Adorok’s chamber had been changed around a bit and Marcus now had a beautiful painting over the doorway of himself sitting on Ryxa’s back as they flew over Leeander; down below the Yurrosy were in the process of being transformed into crows. Some of them half crow and half man. He had them install several more sconces for extra lighting and a beautiful tapestry of a meadow where a dragon lay beneath an apple tree. The red apples on the tree were so bright that he liked staring at them. He had his father commission another painting of him and Adorok standing near Ryxa by the river, even though that scene had never happened he liked to imagine that it had been real.
“How did Adorok make these spells work?” He stood motionless for a time thinking on it. He couldn’t give up and yet he didn’t feel like moving forward either, continuing to try hard with nothing to show for it.
Marcus missed the carefree days of simply being a boy. Now he was the kingdom’s only wizard and he felt the pressure of it, especially since his dreams were showing him an epic battle that appeared so real that it left him shaking when he awoke. People liked to glorify war after it was all over, but there was nothing glorious about it. Being a wizard had transformed even his dreams; they were so colorful and seemingly real and not conducive to a good night’s sleep. Always trying to show him something or other that he mostly couldn’t grasp, cryptic meanings Lance called them.
At night Marcus liked to sit in front of the elaborate fireplace where different scenes of a wizard casting spells were chiseled into its face, inlaid with precious metals. The knights and the wizards were displayed in silver and the sun and dragons in gold. He sat and pondered on things that Adorok might have contemplated on, watching the fire crackling into the night, trying hard to be more mature than his age allowed. Once he saw a dragon in the fire that was eating people and stomping others, making him wonder if he wasn’t losing his grasp on reality. In general dragons avoided people preferring to only associate with their own kind, and the fact that Marcus had befriended a black dragon named Ryxa still amazed just about everyone. Even his time with Ryxa had been diminished because of this stupid wizard thing.
“Well that’s it then,” Marcus said as he placed the last ingredient, a drop of dragon blood into the silver bowl and spoke the words, “I infuse thee dacijiasas!” An explosion blew him right off his feet throwing him hard against the castle wall and knocking him unconscious for almost a minute. In fact, the blast had shaken the entire castle, spooked horses for miles and made a lot of people extremely nervous, even commencing to affect the cows and their production of milk. King Darius was receiving a myriad of complaints concerning his son. Marcus coughed and black smoke was emitted from his lungs, tasting a lot like coal dust, making a funny noise as he dry retched several times, an unpleasant sensation.
“That can’t be right,” he said to himself as he staggered around seeing spots before his eyes, having to sit down before he fell over. It was one thing to have the power of a wizard and another to know how to properly cast a spell. Adorok had had age, wisdom, experience and patience behind him, but Marcus had none of those things. Although Adorok’s mind had slipped during his last year, the boy thought that he was probably more adept than him even then, how sad was that. Marcus would never be able to stand up to his legend, might even go down in the history books as the worst wizard ever with a drawing of a jackass next to his likeness.
This wizard business was starting to get downright depressing; instead of being admired he was being ridiculed. Now there was a rumor that his father was bringing in someone to test him and he definitely didn’t need proof that he was an incompetent sorcerer. Maybe he would actually bring in someone that would take away his powers, if such a thing were possible. That would probably be for the best.
Adorok’s ghost appeared and smiled at the boy, materializing from inside the wall taking several steps forward. “I tried hard to stop you from doing that Marcus, but being no longer amongst the living it 's hard to make my presence known. Never add dragon’s blood to a sulphur compound.”
“Now you tell me. It is so hard to decipher your spells; some of your writing is like chicken scratches. Looked like dragon’s blood to me.”
Adorok looked into the boy’s blue eyes and smiled. “Might have been dragon flower. What spell were you trying to cast?”
