by Brian Beam
“I see,” she said, putting a finger to her chin. “And how does your magic cat fit in to your quest?”
My jaw dropped before I could stop it. How did she know anything like that about Max? “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Max is just a cat I’ve had since childhood. He keeps me company since I travel alone so much.” I wondered if the lie I gave her sounded as ridiculous to her as it did in my head.
Salmaea raised her hand over her mouth to hide a giggle. “You can’t fool me. I can see the magical aura around him that shows he can use magic, just like I can see the glow of a spell around you. I can see spells and magical auras as well as sense them if I’m close enough.”
Now, I didn’t know much about how magic worked, but Max had never indicated that he could tell when others were able to use magic or see a spell. More importantly, what was with her nonsense about a spell around me? She must have seen the shock on my face and she giggled even more, looking very attractive doing so. Hey, it’s lonely being a lone man on a quest.
“Yes, you have a spell on you. It looks like it’s meant to hide you from being traced by magic. I can’t tell for sure. It seems pretty complex.” Her face took on a wondering look as she studied me. “I’d say it has been on you for years given how well it’s attatched to you. I’ve never seen such a complex spell outside of spelled relics from the past. Spells as intricate as that have not been made for centuries.” She trailed off as she looked at me pensively.
I remained speechless. Had Max put a spell on me in the past? Who had he wanted to hide me from? Menar? That didn’t make sense. Well, unless I was wrong and Menar could use magic.
Salmaea bent to retrieve her blanket, and folded it as she spoke. “Well, I should let you go. I have an important mission myself. I do want to know more about your cat there, but regretfully, I don’t have the time. You haven’t noticed any traces of a dragon around here have you?”
If my jaw hadn’t already been hanging open, it would have dropped again. “What?”
“Oh, so you believe in eldrhims, but not dragons?” she asked with an arched eyebrow.
I took a deep breath and tried to gather my wits. If this girl was after that dragon, I wouldn’t be able to get her out of my hair. Sure, she was nice to look at, but she seemed a little unstable and for all I knew, she could try to abduct Max for a lifelong study of how a cat can be a wizard.
“Well?”
Her probing made me realize I was standing there staring at her blankly. “The thief I’m after was kind of abducted by that dragon and I’m following after it,” I admitted.
Salmaea’s pouty lips beamed into a radiant smile. “Ooh, we can go together. I’ll take any help I can get in slaying the beast. Plus, when your cat wakes up, I’d like to study it. By Idrolin, this must be my lucky day.” Idrolin is the goddess of magic.
“No, no, no,” I argued, putting up a hand as if to hold her back. “I just need to get a small gem. I’m not slaying any dragons, and you’re not allowed anywhere near Max.” I couldn’t let myself get roped into helping the crazy sorceress. Was this girl really trying to slay a dragon? And sometimes I thought I was crazy.
“Suit yourself, but you’re still coming with me,” she stated matter-of-factly. “I think I know exactly where the dragon is heading, so you can either follow me, or go the wrong way. It’s your choice.”
Letting out a resigned sigh, I nodded. “Okay, lead on.”
With a pompous yet still cute smile, she stepped past me with perfect-postured grace and I limped up the mountain after her. What had I gotten myself into?
Chapter 9
Revelations Abound
Sometimes it can be hard to make the best of a situation when you’re stuck travelling with someone who at one moment could warm your heart with a beautiful smile while making you fear they would set you on fire the next. Still, I tried to be positive and made as pleasant conversation as I could as we worked our way up the mountain with Max still sleeping in my arms. If I was going to be stuck with the crazy sorceress’ company for a while, I figured I might as well get to know her a bit.
“So, what prompted you to want to slay a dragon, Sal’?” Salmaea threw me a look hotter than fire. “Maea.” I belatedly amended.
Letting her fiery gaze linger on me for a few seconds, to make it sink in I suppose, she replied, “I failed the Trials to become a wizard of the Tenth Rank.” Her face reddened and she turned away quickly. Was she embarrassed?
