Drakonika (Book 1)

by Andrea Závodská

  As they bounded in and descended the long narrow stairs down, they found another piece of unquestionable proof — a burnt door. All six of them stopped when they finally entered the cave. No one seemed to mind that their feet were soaked in cold water up to their ankles. They just gazed in front at the big crystal ball towering on a stone pedestal, reflected in their eyes as it gleamed in the dim light of Rodrick's lantern.

  “The sphere is still here!” Serena exclaimed joyfully, her voice echoing in the cave. “I thought they took it, but they left it here!” For a moment, the boys stared at the magickal artefact as if they had entered into a wonderland.

  Darius recovered first. He slowly approached the artefact, looking hypnotised. It seemed as if he was absorbing its magickal power by merely gazing at it. Finally something truly powerful within his grasp! As he watched it intensely, he didn't even realise that his five comrades had come up behind him.

  “What do we have here,” Darius whispered, brushing the ball's aura with his hand. His voice sounded very distant, as though he had completely forgotten that he wasn't alone.

  “What is it?” Rodrick breathed curiously, as he raised his lantern higher.

  Darius pulled his arm back.

  “I don't know. But I'm going to find out,” he said firmly.

  “These things are used for divination,” Serena said quietly, although nobody lived in the house above. But somehow it felt like they would wake the ghosts if they had raised their voices. “I wonder why it was hidden here all this time,” she said as she kept gazing at the crystal ball.

  “Well, let's take a look!” Viktor said abruptly, reaching forward, but Darius blocked his arm on the half-way.

  “Hey!” Darius snarled. “Don't touch it, it's mine.”

  “What?” said all five of his comrades together with rather startled expressions.

  “How can it be yours?” Henry said, sounding utterly dazed. “It doesn't belong to anyone, does it?” The others seemed to agree with him, but it wasn't enough to change Darius' mind.

  “It's mine because I decided it's mine. I'm taking it home,” Darius said flatly. His friends didn't look too happy about it, but they had to accept their leader's decision, although they did so with a lot of unsatisfied muttering. While Viktor was clenching his fists angrily and others were mumbling under their noses, Serena was the only one who spoke her thoughts out loud.

  “I think you should leave it here, Darius. You never know — it could be cursed,” she said, sounding rather cautious. And it seemed that her words made Darius think.

  “Maybe you're right,” he said finally. “I've got enough problems, I don't need more. But nothing can stop me from peeking into my future right here.”

  “Come on Darius,” Serena said with the same worried look on her face. “It's not always good to know what your future holds. You should leave it be. We wanted to take a look and we have. Now let's go back,” she implored, but Darius didn't back off from this one. Looking into the future was tempting. Perhaps too tempting.

  “Are you kidding? I haven't made it all the way here for nothing. If there's something important going to happen, I want to know about it,” Darius retorted, and against all Serena's warnings he placed his hands on the sphere and gazed into it.

  No one dared to speak. They all waited for what would happen. The longer they stood there, the more they leaned forward, as though they wanted to understand what he saw from the look on his face. First he looked surprised, then he scowled and in the end his eyes bulged in shock. Something had completely taken him aback.

  Suddenly he twitched as though the ball had bit him. He turned to his friends, knocked them to the sides and bolted past them onto the narrow stairs where he disappeared in the blink of an eye.

  His comrades followed straight after. Whatever had happened to Darius, they certainly didn't want to endure it too. Soon they caught up with him in front of the house and after this scary experience, there wasn't another word about taking the sphere home.

  “I told you it wasn't a good idea —” Serena breathed, but Darius cut her off.

  “Spare me your lectures,” he said gruffly, gazing into the blackness.

  “Fine then,” Serena said snappishly, then with a sudden mollification, she asked, “And what did you see? Maybe you'll feel better if you tell us.” She waited in silence along with the others, but no answer came.

