Legacy: The Mark of Merlin. Gerald Pruett

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