The Sorcerer's Quest (9 page)
“No, I’m not. I’m going to defeat Magnus to prove
that.”
If anything, this seemed to brighten Bralyn’s mood
even more. “Fantastic! There is nothing I understand better than a quest to
prove yourself. To win or lose to an honorable opponent is a rare treat, and
only by defeating those who are stronger than you can you become a better man.”
“
A better fighter, yes, but it takes many
qualities to make you a man
,” Merlin argued. Of course, Bralyn couldn’t
hear him and I ignored him. “
He is hiding something
.
There is
something very odd about his scent, though I cannot identify it
.”
I didn’t respond, since I wasn’t sure if it was a
good idea or not to reveal that Merlin was a wizard and not just a wolf.
Keeping that a secret would make the trip pretty awkward.
Bralyn was in a good mood, which I thought was
unusual. Although I had never personally met a warrior, I was under the
impression that they were all very serious and short-tempered. They were
primarily sent out on quests to fight monsters and people who get too powerful
and destructive. They were not often assigned to guard castles because they
tended to be too impulsive and restless. While warriors were independent, they
were part of the warrior’s guild and had to work their way up in the ranks to receive
the better quests. Mages, magical healers, were the main providers of the
quests.
My stomach rumbled. When Bralyn pulled out a loaf of
bread and handed it to me, it took everything in me not to make a loud sound of
delight. I started to break off some for Merlin, but he took off running into
the long grass to our right. It took me a moment to realize he was hunting some
small mammal.
“I’ve never seen a real wolf before,” Bralyn said
quietly. “I thought they were extinct.”
“Well, Merlin is special.”
“How so?”
I hesitated. “I think if I told you, you wouldn’t
help us find the Island of Light.”
“A warrior never breaks his oath. I vow to help you
get there.”
“Why are you so adamant?”
“As I said before, you defeated the monster I was
sent to destroy. I need to complete a mission before I can return home without
shame.”
He was lying. “How did you know about the monster? He
was only created yesterday.”
“We have a seer in our guild. And how do you know
when the monster was… wait… created? It was conjured by a sorcerer? How do you
know that?”
“Well… I’m the one who conjured it. I’m Ayden Dracre
and my mother---”
“You’re a Dracre?” he interrupted.
“I guess you’ve heard of us. I shouldn’t be
surprised. Yes, my family is well-known for their sorcery, but I’m a complete
failure at it. Before I got my staff, I only had my wand, which couldn’t do
black magic. I overheard my brothers saying that my mother was sending them
after Magnus, and that I wasn’t going. My mother would rather kill me than
allow me to be an embarrassment to the family, so I knew the only way I could
prove myself was to defeat Magnus before my brothers could.”
“So you’re going to go and fight a wizard you have
never met just because you’re afraid of your mother?”
“You obviously have no idea what it’s like to be
ridiculed your entire life. My brothers have buried me alive, cursed me, burned
me, cut me, stabbed me, and left me for dead in the most dangerous places on
Akadema, and my mother encouraged it. I’m more afraid of Ilvera Dracre than
Magnus.”
“Actually, that makes sense. I would much rather be
killed by a wizard than a sorceress,” he said thoughtfully. “And I have had my
share of ridicule as well.” I arched an eyebrow in disbelief. “I’m allergic to
fur
.
Of course I’ve been ridiculed.”
“But you’re a warrior. I thought warriors kill
everyone who dishonors them.”
“We are still people, just like sorcerers and wizards
are people. Yes, we are nothing without our honor. We are raised to handle all
kinds of stress in order to stand strong before our enemy, and that includes
being tormented with our weaknesses.”
“Then I am stronger because my brothers harassed me?”
“I suspect so. I would rather face an enemy with a
fellow survivor than someone who was never tested. How does the wolf come in to
this?”
“A few days ago, I somehow released Merlin from a
magical box and it turns out he’s actually a wizard from another world who can
talk to me in my head because I was the one who released him. He agreed to
teach me to be a sorcerer, yet I still keep screwing up. I tried to create a
monster to help me and control it with my wand, but the wand disappeared and I
had to get it back in order to control the monster. A seer told me where the
wand was, but not that there were people at the ruins.”
“So it wasn’t your plan to save everyone and shower
the town with the dragon treasure?”
“No, that was an accident.”
“And why wasn’t Merlin with you?”
“He was being held hostage by the Dark Forest elves
and I had to get back by sunrise with my wand to break the curse that one of my
brothers put on the elf king’s daughter.”
“Right. Sorcerer or not, you are the oddest person I
have ever met.”
Merlin came back with blood on his snout. “
Before
we reach his castle, you need a plan to defeat Magnus
.”
I nodded. “Merlin says I need a plan to defeat the
wizard. Maybe you can help, since you go on a lot of quests,” I told Bralyn.
“Have you ever had to defeat a much more powerful enemy?”
“Not one who didn’t know I was coming. It is
dishonorable to attack an unaware opponent. However, that really only pertains
to non-magic users. In this case, catching him by surprise is your best weapon.
Well, that and your staff.”
“My staff is unreliable. Merlin, how were you
defeated?”
“
I was distracted and captured in the syrus
.”
“Then we can do that to the wizard.”
“Do what?” Bralyn asked.
“I know you said you would get us there, but I don’t
expect you to help us fight.”
“That is part of your mission as well, so of course
I’ll help. What’s the plan?”
I considered pushing again to know why he was so determined.
Furthermore, this was supposed to be my chance to prove myself.
If I have a
warrior helping me fight, what would that prove
?
“
Even the most powerful sorcerer needs allies
,”
Merlin said as if he heard my thoughts.
Wait,
can
he hear my thoughts
?
“
Only rarely
,” he said. “
You have the
ability to speak telepathically to me and I suspect you will learn to by
accident
.”
“Okay, if you two can distract him, I may be able to
come up with a curse that can subdue him long enough to trap him in the syrus
box. Since Merlin is bigger than the box is, I’m assuming size doesn’t matter.”
“
What about my curse
?”
“You two can go in, pretending you’re visiting him to
get your curse broken. Wizards always help people who travel on a long journey
to seek their help. After your curse is broken, I’ll trap him.”
“Do you have enough power to curse such a strong
wizard?” Bralyn asked.
“I don’t know. I guess it depends on timing and how
well you can distract him. If he’s not fighting me, I can use my staff.
Hopefully, it won’t do something weird. Maybe I can turn him to stone like I
did the rabbits.”
“
You can poison him
,” Merlin suggested.
“No way.”
“You can poison him,” Bralyn suggested, having not
heard Merlin.
I gaped at him. “Why is that okay for you?
I’m
the sorcerer here, and I don’t want to poison someone. That is too cruel even
for me.”
“You would rather face him so he can fight back and
possibly kill you?” Bralyn asked.
“Yes… I mean no. I don’t know. I don’t know what I
want. I just want to be a sorcerer that everyone fears.” I tried to consider
poisoning him, but the thought made me sick. The only poisons I knew were
painful and slow. Nobody deserved to suffer in pain while knowing without a
shadow of doubt that they were going to die and there was nothing they could do
about it.
Bralyn continued. “I admire and approve of your
decision. It will be an honor to lose with you.”
Merlin groaned. “
I cannot believe this is really
happening
…
again
.
How do I always end up in these situations
?”
* * *
We walked in silence for a while before I heard the
sound of the ocean. “Please tell me you have a boat,” I said just as we reached
the top of the hill that overlooked the ocean. The road led straight to a dock
for huge ships.
“No, of course not. Our ride is already here.”
I groaned. “You’re joking, right? Please tell me
we’re not getting on
that
.”
“No, I’m not joking.”
The only ship at the dock was massive and had
distinctive swords on the sail. It was a pirate ship.
With a sigh, I followed.
“
Be mindful of what you say when you speak to the
captain
,” Merlin advised.
“I know. If I’m too nice, he’ll try to walk all over me.”
“
Or he will kill you. Also, be careful not to
answer me, as it looks like you are talking to yourself to those who cannot
hear me
.”
“I know.”
“You know what?” Bralyn asked. I shook my head. “Do
you want me to seize the ship by force or coerce the pirates to take us where
we want to go?”
I gaped. “Do you fight everyone? What happened to,
‘We are still people’?”
“I’m a warrior. Yes, I’m also a person, but fighting
is what I do.”
“You said quests were what you do.”
“You are seriously overthinking this. You’re a
sorcerer; you know how it is.”
I grimaced. Sorcerers were known to work well with
warriors because they both had a price and neither of them was afraid of
getting their hands dirty. “I think we should try to pay them first, and you
can do what you have to if they refuse.”
We reached the dock then, but before we could take a
step onto it, a pirate jumped down from the ship and glared. He was a heavyset
man with long, tangled, greasy black hair and a beard to match. Under all that
hair was a wide, dirty face with a long, crooked nose and eyes the color of sea
foam. He was as large as Bralyn in both height and girth, but he had as much
fat as muscle, whereas Bralyn only had muscle.
“Hello,” Bralyn said brightly. “We are trying to get
to the Island of Light. Would you be able to help us?”
The pirate scowled at him. “No. Go away.” His voice
was not as deep as I had expected; it was actually more nasally and scratchy.
“We can pay you,” Bralyn insisted.
“You have nothing I want.”
“We have gold,” I cut in.
The pirate just sneered. “I have gold. I have three
private islands full of gold. The way to the Island of Light is treacherous.
Why would I risk my life and the lives of my crew?”
“Well, what do you want?”
“Food!” another pirate shouted. We looked up to see
three other pirates at the edge of the ship, all listening to our conversation
intently.
“You don’t have food?” I asked.
“We have fish. We have all kinds of fish, and we’re
sick of it,” the pirate in front of me growled.
“
Ask him who the captain is. Only the captain can
make a deal
,” Merlin said.
“Are you the captain?” I asked the pirate. He was
bigger than the others and the only one to step off the boat.
“I am. My name is Bloodbath.”
“Really?” I asked, my jaw dropping. Before his scowl
could turn even more venomous, I asked, “And you’re sick of fish?”
“You would be sick of anything if it was all you ate
for two years.”
I was so sick of apples and broccoli after six days
of eating them that I never wanted to see them again, so I could understand his
frustration. “Great. Then I do have something you might want. Bring me one of
your fish.” He only stared at me. “Really, I can help. Just one fish.”
He still looked skeptical as he turned to his
crewmates. “Toss him a fish.”
A moment later, one of the pirates tossed a little
fish at me. I caught it with my free hand, but almost dropped it because it was
so slimy. Once I had a firm grip on it, I pointed my staff at it clumsily.
Fortunately, the fish was already dead. I couldn’t transform a live animal into
a dead one, which was why I couldn’t conjure meat with my wand.
Change this to meat
. The crystal on the staff
glowed once again and the fish changed into the same tofu I had tried the other
night.
Merlin groaned. “
You cannot give that to him; if
he hates it, he might eat us
.”
Bloodbath was excited when he saw the meat, however,
and took it from me. Juice seeped into his beard as he shoved half of it into
his mouth and I had to force myself not to gag on his behalf. To my surprise,
he ate it whole, bone and all. “I have no idea what that meat was, but it was
absolutely delicious!” he declared. The other pirates cheered.
“Great! It’s called tofu. Merlin said it’s a great
source of protein, whatever that is. So you’ll take us to the Island of Light
if I turn your fish into tofu?”
“You have a deal. Come aboard! Had I known a wizard
could be so powerful, I would have kidnapped one long ago.”
“Actually,” I pointed out quietly, “I’m a sorcerer,
not a wizard.”
He frowned. “Really? But I thought…” He indicated his
hair.
I blushed. “Yeah.”
“And I thought…” He held his hand out in front of his
chest in a rough estimate of my height.
I blushed deeper. “Yeah. I have a sorcerer staff,
though,” I said, trying to be positive. “And this is my sorcerer family’s
mark.” I pointed out the gold emblem on my robe.
“I see,” he said, obviously not convinced.
“He may look small and feeble,” Bralyn cut in, “but
he conjured a beast of unimaginable horrors to carry out his villainous quest.”
That must have been all the confirmation Bloodbath
needed because he turned to his crewmates. “Men, this is the sorcerer…”
“Ayden Dracre, and this is Merlin,” I said.
“I’m Bralyn Trajir, a warrior.”
Bloodbath turned back to his pirates. “This is Ayden,
the great sorcerer who can change fish into food, Bralyn the warrior, and
Merlin the… extinct land animal.”
Merlin growled. “He’s a wizard,” I said quickly.
Bloodbath frowned again. “Really? You’re a sorcerer…
and he’s a wizard? I must have been at sea for too long.”
* * *
We were soon on our way. Aside from the captain,
there were five pirates on the ship. The only one who wasn’t dirty, hairy, and
huge was Jevwen, who was the captain’s son. He was about sixteen, slender, and
clean compared to the others. His hair was even short, albeit crudely cut, and
his clothes were obviously sewn by himself. He had the same bone structure as
his father, so he would look very similar if he put on weight and broke his
nose a few times. However, he seemed to have no interest in doing that.
While the other pirates brought fish for me to
transform, Jevwen sat in his bed below deck and read. I wanted to read, too,
but the books were in a foreign language. The young man was clearly perfectly
happy being a scholar instead of following his father’s legacy of
sea-pillaging. Even more astounding to me was how proud Bloodbath looked when
he introduced Jevwen to me. I was glad he could be so free.
It was dark and cramped below deck with a row of ten
beds narrowly spaced along the right wall and wooden crates taking up the rest
of the room. Each pirate had his own box of personal stuff, except for Jevwen
who had two. Other than that, the crates contained everything from writing
paper to jewelry, since the pirates were pillaging different treasures from
different places and ships.
Finally seeing the end in sight for this journey and
finally so close to proving myself, I started to feel a little giddy. That was
until Bloodbath informed me that the trip would take five days.
* * *
On the first day, it was okay. I used my staff to
create fire in an iron bowl and cooked fish for Bralyn, Merlin, and me, while
the rest of the crew ate tofu. Bralyn didn’t like tofu any more than I did.
Many of the pirates were anxious about having a sorcerer on board, but they
warmed up to me quickly. Merlin spent most of the day lying in one of the beds
below. He said he was just tired, but I knew it was sea sickness.
When the sun set, sea mist made it impossible to keep
a candle lit on the deck, and since it was a cloudy night, the moons provided
little light. I still wasn’t comfortable on the ship, so I made my wand light
up and sat with Jevwen. We told each other funny stories of our childhood. Mine
were sad. Soon, the rest of the pirates joined in and I learned how they all
came to live here with what was undoubtedly the most successful pirate I’d ever
heard of.
Unlike everyone who was born with magic, non-magic
users had a choice in how they wanted to live their lives. Bloodbath enjoyed
the sea and hated taking commands, so he had chosen pirating based on that.
Bloodbath was his pirate name, of course, and nobody knew his real name. Jevwen
enjoyed traveling, so when he turned fourteen, he left his mother and found his
father. Once the other pirates were out of tales, they got back to work or went
to sleep, leaving me alone with Bloodbath. I told him my story, and he was quiet
when I went to bed.
* * *
On the second day, I woke with cramps in my shoulders
and neck. There were enough beds for all of us, but I hadn’t been prepared for
how rocky the ship was and how loud the crashing waves could get. Merlin
refused to teach me anything or even let me use my staff to practice for the
upcoming battle, saying he remembered how easy it was for these types of ships
to sink.
I didn’t want him to tell me how easy it was.
* * *
I was awoken on the third day with the tip of a sword
at my throat. Only the sparse moonlight streaming in through one of the hatches
reached my bed, but it was enough to identify the man threatening my life.
Sorcerers were masters of magic, yet that didn’t help
me at all when Dessa had a dagger to my back or when there was a sword to my
throat. I glanced at Merlin’s bed, but he wasn’t in it. When the blade was
finally retracted, I was able to breathe again.
“Why?” I asked.
“You are about to face an enemy of unimaginable
power, but I could have easily killed you in your sleep just now. You need to
hone your survival instincts,” Bloodbath said, harnessing his sword. “Have you
ever been taught to use a sword?”
“My father tried to, but I was so bad at it that it
wasn’t worth the risk. I was little at the time, though.”
“Come up to the deck and I will start training you
with the sword. You won’t master it before you face Magnus, but even a little
training is better than none.”
I followed him reluctantly up the stairs and groaned
when I saw that it wasn’t even daylight yet. Before I could retreat back down
the steps, Bloodbath handed me a sword.
“Face me.” He showed me how to stand, how to swing,
and how to block. “Only in enactments, lovers’ spats, and entertainment do they
clash blades intentionally,” he said. “When the blades strike, it dulls them,
but it is better to dull your blade than lose your leg or worse. Against
another person, you don’t need as much force as you probably think you do. A
person’s body is not that strong. If you are fighting a monster, however, put
as much force in it as you can, because too much is better than not enough.”
“I can’t hold my staff and a sword at the same
time.”
“That is true, but you have already told me that your
staff doesn’t always do what you want it to. A sword only does what you make
it; any failure is on you. If the hilt breaks, that is still your fault.
Someday, a sword may save your life where magic lets you down.”
I practiced all day. Merlin watched and Bralyn took
over teaching me several times when Bloodbath wanted a break. By the end of the
day, I could barely hold the sword at all and I couldn’t feel my hands.
Bloodbath gave me a drink from a large brown bottle, told me it would help me
feel better, and then just laughed when I asked him if it was a healing potion.
It definitely wasn’t a potion; it made me feel worse for a short time… and that
was the last thing I remembered.
* * *
On the fourth day, I woke without any pain. In fact,
I felt great until I went back up onto the deck and was immediately handed a
sword. “Can’t I eat first?” I asked.
“When you cut me, you can eat,” Bloodbath answered.
I looked at Jevwen, who was watching us. He shrugged.
“It was how he taught me. I went many days without food.”
I turned to Merlin. “I’m hungry.”
The wolf smirked. “
You wanted to be the strongest
sorcerer. That requires daily practice in all kinds of skills. Trust me, I am
taking notes. Apparently, I was not hard enough on you
.”
I hoped that he was joking.
* * *
The sun was getting low in the sky and there didn’t
appear to be an end in sight for my training when we heard a shout from Jevwen.
He pointed to something in the distance, but it was too far for me to make out.
“There’s a bad storm out that way.”
“That’s the way to the Island of Light, though, isn’t
it?” I asked.
“It is,” Bloodbath said, harnessing his sword and
joining Jevwen. “Can you tell how it’s moving?”
Jevwen held up a slender metal object to his eye and
looked at the storm through it. “No, not yet.”
“Keep an eye on it.” He then addressed the other
pirates and told them to lower the sails and close the hatches to the cargo.
When he checked back with Jevwen, the boy didn’t have good news.
“It’s coming right for us, and it’s coming fast.”
“You and Ayden need to get below.”
Jevwen nodded, but helped his father lower the sail
instead. I helped close the holes into the lower deck until thick clouds
blocked out the sun. By then, the waves and wind were getting violent. Finally,
Jevwen, Merlin, and I went downstairs. Bralyn insisted on staying and helping
in any way he could.
