“Damon might have some ideas,” said Eynon. “My guess is Nûd is flying to the Blue Spiral Tower on the Rhuthro. He wants to take the gate from there to Melyncárreg, skipping all the miles in between.”
“We can beat him to the Blue Spiral Tower by taking a gate from Brendinas,” said Merry. “I’m sure Fercha has a gate that goes from the capital to her tower.”
“I agree,” said Eynon, “But I have an idea about where he might stop before he goes all the way to Melyncárreg. He’s sweet on my sister.”
Chee finished the bag of dried cherries from Dârio and climbed back on Eynon’s shoulder. The three of them watched Nûd and Rocky dwindle into a dot on the horizon. The little raconette let out a soft, mournful chee as he watched the wyvern disappear.
Merry and Eynon swung back to the gathering on the field and spoke with Fercha. They got directions to her townhouse and the phrase that opened the gate to the Blue Spiral Tower, then flew north, and went through it.
At the tower, Tuto, Fercha’s owl familiar, reported a man on a wyvern had come through a supply gate from the Serendipity Supply warehouse in Brendinas and arrived at the tower an hour or so earlier.
Merry thanked Tuto and the two young wizards left the tower flying toward Haywall in the Coombe. Applegarth was nearby to the south, and she missed her mother and father, but she still wasn’t sure how she felt about them keeping the fact that Salder was alive from her. It might be a good idea to wait awhile—perhaps a few months—before she came home.
The smile on Eynon’s face got bigger the closer they got to his home village. He got along well with his parents and little sister, mostly, and Merry envied him all the aunts, uncles and cousins—real and honorary—he had nearby. It was just past lunch time when they landed in the slate-covered courtyard shared by several cottages. They could tell that Nûd and Rocky had been there recently. Neighbors were out in the courtyard gossiping and three of the middle-sized children from cottages near Eynon’s were shoving sticks into a huge pile of cooling wyvern dung.
Chee jumped down from Eynon’s shoulder and found a stick of his own. He pried bits of dung from the pile and flung them about randomly. Some hit the children and the other onlookers.
“Stop that,” said Eynon. Chee returned to stand near Eynon and Merry, but he didn’t return to Eynon’s shoulder. Just as well, thought Eynon. He probably smells like wyvern dung.
Braith came out in the courtyard when she heard the additional commotion caused by Eynon and Merry’s appearance. Chee immediately tried to jump on her shoulder, but Braith sniffed and fended him off with her apron. The raconette contented himself to sit on one of her boots.
“If you’re looking for Nûd you just missed him,” said Braith. “He told me you would probably be following him. Nûd said he just wants to be alone to think. What is he worried about?”
“It’s a long story,” said Eynon.
“You can tell me later then,” said Braith. “Who’s your friend?”
“This is Merry,” said Eynon. “Merry, this is my little sister, Braith.”
“Eynon’s told me a lot about you,” said Merry. “You’ve got a lovely smile.”
“Thank you,” said Braith. “I’ve also got too many freckles. You’re very pretty.”
“Thank you,” Merry replied. “So are you. I think you’ve got exactly the right number of freckles.”
“She’s nice,” Braith informed her brother. “Are you going to marry her?”
Eynon smiled at Merry and she smiled back.
“Probably,” he said.
“Probably?” asked Merry.
“Make that, ‘Yes, if she’ll have me,’” said Eynon.
“Good,” said Braith.
“Very good,” said Merry. She licked her upper lip suggestively and Braith giggled.
Eynon’s cheeks started to turn red and he changed the subject.
“Where are Mom and Dad?” he asked.
“Dad’s at the milking barn helping to dig out the cold storage pit,” said Braith. “Some of the stones fell in and they decided to enlarge it when they repaired it.”
“I’m glad I’m not with him hauling rocks then,” said Eynon. “And Mom?”
“She’s visiting in Brynhill, trading a wheel of cheese for flower bulbs for the garden,” said Braith. “She said they’ll be really lovely when they bloom.”
“That should take the rest of the day,” said Eynon. “Tell them I’m sorry I missed them.”
“Which way did Nûd go when he left?” asked Merry.
“He asked me to tell you he was going to look for a gate in the baron’s castle in Caercadel,” said Braith, “but he’s really going to the quarry.”
“Why would he go back there?” asked Merry. “The last time we went there we were attacked.”
“He said he felt like something was drawing him there,” said Braith. “Nûd thought it would be a good place to think. The quarry workers are helping to build a new storehouse off the square in Wherrel, so I told him the quarry should be quiet and deserted.”
“Thanks for the details,” said Eynon. “Did he try to kiss you?”
“No,” said Braith. She smiled at Eynon and Merry. “But I kissed him.”
“Don’t grow up too fast, little sister,” said Eynon as he gave Braith a hug.
“It was just on the cheek,” said Braith.
“Good,” said Eynon.
Merry winked at Braith behind Eynon’s back.
“Wait just a second,” said Braith.
She smiled at her nosy neighbors and the small children with sticks, then stepped back into her family’s cottage. Chee went for a ride on Braith’s boot and returned with clean paw-hands a couple of minutes later.
“I washed him off,” said Eynon’s sister. “He pumped the sink and I made him use soap.”
“Thank you,” said Eynon.
“This is for you,” said Braith. She was holding a napkin knotted around something bulky. “I made lunch for Nûd, but he didn’t stay for me to give it to him. I think he was worried about all the attention Rocky was getting.”
