The Wizard's Sword (Nine Worlds of Mirrortac Book 1)

by Paul Vanderloos

  In three days, they limped their flut to the shore of a small island covered in a dense growth of palms that would provide sufficient low-grade timber for makeshift repairs. Mirrortac was glad to be standing on solid ground again and gorged himself on the sweet fruits produced by the palms. Once repairs were made and the flut restocked with all its food and liquid provisions, they set off once more for the unexplored frontiers of the Mere of Numere. Mirrortac hugged the palms in farewell and was perturbed when they fluttered a quiet warning to him - ‘Beware Numere!’

  The journey of the Mere of Numere took them into cooler waters where storms struck with little warning, blasting a bitter cold wind through them and calling up the waters in brief fury before passing as quickly as they had sprung up. They had sailed for more than 100 days now. Mirrortac had grown a thick covering of green fur, which was shaggy, and unkempt, dried by the constant cold salt spray. He was tired of looking upon a world that was swallowed up from the limits of every horizon by seething dirty blue-green waters. He was tired of the eternal motion of the flut beneath feet that now knew how to remain steady against the rocking and swaying; the crashing and creaking and even the sudden broadsides of errant waves. His whiskers grew and merged into a heavy beard that jutted below his chin, adding to the bear-like shagginess of his full coat of fur. He had never had so much hair and judged himself lucky in this respect as the thick fur protected him from the shivering gusts of cold air. The serenetees sought his cuddles often, not that they loved him more but that his thick fur afforded some comfort for their thinly veiled bodies. They even resorted to wearing their ceremonial robes, strutting the length of the flut like princes, complete with golden crowns and pendants about their necks. Mirrortac loved their peaceful natures and enjoyed their peculiar yet simple sense of humour. They were companions in an alien cold sea.

  Cold treeless outcrops rose up out of the sea in places, a few supporting a hardy cover of inedible grasses and small scuttling creatures like lizards and clawed animals that were amphibious. The fish in these waters were drab and salty to the taste. Sea creatures the size of three fluts put end to end swam in lazy herds, like bovine grazers of the sea meadows, paying loving homage to the serenetees before cruising off with bulky blue-grey bodies and fins and tails similar to tumu-Ra. But however far the vessel ranged, the tumu-Ra were always there to serve them. This did not surprise the erfin as he knew that they were keepers of the entire world of Mareos and, in rare moments, their eyes would meet his and there was a sense in his heart and mind that spoke of a kinship of all creatures and a life in a watery world where land and sky were seen in the same perspective as those on land viewed the sky and Greater Sky. They were somehow all interconnected, all dependent upon one another and each group of inhabitants of each world responsible for their part of the keeping. The tumu-Ra were telling Mirrortac that in actuality, all creatures and all peoples were keepers: only the scale and weight of their keeping varied. He tried to ask them about the dofoons but he did not possess the know-how to communicate this meaning to them.

  When Mirrortac had long lost count of the days, they sailed into a becalmed sea. Luma had assumed a similar path to that over Eol and the seasons were distinguishable. The air was cool and its freshness reminded the erfin of his old homeland. He thought of the gentle glades between the firs, the lush fields of nif-grass and the resolute snow-covered peaks of Elfa, Ohmga and Mateote. They had exchanged the tumu-Ra for refreshed residents of the sea that now rippled and swelled in gentle motion about them. But despite this peace there was a foreboding sense in the atmosphere. Mirrortac felt tightness in his stomach and a growing uneasiness. The serenetees felt it too and were concerned enough to bark new orders to the eeeps to sail eastering where they hoped to elude whatever unknown hazard loomed over this sea. The serenetees’ leader was agitated and barked at the eeeps several times without result. The others joined him in ordering the eeeps to obey but they were ignored. Mirrortac climbed onto the bow and peered at the five creatures. He barked at them with promises of fish but the creatures ignored him also and continued to drag the flut into the ominous calm waters. It seemed to him that the creatures were under some spell, focussing ahead as they did, fully concentrated on the distance, their beaks wearing false smiles and a shadow of darkness dwelling in their sad eyes. Mirrortac tried to meet their minds but was greeted instead with a dread that lifted up the hairs on his neck and sent cold shivers up his spine. As the Serenetees looked up, their faces visibly paled. A cloud of grey mist hung over the water ahead of them and Mirrortac shook his shaggy head in recognition.