He wasn’t sure that he would ever get accustomed to talking to a ghost. “A protection spell to keep people out of this chamber. I hate it when they move my things around, especially when Alexa comes in here.” Marcus’s always had a love-hate relationship with his big sister, especially when Alexa picked on him, which was often. She was as good a bully as any big brother would have been, at least he thought so. She wasn’t after him nearly as much since she gave birth to Abbey. Alexa might be the only one that wasn’t frightened of him.
“A simple but effective one exists at the bottom of that drawer.” Adorok pointed as he faded out and then back in.
Alexa entered the chamber and had to laugh at Marcus’s blackened face. “Marcus, what on earth are you doing? Are you trying to destroy the entire kingdom? You knocked Stone off his horse again.”
Marcus didn’t want to show his sister how inferior he was at being a wizard, but his blackened face made it difficult, besides it’s not like it was a secret. “I ah, I guess I need practice.” Marcus was still a bit dizzy as he staggered and sat down to recover from the blast. He would so love to wipe that look off his sister’s face; it seemed that all she did was laugh and make fun. She was now a mother so wasn’t it time that she grew up?
Alexa again laughed at Marcus. “That’s an understatement. You’re no Adorok.” And when she saw Adorok’s ghost she gasped but was also happy to see him, having heard rumors that he was appearing to Marcus but hadn’t really believed it. Now that she realized it was true it also made her a little jealous. “Adorok, it is so nice to see you! What’s it like to be dead?”
Adorok blinked several times. “Certain things I can’t talk about my dear. You’ll see when your time comes.”
“Why don’t you take her with you,” said Marcus. “Look at her I think she’s ready to go.”
Alexa gave Marcus a nasty look. “Not funny Marcus. Adorok, I’m a knight now.”
The boy shook his head. “Some knight. A knight in rusty armour. More like a tailor than a knight I think. But really Adorok I think she is ready to go. You’d be doing me an enormous favor if you take her with you.”
Alexa gave Marcus a kick knocking him off his chair. “Adorok, why do you only appear to Marcus? I’d like to see you too.”
Adorok blinked several times. “I have unfinished business with Marcus and you’d do well to show him more respect. There may come a time when you need his protection.”
Marcus wiped the dust off his sore butt. “Yeah, respect and he likes me better than you that’s why. I’m going to get Adorok to show me a spell that will turn you into a turkey.”
Alexa walked around checking on what her little brother had done to Adorok’s chamber. “He doesn’t like you better. He’s just trying to help you get a handle on this wizard thing before you kill us all. He’s killed father’s horse you know.”
“Yes I know, Abizad is here with me now.” They both heard the sound of the horse neighing from the other side.
Marcus directed his hands toward Alexa, making threatening circles and gestures. “That’s it, I’ll turn you into a mouse, no a rat!”
Alexa stood akimbo looking directly into his eyes. “Marcus, don’t you dare try your magic on me! You’re incompetent and you know it, who the hell knows what would happen.”
Marcus chased her out of the chamber and down the hall. When she stopped he actually tried to spell her, but all he managed was to form another eagle which took flight and headed out the far window that he had just blown out. Realizing that Marcus had actually tried to spell her, she chased after him and caught him as he ran back into the chamber, pushing him up against the wall and partially out the window. She h
eld on tight, but it was still a dangerous thing to do.
“There’s nothing worse than a stupid wizard. What if you had turned me into a frog or something and then couldn’t turn me back!”
Marcus smiled and nodded at the thought. “Then Stone would be kissing a frog, an improvement I think,” said Marcus. “Stop it you’ll drop me! You idiot!”
The sound of large wings beating filled the air as Ryxa hovered outside the window, ducking and cocking her head so that she could see inside. “Alexa stop that.”
Alexa wasn’t at all happy to see the black dragon. “Not you again? Ryxa, why is it that every time I’m trying to teach Marcus a lesson you show up?”
“Just lucky I guess,” said Ryxa. She adjusted her position so that her head was pointed toward the window and her body away from it.
