by Rain Oxford
She nodded and smiled brightly. My heart skipped a few beats.
* * *
In the morning, I led Nimue back to the pit and retraced her steps through the forest. It did not take long before we found the spot where the horses had been spooked. From there, it only took a few hours to get her back to home. She invited me inside, but I turned her down. “Remember our deal; if I don’t fall in love with the wizard, you’ll teach me magic.”
I nodded. “I remember.”
* * *
I didn’t expect to ever see Nimue again. After a week passed with no word from her, I knew it was foolish to hope that she felt the same as me. I didn’t even know a lot about her, but I still couldn’t get her out of my mind.
Two weeks passed and I decided it was time to move to another world for a while. I was packing up my things when I heard a tentative knock on the door. When I answered the door, I couldn’t have been more surprised to see Nimue.
“Am I too late?” she asked.
I stepped out of the way to let her enter. “I thought you fell in love with the wizard.”
“I gave him a week…”
“And?”
“And he’s great. He’s kind, he’s respectful, he’s interested in my interests, and he’s even interested in teaching me magic.”
“Why are you here then?”
She shrugged and sat on my chair. “I don’t know. I like him, but there’s something… dark about him. He has servants, which I’m fine with, except for one in particular. Quinn is a creepy little wizard who leers at me every time his master isn’t around.”
“Did you tell your fiancé?”
“He said he would get rid of Quinn. Despite how polite he has been to me, I really thought he wasn’t going to let me go. I told him I wanted to wait to marry someone until I was in love. He didn’t say anything or even glare at me, but there was something in his eyes that told me I was angering him. Then I told him about meeting you… and he told me I should be with you.”
“What did you tell him about me?”
“That I couldn’t get you out of my mind,” she answered.
“Really?” For the first time in years, I didn’t know what to say. “And he just let you go?”
She nodded. “When I told him about you, yes.”
That seemed odd to me; there weren’t a lot of men I knew who would be selfless enough to let a woman like Nimue slip through his fingers. “What is his name?”
“Gmork.”
* * *
I explained how I had a friend from this world named Gmork. I didn’t think it was a common name, so I was very curious to know if Nimue’s fiancé was the grandson or great-grandson of my childhood friend. “Do you want me to introduce you to him?” she asked.
I considered it carefully. I pretty much handed her to the wizard, but he let her go and she came back to me. “Soon, but not immediately. First, I did promise to teach you some magic.”
She was very excited, so we began that night. Since she wasn’t experienced, I started with a few little tricks like turning small gems into gold and pulling swords out of stones. Nimue was enthusiastic about learning, so after about a week of her staying with me, I started taking her to other worlds. She made me see the universe with a new light.
Our relationship was platonic at first, and I felt she was too innocent for anything more. That didn’t mean I didn’t quickly grow to love her. Nimue was extremely considerate and always made sure I was happy. She listened carefully to everything I said as if I was exceedingly interesting.
About two months after she showed up at my door, we returned to her world so she could visit her family. She convinced me to go with her and her parents were very happy to meet me. Of course, they also thought she had run off and married me. Or, at least I hoped that was what they thought, because they asked us when we were planning on having children.
Nimue blushed deeply. I didn’t want to tell them their daughter was still available for them to marry her to Gmork, especially since I was pretty sure they could tell how I felt about her. We had a nice visit and then returned to my cabin… only my cabin was not empty.
I had placed a protective ward around it, and very few people knew how to disarm it. I opened my door and saw Gmork sitting in my chair. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that it was the same person I was friends with when we were children.
“Hello, Merlin,” he said calmly. He was taller, thin, less pale, and his hair was longer, but his eyes were the same vibrant green they were when he was a child. He also had a small, short goatee that made him look very different. On the other hand, it had been hundreds of years since I last saw him.
“How are you still alive?”
He smirked. “I could ask you the same question. You never came back.”
“I was trapped by another wizard and made immortal.”
He laughed. “Figures. I learned to maintain myself with magic.”
“How?”
“In due time, my friend. I think we have quite a lot to catch up on. Nimue, please give us some privacy.”
She looked at me and I patted her shoulder. “We could use some more healing herbs,” I said. After a moment of hesitation, she nodded and left.
“Do you love her?” Gmork asked.
I nodded. “Why did you tell her to come back to me? She was supposed to marry you.”
“I knew she was your type. I was going to insist she marry me until she told me she had already met you. She talked about you for days. She fawned over you.”
“She spent less than a day with me.”
“Well, you made an impression. I had hoped that you two would live out your long and happy lives together, but I had also hoped that you would have come to see me when she told you who I was. I thought we were still friends.”
“I thought you were long gone. I also wanted a little time alone with Nimue and I didn’t know it was really you.”
“Now that you do, do you want to continue where we left off?”
“As friends?”
He shook his head impatiently. “You know what I was working on when we last met.”