“Well, I’m sure Eleventh Rank is still nothing to scoff at,” I chipped in optimistically, knowing absolutely nothing of what she was talking about. I assumed First Rank would be best. All I knew for sure, though, was that my original question on why she set out to kill a dragon was in no way answered.
Salmaea—I’m going to refer to her as Sal’ from now on for simplicity’s sake—whipped around and looked like she was about to put a hand into her wicker case, but seemed to think better of it before her hand made it in. “Tenth Rank is the lowest Rank,” she hissed. “I couldn’t even become a Ranked wizard.” She twirled back to the steep, unchanging landscape and continued up the mountain, her steps coming down more heavily in her anger.
Seriously, this Sal’ was just up and down no matter what I said. It seemed I was just going to have to get used to it. “Sorry, I don’t know anything about wizard Ranks,” I admitted.
Max has never told me much about the specifics of the wizarding world and I am pretty sure he doesn’t have a Rank. Due to my unfamiliarity with the subject, my curiosity was now piqued. “What does the Rank mean?”
“In order to become an ambassador, advisor, teacher, or acquire a political positions in the Wizard Council, you have to have a high Rank.” I had been prepared for a tongue lashing given her anger moments prior, but she spoke in a cheerful tone as if she had not just been ready to throw more magic at me before.
“Oh,” I replied as I continued behind her, admiring the details of her body revealed by the snug robe. “What did you want to do once you were Ranked?”
I thought it was an innocent question, but she rounded on me angrily again, her icy stare chilling me down to my bones. “You just don’t understand,” she snipped. She was silent a moment and then continued on angrily. “The only way to become Ranked now is to perform a task that the Council feels is sufficient enough to override the Trial. I had heard rumors of a dragon being sighted in this part of the Amirand and figured what better task than to slay a beast that wizards had banished beyond the Glacial Mountains over a thousand years ago? The Council didn’t believe that any dragon could leave the Snowy Waste, so I set out to prove them wrong. I’m so sick of not being taken seriously by them. After this, though, I’m sure they’ll skip me up to at least Fifth Rank.”
It seemed like a good reason. Then again, is there such a thing as a good reason to throw away your life trying to kill a dragon by yourself?
We continued our exhausting climb up the mountain in silence. I just didn’t know what to say to Sal’ without her biting my head off. Even though I’m not around women too often, I’ve always gotten along just fine with them and have had a few kisses and late nights along the way. With Sal’, I didn’t think I’d want any of those late nights. With what I knew of Sal’ so far, I figured she’d probably stab me in the back for not kissing her right or something.
I did my best to ignore the pain in my leg, but once my stomach started rumbling too, I just couldn’t press on anymore. “Do you have anything to eat?” I called to her.
Sal’ looked up to the afternoon sky through the treetops for a moment and then back to me. “I guess it would be a good time to stop,” she stated, staring quizzically at Max curled up in my arms. I still didn’t feel comfortable with her scrutinizing him like he was some kind of laboratory specimen.
We settled down next to each other on a felled tree. I pulled the blanket from my belt and laid it on the ground to put Max on it. I stretched my leg, grimacing. “Why do I hurt so much from my injuries
when they’re healed?” I thought out loud without thinking.
I thought Sal’ was going to snap at me, but her face reddened and she looked away as if embarrassed again. “That happens sometimes. With wounds that bad it does.” However, she didn’t look me in the eye when she spoke and I knew that I had never had a problem like that with Max’s healings. I mean, he had just recently brought me back from the brink of death. What wounds were worse than that? I kept that part to myself, though.
Sal’ took off her backpack and started rifling through it, pulling out some pears and hard bread. It wasn’t much of a meal, but given that I had no food of my own, I accepted it graciously. I noticed her drop some bread crumbs into her wicker case.
“What do you keep in there?” I was curious on what she used to create her spells.
