by Rain Oxford
As if I wasn’t confused enough, I didn’t encounter any zombies. Instead, I reached the center of town easily and found a few dozen civilians gathered around a pit. Several of the residents were shoveling dirt into the pit, where I saw a hint of metal. “What’s going on?” I asked the closest person.
The woman was middle aged, covered in dirt, and had a couple of scratches on her bare arms. “We are burying a necromancer.”
“What? Why?”
“One of our elders, Narcis, lost a granddaughter and tried to hire the necromancer to bring her back. When he said he didn’t resurrect children, Narcis locked him up. Then a group of zombies followed him and he refused to call them off! He wanted to run away and leave them with us.”
“But wouldn’t burying him guarantee that the zombies will overrun this town?”
“We are not fools; we covered his mouth so he can’t call them and we bound him with ancient plants that can drive away the dead. The zombies went away as soon as we bound him.”
“You angered a necromancer and then separated him from his servants?! You’re definitely fools.” A necromancer wasn’t able to do any magic without words, but the idea that they could die was unheard of. I only met two necromancers in my life and they were both kind people, albeit a little creepy. “You invited him here and then locked him up!” I glared at her and people started backing away from me.
Anger stirred the magic inside me into a storm and my sword changed back into a staff, the crystal burning with a deep red glow. I wasn’t easily angered, but this was bullying. Although my brothers tried to kill me many times, they were family and that was how they were raised. These people tried to take advantage of a man’s abilities and then tried to kill him for having those abilities.
“Sorcerer!” one of the women shouted. “He’s come to save the necromancer!”
The crowd scattered as the women tried to get their children into the burning homes.
“He’s going to turn us into toads!” someone yelled. This was definitely a wizard-friendly village.
I ignored them, approached the pit, stuck my wand back into my pocket, and waved my staff over the pit. “Lift,” I said. Magic surged into my staff. I imagined the large, half covered, metal cage lifting out of the pit. The magic that spewed from the crystal in my staff was white, not the goofy glittery form that my wand liked to produce, and the cage easily lifted out.
As the dirt fell away, I was shocked to see the necromancer. Except for myself and my aunt, every sorcerer I had ever met looked like a sorcerer. Every wizard looked like a wizard, every mage looked like a mage, every seer looked like a seer, and every magician looked like a magician. There was rarely any mystery as to what a magic user was. The two necromancers I met were similar to vampires in appearance; very tall, thin, and pale, with long black hair and matching robes.
This necromancer looked even less like his kind than I did; he was scrawnier and shorter than me. The cage touched down on the ledge right beside the pit and the dirt-covered necromancer reached through the bars. “Thank you, sorcerer! You saved me!”
I pulled my wand from my pocket and waved it at the metal cage, which was just large enough for the man to sit up in. Open. Obediently, the gate popped open, the cloth sack over the necromancer’s face fell loose, and he rolled out… right into the pit.
I turned and started walking back to the main road, not at all interested in making sure the necromancer got out alright. As I passed the huts, I waved my wand at them. Pink, glittery magic shot from my wand and doused the flames easily. I was certain the wand was both showing off and trying to embarrass me. Unfortunately, since the powers of the wand and staff merged, there really wasn’t much need for both of them, so one of them was always being neglected.
Before I reached the main road, I sensed the necromancer following me. I groaned, but didn’t stop or even glance at him when he caught up to me.
“Thank you for saving me!”
“You’re welcome. Now, if you would---”
“They were going to bury me!” the necromancer interrupted.
“I’m sure it wouldn’t have---”
“My name is Asiago, the Great Necromancer of the North.” He had shoulder-length, wavy, blue-black hair and dark blue eyes. He tried to brush all the dirt off his black robes.
“I’m Ayden.”
“Undoubtedly the greatest sorcerer of your land,” he prompted.
“Not hardly. How do you know I’m a sorcerer, anyway? I have blond hair.”
