The Hero's Peril (The Sorcerer's Saga Book 5) Read online

  “I understand,” I said.

  “I highly doubt that,” Merlin argued.

  “What? Mason and Thaddeus are good friends.”

  “Yes, they are very good friends.”

  “Do you know something I don’t?”

  “Most definitely. Nevertheless, I suspect you will have difficulties escaping the castle.”

  “I’ll transport us.”

  “Or… they would not recognize you as a little white wolf.”

  “If you want to convince me to shapeshift, calling me little is not the way to do it.” I went to my room and started packing my necessities. I wanted to take all of my books, but it wasn’t like I could carry them. There were advantages and disadvantages to traveling. Then again, instead of reading about the world, I could explore it.

  I had asked Merlin if he knew a spell to shrink my books in order to carry them all, but he said that the energy required to do so would render me useless in anything else.

  Aside from what I was wearing, the only clothes I packed were two extra shirts, a single pair of trousers, and my last pair of socks. As soon as I pulled my socks out of the armoire, Goat burst in and tried to take it from me. “No, Goat, I already gave you a sock today!”

  Goat bleated and frolicked around me, trying to snatch it out of my hand.

  “No, Goat! Go eat Thad’s socks!”

  She bleated again and bit my boot. “Thaddeus!”

  “Am I going to get a goat dinner before we set off on our adventure?” Merlin asked from the doorway.

  As if she could hear him, she dived under the bed to hide.

  “Oh, now you scared her. What did you do? She never had a problem with you before.”

  “I might have played a harmless prank on her.”

  “Why?”

  “She reminds me a little of Vactarus.”

  “How?”

  “Because Vactarus is a crass old goat.”

  Mason knocked on the open door. “Do you want me to transport you? It should be safe now.”

  “My father did say Ilvera wasn’t going to be a problem for us anymore.” The protection spells Thaddeus and my eldest uncle tattooed on me had long since worn off. “What do you think, Merlin?”

  “I do trust your father when he says you are safe from Ilvera. However, if your intention is to learn, explore, and break curses, transporting yourself is not the way to do it. Life is a journey, not a destination.”

  “Are you just saying that because you want me to take the curse?”

  He sat with a disappointed frown. “Of course not. You should not think so lowly of me. On the other hand, it has been a long time since I was able to use magic and you should try being a wolf for a while.”

  I sighed. I had only been a wolf once, but it wasn’t pleasant. Merlin had lived as a wolf for a year. How was that fair to him? “Okay. But you have to carry our things.”

  He laughed. “Very well.”

  “Will you show me how to do it myself?”

  “I believe it is similar to how you learned to speak telepathically to me in that it is something you must learn on your own.”

  I finished packing and set my bag, wand, and staff next to the door. “What are you going to do about clothes?”

  “I can use Magnus’s clothes.”

  I asked Mason to grab some and he agreed reluctantly. After finding a letter in the deceased wizard’s room, no one had been in there. Goat followed him. I took off my clothes, not wanting them to get torn or tangled around me. “Can I be a bigger wolf? Is that a magic thing?”

  “I am not sure how that works.”

  “Is it because I’m less powerful than you?”

  “If that is the case, then Gmork’s size indicates that he is much more powerful than me.”

  “You were taught by dragons, though. Is there anything that could have made him more powerful?”

  “There are ways, yes. You need to meet my eyes.”

  I knelt in front of him and did as he said. Before I could doubt my decision, the room spun and tightness formed in my chest. I knew that I was in pain, that my bones were breaking and reshaping, my muscles were stretching, and fur was sprouting over my body with an itchiness that could drive a man insane, but I was feeling it as if it was a dream. This was a good thing; I didn’t think I could take the agony I had felt the first time.

  When it was done, I realized I had tried to claw my chest in an effort to relieve the itch, because Merlin was holding my paws away from it. He was a man again, wearing my Rynorm robe. I opened my mouth automatically to ask how long it had taken, but I only managed a grumbling sound and bit my tongue.

