The Tomes Of Magic

by Cody J. Sherer

  “Finding everything you need?” An elderly mage named Keltem asked.

  “This is all fascinating, but I want to learn. I was an expert on the mainland and now I’ve been held back for more than two months. It is time that you allowed me to take the test,” Emily replied as she put the book back where it belonged.

  “Perhaps you are right, young one. Kadegar and the other were wary that the dragons would attempt to attack our castle. They’ve been far too preoccupied to give you a fair chance. That all changes today. I am here to take you to your test.”

  Emily jumped at the news. She finally got a chance to show them that she was ready to begin her training. Keltem led her down the path from the library to a large courtyard. Kadegar and his most trusted advisers were waiting for her in the midst of the square. They greeted her and immediately began explaining the rules. There were five tests in all. Each one varied in difficulty, but all were equally important. Emily was given the staff of an Apprentice and sent forth into the chamber of trials. It was a large room that was completely empty. She turned back to protest, but the door closed before she could call out. Her hair stood on end when she heard noises coming from behind her. The formerly empty room was now teaming with plants and wildlife. A loud voice boomed throughout the room.

  “Your first task is to identify the seven herbs within this room that can be used for healing,” the voice said.

  She nodded and started looking for the first of the herbs. Even the youngest of Wizards knew that Springleaf was the most basic and easy to use facilitator of healing. She spoke out loud when she found the first reagent. The search for the next few was nearly as simple as finding the first one. By the time she had found the sixth ingredient, she was barely whispering their names. The final portion of the task was designed to be the most difficult part. Three different plants were all bunched together near the far end of the building. Emily recognized one of them as a poisonous plant, but the other two were foreign to her. She examined them more closely and even considered using her magic on one of them. The two in question were unlike anything she had seen before. One of them shone like a miniature sun and the other was blacker than midnight. In the end, it was their extreme looks that made her to realize that they were both a work of magic. She quickly announced the name of the poisonous plant and everything in the room vanished.

  “Your next task is to start a fire during a rainstorm,” the voice announced.

  Emily smiled and waited for the magical simulation to begin. The empty room quickly changed into a rain forest. She let out a scream when lightning struck the ground less than ten feet from where she stood. Her adrenaline kicked in and she was gathering wood within moments. Another bolt of lightning struck and she gave up organizing the wood for an easier task. She thrust her staff forward and a rush of fire exploded out of the end of it. The winds and rain picked up and put out the fire before it could gain a foothold. Emily gritted her teeth and wove a protective wall around the area she was trying to ignite. Another gust of fire burst out of the end of the staff and struck the pile of wood. It took several minutes for the fire to start, but as soon as it did the entire building was empty again.

  “Your next task is to create an illusion so as to confuse man and beast alike,” the voice boomed once again.

  Emily kicked the dirt before focusing on an illusion. Her specialties were earth and water magic, two things that could not help her with her illusion magic. She looked around the room and saw a plethora of dangers. Massive lions stood to one side of her. A pack of hungry bears was walking toward her from another direction. Wolves on the far end of the building began to turn their attention to the other animals. The final group that she faced was a group of soldiers. They were tromping through the forest in the north with little or no regard for the forest itself. Emily closed her eyes and slipped back toward the nearest rock formation. The others were already shouting about the presence of an intruder. She stayed still as she cast a spell that was helped her to blend in with the surroundings. Each of the groups was dumbfounded as to where she had gone and the room reset back to empty.

  “You must now put out a raging fire by whatever means necessary,” the voice sounded female this time.

  The room around Emily began to change. She was standing in a large forest near the edge of a river. Further down the river there was a town and on the other side of the town was the ocean. The fire raged behind her, threatening to overtake her and the town soon after. Emily started running toward the town and raised her staff to use the water from the river to quench the flames. She stopped when she saw that waterwheel on the river in the middle of the town. I can’t disrupt their waterwheel and if I use the ocean it will destroy their ability to fish, she thought as she turned to face the fire. She had the ability to conjure water, but the amount of water needed to combat this fire was more than even Janessa could muster. Her mind was racing as the flames continued to edge closer. She slammed her staff against the ground, frustrated at her inability to solve the problem. A cloud of dust came up from the spot she hit.

  “That’s it!” She yelled as she lifted the staff into the air. At first, only small particles of dirt rose into the air. She concentrated harder and large patches of dirt lifted into the air. The flames continued to close in on her as she gathered more and more dirt into the air. She thrust her staff forward and blanketed the flames with dirt, hoping to cut the fire’s oxygen supply. The flames faltered for a moment, but the size of the fire was too much to be stopped by the amount of dirt she had used. She twirled the staff around her head, trying to draw forth the air from above the fire. Her staff spun back around one last time, sending the air surging toward the fire. The move kept the fire at bay while she created a small spring of water in front of her. Water filled in the area where she had lifted the dirt, creating a small river. She dragged her staff along the floor in a line behind her, sparking up a small fire. Her magically created fire began to spread toward the town with a speed that surprised her. As she raised her hands above her head, the water surged from the trench and caught up with her fire.

