“The shadowing incantation gets its name because it is an incantation that casts an invisible blanket over a region of land to affect a large number of people at the same time and it is always combined with another incantation; however, there are very few incantations that will work with the shadowing incantation. The shadowing incantation’s effective range will be at its maximum during the full moon as well, and since our ancestors had wanted the greater number of the population affected, the shadowing-truth spell was cast during a full moon.”
“So what were the selected memories that were turned into vague dreams?” Ellen asked.
“Anything associated with wizards and witches were made to be remembered as dreams, and the storytellers of the time had thought that they had dreamt up the perfect storyline for their fictional tales. King Henry the Fifth and his soldier were even affected. In fact, the only ones who weren’t affected were the witches and wizards.”
“And so King Arthur and Merlin became known as legendary characters,” Ellen added.
“Exactly,” Shannon confirmed.
“So what are the other incantations that can be combined with the shadowing spell?” Ellen asked.
“The famous dragon’s breath incantat…” Shannon was only able to get out.
“Dragons!” Ellen interrupted with. Shannon gave Ellen a curious look. “Are dragons real?”
Shannon amusingly grinned before answering, “Again I can’t give you a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ answer, but dragons are rumored to be true. Now to get back to your earlier question, the dragon’s breath incantation is one of the incantations that uses the shadowing spell… there are more, but that is the only one that comes to mind.”
“Does Harry know any?” Ellen asked Shannon.
Harris was listening to what was being said and replied, “I don’t.”
“That answers that,” Ellen retorted with a slight grin.
“So is there anything else that your inquiring mind would like to know now?” Shannon asked.
Ellen thought for a second before asking, “What exactly is the dragon’s breath incantation?”
“I can’t remember where it is within the volume, but the volume that you’re holding talks about it.” Ellen glanced at the volume as Shannon continued with, “It talks about how some people believe that the dragon’s breath incantation is a dragon summoning spell, while others believe that the incantation is a version of the liken incantation that changes a selected group of people into dragons. Even others believe that it does something else entirely.”
“So no one really knows what the dragon’s breath incantation really does?” Ellen questioned.
“No,” Shannon agreed. “However, whatever the incantation does, the volume mentions that Merlin and two other wizards prior to Merlin’s time were the only wizards who were able to make the dragon’s breath incantation work.”
“So how old is the dragon’s breath incantation?”
“It’s believed to be well over two thousand years old. It was then lost or destroyed at the very beginning of the Wizard Wars.”
“If no one knows what the dragon’s breath incantation does then how do you know that it uses the shadowing incantation?”
Shannon grinned before saying, “The shadowing incantation had derived from the dragon’s breath incantation.”
“Oh, so that’s why the dragon’s breath incantation was the first incantation that you thought of that was associated with the shadowing incantation,” Ellen accused.
Shannon grinned and nodded before asking, “Is there anything else you would like to know now?”
Ellen again thought for a second before saying, “I can’t think of any, but I’ll ask if I do.”
“Mmm, I’m sure you will,” Shannon retorted with an amused grin.
Ellen slightly raised the volume before saying, “Well, I’ll get back to my reading.”
When Shannon nodded, Ellen turned her attention back to the Legacy volume.
Chapter Four
(Randolph’s handwriting)
If too much blood is used though, the liken becomes venomous and a venomous liken will forever change into the selected animal beneath the moonlight of the three moons. (The night before the full moon, the night of the full moon and the night after the full moon.)
The two wolf-likens that were sent last night were intelligent. They were after Elizabeth and me, and not to devour every living thing in their path. They would have attacked and killed us last night too just after the sun had set if it hadn’t been for Elizabeth’s obsession to give every animal in the world an individual name.
The white cow we used to own with one brown eye was called ‘Freckle-eye’. One of the roosters we had was called, ‘Crows-a-lot’.
When we first came across the pack of fourteen wolves yesterday, Elizabeth took most of the day observing the wolves and then naming them from what she had observed. The second biggest wolf of the pack is now called ‘Coward’. In spite of Coward’s huskiness, he would scamper away from confrontations with his tail between his legs. One of the females is called ‘Mother’ as she seems to like cleaning the other wolves’ ears.
I can’t remember what the other twelve wolves’ names are, but when the two likens had showed up, Elizabeth noticed right away that they were new arrivals. At first we just thought that the two new wolves were just rejoining their pack from being gone all day. And I think that was what the members of the Raven Coven were hoping for.
Anyway, as Elizabeth was observing the likens in order to name them, she noticed that the two were acting more like well trained ‘War-dogs’ than wolves. War-dogs are dogs that are trained by soldiers to fight an enemy alongside the soldiers, and normally War-dogs are killed before becoming well trained.
So when Elizabeth brought the likens’ peculiar behavior to my attention I also started to observe them as well. Within a short time, I realized to what they might be, and to test if I was right, I attempted to control them.
Even though I was tired, I still had full control over the beasts of the land—although the almost full moon might’ve been the reason for that. In any case, as long as I have full control over the beasts, the only beasts that can resist me are humans and likens, so it was no surprise to me that when I attempted to control the two wolf-likens, I failed.
