The War of Spells

by George Mazurek

  “What are you laughing about?” She yelled into my ear, while Kwazzo maneuvered us from the volcano as fast as he could.

  “Nothing, darling, nothing,” I replied, with lips still curled into a smile. “You don't have to know everything, right?”

  She stamped her foot on the poor tephir, piercing me with a look that accelerated my breathing.

  I leaned into her and embraced her firm body. The first kiss was a bit hasty, but it calmed her anger. Then the kissing grew more and more passionate.

  I felt dizzy and my head spun wildly. Finally, Elisa broke the embrace, laughing. “Do you know you are crazy!?”

  ~

  We landed on a bare rock. In the distance, the volcano spouted smoke and lava. There was no sign of greenery or life around. The smell of sulfur was omnipresent.

  “This place is not particularly attractive,” Elisa assessed our surroundings.

  “I promise to take you somewhere else for our honeymoon, sweetheart.”

  Elisa gave me a surprised look. Her eyes turned light-red. “Hmm...” She brushed her hair in a flirty manner, and then she burst laughing. “I will remember that!”

  “I think we have passed the exam, my Lord,” Kwazzo pointed out.

  I rubbed my chin. “You are probably right, my friend,” I admitted.

  “And this scenery is just an illusion, my Lord.”

  I had to agree with my tephir again.

  I waved my hand and the volcanic country disappeared. In reality, we had landed at a lake's shore surrounded by a fresh grass, and in the sky a swarm of storks was heading toward the descending sun.

  In the grass two rows of footsteps headed into the distance. Oddly, it started just in front of us.

  “We shall follow it,” Elisa winked.

  “Maybe we shall not,” Kwazzo objected. “It's too straightforward, my Lord.”

  I looked around. Except for the lake and grass, there was nothing.

  “I agree with both of you,” I concluded the debate. “But these footsteps are our only clue. Besides, I have a strange feeling that someone is expecting us at the end of it.”

  “Who? The guy who had skinned me?” Elisa's lips curled in pain.

  “Gharib. There is not a single principle, or power, ruling the world. Mag'reb represents a female principle, and rules everything above the ground. On the contrary, Gharib is a male principle and rules everything that resides under the ground.”

  Elisa frowned. “But who is he like? Why does he want to meet us? Does he pose a danger?”

  I shrugged. “We shall soon see.”

  CHAPTER 4

  The Black Lord

  i tilted my head to the sky. A dark, stormy cloud was dashing toward us, and it had a familiar shape.

  Damn! How could I forget it!?

  The storm drew closer and its appearance changed into a head with a giant, open mouth.

  “He is coming, my Lord!” Kwazo yelled into the wind.

  “Apparently,” I replied. The wind strengthened, I struggled to stay on my feet. One of the strong gusts knocked Elisa down to her knees. I helped her to her feet again, shielding her with my body.

  Poor Kwazzo didn't come off any better as the whistling hurricane grasped him and took him toward the lake, where he soon disappeared.

  “Stop the storm!” Elisa screamed. Her dress and hair were waving wildly in the wind, and her wide eyes were full of concern.

  I didn't reply. I had a work to do. I pulled all of the grass from the ground! I extended every stem, a million after million, strengthening and equipping them with razor-sharp claws. Some were ripped by the gale, but most withstood the raging element. And then I threw the grass in its entirety toward the cloud.

  The skies grew dark green. The border between the sky and ground disappeared. The grass sank its claws into the cloud and began to tear it apart.

  The cloud became angry. Flashes of lightning criss-crossed the sky, turning the twilight into bright noon.

  I chose a strong stem and started climbing it, followed closely by Elisa. The cloud was barely half of that before, and in its frontal part, there was a giant hole. My grass did a good job.

  “Let's stop this comedy!” I shouted toward the cloud. “Let's meet together, just you and me!”

  The storm eased up a little.

  “You and me in a fair combat?” A coarse voice from above replied. “With no Mag'reb involved?”

