Apprentice Wizards of Hope

by Gary J. Davies

  Mark could hear the anguish in his father’s voice, and feel it. “Yes, Dad,” he managed to say, painfully.

  Eric shook his head. “Why? That’s what I don’t understand. The real Mark Tuttle is the one that healed that man! Why participate in hate-filled hooliganism? Why?”

  “To get in good with the kids that run the school. But I didn’t know what they were going to do last night until they shoved a bag of kerosene and gasoline filled balloons into my hands and shoved me towards that trailer with orders to splash the stuff all over it. I tried to sabotage what they were doing, but I failed miserably. People caught fire, Dad. It was horrible!”

  “The fire stopped after a few seconds. Was that also you?”

  “Yes, thanks to Ann teaching me how to do it.”

  Eric shook his head in wonder. “I’m really proud of you, Son, and relieved that you’re OK. But I’m also very disappointed, ashamed, and angry.”

  “I’m mostly ashamed, but I’m also terrified. School starts tomorrow.”

  Eric nodded. “And those guys that you say run the school might not be too pleased with you?”

  “I don’t know. I do know I can’t hang out with them anymore anyway, no matter what they think of me or do to me.”

  “True. You can tell them for me that I forbid it, because I do. I ABSOLUTELY FORBID IT!” Eric used a magic-magnified voice.

  “Thanks Dad.”

  “I don’t suppose you’d care to reveal their identities to me?”

  Mark had never heard his father’s voice sound so cold. “I don’t think that would be a very good idea.”

  "The Hortegas say that they heard one of them threaten you and your sister. Is that true?"

  "I don't know if they really meant it," said Mark.

  "They better not have!" said Red Eric. “I have a good idea who it was. Well, their attacks on the Hortega family are over, that’s certain, and the Hortega home escaped any damage. Your Mother is there now, with the police, helping to set protective wards. If they had only reported what was happening earlier, last night’s incident could have been avoided, but the Hortegas say that they didn’t want to make trouble for anyone.”

  “It’s not their fault.”

  “Of course it isn’t. It’s the fault of you and your new friends.”

  “Never friends, I know that now for sure.”

  “The Hortegas protected you from the law. I doubt the police will even bother questioning you. But you know that your mother and I can’t let you get off so easy.”

  “Sure. I figured.”

  “The Hortegas are your new best friends, or at least to the extent they’ll tolerate it. I’ve already talked to the parents and they seem apprehensive but willing. You’ll spend at least eight hours a week with them every week for at least the next six months. You’re going to help with their assimilation into the Hope community. And you’re going to report on it to me and your mother each week. We’ll also get involved, as appropriate. The boy is your main assignment, and the adults are ours, but you’re going to help them all out however you can.”

  “Yes sir. Can Ann and Ben be involved?”

  “If they want to be, but it’s your responsibility. Ann and Ben helping won't decrease what is expected of you. I better not hear that you’re trying to shift your burden to anyone else.”

  “No sir.”

  "Oh, and besides having powers far beyond his years the Hortega boy is also a genius," said Eric.

  "Right, I noticed that," said Mark. "That's why it might be good to have Ben involved. Rick reminds me of young Ben. And Ann is super bright also, of course."

  “Don't underestimate yourself, Mark. You feel up to going home yet?”

  “Do I ever! Is that OK with the hospital?”

  “I’ve just cleared it with them. Let’s see if you can stand up.”

  Mark managed to climb out of bed to stand, though he felt very weak.

  “Good. Let’s go home.”

  Eric grasped his son’s hand tightly, and before the boy could guess what was happening Mark found himself standing at home in the kitchen with his father. It was the first time he had ever been teleported!

  “Wasn’t that illegal?” Mark asked, when he had caught his breath.

  “Not if there is permission from a Council member such as myself. Besides, it's how we got to Hope Hospital in the first place. I figured that despite blood transfusions and the healing efforts of myself and hospital staff you would be hungry. The kitchen is yours.”

  “Thanks Dad.”

  “No problem.”

  “No, really! I mean thanks for everything. Really!”

