TWO HEADS TWO SPIKES (The Pearl of Wisdom Saga)

by Jason Paul Rice

  He opened the treasure chest to expose jewels, gold and silver filled to the brim of the large container. The King’s eyes gleamed as they focused on the glowing reward.

  “Finally, a soldier who can get things done. I was starting to think I would never see you again,” King Ali-Stanley uttered.

  “I have had many nights filled with terrible thoughts that I would never see the shores of Donegal again. But finally and fortunately, I have made it,” the man said.

  Everyone just sat at the table, totally stunned. Sir Ali-Samuel Wamhoff had been gone for six years on what started out as a one-year quest. Not many people thought they would see the knight ever again. He was a skinny man who didn’t look like a lifelong soldier. Only his stained and broken teeth gave the impression of hardness. His jawline came down in the shape of a V and could be seen under his closely shaved red beard and moustache.

  “I lost almost all of the hundred men, but I hope this will make up for their loss,” Ali-Samuel said with his head lowered.

  “We can find more men anywhere. Gold, silver and gems seem to elude us these days,” the King said with a big, goofy-looking smile. He didn’t smile very often these days and it almost scared people when he did, as it looked sinister. “This comes at a perfect time. You see, we have a little problem to take care of. Sit down and we will talk. The rest of you are dismissed.”

  The rest of the council walked out and Ali-Ster went over to the training yard, but hardly anybody was there. All of the knights were preparing for the southern advance. None of the squires could keep up with Ali-Ster so he decided to head back to his quarters.

  He walked past the throne room and stared at the silver seat. The throne of Donegal had a silver frame with a red seat and back that featured two white foxes protecting the crown. Along the top of the chair was a rack for the crowns of conquered kings. Five crowns hung atop the throne.

  As he was walking down the hall, he heard a voice ring out, “Cousin.”

  Ali-Ster turned around to see Ali-Samuel Wamhoff approaching.

  “Hold on for a moment. I didn’t get to talk to you yet. When did you get back?”

  He put his arm around Ali-Ster while they walked toward his room.

  “A few months ago,” replied Ali-Ster.

  “What are you doing right now? Do they still run the horse races in the west woods?” Ali-Samuel asked.

  “Yes. There are probably a few races left in the day,” he said to his much older cousin.

  Ali-Ster had only seen Ali-Samuel for brief periods of time before he would embark on another of his many military campaigns.

  “Well, let’s go,” smiled Ali-Samuel.

  He was considered one of the greatest warriors that Donegal had ever seen. He had set off to conquer for the King on his fifteenth birthday and he had a decorated thirty years of service. Of the five crowns that hung atop the Donegal throne, two were placed there by Ali-Samuel Wamhoff. Small, stealth missions were his specialty. He didn’t have any of the noticeable scars or ill effects you would expect from a lifetime of near death experiences. He was shorter and frailer than Ali-Ster, but the soldiers at war had told stories of Ali-Samuel’s amazing battle exploits.

  The two men rode to the horse racing stadium and Ali-Samuel paid a man two coppers to watch their horses. The racing track looked similar to the Dueling Yard. It comprised a huge, concrete horseshoe for a base. The track featured layered, wooden seating benches around most of the dirt track. A beautiful garden bloomed in the center of the track with flowers of every imaginable hue arranged in artful patterns. The wealthy women of the Capitol loved to stroll around the flower gardens and watch the races. The soil track had a red-painted wooden rail on either side. They ran races of one, two and five laps with the audience gambling on all of them.

  Right outside the stadium, the horses were lined up according to their race numbers. Usually seven horses participated in each race unless a last moment problem occurred, in which case they would race with fewer horses if necessary. The jockeys stood proudly alongside their animals, telling the citizens why they should place a wager on their horse. The Wamhoff men walked around placing bets on the rest of the daily races. Ali-Ster never got to spend much time with Ali-Samuel so he was curious to know what the man wanted from him.

  “I tried to talk some sense into your father, but he just wouldn’t listen,” Ali-Samuel said as soon as they sat in a vacant area of the stands.

