The Sorcerer's Quest (11 page)
“What do you think I should do?”
“
I think you should follow your heart and stop
labeling yourself
.”
“Release the pirates and we will be happy to help
you,” I said. “If we work together, we can get this ship out of here and the
curses broken.”
The small men all looked at each other, unsure.
Finally, one of them said, “If you do not love to leave us here, so we agree
with their treatment.”
“Great! Then let’s do this. Do you want to leave the
island on the ship or do you want the curse broken?”
“Have valuable if many island resources.”
“Right. Then I will get to work breaking your curse
as soon as you let the pirates go.” All but one of the men climbed down their
ropes and started hacking at the green substance while the remaining man
released Bloodbath.
“Tell your men to be gentle with my son,” the captain
snarled at him. “If he gets so much as a scratch, I’ll break your arms off and
tie you to the sail.”
I didn’t worry about them getting along. As far as I
was concerned, this whole encounter was going well. Yes, I had stranded us on
an island, but I saved us from the Charybdis. Yes, I turned down an excellent
chance to prove that I was a sorcerer, but I possibly made seven new allies.
And most importantly, I was on an island with a truth spell over it and I
hadn’t blurted out anything embarrassing.
“
Why did you not tell me about the bear
?”
Merlin asked.
“Um… it slipped my mind.”
“
Really
?”
“No, of course not. I lied. I’m a liar. I’m lying.
Get over it.” Everyone stared at me. “Sorry, just something I lied to Merlin
about.”
“
You lied when you said it slipped your mind
?”
“Yes, I just said that.”
“
Then you just now lied
.”
“So?” I asked. He gave me a look until I suddenly got
it. “Oh. I am the most powerful and evil sorcerer and I cause pain and
destruction as often as possible.” I paused, waiting for some backlash or compulsion.
“That’s odd. How come I can lie?”
The small man’s face was ashen, as he obviously
thought I was telling the truth.
“You couldn’t be evil if you were enchanted by a
sorcerer to have all your kindness removed,” Bloodbath said.
That hurt. “There’s no reason to be mean!”
He grimaced. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Any
sorcerer I’ve ever heard of would have tried to kill me and take my ship. You
bargained. Many people see weakness and kindness as the same thing and will try
to walk all over you.”
I pushed aside those negative thoughts. To end this
truth spell, I had to find the weakness in it. Fortunately, I already had a
clue; it wasn’t working on me. “Merlin, can you lie right now?”
“
No
.”
“Then it’s not magic that’s keeping me safe from the compulsion
spell. Everyone leave me alone for a while so that I can think.” I climbed down
the rope and then walked away. Once I was out of sight of the boat, I sat down
and leaned against a tree. My staff and wand felt so right in my hands, but
this was a deeper curse than I was used to dealing with, so I had to focus.
I let the quiet peace of my surroundings seep into my
mind and my magic seep into the world around me. There was dark magic and white
magic, but magic was magic and I was still highly trained in it, even if I was
terrible at using it to cause mayhem. I felt my magic encounter the natural
forces of the world peacefully. In fact, the only conflict I sensed was between
my wand and staff.
There’s the weak point
. I could feel it. The
spell was created out of hate and paranoia. The person who cast the spell did
so with almost no structure. She may have been powerful, but as far as being a
sorceress went, she was an idiot. For one thing, someone could avoid spilling
their secrets by simply not thinking about it. If they thought of a secret,
however, they had to tell it.
In this very unusual case, the weakness was that the
caster was reacting with hate and fear. My mother always told us that the
fastest way to fail was to fear failure, and that was exactly what the caster
did.
I have only ever heard of a spell like this; it was a
spell that a person could break with love.
Why I was immune to it, I didn’t know. It wasn’t
because I was more powerful than the person. There were several ways to come at
breaking the curse, but none were as simple as using the caster’s weakness
against her.
Merlin joined me then. “
I know you wanted privacy,
but I thought now would be a good time to step in. You have figured out what it
takes to break the spell, correct
?”
“Yeah. There are several ways, but---”
“
But love and loyalty is the spell’s weakness
,”
he interrupted.
“How did you know that?”
“
I may be trapped in this form and without magic
at the moment, but I am still a wizard. Am I correct in assuming you have never
loved a woman before
?”
“Are you joking? The first girl I knew sneered at me
because I refused to give her a poison for her tutor. Women who date sorcerers
want strong, violent, dangerous men like my brothers. They don’t want someone
with compassion. Women who want love and compassion wouldn’t look twice at me
because of my family.”
“
Believe it or not, I understand. Although I have
no magic right now, I can at least break this curse
.”
“But you might betray someone you loved.”
“
I will not. Had you cursed those strangers, as a
sorcerer would have, we would not be here and I could have kept my secret
.”