  “And no Gharib. That's right!” I agreed and concealed that the power of Mag'reb didn't reach here.

  I stopped the grass.

  The cloud was considering the offer. And then, though it seemed a bit odd, the cloud nodded approvingly.

  Unexpectedly, the lake disappeared. Some fifty steps to the east a strange structure stood on the grass, thirteen giant stones forming a circle. From behind the nearest stone a man stepped out. He was all black, even his eyes and beard were as dark as charcoal.

  Elisa grasped my hand.

  “It's him! The one who subdued me!” She whispered with horror.

  “Don't be afraid, love,” I spoke softly while squeezing her palms firmly. I felt the tension in her hand eased.

  The Black Lord stopped five steps in front of me. “So... You are the one chosen by Mag'reb?”

  His voice was strong and somewhat unctuous. His eyes examined me thoroughly. He was truly imposing. I had never seen anyone taller than him. An adult horse would reach only to his shoulders.

  “And you are the one chosen by Gharib,” I replied.

  He didn't bother to comment as his gaze focused on Elisa, who was hiding behind me.

  “I see the shill did her job perfectly.”

  Elisa hissed at him hatefully.

  The Black Lord began to circle me to the right.

  I followed him while Elisa stepped aside. In her wide, hazelnut eyes I could read pure hatred.

  The Black Lord only smirked. “You are not only a shill, but a beautiful shill. Don't worry, I'm not going to skin you again. I have a better idea what to do with...”

  “Can you manage more than just blathering and fighting weak women?” I interrupted him.

  That hit the target. He slowed a bit and his eyes turned chill blue.

  “Maybe you should introduce yourself,” I continued. “Before you die.”

  “My name is Raveh,” he replied calmly. “Spare me of any other words. I know your name, Syrdan, the son of Gael the Just.”

  I nodded and turned to Elisa

  “Love, go farther, please.”

  Elisa moved back reluctantly to the nearest stone. Her eyes were full of concern.

  I will make it, love...

  Meanwhile, Raveh accelerated a little, and moved his palms behind his sleeves.

  Let's go!

  He grinned.

  And attacked me...

  ~

  During the last month, I learned wizards used various strategies to win their fights. Ver'del preferred brute force, while Cid'rel relied on his dirty ploys. I favored cautious approach that aimed at exhausting an opponent before the decisive blow. Nonetheless, every magic combat starts with weaving the defending spells' net to ensure one's safety.

  My defending sphere was powerful due to my own strength and my father's spell that protected me since I had been a little child.

  What kind of a wizard is the Black Lord?

  The stream of power hit me and reminded me of the pain I had suffered during the fight with Ver'del. I fended the assault off and counterattacked, but I was not successful either. Well, I might have struck harder, but it wouldn't have been tactical to show my entire strength at the very start.

  Raveh's fingers drew a sophisticated pattern in the air, and his eyes began to glow oddly. His fingers turned shiny blue and hot as a furnace. He pronounced an enchantment with a hissing tone that gave me goose bumps.

  Instantly, his body dissolved into six monsters with eagle heads and lion bodies, gryphons! Each of them was of the size of an adult lion.

  Da
mn!

  The gryphons spread their house-long wings and their cruel eyes focused on me. The giant beasts gave a high-pitched yell that sent shivers along my spine.

  I stepped back, thinking quickly.

  How to stop a gryphon?

  I was sure it was eons ago when these creatures were last walking the earth.

  The gryphon in front of me, a beast with a ginger mane, fumed out hot air.

  He is going to attack...

  And I was right, though not completely.

  They attacked me all at once.

  ~

  Their assault was surprising and savage. They flapped their wings, rising some twenty feet above me. They threw at me, as if knowing that defending an attack from above would be more complicated.

  With my head tilted to the sun I responded with an invisible, defensive sphere that encircled me. The gryphons hit the sphere with a thudding sound. The beasts' claws sank into its surface, and to my disbelief, the sphere began to crumble.