  There were about one thousand people in attendance and the stadium had a capacity of about two thousand.

  “We have all tried to tell him that it is a mistake to move on Mattingly. They provide almost everything now. Much has changed since I went away four years ago,” Ali-Ster said as he watched the horses start the race.

  “Much and more, my cousin, but that wasn’t what I was talking about. I tried to get your father to make you heir to the throne,” Ali-Samuel lightly said with a blue-eyed wink.

  “I don’t really care about that,” Ali-Ster quickly responded.

  “Well, every other person in the kingdom does. This place is a literal shit bucket right now once you go outside the castle. If something happens to your father and the simple-witted Ali-Varis takes over, it would be perilous for the realm. If not revolt, then the shores will be overrun by everyone looking for their scoop of the stew. And you are right, cousin, why does the King bite the hand that feeds him and wipes his mouth? He is also lying about that ambush. You can see it in his eyes.” Ali-Samuel clenched and pumped his fist as his horse won the first race.

  “I know. He sent me hunting with uncle Ryen and uncle Tersen. The three people who might actually have been able to stop his lunacy had to be out of the way. He sent us away and none of us had any inkling about a plan to meet the Mattingly men on the Royal Road. He has never gotten over his grudge with the Colberts.” Ali-Ster watched as the next race started.

  “His judgment is terrible right now, Ali-Ster. What must you do, die on the battlefield to earn your father’s respect? What has Ali-Varis ever done for Donegal? He has done as much or as little as your father and King Ali-Dus before him. They made bad decisions because they never served military duty. Sleeping on the throne is a lot like sleeping on your horse. Eventually, you are going to fall off and break your neck. But when you are a king, you break everyone’s necks.” Ali-Samuel watched as his horse took the lead down the home stretch.

  Ali-Ster didn’t like anyone talking bad about his father but his cousin made perfect sense. The crowd exploded in excitement as the horses sprinted for the finish line. Ali-Ster winced as his horse lost by only half a length. He opened his eyes to see another big smile on Ali-Samuel’s face.

  “You won?” he asked.

  “Of course, I won. And if you follow me, you will always win too. I have won every battle in the past thirty years for Donegal. Things need to change around here to bring this fading kingdom to prominence again. I have been around the world and Donegal is in the position of a fool right now with the exception of Mattingly. In fact, if not for Mattingly, Donegal would be infested with foreign armies, plundering and raping as they go. I tried to explain this to your father in much gentler terms but he didn’t want to listen.”

  The men got up to go collect Ali-Samuel’s winnings.

  “So what is it you are suggesting, we kill him?” Ali-Ster sarcastically asked.

  “No, of course not, maybe you could talk to him too. A public affirmation of a change to you as the heir to Donegal will help restore some of the kingdom’s reputation. You will be surprised at how the farthest reaches of the world know a great deal about the happenings in Donegal.” Ali-Samuel collected a handful of gold. “Thank you my good man, better luck next time.”

  They kept walking as Ali-Ster said, “But I don’t even want to be King of Donegal. What do I know about ruling a kingdom?”

  “A lot more than Ali-Varis, I would hope. You need a good council, not those shit buckets I saw at the meeting today. I am shocked they didn’t attack
each other for the riches I brought the King. Thunder and Lightning together. And it just so happens that I have the perfect Falconer for your council,” he said with another smirk.

  “Let me guess, you?” Ali-Ster said.

  “No, I think I am a perfect fit for the role of foreign chancellor, don’t you?” Ali-Samuel asked with a coy smile.

  “Then who?”

  “My father,” he said with the biggest grin of the day.

  TO THE WORKSHOP

  RUSSELL

  Finally, their excursion through the Frozen Forest was almost over. From this vantage point on the hilltop, Russell could see the white, foamy waters of the Salty Sea. Russell and Dragon-Eyes had been walking through the frigid woods for weeks. A short cut turned into a long one when a heavy storm slowed them down considerably. The Imp Wizard told him that they were close to the school. Russell wanted to be done with the frozen trek and cracked a smile when he spotted some fresh grass. Leaving the permanent freeze behind, the pair entered a big open field. Directly ahead of the two men, there appeared a giant snowball in the green pasture. It looked like it was rolling toward them.

