The Wizard's Secret (20 page)

I gaped.

“Is she healing him?” Asiago asked. Asiago and Nimue
couldn’t understand each other without the Siren, so he was probably a little
confused. “I thought she was a witch, not a mage.”

“She is a witch.”

“A witch who can heal wounds? This is a weird world.
I want to go home. I don’t even mind the zombies anymore. In fact, I think I
miss them.”

“I’m starting to think you’re the weird one,” I told
him. I frowned when Merlin growled again and jerked away from Nimue. “Don’t you
need a wand or something?” I asked.

“A wand? No. The fairies taught me to heal, but the
dark magic I’ve done has tarnished me.”

“Tarnish? I thought wizards here did both light and
dark magic.”

“
We can do both, but magic comes at a price. For
Nimue to heal and preserve her purity, she must resist the lure of dark magic.
Using dark magic for us is a slippery slope that will ultimately lead to our
own destruction. Caldaca doesn’t have this problem, so I cannot hope to explain
the concept to you
.”

“I’m not an idiot.”

“
I never said you were. However, your attention
span is far too short to
---”

“Oh, no! Where’s my wand?!” I asked, looking around
desperately. I saw it by the steps and picked it up with a relieved sigh. “I’m
sorry for interrupting. What were you saying?”

“It’s really creepy when you two talk to each other,”
Asiago said. 

“I’ve been told that before. We should get out of
here while we have the chance and you can heal him at his cabin,” I said.

“He won’t make it that far,” Nimue argued.

Merlin scowled. “
This is merely a scratch; I will
be fine. I want to get back to my cabin and start working on breaking the curse
.”

“Well, about that… I found out what Dessa meant. We
may have to delay that.”

Merlin had been staring into Nimue’s face until I
spoke, and then he looked at me. His eyes widened and he lurched forward, but
Nimue stopped him. “
Get down
!” he yelled in my mind.

Too late
. I felt a blade press against my
back. “Seriously? Not again!” I groused.

“Gmork, let him go!” Nimue said. 

Asiago rushed to get away. Obviously, he hadn’t seen
the dark wizard appear behind me. Gmork laughed. “Why would I do that? Drop the
staff,” he demanded.

With a sigh, I leaned over to set it down gently. He
didn’t say anything, though he moved the blade to keep it pressed against me.
If it weren’t for my robe, I would have already been bleeding. Once I stood back
up, he returned his attention to Nimue.

“Before, I had to keep Merlin alive to make you mine
forever. I was not expecting more of your friends to come. Now I can kill two
of the three and still have you completely at my mercy. Who should it be?”

Nimue stood up and approached me slowly. “Let them
go. I know you will never let me go. If you let them walk out, I will never
fight you or try to escape.”

After a moment of considering this, I sensed his
movement as he adjusted his stance. “Good. Come over here.”

When he moved his dagger from my back, around my
shoulder, I reacted instinctively. I wasn’t as strong magically or physically
as my brothers, but I was faster. Mikron and Bevras were always going for my
throat. Since he was reaching around my right shoulder, I stepped into his
side, turning my body so that my right side was against his front. With my left
hand, I grabbed his wrist and twisted it so that the knife was pointed away
from me. With my right elbow, I struck him in the face, then grasped his right
arm and twisted it more. As he started to double over, I leaned forward and
kicked backward, striking the side of his right knee. Finally, I pulled on his
arm until he was tossed over my shoulder. He grunted with pain and I let him
go. “I’m sorry!”

“
Why are you apologizing to him
?” Merlin
inquired. “
And where in Valhalla did you learn to do that
?”

“Finish him!” Asiago yelled.

I reached for my staff to try to turn him to stone,
but Gmork grabbed it and swung it. I had to jump back to keep from getting hit.
Although he was obviously in pain, he climbed to his feet and pointed my staff
at me. “That was a mistake,” he growled.

