Wizard in the Woods

by Jeffrey M. Poole

  “I don’t suppose the ability to conjure clothing is hiding somewhere in your bag of tricks, is it?”

  Gareth chanted a few more lines. Tunic, pants, and boots appeared in the grass before them.

  “They’re mine,” Gareth explained. “We’re almost the same size so they should fit reasonably well.”

  While Mikal changed into his new set of clothes Pheron approached Gareth and stared suspiciously at him.

  “I don’t know how, because you’re awfully young, but you’re the wizard we’ve been looking for, aren’t you?”

  Rhamallli rose to his full height and growled menacingly in response. He looked threateningly down his nose at Gareth. Cylandria, as exhausted as she was, also looked as though she was ready to take a bite out of him.

  After a few seconds of silence Gareth nodded. “I am.”

  “You’re the one who bewitched me?” Cylandria incredulously asked. “And you dare to show up here under false pretenses? I should bite you in half. You do know this, do you not?”

  Gareth nodded again.

  “You’d be well within your right to do so.”

  Cylandria’s eyes opened wide. She growled nervously and began inching away from him.

  “I trust this not. He’s going to bewitch me again. I wish to leave!”

  “The Dragon Lord must be informed,” Rhamalli announced. “I assume you’ve already told your father, Pravara?”

  Pravara shook her head no.

  “I haven’t. Not yet, at least.”

  Rhamalli huffed out his chest and tried to look intimidating, to which Mikal had to agree that he did.

  “It matters not. This is a problem that can be easily rectified.”

  Pravara roared her anger.

  “The only one here who will inform my father will be me, Rhamalli. Is that understood?”

  “Then do so, young one. Tell him. Right now.”

  “I will, but only in person,” Pravara coldly responded. “I will not use the Collective to relay such important information.”

  Pheron cleared his throat and approached Mikal.

  “Kre’Mikal? Can I assume the human king, er, your father, doesn’t know about this, either?”

  “He knows we’ve identified the wizard but does not know we’ve found him. Captain, you need to trust me on this. Gareth has pledged his support in trying to find a way to deal with the Athanaus. He’s on our side now.”

  “And you believe that?” Pheron skeptically asked. He cast a disparaging look at the young teenager before turning back to Mikal. “He could have been telling you whatever you wanted to hear, your highness.”

  “You’re right,” Mikal agreed, drawing a scoff from Gareth, “he could have, only he didn’t.”

  “I hope you’re right, your highness.”

  “I’ll tell my father just as soon as we tell Pravara’s. We’re closer to her father than mine at the moment.”

  “Actually, you’re not,” Rhamalli disagreed. “The Dragon Lord is still in R’Tal.”

  Mikal was shocked. “But sundown is less than two hours away! You’re telling me he’s been talking with my father since sunrise?”

  Rhamalli nodded. “Aye. That being we saw on the lake. That was the Athanaus?”

  “That’s right,” Mikal nodded. “That’s what my father, and Pravara’s father, are talking about. The fact that they’re still talking tells me that they really don’t know what they’re going to do about it.”

  “They need to know it has been sited here in our valley,” Rhamalli decided.

  “How fast can you get us to R’Tal?” Mikal asked as he turned to look back at their large green friend.

  “We’ll be there before the sun sets,” Pravara vowed.

  ****

  “Tell me something, Gareth,” Mikal companionably said as they all walked across the drawbridge leading into the castle’s western gate, “have you ever been a dragon before?”

  Gareth nodded.

  “Just once.”

  “Why only once?” Lissa wanted to know.

  “I could never master flying,” the young wizard admitted with a smile. “It was too difficult.”

  “What?” Mikal sputtered, causing several onlookers to look their way. “You told me that it was easy and I just had to trust my wyverian body to know what to do. Were you lying?”

  “I, uh, may have been exaggerating a teensy bit. What are you worried about? You did great! You’re going to have to tell me how you did it so I can try again sometime later. Hey, listen, you aren’t mad at me about that, are you?”

  “What, turning me into a dragon without even asking me first?” Mikal dryly asked.