“You’re not the first sorcerer I’ve ever met in disguise. No wizard would save a necromancer.”
“I only did it because I didn’t like their treatment of---”
“And the way you put out the fires was so impressive.”
Not really. “It’s not a big deal. You don’t have to follow---”
“Where are you headed?”
“To my aunt’s house.”
“What a coincidence; I’m headed that way, too. We should definitely go together.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Why do you want to come with me? You don’t know me or my---”
“I owe you my life.”
“Keep it. I don’t need---”
“I don’t think you understand. I’m a necromancer. We take life debts seriously. A lot of people think we can’t die, but we can, just as easily as anyone else. You just saved my life, and thus, it is yours.”
“I don’t want---”
“Not forever, of course. It’s only until I save your life or die trying. You’re on your own after death.”
“That makes it sound like you’re free when I’m dead.”
“I like to plan ahead. So, why are we going to see your aunt? Is she an ally or a rival?”
I sighed. “I really don’t need any company.”
“Of course you do! Traveling is so lonely when you’re alone.”
I sighed again. “Fine. You can come with me as far as Red Rock, but that’s it.” I was regretting it already.
Chapter 4
The necromancer had calmed down a little since the village was out of sight, and other than complaining about his tools being taken, he was quiet. Necromancers didn’t use wands or staffs. Instead they carried candles, knives, incense, string, ashes, and graveyard dirt. “So, why are you heading to your aunt’s?” he asked, breaking the silence.
“If you must know, I’m going to request that she remove my sorcery.”
“What?! Are you insane?! Why would you do that?”
Mostly to keep him from asking more questions, I told him my entire story, from my brothers torturing me for not being a proper sorcerer to my decision to become a full wizard. When I was done, his mouth and eyes were wide with shock.
“You are insane,” he said.
“I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“Sorcery is in your blood, and you can use it without hurting people. I’m a necromancer and I don’t hurt people… much.”
“Our situations are not the same. Besides, if I weren’t doing this and trying to be a wizard, you would be buried right now.” Or, perhaps that was a negative. “Why were they burying you alive, anyway?”
“What’s the fun in burying someone if they’re already dead?”
* * *
“It’s just a shortcut.”
“We should stay on the road,” I argued, eyeing the dark forest with suspicion.
“But that will take half a day. Maybe even a full day!”
“If we get lost, it will take even longer.”
“You’re a sorcerer. Are you saying you can’t find your way out of the forest?” he asked.
This sounded eerily familiar. Still, it wasn’t a particularly spooky looking forest, and it wasn’t troll season. I couldn’t deny the fact that I often took shortcuts. Why, exactly, I didn’t know. “I guess it couldn’t hurt. You know this area, right?”
“Of course! I’ve been through this forest hundreds of times and I’ve n
ever been attacked by anything I couldn’t handle.”
I gave in and we left the road for the forest. I used my staff as a walking cane, mostly because I was worried about traps of some kind. It wasn’t very dark, so I could see where we were going, but there wasn’t much coverage from the hot sun.
“Do you ever wonder what happened to Thaddeus?” he asked me.
I nodded. My youngest older brother was the only one who ever showed me mercy, so when I teamed up with Magnus, I gave Thaddeus the chance to run. He took it, and I hadn’t seen him since. “I expect he returned to Mother to tell her that I betrayed the family. I wonder what she’s doing. She must be so angry.”
“Maybe your brother didn’t return home out of fear of repercussions.”
“She can find us anywhere, except perhaps Magnus’s castle. If she thinks all of them were killed by Magnus, then she may not be looking for Thaddeus.” I stopped walking as I felt hope for the first time since I joined Magnus. Maybe she doesn’t know I betrayed her. Maybe she thought I fought against Magnus, or that I just ran away. I had assumed that she was all-knowing, but Magnus had protection over his castle that made it impossible for people to spy on him. I entered the castle with every intention of defeating Magnus, so maybe my mother didn’t know I had changed sides.
