The Warded Box

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The Warded Box Page 30

by Guy Antibes


  On the inside of his wrist sat another kiss mark from Eldora. Jack groaned and fell back into his pillow, not wanting to get up and face the day or face the fact that all Eldora said in his dream was true.

  The End

  Character List

  The Serpent’s Orb

  Jack Winder – Our hero and the wizard’s helper

  Penneta Ephram – A girl in Jack’s village

  Fasher Tempest – The village wizard

  Tanner Simple – A wandering mercenary

  Helen Rafter – A wandering mercenary

  Ozzie Quist – A burnt-out wizard

  Aramore Gant – Patriarch of the church of Alderach

  Derr Mason – Wizard in possession of the Serpent’s Orb

  Simara Khotes – Lajian wizardess in Dorkansee

  Henry Oppen – Simara’s companion

  Heros Soffez – A leader among the Soffez Family

  Igar Khotes – Simara’s father

  Grigar Soffez – Wizard relative of Heros

  Amara Soffez – Wizardess

  ~

  The Warded Box

  Lark Handercraft – Tesorian wizard

  Ralinn Bonarin – Lark’s apprentice

  Eldora – Goddess of Water

  Amee Newbright – Leader of the Morakans

  Jim Lessikan – A Morakan

  Pakara Jimaroon – Priestess of Eldora

  Corina Bell – Former priestess of Eldora

  Baron Overvale – Tesorian noble and leader of an army

  Whelham Waterford – Wizard and brother of the King Kaleen

  King Kaleen – King of Tesoria

  Jorey Balcon – Grand Wizard of Tesoria

  Wessa Fanstrong – Archpriestess of Eldora

  Harida Maltwill – Noble and sister to the late Queen

  Norris Everlight – Leader of Tesoria’s criminal underworld

  Ran Maltwill – Chancellor and brother of Harida and the late Queen

  Panderites – A Tesorian insurgent faction

  Sparrows – A Tesorian insurgent faction

  ~

  Excerpt from Grishel’s Feather

  Chapter One

  ~

  J ack Winder, Fasher Tempest’s wizard’s helper, sat on a low rock wall, with a wooden rod, an object of power that he had created. He gazed across the street waiting for one of Fasher’s patients to arrive home. He brushed off the white tabard that Fasher made him wear when on errands in Raker Falls and began to whistle.

  “Do you expect a dog to respond to that mindless, tuneless sound?” a female voice said from behind.

  Jack sighed. Who let Penny Ephram out of Fasher’s office? She was the bane of his existence, but he smiled nevertheless. “It looks like it worked,” he said with a smile.

  He turned to see Penny sticking out her tongue at him. She quickly stopped and turned red.

  “Do eighteen-year-old girls stick out their tongues? I thought that was more like something your ten-year-old sister might do,” Jack said.

  “Fasher met the patient,” she said, pointing to the cottage where Jack’s errand had taken him, “and already gave him an object.”

  “You volunteered to fetch me?”

  “Ordered. Time to return, he has something to say to both of us,” Penny said.

  Jack rose and removed the tabard. His errand was over, and he didn’t like wearing the thing any longer than necessary. It was a punishment anyway.

  “Fasher will get mad,” Penny said.

  “Penny is already mad,” Jack said.

  That kept her quiet. He slipped the tabard over his head when they came in sight of Fasher’s house, which served as the wizard’s office where they both worked.

  “Lose your courage?” Penny said. She looked at him derisively.

  “No. I just don’t want anything to detract from whatever Fasher has to tell us.”

  She lifted her chin up in the air and walked ahead of him, presumably to tattle. Jack didn’t care. The girl was Fasher’s real apprentice, and she was still in the early stages of learning how to apply wizardry to healing.

  Jack wasn’t in line to follow her. Fasher had told him he was headed down a different path, but Jack didn’t know what that was, other than being the wizard’s errand boy on two long, dangerous adventures. He stepped up to the front door and entered the office part of Fasher’s house.

  “In here,” Fasher said. “Join us for a little celebration.”

  “What is there to celebrate?” Jack asked in an offhanded kind of way.

  Fasher stood with an arm around Corina Bell, the old flame that Jack had brought back with him from his errand to Tesoria. Both of them were smiling.

  “We have gotten married this morning in a very private wedding ceremony at the temple,” the wizard said with a grin. It was a bit silly for Fasher to grin like that, but Corina’s smile wasn’t silly at all. “Corina wants to spend some time at the seashore, so we will be gone for a few weeks.”

  Penny groaned. “You aren’t leaving me alone with him, are you?”

