Spellsmith & Carver: Magicians' Rivalry

by H. L. Burke

  “Which means we’re limited to the quires we brought with us.” Jericho groaned.

  Auric grinned. “Another point for wax. I can continually rework it.”

  “Well, keep your wax at ready, then. It doesn’t do you much good if it’s stuck in your pocket while some spider-siren tries to eat your face.”

  Auric ignored the taunt and scratched out a cleansing spell to remove the scent of bile from his shirt. The rosemary almost overpowered it, but not enough.

  The woods darkened about them. The trees here were tall, stately firs with black needles that blocked the sky. Father’s glowing footsteps became their only source of light.

  “Where is he going?” Auric asked.

  “To find your mother, apparently,” Jericho said. This section lacked the vines and underbrush that had plagued them the first part of their journey, but a soup of twisting fog still covered the ground.

  Auric shrugged. “It’s more likely his mind just snapped and he’s wandering aimlessly through the Fey Lands. I mean, even if my mother had come here for some bizarre reason, the energy would’ve killed her within a few days. She wouldn’t have been able to carry enough rosemary oil or other protections with her. Plus everything in this world is so hostile.” His chest tightened. What if his mother really had come here? What if she’d spent her last days wandering helplessly, being stalked by vicious unicorns and spider-eyed women? “No, I’d rather believe she walked into a river,” he whispered. “At least that would’ve been quick.”

  “Do you know why she left? Did she leave any sort of note? Say good-bye?” Jericho kept his eyes on the path ahead, avoiding Auric’s face.

  “No.” Auric swallowed. “She was sad and distant for a bit. I remember trying to cheer her up, but nothing seemed to do it. Father acted strangely around her, even for him, more frantic than comforting. Then one day, she was simply gone. I don’t think she so much as packed a bag to take with her.” He sighed. “All these years, I’ve blamed my father. I’m still not convinced that she came here rather than just … gave up.”

  “Huh.” Jericho cleared his throat. “I don’t think so. Rill doesn’t talk about her much, but she’s told me a few memories, and they were happy.”

  “Rill was a basically a baby. I don’t think she understood what was going on.”

  The terrain sloped upwards, and the trees thinned. Father’s footprints converged with a path of pale blue stones. The mist stayed away from the stones like water from wax, making it easy to mark as it twisted through the trees. It emerged onto a grassy slope then disappeared again into a ring of boulders standing on end like sentinels. An outcropping of these black monoliths formed a crown about the crest of the hill while another circle of similar stones stood a few yards from the treeline. As the men passed through the first line of standing rocks, Jericho paused and pointed up the slope.

  “It looks like the path bends around the hill, but I’d like to see if I can get the lay of the land from the top. Wait here and try to stay out of trouble.” Jericho bounded up the hill.

  Auric grimaced. Yeah, Jericho definitely thought Auric a helpless half-wit. So much for taking charge of the situation.

  After a quick inspection to make sure it couldn’t eat him, Auric leaned up against the nearest rock and took a flask of water from his pack.

  Something crashed in the distance. Gulping down his drink, Auric peeked around the stone. The forest they’d emerged from stretched for miles, a sea of dark trees. The silver river snaked beyond, then more trees. He could see no sign of the chasm they’d crossed, or buildings, or any landmarks really other than an occasional lake.

  The trees at the bottom of the slope shivered. Another crack and a particularly tall tree toppled. Auric shuddered. An undulating shape dipped in and out of the timber like an eel skimming the surface of a pond. Flashing blue scales covered its wiry but powerful body, easily as long as four of the trees it now pushed aside as if they were reeds. A pair of bat-like wings unfolded over the forest. They flapped, sending a ripple of wind across the treetops. The breeze slapped into Auric, forcing him to squint.

  A creature with four clawed limbs and a snake’s head rose into the sky. Its whip-like tail twitched behind it. It sniffed the air, letting out a cloud of purple smoke.

  Auric debated shouting for Jericho to hide, but feared the noise would draw the creature to him. Instead he collapsed behind the standing rock, trying to shrink. The dragon roared and shot overhead, landing on the top of the hill with an earthshaking thud.

