King of Knights

by Bebe Lightsmith

  He also told me about Admiral Gilgamesh’s offer for Ryker to become his squire for the summer. I hated the idea of us being apart for so long, but I also saw the merits of the experience. I told him I would support whatever he decided. Owen, on the other hand, had a major fit. He reminded us all about how the universe had punished us for separating, and we had almost died. I countered that the universe knows it’s not permanent, just parting for a time. He didn’t like that but didn’t argue anymore. I wasn’t sure what the universes’ will for this decision was, but I knew that the answer would come to us when the time was right. We just had to be patient.

  We had tried to research the Cult of Uasal in the library, but every time we tried to access the databases, we got an error message. Books were no help either, as there was no mention of such a cult anywhere. Ryker had warned us that it was probably classified. For the time being, we were stuck. Left to work on our own magics and education. I hated the waiting.

  I felt it before I saw him. Owen and I turned to face the same direction in the kitchen as the old man with the long beard and white hair appeared in front of us. This was different though. His energy felt . . . Strange, distorted, dark even. He wore a black tunic with a leather belt around his hips and a tall wizard's cap. His light blue eyes surveyed the room.

  “What are you doing?” He asked Owen. “I never pictured you a baker.” I was confused, as he had made Owen the cookies that would turn into the Codex. They were in the freezer for preservation until Owen could figure out the magic part. As the old man’s energy filled the room, it became more dark and twisted. My heart thumped in my chest as I carefully and slowly slipped off the stool and went around the other side of the island.

  “Who are you?” Owen demanded. We had seen this old man before, but sometimes sight can be deceptive. The front door opened and closed. Ryker emerged behind me.

  “I did that thing you told me to do.” He told the old man.

  “What thing?” The old man asked, giving Ryker a steady gaze. I heard Ryker’s breath catch as he realized the same thing I did.

  “Why have you not found the Codex?” The old man then asked Owen. Owen stood in front of us, his jaw flexed and his eyes sparking with magic. He didn’t answer.

  “I said, where is the Codex!” The old man yelled, the blue of his iris’s changing to black. Ryker stretched out his arm, summoning Excalibur.

  “She won’t come, boy.” The old wizard turned his head to say to Ryker. “We have an agreement, her and me.”

  “You have an agreement with my sword?” He demanded.

  “Long before she was yours.” He replied, giving Ryker a smirk. He turned to Owen then.

  “A long time ago, I promised a little witch I’d save her son. I’m simply fulfilling that promise.” With that, a large syringe with a long needle at the end appeared in his hand. Ryker and I rushed forward, but we hit a magical barrier. The old man stuck the needle into Owen’s neck. He pressed the plunger, forcing the glowing blue liquid into Owen’s body. I tried to use my magic to break the barrier, but nothing worked. This old wizard was much more powerful than I was.

  When he was finished, the syringe vanished. He looked at Ryker and me for only a moment before turning back to Owen.

  “Find your place in the universe boy, accept it, or there won’t be much of a fight.” The old man warned and then vanished. The barrier fell, and Ryker caught Owen just as he collapsed.

  “What the hell did he give him?” I demanded.

  “The cure.” Owen muttered weakly. He then gazed up at Ryker, a goofy smile on his face. “I’m not going to go crazy.” I could feel the relief that Owen felt. I was sure that had to be hard on the psyche, to know that one day your magic will make you lose your mind.

  “You already are crazy.” Ryker teased, lowering him to sit on the floor, resting against the lower cabinets.

  “What was all that about finding your place in the universe?” I asked, kneeling next to him. Owen let out a smile.

  “I can’t conjure the Codex until I understand my place.” He replied. Ryker and I exchanged glances. I always thought he knew. “And I have to accept it.” He gave me a long look, and I understood.

  “Everywhere and nowhere.” I nodded. We both had had deep philosophical discussions about it and had come to that conclusion. Between my dimensional magic, and his druid magic, we could be everywhere and nowhere at once. I had accepted that, but apparently, Owen had a harder time. It was more of a struggle for him to accept his place.

  “But always with us,” Ryker said after a moment. I wasn’t sure why he said it, but I felt that it was true. Maybe his training was paying off.

  “But always with you.” Owen nodded, and then his eyes brightened with an idea.

  “That’s it.” He said trying to stand. His legs were still weak, so he started to fall. Ryker caught him, helping him stand.

  “Get the cookies,” Owen said to me. I pulled the bag out of the freezer and helped him carefully line them on a tray, all twelve of them.

  “Twelve cookies,” he muttered, “Four for each of us.”

  “What?” Ryker demanded.

  “The Codex isn’t about Emrys magic.” Owen started, “It’s about all magic. The magic of the universe and the will of the energies around us. The Codex is much more than just Merlin’s teachings. It’s literally all magic. For me to be worthy of it, I have to accept what the universe is saying to me.”

