“Fascinating, just fascinating,” said the sorcerer as he examined the raven perched on the window ledge of the tower. “What do you think it is, Chigatsay?”
The oni towered over the sorcerer like a blue statue, his heavily muscled brass bound arms folded over his bulging chest, a single curved black horn protruding from the front of his head. He looked like he was about to say raven, then he reconsidered and shrugged his fur-clad shoulders slightly. He flexed his muscles to try to make himself look even larger than he was.
The sorcerer swept across the room to a stone table, his alizarin crimson robes trimmed with gold billowing about him. He picked through several complicated-looking instruments with his long precise fingers until he found what he sought. An apparatus with glass disks mounted in gold fixtures. He held it to his eye as he examined the raven.
“No, no, no, definitely not a raven,” he said. “Who are you, I wonder? How did you find your way into these mountains? Who did this to you and more importantly why? I suppose there is only one way to find out.”
He prepared a bowl of water and herbs and placed it on a stand before the raven. He stood in front of it, raised his arms aloft and began chanting a counterspell. The bowl began to bubble as if boiling. The sorcerer sprinkled some of the water from the bowl onto Merlina and she began to transform. The feathers absorbed into her body and she grew and grew until she returned to her half-elven form.
Merlina found herself naked, seated on the window ledge, her black hair billowing in the breeze, her pale breasts thrust forward, her nipples stiff in the chill air of the tower, a hint of black ringlets peeking from between her crossed legs. She felt dizzy, but she managed a smile and a sultry look. The elves may not have appreciated her beauty, but she was stunning by human standards. The sorcerer and the oni stared at her open-mouthed for a moment, then the oni, blushing purple, took off one of his orange and black striped furs and wrapped it around Merlina.
Merlina tossed her hair and risked a glance out the window. She could see some of her raven companions among the fir trees in the valley below. Her life as a raven began flashing into her memory. The ravens had taught Merlina how to find food in the wilderness. There was always some dead animal that had not survived the harsh winter in the highlands. Ravens feasted when other things starved. They had flown west until they reached the Stony River. It was split into many divergent streams by huge boulders capped with snow and trimmed with ice giving the impression of giant mushrooms. They had followed the Stony River south to the confluence of the White River and then turned westward following the White River upstream. The White River had a milky appearance from the chalky sediment it carried out of the mountains.
Eventually, they had reached a narrow canyon winding north into the Amaranthine Mountains. The canyon ended in a white escarpment stained red from water that fell from the high plateau. At the top of the white cliff was a high vale with an alpine forest of cedar and fir trees surrounded by towering peaks. The vale would come to be known as Raven’s Rest. A winter storm had forced them to shelter among the firs. The vale was smothered in heavy snows and a bitter cold followed. How long had they stayed there? A week, a season, a year? Maybe longer. One day raven Merlina had seen a glint of green coming from an old tower at the top of a bald peak and flew up to find the window she now found herself seated in.
Merlina’s thoughts returned to the present. The sorcerer was speaking to her.
“Can you understand me?” the sorcerer asked in elvish.
Merlina nodded.
“Welcome, my Lady Raven,” the sorcerer said. “I am called Hemkaraho, and this is my companion Chigatsay.” He gestured towards the oni.
“I am called Lina,” Merlina replied as she assessed her situation. The less they knew about her the better, and she had been called that in the past.
“First of all, let me assure you that we bear you no ill will,” Hemkaraho said. “Chigatsay may look fearsome but he will not harm you. That certainly was an interesting transmutation that was afflicting you. Can you explain how you ended up in such a quandary?”
“I… can’t remember much,” Merlina replied. “I was being held prisoner by a powerful wizard, an elf. He did… bad things to me.” She looked down at the ground blushing. “He cast a spell on me that changed me into a raven. I was able to escape out a window and I joined a group of ravens as I fled. The ravens brought me here.”
“I see, I see. We started seeing ravens in the woods a couple years ago. We have never had ravens stay here so long before, so I became curious when I observed the conspiracy. It was some time before I spotted you. I suspected there was something strange about you and I was able to detect a faint magical aura, so I summoned you to the tower.”
