The Sorcerer's Quest (13 page)
I was searching the room for any way out when I heard
a latch turn and the door opened. Livia stood there with a plate of bread,
broccoli, and apples. “Have you reconsidered?” she asked, setting the plate
down on the table beside the bed.
I gave her my best glare. “You should know that the
Dracre do not take kindly to threats.”
She nodded. “I can see the sorcerer in you, even if
others can’t. You are protective, and that’s not a sorcerer trait, but I think
if you were pushed beyond a certain point, you could be more devious than any
of your brothers. Elvira is probably counting on that.”
“Then I’ll warn you right now that you’re on the
right track if you mean to push me to that point.”
“I’m not your enemy.”
“You sure act like it,” I said, gesturing to the
whole room.
“I am not without faults, and I can’t be sure how
everything will turn out. All I know is that if you face Magnus, your brothers
will win.”
“Then you should be trying to reason with them
instead of locking me and Merlin up.”
“They don’t have a choice; they will always be
sorcerers and nothing more. You should get some sleep. Maybe tomorrow you will
understand.”
I opened my mouth to argue… and everything went dark.
* * *
My dreams were weird and basically involved getting
locked away in a tower with Magnus’s monster keeping me trapped. Merlin had to
save me. I woke to a plate of potatoes and eggs. I was a little irritated that
I had slept through my chance to escape and even more irritated that my aunt
had used magic on me in the first place. My frustration wasn’t because what she
did was wrong, as I expected that from a sorceress, but because she had done it
so easily. I wanted to be that powerful.
“
Merlin
?” I called, trying again to speak in
his mind.
Again, I got no answer. I went to the door and tried
the knob to find that it was still locked. I sat against the door and
contemplated how to get out. My mother taught me potions and curses, but none
of that could help me here. I was about to sigh with frustration when it hit
me. Along with reading, my father taught me some life skills, like lock
picking.
I pulled a pick out of my bag and got to work on the
lock. It was the first time I had to use the skill without my father standing
on the other side. Like most sorcerers in the world, he had a sink-or-swim
philosophy. It probably had to do with his family’s history with dragons. After
being locked in a burning shed and forced to pick the lock to escape, I found this
to be easy. I had the door open in moments.
I made my way back to the study where I hoped my wand
and staff were. The room was unlocked and my magic tools were placed neatly on
the table. It seemed like a trap, so I scrutinized the room instead of immediately
grabbing them. Other than books, there was nothing interesting or useful. What
was important was that the window was unlocked.
Of course, we were on the third floor, but it looked
like I could climb down the side of the castle. The difficult part would be
saving Merlin.
I was just about to try to contact him again when I
heard a loud crash. I ran out into the hall to see that Merlin and Bralyn had
escaped whatever Livia had used to keep them away. Merlin growled at me and I
looked around for a place to run or hide, when I saw Livia standing right
behind me. It was her that the wolf was growling at.
Then I started looking for a place to cover myself,
because his snarl told me without a shadow of a doubt that there was going to
be some blood splatter. I stepped out from between them.
“How did you…?” Livia started.
Merlin ignored her and spoke to me over her. “
You
said you did not know if you were okay and then you stopped answering
!” His
growl was thick even in his thought-speech.
“Merlin was worried sick over you,” Bralyn said. “He
tore right through the door.”
“Why were you worried about me?” I asked.
“
Because I was
.” He stopped in front of Livia,
still growling.
“Merlin, this is Livia Dracre… my aunt. She’s the
seventh daughter of the seventh daughter.”
“
I know
.”
“You know what? Did you already know she was my
aunt?” After a moment, he stopped growling and dipped his head in a nod.
“
I knew as soon as you told me who your mother
was. I met Livia and her sisters when she was young, but I did not recognize
the castle
.”
“But you knew why I’m this way.”
“
I had an idea once you told me who your mother
was and mentioned your brothers
.”
“So you knew I could never be a sorcerer? Were you
just using me to get to Magnus so he could remove your curse?” When he didn’t
answer, I stepped back into the library and shut the door.
“What are you doing?” Bralyn called through the door.
“This is not the honorable way to handle the truth. You should face your enemy
and defeat them in battle until they conform to
your
truth.”
