The Second Prophecy (Part 1 of the Dragdani Prophecies) (47 page)

Demala lay
there as if hurt. Ulicoth laughed at him, turned and headed in the
direction that Peter had taken.
I’ll kill that thing after I get my prize,
he told himself.

As soon as
Demala was sure that Ulicoth had left him, he got up and started at
a trot, watching the Dark Lord as he went and picking up speed as
he followed him.

Ulicoth
saw Peter dragging Braten
into the mist and Kilamen standing with their followers, who were
less than willing to enter after them.

“
COME ON!”
yelled Kilamen.

“
NO, DON’T
FOLLOW! WE MUST GET BACK, AS WE HAVE A LOT TO DO!” shouted
Ulicoth.

“
Give me a
few of them and I’ll get them,” she said when Ulicoth got
closer.

“
No, I need
all of them and you know it,” said the Dark Lord. “Besides, you
don’t know where you’ll end up, and the last thing I want is my
best solider sent out to the arsehole of nowhere, where it’ll take
them five days to recover the ability to Phaze.”

“
The
n I’ll retrieve them myself,”
she said forcefully.

“
After what
happened last time?” said Ulicoth. “No, you underestimated him, as
did I the first time I met him. He’s too powerful, confident, and a
little too arrogant. We need to crush his hopes first. That’ll
weaken him, and then we’ll crush him, and I know exactly how to do
it. Besides, there’s a Wolf to skin just across the way, and I
doubt you, above all others, would hate to miss that.”

“Indeed,” said Kilamen delightedly, as a warm
feeling crept its way through her.

But Demala
had seen his chance by this time. Kilamen saw him first.
“Cripplize.” She shot the spell at him as he jumped high into the
air just dodging it and landed with a snap of his jaws on Kilamen’s
neck. However, this time he did not stop. Instead, he ran straight
into the fog.

Kilamen, full
of fury, made to follow.

“
I said no,”
said Ulicoth. “We’ll get them.”

“
You’re
making a mistake. If I were in your place, I would send all of my
people after them,” said Kilamen.

“
You had your
chance to be in charge, and you chose to go off travelling around,
so don’t tell me what you would do, for if not for me, your
father’s legacy would have turned to dust long ago. Now do as I say
or go off on your own again; it’s your choice,” said Ulicoth
angrily.

Kilamen
decided to wait as Ulicoth had said, and they all left without any
further words.

Demala, on
the other hand, found his way to the end of the tunnel of mist.
When he exited, he was glad to see that he hadn’t waited too long
and ended up in a different place than his charge. As his eyes fell
upon the two boys, Braten lay sprawled out on the road, and Peter
stood over him.

“
Your name is
Drago, right?” the large Wolf said to Peter.

Peter was
startled and grabbed the hilt of the sword he had picked up in the
cottage.

“
What are
you? Did they send you after us?” Peter asked the Wolf in
return.

“
If I were an
agent of your enemies’, do you think I would have alerted you to my
presence?”

There was a
short pause as Peter contemplated what the Wolf was
saying.

“
Remember, if
not for me, you and your friend would be the guests of the Dark
Lands and their master. I saved you, did I not?” said
Demala.

“
Okay, you
did fight - wait a minute, I’m talking to a dog,” Peter
said.

“
I’m not a
dog; I am a Wolf. My name is Demala. The reason that you can talk
my language is because you are what some people call Anilang. Don’t
ask me to explain, for we have no time. We must go now.”

“
What about
my friend?”

“
I’m sorry,
but there’s nothing we can do for him here. At the Wiz-Wit cities
perhaps they could do something, but he’ll be dead long before we
reach there.”

“
I don’t know
what to do,” said Peter looking down at the young
Wizard.

“
It depends
what you think is more important,” said the Wolf.

“
What does
that mean?”

“
It means
that either you can stay and wait for him to die and risk the Dark
Wizards finding us, or you can put your friend out of his misery
and we can head on our way to your city to save the world from the
greatest evil since Salith himself.

“
I can’t kill
him,” said Peter shaking his head. The Wolf’s harsh words stunned
him beyond believe.

“
Think of
what is happening to him. He’s in pain, and I don’t mean anything
mild. Do you want him to die a slow excruciating death or a quick
painless one? Or better yet, what do you think your friend would
want?”

“
I think he
would want to live,” said Peter, who could hardly believe what was
happening. “But I think you’re right, a quick death would be
better, but I can’t do it. Call me weak if you want, I don’t care,
but I just can’t.” Tears rolled down his cheek as he turned to face
the Wolf.

“
It’s all
right. I can do it if you want,” he said.

Peter nodded.
“Let me say goodbye,” he said. “What am I going to tell his
parents? How can I explain this? I tried to heal him, but it
wouldn’t work.”

“
It was the
mist. It neutralizes all magical abilities for a time,” said
Demala. “It’s well known for it.”

“
That damn
mist,” said Peter still weeping.

“
Don’t forget
that damn mist saved you from a fate worse than death.”

“
How long
does it take for the affects of the mist too wear off?” the boy
asked at length.

“
I don’t
know, exactly, but if I were to guess, I would say that it would be
no later than two hours for you,” replied the Wolf
hastily.

“
In that
case, we’ll wait a short time,” said Peter, hope springing into his
mind. “I might be able to heal him when my powers come
back.”