  The fire behind her slowed to a crawl as it ran out of kindling to burn. She spun around and buffeted the fire with wind. It slowly crept toward her until it reached the empty trench. As long as she could keep it from jumping the gap, the town would be safe. The fire, town, forest, and countryside all disappeared and Emily found herself in an empty room again. She let out a sigh and nearly dropped to the floor. Not rest yet, she thought as she waited for the next voice. This time the room changed before the voice sounded. She was standing in a large town with a tall keep at the center. People were milling about on their daily chores and everything seemed pristine. Emily could not imagine that there could be much of a test awaiting her here.

  *

  Rolin looked up to the skies. It still took some getting used to with the multitude of dragons flying above. The mindmeld took far less adjusting. His dragon had become something of an extension of himself, or perhaps it was the other way around. Rolin had a hard time telling which of the two was better at hiding their thoughts. It made for an uneasy alliance between the Wizards and the dragons. They kept that part of it a secret to outsiders, but Wizard and dragon alike knew there was a power struggle of some sort happening. The only comfort to Rolin was that the dragons seemed to have differing opinions on their King. He saw it as an exploitable weakness. His only worry was that the dragons were sending him false thoughts to make him think they were split. A united group of dragons was more than all of Canai could face.

  “Why have we not moved to attack the Holy Order?” Rolin asked.

  “As powerful as we are, our numbers do not allow us to effectively strike at our enemy. We will remain on the defense until we’ve established our kingdom. Then, and only then, shall we descend upon the Holy Order with the fullness of our wrath,” the dragon King replied.

  “Perhaps we shouldn’t have sent Emily off to the Isle of Magic. Her wisdom would be of good use at a
time like this,” Rolin acted as though he were absently putting words to his thoughts, “She harbors no love for the Holy Order.”

  “The Isle of Magic is known to us, Archwizard. They would sooner pry into our minds than have us as allies. You know this better than most, otherwise you would have sent more Wizards to train there.”

  Rolin knew better than to press the subject with the dragon King. He had tried once in the past and it had not gone well. The dragon King punished him and his dragon. Rolin was even worried that the dragon King would go as far as punishing Melissa, James, Janessa, or Paul as well, but the creature’s wrath did not extend to the Archwizard’s friends. Where are the others? he wondered as he glanced about. The dragons always preferred to hold council outside. They had commanded their thralls to construct a large tower with an open-air room on top. It had a ceiling that stretched up over one hundred feet over the already two-hundred foot tall tower, but the sides were open, save for the four support pillars at each corner. There would have been a time when Rolin would have enjoyed looking out over Canai, but now it just reminded him of how different things were.

  The Archwizard looked over at Melissa. She had been much quieter since the dragons had returned. There was a part of Rolin that understood it, but the rest of him wanted her to explain it to him. He sighed as he looked at the others that had been brought to the council. Janessa was still strengthening the Gloomvale Isles. Paul and James were gone as well. Each had been sent on a mission by the Council and had yet to return. The dragons had also called forth several of the local lords. Rolin knew that the dragons needed more support to combat the Holy Order, but he couldn’t quite understand why a deal would benefit the rulers. There were mercenary leaders that had answered the call as well. They were the latest of the dragons proposed alliances. Rolin and his colleagues had watched as thieves, warriors, assassins, merchants, blacksmiths, militias, nobles, and the Enchanters came to the meetings to discuss terms of alliances. He was surprised to find the dragons even considering bringing in outside help, but not so surprised at their failure to secure much assistance.

  *

  “You will be faced with a painful split-second choice sometime during your wanderings in this town. Be on your guard lest you miss the task,” the final voice was female.

  Emily hadn’t noticed before, but there was something familiar about each of the voices. She stared off into the distance, not even paying attention to what was around her. A hooded figure ran into her and she felt something slip free from her belt. I don’t remember putting on a belt, she thoughts as she looked down. The fact that her money purse was missing hit her quickly. “Thief!” She yelled as she started after the purse snatcher. Her staff flashed forward and one of the cobblestones on the road rose several inches. The thief tripped over the stone and rolled forward. Emily pulled her staff back toward her body, bringing a burst of wind to pull the robber toward her. The burglar turned to run, but a nearby guardsman grabbed the figure’s arm. He pulled the hood back to reveal a female no older than fifteen. Emily gasped, partially at the age of the perpetrator and partially because of the three money purses that had fallen to the ground.

  “Hold a moment,” she called after the guard.

  “What is it, milady?” The man asked as he turned to face Emily.

  “I will deal with this one.”

  “As you wish,” the guard bowed low as he spoke.

  The Wizard-in-training placed a hand on the young girl’s shoulder and started to lead her down the street. She ignored the stares from strangers and continued to lead the girl away from the onlookers. They have no business listening in on our conversation, she thought as she glared at the crowd. The two ducked down an alley and stopped a few feet from the main street. Emily sighed and pulled back the hood she hadn’t realized she was wearing. The girl looked up at her with a shocked look on her face and then quickly dropped to her knees. Emily gave her a quizzical look before telling her to stand up. The girl stood up to a slouch and glanced from side to side. It seemed to Emily that the girl would bolt at the first chance she had. She cleared her throat and waited for the young teen to look up at her.

