by Rain Oxford
I didn’t want to move enough to spot my friend in case it scared the dragon away. “Do you think he might---”
“We do not need a hatchling assisting us. He is a liability at this age. It is time to head outside for the spell.”
I gently pushed the dragon aside so that I could sit up. The dragon wasn’t having it, though; he hopped onto my shoulder and curled himself around my head so he could rest comfortably.
I restrained another squeal of excitement… barely.
I carefully stood and we headed outside, leaving my wand, staff, and bag behind. The house was quiet because all my cousins and their mothers had left the night before. I froze the moment I opened the front door. “Is that snow?! That’s snow! Merlin! It snowed!” Irritated, the dragon smacked me in the head with his wing.
Merlin laughed. “I give it ten minutes before you are sick of it.”
I stepped out and bent over to touch the snow. It was so cold and white. The dragon chirped with irritation. “I don’t think the hatchling likes it.”
“Reptiles are coldblooded creatures; their bodies cannot retain heat. Dragons might be different considering that they can create fire, but it could explain the hatchling’s response. Leave him inside.”
I reluctantly went back inside, pulled him off my shoulder, and set him on the couch. “Wait for me, please. I want to talk to you later.” I hurried back outside. I didn’t have time to play in the snow, because it was just moments from dawn.
Merlin brushed snow off the boulder and leapt onto it, facing east. I took my place across from him.
“Are you ready?” I asked.
He dipped his head in a nod. “Do it now.”
“Spirits of fire, water, moons, air, and every other power that be, let your child of nature now speak aloud to me.”
I felt magic course through me. Strangely, it wasn’t searching for an outlet. The sigil and runes on the boulder began glowing. My magic flowed out of me into the rock and Merlin, which was so strange. I felt Merlin’s presence in my mind as a gentle reminder to focus.
Then the symbols stopped glowing and my magic settled. Nothing looked any different. “Did it work?” Merlin cleared his throat before trying to speak.
It came out as a grumble. “It appears not,” he said solemnly in my mind.
“I’m---”
“Do not apologize.”
I sat in the snow. The shocking cold tried to distract me from drowning in depression. “Why can’t I do it? I believe in myself, Nasku explained it well, and I should be powerful enough. I’m a Sjau, and a Dracre. Why did I fail?”
“You have not failed until you give up. Continue to try again when we have time and I am certain you will eventually succeed.”
Heavy snow flakes began to fall. “Maybe I needed my wand or staff. Maybe I needed to focus or visualize something.”
“Nasku would have told you if you needed anything else. The unfortunate truth is that magic is not always reliable. Come inside now, before you get sick.”
My legs were either frozen or numb, because I couldn’t bring myself to stand. “What if I can’t save magic? Why does it have to be me?”
“I said the same thing when Cennuth told me I was destined to end the war on magic.”
I didn’t jump when I felt a robe being draped across my shoulders. “We all have our roles in this world,” Shaerl said, patting my shoulders gently. Her departure was as silent as her arrival.
* * *
Although I promised to find a way to travel without a boat, there were few options on the Rynorm’s island. Fortunately, Malaki’s wife was a mage, much to my surprise, and made another potion for Merlin. I wanted to ask her how a mage and a sorcerer could be married, but Merlin warned me not to.
Even though I wasn’t expecting any success, we decided to take the boulder with us and keep trying.
After bidding my father’s family farewell, we returned to the ship and I levitated us (and the pumice boulder) into it. Levitation wasn’t nearly as strenuous or dangerous as using magic to transport us. It took longer than I would have liked to make it past all of the Kalika islands because there were a number of ships we had to maneuver around. Once our path was clear, I used my magic to make us go faster.
At least Merlin’s potion worked.
Chapter 10
The trip was uneventful, so Merlin manned the ship most of the time while I practiced visualizing my wand and creating a ward without my staff. Several ships passed us, and every one of them had to stop so the crewmembers could gawk at the wolf that was sailing a ship.
