Magic's Genesis- Sword of Wilmamen

by Rosaire Bushey

  “For the last year, Wesolk has been enjoying the fruits of peace with several neighbors with whom we have had disagreements in the past. Much of this new-found goodwill comes, I am led to believe, from the fact that all known wielders in Eigrae stand before me now. Word of magic has spread, and as tales spread, they grow larger. I’m led to believe that some foreign agents believe magic capable of reducing a standing castle to rubble in minutes.”

  Perryn laughed openly at this, while Lydria and Grettune smiled politely, and Grettune held her husband’s hand. Edgar continued. “Regardless of the truth of such things, we would do well to not diminish these tales for they work in our favor and in the favor of peace. Given long enough that peace will stand on its own. But not all our neighbors are so easily convinced by stories and they may work to test what they believe an outlandish claim meant to sow descension among adversaries. The desert kingdom of Dar’Ahlmon is first among these.” Edgar looked to Krieger to continue.

  “When the message from Relin reached us of the Eifen being captured to the west, I informed the king and we agreed that it would be best to send two groups. One group, with Relin, Lydria, Haustis, and one other, will go to find the Eifen. Grettune, Perryn and I will head south to investigate some recent developments in Dar’Ahlmon. We will travel to Port Ogdam, the southernmost point on the Great Lake and move in our separate directions from there.” Krieger looked around the table as if waiting for a question.

  Finally, Haustis broke the silence and directed her question toward Edgar. “Who is this other who will travel with us?” Edgar smiled warmly toward Haustis and clasped his hands on the table in front of him. “You go to find a scholar and woodsman who goes by the name of Pars.”

  Codex of the Prime Wielder

  The Great Lake

  The lake that marks the western boundary of Wesolk is called the Great Lake which is as honest as it is simple. From its northern-most point to Port Ogdam in the south, the lake measures more than 130 leagues and takes several days to traverse by ship. From west to east, at its narrowest point, the lake is still an impressive 50 leagues so that crossing the lake is not so much a challenge as it is an undertaking.

  Several islands of a size capable of supporting a town exist on the lake, yet only Thrushton to the far north has been inhabited for any length of time. Since the plague that struck Thrushton in the year of the coming of the Stone of Power, no one has lived on the island, although several people may have been brave enough to travel to the island to investigate. Krieger is one such person and believes the island will need to be razed before anyone is willing to live there again.

  While Wesolk has ships that patrol the lake, and there are several small fishing villages along its shores, only the largest vessels make their way to the center of the lake. There are stories saying the lake holds leviathans that could crack open a ship as easily as a walnut, and few dare its depths.

  From the heights of Dragaven, I espied a small island in the center of the lake – so far from the eastern shore as to appear to be the opposite side of the lake from Bayside. For a time, I considered building my home there, on that island, where I would be left alone to study magic. Perhaps one day I shall, but for now, I am needed – we who wear the collar of magic – are needed to build a lasting peace in Wesolk and beyond.

  Grettune and I have agreed, that should we ever make a school for young wielders – should there ever be any – we might choose that island for its halls.

  Lydria

  5 - Mardelston

  “So, you and Edgar seem happy to see each other.” The ship had departed Bayside soon after Edgar left the dock the evening before. Despite the poor weather, the ship was handled well by the king’s chosen sailors and made good speed down the lake. The weather turned during the evening and by the time Lydria had eaten breakfast, it was sunny, and preparations were being made to rig a sail over the deck as shade. Lydria and Haustis were sitting on the forward deck watching the enormous lake spread out before them.

  “We are.” Haustis said the words simply but didn’t look toward her sister. Since the Eifen had found Lydria amid a ruined forest, they had been close. When they discovered they shared the same mother, they became attuned to each other in a way neither could describe. “He is a caring partner and a courageous man.”

  “But…”

  “I am Haustis and he is king. He remains in Bayside, as he needs to do, and I travel to serve and perhaps save my people, as I need to do. When do you see a time where we can be together as man and woman?”

  Lydria watched her sister, so unlike her in so many ways, but so in need of compassion and support like everyone else. “Maybe you are not meant to be together like every other man and woman,” Lydria offered. “Perhaps that is what is best for you – to love fiercely while together so that you can do as you need while apart?”

  Haustis lowered her head and smiled, her face catching the yellow light of the amulet resting on her chest – the amulet Lydria had made that contained a stone of power and had kept her sister alive since being impaled by a spear in King Ahlric’s throne room. “I consider that, and I think of the Haustis who preceded me and Drae Ghern, and what would have happened had they done so. It would have saved them each so much pain. Perhaps having something some of the time is better than never having it. I will think on this. Thank you, sister.” Haustis reached out to hug Lydria and then walked slowly toward the back of the ship where she stood against the railing and watched the wake roll off the wooden hull and spread out behind them.

