Knights of the Wizard (of Knights and Wizards Book 2)

by Gallant, A. J.

  As Marcus approached he set off several nasty spells but fortunately he was immune to all of them; one was a sickly green gas that hung around him for several minutes, an ordinary fellow would have perished instantly. He was right not to let Raina follow him for she would have succumbed for sure. Marcus imagined the castle had been created by magic, either magic or slaves but probably magic. Instinctively he looked up and saw Nydarien climbing up on the inner curtain wall, the boy pointed his wand and hit him with a bolt that knocked him off his feet but more importantly he dropped his wand, they all watched as it fell down to the grass below, now outside the castle wall. Nydarien losing his wand would definitely be to Marcus’s advantage.

  Marcus smiled and thought that he couldn’t ask for a better break. “If I can get my hands on his wand he’ll be a hell of a lot weaker than he is with it.”

  Touching that wand will kill you.

  “What if one of my knights gets the wand and breaks it?”

  There was a pause before the wand responded. Unknown.

  Nydarien launched several balls of green fire from up on the castle in their general direction, not wanting to stick his head up and maybe get it blown off; one fire ball hit one of Marcus’s knights and melted it down into a pool of golden metal. The realization that his golden knights could be killed was an unpleasant one. Several other fireballs fell missing their mark but they could all detect the putrid scent from them, the heat being uncomfortably hot.

  Marcus sent another knight to fetch Nydarien’s wand but as soon as he touched it he fell to pieces, arms, legs and torso had come apart and he lay motionless with the evil wizard’s wand in his hand. Perhaps the same thing would have happened to him if he would have dared to touch it. The remaining knights and Marcus entered the castle without resistance, which made him nervous; the castle was so large that it would take them a while to search it. He walked forward with five knights in front and four in back, having left their horses outside. Inside the sorcerer’s castle the unknown was as scary as hell, he knew he wasn’t going to be able to just walk up to the book and take it.

  A spell was triggered and they found themselves inside a large prison cell, the bars that surrounded them were red hot. Marcus hit the fiery bars with a bolt but it was ineffective, didn’t do anything to the cell that they found themselves in but it did blow a chunk of rock out of the ceiling.

  “What do we do?” Marcus asked his wand.

  Unknown.

  And then they saw them, more than ten thousand poisonous spiders crawling toward them on the floor, on the walls and ceiling, black spiders with the shape of an orange hourglass on their abdomens. Marcus wanted to run but the cell made it impossible, wanted to scream but what good with it do.

  “Marcus,” Brother whispered. “There are too many for us to kill them all. Some will get to you.”

  Marcus wasn’t particularly frightened of spiders but this many wouldn’t be good and of course they would be poisonous, no way of knowing if his magic would protect him. He shot lightning bolts at them which dislodged and killed some but they continued to advance by the thousands. The first spider made it into the cell and Kadyn squashed it with her foot. Marcus jumped as one dropped from the ceiling and landed on his shoulder and was promptly squashed by one of the knights.

  Although they couldn’t see him they could hear Nydarien’s laugh bouncing off the castle walls, laughing so hard that he was almost choking. The spiders overwhelmed them and Marcus was now covered and they commenced to bite, injecting him with their poison that had been modified by Nydarien.

  “Help me! Get them off me!”

  SIXTY-SEVEN

  THE DWAGORD HAD AMASSED AN ARMY of a hundred thousand strong and had commenced to march toward Leeander, intent on killing the boy and smashing his kingdom then expanding out from there. Some of them had tried to talk king Kai out of it but they had to be careful with their words lest he turn on them. Some rulers thought their decisions were always correct no matter how wrong they were.

  Merrill had been out with more than a dozen knights when he spotted them on the horizon, had raced back to inform king Darius, where they were now having discussions on their best course of action. It was decided that the only slim chance was to send for Marcus and hope that they could bring him back in time to hopefully conjure up some defensive magic, perhaps to shore up their shield that Adorok had created years ago and that Marcus had tried to boost but with limited success. And so it was that Stone was dispatched with more than a hundred knights to get the boy and rush him back to Leeander.