  “And what is that?” Ryker asked.

  “That, unlike Merlin, I need the magic’s of a Pendragon and a Le Fay to fulfill my destiny.” Sometimes, he was so smart it baffled me. I would have never been able to draw that conclusion. It was true that the universe has pushed us all together, and had punished us when we separated, but I had never thought about it in that way before.

  “So you need all three of us to conjure the Codex.” Ryker surmised.

  “The power of three will set us free.” Owen joked, letting out a laugh.

  “I guess it’s worth a shot.” I shrugged, nodding my head.

  We stood together at the counter. Owen hovered his hand over a set of four cookies on the tray and dispersed his magic. I did the same with my own set of four. Ryker looked a little unsure as he hovered his hand. Blue and green energy swirled around us, but I had yet to feel Ryker’s.

  “Shouldn’t we do this in dream world?” Ryker asked. He looked nervous. The fire had affected him more so than Owen or me. On the forefront of his mind, always, was safety. He was our valiant knight, our ultimate protector.

  “Accept your place in the universe,” Owen said, giving Ryker a pointed look. Ryker took a deep breath and closed his eyes, centering himself.

  I felt his magic emerge and the three of us enchanted the cookies. At first, I didn’t think it was going to work, as nothing was happening. But then our magic’s started to swirl together, the red, blue, and green energies twisting and forming a funnel beneath our hands. Sparks of gold magic began to ignite around the cookies. The feeling of the energy was . . . Powerful. So much so that my bodily reaction was to be afraid. My heart pounded, and my mouth tasted like copper, but I kept my magic flowing. A bright light started to form from the base of our conjoined magical cyclone.

  “It’s going to blow,” Ryker said.

  “Do not stop!” Owen yelled.

  We kept it going. The white light growing so bright I couldn’t stand to look at it anymore. Closing my eyes, I heard a great explosion but did not feel the impact of the blast. Opening my eyes, we were no longer in the kitchen of their dorm apartment. In fact, I wasn’t sure where we were. All around us, streams of different colors swirled by. Directly in front of us, on a white marble pedestal, a book floated, glowing golden magic.

  “Where are we?” Ryker demanded.

  The streams of different colors created a room around the book and us. Owen stared in awe at the Codex, but I was more interested in our surroundings. I knew what the book was, but what was this place? Taking a step to the
side, I moved closer to evaluate the streams of magic. Upon closer examination, the streams clarified to show moving pictures, like a film running through a movie projector. There were all different scenes of all different people and creatures. Some were human, but others were types of people I had never seen before, in places that were foreign to Earth and to me.

  “What the shit?” Ryker asked, standing next to me.

  “It’s all of space and time.” Owen gasped, turning slowly in place to admire the room. The Codex hovered over the pedestal, the golden light shimmering.

  “Grab the book and let's get the hell out of here,” Ryker said. He looked nervous, but he often was in situations he didn’t understand.

  I couldn’t wrap my mind around what I was seeing. I saw all the other dimensions and all the time streams of all the other creatures in the universe. This was something that no one had ever seen before, that no one would have the chance to see. I saw the great battles for Edenasia, the conquering Empire taking over Ignatioum, the resounding vampire kingdoms of old fighting with the werewolves, and many more dimensions that I had yet to find with my magic. It was so much my mind couldn’t keep up, and yet all of it made sense together. It was like gathering the billions and trillions of puzzle pieces and finally seeing the bigger picture. At that moment I had no idea what the picture meant, but just seeing it was overwhelming.

  Owen stepped towards the book, reaching out his hand. The magic wrapped around his arm as his fingers touched the spine of the book. If I hadn’t been there to see it, I would have never been able to believe what happened. The book vanished, the golden magic exploding around Owen and then seeping into him. Owen let out a yelp closing his eyes, his entire body convulsing. Ryker and I rushed forward, but when Ryker touched his skin, he pulled his hand away, shaking it out. A small burn formed on his palm.

  “Owen!” I shouted as he fell to his knees, the golden magic silhouetting around him. His body started to glow so brightly that I could no longer see the time streams, just his radiance. Slowly he stood, and Ryker pulled me back. Owen rose to his full form, his body no longer visible, only his glowing in golden silhouette. His eyes opened, and they were great starbursts of a mixture of different colored lights.

  “Owen!” Ryker shouted again.

  His body grew brighter and brighter until I could no longer stand to look at him. Turning my face away, a blast blew my hair back and Ryker wrapped his arms around me. The air smelled like sugar cookies as I fell on the hard linoleum. We were back in the kitchen, laying on the ground, with Ryker and my arms around each other. We exchanged a glance for only a second, and then both looked over to where Owen had once stood. He was collapsed on the ground. Scrambling forward, Ryker turned him over, while I evaluated his body for any injury. He was breathing, and his heart was beating. He had no lacerations or bruising or anything. It was like he was lying there asleep.

