Nicholas Raven and the Wizards' Web (The Complete Epic Fantasy)

by Thomas J. Prestopnik

  Katherine agreed despite the knowledge that Lewis’ life would be spared. “It is a noble sacrifice, but a foolish one.”

  Oscar shrugged. “You may be right, Katherine, but Maynard won’t budge in his decision. As he is both the mayor and stubborn, he’ll definitely have his way. At sunset, we will witness the full extent of his loyalty to our village.”

  “I fear it will cost him and the village dearly,” Amanda replied, holding her husband close to dispel the emptiness that overwhelmed her spirit. She dreaded the hours to follow.

  The village bell tolled as the sun sank in the southwest, its reddish-orange rays filtering through a bank of tattered clouds. People hurried to the village hall, having grown accustomed to the throng of armed soldiers scattered in the streets as if they were as natural a part of the surroundings as the trees, stone walls and chimney tops. Inside, the drone of competing conversations hung heavily in the air. Hearts were filled with dread and despair. Few grasped what was happening or knew how to oppose it, so most simply waited, expecting the worst and hoping to survive it.

  The thirteen prisoners were again marched inside and lined up, their hands bound in front. Caldurian appeared shortly afterward, his expression cold and stony. Additional armed soldiers were stationed about the hall in anticipation of trouble from the villagers should the wizard’s harsh sentence against Len Harold and Lewis Ames be carried out.

  Katherine sat between her mother and Amanda Stewart, watching the proceedings nervously. Oscar, Ned and the two other council members sat on a side bench next to Maynard Kurtz in a show of unity. Zachary Farnsworth and Dooley Kramer occupied seats in separate parts of the hall, each engrossed in the grim proceedings. The last rays of the setting sun stabbed through the western windows, setting the glass aflame in lustrous shades of orange and crimson, but only for a moment. Soon the window panes were leached of their color, dissolving into muddy shades of gray and black as the sun dipped below the horizon.

  Caldurian gazed at the crowd and the prisoners before indicating to one of his soldiers to bring Len and Lewis forward. The soldier brusquely grabbed each man by an arm and positioned them helplessly in front, the focus of the room’s horrified attention.

  “I needn’t rehash my demands from earlier since everybody knows why we’re here,” the wizard said, pointing to the two men. “Certainly these two are aware of the significance of what’s about to unfold. So before I ask my question one last time, I hope everyone has had a good think these past few hours. Much depends on your response–or lack thereof.” No one spoke as they waited uneasily for Caldurian’s question, though all knew what he would say. It was what would happen afterward that caused many hearts in the room to beat rapidly or gazes to sink to the floor. “Who in this village is responsible for planning the failed escape attempt last night? Speak now, or all blame will be assigned to these thirteen men, two of whom will pay for the outrage with their lives this very night.”

  The hall was deathly still as the villagers looked on, several heads craning this way and that to see if someone might step up to claim responsibility. A few whispered words were hastily uttered as Caldurian watched, his dark eyes scanning the rows of benches for any hint of compliance. But just as he was about to speak, Maynard Kurtz slowly rose to his feet to both the relief and dismay of his fellow citizens. Yet despite his willingness to turn himself in, the mayor didn’t have a chance to address his audience. Everyone’s attention was suddenly directed toward the back of the room.

  The astonished voices of those standing outdoors and huddled within the entryway grew louder, reverberating throughout the hall. A commotion was brewing near the main doors, causing everyone to stand up and turn around. Soon gasps of shock and surprise were audible from one end of the building to the other as people observed a slightly stocky man slowly walking up the center aisle, his eyes wide in confusion and his mouth agape. The familiar figure was dressed in rumpled clothing, his thin, stringy hair tied up in back with a black band. He looked around as if in a state of drunken wonderment, halting when he caught sight of his sister and his niece.

  Sophia Durant raised a trembling hand to her lips, thinking for a moment that she was seeing an illusion. But when the man returned an equally astounded gaze, Sophia knew that her brother had finally returned home.

  “Otto! Where have you been?” she asked excitedly, clasping Katherine’s hand for support.

