by Randal Sloan
Once more the Master level wizards were gathered on the stage, this time seated, and the crowd grew quiet as Master Ashcroft stepped out in front of the others to speak.
“Again, welcome everyone. Yesterday when you received your welcome kit, most of you were told who your assigned advisor was going to be, and after we finish in here, you will be directed to meet with them for further instructions. But first, I want to tell you a little about the training you’ll be undergoing here.
“As you all know, magic suffuses the world around us. When our people came to the land of Callidore all those years ago, magic was a newly discovered element. There was no one to teach us because no one had any experience with it. As a result, no one knew what was safe and what wasn’t and no one understood the importance of helping our young people to learn to control it and the proper way to use their gift. Only after a number of serious incidents occurred did the King of Callidore realize that something else was going to be required.
“The Wizard Council was formed and the first school of magic was formed shortly thereafter. That worked quite well for some time, but inevitably something went wrong and a large portion of the school was destroyed, incurring a number of casualties. That was when this island was selected and the protections you had to cross before you reached the island put in place.
“Some of you…” he said with a dramatic pause — Jailyn swore he was looking right at her — “when you set foot on the island, felt the wards infusing the island for protection and for keeping evil away. For that evil is indeed out there and it is our duty to fight it.”
“But enough of history for now. When your assigned advisor stands, please stand and follow him to his classroom. For the rest of the week, you’ll be given tests to more finely determine your magic affinities and that will help determine your course of study while on the island.“
Jailyn watched as one by one a wizard would stand, call out his name, and the students assigned to him would stand and follow. She had no idea who was going to be her advisor, as that information hadn’t been communicated to her. Finally it was down to just Jailyn and her friends. Master Ashcroft himself came down to stand beside them.
“You’re the lucky ones,” he told them with a smile. “You get to work with me.”
The group couldn’t decide if that was a good or a bad thing. Later they would decide for certain it most definitely was not good.
Jailyn and her friends followed Master Ashcroft to a different area of the compound. She quickly realized they weren’t headed to his office, but instead he led them into a section of buildings that she recognized were the houses for the Master wizards on the island. He tried to explain things as they walked.
“As you all know, Jailyn is my niece, but you’ll also learn I have a number of reasons why I have chosen to be her advisor. For the rest of you, as you’ll soon learn, the four of you are tied together.”
They turned down a short alleyway between the hedges in the front of a couple of the bigger houses, quickly coming to a gateway. Reaching out to touch the wards, Master Ashcroft spoke a single phrase and then opened the gateway.
“I’ve altered the wards at this entrance to accept each of you so that anytime you come here, you’ll be admitted. Since I don’t have my own classroom anymore, we’ll work in my personal garden. This garden has been warded for safety and to hide things from prying eyes. It will be a safe place for you to come to do the training exercises that you’ll learn about shortly.”
They stepped through the gate to see a large garden that stretched across the back of the entire property. It was quite beautiful and very peaceful. Jailyn stopped to stare as she entered.
“I’ve seen this all before,” she told everyone who turned to look when she came to such an abrupt stop.
She knew they would need more of an explanation. “Ever since I was a little girl I’ve dreamed about this place. It’s just as I pictured it. In here is the place I’ve always felt the closest to my mother. I miss her so very much.”
The Master smiled. It apparently drew a fond memory. “Kristin would often come here to meditate and do her magic. I think she left a little piece of herself here. I expect she somehow imprinted a memory of that in you.”
He led them to a large gazebo near the middle of the garden. A small stream wound across the garden, pouring down a small waterfall that could be seen just beyond them and then slowly winding its way out. He indicated a couple of benches in the gazebo. “Please be seated.”
The four quickly complied. Jailyn was still a little dazed even as she sat on the bench. Suddenly a little self-conscious, the two couples separated, with the girls sitting together and the boys sitting together a little further away.
“Before we get started with your testing, I need to give you all a little background. Just over eighteen years ago—” he paused briefly, letting the significance of that sink in. Jailyn had just turned eighteen and the others were by varying degrees a month or two behind that except for Jesse, who was a few months younger.
He continued, “—the Kingdom of Callidore was involved in a serious internal conflict. The king at the time, King Gregory Agansti III, was killed in a questionable ‘accident’ and his brother Johan attempted to take the throne. But unknown to him, King Gregory’s young queen had just become pregnant with a son, thus making his unborn child the true heir to the throne.
“Since some of our members are blessed with the second sight, one of us foresaw the young prince would be one to lead our people into an age of prosperity. Thus, the Wizard Council declared the prince to be the true king and intended to name a regent to hold the throne until the boy was old enough to assume his rule.
“Unfortunately, we were betrayed! One of the strongest wizards, Lord Vipero, had secretly formed an alliance with the sorcerers of one of our rivals across the Middle Sea, the Kingdom of Aganati. With their assistance and using black sorceries forbidden by our council, Lord Vipero attacked and defeated our contingent sent to the capital city. A number of our best people were killed, but a handful escaped, along with the young queen.”
