by Guy Antibes
“So I failed?”
She shook her head. “No, find a different way. Want to try the last test?”
“Not in this room. To move an object, I generate wind, and it won’t work in a small room.”
“You’ve done it before?”
Ricky nodded. “Something similar when I trained for the competition. I can generate wind, but it has to come from somewhere. In a small room, the wind will begin to upset everything.”
“Good observation. Then you can try something else. Remember, you can move things by more than the wind. There is magical attraction and magical repulsion. You don’t have to control the effect, just use it to move an object.”
Ricky would have to think about what she wanted.
“I think we’ve accomplished far more than I expected today. You’ve taught me much more than I anticipated teaching you. Go rest in your room. You are more tired than you realize. Practicing sorcery drains your magical reserves, and that isn’t always apparent right after you’ve exercised your power. Using so much magic after a sorcerous healing also weakens what the healer did.”
Ricky stood up. Siria was right. He did feel fatigued.
~~~
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
~
R ICKY UNLOCKED HIS DOOR, ENTERED, AND LOCKED IT back up before he lay back on his bed and soon drifted off. The third bell woke him up. Ricky had been careful not to be late for any classes, so he hurried to Master Risticca’s class. He slipped in just as the final bell rang out.
“I didn’t expect you in classes this week, Valian,” Risticca said.
“I made a miraculous recovery with a little external help.”
The class began, and Ricky fidgeted for a bit, and then the fatigue from his session with Siria got the better of him. The next thing he knew, one of the boys in the course gave him a rather rough nudge. The rest of the class laughed.
“That’s enough,” Risticca said with a smile on his face. “I suggest you take a few days off from our class anyway. I’m not sure Master Mattia will be so forgiving.”
Ricky nodded and successfully kept his eyelids open for the remaining few minutes in the class. The bell rang, and everyone ran out of the class. Ricky hadn’t heard much of what Risticca had said.
“Take this.” His teacher slipped a note into one of the texts. Normally Risticca didn’t use the books. “Read this section when you are more alert and don’t come back until you are prepared to stay awake for the entire class.”
“Thank you, Master Risticca.”
His teacher nodded and began cleaning things from his desk. Ricky walked out and headed over to Master Mattia’s class. No one had yet arrived, so he took a seat and began to read over the sections in the history text that he had missed. He didn’t remember much about the book, but it was more of the slanted drivel that Master Risticca had been giving them.
Inmates began to filter into the room. Some looked at him oddly. Did he detect a trace of fear or wariness? He shook his head. His energy had departed during the last hour. Mattia rushed in, nearly late.
“Are you all right?” his teacher asked.
“I’m able to walk around, but I’m tired. I fell asleep in Master Risticca’s class. I might do it here, too.”
“I have a few things to discuss at the beginning of the hour, and then you can go. See if you can talk the kitchen help into feeding you early, then you should spend the rest of the day in bed.”
“Yes, Master Mattia,” Ricky said.
The final bell rang, and Mattia announced that the class had four weeks left. There would be a final exam on leadership principles, so they were all admonished to pay attention. Mattia nodded to Ricky, who left the room and caught a few more of the teacher’s words.
“He is excused. As most of you know, Franken Pestella and others nearly killed Valian. It’s a wonder he’s alive and a wonder that somehow he scared Pestella to death. Even though Valian is fifteen, pay him a little respect. There aren’t many who could survive the beating he had.”
Ricky had heard enough. He shuffled over to the back door of the kitchen and stepped inside.
“What are you doing here?” a cook asked.
“I’m just from the infirmary and wondered if I could take some lunch to my room. I returned to classes too early, it seems.”
“You’re the boy who was beaten up and managed to kill and attack an inmate from your sickbed?”
“I wouldn’t put it that way, ma’am. But that is me.”
“Poor boy. I’ll get something. You wait in the alcove. It won’t be more than a few minutes.”
