Ascendant (27 page)

Mwazo rapped
his fist on the stone parapet in frustration.
“
It would certainly kill him. Yet, the enemy
would not hesitate to channel power through the boy, use him up until he was a
dry husk, and throw him away. Paedris, you were wise to hide the boy
’
s power from him. Who else
knows?
”
Mwazo
asked.

“
Us, and the Regent.
”

Chu bit her
lip.
“
Perhaps
it would be best if the Lady Carlana forgot what she has heard-
“

“
No.
”
Paedris cut off Chu
’
s treasonous thought.
“
She is the Regent. We may
have disagreements, but we both serve Tarador. There will be no tampering with
her memories, understood? Besides, Carlana has supported me completely about
Koren.
”

“
I sensed your blocking
spell is wearing thin.
”
Chu warned.

Paedris
nodded.
“
We
need the four of us to cast a spell that will use Koren
’
s own power to block his
ability. It will wear off eventually, his power is too great to contain. He is
already much stronger than all of us together.
”

“
We will cast the spell
tonight, after the boy is asleep.
”
Chu declared.
“
The
question still needs to be answered: what does it mean that we find this boy
now, when the power of Acedor is growing beyond our ability to contain? Mwazo?
You know the scrolls better than anyone.
”

Mwazo rubbed
his chin.
“
There
are many prophesies, of the final battle between Tarador and Acedor, or as I
should say, between the forces of Light and the Darkness. This is not a battle
for Tarador alone,
”
Mwazo nodded to Paedris and Chu, who were from lands far away,
“
but for all free peoples.
I cannot think of any mention of this boy in the scrolls. He is a complete
mystery. But, you are correct, Madam Chu, it cannot be only a coincidence that
Koren
’
s power
is rising now, when our need is becoming so dire. We must take hope from that.
”

“
There is one thing I know
for certain,
”
Shomas said, pulling a apple from his pocket and biting into it, as his
appetite returned.
“
As
much wizardly power this boy has, so far in his life it has been balanced by
bad luck. Think on that, Mwazo.
”

"Luck is
not a-"

"And you
are wrong about something, Lord Salva." Shomas continued, "There is
such a thing as a jinx."

"What?"
Chu exclaimed. Shomas Feany was not known as a philosopher.

"It seems
to me that Koren's life has been jinxed. By now, he should be well on his way
to becoming a powerful wizard, beyond the enemy's power to harm. His family
should be wealthy beyond their dreams. Instead, he's sweeping floors and
chopping wood, abandoned by his parents. You think it's a coincidence, that
Koren happens to be in the wilderness, at the exact same time a magic-spelled
beast attacks the crown princess of Acedor's greatest enemy?" Shomas asked
with a raised eyebrow.

"It is
not coincidence, and Koren is
not
a jinx." Lord Mwazo insisted,
with surprising vehemence. "For us, for the forces of Light who struggle
against the Darkness, he is the opposite of a jinx. For our young princess, he
was a savior, unlooked for in the wilderness, for when she needed him, he came
without being called. For us now, facing what we all believe will be the final
battle, he is Hope. No, Shomas, he may feel his own life has been jinxed, but
he is the greatest stroke of luck we could wish for."

"If he
remains on our side, if the enemy does not gain control of his power."
Shomas warned.

Paedris let
out a great sigh. "Yes.
If
."

Koren stumbled
out of bed late, unsure why he had slept so late and still felt so stupidly
tired. It felt like he had hardly slept at all, and he had a vague memory of
disturbing dreams involving wizards, wizards gathered around his bed in the
dark of the night. He splashed cold water on his face, tried to drag a comb
through his tangled hair, and hurried up the stairs. The wizards were not going
to be happy about their breakfast being late!

To Koren
’
s immense surprise, the
four wizards were already sitting around the table, digging into a feast, and
he could smell hot coffee, the wizard must have brewed it himself that morning.
Paedris waved to him.
“
Ah,
there you are, young Koren! Had enough sleep, have you, Mister Woolyhead?"
He said with a jovial wink. "Come, come, sit down. Shomas fetched enough
food for an army.
”

Shomas patted
his ample belly while stuffing a buttered muffin in his mouth.
“
I am hungry enough to eat
like an army!
”

Koren almost
fainted when Lord Mwazo rose to pull out a chair for Koren, and then poured tea
for him.
“
Jam?
”
Mwazo offered.
“
This strawberry jam goes
particularly well on the muffins.
”

His head
spinning, Koren managed to thank the wizards, and sat eating muffins, and
bacon, and ham, and eggs, and bread that Paedris toasted over a fire in the
corner of the room. The wizards talked about places they
’
d been, mutual friends
they
’
d seen, or
not seen in many years. Mwazo was in such a good mood that he poured out the
rest of the teapot into his cup, and then performed what he called a
‘
trick
’
. With a mumbled
incantation and waving his hands around, he made the teapot disappear, right
before Koren
’
s
very eyes!

“
Sir! How did you do that?
”
Koren asked, amazed.
Paedris never did any
‘
tricks
’
with his wizardly skills,
Koren had so far never seen him use any magic except for healing spells.

“
It is now in the shadow
realm, Koren.
”
Mwazo said in a dramatic voice, with a wink at the other wizards.

“
The shadow- what does
that- where did it go?
”
Koren sputtered.

Mwazo waved
his hand thru where the teapot had been.
“
The
shadow realm is the land of ghosts, it exists next to us, but we can
’
t see it.
”

“
We usually can
’
t see it.
”
Madame Chu corrected.
“
When the-
“

“
Yes, yes, don
’
t fill the boy
’
s head with details right
now.
”
Mwazo
waved her away.
“
Now,
watch this.
”
The wizard closed his eyes in concentration, muttered some foreign words under
his breath, and the teapot reappeared, right where it had been.