Sal’ lifted back the lid to reveal dozens of white, red-eyed mice scrambling over one another to get at the bread. Several had blood stains on their fur. “Mice,” she replied as if I couldn’t tell by seeing them. “I use them for my spell energy. They’re each usually good for a few smaller spells, or a larger spell or two each.”
I didn’t let her know that I already knew how the process worked or that I didn’t agree with using an animal more than once for a spell in order to keep her from getting angry again. She could have ripped me limb from limb a hundred times over with as much energy as she could draw from so many mice. She had already proven her magic was strong by bringing a huge tree down on an eldrhim.
“What keeps them from chewing their way out of there?” I asked, knowing that mice could easily chew through a simple wicker container.
Sal’ put a hand to the edge of the case and lifted up a fine, metal mesh that looked like it was constructed like chainmail on a miniscule scale. The mice lifted up with it before she dropped it back in. “They can’t chew through this and it still allows plenty of air to flow through so they can breathe. They learn not to chew on it after a while, but then, they just take it out on my hand. It doesn’t take much to heal the bites, though.”
“How do they live like that?” There were so many, it seemed like some would end up killing others whether on purpose or by accidental suffocation.
“Some don’t,” she replied curtly. “Every now and then I have to sort through and pick out the dead ones before I end up trying to use them for spells.”
Even if they were only mice, the thought made me kind of sick. I didn’t dare tell her that to avoid the risk of a spontaneous bout of her anger.
After her explanation, we continued to eat in silence and I took the time to look up the mountain. We were pretty close to the peak. I knew the dragon had flown slightly east, so if Sal’ didn’t start taking us towards that direction soon, then maybe she didn’t really know where she was going.
“So where do you think this dragon went?” I asked around a bite of tasteless bread.
Sal’ was staring off into the forest as if in her own little world as she chewed, but she must have heard me because she answered, though she didn’t adjust her gaze. “There’s a temple dedicated to some kind of a god up ahead. There’s usually a lot of magic in those kinds of places and dragons are magical creatures. Magic draws magic.”
I almost choked on my bread. “You mean Nansunic’s temple?” I had trouble believing that some small ruined temple partially established by James McAlwain’s ancestors that was dedicated to the god of livestock was going to house a giant dragon or have any real magic to draw one there in the first place.
Sal’ shrugged. “I don’t really know. I just know that from the sightings I’ve heard reported, the dragon has been seen multiple times flying up here on the mountain. I was told there’s a temple to a god up here. Like I said, those temples usually have a lot of magic that would attract the dragon. The dragon could use it as a safe haven from those who want to harm it. Like me.” By the end of her explanation, I felt like she was talking down to me as if I were an idiot for not already knowing everything she was telling me. Max has a tendency to do that too. Must be a wizard thing.
As I thought about why the McAlwains hadn’t heard about—or at least mentioned—any dragon sightings, I brought a hand up to my face, realizing I still had the gruff, unshaven look going. “Well, I don’t have any better leads. As long as that temple’s to the northeast of here, you may be right.” I cursed myself for giving away where I thought we should be going. If she wasn’t as sure as she acted, she might have just gone that way without anything better to go on.
She ignored my comment as she examined my face. “You look rough,” she stated candidly.
“Thanks,” I muttered sarcastically before remembering who I was talking to.
Sal’s eyes flashed anger for just a second before intently studying my face again. “You know, when I first saw you, I thought you were a traveling minstrel who had hit some pretty hard times,” she said with a grin. I blinked in confusion before remembering the purple shirt and green pants. As if I hadn’t felt stupid enough already. “You should let me get you cleaned up.”
I was taken aback. She wanted to clean me? “I don’t know, Sal…Maea.” Thankfully she didn’t seem to notice the pause.
Her eyes brightened with her grin. “I just want to get rid of this,” she said, putting a hand to my scruffy face, “and this.” She finished her last sentence while mussing my still blood-dirtied hair.