  The captain of the ship stopped to stand next to Lydria and watched Haustis for a time before turning toward the water in front of them. “Krieger sent me to see you,” he said by way of introduction. “It will take about three days to reach Port Ogdam at the southern end of the lake, but we won’t be going directly there, and he thought you should know. There is an island, Mardelston, we will get sight of it tomorrow, and we will anchor off the coast while you go ashore with your friends. Krieger said I will wait off shore with the ship until you return. I don’t ask what you go to that island for, but I feel you should know, that in all my years plying the waters of this lake, I have never known anyone to go ashore on that island. Krieger says there’s a town there, but I’ve never seen a ferry to it. Never seen smoke rising from it. Never met anyone with a reason to go there.”

  The captain turned and stared at Lydria. He was solidly built, with thick grey hair that was once a soft brown. His eyes were intense, and he stared at Lydria’s green and blue eyes and didn’t seemed phased by their appearance as did most people who looked at her closely for the first time. His gaze trailed for a moment to her collar and then back to her eyes. “Do you believe in ghosts, Wielder?”

  “No. I believe in spirits as I have spoken to them in the past, and I believe in people. I have seen people who swear they have spoken to the dead, and I know people who speak to the voices of those long-gone, but I do not believe in ghosts.” Lydria shifted her glance from the captain to Haustis and back, trying to maintain a friendly smile and keep in the good graces of the captain. “Should we feel threatened by this island, Captain?”

  “As a man, I would be concerned. But perhaps those with the blue collar don’t share the same concerns as those without. Still, I thought you might like to know before you set foot on the shores of that place. I would.”

  The captain didn’t wait for a response, but lifted his hand to his forehead, nodded, and walked away, back to the bridge of his ship.

  Later that evening, after the sun had set over the starboard rail, Krieger called everyone together in a storage room along the keel where the sloshing of water kept time with the small waves pulsing along the bottom of the vessel.

  “Thank you all for being so patient with me and not asking questions,” Krieger started. “The man we go to fetch, Pars, is more than just a scholar/woodsman, as the king says. He is, in fact, the king’s brother.” Ignoring the shocked looks and whispers that grew up from around his an
nouncement, Krieger continued. “I don’t want to speak of this more than necessary, so let’s get it all out now. Until shortly after his coronation Edgar didn’t know he had any living relatives, much less a brother who, by right, could legitimately claim the throne. As many of you know, Edgar had several sisters, but Parsefal somehow escaped to the south and has lived a quiet life as a woodsman and more recently a scholar. His only connection to the world north of Mardelston has been me. But he is well traveled – mostly to the west and south of the lake. He understands more about those lands than anyone I know. His lineage, however, cannot be proven and it is highly unlikely he would want a job as boring as king if he were offered it. While Edgar and Pars are aware of each other, they have never met.”

  “Krieger why is the captain concerned with Mardelston?” Lydria asked quickly when she was sure Krieger was finished, and not wanting to belabor the point of Edgar’s ancestry.”

  Krieger laughed a little and muttered something about the superstitions of sailors before continuing. “Mardelston has never been inhabited until recently. I have known of, and kept an eye on, Pars for many years. In fact, it was he who led me to Edgar. Pars is older than his brother, more akin to my age in fact, but he has no desire to live in a city unless he could spend his days buried amongst whatever books he might find there. Pars saw the Eifen as they made their way south and sent word to me. He said they passed closely to a trail in the forest used by a people called the Chag Ca’Grae. We know little about the Chag Ca’Grae, but Pars believes they are not hostile. At the same time, he is also under the impression that they do not take kindly to uninvited guests. I asked Pars to go to Mardelston and wait for us so that we did not attract attention in town.”

  Krieger explained that they would go to the island, bring Pars to the ship and continue south. It would, he assured everyone, take no more than a few hours.

  The next day it took a few hours merely to reach the shore. A wind was blowing straight out from the island and the water around it was too shallow for the ship to get close. Krieger, Lydria, Relin, and Perryn moved the small rowboat toward the shore, with Perryn expending magical energy to keep the boat moving forward, but only just. When they were about a hundred yards from shore, a figure walked from the woods onto the beach. He was tall and dressed in green, and even from a distance Lydria could make out a deeply tanned face. His head was bald but his beard, unkempt and loose beneath his chin, betrayed a hint of fiery red.

  “It looks like Pars will make this trip easier than we thought,” Krieger said, surprising even Relin.

  As Krieger finished his sentence, Pars looked up from the beach and urged them forward with his arms, waving that they hurry toward shore. Lydria and Perryn then both bent their full will toward moving the small boat forward and it lurched in the waves, the light prow rising out of the water as if pushed by an unseen leviathan.

  Rushing into the water to meet them, Pars said nothing, but helped pull the boat to shore while the others jumped over the sides in water up to their knees. When the boat was secure and hidden beneath a pile of branches, Pars pulled them inside the tree line beyond the beach and motioned for them to be quiet.

  Lydria, Relin, and Krieger looked around, but a single finger snap from Pars grabbed their attention and they followed his finger to the forest and then the forest floor. Nearby there was a newly cut swath of forest that began just inside the tree line – as if something had entered the forest from above and crushed a large portion of it. From the broken tree limbs, they looked down and immediately understood Pars’ preference for silence. In all Eigrae there was nothing more distinctive than the tracks of dragons.

  “What are you doing?” Kimi’s voice was quiet, almost a whisper due to his location on the ship so far away. The cat was concerned because he had seen Pars on the beach and wondered why they hadn’t immediately returned to the ship.