  Eric smiled. “Again, no problem.” He gave his son a long hug.

  ****

  That afternoon Mark took Ann and Ben to meet the Hortegas: Jose, his wife Guinevere, and their son Rick. The boy was particularly nervous and apprehensive. To relax him, the teens played a game of Frisbee catch with him outside.

  Rick soon asked many questions, while his parents sat nearby, taking in all that was said. “Will there be other kids like me?” Rick asked.

  “Of course,” Mark told him. “About half the kids will have powers, the others will tend to be brothers and sisters that don’t. And there are some super smart kids like you too, you'll find.”

  “But everyone there will know about powers and think it perfectly natural for you to have them,” added Ann.

  “Even the teachers?”

  “The teachers are mostly Wizards themselves,” Ann explained,” but except for a period of about an hour each day, nobody is supposed to use any powers.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s partly to help the other kids feel OK, and mostly for you to learn how to hide that you have powers from non-Hope folks. The world at large isn't supposed to know about Wizards. Learning control over using powers is super important.”

  “I already learned that years ago,” Rick said.

  “Some kids haven’t,” explained Ann. “Mark and I lived all our lives in Hope, and grew up doing magic in our house and sneaking in some magic in the woods. In some ways you might have an advantage over kids raised in Hope. You've already had to learn how to hide what you are.”

  “What about Ben?” asked Rick.

  “I just moved here a couple days ago myself,” Ben explained. “I was born here, but was away from Hope for eight years. So like you folks, I’m sort of new here.”

  “I didn’t know that could be done, leaving and then years later returning to Hope like that,” Jose said. “We were told that commitment to living here was a lifetime thing.”

  “I’m an unusual case,” Ben explained.

  "That's for sure," said Ann. "He's had adventures you wouldn't believe! Ever hear of elves? Ben lived with an elf on the elf planet!"

  "Wow," said Rick! "Could Ben tell me about elves sometime?"

  "Sure, I guess so," said Ben.

  “Are your parents normal?” Guinevere asked.

  “They were both Wizards, but they died when I was young. I’ve been living with friends of the family since then.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Jose.

  “It was a long time ago," said Ben. "Moco and Amanda have taken good care of me, though maybe I’ve been raised a little differently than most folks.”

  “Moco is a werewolf and Amanda is a vampire,” added Mark.

  That brought gasps from the Hortegas, and Rick’s eyes got huge.

  Ben shrugged. It was no big deal to him.

  “They’re both good people,” added Ann.

  "Now you really do have to tell me about it!" said Rick.

  Guinevere shook her head. “They told us about werewolves and vampires, of course, but I guess it will take getting used to.”

  “Good people are good people,” added Mark. “We’ll introduce you to more folks, including kids that are Rick’s age, and you’ll all do all right here, I’m sure.”

  Rick was relaxed and grinning non-stop by the time it was time for his
visitors to go home for supper. As they were leaving, Guinevere pulled Mark aside. “Thank you, Mark. For the first time since we came here, we feel welcome. Rick is a lot more confident already.”

  “He’s super smart and talented and most important he's a really good kid,” said Mark.

  “But they aren’t all good kids, are they?” the woman asked.

  “No," admitted Mark. "Nor are the adults. Wizards are no better or worse than other folks.”

  ****

  The three teens met again after supper in the Tuttle basement, to discuss school, which would start with Evaluations tomorrow. Mark was still worried about Troy and his gang, but Ann was more worried about Ben.

  “You say that you can’t control your magic, Ben! How can you hope to pass Evaluations?”

  “I can display some level four skills; that should be enough.”

  “Your cloaking and protective shielding?” Ann asked. “Are they really that good?”

  Ben shrugged. “Try to do something to me now.”

  “You mean attack you?” Mark asked.

  “Sure.”

  “We don’t really know how,” Ann protested.

  “It doesn’t have to be with magic,” Ben explained.

  Mark shrugged, then made a fist and hit Ben’s shoulder tentatively. The blow didn’t seem to quite reach Ben; something stopped it within an inch of the shoulder. "It's like punching a sand-bag!" he said.

