Under the Shadow of Darkness: Book 1 of the Apprentice Series (8 page)

Muolithnon replied, “Err… I think one more night should send the message to the ghoul-kind. We can do as before. Wait for them to mass upon us and join forces and cast a great big love spell. Maybe even a bigger one this time. I have my jacket out at the washroom. It’s getting cleaned just for the occasion and I have an appointment at the barber. A shave and a haircut… oh, no! I’m late. Darn this eternal night! Never know what time it is! I’m off. Kerlith, heed the master while I’m gone. I won’t be long.” He quickly exited with a wide grin and there was almost a twinkle in his eye.

Bel asked, “Master, shall I have breakfast prepared for you?”

“After that display! No. My stomach is twisting. You two go ahead. I need some time alone to think.”

Bel and Kerlith ate then sat out on the front porch watching the villagers attempting to conduct their daily business by torchlight, them behaving as if the events of last night did not happen, as if they weren’t nearly all slaughtered
. They are a tough people. Resilient,
Bel thought. Their village sat right on the border between the Hinterlands and the Western Forest and they had been right on the dividing line of the war. It was a long war and a long time ago but the name of this village appeared in all the histories. They saw fighting, too much fighting, outside forces invading, retreating and invading again, trying to capture a strategic position without care or concern for the people who lived here.
No, these ghoul attacks must be bringing those memories back like a dam breaking and pouring in a carcass-laden fetid stream of death
, Bel thought.

“I guess life goes on?” Bel said trying to clear his mind.

“I was thinking the same thing, but maybe it’s just because they have no other choice. They can’t run. They can’t hide. I guess the best they can do is pretend it didn’t happen. I mean the alternative would be to run around in the center courtyard here like a babbling, insane person. I mean, like if you really sat down and thought about it.”

“Hey, is your master always like that?”

“I don’t know. Is yours?” Kerlith snapped back.

“No, I didn’t mean it like that. I meant… I don’t know what I meant. He took advantage of those girls, you know.”

“Looked like they were taking advantage of him.”

“Maybe. But still, they were under a spell. I don’t care what you two do as long as you don’t mess things up for us in the forest. This is our lands remember?”

“Maybe that was just an excuse they used to let their hair down a little. Maybe they wanted to do that all along. I see your master wasn’t interested. What’s his malfunction?”

“He’s old, I guess,” Bel defended.

“That has nothing to do with it.”

“And he wouldn’t let you out either. Maybe he was afraid you’d embarrass him.”

“Really, Kerlith? And how’d you do?”

“I did all right. You won’t find any young girls complaining this morning. I’m a regular all around fun person to be with, I am.”

“Oh. Yeah. I knew that. Barrel of monkeys, you are.”

Kerlith huffed as he threw a pebble, “You got that right.”

Bel’s heart suddenly ached over leaving the only girl he ever loved to become a wizard (of course, all magicians were required to take an oath of celibacy) and the knowledge that he would never see her again gnawed his flesh. He couldn’t understand how Kerlith and his master flaunted the rules so casually. He couldn’t understand why he had to leave the girl he wanted to spend his life with while these two could go out cavorting whenever they pleased. “But what if you got caught? Aren’t you worried about the ban?”

Kerlith eyed Bel quickly then looked back at the courtyard. “My master doesn’t seem to be. Why should I?”

“I don’t know. I was kind of glad when my master pulled me upstairs.”

“Yeah, I was in the game; you were tucked in your bed like the child you are.”

Bel bristled but before he could respond, a young boy that stood in front of the two wizards in training interrupted them, “Masters? Sirs? Might I ask a question, sirs?”

Kerlith replied first, “Sure kid, what are you looking for? An autograph or something?”

“No, sir. I was wondering if you could tell me something about magic. We don’t get many wizards in these parts. And when we do they tend to be old. One day, I would be a wizard. At least that is my dream.”

Kerlith puffed out his chest. “Sure thing. See this kid sitting next to me? You can call him wiggle-farts. So wiggle-farts and I went to Lasaat. Ever heard of it?”

Bel’s forehead was burning bright red. Wiggle farts was a nickname he got in his first year. One of the others saw him shake once when he had gas and the rest was history. He hated that name; he thought it might disappear when he left Lasaat but now Kerlith was perpetuating it.

