Secrets and Spellcraft

by Michael G. Manning

  “You might not be as stupid as I thought,” said Arrogan.

  “Say that again?”

  The ring growled. “You heard me the first time. I know what I made you promise, but we haven’t discussed a plan. You aren’t ready for regicide yet. First you have to discover who knows the secret. If you jump straight to killing Lognion, you’ll have the entire kingdom after you. It’s hard to gather information under those sorts of circumstances. All that aside, from what you’ve told me, that psychotic man would take you apart like a joint of beef at a butcher shop.”

  “I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready,” Will admitted. “I don’t like killing.”

  “Nobody does at first,” said Arrogan solemnly. “And hopefully you won’t like it even after you’re good at it. The task ahead of you will test your soul, but even if it turns you into a monster, you can’t back out. Your humanity is a small price to pay to rid the world of such an evil.”

  “How long is this going to take?”

  “Years? A decade? Who knows?”

  “Years! I don’t want to live like that.”

  “Patience is a friend to those plotting betrayal.”

  “I don’t want to be a betrayer. If I have to do this, I’d rather be honest and up front about it.”

  “You think it was easy for me, boy?” said the ring. “The minute you start, every hand turns against you, but I knew that would happen. So I was forced to bide my time until I was sure I had them all. Only when I was ready, only when I was sure, did I spill the first blood. I killed the strongest first, so that only the weak would be left to face me once my plan was known.”

  “And yet you still didn’t succeed,” said Will acidly. “Maybe you should have tried something different.”

  “Don’t lecture me, you little shit! You weren’t there. You didn’t have to kill your friends!”

  “Friends?”

  “Why do you think they gave me that name? It wasn’t just because I killed the Prophet and then later my own king. Half the wizards I purged were men and women who trusted me. I simply couldn’t abide what they had become.”

  It was the first time Will had heard Arrogan go into any detail about the things he had done, and he wasn’t about to lose his chance to learn more. “I don’t understand. I know why sorcery is evil now, but how was it that you were friends with so many of them?”

  “They weren’t sorcerers at first,” said Arrogan, his voice taking on a sad tone. “The demons from Shimera had become a serious threat, not just to Greater Darrow, but to mankind as a whole. It was that desperation that led to Valemon’s popular appeal as the Prophet, and it was that desperation that caused many of my colleagues to despair of winning the fight against Madrok. Sorcery seemed like a necessary solution to many of them, the lesser of two evils.”

  “I’ve fought several demons now, and I’m not even much of a wizard yet. What could the wizards of your time have been afraid of?”

  An audible sigh came from the ring. “Numbers. Training a wizard, the way you were trained, takes longer. At the very least it takes a couple of years of preparation before you even get to learning spellcraft and practical magic. Mastery takes many years more. A lesser fire elemental can be forged from the soul of anyone; give that elemental to even an untrained novice and you have a sorcerer capable of handling most demons.

  “In the beginning there were many with moral objections, but the premise was that the souls of those who became elementals would be released when the danger was past. Then some wizards began cannibalizing their apprentices to create greater elementals, and again they claimed it was for the greater good. But there was never an end in sight. Madrok would never be completely defeated. We’re still fighting him today. Once the world was mostly safe, they still wanted to keep the elementals. There was always another excuse, and even those who I considered friends, those who had objected in the beginning, even they wouldn’t let go of their elementals.

  “There was no persuading them, so in the end, when I was ready, I quietly got rid of the strongest. Death came to them with a smile, a dagger hidden in the hand of a friend. By the time they realized what I was doing, those who could stop me were gone. The inexperienced wizards and novice sorcerers who remained were no match for me. There were too many for me to kill them all, but I eliminated everyone who knew the secret to creating elementals, or so I thought.”

  The ring fell silent and Will was left to his thoughts. He didn’t want to wind up like Arrogan. King Lognion was just one man. If he was the only one who possessed the secret, perhaps he wouldn’t have to go as far as his teacher had.

  Yet he could see the parallels. He had seen a Priest of Madrok in the Darrowan camp, and now there were demons in Cerria. King Lognion was obviously conserving his elementals, putting them in the hands of his nobles, but was he actively creating more? If not, would he begin doing so if he felt threatened?

  Even if the king didn’t make more, was it morally acceptable to keep the souls of those already enslaved in eternal bondage to protect the status quo? Arrogan obviously didn’t think so, but was he right? If Will kept his promise and eventually succeeded in killing the king, what would be the repercussions? If the demon threat continued to grow, would Terabinia be left unable to defend itself?

  Arrogan spoke once more. “I know what you’re thinking, boy. I had the same doubts. Better to die human, than to become as twisted and corrupt as the demons we fight. That’s the answer I chose.”

  Chapter 40

  Will slept fitfully on Sunday morning, making up for some of the sleep he had missed. After lunch he resumed his personal training for an hour, then went out for a walk to clear his head.

  He’d only been outside for a short time before he ran into Janice. She smiled for a second when she saw him, then frowned. Walking over to him, she asked, “What happened this time?”

  The regeneration potion had healed all of his wounds, so it took him a moment to remember his black eye. Touching his face, Will grimaced, “Oh, this. I almost forgot.”