  “Harder, Mark,” Ben urged. “Don’t worry, you can’t hurt me. Be careful that you don’t hurt yourself though. My shielding pushes back hard against attacks.”

  Mark hit his friend again, much harder. To him it was like hitting a stiff punching bag. Ben never flinched.

  “Hit me with something," said Ben. "I don't suppose you have a sword or a gun; do you have a club or a hammer?”

  “We couldn’t do that!” protested Ann. “That’s barbaric!”

  “I’ll be OK,” said Ben. “I’ve been attacked by bears and werewolves and Rogue Wizards without ever even feeling it.”

  “Rogue Wizards you say? How about this bat?” asked Mark. He had picked up a solid looking aluminum baseball bat.

  “Sure, swing away,” said Ben, with an amused look on his face.

  Ann couldn’t help screaming when she saw Mark swing the bat towards Ben’s head with all his strength.

  This time Ben tried to move away from the blow, but the bat still struck his protective shield with great force. Mark rebounded from the blow as if he had been the one struck, while several bits of smoldering bat were flung about the room. Mark was left sitting on the floor holding a cleanly seared off, foot-long section of bat.

  Ann instinctively raised a shield of her own, but none of the bat-bits came near her. Several fragments of bat had struck floor, walls, and ceiling with enough force to imbed themselves into ceiling tiles and wall panels.

  “I’m sorry!” Ben said. “I can’t control it! Is everyone alright?”

  “Yeah,” said Mark, who was just a little shook up. “I’m sure not trying that again! That was my favorite bat!”

  “Likewise,” said Ann. "That was too dangerous!"

  “I agree,” said Red Eric, who had suddenly teleported into their midst. “What on earth is happening here? I thought you kids were bringing the house down!” He took what was left of the bat from Mark’s hands and studied it carefully. It appeared to have been half torn/half melted away.

  “Just Evaluation practice, Dad,” Mark said. “We were testing Ben’s protective shielding. Ben says it has withstood even Rogue Wizard attacks.”

  “Oh really?” laughed Eric. “You’ve encountered Rogue Wizards, Ben?”

  “A few. The Wolf searched them out to see if anything could be done to help me control my powers.”

  Eric sobered. The boy was serious. “What were their names? Do you recall?”

  “Alan Dale and Maude Phillips tried hardest to help me.”

  “Wow!” Mark said.

  A stunned Red Eric found his favorite basement lounge chair and sat down, hard. “You’ve actually directly encountered Alan Dale and lived to tell the tale? And you’ve met with Maude Phillips also?”

  “They both seemed friendly enough. Is there something wrong?”

  “Did you know that they are both fugitives? They reside atop Hope’s most-wanted list!”

  “Sure. Alan seemed to be proud of that. Maude didn’t care one way or the other.”

  Eric stood again and started pacing about, clearly agitated. “That sounds like them! Ben, the Council takes a very dim view of consorting with Rogue Wizards.”

  "I spent a few days with Alan, and a few months with Maude, altogether," Ben replied. "They're good people, in my opinion. I’m not exactly sure what sort of ’consorting’ is regarded to be a problem."

  “In any case the Council is very interested in apprehending those people,” said Eric.

  “Why? What have they done to you?”

  Eric looked perplexed. “Done to us? Nothing, I suppose, except set a dangerous example. What if there were hundreds of Unaligned Wizards, gallivanting about without decent training and supervision? Normal folk would discover us for certain and probably try to wipe us all out. Therefore by their very existence the Rogues are a danger to all of us. That’s why when Rogues are encountered it’s every Wizard’s duty to try to apprehend them.”

  “Father,” said Ann, “surely as a child Ben was in no position to capture Rogue Wizards, or to even report seeing them, as he wasn’t in Hope at the time. And he’s not even an Apprentice Wizard yet.”

  "I hate to tell you this," said Ben, "but there are hundreds of Unaligned folks with powers outside of Hope that I've personally met. The Wolf thinks that world-wide there are tens of thousands that the Hope missionaries haven't discovered. Maude says there are more with every new generation. Alan says that's why he left Hope. He's trying to prepare for a world with more Wizards than Hope could possibly handle."

