The Conservation of Magic

by Michael W. Layne

  Oodrosil had told her about the one called Ohman and about the two brothers, Merrick and Eudroch, and the prophecy. Had it been that long since she had involved herself in the ways of her children directly? Terrada remembered when she had first heard the prediction that her sister, Sigela, would return to this world. It seemed like the prophecy had only been made a few breaths ago to Terrada, but she was sure it had been much longer indeed.

  Terrada stirred, and the world shook, as she tried to orient herself to the present day. Soon, she was sure that Oodrosil was correct—it was indeed time for the prophecy to come to pass. Terrada could even now feel the one called Merrick moving through her, a welcome guest in her body.

  As long as he stayed within her, he would be safe, but eventually, he would have to emerge and face his brother.

  Terrada felt the brother’s presence inside her as well and recognized him more clearly now. They were indeed the two children born in Annoon from the Queen’s body. Terrada could even remember the creation names she had given both of them when they were born.

  If Merrick called on her, she would be willing to break the treaty with the other dragons and bring him to Annoon. Sigela had broken the same agreement once before by showing the Earth Queen and her lover the path to the holy island. Terrada had, in turn, shown Ohman the way to Annoon, so that he could try to restore the balance that the Queen and her lover had tried to upset.

  Of course, Terrada could not tell Merrick his creation name again—the boy would have to remember on his own, but in Annoon, he might learn something about himself that would trigger his memory. At the very least, he would be safe for the short while it would take before Sigela realized what was going on and brought Eudroch to Annoon as well.

  That had been the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecy.

  Terrada relaxed and monitored Merrick’s progress, waiting for him to call for her in the manner of the old ways. Luckily, Terrada was used to waiting, and patience had always been her best virtue.

  CHAPTER 39

  MONA WALKED DOWN the Earth City street, surrounded by six of the Queen’s Fianna. The other group had taken the blonde with them, the one they called Cara. Mona wasn’t sure what her relationship to Merrick was, but Mona recognized the care and affection in Cara’s eyes when she heard Merrick’s name. Maybe she had been stupid to come all this way for a man who had probably forgotten about her completely. Merrick had a new life, and Mona wasn’t a part of it.

  Mona tried to squelch her rising jealousy. She could only hope that there would be time and occasion to worry about such mundane matters as who Merrick liked better. For now, she was torn between hoping that they would find Merrick and wishing that he was safe and far away from the Earth City. Now that they were away from Eudroch for the moment, Mona could tell that some of the Fianna were confused about the Queen’s actions and were beginning to question her alliance with Eudroch and the Fire Tribe.

  A normal group of guards would be talking among themselves, trying to figure out what was going on with their Queen, but these were no ordinary guards. These were Fianna, and from what Mona could tell, they were the Queen’s elite, sworn to serve her above all else. They walked in relative silence, their heads turning this way and that, as if using all of their senses to detect Merrick’s presence.

  Occasionally, one of them would shout out that they had Mona and that Merrick should reveal himself now if he didn’t want any harm to come to her. Mona didn’t like being used as bait, but she saw no way out of her current situation. She couldn’t overpower or run from the Fianna, and even if she could escape, she had no idea how she would get back to civilization—her civilization. The best she could do was to wait for an opportunity to arise and then take full advantage of it.

  As they continued walking, she and the Fianna came across more and more dead bodies. The Fianna were trained soldiers, probably used to death, but the sight of slaughtered citizens littering the street was having an effect even on them as they stepped cautiously around the corpses.

  Their group turned a corner, heading down another street that was particularly dense with dead and burning bodies. Finally, two of the Fianna started whispering to each other. Mona could only catch pieces of the conversation, but they were definitely talking about the Queen and Eudroch. A third Fianna struck one of the talking ones on his shoulder and told him to hold his tongue—that it was not his place to question. The man who had been struck stopped walking and glared at the third Fianna.