  Ryxa flew into Leeander out of a cloud now feeling a lot better; she let herself drift down and lit on the outer wall a ways away from king Darius who watched the gathering of the Dwagord, a little like ants on an anthill. “King Darius, what’s this?”

  Darius smiled at the dragon knowing well that she was close to Marcus. “They call themselves the Dwagord and apparently they are here to kill every single one of us. Be careful they come with a wizard.”

  Ryxa thought about that. “Where’s Marcus?”

  Darius nodded as he watched even more of the enemy appear on the horizon. “Marcus has gone to battle the wizard Nydarien.”

  Ryxa moved closer to the king. “My father says that no one is completely evil, there’s some good in everyone.”

  “I suppose there is but it will be difficult to see their good side while were all being slaughtered.” The king couldn’t believe their numbers. “Why couldn’t there be a time of extended peace instead of another war so soon.”

  “I can kill some of them if you like. Would you like me to burn them?” Ryxa smiled and nodded.

  Darius liked the idea. “Burn as many as you can, just don’t get yourself killed Marcus would never forgive me.” The king had a better idea. “No wait, it might be days before they decide to push forward. If you could fetch Marcus and bring him back perhaps he can use his wand to end this.”

  The Dwagord took notice as Ryxa launched a huge plume of fire, some pointed up at her. “So where is this Nydarien?”

  “Wait here,” said the king. “I’ll get Bernard to draw you a map.”

  Ryxa scanned the Dwagord trying to spot their wizard but couldn’t seem to locate him. “How powerful is their wizard?”

  “I have no idea,” said Darius. “But magic can never be taken lightly, even a weak spell can have dire consequences if it’s properly planned and executed.”

  SIXTY EIGHT

  MARCUS FELL UNCONSCIOUS as he was completely covered with spiders, the poison went through his system shutting down his organs as his knights continued to kill the arachnids, lots of spider guts but still lots of spiders. The boy began to have spasms and a few moments later his heart stopped. Brother knelt down and touched him and then slowly shook his head.

  Marcus got up off the ground trying to dust off the spiders but they were gone; he was now in a different place but how could that be? What sort of strange land was this with rolling white fog almost up to his waist? He dipped his hand down into the fog and it felt slightly cool to the touch but his hand remained completely dry. Wherever he was it had an ethereal feel to it and he felt peculiar, lighter than he thought possible, like a feather. Marcus couldn’t feel the weight of his limbs or his body, wouldn’t be able to describe it to anyone even if he tried. He noticed a prison cell and went over to it, the mist making its way around it, wanting to see if anyone was in there. He looked in past the bars for a window, seeing Adorok sitting on a bed staring off.

  “Adorok!”

  Adorok stood up and turned to the boy. “Marcus! Don’t tell me you’ve been killed! Oh no!”

  The boy tapped on the solid oak door and was compelled to pull it open and when he did so it came off its hinges, releasing Adorok. Why was he talking such nonsense? “I’m not dead. How did I get here? Is this a dream?”

  Adorok walked out of his cell and looked down at Marcus with sad eyes. “Marcus you don’t understand. You are dead this is limbo. How did you
end up here?”

  He couldn’t understand why Adorok was so upset. “I feel great. What’s limbo?”

  “It’s a place between heaven and hell and you have to be dead to be here.”

  Marcus smirked at him. “Adorok did you hit your head? I didn’t die.”

  “You are as dead as I am.” Adorok knew that it often took time for a person to come to grips with the fact that they were deceased. Some were in such shock that they had to be put to sleep for months as they ran around in a panic making a hell of a racket; it took time to adjust to the land of the dead.

  “I can’t be dead everyone needs me.”

  How was Adorok to convince him? “Marcus, you know for a fact that I’m dead right?”

  Marcus thought about that and was beginning to get an uneasy feeling. His mind was a little off-kilter being newly deceased. “How come you’re alive again? Was it a spell?”