“I’m sorry. I just wanted the fighting to stop and I
didn’t want to hurt the strangers.”
“
If you had, I would not be telling you this. I
was a stranger to everyone. I traveled the worlds and never looked back. In my
younger years, I was compulsive and made a lot of mistakes because I wanted to
help everyone, but I also had too much pride. I thought my abilities made me
better than other people. When these mistakes blew up in my face, I made
excuses. And then, I met an enemy greater than myself. He was wise, powerful,
and truly ruthless. The second greatest mistake of my life was challenging him,
and it was also the best thing for me. He made me ageless and trapped me in a
crystal cave.
“
When I finally escaped, I was not the same man.
Hundreds of years had passed and the worlds had changed. Before the cave, I
believed I had everything. By the time I escaped, I realized I had nothing.
Worldly treasures were nothing to a lonely man. For hundreds of years, I was
missing, and nobody knew. Nobody missed me. For hundreds of years, I had
nothing but time to reflect on the mistakes I had made. When I looked upon the
new world, I vowed to never regret. Before acting, I would consider the mark I
would leave on the world
.”
“So it made you wise?”
“
It did. I was even an advisor to young wizards
and kings. However, as old as I was, I still had a lot of learning ahead of me.
There were women I loved, but when they discovered that I would never age, none
of them thought I was worth it, or they believed they could use me
.”
“Use you how?”
“
Use me to attain immortality. Then I met a young
woman named Nimue. She was not rich or powerful, but she was pure of heart. I
cannot say why she ever loved me back. She left her family to travel with me
and asked that I teach her magic. It was the happiest time in my long life
.”
“What happened?”
“
Another wizard set his eyes on her. When he
failed to sway her, he cursed her so that anyone she felt love for would change
into a beast
.”
“And he sealed you?”
“
No
.”
“Then what happened?”
“
That is a secret I will keep to myself, which is
why I just broke the truth spell
.”
I blinked, remembering why we were out here in the
first place. “I don’t understand.”
“
I know. Just know that Nimue is the reason I am
still here today, and I will never betray her secrets. No spell can make me do
so, which is how I broke this one
.”
“So if I asked you what the seer told you, you
wouldn’t be compelled to answer?”
“
I would have had to answer had you asked me ten
minutes ago
.”
I took that to mean he wasn’t going to tell me. “Do
you want me to try to break your curse?”
“
Not tonight
.”
“Do you think I could do it? You can lie to me if you
want to make me feel better.”
He smirked. “
I know you could break it. Now, we
should get back to the others before the pirates and dwarfs start fighting
.”
Too late, though. The wand’s magic broke the scramble
spell, but it also cleaned the men up. They were now all washed, clean-shaven,
and their clothes were hole-free. Needless to say, they were not happy. Better
smelling, yes, but not happy at all.
“What did you do that for?!” Bloodbath asked, rubbing
his short, clean, brushed hair as if his tangled mess was hiding underneath it.
“Sorry,” I said. Merlin made a growling sound of
disapproval and I sighed. “I mean I’m not sorry because I’m a sorcerer and I
have no sympathy or mercy.”
“A sorcerer with blond hair and blue eyes?” one of
the dwarfs asked skeptically.
“I understood that!” another exclaimed happily. He
then sniffed his shirt and gagged. “I think I preferred the scramble spell. I
smell like a woman now; all clean and proper. I’m going to go and roll around
in the mud.” All of the pirates and dwarfs except for Jevwen were in agreement
and headed off somewhere to dirty themselves.
“
Wow
,” Merlin said. “
You ended their
fighting with just one little spell
.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“The truth spell must be over,” Jevwen said.
“Try to move the ship,” Bralyn suggested.
“It might be a better idea to do that with us on it,
in case I transport it too far away. Besides, it has been a very long day and I
need a nap.”
“
Speaking of which, I could do with some food
.”
So Merlin ran off to hunt while Jevwen and Bralyn
gathered wood for a fire. It was my intention to start a fire with magic when
they returned, but I fell asleep before they did.
* * *
I woke to the sound of manual labor, which
immediately made me want to find a hole to hide in. Two things I always avoided
were my brothers and hard work. I opened my eyes and saw Merlin sitting next to
a dying fire. With his snout, he indicated a crudely shaped ceramic plate
beside him with roasted meat on it. “
Eat
.”
I did. It was very different from tofu and I was very
hungry, so I devoured it like I hadn’t eaten in days. The sound of work was
actually the pirates and dwarfs trying to move the ship on their own. I knew
they couldn’t budge it, but it seemed to make them feel better to try.
“
Are you ready to finish this
?” Merlin asked.