Marcus managed to break free of his sister’s hold and jumped out the window onto the dragon’s head, sliding down onto her back. “Alexa, if only you could fly but you can’t. And just wait ‘till I figure out my spells I think I will turn you into a frog and feed you flies.”
Alexa picked up a small metal cup and bounced it off of Marcus’s head and then she watched as the black dragon flew off with him. “That pest is gonna be the end of all of us. A wizard he isn’t.” And then she imagined Marcus feeding her flies, perhaps she should be nicer to him. What if he did eventually figure out how to be a proper wizard?
Marcus and Ryxa flew around the castle several times enjoying the view from the air, the wind in his face felt nice. Ryxa hovered for a bit. Below them Stone was training several young soldiers as other knights looked on and although they had shields and he didn’t they were no match for him; he was repeatedly correcting their technique and becoming irritated because they were duplicating their errors over and over. Stone placed his foot on the bigger one’s buttocks and sent him flying, knowing that those mistakes would almost certainly cost them their lives in battle.
“Ryxa, you can bring me back to my chamber now, I’ll bet she’s gone.” Marcus was anxious to make a spell worked properly, any spell.
The dragon pumped her wings and was a little disappointed because she thought they would end up flying around for a few hours; she had liked Marcus right from the moment he had climbed up that cliff. But now that he was a wizard they were spending less time together. “You want to go back already?”
Marcus nodded. “I might be a wizard, but everyone is laughing at me. I want to at least make a spell that will keep everyone out of my chamber, and one that works correctly. Being a wizard is hard work. What’s the opposite of respect ‘cause that’s what I’m getting.”
The black dragon got as close to his chamber as she could and he ran and launched himself off her head catching onto the window but was unable to pull himself. Ryxa gave him a boost with her head pushing him back inside the castle and sure enough Alexa was gone. Marcus sighed and again started to go through several notebooks that Adorok had kept over the years, sitting and reading for over an hour until he came to an interesting spell. He checked his ingredients on the shelf on the wall and smiled because he had everything necessary for the enchantment. The hard part was, of course, to get it to work properly.
Marcus stood for a minute, smiling as he visualized the spell at work, then he disappeared down the hall and returned after a time with a bucket of dragon manure, which was great for keeping a single log in the fireplace burning for weeks. It could also used as a catalyst in some spells. The manure was hard black lumps that looked a lot like volcanic rock but had no odor, smashing it with a hammer it readily turned to dust, not as hard as it looked. He got a cloth and placed it in the dust, ran it all around the doorway including along the floor. Then he took three wooden bowls and in one he ground up the bark from a duwub tree that was planted by dragons, they so enjoyed eating its bark. In the other bowl he put in three hairs from a donkey’s tail with a large pinch of ground up tree root from a dead sycamore tree, and finally in the third bowl a small drop of his blood onto a breadcrumb that had been infused with some magical words.
Marcus nodded several times. “I have a good feeling about this one.”
He put all the ingredients in a bowl and mashed it together; it glowed and then morphed into a rock as the spell said it would. Was it actually going to work? Marcus felt excitement at the thought that it was going to be a success. He took another chunk of the manure and smashed it into a fine dust mixing a drop of his blood into it, and then sprinkled it over the rock. Marcus then took the stone and scratched all around the doorway with it and every scratch started to glow, hopefully indicating that the spell was working. There was a flash of bright light and then a puff of smoke.
“It worked!” Marcus could barely contain himself.
Alexa was chasing Abbey down the castle hall; she was a precocious toddler and a handful, as cute as they come. Abbey ran into the chamber and suddenly she was transformed into a baby donkey, looking around puzzled, attempting to figure out what had just happened.
“Abbey! Marcus! What have you done?” Alexa screamed from the castle hall. She was furious as she entered the chamber to put a beating on Marcus, but now she was a donkey as well.
The colt ran and jumped around in the chamber having a great time.