  Adorok felt like slapping himself in the forehead; he shook Marcus as he looked down into his blue eyes, could see the look in his face as he was trying to make sense of it. “Think boy if I’m dead and you’re here with me.”

  “Adorok, what is this place?”

  “For heaven sake Marcus I told you this is limbo, a place between heaven and hell. What’s the last thing you remember?”

  Marcus thought about it. “Being covered by spiders.”

  The king’s horse Abizad rode up to Marcus and nudged him and whinnied as he was happy to see the boy. “Abizad I am so sorry I killed you. Oh no.” He stroked the horse as he realized that he probably was dead. “Adorok, why would a horse be in limbo?”

  Adorok thought about that. “I have no idea. No idea why you’re in limbo either.”

  Abizad ran off to play with several other horses, dispersing mist as he galloped. Marcus had the most perplexed look on his face as he wondered if he was going to be trapped in this limbo forever. So this is what it was like to be dead? That explained why he felt so weightless; he imagined that a soul without its body didn’t weigh much at all, probably didn’t weigh anything. He shook his head as he realized that Raina wasn’t going to be happy about it, devastated perhaps. It was horrible to be killed at the age of thirteen.

  SIXTY-NINE

  A FLOCK OF MALE RED DRAGONS spotted Ryxa even though she had tried to give them a wide birth; they now pursued her. Their relative speeds were close to being equal and she had no time for their shenanigans. Some dragons could be nasty, somewhat like people that weren’t raised properly or were born to be miscreants, and so she didn’t know if they wanted to kill her or bully her or perhaps just play. But because they wouldn’t stop pursuing her she feared the worse, those malicious looks certainly added to her anxiety.

  Ryxa was on an important mission to get Marcus back to Leeander; she knew he would be forever miserable if his kingdom and his people were destroyed, it would change him for certain, to veer so miserably off of life’s path. It was things like that that could turn a good sorcerer wicked, that could tarnish one’s soul. Ryxa felt the heat from a blast of fire approaching and she ducked under it, understanding that those dragons weren’t fooling around.

  After a long chase Ryxa tired before the others and found herself surrounded by the five dragons, knowing that it would be impossible to survive a fight. “I’m on an important mission so just let me be!”

  The largest of the five snorted his derision. “Really? And what mission would that be? Playing with humans?”

  “Just please let me go. Time is of the essence!” Ryxa was getting increasingly annoyed and also frightened, but it was best not to show one’s fear.

  Ash came out of nowhere, he had been flying around under a spell of invisibility and he despised bullies. “This is what’s going to happen. You’re going to leave her alone before I turn you all into bugs and then feed you to the crows.”

  “We were just playing,” said the smallest of the five, immediately recognising Ash as the wizard that everyone was talking about.

  Ash shook his head. “No you weren’t. One more lie out of you and you’re gonna be sorry dragons. Now get out of here and I’m gonna keep my eye on all of you. Maybe I should turn one of you into a bug as a warning to the others? That sounds like a good idea.”

  The five flew off as fast as they could, looking back worriedly several times as Ryxa flew off after thanking the little wizard.

  Ryxa sniffed out Marcus and was shocked when she discovered that he was dead; she immediately went bounding through the castle in search of Nydarien. Marcus’s body jumped as his heart abruptly commenced to beat again, his magical energy finally defeating and destroying the poison within; he sat up with his wand in hand, trying to get some of the spider guts off him. He had only been dead a couple of minutes but the time he had spent with Adorok made it seem like hours.

  “I’m alive?”

  Nydarien exited a chamber down the hall firing multicolored spirals that were slow but made a hell of an explosion when Marcus shot them out of the air with his bolts, knocking his knights down and destroying the cell that they had been trapped in; his ears rang from the concussion. Marcus stood up and they simultaneously launched lightning bolts at one another, the bolts collided and held together, fusing like lumps of white hot metal, changing from white to blue as they crashed to the floor. Nydarien knew all that energy would kill the both of them and so of he hesitated and ended up being struck in the heart with Marcus’s bolt. Nydarien screamed as he swelled to twice his size before being blown to pieces, parts of him taking bits out of the castle wall. The boy didn’t realize how close he had come to being killed again. In a way his inexperience had saved him.