“Yes sir. The Academy of Arts and Magic?”

“That’s the one. You have to be selected to go. Don’t know how exactly it works, but they can see something in you. The scouts, I mean. Some are found when they are ten or eleven, others are not found until they are older, even as old as sixteen or seventeen.”

A falcon landed on the building edge, its feet grasping the gutter edge tightly, and looked down at them with a glint in its eye.

Bel added, “Oh, I remember that day like it was yesterday. They showed up in my tiny fishing village and made a beeline for my house. Caused a great stir, they did. All the villagers followed them, wanting to know who the strangers were looking for. By their dress everyone knew exactly who they were. You know the ones, right?”

“Yes, sir,” answered the boy.

“It was quite a shock for my parents, of course. What with my father expecting me to join him on the waters. He was a fisherman, you see.”

Kerlith interrupted, “Yeah, me too. I was only twelve and here these two men were, asking me to leave everything, to never see my family again, my parents, my brothers and sisters and my kin, to never return to my village, to never see my people again. I cried for two nights. I’m not embarrassed to say it. Yeah, I cried. I was just a kid, understand? Don’t laugh or I’ll smash you. But yeah, it was a lot for a little kid to take in. The rest of the village wanted me to go because they thought I would be coming back after the schooling to be their wizard, to protect them. But no, that’s not how it works. I haven’t seen my family since.”

“I see,” said the young boy. “And the school, is it hard?”

Kerlith smiled wide and said, “Kid, most people take five years to graduate—”

Bel pounced, “Shut it, Kerlith. Shut it before—”

“Before what? Before you get mad? Oh, I’m getting real, real scared, I am. I’m like shaking all over. Oh, I hope a fart doesn’t come out. Oh, I’m wiggling, I am.”

“Jerk! I took six years only because of you! It was all your fault I got left back!”

“Really? It was you who took the challenge. You didn’t have to. You could have kept your big mouth shut. But no! You had to look like the big man in front of the others. And it was your spell that blew up in your face anyway!”

Bel wanted to respond but he knew it was true. Sometimes Bel couldn’t stand Kerlith and his mouth and his arrogant, in-your-face attitude. It was stupid of Bel to respond to him; he knew it, but Kerlith caught him on a bad day. School was tough; there had been a few difficult tests and one of Bel’s friends dropped out. So when Kerlith started another one of his verbal barrages, Bel lost it. Before he knew it he had agreed to a challenge, off the grounds, at midnight, away from the eyes of the masters. It was forbidden. They battled long and hard, all of their friends watching, each spell more complicated, more delicate, more risky. Finally Bel did something he hadn’t done before. He used stone magic. It shouldn’t have worked. He was holding mage-wood in his hand; he shouldn’t have been able to wield the words of crystal. But it worked. And then he lost control of it. The others ran for help. It took four masters to subdue the magic run amok. No one was hurt, but the damage was done. He wasn’t kicked out of the school, thankfully, but he was not permitted to graduate for another year.

Bel sat in silence watching as the large hawk mounted the wind. Kerlith asked the lad, “Okay, kid. Any other questions? Looks like wiggle-farts here doesn’t want to talk about school.”

“Yes, sir. If you please? I noticed that you use a stone while he uses a stick? Why is that?”

“You want to take this one?” Kerlith said with a smirk.

“You go ahead. Idiot.”

“Kid, it’s like this. There are different forms of magic. In school we were all taught the common stuff, the magic that any magician can do, but there are other forms that are specific, different forms that only specialized wizards can do. There is one form based upon crystals and minerals, from the mountain lands, the land of the stonecutters. We call it stone magic. There is a magic of the desert-lands and one of the tundra-lands. Another is based upon plant life, like trees and such, from the forest-lands. That’s the form that the kid here is learning. In the end they are all the same in one way. The source of all power is life. Everyone knows this. Magic is merely a manipulation of the life-force in all of us and in all living things.”

“But rocks are not living,” the young boy stated.

Nes’egrinon interrupted, “Well said, young man. Well said.” Bel and Kerlith quickly turned their heads back to the master. Neither knew he was there listening. The mage continued, “Myself, I cannot understand this magic of rocks and crystals. It makes no sense to me. How could it work? There is no life in rock. How can a wizard call forth power from it? It’s dead. Baah. Makes no sense.”