  “I'm going to take a walk. Don't wait for me, just go home,” Darius said in a downcast tone, turning away. There was a sudden ripple of questions behind him, but he stepped forward into the dark street without ever turning back. Then one of his friends panted to his side.

  “Wait, I'm coming with you,” Viktor said swiftly. He slightly turned back to give the others a sign that he would take care of it and they could go home. “So what did you see?”

  Darius didn't raise his gaze from the stone road.

  “I'm not sure if I wanna talk about it,” he said bleakly.

  “Sure you do,” Viktor decided. “Come on, I'm your best friend, have you forgotten? You can tell me anything.”

  Darius hesitated for a while, but he could no longer keep it inside. “All right then,” he said and finally raised his eyes to look at Viktor. “First of all, nothing suggested that I would study here or in any other guild. But I don't know where else I would go, I don't get it.”

  Viktor was listening closely. “What else?”

  “There was me and Magnus, like some good friends! Can you understand that? How could anything like that ever happen? I hate him,” Darius said spitefully, a great deal of venom reflected in his eyes. “But then I saw something even worse. That little groveller of his was squeezing me, such insolence!” His face looked red with anger, even though the only light on the street was the moonlight. Then he fell silent again, staring at the road with a cadaverous look.

  “There was something more, wasn't there?” Viktor demanded.

  Suddenly, a great dread fell on Darius. It seemed he didn't even want to say it aloud. “Fjalldís will die,” he whispered.

  “And?” Viktor said coldly.

  “I know you despise her — I mean, we despise her —” Darius corrected himself quickly. “But knowing she will die soon is just too much.”

  “Look, you can't take divination so seriously. My father told me that it was something like a warning and it could be prevented from happening. It means you have to change something. Maybe it's a sign that you shouldn't become too soft. Or else you might end up as one of Magnus' grovellers,” Viktor said and although it sounded quite harsh, Darius was listening to him without disagreeing. He would have done anything to prevent the visions from happening. “And if you want to stay in this guild, you'll probably have to study more or learn to be a better cheater,” Viktor added, and from the tone of his voice it was quite clear that he himself had absolutely no problem with that.

  “You're right. You're absolutely right,” Darius said while looking somewhere into the distance, then he suddenly turned back to Viktor. “But what about Fjalldís?” he said hastily.

  “That's not your problem. You should only care about yourself,” Viktor said firmly. “Study well, cheat well and be careful not to sink down to that Magnus' rabble. You'll become a powerful warlock and everything will turn out as it's supposed to.”

  Darius had always wanted to become a warlock and he would follow his dream at all costs. But now it seemed he wasn't sure about anything. For a moment, he remained staring at the ground wordlessly.

  “Don't think so much! It would be a shame to waste your talent in magick for some low-class works. Forget about conscience and act in the way to achieve the best for yourself,” Viktor insisted in a persuasive tone.

  “Thanks, Viktor. I think this was exactly what I needed. You're a true friend,” Darius said, after what seemed like hours. He looked up at him once more and this time there was the look of a real warlock in his eyes. His lips curled into a sinister leer as malicious plans started whirling in
his mind again.

  “That's the attitude, now you talk like a real warlock!” Viktor praised him, poking at his shoulder.

  It appeared that Darius was no longer worried about what he had seen in the visions. “Let's go back, I'd like to play some Magiker,” he said carelessly.

  “You go, I'll stay here for a bit longer to charge myself with the dark energy of night,” Viktor said in an unusually satisfied voice.

  “Fine then. I'll see you back in our lair,” Darius said and turning away, he slowly walked forward. That was the first time he was alone in the streets of Sinei at night. Everything seemed completely abandoned — until he returned to the street where the novices lived. There was a dim light in the windows of his house, accompanied with silent whispers as his comrades had already started playing a card game. The rest of the street was as quiet as a graveyard.

  Just as he was about to push open the front door of his house to go in and join his friends, his eyes darted to the dark street. After sliding across several doors, his gaze landed on a specific house farther up the road. The house of the girl he had seen die in his vision — Fjalldís.

