Spellscribed: Provenance

by Kristopher Cruz

  “What?!” Endrance sputtered. “I wasn’t talking about your people. I was talking about you.”

  “The difference?” Joven asked.

  “I base my opinions off what I’ve observed. While you appear to be ignorant to the general population, and make a show of avoiding any writing stating your inability to read, I have noticed you reading over my shoulder, when I have out the guide book Kaelob wrote.” Endrance concluded.

  The barbarian halted before he made the final cut. “Oh.” He said quietly. “You noticed that?”

  “Yeah.” Endrance replied. “I’m not entirely unobservant. I was taught a few tricks by a professional soldier named Ethan.”

  “Then this Ethan has earned some of my respect.” Joven said, making the final cut and peeling the hide from the tiger. Endrance’s eyes widened as he caught a glimpse, and then turned away before he lost control of his stomach.

  “What should I do now?” Endrance asked.

  “Watch.” Joven said, with some force. “And learn.”

  Chapter 18

  He saw the tiger attack him over and over again in his dreams, but each time it seemed all the more disturbing. The dream was vague, with ephemeral whorls of terror and red and black stripes, which ended with its fangs sinking into the young wizard’s neck. Endrance awoke screaming, but was horrified to see that Joven was really a blood tiger in disguise and he was the one about to get skinned.

  Endrance awoke again, this time to the real world, a wordless cry on his lips. He could see the stars above, and must have been asleep several hours. Joven glanced over at Endrance, having completed his task of skinning and cleaning the animals long ago. The hides were stretched on their racks after only a few hours soaking and the meats were beginning their long smoke. He was cooking something on an iron plate, and it smelled delicious.

  “I was just going to wake you up.” He began, scraping the hunk of meat off the iron plate into a wooden bowl and sliding it towards Endrance. “Eat up, you earned it.” Joven turned back to his own meal as Endrance picked up the plate. A venison steak sat in his bowl, well cooked as well as a few vegetables and half a loaf of travel bread. Endrance’s mouth watered and he realized then how hungry he was. He took a bite from the bread and was going to dig into the steak when he became aware he had no utensils. “Joven, I would love to eat this steak but I seem to have no knife to cut it with.” He stated.

  Joven chuckled and rolled a small bundle over to him. “Use these.” He said. “I made them for you. They should fit your hands perfectly.”

  Endrance unrolled the long and thin bundle to see that Joven had crafted for him a pair of knives, each with a fresh sharp steel blade set into a handle crafted from the buck’s antlers. The handle was the main part of the antler and the off shooting prong was positioned so that it was the finger guard. The blades themselves were single edged and slightly curved back near the tip, making them excellent at slicing and stabbing work. The blades themselves were not ones Endrance had seen Joven using. They were Ironsoul steel, and high quality.

  “They’re beautiful,” Endrance said.

  “They’re also good trophies. You can show those to anyone in Balator and they will know to give you some respect.”

  Endrance looked up at Joven in surprise. “But… I didn’t kill the buck.”

  “No you didn’t. You killed something far stronger.” He responded. “We have had a few blood tiger attacks before. That would have torn through a few men before it could be taken down, yet you finished it in one shot of a rock.”

  “I couldn’t have hit it that hard.” Endrance said demurely. “After all the rock didn’t go out the other side.”

  Joven huffed in laughter. “You didn’t see what I saw once I got the hide off.” He began merrily. “First thing is that cat’s hide is a lot tougher than prepared leather. Second, tigers have been known to fight on even if they lose a limb. They’re tenacious.”

  “I know.” Endrance said, remembering the absorption his bracer had left him with. For an instant he felt the beast’s instincts swell up against his mind. He closed his eyes and forced the thoughts down until he had control again. Like with the goblin shaman, it looked like the active personality behind the information he gained from the tiger would fade in time, but for now it was very real. He would have to be careful lest a particularly powerful one take him over.

  “And once I got the hide off, I discovered that your little rock broke into several pieces and bounced down its spine and around its rib cage, pretty much turning everything inside there into mush.” Joven concluded. “Some monsters are not so tough on the inside, and their very armor keeps something from punching its way out.”

  “So it was more effective because it wasn’t strong enough to go right through it?” Endrance asked.

  “Her. And yes.” Joven replied.

  “Her?”

  “Yes. A female, recently mated as well.” Joven’s face was serious.

  “Let me guess…” Endrance said knowingly. “That’s bad.”

  “Very.” Joven said, checking over the assorted smoking racks.

  Endrance sighed, and as he considered the option the information suddenly appeared in his mind, confirming his suspicions. “She was mated.” He concluded.

  “I don’t know.” Joven said, “If she was I say we could be in some serious trouble. Reports I’ve read say they’re incredibly vindictive. One such pairing we encountered was like that. One day one of our men managed to kill the male, and the female went mad. Didn’t even care about the other men around him; they weren’t even there. She died, but only after she had torn the one who killed her mate into pieces.”

  Endrance gulped, and then looked down at the steak before him. It looked far more like a last meal than it was a reward for a good hunt. He carefully picked up the daggers he had been gifted and started cutting into the meat. If he was to die, he would rather it be on a full stomach, and perhaps in his sleep.