Ricky shouted for time to stop and opened the storage room. He quickly ran down the stairs to the basement. In a corner, he could see a door blocked by a low shelf. He ran back up the stairs and locked up the door behind him, now even more fatigued after his foray.
“Here you go, young man,” the cook said. “Here is a little crock of near beer we’ve been saving for Winter’s Day. It is nutritious, without the alcohol.”
“Thank you,” Ricky said. He left the alcove and walked through the empty halls. A few guards stopped him, but when he told them he had just been released from the infirmary, they let him on his way to the library. He’d rest there, rather than his room.
Henni sat at his desk, head down on the surface.
“Wake up. There might be enough here for the two of us,” Ricky said.
Henni blinked his eyes and sat up. “What are you doing here?”
“I fell asleep in third-hour and probably would have in Mattia’s class, so he let me go. I talked the kitchen staff into an early lunch.” Ricky lifted up the sack of food.
Henni pursed his lips and rubbed his ample stomach. “I suppose it is better than what I brought.”
“You don’t eat in the dining hall?”
“Guards don’t.”
That didn’t seem very fair to Ricky. “I’m willing to share. I doubt if I have much of an appetite. Let’s set this stuff out on a table.”
Henni smiled. “Let’s.”
Ricky put everything in the sack on the table. He took what he wanted, but there was still quite a bit left for Henni.
“I don’t mind eating a bit early. This food is definitely better than what I brought.”
Ricky thought the food wasn’t particularly tasty, so he didn’t want to know what Henni ate for lunch.
“I’m going to the back and rest for a bit,” Ricky said. “I’d like to spend a bit more time in the secret library.”
“Give me a chance to finish this, and I’ll help you move things.”
Ricky went to the back of the library and began taking books off the shelves. Henni helped him slide the shelf aside.
He stepped inside the hidden library and smiled. He lit his sorcerous light with a hum and saw that Kela had done more dusting. Ricky read the spines and moved to an area of the library that wasn’t yet dusted.
He idly cleared the dust from a book, and discovered the word ‘Sorcery’ in the title drew Ricky’s eyes. He pulled it off the shelf and flipped through the dusty pages. This one had spells he had never seen before. He replaced it and began to dust more books in the section. He stood back and gazed at two full shelves on sorcery. Before now, they had found sorcery books sprinkled among the other volumes, but these represented an entire collection of ancient books dedicated to the practice of magic printed long before the king’s ancestors put the clamps on the practice of sorcery.
He stared at a priceless treasure, at least to a Parantian sorcerer. He wished Professor Callasay and Professor Garini stood beside him. He ground his teeth, thinking about wasting time down in the basement training hall. He’d rather take on the role of a scholar, learning things that others didn’t know, couldn’t know.
Ricky thought of forbidden knowledge. He guessed that even reading the books would be illegal. He wished he could take that first sorcery book with him to his room to read, but he couldn’t trust Master Pisan to stay away. Ricky was convinced
someone went through his things during his infirmary stay..
He went through the titles and found one on battle sorcery and another on practical spells. If the titles were indicative, he’d have plenty of new things to try.
“I found enough, Henni,” Ricky said. “I’ll take these out and put them on the regular library shelves. There is enough here with the histories that you gave me to keep me occupied for some time.”
They moved the shelf back and re-stacked the books. Ricky found a dim corner to put the four selected sorcery volumes. He had done more than enough and put his head down on a table and fell asleep.
“Wake up,” Kela said, pushing his shoulder gently.
Ricky blinked his eyes wide a few times. “What time is it?”
“Mid-afternoon. Henni and I worked on my pronunciation. He says you made an interesting find.”
After stretching, Ricky sighed and then yawned. “I did.” He shook his head to throw aside more sleepiness and retrieved the four books. “All on sorcery and all ancient. There are more, but I didn’t want to bring them all out.”
Kela’s eyes shot up. “Do they contain secrets?”