Elizabeth noticed what I was doing, and although she didn’t understand what was going on at the time, she too saw that I had no control over the likens.
The likens immediately attacked once I had tested them, but before they had a chance to reach Elizabeth or myself, Elizabeth and I both ordered the wolves to attack the likens. The wolves obeyed.
Within minutes one of the likens was pulled into a dozen pieces. The other suffered bite wounds covering most of his or her body before he or she fled into the night while leaving a trail of blood that showed his or her path.
My guess is that the liken will die from the lack of blood long before he or she could report to the Raven Coven. So when the wolves were about to chase the liken, I ordered them to stop. If there were any other members of the Raven Coven in the area, they wouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of the wolves being gone.
As things were calming down, or at least I thought they were, Elizabeth screamed. When I had turned to see what was going on, she was staring at human body parts, which had shifted from the liken chunks to the human body parts before her eyes.
The liken was a he. Someone Elizabeth and I knew from the village that we had occasionally gone to. I quickly ran to her side and explained to her what had happened.
To get the body parts out of sight, I ordered the wolves to dig a hole and bury them.
The remainder of the night was uneventful, and when morning had come, Elizabeth and I, along with the pack of wolves, moved north towards the Clover Coven.
It’s presently one hour before sunset and currently calm. Elizabeth is watching a rabbit cooking over a flame for our evening meal. The meal before that, several miles back, we ate
apples from an orchard.
The moon is full and currently visible. Once the sun sets, I hope we don’t get anymore liken visitors; however, this time, I’m ready for them. I still can’t figure out why the Raven Coven is so focused on destroying us. Perhaps the members of the Clover Coven know.
In any case, I should run through our history while I’m waiting for the meal to be cooked.
There once lived a very powerful wizard name Merlin. In the volumes that I had to abandon, it states that Merlin’s father came to this land from another realm. I don’t know what that means personally, but that was why Merlin was born with great powers. In any case, he had powers over the Earth, Air, Fire, Water and all of the beasts of the land. Other wizards or even witches couldn’t match his powers; however, any child he would father could. Merlin, while believing that he was on the side of good, feared that any of his children could grow up on the side of evil and would eventually challenge him.
To prevent this he had cast a spell on himself. Each time he would father children his powers would split. His direct sons and daughters were always born as triplets. One triplet would have power over the Fire and Water. The second would have power over the Earth and Air, and the third would have power over the beasts of the land.
Merlin’s mark was the moon and three stars and each triplet was born with a perfectly round birthmark just below his or her left collarbone. Immediately to the left of the sphere (to the wearer’s perspective) on the side towards the wearer’s left arm were three freckles. Two of the freckles were side-by-side and the third was above the other two and centered, and the darkest freckle showed which of the three lines that the triplet had power over. This birthmark became known as the mark of Merlin.
If the darker freckle is the bottom one nearest the full moon-shaped birthmark, then the line has power over the Earth and Air. If the darker freckle is the bottom one furthest away from the birthmark, then the line has power over the Fire and Water. If the darker freckle is the top one, then the line has power over the beasts of the land.
(My drawings are what someone else would see and not what the one wearing the mark would see.)
However, we (Merlin’s descendants in the later generations) have learned that the full moon-shaped birthmark is slowly changing phases towards a new moon (no birthmark). We think that once our generations to come reach the new moon phase, their powers will be forever gone. Merlin had done this by accident, or so we believe anyway. Merlin had just wanted to split his powers into threes among his children, but every three generations twins are born, the power of the line splits among the twins and weakens, and the birthmark would gradually fade towards the new moon.
The moon-shaped birthmarks that Elizabeth and I have are in the moon phase between the full moon and the half moon.
Anyway, when the birthmark first showed signs of fading, a Dark Ritual had surfaced. I don’t know the incantation’s origin or its proper name. I’m not sure if anyone does; however, this ritual strengthens the line and intensifies the mark of Merlin of the one performing the ritual by stealing the powers of another wizard or sorceress while quickly—if not instantly—turning the victim into ashes.
As more and more covens were using this ritual, wars between the covens had broken out that became known as the Wizard Wars, and the Wizards Wars are believed to have begun in the 800’s A.D., two hundred years after Merlin was said to have disappeared from the lands. It’s rumored that the Lady of the Lake had imprisoned him with magic.
The Raven Coven was the largest coven in the land when the wars had broken out, and in spite of the wars it continues to be the largest yet today. As I previously stated the coven’s power is over the Earth and Air.
I heard rumors that the Raven Coven is ruled by a council of five, and each of the five council members has a large number of subordinates of partisan, wizards and sorceresses beneath him or her. Partisans are the non-magical people of a wizard’s line, and they are usually the wives, husbands, in-laws or good friends to the wizards or sorceresses.
The two likens that attacked last night were most likely Raven partisans. At least the one who the wolves had ripped apart had to have been, since he wasn’t a wizard.