I could use that to my advantage.
What was that? After a moment, the sound came again. Asiago started speaking, so I put my finger to my lips. It was something my father sometimes did and I was shocked when Asiago fell silent. The sound was softer the third time, but not further away. “There’s something out there.”
Asiago glanced around. “I don’t hear anything.”
He was right; it was quiet. Too quiet. “Where did the birds go?” I whispered. It felt like I shouted.
“What birds?”
“There should be birds chirping.”
The sound came a fourth time, and this was when I realized we had walked right into a trap. I didn’t even have enough time to think of a spell before ropes wrapped around my legs and jerked upward. Suddenly, I was hanging upside down in the air and Asiago was screeching up an awful ruckus, as he was hanging next to me. I reached for my wand, but my robe was in the way. Unfortunately, in untangling my robe, my wand fell.
“Stop screaming; I can’t think.” Asiago abruptly stopped talking and I reached for my staff. “Come on, staff. Come to me. I know you can.”
The staff ignored me.
“Can’t you do magic without your staff?” Asiago asked.
“Sometimes, but I don’t want to blow my feet off trying to break the rope.”
“Would you rather be eaten?”
“You could help instead of complaining!”
“I’m a necromancer, not a sorcerer!” A heavy footstep made us both freeze. “What was that?” Asiago whispered.
“Trouble.” I reached up to the rope around my ankles and squirmed, but it was no use. I heard the footsteps get closer and refused to look. I tried to get my wand and staff again, but neither of them leapt into my hand as I had hoped.
“Watch out!” Asiago yelled.
Too late. Something hit me on the head and the world spun. As spots formed in my vision, I caught a glimpse of the massive form about to knock Asiago out. It was as I feared; we were caught by a troll.
* * *
I woke with a terrible headache and something sharp digging into my back. I really don’t like trolls. It was dark when I opened my eyes, but my eyes focused after a moment. To my great surprise, I wasn’t tied up. Instead, I was just lying on some blankets on the floor in a cave. It wasn’t a large cave. I could see the scant light of dusk from the doorway on the south end of the cave. There was an oddly-shaped door, but it was wide open. A long table took up most of the east wall, while the blankets I had slept on took up the entire west wall. Asiago was sleeping in the north-east corner of the room.
I heard the troll moving around outside as I stood and found my bag, wand, and staff on the table. Aside from my things, there were jars of what looked like herbs and spices. Outside, I could see the troll’s huge back, which was almost blocking the cave exit. I could also hear the crackling of a fire.
Not wanting to alert the troll, I put my right hand over Asiago’s mouth before I shook him with my left hand. He jerked awake and tried to fight me off until he realized it was me. I removed my hand. “There’s a troll outside.”
“But it’s not troll season.”
“Well, someone needs to tell the troll that.”
“How long have we been here?”
“I can’t be sure, but it looks like it’ll be dark soon.”
I wasn’t expecting to see his eyes widen with panic. “How are we going to get out of here?” He scrambled to his feet, hit his head on the curved wall, and squawked in pain.
“Be quiet and calm down. It’s going to take patience to get out of here.”
“No, no, no. We have to go now. We shouldn’t have been here for this long.”
“We wouldn’t have been caught at all if you hadn’t insisted on taking a shortcut!” I hissed.
He glanced past me at the door and his face blanched. Knowing exactly what he was looking at, I turned to see the troll standing in the doorway of the cave. He was taller than a person, though not as big as a giant, with a slightly small head compared to his body. Although most trolls were quite fat, this one seemed to have more muscle than fat. His skin was gray, his eyes were small and beady, and his brown hair was very thin on his head. In fact, there was more hair in his ears than on his head. He wore a dingy white tunic and dark brown pants with a rope as a belt.
“Please don’t eat us!” Asiago whimpered. “Ayden, do something!”