  “There are dragons here.” It was all Lydria could think to say, but it was all that needed to be said. She knew Kimi would inform Grettune of the danger.

  Watching the ship bob on the waves off the coast, Lydria realized she had guessed correctly when Pars gasped moments after the ship dissolved into the lake and sky. It was a trick Lydria had learned more than year before when she needed to disguise herself and her company as they traveled north to Solwyn, and it was a trick she had taught Grettune to disguise herself if she wanted to move freely throughout Brookfield or travel further from home. It was a magical skill that Lydria knew Grettune could maintain for hours if not days with little ill effect for herself – but she wasn’t sure how long she could maintain the illusion for something as large as the ship.

  With the vessel hidden, it only remained to be seen how long they would have to hide and what Pars could tell them of what he had seen. It wasn’t long before Pars crouched low, putting his mouth next to the ears of Krieger and Lydria and spoke to them in a soft whisper.

  “Three enormous beasts came to the island more than a week ago,” Pars spaced out his words so that he could continually survey the space around them. “They are unlike anything I have ever seen and the noise they make loosens your insides. How the man with them managed to stand it, I do not know, but he walked among them as if they were large cows. After several days two of them left with the man, but one of the creatures remains. Last night I crawled deep into a cave and lay with my hands over my ears for hours as it roared, and I only dare go out when the wind blows my scent away from where it lay.”

  As he spoke the final words, he pointed inland, toward a small hilltop they had seen from the ship, a natural high point of the island, but covered in trees.

  “I have not heard it at all since then. I wait for nightfall to see if it merely sleeps.” Pars was no coward, but neither was he a fool, Lydria knew. A grown dragon was terrifying when it was speaking to you in a civil voice. Hearing one roar while at the same time being unaware of its purpose or intention left caution as the only reasonable course of action.

  Lydria told Pars what she knew about dragons and he confirmed her guess that the three were green, and she told him what she knew of the man who went with them – how he had killed without conscience and how he had used the people of the north, intending to use their blood to wage a war against Eigrae. “The dragons, however, are not Wynter, at least not those Grettune and I have spoken with. They still retain their humanity and they wish to be left in peace. The greens wish Wynter to return them to their former selves.”

  “Can he do that?” Pars’ question drew everyone’s attention.

  “No. I don’t think he can. Even if he were still a wielder, I do not think the power exists to undo what he has done.” Lydria continued to stare past Pars and toward the hill where the dragon’s last noise came from. “It makes me weak inside to think about it.” Lydria whispered the comment as if she were speaking to someone, and her eyes remained stuck on the hilltop.

  “To think about what, Wielder?” Relin was close to Lydria, their upper thighs touching as they squatted close to the ground. His breathing was quiet but uneven and would be unnoticeable had she not been able to feel his quickening heartbeat.

  “Wynter very nearly set off a chain of wars using fishermen as his warriors.” Lydria looked to Relin and glanced at the others now breathless waiting for her to speak, though they all guessed at what she would say. “If he commands the dragons in the same way he controlled the people of the north, he could take over Wesolk in an afternoon, and much of Eigrae at the time of his choosing, and he wouldn’t get so much as a headache for the effort.”

  “Surely, the dragons will not allow that,” Relin asked more than stated. His heart skipped a beat before returning to a pace something close to steady – fast, but steady. “From what you have said, they are intelligent, and they will see through his lies. He has no magic to wield.”

  “No, he does not. But some of the dragons think they are losing their humanity and there is no telling if they will lose their intelligence and free will as well. In a
ny case, Wynter is their maker, and the greens wish to be unmade. If he convinces them he can do this, what might they do to be set truly free once again?”

  No one spoke, but small noises were made as those around Lydria sat heavily on the ground, weighed down with the thought of possibilities.

  “We will find Wynter again, and this time we will kill him.” Krieger made the vow without anger and smiled at Lydria when she turned to him. With nothing to do but think of what Lydria had said, they settled down for a day in the trees.

  Early the next morning, before the sun had risen, and after hours without a single noise from the dragon, Lydria stood and motioned for the others to rise as well. Speaking quietly but no longer whispering, she said, “I am going to go meet the green. We cannot wait here without shelter or provision. I will go to the dragon and hope it is like the others of Dragaven. Even the green I spoke to on the mountainside was not aggressive toward me, and there is a chance this dragon is the same one.”

  Krieger motioned for Relin and Perryn to go back to the ship, to tell them to prepare to leave, but they would not go. “Let us meet this dragon. It may well be a wonderful tale to tell by the fire.” Lydria raised an eyebrow, reappraising her friend’s husband who seemed happy, even excited by the prospect of meeting a dragon.

  Traveling across the island was easy. The trees were not thick, and Pars knew the ground they covered. The faint orange glow of the rising sun pierced the tree tops and fell as if aimed on top of the hill.

  “How long will it take, Pars?” Lydria spoke out loud, and by her example indicated the others should speak freely as well, adding, “I do not think it wise to sneak up on a dragon – even if such a thing can be done, so let us move quickly and without stealth.”