  “Like I said,” Joven repeated, noticing the worry on his charge’s face. Perhaps he had gone too far explaining the creature. “I don’t think she was mated, or he wouldn’t have been far behind. I also did what I could to confuse its scent, drained both deer on the same spot as the tiger so I don’t think it could pick up the few drops you left behind.”

  Endrance sighed. “That’s not going to help.” He said morosely. “They’re called blood tigers for a reason.” He took a bite of steak and chewed it thoughtfully. “The other magical ability they have is to track by drawn blood. They’re better than even the best of a king’s bloodhounds. They’re better because their magic allows them to do so. They can stalk prey across a country off of one drop of blood so long as it was there. They don’t even follow a trail, it’s like their nose becomes a compass that leads them to the source of the blood they smell.”

  Joven huffed, tearing a hunk off his steak with his teeth. “If you knew so much about the blood tigers, why did you let me talk on about them?”

  “I don’t” Endrance said. “I only know what their name is and what information came with her aura. Namely the natural magic power she could use. Scent and camouflage, that’s all.” He crumbled some of his bread into the steak’s juices to soften the bread up.

  “You learned that when you did the wind eating thing that you did back there?” Joven asked.

  Endrance rolled his eyes. “Yes.”

  “Does that mean you know how to camouflage yourself like they do and track by blood like they can?” the barbarian asked innocently.

  “I-” Endrance stopped, thinking about it. Information stolen from the dying cat flooded his mind again, the feral force behind it weaker than before. The knowledge of how remained, albeit in an instinctual manner than an intellectual one. However he lacked the proper physical parts needed to make it work. “I could, if I had a blood tiger’s skin and their nose.” He concluded in pleasant surprise. “That’s pretty amazing, but impractical.”

  Joven grinned as he poked one of the
racks with a stick. “I know what winter coat you’re getting.” He said jovially.

  “…Thank you, Joven. You are a true friend.” Endrance admitted. If he could figure it out, even tanned the hide might still be able to blend into the surroundings.

  “Well, You are the Spengur, not to mention a kid off on your own for the first time taking on a job that you have no way of being properly prepared for, in a kingdom where everyone values strength of body and prowess over the mind, not to mention that you have the build of a foppish debutante and would be looked at poorly by even the peasant-folk of the kingdom…” Joven ticked off facts on his fingers as he stared out into the night air.

  Endrance stared at Joven as he went on a while. “You…” He began. “You are not nearly as stupid as you pretend to be.”

  Joven winked. “Just don’t tell anyone okay? I have a reputation to keep up here.”

  Endrance looked down at the two knives in his hands, and at the meat stacked on his plate. “It is really okay to do this? Kill an animal, and then eat it?”

  Joven grunted as he chewed on a large chunk of steak. “That’s the law of nature, Endrance. Eat or be eaten.”

  Endrance nodded, using the knives to cut up his steak so he could eat. He chewed on his steak for a few minutes in silence then asked.

  “Foppish… debutante?”

  More days passed as they prepared the hides. The meats were sufficiently dried by the end of the second day to consist as travel rations, a meat jerky that could be thrown into stew water to soften up if needed. The hides took more care and watch, or else some predator would steal into the camp and ruin their work.

  During this time Joven taught him what he could about surviving the wilderness, and kept a constant vigil in case the mate of the hide he was preparing came looking for revenge. Endrance in his own way did so as well, and by the third day he had finally penned a new spell using borrowed structure from spells he had studied before. Cobbling together a spell like that was never efficient until it could be refined and it definitely would be considered vulgar; however it saved on much time and resources designing all the elements of the spell from scratch.

  The new spell he tested out when it was his turn to watch that night. After Joven had settled down at his usual spot and went immediately to sleep, Endrance stood in the center of the camp. He faced the forest around him, the camp fire’s heat bearing directly on his back only a pace away.

  He consulted his spellbook one final time, and locked the components of the spell in his mind. This would take some time to set up, but if it worked then he would start memorizing it so he could sling it at a moment’s notice. He raised his hands and went through the proper hand and body gestures one more time, making sure he had it right. Lastly he recited the proper words of power, carefully enunciating each one in the proper sequence.

  All the components assembled, he committed to the casting. He wove the three together, using the knowledge he had, fed it power with his aura using elaborate mudras, and chanted the words of power to give that power shape. It was a difficult process to cast a spell for the first time. Once he became more familiar with the workings of it, it would be easier. If the spell worked at all how he thought it should.

  As he finished the final word of the spell, his body was twisted around and his hand flung out at the campfire. “Flaratorus.” He said, his voice low but forceful.

  The campfire, which at this point had been running low, blossomed into full strength, and its flames unleashed a wave of air-rippling heat that spread out in a ring and disappeared. Cool night air slowly seeped back into the camp, and the fire died back down to its natural strength. Now anything that entered into a certain radius that had some magical energy would find their aura made brightly visible to anyone. The same time, the fire in the center would flare up and crackle loudly if that happened, drawing attention to intruders.