  Russell dropped the bags, drew his sword, and pushed the Imp Wizard behind him. As the white blob came closer, three black spots became visible on it. They were two eyes and a nose. It was a snow-bear rushing at the two men.

  Russell held his sword tight as the wizard spoke, “Just stare him down. Show no fear and the bear will not harm us.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Russell uttered as a quick peak behind him revealed the Imp was now backing up.

  “Look directly at him, not me. Do not swing your sword or it will kill us both,” the wizard said as he backed up some more.

  It sounded so simple. But with a six-hundred pound beast bearing down on him, every bone in Russell’s body wanted to turn and run. His knees started shaking a bit, but he stood his ground. Unfortunately, the bear was picking up speed as it closed in.

  RUN. Swing your sword. Do something, anything.

  All of his senses told him to take action, but he just stood and stared into the eyes of the oncoming animal. Suddenly the bear pulled up, and walked slowly toward Russell.

  “Just stay behind me, my friend.”

  “Will do,” said the Imp from what sounded like a fair distance away.

  The bear walked right up to Russell, got right in front of his face, and let out a deafening roar. The force snapped Russell’s head back. Then the beast opened its mouth, exposing sharp teeth, and licked Russell Seabrook’s nose. The bear suddenly opened its mouth again, only to yawn, and then took off into the frozen woods. Other than the soggy tongue and terrible breath, that was the best result he could have hoped for. His heartbeat started to slow back down a bit and the lump in his throat disappeared.

  He turned around to see the wizard about ten feet behind, smiling. “You passed yet another test, my boy.”

  “Test? What if that bear had ripped my head off? Were you going to test the bear while he ate me? That’s it, I suppose,” an irked Russell stated as he breathed heavily from the near death experience.

  “Oh relax; I had total control of that whole situation,” the Imp Wizard cleverly said.

  “From ten feet behind me?” Russell quickly questioned.

  Dragon-Eyes firmly said, “Alright, that’s enough. You should be happy. You conquered fear by standing up to the bear. You will be tested by the cruel wench of fear many more times, but you showed courage. Away we go now.”

  They headed down one mountain but another barred their way to the northern coast of Waters Edge. The Imp said that they were close, but they wouldn’t arrive until after dark as daylight was fading fast.

  A driving, sideways rain greeted the men as they arrived in the area known as Morningdale. Not many people lived in this area; it was mostly filled with religious refugees called the Daughters of Darkness. The name was originally meant to mock the Faith of Eternal Light but it had given them a stigma of demon worshippers. There wasn’t anything worth taking in this land so they didn’t worry about invasion. The land was a series of hills and mountains that presented rough growing conditions and most of the inhabitants lived simply.

  “There it is,” pointed the Imp.

  Carved into the side of a hill was the school. The façade had doors and entrances that tunneled straight into the giant mass of earth. There were three stories of buildings stacked on top of each other with something Russell couldn’t identity, on a fourth floor. The soaked men arrived at the ground floor and Russell knocked heavily.

  The door slowly squeaked open and a beautiful woman in a long black dress greeted them. She looked past him and her smile landed on Dragon-Eyes. Russell immediately noticed her lovely looks.

  “Hello, old friend, I wondered if we would ever see you again. Then I saw you just the other day in my ball. You were standing in that very spot you are right now.”

  She had luscious dark lips, and deep-brown skin that looked silky smooth. The sorceress had curly black hair that hung past her knees.

  Her green eyes twinkled as she spoke, “Who is your handsome friend?”

  “His name is Russell Seabrook, and this is Gamelda,” said the Imp Wizard.

  It was a quick introduction from Dragon-Eyes at best. Russell extended his hand, Gamelda placed hers in it, and he kissed her hand.

