The Sorcerer's Quest (8 page)
But she wasn’t here, and I couldn’t just let the
monster run rampant. I created him, and it was my fault he got free. I wanted
to be a sorcerer, I really did, but this had been a mistake, and even sorcerers
owned up to their mistakes.
Although the castle could still be identified as
such, several walls had been blown out by dragons. I entered the ruins through
one of the massive holes in the side. On the ground floor, weeds had grown up
through the cracks in the stone and wrapped around the old furniture. Almost
everything wooden was molded, including some paintings from the original family
who owned the place. It was dark, but moonlight streamed in through holes in
the roof and fire from the nearby homes provided eerie, flickering light that
made it look like things were moving.
Where would the treasure be
?
That is where
I’ll find my wand and the monster
. My father used to tell me that some
dragons liked caves, and some liked heights, which didn’t help at all. I either
needed to find the dungeons or the tallest tower. There were five doors and two
sets of stairs, suggesting that randomly searching this place could take much
longer than I had. I couldn’t hear the monster, either.
I dropped my bag and started to put down my staff to
get my knife out when I got an idea. I held out my staff. “You got us into this
mess. Show me where my wand is.” Nothing happened. “Fine,” I snarled at it.
“Show me where the treasure is. If you don’t, you’re worthless to me and I’ll
leave you here.”
I felt the staff pulling on my magic before the
crystal lit with a red glow. Just that. I was just about to put it down and
grab my knife when the glow in the crystal narrowed to form a beam of light
that pointed to one of the two sets of stairs.
“Wow. I didn’t think that would actually work.”
Before the staff could change its mind, I grabbed my bag and hurried up the
stairs. On the second floor, the beam of light changed to point down the hall,
where there was another staircase. Unfortunately, each floor was more dangerous
than the previous. By the time I reached the last staircase, there were
sections of it smashed so badly I had to balance on the handrail to get past
it.
The top floor was deplorable. There was a gaping
chasm in the middle of the hallway. Most of the ceiling was gone, many walls
had crumbled, and there was water damage on pretty much everything. I could see
into many of the old bedrooms as I passed them and could only tell what they
were by the fact that they had remnants of beds in them.
I didn’t, however, find any treasure. “Where is it?”
I asked the staff. The beam of light spilled across the floor and over the
chasm. “Figures. Why isn’t the monster attacking?” Surely he knew that if I
found my wand, I could control him. The staff didn’t answer.
I examined the gap in the floor until I had a firm
plan. I went into the closest room and found a broken bed leg. Then, I pulled
some rope out of my bag, tied one end around the middle of the leg, and wedged
the leg into the debris left of the wall. I tied the other end of the rope
around myself and tossed my bag and staff across the gap. The wall beside the
chasm had holes knocked out, so I used those to climb across. The rope was just
for emergency. Fortunately, I made it to the other side with only a couple
small slipups that took years off my life. I untied the rope and set a rock on
the end so that I could use it to get back.
When I picked up my staff again, the beam of light
resumed… and led right out the window. I knew whatever it was would be bad, but
I had no idea how bad. Outside the window was a tower. Across from me was a
large window in the tower with part of a broken bridge hanging out of it. From
my angle, I couldn’t see any way into the tower except through this window.
Unfortunately, I was running out of time. Through the tower window, I could
just make out the dull glint of gold.
How am I supposed to get over there
? I could
have used Merlin’s advice. Since I didn’t have his help, I relied on what I did
have. I dug through my bag, looking for a plan. I could throw a rock over with
a rope attached, but I couldn’t throw one heavy enough to hold my weight.
But
maybe my staff can
.
Just as I raised my staff to try something, the
building shook and I heard the eerie howl of a monkey. My skin grew numb as the
staff made me impenetrable again. At least, I hope that’s what it was doing.
Unfortunately, that wouldn’t protect me from being crushed under rocks.
Before I could even think up a spell, the floor
started to collapse, and I ended up rolling straight into the chasm.
Fortunately, I caught the rope and saved myself from plummeting to my death.
The rope held my weight and I held on no matter how much my hands hurt, because
right below me, my monster was fighting none other than a huge brown bear.
And the bear was losing.
My staff fell to the ground harmlessly. I considered
pushing away from the wall and letting go so that I could land near my staff,
but when a swipe of the bear’s paw nearly got me in the abdomen, I started
climbing the rope instead. And I nearly got to the top.
Then the rope snapped, and I landed right between the
monster and the bear. For one precious moment, they stared at me in shock. The
bear then leaned over me until his face was so close to mine that I could feel
his hot breath. I would have stopped myself from gagging if I weren’t trying so
hard to control my other bodily functions. When the bear opened his mouth wide,
displaying all his sharp teeth, I forgot to breathe altogether.