Merlin didn’t move, and neither did I, for we both
knew what would happen if Gmork tried to attack me with my staff. The magical
tool was bonded to my magic and wouldn’t hurt me. Nimue didn’t know this and
ran right to him, trying to block me from him.

“If you hurt him, you’ll never have me.”

As discreetly as I could, I put my foot on the
dagger, which he had dropped, so that he wouldn’t notice it. Gmork missed this,
took Nimue’s arm, and jerked her against him. Asiago was close enough now to
reach over and put his hand on the Siren, probably tired of not being included.

“If I let them go, you will stay here with me and
never try to leave?” Gmork asked. Nimue nodded. “And you will love me?”

She opened her mouth to speak, then hesitated and
kissed him instead. Merlin howled. It was an eerie and heartbreaking sound.
Then, Gmork pulled away from her, a mixture of shock and confusion on his face.

“What did you do?” As soon as the words were out of
his mouth, he clutched his chest in pain. “How…? The sun has already risen.”

“I drank another bottle after sunrise, knowing you
would make me kiss you.”

“There wasn’t another bottle!” He ran for the stairs,
panting. With every few steps he climbed, I heard either a bone breaking or his
shout of pain. Several times, he stopped to try to get his footing, because he
was forming paws. The black fur was sprouting all over his body and the torn
clothes didn’t help.

By the time he got to the top, I realized he was
going to be much, much bigger than Merlin. I also realized something else.
“There’s a portal! We can’t let him get to another world before he loses his
magic!” I pushed Asiago’s hand away and started running up the stairs after
him, followed closely by Nimue and Asiago. Merlin was a little slower up the
steps.

Outside the kitchen was a large hallway, where we
found Gmork unconscious. Merlin had fought off the vicious, feral effects of
the potion after a moment. For some reason, I highly doubted Gmork would try.
Even without his magic, he would be deadly.

And then he lifted his head.

Gmork was now a wolf the size of a bear, blacker than
my mother’s heart, and very, very angry. His eyes were still green, but now
they glowed with bloodlust. He stood, struggling on account of his massive
size, yet adapting quickly.

“Now, you will all die,” Gmork said, his mouth
contorting oddly to pronounce the words around his very long teeth.

I think we all gaped, completely shocked. “You can
talk?” I asked. I absentmindedly slipped off the Siren and put my arm through
it, allowing Asiago to do the same.

Gmork grinned cruelly, though it may have been a
snarl. “I may be under the same curse, but I am much more powerful than
Merlin.”

That was the moment Merlin caught up to us. “Not
powerful enough to do magic anymore, I bet,” I taunted.

“I still have my ways. Quinn!” he yelled. He had to
call the little wizard’s name again before Quinn finally appeared, running
towards his master. When he saw Gmork’s new form, he tried desperately to slow
his running and ended up falling flat on his face at Gmork’s paws. “Why did you
run? Why not just appear here?”

“I’m sorry, Master…” he said, panting. “I can’t… I’ve
lost… my magic.”

“What do you mean you lost your magic?”

“That would be my fault,” Asiago said demurely. He
glanced at me. “Remember when you woke up and asked me what I was making and I
said it was a sensory enhancement potion? I lied.”

“You made a potion that stripped someone’s power?!
How could you?!”

Gmork was just as angry; he turned on Quinn, pounced,
and began devouring the little wizard… who was still alive and screaming during
it. I threw up.

“How much do you have left?” I asked.

“I used it all in the soup. I had hoped Gmork would
have eaten it.”

“I could have eaten it!” Nimue said, shaken.

“I didn’t know if you were on Ayden’s side or not,”
he shrugged. “I figured it was worth the risk. If Quinn hadn’t lost his power,
past Merlin would have been killed before you had a chance to put him in the
syrus.”

At this point, Gmork was done with Quinn and charged
Merlin. When I held up my staff and it immediately shifted into a sword, Gmork
stopped a hair’s breadth from impaling himself. “What are we going to do with
him?” I asked.