  “Yeah, that.”

  “Wow. You don’t do sarcasm well, do you?”

  And you do?

  Hush, Pravara. No one asked you.

  Mikal heard Pravara’s laughter and chuckled. She did have a point. He wasn’t the best at detecting sarcasm, either.

  “I was at first,” Mikal admitted, frowning at the boy just a few years younger than he was. Then he laughed out loud. “But you know what? That was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done. I was flying through the sky!”

  Lissa stopped walking and pulled Gareth to a stop.

  “Wait a minute. You just said that you had a hard time flying as a dragon. Is that why you kept bewitching them? Were you riding them?”

  Gareth’s face reddened. He dropped his eyes and refused to say anything.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” Lissa quietly observed. She handed Peanut’s leash to Gareth. “Peanut seems to like you. Would you like to hold her leash for a while?”

  Gareth’s face lit up in a smile. “Sure. Thanks. Hey, little Peanut. Are you a good dog?”

  Peanut had watched as possession of her leash switched hands. She yipped excitedly, turned around, and pulled on her leash. A plethora of interesting scents were beckoning her forward.

  Mikal was lost in his own thoughts. He swallowed nervously. What would Pravara think about Gareth riding a bewitched dragon? What if… Mikal suddenly cocked his head. He didn’t know how, but he just knew that Pravara was smirking.

  Of course I am. Your wizard now owes me a favor, and a large favor at that.

  What? Why?

  Because if my father knew that Gareth had bewitched dragons just so he could ride them against their will then he would lose his mind.

  “Pravara says that you owe her,” Mikal quietly told Gareth as he led them into the castle.

  “What for?” Gareth sullenly asked.

  “It’s probably for her to maintain her silence,” Lissa guessed.

  You are correct, Lissa.

  I don’t think she can hear you.

  I am aware. You customarily relay what I’m saying to others, right?

  Well, yes, that’s right.

  Then I figured you’d do the same thing now.

  Ah.

  Mikal slipped his hand into Lissa’s and gave it a gentle squeeze.

  “Pravara says you’re right.”

  Lissa beamed a smile that could have illuminated the darkest of rooms.

  “Why would Pravara need to keep silent?” Gareth asked, genuinely confused.

  “Because if the Dragon Lord ever found out you broke their rule about no dragon riders, and that you did so intentionally, then the consequences would be dire.”

  Extremely dire.

  Gareth scuffed his feet along the floor.

  “I wasn’t hurting anyone.”

  “What about today?” Mikal pressed. “Cylandria became bewitched and almost hurt Pravara. In turn, Rhamalli had to dunk both Cylandria and himself into the lake to snap her out of it. That’s three dragons in one day, Gareth.”

  Gareth sighed and fell silent.

  A burly man in his mid-forties appeared directly in front of them and smiled warmly at Lissa. He was nearly six feet tall, had thinning brown hair, and a bushy mustache that was just starting to show a dusting of gray.

  “Lissa! What a
re you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at home?”

  Lissa hurried towards the man and threw her arms around him, giving him a fierce hug.

  “Father! You’re never going to believe what happened to us today.”

  Lissa’s father, a man named Fensham, was the constable of Capily. He, along with all the other village constables, had been summoned to the castle to discuss the ongoing concern about the diminishing jhorun. Capily, having been the first village to report widespread loss of jhorun, was the first settlement to request involvement from the castle to deal with this dilemma.

  Fensham faced Mikal and bowed.

  “Your highness. It is a pleasure to see you again. I can’t help but wonder what my daughter is referring to. Would you care to enlighten me?”

  “Oh, it’s nothing, really,” Mikal told him. “We just happened to identify who the renegade wizard is (Fensham gasped), found out where he lived (the constable gasped again), and decided to bring him here. In fact, here he is. Gareth, meet Fensham, constable of Capily and father of Lissa.”

  Fensham’s eyes widened with sheer terror. He took one look at the young boy standing silently nearby, grabbed Lissa’s hand, and yanked her towards him, causing Lissa to yelp with pain.