I nodded, still watching them. “I don’t know if I can
do it, though. You were right last night; there’s no way I can defeat Magnus
when I couldn’t even curse the dwarfs. Maybe I should give up.”
“
Give up and do what
?”
I shrugged. “Go back home and hope my mother is quick
about it.”
“
Knowing your mother would kill you, why would you
go back home
?”
“She wouldn’t let me be free. I think the only reason
she hasn’t sent something to hunt me down and kill me yet is because if my
brothers are killed fighting Magnus, then I’m the only one left. I don’t know
why she hasn’t killed me before.”
“
I suspect it is because you are the seventh son.
You are useful to her
.”
I disagreed, but I didn’t feel like talking about it.
Fortunately, I didn’t have to, because Bralyn joined us. “Are you going to lend
a hand or let these men continue to humiliate themselves all day?” He then
sneezed and had to move further away from Merlin.
I rolled my eyes, grabbed my staff and wand, and
stood. I imagined the ship lifting until it was hovering just off the ground.
Magic raced through my body and out of the wand and staff. Like before, the
magic merged into some beautiful blue energy that surrounded the ship and
lifted it, just as I had imagined.
“
It is interesting how neither your wand nor staff
does exactly as you say, but together, they respond flawlessly. Did you notice
that
?” Merlin asked.
I nodded. Although the magic required to levitate an
object was pretty simple, the force required to lift something so massive was
taxing. For the pirates and dwarfs, it was suddenly weightless, so they began
pushing it easily. I was out of breath before I could even see the beach, but I
persisted. The energy grew darker blue every passing moment until my vision
started becoming dark and a stabbing headache formed.
Then, just when the ship started to falter, I felt
new energy. Merlin was giving me his strength through the weird psychic
connection we had. It felt like much of the pressure was off of me, so I was
able to hold it up for that last thrust the pirates and dwarfs needed. Soon,
they couldn’t push it any further, so the pirates climbed up the ropes and I
let the water guide it to the drop-off. When it was finally far enough in the
water, I let it go.
“Great, now how do we get in?” Bralyn asked.
“We swim.”
“
I will not
,” Merlin said.
“Fine.” I waved my wand upward before either of them
could argue. White, glittery magic surrounded us in an obscenely pretty
fashion, and then we were on the ship. Bralyn gasped with horror and tried to
brush off the excess glitter from his clothes and skin. “Yeah, it does that.
Sorry.” Merlin was even more horrified, and it was completely called for.
For some reason that I could not fathom, the wand
thought he needed a pretty pink bow around his head. There was death in his
eyes as he gave me a glare that I was sure even my mother felt. I carefully
tugged on one end of the ribbon until the bow came loose and then tried to
brush the glitter away from his face.
“So, good news and bad news,” Bloodbath said. “The
good news is that we found out from the dwarfs where we are. The bad news is
that we are now two days away from the Island of Light.”
“Please tell me you’re joking.”
Jevwen handed him two wooden swords. “And look what
we found safe below deck.”
* * *
We were approaching the island from the other side
this time, so we hoped we wouldn’t have to deal with another monster. At about
sunset, I went below deck to ask Jevwen if he had any books on the Island of
Light, only to stop at the bottom of the steps. Behind some of the crates were
Jevwen and Bloodbath arguing about the teen’s future. Jevwen wanted to learn
magic, but he didn’t think he had any abilities. Bloodbath wanted his son to
pursue that dream, but he was afraid that it was too dangerous.
I returned to the upper deck and found everyone
stuffing their mouths with the fruit that the dwarfs gave them. It was odd to
me that a pirate could be so concerning about his son, since I always thought
of pirates as magic-less sorcerers of the sea, but I never knew sorcerers to
care about their children like that. It was almost as if my family was the
exception.
Merlin sat beside me. “You’re not going to eat
fruit?” I asked.
He shook his head. “
I am a wolf
.”
“Well, you weren’t always one.”
“
Correct. Before I was cursed, I lived quite
happily on vegetation, fruit, and grain. I always felt that it made me a better
wizard to deny myself flesh. However, the mere thought of anything other than
meat makes me feel ill now. If I had no choice, I could sustain myself on other
food temporarily
.”
“Oh. I can live on anything as long as it’s not every
day. Or tofu. I don’t think I could live on tofu.”
The next morning, I used the ink Merlin got at the
seer tournament to color my hair black. Bralyn and the pirates thought it looked
great, but Merlin said it didn’t suit me.
* * *
When I saw the island in the distance, I felt less
prepared than ever. I had the box, magic, and sort of a plan, but a huge part
of me doubted if this was the right thing to do. There would be no going back
from this. If I defeated Magnus, my family would have no choice but to respect
me and I would never be a disappointment to them again.