  The young magician swallowed. There was a good chance it had landed on top of Jericho … and if it hadn’t, it would spy him any moment now and gobble him up. Even if the apprentice survived the first few minutes, what could Auric do? He began to slowly back towards the cover of the treeline, his heart pounding and his hands shaking.

  His conscience shouted at him. Jericho had saved his life from the spider-woman … even if he had taken every possible opportunity to make Auric miserable since they’d met. He had to try.

  He took one step forward.

  The dragon let forth a bone-chilling roar, like a steam engine crashing towards him at full speed. Auric hit the ground, quivering like jelly.

  Chapter Twelve

  Jericho scanned the mountainous horizon beyond the hill. Peaks jutted through the cloud cover like thorns, rising to heights that made the Fairy Steeple near Mountain’s Foot seem a mere bump in the landscape. He huffed out a frustrated breath. The golden footsteps crossed the slope beneath him then rose over the next hill. Beyond that, he couldn’t mark the path.

  “Where are you leading us, Master Spellsmith?” he whispered.

  Something glinted in the distance, a spindly white structure he hadn’t noticed on his first sweep of the scenery. A building? Perhaps a tower or a spired castle? It stuck out of the side of the next mountain. Some instinct shouted that this was where the master was headed, if only because it was the only sign of civilization.

  A thunderous roar cut through the silence. Jericho cringed. What had Auric gotten himself into now? He spun on his heels, and his mouth dropped open. A massive blue dragon hovered in the sky, its violet eyes staring straight at Jericho.

  The apprentice jumped behind the nearest boulder and scrambled for the pack on his shoulders. The quires had slipped towards the bottom, just out of reach. Cursing, he pulled the pack from his back and ripped it open. As he reached for the quires, a mighty breeze flattened the grass around him. The ground quaked, sending him sprawling onto his hands and knees.

  The boulder he’d been cowering behind rolled away at the push of an enormous, clawed foot. The dragon snarled at him, purple smoke rising from its flared nostrils. Jericho’s grasp tightened around the single quire he’d managed to draw from the pack. He might be able to reach the pack to get more, if the beast didn’t snap him in half the moment he moved. If he could work a spell, though, it might buy him a chance.

  He kept his eyes on the beast, easing his hand towards his vest pocket where he kept his stylus. His fingers found the thin metal rod. The dragon’s head swayed back and forth like an angry snake. Its glare remained locked on Jericho’s. A forked tongue flicked in and out of its mouth. Jericho withdrew the stylus and managed to place it against the wooden quire. Not daring to break his stare from the dragon, he zipped through the first spell to come to mind.

  Golden light flashed from the quire. The dragon snorted. Jericho covered his eyes as his spell activated and a wall of flame flared before him. The monster gave a deafening scream like a steam engine throwing its brakes.

  Rolling forward, Jericho snatched at the pack, then darted away. Unfortunately the open pack dropped most of its contents when he jerked it up. When he skidded to a halt halfway down the slope and reached for a quire, he found only two remaining. He remembered the paper in his pocket: his homing spell. One quick stroke to finish the last symbol and he’d be safe in the workshop. Auric would have no way to get home, though, and neither would Master Spellsmith
. Shoving the homing spell out of his mind, he grabbed another quire. He needed something big. Something that would incapacitate the dragon long enough for him to get away.

  Blast it! How did one incapacitate a dragon?

  His basic spells for corralling livestock and keeping out pests might work if expanded. A gust of wind and the flap of wings rushed over him, followed by the shadow of a monstrous beast. The dragon swooped towards him. In a panic, he scratched out the quickest spell he could muster, a basic teleportation. A flash of light and a whiff of singed cedar and he stood behind rather than in front of the dragon. The monster hit the ground, sending ripples through the earth. It thrashed, knocking over boulders like ninepins. Dirt flew in the air. Jericho took off running.

  If he could reach the shelter of the trees, he could hide. Maybe. He only had one quire left, but even worse, he’d run out of ideas.