He turned to look at Jailyn. “Included in the group that escaped was your mother. Your mother was nearing time for delivery of her daughter and had gone ahead of the main group due to complications in her pregnancy. She was already in the palace when the attack occurred. The queen’s guards managed to defeat and kill a group of assassins sent ahead to the palace, the attempt staged at the same time as Lord Vipero’s attack on the wizard party.
“That’s when it all becomes quite confusing. The fleeing group came under attack before they could reach asylum. Originally we thought they all had been killed, only later learning Queen Estora did escape, a few months later giving birth to her son. The Church of the Most High, where the queen had been granted asylum, had its own seers and foresaw the need to hide the boy away, doing so before Lord Vipero could attempt to have him killed. They have refused to reveal the location of the prince to either our people or Lord Vipero and his bunch of vile sorcerers.
“You have to understand. The Church dates from before the time our people came to the land and somehow they have the power to withstand magical attacks and turn them to their own use. Not even Lord Vipero is able to force them to submit. No one has ever seen the inside of their monastery other than the ones that have been granted asylum and none of those have ever returned to the outside world.
“We were given a message from the Church a few weeks ago telling us that Kristin had her child before all of this happened and had hidden her away before making the final stand to allow the queen to escape. This corresponded to other information we had just received elsewhere, so we knew we had to act on it.
“We’ve been using the annual recruitment of students to search for the Prince and this year we changed it to include a search for Kristin’s daughter. Master Sabine has the ability to examine the magic in the magic testing ball and determine the child’s parents. Unfortunately, the Prince has not been loca
ted, although the second part of our quest was successful when we found Jailyn.” He smiled at her.
Taking a deep breath, he went on, “There’s one more thing you need to know. The Seers of the Church of the Most High have revealed to us a prophecy, the Prophecy of the Chosen Ones, which we believe may concern you four. We don’t understand it all and I believe it would be detrimental to you to tell you the details until we know more. In particular, one of you should have been the Prince and we already know that’s not true, based on Master Sabine’s tests. Perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned it at all, but I felt it was only fair that you know.”
He gave the four a smile. “For this group, I believe that is enough for today. For your testing, I’m going to require the assistance of Master Sabine and perhaps others. For Jailyn, this is because your magic is so strong and encompasses so many magical areas, we don’t know where to start, and for the rest of you, it’s because we’ve never seen magic quite like yours before.”
His smile grew broader. “After I leave, Jailyn, I suggest you practice calling your hellhounds in the middle of the day. Someday you might well need to do so, and also I think Kelsey needs to know about them. It would probably be safest if you use this garden to meet them every evening from now on. You wouldn’t want to be seen with them by other students—” he glanced at Corrie, “—or by the numerous wizards who might be scrying on the island.”
He laughed as he turned to leave. “The best pack of hounds in all of hell, indeed!”
CHAPTER SEVEN
A Pivotal Event
THE NEXT MORNING Jailyn and her friends met up early, meeting in the dining hall when they opened to serve breakfast. They wanted to do a little exploring before they met with the Masters for their training.
Jailyn still smiled when she thought of Kelsey’s reaction to her hellhounds when they’d appeared in the garden. Obviously surprised and just a little bit frightened, Kelsey had nevertheless reached out to touch Big Boy and pat him on the head. Big Boy had quickly given her his stamp of approval, even rolling over to let her rub his belly regions. That said volumes to her.
“Kels was telling me about the waterfall near the center of the island,” Jailyn told the boys. “I think it would be enjoyable to go see it, plus, the water is supposed to have magical properties to it.”
“It’s always been a favorite of the students,” Kelsey explained. “If it were later in the day we could take a picnic with us, and really enjoy it.”
“I’m game,” Jesse quickly replied, just a little too quickly. Jailyn had begun to wonder if the two of them hadn’t been hitting it off a little too well.
Corrie gave her a strange look, but he nodded. “Fine with me,” was all he said. Later Jailyn would come to understand that his sense of danger had grown even more, but he had learned long ago that to try to change the circumstances around such an event only made things worse.
So it was that the four of them headed off to see the sights, talking quietly among themselves along the way. Kelsey had managed to wrap up a few of the sweet rolls from their breakfast for a simplified version of her picnic idea.
It was a fine day. The air was crisp and cool, but not cold, so it served to invigorate the group, causing them to move along at a brisk pace despite the trail that led uphill. It didn’t take them long before they reached the end of the path. There it opened onto a broad plateau with a small beach along the pool hammered out of the rock by the waterfall. The pool drained into a small stream that flowed off to the right side. But none of that was what garnered their notice.
The waterfall was the center of their attention. The whole group paused to stare in delight and awe. Words couldn’t describe what they saw. The spray from the waterfall splashed high in the air, catching the early morning sunlight to glisten in a rainbow of colors. But for the four, the effect went much deeper than the visual. The water was infused with magic, stronger than any of them had ever seen before.
