The Wizard's Curse (Book 2)

by Jenny Ealey

  Waterstone walked over to him and put his hand on the prince’s shoulder. “No Tarkyn. The opposite is true. It is more important than ever that we stick together and keep each other from capture. Because they will know that one of us will lead to the others, because of the oath.”

  Tarkyn rubbed his hand across his forehead, “And what if I find that I can no longer stand by and endure the sorcerers’ suffering? What then?”

  Surprisingly Falling Rain spoke, “I am sure you will not be able to. You could not let yourself, your father or the kingdom down like that.”

  There was a stunned silence.

  “What are you talking about?” asked Waterstone tightly.

  Falling Rain glanced at Tarkyn for permission to share his private knowledge. After receiving the faintest of nods, he went on, “It is what King Markazon said to Tarkyn after he stood up for Danton.” He looked around. “Do you know about this incident?”

  “Yes, Danton told us,” replied Autumn Leaves, “But no one knows what happened afterwards.”

  Falling Rain sent a gentle smile to Danton and then to Tarkyn “That fearsome Markazon, whom we all love to hate, cradled his determined little son in his arms and said, ‘Tarkyn, you put us all to shame. You are the best of us but you will suffer for it. And in the end, you must be the one to bring hope to our nation and save us from ourselves.’”

  Stormaway grunted, “You see? Just as I told you. I agree with you completely, Falling Rain. Tarkyn will not be able to stand by for much longer and watch sorcerers suffer.”

  Falling Rain shook his head decisively, “No. Having felt how hard it was for him to endure Danton’s suffering, there is no way he will be able to endure the suffering of an entire nation.”

  “Well,” said Tree Wind philosophically, looking around the group, “we all agreed after we rescued Golden Toad and Rushwind, that we would find Falling Rain first and then reconsider our position. And Tarkyn has worked unremittingly for us since then. So I guess it’s time to help him.”

  Autumn Leaves, too, walked over and placed his hand on Tarkyn’s other shoulder, “If we have to work with you to help your sorcerers, we will find a way.” Coming from Autumn Leaves, sorcerer-hater extraordinaire, this was quite a concession.

  Watching them, Falling Rain could see that the oath had no part to play in the support they were offering Tarkyn.

  Waterstone’s eyes met Danton’s. “So, my friend. It looks as though we won’t tear your prince in two, after all. We will all stand behind him and, as the woodfolk nation, help him to resolve the affairs of sorcerers.”

  As they spoke, they could see the tension leeching out of Tarkyn as he understood that he no longer had to manage the burden of the sorcerers’ affairs alone. He gave a wry smile, “Of course, I have no idea how we’re going to do it.”

  String and Bean looked at each other.

  “If it’s a conundrum you’re facing, Your Highness,” said Bean, with a smile. “We may have to stick around and help you too… beyond the six months, that is. If you’ll all allow us to stay.”

  “Yeah,” agreed String. “Politics, we don’t like. Puzzles, we do.” He shrugged, “Anyway, once you get over first impressions, you’re not such a political person yourself, are you, Your Highness?”

  This was such an exquisite contradiction in terms that everyone was bereft of speech.

  Then slowly, a huge grin dawned on the prince’s face. “I think you have hit on the crux of my difficulties. By birth, I am about as political as you can get. By nature, I am not. Naivety and politics are a very unwieldy combination.”

  “They are a very dangerous combination, my lord,” said Stormaway sternly. “But thankfully, you will also have Danton and me beside you every step of the way and both of us are masters of politics and intrigue. So with any luck, between us all, we will prevail.”

  “And at least now, no matter what happens, the forest is no longer endangered,” said Tarkyn with some satisfaction.

  “Isn’t it?” asked Falling Rain.

  “No,” replied Tree Wind, smiling. “True to his word, Tarkyn had the sorcery in the oath removed as soon as he knew how, and it now relies solely on our honour.”

  “Did you?” Falling Rain smiled. “Well, that’s a relief.” He frowned slightly, “Why didn’t you just waive the whole thing?”

  A ripple of tension flowed through the woodfolk until Waterstone cleared his throat and said firmly, “If you remember, we made that vow as a debt of gratitude to Markazon. Regardless of Tarkyn’s wishes, we feel honour-bound to uphold it.”

  “I see. And your view on it?” asked Falling Rain with the temerity that only someone not steeped in the culture of the group could bring to a conversation.

  Tarkyn looked around at everyone and gave a little smile, “When I first found out about the oath and how it was imposed, I would have done anything to destroy it completely. But now? Now I feel I have done enough to earn everyone’s allegiance. Besides, I am a Prince of Eskuzor, which matters to me if not to you, and I am the guardian of the forest, which matters to all of us. So if the choice were solely mine, I would not wish to waive it, now that the forest is safe.”

  “Anyway,” said Rainstorm, “Tarkyn’s in no position to release the oath because his commitment is greater than ours and he’d be doing himself more of a favour than us,” He smiled evilly at Tarkyn and crossed his arms, “You can’t release yourself from an onerous oath. It would be dishonourable.”

  “Besides,” said Waterstone dryly, “Our young prince here is nowhere near ready for equality.” He smiled at Tarkyn, “Are you?”