Braith handed the knotted napkin to Eynon and accepted hugs from Eynon, Chee, and Merry. Chee moved back up to Eynon’s shoulder. The two young wizards and the raconette waved goodbye to Braith and Eynon’s neighbors and flew northwest toward Wherrel.
It wasn’t long before they were circling the quarry. Rocky was easy to see—his black bulk stood out against the quarry’s green-tinted floor. It looked quite a bit different at midday.
Nûd was sitting on a boulder with his elbow on his knee and his chin in his palm. It was clear he was thinking. He waved and didn’t seem too unhappy to see them.
Eynon and Merry landed a dozen yards away and didn’t address Nûd immediately. Their friend’s mind seemed preoccupied. They assumed he was concerned about recent revelations.
An odd-looking green triangle of some strange material poked out from the floor of the quarry close to Eynon’s flying disk. It was big, nearly four inches thick, and almost as tall as Eynon’s outstretched arm. He waved Merry and Nûd over, but only Merry joined him.
“It looks like some kind of sail,” said Merry.
“Leave it alone,” said Nûd from his boulder. “Something tells me it will be nothing but trouble.”
“Don’t tell Eynon to leave it alone,” said Merry. “Now he’ll have to find out what it is.”
“You won’t change my mind,” said Nûd.
“Change your mind about what?” asked Eynon.
“About being king,” said Nûd.
“You’d be a good king,” said Eynon.
“Not wanting to be king will probably make you a better king,” said Merry. “At least from the stories I’ve read. I’ve only met two kings and Túathal is definitely a bad king. I’m not sure about Dârio yet.”
“I like him,” said Nûd.
“You look like him,” said Eynon. He paced around the strange green triangle and his red magestone began to pulse
rapidly.
“I asked you to leave that thing alone, whatever it is,” said Nûd. “I’ve got a bad feeling about it.”
Merry teased Nûd and distracted Eynon simultaneously.
“If you don’t want to be king, we’re fine with that, aren’t we, my love?”
“What?” said Eynon. He was on his knees now, scraping pebbles away from the base of the triangle with his fingers.
Nûd stood and found one of the lengths of wood the quarry workers used as levers. He held it up in his right hand.
“If I were king,” he said. “I’d make it a royal command.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” said Eynon. He got to his feet and stared at the triangle.
“Do you like the sound of that title?” asked Merry. “Your Majesty,” she said, giving Nûd a deep bow.
“Not really,” said Nûd. He glanced at the knotted napkin on Eynon’s flying disk and dropped his wooden sceptre. “Is that my lunch?”
“It’s our lunch,” said Merry.
“I want to eat it back at your cottage,” said Nûd. “Let’s go.”
“You want another chance to kiss my sister,” teased Eynon.
“She kissed me,” Nûd protested.
Merry stepped on her flying disk and Nûd climbed aboard Rocky’s back. Chee ran over to the green triangle, jumped up to stand on its edge, and wiggled its tip back and forth.
Eynon was surprised the triangle moved. He’d thought it was like a sheet of green slate used to cover the roofs of stone houses in Wherrel. He stepped over to the triangle to retrieve Chee and leaned against what Merry had called a sail to see if the whole thing was flexible, not just the tip. It was. The triangle bent over under Eynon’s weight, then sprang back, tossing him—and Chee—onto the scree on the quarry floor.
Getting back up slowly, Eynon collected Chee and got on his flying disk. The two wizards and the wyvern rose above the quarry and looked down to see the green triangle continue to move and free itself from the stone around it. The sail was revealed to be the end of a tail as big around as a wisent. They saw the ground shake and rocks fall from the quarry wall as the spiked and scaled back of a great green monster as large as Fercha’s tower began to free itself from its prison of stone.
To be continued in the third book of the Congruent Mage series:
The Congruent Dragon
For more information
Please visit
www.CongruentMage.com
for more information about Eynon, Merry and their friends
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Audio Version
Look for the audio version of
The Congruent Apprentice
and The Congruent Wizard
in a combined edition from
Podium Publishing
in Q2-2018
Additional Material
Maps, Family Trees, and Diagrams
Look for larger versions of the additional material at:
CongruentMage.com/maps.html
Other Books by Dave Schroeder
The Congruent Mage Series
The Congruent Apprentice
The Congruent Wizard
The Congruent Dragon (June 2018)
www.CongruentMage.com
The Xenotech Support Series
Xenotech Rising
Xenotech Queen’s Gambit
Xenotech First Contact Day (Novelette)
Xenotech What Happens
Xenotech General Mayhem
www.XenotechSupport.com
Dedication
To everyone who enjoyed
The Congruent Apprentice
for encouraging me to write
more fantasy and not being
too mad about the cliffhanger.
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by Paul David Schroeder
All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in reviews.
Cover, Maps, Diagrams and Family Trees
by Dan Paulson
Spiral Arm Press
1725 Carlington Court
Grayson, GA 30017
www.SpiralArmPress.com
About the Author
Dave Schroeder is a retired Chief Information Officer and the owner of Spiral Arm Press. He is the author of the novels in the Congruent Mage fantasy series and the Xenotech Support science fiction humor series. In the early 2000s, he wrote the book, lyrics and music for Softwear.com, a musical comedy he produced off-off-Broadway. Dave lives in suburban Atlanta where he enjoys writing scripts for radio plays and voice acting with the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company.
The Congruent Wizard (The Congruent Mage Series Book 2) Page 42