  “My job is to serve Terrada and the Earth Clan,” said the man who had been struck. “If that means serving the Queen, then so be it, but my duty is first to Terrada and her people. All I see around me is the dead from the very family that I am sworn to protect.”

  “Your job is to serve the Queen,” the third Fianna said. “How can a soldier like you know what is best for the clan. You do not have the knowledge or the ken that our Queen possesses. You will follow her and help us find this whelp, or you and I will settle this now.”

  The first Fianna stepped back and drew his sword while the third Fianna did the same. Their fellow guards instinctively drew back into a circle that surrounded the two combatants. One of them took hold of Mona’s wrist without even looking at her. She had hoped that this would offer her the chance to escape, but the large hand tightly gripped her wrist, holding her in place.

  Suddenly, as the two warriors were about to clash, Mona heard a noise from just down the road. Emerging from a giant, gnarled tree, Merrick dashed across the narrow street. The guards’ argument was forgotten for the time being as they ran after Merrick. In their exuberance, they forgot about Mona, and her guard let go of her wrist to join the others in the chase. Mona knew that this would be her only opportunity. Just as she turned to run, a young boy reached out and grabbed her by the wrist. Despite his aggressive act, Mona felt strangely comfortable around him. His eyes were that of a gentle person, not like the eyes of her captors either in the Fire Tribe on in the Earth Clan.

  “You must come with me,” the boy said. “My name is Balach, and I’m a friend of Merrick. Quickly, before the Fianna come back for you.”

  “But we have to help Merrick,” Mona said. “He’ll never be able to get away from all of those guards.” She started to pull away in the direction that the Fianna had run.

  “I’m not sure, but I think Merrick wants to be captured. I tried to talk him out of his plan—to make him wait for a better opportunity to rescue you, but he said that you were the only thing that was important and that he had to do what he had to do.”

  Mona looked toward the spot on the road where she had just seen Merrick. She had come all this way for only one reason—to find him—and now he was gone again. She wasn’t going to give up when she was this close to finding him again. He needed her, and she had to tell him about Eudroch and his plans.

  Mona broke Balach’s grip and turned to look at him.

  “If you really want to help Merrick, then come with me. I don’t know my way around the Earth City, and I could use your help.”

  Balach shook his head. “Just like he told me about you—smart but stubborn as a donkey. Still, I like your idea better than hiding out and just waiting.”

  The two of them broke into a full run and worked their way through the tree line into which Merrick and the Fianna had disappeared. In just a few minutes, they turned a corner and could see Merrick and the Fianna.

  The six Fianna had Merrick surrounded. Merrick was standing in the middle of them, half crouching like a caged animal, his fists clenched at his side and his entire body trembling. Even from their distance, Mona could feel the energy coming from Merrick. The air smelled just like it did before a thunderstorm and the ground beneath her feet was trembling in time with Merrick’s body. The Fianna who had seemed so fearless earlier, were keeping their distance. Mona knew they could feel Merrick’s power and that they were afraid of him.

  Mona and Balach quietly approached the group, trying to stay behind trees as th
ey got closer. As they waited to see what would happen next, one of the Fianna spotted them and shouted out.

  Merrick turned his head quickly, his eyes making direct contact with Balach’s—first filled with irritation and then softer as his gaze turned to Mona. In the moment that he lost himself in her eyes, he also lost his concentration and his battle rage. In that instant, the Fianna rushed him. Quickly, and without any protest from Merrick, the Fianna tied Merrick and gagged him, leaving his body prostrate in the dirt road.

  Some of the guards took to kicking Merrick as he lay defenseless on the ground, until one of the guards bent down and physically shielded Merrick’s body. The brave guard said something about how the Queen wanted Merrick alive and in good health even as his comrades yelled at him to move out of their way.

