He paced back and forth, his beard pooling to the ground like ink. He stopped before the blazing green fire, holding his hands behind his back. He was a silhouette, long and brittle, with a pointed hat and big ears. He sighed as he turned, and his eyes flashed—green, they had absorbed the colour of the fire.

I pressed myself to the wall with a shiver. The room was circular and small. The furniture—a bed with one tattered blanket, an iron bench and a chamber pot—crowded the room.

“Didn’t we already have this conversation?” His voice was mild. “You asked me last month if there was a chance you’d ever leave this place.”

“And you said ‘maybe.’ You said you would think about it.”

“A month is not enough time to think.”

“But I’d help you!” I grabbed his arm. “Please! I could find somebody to take my place! Somebody more powerful to feed from! I have a knack for tracking others. I used to think that’s why you took me.”

He slapped my hand away. “And what’s my guarantee you wouldn’t run off?”

I looked away. “You’re a wizard. You must be able to...keep my heart in a chest or something, as assurance I’ll return.”

“Of course.” He took my chin between two fingers. “But then I could simply keep you both once you’d come back. Two souls to feed off of would heal all of my ailments.”

“You can’t keep me forever. I’ll die.”

“I have ways of keeping people alive.” He chuckled. “I am, after all, a wizard. Or do you underestimate me, even now?”

“My parents will find you.” I trembled. “And when they do, you’ll be executed. Nobody steals the son of a king and lives!”

“Oh, how naive you are.” The wizard placed his hands on my shoulders. Then he held up a strand of my hair. I’d never been allowed to cut it. How could I, when scissors were considered too dangerous a possession? “It’s funny, actually. Your father isn’t angry at all. In fact, he even knows where you are. He sent you to me to protect your mother.”

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not. Your mother was the third princess of a small kingdom. She had little money, nothing to offer, but she doted on your father. In order to attract him, she needed a grand dowry. When she sought the spirits for an answer, I appeared. I gave her everything she asked for: her own tract of land, complete with farms, servants and a castle; endless gems, silver and gold, and jewellery to fill her treasury; sumptuous food which reappeared on the silverware each night; and astounding beauty with which to bewitch a man.”

I edged towards the wall, shaking my head.

“In return, I asked that she gift me with her first born. Otherwise, I would turn her into a toad and eat her. You were a sickly child, likely to die your father thought. He believed it a fair trade to save his wife. The boy he raises now is his second heir, but the kingdom has been told it’s his first. You do not even exist. Your parents told their kingdom that you were stillborn, and even the servants believed him. So you see, even if I freed you, there is no place for you. Your brother will be king. And you are nothing.”

I trembled. My fingers tingled. My face burned.

“But I have looked after you. I have taught you to make potions, to cook, to clean, to write. In time, you may become a valuable assistant to me. And I could show you the marvels of this world.”

The tingling in my hands faded. “You...would let me out? To see things? To go places?”

“Oh, yes. What good is a prisoner if he cannot help you?”

“But I do help you.” My voice was dark. “Every time you drink from me, you grow younger.”

“And in so doing, I steal your years.” The wizard nodded. He drew his staff from the folds of his robes and studied it. “I have counted the years I took. You will not live past your thirtieth birthday.”

My heart sank. Thirty?

“But I can prolong your life with magic, as I’ve done with others. Any years given by magic are borrowed ones, but then they are infinite too. I could allow you to live until you are two hundred. Five hundred. One thousand. I could make you immortal, if you follow me.”

“And if I leave...” My eyes stung. My hands tingled, hot and shaking.

“You will die at thirty, of course. Without my magic, you’ll live for eleven years and then abruptly die. You may be with your wife, holding your first child, when it happens, and die you will. It would be a heart attack, something the doctors wouldn’t be able to account for. They would shrug and say, ‘It happens,’ and your wife would be left a destitute widow.”

Sweat pooled in my palms.

“So you see, you have no life without me. No future. No kingdom. No family. Nothing!”

I raised my hands.

“But if that’s what you want, I can release you. Go and enjoy your last decade.”

My hands sparked. His eyes widened: the lightning shot from my fingers. It struck him; he slammed into the wall with a grunt, and crumpled. I ran forward.

He sat up, roaring. “I never taught you magic! What is this?”

I smiled. “I taught myself through observation. I listened to you. I repeated your chants. I memorized every word, every gesture. What an idiot you were, to perform all of your spells in front of me.”

“But you have no magic in your blood!” His face was blotchy. “You are nothing!”

With a snap of my fingers, the green fire twisted into a snake. It loomed over the wizard, hissing. Sparks shot from it, bouncing off the stone. It reared up.

“Every year you took from me was replaced with magic. I must have had many years if there are still eleven left. How many? Eighty? One hundred? All of those years forged my power. You gave me the gift.”

“If you kill me, you’ll still be dead in eleven years.”

“No, because I’ll have your books. And eleven years to learn.” I raised my hand. The snake grew taller. “I know where you keep all your secrets, master. And I will use them to prolong my life—without you!”

The snake lunged. The wizard screamed, rolling aside as the snake’s head crashed into the pavement. The wizard leapt to his feet. He snatched up his staff, but I flicked my wrist: the snake’s end wrapped around him. The fire caught at his clothes, his beard, his skin. Smoke rose from him as he shrieked. Trapped in the burning coils, robes blackening, the wizard stared up at the snake. With a hiss, it lunged again. He screamed, and the snake swallowed him. He disappeared within, leaving only the scent of burnt flesh.

I flung my hands through the air. The flame sank, with a throb, and then pooled into the fireplace.

It crackled as it had before, bright and flickering and green, as though nothing had happened.

The only proof something had happened was the ash pile. Kneeling, I pawed through it. My fingers fastened around the key. I ran to the door. For a horrible moment, I feared it would be the wrong one. The doors were enchanted. If he had brought another key, I would be-

The door swung open. The pulse of my heart slowed. I flinched as I ran through the rain. I hadn’t heard it from within, the result of another enchantment. It was too cold, too wet, too dark. I realized how under dressed I was, wearing only a long beige tunic.

I peered at the second tower through the darkness. The same key opened it. It was much larger and filled with books. I took one down, and smiled: Longevity and the Study of Time Magic: The Immortal Magician.

In musty tomes, in the middle of nowhere, my journey had begun.