  Damn it!

  I strengthened the spell, but it didn't prevent the sphere from collapsing. Suddenly, the sphere was gone, and I felt the wind of the creatures' wings in my hair.

  They screamed unbearably, striking me to the ground. The nearest gryphon bent down his lion's mouth in attempt to bite my neck. I parried him with a punch to his snout. The creature let out a painful howl.

  I was so busy fending off their attacks that I forgot to use magic!

  Another pair of hungry teeth missed my right shoulder by half an inch. Fortunately, due to their large size, they had to attack me one at a time. I had a heartbeat's worth of time to think before the next assault.

  But it was enough to cast a spell. From my right hand, a beam of light flared up, blinding all gryphons at once.

  No matter how powerful they were, without sight they became just a harmless flock.

  Two gryphons crashed into each other high in the air, while the one with a white patch on its head struck the ground and broke its neck with a terrifying crack. The other gryphons were blind, but they still retained the delicate senses of hearing and smell.

  The smell of blood.

  Five gryphons turned down to their dead fellow and began to tear its body, gobbling its fresh flesh and gulping its warm pink blood.

  I observed the doom dispassionately.

  A low-thunder scream ripped the air and the gryphons disappeared. Twenty feet in front of me, the Black Lord stood again.

  His face was calm, but I could see disappointment in his eyes. And the will to wipe me out forever.

  The war was not over.

  We only proceeded into the next round.

  ~

  I cast attacking spells that snapped the air, spells that were invisible, and even spells travelling underground in order to strike the Black Lord unexpectedly, but his defense was flawless. I couldn't even touch him, not to mention hurt him!

  Was I tired? Was my power ineffective here?

  When I ran short of ideas, Raveh rubbed his black beard thoughtfully. “If you allow...” His fingers began to dance feverishly.

  This time his counterattack caught me dazzled. I recalled the power of Ver'del the Great, when he struck me with the whole power of Mag'reb. But Raveh's force even exceeded it!

  It blew me to my knees.

  I tried to breath, gasping for the air.

  I managed to control the damage, but at the same time I knew I wouldn't last long.

  The Black Lord moved ahead. He stopped two feet in front of me, a giant shadow over my head.

  How's that possible! No one can be that strong!

  “Now you know how I defeated Zo'har,” he said smugly.

  I multiplied my effort to break the clench. The deadly spell pressed me to the ground with a power that could melt iron.

  I focused all my power into one moment. Veins on my forehead bulged. I exhaled deeply...

  Now!

  I struck to break the deadly shell I was enclosed in.

  I winked with hope.

  Nothing happened.

  Raveh was standing above me smirking, ready to kill me.

  ~

  “The most powerful force in the universe is that of Gharib, not Mag'reb,” Raveh continued with a victorious grin. “You shouldn't toy with me, boy.”

  While he was talking, I noticed something grey and angular behind his shoulder.

  Kwazzo!

  My faithful friend survived the storm and came to help me!

  “I won't skin you, though. Your death would be enough.”

  With these words he leaned forward to touch me.

  And his touch will kill me...

  Without noticing, Kwazzo worked on untangling a ring of power connecting the megalith structure and the Black Lord.

  That's it! Raveh was cheating! He exploited the force of Gharib!

  A cold hand touched my forehead.

  But the hand was not lethal anymore. Kwazzo disconnected the tie to the structure definitively.

  I nodded. “Your death will be enough as well.”

  My left hand penetrated his body, cut off his heart from the arteries and surrounding muscles, and ripped it out of his body.

  Raveh turned ash-grey.

  I threw the bleeding and smoking heart toward Kwazzo.

  The Black Lord staggered on his heels.

  The tephir swallowed the organ with a loud smack.

  Raveh closed his waning eyes. Death spun him around his axis and let him fall gently into the grass. The blades embraced his black head facing the icy-blue sky.

