Читать книгу Legacy: The Mark of Merlin - Gerald Pruett - Страница 9

Chapter Four

(Randolph’s handwriting)

If too much blood is used though, the liken becomes venomous and a venomous liken will forever change into the selected animal beneath the moonlight of the three moons. (The night before the full moon, the night of the full moon and the night after the full moon.)

The two wolf-likens that were sent last night were intelligent. They were after Elizabeth and me, and not to devour every living thing in their path. They would have attacked and killed us last night too just after the sun had set if it hadn’t been for Elizabeth’s obsession to give every animal in the world an individual name.

The white cow we used to own with one brown eye was called ‘Freckle-eye’. One of the roosters we had was called, ‘Crows-a-lot’.

When we first came across the pack of fourteen wolves yesterday, Elizabeth took most of the day observing the wolves and then naming them from what she had observed. The second biggest wolf of the pack is now called ‘Coward’. In spite of Coward’s huskiness, he would scamper away from confrontations with his tail between his legs. One of the females is called ‘Mother’ as she seems to like cleaning the other wolves’ ears.

I can’t remember what the other twelve wolves’ names are, but when the two likens had showed up, Elizabeth noticed right away that they were new arrivals. At first we just thought that the two new wolves were just rejoining their pack from being gone all day. And I think that was what the members of the Raven Coven were hoping for.

Anyway, as Elizabeth was observing the likens in order to name them, she noticed that the two were acting more like well trained ‘War-dogs’ than wolves. War-dogs are dogs that are trained by soldiers to fight an enemy alongside the soldiers, and normally War-dogs are killed before becoming well trained.

So when Elizabeth brought the likens’ peculiar behavior to my attention I also started to observe them as well. Within a short time, I realized to what they might be, and to test if I was right, I attempted to control them.

Even though I was tired, I still had full control over the beasts of the land—although the almost full moon might’ve been the reason for that. In any case, as long as I have full control over the beasts, the only beasts that can resist me are humans and likens, so it was no surprise to me that when I attempted to control the two wolf-likens, I failed.

Elizabeth noticed what I was doing, and although she didn’t understand what was going on at the time, she too saw that I had no control over the likens.

The likens immediately attacked once I had tested them, but before they had a chance to reach Elizabeth or myself, Elizabeth and I both ordered the wolves to attack the likens. The wolves obeyed.

Within minutes one of the likens was pulled into a dozen pieces. The other suffered bite wounds covering most of his or her body before he or she fled into the night while leaving a trail of blood that showed his or her path.

My guess is that the liken will die from the lack of blood long before he or she could report to the Raven Coven. So when the wolves were about to chase the liken, I ordered them to stop. If there were any other members of the Raven Coven in the area, they wouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of the wolves being gone.

As things were calming down, or at least I thought they were, Elizabeth screamed. When I had turned to see what was going on, she was staring at human body parts, which had shifted from the liken chunks to the human body parts before her eyes.

The liken was a he. Someone Elizabeth and I knew from the village that we had occasionally gone to. I quickly ran to her side and explained to her what had happened.

To get the body parts out of sight, I ordered the wolves to dig a hole and bury them.

The remainder of the night was uneventful, and when morning had come, Elizabeth and I, along with the pack of wolves, moved north towards the Clover Coven.

It’s presently one hour before sunset and currently calm. Elizabeth is watching a rabbit cooking over a flame for our evening meal. The meal before that, several miles back, we ate apples from an orchard.

The moon is full and currently visible. Once the sun sets, I hope we don’t get anymore liken visitors; however, this time, I’m ready for them. I still can’t figure out why the Raven Coven is so focused on destroying us. Perhaps the members of the Clover Coven know.

In any case, I should run through our history while I’m waiting for the meal to be cooked.

There once lived a very powerful wizard name Merlin. In the volumes that I had to abandon, it states that Merlin’s father came to this land from another realm. I don’t know what that means personally, but that was why Merlin was born with great powers. In any case, he had powers over the Earth, Air, Fire, Water and all of the beasts of the land. Other wizards or even witches couldn’t match his powers; however, any child he would father could. Merlin, while believing that he was on the side of good, feared that any of his children could grow up on the side of evil and would eventually challenge him.

