Eye of the Moonrat (The Bowl of Souls: Book One)

by Cooley, Trevor H.

  Despite what the others said, Justan became concerned. The man had been absent for long stretches before, but never for two entire days. Professor Valtrek was supposed to be the leader of this trip and surely no matter how busy he was, he wouldn’t just abandon everyone. Perhaps he was sick or hurt or even dead. No one would ever know. Justan was the only one who even checked on him.

  He tried to entertain himself with his friends, sparring with Riveren or talking about blacksmithing with Lenny. But the darkened rune on the wizard’s door stayed in the back of his mind.

  The town of Pinewood was situated on the border of the plains and the Tinny Forest. Though it was mainly a logging town, Pinewood stood as the last place to stop for supplies for anyone traveling through the woods. The place was built like a fort with tall wooden walls surrounding the entire town. Massive gates were watched over by alert guards to make sure that nothing unsavory got in.

  The caravan arrived in the evening as the light was dimming. With Valtrek still in hiding, the guards made the decision to stay just outside of the town gates for the night. In the morning they would go into Pinewood for supplies and then be on their way. Everyone was eager to get through the forest as quickly as possible, especially the mages. They had been away from their home for a long time.

  As they stopped, Justan got his first glimpse of the forest. He had imagined a dark, twisted place, but it didn’t look forbidding at all. In fact it looked pleasant. The fall weather had turned the leaves on the trees into a myriad of colors and though some of the branches were bare, their leaves having long since floated to the ground, the view was resplendent, reminding Justan of comfortable fall outings in the woods to the east of Reneul. With that memory in mind, his fear of the next part of the journey dissipated and he found himself looking forward to it.

  As the night deepened and his friends were talking at the fire, Justan was drawn once again to the wagon of the man in the white robe. It had become almost a ritual to him now as he walked up to the door, stepped up on the first step and touched the rune. He called out to the wizard.

  “Professor Valtrek, this is Justan. Can I speak with you?” There was no answer. “I was hoping that you might help me with some questions.” Still there was no response from the wizard. But then, for a brief moment, Justan thought he saw the rune flicker. “Sir, can you hear me? Are you alright?” Another flicker. Justan began to worry even more. He continued to try, but the rune remained dark after that.

  He left the wagon and went to his bedroll to sleep. Justan lay there for a few hours and then gave up. His curiosity was getting the best of him. The familiar questions still burned in his mind. What went on in that wagon? What did the man do while shut in that small room all day? Justan had to do something. Besides, he had to make sure that the man wasn’t hurt, didn’t he? He wasn’t sure, but the excuse was enough for him to justify giving in to those urges.

  He snuck over to the wagon again.

  “Professor,” he whispered into the rune, and when there was a slight flicker of light, he grasped the door handle. Instantly, he was hit with a shock that jolted him and singed his hand.

  “Oww!” he gasped. His curiosity was turning into anger at the wizard.

  Justan was determined to get into the wagon now. He flexed his aching hand and wrapped it in a handkerchief. He grasped the handle once more and was shocked again, but the cloth muted it. He tried to twist the knob, but the door was locked. There was a greater shock this time as he twisted the handle. His hair stood on end.

  “This is it, professor! Let me in!” The rune didn’t flicker this time, but he put his shoulder down and drove his weight into the door. The wood around the lock splintered and Justan sprawled inside.

  He quickly sat up. A glowing light came from a pedestal in the corner of the room, stinging his eyes, but his vision soon adjusted from the darkness outside. The wizard wasn’t there. There was a small neatly made bed and a chair that had dust on the seat. It looked to Justan as if no one had been there in weeks. The place even smelled empty, as if it had been sucked dry of all scents.

  Justan’s eyes were drawn to the one object in the room that stood out. Along the rear wall of the wagon was a large full-body mirror. Its surface shone as if just recently polished. The mirror had a silver inlaid frame covered in runes and symbols in a way that was almost as hypnotic as it was beautiful. It wasn’t bolted to the floor and Justan wondered how it could have stood upright on all of the bumpy parts of the road.

  As he gazed at the exquisite frame, Justan was compelled to reach out and touch it. Without thinking, he raised his arm and stretched his fingers towards the glass. Suddenly, the mirror’s face changed from his reflection into something cloudier. Justan felt compelled to touch the mirror. No, not just touch it. He wanted to enter it.

  His vision shifted for a moment and he saw tendrils of energy reaching out from the thing to grasp at him. He shook his head and pulled back. He didn’t like that compulsory feeling.

  Evidently the wizard had used that mirror to go travel somewhere. He looked back at the door and winced at the damage. He wondered if there was a way for him to repair it before Valtrek got back. As he went to examine it closer, he noticed something on a small table beside the door. He looked closer. His heart shot into his throat.

  Suddenly many questions were answered.

