Oracle (Book I)

The Wizard Merlin

  "Nezzle is patient. Kind, when you think about it." She and Thierry were returning from Nezzle's evening lessons for them, walking along one of the corridors that led to the Main Hall. "She's likely has a ton of things to do herself, but she's still finding the time to teach the two of us."

"That she is." Thierry grimaced. As he walked he was holding his middle like he'd eaten something that hadn't agree with him.

Caprice took his arm and pulled him to a stop.

"Thierry, do you feel sick, too?" As usual, that mysterious and uneasy queasiness from her outing with Po and Nezzle had since grown into a hurling sickness. Again, it had assailed Caprice while they practiced their letters during Nezzle's lesson, but she was proud to say she'd forced it down the entire time this time around. She wouldn't waste Nezzle's time, bloodline curse or no.

His gaze shot to her. "Yea. The whole time we were studying letters. You, too?"

Caprice nodded. "I can't tell whether it's just in my head or not. Its not the first time either. Tried to read something in one of my schoolbooks and tossed up. Embarrassing. But if you feel it, too, then maybe... I wonder if it's a scar from the bloodline curses. Something we can overcome with enough practice. If we keep trying—"

Excitedly, as if he'd just thought of it now, too, Thierry briefly gripped her sleeve and finished, "It might go away." As she nodded hopefully, he added in a morbid and falsely humorous tone, "Or we can suffer through it until we get enough learning to read a countercurse or dispelling."

"Bilberry."

Caprice and Thierry turned at the same time. She was loath to see Alastair Whitehare standing there in the corridor with two pale boys that she didn't recognize.

"I'll be right back, Preece."

She shook her head. "What are you going to do?"

But Thierry was already going over to the boy.

"What is it now?" Caprice heard her brother say.

Alastair replied in a low, congenial voice. Though she didn't hear what he said, Caprice balked at her brother talking to Whitehare at all.

Caprice started towards them in case her brother needed a rescue. She nearly walk into a little boy who appeared in her path. Gasping, she stopped short of trampling him.

"Hallo," said the boy. He had a mop of dark hair and blue eyes, standing no higher than her waist.

"Hallo," Caprice said. "You're young. Even for a student here. What's your name?"

The boy pulled a knobbly branch out of his coat and brandished the thing at her.

"I'm the Wizard Merlin!" he gleefully exclaimed.

Still startled, Caprice gave a shaky smile even though she wanted nothing more than to knock that stick out of her face even if it wasn't a wand.

"Would you happen to be related to Merlin...?" She trailed off realizing that she didn't know what Merlin's last name was. Looking closely, this boy could be his little brother. But what's he doing here? she thought.

"Of course not, girl. Merlin is a powerful wizard of the highest order! I'm just a boy." He looked a little sad then but brightened quickly. "But I have magic just like him now."

The boy looked up at the ceiling. Caprice followed his gaze but saw nothing but molding.

"Is something the matt—"

"I have to go now. Bye!" The boy spun around and ran down the hall, disappearing around the corner.

Thierry finished whatever dubious business he had with Alastair and came back to her side.

"Thought I heard you talking to someone while I was trying to get away."

"He's gone." Shaking her head, she looked away from where the boy had disappeared and turned to her brother. "Why were you talking to him and that lot?"

"Its nothing."

"Nothing?" Caprice repeated suspiciously.

Thierry shrugged. "We take lessons together. Recently he's started giving me the nod. A word or two here and there. Trust me, it gives me the twitch, too."

      Ever since her last dream, Caprice had come to the Central Gardens to practice her reading at the foot of Po's statue. It was just a statue but it made her feel less uneasy to visit anyway since she still hadn't seen the real Po in ages. Sitting in the tranquil splendor of the flourishing garden was also a much welcomed thing.

Having tagged along during luncheon, Bossa was taking a sound nap at the center of the garden circle. Since there was no place to lay down without breaking or smushing a living thing that might bite her back before its demise, she'd cast a spell so as to hover a few inches over the lowest growing flowers and was using her robes as a pillow.

Caprice rose and dusted off the back of her robes. Watching her feet and lifting her skirts, she found the broken stepping stones and made her way over to the sleeping girl hovering over the flowers. Balancing on a stone embedded in a knot of red, blue, and purple hyssop, she leaned over her. Calling her name didn't work so she reached down and shook her.

"Bossa. Wake up."

As she blinked awake, Bossa's eyes shined with an unearthly light. Frowning, Caprice leaned closer. "Bossa, your eyes..." .

She wasn't sure it was like the vampiric light she had seen before. But before she could look more closely, Bossa's eyelashes fluttered and the strange luminescence shining in her eyes faded.

"Sorry...I didn't realize I'd gone so far," Bossa muttered as she gazed at Caprice with unfocused eyes. She sat up, looking around like she wasn't quite sure where she was. With a little shake of her head, she looked at Caprice again, gaze sharp and focused. In a clear voice, she said, "How long have I been asleep?"

"Not long." Dismissing the light as a blood drinker quirk she had never seen before, Caprice said, "Nezzle told me about your Humanities assignment."

Tensing, Bossa folded her legs under her and turned away.

Obviously, she didn't want to talk about it and Caprice didn't want to push, but she said, "Er. The Night Visit? Um, Night Assignment?"

"Kiss Assignment. I don't go skulking around at night, stalking victims and stealing pints," Bossa corrected grumpily.

"I'd like to, um, help. Since Nez mentioned that you haven't done it yet."

Bossa propped herself on her fists and lifted her body around to face Caprice.

"You want to partner with me for my kiss assignment?"

"Yes."

Her mouth turned. "Only because it'll drag down your marks if you don't help me get it done right?"

"No, no. I want to help."

Eagerness gleamed in Bossa's eyes. She momentarily struggled to control her face as the expression bled onto it around her eyes, lips curving wickedly. She demurely pulled her lips down over glistening, lengthened fangs as she spoke.

"But I have to bite you," Bossa mumbled, tilting her head this way and that without quite looking at her. "You're afraid of vampires."

"I figured as much," Caprice smiled awkwardly. We sleep in the same bed. And she's almost bitten me before. Accidentally, albeit. Caprice had been shocked when she found out that Bossa was a blood drinker who possessed the strength to snap her neck and shift the form of her own body. Even so, they were friends. She wasn't going to let her fear come between them. "And I'm not afraid of you. Mostly." She added the last teasingly, poking the girl in the shoulder.

Mouth still turned, Bossa gave her a look.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Caprice said, nodding firmly. What better way to begin conquering her fears than with someone she trusted not to hurt her? If she could get through her literacy lessons without getting sick then why not this with Bossa?

Bossa's look turned long and considering. Suddenly she grinned, eyes drowning in the blood drinker's light. She said, "No take-backsies."