  Mona wondered why Merrick did nothing to defend himself. She had felt his power, as had the guards. Then she realized that he was trying to protect her and Balach. The last time Merrick used his power around Mona, he had placed her in a coma. She looked at his dusty body, and he turned his head sideways to look up at her. Looking into his eyes, she felt her body tingle with the same feeling from the alley before Merrick had called down the lightning. Her mouth moved wordlessly, unable to put a voice to the electricity swelling inside her. Then, as soon as it had appeared, the tingling dissipated.

  As the Fianna picked Merrick up off the ground and got him to his feet, two of them walked over to Mona and Balach and took hold of them as well. Balach was much smaller than the guards but did not look afraid. Instead, he looked embarrassed, his face red and his eyes downcast. As Mona looked to the approaching Merrick, she saw that he was looking at Balach and was trying to smile despite the ball gag in his mouth. Perhaps Merrick had gone mad after all.

  #

  It had been all that he could do to stop the rest of the Fianna from kicking Merrick to death. Gerald knew them to be good, honest men, but they were also warriors—and they did not like to be afraid. They were beating on Merrick more as a release of their tension and because they were mad that someone could make them feel as fearful as Merrick had. Some of them, of course, were also striking with vengeance in their hearts for their fallen leader, Fenton.

  Gerald was angry about Fenton’s death as well, but he had promised that he would help Merrick if he could. Right now that only meant keeping him alive. Escape would have to come later, if ever. Even at his best, Gerald could only take two, maybe three of his comrades. Without Merrick to help, he didn’t stand a chance. He had been ready to fight at Merrick’s side before, when Merrick was summoning his power even though he had been just as terrified as the rest of the guards about Merrick’s unleashed power. Gerald had been particularly wary because he suspected that Merrick’s magic combined both Earth and Fire energy. Maybe it had been lucky that Balach and the woman from Merrick’s world had appeared, and that Merrick had given up peacefully before unleashing his full power.

  Gerald would wait for the right time and hope that another occasion presented itself soon. They were on their way back to the royal chambers to take Merrick before the Queen. Between the way the Queen had been acting and her alliance with the Fire Tribe and Eudroch himself, Gerald did not hold much hope for many more chances to help Merrick.

  In the end, everything would depend on whether Merrick was willing and able to fight for his own life and that of his woman friend, Mona. If he wasn’t, Gerald feared for all of their futures. The Queen had gone mad, helping Eudroch bring Sigela, the Fire Dragon, back to this world. Gerald had been trained to trust the judgment of the monarchy, but he could not picture a scenario where Sigela’s return would be good for anyone other than the Fire Tribe, Eudroch, and any traitors to the Earth Clan along with the Queen who would be saved.

  As Gerald turned with the rest of the Fianna to leave, he noticed a glint of something in the bushes off to the side of the road from which Merrick had appeared. Bending down, he saw that it was the Master Keeper’s familiar divinium dagger. If Merrick had been carrying it, then it had to be true that the Master Keeper had been trying to help Merrick. The Master Keeper would have sooner destroyed his dagger than let it fall into the hands of an enemy of the clan. If Gerald had any doubts in his mind about his Queen and on which side she stood, they all faded. If the Master Keeper had decided to help Merrick, then Gerald knew that doing so was the best thing for the clan. Gerald silently vowed to relinquish his servitude to the Queen and to follow the true Ard Righ, the High King of the Earth Clan. Of course, since King Ohman was no longer alive, as far as Gerald was concerned, Merrick was now the new Ard Righ of the Earth Clan.

  CHAPTER 40

  MERRICK AWOKE FROM a troubled dream of heat and electricity. He blinked and shook the stinging sweat from his eyes. He opened them to see his mother, the Queen staring down at him.

  His hands were tied behind his back, and his mouth was still gagged. He had not dared to use his power back when he had been captured for fear that he would harm Mona or Balach. Even now, Mona, Cara, and Balach stood silently behind the Queen, serving as a shield. The physical bonds that held him, including his gag, were nothing to him anymore, but his own cautiousness forbade him from using any of his power while his friends were still in harm’s way.