  He decided to take one last look at her before he fully started his warlock career, and preferably in a way that she wouldn't know about it. He glanced around to make quite sure nobody was watching, then he quietly made his way underneath the window where he suspected she was sleeping. The walls of all these houses were built from huge stone blocks, reinforced with thick wooden ledges. He was certain he could do it.

  Although he was quite confident about his climbing skill, he wasn't sure which window to aim for. There were two choices. He decided to climb to the window right above the entrance door and he put all his strength into this decision, because it wasn't easy to get there. But in the end he made it.

  He climbed to the ledge under the window and taking a firm hold on the window-sill, he impatiently peeked inside. He had no idea what made him do such a crazy thing, but it paid off — she was there, just opposite him, wrapped in a blanket with her head gently resting on the pillows. She was facing the window. It seemed, upon looking, that she was having peaceful dreams. After all, her conscience was — unlike his — completely clear and innocent. Maybe far too innocent.

  Then she suddenly opened her eyes.

  Darius looked as if he had turned to stone. And that was exactly what his hands did — his grip slid in shock. He gave a terrified yelp as he lost balance and with bulged eyes he vanished from her sight.

  A horrified face and the sound of a person falling outside the window was a very strange alarmclock, but Fjalldís had no time to ponder. She leapt to her feet at once, dashing to the window-sill. She scrambled onto a stool, flung the window open and slightly bent over to see the street. She saw exactly what she was afraid she would see.

  Luckily enough, Belinda and Aurora didn't wake up. Fjalldís quickly left the room, descended the stairs and bolted out in front of their house, where she saw Darius getting up from the ground. He was groaning and swearing, letting out words that Fjalldís wished she hadn't heard. Although it was a completely embarrassing moment, he didn't have the strength to vanish before she made her way to him.

  Fjalldís paused on the doorstep, giving him a rather frightened look. “My goodness! Darius, what did you do? Are you okay?” she said in a very concerned tone and rushed forward, her slippers clacking on the cobblestones. It seemed that this strange moment had lifted all quarrels and misunderstandings they had had between them.

  “I'm fine,” Darius lied in a grim tone, just because he didn't want her to see what he had under his sleeve. It was unfortunate that it was his left elbow that got hurt. He stood upright with difficulty, touching his arm as he groaned again. His face was contorted with pain.

  “Are you sure? Is your arm broken?” Fjalldís kept asking questions swiftly, as though she didn't even hear the coldness in his voice. She reached towards his elbow, but Darius flinched back. “What's wrong? I just want to take a look at it.”

  “I said I'm fine,” Darius retorted.

  Fjalldís gave him a mildly shocked look, “I just wanted to help.”

  “I don't need your help.”

  “That means you do. Let me see,” she said, growing a little impatient.

  There was no chance for Darius to avoid this. Fjalldís pulled up the sleeve on his left arm with one quick move. For a moment, they both fell silent.

  “I can see you were quick to tend the wound,” she said, as she surveyed the worn bandage on his arm suspiciously. It clearly wasn't the injury she was looking for. This was something else.

  “That's just... I fell recently,” Darius lied again.

  “Like you did now?” Fjalldís said in a doubtful tone which gave Darius a scare that she might have understood what he was doing in her window, but then her expression suddenly cleared. “No wonder, when you climb the houses all over the town. Where will you climb next time? To the highest tower of the citadel?” She shook her head in disbelief.

  Darius hated to act stupid, but the truth was even sillier. He didn't say anything, leaving her under the impression that she was right about what she had said. Then the darkness was cut with a light so bright he had to cover his eyes.

  Their faces were now lit with a white magick sphere that was floating above Fjalldís' palm — further investigation of the injury required more light. Darius' left arm was wrapped in a bandage from the wrist to the elbow, but there was blood right above it. “Take a seat,” she advised him, pointing at a wooden bench nearby. “I'll take care of it. You're going to be fit for Aedan's lessons tomorrow.”