“Now I know why they chose this island for our training,” Jailyn whispered. Although she spoke in a near whisper, her voice carried, the bowl generated by the waterfall forming a natural amphitheater.
“It’s so beautiful,” Kelsey said beside her, also speaking in a near whisper.
They were still taking in the sight when they heard a rough voice behind them. “If you idiots would get out of the way, maybe some of the rest of us could enjoy it too.”
The spell was broken as Carisa and some of her friends pushed through, a couple of them perhaps pushing a little more than was needed just to get by.
“Most importantly,” Carisa told Jailyn as she knelt beside the pool, “the magic can be used to strengthen one’s ability, especially the first one to partake for the day.” Reaching down, she grasped a cupped hand of water and brought it up to her lips.
She laughed. “You snooze, you lose,” she said. With her laughter only growing at the look on Jailyn and the others’ faces, she led her group off to the side where a rock wall along the side of the stream made an excellent place for them to sit.
“What a piece of work,” Corrie said. “Someone needs to put her in her place,” he finished angrily.
“It doesn’t matter,” Jailyn said, leading their group over to the pool and dropping down to sit with her legs crossed. She faced away from Carisa and the others so her voice wouldn’t carry to them.
“She’s right, but she’s wrong. She only skimmed off what was on top of the water. It probably takes it a day or two to accumulate there, which is most of what she just scooped up. But the real strength of the magic is buried deep within the pool.”
She looked at her group. “Form a circle with me,” she told them, “and join hands.”
They quickly complied, Jesse sitting on her left and Kelsey on her right, Corrie right across from her, each reaching to the one next to him or her to form Jailyn’s circle. Smiling at them, Jailyn reached out with her newfound ability, pulling from the magic deep within the depths. Her smile grew larger as she felt the power of the magic, spreading it out across her circle of friends until the four of them could hold no more.
To any with the ability to see magic, the four of them glowed with a brilliant light that could be seen as a burst of magic that flowed across the Kingdom of Callidore. Master Ashcroft smiled when the wave of magic passed over him. His interpretation of the prophecy appeared to be spot on. For once, maybe he was ahead of his adversaries.
As is the way of things, more than one group took notice.
The event was immediately observed in the Church of the Most High. Master Dacanay stopped the work he had been doing, giving a huge smile. “It has begun,” he told his fellow monks.
Seeing the glint of joy in his eyes and knowing just how strong the Master was in the second sight, when he spoke, everyone stopped to listen. It was as if the whole monastery had just taken a deep breath.
“You each know your duty,” he reminded them, garnering nods from a few and a resumption of work by the others. “We must do our part to assist those that have been chosen by fate.”
He pointed to his newly promoted attendant. “Monk Candidate Searle, you must prepare yourself for your journey. You are the one who must go forth to protect the Chosen and especially the One. There are things she must know to successfully do her part and there are times she will need someone to watch over her.”
The young monk bowed and did as bade by his leader. He no longer dwelt on his fear but instead upon his strong excitement, for this represented the moment he had prepared for his entire life. He vowed to do his best.
Across the world, high in the mountains that ringed the border of Callidore, a handful of dragons awoke from their sleep. They, and the one on the wizard island, were all that remained of the original dragons that had once covered the land. Only their leader, an elderly white dragon, knew the significance of the surge of magic they felt. She knew a huge event had just occurred, the next part in her plan originated centuries before.
She immediate
ly turned to her charges, a small handful of young dragons, assigning them each their tasks. Mostly it was to keep them busy, but at least for a couple of the young dragons, their tasks were quite important indeed. She thought of her son who was away on the wizard island. His life was about to change and his tasks would be the most important of all.
She hoped he was up to it. In the end, it would all depend on him.
Across the kingdom another recognized the pivotal event. He did not serve the Light, but instead was claimed by the Darkness. Years ago while working as a Master’s Assistant on the wizard island, one had approached him offering him power beyond the dabbling allowed him by the Wizard Council. He had quickly accepted the offer, glorying in the immediate surge of dark power he’d been given.
Knowing he would be soon discovered if he remained on the island, the young wizard had feigned a family emergency and left the island, traveling across the Middle Sea to another training academy, the Sorcerer School of the Dark Arts located high in the Mountains of Aganati. There he had learned of the Prophecies, prophecies studied by the Dark as well as the Light, since no event was absolutely predetermined.
He hadn’t put much stock in those prophecies, but nevertheless he excelled in learning their practices, becoming a master sorcerer. He finally left with their blessings, returning to his homeland as the one known as Lord Vipero, with the intent to oppose his former wizard masters.
There in the capital Lord Vipero had found one he could seduce to his cause, the rather spoiled and unhappy brother of the King. Johan Agansti was willing to sell his soul to become King, with no concern for the consequences. Johan had done his part, but once he’d received his crown, he remained content to waste away in the decadence and power the position gave him. He’d made a good puppet for Lord Vipero to control.