  ‘The Mistness comes,’ he whispered to himself.

  ‘We be nearing the place now. Our mission will soon begin!’

  The flut continued to sail toward the mist, taking the unwilling crew with it and an erfin who could not guess at what horrors he would soon face. And as the mist closed in around them, grey wisps curled up from the water like steam accompanied by an intense brooding silence. One of the serenetees yelped, jumping aside as some unseen spectre brushed by him. Mirrortac glanced nervously from side to side, expecting the worst. He squinted as a patch of mist swished past him. Green shapes flitted out of spaces in the grey and as the mist cleared, there was revealed a pebbly gold beach and a forest of tall firs climbing up and over a series of rolling hills and mountains. The serenetees sighed their relief. They all laughed and leapt clear of the flut, wading through the waist deep water until they stood upon the beach, grinning at each other and pleased with their discovery. However, the feeling of unease seemed to persist as though they had been tricked into feeling comfortable while some trap was being set for them. Perhaps they had all become too wary, Mirrortac thought, and started off on his own so he could be alone for the first time in countless days.

  Mirrortac strolled up the beach and to the edge of the fir forest. Satisfied there was no danger, he sat down and propped his back up against a tree trunk. The tree was soothing and friendly but moody like the tumu-Ra and the misty sea. He watched the lazy waves curl up to the shore and the serenetees warming themselves farther down the beach. He was so far from anywhere now yet the fir trees stirred the erfin’s memories of Eol. Mirrortac remembered each of the male erfin children and judged what tasks they would be assigned when the Tasking Ritual was performed. His thoughts ran from one matter to another and all the experiences of his journey into other worlds. A disturbance in the air made him look up and he was startled to see a greenish mist, or smoke, rolling up the beach towards where he sat. It billowed over the sand with a life of its own, folding over and over upon itself in a dense silent mass. He wanted to run from it but his feet would not move and he could not shift his eyes from the strange cloud of green that poured itself along with its own dark intent. As it closed in upon him he could hear an almost imperceptible rustle and see flashing particles swirling around inside of it. The mist crept up and swallowed him until he could see nothing but the swirling green mass. The strong scent of tingling particles filled up his nostrils, throat and lungs and all of his body. He could not help but breathe it in, feeling a numbness overtake him. He drew each puff into his being and felt light-headed and giddy just as though he had drunk an urn-full of Merma-mead and abandoned his body. The mist cleared abruptly, leaving him breathless with awe as he blinked at the illusion around him. Yet the illusion did not dissolve and he realised this was no dream. Everything around him was real enough yet so unreal.

  Confronting him was a landscape quite different from any he knew. A cold crimson sun shone in a pale green sky and the sand on the beach was black. A silver watered sea washed up on an empty shore. There was neither sign of the flut nor of the serenetees. The fir trees had bright yellow trunks and blue needle leaves, and cast orange shadows over the earth. A bird hung upside down from a branch above him then flew off, flapping pink wings, belly up to the sky. ‘I will awake soon,’ Mirrortac assured himself but the weird landscape filled all his senses. He slapped a tree then himself. Yes. It was real.
What was happening?

  ‘Mirrortac of mine! Princeling! You have come!’ spoke a voice behind him. The sound of it was feminine and sweet. The erfin turned and gasped with surprise.

  Yenic stood upon the sand as real as in life. She wore a garland of black orchids and was robed in a flowing gown of gold. She smiled at him with loving eyes and offered her hands to lift him to his feet.

  He gazed at her with stunned disbelief. ‘Is this truly you, rainbow of my heart, sweet fruit of my life’s delight?’ he beckoned.

  ‘Yea, Mirrortac of mine. I am here and you have come to see this wonderful world. Is it not beautiful!’ She waved one arm up at the landscape then pulled him close to her breast. ‘Did you miss me, sweetness?’ she asked.