  “What are you doing?” Lissa asked, confused. She pulled her hand free from her father’s and rubbed her wrist. “We’re in no danger. Gareth is a friend now. He’s here to help us.”

  Fensham eyed the boy, distrust evident in his eyes.

  “We’ll see about that. Boy, you are the one responsible for all the mayhem?”

  Gareth shrugged. “You could say that.”

  “I did say that. The question is, would you say that?”

  “Aye. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”

  Fensham turned to Mikal.

  “Your father needs to be informed at once.”

  “I know,” Mikal said, nodding. “That’s why we’re here. Do you know if my father is still in the dragon cave? I was rather hoping he’d be done by now.”

  Fensham nodded.

  “Aye. The king, his senior advisers, and three dragons are all inside that cave. Ugghh. I wouldn’t want to be down there.”

  “Why not?” Mikal inquired.

  “My father is claustrophobic,” Lissa whispered in his ear.

  Mikal chuckled, “Oh.” Then, in a louder voice, “I would have thought their meeting would have been done a while ago.”

  “They have much to discuss,” Fensham said, sighing heavily. “How much do you know about what’s going on with the jhorun?”

  Mikal pretended to nod thoughtfully. “Quite a bit, actually.”

  Lissa put a hand over her mouth and tried to refrain from giggling.

  “We had hoped the loss of jhorun would be confined to Capily, but is isn’t. Now Verdayn seems to be suffering from this plague. The other constables are worried. They want to know what they can do to prevent it from happening in their villages. So they posed that question to the king. The last I heard was the king still didn’t have an answer.”

  Mikal looked at his friends and nodded his head back the way they had come. He returned his gaze to Lissa’s father and smiled.

  “Thank you, constable.”

  “I told you before that you may call me Fensham, son.”

  “Fensham. Right. I’ll try to remember.”

  “Take good care of my Lissa,” Fensham called out as they all retraced their steps back to the main gate.

  Mikal looked back at the constable as he followed Lissa outside.

  “You can count on it, sir.”

  The entrance to the dragon cavern was located in the northern orchards. There, nestled amidst several groves of fruit trees was a large, almost perfectly circular clearing. The eastern side of the round hill dropped down thirty feet before leveling off and extending out another fifty feet before the groves of fruit trees resumed.

  Pravara was there, talking with a dragon Mikal didn’t recognize. This new dragon was roughly the same size as Pravara and was completely white. Everything was white, from the long curved horns to his wings, and even down to the wing flap on the tip of his tail. He stood out in stark contrast to Pravara’s dark green coloring. Also present were two squadrons of armed soldiers, who were standing stiffly at attention.

  Pravara watched their small procession approach.

  “Mikal, Lissa, Gareth, this is Lorofer. He is one of my father’s consultants.”

  Lorofer nodded politely to each of them. Peanut, never one to be ignored, barked once. It was loud, piercing, and echoed across the clearing. Gareth, surprised by Peanut’s outburst, quickly handed the leash back to Lissa. Startled, Lorofer looked down at the small creature and then back at Pravara.

  “You were not jesting. I never would have imagined a being so small could have emitted a noise so loud.”

  “Indeed,” Pravara agreed. “She’s quite harmless. The little creature is intelligent. She knows we have just completed introductions and she also knows she wasn’t included.”

  Lorofer lowered his head and gently inched closer to the corgi. Peanut bounded forward, stopped less than a foot from Lorofer’s massive jaws, and dropped into playful dog pose. The huge white snout slowly crept forward. Mikal could hear the white dragon inhaling, no doubt sampling Peanut’s scent in an attempt to figure out what manner of creature she was. Just as soon as they were close enough, Peanut licked Lorofer’s nose. Startled, Lorofer jerked his head away. The white dragon shifted his weight to one leg and used the other to run it along his nose.

  “That was unusual,” Lorofer decided. “However, not altogether unpleasant.”

  “Peanut is fond of dragons,” Mikal helpfully explained. “She just welcomed you as a new member to her pack.”

