by Gene Curtis
Chapter 7
Dimmer ’n Dirt
Being paranoid doesn’t mean the threat isn’t real.
Both boys left the sword shop with their new weapons slung over their shoulders. They decided to check out the bookstore next. Not fifty paces out of the sword shop the boys heard a voice behind them.
“What makes you so special?” Mark recognized the voice without having to turn around. It was Ralph Lawrence. When he did turn he saw that Ralph’s two buddies were still with him.
“What?”
“You’ve got swords.”
“No one told you?” What Mark was about to say came to him instantly, intuitively. “I can’t believe no one told you.”
“Told me what?”
“That if you can touch Ms. Vanmie when she is testing your natural defensive reflexes that she will give you a sword. I can’t believe you didn’t know that.”
“You’re telling me that you actually were able to touch Ms. Vanmie, the greatest living sword fighter in the whole world. You’re a frickin’ liar.”
“Suit yourself. You’re right. She gave us the swords because of our attitudes.”
“Yeah, right!”
“Okay then; you figure it out. I lied to you and I told you the truth. Which was the lie and which was the truth?”
“I’ll kick your butt.”
“Use your brain. Think now. I have a sword. Nick has a sword. That means that something out of the ordinary has happened. That means that possibly, just possibly, there is something about us that you don’t know. Think about it. What do you think that something might be?”
“Okay, you’re very fast or really lucky or a good liar.”
Mark stiffened his stance and smiled. “Care to take a chance and find out?”
Ralph stiffened. “I’ll know by tomorrow. And just you remember; I’m not afraid of you!” Ralph turned and walked off. Ricky and Keith followed him.
Mark and Nick continued to walk toward the bookstore. “You know, I’ll bet that they’re heading straight for the sword shop. You want to go and watch what happens?”
Nick smiled at the thought. “Yeah. If Ralph takes the bait and tries to touch Ms. Vanmie, it’ll be fun to watch.”
They walked back toward the sword shop and saw the trio enter. Nick looked at Mark and said, “You were right. They’re pretty stupid.”
Mark and Nick walked into the store just in time to hear Ralph ask, “Is it true that if someone can touch you when you test their reflexes, that you will give them a sword?”
Ms. Vanmie looked at Mark and Nick. Mark was remembering his first encounter with Ralph and how Ralph was taunting Nick. Ms. Vanmie paused for a moment and stared at Mark. Then she looked at Nick. A scowl came over her face and she said, “I see.” Then she nodded slowly at Mark and Nick.
She turned her attention back to Ralph. “So you think that you might be quick enough or lucky enough to be able to touch me during the reflex test do you?”
“No. I was just asking if it was true.” Ralph seemed very nervous.
“Well then, let’s test your reflexes while you’re here. If any one of you can touch me then I’ll give all three of you the sword of your choice. I’ll even let you say when to stop.”
“The sword of our choice? Any sword?”
“Yes. You can pick any sword at all if just one of you manages to touch me even in the slightest way.”
“All right. What do we have to do?”
“Follow me into the back room. I will get a small bamboo pole. You can pick any riotous that you like.”
“What’s a riotous?”
“It’s any of several different kinds of wooden practice swords.”
Each of the three boys followed her through the door and returned with her. Each had a rather long wooden club shaped like a sword, each with a handle and a hilt. She had a small bamboo pole.
“Let’s go outside so that we will have more room.”
Mark and Nick followed them outside. The three boys lined up in front of Ms. Vanmie. Each raised their club in front of them. Passersby stopped to watch.
She looked at the three and smiled. “I’m going to hit you with this pole. Defend yourselves.” What followed was almost a blur.
She jabbed Ricky in the solar plexus, her pole swung up and slapped Ralph across the left cheek. Before Ricky was fully bent over double, she had struck Keith twice on the collarbone, once on the left thigh, spun and struck his right thigh and thrust up, striking his right wrist. Before Keith’s riotous hit the ground her pole slapped Ralph on the right cheek. She spun and struck Ralph on his left cheek, came down to his collarbone and raked the pole across his throat. She faced away from Ralph and pushed the pole between her body and elbow, striking Ralph in the solar plexus. Ralph bent double and hit the ground at the same time his riotous did. Keith was backing away with his hands raised. The entire event took less than three seconds.
She stood over Ralph. “You will find that there is very little that you can hide from the teachers here. Although bullies are tolerated here at The Seventh Mountain, they are not encouraged. Bullies are tolerated for one reason and one reason only. Magi must deal with bullies and the like in the world at large. Dealing with bullies here at The Seventh Mountain is considered good training. Consider yourself dealt with.”
She put her hands on her hips. “There is another thing to add insult to injury. Practical jokes are actually encouraged here. It helps Magi train in detecting and avoiding traps. Points are awarded to the one who succeeds in the trap and points are subtracted from the one who fails in the trap. Mark and Nick are hereby awarded ten points each and Ralph, Ricky and Keith each loose ten points. Now, get out of here.”
She looked directly at Mark. “Mark, Nick, I want to talk to you in my office.”
Mark and Nick followed her into her office. “You may be wondering how I knew what was going on.”
Mark tilted his head.
“Well, Mark, you have the very rare ability that we call Rooack Dabar, spirit speak. You can actually project your thoughts into other peoples’ minds.”
“Really?”
“I believe so. This ability is very rare. It has not been seen in more than a thousand years.”
“How do you know I’ve got it?”
