The Dragon’s Price (The Sorcerer's Saga Book 4)

by Rain Oxford

  “Every culture on every world I have visited has a legend of a creature that punishes wayward children. They are spread in order to keep children in line. I am not surprised it is true here.”

  “I thought he only came on the first double-moon of the winter,” I said aloud.

  “He does,” the boy said. “I was brought here many winters ago. I don’t remember what I’d done wrong.”

  “He lets you go when you grow up, though, so at least there’s that.”

  “We don’t age. Like I said; there’s a curse. Until we learn responsibility, we can’t leave or grow up.”

  “We’re definitely going to find a way out of here, but should we take them with us or leave them?” I asked Merlin. “There must be a reason Namahage took them.”

  “How does that work when sorcerer children are encouraged to steal and cause mayhem?”

  “We’re not supposed to disobey our parents. Also, stealing is encouraged, but getting caught is unacceptable. Either way, their parents were unwilling to take care of them. They may be worse off out there.”

  “There is no right answer, because you cannot know all of the possible outcomes or variables. What does your heart tell you?”

  “To offer to take them with us, but not force them if they don’t want to leave.”

  “Then that is what you should do. It is dangerous, but the easiest path is not always the best one.”

  “When you’ve learned responsibility and Namahage deems you ready to leave, how does he take you back to your land?”

  “He arrives in a small boat.”

  “Has anyone tried to leave?”

  “How would we leave? Ride on the back of a seahorse?”

  “Of course not. Seahorses don’t come this close to land. I see your point, but what about this ship? Someone must have crashed here.”

  “A man had once crashed here, but he was eaten.”

  “We might be able to repair the ship and leave.”

  “I doubt there is enough useable wood left,” Merlin said. “Ask him if he has a cabin built of wood. We might be able to use it.”

  “Do you have a cabin?” I asked.

  “Yes. Why?”

  “We may need to use some of the wood from it.”

  “Berry isn’t going to be happy about that.”

  Chapter 7

  The magician, who we learned was named Shae, helped us to clear the debris away from the ship. It was not a massive ship; it was probably meant for a dozen people at the most. There was a compartment for cargo beneath the deck, but it wasn’t large enough for someone to stand upright in. On the side of the ship was its name.

  Happy Ranger

  To our surprise, its condition wasn’t as bad as we had first assumed, although it did have a few holes in it. Fortunately, the sail was safe inside the cargo space and only had a few tears. “We can patch this.”

  “With what?” Shae asked.

  “Sap and bark. We’ll have to kill a few trees, though.”

  “If it means getting off this island, I don’t care if we kill every single one. We just have to do it before nightfall.”

  “Why?”

  “The monster comes out at night.”

  “What kind of monster is it? Merlin, my monkey, and I all slept here last night and we weren’t attacked. Well, I was… visited by… something. It was about Merlin’s height, very skinny, with black, leathery skin, short wings, and glowing green eyes.”

  “Oh, that was just a sherky. Aside from being extremely annoying, they’re harmless. As long as we’re inside by nightfall, we’re fine.”

  “It might be the fire that protected us from the monster,” Merlin suggested.

  “But you went off on your own.”

  “What?” Shae asked.

  “Nothing. I was talking to Merlin. He’s a wizard from another world and I can hear him in my head.”

  “Oh. That’s creepy.”

  “Then perhaps there is no monster. It could be that they have overactive imaginations.”

  “Maybe on your world. This is Caldaca; it’s never that simple.”

  “You have a good point.” As he spoke, he stared at the sky.

  “What are you looking at?” I asked. The sky looked normal to me.

  “A storm is coming.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Well, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

  We got to work fixing the ship. Shae and I peeled strips of bark off two trees and used the sap to seal the holes in the boat. When the bark was in place, I used magic to harden the sap and waterproof it. Merlin had to keep redirecting my focus because everything from exotic flowers to amusing displays of the native wildlife distracted me from fixing the ship.

  “By the way, what is the name of this island?” I asked offhandedly while we worked.

  “Well, since we can never grow up here, we call it Foreverland.”

  “That sounds about right,” Merlin said dryly.

  After we were done, I returned to check on the monkey, who wasn’t doing any better. “I already gave him a healing potion. I don’t know what else to do,” I said.

  “His wounds have scabbed, which is a good sign. Unfortunately, there could be many problems under his skin, such as an infection, which the healing potion was unable to cure due to his natural resistance to magic.”

  “I know some plants that can help,” Shae said.

  “How? You’re not a mage, you’re a magician.”

  He frowned at me as if I had said something very silly. “I have no healing magic, but I still learned what plants help when we’re injured.”

  “Really? That’s a good idea.”

  “I have explained that to you numerous times, young sorcerer,” Merlin reminded me.

  “Oh, right.” Shae had already disappeared into the forest.

  “Follow him,” Merlin suggested.

  We did, although I didn’t see the point. By the time we caught up to him, he had taken off his shirt and wrapped it around his hands. We watched as he plucked a plant with thick green petals, each as large as my head. I reached out to help him pick more.

