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

by Cooley, Trevor H.

  Vannya came out of the wagon and saw Justan standing there slack jawed, staring up at the imposing structure. She climbed up and joined him. “That’s the Rune Tower. It’s pretty amazing isn’t it? It’s been around about as far back as the records go.”

  Justan didn’t even turn his head to look at her. “It’s not the tower I’m looking at. Why would a school for wizards need such a huge wall?”

  She smiled, thrilled that Justan showed so much interest in the place she was so fond of. “The wall dates back to the war of the Dark Prophet. The School learned of the oncoming armies far in advance of their arrival. They realized the threat to the civilizations of the world if the knowledge contained in the library was lost. So they commissioned a group of architects, strategists and wizards to develop an impenetrable defense around the School. After the designs were complete, the most powerful black wizards in the known lands joined together and pulled the rock up directly from the ground around the school. The people molded them into what you see.”

  “Wow,” was all Justan could say.

  “They created a fortress that could never fall.”

  “Oh, it could fall.” Justan smiled. Ideas were forming in his head.

  Vannya snorted. “It has stood all these years through battles and sieges by armies so vast you couldn’t see an end to them and it has never fallen. No one has even come close.”

  “Hmm, I see some possibilities.” Justan was sure that some of his ideas might work. He just needed to see more of the structure first. “Give me some time and I could draw you up a plan to conquer this place,” he promised.

  “Oh, well you’ve got a deal, you big showoff!” She laughed. “Come on. It looks much better from inside.” As the wagons neared the giant wall, a portcullis was raised so that they could enter. Justan and Vannya climbed down from their perch.

  The opening was large enough that two of the wagons could have entered side by side. The caravan crawled through that opening and Justan and Vannya followed on foot. The wall surrounding the school was so thick that it was like passing through a tunnel. When they broke through, Justan was surprised. The inside of this place was like nothing he would have expected.

  The wall enclosed a huge area half again the size of the Battle Academy, and the tower only occupied part of that space. From the appearance of the outside of the school, Justan had envisioned anti-siege equipment and dark, tough, buildings. But on the inside, the place was completely different.

  Near the entrance, the land was covered in manicured grass and bushes. It was a bright, sunny day and the place almost glowed with the life of bright green color. Meandering through this area were crisscrossing paths with benches along them. There were several students strolling on these paths. A few of them stopped to wave at the passing wagons.

  The final quarter-mile of the caravan’s journey was along the major road that passed through the center of the school grounds. The road was paved with white brick and on either side of it stood large buildings. Students in many different colored robes flowed in and out of those buildings loaded down with books and talking animatedly with each other. Only a few of them that passed by the wagons stopped to take notice of the returning group.

  As he walked down the road with Vannya, Justan admired the place. There were trees and bushes planted along the road for shade and aesthetics, and every building was a thing of beauty or a marvel of craftsmanship.

  “Vannya, it’s nothing like I expected,” Justan admitted.

  “Oh?” she replied while waving at some of the students. “What did you think it would be like?”

  “I don't know. I guess I had thought that it would be a little more dismal.”

  She laughed. “It’s definitely not a dungeon.” Justan shrugged and she pressed her point. “You need to realize that even though you, the heroic warrior, didn’t want to come to this school, there are many who would give almost anything to have the opportunity to study here. In most parts of the world wizards are truly treated with respect.”

  “Hey, I always respected wizards,” Justan retorted.

  “Yeah right, I bet you respected the power of magic, but you always saw it as ‘cheating’. You fighter types always think of things relative to how you can affect them physically. Magic is intangible to you, so you see anyone wielding it as not fighting fairly.”

  Justan had to admit that she had a point. But to his relief, before he could voice it, the wagons stopped. Their journey had come to an end.

  They had come to the center of the school grounds. The main road ended in front of the Mage School center square. The square was lined with eight fluttering fountains that spouted water into the air in interesting patterns. In the middle of the square, surrounded by those fountains, was a thirty-foot tall miniature of the Rune Tower gilded in gold. It was a starling contrast to the real tower, which loomed far overhead. At the top of this replica tower was a large square box with four huge clocks on it, one facing each direction. He imagined that this clock tower could be seen from anywhere on the grounds.

  Vannya confirmed this as she stood beside him. “They had to commission over a hundred clock makers to make the clocks for the school. Time is very important here, so everyone is supposed to keep track of it. Every class is exactly timed and the students are only given a short amount of time to get from one class to another. In fact, we have a clock in every building. There is no excuse for being late at the Mage School.”

  The concept appealed to the logical side of Justan. Structure was how he had pushed himself so far. He preferred things this way. In the Training School, classes had been kept on a bell schedule. Only the Training Council had a clock and a member rang a bell when it was time for a class change. His father had told him that they had more clocks in the academy where classes were kept on more of a strict schedule.

