Legacy: The Mark of Merlin. Gerald Pruett

vague dreams that becomes vaguer over the passing days until the memories are forgotten completely,” Shannon began. “Normally the obscuring incantation is cast on an individual, so obviously it had to be tailored to affect a group or a population.

      “The shadowing incantation gets its name because it is an incantation that casts an invisible blanket over a region of land to affect a large number of people at the same time and it is always combined with another incantation; however, there are very few incantations that will work with the shadowing incantation. The shadowing incantation’s effective range will be at its maximum during the full moon as well, and since our ancestors had wanted the greater number of the population affected, the shadowing-truth spell was cast during a full moon.”

      “So what were the selected memories that were turned into vague dreams?” Ellen asked.

      “Anything associated with wizards and witches were made to be remembered as dreams, and the storytellers of the time had thought that they had dreamt up the perfect storyline for their fictional tales. King Henry the Fifth and his soldier were even affected. In fact, the only ones who weren’t affected were the witches and wizards.”

      “And so King Arthur and Merlin became known as legendary characters,” Ellen added.

      “Exactly,” Shannon confirmed.

      “So what are the other incantations that can be combined with the shadowing spell?” Ellen asked.

      “The famous dragon’s breath incantat…” Shannon was only able to get out.

      “Dragons!” Ellen interrupted with. Shannon gave Ellen a curious look. “Are dragons real?”

      Shannon amusingly grinned before answering, “Again I can’t give you a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ answer, but dragons are rumored to be true. Now to get back to your earlier question, the dragon’s breath incantation is one of the incantations that uses the shadowing spell… there are more, but that is the only one that comes to mind.”

      “Does Harry know any?” Ellen asked Shannon.

      Harris was listening to what was being said and replied, “I don’t.”

      “That answers that,” Ellen retorted with a slight grin.

      “So is there anything else that your inquiring mind would like to know now?” Shannon asked.

      Ellen thought for a second before asking, “What exactly is the dragon’s breath incantation?”

      “I can’t remember where it is within the volume, but the volume that you’re holding talks about it.” Ellen glanced at the volume as Shannon continued with, “It talks about how some people believe that the dragon’s breath incantation is a dragon summoning spell, while others believe that the incantation is a version of the liken incantation that changes a selected group of people into dragons. Even others believe that it does something else entirely.”

      “So no one really knows what the dragon’s breath incantation really does?” Ellen questioned.

      “No,” Shannon agreed. “However, whatever the incantation does, the volume mentions that Merlin and two other wizards prior to Merlin’s time were the only wizards who were able to make the dragon’s breath incantation work.”

      “So how old is the dragon’s breath incantation?”

      “It’s believed to be well over two thousand years old. It was then lost or destroyed at the very beginning of the Wizard Wars.”

      “If no one knows what the dragon’s breath incantation does then how do you know that it uses the shadowing incantation?”

      Shannon grinned before saying, “The shadowing incantation had derived from the dragon’s breath incantation.”

      “Oh, so that’s why the dragon’s breath incantation was the first incantation that you thought of that was associated with the shadowing incantation,” Ellen accused.

      Shannon grinned and nodded before asking, “Is there anything else you would like to know now?”

      Ellen again thought for a second before saying, “I can’t think of any, but I’ll ask if I do.”

      “Mmm, I’m sure you will,” Shannon retorted with an amused grin.

      Ellen slightly raised the volume before saying, “Well, I’ll get back to my reading.”

      When Shannon nodded, Ellen turned her attention back to the Legacy volume.

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