  “Remove his bonds,” the Queen said to the large Fianna holding onto Merrick’s arm. The guard hesitated for a moment before doing as commanded. “I have woven words of containment around him. He will be perfectly inert and harmless from using his magic, and he doesn’t know enough of the dragon’s tongue to pose a threat…yet.”

  Merrick’s throat was dry and his voice cracked when he tried to speak.

  “Let the rest of them go, and I’ll do whatever you want,” Merrick said.

  The Queen laughed loudly as if sincerely amused.

  “My son, you cannot expect me to let my hostages go—to give away my only means of assuring your cooperation. They will come with us when we visit your brother, Eudroch, in the Fire Tribe. If you and they behave, no harm will come to them.

  “I only want you to give back what belongs rightfully to me, your clan, and…your brother. I have not seen you since the day you were born; the meddling Ohman made sure of that. But, I can guess about your childhood. You never felt like you belonged anywhere. You probably suspected all along, although you could never have admitted it, that your parents were not really your parents. I imagine you always showed great aptitude for myriad things, but never succeeded at any of them really. Isn’t that true? Could never quite find your calling. Well…look around you, son. My city is in ruin. It will take quite a while to build her back to her former self. And the countless dead…they would all be alive had you not come here. In fact, many lives would have been saved had you never been born. Eudroch tried to kill you in my womb, because he sensed that you would bring such disaster if allowed to live. You see, I was not supposed to have twins—you were never meant to be, poor Merrick. Eudroch should have been born with the full power of Terrada and Sigela running through his veins. It is time for you to give back the power that should have gone to my real son, Eudroch.”

  “How do you know that? How do you know anything? Maybe Eudroch has the power that I was meant to possess.”

  “Impossible. Did you know that he was born with full knowledge of his creation name? Now, after all your years alive, do you even know yours?”

  The Queen touched her index finger to her pursed lips.

  “Still, I suppose that it really is not your fault that you were born. You were just trying to survive. As a favor to you, I have sent Eudroch on to the Fire Tribe ahead of us. You see, I am not without compassion. I understand that you have only remembered a portion of your creation name. I also believe that you simply need the right motivation to remember the rest of it. If you do not remember in the next minute, I will start disposing of your friends, beginning with Ohman’s daughter. I see the way you look at her, as does everyone, by the way. I imagine you were relieved to find out that she was not your sister—
I understand that in your culture, mating between siblings is frowned upon.”

  “I don’t know the rest of my creation name,” Merrick said. “I can’t give you what I don’t have.”

  “Let me tell you something about my own creation name. I was told by the Keepers that my name meant one who bears the fruit of two dragons. My name can be used in fertility spells, to summon either Terrada or what is left of Sigela, or simply to invoke both Fire and Earth Magic at the same time. My name is held sacred by the Keepers, just like yours will be. I remember when I was as young as you—not ready to accept my true nature. I heard it whispered over and over again in my head and knew what it meant, but I was scared of the destiny it entailed. Just as you are scared now, Merrick. Now, tell me, or Cara dies. Close your eyes and listen for the whispers of the dragons. Surely, they will tell you the rest of your name to save Cara’s life.”

  Merrick closed his eyes as the Queen had commanded, but not before stealing a quick glance at the pile of divinium cubes stacked next to the Queen’s throne. With his eyes closed, Merrick envisioned himself lunging for the cubes. He had never used one of them before, but Ohman and Cara had explained the basic concept, and he knew that they contained the reconstructed lexicon of the Earth Dragon. The cubes allowed a user to visualize the knowledge of the cube in whatever syntax, framework, or taxonomy he or she could comprehend. The special glasses helped the user with visualization. The microphone against the larynx helped the person pronounce the dragon language with startling clarity—a feat that normal human throats could rarely even approximate. Merrick tried to clear his mind, to prepare it to be open for the cube. If he were even able to reach one of the cubes, he would only have a second or so to use it. It was a risk he would have to take, because time was running out.