  ‘Yenic, you are always in my heart. But I am vexed. You are dead. Am I now dead also?’

  ‘Nay! Nay! You are not dead Mirrortac. You are alive and I am here. You touch me.’ She pressed her mouth against his face and licked him. ‘And I touch you, my dearness.’

  Mirrortac shuddered and disengaged himself.

  ‘You are real enough. This world is real enough. Yet there is trickery here. I do not know green skies nor birds that fly with their backs to the earth. Why is this?’

  ‘Then you do not know?’ she asked, looking puzzled.

  ‘Know what?’ he frowned.

  ‘Oh Mirrortac of mine. What understanding escapes you. Although you are in truth not passed over into death, you are no longer in the world of lies. You are in the Real World. Or your friends would call this the Betwixt-Way. Such an amusing name, I say.’

  She embraced him and licked his face and lips. Mirrortac was confused. He loved Yenic more than anyone he had ever loved yet somehow she was out of place here. Betwixt-Way? Was that the spirit world? The erfin peered around him and at the immaculate beauty of his own she-erfin. She smiled and took his hand in her own.

  ‘Come! You must in sureness trust your beloved. I would not bring you ill, dearness,’ she said.

  ‘Yea, it is only that I did not expect to see you again. You said you would not return to me this way.’

  ‘But I haven’t. You have come to me dear one. Now, come see the Enchanted Blue Forest. We are in the Real World now. You must leave the old things of the world of lies behind you now.’ Yenic tugged at his arm and finally he came, smiling and licking her face with affection.

  ‘I have in truth missed you greatly. The light of day has been paler since your passing.’

  Mirrortac felt as though he was in some magnificent dream that was not a dream. He strolled alongside his she-erfin through the faint green lit glades of the Enchanted Blue Forest. Animals gathered around them and danced into the air, defying the force of the air and logic. Water appeared from out of the earth, forming into droplets that slipped up like rain in reverse, pouring up into a clear green sky; stones crawled up the yellow trunks of trees. Yenic smiled warmly.

  ‘We should give praise for this moment, you and I,’ she said. ‘With a cup of Merma-mead!’ She swept her fingers through the air, revealing a brown-gold chalice filled with the sweet whitish liquid. She took a few sips and passed the chalice to Mirrortac who drank some and passed it back to her. Yenic looked deeply into his eyes and gave a half-smile. Then she threw the cup into the air, saying - ‘Fly away pretty one!’ and the cup was magically transformed into a Cooit that flew up high into the tree tops.

  Mirrortac could only marvel at these tricks, leaning his head on her shoulder and stroking her. She winked at him with a cheeky grin and danced off into the forest ahead of him. The erfin laughed and went after her as she jumped from tree to tree and swung suspended in the air. She giggled and grunted with delight, creating obstacles to slow him with her magical powers. Muddy puddles appeared under his feet and large boulders materialised in front of him.

  The chase led them far into the forest where Yenic finally allowed herself to be captured. The erfin threw her down to the ground, panting and laughing. She giggled and blinked her eyes at him and, in an instant, he found himself perched high up on a branch. She appeared alongside him and took his hand.

  ‘Look! the forest ends,’ she said. ‘We must be away to the Castle of Hopocus. It is upon Fog Peak there.’ She pointed over a dark valley that was blanketed in a thick grey mist. The craggy peaks of several mountains poked up their heads above the mist and upon one of these rested the turrets and spires of a blue castle.

  Mirrortac shivered. There was a sinister feel to the valley and its bleak mountains, quite different to the Enchanted Blue Forest, and the name Hopocus sounded vaguely familiar though he had never been to such a place.

  ‘Must we go to that place? It appears to be of darkness. I feel a strangeness lurks there.’ Mirrortac focussed pleading eyes upon her.

  ‘T’would seem darkness, my princeling but the castle is filled with wonders. And you must meet the Hopocus. Yea, you must meet the Hopocus. If you do not care to stay we will come back here to the forest. Is that not fairness?’ Yenic took his hand, stood up and smiled.

  ‘Yea, you would know this world better than I, sweetness,’ he said.

