Apprentice Wizards of Hope

by Gary J. Davies

  “Not if he’s the legal guardian for a child with powers and that actually owns the house they won’t. Moco also has a vampire wife, but the biggest news by far is this: Ben King is the child.”

  “Ben King? But Ben King is dead!”

  “I just saw and spoke with the boy. It’s him alright; there can be no doubt about it.”

  Elizabeth sat down hard, shaking her head in denial. No wonder Eric hadn’t sent this information to her telepathically; as excited as he currently was he probably would have lost concentration on focusing and coding the message and told half of Hope all of this crazy story! “And his parents?”

  Eric sat next to his wife on the sofa and placed a strong arm around her. “Dead these eight years, just as the Council thought. These last seven years poor Ben has lived with Moco.”

  “That’s crazy! Where have they been all this time?”

  “In the West, living with the Unaligned. Moco’s brother is an important pack leader out there, you know.”

  “No I didn’t.” She hadn’t been very close to the Wolf, though she had been very close to their mutual friends the Kings. She had always thought it odd that the Kings willed the house to a werewolf, though he was their close friend and part-time gardener and handyman. The Kings’ patronage had made it possible for the werewolf to live in Hope.

  “The last seven years in the West, you said; but it has been eight since the incident. What about the first year? Moco was here for that year, claiming to be awaiting the return of the Kings. We all thought that was a useless gesture but was he actually hiding the boy next door for a year before he moved away?”

  Eric shrugged. “Moco says he’s sworn to secrecy about where Ben was that first year, but I think he was definitely somewhere else and with someone else.”

  “He has sworn secrecy to whom?" asked Elizabeth. "Not to the Council; we’d know about that.”

  “He won’t say who, and I couldn’t read a thing from any of them.”

  “You couldn’t? Moco always was extra hard headed, even for a werewolf, and vampires don’t generate enough of an aura to read their thoughts. But what about the boy? You should have been able to read his mind like a book. Even though such practices are generally in poor taste culturally, it's certainly warranted by the situation.”

  “The boy is strongly cloaked and shielded. I can’t get in at him at all, and I tried very hard. His blocking cloak is rock solid. I’ve never experienced such perfect cloaking, and he didn’t even seem to notice my level 4 probing. It was astonishing!”

  Elizabeth’s eyebrows rose. Eric’s telepathic probing skills were unexcelled by anyone in Hope; even most adult Master Wizards couldn’t block Eric’s probing. Of course even as a small boy Ben had shown great promise in terms of magic powers. Together he, Ann, and Mark were quite a handful. “And they chose to return now after eight years? Why?”

  “Because Ben’s coming of age for Wizard training and they’d also otherwise totally lose the house next month at auction. This explains why Moco has been paying taxes all these years on property he owned but couldn’t live in for all that time! Ben has been secretly living with Moco.”

  “But why wait until now?”

  Eric shook his head and shrugged. “I got the impression it was for the boy’s safety, but Moco wouldn’t elaborate.”

  Elizabeth laughed. “For Ben’s safety? But no place on Earth is safer than Hope for children with powers; we Hope Wizards all see to that! That's the principle reason for the existence of Hope!”

  “I don’t think that Greg and Elaine King would agree that it's very safe.”

  “The Council found the incident in the woods behind their house to be a disaster of the Kings' making.”

  Red Eric shrugged his wide shoulders. “The Council also declared that Ben was dead. As you know, I never fully agreed with some of their conclusions with regard to the incident.”

  Elizabeth had agreed with the majority of the findings of the Council. To assume that the Kings had somehow tampered with wild, elemental magic forces beyond their control and been accidentally killed was the only logical assumption to make. “But if it wasn’t an accident caused by them, what was it? You remember that storm! The King home and our own would have been torn from their foundations that day if they hadn't been strongly warded! Did you ask Moco?”