  Lorofer nodded sagely, as if he knew all along that’s what the little dog was doing.

  “Of course.”

  “We need to talk to my father,” Mikal told the white dragon. “Actually, both Pravara and I need to talk to our fathers. Can we go down?”

  “While spacious, the cavern will not hold another dragon,” Lorofer explained, “which is why I am up here. Another will have to join me. A moment, please.”

  Thirty seconds later they felt the ground tremble. A dragon was coming up the tunnel. Several seconds later the second dragon emerged into the sunlight. This one, Mikal noted, was yellow. Not gold, like Kahvel was, but the same vibrant yellow found on many flowers. Mikal resisted the urge to smile as he briefly hoped the dragon was female.

  She is. That’s Kalendra. She is liaison to the dwarves. Just for the record, you should know that there are several male yellow dragons, too.

  Duly noted. Wait. Kalendra is the liaison to the dwarves? Then why is she here? There aren’t any dwarves present.

  Have you ever negotiated with the dwarves before? As a people they are incredibly stubborn, highly temperamental, and quick to jump to conclusions. Kalendra’s talent is defusing hostile situations. However, she has already told me that her skills are not needed here, so at the moment she is a bystander.

  What about Lorofer? What’s his role?

  You may think of him as security.

  Why isn’t he down there protecting Kahvel?

  Protecting my father from what? It’s an enclosed cavern. Lorofer has already inspected the cavern and pronounced it safe. His skills are best suited up here, where he can guard the tunnel.

  Oh. That makes sense. Shall we go?

  Aye. After you.

  Mikal took Lissa’s hand and started down the tunnel. He kept an eye on Gareth, as if he expected their new friend to have a change of heart and vanish from sight, as wizards were wont to do. True to his word, Gareth remained by their side. His breathing was ragged, he had drops of perspiration trickling down his face, and he looked pale.

  “Hey, we’re right here with you,” Mikal assured him. “We aren’t going anywhere. I told you I’d put in a good word with my father. I wasn’t kidding. You’ve upheld your end of the arrangement so
far. I will do the same.”

  “Thanks,” Gareth whispered softly. “I don’t think it matters. I think I’m going to be sick.”

  Lissa reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a plant she had recently picked. She pressed it into Gareth’s hand.

  “Here. Take a few leaves off and chew them. It’s a type of spearmint plant. I was going to make a tea with this but I think you need this more than I do. Chewing the leaves can help relieve nausea.”

  Gareth eyed Lissa’s gift. The plant had square stems, opposite crinkly leaves, and emitted a slight menthol smell. He brought the harvested plant up for a closer inspection.

  “This will keep me from getting sick?”

  “That’s right. If you…”

  Lissa trailed off as she watched Gareth shove the whole plant into his mouth, roots and all.

  “I was going to say that you only needed a few leaves.”

  Gareth grunted and continued to chew.

  They emerged into the subterranean cavern. Mikal blinked with surprise. Lorofer was right. There wasn’t room for four dragons. Kahvel and a second dragon, one that was a deep maroon color, were on the far side of the cavern. They were each resting on the ground and facing the small group of humans. Mikal spotted his father, Commander Rhenyon, and three other high ranking castle officials sitting at a table that had been erected in front of the dragons. Mikal assumed they were in the middle of some type of debate since each side was talking at the same time.

  “It felled three dragons without lifting a hand!” Kahvel growled. His fangs were bared and his eyes had narrowed to slits. “Every drop of jhorun had been drained from their bodies.”

  “What is it you use the jh…” Kri’Entu trailed off as the newcomers entered the cavern. The entire cave fell silent.

  Kahvel’s great golden head turned towards the new arrivals.

  “Pravara. I’m assuming you have a significant reason for this interruption?”

  Pravara nodded. “I do, father. However, my news correlates with Mikal’s, so I think he should be allowed to go first.”

  If a dragon had an eyebrow to raise then Kahvel would have done just that. The Dragon Lord looked at Kri’Entu and inclined his head. The king slowly stood, prompting the rest of men at the table to follow suit.