  But Mirrortac was alarmed when she prepared to launch them both into the sky. ‘Yenic, be in memory that we cannot fly,’ he said, almost with apology.

  She giggled. ‘Mirrortac of my heart. This is the Real World. If you decide to fly, you fly. Now take my hand and do not doubt.’

  She jumped out into the sky, leaving Mirrortac gasping as he left the security of the branch. In moments they were already far into the air and only a tentative grip of her hand held him aloft. He flew alongside, magically and without the need of wings. Swiftly they glided upwards and over the mist clad valley. Peaks and stark silhouettes of trees passed beneath them and in the near distance, the blue castle of Hopocus speared the sky with its rows of turrets and spires. Stairways led up to the battlements and down into the courtyard where there was a fountain. Another pathway of stone stairs led down from the peak into the misty valley below. Mirrortac caught Yenic’s eyes and she looked back at him with a glint of strangeness in her stare.

  They came to ground upon one of the battlements and Yenic walked off ahead of him. She came to a large bolted timber door and unlocked it, turning to face him as she pushed the door open. Mirrortac trembled and fell back in fear. The pretty face of the princess was no more. Instead, he looked into the face of a dark goddess, a sorceress. A terrible sound erupted from deep in her throat as she laughed at him, her eyes alight with fire. Now, he remembered what Nido had said to him about the land of mists and waters and the gateway to Hopocus where a sorcerer and sorceress reigned.

  ‘My poor princeling! Did I trick you?’ she mocked.

  Mirrortac was sickened. He tried to leap into the air but the magic was not his to command.

  ‘Your journey ends here, ye warrior. Come with me slave and do not try thy sword. It is useless in Hopocus.’

  Mirrortac was outraged and so angry that he charged at her without thinking, knocking her to the ground. He reached for her throat and wrapped his hands tight around it. The face of Yenic pleaded to him with tearful eyes but Mirrortac ignored the apparition, closing his claws in on the skin of her throat as he forced back sobs and confused emotions. A blinding explosive force threw him across the battlement walk and he landed hard on his back. The sorceress stood over him in a velvet black robe, glaring at him with a face as pale as death with thin colourless lips. She laughed at him and thrust up her head, throwing back white tresses of long hair that hung high up on her forehead.

  ‘Such emotion Mirrortac! Emotion is doth a foolish thing. It begets death or worse. I wilst forgive ye this time erfin but lest ye be foolish again, I will maketh sport of ye with my sorcery. Now cometh ye as slave or shouldst I maketh a fire in thy lovely green hairs?’ The sorceress gave him a disdainful look, her red eyes pulsing with a glow reminiscent of the Plumer-Ra wraiths.

  Mirrortac loathed her despite Shubek’s teaching of love. Even the ugly Beeble-Zub seemed
kinder. He realised he could not counter her sorcery and resigned himself to assent to her wishes. He came to his feet and nodded feebly at the sorceress.

  ‘Much better! Ye may comest to favour our world,’ she said, chuckling slowly.

  The sorceress turned and led the way into the castle, her long robe sweeping the ground while her feet glided beneath, silent as a spectre.

  Chapter 13 – World of Sorcery and Illusion

  The castle of Hopocus consisted of many stairways and halls and passages that led into various rooms all lit by the dim yellow glow of torches that burned with a flame that could not be extinguished. Mirrortac was taken into a medium-sized room - perhaps six or seven erfin-lengths square – under one of the turrets. There he was surprised to see a five-pointed inverted star drawn into the centre of the stone floor. A circle was drawn around the star and many strange symbols inscribed about it. Tapestries depicting the likenesses of monsters draped most of the walls. At the far end of the room was a thick pile of half-decayed animal hide on which reclined the stumpy form of a half naked demi-god, exposing a pale hairless belly above earth-coloured oversized trousers, which were tied at the ankles. The sorcerer had the same wraith-like eyes as the sorceress and a thin covering of white hair on his head. He smiled at the erfin between chipped and broken teeth, patting the head of a creature that rested at his elbow. The creature moaned and its eyes flashed open as it sniffed the presence of a stranger. It snarled at Mirrortac between a jawful of tusks, regarding him with tiny yellow eyes.