Well, I had been complaining about needing a haircut and not shaving, so I figured I could allow her to make me more presentable. I was expecting her to take a straight razor and some shears from her backpack, but before I could say a word, her hand reached to her wicker case and I felt a chill similar to when Max had floated me down the cliff the previous day spread throughout my body. That’s when the familiar part ended, though.
All of a sudden, I felt whipping pains across my face and scalp. I let out a yelp that turned into a scream when I brought a hand to my face and brought it away bloody.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” she repeated, bringing her hands to cover her face as the chill left my body and I sat there bloody and in more pain than I had started with. I had at some point jumped up and backed away, putting the fallen tree between Sal’ and myself with my hand on my sword hilt. For all I knew, she had been trying to kill me.
My scream must have been pretty loud since Max had leapt to his feet as if he had been awake all along. He jumped back and forth to see everything going on, lingering for a moment on my face and then jerking to see Sal’ with her face buried in her hands. His fur bristled, but all he did was look back at me and, with what I know had to be a stab to his pride, let out a questioning, “Meow?”
It appeared that Sal’ was actually crying behind her hands and had no plans of killing me. My face stung with shallow gashes along both sides of my jaw and a hand to my head revealed a short, choppy mess of hair with more scratches on my scalp. Chunks of hair had landed on my shoulders and the grass. The pain had already reduced to a stinging ache, allowing the pain of my “healed” leg, chest, and face to come back to the forefront of my thoughts.
I realized I was shaking. You never get too used to thinking people are trying to kill you. I dropped my hand away from my sword and let out a breath. “It’s okay, Max. She knows about you.”
Max gave me a stare as cold as death and as frightening as an eldrhim. “You told her?”
I shied away from his gaze. On one hand, I was glad he seemed to be perfectly okay. On the other, I thought I was going to be attacked again given the look on his furry face. “I didn’t tell her a thing,” I disputed. “Sal’ said she could see your magical aura or something.” The shortened name left my lips before I could catch myself and her hands dropped away to reveal her tear-reddened eyes burning holes into me. Now there were two angry wizards against a wiry guy with a sword. It wasn’t a comfortable position to be in.
“I said, don’t call me—” Sal’ started in a loud voice as she reached back into the wicker case.
Max stopped her with a
quick, angry glare. “Do not even think about it,” he chided. Sal’s face dropped and her hand jerked away from the case. If she was surprised that Max could talk, she didn’t show it. She looked more offended at that moment than anything else. Max turned back to me, looking more concerned. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“Except for her butchering excuse for a shave and a haircut,” I replied.
Max whipped his head back towards Sal’. “You did that trying to shave him?” he asked disbelievingly. Sal’ gave a meek nod of her head. “I have never seen such sloppy use of magic.” Although a comment like that from me probably would have incensed Sal’, she simply hunched in on herself, looking ashamed.
That’s when it hit me. “You are terrible at magic!” I exclaimed, again not thinking before I spoke. Everything fell into place. She hadn’t meant to hit that tree and pull it down on the eldrhim. She was trying to hit the eldrhim and missed, lucking out in killing it when the tree fell on it. It was also why I still hurt after the healing. When she tore up the ground in front of me earlier that day, she probably had intended to knock me off my feet. She couldn’t even control her magic enough to get me “cleaned up” as she put it. No wonder she had failed whatever the Trial was.
Her embarrassment flared back to anger at my words and this time, Max didn’t catch her before her hand flew to the case and what felt like a fist to my chest literally knocked me back on my ass. Okay, maybe she wasn’t that bad with magic.
“How dare you?” she screamed as she stood up, her voice definitely not sounding cute and her lips looking anything but pouty. Then, with a surprised gasp, she fell back onto the tree.
“And stay there this time,” Max commanded in a no-nonsense tone. Max never misses with his magic. “You take a little nap and wake up to everyone acting like gods-forsaken children.” He huffed and jumped onto the tree beside her to take a better look at me.