Every morning at dawn, we tried the spell to give him back his speech, and every time, nothing happened except for some glowing.
We soon arrived at Delkim, which was similar to Red Rock in appearance. It was easy to find a port, but as soon as we docked, a man in a dark green uniform prevented us from leaving the ship. “There is a fee for docking on Delkim.”
“A fee? Why?”
“The entire land is under rule of the king. In order to keep the land tax down, he requires a fee for docking here.”
“We can find another ship to travel with later,” Merlin said.
I nodded. “Do you want to buy it from me?”
He frowned at the patches. “No.”
“I’ll buy it!” a man said, running down the dock. His face and hair were concealed by his hood. He had pulled a sack of coins out of his pocket by the time he reached us and shoved it into my hands. “It’s all I have.”
I stepped out of the boat, checked the bag, and gaped. There was enough gold in it to buy the entire island. I checked it for a curse, but there was none. “This is way too much.” He had already jumped into the boat and was sailing away. I put it in my bag and groaned, because the weight of it was going to slow us down. “We left the boulder.”
“It hardly matters. We were beating a dead horse anyway. If it did not work the first---”
“We were what? In what way were we beating a horse and why was he dead? Was this a dream you had? Can we save the horse?”
Merlin laughed. “It is an expression.”
Like Red Rock, the town was crowded with inventors. “Maybe people would survive the loss of magic.”
“The best inventors are the laziest people. Your society might survive without magic after a period of adaptation. However, the majority of your population would be wiped out by disease and natural disaster.”
I asked a few random people if they knew where she was, but no one did. Merlin and I decided to get out of town and use the mirror again.
We reached a crowd of people and started making our way through before I happened to see what everyone was gathered around. Three women, a man, and a child were tied to separate stakes over piles of hay.
“What’s going on?” I asked the closest person.
“The sorcerers have cast a widespread curse. Now everyone is losing magic. They have gone too far this time.”
“This isn’t a curse!” Before he could respond, I shoved my way through the crowd until I reached the warriors who were keeping the crowd back. “Let them go!”
“Stay back, wizard,” a man said. He wore a green uniform matching the one the man at the dock wore. I assumed it had something to do with the kingdom.
“What have they done to you to warrant death?”
“Sorcerers have cursed the entire world. We must kill them all if we want to save magic.”
“This is not a curse!”
“How would you know?”
“I’m the curse breaker of Mokora.”
“I’ve never heard of you.”
“I have,” one of the warriors said. “There are flyers about him all over town. He’s got a wolf, though and…” At that point, Merlin joined me. “He is the curse breaker!”
People gave me space and to my surprise, even the warrior looked unsure what to do. “Let them go.”
“If they didn’t curse us, why are people losing magic?” the man in the uniform asked.
“Do I tell them the truth?”
“Not about the egg or dragons. Keep it simple.”
“The reason people are losing magic is that our world is losing magic.” Panic, shock, and denial rippled through the crowd and they became so loud I couldn’t be heard over them.
“Arrest him for… for treason!” the man shouted.
I pointed my staff at him.
“This is not the time for violence,” Merlin cautioned.
So I pointed the staff at the restrained victims instead. Let them go. Magic flowed into the ropes and loosened them until the sorcerers could wiggle free, but the spell didn’t end there; like snakes, the ropes turned and shot through the air, quickly wrapping around the man until he couldn’t move a finger.
“Interesting tactic,” Merlin said.
Each of the sorcerers thanked me and disappeared into the crowd. When two of the warriors began cutting the man in the green suit free, Merlin and I hurried on our own way.
We passed a group of people arguing over what to do about magic, so we paused to listen to their ideas. Some of them were saying that magic was a limited resource and we needed to preserve it. Some said that we abused magic and needed to respect it more. A few of them even suggested that we go back to worshiping dragons.
It was a relief when we finally made it out of town.
