The Wizard And The Dragon (21 page)

I
stepped out onto the stairs and looked to the water channel in the wall. It was
dried out and filthy and I tensed up. Had I lost more time? Was it several
weeks now? A third thunderbolt, directly above the tower, exploded in the sky
and light briefly shimmered through the windows. I turned to go up to the roof
when another sound shot through the tower, closer this time, from below.
Something had just opened the front door.

I
whipped around and grabbed for a gem in my pocket. No wind had been strong
enough to open the door in all the years I had been in the tower. Had I been
unconscious so long that it had degraded? I shook my head at the ridiculous
thought and I tried to ready myself. Something had invaded my home and I needed
to fight.

I
descended slowly and strained my ears to hear any movement. Whatever it was it had
not made it into the main chamber of the tower yet. As I neared the bottom of
the stairs I could hear it struggling against the door as if it was trying to
pull it open again.

I
stepped into the hallway ready to fling all manner of spells at whatever was
waiting for me. Instead my hand clamped around Candle protectively, snatching
away his light and shielding me in the darkness from what I saw.

My
body froze as another bolt of lightning came down near the tower, illuminating
us in a brief, white flash. Our eyes locked and I stared at him more intently
than I ever had another person in my entire life. I wanted to step forward,
carefully, but I was rooted in place. My skin was alive with goosebumps,
causing my back and arms to tingle.

“What
is your name?” I asked, although I already knew. I had to be sure.

“Bryce,”
the boy croaked out.

I
set my jaw firmly in place, and took a bracing breath, as I stared down at
myself.

My mind felt like
it had been struck. Questions came hurtling at me, howling for my attention,
while I knew I had to stay calm.

I
remember how afraid I had been of the man—me—in the tower on my first night and
how calm he—me—had been. I knew I had to recreate that presence. And even that
seemingly easy affirmation split apart into hundreds of questions without
answers. Did I
really
have to recreate it? How careful did I have to be?
Could I get this wrong and rewrite my entire life?

The
boy—me—looked up at me with trepidation. His mouth was set tightly. He was
afraid and I had been silent for too long. I couldn’t remember if Tower—me—had
done that.

“Why
are you here?” I asked and wondered if those were the exact words I had heard
all those years ago.

The
boy swallowed before he answered. I couldn’t remember if I did that.

“A
dragon came to our village. Killed everyone. I ran away. I don’t think the
village is there anymore.”

I
turned from him and walked to the table in the center of the room. I ignited
Candle on top of it out of habit and looked at him. My movements were steady
but my thoughts were still racing. I needed time to think. I needed to get the
boy asleep and out of sight.

“Come
inside. Let’s have a look at you.”

When
I heard his footsteps stop behind me, I turned and saw him flinch as though he
expected to be struck.

“I’m
not going to hurt you,” I said, trying my best to keep my voice level.

I
scanned my younger self, boggling at how small I had once been. It was a
surreal experience, seeing myself as a child. I had been so scrawny and weak.
It was surprising that I survived the attack at all, never mind the cold,
drenched run through the woods. I remembered being asked something about that.

“You
ran here in the rain? The dragon was chasing you?”

The
boy nodded and I stepped aside, looking up into the dark interior of the tower.
I felt confident that I was recreating that first night so far. I heard the boy
take a sharp breath and I turned to face him. His eyes were full of Candle’s
light, as if the flames were dancing in his pupils. I saw the reflection of
Candle tilting his head, considering the boy.

Abruptly
I remembered and I swiped Candle’s core from within the flames. I deposited it
quickly into my pocket and then faced myself. I could still make him out in the
darkness.

“I’m
sorry,” I said. “A dragon just burned down your village. My friend must have
terrified you.”

He
said nothing to me. His breathing slowed and he stared up at me. His eyes were
making me uncomfortable, like they were gnawing at me. I knew that look. I had
looked that look. I needed to get him out of the way, if only for a few hours.

“Well
Bryce, I have more things to ask you but you must be exhausted. You should
rest. We can talk in the morning,” I said as I started walking toward the
stairs.