A couple of years, Merlina thought. She had been a raven for a couple of years!
“I thought I saw a gem in the tower,” Merlina said. “I felt like I could not resist it. How did you do that exactly?”
“I apologize for my rather forceful methodology,” Hemkaraho explained. “I was attempting to be expeditious. I planted an idea in your mind of something that you greatly desired. For a raven a gem is typically a suitable lure, so that is what I chose for your raven form.”
“I think I understand. So the gem I saw was just an illusion that enabled you to control me?”
“That is exactly correct. Are you a student of magic, Lina?”
“Oh no, I don’t think I would ever be able to work magic,” Merlina lied, then added weakly. “I am so dreadfully weary. Is there a place where I can rest?” She hung her head down then looked up at the sorcerer with big eyes and batted her eyelashes at him.
“Oh, of course, my dear,” Hemkaraho said, appearing a little flustered. “You must forgive my manners. It must have been quite the ordeal for you. Chigatsay, will you see to it that there is a place for Merlina set up in a room downstairs?”
Chigatsay nodded and motioned towards the door. Merlina tried to walk but she stumbled. She had been a raven so long that she had forgotten how to walk without help from her wings. Chigatsay offered his arm, and she clung to him as he led her out of the room. The doorway was so low that Chigatsay had to bend over nearly double to get through it, even Merlina had to duck.
“This tower was made by dwarves,” Chigatsay explained in a voice that rumbled like thunder. “They use it no longer.”
“Are there still dwarves in these mountains?” Merlina asked as they walked down the spiraling stone stairway.
“Deep underground in dark tunnels. Master visits them sometimes. They bring us trade-things.”
Chigatsay brought Merlina to what appeared to be a storage chamber near the ground floor of the tower. He left and returned a short time later with an armload of furs, rugs, pillows and even a mattress. He offered to help her arrange things so Merlina told him where she wanted things to go and then asked him to leave so she could rest.
Merlina had not used magic in all the time she spent as a raven, and she was not sure she would be able to use it. She tried a simple cleaning spell. She closed her eyes, spread out her arms and twirled in the middle of the room. She felt the familiar rush of power as the magic flowed through her body. A whirlwind formed in the room sweeping up all the dust, debris and spider webs and blew them out of the window. She had not used that spell since she was in the village, before the blight. When Chigatsay came back to check on her, Merlina had made a nest out of the mattress and pillows. She was using the fur as a blanket and the room was lit by the orange glow of a crackling fire.
The next day, Merlina woke to the sun peaking through the shutters of the window in her room. She found some porridge left for her breakfast, a black silk robe trimmed with silver and some slippers for her to wear. Summer had come and the snows covering the alpine valley had melted away to form icy streams. The streams swelled until they reached the distant escarpment forming a great waterfall as they tumbled over it. The rumble of it could be heard faintly. The valley had become a lush green meadow with swatches of yellow buttercups, white snowdrops, blue phlox and red paintbrush bursting into bloom. The sky was a brilliant blue brushed with feathery clouds.
Merlina found Chigatsay already engaged in morning exercise in the meadow. She was surprised at his agility given his size. He wielded a huge, brass, spear-like weapon tipped with a wide blade made of polished jade, a glaive. He moved as if he were in combat against invisible enemies. As he whirled the glaive through the air, it made a whistling sound. He planted his feet in a wide stance before making a series of thrusts, high, low, high again, block, thrust. He leaped into the air with his legs kicking above his head and landed with the glaive ready to thrust again, then spinning it in a wide arc with his right hand as he blocked with his left forearm. As he completed the turn, he glimpsed Merlina watching him, missed his footing and fell sprawling to the ground. He blushed purple before he gathered himself together to kip-up and land on his feet again. Merlina clapped as Chigatsay bowed low before her, his body glistening with sweat.
“I have never seen anyone fight like that before,” Merlina said admiringly.