“I need some time to be alone to think!” Since the
latch was on the inside of this door instead of the outside, I flipped it to lock
myself inside and sat down in one of the chairs. I didn’t know what to think. I
didn’t want to think. No matter how much of a failure I was, I was still a
sorcerer. My family tortured me, but Dracre was a respected name. Not being a
sorcerer at all was… I didn’t know what it was. Panic wasn’t a reasonable
behavior, but I couldn’t get my heart to slow down. In fact, the harder I tried
to calm myself, the faster my breathing became.
“Ayden, come out of there,” Livia said.
“Go away!” I didn’t care how whiny that sounded; I
was angry, upset, and confused all at once. Merlin lied to me. My entire life,
I thought something was wrong with me because I couldn’t do dark magic. Livia,
the aunt I never knew I had, told me that I was both a wizard and sorcerer because
I was the seventh born, but that didn’t make any sense either; I only ever
screwed up on dark magic.
What it ultimately boiled down to was that nobody
believed I could really be a sorcerer, not even Merlin. They kept talking about
me accepting myself, but they all apparently had plans for me being a wizard. I
could prove myself to be powerful, whether I was a wizard, or sorcerer, or
whatever. I could make the choice for myself without their help.
I looked out the window, which faced the back of the
castle. Bralyn had said that he used to swim from his land to this one, and
sure enough, I spotted another island nearby. Without giving myself a chance to
question my plan, I picked up my bag and staff, returned to the window, and
transported myself to that other land.
People stared and they moved away, but it was
interest rather than sneers on their faces. I wasn’t sure what to do. Livia
said that my staff would show me the way, so I held it up. Nothing happened. I
held it out towards the castle and then all the way around me as if I were
trying to point to someone with it. When the crystal faced north, it pulsed
with a deep orange light for a moment.
Although I had no reason to trust my aunt, especially
after she locked me up, I didn’t have anything to lose. I headed north, which
was further into the heart of the city. I had never been to these lands and I
doubted anyone here would know of my family, but everyone would recognize the
signs of a sorcerer. It would have been easier if the crystal in my staff was
still deep red instead of almost completely clear.
“Excuse me,” an elderly woman said, reaching out for
my arm as I passed.
I stopped and turned to her. “Yes?” I asked.
“Are you a wizard or a sorcerer?” She pointed to my
staff.
“What do you need?”
“Six sorcerers came through here last night looking
for someone. When nobody could help them, they took my magic roses.”
“Magic roses?”
“Yes. They are eternal roses that contain
transformation magic. You would be surprised how popular they are.”
“I bet I would be. Who were they looking for?”
“They said he was a blond, blue-eyed young man with a
green sorcerer robe that had a…” she trailed off, when she noticed my robes.
“Just like that.”
“Well, I’m not blond, so I’m obviously not who you’re
looking for. Can you tell me where these sorcerers went?”
“They haven’t gone anywhere yet. They’re at the
tavern.”
I could feel the blood drain from my face. “Where’s
the tavern?” She pointed to a building almost directly in front of me. “They’re
in there?”
“Yes. Can you get my roses back? I can pay you.”
“I can’t help you. Those sorcerers are the Dracre
brothers, and they’re dangerous.”
So why are they after me
? I thought of
what Livia said; I had a choice. I could defeat Magnus, or I could not, but
either way, I had to stop my brothers from being even worse than me.
I started to pour magic into my wand when someone
crashed into me from behind, knocking me to the ground and everything out of my
hands.
“Sorry! Sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going!” a
boy yelled, scrambling back to his feet and pulling me back up. “Oh, gods!
You’re one of them!”
I saw him then. He was about sixteen, dressed in
clean, plain clothes, with shaggy brown hair and hazel eyes. He was also
backing away in fear, staring at the emblem on my chest. “No, no, don’t worry.
I’m not like them.”
But he wasn’t listening. “Please don’t kill me!”
“I’m not going to kill you!” I picked up my staff and
wand, but my bag had spilled open. As I began to gather my goods, the boy
kneeled and helped me. He frowned at the fish that was wrapped in a cloth, but
didn’t comment. When everything was back in the bag, I held out my wand.
Unfortunately, the sound of people laughing and arguing spilled out into the
street before I could do anything, telling me that the door of the tavern had
just opened. “Please don’t be them. Please don’t be my brothers,” I whispered.
“You shouldn’t have punched him,” Thaddeus said. “He
was just about to tell us where Magnus was.”