Unfortunately, I hadn’t grabbed my wand or staff when I had the chance, and if I made a dive for them, the troll would certainly grab me first. I held my hand out to the staff. Come on, I thought. Please come to me. My staff either didn’t hear my thoughts, or it didn’t care.
To my horror, the troll reached over and grabbed my staff.
“Please don’t break that!” I begged.
He didn’t seem to notice my words and instead studied the staff like it was a fancy toothpick. I cringed when he licked the crystal.
“Ayden Dracre, do some sorcery and get us out of here!” Asiago yelled.
That got the troll’s attention; he glanced at Asiago before locking his eyes on me. “Ayden Dracre?” the troll asked. His voice was deep, but not as loud as I expected it to be.
“Um… yes?”
When he reached for me, I squeaked and put my hands over my eyes… but I wasn’t immediately picked up and thrown into the pot, so I spread my fingers to peek between them. The troll’s eyebrows were furrowed in a deep frown and he was holding my wand out for me to take. I took it carefully from his huge hand. Although I wanted my staff as well, I wasn’t dumb enough to try to take it from him.
“Nice to meet you, Ayden Dracre,” he said. “I am Yavo.”
“You… too? You aren’t going to eat me?”
“Of course not. Why would I eat you?”
“Because you’re a troll and trolls eat people. Right?” I asked, glancing at Asiago for confirmation. The necromancer nodded. “The last troll I ran into tried to cook me.”
Yavo laughed. Asiago hid behind me. “I have no interest in eating you, little sorcerer.”
I frowned, insulted. “Is it because I’m blond or because I’m too skinny?”
He laughed again. “Neither, little sorcerer. I have no interest in eating you because I’m a vegetarian.”
I almost heard Asiago’s jaw hitting the floor with shock. “You’re a vegetarian? As in, you don’t eat people?”
“That is what I mean, yes.”
“Isn’t that a little… odd?”
“No odder than a sorcerer who can only conjure apples and broccoli.”
I felt my face heat up with embarrassment. “Is that common knowledge?”
“Not that I know of. I met
your brother, Thaddeus, awhile back. He was good company and mentioned you when he found out I’m a vegetarian. You see, even though I don’t eat meat, I still like good tasting food. Unfortunately, my two favorite foods don’t grow around here.”
“Broccoli and apples?”
“Precisely.”
“Why did you capture us and bring us here if you had no intention of eating us?”
“I was not the one who set that trap; I only freed you from it. There are hunters in this forest. Although they wouldn’t eat you, you would have been hanging there for days if I didn’t let you go. I hit you because I can’t trust sorcerers not to attack me, but then I felt bad that I knocked you out, so I brought you back here, out of the path of hungry animals.”
In that case, I owed him. This was not the same kind of troll I’d met before. “Okay. I haven’t conjured apples and broccoli for a while because I’ve learned to conjure other stuff, but I think I can manage it. I need something to transform into…” I trailed off as Yavo set my staff down on the table, opened a jar, grabbed a wooden bowl, and dumped the contents of the jar into the bowl.
It was edible clay— a substance that wizards and sorcerers often used to create food because it could change flavor and texture easily. It was nutritious and didn’t rot until it was transformed into something else. It could actually be eaten as it was, but it tasted very bland and had the texture of thick, sticky mud.
Although I called it “conjuring,” it was really just transformation when I changed an edible substance into food. I could change meat into something like bread or potatoes, but I couldn’t change anything into meat because that required a sacrifice of an animal, which I had never been able to do. I had managed to transform things into tofu when I attained my staff, but Merlin eventually explained that it wasn’t real meat. Even though I learned to do some sorcery, killing was still too malevolent.
Yavo stepped aside and I approached the bowl. “Change into broccoli and apples,” I said as I waved my wand over the bowl. Glittery, sparkly, pink magic sprinkled from my wand into the clay and changed it into a bunch of apples and broccoli. It was so much, in fact, that it started spilling out of the bowl and I had to catch the apples before they hit the floor. By the time it finally stopped, the entire table was piled high.