“It is an art passed down from my ancestors,” Chigatsay rumbled.
“I never thought of fighting as an art before. Can you teach others to do it?”
“Do you wish to learn, Lina?”
“No, not me, but I imagine having an army trained in that way would be a formidable force.”
“Yes,” Chigatsay said, seeming to remember something troubling from his past. “Terribly powerful.”
Merlina looked out over the beautiful mountain landscape and noticed a ridge of mountains to the north like sharp spikes with sheer sides stained a dark red color. They seemed devoid of life.
“What are those mountains over there called?” Merlina asked as she pointed them out.
“Those are the Fang Tooth Mountains. They are a land filled with dangerous beasts, poisonous waters, and treacherous terrain.”
“Have you been there?”
“Yes, that is where I hunt the striped beasts for these furs,” Chigatsay said, indicating the orange and black striped fur he was wearing.
In the afternoon Merlina found herself alone. Chigatsay was doing some chores so she went outside. As soon as the leader of the ravens saw Merlina outside by herself, he flew down to meet her. He was called Kata-karkar and he could understand and speak a little elvish, perhaps a result of having lived among the magical stones so long. He was very old and was larger than the other ravens.
“I see you are no longer raven-form,” Kata-karkar croaked.
Merlina explained how the sorcerer had lured her to the tower and transformed her.
“You and the other ravens are my most loyal friends,” Merlina said. “Ask the ravens if they will serve me. I have a gift I wish to bestow upon those who will,” she explained what she intended and Kata-karkar nodded.
“What would you have us do until then?” he asked.
“Scout out the strange mountains to the north. I wish to know what type of creatures live there.”
“Is there anything more?”
“Yes, keep a lookout for elves or anything else that may enter this valley and alert me right away if your scouts see anything.”
“We serve you,” Kata-karkar replied and bowed his head to her before flying away.
Hemkaraho spent all day in his room until supper time. Merlina saw Chigatsay bring a steaming drink of some sort into his room and shortly afterwards, Hemkaraho emerged to join them for the supper Chigatsay had prepared. The meal consisted of seared seasoned meat, baked roots and onions cooked on iron skewers and served on flatbread. There was also a fermented drink flavored with berries from the juniper trees. The flavor reminded Merlina of pine pitch.
“Have you ever wondered about the cosmos, Merlina?” Hemkaraho asked when they had nearly finished eating.
“Cosmos? You mean the night sky? I know the four moons move across the sky, waxing and waning, and the stars change slowly over time depending on the season.”
“Very good, Merlina. I spend most of my time studying the moons. I wonder if you would like to join me sometime?”
“I would like that. Can we do it tonight?”
“It would be my pleasure.”
The sun had set and Merlina joined Hemkaraho at the top of the tower where there was a special room constructed with a domed roof. Hemkaraho removed part of the roof so that it was open to the sky. The night sky was brilliant this high in the mountains and three of the four moons were visible. The stars looked like jewels strewn across the dome of the heavens.
“We are in luck,” Hemkaraho said enthusiastically. “Silver Argimon is nearly full tonight, over there is Seumon, that pink crescent to the north, and huge Irimon is over on the eastern horizon. Rumon will not be making an appearance tonight.”
Hemkaraho had constructed a variety of devices to aid in viewing the cosmos which he now brought to bear on the moon Argimon. He chanted a spell and the mechanism seemed to come alive and pulse with energy. Light streamed through it, reflecting off surfaces and pooling onto a silver disk holding a liquid metal.
“Look here,” he said, “and tell me what you see.”
Merlina looked at the disk while Hemkaraho made some adjustments to some wheels and suddenly, an image appeared. Merlina could see mountains and valleys as if being viewed from a great height. They seemed to be covered in ice and snow and great rivers of ice were snaking out of the mountains across the valleys. Hemkaraho moved to a different location and she could see a smooth surface with cracks in it that looked like a frozen sea.
“I see mountains,” she said, “and a frozen sea. What does it mean?”