  Darius sat down and groaned again, Fjalldís slumped on the left beside him. The bright white light gradually transformed into a mild, gentle green one which was very soothing for the eyes. As she raised the light closer to Darius, he flinched again.

  “What's the matter with you? How can I tend the wound if you don't let me put the healing energy closer?” she asked in a slightly reproving tone.

  For a moment, Darius gazed at her with a perplexed expression. Then he finally recovered. “Oh... oh! So you won't... physically... touch me?” he stammered nervously.

  “No. Why? You wanted me to touch you?” Fjalldís said, looking at him suspiciously.

  “NO! No, of course not,” Darius blurted out, and even though it was another lie, he seemed to be relieved. The nightmares had still been bothering him.

  Fjalldís looked completely confused now. She dived into her work and placing her hand above the wound, she let the green light penetrate his skin. The pain and bleeding stopped within a minute.

  Darius, who was avoiding the light before, couldn't help gazing directly into it now. He didn't even realise it, but the healing light felt so relaxing it made him put aside all his malevolent thoughts. “How come you opened your eyes exactly when I was... just climbing over your house?” he asked cautiously, especially careful at the end of the sentence.

  “Well, I felt someone watching me in my dream and it made me open my eyes,” Fjalldís said, but she kept watching the healing process.

  “That's quite interesting. I think you have a great talent,” Darius said. He had no idea how this slipped out of his mouth, but it was already out.

  Fjalldís smiled faintly and for a moment she looked up to him. “Thanks, you too.” Then her eyes darted back to the light.

  “I hope so. I want to become a powerful warlock,” Darius slipped. He had no idea if revealing his secret to her was wise, but he wanted to tell her so much that he just couldn't help it.

  However, Fjalldís didn't seem to be very pleased. “A warlock? That's scary.”

  “What? Why? It's gonna be great,” Darius said quickly, trying to think of all the advantages that becoming a warlock could bring. “I'll have my own castle, everyone will respect me and I'll master all schools of magick, including the dark ones,” he said proudly, trying to make it sound as impressive as possible.

  “And there will be a great bounty on y
our head,” interjected Fjalldís. “Haven't you heard of the warlock Sargir? He didn't enjoy that respect from others for long. The King decided to lock him away. Despite Sargir's magick, there was no way he could defeat the whole army. He's imprisoned till this day and I don't think they are ever going to release him. He went mad from the power,” she said quite calmly, but Darius suddenly felt rather insecure with the idea of becoming a warlock. He surely didn't want to go insane! “But the most cruel and malicious of all warlocks in Aria was Dazzler. He was once the King's advisor and a trusted wizard, but then something happened and he took the side of evil. His dangerously powerful magick brought dread upon the entire Kingdom and the King had to announce a bounty on his head. Many good fighters and mages died in a battle with him. One day he simply vanished. Some people think he still lives, others think he was killed. But if that's true, why had no one come to claim the prize? It has been a few years since Dazzler disappeared.” At these words she paused for a while, as though waiting for Darius to say he had changed his mind. But when that didn't happen, she told him, “I don't think that's the future you want. You have talent in magick, you could help a lot of people. And you can cook better than anyone I know. Where did you learn how?”

  Darius was disappointed. Instead of praising him for choosing such a great way of life, she completely turned it down and now she was asking about cooking. Yes, she had brought some doubts into his mind, but he still felt that becoming a warlock was the right choice for him. “Before I was sent by the King to Sinei, I was helping an old man in a tavern's kitchen as far back as I can remember. In return, I had a bed and food and I had to take care of the rest on my own. I used to ask him why he was spending all his time with boring cooking, when there were adventurers out there, earning their living with exciting journeys and killing monsters. He always told me that his work was an adventure as well and that he also had his helmet and armour.” For a moment, Darius remained in thought. Then he added, “But I still don't know why the King himself has sent me here.”