The Raven's Curse

by Rain Oxford

  I barely heard him over the anger burning through me. A deep ache stabbed me in the chest, but I ignored it. Magic flowed into the staff, changing the crystal from blue to sinister red. Red magic swirled around my staff and through me, gathering strength from anger. I didn’t care that there was something wrong with me. I didn’t care if he really meant what he said or not. I wanted revenge on everyone who would wish me or anyone else killed just because we were different.

  At the same time, I didn’t want to hurt him. That wasn’t who I was. “Run.”

  “You’re a sorcerer!”

  “Yes. And you’re about to wish I was anything else.” Merlin backed up behind me, growling at whoever was closest to me. “You’re not going to try to stop me?” I asked in his mind.

  “You know what my advice is, but you must decide between hatred and tolerance. You have every right to be mad at him. However, are you going to give him that power over you? Are you going to allow his bigotry to control you? Could you forgive yourself?”

  Merlin was right. It was wrong to curse him when I was really mad at the unfairness of life. If I cursed him for that, I wasn’t being true to myself. Unfortunately, the anger wasn’t quenched just because I knew that. When I tried to push my magic down, it was like fire. I focused on clearing my mind and slowing my breath like Merlin taught me, but the pain in my chest only grew worse.

  Then I sensed Merlin in my mind. Before I could ask him what he was doing, a vision came over me. Suddenly, I was sitting under a tree full of pink and orange flowers beside a small hot springs with strangely blue water. It was like a dream, where I knew I couldn’t really be there and it wasn’t perfectly clear. I also couldn’t look around. I could feel Merlin’s mind even stronger, so it wasn’t difficult for me to figure out what this was.

  I was seeing one of Merlin’s memories.

  The sky was deep blue, the tree provided shade, and a cool breeze prevented it from being too warm. The peacefulness that Merlin felt flowed into me, easily overcoming the anger. He looked down at his hands and I saw that he was holding a cup of some kind of tea. “Merlin, what is this?” I asked in his mind.

  “One of the rare moments when Caedmon gave me a small moment of rest. He always disciplined me for outbursts of anger, but on this day, I kept it inside. I had a dream of something that angered me, and although I tried to hide it, Caedmon could tell. First, he had taught me to hide my anger, but when I did so, he taught me to let go of that anger. Just listen to the sounds around you. You’re not in a hurry, and no one is judging you. Take however long you need to relax.”

  I didn’t know how I had any time to relax at all, but I trusted Merlin. As the time passed, I felt the anger fade away. I wasn’t sure how long it took before I opened my eyes and found myself sitting on the floor in the tavern with my staff. Everyone except Merlin had left.

  The wolf sat across from me. “Do you feel ready to continue our journey?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Thank you for helping me.”

  “I always will to the best of my abilities.”

  “If I had more power, I could break your curse and then you could easily figure out what’s going wrong with me and everyone else’s magic.”

  “We will find the answer without magic.”

  “Well, we still need to use the mirror to find the next person on the list. Should we go by the list or by whoever’s closest? Or do you have an idea who we should go after?”

  “Go in order of the list.”

  I checked the list, pulled the mirror out of my bag, and pointed my staff at it. “Show me where the Sjau are.” My chest stung as magic flowed through me into the mirror and changed the reflective surface into a map. I knew Gideon Sloan was the second closest to Livia’s castle since Blue was gone. “That’s odd.”

  I turned the mirror for Merlin to see. He nodded. “One of the red dots is at Livia’s castle instead of Magnus’s. Mason must have gone to talk to her when he learned that she knew information about the Sjau.”

  “I can use the mirror to talk to him.”

  “That should not be necessary. We should make haste and find Gideon.”

  I nodded. I was going to trust him this time. “According to this, it looks like he’s on a small island far west of Livia’s castle called Akreda. I guess that means we’re going to need another boat. There are still fourteen red dots, though.”

