by Sam Ferguson
“Kyra, your actions have brought the academy under scrutiny that has brought about terrible things.”
Kyra guessed that Herion was either talking about the king, or perhaps more likely, he was referring to the deaths of Master Baird and Lady Stirling. She had been concealed in a crawl space next to a secret chamber where Headmaster Herion had used magic to watch their battle with a vampire, a vampire whom Kyra now understood to be the master of the shade, and the true cause of her mother’s murder.
“Two of our masters have died in battle,” Herion said flatly. “They died fighting a vampire.”
Kyra perked up once she realized that Herion was opening up to her. Despite the respect she knew she should show for the fallen, inside her heart she couldn’t help but hope for some declaration of war against the vampire. If any of the other masters would ally with her in hunting him, then her mission would be so much simpler.
“The vampire is not near to our location here, but now that we have attacked him in the open, he has sent his servants to us,” Herion continued.
Kyra nodded. “The garunda, and the shade,” she said.
Herion sighed. “The attack at Caspen Manor was no accident,” Herion continued. “I suspect there is something the vampire wants, and he is not going to stop until he gets it.”
Kyra balked and her throat seized. All of a sudden her dream came back to her in terrible detail. Had she and Headmaster Herion had this conversation yesterday, she would have sworn that the vampire sought a dagger. But now, after the dream, she was not so sure.
“There is something I need to ask you before I continue,” Herion said abruptly. “Was anyone else with you? Did anyone else help you fight the shade?”
Kyra’s mind raced to Lepkin. Kathair Lepkin had been indispensable during the fight, but she doubted that he would receive any accolades for his work. More likely Herion would expel any other student involved. Even if the headmaster chose mercy, Lepkin would be dealt with by the Dragon Slayers. After all, he was apprenticed to them, and he was withholding information about a very large dragon.
On the other hand, Herion already knew about Leatherback, so there would be no harm in disclosing the dragon’s involvement. Kyra hoped that that bit of information would suffice.
“Leatherback was with me, of course,” she said. “He was with me when I hunted the garunda as well.”
“The two of you make for a deadly pair,” Herion replied evenly. “The summer is not yet over and the two of you have slain wylkins, garunda, and a shade.” Headmaster Herion sat back in his chair and whistled through his teeth. “On the subject of your dragon, the priests from Valtuu temple have informed me that the animal is not yet turning.”
The animal? Kyra repeated in her mind. Leatherback was her friend, and her most trusted ally. If not for him, she would have died before finishing her first year at Kuldiga Academy, let alone the most recent encounter with the shade.
“I have offended you?” Herion asked with a suddenly softer tone.
Kyra nodded her head.
Herion smiled. “Well, I appreciate your honesty,” he replied. “I am sure you understand my prejudice toward the creature. His proximity to the school, and a knowledge the things he would be capable of if he succumbed to Nagar’s Blight leave me feeling most uneasy.”
“He would not harm anyone,” Kyra replied.
Herion nodded, but she could tell that he was not agreeing with her, he was simply acknowledging her statement.
A tap came at the door.
Herion looked to Kyra and placed a finger up to his lips, his eyes stern and cold. Kyra nodded and remained quiet.
Headmaster Herion turned and waved his arm at the door. All at once, the color faded from the portal and it almost appeared as though there was no door at all, except for the faintest of haze clouding the doorway.
Master Fenn was standing outside the door.
Janik was limping into view, carrying a bucket in his good hand. He looked up and nodded to Master Fenn. “Herion has you down in the basement guarding closets now, eh?”
Master Fenn shrugged and shook his head. “I was told there were rats down here, I came to investigate.”
“Rats? Down here?” Janik spat. “There are no rats down here, believe you me. If there were, I would set traps before anyone else found out.”
Janik set the bucket down and reached into his pocket for his ring of keys. He pulled it out and then slid a key into the now invisible door.