“I hope so,” Ricky said. “Shall we take a look?”
They sat side by side as Ricky showed her spells that he suspected were unknown in Paranty, at least not taught at Doubli Academy.
“Did you learn any of these in Fisttia?”
Kela shook her head. She looked elusive. “No, my parents only taught basic spells to me. Other songs were too dangerous.”
Ricky was surprised how much better Kela’s accent had become. The heavy accent once hid how smart she probably was, but even now, she seemed to hold back. Perhaps the entire episode with her parents made her act that way.
“At Doubli Academy, I saw the effects of dangerous spells from time to time, and that doesn’t include draining oneself of all power,” Ricky said, although he had done so a few times.
Ricky had Kela read the words. He let them roll through his mind. Some of the references used in the descriptions were obscure, and they used Henni to help define some of the archaic words. There were even spells that none of them could fully understand.
Ricky wanted to find a way to get these books into Doubli Academy. He wouldn’t exactly call taking the books stealing since they were hidden in a secret room. No one knew about the intellectual treasure after centuries of obscurity. Saganet would salivate at the thought of all the history contained in the secret library.
His train of thought stopped with a nudge from Kela. “Did you hear what I asked?” she said.
Ricky had to smile. “I drifted off thinking about the books. Ask again.”
They talked about the spells. Most of them were far above Kela’s current capability, and there were plenty of spells Ricky would not dare attempt.
“Will we learn about these spells in the sorcery class?” Kela said.
“Some, I imagine. I haven’t even looked into the battle sorcery book. Perhaps we will take a look once we know a bit more.”
Kela peered at Ricky with eyes filled with an emotion Ricky couldn’t fathom. “Aren’t you supposed to help teach?”
“I don’t know what Mistress Lonsi will have us learn. I suspect I’ll only help others reach their resonances through whatever means.”
She made a face and spat on the floor. “I hate it here,” she said. “I wish my parent’s killers would have let me die with them.”
“You were there?”
She shook her head. “Their killers knew I’d return, but they left me alone. I suppose they didn’t think I’d be powerful enough to do anything about their crime. Maybe I won’t.” Kela clutched her fist. “Magic, Applia, Jealousy. Magic certainly ruined my family’s life!” She turned her head, shaking with sobs.
Ricky didn’t know what to do. Loria had never been as emotional as Kela. He hesitated to touch her, but she needed some consolation. He put his hand on her shoulder. “I’ll continue to help you. I have no idea how right now, but whatever we face, we can help each other.”
She turned, showing her tearstained face. “How can I help you?”
Ricky pointed to the book they were reading. “The spells might be a key to our defense against whatever is going on in the Home. You have more power than anyone in here except for me and perhaps Mistress Lonsi. She and I went through all the candidates. The rest are pretty thin on power and will.”
Kela snorted. “How can I use my will when I am so sad?”
“If you hate the Home and Applia enough, you can generate the will. Trust me.”
Kela jammed her fists into her eyes. “Who else can I trust?” she said petulantly.
“Henni?”
She lowered her fists and fought off a smile. “Maybe there are two.”
~~~
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
~
S IRIA LONSI REGARDED RICKY for a long, awkward moment. Ricky wondered why she just stared at him.
“Are you up to all this?” she said.
“I don’t know what you mean. What do you want me to do? Kela couldn’t see how I could help teach sorcery to the rest of the class,” Ricky said. “She’s the only other one with any real power.”
“Be glad there are others invited to this class,” Siria said. “They will give you both a little cover.”
“That comment makes me know even less,” Ricky said, trying not to sound truculent.
Siria laughed, but it seemed it was all for her benefit. Ricky didn’t feel amused. “There are those whose attentions are very focused on what Mattia is doing at the Applia Juvenile Home. With a cadre of sorcerers, you won’t immediately draw attention to yourself, personally. Mattia wants it that way, and I agree with him. Kela Torris is a plus if she turns out to be as powerful as her parents. It seems she might be a late-developer, magic-wise. You’ve shown your power and your will early enough.”
