by Sam Ferguson
Cyrus smiled again, but this time it did not comfort her. Instead it looked almost as if he were teasing her - touting his discovery and flaunting it in front of her to watch her squirm. If he did know the truth, he did not press the matter any further. He quickly turned his eyes to a book on his own desk then motioned toward the door.
“In the library you will find a small book on imps. You know where the section dealing with familiars is located in the library, yes?”
“I know that section.”
“Then go and get the book. It has additional information about the creatures that is useful in deciding how to deal with the pests. Take it and go into the forest where you can study it in peace. As you learn more about the creatures, go ahead and practice the spells that you would like to use tomorrow. Try to cast your spells on rocks or dead logs. Don’t use trees or animals, understand?”
Kyra nodded her head.
“Good. Tomorrow morning when we meet again I will expect you to know three methods of effectively dealing with imps.”
“As you say,” Kyra said. The old wizard stop talking and poured himself into his book. Kyra rose from her desk, gathered her things, and went straight for the library.
*****
After having retrieved the necessary book from the Library, Kyra had quickly returned to her room and changed from her school clothes into something more appropriate for a day in the outdoors. On her way out to the woods, Kyra was careful to ensure that nobody was watching her. The book that Cyrus had instructed her to read was not very thick and would not detract from her time with the egg. She smiled as she thought about the additional free time she would have as compared to her original schedule before Cyrus had arrived. If every day was like this, she would be able to spend hours in the woods every day. She was so lost in her thoughts contemplating her new schedule, she failed to notice the young man in front of her until he called out to stop her from running into him.
“Hello,” the boy called out.
Kyra looked up to see the young boy she had watched from the library window earlier that morning. He was about her age and perhaps an inch or two taller than her with wide shoulders and lean muscular arms.
“Hello,” Kyra replied.
He smiled at her and pointed to the bag full of books.
“What are you reading?” He asked.
Wanting to end the conversation quickly, Kyra offered a short answer.
“These are just books for my studies.”
The boy looked at the bag, cocking his head to the side, judging its thickness.
“It seems to be a much heavier load than the average first year I see wandering the halls.” He smiled again and offered his hand. “I am Kathair Lepkin.” When Kyra didn’t respond by shaking his offered hand, the young apprentice bowed graciously with a flourish of his hands out to the side.
“Yes, I know. I heard your name this morning when you were in the courtyard,” Kyra said.
His smile faded and his skin blushed just a touch at the checks.
“That wasn’t what it looked like,” he said.
“I’m sure it isn’t any of my business,” Kyra said. She started to move around him, but the boy held out a hand and stopped her. She bristled at first, preparing to knock him on his rump with a spell if he didn’t mind his manners, but she soon saw he had no ill intent. His eyes looked to hers longingly, as if pleading to be heard.
“Do you know what it is like to be teased?” he asked. “Some of the third-year and fourth-year apprentices tried to run me out of this Academy because of my heritage.”
Kyra softened at this, empathizing with his situation.
“Who are your parents?”
Kathair shook his head and shrugged.
“It is not so much my parents’ names as it is the fact that they are not nobles, nor even from the Middle Kingdom. They are from the Northlands, where I was born.” Kathair stopped and dug his toe in the dirt, finally uprooting and kicking a small rock away before continuing. “In any case, they both died a long time ago and I was raised by the elves in Tualdern.”
“And you thought it was appropriate to bash all of their heads in with a wooden sword? How does that make everyone else like you?”
The boy smiled and folded his arms over his chest.
“Am I being judged by the apprentice who threw her instructor into a wall?” He pointed back to her bag of books and then nodded his head. “I can see you have a lot to do, perhaps we will see each other again later on.” Kathair walked by her, but Kyra turned and followed him with her eyes.
“Weren’t you expelled?” she asked.
He turned around and shook his head. “I wouldn’t exactly call the elves family. I didn’t really belong in their society either. However, they can be very persuasive. They were able to come to an agreement with the headmaster.”
“If you only just fought this morning, how could the headmaster meet with any elf from Tualdern? That’s the other side of the Middle Kingdom.”
“You are studying to become a sorceress, and yet you question whether magical methods exist for communicating over long distances? Perhaps now I understand why you have so many books to read.”
Kyra bristled. She turned her back on him and walked away.
He called after her, “Perhaps I will see you in the library sometime.”
Kyra didn’t respond. Her feet continued walking, stretching the distance between the two of them until she was certain he could no longer see her. Still, she made sure to take a much longer, wandering route to her egg just in case.
When she finally arrived at the rocky area where the egg was hidden, she saw Guardian sunning himself on a large boulder. The pagona lizard began chirping happily upon her arrival. She quickly went to the rock covering the egg and removed it. Immediately, she placed another warmings on the egg and the surrounding rocks. She set the palm of her left hand against the outer shell, testing the temperature. Something magical happened then. Even through the shell Kyra felt a swirling movement, or at least she thought she did. After the sensation passed she left her hand there for several minutes hoping to feel it again, but she did not.
