by Aaron Thomas
She started berating him, “You just helped me through the castle. I nearly killed myself several times trying to get down stairs. Yet you make me a staircase. A staircase without walls or a railing that would be treacherous even if I was used to my own body. To make matters worse, this particular staircase leads to an ageing fire wizard who could burn me to a crisp without batting an eye. If you don’t mind, something that I won’t break my neck trying to climb!”
“Of course,” Brandon was a little frustrated that he had rolled over so easily for the girl. Her new appearance was throwing him off his usual indignation. The stone staircase smoothed into a ramp and arm rails grew out of the ground to either side. He decided to get a bit of his spine back, “Watch your step now. There is some dust on the surface of that ramp, I wouldn't want you to trip.”
She glared at him a moment before they both started laughing.
Smiling, she said, “I’m sorry. I guess there is more that I will have to get use to than just my new legs.”
They both laughed a bit more before a silence left them looking awkwardly at each other.
“Well, that should be all I need,” Twilix said. “If you could, see that a servant brings some broth to the top of the ramp so that I can feed her.”
Brandon bowed his head slightly, ”I will be sure he brings you a spoon and funnel as well.”
Twilix smiled at Brandon, “Thanks. I will watch over Kara. I will send for you if I need anything else. Is that okay with you?”
Brandon nodded and walked away from the changed wizard. He was a little surprised that she asked if it was okay.
**********
Twilix stood for a moment to examine her magic abilities. Water was hard to gather so close to Kara’s heat but she was able to make it start raining outside of the stone bowl. As it rained, she pushed her water vision farther than ever before. Her magic strength had doubled during her ageing. She reached into her robe and found the small leather pouch she always kept close to her body. Brent taught her long ago to imbue a bead of metal from time to time that she would be able to draw more power from when she needed it most. Today was the first time she needed to use this stored ability since the day she started collecting.
The ground was saturated with water, leaving Twilix’s slippers covered in mud as she walked up the new stone ramp. The ramp was slick with water and she took care not to slip and fall . She pulled the braided metal string from her pouch containing her imbued beads and wrapped it around her hand. She felt the power of water running through her body and the effects of the magic trying to assault her mind. She had a brief moment of wanting to go back to the bottom of the ramp and play in the mud, then she saw Kara start to light herself on fire.
Twilix rearranged her priorities to control her senses. She knelt at the top of the ramp, drawing water out of the porous dirt at the bottom and started a small stream flowing up the ramp and down into the stone bowl. The rain continued so she could keep the stream flowing. The water boiled at first and hissed when it touched the heated stone’s surface. Soon, the water overcame the heat and filled the stone bowl in silence. Kara’s bed was soon overcome with water.
Twilix carefully slid down the side of the curved bowl’s surface and into the water. She pushed her floating robe into the water and waded over to the sleeping fire wizard. The water boiled everywhere the water touched Kara and steam looked like a column of smoke rising out of a pyre.
The water surrounding Kara did little to stifle the heat coming from her, but it did manage to keep it from radiating out so far. Twilix was able to move in close to Kara, but was still not able to touch the girl. Twilix pushed more magic into the water to slow its movement. The water stilled and cooled her flames causing the steam diminish and eventually stop. she continually cooled the water until she could touch Kara’s skin without being burned. With more water flowing from the top of the bowl, Kara’s body was easily floated off of the pedestal and Twilix moved her near the stream flowing down its side.
A servant looked down from the top with a covered tray. Twilix motioned him down. He carefully climbed down with the tray in one hand. He kept his feet from entering the waist high water and handed the tray to Twilix. The servant left her to work in silence.
The water on one side of Twilix became a sheet of ice and she placed the tray on top. While holding Kara, she carefully spoon fed the unconscious girl and helped her swallow. She continued until the bowl of soup was finished.
Twilix needed a way to keep Kara cool while her body expended magic in the process of ageing into a woman. Twilix was happy that Kara wouldn’t have to endure years of childhood treatment in a little girl’s body with the mind of a woman. She smoothed the black wet hair away from her face and moved her back to the pedestal she had been resting on.
Twilix turned the flow of water coming into the bowl to run around the lip. Once it reached the far side, it began to freeze and climb towards the sky. In a moment the entire bowl was encased with a dome of ice. She reinforced the new ceiling using the water already inside, uncovering the stone pedestal that held Kara. The thickness matched that of bricks used to make the castles towers. The water drained away from the stone surface and allowed Twilix to walk freely on the ground.
Making a small chair of ice, she sat down and looked at the small room she had made. The summer sunlight split when it hit the smooth ice surface and sent infinite colors spreading around the inside. For a while Twilix watched as the light moved and changed inside the dome as clouds moved along the sky outside.
Twilix remembered why she had come and looked at the ceiling for what it was; a way to help her friend. She hoped her plan would work out well. The dome would eventually melt when Kara became hotter; she noticed it already was melting. The water that melted would drip down and fill the bowl until it climbed up the pedestal. The rising water level would then cool Kara with ice cold water. If it worked the way she hoped, she would only have to come back every few hours and reform the roof.
