by B. T. Narro
I checked out the bookshelf on the right wall. The scrolls were all organized, rolled up with folded papers standing beside them signifying their purpose.
“This is much better,” I commented as I glanced over all of the erto scrolls: water, fire, ice, wind, and even earth.
“Yes, Charlie has been organizing and labeling them. They used to be scattered throughout the bookshelves with no markings.”
I picked up one marked “ordia” and started to unroll it.
“You can cast with ordia now?” Callie asked.
“No, but it is within my range, and I’ve heard it has similarities to dvinia.”
“It does. They are the same notes but two octaves apart.”
I was very familiar with the concept of octaves by now. I had been working on notes whose frequencies were lower on the spectrum of mana, such as lF, or in other words Lower F. It was two octaves below my natural mana frequency, uF, or in other words Upper F.
Ordia was made up of the same four notes as dvinia but two octaves lower: lF, lC, D, and G. But ordia seemed to have many more uses than dvinia. Enchanters like Eden, who I hadn’t spoken to in a while, used ordia to enhance gemstones. I remember Reuben commenting that he would one day use enchanting to empower metal. Unlike Eden, I had spoken with Reuben many times over the last week, but he had mentioned nothing of his skill with enchanting. In fact, I didn’t know how he was spending his time training. He had commented a while ago that he would be a harbinger one day, like the councilman to the king, who was able to create magical contracts. Perhaps Reuben’s training had something to do with that.
As I started to read the scroll of ordia, Callie asked, “How much do you know about mana?”
“About mana itself?” I specified.
“Yes. Has Leon taught you much about it?”
I tried to think back to his lessons, not that there were very many of them.
“I ask because whenever I see him giving instruction,” Callie continued, “he only seems to aid a sorcerer in casting a specific spell. There doesn’t seem to be any discussion about mana or spell composition.”
“I don’t know how he’s given instruction to the other sorcerers recently. I haven’t spent a lot of time with him, or anyone else for that matter. But from the earlier lessons I recall, I would say you’re right. I haven’t heard him speak about mana except to confuse me when he discussed something called a rev.” I raised an eyebrow. “Does your tutor speak to you much about mana?”
She brushed off the comment with a toss of her hand. “I have many tutors, and none of them know anything about sorcery. I learned everything I know about mana from scrolls, and from…” She perused the middle bookshelf. “This.”
Callie pulled out a book at shoulder-level and handed it to me. I was first surprised by the weight of it, then the title.
“This is all about mana?” I asked incredulously.
“Yes. Unfortunately the author tends to ramble. Most of the book is conjecture, though he explains everything believably if you can get past his verbose writing.”
It was a long book, and I was not a fast reader. “Who is the author?” I asked, then read the title of the book aloud, “Understanding Mana, by J. Krover.”
“Jacob Krover. He’s a sorcerer from another time who became very wealthy and basically bought his way into the nobility. His family is still well-known for their wealth but not for their sorcery. Are you going to read it?”
The book was a little intimidating. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to start it. “If he rambles, there’s a good chance it’s going to put me to sleep, but I’ll try.”
“Good.” She opened the ledger on the small table in the center of the confined area. “Mark down your name and the book you’re taking.”
“Jon Oklar — Understanding Mana, by J. Krover,” I wrote.
“Now we’ll know who to blame if it gets lost,” she said with a playful grin.
“And they’ll wonder how he got into the library in the first place,” I reminded her.
She dropped her smile. “You will take good care of it, right?”
“Of course,” I assured her.
“I have spoken to my father about allowing sorcerers access to the library,” she told me. “He wants to, but there aren’t enough keys. I volunteered to help people in the meantime. I want to get to know all the sorcerers, but only you and Charlie have shown interest.”
“I expect that will change when things calm down a bit more. Everyone’s so focused on improving right now that learning something new is secondary.”
“I’m jealous. I wish I could spend all day improving my use of mana.”
“Can you cast any spells?” I asked.
“No, because I don’t have any time to improve! Speaking of, I’m late to another boring lesson. I could leave the key with you if you promise to return it to my quarters later today.” She batted her eyelashes.
“I don’t think I’ll be permitted to visit you,” I said. “It’s best we both leave now.”
“What about the scroll of ordia?”
“I was only going to take a glance, but it’s not important. I’m still far from learning ordia.” I wasn’t sure I ever would be ready, considering how much stronger my dvinia needed to be to stand against Cason.
“Very well.”
We left the tiny library, and Callie locked the door.
I bowed. “I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon.”
“I look forward to it,” she replied with a curtsy and an impish grin.
CHAPTER SIX
I awoke to Michael shaking my shoulder. “Get up, Jon. Leon is coming. Pretend I said something funny.”
“What?” I was groggy and confused. Last I remembered, I was trying to read the dense text on mana that the princess had convinced me to take. I had returned to my training quarters in the great hall and sat on one of the cushioned chairs.
I must’ve fallen asleep, but the book was closed and sitting on the nearby table. I didn’t remember doing that.