To prevent this he had cast a spell on himself. Each time he would father children his powers would split. His direct sons and daughters were always born as triplets. One triplet would have power over the Fire and Water. The second would have power over the Earth and Air, and the third would have power over the beasts of the land.

Merlin’s mark was the moon and three stars and each triplet was born with a perfectly round birthmark just below his or her left collarbone. Immediately to the left of the sphere (to the wearer’s perspective) on the side towards the wearer’s left arm were three freckles. Two of the freckles were side-by-side and the third was above the other two and centered, and the darkest freckle showed which of the three lines that the triplet had power over. This birthmark became known as the mark of Merlin.

If the darker freckle is the bottom one nearest the full moon-shaped birthmark, then the line has power over the Earth and Air. If the darker freckle is the bottom one furthest away from the birthmark, then the line has power over the Fire and Water. If the darker freckle is the top one, then the line has power over the beasts of the land.

(My drawings are what someone else would see and not what the one wearing the mark would see.)

However, we (Merlin’s descendants in the later generations) have learned that the full moon-shaped birthmark is slowly changing phases towards a new moon (no birthmark). We think that once our generations to come reach the new moon phase, their powers will be forever gone. Merlin had done this by accident, or so we believe anyway. Merlin had just wanted to split his powers into threes among his children, but every three generations twins are born, the power of the line splits among the twins and weakens, and the birthmark would gradually fade towards the new moon.

The moon-shaped birthmarks that Elizabeth and I have are in the moon phase between the full moon and the half moon.

Anyway, when the birthmark first showed signs of fading, a Dark Ritual had surfaced. I don’t know the incantation’s origin or its proper name. I’m not sure if anyone does; however, this ritual strengthens the line and intensifies the mark of Merlin of the one performing the ritual by stealing the powers of another wizard or sorceress while quickly—if not instantly—turning the victim into ashes.

As more and more covens were using this ritual, wars between the covens had broken out that became known as the Wizard Wars, and the Wizards Wars are believed to have begun in the 800’s A.D., two hundred years after Merlin was said to have disappeared from the lands. It’s rumored that the Lady of the Lake had imprisoned him with magic.

The Raven Coven was the largest coven in the land when the wars had broken out, and in spite of the wars it continues to be the largest yet today. As I previously stated the coven’s power is over the Earth and Air.

I heard rumors that the Raven Coven is ruled by a council of five, and each of the five council members has a large number of subordinates of partisan, wizards and sorceresses beneath him or her. Partisans are the non-magical people of a wizard’s line, and they are usually the wives, husbands, in-laws or good friends to the wizards or sorceresses.

The two likens that attacked last night were most likely Raven partisans. At least the one who the wolves had ripped apart had to have been, since he wasn’t a wizard.

The second largest coven is the Brimstone Coven. That coven has the power over the Fire and Water.

The Clover Coven is the third largest with twenty adult members, and as I also previously stated, that coven has the power over the beasts.

All of the covens smaller than the Clover Coven are considered acorn covens. Most acorn covens are no more than eight members, and we are detached members of one of the three main covens. Some of the larger acorn covens had named their covens; most acorn covens haven’t though.

Since the start of the Wizard Wars our lives had depended on killing the other first, so most wizards and sorceresses had used the Dark Ritual at some point. (If nothing more, out of self-preservation). However, during the first one hundred years of the wars the members of the Brimstone Coven and their acorn covens were the only ones who knew of the incantation.

In the early part of the 900’s, Adonis (the leader of the Clover Coven at the time) had been captured by the Brimstone Coven. As the leader of the Brimstone Coven was preparing to do the Dark Ritual on Adonis, Adonis had somehow reversed the ritual on the Brimstone’s leader. Once the Brimstone’s leader’s ashes had blown away with the wind, Adonis escaped with the incantation in his hand.

