by Rain Oxford
She ran off into a small orchard of trees, so I hid my bag and staff under her bed, climbed over the ledge, and held up my wand. “Make it so the fall doesn’t hurt me,” I told the wand, more desperately than I would admit. I had climbed trees as a child, but I’d never fallen from this height.
Knowing I was going to lose track of Nimue if I didn’t hurry, I let go. For most of the fall, there was no sign of help from my wand. Then, right before I hit the ground, there was a pulse and I felt myself collide with something very soft. Of course, that immediately disappeared and I hit the ground unaided, but it felt like I had only fallen a short ways instead of the entire distance.
I tried to shake off the vertigo as I got up and followed after Nimue. The garden was beautiful and surrounded the castle. Only the tall, stone wall divided it from the outside world. There were sections of the garden with different types of flowers, bushes, and trees. I figured Gmork had the garden designed to make Nimue happy, because it didn’t seem like something the dark wizard would fancy.
When I finally caught up to her, she was kneeling next to a beautiful lake. In the middle of the lake was a fountain with white lights somewhere under water. Small, colorful lights swarmed over the water. I thought they were fireflies until one of them flew up to Nimue. Then I felt a sinking sensation in my stomach.
They were fairies.
“Please help me,” Nimue begged. “I accidentally cursed Merlin and took his immortality and magic away. Gmork is going to kill him! Please help him.”
“There is nothing we can do. We treasured you as our own daughter, but he belongs to the dragons. We even told you that loving him would be your downfall.”
The one who spoke to Nimue was small enough to fit in my hand. Her hair was glowing white, while a pink glow surrounded her little frame. Her white dress was more of a slip that seemed to dim and brighten with the pink glow. Surprisingly, her voice, though very soft, was not as high pitched as I expected from such a small creature.
“I don’t care! I will give up magic if I must! Just tell me how to save him!”
“We cannot, and neither can you.”
“Then tell me who can!”
“He will not live long enough for you to find someone who can save him.”
“Who?”
“Death.”
“Death? How can death save him?”
“This curse is not as simple as anything you have encountered. The only one who can break it is the person who created it, and they must do so because it is what they want most. It will also kill them.”
“It will kill Merlin?”
“It will kill the one who breaks the curse.”
Nimue slumped into the grass. “Gmork would never sacrifice himself to save Merlin.” She sat up as a thought occurred to her. “Gmork created the potion, but he used it on me to kiss Merlin. Does that mean I can save him?”
“No. It must be the creator of the potion.”
“I could never get Gmork to release Merlin from the curse, but there must be a way to protect Merlin.”
“Not as long as the dark wizard is after him.”
“Then give me a way to send him somewhere else.”
“There is only one way to save him.”
“How?”
Three fairies dived into the water, only to rise up a moment later with the syrus. “This is called the syrus. It is a very powerful box that can contain even the strongest magic, but it will also protect anything inside. Lock Merlin inside this and bring the syrus back to us. We will send him to another world and make sure someone can release and help him.”
“But he would never fit in this,” she said as the fairies lowered the box right into her hands.
“It is magic, Nimue. Using this syrus will be a betrayal of everything we taught you; it requires blood magic.”
“But blood magic is the darkest of all magics.”
“Yes, it is. First, you must smear your blood on the latch and offer it some of your magic. Then a passage will appear on the front, which you must read.”
“What does it say?”
“That will depend on you. It will guide you to what you need most. Once you read the passage, it will open using your power. The final component is a genetic sample of the person you are imprisoning.”
“Like what? He will be angry with me, so I doubt he’ll let me close enough to get some of his fur.”
“You will have to convince him to let you lock him up.”
“He would never leave me to defeat Gmork by myself.”
“Then you must do whatever it takes if you wish for him to survive. Once you put the genetic sample inside the syrus, he will be drawn into it. Bring it back to us, safely closed, and we will make sure he gets found by someone who can help him. It may take a very long time.”
“How will the person who lets him out know what to do?”
“People who are pure of heart will be able to sense him. If they are brave enough to listen, it will tell them how to open it. It is also much easier to release someone from it than it is to trap someone in it.”
“Will I succeed?”
“We are not fortunetellers. He is coming now. He can smell you.”
At that moment, I saw color in the corner of my eye and looked down. With horror, I realized I hadn’t maintained my spell. My clothes were visible! I ducked behind the closest tree as she turned around, but I knew she would spot me when she reached me. I discreetly waived my wand over myself. Make my clothes and everything else I touch invisible. I felt the magic stir for a moment before it stopped, leaving my clothes completely visible. I don’t care if it’s sorcery, just do it, I demanded silently.
This time, my magic obeyed. Just as my clothes vanished, Merlin appeared through the woods. He wasn’t running, but he was in a hurry. He stopped right out of Nimue’s reach. When she took a step towards him, he took a step back. I saw Nimue’s expression change as she made a decision.
“Why did you come back here to save me after what I did to you?”