“That is the surface of Argimon,” Hemkaraho said excitedly. “The moons are not just orbs that travel across the sky. They are worlds like our own world. Argimon is made of frozen oceans and mountains of ice and stone. I have made many such observations. Seumon is covered in shallow seas and is inhabited by strange beings of pure intellect. Rumon is a hell of burning lava, the abyssal realm, a land of demons. Great Irimon is a giant world made of nothing but vapors and clouds, a world of continuous storms. Soon I believe I will be able to visit them.”
“How do you intend to do that?” Merlina asked. “Have you built a ship that can sail across the heavens?”
“Nothing quite so complex. I believe I have discovered a ritual, which when done properly, and with the appropriate sacrifice, will open a passageway to the other worlds, a portal if you may. The ritual must be completed when the moon is full.”
“What do you mean by sacrifice?”
“Each moon requires an appropriate sacrifice to reach it. Argimon is a land of ice and stone so I will need to sacrifice a gem, a diamond. The larger it is, the stronger the connection will be.”
“What are the sacrifices to open the other portals?”
“Seumon would require a pearl, since it is a world of water, Irimon incense.”
“What about Rumon?” Merlina asked, trying to hide her zeal.
“Hmm, the land of shadow, that would be difficult. I think a powerful magical creature would do it… but who would want to open a portal to a world of demons?”
Who indeed? thought Merlina, but she did not say anything.
Every day, the same pattern followed. Chigatsay and Merlina were up during the day with Chigatsay doing his exercises and chores, and Merlina visiting her ravens while the sorcerer slept. In the evening Chigatsay would bring a drink to Hemkaraho before he emerged for dinner. After dining, the sorcerer would ascend the tower to spend all night studying the sky, finally retiring in the morning.
Merlina began to wonder about the drink Chigatsay brought to Hemkaraho every evening. She cast a spell to make herself invisible and followed Chigatsay into Hemakaraho’s room. She was shocked to see an old man lying in the bed. He appeared more like a skeleton than a man, his wrinkled skin was covered in light blotches and hung from his bones, his joints were knotted, and his eyes were cloudy. Chigatsay helped him drink the potion and his vitality returned, his flesh filled out, his skin tightened and returned to its smooth dark brown color, his joints smoothed and shrank, and his eyes cleared. Merlina realized the drink must be some type of youth potion and she began to wonder just how old the sorcerer really was.
Merlina wanted to discover how the potion was made, so the next day she convinced Chigatsay to let her prepare the potion. He agreed reluctantly and helped her to make sure she made it correctly. She could identify all of the ingredients except one. It was kept in a porcelain jar with strange symbols on it.
“Let me bring it to him,” Merlina said.
Chigatsay hesitated but Merlina insisted. She entered the room and kneeled next to the bed holding the steaming draft. She had to help him drink it because his bony hands were curled like claws. He began to sip it gradually at first then more vigorously as his strength grew. When he had finished, his form returned to that of a young man in his prime. He was surprised and embarrassed to see Merlina kneeling at his bedside.
“Where is Chigatsay?” he asked.
“I asked to take his place tonight. I hope you don’t mind.”
“I wish you hadn’t seen me like that. An old man doesn’t like to reveal himself to a beautiful young woman. Do I disgust you now?”
“Not at all. I find you all the more fascinating, besides I was feeling lonely and wanted company.”
“Why not talk to Chigatsay or just wait until I get up?”
“I suppose I wanted… a different kind of company,” Merlina said as she gave him a sultry look and let her silk gown open a little to reveal her bosom.
“Oh, I think I understand.”
“You are so beautiful,” Merlina said, as she sat down on the bed and began to stroke his face. “May I kiss you?”
“Are you sure you want to do that?”
In answer, Merlina pressed her lips against his. She had never kissed anyone before. For Hemkaraho it had been a long time. She withdrew but the passion rose in him, and he kissed her again this time grinding his mouth against hers. He put his hand on the back of her head and ran his fingers through her long black hair. She opened her robe to expose her naked breasts and gently touched her body. Merlina began to feel a tingling ache in her loins as he gently stroked her chest. She had touched herself before but having another person touching her was so much more exciting.