Herion waved his hand once more, but Kyra didn’t see the effects of this spell.
Janik pushed on the invisible door and then he moved in to set the bucket down inside. “No rats in here,” Janik said as he started kicking around at things.
Kyra was most confused. It appeared that Janik was grabbing at things that weren’t there and moving them around. She couldn’t see what Janik must have been able to see, but every time Janik moved, there were sounds like sliding wooden legs on stone, or drawers opening and closing. Then there was a rustling of metal and Janik hopped backward on his good leg.
“Ah, Icadion’s beard!” Janik swore.
“Find a rat?” Master Fenn called out from the corridor.
Janik nodded. “I’ll go and get the traps,” he said.
“Go ahead,” Fenn said. “I’ll pull the door behind you and ensure it doesn’t escape.”
Kyra watched until the invisible door was closed again and then it reappeared right after Master Fenn took up position outside once more.
Herion turned back around with a wink. “Thank you for remaining quiet. It would have been harder to keep up the illusion if I had to mask sounds as well.”
“Illusion?” Kyra asked.
Herion smiled mischievously. “We sit in a small room, but Janik saw nothing more than an equipment closet, complete with gardening tools, old chains, desks and other things stored here for years with a thick layer of dust.”
“And a rat,” Kyra added once she caught on.
“Yes, well, better to have him chase an imaginary rat than to interrupt our conversation. It will take him some time to get the traps and return.”
“Is it easy to create an illusion for others to see and fully believe?” Kyra asked.
Herion shook his head. “Illusions are difficult to master, but I will give you a tip. If you create an illusion based off of an emotion, and give people what they already expect to see, then it is much easier.”
“That’s why Master Fenn told Janik about the rats,” Kyra said with an understanding nod. “Then, already angered by the possibility of rats, he opened what he expected to be a janitorial closet and was confronted with the very rat that Master Fenn had already said was there.”
“Precisely,” Herion said. Headmaster Herion cleared his throat and then began drumming the table for a moment. If Kyra hadn’t known better, she would have thought that he was nervous to talk to her!
“I know your type,” Herion began. “No, that doesn’t sound right.” The old wizard sighed, shook his head, and then began again. “What I mean is, I understand your motivations. I understand why you feel as though you must do the things you are doing. So, I won’t try to stop you, because I know to attempt such a feat would be foolish. However, I cannot officially condone your actions either. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t truly impressed, and proud, of your conquest over the shade and his ilk, but as Kuldiga Academy’s headmaster, I cannot give you permission to continue on this way.”
What? Now she was entirely confused.
“If word got out to the nobles that a young apprentice was out hunting demons and monsters, there would be all sorts of havoc at my door within a week’s time. We would lose patrons, you know. Nobles all talk big about war, chivalry, and honor, but few ever really put their own flesh on the line.” Herion sighed and shook his head as his eyes seemed to look off to a distant point in the past. “It wasn’t always this way, the academy was once fully self-sustaining, but now we depend upon the donations of our benef
actors.” He smiled then and his focus came back to the present as he looked back to Kyra. “Do you understand?”
Kyra nodded. “I understand that others wouldn’t like it if someone discovered Leatherback.”
“Not like it?” Herion echoed sarcastically. “It is categorically illegal. It would be a disaster for the school if anyone every found out about the dragon.”
Kyra swallowed down the way he said the words ‘that dragon’ and continued on with her question. “But why would people be mad about what I am doing? Why would my activities cause you to lose patrons?”
“The nobles like to believe that evil does not exist in the Middle Kingdom. They make a big show of sending their children here out of tradition, but only a handful of families truly understand that the school exists to fulfill the same goals it always has.” Herion sucked on his teeth and made a sour face. “If it was widely known that you were fighting creatures that most nobles pretend don’t exist in the Middle Kingdom anymore, then it would likely scare them to their soft cores.”
Kyra nodded. She understood now. “Then there is the matter of my real father. I guess that would likely cause some problems.” She had a hard enough time being accepted at school as it was.
