by Randal Sloan
“No, I’ve got them,” she told her as she did the preliminary work on the multi-level shield. She added a fire shield for the outside, the most obvious choice. The girl was quite a strong fire wizard, but it appeared she also had some ability with air. That went in as the second shield layer. Finally, she added a physical shield layer since there was always the potential to have something to be thrown at you, especially when facing an air wizard.
That done, Jailyn glanced up at the hourglass — good, just over halfway done. As the sand continued to trickle through, she began the offensive fireball spell she’d mastered earlier in the week. If that didn’t work, she’d move on to the one she just learned today, so she built it and placed it in reserve. In between she intended to use her own “air power” as she called it.
Her last resort would be that optional change to today’s spell, whereby she would add the second layer to the spell. That was something no one had done before as far as she knew. Jailyn planned to save that for last. No sense in revealing that at the beginning if something else would work. Perhaps if she did use it, no one would recognize what she had done.
Corrie whispered in her ear. “They’re giving four to one odds on Carisa. Hope you don’t mind that I put some money on you.”
“Better win it while you can. What do you think the odds will be the next time?” Jailyn couldn’t resist. She might be overconfident and regret it later, but there was one thing she did know. No one would underestimate her again!
Corrie shook his head. “There’s not going to be a next time. After you finish with this idiot, no one else will dare to challenge you.”
“I hope you’re right. I just couldn’t see any other way to get her to stop.”
The sand was nearly to the bottom of the glass. Jailyn prepared herself to do battle.
Carisa was really feeling good about herself. She’d finally gotten Master Ashcroft’s brat where she wanted her. She intended to teach the girl a much needed lesson. The nerve of her as a first year to think she had a chance to face her, a second year. All of her friends had agreed with her, so this was for all of them.
Carisa knew she was a very powerful fire wizard. That alone should be enough to win the fight. She also wasn’t a shabby air wizard either, so she planned to mix in a combination of the two spells to keep the girl off balance. If the girl could even get shields up, she’d have to keep bouncing her shields back and forth between the two, so sooner or later she’d be caught with the wrong shield. Sooner, more than likely.
Carisa was proud of her own shields. She had stumbled on a trick that used her fire affinity and just a twist with air to make her shields stronger than anyone else in her class. It didn’t look like a fire shield but it was, and it was much more powerful than that. None of her instructors had figured out how she’d done it or how to penetrate it.
No, she’d finally get the attention she deserved, and no one would be idolizing the new girl after she was through with her. It was already working out for her good. Just look at the huge crowd, all of them cheering her on. Plus, it would be quite fun.
Everything was going perfectly. Then the last of the hourglass drained. That’s when everything went wrong.
Some lessons have to be learned the hard way. Battles never go the way they’re planned. Both expected a quick victory, something that doesn’t often happen unless one’s opponent is unprepared or instead you lose due to your own lack of preparation. Master Ashcroft and his chosen group of Masters couldn’t have taught Jailyn the lesson she was going to learn in the arena because some things can’t be taught. They have to be experienced.
Both girls came out of their corners throwing huge fireballs at each other. Both watched the fireballs bounce off an impenetrable shield. Carisa was completely taken by surprise; her biggest mistake was that she hadn’t bothered to study her opponent at all. Jailyn thought she knew what she faced; she was mostly right, but she too had underestimated. The girl’s shields were much stronger than she had anticipated. Both girls immediately switched to an air attack, flinging missiles of concentrated air that would have penetrated an ordinary shield. Again the attack just bounced off.
Jailyn couldn’t understand it. What was with those shields? She’d never seen anything like them. She sent another round of fireballs and even harder air missiles while she readied her second attack spell. Carisa kept raining fireballs and air missiles in on her, none of which made it through her own shields. She wasn’t worried about that in the least, but how could she win if she couldn’t penetrate those shields?
By this time Carisa realized she’d made a big mistake. The girl she was facing was like no first year she’d ever seen. Perhaps if they’d started off differently, they wouldn’t be standing here facing each other. What was with those shields? Nothing was getting through or even fazing her. If she didn’t have her own special shields, she suspected the girl would have already won. Then it only got worse.
Jailyn’s changed her fireballs to fire javelins. They were quite impressive as they streaked through the air, but still they couldn’t penetrate the other girl’s shields. When this was over, Jailyn had to find out how those shields worked. If the girl would even talk to her. She started intermixing fire javelins and air javelins while she worked on her untested adaptation to the javelin spell.
Carisa had to admit the fire javelins were quite impressive. She could feel them striking her shields and she knew if not for her special trick, nothing would have stopped them. By this time, she’d also come to realize that she hadn’t really taken the battle training seriously. Otherwise, she’d have learned other attack spells, like those javelins. At this point, she was just watching the hourglass. The sand was finally getting close to the bottom. When it did, she’d tell them she no longer wanted to continue.
Jailyn was finally ready. She too had spied the hourglass. One last shot with the new spell and they’d be at the break. If that didn’t work, she’d give the girl her due and quit. Maybe she’d at least earned enough respect that the girl would back off. After all, that was all she cared about. She didn’t really care about winning.