  Tarkyn eyes twinkled, “No. And never will be. And have no intention of trying to be.”

  The woodfolk shook their heads and smiled at him, clearly humouring his odd outlook.

  Falling Rain let his eyes rove around the group, watching everyone’s reactions, “Things have certainly changed since the wrought, raw days following Markazon’s visit.” He paused for a moment before deciding to add, knowing he would betray some more of his recently gained knowledge, “and since Tarkyn’s return into the forest. I applaud you all, sorcerers and woodfolk alike. I never expected to walk back into such harmony.”

  This pronouncement was met with laughter and several people at once explaining that things weren’t always so easy. As he listened to the history of the last few months, Falling Rain looked up and met Tarkyn’s amber eyes watching him across the sea of people between them. A smile passed between them before Falling Rain was once more submerged in the enthusiasm around him.

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  Jennifer Ealey

  The Sorcerer's Oath Series

  Book 3: The Lost Forest

  The raging wind threw sharp snowflakes into their eyes and faces. Visibility was reduced to a few feet and although it was almost noon, the day was as dark as dawn. And in the swirling stinging whiteness, stumbling through knee-deep snow, some fell and lost their hold. By the time the travellers reached the relative shelter of the forest edge, the gale was lashing the tops of the pine trees, bending them almost horizontal. The roar of the wind through the pines was deafening. The branches above the woodfolk provided scant cover and only standing in the lee of the trees reduced the force of the icy wind.

  But when the woodfolk and sorcerers, frozen and wet, took stock, they realised that nearly a quarter of their number was missing. String and Bean gathered them together, urging them to stay within the tress and wait for the others. They peered out around the trees but the storm was at its height and only a haze of driven snow greeted their eyes.

  String shook his head and shouted above the noise of the storm, “There is no point in going back out into that. Look! Our tracks are almost gone already. You won’t find them and you will become lost yourselves.”

  “Let’s hope they are all together and will fin
d their way to shelter,” yelled Bean. He looked around, “Who’s missing?”

  Tree Wind replied but her voice blended in too well with the wind to be heard. When String shook his head and put his hand to his ear, Thunder Storm repeated what she had said, his voice rumbling loudly against the noise of the storm.

  “Tarkyn’s missing. Midnight, Waterstone, Lapping Water, Melting Snow, Running Feet, Falling Rain….. What about Sparrow?”

  “I’m here,” came a small voice from the back. When everyone looked around, they saw her clinging determinedly to Creaking Bough’s hand.

  “Anyone else?” yelled String.

  “Harkell,” bellowed Danton.Falling Branch pushed to the front, “Rainstorm’s not here either. Neither is Autumn Leaves.”

  “What are we going to do?” demanded Danton. “We can’t just sit here letting them freeze out there.” He turned to the old wizard, “Stormaway, Can you do anything to get rid of this storm?”

  The wizard shook his head, “This storm is huge. It would take me over an hour to have any effect on it….even then I’m not sure that I would have enough power.”

  “Tree Wind, Thunder Storm, can you contact them? Can you direct them towards us?”

  The woodfolk went out of focus, sending their minds out to find the others. After a few minutes, Thunder Storm breathed a sigh of relief and reported, “It’s all right. A couple of them lost their footing and the others stopped to help them up and lost contact with the rest of us. They are all together and just approaching the tree line now.”

  But the minutes ticked by and still there was no sign of them. Another round of mind talking produced the information that the lost group had reached the tree line. But still they were not in sight.

  “They must have veered off slightly and have entered the forest either above or below us,” shouted Bean.

  Suddenly, an image of huge, twisted, deciduous trees, untouched by the raging wind, came through to the woodfolk from Melting Snow. The images meant nothing to most of them but galvanised Hail and Blizzard.

  Blizzard shouted at String and Bean, “They’re lost. They are nowhere near us. Somehow, they have entered the Lost Forest”

  String stared at them, “I didn’t know that was real. I thought it was a myth.”

  Hail glared back, “It is a myth. But so is Tarkyn.”

  “So what do we do?” shouted Bean.

  “We seek shelter.” Hail’s voice brooked no argument. “There is nothing we can do for them.”

  About the Author

  Jennifer Jane Ealey was born in outback Western Australia where her father was studying kangaroos on a research station, one hundred miles from the nearest town. Her arrival into the world was watched, unexpectedly, by their pet kangaroo who had hopped into the hospital. Having survived the excitement of her birth, she moved firstly to Perth and then Melbourne where she spent most of her formative years. She took a year off from studying to ride a motorbike around Australia before working as a mathematics teacher and school psychologist in England and Australia, a bicycle courier in London and running a pub in outback New South Wales.

  She now lives in Melton, a country town just outside Melbourne, working by day as a psychologist and beavering away by night as a novelist. She has written two detective novels and has just completed The Sorcerer’s Oath, a series of four fantasy novels, of which The Wizard’s Curse is the second.

  The Sorcerers’ Oath Series

  Bronze Magic

  Wizard’s Curse January 2015

  The Lost Forest: To be released July 2015

  The Sorceress: Written, yet to be released

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