  “Mason did say that when one of you dies, another is born.”

  “Yes, but the new Sjau is in northern Akadema. What if my mother figures that out and kidnaps her?”

  “Would your mother really want to raise another baby to get her power?”

  “I don’t think so, but I don’t want to bet her life on it. Let’s save her by dealing with my mother.”

  “Ayden, we are doing this to warn the Sjau, not defeat your mother. You are not ready or prepared to face her.”

  “But that’s the only way to make sure she doesn’t attack us like she did Magnus.”

  “By saving the Sjau, you can deny her their power. Your mother already has enough power, and certainly more than you have, so you have to defeat her a different way. You have to defeat her by using what you have that she does not.”

  “Which is?”

  “Kindness. Think of it this way; you selflessly help people. In turn, when you need help, someone is going to step in to help you. Your mother has more magic, but you have friends who can give you information, advice, warnings, shelter, or protection. Instead of trying to best her at what she does best, be the best that you can be.”

  Chapter 10

  We headed outside, hoping to find someone who could help us get to Akreda. The village wasn’t right off the ocean, but people still transported stuff.

  I was also hoping no one told everyone about me going all evil-sorcerer in the tavern.

  I stopped in front of an older man who didn’t look to be in a terrible hurry. “Excuse me, where can I find someone with a ship who can take me northwest?”

  “Northwest? The waters are not very safe northwest of here.”

  “So there’s no ship that will do it?”

  “I wouldn’t say that. There’s a town just west of here. I know some pirates have been there for almost a month now. Pirates will do anything for a price. I believe they’re leaving tomorrow, but I’m not certain. If you hurry, you might be able to catch them.”

  “Thank you.” I started to turn away, but he grabbed my arm to stop me.

  “I know you’re in a rush, but are you a wizard or sorcerer?” he asked, indicating my staff.

  “I’m a curse breaker.”

  “Oh. I haven’t heard of your kind before. You must be very rare. You may be perfect to help me, though. I’ve been trying to summon a wizard, but they rarely leave their castles and I can’t go to them.”

  “Have you tried a warrior?”

  “I need magic.”

  I glanced at Merlin, but he had a thoughtful expression. I did tell Merlin I wouldn’t use magic, but I couldn’t very well be a “curse breaker” if I refused to break curses. “I’m trying to avoid using magic, but maybe I can help. What is it you need?”

  “Well, it’s my mother… she’s been cursed.”

  “I can probably break it, but I’m still learning, so I’d need to see it before I can give you a definite answer. It also depends on if she has---”

  “No, no, I don’t need it broken,” he interrupted. “She enjoys it, so it’s fine, it’s just terribly inconvenient for the rest of us.”

  “She’s cursed, but you don’t want the curse broken? I think you should explain.”

  “Well, she thinks she’s a vampire, but she doesn’t have any teeth… so she keeps going around and sucking on everyone’s neck. I don’t want you to break the curse because she likes being a vampire. Unfortunately, she won’t eat any real food, so it’s affecting her health.”

  “So… you want me to give her fangs?”

  “Well, no… I don’t think that would be a goo
d idea, I just don’t want her sucking on people’s necks.”

  “I have an idea that will require no magic, assuming we can find the appropriate ingredients,” Merlin said. He told me his plan and the ingredients needed.

  “Can we do it and still make it to the next town by sunrise?” I asked.

  “As long as no one wastes time.”

  I turned back to the old man. “We need your hottest peppers, some rotten fruit, and lots of garlic. We also need a bunch of different red, edible berries. They have to be red and edible.”

  “I know where we can get it all.”

  We followed him into a small hut that was full of vegetables and fruits. The old man moved with surprising speed and gathered up everything I had asked for. Once he did, I used a mortar and pestle to mix the peppers, rotten fruit, and garlic into a very foul-smelling mixture. After pouring this into a bottle, I got another mortar and pestle to mix the berries in.

