“No. Be patient.”
“You have to get back to the village before the soldiers
wake up.”
“Don’t worry about me right now.”
We fell silent again and I waited long enough for my
legs to go numb and my whole body to become stiff. Finally, when I couldn’t
stand it any longer, a waft of smoke drifted out of the cave. “Enter, young
wizard,” the dragon said. His voice was just as I remembered it; deep and
commanding.
I glanced at Dantur, but he just nodded for me to
enter. “Tell my mother that I’ll find somewhere safe for us, where magic isn’t
feared and won’t get me enslaved.” Without looking back, I walked slowly into
the darkness. It was extremely hot and dry, which I expected. From the meager
light outside, I barely saw him. He was massive. “I’m here for training.”
“I knew you would return. We have waited many years
for your arrival.”
“I don’t want to work for the kings.”
“We are not in league with the kings. Your destiny is
to free all wizards from their captivity.”
“I thought it was to end the war on magic.”
“The wizards are imprisoned and used by the kings
because magic is feared. For this reason, wizards are afraid to use magic and
people destroy magic on sight.”
“How am I supposed to end it?”
“The first step is to learn everything you can.
Knowledge is power, and power is a key to freedom. I will not teach you to
overpower others, only to prevent them from overpowering you.”
“Isn’t that the same thing? Either I’m more powerful
or I’m not.”
“You have so much to learn, young wizard.
Unfortunately, you will have to grow up very quickly. I will teach you magic,
but you will have two other mentors. One of them will teach you wisdom and life
skills, and the other will teach you math, reading, writing, and languages.”
“Why do I need to learn that?”
“I already told you that knowledge is power. You will
have the ability to travel to other worlds, but it would do no good if you lack
knowledge.”
“How long will I have to live here?”
“That depends on you. Climb to the top of the
mountain, where you will find a natural hot springs. At the north end of the
springs, there is a flowering tree and a small cabin. There, you will find
Caedmon, who will teach you wisdom and life skills.”
“At the top of the mountain? That’ll take me forever
to get there.”
“The longer it takes you to reach it, the less time
you have to sleep before you must get started on your lessons.” I groaned and
turned to leave, only to stop when the dragon made an irritated sound. “You
will learn respect before you can learn anything else. You are not some feral
animal.”
I tried to think of how I offended the dragon. “What
did I do wrong?”
“First, you never turn your back on a dragon. Second,
you will bow to greet us and before leaving. And third, you did not---”
“Why?” I asked.
“Do not interrupt me!”
“I was just asking why.”
“You are a nine-year-old boy, whereas I have lived
for thousands of years!” His voice vibrated the rock walls and although I
couldn’t see it, I imagined dust and small rocks were falling.
“And living longer than me means I shouldn’t turn my
back on you and that I should bow?”
“Yes.”
“Oh. Alright.” I bowed momentarily before standing
back up and walking out backwards. He didn’t try to stop me. As soon as I
stepped out of the cave, I turned and walked right back into the woods.
I was fairly certain I could find my way back home.
No matter how much older the dragon was than me, I didn’t like being yelled at.
I wanted to go home, get my mother, and leave. However, I knew better. It made
much more sense that I would wait until the soldiers gave up looking for me and
left.
It took me all day to find my way back to my village.
Unfortunately, there were still guards, so I had to wait. I found a tree to
climb and did so. Although I wanted to be able to look over the village, I
couldn’t risk being seen and endangering everyone. After wandering for an entire
day, I was exhausted, so I quickly fell asleep watching the stars.
It seemed with every step I took, the cries grew
quieter, although I was certain I was going the right way. Finally, I came upon
a pit and realized what was going on. I leaned over the edge. At the bottom of
the pit, there were wooden spikes and a young girl. She was lying on the ground
between the spikes, but that didn’t mean she was uninjured.
“Are you hurt?” I asked.
The girl looked up at me. “My leg is hurt. I can’t
walk on it. Please help me!”
“Just hold still. I’ll find something to help pull
you out.” I looked around and found a vine, which I tugged on to test the
sturdiness before returning to the pit. “Grab this and hold on.” I fed the vine
down to her and she took it, but when I tried to pull her up, she shouted in
pain. I slowly lowered the vine again. “Just hold still. You might be hurt
worse than you thought.”
“Don’t leave me here.”
“I’m not leaving you.” Once she let go of the vine, I
climbed the nearest tree and tied one end of the vine around a branch that hung
low over the pit. The vine wasn’t long enough for me to wrap it around the full
tree and still reach the bottom of the pit. I tugged on it again to make sure
it would hold before using it to climb down.
The girl was pretty unresponsive at this point, so I
picked her up as gently as I could. “It hurts,” she moaned.
“I know, but I can’t carry you out. I’m going to lift
you up and you need to use the vine to pull yourself the rest of the way out.”
I made her stand straight, despite her protests, and lifted her up at the
waist. I could almost reach the top of the pit and I had made weapons heavier
than her, so it wasn’t too difficult. Since the ledge was muddy, she had to use
the rope to pull herself the rest of the way out and it clearly wasn’t easy. As
soon as she made it over, she collapsed.
