The class sat silent for several minutes, and Micah let them as he looked around the room, meeting each student’s eyes one at a time. Some students quickly looked away in fear or embarrassment, others held his gaze. Nowhere did Micah see the tell tale signs of defiance that meant a student was already considering the darker paths, so after a few minutes he clapped his hands. “Well!” he began, and several students jumped at the sudden noise. “Let’s begin the fun part, shall we?”
Chapter Ten
Tommy’s feet wanted to skip along the ground as he headed to dinner, but his mind was too tired to let them. He was really looking forward to getting the chance to talk to Mae again (Although, he admitted to himself, he didn’t really get to do much talking last time), but the “fun part” that Micah had talked about turned out to be incredibly difficult. Micah had started teaching them to use magic, and the exercises he led them through were very frustrating. They were supposed to be learning how to get in touch with the magic that Micah claimed was all around them. He had explained to them that they could only hope to use magic when they were very calm, relaxed, and at peace, so he led them through a series of calming mental and physical exercises. Tommy was still really sore from the drubbing he had taken in physical fitness, and he found it hard to relax while stretching his aching muscles. Still, he did manage to get in the right frame of mind. Or, at least, he thought he did. Once they were calm, Micah had instructed them to reach out with their minds and touch the magic floating around them. But Tommy found that trying to “’reach out” like that took a great deal of effort, and it ruined his state of calm, so he had to repeat the entire process all over again. Tommy thought he could almost feel something out there, when he was at his most calm. Something that was distant and scattered, yet massive at the same time, like a giant thunderhead just on the horizon. Tommy didn’t feel too bad about his failing to reach out – all the other students, Ryan included, had similar problems and every one of them failed to attain the state that Micah had asked of them. After all, Ryan seemed to know everything about magic, sword fighting, the school, and even the teachers and prominent leaders at the school. If he couldn’t do it, then how could anyone expect Tommy to succeed?
Tommy’s mind wandered as he stumbled along. He was still anxious to see Mae, but he was just so incredibly tired. Tommy pushed through the double doors that led to the dining hall... and stumbled out into the cool night air. He shook his head and blinked several times, wondering where he was and how he had gotten there. Obviously in his fatigue, he’d taken a wrong turn, but he wasn’t sure where or how to get back to someplace he recognized.
Looking around, Tommy found himself in a vast, broad courtyard, illuminated from above by the stars and the almost full moon, which seemed unusually crisp and clear. Above and behind him, a mountain rose almost unimaginably high. In the bright moonlight, Tommy could make out windows and casements up most of the height, and an occasional balcony actually protruded from the side. The mountain was larger than Tommy could have possibly imagined, and he wondered if the school filled it entirely. As Tommy continued to stare, he realized that the mountain extended to both his left and his right, and the top of it was wreathed in a coating of snow that almost glowed in the ephemeral light. Most of the school had been built directly into the mountain, with the outdoor areas in a kind of box canyon between cliffs, Tommy realized, and as he looked across the courtyard, he saw a large, thick wall stretch across the entire mouth of the canyon. It was distant – at least a quarter mile away – and Tommy guessed that it would have to be almost a hundred feet high. Within the wall, Tommy saw many other structures, all of them stone. Most of the buildings looked like squat stone houses, but there were many larger ones as well, some of them so big as to resemble a warehouse. Tommy also saw what he thought was several fields of wheat and corn, and maybe some other crops, as well – although the courtyard was well lit, it was still dark out and difficult to discern.
It was then that Tommy realized that the majority of the light wasn’t coming from the moon after all. The shadows told him much of it was coming from something he couldn’t see. He stepped around a corner and gasped at what he saw.
There was a long, round building. It had a long, arched roof that came down to meet the ground. The roof was constructed of some kind of alabaster stone, and broken by a series of large stone arch supports, spaced every twenty feet or so, and made of a much darker stone than the roof. Between every arched support was a large, gothic window made of some kind of frosted glass, and each was lit from within by a soft glow that was very reminiscent of moon light, yet much, much brighter. At the front of the building was a large double door, made of a dark wood and polished to a glowing sheen. Something about the place – perhaps the architecture – reminded Tommy of a church, and he felt like he could almost hear a soft thrumming sound, deep and strong and just below hearing, coming from the building. “What IS it?” Tommy asked himself in a whisper.
“Don’t you know? That’s the Hall of the Paladins,” a voice said from right behind Tommy, who let out a yelp and jumped into the air in surprise.
Tommy spun around and found behind him a young man, perhaps twenty years old, with long brown hair and very bad acne. Tommy put his hand out to lean against the wall for a minute, trying to calm his racing heart. “You… You scared the life out of me,” Tommy gasped between breaths.
The young man looked down at him. “You aren’t supposed to be out here.”
Tommy nodded in acknowledgment. “I know. I got lost looking for the cafeteria.” His heart was still pounding with the adrenaline of being startled.
