Trial by Sorcery

by Richard Fierce

  I closed my eyes and inhaled deep, measured breaths. My mind needed to be clear so I could focus. I pushed everything from my mind and thought only about the dragon from the stables. It had been too dark to see what color it was, but I remembered its glowing eyes and its razor-sharp teeth. To bond with a creature like that, to share in its strengths and weaknesses, was hard to imagine, but I knew it was what I wanted.

  By the time Master Pevus entered the room and called me to the front, I had calmed my nerves and was ready for the test. He had called it Compassion. While I didn’t know what the test would be like, I knew what compassion was. My mother had been the only person who didn’t look at me differently after my hand had been crushed. She’d shown me compassion every day.

  I walked to the front and followed the master to the door. Curate Anesko opened the door and I glanced back at Master Pevus one last time. His forehead was stooped with worry, but he’d looked like that all day, so I didn’t let it bother me. His eyes were a faded blue, almost gray. He smiled at me, and I felt assurance in his expression. I nodded at him, then looked at Anesko as I walked through the doorway.

  The Curate offered a single nod. I bowed my head to him, then looked ahead. The chamber looked like every other room of the Citadel with its smooth stone walls and floor. But when the door closed behind me, everything changed.

  9

  I was in Autumnwick’s market.

  The Citadel towered behind me and I wondered if the magic of the test had actually transported me here. Everything was strikingly real, so it must have. It made sense, considering I hadn’t seen anyone come out of the testing chamber. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do, so I began to explore the market.

  A young boy was standing beside one of the vendor stalls, watching as people passed by. He was a low born with black hair and couldn’t be older than eight years. His face was dirty, and his clothes were in serious disrepair. As I walked by, he called out to me.

  “Mister! Do you have any coins to spare?”

  Instinctively, I reached for my coin purse before remembering that I had no money. I patted the purse anyway, and I shook my head at the boy.

  “Sorry, I don’t.”

  The boy’s eyes gazed at me as if he was able to discern whether I was being truthful or not. He tilted his head to the side and smiled. A few of his teeth were missing.

  “That’s all right. May your luck improve!”

  “Yours, too,” I replied.

  I continued walking through the market and went down a row I hadn’t seen the other day. There were two people at a stall about mid-way down the aisle. They were having a heated discussion, and one of them was waving their arms about wildly. I thought about going down another row, but curiosity got the better of me and I slowly got closer to them.

  “I saw it first,” a woman said.

  “Maybe, but I asked to buy it first,” the other woman retorted.

  I glanced at the vendor, and he seemed content to let the women verbally duel it out between themselves.

  “It’s the last one, and I need it.”

  I peered between the women and saw that they were arguing over a slaughtered pig. The amount of meat it would provide should have been adequate for two families. I held my tongue as I listened to their exchange, but then one of the women started to act like she was going to resort to violence.

  “You going to say something?” I asked the vendor. He glanced at me for a moment, then looked away and ignored me.

  “Ladies,” I interrupted.

  At first, they didn’t acknowledge me. They kept yelling at one another and even started hurling insults. If someone didn’t do something quickly, I was certain the two would end up hitting each other.

  “Ladies,” I repeated, louder this time. That got their attention.

  “What do you want, boy?” It was the one who said she asked to buy the pig first.

  “Isn’t that more than enough meat for one family?”

  The woman looked at the pig, then back at me. “And?”

  “Could you two not split the cost, then half the meat so that both of you get to enjoy it?” It seemed like common sense to me, but the look on the woman’s face revealed that she hadn’t even considered the idea.

  “I … I suppose,” she said, her anger quickly deflating. She looked back at the other woman and seemed embarrassed. “That does sound like a good idea to me. What about you?”

  “Yes, I like that idea, too.”

  The first woman turned to the vendor and asked him to cut the meat and divide it evenly. The vendor seemed disappointed that the situation had been diffused, but he obliged her request anyway.

  Satisfied that I had helped, I was about to continue walking down the row when the first woman laid a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and she held out a silver coin to me.

  “Please, take this,” she said. “As a sign of my appreciation.”

  “I can’t accept that,” I said.

  The woman pressed the coin into my palm, ignoring my weak protest. I tightened my grip on the coin and the woman offered me a smile and a single nod, then turned back to watch the vendor cut the pig in half.

  I held the coin up. It flashed in the sunlight and appeared to be newly minted. The inscriptions on the coin’s surface weren’t familiar to me. In fact, I was certain that the coin wasn’t even from our kingdom. That didn’t mean it lacked value, so I put it into my coin purse and continued down the rest of the row.

  There was nothing that caught my interest, so I headed back to the front of the market where I had started. I decided this wasn’t much of a test, especially since I didn’t know what I should be doing. The boy begging for coins was still in the same spot. He looked at me and waved. And then an idea came to me.

  Compassion.

  What if I was meant to get the coin from the woman, only to give it to the child? I walked over to the boy and knelt in front of him, then dug the coin from my purse and held it out to him.