“Is it alright if I touch you?” Merlina asked. “Down there.” She indicated his groin. She could see that under the sheet the lump between his legs already seemed to be growing.
“Do you really want this?” he asked her.
She reached below the sheet and touched his cock as he let out a soft moan. It was not quite what she had expected. It was soft and yet hard, smooth but bumpy, warm and alive. She could feel it throbbing in her hand. As she held it in her hand it began to grow. She began to gently stroke it and squeeze it until it had grown large and stiff. He seemed to grow especially excited when she ran her palm over the tip of it, and soon she felt a sticky moistness there. She could feel a moistness between her own legs as well, so she felt she was ready for him. Merlina discarded her robe to the floor and held his manhood in her hand as she straddled him and slowly lowered herself onto it. A look of pain crossed her face and she let out a small cry as his cock broke open her maidenhead. Hemkaraho looked a little concerned and reached down to feel the base of his shaft. When he brought his hand up to look at it there was blood on it.
“I’m sorry,” he said with a look of concern. “I didn’t know you were a virgin.”
“I no longer am,” she replied with a grin.
She had masturbated before but this felt much different. A little more uncomfortable at first but a deeper, more satisfying feeling as his cock massaged the inner walls of her cunt. She began slowly rocking back and forth on him and gradually increased the pace and depth until he was fully penetrating her, and her nethers were grinding against his.
Now his passion grew hotter and he wrapped his arms around her back and put his hands on her rump and pulled her down onto him as he raised his hips and began thrusting up into her. Her breasts were swaying and jiggling in front of his face and he began sucking and licking on her nipples as he continued to pound into her. Merlina put a finger into her mouth, moistened it with saliva and began rubbing her nub with it. She felt pleasure building within her until it swept over her like a tempest and she cried out as she gripped him with her knees and clung to his shoulders with her arms. Hemkaraho continued to pump into her and after a few more thrusts he emitted a series of grunts as his body tensed and he deposited his seed deep inside of her. He collapsed onto the bed and Merlina lay on top of him.
Merlina looked up and saw the door was open a little. Chigatsay was standing there watching them. Perhaps he heard the sound and came to check on his master. Merlina looked into his eyes and smiled then turned back to Hemkaraho and kissed him on the lips.
“Thank you, my husband,” she said. Hemkaraho had a concerned look on his face, but he did not say anything.
Merlina prepared the potion every day after, took it to Hemkaraho and afterwards she took him.
“Husband, I have been wondering about the spell you used to control me on that first day,” Merlina said to Hemkaraho one day before they left the room for dinner. “Could it be used on a person?”
“I suppose it could,” he said. “It would be more complex to apply it to anything with a higher level of cognition, but it seems like the same principles be involved.”
“I want you to try it on me.”
“To control you? Whatever would you want me to do that for?”
“I have never been able to dance. Could you use the spell to make me dance?”
Hemkaraho seemed to recall a fond memory from his past. “If you really want me to, I suppose I could try it,” he said.
“I do,” Merlina answered.
Merlina paid close attention as Hemkaraho cast the spell, so she would be able to remember it afterwards.
Merlina felt as if she were in a dream. She was in a grand ballroom lit by glittering chandeliers. A tall handsome young man stood before her, bowed and took her hand. He put one arm around her waist and took her other hand in his. At first, Merlina’s steps were clumsy and awkward but soon they became more graceful. Under the man’s gentle direction she was soon able to move around the hall, she learned to turn as she danced, and by the end, her feet were as nimble as a deer as she pranced around the room. She opened her eyes to find herself dancing around the stone room of the tower by herself as Hemkaraho watched. She thought about it and felt certain she would be able to cast the spell by herself.
“How was that?” Hemkaraho asked.
“That was wonderful,” she replied and she threw her arms around him and kissed him.
