by A. Giannetti
Tullius saw the gleam and again suspected that Elerian was not telling all he knew. “Even if the boy knows something about the incident, it cannot have been him,” he thought doubtfully to himself. “He could not have made the tracks in the garden. I know a real wolf track when I see it.” The feeling still lingered, however, that Elerian was somehow involved with the appearance of the black creature that had chased him out of his own garden, and it made Tullius irritable again.
“Why are you here?” he asked Elerian abruptly. “Your next lesson is not until tomorrow.”
“There is something I wish to discuss with you, if you have time,” said Elerian, suddenly becoming serious as he remembered the reason for his visit.
“Well, why didn’t you say so before,” said Tullius gruffly, for Elerian’s voice reflected the worry he felt. Suddenly, Tullius’s head snapped up as if he had just remembered where he was, and he looked nervously around him for a moment. “Come inside then,” he said, resuming his usual brusque manner. “This is not the proper place for us to have a talk.” Tapping the end of his staff on the broken stone, he muttered a word and at once, it became whole again. Ignoring the avid interest plainly visible on Elerian’s face at this second display of magic, Tullius turned and walked down the gray flagstone path leading to his back door.
Elerian followed Tullius into the house and seated himself at his accustomed place at the old wooden table in the center of the room while the mage barred the door. The action brought another smile to Elerian’s face which he quickly hid when Tullius brought two cups to the table and poured out a red wine from a glazed jug. Tullius then seated himself across from Elerian.
When Tullius had settled himself, Elerian hesitantly told the mage about the frightening and devastating change in his vision. If Tullius was surprised at what he heard, he hid it well. While Elerian spoke, he calmly sipped his cup of rich red wine, all the while regarding Elerian with his sharp brown eyes as if he were some new species of herb to be carefully studied. When he was done talking, Elerian waited anxiously for Tullius to speak, uncertain whether the mage would be able to help him or not.
“I do not understand how or why it happened,” said Tullius thoughtfully, “but it appears that you have somehow acquired the ability to see magical forces.”
A puzzled expression appeared on Elerian’s face, and Tullius elaborated on his answer. “The force that is the source of magic resides to some degree in all living things and also in some nonliving things such as wind, fire, and water. This force normally cannot be seen with the naked eye. I have heard, however, that if a mage becomes accomplished enough in his craft, he becomes so attuned to the magical energies that they become visible to him. This ability is called mage sight by some and the third eye by others.”
“That makes no sense,” objected Elerian immediately. “You say that only powerful mages develop this ability. My power rarely obeys my wishes.”
Tullius shrugged. “Whether it makes sense or not, you have acquired this ability and will have to learn to deal with it. You will gain more control over it with time, I think, but until then you must exercise some caution. Do not go into the forest unless either Balbus or Carbo is by your side.”
A look of obvious dismay crossed Elerian’s face. Tullius smiled sympathetically and spoke again. “I had planned to wait a little longer, but perhaps it would be better to begin your apprenticeship as a mage now. A bit of training may help you to deal with the confusion caused by this new sight you have gained.”
The gloom vanished from Elerian’s face. “Can we begin immediately?” he asked, so overcome with excitement at the announcement that he was ready to leap out of his chair. He had not expected to receive any sort of good news today.
“We may not begin at all,” said Tullius severely, “unless you can satisfy me on two important points. If I train you to become a mage,” continued Tullius gravely, “you may gain great power. Over the years, I have noticed a certain, let us say, capriciousness in your nature, and it troubles me. I would not like to see you use your new powers to hurt others for your own amusement,” said Tullius sternly.
“I would never use my powers to hurt anyone,” said Elerian with a frown, surprised that Tullius would even consider him capable of such a thing.
“What about using your powers to frighten people half to death?” asked Tullius suddenly. “Would you consider that acceptable?”