  “Is there something wrong with that?” Fasher said. “You will be working with Amelia, Raker Falls’ best healer, including me, while I’m gone. Jack will be doing some research for me.”

  “No errands?” Jack asked.

  Fasher smiled the sly way he normally did and shook his head. “None for the foreseeable future. If you find yourself at loose ends, help your father in his shop or something, but I won’t be pleased if you end up in jail.”

  “Not I,” Jack said, looking at Penny. “I just hope your apprentice can stay out of trouble.”

  Penny frowned and folded her arms.

  “When are you leaving?”

  “Tomorrow. I will talk to you in the morning before I leave. You may have the rest of the day off.” Fasher looked at Penny. “I told Amelia that she could find you at your parent’s house.”

  She looked rather stricken, Jack thought.

  “Congratulations to both of you,” Jack said, grinning. He stepped forward and gave Corina a gentle hug and shook Fasher’s hand. “I’m glad to have been some small help to reuniting you after all this time.”

  “Instrumental would be the term I would use,” Corina said, taking his hand. “I have never been happier. I take that back; when I first met Fasher, I was just as happy.” She winked at Jack.

  Fasher cleared his throat. “We have things to do. Both of you may leave.”

  On the way to his home, Jack thought that with Fasher gone, the old Jack would have been turning cartwheels on the street to his parents’ house, but not now. Jack wondered if Fasher would let him do some wizardly research while his mentor enjoyed his honeymoon. He sat at the kitchen table watching his mother do some early preparations for their dinner and told her Fasher would be gone.

  “He is letting you and that Ephram girl spend all that time alone in his house?”

  Jack laughed. “Nothing would ever happen between us. She has never forgiven me for killing her.”

  “But you and Fasher brought her back to life!”

  “Maybe that is what she holds against me. Even if I saved her life again, I doubt if it would change anything, not that I’d want such a thing to happen.”

  A Bit About Guy

  ~

  With a lifelong passion for speculative fiction, Guy Antibes found that he rather enjoyed writing fantasy, as well as reading it. So a career was born, and Guy anxiously engaged in adding his own flavor of writing to the world. Guy lives in the western part of the United States and is happily married with enough children to meet or exceed the human replacement rate.

  You can contact Guy at his website: www.guyantibes.com.

  †

  Books By Guy Antibes

  WIZARD’S HELPER

  Book One: The Serpent’s Orb

  MAGIC MISSING

  Book One: A Boy Without Magic

  Book Two: An Apprentice Without Magic

  Book Three: A Voyager Without Magic

&
nbsp; Book Four: A Scholar Without Magic

  Book Five: A Snoop Without Magic

  ~

  SONG OF SORCERY

  Book One: A Sorcerer Rises

  Book Two: A Sorcerer Imprisoned

  Book Three: A Sorcerer’s Diplomacy

  Book Four: A Sorcerer’s Rings

  Book Five: A Sorcerer’s Fist

  ~

  THE DISINHERITED PRINCE

  Book One: The Disinherited Prince

  Book Two: The Monk’s Habit

  Book Three: A Sip of Magic

  Book Four: The Sleeping God

  Demeron: A Horse’s Tale - A Disinherited Prince Novella

  Book Five: The Emperor’s Pet

  Book Six: The Misplaced Prince

  Book Seven: The Fractured Empire

  ~

  POWER OF POSES

  Book One: Magician in Training

  Book Two: Magician in Exile

  Book Three: Magician in Captivity

  Book Four: Magician in Battle

  ~

  THE WARSTONE QUARTET

  Book One: Moonstone | Magic That Binds

  Book Two: Sunstone | Dishonor’s Bane

  Book Three: Bloodstone | Power of Youth

  Book Four: Darkstone | An Evil Reborn

  ~

  Quest of the Wizardess

  The Power Bearer

  Panix: Magician Spy

  ~

  THE WORLD OF THE SWORD OF SPELLS

  Warrior Mage

  Sword of Spells

  ~

  THE SARA FEATHERWOOD ADVENTURES

  Knife & Flame

  Sword & Flame

  Guns & Flame

  ~

  Hand of Grethia

  ~

  THE GUY ANTIBES ANTHOLOGIES

  The Alien Hand

  SCIENCE FICTION

  The Purple Flames

  STEAMPUNK & PARANORMAL FANTASY with a tinge of HORROR

  Angel in Bronze

  FANTASY

  ~

  * * *

  [AH1]Just flagging b/c the header on the serpent’s orb didn’t appear until the text of the book and had the title aligned to the right

 

 

 


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