“That is how I knew the truth of what had happened. Your mind spoke to mine. That is why I went along with your little joke. I don’t like bullies either. But I warn you now, don’t use that tactic again in the future. You must fight your own battles and lying is never acceptable. The reason for this will become clear later on in your training. Out of curiosity, why did you choose to lie first instead of last?”
“First, I really don’t like bullies. Second, I knew that he wouldn’t believe me no matter what I said. I was just trying to convince him that he didn’t want to fight me.”
Ms. Vanmie frowned. “I see, you were bluffing. That won’t work well with Rooack Dabar.”
“I guess not.”
“Okay, that’s all, you can go now.”
Mark and Nick left the sword shop and continued their trek to the bookstore, resuming what they had been doing before they were interrupted.
The bookstore was very large and several stories tall. It flanked the entrance hall opposite The Oasis. There were rows and rows of white book shelves everywhere. Books on shelves lined every inch of wall space. Freestanding shelves loaded with books formed aisles all over the place. Small tables with two chairs were situated at the end of every aisle. A large spiral staircase lead to the next floor. The upper floors were circular balconies overlooking the first floor. The ceiling was very high overhead. A large skylight illuminated the entire bookstore.
A couple of hours passed while they browsed every bookshelf. The store was arranged in sections with each section representing a level of study. The higher the level, the more subsections there were. The senior level had well over s
everal hundred subsections, maybe as many as a thousand. It seemed that a Magi could branch out and study just about anything in the world that they might want.
Harmonious Thorpe walked up in front of Mark and Nick. He was a very muscular man. His long, thick blond hair and goatee made him look like what Mark thought an English knight would look like without his armor. Mark didn’t think that this man would ever need armor. His eyes glowed neon blue. His voice was a deep bass. When he spoke, you felt it; every syllable penetrated like rumbles of thunder from an approaching storm.
“Good evening, gentlemen. Ah… Mr. Young and Mr. Poparov I see.” Mr. Thorpe squatted and put his face very close to Mark’s face.
“Mr. Young, you will find that just because everyone has dreamed about you that it does not make you special. What differentiates you is what is in here.” He touched Mark’s forehead with his dill-pickle-sized finger. “And in here.” He touched Mark’s chest over his heart.
“Thank you, sir, I don’t mean to sound disrespectful or anything, but I already know that. What do you mean that everybody has dreamed about me?”
“Ah… I’m glad to see that you are a know-it-all as well.” His tone was mean to the point of almost being hostile, which was curious, because Mark had never met the man and didn’t even have an idea of who he was.
“Everyone has seen, in their dreams, your birth and your retrieval of that staff you carry. Most freshmen don’t remember their dreams. They will know that the boy with the staff is, shall we say, a déjà vu. Everyone else here does remember their dreams. That staff identifies you as one that Teknon Kakos wants out of the way. Evidently, you and that staff mean something to him.” His tone remained disapproving, even threatening.
“Excuse me, sir. All of this is new to me. How can everyone dream about me and who is Teknon Kakos?”
“Dreams are a normal part of life for everyone. This is especially true for Magi. Magi learn the ability to dream-cast. Only, the dreams about you were not dream-cast by any Magi. A Magi that casts a dream is always in the dream. There were no Magi in the dreams about you except for Tim and Gerod and they didn’t cast the dreams. The dreams about you are a mystery. As for Teknon Kakos, he was also known in ancient times as Benrah. Both names mean ‘The Son of Evil.’”
Mark remembered the voice in his dream that kept telling him that he was going to die. The name, Benrah, was the name that he had on the edge of his mind and just couldn’t quite bring out. It also came to him where he had seen the name Thorpe.
“Don’t you think that the staff you carry is a little short for a shepherd’s crook? If you look at the bottom of it you will see that part of it is missing. We believe this staff to be very special. Benrah derives his power from artifacts such as this. He will stop at nothing to get it. It is your destiny to prevent that from happening.” He acted like the word “your” left a bad taste in his mouth.
Mark remembered the dream of his birth and how the horse had tried to kill his mom. “Yes sir. I know.”
“I’ve been selected to tell you this so that you will be on guard for any action or deception that would relieve you of the care and custody of that staff. With every artifact he collects, Benrah becomes stronger.”
“I think I understand, sir, but why me?”
Mr. Thorpe rolled his eyes and stood up, towering over Mark and looking down on him.
“You were selected for this destiny long before you were born. That was made known to your forefather, Joseph Young. He put things in place so that you could find the staff before Teknon Kakos figured out where it was hidden. You were chosen because of your bloodline, a noble bloodline indeed, but that little detail is something that you must discover for yourself.”
“Do you teach algebra and numeric logic?”
“That’s rather perceptive of you. Most freshmen don’t realize that until they show up for the first class. We shall see if you are that perceptive in class, something which I highly doubt.”
Mr. Thorpe, having delivered this ominous news, turned to walk off.
“I remember seeing your name on my list next to that textbook.”
He started walking away and kept his back to them while he spoke.
“That’s right. Theresa Shadowitz and I wrote that textbook. That’s enough chitchat. It’s well after seven now. Get yourselves over to The Oasis and wait for your counselors.”
Mark felt happy to be finally getting some answers, yet he didn’t know how to feel about getting them from this particular man. Something about this man made him feel like he was facing another bully. There was just something about Mr. Thorpe that made Mark think that he took pleasure in making others feel uncomfortable.
