The King's Sorcerer

by B. T. Narro

  I had always told my father I wanted to face a real opponent who wasn’t him, someone truly skilled. I felt bad that Reuben would be that first skilled opponent, but I also had something to prove, not only to those watching but to myself. My time was better spent training in the magical arts and exploring the city with Charlie for information on spells.

  I wished that Leon was better prepared to train us, but I was beginning to believe that bringing all of us here had been done without much planning. It was as if the king suddenly had the idea to recruit a number of cheap, young sorcerers and train us rather than pay experienced sorcerers to defend his kingdom. While the idea did seem rash to me, I also greatly appreciated the opportunity and trust the king had afforded us. I did not want to let him down.

  With everyone watching, I moved toward Reuben as if to attack. I trusted my instincts and speed. He backed away with feints, fake jabs at my chest, but I knew when a man was committing and when he was teasing. I did not flinch.

  I saw his eyes change as I got too close for him to feel comfortable anymore. He stabbed at my chest, a nice clean attack that he’d surely practiced many times. With a flick of my wrist and a turn of my arm, I deflected his sword at the same time that I pushed the point of mine into his chest.

  The force of my attack pushed him back a few steps. The fight stopped. He looked as if he wanted to curse me or perhaps call my move unfair, but even he knew that there was no excuse he could give.

  “One point for Jon,” Leon announced.

  Speed was a swordsman’s best friend. I had fast reflexes, especially for someone my size. I decided to show off a bit this time just to drive my point across that I did not need to be here.

  I let Reuben come at me now. He was not the swordsman my father was, the last point making this clear to me, and even my father had trouble hitting me when I took on defensive maneuvers.

  I figured Reuben was hesitant to stab me again because he would be ashamed to lose in the same way when I counterattacked. Sure enough, he went for a quick two-handed swing. I was already moving underneath it before the sword crossed overhead.

  He quickly pulled his weapon back to prepare a defense, but my stab was a fake. My swing was a fake as well. So was another stab. I whipped my sword around into different poses, posturing and faking attacks with each one and watching Reuben react with the appropriate defense but always a blink too slow, and that’s all it took to lose. But I would not win yet.

  I attacked several times, but I always stopped and pulled back just before my sword tip reached him. I moved too quickly for him, as I did against my father, one of the best swordsmen of Tryn. My father might’ve been a lot older than Reuben, but his defense was nearly impenetrable when he was healthy, and I still managed to find ways through it. I honestly didn’t know how Reuben could beat me, but trying to defend himself and hoping to take advantage of an opening was not it.

  I stepped back and let it soak in for Reuben that I could have beaten him many different ways by now if I’d tried a little harder. He couldn’t defend against someone as fast as I was. Leon had to have noticed. I figured even the others had seen it.

  I assumed Reuben, overcome with embarrassment, would rush me furiously. To my surprise, however, he did not attack.

  There was something in the way he looked at me that I had never seen in his eyes before. There was no longer the harsh judgment in his brown irises. I think he finally realized that I was better than him, at least at this one thing.

  I did not smile or boast in any way. I showed him with a cold look that I was only doing what I needed to do.

  I decided I should end this quickly, but with a bit of flair that would not result in his injury.

  My father invented a maneuver that was difficult to pull off without many hours of practice. It was one of those things that, even if you could predict your opponent was about to use it on you, it was difficult to stop. It was also one of those things that only worked against someone who knew how to properly defend himself, as Reuben had proven.

  I swung at a high angle so he had to raise his sword to block mine. Expecting Reuben to block in this way, I took my left hand off the bottom of the hilt to grab the base of my blade for quicker movements. Meanwhile, I tilted the base of my sword upward as if I might soon slide my sword downward against his blocking weapon and stab him from overhead.

  Properly, Reuben lifted his sword higher to cut off my angle. It was then that I executed the maneuver. In a flash, I disengaged my sword from his and poked it through the small gap between his lifted wrists as he held up his sword with both hands. By then it was too late for him to stop me. He stepped back, predictably, to get away from the point of my sword coming at his chest. But rather than try to stab him, I hooked my sword back toward me—down across the top of his gloved wrist.

  With me prying one wrist downward and his sword handle upward, there was no way he could hold onto the handle. I wrenched the weapon out of his hands and flung it hard against the ground with the tip of my sword. It fell and bounced as he backed away and put up his hands reflexively.

  It had all happened so fast that I doubted Reuben, and surely not anyone watching, could really tell what I’d done. In fact, Reuben looked confused as if just now realizing he had lost.

  “What happened?” Michael said. “I blinked.”

  “What the hell was that, Jon?” Leon asked me with a big smile.

  “Just a little disarm trick.” I bent down and picked up Reuben’s sword and offered it to him. “No hard feelings?”

  He took his weapon back and bowed. “No hard feelings. Good duel.”

  I bowed back, having a newfound respect for him. It wasn’t easy for any man to lose graciously, especially one as proud as Reuben.

  “May I go with Charlie now?” I asked Leon. I kept my tone humble.