Two days later, against his advisors’ warnings and with a copy of the Dark Ritual incantation in his hand, Adonis and two other wizards from the Clover Coven approached the Raven Coven under the flag of truce.

Adonis was hoping that if the three main covens each had a copy of the incantation to the Dark Ritual that it would force all the covens to come together and talk peace. However, once the leaders of the Raven Coven heard him out, he and the other two wizards were captured and executed while using the Dark Ritual.

The members of the Clover Coven had been promoting peace before that, but after hearing about their leader’s fate, the coven members became more aggressive and more revengeful.

I have to quit here for right now. Elizabeth is telling me that the rabbit is fully cooked. I doubt that I’ll have time to write more after we eat, so I’ll write more tomorrow.

(Elizabeth’s handwriting)

Hi readers. It’s Thursday night. I’m Elizabeth, Randolph’s ten-year-old sister. Randolph is sleeping right now. He doesn’t know that I read his volume or that I’m now writing in it. So if Randolph’s next entry talks about my death, it might not have been from the Raven Coven.

Anyway, last night was uneventful and when morning came, Randolph and I, along with the pack of wolves, moved north again.

Randolph and I walked and walked, until the blisters on my feet reopened. I’m not very big so I was able to get Coward to allow me to ride his back. That was kind of fun.

Anyway, I was only on Coward’s back for a short time when we came upon a village. A village with people who don’t do magic doesn’t always mean a safe place. There are wizards and sorceresses everywhere these days. So I didn’t want to enter the village.

Randolph said that we had to though. He fell six times from being tired. He said that if he doesn’t get any sleep, he wouldn’t be able to control the wolves tonight in spite of the moon’s influence. Since I’ve been sleeping at night, I bet I could control the wolves tonight, but he thinks I’m still too young. I’m old enough to cast the writing incantation so that what I write is rewritten correctly, but that I’m too young to control the wolves. Big brothers are a pain.

Sorry, that was my complaint for today.

Anyway, Randolph told the wolves to continue to walk north. Randolph said that the wolves’ footprints might lead the Raven Coven away from us.

Once the wolves had disappeared from sight, Randolph and I walked into the village.

A woman around my mom’s age greeted us almost immediately. Before the Raven Coven had killed her I mean. I still miss my mom. I miss my dad, Matthew and Gabrielle too. I cry each time I think of them.

As you can see from the tearstains I just created I’m crying now.

Okay, I’m good. Anyway the woman’s name is Danielle. She said that she came here as a little girl from Le Havre and her son is a physician. When she saw that my feet were bleeding she took pity on me and then escorted Randolph and me to her son.

Randolph didn’t like trusting a stranger, but he knew that my feet had needed to be attended to. So we followed trustingly to a room that had only one door and no windows.

Danielle’s son’s name is Jean-Michel and he wrapped my feet. He was just finishing up when Randolph and I felt Lucas, Hayden and Patience on the opposite side of Jean-Michel’s closed door. Wizards and sorceresses can sense each other and I definitely feared that someone from the Raven Coven had caught up with us.

Danielle and Jean-Michel saw the expressions on my and Randolph’s faces as my brother and I stared disturbingly at the door.

Danielle asked, “What’s wrong?” But before an answer could be given, one of the three had knocked.

There was no way out of the room, and I saw that Randolph was preparing to cast whatever defensive or attack incantation that he knew as Jean-Michel stepped towards the door.

Lucas was my and Randolph’s cousin, and everyone heard a sigh of relief when I saw him walking through the door first followed by Hayden and Patience.

Hayden and Patience are brother and sister, and they are Clover partisans. We can’t feel the presence of partisans, so to correct what I had written earlier, Randolph and I had only felt Lucas at the door. Lucas and Patience were recently married. I had never met Hayden or Patience before today, and it turns out that Patience is a seer. A few days ago Patience saw in her visions that Randolph and I would be in Jean-Michel’s office after running from the Raven Coven.

