Legacy: The Mark of Merlin. Gerald Pruett

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