I sighed with relief and started climbing out.
Unfortunately, halfway up, I heard the branch start to snap. I continued
upward, climbing as fast as I could to reach the top before it broke.
Unfortunately, just as I made it to the top, the branch snapped and I fell. I
covered my eyes and tried to be as small as possible. “Stop!” I shouted
automatically.
And I did.
Slowly, I opened my eyes and realized I had stopped
right in the air, a hair’s breadth above one of the spikes. I’d accidentally
done magic! After giving myself a moment to let my heartbeat settle down, I
carefully reached down and used the spike to push myself away from it. No
sooner than I was out of the way did the magic holding me up vanish.
Groaning, I sat up and pulled the vine and the branch
it was attached to down. I had a new plan, although it would have been easier
if I had a rock. Aiming for the nearest, sturdy-looking tree branch I could
see, I tossed the branch.
Catch it
, I thought. It felt weird to ask a
branch to do something impossible and I didn’t expect it to work.
It didn’t.
I’m not as powerful a wizard as they think
, I
thought negatively.
Then again, I haven’t been taught anything yet
. I
tried again a few times before I heard a horse and froze. It had to be the
soldiers leaving my village.
This time, I didn’t even think of failure as an
option. I would make it because I had to make it. If someone who could sense
the magic in me found me trapped in a pit, I wouldn’t stand a chance. I felt
something react inside me, like a sudden, unexplainable burst of energy, and
the branch reached past the second branch. It swung around the second branch
with unnatural precision until the vine was wrapped firmly around it.
Although I was confused and disbelieving, I didn’t
have time to waist. I started climbing the vine. I made it to the top and found
the girl whimpering. The sound of horses were now going in another direction,
so I hoped I had enough time to at least make sure she wasn’t going to die.
She was covered in so much mud that I could barely
make out her hair color. Her leg, however, was covered in blood. I knew all the
herbs to use to help her, but I didn’t have any of them. I put my hand on her
leg and tried to force myself to feel the same thing I did when I made that
branch obey.
Heal her
, I thought. Then I mentally listed all the known
herbs I could use to help.
When I felt something inside me reacting, it
encouraged me to work even harder. I imagined covering the wound with a thick
paste of plant matter and how it would heal underneath it. The girl gasped and
jerked her leg away from me, causing me to realize I had closed my eyes. “What
are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m just trying to help you.”
“You’re doing magic!”
“Just to heal---”
“Get away from me!”
“You’re going to hurt yourself worse if you don’t
stop---”
“Help!” she yelled.
I stopped trying to explain and just ran, knowing
that the people on the horses weren’t too far away to hear her. I ran to my
village and, just as I had expected, the soldiers were gone. Unfortunately,
they weren’t the only ones gone. Furthermore, there was a lot of damage to many
of the homes.
I reached my house to find my mother dressing a wound
on another woman’s arm. “What happened?” I asked.
My mother sighed regretfully. “You shouldn’t have
come back here. The soldiers took half of us, including all the men, accusing
them of having magic.”
“Did Dantur make it back?”
“Yes, but he was taken with the others.”
“I’ll save them.” I didn’t make it out the door
before my mother stopped me with her hand on my arm.
“Don’t go after them. It’s too late for them. There’s
nothing you can do.”
“What if I knew magic?”
She hugged me and spoke quietly into my shoulder.
“Magic is not your enemy, fear is. Be brave and wise. Someday, kings will bow
to you. Until then, you must hide, but don’t fear your magic. It will save you.
Now go, in case they come back. Never return here.”
“I will return. I’ll go and learn magic, far away
from other people. When I become a master wizard, I’ll come back and take you
somewhere else. The dragon said there are other worlds; one of them must be a
better place.”
“Just be safe.”
I didn’t want to leave her. I wanted to fight the
soldiers who took Dantur. I wanted to gather all the swords and axes left in
our crumbling little village and kill the soldiers who took my people. Instead,
I returned to the dragon with empty hands and an open mind, because if there
was anything I hated more than watching magic rip my village apart, it was
helplessness.
* * *
The sun was low in the sky when I made it back to the
mountains, since I had taken plenty of rests. Although I knew it wasn’t going
to be easy to get back into the dragon’s favor, I was thinking Cennuth had big
plans to use me, so I wasn’t terribly concerned.
Beside the mouth of the dragon’s cave was a set of
roughly cut stone steps, which I climbed cautiously. The first few were easy,
for I had done physical labor most my life. Halfway to the top, however, I
realized it was a lot harder than I’d expected. By the time I made it to the
top, I was covered in sweat, out of breath, and the sun had long since set.
There was a hot springs, a flowering tree, and a
cabin, just like Cennuth had said. I went to the door of the cabin and knocked,
hoping that Cennuth explained who I was to this person that was supposed to
teach me. When the door opened, I was startled. The man was supposed to teach
me wisdom and life skills, so I had expected him to be like Dantur. Dantur was
lean and tall.