She had promised Kilen that she would look after Kara, so she would. Putting the beads imbued with water magic back in her pouch, Twilix formed a bed of ice near the dome’s edge and lay down to get a bit of rest before she would need to reform the ceiling. The sunlight cascading into the room caused her to smile as she drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 9 - A Gift
The road had been empty for the last couple days. In that time, Bowie had waited for the king’s army in the remnants of his camp. The cart he now sat on contained the arrows his troop made. More importantly, he had a message from Wizard Alexander he was supposed to personally deliver. Left with time, he had nothing to do but practice his new bow and to try to teach himself magic.
He ran his fingers over the details that Ria put into his new black bow. The white veining was in the shapes of vines, flowers, and birds. Each flower or leaf had such great detail, he found leaves in the area he could match to the ones on the bow. He strung it and tested the tension. The bow he purchased in Deuterium was nothing compared to the quality of this one. Ria said she would try to improve the quality with each one she made. Any hunter or archer would be more than thrilled to hold one similar to the one he now held. He put in an arrow from his personal stock and found a knot on a tree some distance away. Pulling the cord to his face, he felt the wind pushing on his arms, cheek, and hair. He released the arrow and it struck securely into the knot on the tree, but the wind on his face reminded him of the magic imbuement he had in his armguard.
He tried a few times in the days since he talked with Alexander to see the wind. He was unsuccessful in seeing or using the wind to do his bidding. He had learned to do a couple basic tasks with water magic when he traveled with Kilen and Brent, but that skill seemed to have no correlation to using wind magic.
Bowie just wanted a few minutes with a wizard to learn to make a small breeze. He figured if he could change the direction of a breeze, he would be able to teach himself. Retrieving his arrow, he looked up at the tree’s
leaves. He thought it seemed to be a particularly windy day. Today was one of the only days he had been able to feel the breeze.
The symbol for wind was a chaotic cloud with lightning coming from it in all directions. He always felt a little unusual when holding it, as if he wanted to go anywhere but where his feet were. His mind would drift on to many different things. He compared it to when Kara was little and would get distracted by a passing butterfly. He pondered the memory of Kara doing just that, then snapped back to reality. He didn’t like getting carried away by random thoughts.
He tried to focus on using the wind magic again. Doing as he was told, he concentrated on the sensation of the wind on his skin. Bowie sat down next to the tree he tied Charger to. Pulling his hat low over his face, he tried his best to concentrate. He wondered what it would be like to be a wind wizard, flying high over the treetops. He imagined himself looking down on the village of Humbridge. He wondered if he could track herds of deer easier in the air. Thinking of deer lead to turkeys, which lead to shooting his bow in the air. Then his mind turned to catching the turkeys in flight with his bare hands. His mind was so filled with the possibilities linked to flying, he almost didn’t notice Charger stomping and whinnying. Pulling up his hat, he found the king’s wind wizard standing in front of him. The wind had died down, letting the wizard’s robes fall to his side.
“Good afternoon, archer. Taking a snooze in the middle of the day, were you?” He said, gathering his robes into a sash around his waist.
“I was trying to concentrate on learning to use my wind magic. It appears I don’t have the knack for it.” Bowie stood and brushed the dirt from his pants. “Might I get your name, Wizard?”
“My name is Mica. I took over for Alexander as the Wind Seat on the wizard’s council.” An apple fell from the tree and landed in Mica’s hand, he promptly started eating it.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mica. Would you know how long it will be before the King arrives here. I have a load of arrows and a message to deliver from Alexander.” Mica continued to chew his mouthful of apple while looking down at the pile of arrows.
Mica spoke with apple spittle coming from his mouth,“It won’t be too long now. The king was getting close to the ferry when I left him last. He sent me to see how far ahead you had gotten. Only, when I found your troop you weren’t with them. They told me where to find you.”
“Our troops were running out of resources and I was told the king would be here a lot sooner. Thank you for your update, I will get myself ready to see him. Wizard Ria and a few of the king’s scouts have been growing this tree for the last few days. We attempted to make this a good spot for setting up camp.”
Mica spoke while looking over the arrows in the stack, “I do not council the king on where to set up camps. Nor do I teach the rejected armor bearers of my predecessor.”
Bowie felt a small sting in Mica’s words but decided to hold off trying to get a small bit of retaliation. “I wasn’t insinuating that you should teach me.” There was a long silence before Bowie noticed some dust coming from the road near the ferry. Some of the king’s troops made it across.
Dozens of wielders galloped up the road, approaching Bowie as they rode. He watched as several men broke formation to take the road into town. Men, holding tall lances bearing flags of the Earth Realm, fanned out and formed a circle to what Bowie assumed would be the edge of the inner camp. The king’s horse was black, except for the white star on its face. The horse and the king were both drenched in layers of armor. The horse pranced as if it was light as a feather. Behind the king, an all too familiar face followed with the same grimace as always. Chit was only happy when he had a girl on his lap and a drink in his hand. On the king’s other side was Captain Lorusk. The captain looked as stoic as he normally did, barely noticing the bouncing of the horse.
The king rode just short of stomping on Bowie. He dismounted and made his way over to the pile of arrows Bowie’s men had crafted.