Anyway, before I could say a proper ‘hello’ to Lucas, Lucas tossed a bag of coins to Jean-Michel for treating my feet and ordering us to go before Helen and her group could show up. I didn’t know who Helen was at the time, and as we were following Lucas, Hayden and Patience, we were told that Helen was a powerful sorceress and a seer for the Raven Coven.

It turns out that the Raven Coven was killing off the Clover’s acorn covens because for the past week or more every seer was getting the same vision. According to Patience the vision is too obscure to know when, where or with whom, but at some point between now and whenever, someone from one of the Clover’s acorn covens will turn the Raven Coven’s kingdom upside-down. Obviously the members of the Raven Coven were trying to avert that prophecy, but according to Patience they haven’t succeeded yet.

Anyway we followed Lucas, Hayden and Patience to the horse stable. At the stable, four horses were ready and waiting for us. I got on the horse with Lucas, and once everyone was on his or her horse we rode off towards the Clover Coven as fast as we could before Helen and her group could reach us.

Patience, with her ability, had chosen the winding unmarked path through the forest that we took, and as far as I know, it was uneventful. With all the course changes that we did, Patience might tell a different tale.

Anyway we made it to the Clover Coven’s citadel before sunset. The Clover Coven normally has twenty adult members, but with the acorn covens that were there, there were over fifty people.

I think it’s funny. By the Raven going after the Clover’s acorn covens, it had caused the line to regroup, and now for the first time since the beginning of the Wizard Wars, I think we are bigger than the Raven Coven at the moment. Of course if the Raven’s acorn covens would regroup that would again change.

After arriving at the citadel, we, along with several others, ate chicken, carrots, peas and bread. The adults had mead. After eating, Randolph went directly to bed.

I wasn’t ready for bed. Obviously, since I’m writing. So I wandered and browsed the citadel. According to Randolph I’ve been here once when I was three, but I have no memory of it.

There are a dozen other kids here. A few of them are even my age. When I came across them playing some game that I wasn’t really familiar with, I watched. When they asked me if I wanted to play the winner, I shook my head and said, “Maybe tomorrow.” My parents, Matthew and Gabrielle were recently killed, and I’ve been on the run for my life for the past few days so I wasn’t in the mood to play games.

I continued to watch them though. Marlow won four games one after the other before losing the fifth game to Edward. I think it was luck though that Edward beat Marlow because Edward lost the very next game to someone who Marlow had beaten.

Anyway I had watched a couple more games before I came back here. As soon as I walked in, I saw the volume on the table next to Randolph. I picked it up and read it. And that’s pretty much it. I’ll talk more later, if Randolph lets me.

Hi, it’s Elizabeth again. It’s Friday morning. Randolph thought that I did okay with last night’s entry so he’s letting me write this entry.

I would like to say that it was uneventful during the night last night, but last night was anything but uneventful.

Including Patience there are six seers in the citadel. Patience and three other seers had the same forewarning of the Raven’s attack minutes before the attack had happened. The Raven Coven even had thirteen of its acorn covens involved, a hundred partisans and about twenty wolf-likens. I don’t really know the details of the battle because everyone who was under the age of eighteen was ushered into a large chamber underneath the citadel. In fact, the chamber was built for such attacks on the citadel.

Anyway, all of us sat quietly and listened to the thunderous sounds that the battle was creating. The chamber walls shook during the loudest strikes followed by dust and small chunks of debris falling down on us.

The thunder went strong for several hours before dropping off into a calm. For some, the sounds of the thunderous war overhead were more reassuring of our war efforts than waiting the twenty minutes that it took for someone to tell us that it was safe to resurface.

As we were resurfacing we were ushered through areas of the citadel that were least effected by the battle and into the main assembly room.

Once we were in that room, some of the kids were pulled away from the main group and spoken to privately. That was five hours ago and we were released from that room thirty minutes ago.

As I was leaving the room, I found out that those kids were being told the unfortunate news of one or both of their parents being killed in the battle.

Anyway that’s all I have to say for now. I’ll talk more later, if Randolph will let me again. Bye for now.