“Of course I punched him!” Febarin argued. “He
wouldn’t give me that charm! Don’t you realize what it did? It could make me
see through illusions!”
“And why would you need that?”
“Because I might need to see through an illusion,
obviously.”
Febarin was the fourth son in my family and
undoubtedly the least intelligent. He once proposed to a girl by cursing her
entire family into an endless sleep, putting his sword to her heart, and saying
that if she broke his heart, he would break hers. Terrified, she agreed, but
Mother found her unworthy so Febarin let her go. I snuck out afterwards and
broke his curse over her family. Although he could never prove it was me, I
think he suspected it.
Despite the fact that he was short, like me, nobody
called him a runt because he was very muscular. Well, there was a fair amount
of fat on him as well. In fact, I would say there was more fat than muscle if I
weren’t afraid of losing my teeth for saying so. His hair was kept very short
because Mikron used to pull on it when they were little. He also had an ugly
scar on his right ear from a fight he got into with an ogre that owned his
favorite tavern.
The ogre was a good family friend and tried to buy me
from my mother when I was born. I suspected the ogre’s intention was to eat me,
but it was just as likely that he wanted to do something obscene, like make me
clean his house or send me to get vegetables from the market.
I hid my face from my brothers. To my shock, they passed
right by me. My black hair must have disguised me enough, along with the fact
that they didn’t see my face, but all of my brothers should have recognized the
green robe. Just as I thought it, Thaddeus stopped and started to turn.
Instinctively, I held out my wand and let my magic
surround me. An instant later, I appeared on a hilltop overlooking the city,
which was my exact intention. “Let’s see if I really have a choice.”
I stuck my wand back into my pocket and took my staff
in both hands. I imagined a bubble around the city— not one that would cut off
the air, but one that would prevent anyone from entering or exiting the city.
My brothers were very powerful, so I had to make it strong. Magic tingled along
my skin as I brought up every memory of hiding from them. Every time I ran
instead of fighting because I knew very well how dangerous they were, every
feeling of fear, every instinct to survive… I poured it into my magic. It would
only be temporary, but it would give me a head start.
The magic was dark in nature, so the energy that
flooded the crystal was as deep a red as it had ever been. I wouldn’t hurt the
townspeople, but my brothers would take their frustrations out on them. It
couldn’t be helped because Livia was right; if they defeated Magnus, there
would be no stopping them. Killing Magnus would give them a taste they wouldn’t
be able to resist.
When the city disappeared completely, I gaped. Panic
rose until I felt my magic settle as the spell clicked into place. It was still
there. The city was right in front of me, just invisible. All I could see was a
field of grass and dirt.
The oddest part was that I had never had so much
power before, and I had the sneaking suspicion that I was able to accomplish it
because it was both light and dark magic. I wasn’t hurting anyone, not even my
brothers. At least, that was my justification for the part of me that couldn’t
stand harming people. After all, if I hadn’t trapped my brothers, who knew what
trouble they would cause looking for me?
I was still wondering why they were after me or how
they got so close when I turned my staff back to the north. Once again, a deep
orange light pulsed through the crystal. With one last glance behind me, I
started walking north.
* * *
I walked all day, and with no one to talk to, I was
forced to think. The only thing I could think about was what Livia had told me
and what Merlin had already known.
After an entire lifetime of wondering why I was such
a failure, it was too much to learn that it wasn’t completely my fault
and
that there was someone else like me at the same time.
Not just like me; she
is family
. I stopped in the middle of the road.
I should have asked more
questions or just
…
listened maybe
. I didn’t want to, though. Even
knowing that my mother would kill me without a second thought, it never
occurred to me that she would lie to me. She knew all along that I was like
this for a reason. Maybe she did think that I would have more dark magic
because I was male, but she still could have told me
why
I was so different.
And then there was Merlin. The worst part wasn’t that
he only wanted to use me; it was that he didn’t think I could handle knowing
it. Then again, I didn’t exactly handle it well. I knew he wanted his curse
broken.
Then why didn’t he let me try breaking his curse
?
Doubt, hope, anger, and confusion twisted around
inside me until I just felt sick. What was I if not a sorcerer? Everyone was
something… everyone except for my aunt and me.
Or are there more of us
?
There were books about us, apparently, but that didn’t mean there were others
still alive.