  “Only you would forget getting a black eye.”

  My back was broken, a demon almost ate me, and then I was run through with a sword. A black eye is rather easy to forget after all that, thought Will. “This wasn’t from a fight.”

  “Are you going to explain?” asked Janice, arching one brow.

  Embarrassed, Will replied, “I’d rather not.”

  “Figures. Fine, I won’t ask. Have you finished your essay for Monday?”

  “Sort of…”

  “Let’s go have a look at it.”

  A short while later they were back in Will’s room. Janice sat back and pushed the paper away. “You’ve improved a lot, but this won’t do.” She spent the next fifteen minutes pointing out errors and marking paragraphs that needed to be rewritten.

  Will despaired of ever being able to earn her approval, much less that of his teacher. Pulling his courage together, he said the words he had been dreading, “I need a partner for a dance.”

  “Pardon?”

  “I thought maybe, if you weren’t too busy—”

  Janice watched him silently, a strange look on her face.

  Will felt as though he was flailing about, but he kept talking anyway. “The Winter Ball is next week.”

  “At the palace?” Her expression showed surprise.

  He nodded. “I’m supposed to bring someone, but if it’s too much trouble I understand.”

  Janice reached out and shook his shoulder. “Get ahold of yourself. Are you asking me to be your date to the ball?”

  “Well, it occurred to me. I don’t really know any—g—” His mouth froze as he tried to figure out what he meant to say.

  “Girls?” asked Janice, trying to help.

  He nodded.

  “If you want a firm answer, you’re going to have to ask a firm question,” she replied, a faint warning in her eyes.

  Red-faced, Will spat out the words in a rush. “Will you accompany me to the ball?�
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  There was mirth in her eyes. “I would love to, but there are a few problems.”

  Will’s ears weren’t working properly. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked, but you were the—wait, what?” His brain started to catch up. “What problems? Did you say yes?”

  She laughed. “I would say yes, but I don’t have a dress for it. My family is almost as poor as yours.”

  He stared at her blankly for a full thirty seconds. “I have money.” Jumping up from his chair, he went to his bed and pretended to rummage under the mattress while summoning the purse the king had given him from the limnthal. He handed it to her, feeling awkward.

  Janice’s hand dropped as the weight of the gold landed on her palm. With a frown she opened the purse and glanced inside. “This is a fortune!”

  “It should be enough to buy a dress, right?”

  “You could outfit a harem with this,” said Janice wryly. “You aren’t trying to buy more than a dress, are you?”

  Will held up his hands. “No! No, no, no, I just happened to have that much in the purse.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t kill anyone for this, did you?” His mouth fell open, and she laughed at his reaction. “I’m just teasing. This is from the potions you’ve been making, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” he answered, feeling a sense of relief.

  “Do you trust me with all of this? How much should I spend?”

  “As much as you need,” said Will. He still had more than five hundred crowns stored in the limnthal.

  “Do you know how to dance?” she asked suddenly.

  “No.”

  She frowned. “Me either, at least not the sort of dances they’ll be doing at a royal ball.”

  “Dianne said she could teach us,” said Will.

  “Problem solved then, but if I’m to have a dress made, I need to go into the city today. There’s less than two weeks left until the Winter Ball. Will you go with me? I can’t go alone with this much money.”

  Will started to say yes, but then he remembered his conversation with Arrogan about ambushes. Escorting Janice would only make things more dangerous. “I can’t. You won’t be safe if I go with you.”

  “They’re still after you?”

  He looked away. “Something happens almost every time I go into the city. Maybe Seth or Rob can go.”

  She gave him a severe look. “How many times have you been attacked?”

  “It’s not worth thinking about.”

  She pursed her lips disapprovingly. “Let’s go see who we can find.”

  As it turned out, they ran into Seth and Rob together in the hallway. Both agreed to escort her, claiming to have their own reasons for going into the city. Will suspected they just wanted to pump Janice for information about him while they were away.

  After they left, he returned to his favorite activity, practicing his spellcraft, though in truth he was beginning to get sick of it. His desire to survive was stronger than his distaste for boring repetition, however, so he devoted himself to his training.

  Two hours of mindless repetition wore him down, however, and his survival instinct began to wane in the face of endless boredom. He called up the limnthal and started a conversation with the ring. “I’m sick of practicing,” he began.

  “Cry me a river,” said Arrogan. “Are you tired of breathing too?”

  “I’m sick of practicing the same spells over and over,” whined Will.

  The ring was unsympathetic. “So, learn some new ones. There’s no shortage.”

  “I’ve learned them all,” said Will. “Except for the chameleon spell and the sleep spell. I can almost cast those too, but I’m tired of working on them.”

  “Ever heard of a library?”

  Will grimaced. “They keep all the good stuff in the restricted sections here.”

  “And you’re suddenly allergic to breaking the rules?”

  “No, but I want to wait until I can use the chameleon spell first. Just in case someone shows up.”

  “Make a new spell then,” suggested the ring.

  “They haven’t taught us how yet,” said Will. “It’s all theory in the first year. New spell construction isn’t part of the curriculum until the second year.”