Nimue sighed. “I have to stay and protect him.”

Merlin growled.

Nimue knelt and hugged Merlin. “Please don’t hate me.
I’ve done everything I could out of love for you. I can’t bear for you to hate me.
I have to stay and protect him because I did this to him and I have to atone
for my dark magic. Maybe I can bring back the Gmork who was your friend.”

Merlin growled again. I felt like he was trying very
hard to speak to her privately, but I was still the only one who could hear
him.

“Merlin, we have to go and save my aunt. As soon as
we break the curse, we can come back here and you can save her for good.” I
didn’t say anything else for a while, because he was only staring into her
eyes. “It didn’t occur to me before, but you can stay with Nimue. I’m sure
Magnus can help me find a way to break the curse and I can return to break it.”

He turned and looked at me for a moment before
responding with a heavy sigh. “
No. I will return to Caldaca with you and help
you break the curse. No matter how hard I try, Nimue cannot hear me. Until the
curse is broken, I cannot be the man she loves. I do not want her seeing me
this way for longer than she already has, for I want her to only remember me as
I was. It is time now to return to Caldaca
.”

*          *          *

Since all the servants had lost their magic, Nimue
had no trouble single handedly taking over. Merlin warned me that since Gmork
could still talk, he could still do some forms of magic, and even make bargains
with powerful creatures. I relayed this to Nimue, who said she would find
something to muzzle him with until he stopped fighting her.

Nimue was a lot tougher when she wasn’t a captive.

After we were certain that Nimue had control of the
castle, Merlin, Asiago, and I went to the tower so Merlin could see the portal.
When he did, he growled.

“What’s wrong?”

“
I believe I have figured out what made Gmork
surrender fully to dark magic
.”

“You recognize the world?”

“
I do, but not the date. It is extremely specific
.”

“What world is it?”

“
One of the most powerful worlds there is. If he
could reach it at the right moment in time and kill the right person, he could
destroy the world and have unlimited power. That would be enough magic to break
any curse
.”

“But he can’t do anything as a wolf, can he?” I
asked. Merlin stared at me dryly. “Sorry. I’ll get to work.” On the way to
Nimue’s room, I explained what had happened when he was outside the castle wall
and in the dungeon. As always, Merlin listened patiently and thoughtfully the
entire time. When I was done, he sighed, but remained silent. “Nimue used dark
magic, but she was trying to protect you.”

He nodded. “
I know. I tried to believe that since
I was released from the syrus, but I suppose I stopped at some point. I knew
Nimue was afraid of me, and that poisoned my own memory of what happened.
Either way, I cannot return to her as I am now
.”

I decided to talk in his head so that Asiago wouldn’t
overhear us. “
We will find a way to break the curse
.”

“
I appreciate your determination, young sorcerer,
but I will not have you risk your life for me. Again. Even though I would like
to have my power back, I have lived a long life, and if I have to live out what
is left of it as a wolf, so be it. There are worse things to be
.”

“
Dead
?”

“
Alone
.” He didn’t say anything else until we
reached Nimue’s room and I got to work on making the portal. Merlin asked me a
bunch of questions, like how many days he was gone exactly and how full the
moons were, so that we got there at the right time. If we were too early, I
would run into myself, but if we were too late, Veronica would kill my aunt.

When I was done, Merlin said it looked great and we
didn’t waste any time. We all got inside, careful not to scuff my sigils. As I
felt my magic pour into the portal, imagined the night sky, and aligned the
imaginary stars over the lines, I focused on the magic room in Vactarus’s
mansion.

I immediately recognized the familiar room. Even
though it wasn’t my room, we were on Caldaca. I was home.

Almost immediately, Vactarus floated down through the
ceiling. “That was quick. I see you found your wolf,” he said sourly. “I hope
you gave him a flea bath before you returned.”