  A gust of wind blew out of the mirror, bringing with it the sweet spicy smell that Justan had smelled on his previous visits with the wizard. Justan quickly swept the object from the small table and turned in time to see the man in the white robe emerge from within the silver mirror. He trailed a cloud of aromatic spicy mist behind him. The wizard’s features were laced with anger.

  “Justan! How dare you enter my personal quarters without my permission? This is unconscionable conduct from a student who-” He stopped when he saw what Justan had clenched in his hand.

  “You!” Justan snarled, rage burning in his eyes. “You . . . you villain! How dare you accuse anyone of unconscionable conduct?” He held out the object he had taken from the table. It was a vial of sleeping potion just like the one Kenn had used to kidnap Jhonate. “You put Kenn and Benjo up to it, didn’t you! It was all a ploy to keep me from entering the academy.”

  Justan trembled with the betrayal. Not only had the wizard tried to keep Justan from achieving his dreams, but his dearest friend could have been seriously hurt. “What do you want from me? What do I possess that you would stoop this low to get?”

  The wizard’s arms fell to his sides. His features slumped. He did not deny Justan’s accusations.

  “I am not proud of what I have done,” he began. “It is true that I gave the potions to that weasely little man. But I did not know the depth of the anger he held toward you. I had hoped that by delaying you in the exams, that I might have a better chance of convincing you to come along, but it was not for any personal gain, I assure you.”

  “Then why? Tell Me!” Justan shouted.

  “For you. I did it for you, Justan. You must believe me. I have seen the sheer depth of the power that you could have, and I could not leave it be. If I could see your potential, then so could others. I couldn’t leave you on that path knowing that someone could come along and corrupt that power. You need to learn about that magic. You need to be able to control it. If not, much harm could come to those around you!”

  “You lie!” Justan snapped, and threw the bottle at the wizard’s feet. It shattered into pieces, pelting Valtrek with potion. The wizard swooned and fell to the floor, a victim of his own magic.

  Justan fled from the wagon. He didn’t know what to do. He was too blinded by his pain to think straight. His world had been upended once again. He had even begun to look forward to the new experiences awaiting him at the Mage School. Now he could not imagine going to that place and trying to learn from the very people who he knew had plotted against him.

  He looked up the road. He couldn’t go back to the academy either. They wouldn’t take him i
f he breached his contract. It seemed to him that the doors to his future had been shut in his face and now he was left out in the cold. Justan gathered his belongings and fled into the one place that seemed at all familiar to him. The Tinny Woods.

  Chapter Twenty One

  The man in the white robe awoke in a pile of shattered glass. A single shard caught his eye as it sparkled on the floor by his face. After much effort, he was able to rise to his feet and brush the glass out of his white hair and neatly trimmed dark beard. His ears rang and his head felt like it had been stuffed with cotton. That poor fool boy, he thought.

  Valtrek had told the truth when he said that he was not proud of what he had done to get Justan in the Mage School. In fact, he knew that he had deserved the treatment he received when the young man found out. The whole situation had gotten out of hand.

  In the beginning, he had thought young Kenn Dollie to be not much more than a little prankster who had a dislike for Justan. But the slimy little man had been more dangerous than he had expected. It was only much later when he found out what had almost occurred because of his sleeping potions that he realized his mistake.

  Even so, he reminded himself that the boy would have never learned of his shady deed if he had just been more careful. The boy’s progression was the important thing. He had let himself be distracted by work that he believed required his personal touch. A war was brewing and there were so many tasks to complete.

  Throughout the journey, Valtrek had used the mirror to travel to the Kingdom of Benador where he was lobbying the king to strengthen his force on the border of the Trafalgan Mountains. Valtrek had been forced to leave in the middle of an important dinner function to answer the alarm sent to him by his wards on the door to his wagon. No doubt the king was wondering where he had gone. These talks were crucial, but he now realized that it would have been better if he had asked one of his colleagues to handle it. Instead, his absence from the caravan had spurred the already angry young man into irresponsible action.

  Valtrek ran one hand through his white hair and sighed. Life in his position was always so complicated. What he wouldn’t do for some time off, perhaps a few weeks at the wizard colony on the island of Troi. But that was a luxury he didn’t have. He needed to find Justan and make things right. It would not be an easy task, but the boy’s potential was just too great to ignore.

  The professor opened the door into the morning sunlight. How long had he lain asleep on the floor? He grumbled under his breath as he rushed down the steps and across the camp. He had so much to do. Well, the king would have to wait until he could straighten things out with Justan.

  The students were chatting amiably as they climbed into the wagons. Valtrek realized that they had already been in the town gathering supplies and everyone was putting everything away so that they could be on the move. Valtrek searched around past the surprised stares of his students, but he could not find Justan.

  “Vannya!” he called.

  “Yes!” she chirped from right behind him.

  Valtrek swung around. “Ah, yes. You have befriended Justan?”

  “Uh, yes sir.”

  “Good. Where is the boy?”

  “I don’t know professor. I haven’t seen him since last night.” She looked worried.