This man was huge. He would tower over most men and
his arms and chest were so thick with muscles I would have been surprised to
see him touch his hands together. His hair was a black mess of tangles and the
stubble on his face was marred by scars. He was missing two fingers and half
his thumb on his left hand.
Needless to say, he was not what I was expecting.
The man glared at me. “You are late. Get inside.”
I obeyed without explaining why I was so late. He
hadn’t asked why, and it became apparent that he didn’t care.
The cabin was simple, with a small bed, a work desk
full of tools, and a chair with a small shelf of books. Books were extremely
expensive, so I was curious about what they had in them. The man then surprised
me again when he handed me a folded up blanket. “Go to sleep. I will explain
the rules tomorrow.”
“Rules?”
“Go to sleep,” he repeated.
Since he didn’t tell me where, I laid the blanket on
the floor by the chair and settled onto it without bothering to take my boots
off. I didn’t want to be there, but I promised my mother I would take us to a
better place, and that required learning magic.
The man blew out the candle and I heard him settle into
bed. “What is your name?” I asked.
“You can call me Caedmon.”
* * *
“Wake up.”
I was woken by a loud voice, which took me a moment
to recognize. I was in the cabin at the top of the mountain and the only light
came from the candle. “What’s going on?”
“It’s time for you to get started on your work.”
I was used to working early, but not before the sun
came up. “What do you mean?”
“Do you want breakfast before your lessons?”
“Yes.”
“Then get busy. You have to be at the bottom of the
mountain before dawn.”
“What?! That’s not fair.”
“Life is not fair. If you want to survive, you have
to be able to make it no matter what life throws at you. Your childhood is
over. From now until you leave, you will have to follow our rules. If you want
breakfast, you have to get up and prepare it in time to make it down the
mountain, where Brynjar will teach you. When he releases you for the day, you
will climb to the top of the mountain and down the other side to Cennuth’s
cave.”
“What?!”
“Once Cennuth dismisses you, you will return here and
do your chores, which will include gathering food for dinner and other things.
Only when you are done can you sleep, although you can go hungry if you choose
sleep over food.”
Instead of arguing, I started off to find Brynjar
without breakfast. I was certain Brynjar would be more reasonable and willing
to help me. Across the mountain from the steps I found the previous night was
another set, which I made my way down. It wasn’t nearly as easy due to the
early morning wind. I also hadn’t realized how steep it was before. Because I
skipped breakfast, I made it to the bottom before the sun peeked over the
horizon. At the bottom of the mountain was another cabin, very similar to
Caedmon’s, except there was a large, covered porch with a wooden table on it.
A man was sitting at the table, drinking from a cup.
He was about the size of Dantur with medium brown hair and clean, fancy
clothes. In fact, I had no idea what the shiny shirt was made of. It was thick
and textured with a black and red design. His pants were simple and black, but
not like any I had ever seen. “I’m---”
“Merlin,” he said. “You were supposed to be here
yesterday.” His voice was much gentler than Caedmon’s.
“I know.”
“Sit down so we can begin.” He really didn’t waste
any time. We started with the basics of reading and then the basics of math. I
didn’t understand why I needed to know this, but at least he wasn’t like
Caedmon or Cennuth. In fact, he was very patient and understanding, which made
me question why Caedmon was supposed to teach me wisdom instead of Brynjar.
I was tired when we were done, but I also kind of
enjoyed it. I liked learning to read and although I didn’t have a use for math,
Brynjar assured me there were worlds in which it was mandatory to know.
After my lessons, I climbed up the mountain, passed
Caedmon’s cabin without a glance, and climbed down the other side.
If I’m
going to stay, I have to figure out an easier way to do this
, I thought as
I finally reached the mouth of the cave. Deciding it was probably a bad idea to
walk straight in, I knelt in front of the dragon’s cave.
“Come inside, young wizard,” Cennuth said.
I did. The air was hot and thick with smoke. Before I
could ask him for light, the dragon blew fire at my feet. I shouted when a ring
of fire sprung up around me, trapping me in a circle. “What are you doing?”
“You will need to learn to trust me, young wizard. I
know you have already done magic completely instinctively.”
“Yes. Why do I have to learn it if I can just do it?”
“You are extremely powerful, but until you are
trained, you are dangerous to yourself and others. So far, magic has only
controlled you. I will teach you to control magic. The first thing you should
know is that different worlds use magic differently, but magic is the same on
every world. Magic is the pure essence of the universe. Some mortals learn to
control it better than others, some use it for malevolent purposes while others
use it for good, and some have to constantly hold it back. Tell me about your
dreams.”
I shrugged. “I see things in my dreams sometimes,
things from other worlds and times. I usually know stuff about them that I
shouldn’t know.”
“Like what?”
“I see cities made of metal and glass, with people
inside machines that take them places. I see people talking to each other on
opposite sides of the world. Is that the future of our world?”
“No. There are worlds that already have technology
that far exceeds this world and others that are developing towards that. This
world will not develop like that. The fate of this world rests in magic. You
must end the war on magic.”