Kyra set her bag down and followed Guardian as he jumped from rock to rock catching crickets. They spent half an hour doing this, with her following and observing his every move. When the little lizard had finally had his fill, he returned to the egg. Kyra took the long way around and spied a raspberry bush. She reached in to pick some, but scraped the back of her left hand on an exceptionally sharp thorn. She recoiled back and called out in pain.
Guardian was there in an instant, chirping and hissing.
“It’s alright,” Kyra told him. “I just cut myself on a thorn.” She cleaned the wound on the back of her shirt and then led Guardian back to where her bag was.
She took up her books and began to read. First, she read a compilation of folk tales, and then she finally pulled out the book Cyrus had assigned to her and read it. Perhaps it wasn’t the best text to read to a developing egg, but she had an assignment to do and she didn’t want to read silently. Even if the hatchling inside could not hear her voice or understand it, the act of reading to the egg helped her feel closer to it. It was as if she finally had a pair of friends who would listen without judging, and who genuinely enjoyed her company. As before, she read until dusk, not bothering to gather her things together until the very last moment that would allow her just enough light to return to the Academy before dark.
She placed the last book into her bag, bade farewell to Guardian, and then augmented the warming spell upon the egg. She slid the large, flat rock back into place and turned to leave, but something caught her attention. There was a shift in the air near the tree line. She couldn’t quite see the movement. The hairs on the back of her neck stood straight and goosebumps formed along her forearms. Something was there.
Kyra secured her bag over her shoulder and prepared a couple of spells in case she saw the prowler. She aimed her head toward the ground
while watching through her peripheral vision for the intruder. At first, she thought perhaps that boy had managed to find her in the forest, but she dismissed that notion very quickly when she heard a strange hissing sound.
A moment later some of the rocks cracked together as something large emerged from the tree line, speeding toward the egg. Kyra turned around to face the danger. She saw not an animal or bird, but a strange creature half running, half floating over the rocks toward the egg. It appeared as though the creature was made of a thick mist. Kyra could not see any legs as the beast continued to come closer to the egg. It was as if its bottom half was made of a tangible cloud that shifted and moved the rocks in its path as it flowed toward its prey. A pair of long arms wrapped in a silvery coating stretched out from the creature, reaching to grab the egg behind Kyra.
Kyra didn’t waste any time. As she had done with the imp, she decided the best way to fight was to attack with everything that she had. She sent a pair of fireballs. They passed harmlessly through the creature. Its silvery essence opening around the flaming orbs and then closing behind them. Next Kyra sent water, then ice, and finally lightning. Nothing slowed the creature down. Out of desperation she ran back to protect the egg. A few yards away from the egg, the creature stopped and shrieked so loudly in its deafening, shrill voice that Kyra fell to her knees, grabbing her ears. She looked up to see Guardian jumping up from a boulder and snapping its jaws at the ethereal creature. The little lizard jumped through the being time and time again. Somehow Guardian was able to hold the creature in place, but the little lizard’s attacks caused no harm.
One of the arms took on a more focused appearance then, with long, bony fingers stretching out from a strong, thick hand. As Guardian leapt at the creature one more time, the bony hand snatched the little lizard up and brought it toward a hideous face which was slowly becoming discernable. Bumps emerged from the silvery mist until at last Kyra could see a short snout filled with jagged teeth. The creature bit Guardian in half and discarded the tail and hind legs carelessly upon the nearby boulders. A pair of yellow, sick eyes glared at Kyra from within the misty face. It started to advance once more.
Kyra, enraged that her little friend had been destroyed, poured her entire soul into her next attack. She held out her left hand and sent a massive shockwave through the air. A great clap of thunder shook the ground and the rocks around her as the blast ripped through the silvery creature. For a moment it seemed as though the thing might be ripped apart for good, but it was not to last, for the creature’s essence began to regroup steadily. A pair of legs, long and lean with knobbly knees, grew out from the bottom half of the mist and it started to walk toward her.
Kyra didn’t stop. She summoned a vortex around the creature, swirling it around and around, creating a vicious trap so that the creature could not escape. Next she used her powers to summon a great sphere of fire and dropped the flames into the swirling vortex, and then cast the misty creature away. The roaring tornado of fire shattered against a nearby wall of rock. Kyra called down a single bolt of white lightning, blasting the ethereal creature into pieces.
This time she did not let the monster regroup. She threw several more psionic blasts and further broke the several pieces and scattered them, preventing them from coming back together.
The monster hissed and screeched again, but disappeared into the twilight sky.
Kyra crawled over to Guardian’s bottom half and placed a hand on either side of the torn body and cried. Within moments, overcome with grief from the loss of her friend and fatigue brought on by the large expenditure of magic, Kyra slid down to lean upon the rock and passed out.
Many hours later when the night had covered the land in darkness, and a cold wind blew in from the south, Kyra felt a pair of hands slide under her. One wrapped around her back, sliding one of her own arms over a pair of shoulders, while another hooked under her knees. She felt the sudden jerk, and then the rocks fell away from below her. Despite the disturbance, Kyra still could not fully regain consciousness. Her body still demanded rest from the overexertion earlier that evening.
Her head bobbed up and down and her feet dangled loosely, bouncing in sync with her head. Finally she felt her cheek fall against a warm, firm chest. She noticed a large tree pass by in front of her, but she was not fully aware that she was being carried away. A voice said something to her, but she could not understand the words.