(Patience’s handwriting)

Randolph had talked me into writing out what I can remember about last night’s battle. My name is Patience, but before I talk about the battle, I would like to explain my ability.

I’m a seer and a Clover partisan. As early as the age of six, I would get random visions and prophecy dreams of future events that would, more times than not, come to be. When I was thirteen I was taught a ritual that even a partisan seer can do that would help fill in the gaps between my visions. Doing the ritual frequently improves the results, and so I do the ritual nightly and occasionally during the day. Other seers will perform this ritual as well and just as frequently for the same reason.

Some seers can only see the outcome of a decision once a decision had been made. Other seers are what are known as the ‘Now-seers’.

‘Now-seers’ can only see what is presently occurring in the world without actually being there. Two of the seers in the citadel are Now-seers.

There are other seers (like me) who can see beyond the outcome of a decision. We are capable of seeing all possible conclusions to any possible decisions that a person might make.

Some seers can determine a day or a time when their visions of the future will occur; unfortunately I’m not one of them. To overcome this I look for certain indications that the vision is growing near or is upon us.

Last night’s battle for an example. Two weeks ago I saw the battle in a vision within the same vision that Lucas had told me, “Elizabeth is looking more and more like her mom each time I see her.”

I immediately warned Hanford (the leader of the coven) and Lucas about the coming battle, but I didn’t tell Lucas as to how I would know when it would be upon us. Last night, Lucas had told me what I had been waiting to hear, and that was when I knew that the battle was only minutes away.

The three seers among us who can also see future events had seen the battle five minutes before Lucas had told me about Elizabeth, so Hanford was being told about it as I was joining them.

When I confirmed with a nod that tonight was the night, Hanford sounded the alarm.

As Elizabeth wrote earlier, the children under the age of eighteen were ushered into a large chamber beneath the citadel. The rest of us took our positions for the coming battle. The torches and candles were put out and the only members who were making sounds were the four wizards casting the incantation to cloak us from the Raven’s seers.

A few of the Raven’s wizards and sorceresses were also casting the same incantation in order to cloak themselves from us, and so we sat patiently while waiting for the members of the Raven Coven to make themselves known.

One of the Raven’s wizards maneuvered himself unseen to the opposite side of the citadel, and once he was in place, he magically shot fireballs into the wall of the citadel.

We knew that he was only attempting to draw our fire in the wrong direction, so only one wizard from our side magically fired back.

In response to our weak retaliation, fireballs came at us from three wizards from yet another direction. Again we knew that this was done only to draw our fire in the wrong direction, so we again gave a weak response.

Trying to seize the advantage in a battle when both sides have three or more seers is almost impossible, but if you have a good leader, then that leader could take the advantage of a disadvantage. So when the Raven magically fired fireballs from every point, but one, that one point was where Hanford ordered to be heavily fired upon.

Our first round of fireballs took out a good portion of their partisans, and a few of their frontline wizards, but before we could re-aim our fire beyond the partisans, the Raven’s surviving wizards and sorceresses magically fired all they had.

The sky had lit up bright with all the fireballs passing each other in flight. Wizards and partisans on each side were spread out to minimize the casualties, so once each fireball had landed, only one to two people were hit by it—if any.

Once the main fire had begun, our wizards who were reciting the cloaking incantation had shifted their chant to the barrier incantation, so when the fireballs that were fired against us would land, they would have less of an impact. I believe the Raven’s wizards had done the same.

As the wizards and sorceresses were exchanging fireballs, the Raven’s surviving partisans and wolf-likens had stormed the citadel, and as they were entering, they were met by our partisans.

It became immediately obvious that the Raven’s partisans were instructed to ignore our partisans when they could and go after our wizards and sorceresses. Some Raven’s partisans or likens had actually made it past our partisans as they went after their primary target. Most were cut down though by the wizards or sorceresses as they approached them, but a few had succeeded, only to be killed moments later by one of our partisans.

With wizards on both sides chanting the barrier incantation throughout the battle, the battle waged on for hours, and compared to other battles fought throughout history, the number of casualties were light.