  The dragon shot overhead. It landed before Jericho with a grin that revealed knife-like teeth. With another roar, it swiped with its tail. The scaly appendage knocked Jericho backwards. The tip sliced through his shirt, and pain seared across his chest. He hit the ground, breath fleeing, head spinning. It reached for him. He managed the first few symbols of a spell before the beast’s paw, as big as a hay rake, clamped around his chest. The dragon’s breath warmed Jericho’s face. Its grasp tightened around Jericho’s wounded chest, and Jericho screamed.

  A golden rope shot around the beast’s maw, clamping it shut. The dragon jerked this way and that, but the bonds only tightened. It dropped Jericho and clawed at its own face, trying to slip the fetters. Jericho rolled to the side, snatched up the quire which had fallen into the grass, and jotted out the final symbols in the most important spell of his life. Another set of gleaming ropes lashed across the dragon’s back. They tightened, pressing it to the earth. He scrambled to his feet. More magical cords descended on the beast. It kicked and growled, but soon it lay like a fish tangled in a net, helpless and immobile.

  “Let’s get out of here!” Auric burst from behind the dragon at a full run. Jericho caught up his mostly empty pack and hurried after him. They rounded the top of the hill, and Jericho called halt long enough to gather as many quires and other supplies as he could find scattered in the grass. Then he took off after Auric. They merged with the golden footsteps of Master Spellsmith’s path and dipped under the cover of another forest of fir trees.

  Jericho’s chest burned, and he hunched his shoulders slightly to keep the remnants of his shirt from brushing against the wound, but he was alive. A sudden desire to see Rill, to hold her and tell her how beautiful she was, coursed through him. He needed to get through this, so much had been left unsaid. Glorified servant or not, he had to tell Rill he loved her.

  Blood dripped from the gash in his chest. He fished a handkerchief from his pocket and tried to staunch the flow.

  Auric glanced at him and his eyes widened. “You’re hurt?”

  “It’s only a scratch.” Jericho waved him away. “We need to get to safety.”

  “We have a few hours before that binding spell gives out,” Auric said. “I know some medical spells. We can’t have you bleeding all over the place.”

  “At least let’s get to the next hill.” Jericho pointed up the path. “I’ll feel a lot better with some space between myself and that dragon.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Auric took out his tablet as Jericho unbuttoned his tattered shirt. An angry red gash crossed the apprentice’s ribcage, still oozing blood. Jericho’s expression hardened, but the corners of his mouth wavered ever so slightly.

  “It’s not bad,” he said.

  “Yeah, could be worse. You could be dead.” Auric rolled his eyes. “Seriously, Jericho, lay off the manly posturing and sit down.”

  The mist scattered as Jericho collapsed into it, leaning back against a tree, his eyes half-closed.

  Auric twirled his stylus between his fingers before remembering the simple spell to bind wounds. “This might sting a bit … and ideally you shouldn’t move for at least ten minutes after I cast it so that it has time to set.”

  Jericho nodded. “Hurry up. The quicker we continue on the better.”

  “Brace yourself.” Auric’s stylus danced through the symbols.

  Golden light shot from the wax into Jericho’s chest. The apprentice gasped, then groaned. Thread like strands of magic crisscrossed over the wound, pulling the edges together. They blazed hot for a moment. Jericho’s face pinched. Finally they cooled, leaving a puckered but sealed scab in their place.

  “Better?” Auric asked.

  “Give me a minute,” Jericho wheezed.

  “Like I said, you’ll need at least ten.” Auric eased himself onto the ground, doing his best to ignore the twisting strands of mist. In spite of their apparent harmlessness, the way they reached for him still creeped him out. He put away his tablet and scratched at his beard, dislodging stray bits of dried grass and even a small twig.

  “I owe you one,” Jericho said, opening one eye. “I was in over my head with that dragon, and if you hadn’t intervened, I’d have been his lunch.”

  “More like dinner now.” Auric glanced up at the sky. The level of light hadn’t changed, but they’d been traveling for hours. Perhaps time truly did pass differently in this world. “We’re basically even, though. I wouldn’t have made it out of the encounter with spider-woman if you hadn’t stepped in.”

