The Dragon’s Price (The Sorcerer's Saga Book 4) Read online

  The Dragon’s Price

  The Sorcerer’s Saga Book 4

  Rain Oxford

  The Dragon’s Price © 2017 Rain Oxford

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover art by Brooke Gillette

  Edited by Crystal Potts

  Exposition

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Epilogue

  Exposition

  I was the seventh son in a family of infamous sorcerers, known for their ruthlessness and malevolent powers. On my world, wizards only used light magic and sorcerers only used dark magic. To my family’s disdain, no matter how hard I tried to cause chaos and destruction, I could only do light magic.

  When I left home to prove that I could be a powerful sorcerer, I ended up releasing Merlin from a magical prison. Merlin was a very powerful wizard from another world who had been cursed. Along with losing his magic and immortality, he was changed into a wolf. With his help, I learned to accept that I had both wizardry and sorcery and joined Magnus, one of the most powerful wizards of Caldaca. The three of us banished five of my evil brothers to another world. The youngest of my brothers, Thaddeus, was the least terrible and thus I felt he deserved a chance to live in peace.

  There was a phenomenon in which the seventh son of the seventh son and the seventh daughter of the seventh daughter had great power. Even on worlds without magic, these people had special abilities. On Caldaca, where almost everyone had magic, these people had an even greater advantage.

  They were called Sjau, and they could potentially do any type of magic. I was one of them, which was why I could do both light and dark magic. I used this advantage and became a curse breaker. People traveled great distances to have their curses broken.

  Magic-users on Caldaca were limited. Aside from wizards and sorcerers, there were also mages, who were healers, magicians, who did illusion magic, necromancers, who controlled the dead, seers, who saw the future, and rare elementalists, who could control the elements.

  My aunt, Livia, was also a Sjau with both wizardry and sorcery, but when her first daughter, Veronica, tried to kill her, she locked her own dark power into a small crystal, which she then gave to Magnus. Magnus was the father of her second daughter, Sonya, who was born with only light magic. Veronica heartlessly killed Sonya, but the young witch persevered as a ghost.

  When we went to Merlin’s world to figure out how to break his curse, we discovered that I was the only one who could break it, and doing so would require my death. Unfortunately, we didn’t learn how to actually do it.

  After defeating Veronica to free Livia, we returned to Magnus’s castle to find that my mother, Ilvera Dracre, had attacked him and taken Livia’s dark power. My mother hadn’t taken anything else, so I knew she was after that in particular.

  A few months later, I heard that my mother was trying to kill the other Sjau. There were fourteen of us altogether, including myself and my aunt. Merlin and I made the journey to try to save them. Some of them appreciated the warning, some of them went to Magnus’s castle for protection, and some of them joined my mother.

  Although the Sjau were supposedly capable of any type of magic, it seemed we could only do magic that didn’t clash with our personalities. Thus, to my knowledge, we naturally only did one to three types. Nevertheless, being able to do more than one type was unheard of on our world and could get us in deep trouble if the wrong people found out.

  My mother also tried to manipulate me by turning my heart dark with a very powerful curse. She succeeded in that temporarily, but Merlin stopped me from playing into her trap. Little did we know, it was only my mother’s backup plan. She actually wanted me to get all of us together so that she could syphon their magic through me. However, because one of the Sjau misled her, we were able to thwart her as well as learn of her plan. Surprisingly, Thaddeus turned up in order to help. Although we weren’t able to defeat her, she wasn’t able to beat us, either.

  Along with Merlin, Magnus, Thaddeus, and myself, the rest of the allied Sjau stayed at Magnus’s castle to prepare for my mother’s next attack. Mason was predominately a wizard/mage and knew more about the Sjau than the rest of us. He was very close to his wizard family, so they chose to stay with us at the castle as well. Gideon was a mage who grew up in a family of warriors, none of which had any magic. Jeb was a sorcerer, but since his family members were warlocks and only pretended to have magic, Jeb grew up using his magic in secret by enchanting objects. Houda was a magician and elementalist who left a comfortable position as a king’s magician when she got pregnant by the crown prince. Her son, Ryker, was the only baby in the house. Evelyn was a witch and magician, a princess, and married to a werewolf who was also staying with us.

  Finally, a witch and sorceress named Blue was restrained in one of Magnus’s magic rooms. My mother had gotten to her before I could, burned down her village, and made it look like I was responsible. Worst of all, Ilvera convinced Blue that she was Blue’s mother.

  Livia was living on her island with Sonya. Currently, the youngest Sjau, a four-year-old named Mist, and Mist’s parents were also living there. They wanted protection from my mother, but they didn’t want to live in the same place as sorcerers.

  The oldest Sjau, a mage and seer named Koufax, was also living on his own, for he didn’t want to pick sides in fear of angering my father.