I
didn’t look back to see if he was following me. I opened the door on the first
floor and even the simplest passing thought—this was once my old room and now
it’s his, or is mine again, or his again—was enough to threaten my grasp on the
situation. I pushed it all aside.

Focusing
my magic was a welcome distraction. I transformed part of my own energy into
light slowly, relishing the few moments of concentration that brought me peace
from my other thoughts. The orb merged in the middle of the room and let out a
pale blue light.

“How?”
I heard the boy ask from behind me and, just like that, my moment of peace was
over.

“Tomorrow,”
I replied. “You must be tired after running so far.”

I
remembered that part of the night distinctly. I remember how the ache in my
legs deepened at the sight of the bed. I watched the boy sit on it and then I
turned to leave. Something nagged at my memory, as if I was forgetting
something. I called back the sphere of light and it was then, when I heard the
boy let out a small squeak at the darkness, that I remembered.

I
dragged the table close to the bed and sat on the chair next to it. I knew I
needed to leave him with a light but there was still something I was missing.

My
fingers were ready to hold the flame when I stopped myself. I needed to be
careful from now that I didn’t scare the boy. I had to remember what fire meant
to me back then.

“You’ve
seen that I can use magic, Bryce. Unfortunately I can’t leave a light in here
right now unless I light a candle. That means a little fire. Are you okay with
that instead of being in the dark?”

The
boy nodded and I barely made out the movement in the shadows of the room. I
kept the flame as small as possible as it sparked to life between my fingers. I
stretched my hand out toward the candle and that’s when I realized. The
epiphany crashed down on me and I froze.

In
spite of the situation, a smile spread over my face. I stifled a laugh as I
looked at the candle. All those years worrying that I had used the wrong type
of fire, that I had made my familiar wrong, when the candle flame had come from
me after all.

I
let the flame catch on top of the candle. It was settling in a way, knowing
that this one flame would stay alight for a year until it became this boy’s
familiar. He needed to know to never put out the flame.

“This
candle has a kind of magic. As long as it stays in the tower it will never melt
or run out. The fire will stay lit forever, so don’t ever blow it out. Do you
understand?”

“Yes,”
the boy whispered.

“Sleep
well now. We’ll talk in the morning.”

I
had always thought Tower had gone to his room and slept like I did at the end
of the night. When I closed the door behind me I knew that I had a lot of work
to do and not enough hours to do it in. I had to prepare food and water for us
both, which meant collecting some gems. I needed to set up barriers in the
tunnels. Most importantly, I needed to think and remember everything that
happened to me on my first few days in the tower.

The
mines came first, and it was a shock to find the door to the cellar still
intact. It was a small thing but after fifteen years of that doorway being open
it was strange to have something to open and close behind me.

The
cellar itself felt decrepit and neglected. There was a thick layer of dust on
everything. The giant spider’s cell looked naked without its thick masses of
silk, but the seemingly endless little cobwebs around the rest of the room
tried to make up for it.

I
ignited Candle and had him guard the tunnel entrance while I tidied the room.
The well needed the most attention, and I cleaned the buckets around it
thoroughly. Whatever magic infused in the tower may have maintained a lot of
these things, but that didn’t mean they were kept clean enough to use.

The
inside of the tool cabinets weren’t as bad as the rest of the room. The spiders
had left their mark inside but they had been spared the dust. I took out one of
the small pouches and a single pickaxe and marched into the mines.

At
the fork I erected a barrier to protect the cellar with one of the few gems I
had in my pocket. I chipped away at the wall right afterwards, only needing a
handful or two of stones. I expended some magic rupturing the chunks of rock.
It was a wasteful, hasty process but time was more valuable to me than
conserving magic.

I
walked down the left tunnel to make sure it was clear. It was strange to see it
sealed up again, not yet open to the spider’s nest and not yet sealed away by a
blast that Tower—that I—created. That would be weeks from now, the thought
bashed at me and I shoved it aside. The mines were the worst place to potentially
lose my mind.

The
right tunnel took longer to check through. I decided against going down the
slope that led to the chamber of statues and pillars. I needed to get back up
into the tower and prepare for morning. I placed a barrier over it just to be
safe and then walked down the longer tunnel toward the opening of the
underground.

