light and the explosion. Kay could only hope that the poor young girl hadn’t been hurt.

  Kay inhaled the dense smoke filling her apartment and coughed uncontrollably. A strong set of hands grabbed her and carried her to where the air was cleaner. She was still coughing, but could feel her lungs starting to work again with the infusion of fresh air.

  She opened her eyes with a start.

  She was lying on a relatively comfortable bed, not in her apartment, and the sheets were moist from her sweat. There were people shouting somewhere close by, but out of sight, and she heard the sounds of sirens.

  By the time her head cleared, she realized she was in a hospital bed. She tried to sit up, but a young nurse gently held her down and checked the IV in her arm.

  The nurse’s pleasant face was replaced by that of a middle-aged woman with very short, walnut-colored hair. The woman sat down next to her bed and smiled. Kay guessed that she was a police officer and that she was going to start with that annoyingly soft voice that authority figures always used when they thought they were talking to a feeble-minded granny.

  “My name is Officer Diggs, Mrs.—”

  “Call me Kay,” she coughed. “How long have I been here?”

  “Not long. I know you must be tired, but do you mind if I ask a few questions? You have a neighbor named, Mona Whittle, is that correct?”

  Kay nodded.

  “We saw a young man enter her apartment just before the fire—looks like it was a lightning strike actually, and we don’t suspect any foul play regarding that at the moment, but did you by any chance notice the man she was with? Maybe you heard what they were talking about. I know the walls in some of those apartments are very thin…”

  Kay explained to the officer about how she and Mona were good friends and how they looked out for each other. She told her about what she had seen and heard earlier, before the explosion. The officer seemed particularly interested in her description of Mona’s boyfriend. Kay didn’t want to get the boy in trouble, but if he did something to hurt Mona, then he deserved whatever he was going to get.

  The officer thanked her for her help and got up to leave.

  “Excuse me, Officer Diggs. Do you know if Mona is all right? I am very worried about her, you know.”

  “Ma’am, the only thing I can tell you is that it doesn’t look like there was anyone in the apartment when the lightning hit, and your place should be all right, except for a little smoke damage. You let these people take care of you, and I’ll make sure Mona’s fine.”

  The officer started to leave again, but turned back.

  “One more thing, Kay. After they get you all fixed up, I was wondering if you could give me a call the next time you see Mona or her boyfriend? They’re not in any trouble—I just want to talk to them, okay?”

  The officer handed her card to Kay. She gripped it in her fist as the nurse returned and placed an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. The pure air made her head a little swimmy, and she felt better than she had in a long while. She spiraled into sleep thinking to herself that she never did like the looks of Mona’s boyfriend and that she should have warned her a long time ago to watch out for his kind of trouble.

  CHAPTER 22

  MERRICK WALKED WITH Balach across a breezy meadow, as a fissure in the earth suddenly opened beneath their feet. The ground swallowed him, chewing at his body with teeth of broken stone and splintered wood as it drug him down into hot darkness. He looked up and saw a hooded man laughing at him from the surface. The hood disappeared to reveal Ohman’s face, not colored with the blush of life, but bone white with the tips of his ears glowing crimson, as if dipped in blood. The ghostly Ohman mouthed something that Merrick could not discern before he awoke from his dream, covered in the clammy sweat of fear. He shook his head, trying to dislodge the ghastly image of Ohman from his mind.

  He moved to get out of bed, but his body was sore and stiff, and he fell back into the soft branches of his cot. He had been training with Fenton for more than a week now, but every morning his body felt just as tired as the first time. He waited, unable to fall back asleep as the bedroom filled with orange-yellow light and long morning shadows. Crisp air sifted in through the open window, smelling of dewy grass. His body seemed to rejuvenate itself as he braced himself in the air, and the images from his nightmare dimmed.

  Balach opened the bedroom door and looked in.

  “Plan o
n sleeping the whole day away? I’ve got a special treat for you today.”

  Merrick rolled out of bed, his muscles increasingly renewed as he stretched them. He put on the pants and shirt that Fenton had given him. As he sat on the side of his bed, trying to wedge his boots on, he looked up at Balach.