And then he sneezed on my face.
I made a sound I had never made before; it was
something like a shriek of disgust, but with my eyes and mouth closed. I heard
the bear’s roar of pain at the same time I felt him being thrown off me. I sat
up and reached for my staff just as the bear was tossed backwards into it.
Although the staff rolled away unscathed, I had to dive out of the way. The
monster was tearing at him viciously. I once again tried to get to my staff. It
was now in the far corner, balancing dangerously on the edge of yet another hole
in the floor. If the monster or bear were slammed to the floor again, my staff
would fall.
The monster’s sharp claws tried to swipe at me as I
passed, but the bear was closer and apparently faster. His front paw smacked
into me from behind and I was propelled towards my staff, away from the
monster. I landed rolling and went with it. The wall stopped my fall just as my
staff began tipping into the hole. I pounced, knowing already that it was too
late, because it was gone before I could reach the hole.
But my body apparently didn’t know that, and I had my
legs braced and my entire upper body through the hole before I knew what I was
doing. I caught it. Barely.
Gasping with relief and exertion, I climbed out of
the hole and wiped sweat from my face. With the fighting bear and monster in
front of me, I had every intention of running out of the castle and trying to
find another way into the tower. Unfortunately, that was when the bear roared
in pain. The monster had its claws around the bear’s front paws to prevent him
from attacking and its tentacles were around the bear’s throat.
A sorcerer was ruthless, manipulative, and
self-centered. That was what my family was and that was what they expected me
to be. Unlike my brothers, however, I didn’t think that included cruelty to
animals. I might not have risked my life for the bear if I hadn’t created the
monster myself… but I probably would have.
Darting around the monster, I grabbed one end of the
rope. I didn’t have a plan so much as a terrible idea that would never work.
That was pretty much my life. With the staff in hand, I ducked under the
monster’s arm and tentacles to put myself between it and the bear, then thrust
the crystal of the staff towards the monster’s chest.
“Get back,” I demanded.
The monster did, though it was only from surprise
that I would stand up to it. One of its claws swiped at my arm, but my staff’s
magic protected my skin. I felt my magic bonding with the staff again as if
even my magic knew I was being threatened.
I realized then what Dessa had meant. My staff was
not just a tool of magic; it had its own awareness. It wasn’t like mine or
another person’s, but it was enough that the staff knew what was happening. As
the staff’s energy mingled with mine, it felt like it was trying to get to know
me. As if it was trying to determine if I was a worthy master.
That was really depressing, because I knew it would
find me unfit, since it was a sorcerer staff and I was bad at sorcery. Here I
was, putting myself in danger to save a bear.
Don’t think about that
.
I have to do this.
I
will
do this
.
Merlin is counting on me
. The crystal started
glowing more fiercely than I had ever seen it, but it was also lighter red. The
monster sneered at me and his tentacles reached forth to take the staff from
me. That wasn’t going to happen. The harmless glow swelled out of the crystal
and struck as lightning.
With a cry of pain, the creature was thrown back. I
winced, sympathetic and even a little apologetic, because I had created it in
the first place, and now I was attacking it for following its basic instincts.
When it got back up, I waved the staff at it. Instead
of attacking me, the creature took flight. Fortunately, my staff knew what to
do; the other end of the rope shot up and wrapped around the monkey monster’s
leg. He flew up, to the top floor, and out the window, dragging me out with
him. Of course, when the beast flew from one window to the window of the tower,
I fell. I was expecting it, though, so I held on and put my legs out to stop
myself from crashing into the wall. It went perfectly; my legs braced me and
the further into the tower the monkey went, the more he pulled me up and
towards the window. Soon, I was over the lip of the window, balancing on the
edge between safety and certain death. If the monster came at me instead of
flying further away, I would have fallen. I just had to not look down.
“Oh, gods,” I moaned when I saw the ground so far
beneath me.
The monster jerked suddenly and tossed me inside,
where I landed face-first in gold coins and jewels. It hurt, but it meant that
I was on solid ground, so I was okay with it. I started to get up, only to have
to roll out of the way as the monkey dived at me. Lightning shot from my staff
again, but the monster dodged it.
“Where is the wand?” I asked my staff. It didn’t
answer me, so I dug through the piles of treasure while evading the monster and
shooting him with lightning whenever he got too close. He was no longer trying
to claw me; he was learning. When he tried to drop a massive wooden chest on
me, I gave up on my wand and faced the beast. “What is wrong with you?” I asked
him. “I created you to help me.”