Neither side was able to dominate the fight, and just before the last liken-moon (liken-moon is my word for the moon that is needed to change man into beast). Anyway, before the last liken-moon of the month could set, someone from the Raven’s side had sounded a horn.

The Raven’s surviving partisans and likens quickly withdrew from the fight, and just after their partisans had reached their frontline wizards the Raven withdrew completely.

Once the battle was over, our slightly wounded had picked up the dead and the seriously wounded; including the Raven’s dead and seriously wounded. All of the Raven’s dead and wounded were partisans though.

Some had complained about treating the Raven’s wounded as one of ours, but Hanford retorted, “Kindness begets kindness. The Wizard Wars aren’t ever going to end if we continue to behave like savages towards one another.”

And so the seriously wounded (our wounded and the Raven’s wounded alike) were carried to the lab where Catherine and Catherine’s three apprentices could attend to them. Catherine is Hanford’s sister, a powerful sorceress and the main healer for the coven.

The dead were carried away and placed in a room to wait their ceremonial burial.

Once a path between the chamber beneath the citadel and the main assembly room was cleared from any signs of battle, the children were escorted to the assembly room. There the children waited as the adults cleaned up the signs of battle everywhere else.

Later this evening is the burial ceremony for the ones who had died in the battle, so everyone is preparing for that.

That’s it for what I can scribe down.

(Randolph’s handwriting)

It’s Friday night, and before I go to bed I thought I should say that the burial ceremony went as it should. Our fallen wizards, sorceresses and partisans were each given a wizard’s ceremony. The Raven’s fallen were also a part of the ceremony and they were buried alongside our fallen without distinction.

Oh and in spite of last night’s attack on the citadel, several more acorn covens had showed up while seeking refuge.

I should also say that Hanford doesn’t care to keep prisoners, and while ignoring the objections from the others, Hanford had the Raven’s injured partisans escorted to the perimeter of our borders and then released once their wounds had been treated.

Anyway that’s all I have for right now.

It’s Saturday night. Friday night to Saturday morning was uneventful. After everyone had awakened and had eaten his or her morning meal, Hanford had called an assembly meeting.

Apparently Elizabeth and I weren’t the only ones among the acorn covens who had to leave their Legacy volumes behind. Most of the Legacy volumes are only different within the last two hundred years. Before that the history of the Legacy volumes are mostly the same for everyone. Therefore, starting Monday morning, there will be a workshop to teach the history of our legacy.

The attendance to the workshop is open to all ages and it’s voluntary.

Elizabeth is planning to go to that. I wouldn’t mind going to that workshop myself, but there’s another workshop that is taking place at the same time that I want to go to. That workshop is on learning incantations and potions, and anyone fifteen years old or older can attend.

If I was going to get Elizabeth and myself through this, I’m going to have to learn all I can.

Anyway that’s all I have for right now.

It’s Sunday night. Last night was again uneventful. I learned that a lot of the adults were planning to attend the workshops. To accommodate the number of people who are planning to learn the incantations, the workshop was moved from a small room to the dining room. The dining room will be closed during the few hours that the workshop will be taking place.

The workshop on learning the Legacy volumes will be held in the assembly room.

These workshops will be held on every Monday through Friday until further notice, and as I wrote yesterday, the attendance to the workshops is voluntary.

Anyway, that’s all I have for right now.

It’s Monday evening, and things were somewhat eventful, but not because of the Raven Coven. Thomas (a nineteen-year- old who thought that he knew more than our mentor about mixing potions) had mixed things before being told to and had blown pieces out of the table that he was sitting at.

A few people around Thomas were shot with small chunks of flying wood. Thomas (I’m sad to say) had suffered piercing wounds about his chest, and the bright flash that had occurred had burned his eyes.

Catherine said that Thomas will live, but she’s very doubtful that he’ll see again.

That’s all I have, but Elizabeth wants to write down what she had learned from her workshop.

(Elizabeth’s handwriting)

Hi, it’s Elizabeth again. You knew that though.

Anyway, here’s what I learned…