But would I ever be
able to sleep at night knowing that I attacked someone like this
?
What
choice do I have
? I was born to be a sorcerer. Sorcerers always prevailed.
They were respected.
If I fought Magnus and failed, if I was killed, at
least my mother would believe I wasn’t a coward. To die at the wizard’s hands
or my mother’s…
Magnus would be merciful and make it quick. That’s what
wizards do
. I wondered if Merlin ever felt torn between being a wizard and
acting on selfish desires. I wondered if he ever wished he could be a sorcerer,
because then it wouldn’t be so wrong to wish that I had a choice.
If I were born of a lesser-known family, a magic-less
family, or any family at all that wasn’t in sorcery or wizardry, I would have a
choice.
“
Is your family’s respect for you worth more than
your own self-respect
?” Merlin asked as he joined me.
I hadn’t realized I was standing at the edge of the
deck, watching the island for a long time. “This isn’t supposed to bother me.
Everything about sorcery makes sense to me. I just don’t know why I don’t want
to be like my brothers. I would rather read books and create potions that make
everything taste like sweet berries than steal and create poisons. I wouldn’t
mind having lots of money and… and all that other stuff that we get, but why?
We have magic. We can trade things and do favors and yes, we may get stuck with
bad deals. Sorcerers never allow themselves to be taken advantage of, but I’ve
been traveling with you for days and we haven’t needed money or been wronged.
It’s dangerous sometimes, sure, but it’s so much more fun than…”
“
More fun
than what
?” he asked
eventually.
“My life has always been about trying to match my
brothers. This is so much more fun than hiding in my room or cooking potions.
I’ve made friends. Nobody liked me before because I was such a failure as a
sorcerer.”
“
I do not believe you ever needed me to teach you
to be a sorcerer. You obviously have the power and you know what choices a
sorcerer would make. I think you just wanted someone who would believe in you
long enough for you to start believing in yourself. So tell me what you want to
do
.”
I stared at the island for a moment. “We’ll go in,
meet the wizard, and see if he can remove your curse. If he can’t, we’ll trap
him in the box and bring him to my mother. If he can, we’ll trap him in the box
and not bring him to her, until I can come up with something else.” It was
silent for a moment as I thought of all the magic I did since beginning this
mission and how my magic never did anything actually harmful to anyone. Then I
laughed. “I made a bunch of swords into flowers.”
“
You made the captain of a pirate ship, all his
men, and seven dwarfs
smell
like flowers
.”
We both laughed for way too long, until it slowly
faded into an awkward silence. We got closer and closer to the island. It was
not a large island by any means; it was only large enough for the castle and a
small collection of trees around it. The castle was beautiful, tall, and white
as the purest magic, with slender towers and large balconies that overlooked
the sea.
Sorcerers were supposed to be the caste that had it
all, yet our family lived in a little cabin in the woods.
Maybe it isn’t so
bad for wizards after all
. “Stop here,” I said to Bloodbath. “It’s best you
don’t get too close because we don’t know what Magnus would do if a pirate ship
got too close to his land. I’ll transport Bralyn, Merlin, and myself to the
island.” I turned to Bralyn. “That is, if you’re sure you want to do this.”
He shrugged. “You saved my life. It is my honor to
fight alongside you, or die as it might be in this case.”
I really appreciated his confidence in me. “Thank you
all for helping us get here,” I told the pirates.
“Thank you for giving us food other than fish to eat.
If you ever need a ride again, we’ll be around. You can find us by magic,
right?”
“Probably.” I held my bag and staff in one hand and
waved my wand with my other. I envisioned us appearing on the beach before the
castle. Once again, sparkly, lavish magical energy surrounded us, blocking out
everything, and then left us right in front of the castle. This time,
fortunately, my wand hadn’t seen the need to give Merlin a bow or cover us with
sparkles.
“Are we going with the original plan? Merlin and I
will distract him while you trap him?”
“Yes. You two try to get Merlin’s curse removed. I’ll
wait until he either breaks the curse or refuses to.”
“
Maybe we should wait to
…” Merlin began.
“Wait to what?” I asked.
He hesitated. “
Never mind. Let me take a quick run
around to see where it is best to sneak in
.” He left without another word.
“What’s he doing?” Bralyn asked.
“Avoiding me,” I answered. We waited as he took far
too much time scouting the place. I started to become seriously worried.
He finally returned. “
I cannot use magic, but I
can sense it. Every door and window in the back except for the garden entrance
is guarded with a ward over it. If you get too close to one of the wards,
Magnus will sense you
.”
“Then I’ll have to go through the garden. What kind
of traps and monsters will I face?” I imagined everything from more rabid
rabbits to mutated glob monsters.
