The Conservation of Magic

by Michael W. Layne

  He ran over to where several of the intruders were hiding as they flung lightning balls across the way at the followers of the Earth Dragon. He didn’t wait for their reaction, but swung his sword sideways this time, cleaving through all three of the bodies with barely any effort. Their diced limbs smoldered like wet wood on fire.

  He looked down at the sword he carried. Even though he had taken it from one of the Queen’s Fianna, the sword was made of divinium from the Fire Tribe, with a blade like living lava.

  Unsure of whether to feel lucky or not, Merrick continued on his killing spree.

  Each time he encountered one of the intruders, the reaction was always the same. Merrick figured that they either mistook him for Eudroch or that they had been warned not to harm him. Either way, he took advantage at every turn. Even though they had imprisoned him, the Earth Clan was the closest thing to a home that he had, and he would defend it until the end.

  As he stood in the clearing, dead men strewn all around him on the ground, Merrick felt a ball of lightning breeze past his head.

  Someone had decided that he was fair game.

  He dove behind another of the great boulders dotting the clearing and looked out to see who had attacked him. He saw a crowd of the attackers, angrily looking at their vanquished comrades. Just as he was about to jump out and attack them head-on, he was slammed to the ground by a piece of the very boulder he was hiding behind, his sword flying away as if enchanted by magic.

  Looking up, he saw the Master Keeper, his hood still down, showing his scarred face. Merrick thought it strange that the Master Keeper’s face was calm, almost thoughtful as he advanced. Merrick was trapped between two enemies now, and his chance of survival had just dropped considerably.

  Moving away from the boulder, Merrick backed into the wall of the royal section, a piece of the cave that was similar to the one where he had built his home. He braced himself to call on whatever power he could muster to defeat the Master Keeper. Before he could do anything, however, the Master Keeper drew his dagger, ready to throw it, and at the same time, Merrick heard a loud breaking sound from above his head.

  He looked up just in time to see most of the mountain wall tumbling down on him. Right before he was buried under the massive slabs of stone, he felt a slight, but painful nick on his left ear. The last thing he saw before he was engulfed in cold darkness was the Master Keeper’s divinium dagger embedded in the stone, its blade only centimeters from his face.

  #

  The Master Keeper watched as the rock face fell all around Merrick. This boy deserved to be loathed by the clan, but even the Master Keeper could not deny his potential for power. The only other person who impressed and terrified him as much was Eudroch.

  Eudroch—the Earth Council had often debated whether he had the power necessary to fulfill the prophecy of Earth and Fire by himself, without the help of his brother. The Master Keeper was still not convinced that letting Merrick live was the best idea, but the Master Keeper was wise enough not to not let his emotions interfere with his cautious reasoning.

  If Eudroch was not strong enough to bring down Sigela the sun without the help of Merrick, then the Master Keeper had just made a grave error by not killing Merrick when he had the chance. However, if Eudroch was strong enough to fulfill the prophecy on his own, then Merrick was the world’s only chance to stop him.

  Whether Eudroch was strong enough or not, it was no mystery that he was the only one powerful and brazen enough to carry out this attack on his beloved Earth City. The Master Keeper despised Merrick and the diluted bloodline that he represented, but he feared Eudroch more. For now, at least, Merrick would be allowed to live.

  As the Master Keeper stared at the pile of rubble that had buried Merrick, he muttered a silent prayer to Terrada.

  “Oh, Dragon of the Earth who gives shelter to us all, take this young man into your body, and judge him as you see fit. Only you have the wisdom to know what his fate should be. I leave him to your warm embrace.”

  Just as the Master Keeper finished the final words of his quiet prayer, he felt a sharp, unbelievable pain in his head as he saw the ground rush up to meet him. As he tried to regain his senses, he looked up and saw that he was surrounded by three of the dark-skinned attackers—their eyes set in rage.

  The Master Keeper opened his mouth, preparing to send them all to rest with their dragon, Sigela, in the afterlife. Before he could speak, the three men set upon him, bludgeoning him with clubs that seared his skin even as they pulverized his bones.