Merlin snarled. “
Keep talking, poser, and you will
wake up with your precious silk curtains torn up in the mud
.”

I cleared my throat. “Merlin said he doesn’t have
fleas and you should be nicer to him.” Merlin rolled his eyes and Vactarus
scoffed, but neither of them said anything else. “How long were we gone?”

“Just a day.”

“Good. We have time then. I think I’ve figured out
how to find the object with Sonya’s memories and power. Or at least, what I was
doing wrong before.”

“What is it?”

“Veronica said she tried every spell, but that would
only include sorcery. She also said that Sonya should have given her mother a
clue. I think the spell that Sonya used to hide her power insured that it could
only be found using wizardry. It probably requires that the person who finds it
means her no harm.”

“Then why couldn’t you find it before?” Asiago asked.

“Because I wanted to use it to trade for Livia.”

“Then you still shouldn’t be able to find it,”
Vactarus said.

“After meeting Gmork, the last thing I want to do is
give Veronica more power. I don’t know why she wants Sonya’s magic, since she
can’t use wizardry, but she obviously has something in mind. We should help
Sonya get her memories back and then save Livia when we know what Veronica
really wants.”

“Is this more of you trying to be a wizard?” Asiago
asked.

“No.”

Sonya appeared beside me, causing me to shriek. The
ghost ignored it. “So if you find this object, I will get both my powers and
memories back? What would stop Veronica from coming after me again?”

“For one thing, you’re a ghost, so it’s not like she
can kill you. For another, I don’t plan on telling her you’re still here or
that you’re getting your magic back.” I pulled out my wand and leaned my staff
against the bookshelf.
Sonya doesn’t know who she is or that anyone loves
her. I have to return her memories so that she can have a mother again
.

I pointed my wand at Sonya and imagined finding
something. This was difficult to imagine because I didn’t know what the object
I was looking for looked like.
Find the object that holds Sonya’s memories
.

Pink bubbles plopped out of the wand and surrounded
Sonya.

I glared at the wand. “This is why I use the staff.”
In answer, the bubbles all popped. “It didn’t work.”

“It did,” Sonya corrected, right before she vanished.

“Okay, now we can go find her,” I said, grabbing my
staff. It didn’t take long. We found her standing in the main greeting room,
staring upward. There was a three-tiered candle chandelier with a silver locket
hanging on one of the candles. “How did we miss that?”

“I lit those candles too many times to count; that
wasn’t there before,” Vactarus said.

Sonya was just staring at it. “What’s wrong?” I
asked. “You want to remember everything, don’t you?”

She nodded. “I do right now, but what if I don’t like
what I remember? My own sister killed me. What if I’m not what everyone says I
am?”

“Well, if you’re not you, then we’ll just have to
keep looking. Do you want to be Sonya Dracre?”

“
Ayden, if she regrets remembering her life, I can
teach you a curse that will make her forget it again. It will not remove her
powers, but it will otherwise be as if this day never happened for her. That
is, if you are willing to do sorcery
.”

I nodded. “Merlin said that we can take back the
memories if you change your mind after you remember them.”

“Really? I guess there’s nothing to lose then.”
Still, she didn’t immediately reach for it. When it looked like she wasn’t
going to, Vactarus floated up to it, grabbed it, and floated back down. It must
have been less frightening to her when she was so close, because she reached
for it without hesitation.

Nothing happened.

“I still don’t remember anything.”

“
Open the locket
,” Merlin said, patiently.

“Merlin said to open it.”

She did, and gasped. There was no flash of light or
burst of magic that I could sense, she just seemed to freeze.

“Are you okay?” I asked. She didn’t seem to even hear
me at first, but then she blinked, glanced at me, and then stared at the locket
in her hand. “Do you remember everything? Are you Sonya Dracre?” She nodded.
“And do you regret it?”

“I don’t know. I kind of feel like I’m not the same
person anymore. I’ve been Kisha for longer than I was Sonya Dracre. What is
that sound?”