Elerian felt uncomfortable under Tullius’s penetrating look, and once more, he moved his ring out of sight. He could not see how his practical jokes had done any real injury to anyone, even Granius and his companions. “It would be a dull world if there were no surprises,” he said at last as he tried to explain his fondness for mischief.
“There is room for argument on that point,” said Tullius. “Not everyone likes surprises. It is the sort of behavior that has led many people to distrust mages, for there have been those in the past who have used their powers in petty, malicious ways.”
“I still do not see the harm in an occasional prank,” said Elerian stubbornly, for to give in on this point seemed to be a denial of something that was a part of his nature. “It was certainly better that I frightened the woodcutters instead of killing them as I could easily have done that day,” thought Elerian to himself.
Tullius frowned, but he knew that he was unlikely to win a victory on this point. “It is in the boy’s nature to be light hearted,” he thought resignedly to himself, and he pondered silently whether it would be safe to train Elerian, for being a mage was a serious business. “Still, it might be more dangerous to let him grow up without any guidance,” thought Tullius to himself. “The development of the third eye at such a young age seems an indication that he will have strong mage powers when he grows up.”
As he waited in anxious silence for Tullius to say something, Elerian could almost see the doubts in Tullius’s mind. He wondered what decision the mage would make.
“Very well,” said Tullius at last. “We will leave this first point undecided for now. I will watch you constantly, however, to see if you demonstrate the right temperament to be a mage.”
Elerian let out a sigh of relief. He was past the first hurdle.
“On the second point, there can be no argument,” continued Tullius sternly. “You must promise me that you will not draw attention to yourself with your new knowledge.” He stared hard at Elerian as he said these last words.
“I have always tried to pretend I am like everyone else,” said Elerian in a slightly bitter voice. “It is all that I have ever heard from you and Balbus.”
“There is a reason for what we have asked of you as you will learn someday,” said Tullius, refusing to be affected by the discontent in the boy’s voice. Suddenly, his expression softened a little. “Return in a week and we will begin your lessons.”
With a light heart, Elerian rose from the table. As he ran out the front door, Tullius shouted, “Use the gate next time.”
Elerian, whose back was safely turned, smiled once more. Tullius was a worthy adversary, and it pleased him that the mage suspected but could not prove his connection to the Black Wolf, for it left the door open to even better pranks in the future.
THE POOL
As he impatiently waited out the week before his apprenticeship was to begin, Elerian took Tullius’s advice and remained within the confines of the farm. When the next change in his vision occurred, he was sitting in the shade with his back against one of the great chestnut trees that grew by the farmhouse. Drawing comfort and support from the tree trunk at his back and the knowledge that nothing would threaten him on the farm, Elerian did not panic as before. Instead, with all the calmness he could muster, he applied himself to making sense of what his third eye showed him.
Based on his previous experiences, he had already come to think of the lights he saw with his mage sight as shadows cast by the things he saw with his normal vision. Unlike real shadows, however, their outlines were not fixed. Instead, they shifted
and wavered constantly so that the world, seen through his third eye, appeared to be in constant motion. Ignoring this fluctuation as he would ignore the shifting outlines of the flames of a fire, Elerian concentrated on the shades instead. His vertigo gradually vanished, and although they lacked details like real shadows, he was gradually able to make sense of the shapes he saw around him.
His own form had taken on the appearance of a wavering, golden shade. The three chestnut trees were now tall columns of flickering green that reached into the sky. When he looked overhead, Elerian saw a tracery of green lines and masses of solid green instead of branches and leaves, all of them in constant motion due to subtle changes in their outlines. The thick turf he sat on was a shifting carpet of green, but when Elerian parted the grass blades with his fingers, the ground in which they were rooted was a dead black color.