  “Or the unicorn,” Jericho said.

  Auric’s chest tightened. Leave it to Jericho to rub it in.

  Jericho shifted slightly then re-buttoned his shirt. “Though admittedly a dragon is a lot more fearsome than a unicorn. So yeah, even.”

  Auric stared at Jericho, trying to catch any sign of mocking. When none presented, he cleared his throat. “Yes, well, it’s not really a competition. Ideally, we find my father and all three of us get home alive. It was important to Rill that we look after each other.”

  “Yeah, it was.” Jericho eased his pack off his shoulders and took out a flask of water. “We lost half our supplies. If we don’t find him before our rosemary oil runs out, what’s the next step?”

  “Use the homing spell, get more, then try again?” Auric sat cross-legged with his hands on his thighs. The constant buzz of the magic left his extremities feeling oddly cold. He would’ve loved a fire, but he didn’t want to risk drawing any more attacks from the native monsters.

  “Auric, your dad has been good to me, like family some ways, and even if he hadn’t, for the sake of Rill, I would want to bring him back,” Jericho said. “However … if it comes down to losing her father, or losing her father and her brother, I think Rill would prefer to only suffer one loss.”

  “I’m not giving up on him!” Auric snapped. “Do you know what the last words I said to him were?” Shame burned through him, forcing him to break eye contact with Jericho. He stared at the mist. “He must have thought I hated him, enough that he risked coming here to prove me wrong. And what if there was some truth to it? What if Mother really did come here?”

  “You seemed to think that was impossible earlier,” Jericho said.

  “I did, but now I don’t know. With all that’s happened, I’m questioning everything.” Auric rubbed his aching forehead, remembering the spider-woman’s assertion that he wasn’t quite human. What could she have meant by that and did it have something to do with Mother? “I’ve made such a mess of things. I had these grand ideas of coming home and showing Father what I could do, impressing him with the knowledge I’d picked up and using it to modernize the shop. Such an idiot.”

  Jericho chuckled. “Your dad hasn’t changed a thing since I’ve been there, and I’m guessing a while before that.”

  “Yeah, but I thought maybe I could convince him. I mean, I know he knows his magic, but they’ve discovered so many new techniques in the last decade.” A mix of excitement and frustration welled within Auric. He’d never even gotten a chance to mention his ideas to his father.

  “What
sort of new techniques?”

  Auric blinked at Jericho. “Seriously? You care?”

  Jericho shrugged, then winced.

  “Stay still,” Auric cautioned. “You don’t want to break the binding spell and start bleeding again. Do you really want to know, though? About my academy methods?”

  “Sure. After all, it’s not like I’m going anywhere. Believe it or not, one of the reasons I jumped at your dad’s offer of apprenticeship was because I like learning new things.”

  Auric swallowed. “Well, one change I had hoped to make was automating simple spells. You know, the ones that are the same every time, like pest wards and lighting spells or those basic illusions Father puts together for festivals.”

  “I get a writer’s cramp just thinking about them.” Jericho grimaced. “What do you mean automating them?”

  “You can enchant a simple device to use a stylus and inscribe the same symbols over and over again. Not only does it take work off a magician’s hands, but the machine can go at a clip a human hand can’t. You can knock out a dozen basic spells in a minute with automation.”

  “Sounds amazing.”

  “It is.” Auric paused, surprised at how at ease he felt. “Maybe if you bring up the suggestion to Father, he’ll be more open to it. He respects you more than he does me.”

  Jericho’s smile faded. “I wouldn’t say that. We’ve had time to build trust is all, and you’ve been gone for the last five years.”

  “Yeah, and since I got back, I’ve had one mishap after another.” Auric shook his head. “You have no idea what it’s like to be a disappointment to your father.”

  “Never got the chance. My dad drank himself to death. Croaked when I was eleven,” Jericho said.

  Auric swallowed. Thinking back, Jericho had mentioned his uncle once or twice, but never his father. “I didn’t know. Sorry.”