  Eric stopped pacing and shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. Could that be right? If it was, the whole concept of Hope being the sole legitimate refuge for Wizards of the World was bogus. Hope currently had over two hundred missionary type operatives out in the world, looking for emerging Wizards, but what if Dale was right and that was totally inadequate? What if something else needed to be done? Is that issue related to the secret message that Moco delivered from Dale? “You’re right, of course. Ben’s a juvenile. But mark my words, it will become an issue. Were the Rogues any help to you personally, Ben?”

  “Not really. Alan recommended that I receive training in Hope, as he thought that might help me, which is something the Wolf had already figured out anyway. Maude laughed at the suggestion. She said that if she couldn’t help me, neither could anyone in Hope, and that I’d have to fix myself, starting with whatever trauma I suffered eight years ago. She tried to talk me into staying with her until I was better. The Wolf nixed that idea, because I would lose my inheritance if I didn't return now. In any case, here we are.”

  Eric shrugged his wide shoulders. “Amazing. Mind if I take a shot at it?”

  “A shot at me you mean?” Ben asked, shrugging. “Go ahead.”

  Red Eric glanced around the basement, then directed Ben to stand in the center of the room, and Mark and Ann to stand well behind himself. “I’ll augment house wards and protective spells first with a temporary force field spell,” he explained. “We wouldn’t want to blast to bits the house or something!”

  The fascinated teens watched the Master Wizard turn slowly around, gesturing with his hands, as he wove an invisible containment field around Ben and himself. Although they couldn’t see it, Ann and Mark could sense the shielding field growing in strength enormously. There was a palpable tingle in the air, and the sense that a deep humming sound was building that though felt couldn’t quite be clearly heard. With one last thought Eric locked in the field with a spell that would last several minutes.

  “OK, Ben,” said Eric, “extend yo
ur left arm to the side, and stick out your little finger. I’ll start with a weak energy blast. Relax. Even if you had no protection it still shouldn’t hurt too much.”

  Ben shrugged and stuck out his finger.

  Eric pointed at his target. If somehow he slipped up and harmed the boy, damage to the little finger of his left hand wouldn’t be so bad, he reasoned. A white spark of energy abruptly leapt from his hand to strike Ben’s finger, but bounced off it and to one side, only to be contained by the surrounding protective force field. Eric’s big red eyebrows rose. “OK, I’ll increase power gradually. If you tell me to stop or if I sense I’m getting through to you I’ll stop, of course.”

  Eric blasted energy at Ben’s finger again and again, with ever-increasing power, until massive lightning-like blasts were engulfing Ben’s entire body, and a low rumbling sound shook the house. But still everything Eric threw at him ricocheted away, and was sent cascading about within the force-field that surrounded them. At its height, Mark and Ann couldn’t see either their father or Ben, for the containment field had become a solid ellipsoid of brilliant pulsing multi-colored light!

  Abruptly the light-show and sound faded away, leaving behind only a faint singed odor. A relaxed and unaffected Ben King stood exactly as he had at the beginning, with finger extended. Red Eric also stood in his same spot, though the Wizard was breathing hard and clearly groggy and drained of energy. Ann rushed to his side to steady him as he stumbled to his lounge chair and plopped down into it heavily.

  “Wow!” Mark said.

  “Indeed,” agreed Eric, after catching his breath. “And all of that protection is nothing you have to even think about? It’s just always there?”

  Ben shrugged. “Right. I couldn't even feel your attack, though it appeared quite colorful. That’s my problem. I can’t turn it off; it's with me 24-7.”

  “Well, it should get your evaluation team’s attention, though it’s an unorthodox skill to begin high school with. It will be a new situation to judge though, and you never know what some folks will think of it. Mark, Ann, I think that’s enough attacking of Ben for today.”

  “Sure, Dad,” agreed Mark.

  “Ben, I’ll have to tell others of your encounters with the Rogues," said Red Eric. "I have no choice, even though it could mean trouble for you and your guardians.”