Hesitantly, Elerian rose to his feet and began to walk, gaining confidence with each step. When he finally stepped out from beneath the crown of the tree, he found that the shades around him faded, becoming almost translucent under the light of the sun. The sky was colored gold instead of blue, and the rays of the sun and the light breeze that was blowing took on the forms of pale sheets and banners of rippling, shifting, barely visible golden light. Even the sun was a pale shadow of itself although its intensity still kept Elerian from looking at it directly. Then, as suddenly as it had opened, Elerian’s third eye closed, bringing him back to a world that suddenly seemed drab and ordinary compared to the world of light and motion he had just glimpsed.
Elerian’s third eye continued to open at unexpected times over the next few days. As he became accustomed to viewing the world through its lens, Elerian lost his fear of his new power. He began to venture out at night again and found that the shades he saw were brighter and more intense in the dark. The moon and the stars flooded the air with silver streams of light, giving the night a magical quality. With each step, new wonders appeared. Beneath his feet, he saw the golden spark and flash of the tiny creatures which lived on the ground, and when he came to a stream, it appeared as a flow of gleaming silver, with a surface and shape that were in constant flux.
As he became accustomed to finding his way about with his third eye open, Elerian resumed his nocturnal wanderings, but he did not go far, staying on the farm mostly or along the edge of the forest. The week of waiting passed quickly, and one morning he rose and found that the appointed time for the beginning of his lessons had arrived. Almost bursting with excitement, Elerian said goodbye to Balbus after his chores were done and set off down the path that led to Tullius’s house with Carbo by his side to watch over him.
It was a fine day and still very warm. The sky was a deep, cloudless blue, and the sun shone brightly overhead as Elerian stepped lightly down the path which led to Tullius’s house. He paid little attention to the path, for he had been this way many times before, and he had Carbo along to warn him of any danger. With his mind occupied in thinking about the spells he would soon be learning, Elerian’s feet, almost of their own accord, traveled northeast as they followed the side of the wooded hill on which he lived. As Elerian neared the end of the hill and began to descend the slope in front of him, the border of the Abercius drew near on his left. In that direction lay the ravine that concealed the cave once used by the Goblins and the mutare.
In middle of a stride and without any warning, Elerian’s third eye suddenly opened. He stumbled a little in surprise, but he did not fall or even stop completely, only slowing his stride a little, for he was becoming more used to the strange world of lights and shadows which his mage sight showed him. Without any panic, Elerian continued to follow the dark line of the path beneath his feet as it led between the glowing columns of the tree trunks. The tree roots in his path, he avoided easily enough, for he saw them as lines of green that snaked across the dark surface of the path. Dips and rises in the ground gave him more trouble, but he was learning to distinguish between the subtle variations of black which indicated rocks or changes in the height of the ground.
As he concentrated on the path, Elerian almost missed a green light that wavered between the shades of the trees on his left like a rippling emerald curtain. It rose all the way to the canopies of the trees without any break, and Elerian was reminded at once of a barrier or a wall. Curiously, he approached the curtain of light where it touched on the shades of two trees which stood quite close together. Seen up close, the veil of light appeared to have currents in various shades of green, some dark and some light, flowing and swirling through it.
Elerian was unsure if the light presented any danger to him, so he thrust the blade of his knife through it to test it. The blade appeared unharmed when he withdrew it. Knowing that he was demonstrating some of the recklessness Tullius disapproved of, Elerian, nonetheless, cautiously thrust his right hand into the light. He felt nothing alarming, and when he withdrew his hand, he was relieved to see that it had taken no harm that he could detect. Reassured by the fact that his hand had emerged unscathed, Elerian warily stepped into the green curtain of light before him.
At first, he saw only a green haze all around him, and a dark path beneath his feet. As he walked down the path, the haze and the world of shades vanished. A translucent green tinted light now filled the air, and motes of a faint, greenish gold color danced and drifted randomly all around him. Through the motes and the faint light, Elerian could see the actual shapes of the things around him again. He was confused for a moment until he recalled the time he had seen Carbo’s shade and the dog’s everyday form at the same time, one overlaying the other. “I am seeing things with my eyes again,” he thought to himself excitedly, “but my third eye is also showing me the concealment spell which must cover everything in this ravine.”