* * *
“According to this, she’s in the castle of King Flourisho. We’re in the outlying lands of the kingdom, and we should make it to the castle by nightfall. I kind of want to sleep in a soft bed tonight.” I put the mirror back in my bag.
“I have no problem with that.”
“You’re not going to make it,” a familiar voice said.
I reached for my staff automatically, but Sven was faster. He stomped his foot on my arm. With my other hand, I retrieved my wand from my robe pocket, and unleashed my magic freely. Fire burst from the wand, but with a simple gesture of his hand, the fire was doused. I leaned back as far as I could, using the momentum to swing my right leg forward and kick Sven in the chest. He wasn’t prepared, so he fell back, groaning with pain. I snapped up my staff and focused my mind on a curse I had been on the receiving end often. Red magic shot out of my staff and struck Sven. He shouted, dropped to the ground, and convulsed.
“Watch out!” Merlin shouted in my head. Before I could turn to him, I saw what he was warning me of.
Kalyn appeared in front of me… and then to the right of me… and then to the left of me.
It was an illusion, but one of them had to be real. I focused my power again and white magic burst through my wand to shield Merlin and me in a ward. Fortunately, Kalyn apparently wasn’t familiar with wards, because she walked through it. Her magic couldn’t pass the shield, so her doppelgangers vanished.
“How did you break my spell?” she asked.
I ignored her, as Sven was already overcoming my curse. I held out my staff. Sword! Obediently, my staff transformed into a sword, which was pointed at Sven. However, I couldn’t focus on both spells at once, so my ward fell. Kalyn transformed into a huge brown bear. When she swiped at me, Merlin pulled me back by my robe.
I slashed with my sword and cut her across her furry stomach, causing her to screech with pain. “I’m sorry,” I said automatically. Merlin lunged at her, easily slamming her to the ground. He landed on top of her, snapping his jaws and digging his claws into her chest. “Merlin!”
He ignored me. Kalyn tried to shove him off, but he was a lot more agile, and the more she struggled, the more he fought.
“Merlin, that’s enough! You’re going to hurt her!” Since he obviously couldn’t hear me over his own growling, I dropped my sword and wand, wrapped my arms around his neck, and pulled him back. He shook himself hard before relenting.
“Ayden, never, ever grab a wolf like that! I could have killed you in half a second!”
The anger in his voice stunned me; he’d never been mad at me before. Kalyn took advantage of my shock, shifted back into a person, picked up my sword, and pointed it at my back. Although the staff wouldn’t hurt me with magic, I had no doubt it would stab me just fine.
I raised my hands in surrender, too confused and upset over Merlin’s anger to think of a spell to defend myself. My mother had been angry with me numerous times, but for some reason, Merlin’s anger made me feel sick to my stomach.
And then I got angry back.
I had stopped him from killing someone. Kalyn was working with Sven, but she could be reasoned with. She deserved a chance to help us save magic.
I focused my mind on that anger and leaned back until the blade was pressing painfully into me. My robe was thick enough to cushion the sharpness, but that also made it harder for my plan to work. Please understand what I’m doing, I thought to my staff, pushing my energy out. Turn her to stone. I imagined what I wanted my magic to do as it shot from me into my sword. I felt the blade dull as it reverted to its true form.
Regrettably, she dropped it. With the physical connection between the staff and me broken, the magic lost its focus and exploded. I rolled forward too late, flattened myself on the ground, and covered my head as rocks rained down. My robe saved me from being burned, but not from the heavy rocks.
“Merlin? Are you hurt?” I asked, lifting my head. I couldn’t see him through the cloud of dirt in the air.
“No, I am uninjured. Are you?”
“I’m fine.” My hands were bleeding, but that was hardly the worst injury I’d ever had. I sat up and reached for my staff.
“Stop!” Sven demanded, just as the cloud cleared.