  Endrance had no way to test it yet, so he had to remain alert and vigilant. It should work regardless of their stealth abilities, unless they were magically shielding themselves from specific spells like this. He theorized that since blood tigers weren’t capable of spellcasting, defeating such a defense would be impossible for them.

  Of course there were flaws in the spell; it would only last so long as the fire remained. In order to prevent it from swiftly draining whatever power he had stored, he had designed it to use the campfire as a source of power. It meant he had to put more fuel in the fire as it burned half again as fast as natural, but it was better than trying to sustain such a spell without sublimating a natural source of energy. He would have been drained of power and exhausted within an hour or two. Though that would be a good practice method to strengthen his aura-

  A crack of a branch in the woods nearby drew Endrance’s attention to the tree line. He scanned the forest and could see several sets of eyes reflecting the firelight back at him, but all remained a safe distance away. He spotted one set of eyes that were far bigger than the others. As his eyes adjusted to looking away from the fire, he could make out the eyes of the other blood tiger.

  It was possible that the male great cat was smaller than its mate, but Endrance couldn’t tell through the dark and the tiger’s natural blending ability. He could only make out the eyes hovering in the trees, on a branch that looked too small to support the full weight of one of these predators.

  Endrance stared back at the cat, his emerald eyes shining in the dark much like the cat’s amber ones glared back at him. Their gazes met, and for a moment the last vestiges of the animal instinct he captured struggled to rise to the surface. As the tiger in the woods bared his fangs at him, Endrance could feel his own lips curling into a snarl of his own.

  Without taking his eyes off the predator he pulled the two knives from his belt, and held them ready, the blades down. “I see you…” Endrance whispered. He raised his hands over his head, holding the blades into the night sky so the tiger could see their deadly glint in the fire light. The blades, curved as they were and pointed towards the ground, looked almost as a set of fangs themselves.

  The two of them held their positions, neither one of them moving in the night. Endrance knew only that to back down would be to invite death, and the only thing he could do is be prepared for the inevitable fight, or get it to abandon its hunt. So for the moment he didn’t move and in his head he prepared to throw lightning if he really needed to.

  Tense moments passed, and the sounds of the night seemed to drown out in the silence of their battle of wills. Occasionally the fire would pop as an ember burst or the wind would blow detritus between the two, but neither blinked as their eyes were locked. The other animals in the vicinity, having either sensed or seen this clash of wills in effect vacated swiftly. It seemed even the other denizens of the forest wanted nothing of the business between a wizard and a supernatural hunting beast.

  A trickle of sweat trundled down his temple, over his cheek, and down the smooth curve of his jaw line. It balanced there on the point of his chin, precariously indecisive of its departure. Seeming eons passed until it finally dropped from his chin and began its agonizingly long yet instantaneous decent to the ground below.

  The great cat blinked as Endrance remained resolved, sweat dripping from his face. Its fur shifted back to pale red tinged white, and its fangs disappeared as it closed its mouth. It seemed in an instant to lose interest in the young man, and dropped from the branch, sauntering away slowly. The cat was in fact much larger than its mate by several dozen pounds.

  Endrance remained in his posture for until the cat was out of sight, and even then remained for another minute. He let out a breath and sank to the ground in a rush, the blades thunking into the dirt by his knees, their handles sticking up into the air.

  “I… I am not cut out for that.” Endrance muttered, wiping the sweat off his face. Relief washed over him and he shook his head, trying to clear the tension from his thoughts. “I can’t believe that really worked.”

  None of the other ani
mals came back towards the camp during his watch. He woke Joven when it was his turn to get some sleep and made sure to tell him about the spell on the campfire. He crawled into his sleeping bag and almost immediately fell asleep.

  When he awoke in the morning, a dead bird the size of his torso laid placed on the ground in front of him. It looked to have been taken down by a large cat, and hadn’t set off Endrance’s spell, if the spell even worked. Joven hadn’t seen it before and he was alert the whole night. Endrance stared at the thing for several minutes, and wondered if the bird was a warning or a peace offering.

  Chapter 19

  The hides were soon done, and the two carefully packed up everything and continued on their journey. Neither one of them wanted to camp in these forests again. They travelled as fast as they could, and were within a few hours ride by the time the suns had started setting.

  “Endrance.” Joven shouted, his horse in the lead as they raced down the road towards Fini.

  “I know!” Endrance yelled in return. “Let’s just keep going until we get to Fini!”

  They raced along in the gathering darkness, their horses lathered in sweat and breathing heavily from the effort. They slowed their mounts when they got to the first of the great bridges leading to Fini proper. Endrance’s paint horse seemed grateful for the relief, but the young wizard couldn’t help but notice Joven’s steed seemed ready for more. The barbarian had to keep tight check on the reins.

  The great bridge was made of large gray stones, sturdy and solid. Set well above the banks of the river, it arced gracefully towards the city walls on the other side of the river. The bridge was wide enough that two wagons could pass each other and not brush the low walls on the sides. The bridge was long enough to cross the entire of the river, and was a single smooth curve across the top. The underside was made of several arches of increasing size across the river. Its massive arches were large enough in the center that a sailing vessel could run full sail underneath the bridge and not risk crashing into the stones.