“What sound?” Vactarus asked.

“I hear… something between a whispering and a
hissing.”

“You’re hearing the syrus,” I said. I decided not to
explain that the fairies said only those pure of heart could hear it, because
that made me wonder why Merlin couldn’t.

“
Have you heard the whispering recently
?”
Merlin asked.

“
It hasn’t stopped in a long time. I hear it more
often than not
.”

“
The chimera may be getting desperate. He might be
able to sense all the magic around him
.”

I really didn’t want to think of that. Chimeras were
impervious to magic, so I was very worried it would be able to break out of the
syrus. I would have left it with Vactarus, but I didn’t want Sonya to be
tempted to open it. “Veronica can control animals, and she said you also have a
special power. Do you know why she wants it?”

For a moment, her expression was blank, but then her
eyes widened with worry. “Because she can reverse it.”

“Reverse what?”

“My power. I can help people attain the one thing
that will make them truly happy. Veronica can’t use that herself, but by
modifying the spell my… my mother used to seal her dark magic, Veronica can
reverse my magic. She can make people face their worst fears.”

“The world would be overrun by rabbits in two days,”
I said.

“I wouldn’t mind that,” Vactarus said.

“I would,” Asiago said with a shudder.

“You have to save my mother,” Sonya said, visibly
torn, “but you can’t give her my magic. There has to be another way.”

There is.” I studied the blue crystal on my staff.
“In the cave, I controlled the dragon with this.”

“What cave? What dragon?” Sonya asked.

“Asiago, remember the sign in the forest that said
there were dragons?”

“Yes.”

“
What sign
?
What dragons
?” Merlin
asked.

“So, does everyone understand the plan?” I asked.

“Not even a little bit,” Sonya answered.

“I’m lost,” Asiago answered.

“
Did I just black out for a second where you
explained this plan of yours
?” Merlin asked.

“Can I have my Siren back now?” Vactarus asked.

*          *          *

We ate a quick meal as I discussed the plan and as
soon as we were done, Merlin explained a new spell to me. It was from his
world, but if it worked, it could dramatically increase our chances of
survival. Unfortunately, we couldn’t afford to try it out ahead of time in case
Veronica had an animal spying on us.

So, we were about to set out on another quest…
or
to finish the one we were already on
… I couldn’t remember. The plan was to
ask the dragons to help us free Livia. I would conjure my monkey monster as
well and with them, I would distract Veronica while Asiago, Merlin, and Sam
snuck in and broke out Livia. I took the locket as a decoy, since it had no
power remaining in it.

Fortunately, Sam and Kirin were still at the castle
after our absence.

We were outside, on the front porch with Kirin and
Sam, and I had packed my stuff into Kirin’s saddlebag, when it occurred to me
that I had no idea where the Endless Forest was, since we had been transported
to and from there. When I told Merlin and Asiago this, Asiago just shrugged.

“You can just transport us like Magnus did. You’ve
done it before.”

“I’m not as powerful as Magnus. I can probably
transport us… but if it’s very far, something might go wrong.”

“
It would also exhaust you to the point where you
would be useless against Veronica
,” Merlin pointed out. “
Magic like that
takes a lot of practice
.”

“I can do it,” Sonya said. We turned to her as she
suddenly appeared next to us. “It might exhaust me, but I’m safe here and it
will be easy enough for me to recover. It’s not like I can die again. Besides,
you don’t have time to get there otherwise.”

“You haven’t seen the endless forest.”

“No, but I’ve seen my mother, so I can transport you
to her. I can get you as close as Veronica’s defenses would allow.” She then
frowned. “Only… I don’t have a wand. I don’t remember what I did with it.”

“You can make another one.” I held out mine. “For
now, try to use mine. Make sure you send it with us, though, because I’m going
to need it.”

She took it hesitantly. “I don’t know if I can.
You’ve used it for dark magic.”