  “Thievery is not tolerated, especially not for one as young as you,” Emily said.

  “I’m almost fifteen!” The girl protested.

  “Put your talents to something more productive. I only stopped that guard because of your youth.”

  “Yes, milady,” the girl stared down at her feet as she spoke.

  “See here,” Emily held up her money purse, “I will give you some gold, but only if you promise to give up the life of crime.”

  “I was only trying to help my family, nothing more.”

  “Next time, do it in a legal manner. You are quite skilled, I am sure somebody will have a job for you.”

  The young girl nodded and took the coins before leaving. Emily noted that the teen acted as though she hardly believed what had happened. She sighed and left the alley shortly after the girl. A large man stepped out into the street and grabbed hold of the teen. “Gotcha!” He said. The grin on his face made Emily uneasy. She was certain that this man had something in mind for the girl, but she knew not what it was. The man pulled the girl down the street and Emily followed at a distance. They wove through the crowd until they arrived at a guard post. The man shoved the girl toward the guards and began telling them something. Emily quickened her pace so that she could get within earshot. The two guards stared at one another and then looked back at the man.

  “Are you daft? I said that I want my reward for finding this thief,” the man stepped closer to the guards as he spoke.

  “No need to get upset. We weren’t told there was a reward for catching this urchin,” the guard replied without backing down.

  “I mean to see that reward!”

  “Nonsense, I already handled the situation,” Emily said as she stepped forward.

  “We are terribly sorry, milady. This man will be removed from your sight if you wish it,” the guard who spoke bowed low and the other one quickly followed his lead.

  “I’ll not have it!” The man roared as the guards grabbed hold of him.

  The teen bolted as soon as she saw the opening, causing Emily to shake her head. It mattered little, she had a test to take and she had to stay alert. Something about the keep continued to draw her attention. She walked past the guard post and up the stairs toward the courtyard outside the keep. Several guards bowed low as she passed them on her way to the keep. It was a grand structure with numerous gardens surrounding it. This would be a fantastic place to live, she thought as she got closer to the keep. The doors swung open as she approached them. Guards on either side of the door bowed as she passed them. A man dressed in fine clothes stepped into the middle of the room and cleared his throat.

  “Her majesty, Queen Emily of Galimdor!” He announced as she entered further into the room.

  His words gave her pause, but she continued into the room. She wondered if there was a King in the picture or if the Wizards had only known of her more distant past. The room was just as she would have imagined if she were really Queen. Each wall was lined with tapestries, some signifying the Wizards, others Galimdor, and a few she did not recognize. Several advisers were waiting for her near the throne. They all appeared to be annoyed that nobody had seen them earlier. She nodded to them and they bowed in return. Her instincts told her to take a seat on her throne. The only problem was that there were two thrones. No matter how hard she tried to figure it out, she couldn’t work out which one was hers.

  “Ah, you’ve arrived,” she instantly recognized Paul’s voice.

  “Yes, I have. The advisers appear to want to have a word with us,” she replied.

  “Mostly you, I’m sure. They don’t often like my answers.”

  She held back a laugh and allowed him to take her arm and escort her to her throne. He kissed her on the cheek and took his place at the throne next to hers. It became obvious that she was the one who was truly in
power. Paul had taken the smaller throne, signifying that he was less important. Paul and I as King and Queen, she thought as she listened to the first of the advisers. He spoke of a grain shortage in the southern kingdoms. She could tell that he wanted to raise the prices, but she quickly denied his request. Paul nodded in agreement and motioned for the next man to approach. The next three advisers asked similar questions and Emily disappointed each of them. She glanced at Paul and he was smiling at how easily she had ruined the day of each of the snakes. The final advisor bowed low and paused a moment before addressing her.

  “Milady, the Holy Order has threatened to attack the town of Korvant if we do not surrender the children born with the ability to use magic. Their threat seems to be real this time,” the man tried hard to hide his anger.

  “Fools! They will not get away with this!” Paul yelled as he stood up from his throne.

  “Hold a moment, dear. We can’t just refuse them. We need to try for peace. Tell them that I am coming to meet them as soon as I can leave,” Emily spoke with dignity and grace in spite of the fact that she was seething inside.

  The room around her began to change. Much to her surprise, it did not return to the empty room as it had many times before. Instead, she was standing inside of a tent that was littered with maps and other scrolls. Paul was looking over several of them at once. She let out a sigh and started to head for the exit when she was interrupted by a man in plate armor. He had a white tabard with a large hammer symbol on it. There was a small letter in his hand. He handed it to Emily and then turned to leave. “Show some respect,” Paul muttered when he noticed the man failed to bow before leaving. Emily rolled her eyes and started walking over to him. She read the letter aloud so that he could know its contents as well.