  “Are you okay?” I asked in his mind.

  “I am,” he answered aloud. “It gets easier each time. Do you remember how to stand?”

  Carefully, I stood. My legs weren’t weak despite the energy it took to shapeshift. Walking took some practice, though, which was weird. After knowing Merlin for a year, I didn’t expect it to be so hard to mimic him.

  Mason and Thaddeus returned as I was starting to get it. “Wow! That is not what I expected you to look like as a wolf,” Mason said.

  “That’s exactly what I expected,” Thaddeus said with a smirk.

  Unlike Merlin, whose hair matched his fur, I was a snow white wolf. I growled at Thaddeus, causing him to laugh. “You’re not big enough to make threats.”

  “I wouldn’t tease him about his size if I were you,” Mason whispered to Thad. My brother blanched.

  “What does he mean?” I asked Merlin.

  “Never mind that; they did not mean for you to hear them.”

  Mason blushed. “He heard that?”

  “Wolves have exceptional hearing, among other things.”

  “Oh… I forgot, I had that thing to do,” Thaddeus said, quickly leaving.

  “Right, and I have to be in a different room, doing something different,” Mason said, rushing out after him.

  “What just happened?”

  “You will understand someday, with any luck. Have you spoken to Kalyn recently?”

  “No,” I lied. “Last I heard, she was looking for her family. Why?”

  “No reason.”

  He didn’t believe me.

  Merlin dressed and we headed out. The staircase took a long time for me to master, but by the time we made it to the bottom floor, I didn’t look like a complete fool. Outside, I followed Merlin closely past the mob of people. They had traveled a long way to see me, but I couldn’t stand helping people who deserved the curses they had anymore.

  The sheep thief was in the middle of the crowd, telling others I was a fake. That was fine with me; my reputation hadn’t done me much good anyway. No one gave Merlin or me a second glance. Knowing how recognizable my face was, we decided not to shift back until we left Mokora.

  * * *

  I enjoyed running as a wolf and would take off into the forest at top speed. In this form, I didn’t worry about enemies attacking or what type of magic to use. When I put my paw on my wand and tried to cast a spell, nothing happened, and that was perfectly fine with me. I wanted to run, not do magic. I came upon a rabbit and instead of fleeing in fear, I chased it. I could smell and hear everything. My vision hadn’t improved, but my sense of smell more than made up for it. I finally understood what he meant about there being freedom as a wolf.

  Merlin stayed on the dirt road and practiced magic without a wand or staff. Wizards and sorcerers from Caldaca needed wands or staffs to focus their magic. Otherwise, our magic was more likely to explode in our faces than actually do anything useful. Wands were more common because they were easier to travel with, while staffs were typically more powerful.

  There was a group of bandits on the road, but Merlin simply waved his hand in front of them and said they didn’t see him. To my shock, that worked. Merlin was a master wizard, much more powerful than Magnus had been.

  Unfortunately, while I was practicing my brand new hunting skills on a particularly sly frog, sharp p
ain shot down my spine. My body contorted and a severe itch spread across my skin as my fur receded. I could barely hear my bones breaking over my howls of pain.

  At that point, before the pain could completely blind me, my mind separated from my body. I could still feel the pain, but it was like I was remembering it after a number of years. Some time later, my mind started to focus again and I found myself limp on the ground, shaking. I studied my hands, surprised to see that they weren’t paws.

  “Merlin, why did you switch us back?”

  I got no response. I didn’t sense anything at all from him, and that told me something was wrong. I struggled to my feet and stumbled in the direction I thought the main road was. Despite finding him quickly, I wasn’t relieved…

  Because he was unconscious.

  “Merlin!” I shook him. His wolf body was limp, but he was breathing. He wasn’t having a vision; I knew how if felt in my mind. This was pure exhaustion.