  “He refused to talk about it, but we better find out soon. Anything that could kill Master Wizards as powerful as the Kings isn’t something to trifle with. They did live right next to us, and now one of them has returned. Hope’s safety and our own could be in jeopardy.”

  “Precisely,” Elizabeth agreed.

  ****

  Ann quickly grew tired of proctoring her brother, who wasn’t all that interested in practicing seriously for high school Evaluations after all. She left him in the basement playing computer video games over the internet with his school buddies. Upstairs, she heard her parents talking about something rather intensely, probably some boring Council matter. Avoiding them altogether, she snuck out the back door. Vampires be damned, she would investigate the King house situation herself! She didn't have to cloak; she could spy on the King house from the woods that mostly surrounded it.

  The back- trail through the woods to the King property was still well worn even after all these years, due mostly to her. Reflecting the children’s love of trees, the path led from tree to tree like a dot-to-dot picture. That had largely been Ben and Mark’s doing, she remembered. The two boys especially liked the ‘good climbing trees’, but she and Ben both appreciated tree identification and aesthetics also.

  She paused along the path to admire a huge maple tree, the site of an incident she would never forget. She wasn’t as proficient at tree climbing as Ben and her brother, but usually went along with it anyway. She vividly recalled misjudging the strength of a small limb, her shock when the soft wood broke off below her feet, and her feeling of total helpless and fright as she fell towards the ground forty feet below. Time seemed to slow down as she fell. Looking up she saw that her brother was far higher in the tree and totally oblivious to her predicament, but from nearly as high Ben was staring directly down at her calmly as she fell.

  She remembered her downward motion then being gently but firmly halted, as though gravity had suddenly reversed itself, and then being sat gently down onto the ground!

  All the time her eyes remained locked with Ben’s. When it was over he gave her a little smile and wink before going back to his climbing and horsing around with Mark. When she tried to thank him later he simply told her it was “no big deal.”

  But it was a big deal. Ben had probably saved her life, using powers that many of the gifted didn’t develop until they were teenagers or older. Ann was herself far more gifted than most, but she doubted that even as a teenager she could duplicate what six-year old Ben had done!

  Two weeks after that, the Kings all disappeared, leaving only a scene of total devastation in the woods behind their home that some of the older Wizards claimed was rank with Evil. After weeks of Wizard Council investigation, the Kings were all declared to be dead by misadventure: killed by their own recklessness. The Kings were assumed to have carelessly reckoned with Wild Magic forces that destroyed them all. The still devastated forest area was apparently under a long-lasting spell of unknown composition that was poisonous to life.

  For the first few years Ann used to visit the site of the ‘accident’ almost daily, trying in vain to figure out what had happened to the Kings. Now that she was older she knew that it was extremely unlikely that she would ever find any clues that the entire Wizard Council of Hope had missed, but she still returned occasionally to mull things over again, while taking care not to actually come in contact with the poisonous area of devastation that remained.

  The Kings, including even young Ben, were incredibly gifted Wizards; the theory that they had essentially accidentally killed themselves by careless tinkering with Wild Magic made no sense at all to her. In addition, she wou
ld know if Ben was dead. To the contrary, she knew with absolute certainty that he lived. How she knew that was somewhat of a mystery even to herself, but she knew it.

  She didn’t know how, but she knew why. Shortly before disappearing, Ben declared to her that the two of them were inseparably linked. “You can’t ever hide from me, Ann, or I from you,” he had boasted. “I’ve set it up that way.” Exactly what he meant, she didn’t know, but after he disappeared she still had a sense that he was alive, although very far away. Ben had cast a spell on her she later suspected, though six year old youngsters weren't supposed to be capable of setting spells.

  Since earlier that morning, after she and Mark had seen the truck next door, for the first time in eight years she felt that Ben was very close. It was probably only the power of suggestion, she told herself, but why then did the feeling grow even now with every step she took towards the King property?