  Ryxa couldn’t believe that Marcus wasn’t dead but there wasn’t much time to celebrate as they had to rush back to Leeander but first Marcus had to find what he had come for, Astowyth’s Book of Enchantments.

  It was a huge castle to search and more than an hour later they made their way into a large chamber that reminded Marcus of a church, on the walls six sconces burned eerily red, three on each side of the chamber. There were two enormous statues with halberds standing near the pulpit that held a thick book, a slight glow emanated from it. Was it the book that Marcus sought? Ryxa had to wait outside in the hall because she couldn’t fit through the doorway even though it was huge by human standards, but his knights were there with him and they were ill-at-ease as they looked around. Something didn’t feel right and Marcus felt it too.

  The wizard approached the book and as he got close to it he could see his breath in the air, it was instantly cold, a peculiar chill like none other. He looked down at the book and could see the name Astowyth on the cover in small green letters, it was in fact the book he was told to seek. It was black as coal and smoke rose from it as if it had been on fire recently, how odd. He thought the book looked evil.

  Marcus’s wand vibrated. We are not alone in here.

  “Knights, the wand says that we are not alone.” Marcus watched as his knights pulled their weapons. There was a sound like rock cracking.

  Simultaneously the statues slowly opened their eyes, sounding like small rocks grating against one another; their eyes bloodshot as if they hadn’t slept in a long time. Everyone looked around trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.

  Marcus’s voice reverberated around the large chamber. “What the hell was that?”

  Kadyn pushed Marcus out of the way as the statues came to life, one of the halberds just missing the back of the boy’s head as the blade hit the wall and then the battle was on. The knights beat them back but their blades and arrows hitting stone seemed to have no effect. Brother was pierced by a spear that stuck into his armour as he was raised over the monster’s head on the end of the halberd and tossed hard against the wall. Marcus hit one with a bolt of lightning stunning it momentarily but then it headed straight for him, lucky for him that his knights tripped it, knocking it down with a loud crash as it slid at the boy’s feet.

  “Marcus!” said Ryxa. “See if yo
u can lead one of them out here!”

  Marcus ran out to where Ryxa was waiting with one of the stone creatures following him, throwing its halberd at him that was blocked by the dragon, she then bit it in two killing it, and now that it had been dispatched it appeared to be nothing but solid rock. Kadyn led the other one out and again Ryxa bit it, this one ended up in three pieces. Marcus hugged the dragon and then cautiously made his way back into the chamber where it was no longer as cold.

  His wand vibrated again. Prepare yourself for battle.

  “What?” said Marcus. “What is it now I don’t see anything?”

  It was a jest. The chamber is clear.

  Marcus smiled stared at his wand. “You can jest?”

  I used to be a wand wizard just like you Marcus. You’ll be a wand one day too should you so desire.

  “I’ll be a wand? Like you? Why would I want to be a wand?”

  You’d be able to help another powerful wizard like I’m helping you. Part of the cycle of magic.

  Marcus couldn’t see himself being a wand but it might be better than being in limbo. “We need to get back to Leeander as fast as we can. Ryxa will fly me back. Knights you’ll follow as fast as you are able.” He approached Astowyth’s Book of Enchantments and he felt its fine leather, as he did so the book turned a bright white and when it did the boy vanished.

  “Marcus!” Ryxa screamed.

  SEVENTY

  MARCUS FOUND HIMSELF INSIDE THE BOOK. In front of him was a stone path with the occasional red glowing stone within it, twisting down to the left towards an attractive cottage. A brook followed the trail, gurgling at the point where the water flowed over green mossy rocks. Behind him was nothing, like a blank page of a book; he reached out and touched it and it felt like the finest parchment. Words in an unknown language hung in the sky in different areas, although he did spot his own name Marcus that looked to be stuck to a cloud. His brief life as a wizard was already a fascinating one.