  I dragged him under the cover of a bush and only left his side to get him some water. I dressed in my robe and prepared to transport myself to the castle, where I could get a healing potion. I didn’t want him to wake alone and be confused, but it was less of a strain on my energy and I needed to be ready for anything. A moment before I could, his right forepaw moved.

  “Merlin!”

  He flinched and grumbled. “Do not shout, young sorcerer.” He sluggishly opened his eyes.

  “What happened?”

  “I am not sure yet.”

  “Why did you switch us back?”

  “It had not been my intention. I most likely ran out of energy.”

  “But you’re so powerful.”

  “I have been without magic for so long that I am bound to be rusty. It also might be that there is a time restraint on the spell. This is why we need to test it out before jumping headfirst into a situation in which we need to reverse the curse.”

  “Well, obviously, you would be better with magic in a fight.”

  “Or if your reputation is detrimental.”

  “Then switch us back and we can try it again.”

  He shook his head. “I am wiped. I need sleep and food.”

  “Do you want me to transform some bread for you?”

  “No. Help me up. We can go to Sebsan’s inn.”

  I helped him up and he managed to stay up on his own while I dressed. Afterwards, we made our way back to the main road.

  * * *

  We arrived at a small town at sunset and I was immediately concerned by how crowded it was. Cities like Red Rock, the center of trade and markets on Mokora, were often bustling with activity. When a town this size was full, it usually meant something was wrong.

  On the way to the inn, we encountered a cluster of locals, many of whom I recognized. We’d passed through the town often enough that the residents stopped glaring at us with suspicion and instead greeted us politely with suspicion.

  Margel, an old mage who was habitually grumpy, waved us closer when he spotted us. I stopped, expecting it to be a trap. “What’s going on?” I asked. He didn’t wear his usual scowl or sneer at Merlin.

  It looked almost as if he was happy.

  “The city of Spearton is sending an army to fight us,” he said.

  Well, that explained why he was happy.

  Another resident, a seer named Sega, clarified. “We’re not particularly worried, except that we can’t figure out when they’re going to attack. See, they sent a message informing us that they were attacking us at the end of the month, to make sure we were available at that time. The problem is, our month begins and ends at the full moon, and theirs starts and ends at the empty moon, so we don’t know if they mean our full moon or theirs.”

  “This is more painful to watch than Goat trying to take off your socks without waking you.”

  “She did what?”

  “Or if they mean the small moon,” another villager added.

  “We’re free for our full moon, but on the empty moon, we have a play to perform, and no one wants to miss it. We could invite them to the play and then fight afterwards, but we don’t have enough seating for their army.”

  “That is a problem,” I agreed. “How about you do the play on the full moon, for your people, and then invite them to come here on the empty moon to watch the play and then fight afterwards. That way, they get to see the play, and your people have already seen it so it won’t be overcrowded.”

  “That’s a marvelous idea! But, wait, will they expect food? We won’t have enough for them.”

  I considered it for a moment. “You’ll just have to ask that they bring their own food. What kind of magic are you expecting?”

  “They’re warriors, so mostly sorcery.”

  A lot of warriors were sorcerers, but few of them actually used magic, which meant they were the least affected when almost everyone on Caldaca started to lose their power. They were raised to be strong and resilient, not to rely on magic.

  “They better bring their own mages, too, because I’m not spending all day fixing them up,” Margel said.

  A few people muttered and I had a pretty good idea they weren’t saying anything nice.

  Merlin and I made our way to the inn to rest for the night. We knew the innkeeper to be a good man who kept a decent establishment. As soon as Merlin opened the door, Sebsan’s eyes focused on us. He was a burly man, quite capable of defending his establishment, yet I had never heard him raise his voice in anger. Then again, he never needed to; no one was willing to push him that far.

  There were sturdy wooden tables around the room, a staircase in front of me leading up, and a long wooden bar to our left. The room was filled with a dozen people, which was all it could comfortably seat. It was also louder than usual, but the atmosphere was jovial, so I wasn’t expecting trouble.