  “Hello, Flame!” a strange adolescent male voice pronounced the nickname Ben had used for her in years past, in reference to her fiery red hair. She had been watching her step along the path, avoiding roots, fallen branches, and new growth, and hadn’t seen the speaker approaching from the direction of the King property. Suddenly there he was, not ten feet ahead of her, a strange teenage boy roughly her own age, staring at her! She should have magically sensed his approach, but she still sensed him only through the conventional senses of sight and sound. He was obviously partly cloaked. She stopped dead in her tracks, her jaw dropped and eyes bulged, but she managed not to scream.

  “Sorry to startle you that way,” he added. “You are Ann, aren’t you? It’s me, Ben King! I've come home!”

  “Ben? It can’t be!”

  “Didn’t your dad tell you yet that I’m back? He invited us to dinner at your house tonight.”

  He seemed twice as tall as when she had last seen him; even taller than Mark. The body was now that of a tall, slim, dark haired, muscular teen, not a six-year-old child, but there was no mistaking his face; it was larger and more angular, but definitely it was the face of Benjamin King! Besides, only Ben would think to call her ‘Flame’. “It really is you!” she concluded, as her face broke into a wide grin. “And you grew up!” She had an impulse to run to him and hug him, but her head was spinning too much; she could barely stand!

  He stepped forward and held out a hand, which she shook dumbly. His hands were large, and his handshake firm, but she could sense nothing through his touch beyond the physical; nothing of the warmth they had frequently exchanged empathically as children. She felt overjoyed, but at the same time very disappointed. He was here physically, but he was not open to her like he used to be! What had happened to him? But mostly she was stunned; this was all far too improbable and weird!

  “You grew up too, that’s for sure,” he noted. “Your Dad told us that you never believed that I was dead. Does that mean that you can still sense me?”

  “Yes, but no. I’ve always vaguely sensed that you were still alive, but somewhere far away. Since this morning I could sense that you were someplace very nearby, but not your exact location. You seem to be partly cloaked; I mean I didn’t really feel your approach just now in terms of sensing your specific location like I do with anyone else, and I still don’t clearly sense you, except through my normal human senses, and a vague feeling that you are alive and very near. At least I can see, hear, and touch you! But mostly where you stand I sense only totally empty space.”

  “Interesting. What little you do sense of me through magic is far more than anyone else can do, and I do mean anyone! That has to be due to what I set up as a spell with you before the attack. Since the attack eight years ago I seem to be partly cloaked all the time and I can’t turn it off. I didn’t mean to sneak up on you just now; I simply couldn’t sense you at all either, until I heard and saw you! Since the attack I can’t do anything magic-wise, except for self-shielding and cloaking, an ability to see through any cloaking and to sense telepathy, and the ability to sense Evil. I just sort of hoped maybe to find you or Mark back here in the woods where we used to hang out.”

  Ann was shocked to hear him repeatedly use the term ‘attack’ and to hear that he couldn’t control his magic. Eight years earlier Ben was already performing magic that only a few adult Wizards were able to do after many years of training. “Mark is home playing video games. Dad hadn’t told us about you yet. Is there just you? I mean …”

  “That’s OK, I can talk about it. My Mom and Dad were killed in the attack and a friendly stranger saved me by taking me far away. I’ve lived with Moco and his wife Amanda most of the time since then, out West with the Unaligned.”

  “With the Unaligned!” For a Wizard so gifted, that was like a Norm being sent to Siberia. Ann couldn’t imagine living among Norms outside Hope’s protective enclave of nurturing Wizards! “OK, I remember Moco; who could forget him? And Amanda must be the vampire lady?”

  “Right; Amanda told me that she sensed two cloaked people earlier, or their emotions anyway, and heard a girl say hello. She’s very good at empathic sensing, even through most cloaking. I hoped that she might have sensed you and Mark, out in the yard practicing for Evaluations by cloaking. In fact, Amanda told me telepathically that she sensed you back here someplace when she told me about the invitation to dinner.”

