The Sphere (The Magi Series #2) (2 page)

Chapter 1:

THE COVENANT VERSE

Inside a small cottage resting at the edge of the Savenridge
woods, just before the trees become really thick, preparations were being made
for a farewell gathering.  Miranda Roddick, a tall woman in her thirties with
long brown hair and olive skin, was busy getting ready for the arrival of a few
guests coming to say goodbye to her husband.

It was mid-August, which in the quaint, hidden city of
Savenridge, meant two very important things.  The beginning of the fall term
was about to begin for the students at the training barracks.  And the Magi
teachers who taught at Saint Phillip’s Academy, a distant boarding school for
orphans, would soon be departing the city to teach for the fall term.  The
academy was more than a day’s journey from Savenridge by foot, so before each
term, it was usually customary for the families of the teachers, like the
Roddicks, to host gatherings at their houses to say goodbye to their loved
ones.

While Mrs. Roddick tirelessly worked inside the house
seasoning the roast, arranging the house, and cleaning unwanted messes on the
furniture and floors, a fourteen-year-old boy named Elijah Hawk sat outside,
under a group of larch trees, and stared off into the distance.

It had been raining for more than a week, and this day was
no exception.  Sheets of water rhythmically pelted the land of Savenridge, and
as Elijah continued staring, he felt the solitary peace that a hard rain tends
to bring on an otherwise busy day.  The summer wildlife had all but vanished. 
The usual sounds of birds and insects gave way to the roar of water continuing
to unleash itself onto the soggy hills and forests.  To anyone forced to be
outside in such conditions, the weather would be quite miserable.  But apart from
being wet, Elijah was happy.  He was doing exactly what he wanted to be doing.

Nothing.

Of course, he wasn’t supposed to be doing nothing.  Elijah
had many chores to do, including one very big chore he was specifically told
had to be done by the end of the day.  A large, brown awning needed to be
assembled for Master Roddick’s farewell gathering so the guests would stay dry,
and Elijah was told to put up the stakes for the awning.  But no stakes were
up.

Just about the time Elijah was really getting good at doing
nothing, Mrs. Roddick stepped off of the back porch and pulled the hood of her
green cloak over her head so it shielded the falling water from her face.

“Elijah Hawk,” she said in a rather irritable voice, “you
can’t be serious!”

Elijah continued to gaze apathetically out into the
seemingly endless forests beyond the Roddick house.

“What?” he responded in his best attempt to sound like he
had no idea what she was talking about.

Unfortunately for Elijah, Miranda Roddick was no rookie. 
She had two kids of her own, and even though Elijah was not technically her
son, she treated him like one, so she knew better than to fall for his playing
innocent game.

“You know exactly what,” she said in a calm but stern
voice.  “The guests will be here tomorrow, and Arthur will be here tonight! 
The rain is coming down hard, so if you don’t get those posts in so Glen can
put up the awning in the morning, I’ll have to come out here and mop everyone
up with a towel!  What have you been spending your time doing out here anyway?”

“I’m working on how to get started working,” Elijah said,
thinking his cute remark would be endearing.

It wasn’t.  Mrs. Roddick glared back at Elijah, letting the
squint in her eyes do the talking.  It was enough.  “And now I’m done,” he
said, quickly getting up and dusting off his rear, which was now soaked from
sitting in the rain.  Mrs. Roddick did her best not to crack a smile, but it
was too late.  Elijah noticed the slightest twitch at the corner of her mouth. 
She walked back into the house shaking her head and grinning ear to ear.

Even though Mrs. Roddick smiled, her annoyance was the
motivation Elijah needed to get to work.  He wouldn’t dare make her angry on
purpose, which was sure to happen if he didn’t start working soon.  He grabbed
the posts Master Roddick set out and began trying to secure them to the ground.

For the summer months, Elijah stayed with the Roddicks. 
They lived in a small house with only a couple bedrooms and a loft for their
two girls.  Elijah was given his own room at the Roddicks’ house, but during
most of the year, he lived at the training barracks, as do all the teenagers of
Savenridge.

The training barracks was an enormous oval building at the
far edge of the city, west of the Savenridge River and nestled inside the
mountains.  It had many floors and one giant training arena.  For the past
seven months, Elijah had become used to the routine of living in Savenridge,
but it wasn’t always like this.  In fact, it wasn’t long ago that Elijah didn’t
even know that Savenridge existed.  He lived a very simple life with a family
he thought was very ordinary.  However, he soon found out he was mistaken.