  “I– I’m not really sure,” he whispered. He looked around in bewilderment. “What’s happening here? And who are these armed men?” Sophia and Katherine, as well as several people within earshot, appeared astonished by the question.

  “Don’t you know?” Katherine asked, recalling the string of pre-dawn visits her uncle had made to certain residents of the village eight days ago, warning them of the trouble to come. “You had told us that something bad was about to happen to the village.”

  “I did?”

  “You did!” someone shouted. “And then you went slinking off like a scared cat before the worst arrived!”

  “Yeah! A lot of help you were, Otto!” another voice burst out. “Go back to where you came from!”

  “Huh?” Otto asked, in a mild stupor as he gazed around during the competing outbursts. “This is where I come from.” He glanced at Katherine, a trace of fear in his eyes. “What’s going on?”

  “It’s difficult to explain,” she said. “You see, Uncle Otto–”

  “You’re a traitor is what’s going on!” interrupted a farmer near the front of the hall, receiving a chorus of support from some sitting next to him. “Warning so many of your friends about what was going to happen before running away. How come you didn’t visit me, Otto?” The man grew red from a simmering rage.

  “Or me!” exclaimed the farmer’s closest neighbor. “Nor any of my relatives in Kanesbury. Guess our families just weren’t good enough!” He stuck out his chin with contempt, glaring at Otto. “Ashamed to ever call you my mayor again,” he muttered with disgust as more voices rose up.

  “Millard, what kind of talk is that?” Otto asked, standing in the aisle with his arms outstretched. “I don’t know what’s happened. I truly don’t. Tell me what’s going on. Tell me what I’ve done.”

  “You betrayed us, Otto!” Bob Hawkins shouted as he jumped to his feet, his chest puffed up and his eyes filled with disdain. “It’s just like the man said–you’re a traitor!”

  “Now wait one minute!” Maynard shouted, pushing through a forest of bodies that had slowly gathered around Otto, but he was quickly blocked out. “Let’s give the man a chance to–”

  “He had his chance when he decided to warn only some of us villagers and not the rest!” a teary-eyed woman cried out while shaking her clenched fist in the air. “My husband was arrested twice because of Otto’s selfishness. And now he has the audacity to stand there and pretend he doesn’t know what’s happened? The nerve!”

  More people shouted in derision as they tightened the ring around their former mayor like a circle of vultures, leaving Otto Nibbs flummoxed and scratching his head. But the ghastly expressions upon the faces of his friends and colleagues, along with their harsh words, were all too real, sending a sickening chill through him. When he noted that Sophia and Katherine simply stared back with horrified looks, it confirmed in his mind that Kanesbury had been thrown into unimaginable turmoil during his mysterious absence, however long that had been. And apparently he was to blame, though for what specifically, Otto could only guess.

  Finally, another man stood up on his seat and shouted at Caldurian who remained standing calmly in front, ignored for the moment by the boisterous, bubbling crowd. “If you really want to know who was behind last night’s trouble, you’re looking at him!” The man pointed down at Otto as if he were some mighty judge pronouncing a stinging verdict. “Otto arranged everything! He organized the escape, hoping to make up for abandoning us to the invasion,” the man bellowed out, his voice hoarse with anger. “It was all Otto’s plan, failure though i
t was. Every single bit of it!”

  “It sure was!” another man hollered, likewise getting to his feet and glaring at Otto as several people cheered him on. “Arrest him, Caldurian, if you’re looking for the true culprit! Arrest Otto and let the others go!”

  “Caldurian?” Otto whispered that bitter name from the past in stunned revulsion, not yet having noticed the wizard through the throng of people. He was still enveloped in a haze of bewilderment after having awakened from a long and fitful sleeping spell only moments ago, sprawled out on a pile of leaves off the road just down the street. Otto spun around to look for the wizard as some in the crowd stepped aside, allowing their mayor to locate his nemesis who had terrorized the village twenty years ago. When Otto locked gazes with Caldurian, the cold shock of recognition snapped his senses awake, though he was now rendered even more confused than when he had first walked into the hall. “You?” Otto’s eyes widened with dread, though the contempt in his voice was as hard as stone. “What are you doing here, wizard? What is happening?”