Well, only a little. The new spell was ready. She sent it on its way.
No one was prepared for the results.
Jailyn’s new spell was a variation of the original trick she’d done with her first ball of magic when she buried an ice core inside the ball of fire. She had added an ice javelin to the core of the fire javelins. Against any other shield than Carisa’s special variation, the javelin would have pierced the shield, striking the opponent and triggering the protective wards. But Carisa’s special variation was based on a new magic that no one had discovered before. It was actually a displacement spell that twisted an attacker’s magic into a part of the world that didn’t really exist — a sort of nowhere just outside the normal world. But that nowhere was special in that it only would let one form of magic inside at any given time.
When Jailyn’s double-magicked javelin struck that shield, both magics tried to move at the same time into that nowhere space. That was more than it could handle, spitting the magic right back out. The result was a magic explosion. The arena shook with a mighty thunderclap. Both girls were flung to the side, the wards locking down barely in time.
The burst of magic echoed around the world like a sonic boom, leaving many a wizard in total confusion as to what had just happened. A handful of monks knew exactly what it meant.
For the second time in as many weeks, Jailyn woke up in the infirmary. This time she had quite a buzz in her head. She looked up to see Kelsey sitting beside her bed.
“The healers would only let one of us stay,” Kelsey told her. “I got the job by way of stealing the seat first. I suspect your uncle will be here shortly, now that you’re awake.”
“What happened?” Jailyn started to ask. Then she stopped. “Never mind, I remember. Some kind of magic explosion, and a new magic I’ve never seen before.” She smiled, raising her hands to generate a ball of magic. It was
quite strange looking, a dark emptiness swirling around inside it.
Then a more urgent question pushed to the forefront of her mind. “Carisa, is she alright?”
“More or less,” a voice said behind her. “Other than feeling quite stupid for missing what was right in front of me.”
Jailyn smiled. “Me too. Your shields are amazing. Plus, apparently you’ve discovered a new kind of magic.” She let the little ball rise up high enough for the other girl to see. “It’s some kind of null magic, magic that cancels other magics.”
“Wow,” Carisa told her. “I had no idea what it was, but I just knew it worked. How did you figure that out?”
“Somewhere in the middle of my unplanned air flight,” Jailyn told her. “That’s one of my abilities — I can see magic. For example, your affinities are fire, air and now this new null magic.”
“You’re right, although I didn’t know what that third one was until just now. Just what was that you hit me with there at the end?”
“It’s a little trick I came up with. It was a fire javelin with an ice core, a combination of water with a reverse fire spell to remove enough heat from the water to make ice and then I add that heat to the fire, making it even hotter.”
Kelsey had kept quiet the whole time, just listening to the two talk, but she couldn’t help but brag about her friend. “Jailyn is what we believe to be an all-magic wizard. You should see her pack of hellhounds.”
Carisa’s expression went from wonder to just a touch of fear. Everyone she knew was afraid of hellhounds. A wizard that could control a pack was considered quite dangerous.
“Best pack of hounds in all of hell, I believe she said,” Master Ashcroft said as he came into the room.
“I hope the two of you have learned your lesson,” he told the two patients. “That was quite a spectacular show you put on.”
“Yes, Master,” both girls said nearly simultaneously.
“I hope you’ll give me another chance,” Carisa went on, speaking directly to Jailyn. “I now know I was quite wrong about you.”
“As I was about you,” Jailyn told her. “Look at you, inventing a new kind of magic.” She reformed her ball of null magic, holding it up for her uncle.
“Do you see it, Uncle?” she asked him. “I call it null magic, because it’s a kind of anti-magic.”
It was the Master’s turn to be surprised. “I do now. This could be quite significant indeed. We’ll need to look at it in more depth, perhaps tomorrow.” He gave Jailyn a smile. “I’m giving you the rest of the day off, but I expect you back at it in the morning. I have one of my personal spells I had planned to teach tomorrow, so no slacking.”
He turned so he could face both Kelsey and Jailyn. “I sent a message to the Dream Master. He’s giving you the night off too, so you may want to pass that on to the others, although I suppose they’ll figure it out.”
He turned to leave, since he expected that would generate a new question. If he didn’t know better, the four had just become five. He wasn’t disappointed.
“Dream Master?” he heard as he was passing through the door.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Final Prep
AS HE HAD expected, the next morning Master Ashcroft found a new team member was with the group. Also of interest to him, Jailyn had figured out how to modify the wards at the gate to allow Carisa to enter with the other four. The group had come early and Carisa had been given the opportunity to meet the hellhounds. She appeared to have gotten along fine with them.
Jailyn had also figured out something else. “You never told us it was only us four that would go on our quest. I believe Carisa was always intended to go with us.”
Master Ashcroft just nodded. “That’s true, but I couldn’t tell you that, lest somehow the knowledge would affect what you did. It’s never a good idea to mess around with prophecy.”