Are there half mages, half seers
?
Maybe half magicians,
half necromancers
… That was a terrifying thought; someone with control over
the dead
and
illusionary magic was truly the last thing this world needed.
By the time the sun had set, I was exhausted, mostly
mentally. I was also hungry, since I ate the last of my fish for breakfast, so
I stopped at a small city. As I wandered through the town full of stone
buildings and surrounded by wooden houses, I decided that the towns in Akadema
were tiny.
I hesitated when a sign beside a sturdy wooden door
promised food and a clean bed for a reasonable price. I didn’t have any money,
but I still had the jewelry I had picked up from the bandits on Akadema, so I
went in. There were sturdy wooden tables around the room, a staircase in front
of me leading up, and a long wooden bar to my left.
It was a much more respectable place than the taverns
of Akadema. There weren’t half-naked women serving drinks, drunk men trying
their hardest to get into a brawl, or raucous laughter. On the contrary, there
were only six customers, who were using their chairs as seats instead of clubs,
enjoying polite conversation, and eating hearty meals.
The smell of roasted meat and fresh bread caused my
stomach to growl. I approached the man behind the bar who was about the size of
Bloodbath and possibly even more hairy.
“Good evening,” I said, making my voice deeper than
it naturally was. “I need a room and something to eat. What can I get for
this?” I pulled one of the gold necklaces out of my bag. It was a locket that
would be worth more to someone who liked pretty things, but I just wanted to
eat and sleep in a comfortable bed.
The man’s eyes widened. “Anything you want. Bread,
stew, roast, vegetables, ale, wine… a woman.”
No matter how confused I was, I wasn’t interested in
a woman I could buy, let alone one I could buy for a necklace. “Can you give me
a room and send up food and drinking water? Any food you have ready will do,
I’m not picky.”
“Here is a key,” he said, pulling one from under the
counter and passing it to me. “Up the stairs, last door on your right.”
“Thank you.” I grabbed the key and started to turn,
but he continued.
“I will ask you not to cause any problems here,” he
said, pointing to my staff. Although his voice was steady and deep, his tone
was not impolite. “I have nothing against magic-users, but if you want to
fight, you need to go outside or to the tavern. That’s not the kind of business
I run here.”
“Do you get a lot of trouble from magic-users?”
“Not typically. Magic-users usually stick to their
own kind around here. I’m just warning you that your gold doesn’t mean I won’t
kick you out if you destroy something.”
“Duly noted.”
I went upstairs and found my room, which was simple,
warm, and clean. Other than a small bed, there was a chest for clothes and a
window. I sat on the bed, pulled out a book, and started reading. Soon, there
was a knock on the door. When I answered it, a pretty woman gave me a mug of
water and a plate of bread, cheese, and roast. I thanked her and shut the door.
Although it smelled great, I was so hungry that I ate every bite without
bothering to taste it.
When I was done, I set the dishes out in the hall,
locked the door, undressed, and went to sleep.
* * *
I had more bad dreams about facing monsters, only
this time I wasn’t in a tower and Merlin wasn’t coming to help me. The worst
part was that Magnus’s monster was a dragon and I had to fight it. I kept
hearing my father’s voice telling me that this was the last dragon and if I
killed it, the extinction of the species would be my fault.
I forgot most of the details the moment I awoke. The
dreams left me with dread and I felt like I was missing something very
important. Trying to shake the feeling, I dressed, gathered everything up, and
went downstairs. The same man was at the bar and along with the key, I handed
him a gold bracelet that matched the necklace and asked for breakfast. Eggs and
potatoes made a welcome treat after all the fish I had to eat on Bloodbath’s
ship.
“Are you a wizard or sorcerer?” he asked, wiping some
dishes.
I sighed. “I’m a sorcerer.” I couldn’t very well say
I was both; it wasn’t normally a possibility. Fortunately, the man didn’t say
anything more. There were only a few other people in the room, so I easily
overheard two men at a table near the window.
“Did you know that the king of Welsma sent his
warriors to draft the men of Red Rock for a battle?”
“Yes. I heard he couldn’t afford enough warriors, so
he was looking to volunteer men against their will. Red Rock is about a day’s
south of here, right?”
“That’s right. His men arrived at Red Rock yesterday
afternoon, except the city was gone.”