I froze, for he was standing over Merlin with a blade pressed against the wolf’s throat. “What are you doing?” I asked. “He’s not your enemy.”
“Without him, you’ll have no chance of stopping the death of magic.”
“Don’t hurt him. We can work something out, but if you hurt him, I will have nothing to do for the rest of my days but make you pay.”
“You don’t have the guts to---”
“If you spill a drop of his blood, I will kill your wife myself!”
He froze. “You’re lying.”
Of course I was lying. No matter how terrible Sven was, I couldn’t kill an innocent person. However, Sven had seen me when the raven’s curse had complete control over me, so there had to be at least a small part of him that believed me. “I will go to my mother, offer her my magic in exchange for her giving me your wife. I am a Dracre.”
He moved the dagger so it wasn’t pressed against Merlin’s throat, but he didn’t put it away. “Kalyn, take his bag.” I heard her picking it up. A moment later, she entered my field of vision and held it out for him. “Get the mirror,” he said. She searched it, pulled out the magic mirror, tossed the bag aside, and handed the mirror to Sven. “As long as you don’t try to save magic, Merlin won’t be hurt.”
I kept my mouth shut. I wasn’t foolish enough to argue with him, but I had promised Cennuth. In fact, the ancient dragon pretty much owned me. I just didn’t have to tell that to my kill-happy adversary.
“Grab his wand and staff, too,” Sven added. Kalyn stepped behind me again.
I expected her to attack me from behind. I expected Sven to suddenly stab Merlin. I expected them both to disappear. I half expected my mother to appear.
I wasn’t expecting the ground to suddenly growl like a dragon and shake. Kalyn screamed, Merlin ran towards me, and Sven shouted with shock. None of us could stay on our feet. It was like the dirt was liquid and the trees that didn’t collapse swayed violently. I rolled to my staff and grabbed it, but as I did, I glanced up at a massive tree that was coming down… right on top of Kalyn and Merlin.
I didn’t think; I ran to Kalyn, pushed her towards Merlin, knelt between them, covered Kalyn’s head, and held up my staff. It seemed impossible that I had moved so fast, but before I realized what I was doing, I was pulling strength from Merlin forcefully. Every fiber of my being demanded that the staff save us.
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“Skjǫldr!” Merlin and I both said it, felt it, and visualized it simultaneously. Power burst from me with a force that could only be dragon magic.
The tree froze above us and then… vanished.
It was at that point that I realized the ground had stopped shaking. Instead, Kalyn was shaking. Sven was gone. “What did he do? I’ve never seen a sorcerer powerful enough to shake the world.”
“That was not magic, it was a quake.”
“What’s that?”
“You have never heard of a quake before?” I shook my head. “It happens when the tectonic plates slide. This is also the cause of mountains.”
“When what slides?”
He sighed. “It must be another thing magic protected Caldaca from.”
“You mean there are going to be more of those?” I screeched, nearly hysterical.
“Yes. We will also most likely experience aftershocks.”
“I don’t…”
“Smaller shakes usually follow the main quake, but the likelihood and severity decreases over time.”
“He left me,” Kalyn muttered.
“Sven’s not a nice man.”
She looked up at me, still trembling. “You saved me. Why? Why would a sorcerer save his enemy?”
“I’m not just a sorcerer. As for why…” I shrugged. “…because I did. I don’t know why.”
I stood and held out my hand for her. She took it, tentatively, and I helped her up. “I’m not one, either,” she said hesitantly.
“Sven has the mirror; he can spy on us now,” I said to Merlin.
“No doubt that was his intention in coming here.”
“What do we do about Kalyn?” I asked in his mind. “She isn’t a sorceress and can’t transport herself away.”
“Too bad she is not a necromancer. We could use a life debt on her. We should leave her here to make her own way.”
I nodded. “I don’t know what the quake was or why it happened, but it has to be because of the black star.”
“I agree. You probably have not heard of them for the same reason you have not heard about volcanoes.”