  The man was flabbergasted, for as far as he knew, I was making a very advanced potion. When the berries were adequately crushed, I poured the juice into a second bottle. I handed him the pepper potion. “Have everyone in the village put a dab of this on their necks. Your mother might bite them once, but she won’t for a second time. Then give her this one to drink.” I handed him the bottle of berry juice. “Tell her it’s a new blood-substitute that all the vampires are drinking. Tell her that she needs to drink it twice a month and then she can eat regular food like everyone else. You’ll need to do exactly as I did with the berries to make the juice.”

  “Thank you. No one else was willing to help us.”

  Merlin and I were offered a room for the night, but we didn’t want to miss the pirates, assuming they were still there. After that, we were directed to a specific road, as the main path was usually trapped by bandits. I was irritated about having lost Kirin, because he would have made the trip much faster, but I also knew that was selfish and I was trying to hold on to the old me. On the other hand, it wasn’t like I was selfless before. I wasn’t a wizard.

  * * *

  We reached the next town just as the sun was rising. This town was larger than the previous one and people were already setting up their shops, getting their tools out, and getting to work. Once again, I covered my face and hair. “Do you hear the ocean?”

  “Yes.”

  I followed him all the way through the town to the docks, where I only saw two ships. One was a fishing ship, and the other was a pirate ship. However, there wasn’t anyone on the pirate ship that I could see. “Now we have to find them, I guess. Where would the pirates be?”

  “Pirates on land? Most likely, they are at the tavern, probably harassing the wenches. I remember seeing it.” We headed back towards the middle of town. “I dropped the subject before, but I insist you eat as soon as possible.”

  Why does he keep telling you what to do?

  I pushed the dark thought away forcefully. Because he cares about me. “I’ll try.” As we passed between two houses, I saw a grassy field where there were several people with sticks, taking turns knocking a very small, round rock with the sticks. “That seems unnecessary.” One of the rocks fell into a hole and everyone else… clapped.

  “The dawn of sports.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I will explain later, when I begin teaching you to travel the worlds.”

  “If we ever do get to that point. I have to break your curse first, and I haven’t made much progress so far.”

  “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. You created the curse, saved me from Gmork, and prevented a paradox just by being you. When I first met you, I believed you were simply a nice, naïve, somewhat strange person. Now I know you are anything but simple. If you stay true to yourself and learn from my years of experience, you will be able to help anyone you wish.”

  “But I’d be able to help more people if I had more power?”

  “You might be able to, but you might also be unwilling to.”

  I stopped. “I don’t know why, but that feels very familiar. It feels like I should remember something I don’t.” After a moment, the feeling passed. “I don’t get why having more magic would make me unwilling to help people. As long as it’s not sorcery, I should still be me, right?”

  “Not necessarily. On Caldaca, having more power does not change you. However, you are a Sjau, and that complicates matters. On other worlds, it is said that power corrupts. Now, I know some people who used political power to help people, but I have known a lot more people to become corrupt.”

  “Is that what happened to Gmork?”

  “Possibly. Nevertheless, my original point was that you have come a long way since I met you and you should be proud of yourself. I am.”

  At that point, we stopped in front of the tavern and I was saved from having to respond. My family would never have accepted me no matter who I was, and I had never made anyone in my life proud of me before I met Merlin. Although I liked it, I didn’t know what to say or do when he said things like that.

  The tavern was rougher than the previous ones we had been in. For one thing, there was more broken furniture than intact furniture. Second, there were blood stains on most of the surfaces. It was also much busier than the previous taverns.

  “Do you see any pirates?”

  “How do pirates appear any differently than anyone else?”

  “This is Caldaca.”

  “Right. Then look for someone with a peg leg and a parrot.”

  That didn’t make sense to me, but Merlin was a world traveler, so I trusted him to know what he was talking about. Thus, I made my way through the tavern, trying to peer under the tables for wooden appendages. It was difficult because each table and each chair had four wooden legs.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man slap a woman’s butt. She jumped back, accidentally crashing into me and shoving me against another man. Merlin caught my robe to pull me back so I didn’t hit the floor.