  “No!” Shae shouted, smacking my hand out of the way. “The leaves are covered with tiny hairs that sting and they stay in your skin for days.”

  Merlin and I stepped back. “How is it supposed to heal my monkey?”

  “We have to peel off the outside layer. The liquid inside is what helps you heal.”

  “Why not just get a mage?”

  “We don’t have a mage on the island. Well, we do, but he’s seven and hasn’t been taught to use his magic right.”

  “Speaking of which… you have a coconut on your head.”

  “That is rude, young sorcerer,” Merlin warned.

  Shae pouted. “There’s not a hatter on the island and it’s not like I can sew one out of cloth. It still works.”

  “How many people are here?”

  “There are eight of us right now. Sometimes there are more, sometimes there are less. Some children Namahage brought learned responsibility in a few days, while others took months or years. Berry and I have been here the longest. Rusty is the newest.”

  We followed him back to the monkey, where he stopped, pulled out a knife, and cut open the petal. Using his knife, he carefully peeled away the outside, revealing a clear substance that was shaped like a tongue. I thought it was gelatinous until he set it down, dropped his shirt-mittens, and picked up the clear part. He held it out for the monkey, who lifted his head just enough to open his mouth. Without any hesitation, Shae fed it to him.

  “He should be better by nightfall, but we need to get out of here before then or we’ll have to wait until morning.”

  The sun was getting low in the sky and angry clouds had moved in. A little rain wouldn’t slow us down, but an electrical storm could. “If the others are coming with us, we need to tell them now. Merlin and I don’t have time to spare.”

  “Stay here and get
the ship in the water. I’ll go and get the others. If I’m not back by sunset, leave without me.”

  When he left, I levitated the ship and pushed it into the water, far enough that it would be easy to push it the rest of the way, yet not far enough that it could sail away on its own. Afterwards, I left my wand and staff with the monkey and collected more coconuts while Merlin hunted for something he could eat. By the time I returned to unload the coconuts, the monkey was on his feet, stretching his wings. “Are you feeling better?” I asked.

  He screeched and wagged his tentacles.

  Merlin emerged from the forest. “I hope we can find better food on Kalika.” Thunder roared, not from the sky but from the trees. “What is that?” Merlin asked, growling.

  “Thunder birds. They’re warning us that lightning is forming in the sky.”

  “We need to leave.”

  Although I couldn’t see the sun’s position through the clouds, it was getting dark and Shae should have been back by then. “Do you think something has gone wrong?”

  At that moment, two boys emerged from the forest with bows aimed at Merlin and me. “Yes, Ayden, I do.”

  “You’re not welcome here!” the older boy said. He was about fourteen, while the other boy was around eight, and they were both covered in dirt.

  I reached for my staff, but an arrow struck the sand next to it. “Don’t try it, sorcerer. I can shoot you in your face before you can reach it.” The younger boy kept his bow on me while his older comrade reloaded.

  “I’m really starting to regret this disguise.”

  “I regret not teaching you to turn someone into a frog.”

  “I’m not here to hurt you,” I said. “We crashed here.”

  “Yes, we know. You crashed here and now you made Shae betray us.”

  “Betray you? In what way? I wanted to help you. Shae was supposed to tell you that we have a way off the island.”

  “No one is leaving the island!” the boy yelled, stomping his foot. The younger boy flinched, which suggested the older boy had a temper.

  “Are you Berry?” I asked.

  “Yes, and you’re not leaving this island.”

  “I really don’t have time to play games. Merlin and I have a quest to complete.”

  “You’re only making it harder on yourself if you anger Berry,” the younger boy warned.

  “What do we do?” I asked Merlin.

  “Whatever we have to that does not result in getting shot.”

  “Grab his staff,” Berry said. The younger boy did. Thinking quickly, the monkey put his paw over the wand, hiding it from view. Neither boy had seen it.

  “Are you a sorcerer?” I asked him. If he tried to attack me with it, it would rebound, since it was bonded to me.

  “No, I’m a seer.”

  “Ask him if he knows what is going to happen tonight.”

  “Tonight?”

  “Just ask him.”

  “Do you know what’s going to happen tonight?” I asked.

  He blushed.

  “What? What’s going to happen?” Berry asked, immediately suspicious of the younger boy.

  The seer shook his head frantically. “Nothing! Nothing’s going to happen; he’s just trying to trick us. He’s not a seer.”

  “Neither is he,” Merlin told me. “Either he was a seer who lost his magic, or he is lying about it altogether.”

  “Move,” Berry said, indicating with his bow where he wanted me. I started for the forest, followed closely by Merlin. “The… monkey thing, too.”

  “He doesn’t listen to me.”

  “Then I’ll kill him and---” He turned his bow on my monkey and I slapped him.

  For a moment, both he and the seer were frozen in shock. “You need to stop making enemies of stronger people.”

  “You hit me!”

  “You were asking for it.”

  He aimed the arrow at my throat. “Take it back!”

  “If I’m ever going to learn to do magic without a wand, now is the time,” I said in Merlin’s mind.

  “You have the power of words.”