  Aside from Blue, four of the Sjau were against the rest of us. They found out that my mother planned to betray them, but that didn’t mean they were on our side. Kalyn was a shapeshifter and elementalist, which was probably the strangest out of all of us. Sotis was a necromancer. Sven was a sorcerer and elementalist who tricked me into thinking he was on our side. Finally, there was Zelli, who was a sorceress and seer. Although she joined my mother’s side after I saved her from bandits, she gave my mother incorrect information that enabled us to escape.

  Blue had mortally wounded Merlin and I made a promise to the dragon, Cennuth, to save him. In exchange for his life, I had to promise to save a dragon egg, which Merlin and I didn’t know the location of. The only thing we knew was that we would see a sign when the black star was about to happen and it was time to find the egg.

  Merlin had told me that Baltezore, the same man who had killed his mother, trapped him in a cave, and made him immortal, was after a special dragon egg. The reason this egg was so valuable was that it supposedly contained a female dragon, and as far as we knew, no female dragon had hatched on any world for at least a thousand years.

  When Merlin was entrusted with the egg, he hid it on Caldaca and erased his own memory of its hiding spot. Only one other person knew where it was— a ghost named Vactarus who lived not far from my mother. It was imperative that we save the dragon egg before the black star arrived, but we didn’t know why or even what the black star really was.

  Long, long ago, only dragons had magic, so they ruled over the people of Caldaca. Then, one day, a blinding light appeared in the sky like a second sun and within two days, almost every person on Caldaca had magic. Dragons were hunted nearly to extinction, and since there were no more female dragons on Caldaca, there would be no more eggs.

&
nbsp; The light that brought magic to our people was called the white star, but some believed there was an end coming. If the black star brought about the end of magic, few if any people would survive the collapse of our society. People were already losing magic. For the time being, the Sjau were not losing power, but even if we kept our magic after the black star, Caldaca was doomed. Although I didn’t know how the dragon egg could help, I had to believe it would.

  Chapter 1

  “Like this?” Thaddeus asked.

  Merlin nodded. “What about mine?” I asked. He nodded again.

  Thaddeus, Merlin, and I were in the field behind Magnus’s castle. Merlin was teaching us to make very special bows and arrows. It started when Thaddeus found some half-carved bows and arrows in a spare room. I was against it at first, because I hated bows, but Merlin explained they weren’t only used in hunting.

  Merlin taught us to infuse the bow with magic. We refined the shape and carved designs into the bow just like I had when making my wand. Because Merlin could only talk to me and send images of the designs into my head, Thaddeus had to replicate mine. For some reason, I liked that he was copying me.

  When we were done, I aimed my bow at the target. Thad had painted a small circle on a wooden shield and stuck it on a pile of rocks. “You have to put the arrow in!” Thaddeus said impatiently.

  “Oh, right.” I picked up one of the arrows and notched it like Thaddeus had shown me when I was little.

  “Wait,” Merlin said. “Focus your mind on the mark, focus your magic on it.”

  “I can’t use magic without my wand or staff. You know that.”

  “The bow is going to be your wand for this moment. The bow is no different than a wand; you even carved it yourself. You can always hit your target with magic, even if your target is moving.”

  I nodded, focused my magic on striking the target, and released the string. The arrow struck the target dead center. I resisted my first reaction, which was to jump up and down with excitement, because I didn’t want to give my brother any more reasons to tease me.

  “Have you been practicing?” Thad asked.

  “No.” I told him what Merlin suggested.

  Thaddeus considered this for a while, then aimed his arrow at the target, hesitated, and turned. When he released the string, the arrow shot on a curve and struck the target right in the center, next to mine. He gaped. “I can’t… wow. Merlin, you’re amazing. I never knew we could do magic through anything except a wand or staff.”

  I grinned. I knew he was only complimenting Merlin, but Merlin was my teacher and my friend, so I was happy Thaddeus saw that Merlin was really as powerful as I’d said.

  “How do you know so much about magic here when you’re from another world?”

  “Magic here is magic everywhere. Your limits are inside you, not magic.”

  I told Thaddeus his answer.

  “Has Magnus come up with anything else on breaking Merlin’s curse?” Thad asked.

  I shook my head. “He’s starting to think it’s impossible. He said something about achieving immortality being impossible.”

  “He believes it is impossible to take immortality, not to give it,” Merlin reminded me.

  I still didn’t understand, but I didn’t want to ask him to explain it again. I opened my mouth to say something… probably ridiculous to change the subject, when the sky darkened. We all looked up to see the larger moon halfway blocking the sun. “That’s weird.”

  “Whoever is doing that has to be the most powerful sorcerer on Caldaca,” Thaddeus said. “I’m sure that can’t last.”

  “It is called a solar eclipse, and it is not magic,” Merlin said.

  “Not magic? How can that not be magic?”

  “What else would it be?” Thaddeus asked.

  “Okay, maybe it’s not magic, but it’s definitely not natural. This has to be the sign. The black star is coming.”

  * * *

  Dinner that night was an awkward affair. The castle was full for the first time since Merlin and I joined Magnus and it had become rather difficult to find quiet time to read or space when someone came to have a curse broken. Although Mason’s mother and nine siblings were able to lighten my burden by breaking the weaker curses, I still had to break at least one a day. As a wizard and sorcerer who grew up being cursed by my brothers, it was what I did best.