  The pain gave way more quickly than he would have imagined, to numbness. Each blow from his attackers sent him deeper into a state of tranquility. He was about to die, to pass into Terrada’s womb, his energy to be born again as a new member of the clan who was not even conceived of yet. He was ready. His name would be remembered by his brethren Keepers, and another would rise to take his place as the Master Keeper.

  As he felt his last ties with the physical world begin to slip away, he was angered to feel someone pulling him back to the land of the living—the land of the pain that was still waiting for him. The Master Keeper forced one eye open to see who would torture him so. The face he stared into was identical to that of Merrick’s, except for the glint of insanity in the eyes. He had been saved by Eudroch. The pain of his crushed body hit him like a breaking tidal wave, and he screamed until he wept.

  CHAPTER 35

  THEY HAD ARRIVED outside the immense mountain after traveling halfway across the world as a bolt of lightning. Mona sensed that she was just beginning to see the strangeness of the new world in which she found herself. The warriors from Eudroch’s tribe started cutting their way into the mountain swinging their molten lava clubs and throwing balls of liquid lightning, molten rock flying everywhere. As the warriors made a wide tunnel into the mountain, living beings began emerging from the interior rock, engaging the tribesmen in battle. Even though a few of the Fire Warriors went down, they had the numbers on their side, and soon the defenders from the mountain were dead. It was if the Fire Warriors were possessed, focused only on their goal of finding Merrick.

  Mona wanted more than anything to see Merrick again, but she was not prepared for the devastation from Eudroch and his Fire Warriors. She hesitantly followed them into the mountain, and soon their attack party emerged onto a wide ledge high above a vast underground city. The warriors quickly cut steps into the mountain and started to descend, but the holes closed up like healing wounds and several of the point guard warriors fell to their deaths. Eudroch looked over the ledge at the city below and called out some words that sounded different from the Fire Dragon tongue—somehow more earthy, like sticks breaking and dirt settling. A full set of cut stairs impressed itself into the side of the wall and Eudroch led the group down into the cavern of the Earth City.

  Once they reached the cavern floor, they stormed through some dense woods and emerged onto a street that seemed to lead to the back of the immense underground cave. As they marched, inhabitants ran out, presumably to stop the encroaching warriors, but they were quickly dispatched, mostly by a wave of the hand and balls of fire from Eudroch. As Mona followed in shock, she was speechless as she cringed at the burning ruin that surrounded her.

  The stench of charred bodies and vegetation mingled together in the air, causing her to wretch more than once. She followed behind Eudroch and his warriors as they continued their invasion and their search for Merrick. The city was huge, but Eudroch seemed to know where he was going as he followed a series of roads, taking turns at intersections without any hesitation. To be this sure of his path, Mona thought that he must have received very detailed reports from the spy of whom he spoke.

  Suddenly, Eudroch stopped and cocked his head as if listening for some far off vibration. Then he started off at a full run, shouting to his warriors that he could sense his brother was near. Mona struggled to keep up, but was swiftly left behind.

  Finally catching up, she stood behind the group of Fire Warriors
and struggled to catch her breath. Her lungs burned as they had when she had first ascended the grand pyramid back at the Fire Tribe. Several meters away, she saw Eudroch excitedly talking to an old man in a dark green robe who was sprawled out on the ground, barely alive after the beating Eudroch had just given him. She strained to hear what Eudroch was saying, but couldn’t make out more than a couple of words. One of the words was Merrick.

  Her heart raced at the mention of his name.

  Mona watched as the old man was levitated, his legs dangling like loose spaghetti above the ground. From the looks of his mangled legs, Mona doubted that the man would ever use them again.

  Eudroch started yelling something at the old man hanging in the air. The words sounded like they were from the Fire Dragon tongue. Mona couldn’t understand a word, but knew what was happening. Eudroch was questioning him about Merrick’s location. The old man was either intentionally keeping quiet or he was unable to form words due to his injuries.