  “Bunch of prissy fancy pants mumble-bums!” swore Arrogan. “It isn’t that hard.”

  “They said you can kill yourself if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

  “Of course, it’s dangerous! So is taking a piss in the dark, but you aren’t going to wet the bed, are you? Start with something small and be cautious and you’ll probably be fine.”

  “I don’t even know where to start.”

  “Well, as I said before, I can’t really teach you anything since I can’t see what you’re doing and I don’t remember the specifics of most of the spells I used without being able to read.” The ring paused, then added, “But I’m full of ideas.” There was an evil tone in Arrogan’s voice.

  “Such as?”

  “You’ve mastered the force-lance and demon-armor spells, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “There are variations of those that you should be able to figure out. I used to use a spell I lovingly called a ‘death-lance.’”

  His interest was piqued. “What did it do?”

  “Well, the force-lance uses turyn in a form that produces a physical force. But suppose you were fighting demons again and you would rather use something more effective against them. The death lance spell was similar, but a bit more complicated. It allows the caster to substitute a different type of turyn. The version I used was antithetical to living beings, so even a grazing shot could kill someone. I can’t show you the formula for that, but you could do something similar with the turyn output formula built into the demon-armor spell. If you combined that with the base form of a force-lance spell you could produce an attack that would be lethal to demons.”

  “Ooh,” said Will with a gasp.

  “Conversely, you could use the turyn type output from a force-lance spell to create a version of the demon-armor spell that would protect you from physical blows. I’d wait until you have more experience to try that, though. There are some complications involved in shaping it. It’s not as simple as plugging one piece into the other. Get it wrong and you’ll suffocate yourself.”

  “Ouch.”

  “The death-lance was dangerous too, since the energy involved could kill the caster as easily as an opponent, but if you try it with the sort that’s inimical to demons you should be relatively safe.”

  Will summoned Practical Magic from the limnthal and began studying the diagrams for force-lance and demon-armor. With some advice from the ring, he gradually figured out which parts of each performed which functions. Using a blank sheet torn from one of his school journals, he wrote down the parts he needed, then began trying to figure out how to link them together.

  He was so engrossed in the exercise that hours passed without him realizing it. He was startled when a knock roused him from his concentration on the task before him. “Who is it?”

  “It’s me, Rob.”

  “Come in, the door’s open.”

  His friend stepped in and grabbed the other chair, spinning it around so he could sit and put his arms over the back. “I never want to do that again.”

  “You seemed excited when you left.”

  “Oh, I was! But you have no idea how long we stayed at the dressmaker’s. Just the measurements took forever. Seth and I could have left, gone to eat, and come back and they would’ve still been at it. And all the talk about fabrics—I was sure I was dying.”

  Will chuckled. “I think you’re exaggerating a bit.”

  Rob looked wounded. “I’m not! Poor Seth almost didn’t make it. He fell asleep in one corner of the shop and almost dislocated his neck. I thought we’d have to take him to see a doctor when we got back. I return to you a changed man.”

  “How so?”

  Rob straightened and assumed an air of matur
ity. “I have seen things, my friend. I have walked the long road and suffered.”

  “Seen things?”

  “Yeah, a whole lot of nothing. We weren’t allowed anywhere near while she was changing or being measured. I’m a young man. I’m not meant to sit still and stare at yards of fabric for hours on end. My mind traveled to distant places, and I’m not sure all of it returned.”

  “So you’ve attained a higher level of consciousness now? Is that what you’re telling me?” asked Will with a grin.

  “Long is the road and torturous the journey, young petitioner. The mind of man is not meant for such wisdom.”

  “And what did you learn?”

  Rob slouched in his chair. “I used to think women were exciting, but now I know they can be boring as hell. If I never see another dress again, it will be too soon. You owe me one for today. In fact, you should probably let me take her to the ball. I deserve a reward for my suffering.”

  “Oh, so you fancy Janice?”

  “I’m not blind, Will, though what the girl sees in you makes me wonder if she is.”

  “Hey now!”

  Rob switched subjects, pointing at his eye. “When are you going to tell me how you got that shiner?”

  “I’m not.”

  “Such a good friend you aren’t,” said Rob sarcastically. “Fine, don’t share. Janice told us you don’t dare walk the streets, though. Is it Count Spry?”

  Will shook his head. “I don’t think so. Not anymore at least. I might need to beg you for another favor early next week.” He was thinking about when his new brigandine would be ready for pick-up.

  “If it involves the dressmaker again, you can go straight to hell my friend. Anything else I’ll consider.”

  “I have some armor being made.”

  “What happened to your fancy secret armor?” asked Rob. When Will’s face showed surprise, he added, “Seth told me about it after your last misadventure.”

  “Do you want the truth? I’ll tell you, but I won’t explain the details.”

  Rob clapped his hands together as though praying. “Please, master, I wait on your wisdom!”

  Will began counting off attacks with his fingers. “Two knife attacks, three crossbow bolts, a sword thrust, and five talons.” He paused for a moment. “I think that’s everything, unless I missed something. In any case, my old armor is no longer usable.”