The Wizard's Secret (19 page)

“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.

“
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 syrus. 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.”

“I’ll go and distract Gmork. You save Merlin and get
him out of here,” she said.

“That wouldn’t work. Merlin won’t leave knowing Gmork
still has you.”

“I do know magic, and defeating Gmork is going to
take ruthlessness. From what you told me, that isn’t your style.”

“We can both go rescue Merlin. Maybe we don’t even
have to face Gmork. There’s no reason to face him if we don’t have to.”

Nimue nodded. “We can try it. Can you… talk to him?
Can you tell him I’m sorry?”

“You can tell him that when you see him again.”

Nimue told me to go on ahead and that she would catch
up. I didn’t bother asking why. She caught up to me before I made it down the
stairs. Fortunately, we reached the door to the dungeon without encountering
anyone. All the servants Asiago and I saw the previous day must have been
making themselves scarce. It felt way too much like a trap. “
Merlin? Any
change
?”

“
Not at this time
.”

“
Nimue, Asiago, and I are on our way down. I have
my staff
.”

“
Nimue is with you
?”

“
She’s on our side. Just let her explain
.”

“
She trapped
---”

“
I know
,” I interrupted. “
Trust me
.”

After a moment, I thought he wasn’t going to answer
me. Then he said, “
I trust you, young sorcerer. Do you have a plan for
facing the dragon
?”

If I can’t conjure another dragon, maybe I can
conjure my monkey monster to distract him. Can you tell me how to talk him into
letting us go
?”

“
I failed to save Nimue; he is not in a forgiving
mood. Furthermore, if you mispronounce something in the dragon’s language, he
will be even more infuriated. This time, the only chance you have of saving me
is to be true to yourself
.”

At that point, we reached the kitchen and found
Asiago standing by the door, completely visible. “I guess the potion wore off.”

“Yes it did, before you dropped the invisibility on
my clothes.”

“So you were…”

“I looked like I was. Can we just get this over
with?”

He opened the door and we went down. It was very
dark, very dry, and very hot. The steps felt like they were carved straight out
of the edge of a rock cliff and they weren’t all equal size. I had to turn my
foot to step on some of them. To my right was a rock wall, but when I reached
out to my left, there was nothing.

“I’m not trying to complain or anything, but… can’t
you create light?” Asiago asked.

“Oh! I forgot about that.” I pulled my wand out of my
pocket.
Give us light
. Warm energy flowed through me into the wand and a
gentle white glow emanated from the tip. As I had figured out, there was a wall
on one side and a drop on the other. What I hadn’t realized was that the
stairwell lined the wall of the dungeon, so the dragon had been watching us the
entire time we were making our way down the stairs.

The light wasn’t bright enough to make out the
features of the dragon, only that he was huge. As if he knew we spotted him, he
moved. When light spilled in, I realized the dragon had been blocking a cave
entrance. With this new light, I could see the dragon much better.

He was dark brown with long spikes down his back and
tail. He was also much leaner than the dragon I had conjured. Overall, he was
massive and covered in spikes, so I was impressed and said the first thing that
came to mind. “Wow. He’s beautiful! I wonder if my father trained dragons this
big.”

“
If you are done ogling the dragon, young sorcerer,
I would like to be rescued now
.”

“Right. Sorry.”

“
I expected nothing less
.”

“Okay. What do I tell him to make him let you go?”
Before he could respond, the dragon roared. “No!” I yelled back. “I said I
wouldn’t fight a dragon, so you’re just going to have to sit down and listen!”
I stomped my staff for good measure and gaped at the deep blue pulse of light
that erupted from the crystal. “Oops.”

The dragon roared again… then sat on his butt and
fell silent.

“What did you do?” Nimue asked.

“You broke it,” Asiago said.

“I did not.” I climbed the rest of the way down the
stairs and very slowly approached the dragon. When he growled, I stopped and
pointed my staff at the cage. “Merlin, get back.” I waved my wand at the lock.
Blast
it
. Just like before, the lock exploded and my staff pulsed with red light.
“Oh, be quiet,” I said to the staff.

That was when the dragon attacked. I was expecting
him to blow fire or maybe eat me, not for his massive tail to swipe my staff
right out of my hand. His right front paw reached out for me, so I dived and
rolled to the right. Before I could get out of the way, he blew fire. I barely
felt the heat before an invisible barrier went up right in front of me. Nimue
was protecting me, and she didn’t even have a wand.

It gave me enough time to stand and grab my wand,
which I had dropped right after I lost my staff. “Go away!” I yelled, hoping
the dragon did as I commanded. He didn’t, and that nearly went down in history
as the worst last words.

As he opened his mouth to blow fire again, I dived
for my staff. Merlin howled and attacked the dragon’s face, moving way too fast
for a normal wolf. Unfortunately, even with Merlin clawing and biting his face,
the dragon had enough sense not to let me reach my staff; he slammed his paw
down on my leg and jerked me back, barely missing my flesh with his sharp
claws. I tried to kick him off, but each of his claws was longer than my foot,
and any maneuvering I did was more likely to get me stabbed. With no other
choice, I pointed my wand at the dragon’s paw.

I imagined the dragon turning to stone.
Attack
!
My wand did as I commanded and I felt the magic inside me react, but the burst
of energy that shot into the dragon did not turn him to stone. In fact, it
didn’t do anything.

With me still trapped firmly by his right paw, the
dragon managed to pull Merlin off his face with his left. He held Merlin upside
down and opened his mouth to eat the wolf. I once again reached out for my
staff, and this time, every part of me called out to it. When it shot towards
me, I didn’t have time to be surprised. I stabbed the base of it into the
dragon’s paw, effortlessly transforming the tip into a blade.

The dragon jerked his hand away and the weapon
changed right back into a staff. I didn’t let that slow me down. I stood,
suddenly feeling like the magic inside me was building and building,
desperately trying to get out. “Put him down!” I demanded. Once again, deep
blue light pulsed from my staff, and some of that magic was released. I didn’t
know what I’d done until the dragon dropped Merlin and roared at me.

I was terrified.

But I wasn’t an idiot.

The dragon took a swipe at me with his massive
talons. I held the staff out in front of me like it could hold him off. “Get
back!” I yelled. The blue light flashed again and hit the dragon, throwing him
back further than I expected. He tried again, but the blue pulse struck for a
second time without me saying anything. Even though the light hit all of us, it
only attacked the dragon, and it obviously affected the dragon quite a bit.
That last blow was all it took to convince him to take off through the cave
entrance.

For a moment, it was very quiet. Merlin struggled to
his feet, getting Nimue’s attention. When she ran to him and wrapped her arms
around him, he growled in pain. Nimue brought her hands back covered in blood.
“Oh, Merlin, I’m so sorry!” She then put her hands on his side again. “I don’t
have any potions, but I can stop your bleeding.”