  A lot of people came from all over the world because they were losing their magic. Unfortunately, I had to turn them away, because it wasn’t a curse. The world and the people on it were simply losing magic, and the only ones immune were the Sjau and possibly dragons. It occurred worldwide with no pattern, for some people lost magic quickly and others lost it slowly, yet it seemed to advance faster in the north.

  “So, because it got dark early, you and Merlin want to go find a dragon egg?” Gideon asked. The warrior had been increasingly irritable after we faced my mother. It wasn’t because of a curse, though. (I checked.) It was because warriors did not like laying low; he wanted to find and fight her. Conversely, his mage nature was wise and he knew he wasn’t ready to face her.

  Although I had told the other Sjau about the egg possibly being the last female dragon and about the black star, the only thing I told them about Baltezore was that he was a dark wizard who was after the egg, since I felt like the rest was too personal to Merlin.

  “What he means is that we should go with you,” Mason said.

  “There’s not a lot of point in everyone rallying together if our leader goes off on his own,” Masy said. Masy was Mason’s twin sister. Had she been born first, he wouldn’t have been a Sjau.

  I could feel the blood drain from my face. “I’m not the leader, Merlin is,” I insisted.

  Merlin grumbled in protest.

  “He may be your mentor, but we don’t listen to him,” Gideon said.

  “Well, I don’t give anyone orders.”

  “It’s not about orders; it’s about who can get us all out alive. Your mother is threatening us, and the black star is threatening all magic. No one knows your mother like you---”

  “Hey,” Thaddeus interrupted. “I’ve known our mother for a year longer than he has.”

  “And you know more about the black star,” Gideon continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted.

  “Actually, that’s the dragons,” I pointed out.

  “You’re the one they talk to.”

  “You are not going to be able to talk your way out of this,” Merlin said. “Furthermore, I advise you not to try. Knowledge is power and because you have the knowledge, they will not question your judgment.”

  “They question my judgment all the time,” I argued in his mind.

  “Only when you are uncertain. They can sense that. They will always offer their advice because you are young, but when you are resolute, they will look to you for guidance.”

  “I don’t want them to.”

  “That is irrelevant. It is not for your benefit but for theirs. They do not know your mother or her methods. They do not know how to save magic. They need you. In exchange, when they get information, they will share it with you so that you can protect them better. When you need more information, they will do what they can to get it for you. That is how leadership works. By leaving them to find the egg, you are saying that you do not need or trust them.”

  “That’s why I don’t want to be a leader! I don’t want the responsibility.”

  “That is irrelevant,” he repeated. “You have it. You accepted the responsibility when you began warning them that your mother was out to kill them.”

  “You have got to find a better way to do that,” Jeb said. “We can all tell you two are talking behind our backs.”

  “Quiet,” Mason said. “It’s way worse when he talks out loud to Merlin. I was trying to talk to him last night and he started answering Merlin. Merlin wasn’t even in the room.”

  Rita, Mason’s mother, patted Mason on the hand comfortingly. She was extremely supportive of her
children and tried to mother the other Sjau, especially Gideon since he was a warrior like her husband. “We were discussing the egg.”

  I jumped at the opportunity to get away from the subject of leadership. “Merlin’s friend knows where it is, so we can hopefully get it quickly, bring it back here, and find out how to save magic.”

  “What about your mother?” Gideon asked.

  We had discussed protecting the castle every night at dinner, so I knew my mother couldn’t break in. Thaddeus and I had a pretty good idea how to stop her. We had multiple wards around the castle so that it could not be seen even with a magic mirror and no one could use magic to transport in or out. Actually, we couldn’t do much magic inside the castle grounds due to the wards Magnus had in place, but that meant an outsider couldn’t, either.

  “If my mother is losing power, she’s getting desperate. The best thing to do is stay out of her way so that she can’t steal our magic.” Magic came from inside us and if we depleted it, we made more. However, magic that was taken by force couldn’t be replenished.

  There was some disagreement over how my mother could steal our magic. She could only use sorcery, and less than half of us had any sorcery at all. Our hope was that if we could figure out what spell she would use, we could come up with a defense. The only thing we knew for certain was that all fourteen Sjau had to be together for her to take our magic. We asked Magnus to look into it, but he had so far come up with nothing.

  “She can just steal other people’s magic,” Houda said.

  “Which she’ll lose when the black star comes. That’s why she wants our magic,” Jeb said. “What we don’t know is how she discovered that we aren’t losing magic.”

  “Or how she knows the black star is coming,” Gideon added.

  “Or how she plans to steal our magic,” Roulis, Evelyn’s husband, added.

  Despite a month of discussion, we couldn’t agree on what to do beyond protecting the castle. “Yesterday, I agreed that stopping her from gaining power was priority,” I said. “Today, it’s saving magic.”