  “Did you come for some love potion?” Gamelda playfully asked with a wink.

  Russell blushed. Other than Ali-Pari he had little experience with women. Gamelda led the guys down a short hallway and into a room off to the right that looked like a work shop.

  There were candles of many different colors burning around the room. They were as tall as the half man and kept the room well lit. There were thirteen women busy with various activities. When they caught sight of Dragon-Eyes, all of them ran up and surrounded him.

  “I can’t believe you are finally back.” “We missed you so much,” a few of the girls excitedly said.

  The ladies varied in age from about twenty to forty. After only a short interval of small talk, the ladies returned to their duties.

  The tallest woman was making more candles. She poured hot wax from a kettle into giant molds. Protective gloves covered most of her arms as she carefully transferred the blue liquid.

  Another woman sifted through bunches of fresh herbs to burn for their rituals. The Daughters used many different combinations to achieve a variety of desired results. She mixed several blends, while another female scribed the mix of herbs and marked the location of it on her chart. They had a rectangular storage cabinet and a grid on the paper to keep track of the different herbal blends.

  Other women were stirring big cauldrons of some steamy surprise that Russell didn’t recognize. Off in the far corner, a pale ghostly-looking woman with short hair extracted poisonous snake venom into a clear jar. She grabbed a snake right behind its head and held its mouth up to a jar. The four-foot snake tried to bite the jar and spit the venom right into the bottom. A closer look revealed about ten deadly snakes in the corner. Russell lived in a hot area of Waters Edge so he knew that almost all of those snakes could kill you with just one bite. They weren’t even confined but they instinctively stayed near the pale lady. When she finished, she tossed the rattlesnake aside, grabbed a water moccasin and steadily repeated the process. She was fearless in her approach and Russell thought that perhaps the snakes respected that.

  “Now if you ever get bit by one of them, we have the antidote to help you survive. Those go for a lot of coin, especially overseas in Gama Traka where there are one-hundred snakes for every man,” the Imp Wizard told him.

  The walls were covered with a plethora of symbols that Russell didn’t understand. They appeared to be chiseled in vertical rows. There were stars, circles, triangles, squares and other shapes he had never seen before.

  “Let’s go up to our floor,” suggested Dragon-Eyes.

  “Lovely,” responded Gamelda and Russell had no choice but to follow. A
labyrinth of steps took them to the top floor.

  Now this definitely looked like a wizard’s quarters. There were book shelves stuffed to capacity and papers were scattered everywhere. Some had only words and others had sketched designs, some even with star patterns and drawings on them. A fire roared off to the side of the room and a cauldron hung above it, brewing some unknown contents. There were tiny, red jars everywhere that may have been the snake venom. He saw a marvelous carpet on the floor with a purple, red and black design that looked like a raven. An owl was perched in the window and went “who who” non-stop, seemingly excited about the little man’s return.

  The Imp Wizard stood on his tiptoes to grab an odd looking amulet from the wall.

  “What is that?” asked Russell.

  “Just a little carrying vessel and good luck charm. It has kept me safe while danger lurked in every corner,” he said with a half-smile as he kissed the special container.

  It was a sculpted wooden man. He looked like he was hanging from a string with his legs crossed at the bottom, like he was sitting down. His light amber face had a crazy look on it and two mother of pearl eyes with tiny black centers stared back at Russell. The wizard showed him that when you pulled the oversized face, it came apart and revealed a hollow interior that could be used for storage. Dragon-Eyes hung it around his neck and held it to stop it from swinging.

  “So how long are we going to be here?” Russell queried of his new mentor.

  “Well, that depends entirely on you. We will see how long it takes for you to develop the skills needed for this journey. Gamelda and I will try to teach you all that we can before we leave for the Pearl Islands,” the wizard said as he leaned back in a small custom-made chair.

  “Hopefully, I can teach you to see what hasn’t happened yet. I will try to pass as much knowledge on to you as I can, Russell Seabrook,” Gamelda said with a smile that captivated him.