Herion nodded. “Brave and smart; a good combination for a sorceress!” He flashed a toothy smile and then he leaned in and his voice grew quiet, almost like a whisper. “There is another side to the coin as well, my young friend. Not all nobles are as they would appear on the outside.”
Kyra snorted knowingly. She had only to think of Lord Caspen, the man she had once called father, to understand what Herion was getting at.
“There are some houses in the Middle Kingdom that seek the darker powers. To be sure, some of them do it only to obtain influence over their corner of the realm, but others have more nefarious alliances. This brings me back to where we started a few minutes ago. Your actions, though noble and heroic they may be, have brought upon us more open scrutiny from these other houses. There are enemies that lurk in the shadows. They will send their spies, their agents, and their assassins against you should they ever discover your role in recent events. If they can, they will use information and blackmail, as extortion has always been the game nobles play in their bids for power. However, if they fail to break your spirit, they will come for your heart. They will seek to kill you, your dragon, and anyone you hold dear.”
Kyra sat for a moment, taking in the warnings and listening carefully.
“So, I must ask you again, was anyone else with you when you fought the shade? I need to know.”
She answered more quickly this time, still deciding to keep Kathair Lepkin’s involvement a secret. “No, Headmaster Herion. There was only myself and Leatherback. Njar knew of it, of course, but he was injured in a previous battle and did not fight the shade with me.”
Herion nodded and stroked his smooth chin. “Very well. As I said before, I cannot condone your hunting activities, but let me offer you a word of caution. Do not pull anyone else into this. If you do, there will be repercussions far beyond what you can imagine. You have talent, skill, and courage, but the enemies are many. Do you understand?”
Kyra nodded.
Herion rose to leave, but Kyra stood and felt the urge to make sure that he understood her as well before the meeting was over.
“I won’t stop,” she blurted out.
Headmaster Herion turned a stern eye on her.
“I mean, I can’t stop. The vampire is the reason my mother is dead. Even if I were to give up, I feel that he will come after me anyway. I have to find him.”
Herion smiled and nodded. “And you had better be prepared for that moment,” he said. “As I said, I cannot condone this quest of yours. However, if Cyrus were inclined to teach you various types of advanced spells and wards that would be useful in a battle against a vampire, then he would be free to teach such lessons, as part of your total curriculum of course.”
Kyra smiled wide. She had finally made friends with Headmaster Herion.
Chapter 3
Two days later, Kyra walked into the classroom, a sly smile on her face and an enthusiastic bounce in her step. She and Linny had spent the weekend playing star-flies with each other. It was a kind of game they had invented where they would sneak out into the fields to the south and try to zap each other in the darkness with little yellow balls of magic. Kyra was winning the ongoing match, with one hundred and four points to twenty five. It was fun, and helped take her mind off of everything that had happened over the last few weeks, but it also cost her some much needed sleep. Still, even with the lack of sleep, she had been so relieved with how everything had gone with Headmaster Herion that she couldn’t hide how she felt. She opened the door and nearly skipped to her assigned desk, which still sat in the middle of the front row of desks in the room.
“You’re in a cheerful mood,” Cyrus noted as he set down a thin, tan leather book he was reading.
“Headmaster Herion has given us permission to train,” she said, purposefully leaving out the part about the vampire to make Cyrus guess.
Cyrus sighed and folded his arms. “We already have permission to train, that is what the academy is for,” Cyrus said, refusing to get pulled into her game.
Kyra huffed, relenting as she swept a hand up to her hair and brushing a stray lock out of her face. “I am ready for the vampire,” she said bluntly.
Cyrus shook his head. “No you aren’t,” he replied.
“Yes I am!” Kyra shouted back, forgetting her place. She stood up and glowered at the old wizard. “I defeated the shade this time. I’m a lot closer than I was before. All I need to do is prepare for the final battle.”