“Oh,” said the young man, “yes, that happens with novices. Ok, Follow me, I’ll take you back. Come on,” and with that, he turned, opened the door that Tommy had come through, and entered the building. Tommy stared after him for a moment, then trotted for a few steps to catch up, dodging around the closing door without touching it.
“What’s a Paladin?” asked Tommy when he caught up with the man, who was walking at a brisk pace.
The man didn’t slow, but gave Tommy a clear sidelong glance. “You must be new here. A Paladin is someone who specializes in white magic. But they don’t tell you much about it unless you take some kind of oath, and you can only take the oath when you become a Mage-Knight.”
“Oh,” was all Tommy could say. The man seemed to take it as an indication of his understanding, even though Tommy felt like he didn’t really understand at all. It sounded to him like some sort of secret society, within the already secret society that was the school.
“Here we are, the novice dining hall” the young man said, gesturing to a set of double doors. He then turned, and, without preamble, returned the way he came.
Tommy stared after him for a few minutes, then shrugged and pushed through the doors into the dining hall. Immediately, a wave of sensations washed over him. The warmth of the room, the smells of food, and the murmur of conversation hit him, and Tommy realized that he was ravenous. As he walked to the serving area to get his food, he spied Mae sitting with a couple other students at the same table they’d eaten lunch at. She saw him, bounced in her seat, and waved, and Tommy couldn’t help but grin.
Tommy picked up his food – there was no line since he was late, although some of the food looked slightly dried out, like it had been sitting under a heat lamp for awhile. There was a generous helping of chicken in some kind of cream sauce over noodles, steamed carrots, and a small brownie for dessert. Tommy decided that it wasn’t particularly dazzling fare, but it was hot and smelled good, and his stomach was growling at the prospect. A tall glass of milk rounded out his tray, since there was still no soda available, and Tommy headed over to the table. He stepped up next to Mae, and barely managed to set his tray on the table before he dropped it in utter shock.
There, sitting across the table, was his old friend Stephen, whose real name was Bao, and who had been taken away by the army men at Tommy’s school a couple years ago. Tommy
couldn’t have been more surprised – he had tried not to think of Stephen since he’d been taken away, and except for the recent nightmare he’d had while the greasy man had held him captive, Tommy had not given Stephen much thought. He certainly never expected to see the other boy again. People who got taken away for using magic were never seen again.
Stephen was grinning up at him with that same old goofy grin he used to wear, clearly getting a great deal of enjoyment out of Tommy’s surprise.
“Stephen, this is…” Mae started to say, but Stephen interrupted her.
“Hi, Tommy! It’s good to see you again,” Stephen said, standing slightly and extending his hand across the table towards Tommy.
Tommy shook Stephen’s hand and returned his infectious grin. But before Tommy could ask how Stephen came to be here, they both noticed Mae looking rapidly back and forth between them. “You two know each other?” Mae asked.
Stephen nodded. “Tom and I used to be friends. We went to elementary school together, back before the return of the magic.”
Tommy finally got his surprise under control, released Stephen’s hand, and sat down at the table. “How…? I mean, the last time I saw you…” Tommy trailed off. He didn’t want to embarrass Stephen by discussing the state in which they’d last seen each other.
Stephen grinned at Tommy. “From what I’ve heard, I got here almost the same way you did.” Stephen looked to his left and right to include the rest of the table. “I was one of the unfortunate kids who failed the magic testing at school,” he began, and the others at the table nodded sympathetically. “They beat me, slapped the chains on me, and hauled me off to a big white van. They tossed me in the back without even a word, and drove off. I won’t lie to you guys – I was scared out of my mind. All I could think of was how my mom and dad were going to worry when I didn’t get home from school – and what they would think when they heard what had happened to me.”
Tommy felt an irrational surge of jealousy as Mae put her hand on Stephen’s shoulder, but Stephen merely favored her with a brief smile and continued with his story.
“The guy driving the van was obviously in a hurry – He was driving really fast, and I could hear the tires squealing when he went around turns, but I couldn’t really move. I do know he seemed to hit every single bump in the road, because I got bounced around so much I started to get dizzy. Then we hit a particularly hard bump, and I knocked my head hard against the side of the van. I shook my head and the hood came right off, and after I blinked a few times I realized that it wasn’t a bump – the van was actually flipped over on its side, and I was lying along the wall. The back doors had come open, one of them actually coming off the hinges, and standing there in the door was a man. My eyes weren’t adjusted to the light, yet, and with the sun behind him, he almost seemed to glow.”
“Now, you have to understand… All this had happened so quickly. I was scared out of my wits, I was beat up, and I was confused. So I did what any normal person would have done in this situation.” Stephen paused and favored them all with a wry grin. “I screamed, pissed in my pants, and then started to bawl.” Everyone around the table give a chortle, including Tommy. He’d forgotten about Stephen’s self-effacing style of humor, and how it had always tickled his funny bone.