  Caldurian chuckled. “Quite a change of circumstances from twenty years ago, don’t you think?” But all Otto could do was shake his head in disbelief. “And as for what I’m doing here, Mr. Nibbs, well, I’m running your village as it should be run,” he replied with delight.

  “Nonsense! You’re a troublemaker of the worst kind, Caldurian, and no one in this room will disagree,” he shot back.

  “Perhaps not,” he replied with mild amusement. “But at least I’m not a traitor, deserting my people in the dead of night to save myself as apparently you have.”

  As murmurs of agreement swept through the room, Otto sensed that the crowd would favor the wizard over himself should it come to a contest. He wondered if everyone was under the influence of some vile, magical spell.

  “I’m not a traitor!” Otto shouted. “I would never desert Kanesbury.”

  “Then why did you warn some of us about the trouble to come just before fleeing the village?” asked a woman standing directly behind him, her eyes filled with contempt. “What kind of a leader does that to his people?”

  “I agree,” the wizard said, nodding sympathetically at the woman. “Only a heartless, conniving and ruthless man could do such a thing. It’s shameful in every way.”

  “I fled nowhere!” Otto insisted. “After I traveled to Barringer’s Landing to negotiate with the Enâri creatures, I–” He shook his head. “I just don’t remember what happened. I arrived there and searched among the fields, but found no one. The place was deserted. I hiked toward one of the abandoned barns and…” Otto looked up, helplessly pleading for anyone to believe in him.

  “And what?” Bob Hawkins asked.

  Otto sighed. “And nothing. I remember nothing from that point on until I woke up only moments ago down the street from here,” he explained. “I was lying on a pile of leaves, feeling as if I had been sleeping for ages.”

  “No doubt passed out drunk!” someone joked, receiving a round of boisterous laughter from the others. “So that’s where you’ve been all this time? Living off gin and ale in the wild?”

  “Is this true, Otto?” Caldurian asked with feigned shock.

  “No!” he shouted. “I don’t know where I was, but as soon as I woke up, I heard many of you gathered outside the village hall. So I walked this way, wondering what had happened to me while wondering at the same time what was happening here.” Otto looked at several people for an answer, his voice faltering. “And by the way, if I might ask, why do some of you want me arrested?”

  “Better you than them!” Millard said, pointing at the thirteen prisoners standing in utter bewilderment near Caldurian. “Because of your disloyalty to the village, they’re now paying the price.”

  “All too true!” someone replied with vigorous disgust. “All too true! You should be up there instead, Otto, for what you’ve done. They’re being punished for trying to save this village when all the trouble can be traced back to you for abandoning us to chaos.”

  “I say arrest Otto Nibbs and let the others go!” a voice shouted, echoing previous sentiments. Others quickly joined in until a raucous chant erupted, filling the village hall to its rafters with an explosion of pent up rage and frustration.

  “Arrest Otto Nibbs! Arrest Otto Nibbs!” most of the villagers shouted at once, many stomping their feet in the process.

  “Make him pay for what he did!” a lone voice hollered among the uproar.

  Otto looked on in stunned disbelief, wondering if he had gone insane. The shouts of Arrest Otto Nibbs! rang painfully in his ears. Sophia and Katherine tried to catch a glimpse of their forlorn relative, eyeing him with pity through the human barrier surrounding the man, wondering if there was anything they could do to save him. But the crowd was unrelenting in its condemnation of the former mayor as their shouts for his incarceration grew only louder and louder.

  “Arrest Otto Nibbs! Arrest Otto Nibbs!”

  Caldurian looked upon the spectacle with a stony expression, but inside, his spirit was swimming in a sea of euphoria as he savored the scorn and contempt heaped upon Otto by his own people. After a long and cruel wait, he was at last witnessing the scene he had played in his mind for twenty years, finally dining upon a visual meal whose aroma had enticed him for far too long. He had at last achieved a small victory and looked forward to many more.