I
ran into two farren on the way. Candle hissed and spat at them from my shoulder
as if we had returned to our old times exploring the underground. I dispatched
them easily with two spells and then dragged them with me into the underground.
I threw them each out into the opening without burning or decapitating them. If
something came along and ate them or if they regenerated and went on their way,
either was fine with me.

Two
barriers were put up. I had only found two clear gems in my brief extraction
and resorted to using colored ones instead. I manipulated the darkest colors I
could find to seal off the tunnel. When I arrived back at the fork I used one
of the clear gems there, and the second one back at the cellar. It wasn’t my
best work but it would do until I had to bring the boy down into the mines.

Too
many warnings swam through my mind as I climbed the stairs out of the cellar.
There was too much to think about and all of it seemed equally important. There
was something I was forgetting about Candle. Something I was forgetting about
the mines. Something I needed to remember about myself. I couldn’t separate it
out and, thus, all of it went unresolved.

I
went up into the study and found that it looked the same as yesterday. Did
yesterday mean the same thing at that moment, or was it tied to the date and
time instead? I closed my eyes tightly and slumped at my writing desk in
frustration. I looked down at the book that I had been working on as if it held
an answer.

In
a way, it did. I felt stupid as I jumped out of my chair and rushed down the
bookcases. I plucked out books at random and flipped through pages that I
remembered writing on. They were still there. The pages were still filled in.
Whole books that I had constructed were still on the shelves. I didn’t
understand.

The
rest of the tower had reverted back to how it once had been, but this room had
not. I looked at the windowed room and found the door closed. The massive gem
in the corner beside it, the one I had diligently formed over the years, was
still there. It was the same size as it had been yesterday.

I
halted in the middle of the room. I closed my eyes and tried to think of when I
had been transported back. The windowed room had been filled with light. It was
piercing out from between the stones in the walls, but it had spread to this
room as well. Had they both been brought back with me?

The
risk of it wasn’t even considered. I swung open the door and stepped into the
small room. The window looked inert now and I looked at my faint reflection in
the glass. I had often thought I looked familiar as I had grown older but I
thought I was seeing my father in myself. It had been so long I could barely
recall what he or Tower looked like. Looking at myself now I wondered which one
I was recognizing more in my face.

I
looked around the room and held Candle up to light the walls. They were still
the same. Unchanged, with the same words and lettering scored into them. I read
them once again.

“DO
NOT TRUST THE BOY.”

“i’m
so hungry.”

“I
died but I’m still here.”

“Dragon.
Dragon. Dragon.”

There
were others. Others that I had read the last time I had been in here. I knew,
somehow, that I had written those words. I could feel the possibility within me
even then. The strain of it on my mind could crack open and break me. Some of
these words were from past versions of me, driven insane by what I witnessed
today, or by what I might witness soon.

I
didn’t want to consider what each of the scrawled words might mean or what
horrors might await me. My Tower had kept his sanity and so could I.

I
closed the door and kept walking across the study. I needed to see what else
hadn’t changed.

The
bedroom felt cold and wrong. I had grown comfortable in the room over the years
but in that moment it was like I was an invader, poking around in someone
else’s room. The drawers were full of clothes once again, even another pair of
what I was currently wearing. The bed was made but felt stiff. There was dust
on everything, although to a lesser extent than the cellar.

In
one of the drawers I found two objects I had never seen before. They were a
harness and a small dagger. They looked delicate and ornamental, but I
recognized them immediately as sollite. They were made of the same material
that housed Candle, a substance capable of storing vast amounts of magical
power, far more than a gemstone.

I
looked at them and wondered why I had never seen them before. The harness
looked like it would fit me and the dagger felt light in my hand. I ran my
focus over both of them and found them devoid of any magic. How had they gotten
there?

The
answer came suddenly but brought another revelation with it. I put the sollite
objects back in the drawer and fell back onto the bed. Tower must have taken
them out and had them when he vanished, I surmised.

I
closed my eyes. When he vanished, I repeated the thought. When I vanished. The
reality of it came crashing down on me. It was a year from now that Tower
disappeared. I had a year left before whatever came for him would come for me.