“Stand up!” Michael was whispering.
“Did you put my book—?”
“Yes. He’s coming!”
Michael pulled me out of the chair. I balanced on shaky legs as I noticed the sound of footsteps on the stairs. How long was I out? It had to have been longer than a few minutes. I actually felt a little rested.
Leon came into view from the last step and set foot on the floor of the room. Michael pretended not to see him as he spoke to me.
“And so I told her, ‘No, it’s in my shoe!’ ”
I pretended to laugh and then notice Leon. “Oh, Leon. What brings you here?”
“What was in your shoe, Michael?” Leon asked.
“It was just a joke.”
“I know. What’s the joke? What was in your shoe?” Leon folded his arms.
“My, uh.” His eyes darted around the room. “Candle…stick.”
“Explain,” Leon demanded.
“It’s a long joke,” Michael said.
“That ends with a candlestick in your shoe?”
“Yes,” Michael said confidently. “Anyway, I was just leaving. I’d better get back to training. The wind isn’t going to move itself. Oh wait…” He started to stroll toward the stairs. “That was another joke, by the way.”
“Hold on.” Leon put his hand up in front of Michael’s chest. “You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?”
“No, sir.”
Leon stared at him for a moment. “Fine. Go.”
Michael must’ve come into my quarters to see me and found me asleep. He probably took the book from my hands, set it on the table, and then guarded the entrance until someone came. Bless him. I’d actually gotten some worthwhile sleep. I wasn’t sure Leon believed Michael’s excuse, but anything was better than the king possibly finding out I had broken the rules of the punishment. Nykal had never told me what would happen to me if I was caught sleeping, and I didn’t want to find out.
Leon walked ove
r and picked up the book off the table near me. “Why are you wasting your time with this rubbish?”
“Thought I might learn something about mana.” Because you haven’t taught me anything in a long time, I dared not say.
Wait, why was Leon here? Was he finally about to give me some kind of instruction?
“Are you still trying to learn every note?” he asked me.
He’d made his opinion of my approach to learning mana quite clear a while ago.
“Yes, I am,” I said.
“You sound like you might’ve proven me wrong.”
I was a bit surprised. “I have.”
He grew a wry smile. “That’s a good lad.”
I might’ve appreciated the compliment if it didn’t make me feel like a dog. “Thank you, I guess.”
Leon had said it would take me too long to learn every note, that I would be better off instead learning spells: groups of notes casted at the same time. But I wanted to learn all the notes individually so I could cast any spell when I was done. Leon wasn’t going to let me at first, but then I reminded him that he also wasn’t going to let me learn dvinia. That finally shut him up, though the instructor made a point of adding one last thing.
“Then prove me wrong later, or you will regret it.”
It had been slow going because of my punishment. I’d only learned a few of the lower notes, but one was very important, lF, so that my healing spell was exponentially stronger. I hadn’t spoken with Leon since then. He didn’t know I could mend broken bones. No one knew what I could do so far, except Aliana.
Perhaps that was why Cason didn’t think I could heal a broken ankle. The knowledge hadn’t reached him because I’d never told anyone. But did the warlock even know I could cast Heal at all? I had come to learn it after the ambush to the castle. Dark mages had infiltrated with intentions to slay Grufaeragar and start a war with the krepps. Perhaps my ability to heal had never reached Cason. As far as I knew, the king still hadn’t determined how our enemies had found out so much about the sorcerers training here. It could be from a spy, or a simple mistake. The dark mages were everywhere. Someone we all trusted might not even know he or she was giving information to an enemy.
I wondered all this as I looked at Leon again. He couldn’t possibly be the one responsible. He was too much of a cynic. I supposed that was one benefit to being an ass. He would never accidentally divulge sensitive information to an enemy because he barely trusted any of us enough to handle non-sensitive information.
At least he was an ass most of the time; right now he sounded a little friendlier as he glanced over the book in his hands.
“Airinold’s taint, this is gobstobled gookamuk.”
“What?”
“What exactly.” He closed the book with finality and thumped it down on the table. “Show me what you’ve practiced.”
I supposed it was finally time for him to give me instruction, not that I was sure how he could help me if he couldn’t even cast this spell.
“I learned to strengthen Heal.”
He rolled his eyes. “You already knew Heal before the battle in Curdith Forest. Is that all you’ve been working on?”
“Can you tell what mana frequencies are being used when someone casts a spell near you?”
“In most cases, yes. What are you hinting at?”
It took a few breaths to prepare my mind. I had to split my mana into two other frequencies: F, and lF. I was still getting used to the feeling of Lower F. It was akin to my natural mana, Upper F, but the strain was considerably worse on my mind.
That single note, however, did not compare to the effort required when my spell came to fruition. I casted Heal onto Leon’s body. He had no injuries or illnesses I was aware of, so I did not direct my mana toward any specific part of him. As it was not healing anything, I was able to sustain it for much longer than when the mana had mended the broken bone in my ankle.