  “Owen.” Ryker shook him. I could hear the panic in his voice. “Owen, come on, wake up.” His chest heaved, and his hands shook.

  I heard the front door open and close. Grams walked in then, her eyes focusing on the three of us down on the kitchen floor.

  “Grams.” I cried. I didn’t mean to, I wanted to be strong, but after everything we had seen. . . My mind was a flurry. Morgana knelt down above Owen’s head. She set her hands on his chest and then moved them up to his face. With her finger, she opened his eyelids.

  “Whoa.” Ryker scrambled back. Instead of seeing his blue irises and black pupils and the whites around them, his eyes were completely black with different colors and golden dots, it was like looking at a picture of the universe.

  “It’s too much.” Morgana grumbled, “What the hell was he thinking?” I thought she was talking about Owen. Conjuring some green magic, she set her palm over his head. Closing her eyes, she hummed an eerie tune, the green magic spreading over his body.

  “We saw all of space and time,” I mumbled to her. “We saw . . . everything.” Grams glanced over at me.

  “And what do you remember?” She asked. I contemplated that for a moment. I remembered how the room looked and seeing a few of the time streams, but that was it.

  “Nothing,” I mumbled.

  “That’s your mind protecting itself. The mortal mind can’t handle all that information.” She replied. Ryker was still back against the lower cabinet, staring at us with wide, panicked eyes.

  “It’s alright King of Knights,” Grams told him.

  “I saw the universe.” He mumbled, running a shaky hand over his face.

  “Was it beautiful?” She asked then. Ryker gave her a long look.

  “I saw the universe, but all I could see was . . . “ He trailed off, giving her a long look.

  “What you needed to see.” She finished, giving him a pointed stare.

  After a moment the green magic around Owen receded, and Grams removed her hand.

  “He’ll be fine.” She assured us, reaching over to set her hand on my shoulder to help her off the floor. She brushed her hands together and then glanced around the room.

  “What did you do?” I asked. I lifted his eyelid again, and his eyes were back to normal.

  “Just put a temporary blocker on his magic. He can still use his powers, but at the moment his body can’t handle all the magic of the Codex. It will be a slow learning process.” She answered. “When the time is right, his full power will emerge.” I loved how cryptically she talked, not.

  “I’m glad I felt that.” She muttered. “What the hell was he thinking?” She said again.

  “We were told to find the Codex,” I replied shaking my head in misunderstanding.

  “Not you, sweetlings.” She smiled at Ryker and then at me. “Well, I’m off, much to do. I’m almost out of time after all.” Grabbing my hand, she urged me to stand and then wrapped her arms around me. The comforting scent of patchouli filled my nose as I buried my face into her silver hair.

  “Keep an eye on the Master of Magic. I’ll be back to say goodbye.” She whispered against my ear. And then she was gone. My arms were still stretched out as if I was hugging her, but nothing was in them.

  Owen groaned, his limbs and head starting to move. Ryker and I rushed to his side as he slowly opened his eyes, blinking slowly.

  “What the hell happened?” He groaned and started to sit up. We helped him into a sitting position, both staring at him with wide eyes.

  “How do you feel?” I asked.

  “Like I’ve been hit by a truck.” He rubbed his head. “Where’s the Codex?” He asked glancing around. Ryker and I exchanged a look.

  “It looked like merged with you,” I replied. Owen gave me a long look.

  “Dude, that was the craziest shit I’ve ever seen.” Ryker started.

  “I don’t feel any different.” He scowled down at the floor. “My head is killing me.”

  “Morgana showed up and blocked your powers,” I explained. Owen glared at me, well sort of, he was still a little out of it, so he glared at the space beside me.

  “Your eyes . . .” Ryker trailed off.

  “Grams said that this way you can learn your powers a little at a time, so it doesn’t overwhelm your body so much,” I explained.

  “Shit, man,” Owen muttered, rubbing his eyes. “I’m starving.” We all let out a little laugh of relief. Ryker helped him up.

  We started to talk of heading over to the cafeteria when I spotted someone out of the front window. The old man, with the long beard and white hair, wearing a blue tunic, stared directly back at me. He gave me a small smile and a shallow bow. Then with a wink, he disappeared.

  End.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One:

  Owen:

  Chapter Two:

  Ryker:

  One month later:

  Chapter Three:

  Ivy:

  Chapter Four:

  Owen:

  One month later:

  Chapter Five:

  Ryker:

&n
bsp; Chapter Six:

  Ivy:

  Chapter Seven:

  Owen:

  Chapter Eight:

  Ryker:

  Chapter Nine:

  Ivy: