The Wizard's Secret (13 page)

The king stood and turned to me just as the guards
surrounded him. Audience members near me scrambled to get away.

“Wizard!” the king shouted, addressing me. “This is a
peaceful tournament. You have no right to interfere!” He pushed several of his
guards out of the way so he could see me.

I stood. “I am not here to interfere,” I said calmly.
“I merely want to enter the tournament.”

“It’s the last day!” the announcer exclaimed. “That
would be completely unfair.”

I addressed the king instead of the announcer. “I
thought you wanted the best wizard. I am Merlin. Surely you have heard of me.”
There was a fine line between arrogance and confidence, but although I was
acting arrogant, it was just an act. Wizards had an image to maintain, and I
had to exceed that in order to get this job.

The king’s face paled. “Everyone has heard of you.
You want to work for me?”

“For as long as you need me.” Not forever, just until
Baltezore was no longer a threat.

He made a motion with his hand to a set of steps that
led under the stands. “Then by all means, please join the other five wizards.”

I walked casually, not in any hurry to get there, and
the entire audience was silent. I stepped into the darkness just as the north
door slid open. Still in no hurry, I joined the rest of the wizards, who were
obviously not happy about the extra competition.

“We have a late contender,” the announcer boasted
with fake enthusiasm. “Everyone, please welcome Merlin.” The audience’s
cheering was deafening. Traditionally, he would have included my father or
where I was from with my name, but I didn’t have a father and no one knew where
I was from anymore.

“Are you the same wizard who ended the war on magic?”
one of the twin wizards asked me quietly.

“Yes, I am.”

“That was hundreds of years ago!” the other twin
said.

“Yes, it was.”

“Why do you want to work for a king?” Vactarus asked
me.

“It interests me.”

The gong rang out and the dragoness roared. Vactarus
and I waited back while the other four wizards attacked. The old wizard, Lynal,
summoned a creature made of dirt and rocks out of the ground. Meanwhile, the
twins created a tornado of fire, which surrounded the dragoness. Hegral, the
largest wizard, pulled out his massive sword and waited for the fire tornado to
recede.

The tornado went down and, as I expected, the
dragoness was completely unaffected. “I wonder if it occurred to them to work
together. With as large a kingdom as this one, surely the king could do with
more than one wizard,” Vactarus said.

I glanced at the amulet hanging from his neck with
two fish circling each other. I knew from my dreams that this amulet allowed
him to understand and speak any language. “Then why are you not out there
working with one of them?”

“Because I want this job for myself.”

“What world are you from?” I asked.

He looked at me, obviously startled. After a moment,
he turned back to watch the dragoness. “It’s called Caldaca.”

“And do they not have wizards there?”

He gaped. “I am a wizard.”

“You have no reason to lie to me. You are a magician.
How can you fight a dragon with only illusion magic?”

He swallowed, deeply unsettled that I knew so much
about him. “The dragon doesn’t know the difference between illusion and
reality. I just have to think of something that will scare him. There are many
dragons on my world, so I know what they are afraid of.”

I laughed. During our conversation, the dragoness had
breathed fire all over the twins and sent them running off the field. Lynal’s
golem was easily crushed by the dragoness, and although it could reform in just
a few minutes, it stood no chance of defeating the dragoness.

Hegral was actually trying to stab the dragoness in
the heart. Obviously, he didn’t realize dragons had more than one heart. In the
blink of an eye, she swiped the sword out of the wizard’s hand and swallowed
the wizard’s entire upper body. She lifted the man up and it was almost
humorous to see Hergral’s legs kicking back and forth. The wizard was screaming
profanity and obviously fighting inside the dragoness’s mouth. When the gong
rang again, she spit him out. He was out of the running. While his competitor
was being swallowed, Lynal had given up and ran away.

I waved my hand invitingly towards the dragon.
“Ladies first,” I said.

The magician sneered. “Age before beauty.”

I smirked. “If you insist.” I had to go before him
because I knew he could have won otherwise. I walked right up to the dragoness,
hoping she would at least give me the chance to tell her who I was before she
attacked.

She fixed her gorgeous eyes on me and snorted out a
puff of smoke. “Hello again, young wizard,” she said in her language. I highly
doubted anyone in the audience could speak the dragons’ language, possibly not
even Vactarus’s amulet.

“You remember me after all these years?”

“Of course, young wizard.”

“I am not quite young anymore. Are you surprised to
see me?”

“To me, you are an infant, and no, I always knew you
would become immortal.”

I laughed. It was bittersweet because her words
reminded me so much of my old dragon master. “Do you know what happened to
Cennuth?”

“I saw him not long ago. He is doing well.”

It took a lot of effort to keep my reaction from
showing on my face. He was alive. “I know you have a job to do, but I need to
win this tournament.”

“I understand, young wizard. You were drawn here to
protect what is most precious to our kind. Baltezore is after it.”

I frowned. “I came here because I wanted to protect
the kingdom.”

“It is the precious one that made you dream of
Baltezore’s attack.”

“Then you are here to protect it?”

“No. I cannot protect the precious one, because
Baltezore knows my weakness. That is why you must win.”

“Who is the precious one?”

She sighed sadly. “My egg. I am the only female
dragon left, and mine is the only dragon egg known. King Garsul is looking for
a wizard to protect the egg.”

“I will protect it.”

The dragoness bowed and once again, the audience was
utterly silent. Then the pounding of the gong broke the silence.

“You didn’t even fight him!” Vactarus screeched.

“Fighting is not always the answer.”

“Fight me, then.”

“Later,” I said.

“Tomorrow, at sunset, right here.”

I sighed. “Fine.” It was only fair, seeing as how I
took the job that would have otherwise been his.

*          *          *

I was ushered to the king’s castle, where I was given
a lavish room with a private balcony. Later in the evening, I was invited to
the king’s chambers and given an extravagant dinner. The king and I spoke informally
for a while. Although he was a king, he respected my age and knowledge.

“Do you have a disguise spell over you? You hardly
look older than me.”

I knew I didn’t look very old. I didn’t age at all in
the cave and once I got out, I aged very, very slowly. When I traveled, I would
often disguise myself as older so that people wouldn’t question my knowledge or
power. When I didn’t want to be recognized, I disguised myself differently and
went by different names. This time, I looked like myself.

“It might be more accurate to say that magic keeps me
young.”

“Well, you certainly must be very wise to defeat a
dragon without even fighting him.”

“Her,” I corrected.

“What?”

“She was a dragoness. She also told me what you
really need a wizard for.”

He paled slightly. “Did she? You definitely do your
reputation justice. Can you prove to me that you have the egg’s best interest
at heart?”

“I was raised by a dragon.”

“That explains some things.”

“Up until today, I thought the dragon that took me
in, Cennuth, was gone. The dragoness told me he was still alive. I would never
hurt a dragon egg. Do you know about Baltezore?” I asked. He frowned and shook
his head. “Baltezore somehow knows about the egg and is going to attack. I came
here because I had a vision that he will kill everyone.”

“Have you fought him before?”

“Yes.”

“Did you let him escape?”

“No. He defeated me, but I have learned a lot since.
Furthermore, my motivation at the time was revenge, whereas it is now
protecting the egg. Baltezore will not get that egg.”

He nodded. “If the dragons trust you, so will I.” He
pulled a jewel-encrusted treasure chest out from under his bed and snapped a
key off a chain around his neck. When he unlocked and opened it, I saw the egg.
It was about a foot tall, blood red, shiny, and smooth as a gem. “If you expose
it to heat, it will hatch. Otherwise, it could live for thousands of years as
an egg.”

I took the chest back to my room to protect it,
though I knew I couldn’t keep it there forever. No matter how much I was paid,
I couldn’t stay with King Garsul forever. Fortunately, I had a plan.

*          *          *

I met Vactarus in the field the next day. We chatted
for a while, since neither of us really wanted to duel. He told me about his
world and I asked him how he could create a portal with only illusion magic.

“When I was very young, I met a world traveler,” he
said. “He took me to dozens of worlds, where I collected some amazing magical
tools.” He indicated his amulet. “I got this from a world where people
worshiped magic. And this was from a world where magic took the place of
technology.” He pulled a metal rod from the pocket of his black robe. It was
about five inches long and an inch in diameter. He pressed a small button on
the side and a slice popped out of the middle.

“What is it?” I asked when he handed me the piece. It
had a metal frame with a glass center. Etched into the glass were the sigils
that would go into a portal.

“You slip in the slide for the world you want to go.
This one is to mine, but I have a few dozen. Push this button and get into the
portal before it closes.” He put the piece back in and held it up towards the
dying sunlight. Light entered through one end and ghosted the image of the
portal onto the ground through the other. I only saw the portal for an instant,
but I was so used to learning them that I burned it into my mind before the
light was too dim to display it.

“You said there are dragons on your world?”

“Yes. There are even dragon trainers.”

I laughed, because that seemed a little ridiculous to
me. “Would you show me these dragon trainers?”

“After our duel. The loser buys drinks at the
tavern.”

“Sure.”

The magician made the first move by growing to about
twelve feet tall. Fortunately, I knew it was just an illusion, so I aimed a
blast of raw magic at the spot where his face was previously. The entire duel
went on like this. He created monsters and weapons, which I ignored. Since I
knew arrogance could be my downfall, I made every move with careful
consideration for the magician’s self-confidence.

Then, Vactarus made copies of himself so that it
looked like there were ten of him, and when they moved around, I couldn’t tell
which one was real. Several of them were able to attack me before I changed my
tactic. He didn’t have regular magic, but I could still sense the magic he did
have. When I opened myself up to the magic around me, I spotted the real
Vactarus easily.

I struck him with energy again and this time, he went
down.

*          *          *

From my dreams, I knew I had at least a week before
Baltezore attacked. I explained my plan to King Garsul, gave him back the egg,
and went with Vactarus to Caldaca. I didn’t tell Vactarus why, but he agreed to
take me to meet the dragon trainers. It took four days of travel to reach one
of the families that Vactarus knew.

Shaerl Rynorm was a very tough woman with seven boys
and a herd of dragons that obeyed her. There was also a very beautiful young
lady staying with them named Livia. I only met one of the dragons, who was
nowhere near as large or ancient as Cennuth. Unfortunately, I was in a hurry.
Shaerl and her husband told me many things about protecting and hatching eggs,
as well as how to take care of baby dragons.

When I told them there was only one female dragon
left on my world, they were sympathetic. “There are none here, either. We have
twelve eggs and other dragon trainers have more, but only males have been born
in the last thousand years. The last female was killed by hunters about five
hundred years ago.”

When I felt adequately prepared, I returned to
Garsul’s kingdom and retrieved the egg. With everything I had learned, I knew I
wasn’t going to be able to hide the egg there, because the egg would call to
wizards. On Caldaca, however, there were other eggs.

After a few months of meeting Vactarus almost every
day, I trusted him with my secret. Vactarus and I teased each other
relentlessly and even pranked each other, but we somehow became very good
friends anyway. I created a blood lock over the chest that only someone who was
related to me could open. Since I had no children or family, there was no way
it could be unlocked.

However, that didn’t mean it couldn’t be broken into.
If the chest was exposed to enough heat, the unborn dragon would hatch and
break out. It could also be destroyed through other powerful magic. Thus, I
went with Vactarus to Caldaca and hid the egg in a place where I knew it would
never be stumbled upon or exposed to heat.

I put my faith in Vactarus once again. When I
returned to the kingdom, I used magic to make myself forget where I hid the egg
and instructed Vactarus to tell me only when I defeated Baltezore.

*          *          *