Merlin made a soft grumbling sound as he tried to speak. When that failed, he growled with frustration. Nimue stepped back, fearfully, which bothered me. Merlin wasn’t about to hurt her, he was just frustrated. He was trying very hard to speak to her.
“Merlin, I’m sorry about what happened. Gmork tricked me.” She knelt and approached him slowly. This time, he let her. “I know you came to save me, but you can’t. Gmork will kill you.”
Merlin growled.
“I’m not going to let that happen.” She set the syrus down in front of her and opened it, revealing only the red velvet lining of an empty chest. She then took the ring out of her pocket that she had found in the pile of Merlin’s torn clothes. To my surprise, she twisted the black gem until it came off, revealing a sharp, small spike on the raw side. She pricked her finger and wiped the blood off on the latch.
Merlin growled again, his ears flattening.
“I know blood magic is wrong, but this is the right thing to do. You and I cannot be together. Gmork would never let me go.” She wiped the sharp point off on the hem of her dress and put her hands on the chest. After a moment, she let go and leaned forward. “What does that mean?”
I tried to lean over to read the script, but she was too close to it for me to see more than one small part. The eye is the window to the soul. I shuddered. How long is Merlin going to have to wait in there? The villagers I got it from said they had it for generations.
“This is called the syrus,” Nimue explained. “It can contain the greatest magic. It will keep you safe until Gmork is no longer a threat. The final thing I need to activate it is a genetic sample.” She quickly ran her hands through his fur before he jerked back. He was too late, though; several of his hairs were trapped in her fingers. “I know you will never forgive me for this and I expect you don’t really understand, but this is for the best.” She dropped the hair into the syrus.
When the inside of the chest started to glow, a violent wind began
swirling around us. Merlin suddenly pounced on her, causing them both to roll. I had already raised my wand when Merlin started to move. Before I could stop him, a massive tree landed right where Nimue had been an instant before. He saved her life.
And then he dispersed into dust and was absorbed into the syrus. The lid snapped shut, the lock turned, and it was utterly silent. I was the one who created the potion, even if it was to prevent a paradox.
“Merlin? Can you hear me?” I called to him mentally.
“Yes, Ayden.”
“Please don’t ever die.”
“Did you find out how the curse was made?”
“Yes.”
“Then we will find a way to reverse it and I will live just fine.”
I nodded, even though I knew he couldn’t see me. I was the one who created the potion, so I was the only one who could break the curse. For that, I was glad I’d come here and that Asiago destroyed the original potion. As bad as I was at listening to Merlin’s lessons and as confused as I was about my own purpose, I wasn’t a complete fool. Somehow, I was meant to be here. That first moment when Merlin woke as a wolf, his eyes glowed red and there was nothing of him in them.
I knew if I hadn’t redone the potion, the real Merlin would have been lost to that savageness.
Nimue was lying on the ground, where Merlin had left her, crying. She was supposed to take the syrus to the fairies, but she wasn’t doing it.
“Nimue!” Gmork yelled angrily. From the sound of it, he wasn’t far away.
I didn’t know how long it would take him to find her, but if he found the syrus before the fairies sent it to Caldaca, Merlin would be in trouble. After a moment, I heard the sound of people searching the garden. I gave up, grabbed the syrus, and ran back to the lake. This time, the glowing fairies were gone.
“Fairies!” I called as loudly as I dared. “I know you don’t like my kind, but I need your help. Merlin needs your help!”
At first, nothing happened. Then, when I felt panic clawing its way up my spine, a small, pink, glowing sphere rose out of the water and flew right up to me. It looked like the same fairy that spoke to Nimue.
It felt wrong standing before a creature of light magic. “I’m---”
“We know who you are, curse breaker.”
“So I can break the curse on Merlin? I thought you couldn’t see the future.”
“We are ageless and we can be on any world.”
“But I thought fairies hated sorcerers.”
“You were born of dark magic, but that is not who you are.”
“Really? I tried to be a sorcerer and I failed completely at that. Now I’m trying to do only light magic, but I’m just as bad. Merlin said it was because I’m fighting my sorcery.”
“For you to fulfill your destiny, you must be able to walk in darkness and still bear the light.”
“What does that mean?”
“You have the very rare ability to bring light to the very darkest hearts of your world, but you need both dark and light magic to do so.”
“Darkest hearts? You mean my mother? She can’t be changed.”
“Your destiny is not to change people but to free them.”
I held out the syrus. “We don’t have much time. I will try to find a way to be both a sorcerer and wizard. Please make sure he stays safe and finds me when the time is right.”
She bowed and the syrus lifted out of my hands. “We will.” She then disappeared with the box into the water.
I would do everything in my power to figure out how to break the curse without dying, whether it required sorcery or wizardry. Even if I couldn’t find out how to save myself, I would break the curse.
Chapter 18
“Ayden, we have a problem.”
“Why am I not surprised?” I heard Nimue shouting and, after glancing down to make sure I was still invisible, I returned to her. Gmork and Quinn were there.
“I don’t believe you!” Nimue insisted.
Gmork smirked. “Oh, it is quite true. Merlin is in the dungeon.”
“You already used that trick.”