“Necromancy.”
“Exactly. I have found a way to overcome death. With our magic together, we could do anything.”
“Nothing good will come of it. I refuse to be involved.”
He stood with a sigh and approached me. “So be it.” He passed me to walk out the door.
“What happened to your mother?” I asked.
He hesitated for just a moment before leaving without answering me. Nimue returned and I explained what happened. When I was done, she didn’t say I did the right thing. She trusted me to do what I thought was right and nothing needed to be said. It was another reason why I loved her.
* * *
Nimue and I lived together for five years in perfect happiness. We traveled for a while and returned to my cabin when we got tired. Nimue never complained about or tried to exploit the fact that I was immortal. She made me enjoy things in life I had forgotten to care about.
I should have known it wouldn’t last.
It was a normal day when I returned home with four pails of water. Nimue was supposed to be preparing dinner, but I sensed something was wrong the closer I got to the cabin. When I saw the door open and a letter stuck to it, my heart sunk into my stomach. It sunk even lower as I recognized the familiar handwriting.
Merlin,
I changed my mind and will be marrying Nimue. She agreed to this and came with me willingly.
I crumpled the letter in my fist. I knew how to find Gmork’s home because Nimue had told me. The problem was that if she really did agree, who was I to argue? Gmork had always been a good friend.
But Nimue would have written me a letter herself if she left of her own volition.
I reached under my bed for the wizard’s staff I rarely used. While the staff was created as a means of concentrating my power, it could also be used as a weapon. It was about three feet tall, a li
ttle more than an inch in diameter, and made of dark wood. Every inch of it was covered in carefully carved magic symbols and sigils, starting at a skull with vampire fangs. The top of the staff was a silver oval that unscrewed in the middle, and the staff ended with a silver spike.
* * *
It took me half a day to reach the castle. The castle was white, towering, and symmetrical. In bright sunlight, it would look pearlescent and pristine. In the moonlight, however, it looked ghostly.
When I arrived at the gate, I saw a small man with a dark aura. He had shoulder length, oily, dark brown hair, pale skin, wheat-colored eyes, and scars all over his face and arms. His clothes were unkempt with patches and stitches.
“I am here to speak to Nimue.”
“Well, you can’t, so go away!” the man said.
“I will speak to her. If you do not bring her out peacefully, I will go in forcefully.” At that point, I saw Gmork coming towards us. The five years had not been easy on the man, but I figured that had more to do with necromancy than stress. I couldn’t help but to remember how happy he was as a child. “Why have you taken Nimue?” I asked.
“As I said in my letter, I changed my mind.”
“Why?”
“I realized that the only way to be happy is to take what I want by force. Nimue is mine now.”
“Does she make you happy?”
“She will.”
“Have you considered what she wants?”
“She came with me willingly. She will learn to be happy.”
“What did you do to make her go with you?”
“That is none of your concern.”
“Until I hear her tell me herself that she wants to be with you, I will do whatever I have to do to save her.”
“So be it,” he turned and walked back to his castle.
“You’re not getting in,” the small man sneered. “Even if you get past the wall, you’ll never make it past the dragon alive.”
I left without giving him a response and circled the castle, looking for a way in. The dragon was nowhere to be seen, but I highly doubted they were lying about it. I wasn’t terribly nervous, for I was immortal. Of course, I was still slightly worried, because I knew a dragon’s magic could break the immortality curse that Baltezore used on me.
I didn’t sense any powerful magic in place to keep me out. Then again, a dragon could do that job just fine.
* * *
I scouted the castle for three days before making my move. In those three days, I saw the dragon several times flying in the sky and knew it was preventing Nimue from leaving. Gmork wasn’t dumb; he knew I would have left if Nimue told me herself that she wanted to stay. Nimue was being kept against her will.
At sunset, I broke open the gate and marched right up to the castle. Servants of the castle tried to attack me. I struck a few with my staff as if it was a sword. I had been taught patience and wisdom from the greatest warriors of their day, but I had also been taught to fight. Even though fighting was a last resort, that didn’t mean I would never end up in a situation where it was necessary.
This was one of those situations. I would fight so Nimue didn’t have to.
About ten servants tried to rush me. “Hrista.”I slammed the base of the staff into the ground and focused my magic. The ground trembled violently and energy blasted outward, throwing everyone but myself and one other man off their feet. “Fall down,” I told him.
With a terrified squeak, the man dropped to the ground.
I walked past them all and the rest of the servants that attacked were nothing. Then, right before I got to the door, I heard a loud screech and ducked instinctively. “Hlíf.” I focused my magic through my staff once again. Just before the dragon’s fire reached me, an invisible shield of magic blocked it.
I turned around and backed myself against the wall of the castle as the dragon landed in front of me. If I tried to go into the castle without dealing with the dragon first, I would be showing disrespect and lose any chance I had of getting on the dragon’s good side. Instead, I knelt and bowed to the dark brown dragon.