  “Yes, go ahead.”

  We started toward the portcullis.

  “We’re going to fight again one of these days, Jon!” Reuben said.

  “I look forward to it,” I called over my shoulder.

  The portcullis was already up, and the drawbridge was down. There were usually two guards stationed outside the drawbridge, the only entrance to the castle, and now was no different. I hadn’t gotten to know them yet, but neither of them looked very friendly. Or perhaps it was just their job to ignore us.

  “So where are we going?” I asked Charlie as we left the castle.

  “There is a place that has a book I want.”

  We walked in silence for a little while. A question began to bug me. “I want to ask you something, but I hope you won’t take it as an insult.”

  “What?”

  “Why do you want to learn more about mana if you can only use one note?”

  “For you and the others, of course.”

  “Oh.” That was surprisingly kind of him. Charlie wasn’t a mean young man, but I had yet to see him be thoughtful, either.

  “Also, the more I know about mana the easier it is for me to build devices that can be enchanted with magical ability.”

  That made more sense to me. “What do you know about the healing spell Leon used on Reuben and me?”

  “Just what he said, that it uses uF and F together.”

  “You don’t say Upper instead of u?”

  “It’s easier for me to say the letters how they are written,” Charlie said. “That’s what I picture in my mind when we speak about spells. I also picture the spell capitalized when it’s the name of the spell and lowercase when it’s the range of mana. Kataleya is learning to cast water spells, lowercase, like you are learning to cast dvinia spells. However, right now she only knows one water spell, and it’s called Water, capitalized.”

  “I see.”

  We were silent again. Charlie clearly knew where he was going as he took me toward a crowded street.

  “I was wrong earlier,” he said.

  “About what?”

  “I do know more about healing. Each F at different octaves w
ork differently, but they share properties of life.”

  I reminded myself that an octave was the same note at double or half the frequency, like F and uF.

  Charlie continued, “uF has the strongest properties of life, hence the name vtalia.”

  “That’s my natural mana.”

  He looked at me as if insulted. “I know, Jon. I know everyone’s natural mana and range.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “Because we all spoke about it after testing.”

  “That was one time, and it was a while ago.”

  He shrugged. “I remember.”

  I thought I had a good memory, but I would never be able to recall the ranges of all of my peers from each of them mentioning it just once.

  Charlie said, “The notes of F, when used at the same time, create a new outcome than if each is used alone. It is the same as any other spell. All notes can change when used with others.”

  “You said you were raised by a blacksmith who wasn’t your father.”

  “Yes.”

  “So how did you learn so much about mana?”

  “I have been interested in mana since I started to feel it as a boy. I tried to learn everything I could about it, but there was only so much I could learn for free.”

  “You didn’t have any coin?”

  “No.”

  “None?” I asked incredulously. “The blacksmith never paid you?”

  “He bought me what I needed with the coin we made from his business, but he didn’t allow me any personal coin.”

  The blacksmith did not sound like a good father. I imagined the man had never wanted to raise Charlie after finding him in a barrel. He’d just made use of him.

  It reminded me of the way the king seemed to be using Leon. The two men obviously didn’t care about one another. They had come to some sort of agreement, the king admitting this.

  I felt a sour mood coming over me the more I thought about it. Not only did the king seem too poor to pay everyone who he needed to fight against an impending attack, but Leon was clearly overwhelmed with the task of training everyone.

  Not overwhelmed, I realized. Incapable.

  That was even worse.

  Did we really have a chance against a stronger army with Leon as our trusted instructor? I knew most of us had been recruited because we were desperate for a better life, but why had Reuben and Kataleya stuck around this long? They had so much to lose.

  I felt a pang of fear. Could one of them be responsible for undermining my training? If so, they weren’t acting alone. I knew nothing about their families. I should probably start to learn what I could.

  “What do you know about the families of Reuben and Kataleya?” I asked Charlie.

  “Reuben Langston is the son of a wealthy noble, but I do not know who his father is.” Charlie thought for a moment. “I also know nothing about Kataleya Yorn’s nobility.”

  He didn’t ask me why I was asking, and I was glad. He didn’t seem like he could keep the secret that I thought it possible that one of them had aided the illusionist who’d given me the essence of dteria.

  Soon we arrived at Charlie’s destination. It was a small, and frankly sad, bookshop. There was barely enough room for the three of us to stand in the middle of the shop, the walls crowded with books upon bookshelves. The owner was an old man who sat on a stool reading something. He smiled as he looked up at us.

  “Charlie Spayker. I haven’t seen you in a while.”

  “Hello,” he replied indifferently as he seemed to be looking for something specific. He found it a moment later, pulling a book from one of the high shelves that required him to go onto his toes to reach.

  “Careful!” the old man said, but Charlie had already pulled the book out without knocking any others over.

  “I’ve come to buy this.” He pulled out his coin purse. I politely did not check exactly how much money Charlie had left after our weekly stipend, but it seemed to be pretty full from the quick glance I allowed myself.