Leon pursed his lips and squinted his green eyes as he wafted his hand through my mana. “Upper F of course…” he began. “F as well, and another…?” His head whipped back, his messy blonde hair bouncing on his head. “Lower F! Jon, do you know what this means?”
I let the spell come to an end. “I know how strong it is. I had to use it last night to heal my broken ankle.”
His enthusiasm came to an abrupt end. “I was not told you had any broken bones.”
“What were you told?”
“That Cason killed a man in front of you and told you to deliver a message to the king.”
“That’s it?”
“Pretty much.”
I let out my breath in annoyance.
“What really happened?” Leon asked.
I explained the whole thing to him, from trailing Shaw to the entire interaction with Cason.
When I was done, Leon took a seat in the chair nearby and was silent for a long while. “This could’ve been stopped before it started. I knew Cason once, but I haven’t seen him in many years.” He stood up. “But we will worry about him later. First, I came to make sure you are handling what happened last night. You know…” He gestured at nothing in particular. “Emotionally.”
“Yeah, I’m handling it,” I said dismissively. Leon was not someone I was interested in opening up to. I didn’t even care to ask how he knew Cason. Leon was much older than he looked. He knew most people, including my father. I wasn’t surprised that he’d interacted with Cason.
“All right, good. Because secondly, I came here to help you.”
“How?”
He scowled at me. “You could show a little enthusiasm.”
“I am, but I’m too tired to show it,” I admitted.
“That idiotic punishment. Here’s how I’m going to start helping you first of all.” He slapped one hand into the palm of another. “You will no longer spend two hours a night guarding the city. It is decided!”
“You can’t just decide that. Only the king—”
“It is decided!” he repeated with a wave of his hand. “I have the authority to give you orders. Your order is to no longer serve out your punishment by wasting two hours each night.” He lifted a finger. “Instead, you’re going to spend two hours during the day healing people with this new spell of yours. It’s the best way to train it, and it won’t hurt to help a few people. Maybe it’ll even save a few lives.”
“Again, the king—”
“Will deal with me personally for giving you this order. I’ll tell him you argued. Now can we drop it?”
No more losing sleep? I fell into the chair with relief. “Oh thank god.”
Leon gave me a moment of peace to enjoy the feeling. He seemed like a different man, patient and understanding. But as tired as I was, I couldn’t enjoy the peace for long. We needed to train, but first I had to voice a concern.
“Why does it seem like I’m the only one who’s worried about Cason? Even you don’t seem very concerned after you heard what happened last night.”
“Cason has been around for a long time. He’s always been planning something, and he’s always been stopped. You helped stop his last plan, so you should know as well as I do that we will stop him again.”
“Except we no longer have anyone like Jennava on our side who’s pretending to be loyal to him.”
“How do you know the king doesn’t? Have you been told anything?”
“No,” I said. “No one tells me anything anyway.”
“Well I’m telling you that it’s not your place to figure out what to do.”
“I know that!” I snapped. “I’m just trying to make sure someone knows what to do!”
My tone—I had made a mistake. Leon glared at me with contained rage.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m just very tired.”
“I accept your apology. Trust your king, Jon. And learn to keep your mouth shut around your superiors more often.”
I nodded, though internally I disagreed.
“Now, how long can you keep up the heal spell?
” Leon asked.
“Only a few moments.”
“Tell me it’s the only thing you’ve been practicing.”
“Why would I only practice one—?” I stopped myself. My tone was inappropriate again. “I might be needed to fight soon. I won’t to be able to stop any enemies by healing them. I have to learn more.”
“Then what is it you want to do with your mana?”
“You know what I want,” I said as calmly as I could. “I want to learn everything I’m capable of, and then I will decide.”
He scoffed and grabbed the book from the near table. “And look at how much time you’re wasting with that approach. Tell me what you want to learn right now and I will help you.”
“I honestly told you,” I said.
“Then you are lying to yourself. What do you feel you must learn with mana before it’s too late?”
I didn’t know where he was headed with this. I tried to think it through.
He kept going, “You already know the answer. I’ve seen how you fight. I know what you want.”
“Then what is it?” I asked, my patience already frayed.
“You know it. Just say it. There are some things we need to admit to ourselves before we really believe them. You’re killing yourself over this, Jon. I did the same thing when I was trying to decide what to learn at your age. You have to say it aloud.”
I suddenly realized he was right. “I want to learn how to keep everyone safe from all those who mean to do harm…” I stopped as I heard myself. This was impossible.
“Keep going. How do you plan to do this?”
“By stopping our enemies without giving them a chance to fight back. I want to learn a spell to do that.”
“Finally, you admit it.”
“You knew this already?”
“I figured it out recently,” Leon said.
“How?” I asked.
“Because you kept reminding me of someone. I finally realized it was me.” He glared at me. “Don’t make that face.”
I realized I was showing him a bewildered expression. “I’m sorry, it’s just hard to picture we were ever similar.”