  Through the crowd and turmoil and swirl of emotions, Caldurian and Otto locked stares for a few brief but weighty moments, each realizing that their roles had been reversed from two decades ago. Otto detected the hint of smug satisfaction oozing from the wizard’s vague smile, knowing for the moment that he was defeated, but not understanding how. Caldurian simply studied the face of his victim with contentment, silently savoring Otto’s utter demise.

  After he had had his fill of victory, Caldurian signaled to several of his captains to quell the crowd and to arrest Otto, instructing the soldiers to escort the man to the front of the room with the other prisoners. A burst of ecstatic applause reverberated throughout the hall as Otto Nibbs was walked up the remainder of the aisle with a guard on either side clutching his arms. The prisoner was ordered to stand near the wizard and face the crowd before accepting his sentence.

  “I must admit that even I was surprised by this turn of events,” Caldurian said, quieting the celebration. Not a single whisper disturbed the heavy silence. “And though ordinarily I would take some time to consider my next pronouncement, it appears beyond a doubt that the people here tonight have made their wishes known in the starkest terms.” Neither Otto nor Caldurian could ignore the sea of nodding heads before them. “So who am I to disregard such an overwhelming desire of these fine citizens to exact a bit of justice on one who so rightly deserves it?”

  The people of Kanesbury collectively held their breaths, anticipating the wizard’s verdict. The heat and pressure inside the village hall climbed rapidly in those few moments as the fate of the thirteen prisoners hung in the balance. The life of Otto Nibbs at the moment seemed an awfully small price to pay for their release, and most had no qualms about turning him over to Caldurian. Otto deserved a merciless fate considering the cruelty Kanesbury had been forced to suffer because of his cowardice and selfishness. Few were willing to shed a tear for him.

  “Therefore,” the wizard continued with much loftiness in his tone and gestures, “in accordance with the wishes of those gathered here, I am charging Otto Nibbs with the crimes of conspiring against the authority of this village and for attempting to raise chaos in the streets and against its people, and thus formally arrest him now. He will be sentenced after a public trial conducted by the very people he has offended. In the meantime, he’ll be incarcerated in the village lockup. A fitting fate for such a detestable criminal,” he emphasized with a sharp nod. “And in light of this new development, I hereby rescind all charges against the thirteen other prisoners and order that they immediately be set free. Guards, release them!”

  The spectators erupted in
cheers of jubilation and relief, jumping to their feet and applauding as their spirits soared and their worries melted away. Caldurian soaked it all in. One by one, the prisoners’ hands were untied and the thirteen men were free to leave, immediately greeted by the hugs and tears of their family members. Otto, at the same time, was unceremoniously hustled out of the hall through the side door at the wizard’s command and taken to the village lockup. Caldurian planned to question him later that night. But for now he would quietly return to his quarters by the river–Otto’s quarters–and enjoy a fine meal and a glass of wine to celebrate. This battle was finally over, the wizard mused as he slipped out the building, leaving the others to their celebration.

  Katherine, at the same time, had asked her mother to stay close to Amanda Stewart and find their way out of the hall while she waded through the crowd, hoping to reach her uncle before he was led away. She was too late, just glimpsing the back of Otto’s head as he was rushed out the side door.

  “I need to see my Uncle Otto!” she pleaded with one of the soldiers amid the uproar, barely able to get the man’s attention. “Can you take me to him? I beg you!”

  “Not tonight, miss,” he said flatly. “The wizard will want to question him first.”

  “But I must talk to–”

  “Stop by tomorrow. Make your case to one of the guards on duty,” he brusquely replied, brushing her aside as he walked away to help disperse the crowd.

  Katherine sighed, feeling helpless amid the bustling mass of people. As she turned to make her way back, she caught sight of Lewis in the embrace of his parents and younger brother and sister, her heart warming for that bit of good news. Lewis noticed her as well and their gazes connected, acutely aware of each other’s conflicting emotions. Unable to make her way over, Katherine signaled to him that she would attempt to see him later. Lewis nodded likewise, silently promising to stop by when he could. Their wordless conversation across the crowd was cut short a few seconds later when Katherine was nudged away by a line of soldiers hurriedly passing by, leaving her feeling as alone and abandoned as Otto Nibbs.