  Eudroch backed away from the old man in robes and spit on the ground, cursing aloud. Then, Eudroch closed his eyes and turned his head slowly from one side to the other. When he opened his eyes, he walked back to the head Fire Warrior and spoke to him in the common language of the Fire Tribe. Mona understood enough to grasp that Eudroch had lost Merrick’s trail.

  When Eudroch came up to Mona, he grabbed her by her shoulders in his vice-like grip.

  “I have lost him…for now,” Eudroch said. “The air is saturated with too many traces of magic. This old man knows where Merrick is, but will not speak.”

  Just then, the old man started to talk. Quietly at first, so that Mona and even Eudroch had to strain to hear him.

  “I’ve killed him, son of thunder. Your brother is dead. You will never reunite with him nor will you add his magic to your own. You will never fulfill the prophecy, and fiery Sigela will stay where she belongs—vanquished in the heavens, far from this world.”

  Eudroch turned and walked up to the floating man.

  “I know my brother still lives, Master Keeper. You lie worse than you fight, and I will find him in due course. If you will not tell me where he is, then I want his creation name. Give it to me, and I may let you die quickly.”

  The old man looked down at Eudroch, barely able to keep his eyes open. His licked his dry lips, weakly cleared his throat and laughed darkly.

  “I warn you, old man. Do not try to harm me with your Dragon’s tongue, or I will burn your tongue from your mouth.”

  “Your brother, Merrick, told me his name, but it was not the right one. Our Seer said as much. When he died, so did his true name and the power you seek from him.”

  “I will know his creation name soon enough, Keeper, with or without your help.”

  Eudroch motioned to two of the dark-skinned warriors in his group.

  “They will take you back,” Eudroch continued, “to my land—my tribe. In the small chance that Merrick is really dead or that he has successfully eluded us, I will keep you alive a little while longer. Even if what you say is true about Merrick’s name being false, you will tell us what you know eventually. Even his wrong name may provide some insight into his creation name.”

  Eudroch motioned to his men.

  “Take him back to the pyramid and wait for my return. Tell our people that we have invaded the Earth City and are ravaging its people. We will return with treasure for the tribe along with my brother. Sigela will soon join us!”

  With that, the two Fire Warriors grabbed the Master Keeper, who still floated several centimeters off the ground, and pulled him back toward the mountain’s entrance.

  “I know you’re still there somewhere,” Eudroch said out loud as he surveyed the surroundings. “I will search for you for as long as it takes and will not be done with your clan until I find you.”

  Mona wanted to share Eudroch’s hope that Merrick was still alive. If he was dead, then she had gone through all of this with Eudroch for nothing. She didn’t care whether a mythical dragon from the sky came back to the earth or not. Mona only cared about Merrick, and she was beginning to doubt whether she would ever see him again.

  One of the Fire Warriors moved her along behind the main group as they followed Eudroch out of the clearing and through a small passageway that led to another smaller but equally impressive sub-cavern. No sooner had they walked through the cavern entrance than the floor and the walls themselves came alive, roaring up in great waves of stone and crashing down on several of the Fire Warriors.

  The group of tribesmen surrounding Mona ran for cover as powerful jet streams of rock rained down upon them. A group of people dressed all in black came out of the cave walls, turning from stone to flesh in front of Mona’s widened eyes. Her first thought was that the Earth Clan had not yet given up, but then she looked closer. Unlike the other inhabitants of the Earth City, this group looked more like high-tech ninjas than ancient Celtic warriors.

  #

  He had been the Master Keeper for too long, and he knew far too many things. He knew of the Queen’s treachery and had always protected her secret. He now realized that her lies were threatening to destroy the very clan that he lived to serve, and he felt sick. That fool, Eudroch, was strong, but the Master Keeper would not help him become any more powerful than he already was.

  As the Master Keeper was pulled along by the Fire Warriors, he searched his mind, going back through all of the naming ceremonies until he came to a very special one indeed. Aun-tal was a sad man, who never seemed to find joy in anything he did. It was with reluctance that he even eventually scheduled his naming ceremony with the Keepers. At first, the Master Keeper had not understood why Aun-tal seemed so depressed on the day of his naming, when most Drayoom were relieved that their time had finally come.