  “He can’t be reasoned with.” There were many ways I had expected to be killed, almost all of which involved my mother. It never occurred to me that I would be killed by a child with a bow, a few steps away from my own weapon and staff. “My monkey has been injured. Merlin and I will go with you without fighting, but if you try to hurt the monkey, you’re not going to get what you want.” I had to keep my words nonthreatening. Considering he was making me mad and I was raised by a famously vindictive family, that was not easy. Explaining to him that he couldn’t shoot all three of us at the same time wasn’t going to work on him.

  “Fine! But you’d better not try anything.”

  We ventured through the forest until it was so dark I started tripping over things. Berry and the seer whispered on the way. It sounded like they were afraid of the monster.

  We finally reached a cabin… built in the trees. Obviously, none of the children were trained carpenters, because the cabin looked like it was going to collapse any moment. It was one cabin built between four trees with several rope bridges that led to three very small rooms. A ladder made of rope and pieces of boards led up to the cabin. There was a clearing between us and the cabin with a large fire crackling in a pit in the center. I wasn’t too worried because I expected Shae to explain the situation to Berry and leave with us immediately.

  At least, that was until I saw Shae tied to a tree at the edge of the clearing. “I don’t think your plan worked,” I said to him as Berry pointed his arrow at a tree next to Shae. I stepped up to it and allowed the seer to tie me up. Compared to my brother, he was an amateur, but that might have been due in part to his age.

  “I’m sorry,” Shae said. “We should have left when we had the chance. I had no idea Berry would turn on me like this.”

  Five other children, three boys and two girls, came out of the cabin to see what was going on. Two of the boys aimed bows at Merlin and me, so when Berry and the seer tied Merlin’s paws together, he didn’t fight them.

  “We can’t leave them out here,” one of the girls said.

  “Yes, we can,” Berry said. “They want to separate us, and then the monster will get us. I bet they’re working with Namahage.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” I argued.

  The boy looking down at us who didn’t have a bow pointed a sorry excuse of a wand at me. He was about ten. Purple magic shot at me. Since I wasn’t able to dodge or block it, it struck me dead on. My mouth sealed. Even though he was young, he was strong and well-trained.

  Silencing curses were very common in sorcerer families; it was usually one of the very first curses a sorcerer learned. My mother used it on me since the moment I was born until I learned to keep my mouth shut on my own. Because of that, it was one of the first curses I learned to break.

  “If we leave them out here, the monster will kill them. Even if they’re working with Namahage, I don’t want to be part of their death,” the other girl said.

  “No one has to die!” Shae insisted. “Just let everyone go and we can leave first thing in the morning. All of us can get out of here.”

  “I think… if we can leave, we should,” the seer said.

  “Be quiet, Cyril. You know we’re not allowed to leave.”

  “The monster doesn’t come out during the day,” Shae argued.

  “We are running out of time,” Merlin said.

  “I don’t know what to do about it.”

  “If you cannot convince them to let us go, you will need to use the magic I taught you without your tools.”

  “You know what happens when I try to do magic without my wand or staff. Please say you have a plan.”

  “As soon as they leave us alone, I will howl. The monkey may come or he may not. If anyone can talk them into letting us go, it is you.”

  “What monster is it?” I asked.

  All eyes turned to me. “I put a silencing curse on
you! How can you talk?” the sorcerer asked.

  I resisted my first response on account of it being rude. “I broke it.”

  “Without your staff? Impossible.”

  I could break small curses in myself without my wand or staff, but I was better with them. It was when I had to use magic on other things and people that I was reliant on tools. “What monster?” I asked again.

  “He looks like a man in all black,” Berry said.

  “With a tall black hat and sharp claws for nails,” Shae added.

  “And he has glowing red eyes,” Cyril said.

  “He has a terrible roar,” one of the girls said.

  “No, he doesn’t,” the other girl argued. “He’s silent; that’s why he’s so scary. You never know he’s there until it’s too late.”

  Personally, I thought a monster I could hear but not see was the scariest.

  “He punishes us when we don’t follow his rules,” the sorcerer explained.

  “What rules?”

  “We have to be inside by nightfall, we have to obey Berry, and we can’t leave the island unless Namahage comes for us.”

  “You have to obey Berry?” I asked.

  “He’s the leader. He keeps us safe,” Cyril said.

  “If he protects you, why are you afraid of the monster?”

  “We don’t have to worry about him,” Berry said. “You do. You broke his rules by trying to leave; if we give you to him, we’re showing him that we’re still good. He will let us live.”

  That made sense to me; Berry would have made an excellent sorcerer. “What type of magic user are you?” I asked.

  He blushed. “I don’t need magic.”

  “Oh, you don’t have magic? I’m sorry.” That explained why he was so attached to the others; he needed them. “How long have you been here?”

  “Stop asking me questions! We’re not friends!”

  “We can’t just give them to the monster,” said one of the boys with an arrow aimed at me.

  “It’s the only way to be sure he won’t punish us for them trying to leave.”

  “Then at least let Shae go! He’s one of us,” the older girl said.