  The grass started to fizz as the wizard's body dissolved gradually.

  The wind would disperse the sand to all corners of the world in the end.

  Only fools search for wizards' graves...

  CHAPTER 5

  Gharib

  Kwazzo hurried to my arms, followed by Elisa. I embraced both of them tightly.

  “I was so scared!” Elisa sobbed on my shoulder, trembling. “I'm so happy you are alive.”

  “Me too,” I whispered while caressing her hair. “Don't cry, love. Everything is all right now. We are going to return home and...”

  “Not so quickly!” A strange voice interrupted me.

  I turned swiftly, with a freezing feeling around my spine.

  The standing stones rippled, bent in their waists, became slightly translucent and more colorful, and suddenly I was not facing a circle of rock monuments, but twelve men dressed in leather and furs. Their faces were both human and wizard, some of them were taller, and some smaller, but all of them were older than me, much older. All wore some kind of a weapon - axes, knives, or bows. They were looking at me curiously.

  One of them set to meet me.

  Elisa grasped my hand in concern.

  “Don't worry, love.”

  The man stopped in front of me.

  Now I understood everything. Gharib was not him, her, or it, but them.

  They are Elders, the oldest council accompanying humans or wizards from the beginning of time, protecting members of a tribe and deciding questions of life and death.

  ~

  I examined Gharib's envoy. He was of my height, though slightly slimmer, but I couldn't be sure because of his fur cloth. He had long dark hair tied on his back and eyes clear as summer skies. From his right temple to his ear ran a deep double scar. His lower lip was punctured by a carved bone.

  “We are Gharib,” the man said with a harsh voice. “I was chosen to speak for the Elders, so others call me Mouth.”

  “What do you want from me? Why did you try to kill me?” I asked.

  “We are at war with Mag'reb,” explained the Mouth, “since it chose persons such as Zo'har or Ver'del as Warlocks, unscrupulous and self-interested wizards that hardly represented the best of Averot'h. Mag'reb was never meant to rule or supervise anyone, no less the world. It was built as a monument of love by generations of wizards, who had no idea what it was going to become in the future. You experienced life in Averot'h. Wou
ld you call the city a place of happy life?” Mouth asked.

  The answer was obvious. Averot'h had turned into a horrifying site hidden behind a glittering facade.

  Mag'reb did nothing to stop the crimes of Cid'rel and other ka'tans.

  “The balance between magical powers was disrupted,” Mouth continued. “Gharib is searching ways to set the balance right again and diminish the power of Mag'reb.”

  “Is that what you want from me? To make me stand against Mag'reb? I'm not interested. You almost killed me! You killed Zo'har. And what was the issue with Raveh about?”

  “Raveh was a test,” Mouth admitted. “Of your strength, stamina and character. As for Zo'har, he deserved his fate. ”

  I almost spat at his feet. “You kidnapped and skinned Elisa! You sank the ship Good Fortune, murdering all people on the board!”

  “Stop!” Mouth raised his right hand in defense. “We didn't know about all Raveh's actions until now! We wanted him to confront a Warlock! He was not instructed to harm anyone else. Apparently, he exceeded the authority granted to him by Elders badly, and he paid for it. We were wrong about you. You are an honest man. Gharib expresses his deep apology to you and regrets you had to come through the ... welcome.”

  “It was a welcome? I see...” I moved a step forward, my fingers still shivering with anger. I imagined striking those calm, cold stones, crushing their surfaces and knocking them down into the dust, where they'd break into a million pieces.

  “Tell me one thing. Why should I help you instead of killing all of you?!”

  Mouth's eyes didn't blink. I noticed concern in the Elders' faces behind him. They began to argue mutely.

  “We will not take action against Mag'reb, not now. With you as a Warlock, we hope we can reach some deal in the future. But there is another enemy, another imminent evil, which we must face right now. And to your question, why you… It's simple. Because you are the only one with a sufficient power to succeed.”