This time, he didn’t dive at me or move away. In
fact, he was staring at my staff expectantly.
“What?” I closed my eyes, praying that he wouldn’t
strike at that exact moment, and focused on the sensation of my magic flowing
inside me and in the staff. The staff wasn’t doing magic itself, but it was
certainly doing
something
. I opened my eyes and imagined the restraints
around the monkey’s limbs and neck.
Although I could see them clearly in my mind, it
wasn’t what I expected. The restraints to his limbs and wings all combined into
one rope that led to a pile of gold I hadn’t checked, but the rope around his
neck was tied to the crystal in my staff. Suddenly, I understood.
“I get it. I bet it’s hurting you, isn’t it? The wand
is pulling you here and the staff is pulling you towards me. You probably don’t
want me controlling you, but you don’t want it to hurt, either.” I moved
towards the wand and the monkey snarled. I snarled back in attempt to show him
I wasn’t going to submit and reached into the pile of gold. My wand felt warm
when I pulled it out and the relief I felt bordered on irrational. It was as if
I had lost something very important to me that I finally got back.
With both my wand and staff in hand, I turned back to
the monkey, who landed before me. I wished Merlin had shown me how to banish
the creature before I came after it. “I banish you. Whether that means you
leave or cease to exist, you are not allowed to hurt anyone. Don’t worry; I’ll
call you soon and you’ll have the opportunity to cause destruction then. Go,
and don’t return until I call you.”
He closed his wings around him and dispersed. He just
sort of poofed out of existence, but in a slow and detailed way.
And then the tower rumbled and shook. Acting on
instinct, I ran to the window just as the tower started to tilt towards the
castle. Right before the tower actually crashed into the wall of the castle, I
jumped from one window to the next. Because of the momentum and the narrower
distance, I made it, but the tower still crashed, and since there was very
little roof left, that all came down on top of me. I allowed myself to fall
from one floor to the next to stay ahead of the destruction, but as I started
falling faster and faster, everything became a blur. I couldn’t stop myself and
between me falling on sharp objects and heavy objects falling on me, there was
no telling how many bones I broke.
After a while, I became aware that everything was
still, although I had no idea how much time had passed. I was lying under a
pile of rocks and dirt in a beam of light with no idea whether it was sunlight
or moonlight. Then I saw one bear paw reaching out of the dark for me, and I
passed out.
“Rest. You are still healing.” Even though the voice
was soft and feminine, it made my head hurt.
“What happened?” I asked, trying to see the person
without moving my head. There was a man sitting in a nearby chair, but he was
asleep.
A woman stepped into my line of vision. She was short
and a little plump with dark blue robes. Although her hair was a smattering of
silver and gray, her face and eyes looked way too young for her hair to have
turned. It was oddly unsettling.
“You were gravely injured while saving the town.”
I tried to sit up, but she pushed against my
shoulders and I was overcome with nausea. “My wand and staff,” I said. My voice
was scratchy. The staff’s spell to protect me was also gone.
“Bralyn got them. Your staff, wand, and bag are right
here. You need to sleep and heal.”
I didn’t know who Bralyn was, but it reminded me who
was counting on me. “How long have I been here?”
“Not long. I gave you a healing potion that should
have you back together by sunrise.”
That explained things; she was a mage. “It isn’t
sunrise yet? Thank the gods. I have to go. I have to get to the Dark Forest by
sunrise.”
“There is no possible way you could make it.”
“I will. I don’t know what they’ll do to Merlin if I’m
not back, but elves won’t be merciful if I break a promise.”
“I don’t understand,” she said as I pulled the wet
cloth off my head and struggled out of bed.
Vertigo made standing much more difficult than it
should have been. Fortunately, the mage understood that I had something
important to do, so she picked my stuff up and handed them to me, then helped
me out of the hut. Outside, I faced a wall of villagers, who all hollered with
delight.
The sudden noise stabbed at my headache like a knife
between my ears. My stomach rebelled, but since there was nothing to expel, I
didn’t have to worry about puking in front of everyone. I’ve been there and
done that; it was highly embarrassing. “What’s happening?” I asked, still not
able to get my voice right.
“When you destroyed the beast and brought down the
tower, the treasure from the ancient dragons spilled out into the village. You
made everyone rich along with saving us. I have never met a braver wizard.”
“I’m not a wizard, I’m a… never mind.” I didn’t have
the energy to explain. “I have to get to the Dark Forest.” The sky was already
starting to lighten. I knew that I would never make it, especially since I was
injured.