It was a few days later that Hemkaraho asked Merlina to join him again in his laboratory at the top of the tower. He seemed to be very excited as if he had finally made a great breakthrough. Hemkaraho stood over a bronze basin as he chanted the spell of the ritual in a strange arcane language. Argimon was hanging in the sky like a brilliant silver beacon. Merlina was observing from the shadows taking careful mental notes of the process, her silhouette traced in silver lines. Hemkaraho placed a diamond he had obtained from the dwarves into the vessel, and as he chanted the final words of the spell it shattered into a fine powder. The powder formed a cloud above the basin and then it opened onto a rocky winter scene. Some large beasts covered in white fur could be seen shuffling in the distance.
Suddenly, the air of the room began blowing into the portal and Merlina felt her ears pop. Everything in the room was being drawn into it as if a cyclone were carrying them away. Hemkaraho was able to grab onto a heavy stone table, but Merlina found herself tumbling through the air. Chigatsay reached out and grabbed her arm just in time. He braced his feet on the stone floor of the tower and pulled Merlina into his arms. Merlina wrapped her arms around him and clung to him. Then the portal closed and the wind stopped. Hemkaraho was ecstatic. He had succeeded in creating the portal. His theory proved correct.
“What in the world happened?” Merlina asked angrily.
“It seems I forgot to consider a difference in air pressure. Argimon must be a world with less air than ours, and so when I made the connection, the air from our world began flowing into the other.”
A few days later, Merlina found Hemkaraho and Chigatsay preparing for a trip.
“I am going to pay a visit to the gray dwarves,” Hemkaraho said. “There are some supplies I need, and Chigatsay will have to accompany me. I hope you don’t mind fending for yourself for a couple of days, Lina?”
“I’ll be alright,” she assured him.
Chigatsay was loaded with a heavy pack and he followed Hemkaraho down the spiral stairs of the tower. It turns out the stairway did not stop at the base of the tower but continued downward into the dwarven kingdom. The trip would take two to three days for them to travel there and back again.
The day after they left Merlina was outside visiting Kata-karkar. He brought Merlina stories about the creatures that lived in the Fang Tooth mountains. Striped cats as large as horses with teeth like daggers, scorpions that disappeared from one place only to reappear ready to sting from another, swarms of beetles that would strip the flesh from anything that crossed their path, and venomous vipers with long spikes along their backs. They noticed the ravens raising a ruckus as they attacked some other bird. It was not unusual for them to harass a hawk or some other predatory bird to drive it out of the area.
“What have they found?” Merlina asked Kata-karkar.
“It is an owl.”
“I want to see it,” Merlina said as she felt a sudden sense of foreboding. “Lead me to it.”
When Merlina arrived she could see a large owl perched in a tree as the ravens continued to harass it. Merlina thought she saw something attached to its leg. She picked up a pine cone from the ground and made the owl think it was a tasty mouse she held in her hand. This was her first chance to practice the art of mental manipulation she had learned from the sorcerer. The owl flew down to her and when it got close enough she grabbed it, pressing its wings against its body. There was a piece of parchment attached to its leg. Merlina immediately felt a chill run through her body when she saw it. She grabbed the parchment from the owl as it struggled free and flew away.
Merlina opened the parchment and read the following message.
Salutations Hemkaraho,
It was a pleasant surprise to receive your message. I was not sure if you still existed.
I believe the person you have rescued is a half-elf known as Merlina. She was transformed into a raven during an accident a couple of years ago. We have been searching for her ever since. She has a fragile personality and she may become violent if threatened. We suspect that she was responsible for a blight that destroyed her village and killed the villagers.
We will be sending a patrol of rangers to Barakundi. They should arrive by the time Rumon is full.
Your old friend,
Giledda
High Mage of the Arcane Enclave
Merlina stumbled and felt almost as if she were going to black out as her stomach seemed to fall to the ground. Barakundi meant the dwarf tower. Giledda was the Old Mage. They had found her. Hemkaraho must have sent them a message. He had betrayed her. They were coming and she had no time to waste.