“I’ve used it a lot more for light magic. We’re
cousins, so that should be enough to make it trust you. Are you sure you
remember how to do it?”

She nodded. She waved the wand and bright rainbow
colors burst out of it. The colorful light changed to glitter and we were
suddenly standing at the entrance of the Endless Forest. Merlin, Asiago, Kirin,
Sam, and myself all seemed to have made it perfectly fine. My wand hit the
ground, but it wasn’t damaged. I picked it up and slipped it into my pocket.

Asiago sneezed.

*          *          *

We wandered into the forest wearily. Sam and Merlin
made for excellent guards. If any random creature wandered too close, the
griffin and wolf would growl until the animal ran away. I focused on finding
Veronica. I knew we had to find the dragons first, but since the dragons were
near Veronica’s cabin, I focused as hard as I could on finding her.

“Can you sense Veronica’s power?” I asked Merlin.

“
I can sense that there is someone of great power
nearby. Unfortunately, I cannot tell where it is in relation to us. If we go in
one direction, I feel like we are getting closer to it, and then suddenly it is
further away. Either she is moving, or we are in a place the dragons call
Eykann
.”

“What does that mean?”

“
You are not going to like the answer
.”

“I highly doubt I’ll understand the answer, but tell
me anyway.”

“
Eykann is a place where there is no near or far;
you can only be here or there. This also explains why there is no way out. To
find Veronica, you must want to be there more than you want to be here. The
reason we have not yet found her is because you are afraid
.”

“How did I find her the first time?”

“
You said you felt serenity. Were you afraid
?”

“No. But I didn’t appear before her, I just walked.
If fact, my wand led me.”

“
In some of Eykann, you have to walk, whereas you
only appear there in others. I know how confusing this type of magic is; I have
seen it on several worlds
.”

“How do I not be afraid?”

“
You cannot rid yourself of fear completely, and
that is how it should be. Fear keeps you alert and is the enemy of arrogance
.”

“That’s not what my mother said. How am I supposed to
find Veronica if I’m afraid?”

“
Courage, young sorcerer. That is something I
cannot teach you
.
All the courage you need is already inside you,
waiting to be brought out
.”

“You know, it is really creepy when you talk to each
other,” Asiago said.

We lapsed into silence as I pondered what Merlin
said. It was also very close to night, but I hoped it might work to our
advantage. I didn’t think Veronica would expect us back this quickly.

After a while, the silence bothered me. “About my
deal with Magnus to take away my sorcery… I decided to drop it,” I said. “I’m
starting to think I need my sorcery as much as my wizardry.”

Merlin sighed with approval. It occurred to me it was
weird that I could distinguish between his different sighs. “
I am relieved
you reached this conclusion before we faced Veronica. I was very worried this
was about to go down in history as the silliest quest that has ever been
attempted
.”

I was about to ask Asiago what his opinion was, since
he insisted on giving it to me when I didn’t ask for it, when Merlin froze. At
the same time, Sam started flexing his wings, Kirin tossed his head, and they
both stamped their feet nervously.
Don’t say we’re surrounded. Don’t say
we’re surrounded. Please don’t say we’re surrounded
.

“
We are surrounded
,” Merlin said.

“What’s happening?” Asiago asked.

I opened myself to the magic around me and groaned.
Don’t
be zombies. Don’t be zombies. Please don’t be zombies
.

“
I smell death
.”

“Asiago, where is your bracelet?” I asked.

His face paled as he looked down at his wrist. The
strap was clearly missing. “I don’t know. It must have come off some time when
I was invisible.”

“What do we do?” I asked Merlin.

“
Why are you asking me? You did very well when I
was gone
.”

It was then that the zombies stumbled into view. Most
of them were dried out from age, many of the newer ones had bugs crawling in
them, and all of them reeked. I pulled out my staff.
Turn into a sword
,
I thought. Predictably, it did nothing.