I tried to think of a spell, a curse,
anything
,
that could help me. When I felt a nudge in my back, I ignored it. Then I had to
duck out of the way before a sharp horn could impale my shoulder. “Not you
again!” I said, exasperated. The unicorn was back. “Why do you follow me
every…” I stopped and stroked his head as I realized what this meant. I couldn’t
make it back to Merlin on time by foot, but surely a unicorn could. “Can you
help me? I need to get to the Dark Forest elves by sunrise.”
The unicorn tossed his head and knelt.
“Thank you.” I had to have help getting on and even
then I couldn’t sit up without a struggle. Obviously, the potion had a lot more
work to do, because I wasn’t strong enough to hold three items. Making a quick
decision, I tossed the bag to the ground and pocketed my wand. The bag had been
mine for as long as I could remember, but Merlin needed help.
As soon as I was relatively secure, the unicorn took
off at a gallop.
With every passing moment, the sky grew lighter and I
grew stronger. By the time we reached the forest, sunlight was touching the
tips of the trees. The unicorn was undeterred. He glided over roots and bushes
that I would have struggled with, and I knew we would make it. We came to a
clearing with only a single, small apple tree in the middle of it. He didn’t
slow before stopping suddenly in front of the tree, but my blood felt alive
like it only did when I faced death. I jumped down from the unicorn easily and
pulled my wand from my pocket.
“I’m here. Release Merlin,” I demanded. Elves
suddenly appeared from the depths of the forest and tops of the trees. Most of
them were difficult to differentiate, so I was only guessing that it was their
king who stopped right in front of me.
“You returned on time. I will release your companion,
but you must break the curse on my daughter.”
“Where is she?” I asked. He pointed to the apple
tree. I should have guessed; it wasn’t like any of the other trees and for some
reason, Gibus often compared women to apples. When the elven king took another
step towards me, the unicorn tossed its head at him, as if telling him to get back.
I set my staff down on the ground, aimed my wand at
the tree, and envisioned the tree like a shell around a small woman.
Return
her to normal
. I imagined the tree cracking and falling away from her. When
my magic shot through the wand, I encountered Gibus’s magic in the tree. That
was expected and fortunately, I’ve broken his curses many times.
I let my magic settle over his like a blanket to feel
out the weak points. There were always weak points because my brother’s
intentions were shallow. Although he liked the flashy curses, like this one, he
was absentminded and impatient, so the weak points were often in the details.
That meant the leaves, branches, and roots in this case. In fact, the only
stronghold he had on the curse was the trunk. I tore at his energy from the top
and bottom until it frayed like a badly sewn sweater.
What everyone else saw was the tree melting into a
pretty little elven girl with long gold hair and green eyes. It was apparently
not as easy as I had thought, though, because I was slightly out of breath when
I was done. Nevertheless, healing potions always left me with a little too much
energy, so I wasn’t in any danger.
The elf king went to his daughter and hugged her.
“You are much more powerful than we had thought,” he told me.
“Where is Merlin?”
He made a motion with his hands and I heard a vine
snap. A moment later, Merlin emerged from the darkness. At least I knew why
this forest was given its name; even in daylight, it was mostly dark.
“We will hereby consider you a friend and if you
cross our path again, we will make sure you have a safe passage.”
“I appreciate that. You don’t happen to know where I
can find the Island of Light, do you?”
“No; we stay in the forest. I do know there is no
Island of Light on Akadema.”
They all vanished into the trees. “
Explain
,”
Merlin said.
“Later.” The forest had ears.
* * *
Fortunately, we made it the rest of the way without
getting attacked, captured, or eaten. Instead of returning to Vactarus’s
mansion, we decided to go past the village I had just saved since my brothers
went that way. Most likely, they knew the right way and our best bet was to
follow them until we had a clue where we were going.
I didn’t want to overtax the unicorn after he helped
me so much, so I walked instead of riding on him. Unfortunately, as soon as we
emerged from the forest, he pranced off in his own direction. It was getting
too warm for my robe by then, but I didn’t have a bag to put it in.
“I’m hungry,” I said.
Merlin sighed. “
Then explain to me why you
insisted that I not hunt us some food
.”
“Because the Dark Forest elves would have strung us back
up and left us for the animals to eat. My brothers have been through here and
the elves weren’t happy about their hunting any more than they were them
turning their king’s daughter into a tree. How much of our conversation did you
hear?”
“
All of it, including that you vowed to return for
me and break their curse. That was very noble of you. A sorcerer would have
cursed them and escaped with or without me
.”
“I wouldn’t have left you.” I wasn’t expecting his
thoughtful frown… probably because he was a wolf. “Would you have left me?”
“
Probably not
.”
“Well, the elves thought that I was a wizard, which
worked in our favor this once.”