On one horrible night, almost a year ago to the day, in a
house miles from Savenridge, Elijah’s parents and sister were horrifically
murdered, leaving him with no place to live.  So he was sent to live at Saint
Phillip’s Academy.  Being forced to live in a cruel boarding school like Saint
Phillip’s would have been bad enough for any teenage boy, but for Elijah, that
was just the beginning.  The school atmosphere was intense and run by a
sadistic chancellor who got his kicks by punishing students with a device he
invented called a Thorn Stick—a long piece of wood with several nails sticking
out of it.  Unfortunately for Elijah, he couldn’t say he had never been
punished by it.

It was at the academy that Elijah met Master Roddick.  It
didn’t take long before he sensed that Roddick was different than the other
teachers at the academy.  His long, shaggy hair wasn’t the only thing that
separated him from the other adults.  He was also kind and encouraging.  He
cared for Elijah, and they quickly developed a close relationship.  Elijah
remembered the day, just like it was yesterday, when Roddick told him about
Savenridge and the Magi, and offered to take him away from the academy to teach
him to do incredible things—things he didn’t even know were possible.

Elijah learned about the history and philosophy of the Magi
when he was sent to train at the barracks for the remainder of the year, but
what fascinated Elijah most of all about the Magi was their ability to control
the four natural elements:  fire, water, wind, and earth.  Elijah had witnessed
some powerful thunderstorms and earthquakes before he came to live in
Savenridge, but when he first witnessed the power that came from the elements
being controlled by a human, it was unlike anything he ever imagined!

Still, not all of his memories of the past year were
wonderful.  In fact, some were downright terrifying.  Elijah soon learned about
the Maliphists, an evil group of people who were just as powerful as the Magi,
and were willing to do just about anything to show their power.  It wasn’t
until he learned that the Maliphists killed his parents, however, that he
realized how terrifyingly powerful they were.  It gave him a little extra
motivation to train hard throughout the year so he could protect himself and
those he loved from harm.  Even now, his hatred of the Maliphists continued to
burn inside him like a wound refusing to heal, and his vow to find out what
exactly happened to his parents was always at the back of his mind.

The rain continued to pour on Elijah as he fumbled with the
stakes for the awning.  He was becoming quite frustrated with his lack of
progress.  Each time he thought he had stabilized one stake, a gust of wind or
the shift in weight from the heavy rain caused it to fall.  It took until
nearly nightfall for him to finally have everything ready for Master Roddick to
raise the awning.  He slipped and fell many times trying to complete his chore,
which left him soaked from head to toe by the time he finished.

Elijah walked inside the house, dripping wet and completely
exhausted.  He had worked up a huge appetite, so he was glad Mrs. Roddick had
baked one of his favorite meals for dinner:  caribou pot pie.

“All finished!” Elijah called from the back door.  He
carefully wiped his feet on the mat.

“Oh good,” said Mrs. Roddick from the kitchen.  She appeared
in the front room and looked at Elijah.  “I was going to ask you to go get
washed up, but that seems pointless now, doesn’t it?”

“Sorry,” said Elijah.  “I’ll wipe it up once I get
changed.”  Just then, a small finger enthusiastically poked at Elijah’s leg.

“Guess what?” said a small brunette named Lizzy, who looked
like the spitting image of a four-year-old Mrs. Roddick.

“What’s that?” asked Elijah.

“I have a new favorite number!”

“Is that so?”

“Yes,” she replied confidently.  “Fourteen is my new
favorite number.”

“And why is that?” Elijah asked.

“Because that’s how many times you fell down out there,”
Lizzy answered.  And then she ran off, giggling the whole way into her room.

Shortly after dinner, Master Roddick arrived at the house
with an old man named Arthur.  Arthur was a historian for the Magi.  He had a
white beard and white patchy hair around the side of his head and none on the
top.  Elijah met Arthur last year when he spent an afternoon listening to him
talk about the history of the Magi.  Roddick took Arthur’s overcloak, hung it
by the fire to dry, and offered him the closest seat next to the fire.  Arthur
obliged and limped his way over to the chair.