“You’ll never win a battle of magic with a vampire,” Cyrus said. He reached over and picked up the book and opened it. “I doubt you understand just how dangerous a vampire can be.” The wizard raised the book to cover his face from her.
Kyra walked around to the front of Cyrus’ desk and reached out defiantly to take his book. “You deny me now!”
“Oh but I can,” Cyrus said.
Kyra paused. His voice had not come from in front of her. She turned around to see Cyrus stepping away from the wall at the back of the classroom. Confused, she pulled the book down and saw another Cyrus smiling up at her. “An illusion,” she guessed.
“One of a vampire’s most basic tricks, however, he will have mastered illusions far better than I,” Cyrus replied. “Tell me which is the real me, if you are as ready as you say.”
Kyra raised her right hand and focused on an incantation her mother had taught her once that dispelled magic. As she spoke the words, she felt a small portion of energy leave her body, as she did any time she worked a spell. However, this was the first time she felt a kind of resistance to the energy itself.
“Ah, another weapon that a vampire will have in his arsenal,” Cyrus said. “Right now you are wondering how I am blocking your magic, are you not?”
Kyra could feel her cheeks grow warm and flushed. She had come in happy, eager to learn. Leave it to Cyrus to deflate her confidence and zeal. She concentrated harder and repeated the spell.
This time the resistance pushed back and then wrapped around her. She could still move physically, but her mouth failed to utter any words when she opened it, and her magic was stunted, stopped somehow at the very source.
“This is why I say you are not ready,” Cyrus said. “You are now faced with the challenge of uncovering which is the real me, but you have no magic to aid you in your plight.”
Kyra shook her head, determined not to let the old wizard beat her so badly. She turned to the Cyrus sitting at the desk, and then her stomach flipped when a third Cyrus emerged from the wall behind the desk. She glanced back to the other side of the room and noted that a fourth had appeared next to the second.
“Your odds of winning are becoming slimmer,” Cyrus said. “Imagine you have a weapon in your hand. You must choose now which of us to kill. Choose wisely, for
if you fail, you are dead.”
Kyra made what seemed to her the logical choice. Cyrus always sat at his desk during the beginning of class. She first saw him there, and she didn’t sense any teleportation magic being used since she entered the room. It had to be the wizard sitting at the desk with the book.
Then again, Cyrus would know that she would come to that conclusion, so he must be one of the others.
“Time’s up, you hesitated, you’re dead,” Cyrus said. A bolt of blue lightning shot out from each of the Cyrus forms and zapped her body. It wasn’t a particularly harmful spell, Cyrus had given her only a mild shock, something to help the lesson sink in, but it stung and made her even angrier.
She rubbed her arm and grunted.
“Round two, choose one, now,” Cyrus commanded.
Kyra turned to the form at the desk and pointed. “You.”
“I am a real person,” the Cyrus at the desk said with a nod as he rose to his feet. “But I am not Cyrus.” The magic melted away and Janik stood where Cyrus had once been.
“Oops,” said the three remaining Cyrus forms. “It appears you have chosen to kill a friend.”
Kyra turned to the second Cyrus at the back of the class. “You!”
That form melted away, as did the other two, leaving only Kyra and Janik in the classroom.
“I don’t understand,” Kyra said.
Janik snorted derisively and pointed to the shadows near a book case by the window. “He’s over there.”
“Ah, now where is the fun in that?” Cyrus said as he appeared from the darkness. “I would have liked to give her a chance to find me herself.”
Janik shook his head. “I fought a vampire before,” Janik said as he offered Kyra a half smile. “And I have fought with demons,” he added.
Kyra missed the deathly glance Cyrus shot at Janik.
“You aren’t ready,” Janik finished as he rubbed at a sudden pain in his chest. “Trust me. I would never steer you wrong.”
“That will be all, Janik,” Cyrus said abruptly. “I’ll take the lesson from here. Thank you.”