  “What’s so good about today? Walking on hot coals—a bed of nails maybe?”

  He wouldn’t have been surprised if Balach had answered in the affirmative. Instead, the boy didn’t seem to understand his attempt at humor and shrugged his shoulders.

  “Can’t you move any faster? We have to get going or we’re going to miss it.”

  Merrick finished putting on his boots and motioned for Balach to lead the way.

  Within minutes, they had packed a lunch of hard bread rolls and slices of goat cheese that Merrick had to restrain himself from eating for breakfast. As they were heading out the door, Fenton entered the kitchen.

  “Where ya off to in such a hurry, lads?”

  “Showing Merrick around the inner forests, Dad.”

  Fenton looked at his son expectantly, waiting for him to elaborate, but Balach met his stare with an impassive face that feigned innocence almost well enough that Merrick started to believe him. Balach tugged on Merrick’s arm and led him out the door, leaving Fenton standing alone in the kitchen, still waiting for an explanation.

  Soon, the two of them were strolling through the cool morning along the same road that led to Balach’s school. They turned right at the road that led to the mountain’s exit, heading for the center of the city. Shortly, they arrived at the common area just outside of the Queen’s court.

  The open space was crowded with close to a hundred Drayoom all gathered around a single old man who sat on a large stone that towered above the crowd by several feet. Instead of joining the masses, Balach pulled at Merrick’s sleeve, directing him over to the edge of the road.

  “See over there? That bush,” Balach whispered. “There’s a hidden passage behind that part of the stone wall. I saw my father go through it one night, but I’m pretty sure even he’s not supposed to know it’s there.”

  Merrick started to ask where the passage led, but Balach pulled him forward abruptly.

  “Ask whatever you want, but stop staring at the entrance.”

  Merrick raised one of his eyebrows, the made an overly dramatic gesture of looking directly into young Balach’s eyes.

  “Does it lead to the Queen’s Court?”

  “See that building over there, to the left of the Queen’s Court? That’s the Keepers’ Chamber. I’ve never gone far enough to know for sure, but I’m pretty sure it must lead there.”

  “Why would someone around here need secret passages, when they can travel through the earth?”

  “This whole mountain is loyal to the royal family, and to the Keepers. That’s one reason my father takes us outside the mountain to practice. Sometimes, the mountain can be stubborn. If you want to pass through that stone wall, you gotta take a path that’s physically there. Even then, the earth might close up and trap you. That’s why I haven’t gone all the way in yet.”

  “What do mean, yet?”

  “I was thinking that since you’re of royal blood, maybe you and I could try it some time. The mountain might not try to kill you.”

  “Your dad didn’t die when he used it.”

  Balach cocked his head like he was thinking about Merrick’s observation.

  “Never mind,” Balach said with a laugh. “I’ll see the Keepers’ Chamber soon enough. Besides, there are way too many people around here right now anyway. That’s the surprise I was talking about anyway—the storyteller’s getting ready to speak. I just wanted to show you the passage so that you knew I trusted you.”

  Balach pulled Merrick toward the crowd. The sounds of laughter rose in volume as several children closest to the old man on the rock started chasing each other and screaming joyfully.

  Merrick and Balach worked their way through the outer edge of the crowd and sat down on the ground, trying to blend in with the mass of people who were still settling in. The storyteller looked across his audience and paused when he spotted Merrick.

  The storyteller clapped his hands together once, and the crowd went silent. Even the children stopped playing and sat down at the foot of the rock, their heads tilted backwards, as they looked up at the old man.

  “My clan,” he said, “I have a special story for you today—a tale of the first blood madness and of the beginning of sorrow for all Drayoom. Today I will tell you of Gregor, the first, but not the last, of his kind.

  “Not long after the Great War, there lived a boy who was just becoming a young man. His name was Jabo. Although not yet a citizen, he lived here in the Earth Clan and followed the ways of Terrada, the Earth Dragon, as best he knew how. He was steady of stature and growing stronger in his magic with every passing moon. Elissa was the same age as Jabo, but she was from the Water People and followed the way of Lagu, the Water Dragon.

