The Wizard's Secret (7 page)
“Is that a no?”
“Are you a potato?”
* * *
There were whispers all around me, half lost in the
wind. I was in the forest on my way to fight Magnus and the syrus was right in
front of me, except everything had a blue tone. It was the whispers that woke
me. The whispers had told me how to open it. They wanted me to help. But it
wasn’t Merlin.
The whispers were in my head, trying to convince me
to open the chest. Part of me wanted to do it, while the rest of me fought
against it. The creature in there was so much more sinister than Merlin. It
wanted to hunt.
I felt the unmistakable sensation of being watched
and looked up into the trees. There were hundreds of sets of small, glowing,
red eyes staring down at me. Suddenly, I couldn’t move, yet it wasn’t out of
fear; my arms and legs were turning to stone. One of the creatures flew down
and I realized it was a massive black bird.
* * *
I shot up out of my sleep, ready to attack a foe that
wasn’t there. My movement startled several creatures in the tree above us,
causing them to make strange howling sounds that sent chills down my spine. I
looked up and saw four sets of glowing red eyes.
The unicorn nodded. Sam nipped at Asiago’s chest,
causing the necromancer to shriek and jump to his feet. The creatures screeched
and took to the air, but that did not calm Kirin or Sam. The griffon didn’t
give Asiago a chance to get his bearings; Sam lowered his head and pushed
Asiago up, onto his back clumsily. I climbed up onto the unicorn and both the
unicorn and griffon took off running.
Since it was still dark, I couldn’t clearly make out
the black creatures that attacked us. I was pretty sure they were large bats,
but I had never been attacked by a bat before. They bit and scratched at my
head, nearly nocking me off Kirin’s back, so I leaned my head flat against the
unicorn’s neck. Kirin suddenly went down and I hit the ground with enough force
to stun me.
The next thing I knew, Sam and Kirin were standing
over Asiago and me, protecting us. I tried to reach up for my staff, but my
arms wouldn’t move. My head throbbed so hard I couldn’t think. Although I saw
Asiago standing, it didn’t register in my mind what he was doing until he
grabbed my staff, nearly getting trampled, and put it in my hand.
As soon as I touched the wood, the crystal burned
with a bright blue light, its magic flooded me, my headache vanished, and I
could think clearly.
Protect us
. And my stupid staff turned into a
sword. I groaned with irritation as I stood. Fortunately, the magic was masking
all the pain in my body, so it was possible to stand. Fighting was another
story.
We were being attacked by not one, but four bat-like
creatures. I swung the sword at one of them who was clawing at Sam’s wing.
Instead of cutting the creature down, I bludgeoned it with the flat side of the
blade. The sword pulsed with a deep red glow, distracting me. I shouted when a
sharp pain stabbed into my right shoulder. One of the creatures gripped the
blade and tried to pull the sword out of my hand.
It wasn’t a sword, though; it was a tool of magic
that was bonded to me. Magic welled up inside me so quickly I didn’t know what
was happening. “Go away!” I shouted. Magic burst from me, through the sword,
and pulsed. The pulse was strange enough on its own, but it also amplified my
words and made them echo off the trees. As if they were hit by a severe wind,
all four creatures were thrown away from me.
Asiago jumped onto Sam’s back, I mounted Kirin, and
we were running again, as fast as a unicorn and griffon could gallop, which was
really fast. “What did you do?!” Asiago asked, barely audible over the sound of
hooves.
“I don’t know!”
Sam was having a problem running on his mismatched
paws, because he kept trying to use his wings. Unfortunately for him, his
wingspan was too wide for this part of the forest.
I heard the stream and remembered that we were trying
not to get lost. “Follow the stream!” I shouted. Kirin and Sam obeyed, changing
direction very slightly. When the stream came into view, it was easy for the
griffon and unicorn to follow.
Finally, my sword changed back into a staff.
Unfortunately, the magic that was holding back the pain disappeared. I passed
out before I hit the ground.
* * *
It was pitch black, there wasn’t enough space, I
couldn’t breathe, and the only thing I could hear was a menacing whispering. I
was both asleep and awake at the same time.
* * *
I jerked awake, confused and in pain. Despite that, I
knew what woke me, and it made me laugh. “Stop it. That tickles.” Kirin was
licking my shoulder. I sat up and he nuzzled my head gently, nearly gouging me
with his horn. I patted his nose and pushed him away.