Ricky couldn’t dispute Siria’s assessment, and he now understood what she meant by cover. Saganet might call it misdirection. Ricky thought of the other sorcerer-inmates as a distraction.
“You may become a secret weapon, but that is between the two of us.”
Ricky refused to think of himself as someone else’s weapon. Not if he disagreed with what he had to do. But if someone threatened Kela, Warden Sarini, or Henni, Ricky might not have a choice. He didn’t say another word until Siria spoke again.
“We will spend most of our time assessing how the other magic users, I hesitate to use the term sorcerers, can show off their meager talents. Did you learn a lot when you came up with your performance in Tossa?”
“I worked with a team of real sorcerers, but lights and flashes aren’t too difficult to learn since they are illusions. The flame yesterday was real.”
“But the fainting spell wasn’t?” Siria asked.
“I’m sorry about that. I suppose a spell is a spell.”
Siria nodded. “You perform on my command and you’ll do just fine.” She paused to gaze at Ricky. “You look tired. Spend the rest of the morning resting. It’s only been a few days since I healed you. I’ll let Risticca and Mattia know you won’t be showing up today or tomorrow.”
“I am a bit tired. I’ll be in my room until lunchtime.”
Siria rose. “Good, then I can do other things. I’ll see you here tomorrow.”
~
“How are you this afternoon?” Henni asked as Ricky walked up to his desk.
Ricky gave Henni half a smile. “I was instructed to take the next two days off. Perhaps I’ll spend them here.”
“I can’t think of a better place,” Henni said. “Are you going to study?”
“I’ll try, but I think I’ll end up asleep like I did yesterday afternoon. I’ll be in the back.”
Ricky pulled out the book on battle sorcery and sat down. Perhaps he’d find some unexpected spells. If Mistress Lonsi wanted him to learn battle sorcery, Ricky thought he’d develop some of his techniques to keep in reserve.
Th
e writing was more of the archaic Parantian. Ricky would have to puzzle out the meanings and the clues to the songs that would provide the proper resonance. If Ricky understood the words and terms properly, he did notice some rather aggressive spells. If the descriptions were true, sorcerers could inflict quite a bit of damage on the battlefield.
Ricky had always thought of performance sorcery as an art form filled with illusion. Battle sorcery took illusions and made them real. How could sorcerers develop such power and remain conscious? He grabbed some paper and pencils from the supply closet and began to list some of the effects of his growing set of notes.
His mind drifted to thinking about Doubli Academy, and he decided to write another letter to Saganet. He had another name and some additional information for Saganet to check on.
Kela showed up about the time he finished.
“Just a few more minutes, and I’ll finish this letter,” Ricky said. He took an envelope and addressed the letter to his guardian and used the same bit of sealing wax that he had on his last letter. Henni hadn’t used the wax at all.
“A letter?”
Ricky nodded. “I’ll use Henni to send it. I don’t trust the Home to send a letter without someone reading it.”
She folded her arms. “Are you always so suspicious?”
Ricky smiled. Even Kela’s vocabulary was improving. “I suppose I always am to a certain extent. I grew up in, uh, strained circumstances. I was on my own, mostly, and I had to watch out for myself. I’ve been attacked or beaten a bunch of times in the past year. I have reason to keep my eyes open.”
Kela pushed her lower lip out. “Maybe I should be more like you.”
“Just be aware of what’s going on. I never considered the Home to be a safe place, and I think it is only going to get more dangerous.”
“The sorcery class?”
Ricky nodded. He tapped the battle sorcery book. “Mattia wants us to learn to be battle sorcerers. What does that tell you?”
“That there will be a battle?”
“Yes, I think they want props, and they want a few sorcerers who can function in a war. You and I will be the functional battle sorcerers. The other inmates will be props.”