Although he was smaller than Cennuth, he had long spikes down his back and tail, making him look a great deal more sinister. The shape of his head was also more like a serpent and his legs were longer and thinner.
“Why are you bowing, wizard?” the dragon asked. The ferocity and confidence in his voice filled the space and reminded me of Cennuth.
“I was raised to respect dragons.”
“Then leave now and I will spare your life.”
I risked looking up and meeting his eyes. “I will not. The woman I love is being held against her will by Gmork and I will save her.”
“You speak of Nimue?” he asked. I nodded. “Then why did you let Gmork take her?”
“I thought he was a friend. I know better now; dark magic only leads to hate and destruction.”
“Who taught you about dragons?”
“Cennuth, a dragon.”
“I have heard of Cennuth. If I let you go and you fail to save Nimue, she will be killed.”
“I will save her.”
“I will trust you because of Cennuth. Save Nimue and make sure the dark wizard cannot go after you, because if he does, I will make sure you die with her.” With that, he flew away.
I entered the castle and slammed the first guard that attacked me against the wall. “Where is Nimue?”
The guard struggled against me, so I pressed the sharp base of my staff to his chest. “She’s up the stairs to the left!” I let him go and he slid to the floor.
I fought my way to Nimue’s room without seeing Gmork or the small man. Although it was suspicious, I didn’t have time to hesitate. I ended up losing my staff along the way, but it hardly mattered. I reached the last door in the hallway, threw it open, and saw Nimue sitting on a bed.
Part 3
Ayden
Chapter 14
Before I even opened my eyes, I heard screaming. I could feel cold dread slither ominously down my spine. When I opened my eyes, I was somewhat shocked I hadn’t landed on my face, like Asiago had. More importantly were the villagers running around, shrieking, and yelling one particular word repeatedly.
The first sign that we weren’t on Caldaca anymore was that the houses around us were made of some kind of white rock. The air was thick and cold, so I wrapped my robe as tightly around me as I could. The sky was white with a blanket of clouds. It doesn’t look too different from Caldaca, just really cold.
More shrieking distracted me from my observation.
“Why couldn’t we have appeared in the forest?” It was all around us. I grabbed Asiago by his thin shoulders and pulled him up. “We need to get out of here, fast.”
“What are they saying?”
“I don’t know. Oh!” I pulled the pendant Vactarus gave me out of my pocket and fastened it around my neck.
One of the villagers stopped right in front of us, pointed dramatically, and screamed, “Witches!” at the top of his lungs, as if we were attacking him. Then he ran away.
I sighed. “Now, that’s just rude. I’m not a woman.” I tapped the light blue jewel. “Maybe this isn’t working properly.”
“What isn’t? I couldn’t understand him,” Asiago said.
“They’re afraid because they think we’re wizards.”
He scowled. “I get you with your blond hair, but how can anyone confuse me with a wizard?”
“Merlin said you can’t tell what someone is by their appearance here. There aren’t separate wizards, sorcerers, necromancers, and such. There are only wizards who can be good or bad and they can do all kinds of magic.”
“How dreadful!”
“We need to go,” I said. Several of the villagers were now advancing towards us with pitchforks and torches. We turned to run in the opposite direction, only to see a second mob closing in on us from that side as well.
“Do magic!” Asiago yelled.
I held up my staff. “Make us
invisible.” The staff vanished. I could still feel it in my hand, but it was invisible. We, on the other hand, were quite visible. “You worthless staff!”
“Do something!” Asiago demanded.
“I can’t! If I attack them, that would be sorcery.”
“I don’t want to die because you are afraid of your own strength!”
“You do something! Call a zombie to help you!”
“Do you know how slow they move?!”
One of the villagers wheeled out a cage from behind one of the strange houses. The cage was large enough for at least five grown men to stand in. A villager pointed his pitchfork at me and ended up knocking the torch out of another villager’s hand, setting a third villager’s dress on fire.
“The witches cursed us!” the man who caused the problem screeched.
I sighed and rolled my eyes.
“Get in the cage, witch, or we’ll burn you right now!”
“Alright, fine,” I said, calmly, surprising them. I grabbed Asiago’s arm and led him to the cage.
“What are we doing?” he asked.
“We’re doing as they asked.” He stepped up into it and I followed. A woman shut the cage and locked it with a key. They immediately started arguing over what to do with us. Some of them wanted to burn us, some of them wanted to hang us, and two of them thought we should be drowned.
“Tell me you have a plan to get out of this.”
“I may have a couple.”
“Then do it!”
I shook my head. “Have patience. Finding Merlin is our first priority. I assume he appeared here, so he might not be far.”
“That was over a month ago, though. He could be anywhere by now.”
One of the villagers rattled the bars of the cage door. “Hey! Are you good witches or bad witches?”