  Unfortunately, the man I bumped into stood and turned to me in fury. He was extremely tall, burly, and hairy. He also definitely wanted to kill me.

  “You made me spill my drink. I’m going to kill you!” he growled.

  “Isn’t that a little bit of an overreaction? You can just get another one, which would be a lot easier than murder.” There were three other men with him, all of who stood up and pulled daggers out of their belts. “So, I see that you enjoy fighting in bars and I should have just run when I had the chance.”

  The man snarled and pulled a knife out. “You made me spill my drink. I’m going to kill you!”

  I felt something similar to anger rise up inside me, but it was somewhat calming, like confidence. “Yes, well, you already said that bit. Are you able to say anything else or is that beyond your mental capacity?”

  “Ayden, why are you provoking him?” Merlin asked.

  “I don’t know,” I answered in his mind. When the man took a step towards me, I dropped my bag and held my staff in front of me. Magic surged through me and the blue crystal lit with a sinister red glow.

  “You promised not to use magic except for in dire emergencies.”

  “He wants to kill me.”

  “Use your staff to defend yourself, but refrain from using your magic.”

  I forced the magic down. The first man attacked me, swiping at me with his dagger. I swung the staff at him and struck him in the arm. Unfortunately, it didn’t bother him at all. That was when the remaining three men attacked. Merlin latched onto the first man’s arm with his sharp teeth, jerking his head to cause pain. It worked. Man-one screamed and tried to stab Merlin. I stabbed the end of my staff into the man’s hand until he dropped the knife. Two of the men grabbed my arms. As the fourth man pulled back his arm to punch me, Merlin let go of the first one and pounced on Man-four.

  I side-kicked the man on my right in his knee and as soon as he let go of my arm, I tried to punch the one on my left in the face. Unfortunately, he caught my ar
m and yanked both of them behind me. Man-three stood, for he quickly recovered from my kick, and asked, “Why are you hiding your face? Do you have a bounty on your head?” He pulled off my hood and mask and grabbed my chin. “No, you’re worth more than some silly bounty. I saw a drawing of you, curse breaker.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  He laughed. “Sure you don’t.”

  “Are you sure it’s him?” Man-two asked, squeezing my arms even tighter. “I thought the curse breaker had a green robe. I also thought he was in Mokora.”

  “Curse breakers travel, fool.”

  Since I was the only known curse breaker, I wanted to know where he got that information.

  Merlin was a wise wizard, but he was in the body of a monstrous wolf. If he wanted to, he could have killed all four men with lightning speed. However, he was holding back because he didn’t want to kill them. Once Man-four on the floor stopped trying to hit Merlin and instead tried to protect his face, Merlin went back to mauling the first man.

  Man-three picked up his knife, which he had dropped when I kicked him. Merlin lunged at him, but Man-one grabbed Merlin by the head and wrestled him down. Man-three aimed his knife at my stomach and pulled his hand back.

  “Stop!”

  I vaguely recognized the voice behind me. I turned my head to see the first pirate I had ever met. “Bloodbath!”

  The pirate glared at the man holding my arms. “Let him go.”

  Man-two let me go and both he and Man-three backed away from me. “Sorry, Bloodbath. We were just defending ourselves,” Man-three said.

  “Nonsense. Ayden is the kindest sorcerer in existence. Obscenely so, sometimes.”

  “We didn’t know he was with you,” Man-one said. “The wolf, too?”

  “Yes, let the wolf go.”

  Man-one reluctantly obeyed. “We don’t want trouble, Bloodbath.”

  “Sure you don’t, Amir. You can’t sleep at night until you beat up someone smaller than you for no reason. If you didn’t have your friends to back you up, you wouldn’t stand a chance. All four of you should leave now.”