“Are you feeling better?” Asiago asked, suddenly
standing right beside me.
I shrieked, because he was a very creepy man. “Don’t
do that; I thought you were a ghost.”
“Thank you. You look like death as well.”
I looked down at myself and realized I was covered in
blood. Obviously, the bat creatures had wounded me pretty badly, but when I
pulled my tunic sleeve down to study my shoulder and chest, I didn’t see any
wounds. “What happened? I was injured.”
“You were bleeding terribly. The unicorn licked it up
and that healed your wounds.”
“I didn’t know they had healing powers. Thank you,” I
said to Kirin, stroking his mane. “Where’s my robe?” After a moment, I
remembered. “Oh, no. I used it as a blanket last night. I must have left it
when we were attacked.”
“Do we need to go back for it?”
I really wanted to. Although it was a part of my
Dracre lineage, it was one of the few possessions I had. It was the only thing
I ever had that proved I was a Dracre; my appearance certainly made it hard to
believe. “No. We can try to get it when we leave. We can’t afford to get lost.”
I took off my shirt, dipped it in the stream, and wrung it out until the blood
was gone. I had a spare change of clothes, but I’d worn worse.
For a moment, I heard a quiet whispering and glanced
around. I couldn’t see anyone watching us, though. As quickly as it started,
the whispers faded.
“Your zombies aren’t near, are they?” I asked.
Asiago shook his head. “I don’t sense them close. We
did a lot of traveling and they aren’t very quick. In fact, there’s nothing to
say we’re still on the same island. I doubt they can cross the ocean.”
Instead of riding, Asiago and I walked. I knew if we
followed the stream long enough, we would get out of the forest somewhere, and
then we could find someone to tell us how to get to Veronica.
* * *
“What in the world?” I asked. I picked up my robe,
which was lying at the base of a large tree. “This is where we slept last
night. We must have gone upstream when we were running from the bat creatures.”
Asiago nodded. “We must have. We didn’t, but we must
have.”
“We’ve been going downstream as far as I know. Let’s
just keep going.”
* * *
We walked all day, until we were exhausted and
hungry. Asiago was highly insulted when we saw a house made of candy. “Someone
should write a book about this place,” I commented. We considered hunting for
food, but we didn’t have enough supplies and I couldn’t stomach killing an
animal. There were no recognizable berries and plants, so we couldn’t be sure
they were safe to eat. Fortunately, I had some clay left.
“Maybe we should stop here for the night,” I said,
spotting a large tree next to the stream.
“Might as well; we slept here last night.”
I groaned. He was right; this was the same tree I had
found my robe under that morning. “We’re going in circles! The stream is
circular! How can that be possible? We were going downstream the whole way.”
“It must be magic.”
“We need to ask someone how to get out of here! You
and Sam stay.” I mounted Kirin. “Try to find us someone.” The unicorn nodded
and took off at a gallop.
We ran for a while before we came upon the block
house. I got down and knocked on the door without hesitation. The door opened
to a young girl, maybe eleven or twelve years of age, with golden blond hair,
bright blue eyes, and rosy cheeks. Her dress was deep blue and she wore a red,
velvet cloak over it.
“Are you a werewolf?” she asked.
“No.”
She shrugged. “Okay, then.”
“Do you run into werewolves a lot here?”
She nodded and pulled a crossbow from behind her back.
“I’ve been hunting the werewolf for over a year. I’m setting a trap for that
creep. He’s going to get what’s coming to him.”
“Well, good luck with that. I was hoping I could ask
you for directions. I’m trying to find the way out.”
“Way out? There is no way out of the Endless Forest.
You can only go in.”
“What do you mean there’s no way out? People never
leave?”
She shrugged again. “People can leave, but only with
magic. You need powerful magic or help from the fairies.”
I groaned.
In that case, we’re trapped here
forever, because the fairies would never help a sorcerer and necromancer
.
“But I have to get to the other side. I’m looking for a sorceress named
Veronica.”
“What do you want with the sorceress?”
“She kidnapped my aunt. There must be a way to get to
her!”
She shrugged for the third time. “I don’t see why you
can’t. The sorceress is in the forest.”
“She is? Where? How do I find her?”
“By wanting to find her, of course.”
I rolled my eyes. “Which way do I go?”
She shrugged. “Any way is fine.”
I held back my frustration. Even her shrugging was
starting to irritate me. “How far is she?”