  “Excellent,” said the old man as he took Charlie’s coins.

  Then Charlie plopped down right there on the floor, crossed his legs, and opened the book to read. He didn’t say a word. He didn’t even glance up at me. It was as if I no longer existed.

  The old man went back to reading as well, seemingly content with Charlie sitting on the floor of his shop.

  “Um,” I muttered.

  Charlie looked up at me. “I’m going to be reading this for a while.” His tone was irritated, as if I had interrupted him.

  “What’s the book about?” I asked.

  He showed me a cold look, then went back to reading.

  I glanced over at the old man, who stood and gestured for me to follow him out of the shop. On the street, he told me, “It’s the only book about magic that my father didn’t sell when he owned this shop. I never asked who sold it to him. It’s quite old, no author listed. Charlie has come in wishing to purchase it for years now after I let him read the first few pages.”

  I was nodding. “Do you know anything about what’s in it?”

  “It discusses magical devices and enchantments. None of it makes much sense to me.”

  “Thank you for explaining. May we?” I gestured at the open door for us to go back in.

  “Yes, but I don’t think even a quake is going to interrupt him for a while.”

  I had to at least try. We walked back in.

  “Charlie, give me just one moment.”

  “What?” he asked in exasperation as he looked up at me.

  “Are you going to be reading here for a while?”

  “Yes.”

  “How long?”

  “Until I finish the book.”

  That was probably going to take hours. I thought about going back to the castle and having him return on his own, but I doubted I would have another chance to explore the capital anytime soon. I thought I would take advantage of the opportunity. I was hoping Charlie would help me, though, as he had grown up here.

  “I thought we were going to search the city for other books as well, or for sorcerers who might know something.”

  “I will after I’m done with this. Let me read!”

  He went back to the text.

  “All right, just go back before supper. You’re on your own now.”

  “Yes, fine,” he muttered to the book.

  I ventured out and decided to pick a direction at random and start walking. I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, but I had a feeling I would figure it out soon. Mostly I just needed a break from Leon. I couldn’t believe he’d almost started a war with the krepps just because he couldn’t contain his temper. Yes, Grufaeragar was an inconvenience and had disregarded—or never understood—the rule of no head strikes, but that was not an excuse for Leon losing control.

  I found myself making my way toward Greda’s magic shop and realized I should go the other way. She probably still didn’t want me back, and it wasn’t as if I had enough coin to buy anything anyway.

  What I needed was some new clothing. I walked and asked around for a good tailor who was also cheap. I always kept my coin purse in my pocket. I felt better having it there than leaving it in my room unattended, even if it was in the castle. There were locks on the doors, but I could only lock mine from the inside. Barrett hadn’t given me a key, and I didn’t think it wise to ask him for one if no one else had.

  I would have to purchase lunch if I didn’t plan on returning to the castle, but that was all I had to buy until my next weekly stipend. I looked forward to receiving another forty buckles two days from now, especially because I wasn’t required to purchase anything expensive like a vibmtaer or an essence.

  A few hours later, I had a new shirt and pair of pants waiting for me to pick up when I was ready to head back.

  I ate a quick and cheap meal after a visit to a bakery, because it was all I could afford—the last of my coin now gone—but I wasn’t worried about that.

  After
walking around town for a few more hours and finding nothing of interest, I was starting to get antsy. I knew my time would have been wasted sword training with Leon, but I felt that, although I was getting to know the city better, this wasn’t helping, either. I really should be practicing my spell or learning Heal.

  Eventually, I walked back to the small bookshop to check on Charlie, but he wasn’t there. I asked the old man when he’d left.

  “About an hour ago,” he replied. “Didn’t say where he was going.”

  I gave my thanks. I started to head back myself when I bumped shoulders with a man crossing by the other way.

  “Watch it!” He shoved me hard.

  I was surprised. There should be no doubt to anyone who saw me that I was strong. But not only did this man, in his dark cloak, seem like he wanted to start a fight with me, I had sensed something that sent my mana out of order.

  I looked back at him as I tried to figure out what it was. He looked back at me. When he saw me staring, he stopped and turned around and spread his arms.

  “The hell you looking at?”

  A few people glanced over. The last thing I wanted was to be involved in an altercation.

  He was probably twice my age. He couldn’t quite be called large or even very strong. I was certain I could beat him fairly easily so long as he didn’t have a knife hidden in his cloak, but there was no point in risking it.

  I turned away from him.

  “I thought so!” he taunted.

  As I walked away, I realized what it was I’d felt. My mana had been pulled to a lower vibration, just like when I’d held the essence of dteria close to me.

  I looked back again. He seemed to be in a hurry now, gesturing at no one as he appeared to be speaking to himself. I didn’t know if I had sensed an essence of dteria on his person or if it was his mana. Either way, I knew I should follow him.

  Figuring he might turn around again, I decided to loop around the street before starting to trail him. After I caught up to him again, I followed him down a few streets at a safe distance. I watched him bump into two other men on two more occasions and attempt to start a fight with each of them, but they backed down as well.