  A few people did, however, when they saw Merlin, and decided they had somewhere else to be. When we reached the bar, Sebsan continued polishing a mug as if people walked in with wolves all the time. As far as I knew, real wolves were extinct.

  “Good evening, Merlin, Ayden. Need a room or just food?”

  “Both, please.” We both sat at the bar as Sebsan prepared us drinks. While he disappeared into the kitchen, Merlin drained his bowl of water.

  The innkeeper soon returned with a plate of roast, potatoes, bread, and cheese for me and a plate of roast for Merlin.

  “Is the world coming to an end again?”

  “No.”

  “Then what are you running from this time?”

  “Who says we’re running from anyone?”

  “No one comes here who isn’t running from or to something and I’ve only seen the determination in your eyes that suggests the latter once.”

  “I wanted to get out of the castle for a while.”

  Sebsan nodded. “I figured your reputation would get too big. You can’t be something special without everyone wanting a piece of you, and you’re not special at all if there’s enough of you to go around.”

  “I never noticed it before, but Sebsan is pretty wise,” Merlin said.

  “Is that your goat?” the innkeeper asked.

  I refused to look. “No way. I don’t have a goat, and I left her at home. If you’re seeing goats, you might want to get checked out by a mage.”

  “Very well. If it’s not yours, I’ll eat it.

  I turned, and sure enough, Goat was there. My goat.

  Stupid goat. “How did you find us?”

  Not surprisingly, the goat didn’t answer.

  “Make sure she doesn’t eat anything belonging to the room.”

  “I’ll try.” We chatted for a while until Merlin couldn’t sit up any longer. On the way to the room, I asked, “Will you switch us back in the morning?”

  “It sounds to me like you enjoy being a wolf.”

  “It’s not as bad as I’d thought it would be.”

  “No, it has plenty of perks. Wolves are faster, have no responsibilities, and no one counts on them. Th
ey do not have evil mothers after them or people demanding their curses to be broken. However, we are not wolves. This… curse… is not a means to escape our problems.”

  “Then you don’t want to be a wolf to escape your heartache?”

  “It does soften the anguish, I admit, but there are other reasons.”

  We reached our room then and I decided to drop it. Merlin had enough problems and I didn’t have the right to tell him how to deal with them.

  As always, the room was simple, warm, and clean. It wasn’t nearly as nice as my room in the castle and I liked it that way. Other than a small bed, there was a chest for clothes and a window. I dropped my bag beside the bed and leaned my staff against the wall. Goat immediately buried her head in my bag, looking for socks.

  “Why was I completely fine without magic? When Ilvera took my power, I was miserable. When I was a wolf without magic, I couldn’t have cared less.”

  “It appears your heart is wild, like mine. Perhaps more so.”

  * * *

  I was in the volcano, facing Baltezore. I knew it was a dream; I’d had the same one almost every night since we defeated him. Every fight was different, but the outcome never changed. This time, when Ilvera took our power, he killed her before she could turn on him, and then he killed us.

  * * *

  Heavy pounding on the door made me jump out of bed with a shriek of fear. “Ayden, Merlin, you need to leave,” Sebsan said loudly through the door.

  Merlin growled, snapping at the air until he realized what was going on. Goat was shaking with fear, her head buried under my bed. I slipped on my robe and boots. Merlin had already gotten the door open. “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “There are assassins after you. Someone recognized you last night and pointed them in your direction. They’re searching rooms.”

  “It’s my mother. I hate her! Why can’t she leave me alone?”

  “I doubt it is your mother, but that is beside the point,” Merlin said.

  “How do we get out?”

  “There’s a trap door in my kitchen that leads to underground tunnels.”

  A woman shouted with alarm in the hallway. When I tried to peer out the doorway, Sebsan pushed me back. He raised his other hand towards someone and fire burst from it like magic from a wand. The recipient screamed. I was impressed by how precise Sebsan’s attack was and knew instantly why it was so accurate.