The second largest coven is the Brimstone Coven. That coven has the power over the Fire and Water.
The Clover Coven is the third largest with twenty adult members, and as I also previously stated, that coven has the power over the beasts.
All of the covens smaller than the Clover Coven are considered acorn covens. Most acorn covens are no more than eight members, and we are detached members of one of the three main covens. Some of the larger acorn covens had named their covens; most acorn covens haven’t though.
Since the start of the Wizard Wars our lives had depended on killing the other first, so most wizards and sorceresses had used the Dark Ritual at some point. (If nothing more, out of self-preservation). However, during the first one hundred years of the wars the members of the Brimstone Coven and their acorn covens were the only ones who knew of the incantation.
In the early part of the 900’s, Adonis (the leader of the Clover Coven at the time) had been captured by the Brimstone Coven. As the leader of the Brimstone Coven was preparing to do the Dark Ritual on Adonis, Adonis had somehow reversed the ritual on the Brimstone’s leader. Once the Brimstone’s leader’s ashes had blown away with the wind, Adonis escaped with the incantation in his hand.
Two days later, against his advisors’ warnings and with a copy of the Dark Ritual incantation in his hand, Adonis and two other wizards from the Clover Coven approached the Raven Coven under the flag of truce.
Adonis was hoping that if the three main covens each had a copy of the incantation to the Dark Ritual that it would force all the covens to come together and talk peace. However, once the leaders of the Raven Coven heard him out, he and the other two wizards were captured and executed while using the Dark Ritual.
The members of the Clover Coven had been promoting peace before that, but after hearing about their leader’s fate, the coven members became more aggressive and more revengeful.
I have to quit here for right now. Elizabeth is telling me that the rabbit is fully cooked. I doubt that I’ll have time to write more after we eat, so I’ll write more tomorrow.
(Elizabeth’s handwriting)
Hi readers. It’s Thursday night. I’m Elizabeth, Randolph’s ten-year-old sister. Randolph is sleeping right now. He doesn’t know that I read his volume or that I’m now writing in it. So if Randolph’s next entry talks about my death, it might not have been from the Raven Coven.
Anyway, last night was uneventful and when morning came, Randolph and I, along with the pack of wolves, moved north again.
Randolph and I walked and walked, until the blisters on my feet reopened. I’m not very big so I was able to get Coward to allow me to ride his back. That was kind of fun.
Anyway, I was only on Coward’s back for a short time when we came upon a village. A village with people who don’t do magic doesn’t always mean a safe place. There are wizards and sorceresses everywhere these days. So I didn’t want to enter the village.
Randolph said that we had to though. He fell six times from being tired. He said that if he doesn’t get any sleep, he wouldn’t be able to control the wolves tonight in spite of the moon’s influence. Since I’ve been sleeping at night, I bet I could control the wolves tonight, but he thinks I’m still too young. I’m old enough to cast the writing incantation so that what I write is rewritten correctly, but that I’m too young to control the wolves. Big brothers are a pain.
Sorry, that was my complaint for today.
Anyway, Randolph told the wolves to continue to walk north. Randolph said that the wolves’ footprints might lead the Raven Coven away from us.
Once the wolves had disappeared from sight, Randolph and I walked into the village.
A woman around my mom’s age greeted us almost immediately. Before the Raven Coven had killed her I mean. I still m
iss my mom. I miss my dad, Matthew and Gabrielle too. I cry each time I think of them.
As you can see from the tearstains I just created I’m crying now.
Okay, I’m good. Anyway the woman’s name is Danielle. She said that she came here as a little girl from Le Havre and her son is a physician. When she saw that my feet were bleeding she took pity on me and then escorted Randolph and me to her son.
Randolph didn’t like trusting a stranger, but he knew that my feet had needed to be attended to. So we followed trustingly to a room that had only one door and no windows.
Danielle’s son’s name is Jean-Michel and he wrapped my feet. He was just finishing up when Randolph and I felt Lucas, Hayden and Patience on the opposite side of Jean-Michel’s closed door. Wizards and sorceresses can sense each other and I definitely feared that someone from the Raven Coven had caught up with us.
Danielle and Jean-Michel saw the expressions on my and Randolph’s faces as my brother and I stared disturbingly at the door.
Danielle asked, “What’s wrong?” But before an answer could be given, one of the three had knocked.
There was no way out of the room, and I saw that Randolph was preparing to cast whatever defensive or attack incantation that he knew as Jean-Michel stepped towards the door.
Lucas was my and Randolph’s cousin, and everyone heard a sigh of relief when I saw him walking through the door first followed by Hayden and Patience.
Hayden and Patience are brother and sister, and they are Clover partisans. We can’t feel the presence of partisans, so to correct what I had written earlier, Randolph and I had only felt Lucas at the door. Lucas and Patience were recently married. I had never met Hayden or Patience before today, and it turns out that Patience is a seer. A few days ago Patience saw in her visions that Randolph and I would be in Jean-Michel’s office after running from the Raven Coven.
Legacy Page 7