“I heard a loud cracking noise as the figure kneeled down. Honestly, I thought someone was shooting a gun, but it turned out to be the chains on my arms and legs bursting themselves open. No sooner had I gotten up, though…”
A girl sitting nearby interrupted Stephen. Tommy had seen her in the cafeteria before, but didn’t know her name or really anything at all about her; just that she was in one of the more advanced classes. “Wait a minute,” she said to Stephen brusquely. “I thought you said the chains were tungsten. Everyone knows tungsten kills magic, and that magic doesn’t work on anything made of tungsten.”
Stephen just shrugged. “I don’t know. All I know is what I heard and what happened. One minute, I was chained up tightly, the next minute I was free, and he never even touched the chains.”
Mae sniffed, and took on a lecturing tone that Tommy found endearing. “Mary, don’t be so obtuse. Everyone knows tungsten is brittle, unless you mix it with steel. He didn’t have to burst the chains. He could have used magic to throw something at them and crack them, or to make the air around them very cold so they could break. Oh! He could have also used magic on the locks, which probably weren’t made from tungsten. Or, I’ve heard that he may have been able to, hrmmm…” She trailed off deep in thought, but her lips kept moving. Tommy realized that she was still talking, to herself, and that she didn’t realize that she was no longer speaking out loud. Everyone was staring at Mae – Stephen with a kind of good-humored tolerance like an older brother to a silly child, the rest of the kids like they were looking at some strange and obnoxious insect.
To distract everyone, Tommy spoke up. “Uh… who is this ‘he’ you keep talking about?” Tommy’s question appeared to snap Mae out of her reverie, but it was Stephen who answered. “Well, it was Micah, of course. Who else? He’s really one of the only ones who makes a habit of going around rescuing kids, isn’t he?”
Everyone at the table nodded. Mary pitched her voice low, in a whisper, but loud enough that all of them could hear. “I’ve heard that he does it because they took his kid. His son. Someone told me that they are holding his son in a prison somewhere, and that is what prevents him from just destroying all the prisons and freeing all the other mages.”
Another boy that Tommy didn’t recognize scoffed. “Don’t be stupid. Micah’s strong, no doubt. Stronger than anyone I’ve ever seen. But he’s not strong enough to fight them all. Not with their tanks and soldiers and pet mages and everything. If he tried to attack one of the prisons, they’d take him out like that,” and the boy snapped his fingers in the air. “That’s why he tries to save kids before they get taken.”
Everyone nodded thoughtfully at that. It did make a certain kind of sense, after all. Tommy, however, was thinking about a boy, trapped somewhere in a prison cell. Afraid, alone, and away from his family who loved him, guilty only of the crime of being the son of a man who freed captured children. Tommy found his respect and admiration for Micah growing, like a warm glow in his chest, even as he felt sad for the man, who must miss his family as much as Tommy did. Maybe even more. Tommy’s sense that he had made the right decision increased, and suddenly he felt at home and happy to be at the school.
Suddenly, Tommy noticed that everyone was packing up their trays to leave. “Hey! You didn’t finish the story!” he called to Stephen. Stephen merely turned his head and grinned as he walked away. “Another time, buddy,” he called. “We’re starting our first lesson in combat training early tomorrow morning, and I want to be ready and rested!” Mae let out a small squeal of delight and hurried after Stephen, leaving Tommy alone at the table.
“Combat training?” he mused to himself. “I wonder what they teach in that class?” He was still wondering and muttering to himself when he packed up his own tray and headed back to class.
Chapter Eleven
It was several days later that Tommy actually managed to get in touch with the magical energy that he felt around him. He wasn’t the first one in the class – that honor fell, of course, to Ryan, but Ryan had in turn given Tommy some tips the night before, and it was using Ryan’s tips that helped Tommy succeed on his own.
Micah had begun the class that day in his usual fashion – with a lecture. Tommy didn’t mind the lectures so much. They were often fairly interesting, and Micah had a kind of twisted sense of humor that appealed to Tommy. Plus, Tommy was forced to admit, he knew next to nothing about the topic and needed to learn more if he was to keep up with his classmates. Even though he had generally disdained his classmates and avoided contact with them in the past, one thing that Tommy had always been terrified of was being held back a grade in school. He couldn’t imagine having to suffer that kind of humiliation on a daily basis, and
was determined that it wouldn’t happen to him here.
Micah’s lecture had been on ‘Elemental Affinities’. “People”, Micah had told them, “each have a unique and individual attunement to the classical elements – earth, air, fire, and water. Although magic does not naturally conform to any one element, each person has a different level of skill in forming magic in the individual elements. Most any effect you could desire can be caused by tuning magic to one of these elements – or, in some cases, by combining multiple elements. And just like everyone has a unique face and a different voice, so does everyone have a different level of ability – of elemental affinity, if you will.”
The Channeler Page 7