Now that he could see again, Elerian realized that he was standing in the beginnings of a ravine he had never seen before, despite the numerous times he had followed the path which led past its entrance.
Anxious as he was to begin his lessons, Elerian found himself unable to resist the lure of the unknown path that continued on before him, leading down into the depths of the ravine. “I may never find it again after today,” he thought to himself. He began to follow the faint track, and Carbo, who had followed him through the barrier of light, whined uneasily. Carbo did not like this strange place, and he trailed reluctantly after Elerian who ignored Carbo’s misgivings. “There is magic at work here,” he thought to himself. “Who knows what I may find at the end of this path.”
Before long, the walls of the ravine began to rise and were soon above the level of Elerian’s head. Moisture dripped down their sides, and a lush growth of moss and green ferns covered both walls of the ravine. Elerian heard the cheerful splash of water on stone, and a few steps later, saw a clear spring flowing out of the wall to his right. Leaping from stone to stone, it ran down the center of the ravine and formed the beginnings of a stream which flowed away downhill.
Elerian continued down the path as it followed the left bank of the stream which flowed smoothly over its stony bed, purling noisily around and over the larger rocks in its path. The steep walls of the ravine grew farther apart from each other, and the ferns and mosses gave way to tall beech, oak, and ash trees whose trunks were covered with gray-green lichens. A translucent green light continued to cover everything like a constantly shifting cloak with green gold specks drifting and swirling through it.
The branches of the trees met overhead now to form a green roof, giving Elerian the sense that he had entered a great cave. The light under the trees became dimmer, and the green gold motes that floated in the air were more visible. No sound broke the stillness except the murmur of the stream and an occasional liquid birdcall from the canopy overhead. As he approached the base of the hill and the end of the ravine, Elerian heard the loud rush of water and came to a place where the stream cascaded noisily over slick, water blackened rocks to fall twenty feet as a silvery waterfall into a rocky pool about thirty feet wide. The water from
the falls entered the pool in a welter of white foam, and a light mist filled the air, coating the dark rocks at the margin of the pool with a gleaming film of water. A golden ray of sunshine shone through a gap in the green leaves of the beeches and oaks that overhung the pool and struck the falls, turning the rising mist silver. Downstream from the falls, the surface of the pool was smooth, and the water had a sea green tint which obscured the depths below. Stepping lightly and surely, Elerian descended a natural stairway of flat stones along the left side of the falls and skirted the margin of the pool. Carbo continued to follow him, a disapproving look on his face. Elerian glanced eagerly about, wondering what he might see in this secret and obviously magical place.
His gaze was drawn to the left of the pool where, between the edge of the water and the steeply rising side of the ravine, grew an enormous gray beech tree whose unblemished trunk soared high into the air, dwarfing the other trees around it. Its long, straight, pale branches were covered with bright, oval shaped leaves of a dark green hue, and its crooked, humped roots spread out around its trunk, reaching as far as the stony bank of the pool. Overlaying every part of the tree was the faint green light which filled the air, and green gold motes danced around its trunk and beneath its overarching crown.
Elerian looked at the tree in admiration, for it seemed grander than any beech he had ever seen before. He suddenly longed to climb it and walk on those pale branches so far overhead, but a sharp bark from Carbo drew his attention away from the tree. Out of the corner of his right eye, Elerian saw something break the surface of the pool at the deeper end. As Elerian turned to look, a series of concentric ripples spread out smoothly across the surface of the pool. In the center of those perfect rings, Elerian caught a glimpse of a sleek head covered with long, pale water slicked hair. Startled green eyes met Elerian’s own for an instant before suddenly sinking beneath the surface of the pool. There was a glint of what looked like silver scales beneath the surface of the pool, but Elerian was able to see little else, for the deep green tint of the water obscured the depths below.