FOUR
DEEP INSIDE THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH the smell of sulfur was pungent. A channel of lava made its way through the vast cavern and continued underground and out of sight. Bubbles in the lava expanded and popped as water dripped down from the concave ceiling high above creating a hiss of hot steam with each drop. It resembled, to a degree, what humans thought hell looked like. It was a deadly atmosphere for humans but a nice place to live for a particular dragon.
In another area, more water dripped noisily into a shallow pool of tepid mud and water, and out of it crawled a baby mud mole which then quickly waddled off. The uneven walls glowed red from the molten rock as shadows shifted around from bubbling lava, like dancing demons. A giant mole was digging through rock down a side tunnel, it broke a claw and it screeched but another grew back instantly and it resumed digging, faster and more determined than before. The giant moles were the product of a wizard that had lived over five hundred years ago, an inexperienced sorcerer that had liked to play with his magic, turning ordinary moles into giants for the fun of it. He hadn’t considered that they would be able to mate and reproduce and evolve. Sometimes there were consequences to a wizard’s lack of judgement.
It was a hot, humid dark and oppressive atmosphere but not for Charox. The dragon was comfortably asleep on an enormous circular pillar that jutted out of the bubbling lava, dreaming of pursuing and killing others dragons. Dragons didn’t come any bigger than a grey dragon, almost fifty ordinary size dragons could fit inside one, always an impressive sight. The monstrous dragon awoke from his four hundred year nap and was immediately aware that there was another dragon wizard in the world besides himself, another beast that could cast spells. And as he cocked his head and sensed Ash he didn’t like him one little bit, managing a menacing smile. He scratched the sleep out of his eyes.
“A mighty sorcerer eh?” Charox growled deeply as he considered. “That dragon cannot be allowed to exist. He could potentially destroy me. He seems young, but it’s best not to risk it.”
The dragon yawned and cracked his own neck, the sound of it echoing loudly off the walls. He stretched his massive wings to get the blood flowing, continuing to scratch the sleep out of his eyes with his enormous claws. Charox caught himself in the eye with his claw, but it didn’t hurt, sounded like metal plinking on glass. He ran his claws over his chest, feeling the ridges and bumps on his scales, discovered a parasite the size of a large rat and ate it. The grey dragon thought that the only way he could be killed was by another dragon wizard. Perhaps it was time for him to make his way up to the surface world and check out that little sorcerer, in any case he hadn’t terrorized humans for centuries. It would be a lot of fun. Humans tasted salty.
People knew
very little about grey dragons except that they were the largest species of all and by far the meanest, they rarely showed their ugly rutted faces but when they did it was big trouble. Some thought that the end of humankind would come at the claws of a grey dragon because they appeared to be indestructible; it was thought that some were even immune to magic.
“Why am I still so tired?”
The number of grey dragons was unknown as were their weaknesses but a grey dragon sorcerer was a different animal and that much more terrifying. Centuries ago several kingdoms had been destroyed by one; in fact Charox had been the dragon that had destroyed them. He loved it when they screamed and cried because it was just the thing that made life worth living, took away the tedium of it all. He ate people like humans ate blueberries, by the handfuls, and once had crushed more than fifty of them with a single stomp, what satisfying little crunches they had made under his big feet. The history books showed the last appearance at just over four hundred years ago with more than a thousand human casualties; perhaps Charox would have destroyed all humans had he not needed that nap.
He repeatedly blinked his hot red eyes until he summoned a vision of Ash, swirling him around as a frozen entity in his mind, examining him from all angles, even upside down. He didn’t look like much until he used his remote sensor to detect his level of power, thereby realizing that he could indeed be a genuine threat, a blob of swirling energy. Could he really be more powerful than Charox? Ash’s aura looked fiery hot with sparkles of white light dancing inside it. Further examination revealed no other information so whatever those sparkles were he had no clue, but he definitely didn’t like the look of them. Ash appeared to be a child and his inexperience would not be good for the little guy, in fact, it would be fatal.
Knights of the Wizard (of Knights and Wizards Book 2) Page 2