  “Here,” I said. “You need this more than I do.”

  The boy smirked, his eyes glittering with mischievousness.

  “I see your luck turned around quickly!” he said.

  “So it did.”

  “I don’t need your coin,” the boy said.

  “Oh. Well, I figured since you asked me earlier …”

  The boy was shaking his head before I could finish speaking. He pushed my hand away gently just as a tremor shook the ground. The vibrations made my knees shake and I glanced around the market to see if anyone else had noticed the disturbance.

  It was business as usual. When I looked at the boy again, his facial expression had darkened. He stepped closer to me and whispered harshly, “He’s coming!”

  “Who is?” I asked.

  The boy grew fearful and he looked back and forth frantically. It made me uneasy and I too looked around. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. People were making purchases and having conversations like normal, so I was confused by the boy’s fear.

  “Who is coming?” I repeated.

  The boy’s small hands gripped my shirt and he stared into my eyes.

  “The False King is coming,” he whispered harshly.

  “Who is that?”

  Dark clouds began to appear in the sky and thunder rumbled in the distance. The storm was brewing quickly, much more quickly than seemed normal. Within moments, the sun was blotted out and lightning flickered among the clouds.

  Odder still, the boy’s eyes were glowing with a dull blue light. I fell backward and scrambled away on my hands and feet. The boy turned to the storm clouds and raised his hands. Flames flickered to life on his fingertips, casting dancing shadows around him.

  The storm clouds grew thicker and darker, sucking all light into their black void. The people that had been in the market were gone. I realized that the buildings and tents were also gone. The market had simply vanished. It was only the boy and myself.
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  And the figure in the storm.

  A lone form detached from the darkness and strode purposefully toward the boy. The flames on the boy’s fingers arced high and formed a fiery pattern in the air, keeping the figure from getting any closer.

  Even in the growing darkness, the boy’s magic glowed brightly, defending us from the shadows. The figure struggled to get past the magical shield, but it was too strong. I had no idea what was happening. Was this part of the test? What did any of this have to do with compassion?

  “I demand you leave!” the boy shouted at the figure. “You are not welcome here!”

  “You can’t stop me forever,” the figure finally spoke. His voice made my flesh crawl. It was as if spiders were swarming along my skin. A wave of panic spread throughout me when I saw the magical barrier shudder and give way before the darkness.

  The boy screamed, and there was nothing but the darkness.

  I closed my eyes, preparing for my inevitable death. And then I heard a familiar voice.

  “Eldwin.”

  I looked up to see Master Pevus and Curate Anesko standing in a doorway that blended with the stone wall of the testing chamber.

  “Is it over?” I asked. “Is the test done?”

  “It’s done,” Master Pevus said. “Come.”

  It was finally over. The strange boy, the magic, the dark figure that had snuffed out the light. My heart still pounded heavily in my chest. The cold stones of the floor were comforting and I stayed where I was for a long moment, then rose to my feet. It had all seemed so real and I had thought for sure that I was really in the market, but no. I was in the chamber the entire time. That brought some relief to my anxiousness. It was all just part of the test.

  Curate Anesko was leading us through a hallway that curved like a crescent.

  “Master?” I said.

  “Yes?”

  “In the test, there was a—”

  “Silence!” Master Pevus shouted. “I told you all that what happens in the test is for the tested.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “No,” he interrupted again, his tone softer this time. “What you saw was only for you.”

  I didn’t bother trying to ask again. For the rest of the walk, I replayed the test in my mind, over and over. There was so much that didn’t make any sense to me, but perhaps it wasn’t supposed to. Curate Anesko opened a door at the end of the hall on the left and he motioned me inside. I went in and saw all of the students who had already been tested. I saw Maren and made my way to where she was sitting.

  “That was wild, wasn’t it?” she said.

  I nodded.

  “You all right?”

  “Yeah,” I answered softly, still burdened with my thoughts. I remembered the coin and reached into my purse. Cold metal touched my hand and I grabbed ahold of it and drew it out.

  The coin was real.

  10

  “Gods,” I breathed.

  “What?” Maren asked. “What is that?”

  “It’s from my te—” I caught myself and glanced around the room to make sure no one had heard me. I lowered my voice and leaned closer to her.

  “It’s from my test,” I said. “A woman gave it to me. The test isn’t real, so how did this coin come back with me?”

  “Now who’s breaking the rules?” Maren regarded me with a smirk, but seeing my seriousness, she went quiet and placed her hand next to my ear and whispered, “What do you know about magic?”

  “Almost nothing,” I replied.

  “Meet me tonight after curfew and I’ll share some things with you.”

  I would have argued with her about following the rules. Now, I was too curious to object. I nodded at her, then turned my attention to the front of the room as Master Pevus and the Curates entered. The multitude of conversations died abruptly.