  “One day, Jabo was walking along the coastline, gathering clay for working into pots, as Sigela began to set in the sky. Jabo had no fear of the dark and continued his search as the shadows grew long and the sky around him turned gray.

  “He looked out for just a second to the sea, and that is when he first saw Elissa. She was very beautiful and floated just above the water where the waves broke in frothy explosions against the rocks.

  “His mother had warned him of the dangers of venturing so close to the ocean. She had spoken of strange creatures but had never prepared him for someone as pretty as Elissa with her long flowing green hair and her fair, pale skin that was the color of the Moon. He was in love with her in less time than it took his heart to beat twice.”

  Some of the children giggled at the mention of the word, love, but the storyteller continued, gesturing with his thin hands and spindly fingers as he brought his narrative to life.

  “As the tide came in, Elissa floated closer to shore until she and Jabo were face-to-face on the shore under the pale moonlight. Neither of them moved nor did they touch. They simply looked into each other’s eyes, as if they were dying of thirst and drinking from a mountain spring.

  “When the tide rolled out, Elissa floated back to sea. Soon, Jabo stood on the shore alone, already longing to see her again.”

  The crowd of listeners stirred slightly, seeming agitated at the mention of a member of the Earth Clan pining for a girl from a different family.

  “Every night for the next month, Jabo returned, always telling his parents that he needed to collect more clay. They knew that their son was not telling the truth, but they were happy, believing that he had perhaps met a new friend or even found a girl from the Earth Clan to spend his evenings with. Sadly enough, despite Jabo’s persistence, he did not see Elissa again that entire month.

  “On the first day of the new moon, he went to the shore as usual. This time, Elissa was waiting for him, floating just above the breakers again. Jabo dove headfirst into the waves and swam to her without waiting for the tide to bring her closer. She lowered herself into the water, and the two were as one and conceived a child that very night, although neither of them knew that at the time.

  “For the next two moons, the lovers met nightly, but one evening, Elissa did not appear. Jabo paced up and down the beach, scanning the water’s surface for any sign of his beloved. Eventually, he spotted her and swam out to see what was wrong.

  “Elissa was crying, and her eyes were red and swollen. She told him she carried his child, and that her father had followed her the night before and had seen the two of them together. When she had returned home to the Water City, her father had welcomed her into his arms and told her that he knew of her lover. Elissa had been afraid that her father would be angry, but instead, both of her parents were happy for her good fortune. They agreed that since Jabo was from the Earth Clan, Elissa should leave the Water City and live with him as his wife, but that they should bring their grandchild back
to the sea as often as possible so that the child would know his or her full ancestry.

  “Jabo then understood that Elissa was crying both for joy and sadness, because of having to leave her family behind. He wiped the tears from her cheeks and vowed to marry her and to build a home for them at the top of the highest cliff he could find that overlooked the ocean.”

  Many of the audience members grimaced and began whispering to each other.

  “Remember,” the storyteller continued, “although the Drayoom were already separated into the four families, several generations had passed since the Great War and, although not typical, it was not yet forbidden to marry between families.”

  More murmurs arose from the crowd, but they hushed when the old man started to speak again.

  “True to his word, Jabo married Elissa in this very city and built a home for them at the edge of a cliff that overlooked the place where they had first fallen in love. Before long, Elissa was ready to give birth. Jabo’s mother was there as were several other women from the Earth Clan to help bring the child safely into this world. But as the hours wore on, they all could tell that this would be no ordinary birth.

  “At one point while delivering her child, Elissa screamed in pain, shouting a word from Lagu’s tongue that resulted in a great downpour outside. Jabo and the others watched helplessly as Elissa writhed on the bed, blood pouring from her, but still with no sign of the child.

  “Jabo stepped outside to pray to Terrada that his child and his wife would survive. At that exact moment, he heard a curdling scream. He threw open the door to see his dear Elissa dead in the blood-soaked bed and a baby boy, still purple and covered in her insides crying on top of the reddened sheets. The child’s umbilical cord looked as if it had been ripped apart instead of cut in the proper manner. Jabo’s mother and the other women stared at the child without moving.