  “Blast! Young lady, you were supposed to keep track of him!” The wizard spun away, his mind moving at blurring speeds. He didn’t have time to send out a search party for the boy. He stomped his foot in frustration.

  Vannya watched the Professor pace back and forth, stroking his neat beard ferociously. Then he stopped and closed his eyes. He murmured under his breath and snapped his fingers.

  To her surprise, the Professor’s body went limp and fell to the ground. Vannya rushed over with the other students to check him. She tried to send her magical energies into the wizard’s body to discover what was wrong, but they were jolted back into her with so much force that she was physically thrown back a few steps. Evidently his body was warded against such intrusion. She felt his pulse and when she saw that his heart was still beating, she sighed and had the others carry the wizard back to his wagon. Stranger things had happened where Valtrek was concerned.

  Valtrek’s essence soared along the winds, looking for the missing Justan. Leaving ones body this way was very risky. Normally he would have prepared a lot better before attempting it, but he had no time to waste. His body would be safe among his students. Even so, he still couldn’t keep himself from looking back at the thin stream of energy that connected his spirit with his body every once in a while to make sure that all was well.

  He flew along the ground at a furious speed searching for Justan, but he was no tracker. The area Justan could have traveled during the night was huge. Where had the boy gone? Did he head back to the academy even though nothing was there for him, or would he have gone into the town of Pinewood to hole up and think of his options?

  Valtrek did not know where he would go if in Justan’s position, but he realized that he could not have traveled that far. He checked the road back towards Reneul first and saw nothing but a small horde of goblins skulking about the hills. He would have to inform the town about that before they left. The wizard searched the town and the plains until the only place he had not checked was the most unlikely place that Justan would have headed into.

  Valtrek looked into the Tinny Woods and realized that there was nothing he could do if the boy had gone in there. With a sigh that was carried along the wind, he retreated to his body. As always, there was so much work to do.

  Justan stumbled through the trees, anger boiling in his mind. He tried to take some comfort in the pleasant forest smells and peaceful sounds of night birds and crickets. Where could he go now? He certainly wasn’t going to go back and join the caravan after all that had occurred. He lurched blindly forward in the darkness, obsessing over the disaster his life had become.

  He wandered throughout the night, railing at his fate, cursing, and sometimes even crying as he thought of all he had lost. What were his options now? He supposed that he could go back to Reneul. The academy wouldn’t take him in, but his parents wouldn’t turn him away. What would he do there, though? Sit on his hands? He didn’t want to be a burden on his parents. He would need to make money. But where would he work?

  Justan stopped and sat on the trunk of a fallen tree. He had graduated from Training School after all. That was enough prestige to get a job in just about any army he wanted. He could go to Dremald and join the king’s army. Over time he could work his way through the ranks and make a name for himself.

  Justan’s shoulders slumped. That wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted to enter the academy and there was only one path that would take him there. He had to go to the Mage School. Justan frowned. That would just be playing into Valtrek’s hands. He refused to let that man control his life.

  One thought came unbidden to his mind. What would Jhonate say? He imagined himself showing up in Reneul, having abandoned his goals. He would go up to Jhonate and say . . . what? “I give up?”

  He shuddered at the thought of what she would do to him then. No, he would say, “I am sorry Jhonate, even though it cost me the academy, I just couldn’t let them-” . . . Let them what? Justan didn’t really know what their plans were for him. He imagined standing before her, telling her what Valtrek had done and she would say . . .

  She would say, “Do not tell me you ran away, boy. You stood in front of the man trying to keep you from your dreams and you did not fight? Just when you had him on the defensive you ran? Have you forgotten everything I taught you?”

  The terrifying thought strengthened him. She would be right to respond that way. She wouldn’t let him give up. That’s for sure. He tried to think of what he could do that would make her proud.

  Justan gritted his teeth. He would take control. He didn’t have to let the knowledge of Valtrek’s betrayal destroy his goal. This was only another obstacle in his way. In the past whenever fate had thrust something on
him that was beyond his control, it had only served to strengthen him. He couldn’t let this time be any different.

  No longer would he burden himself down with things he could not control. He would continue to the Mage School, and he would conquer it. He would choose to learn all that he could. He would make the best of these two years and come out triumphant.

  But he would not trust Valtrek again. Of that he was certain.

  He let out a deep breath. His confusion had dissipated, replaced instead with a new sense of purpose. Justan took a sip from his water bag and looked around. The woods were coated in a thick mist, but even though he could not see the sunrise through the trees, it was bright enough that he could tell that it was morning. He had walked all night. As he gazed around at the endless stretch of trees, Justan realized the new predicament he was in.

  He was lost.

  For the first time since he entered the Tinny Woods, Justan felt a pang of fear. Suddenly, instead of a place that reminded him of pleasant childhood memories, he saw himself in an unfamiliar and dangerous place. The mist obscured much of his view and he could not see past two or three trees in any direction. The ground was slippery and treacherous with its covering of wet, decaying leaves. The bare branches of the trees seemed to reach for him.