  The Mages piled out of the wagons in front of the fountains and unloaded their belongings. Justan had all of his important things with him already. His clothes were neatly bundled and placed inside his pack, his weapons were strapped on, and the Scralag’s book lay nestled safely in one of the pouches around his waist. So with nothing else to do, he helped them unload all but Valtrek’s wagon. This one, no one was allowed to touch. Vannya had already activated the door rune and let the wizard know that they had arrived.

  When they were finished unloading, the wagons were led away by a stableman and a few students. Vannya explained to Justan that the school only employed the one stableman, Jeffrey. All of his assistants were either students who had either ‘volunteered’ to work there, or were being punished. In the Mage School each student was required to have at least one job taking care of the grounds. They called this ‘volunteer’ work even though it was mandatory.

  After the wagons were gone, all of the mages except for Vannya went their separate ways. At that point, Justan noticed that Riveren and Zambon had not come into the school with the caravan. In fact, he didn’t recall seeing either of them after he had spoken with Riveren, and that was over an hour ago. He thought that strange, but he dismissed it from his mind. As far as he knew, this was standard procedure for the guards at the school.

  He turned to Vannya. “So, where do I go from here?”

  “The professor told me that when we arrived, I should take you into the library and have you wait until he had someone come for you.” She smiled. “I can’t wait for you to see it, Justan! I have been here most of my life and I am still amazed every time I go in there.”

  They walked along a paved path that curved around on either side of the clock tower. He looked for the library building, but Vannya led him straight towards the tower and Justan realized that the library must be contained inside.

  The Rune Tower covered over a quarter of the grounds of the school. It was made of huge blocks of gray stone inscribed with thousands of magic symbols. As he stood there gaping up at it, Justan still had no idea just exactly how tall it was.

  The base of the tower was surrounded by a wide swirl
ing moat spanned by a massive drawbridge. Huge chains attached the end of the bridge to holes farther up into the tower so that the mages could pull it up and use the tower for a fallback position in the unlikely event that the outer wall was breached.

  Justan walked to the edge of the moat and looked in. The waters were flowing rapidly clockwise around the structure and Justan was pretty sure that he saw many small dark shapes swimming in the water, keeping pace with the current. “Hey, what’s in the water?” he asked, leaning over for a better look.

  Vannya rushed over and pulled him away from the edge. “What ever you do, don’t even think about touching the water. Those things you see are called the Perloi. The High Council supposedly has control over them so they don’t attack anyone except for in times of war, but I still don’t trust the little monsters.”

  “Why?” he asked, still entranced by the movements of the things.

  “Because I have seen them fed. The wizards bring in a live goat every once in a while and toss it in. As soon as it hits, the water thrashes around and in seconds, the thing is gone. Nothing’s left, not even the bones. It’s a creepy thing to watch.” She shivered. “Anyway, let’s go inside. There are far more interesting things to see.”

  Vannya walked onto the wide drawbridge leading into the tower and Justan followed her. But he couldn’t keep his eyes off of the deadly shapes that darted about under the water.

  The doors to the tower were thrown open wide and they entered into a large corridor. There were torches set in the wall every so often for lighting, and the walls were lined with elaborate tapestries depicting the folklore and culture of the lands. As they walked by, Justan wanted to examine each one, but Vannya tugged him after her.

  “Come on!” she said. “You have two years to see all this stuff. You can even sign up for tapestry cleaning duty if you want.”

  On either side of the hallway, there were stairways branching up and down. Justan wondered where they led. If the tower were this tall, how far into the ground did it extend? Vannya didn’t take any of these doors or give Justan an opportunity to explore. She continued straight until the end of the corridor where a pair of large ornate doors stood.

  “Here we are,” she said. “All the knowledge in the world is kept in here.” They opened the doors and stepped inside.

  Justan gasped as they entered. The library was huge. It was five stories high with ladders and stairways to the different levels sprouting everywhere, but the center of the room was open and the ceiling arched far overhead, painted with fantastic murals. The bottom section of the library was covered in tables filled with students who had their noses in different volumes. The carpeting was a deep red color. Since all of the furnishings were a dull brown, it made a startling contrast.

  “It’s magnificent, isn’t it?” Vannya whispered to Justan, but he didn’t even hear her. He was too busy absorbing everything.

  “It’s wonderful,” he mumbled, more to himself than to Vannya. His mind was a whirl with the possibilities waiting in this one large room. Previously, the most books he had ever seen in one place had been in the small Training School library. They had about a hundred books on warfare and such subjects and he had read every one during his years there. Now he could see thousands upon thousands. As he looked around the library, two years suddenly did not seem like such a long time. He had a feeling that he would be spending much of his time right in this room.