Kerlith replied, “Master, certainly you know that crystal, while not alive, can act as a sort of prism, bending the light that is already in the world, focusing it, concentrating it into a pinpoint.”

“Yes, of course I knew that. But it would be much easier to just go to the source of life instead of bending it, don’t you think? Here feel this.” The old wizard held out his staff. “This staff was cut from a one thousand year old mage-wood tree that still stands today. That tree’s roots go long and deep, thousands of feet down into the ground. I wouldn’t be surprised if all mage-wood trees were not part of the same one tree; its roots go out so far. And this staff, this piece of wood, still contains the form of life of that tree, the body that was full of light, the casing, if you will. The great wizard Lucretius called them atoms and said that they are in all of us and in all things living. Can you feel it? Can you feel the power? I don’t have to search for light to bend and focus. This mage-wood, this casing in my hand is the natural home of light; it feels comfortable there. It wants to be there. When I call for light with mage-wood in my hand it comes readily, even eagerly. But a stone? Light does not belong there. It must be coaxed, forced even. Baah, it makes no sense.”

The young boy wandered off so Bel said, “Master? At Lasaat, Rylithnon said that someday a mage would come who would unite all magic. He said it was foretold. A mage who could harness all of the nine forms, both living and non-living, both of the creature and of the land.”

“Ridiculous. Hogwash. He said that? Foolishness.” The old mage leaned against the back wall of the building, shaking his head and looking at the floor.

Kerlith continued, “I think it was kind of like his personal conquest. Even though he was called to stone magic, he wanted to learn everything about all of the nine forms. He constantly spoke to the other masters about it.”

“What? And he spoke openly of this?”

Bel replied, “Yes, Master. Err… not to say what I did wasn’t wrong. It was. I know that now. But sometimes I think that was why he held me back. Because a student of forest magic somehow was able to speak the magic of life from the book of stone mages. Even though it went terribly wrong.”

“Well, of course it did! It’s not in your nature. It is absolutely, positively unnatural! What were you thinking, boy?”

“I don’t know. Seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“Really? Well don’t have any such good ideas when you’re out with me. Just do what you’re told. If you decide you’re going to do something you haven’t been taught then don’t. A forest-mage doing stone magic, huh! Insane!”

The old mage walked back behind the building leaving Kerlith and Bel in silence.

Muolithnon sang as he walked up to them, grabbing Bel and Kerlith’s attention, “Now check out this shave! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! I’m a clean, slippery fish. Can’t wait for tonight. Apprentice, feel how clean my neck is.”

“I’d rather not,” Kerlith replied.

“C’mon, c’mon, feel it. Right there, right there. Feel how smooth it is.” The mage leaned in closer and tilted his head back.

“Errr… okay?” Kerlith touched his master’s neck and the mage squealed, “Yeah! Did you feel that? Nice and smooth. Yeah! Here, Fifth Year, ahh, Bel, feel my neck?”

“No thanks. I need to check on my master.” Bel hopped up and ducked into the inn.

Bel scaled the staircase, entered their room and busied himself with putting his meager belongings into his sack. A long dark shadow formed near the window as a hawk flapped its wings on the other side of the glass. Bel walked towards it and saw Master Nes’egrinon standing there in the shadows, or at least he seemed to standing there. Or floating. It was hard to be certain in the dim light. The youth blinked his eyes and there he was. The mage stood motionless. Bel knew what he thought he saw, what he thought had happened, and he was in awe. Could it be that his master was the same hawk that watched them out in the front of the building some minutes ago? Bel had heard legends of wizards of old being able to transform themselves into such creatures but he, like almost everyone, thought the legends were false and impossible. No one could do that. He stared at him, their eyes met and Bel realized that he truly was the greatest wizard in all of Hellas, in all of the known lands. Bel looked away; he could not hold the archmage’s gaze. There was nothing mean or condescending in his dark eyes yet there was something there that made Bel feel small and the rest of the world very large, the world that Bel did not know and had only heard rumor of, something there, in those eyes, that had seen too much, a vast land of power and intrigue, war and pain, love and loss, and it made Bel feel insignificant and very, very tiny. He did not fear his eyes but he could not stare into the infinity in them either.