After a while, her ears finally distinguished the sounds of footsteps below with their sturdy, dull thumps falling in rhythm with her bouncing feet. A twig snapped below and suddenly she twisted out as the person carrying her turned to move sideways beyond a large, thorny bush that just managed to scratch Kyra’s left ankle with one of its barbs. Perhaps she had rested enough to wake, or more likely the sudden scratch from the thorn forced her body to come to its senses, but whatever the reason, she finally woke and realized where she was.
She could see the lights of Kuldiga Academy breaking through the wall of trees. Only a few more minutes and she would be out of the forest. She looked up to see who was carrying her, expecting Feberik or perhaps even Cyrus. The face was covered in shadow, but as soon as her rescuer realized she was awake he spoke to her.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone,” promised the voice of a young man.
It wasn’t either Feberik or Cyrus. It was Kathair Lepkin, the boy who had trounced thirty apprentices and an instructor in Kuldiga Academy’s courtyard. Suddenly a panic came over Kyra as she remembered the creature that hunted the egg.
“Let me go!” Kyra wrenched herself free and dropped to her feet.
“Be careful,” he said. “You’re still weak.”
Kyra moved to walk beyond him, but stumbled and started to fall. Kathair caught her and propped her up.
“Let me go,” Kyra demanded.
“You need to rest.”
“You don’t understand, I have to go back!” Kyra pushed away from him and lifted her hand to summon an orb of light to help her see. The spell failed. Barely more light than that of a fleeting spark ignited in the air over her hand before popping and fizzing into darkness. She started to fall again, but Kathair was right there to steady her.
“Please, everything is all right, but I must get you to your room before anyone sees you.”
Kyra started to cry. She was so tired that tears would not form and her eyes burned. “You don’t understand, I have to go back.”
Kathair gently guided her down to the ground so that the two of them knelt face-to-face.
“You need not worry. I moved it, it’s safe.”
Kyra looked up in her mouth fell open. “You moved what?”
Kathair placed a hand on each shoulder to steady her. “I found a good place to hide the egg. Nothing will find it again. Tomorrow, after you have rested, I can take you back to it.”
Kyra formed a weak fist and thumped him on the chest. “No! You can’t move it, it will not have enough warmth for the night. I had a spell on it.”
“Trust me, it’s safe. I don’t have any magic, but I know how to make a fire. After I hid the egg I heated several rocks. When each one began to glow and hold heat, I formed a nest out of them. The rocks will hold the heat through the night. Then, tomorrow you can put your spell on it again after you have rested.” He pushed her back from him and fiddled with something at his waist. She couldn’t see what he was doing because of the darkness, but his hands worked with something for several seconds before a small satchel was placed in her lap.
“I didn’t know what else to do, so I used some large leaves to wrap the body of your small lizard pet.” A short silence ensued as the words trailed off into the night. “I thought you might want to bury it.”
Kyra nodded and took the satchel in her hands.
“Come on, let’s go before someone finds us here.” The two of them got up to leave. Kathair wrapped an arm around Kyra and helped her walk the rest of the way back to Kuldiga Academy and then to her room.
Neit
her of them noticed Feberik Orres watching them from an upper story window.
CHAPTER 8
The next day Kathair took Kyra to a deep cavern a short distance from the rocky area where the egg had been discovered. He again promised not to disclose the egg’s existence to anyone. Kyra returned as often as her studies and her duties with Janik would let her, but Kathair was often kept away by some intensive training program. Apparently, he was too dangerous to allow to mix with the other apprentices, the same as she was. She had even heard that a few of the sword Masters would take Kathair out of the Academy for several days at a time for field studies.
Kyra continued to read books to the egg and set spells to protect and warm it. She excelled in her studies with Cyrus, outpacing even his expectations for her development. Even still, she kept the ethereal creature a secret from Cyrus, preferring to dive into the subject through books rather than discuss the issue with anyone and risk the secret of the egg being uncovered. The days turned into weeks, and the weeks into months. The autumn leaves fell, leaving the trees bare and stick like, except for the evergreens which stood staunch and stoic in their place as winter set in and covered the land in a blanket of white snow.
Soon, the mid-winter festival was upon them. All of the apprentices hustled about, decorating their halls and dorms and offering gifts to one another. The winter solstice was never a holiday that Kyra understood. She had heard that it was a celebration of hope; a sign that longer days would soon be coming and things would turn for the better again, spawning new life and renewal throughout the Middle Kingdom. Still, it seemed an awkward time for such celebrations. By definition, the winter solstice was the shortest day of the year. It was always cold, and the night was quick to end any sunlight that dared to reach into the wintry land. This particular mid-winter festival seemed colder than most, for it was the first without her mother.
Kyra’s mother had never been a fan of the festival either. There had always seemed to be something on her mind. Lady Zana often spent additional time creating wards and staring out the window to the south, as if she had expected something to come out from the darkness. Of course, whenever Kyra had asked her mother about it, Lady Zana smiled gently and would say that there was nothing to worry about, but that she was only waiting for the dark to be over.