She shrugged. “As far as you want her to be.”
I closed my eyes and sighed, pushing away the
frustration. Saving Livia was priority and we were running out of time to do
so, but getting angry wouldn’t solve anything. “So, if I go back the way I came
from, the exit would be gone?”
“There was never an exit, only an entrance.”
“Fine. You’re saying that if I look for her, I’ll
find her, right?”
She shrugged. “Probably. Unless you die first.
Sorceresses don’t like visitors.”
“I know.” Fortunately, I had something she wanted.
“Well, good luck with your werewolf hunting.” I left her and mounted Kirin. I
didn’t condone werewolf hunting, despite knowing most werewolves were feral and
most hunters got into it because a friend or family member was killed by one. I
worried about innocent ones getting hurt.
Kirin and I returned to the stream, where Asiago and
Sam were waiting. “Did you find anything out?” Asiago asked.
“Apparently, we can’t just walk out of here; we can
only get out using powerful magic or with the help of fairies.”
Asiago frowned thoughtfully. “No fairy is going to
help a sorcerer and necromancer.”
“However, Veronica’s place is in the forest, so when
we save Livia, she should be able to get us out of here. We should be able to
find her just by looking for her.”
“But we’ve been looking for her all day.”
“Right. This is a forest of magic. Maybe we need to
use magic to find her.”
“I can resurrect some more zombies, or you can use
some sorcery.”
“I’m not going to use sorcery. I can find her using
wizardry or no magic at all. Let’s go in…” I glanced around, “… that
direction.” I pointed down a creepy, dark path. Of course, the entire forest
was creepy and dark, since it was night. “Maybe we should wait until morning.”
Asiago stood up. “I don’t think we have anything to
worry about.”
“We could get eaten. There’s a werewolf out there.”
“If we get eaten, at least we would no longer be
lost.”
* * *
We walked for a while before we came to a clearing
with a cave and two signs.
There are dragons ahead.
And below that was another sign.
Please do not feed the dragons.
Maybe this was a bad idea. “Let’s not go that way.” I
turned around and my eye caught movement. With exaggerated ease, a huge, black
bird landed on a low hanging branch right above us. Kirin and Sam started
making sounds of unease.
I took a cautious step towards my staff, but a deep
warning sound filled the air. I froze just as the wolf stepped out of the
darkness of the trees. Bright moonlight illuminated his dark brown fur and his
bared white teeth. His body wasn’t like Merlin’s. His snout was shorter, his
fur was sparser, and his front legs were shorter than his hind legs. It was the
werewolf.
“Tell me you have some necromancy to help us,” I
whispered.
“Only if he’s dead. If you would kill him, I can make
him into a perfect pet.” The werewolf snarled. “I highly suggest you put aside
your issues and use sorcery.”
“Sorcerers need magical tools to control their
sorcery. If I tried to attack the wolf without my staff, we might all be
killed.” The raven cawed and I got the strangest feeling he was laughing at me.
It reminded me of my mother. No matter how cruel she was, I couldn’t deny that
my mother was a strong woman. She told me many times failure was just a state
of mind, and that was why she never failed. She also always had explosive
powder with her.
“If you don’t do something, we’ll die. I don’t have
time to call a ghost to protect us,” Asiago said.
I couldn’t reach my wand or staff, so I had to
outsmart the wolf, and I had to do it quickly. Keeping eye contact with the
werewolf, I leaned towards Asiago and whispered in the necromancer’s ear. “I
need you to distract him. When I say go, you run towards him, and I’ll run for
my staff.”
“It won’t work!” he hissed.
“Trust me.” While the werewolf was focused on my
eyes, I discreetly reached for the dagger in my boot. “Now!” In the next
instant, Asiago started towards the werewolf, the werewolf started for him, and
I pushed him out of the way. Instead, I rushed the werewolf, startling the
shifter. I knew he would hear my whisper because shifters had the same hearing
as the animal they shifted into, and Merlin could have heard me.
The wolf calculated the distance perfectly; he knew
exactly when to leap so that he could tear out my throat. That’s what I had
been planning. I watched his eyes for that moment, and then I went down.
Because he wasn’t expecting it and I was too low for his attack, his chest was
open to me. I didn’t think about killing him, only that he would kill me if I
didn’t fight back. I dug the dagger deep into his chest and he hit the ground, rolled,
and stilled.