  He had asked Aun-tal to speak his name, and the man just stood there, his eyes welling up in tears, staring at the Master Keeper. Finally, he wiped the water from his eyes and straightened his shoulders. After taking a deep breath, Aun-tal spoke his name, and proceeded to fall to the ground—dead.

  The Master Keeper had not needed to warn his fellow Keepers to never repeat the young man’s name again.

  Now, when he, the Master Keeper, was so close to death himself, he practiced Aun-tal’s name over and over in his head. As the guards pulled his floating body up the stone stairs to the Earth City’s exit, the Master Keeper thought one last time of Aun-tal and then spoke his name aloud before dying in mid-breath.

  CHAPTER 36

  WHEN CARA FIRST SAW Eudroch, the similarity was so striking that she thought he was Merrick. But when she saw him throw the Master Keeper around in the air like he was a doll, she knew that she had instead found Eudroch. After that, it was simply a matter of waiting with her team until the Master Keeper was clear of the battle space.

  Cara assessed the situation, noting the brunette traveling with Eudroch and his troops. The woman was either Eudroch’s prisoner—probably someone close to Merrick that he could use as leverage—or, possibly another person of magic. Cara would be careful of the brunette until she knew more. Other than her, there were no unknown variables. Eudroch was a brilliantly powerful madman and his dozen or so warriors were completely devoted to him and the cause of bringing back their precious Fire Dragon. They were just inside the royal section of the city and therefore not far from finding the Queen. Cara was no fan of the Queen, but her loyalty to the Earth Dragon took precedence, and so for now, Cara would do what she could to protect Merrick and the Queen.

  Without another thought, Cara gave the word to her team.

  They started with a few tons of stone crashing down on the vanguard of the warrior party. Then, Cara and Chris were first out of the walls, both lashing out with the power of their cubes before the dark-skinned warriors could react. Chris sent a storm of sharp stone shards into the group of warriors, killing two of them immediately and cleanly slicing off the arm of another who would probably bleed to death before the battle’s end.

  Cara’
s team was out from their hiding places in the cave wall, and the remaining Fire Warriors took cover behind walls of flame they hastily erected as shields. Chris spoke to the rock ceiling that curved above their heads, and sharp sheaths came crashing down on the Fire Warriors’ heads. Cara heard the cries of pain and crunch of bone as some of the rocks hit home.

  Chris was amazing as he ran from boulder to boulder, dodging balls of fire and turning the very land beneath the warriors’ feet against them. He even managed a few times to intercept some of the fire balls in mid-air with flying boulders. The rest of her team, including herself, Melanie, Gary, Ann, and Steve took his lead and used the power of their cubes to throw boulders and to raise the earth beneath the warriors’ feet.

  Eudroch had vanished from sight when they had first come out of the wall. Cara had the upsetting suspicion that he was about to attack at any moment. As the two sides dug in for an extended battle, Cara heard a scream from Melanie over to her left. When Cara looked, Melanie had a stone spike sticking out of her chest. Melanie stared at Cara, her eyes wide in disbelief as her life quickly faded. Before Melanie could say anything, blood poured out of her mouth, and she fell to the ground.

  Cara turned to see who had cast the stone spike and felt her heart almost stop. A group of Fianna was firing its weapons from behind the great pillars of the royal house. Melanie, the closest thing to a friend that Cara had, had just been killed by the same people she was trying to protect. Didn’t they realize that she and her team were here to help them? Cara cursed herself as she immediately realized that there could be no mistaking which side she and her team fought for. The Fianna’s attack could only mean that the Queen had ordered her own warriors to attack Cara and her team.

  Cara’s anger rose even as her logical brain concluded that she and her team could not hope to win against enemies from both sides. She yelled for the rest of her group to stand down and take off their headsets in surrender. Her people did as she ordered, as the Fianna and the Fire Warriors stopped their attack. Just as Cara had feared, it seemed that Eudroch and the Queen were somehow on the same side.