“That’s good. We’ve explained the situation to Carisa in detail and she insists that she needs to go with us. Despite the fact that I managed to convince her it’s going to be quite dangerous.”
“I’ve always felt that I had a higher calling,” Carisa explained. “I never knew what it was until I awakened yesterday evening and Jailyn explained everything that’s happening. I believe I can contribute significantly to the team.”
“As do I,” Master Ashcroft told her. “Although, you’re quite behind this group in your offensive spell casting. I have a good friend that’s a fire wizard coming this afternoon to work with you.”
Jailyn gave him an accusing look. “So you knew all along.”
“Not until yesterday evening did I know who it was going to be, but yes, I knew someone would be joining you. I didn’t say she was the last one either.” He smiled at the group, who all stood with their mouths hanging open. Just what did that mean?
“But let’s get started. I have a very interesting spell to teach the five of you. It works best with fire but does quite well with the other affinities. As you know, we do have a few with fire affinities.”
That evening when the Dream Master brought their group into the dreamworld, it was indeed the five of them. “Welcome, young Carisa,” the Dream Master told her with a smile. “I know your father quite well, having traded with him in the past.”
“Then perhaps you know that I trained with the staff for several years.”
The Dream Master smiled. “That only means you’re just a little bit behind the others. I don’t mean to brag, but our Masters with the staff are among the best in all of Callidore and beyond. In the dream world, we’re able to extend the time training, so your friends have had many hours of training.”
Jailyn fixed him with a stare. “I thought you were doing something with our time here. It was like somehow time was stretching and now I know it has been.”
“Yes, I know, dear one, but it’s the only way. Those that you face have had many years to prepare.”
“I understand, Master, but I just needed to get that complaint out there and warn you. Someday there will be a reckoning.”
“Of that I have no doubt. Perhaps on that future day you’ll be the Dream Master and I’ll be the student. When I have time to begin teaching you, I will.”
Jailyn just stared. “No way! Why do you even say that, Master?”
“Only one with the talent would be able to see the time flow. The others only know they’ve been here for what seemed a long time each night. Other things you’ve done have also shown me this. I would suggest you think on it during your time here for the next few days. When you’ve reached the end of your staff training, I’ll dedicate some few hours to dream training.
“But for now,” he gestured and the Masters they had been training with appeared, along with a new Master for Carisa. “Work hard, my young friends, for the time remaining grows short.”
Young Master Kynin Searle was on his way to join the others, but first he made a stop in the port city of Yarmouth, or more precisely to a large estate outside the city. His reception when he arrived left a little bit to be desired, for no one answered at the gate to the estate. That would have to be fixed.
Rather than wait until someone eventually wandered out to meet him, Kynin decided to take matters into his own hands. Easily casting a spell to unlock the gate, he was halfway to the mansion sitting at the center of Baron Von Barso’s estate before he was intercepted.
“Halt! Who goes there?” said the largest of the trio of men it appeared he’d just awakened.
Kynin considered putting the lot back to sleep with a sleep spell, but he decided that was just too much effort. “I’m here to see the Lord Baron,” he told them.
“By sneaking around in the middle of the estate, I bet. You probably thought you could sneak in the back door and walk out with an armload of the Baron’s silver. You’ll see the Baron all right.” He pointed to his lieutenant. “Bring him. We’ll see what the Master says to do with him.”
He told the other man, “You, go ahead and send the word to the Bar
on.”
Again, Kynin considered. He could easily defeat them in any number of ways. He couldn’t help but wonder about someone who didn’t recognize the robes of a Master of the Order. Maybe the man had gotten ahold of bad wine. He finally decided going along with them was probably the quickest way to achieve his goal. After all, he really did need to see the Baron.
As a result of all that, Kynin was brought in to see the Baron with his hands tied behind his back and the man escorting him announcing, “My Lord, I’ve brought the prisoner.”
Kynin let just a trickle of his power flow through his hands, burning off the bonds. The Baron immediately felt a prick of fear, for he sensed some of that power and he recognized the robes he was wearing. Quickly, he bowed to the man.
“Please forgive my foolish men, young Master,” he told Kynin. He clapped his hands, bringing a servant running. “Bring the Master of the Order tea and some type of refreshment, if that suits the Master?”
Kynin nodded. “That would be fine, my lord.”
Still shaking his head, the Baron turned to the escort. “Off with you, John. I expect you to do double the work on your studies tonight, including how to recognize one of the Master monks from the Church of the Order.”
The Baron turned to Kynin, shaking his head. “He’s the son of one of my retainers. He’s been showing some progress, but he’s got a long way to go. Again, please accept my apologies.”
Kynin smiled, “It was expedient that I get in to see you soonest, so I allowed them to have the idea they had taken me prisoner. But enough of that. We can talk of training your men at a later time.”
Kynin raised his hands, generating a cone of silence around the two that would prevent eavesdropping, both physical and by scrying. “I come bringing news, my Lord. We have found Master Ashcroft’s niece, and Master Dacanay has sent me to speak with you. Just as importantly to you, someone else from the wizard school has joined her group, someone I believe you know quite well.”