  He dimly realized that Vannya was tugging on his arm. “Justan!” she whispered. “Hey!”

  He turned his head and looked at her. “Sorry. What were you saying?”

  “Shh!” she whispered, putting a finger to her lips, and Justan realized how quiet it was in the room. All he heard was the ruffle of pages, the soft sounds of padded footsteps and the low murmurs of whispering students.

  “We can’t just stand in the doorway. Come let me introduce you to Vincent. He has been the head librarian here for over two hundred years.” As she led him across the floor, Justan wondered how a wizard had managed to live that long. When they arrived at the main desk, he understood. Vincent was a gnome.

  Gnomes were an extremely intelligent people with an unnatural thirst for knowledge. They were also notoriously absent-minded. It was said that the gnomes had both learned and forgotten more than all of the other races combined. It was because of this that not a whole lot was known about them even though they were fairly common. No one even knew for sure how old a gnome could become, for if you asked one how old it was, it most likely wouldn’t be able to remember. Despite their downfalls, most of the major scientific discoveries and inventions in current history came from the gnomes.

  They were a very tall and thin race as a whole marked by their long hooked noses and dog-like ears that drooped down to their chins. The average gnome measured between seven and eight feet in height yet they usually weighed very little. No one was sure if this was the way their bodies were supposed to look or if they just constantly forgot to eat.

  Gnomes were one of the less populous races. Some say that it was because they were so frail that it was hard for them to carry a baby. Others believed that they were so wrapped up in the pursuit of knowledge that they let such diversions as parenting go by the wayside. But when a gnome survived childhood, they lived for a long time. It was often said that if they hadn't been so long lived, the gnomes might have died out long ago.

  Vincent was a good example of an average gnome. The tops of his ears were long and droopy. He had a long pointed nose that he had a habit of tugging on whenever he was thinking hard, and a pencil-thin mustache that barely touched the top of his lips. He was about seven feet tall and was so wispy thin that he looked skeletal, almost as insubstantial as a ghost. Vincent had kind eyes, though, and that erased any trace of menace in his appearance.

  “Oh, hello Miss Vannya,” he said and bowed. His ears flopped in the breeze caused by the sudden movement, and the spectacles perched on his forehead clattered to the ground. He quickly picked them up and set them back on the top of his head. “It is so good to see you. Why, surely it has been over a week. You haven't been neglecting your studies have you?”

  “Actually Vincent, I have been gone for over a month,” she replied with a grin.

  “Ah. Well. How time flies.” The gnome looked over at Justan. “Who is your unsightly friend?”

  “Oh! This is Justan. He is going to be a student here. Justan, this is Vincent. I’m afraid that we don’t know his last name.”

  “It will come back to me some day soon, my dear,” Vincent said as if a little insulted. “Why just this morning I had several of my assistants go and search the archives for it.” He paused for a moment, tugging on the end of his pointed nose. “That’s funny. They haven’t come back yet.” He shifted his attention to Justan. “Well, Justan is it? Hmm, I’ll file that away.” He bent over with a feathered pen and scribbled something down in a large bound book. Vincent looked back up to Justan. “That won’t do, though.”

  “What?” Justan asked.

  “I am afraid that you can’t be allowed to trounce around in this library with so many weapons. It’s against school policy.” He cocked his head and yanked on his long nose. “Or at least I think it is. I’ll have my assistants look it up. In the mean time, would you please leave them behind the counter with me? I will let you take them with you when you leave.”

  Justan reluctantly removed his bow and unstrung it. He unbuckled his sword straps and handed them over, and the thin gnome tucked them away behind the desk. Justan started to hand over the knife but Vannya stopped him.

  “That’s okay. It’s customary for most of the students to carry a ceremonial knife around. The rest of the weapons you’ll probably want to keep in your room,” she whispered.

  Justan didn’t want to leave them in his room. He wanted everyone to know just who he was. “What is the actual rule?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure.” She turned to the gnome. “Vincent, can you show Justan to the school rule b
ook? He wishes to know the laws on carrying weapons on the grounds.”

  “But of course. Follow me, sir.”

  Vannya grabbed Justan’s arm. “Listen, I have to go. Don’t worry, someone will come for you soon. I’ll see you later.”

  “Sure, no problem.” Justan replied, simply excited to see more of the library. Still, he couldn’t help but add, “I won’t miss you at all. I have Vincent here to keep me company.” He smiled at her sweetly and followed the gnome.

  Vannya shook her head and smiled as she walked away.

  Chapter Twenty Nine