  “Thank you,” the master said. “Due to unforeseen circumstances, the last few potentials will not be able to take their test in the chamber. For us to keep in line with the rules, they will be tested by the Curates in a series of exercises we employed in the past before the chamber was built.”

  Master Pevus paused briefly and I wondered if what happened in my test had anything to do with the sudden turn of events.

  “Those of you who have already taken the assessment may go to dinner. Remember that you are not to discuss the details of your trials with the other potentials. Unless you have any questions for myself or the Curates, you are dismissed.”

  Everyone stood and began to file out of the room. Maren and I followed the others out of the chamber and made our way to the dining hall. The conversations were muted, and everyone seemed tired or distracted. The master hadn’t been kidding when he said the test would push you in ways you didn’t think were possible.

  I barely ate anything at all and ended up pushing the food around on my plate more times than I could count. The curfew bell was still a few hours away, so I took advantage of the time and went to the infirmary to check on Simon. With the chaos of the day, I hadn’t devoted much time to thinking about him and I was feeling guilty.

  The healer who had helped me was there changing Simon’s bandages when I arrived. She glanced at me as I entered, but she didn’t say anything. Once she was finished, she carried the dirty bandages away and I stood beside Simon’s bed. The clean wrappings were already stained with blood. I frowned and looked at Simon’s face. His eyes were closed, but they fluttered slightly.

  “I don’t know if you can hear me,” I said softly, “but I want to thank you for saving my life. I know you were the cause of me getting into that situation anyway, but you could have left me for dead. I know I wasn’t born into nobility like you, but I think all life is valuable, regardless of your social status. I’m hoping you pull through this injury and …” And what? I felt like I was beginning to ramble.

  “And, uh, maybe once you are healed, we might end up as friends or something. Thank you again, Simon.”

  I turned and left the infirmary, then headed back to my room to get some rest. Considering I hadn’t slept the night before and the day had been full of stress, I was surprised I hadn’t passed out from sheer exhaustion yet. I pulled my boots off and collapsed into bed. The next thing I knew, Maren was gently shaking my shoulder.

  “Wake up,” she whispered.

  Judging by the lack of light in the room, I figured it was late. I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I was supposed to meet you.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Maren replied. “We can talk here since your roommate is in the infirmary.”

  “Sure,” I said. I cleared my throat and pushed myself back against the headboard.

  “Can I see that coin again?”

  I fished it out of my coin purse and handed it to her. Maren held it close to her face for a long moment, then nodded and handed it back.

  “You told me you don’t know much about magic,” she said. “Sorcerers are secretive in nature, so most people don’t know anything about what they do.”

  I was fully awake now, and my earlier suspicions about Maren hiding something were at the forefront of my mind. Before I could stop myself, I blurted out, “You’re hiding something.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked. Her facial expression was flawless, but the tone in her voice let me know that I wasn’t wrong.

  “You’re hiding something,” I repeated. “I think I know what it is. You don’t have to worry; I’m not going to share your secret.”

  She stared at me in silence and chewed her lower lip nervously. “Yes, I have a secret,” she said. “I’m—”

  “A sorcerer?” I interrupted. “I figured. You were there in the alley when Jon and his guards attacked me, weren’t you?”

  Maren heaved a sigh and seemed relieved. “Yes, I was there.”

  “Curate Anesko said they are looking for whoever cast that spell. He said it was powerful.”

&nb
sp; “It wasn’t my best work,” she admitted. “I don’t know what came over me. I saw you in danger and just … acted. I’m sorry I almost killed you.”

  I swallowed hard and tried to act like it wasn’t a big deal, but I had just gained a healthy fear of her. “Thank you for what you did.” I held the coin up. “Now tell me about this. How did it come with me out of the test?”

  “I’ll try to,” Maren replied. “Magic is like the wind. You can’t see it, but you can feel it. You know when it’s there. And like the wind, it chooses its own path. Why did the magic of the chamber give you that coin? I don’t know. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a purpose, though. Even though most people don’t know much about magic, it is inside all of us. Not everyone can use it, but for some people, it just needs to be awakened.”

  “How do I find out what the purpose of the coin is?” I asked, still trying to understand her explanation.

  “You’ll have to figure that out for yourself. Like the master said about the tests, it is different for everyone. Speaking of, how was your test? You said a woman gave you that coin?”

  I glanced at the open door, suddenly afraid that someone might be listening to our conversation. Maren followed my gaze, then looked back at me.

  “Did you hear something?” she asked.

  “No,” I replied. “I guess I’m just nervous. My test seemed fairly normal at first, but then it got weird.”

  “Weird?” Maren’s eyebrow rose. “What do you mean?”

  “A storm came and a figure made of shadows stepped out of the clouds. He got into a magical battle with a small boy.”

  “That is weird,” Maren said. “Do you remember anything else?”

  “Yeah. The boy was young, and he seemed afraid of something. He said someone was coming.”

  “Who?”

  I tried to remember what the boy said. Was it something about a king? I wracked my brain. “I can’t remember exactly. Some king, I think.”