“
This once? I know that sorcerers are respectable
and accepted members of society here, but people generally prefer wizards to sorcerers
.”
I gaped. “No way! Wizards are too pretentious, not to
mention they’re just as self-centered as sorcerers, only with slightly
different values.”
“
Vastly different values, and no, they are not as
selfish as sorcerers. I had already guessed that it was your brothers who
cursed the elf’s daughter, so tell me what happened when you went after your
wand. You were gone for a long time, but you appear to be uninjured
.”
So, I explained everything, including that the castle
ruins had people around it. I left out the part about saving a bear, though. I
mean, how could that possibly be important? Merlin was quiet for a while, no
doubt deciding that there was no way I would ever be a proper sorcerer. “If I
had been able to take some of the gold, at least that would have been selfish.”
“
The point is that you saved people and gave them
the gold they could never get their hands on. You do realize that was the last
thing a sorcerer would have done, right
?”
“Yes, I know. Are you disappointed?”
“
Why would I be disappointed
?”
“My family would be horrified.”
“
Remember that I am from a world where there is no
such distinction between wizards and sorcerers. I agreed to teach you
how
to be a sorcerer, not force you to be one. You know very well what was right
and what was wrong. You made a choice and I have no right to be disappointed
when any sorcerer would have left me to fend for myself. Now, conjure some
food. I am hungry enough to eat apples
.”
We stopped walking. “Maybe I can conjure some tofu.”
“
Apples
,” he insisted.
“Well, I can’t just conjure food out of thin air. I
need something edible that I can transform.”
“You transformed clay into food on the night you
released me from the syrus,” he pointed out.
“That’s different. That was special transformation
clay. It’s like emergency food, and I’m out of it.”
“Hello there!” a man called, coming down the road
towards us.
I frowned when I realized he looked oddly familiar.
Merlin glanced at me. “
Is he a friend of yours
?”
I shook my head. “I’ve seen him before, but I don’t
remember where.”
“
Is that not your bag
?” he asked.
Only then did I realize the man was carrying my
satchel. He was tall and heavily built with the type of muscles only
generation-bred warriors had. When he got close enough, I recognized the
shoulder-length, dark brown hair and the scruffy goatee on his face. “You’re
the man who was asleep in the mage’s tent,” I said. I also noticed that he had
a very large sword at his side and intentionally didn’t bring it up. “That’s a
really big sword.”
Oops
. My mouth wasn’t as wise as my brain.
He grinned brightly, stopped in front of me, and held
out my bag. “I’m Bralyn, and I was the one who pulled you out of the castle.”
Then he sneezed. Before he could compose himself, he sneezed five more times.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He backed away. “I’m sorry, but the wind just changed
direction. I’m allergic to fur.”
“Allergic to fur? Well, thank you for bringing me my
bag.” I tried to take it from him, but he didn’t hand it over.
“I haven’t just come to bring your bag to you; I want
to help you on your quest.”
“Why do you think I’m on a quest?” I asked.
He frowned at me. “I know the look of someone on a
mission.”
“You don’t even know what mission it is.”
“No, but I’m a warrior; quests are what I do. I was
sent to destroy the monkey monster, but you did it instead. I can’t return to
my guild empty-handed. As far as I’m concerned, your quest is mine as well
now.”
“
Seriously
?” Merlin asked.
“This is Merlin, and he’s helping me, so if you’re
allergic to fur, I really don’t see any way you can help.”
“It shouldn’t be a problem as long as I stand upwind
of him.”
“
Tell him where we are going. He will not want to
face a powerful wizard
.”
“I’m trying to defeat Magnus.”
“The Great Wizard? That is a tricky one, because his
castle is extremely difficult to find.”
“That’s our problem. We’re looking for a place called
the Island of Light, and---”
“Oh, right between the Shimmering Isles and Ghost
Mountain.”
“You know where the Island of Light is?” I asked,
gaping.
“Yes. I live at the base of Ghost Mountain in a city
called Red Rock. My friends and I used to swim to the Island of Light when we
were little.”
“Great! Can you show us the way?”
“I will take you there myself.”
I knew having a warrior helping us was a huge
advantage, even if he was allergic to Merlin. Aside from the fact that they
were trained their entire lives to fight, they were courageous and clever. I
could learn something. “I would appreciate the help.”
Bralyn started leading us back the way he had come,
toward the castle ruins. “Just out of curiosity, though… why are you trying to
defeat Magnus? Aren’t wizards usually on the same side?”
I sighed. “I’m not a wizard, I’m a sorcerer.”
“Really? Aren’t you a little… small to be a sorcerer?”