  “You and she were correct. So OK, you’ve already explained a lot, but that still leaves yet more mysteries. Who’s the friendly stranger that saved you eight years ago? And who or what did they save you from?”

  Ben shrugged. “I’m going to meet with my friendly stranger right now; want to come? She can tell you about the attack.”

  It took a moment for Ann to reply. This was Ben, but Ben was now a stranger who had lived among the Unaligned. Mere association with the Unaligned would be enough to make him considered an outcast by most inhabitants of Hope. And who was the mysterious stranger that he was planning to meet? One of the Unaligned? A Rogue Wizard, perhaps? She had to find out, and she still trusted Ben, even after eight long years. “OK. Where?”

  “Here in my backyard, at the site of the attack.”

  ****

  CHAPTER 2

  Desolation Glen

  “We call it Desolation Glen,” said Ann, as she and Ben paused to study the bleak, lifeless forest clearing hidden deep in the woods to the rear of the King property. The roughly circular area more than a hundred feet across appeared as though it had very recently been ravaged by forest fire. Even after eight years only blackened ash remained; in it not a single living thing could be seen. The borders of the area were well defined; lush, normal forest growth immediately transitioned to dead black ash with unnatural abruptness. “The Wizard Council studied it extensively before deciding that you and your parents had gotten involved over your heads with Wild Magic energies and been destroyed by them. Also the good magic that used to flow here is gone. They blame that on your parents also.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I learned that they told Moco. I suppose those were reasonable conclusions for them to reach, given their lack of information and perspective.” Standing just outside the desolation, he studied the area intently. Eight years ago this is where his parents died, and where he almost died himself.

  The area of desolation reeked of hideous Evil. In a twisted way it was wonderful for him to be able to sense something so strongly, after eight years of relative blindness, but in another way it was terrible, as it reminded him that he could no longer directly sense life or other good things as he had as a child. He could only longingly remember being able to sense good things.

  Worst of all, memories of his parents and their death flooded him, amplifying the sense of loss and despair that had never left him. For months he had imagined being here again at this scene of death, playing it through his mind hundreds of times. But his preparation for this moment had been totally inadequate. This wasn't just some imagined place of his confused nightmares, this was real!

  Every instinct he had told him to run and hi
de. This place was death itself! But he simply had to face up to this place and his memories! The Wolf and others had told him so many times.

  “So the Council conclusions are reasonable but not correct?” Ann asked.

  “Of course not. This place still reeks of Evil so strong that nothing can grow here. That should have strongly suggested to them what really happened. The Evil likely blocks the magic flow here also.”

  “My Dad and Mom say that most members of the Council don’t believe anymore that there even is such a thing as Evil. Others say that the Evil here is responsible for many recent deaths of old people in Hope; the people who most strongly supported old Hope traditions. All of our grandparents died since you've been away!”

  "Wow, that's horrible!" said Ben. "My grandparents died too, according to my guardians. Not even the best Hope healers could save them!"

  "The Council says it's all coincidence."

  Ben laughed. “Don’t I wish! Your Council is dead wrong; of course Evil is real, and the Evil here is bound to have bad effects! Besides blocking good magic flow maybe it weakens people, especially old folks. The Council should get out into the world more. Cloistered here in Hope they lack perspective. At least that’s what Moco and the Unaligned say.”

  “That’s what Dad says sometimes too. Mom isn’t sure what to think.”

  “Your Dad is a realist. That’s why he, Moco, and my folks always got along so well.”

  “So what really happened here?”

  Ben exhaled a long breath before replying. “Evil happened. My folks and I frequently came here because this place is what my folks called a nexus for good magic. It has something to do with the geology. They said it was a great place to sense and learn to shape magic, especially for a youngster like me. It was a place for all life's possibilities. It's where I learned to do magic. My folks said I was 'a natural', and that coming to a place like this was like jumping into the ocean in order to learn to swim. They were always with me in case I got in too deep, but the deeper it was the more I liked it!"