“This time, it is true. Come and see for yourself.”
“Merlin, are you trapped in the dungeon?”
After a moment, he sheepishly answered, “Yes.”
I didn’t even bother waiting to see if Nimue was recaptured. Instead, I ran for the castle. Fortunately, when I found the small side door, no one was around to see it open and close seemingly on its own. “What happened?”
“Evidently, Gmork summoned me right after the past me was locked in the syrus, so he accidentally got the present me. He could not summon me before because my power protected me, but as a wolf, I am defenseless to his magic.”
I was running down the hall by then. I hadn’t found a dungeon the day before, but I assumed it was going to be on a lower floor. Suddenly, I collided with an unseen force and was thrown back. I groaned and cradled my throbbing head, which had managed to hit both the force and the floor.
“That hurt,” Asiago mumbled.
“Asiago?” I asked quietly. It made sense that it was him, I was just surprised my spell was still working on his clothes.
“You have no idea how hard it is to find someone invisible in a castle this size. I’ve been looking for you all night.”
“Why? Did you find something out?”
“Multiple things. For one, the dragon isn’t in the tower; he’s in the basement below the kitchens. Second, Merlin was down there. And third, dragons are not at all fooled by invisibility.”
I sighed and climbed to my feet, trying to ignore the dizziness. It occurred to me a lot of that was because of my constant magic use. “Did you find any food in the kitchen?”
After a moment, he grabbed my arm awkwardly. “That’s you, right?”
“Yes, that’s my arm. Who else is running around invisible?” He then pressed what felt like a small loaf of bread against my arm, so I took it. “Lead me to the dungeon.” Obediently, he grabbed the sleeve of my robe and pulled me through the halls. I quickly devoured the bread because, although I wasn’t hungry, I knew it would help recover my energy.
The kitchen was big, shiny, and not really any different than castle kitchens on Caldaca. Most importantly, it was empty, so Asiago led me to a door and started to open it. I put my hand on it and shut it.
“What’s wrong?”
“I need my staff to face the dragon, and it’s upstairs.”
“Why do you need the staff?”
“My dragon’s eye is bonded to it. When I fought the chimera, I somehow conjured a dragon. Maybe I can do that again. I’m going to try to contact him.” I studied the door as if I could see through it. “Merlin, are you in immediate danger?”
“At this moment, there is a dragon guarding my cell, and I am easily within reach of his flames. Because I cannot speak to him, I cannot convince him to let me go. However, Gmork is not torturing me or killing me right this second, so no, I suppose not.”
“I’m going to run up to Nimue’s room and grab my staff. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I turned back to where I thought Asiago was standing. “I’m going to go get my staff. Stay here and guard the door.” I left before he could argue. It didn’t take me too long to reach her room, which was why the door was open and Gmork was still with her. I was just in time to hear him tell her that he would let Merlin go if she promised to love him and never leave. She still didn’t believe he had Merlin, so she said she wouldn’t.
Gmork just smirked and left the room, saying that he would give her until sunset the next day to decide.
Then I was alone with Nimue, who sat down in the vanity seat. I went to the bed and grabbed my staff and bag.
“… reflection is the window…” Nimue whispered, obviously trying to remember something. “The eye is the window to the soul. The darkness is the window to the unknown. The reflection is the window to the unseen.”
With sudden clarity, I realized that was what she had read on the s
yrus. As she glanced up into the vanity mirror, I approached her quietly, hesitantly. I didn’t actually expect to see anything, and it didn’t look like she did, either. But she did see something.
Her eyes locked on mine and widened with shock.
I was very visible in the mirror. She stood up, turned, and knocked her chair over in her rush to get away. “I’m not going to hurt you!” I said automatically. I glanced down and saw that I was completely visible.
“Who are you?” she asked, panicking.
“I’m a friend of Merlin’s.”
She hesitated. “Prove it.”
“Well, you know him better than I do, probably. He’s been teaching me sor… I mean magic. He taught me the invisibility potion that I used to get in here,” I said, pulling out the invisible bottle. When she raised her eyebrow, I sighed. “Yes, that was silly.” I walked toward the vanity slowly, trying not to scare her, and tapped the bottle against the table. “I don’t have a lot of time. Gmork really does have Merlin locked away and I need to save him.”
“That’s impossible. I… trapped Merlin for his own safety.”
“It’s a very long story.”
“Please tell me. I want to help Merlin more than anything.”
I sighed and sat on the bed. When she picked up her chair and sat, I told her everything, from how I grew up, attained the syrus, and met Merlin, all the way up to the door in the kitchen. I constantly worried that Gmork would go back on his promise and attack Merlin before sunset, but every time I asked Merlin, there was no change. Fortunately, Nimue never once interrupted me, so the story wasn’t ridiculously long.
When I got to the part with the potion that cursed Merlin, I pulled out one of the spares and handed it to her. She was still holding it when I got done. “So, you can use this to cure him?” she asked.
“I have the recipe, so I can remake it if I need to. Hopefully, I can just burn these when I get home and use the recipe to create a way to break it.”