The king did not bother to look at Bowie when he spoke,“It’s a start Sergeant. Where are my archers?”
Bowie took off his hat and bowed low to the king, “My lord, the archers departed two days ago. This area was stripped of its resources for arrows and the fletchers needed to move on to make more.”
“Very well. Make sure you do not go too far from my protection. How soon would we expect our next set of arrows?”
Bowie responded with an air of pride in his voice, “We should have three times that number a week from now. It all depends on the supplies we can buy from the towns down the road.”
Atmos grunted,“I was hoping for a bit more than that. We have to eat, and most towns cannot supply the meat we need to feed our men. We need those arrows to hunt. Your men will have to move quicker, Sergeant.”
Bowie replied with as much respect as he could muster, “My lord, my men- I mean the archers assigned to me, have been hunting every day since arriving. We’ve done some trading with the town here and they’ve been stocking some salted meats for your larger force. In doing so, we spent most of our money buying supplies for making the arrows. I even asked for donations from the archers’ pay to acquire equipment for them to accomplish their task. I think if you went into town you would find a good supply of meat.”
A few wizards rode up behind the king and started to dismount to join the conversation.
The king turned to watch Bowie a moment, “I suppose that will keep us for a few days.”
Bowie nodded his head, fishing a scroll out of his jacket, “Wizard Alexander also came to me and wanted me to deliver this message to you personally.” Bowie handed the scroll to the king and kept talking, “My lord, our men spent all of their own money in order to buy supplies and equipment for making these arrows. I was wondering if I could get their week’s wages so we can continue to work.”
The king picked up arrows randomly from the pile to examine them closer.
“Your bow,” the king said, holding out his hand.
Bowie reluctantly handed over his new wizard-crafted bow.
The king seemed shocked when he looked over the bow. He let go of the arrows and snatched it up. “Well now, a bow fitting of the name Crescent, I see. The last one you handed me was nothing compared to this. Where did you get this?”
“Wizard Ria was able to make it with the direction of the fletchers. They both agree they have some improvements to make, but it is by far the best bow I’ve ever owned.”
King Atmos hefted the bow and pulled the string a few times to test its strength. He then pulled an arrow from the pile and shot it at a nearby tree. The arrow was released at a tremendous speed, burying itself into the trunk.
“So she’s making you bows instead of helping with arrows. I sent her to you for a specific reason. If she is making these bows, I will need all of them,” Atmos said.
“She has made only the one bow. I did not ask her to make it. She said she will be making more when she gets the chance. Ria does what she wants. ” The tone in Bowie’s voice had a hint of venom in it.
The king laughed as he handed back the bow, “She does, doesn’t she? No matter, my men have bows. Their quivers however, are empty. I see you have started to complete your mission.” He pointed to the pile of arrows, “I will expect more on the next delivery. Captain Lorusk will see to it that you get your coin returned. Your spendings will be reimbursed. The Black Hats, however, will receive their pay when the battle is over. It discourages looters on the battlefield if we only pay when they return to the castle, and I don’t lose the money to looters.”
Atmos opened the note from Alexander and his face turned visibly red. “Mica, your position as wind seat on the council is now permanent. It seems Alexander is a Elder Wizard.” He turned back to look at Bowie, “Apparently, his weapon bearer also belongs to the Elder Wizards.”
The king walked towards the unmounting wizards, “Council, the Elder Wizards have denied us their presence in this battle. They did say they will be sending a
diplomat to the forces amassed by the Fire Realm. They will continue to discourage this war by means of peace talks.”
Bowie had a feeling the king wanted to stomp away, but he had nowhere to stomp to. Instead, he started to bark orders about getting his tent up and called for scribes and servants.
Bowie bowed and moved to talk to Captain Lorusk.
“Follow me, archer, I will see you to your gold,” Lorusk said before Bowie could ask.
Bowie followed the Captain through the busy throng of servants and soldiers setting up a sea of tents. Horses ran in and out of camp and tents were pulled out of wagons. Chit followed after the Captain like a trained dog. He even growled at anyone that came too close to him. The veterans shrugged off the so-called champion. They had seen him in action and they were not impressed. Chit had obviously made an impression on the newer members of the army. They jumped from his path and pulled the others out of the way that didn’t see him. A large sword stuck up over his shoulder gleemed in the sunlight and the bracer on his right forearm matched. Everyone knew who he was, whether veteran or not.
Lorusk pulled the canvas top back from a wagon and hauled a chest out from inside. He took a key off his belt and opened it. “How much then, archer?” the king asked.
“Twenty two gold is what we spent,” Bowie replied.
Lorusk counted out the twenty gold and handed it to Bowie.
Chit snatched up the arrows in Bowie’s quiver, “With all that gold, you will be able to make more of these. I will just take them off your hands.” Chit was staring at Bowie obviously waiting for Bowie to react.
Bowie looked around and saw all the veterans watching, eager to see his response.
Bowie reached up to adjust his hat, “Yeah. I won’t be needing them with all the archers watching my back.” He started to walk away through the massing of troops in the area. “Chit, the pointy end with the shiny thing goes towards the enemy,” he yelled over his shoulder.