“
But you
would not only need to know the curse used, you would also need to
know who used it, and you would need to know how to dispel the
curse itself. So unless you know all of that, I’m afraid your
friend will die. It’s up to you how that happens,” lied Demala,
hoping that the boy would hurry. He had nothing against Braten;
it’s just that he needed to get Peter to safety. “But I was sent
here to bring you to Cayer-Huld as soon as possible, to get you out
of harm’s way. And you have to ask yourself how many other
innocents will die if you die or are captured.”

“
How could
getting caught be worse than dying? Because if you’re caught, at
least you could escape,” said Peter. “Speaking of them catching us,
how did they find us in the first place? And then there’s this
weird sword.” He took the sword in his hand and held it up for the
Wolf to see.

“
It is known
as the Sword of Light by most. The Wizards, Witches, and Elves call
it Yeluilat, the sword of the true King of the land of Opredanas.
In other words, it’s yours.”

“
It’s mine,”
Peter repeated, looking at the beautiful light on its blade that
spelled out its name. “And you’re perfectly sure it’s
mine?”

The Wolf
nodded. “That’s right. It belonged to your father, and before that,
it belonged to King Dragdani.”

“
Good, then I
can change the name,” said Peter opening his wooden chest, which
had followed them through the mist.

“
I think
you’d better wait to get advice on that before you do
anything.”

“
Where did
this come from?” Peter brought the sheath of the sword out of the
chest.

“
It comes
with the sword. What are you waiting for? Put the sword in
it.”

Peter did
this and, as the sword clicked into place, its name that was
encrusted on the sheath with diamonds lit up with a near blinding
light. It was only there for about five seconds, but Peter now knew
the Wolf was right, for e felt as if he had just found a long lost
limb.

“
The
sword has found its rightful
owner again. I can only hope that you weld it longer than your
unfortunate father.”

Peter said nothing.

“
You know we
should go soon.”

“
Yeah,
I know,” said the boy
mournfully. He knelt down beside his friend and put his hand on the
boy’s chest. “All he wanted was to see the city and go to the
Wizard school. I’m so sorry for this. I don’t know what else to
say,” Peter said. The tears dripping down from eyes were getting
thicker. “I’m so sorry you won’t get the chance to be a Wizard. I
only wish you could see the city.” Peter got up and turned away.
“Do it as quickly as you can,” he said to Demala.

“
I don’t have
to,” said the Wolf.

Peter looked
at him. “What are you talking about?” he spun round to see nothing
were Braten once lay. “What happened to him?”

“
Well,
I’m no expert on the
subject, but I think you might have Phazed him to
Cayer-Huld.”

“
But how?”
Peter asked.

“
You did wish
for him to see the city, didn’t you?”

“
So you think
that he’s there now?”

“
It’s a
possibility,” said Demala.

“
Right,” said
Peter, as though thinking deeply. He jumped to the wooden chest and
threw open the lid and started to rummage around in it. It seemed
whatever Peter was looking for didn’t really want to be found, and
he ended up half in, half out, with his legs kicking in the air.
“Come here! Come here, now. Ah, ha! I’ve got you.” He jumped back
out and in his hand was the magical talking map that Euol had given
them.

He unfolded
it. “Can you show me where we are exactly,” he asked it.

As before,
ink showed itself in the shape of a face on the parchment. “Of
course,” replied the map. And Peter saw the ink that formed the
face disassemble and run round the parchment as it mimicked the
landscape precisely. The boy now saw two small triangles depicted
on the map, one blue, and one red.

“
The
blue one is you, my lord, and
the red is that,” said the map, meaning Demala.

“
And my first
companion? Can you show me where he is?”

The ink on
the parchment began to move around again and showed a different
place to the young King. There was a white triangle in what was
marked as a hospital. The name in the top left hand corner of the
map read, Cayer-Huld.

“That is your former companion,” said the
map.

“
You were
right, he’s safe,” Peter said to Demala. He held out his hands and
said. “I wish for Demala and me to go to the Wizard City.” the boy
stood looking like an idiot by not changing his stance.

The Wolf
laughed. “You have no idea of how stupid you look,” he
said.

Peter ignored
his companion’s last comment. “Why didn’t it work?” he
asked.

“
I was told
that to use most spells, you need to know the handle for it first,”
said Demala. “I mean, when you wished for your friend, you were
desperately hoping for him to go to the city, and suddenly he
disappeared, so if you try and remember how you were feeling at the
time, you get the handle for that power.”

“
Okay,
what’s a
handle?”

“
It’s like a
thought or a movement of some kind, like when I see Wizards and
Witches doing spells with wands or talismans, sometimes they wave
them in a specific way. That must be some type of handle for a
spell.”

“
But I don’t
use a wand anymore.”

“
I
know, t
hat’s why I said to remember how
you felt or what you were thinking at the time.

“
I was told
that you were taught magic.”

“
Yeah,
but I never got to that
part,” said Peter.

Well, you’ll
have to perfect it as we move, for we’ve already wasted too much
time here, and we don’t know if they’re still looking for
us.

“
Fine then,
we’ll go,” said Peter agreeing with his new companion. Now he felt
his full strength coming back to him.

“
What
are you doing?
” Demala asked the boy, for
Peter was seemed to be feeling his own backside.

“
Do me
a favo
r, look at my ass and tell me if it
looks okay.”

The Wolf
stood there looking puzzled. “What did you say?” he
asked.

“
Look at my
ass and tell me how it looks.” Peter suddenly realized why the Wolf
looked totally astounded by his words.

“
No, no. I
was shot with a magical arrow on the left cheek, and I can’t feel
anything there now. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad
thing, because I don’t know anything about the stupid thing, you
know,” Peter rambled.