“Well hello there, young man,” Arthur said, letting out a
sigh.  “My, my, you’ve changed a bit since I last saw you.”

“The barracks’ll do that,” Master Roddick said, handing
Arthur a steaming glass of cider.  “I remember after my first year not being
able to recognize myself when I came home.  They certainly know how to make a
man out of you!”  Roddick slapped Elijah across the back.

“I think you’ve gotten a little taller too, if I’m not
mistaken,” Arthur said.  “And the summer sun, however little we get of it in
these parts, has left its mark on your hair.  But I don’t think we can blame
that on the barracks.”

Elijah smiled politely as he brushed back his light brown,
almost blonde hair, which he had let grow during the summer, out of his eyes. 
He was happy with how much he had grown this summer.  Last year, he felt like a
little kid, especially compared to the other young men he trained with who were
broad and thick from the extra term of strength training.  Elijah began his
training scrawny, but with the amount of exercises he had to do at the
barracks, he began to fill out.  Add to that another year of growing up, and
Elijah was no longer a scrawny little boy.

“Speaking of working like a man,” Roddick continued.  “Did
you get those posts up for me?”

“I just finished,” Elijah said.  “I hope it holds up because
I had a hard time with the rain.”

“Yeah,” said Mrs. Roddick appearing from the kitchen.  “He
sure worked hard on that all day, didn’t you, Elijah?”

Elijah blushed.

“It should be fine,” Master Roddick chuckled.  “You can help
me get the ground dry for everyone first thing tomorrow.  Why don’t you help
Arthur get settled in your room, Elijah?  You can sleep out here tonight.”

“Sure,” Elijah said.  “It’s just back here.”  Arthur
followed him into the room and Elijah gathered extra blankets and changed the
sheets.

As Elijah worked to get his room ready, he felt an overwhelming
sense of sadness.  It wasn’t more than a couple of weeks ago that he shared his
room with his uncle.  The small house was a bit tight with an extra person, but
his uncle had a way of keeping everyone on their toes.  Elijah’s favorite of
his uncle’s surprises usually happened in the kitchen.  Uncle Stan liked to
cook, a talent he apparently acquired just recently because Elijah remembered
his uncle being completely clueless in the kitchen when he stayed with him last
year.  Uncle Stan also liked to get creative.  One time, he put marshmallows
inside a chocolate cake shaped like a volcano and somehow made the marshmallows
explode out of the cake when it was cut with a fork.  Lizzy and Tirzah, the two
Roddick girls, squealed when it happened and made Elijah give up his own piece
so they could practice cutting it the perfect way to make the marshmallows
erupt into a bigger mess.  Mrs. Roddick was not as amused.  It took the entire
family over an hour to clean up the mess.  Mrs. Roddick made Uncle Stan do the
dishes afterwards.

Even though the Roddicks were wonderful, Elijah felt a deep
sense of loneliness when his uncle left.  Uncle Stan was a foreign marshal for
the Magi, which meant that he worked to stop the terror of the Maliphists
outside the Magi cities.  Last year, Stan was caught by the Maliphists during a
raid and held in their prison.  Had it not been for the courage and wit of
Elijah and his friends, Uncle Stan may have easily been put to death.

Elijah had known his uncle would leave, even as soon as he
arrived.  Uncle Stan was not someone who could settle down.  He needed the
constant adventure of hunting Maliphists and not being tied down to one place. 
So he left.  Elijah still felt sad, especially when he was reminded of him at
times such as showing Arthur his empty room.

Early the next morning, Master Roddick woke Elijah to help
him secure the awning for the farewell gathering.  The rain had died down
somewhat, but it still threatened to downpour at any minute, so Master Roddick
and Elijah worked quickly.  Before they knew it, the day had turned into late
afternoon, and guests began to arrive and gathered comfortably under the
awning.

Elijah always thought that looking at a group of Magi
huddled together was like looking at a washed out rainbow.  Each of the adult
Magi wore a faded overcloak in the color of the element they controlled.  Fire
controllers wore red, wind wore ivory, water wore blue, and earth wore green. 
The children and teenagers wore brown, which only meant they hadn’t completed
their training at the barracks and selected an element with which to work. 
Practically everyone wore overcloaks purchased from Auntie Ella’s Garments at
the marketplace.