Koren clapped
his hands with delight.
“
Oh,
that is powerful magic, sir!
”

Mwazo smiled,
and took a short bow to acknowledge the applause.
“
No, it is truly very
simple, that
’
s
why I call it a mere
‘
trick
’
. Casting an item into the
shadow realm is one of the first tests of apprentice wizards
’
ability to control their
power. You will-
“
Mwazo caught himself, as the other wizards eyebrows raised in alarm,
“
-er, that is, you will see
truly powerful magic, during your time with Paedris.
”

Koren stood up
to clear away the dishes, but Paedris waved for him to sit.
“
Relax! Relax, young man,
you
’
ve been
cleaning up after us tired old-
“

“
Who are you calling old?
”
Shomas interrupted.

“
-gang of wizards for too
long now. It is a fine day, let
’
s
all of us go out for a ride. I need to get out of this stuffy old tower, and it
would be a shame to waste a sunny day, with Winter approaching so quickly.
”

"Paedris,"
Lord Mwazo said slowly, while rummaging around in a great leather bag he'd
brought, "I wonder. Ah, here it is." He pulled a small wood box from
the bag, a battered old box made of ark, stained wood, with worn copper hinges.

"You
wonder what, Cecil?" Paedris responded absent-mindedly, engaged
simultaneously in reading a book, sipping tea, and toasting a crust of bread
over the fire. It was late afternoon, not yet time for a hearty dinner, and the
wizard was hungry again. True, he had a fine breakfast, a late, and very large
breakfast, but they'd ridden far into the countryside, an endeavor that
encouraged an appetite.

"I'd like
to try something. With my cards." Mwazo opened the box, pulled out a stack
of playing cards, and set them on the table. The cards were also well-worn,
but, unlike regular playing cards, these were blank on one side. The other side
was inscribed with mysterious symbols well-known by Mwazo, but some of the
symbols were a bit of a mystery even to Paedris.

Paedris forced
himself to pay attention. "Cards? Oh, your fortune cards." He
frowned, then turned in surprise, which caused his almost perfectly-done piece
of toast to fall off the stick into the fire. "Oh, darn it! Have you found
something new?" He asked excitedly, hopefully.

"No, not
yet. I think thinking, about Koren, no, never mind, it's foolish."

"What is
it?"

"A
feeling. It's silly, forget about it."

Paedris set
down his book and tea mug. "Cecil, you know better than I that sometimes a
'feeling' is the spirit world trying to talk to us. You are the most sensitive
of us to the call of the spirits. What is your feeling telling you?"

"A vague
feeling that, now, maybe something is different. That something has changed.
I've had the feeling ever since I first met Koren. I would like to see if I can
read the boy's future with these cards."

"We
haven't been able to read fortunes in-"

"Yes, I
know." Mwazo said quickly. "I know. I have a feeling, as you
said."

"Let's
see. Koren! Koren, come here!" Paedris walked over to a cabinet and got a
thin needle.

"You
called for me, sir?" Koren said, out of breath from racing up the stairs.
From the state of the boy's clothing, the wizard surmised his servant had been
scrubbing something, perhaps a floor, from the dirt on the knees of his pants.

"Yes,
quite so." Paedris exchanged a glance with Lord Mwazo. He didn't wish to
alarm Koren. "You seemed to enjoy Mwazo's magic tricks over the breakfast
table, would you like to see some real magic?"

"Oh, yes,
sir!"

"Good. Mwazo
here would like to try reading your fortune. If we can. It requires a drop of
your blood, a single tiny drop, you understand? I will prick your finger with
this thin needle, and we'll put a drop of blood on this card."

Koren wasn't
thrilled with the idea of a wizard needing his blood, that sounding vaguely
like part of a spell wizards used to turn people into frogs, or something more
horrible. He couldn't back out now, and he did want to see more magic, so he
nodded.

 Over the
table, Paedris carefully pricked Koren's finger, and squeezed a drop of blood
onto a blank card held by Lord Mwazo. The drop of blood was absorbed so
quickly, it was as if it had fallen right through the card. "Hmmm. Still
nothing." Paedris expressed disappointedly as the card remained blank.
"Well , not every-"

"Shh!"
Mwazo hissed. "The card is
not
blank!" He peered closely,
intensely concentrating.

"Are you
sure?" Paedris asked skeptically, leaning over to see the card closer.
"The firelight can be-" The powerful wizard sucked in a breath.
"Is it?"

"Do you
see what I see?" Mwazo looked up hopefully. Looked up in hope, and
confusion.

"I, don't
understand. I can't truly
see
anything, it is as if the images-"

"Yes,
yes!" Images flickered across the face of the card, impossibly fast. The
wizards were unable to bring an image into focus, not a single one, not even
when Paedris hurriedly cast a spell to slow their perception of time. Koren was
greatly alarmed by that spell, for Paedris had been in such a frantic hurry
that he hadn't explained what he was doing. Suddenly, the room had dimmed for a
moment, the flames in the fireplace slowed so they appeared to be made of a
sluggish liquid, which Koren found fascinating. The images on the card still
flickered too fast for Koren to really see anything.

Then the spell
dispersed, the room brightened, the fireplace went back to crackling flames,
and the card was again blank, with no trace of blood on it.

"What did
you see?" Paedris asked wearily, slumping into a chair. The time spell was
draining, and casting it so hurriedly had exhausted the master wizard. His hand
shook when he reached for a mug of tea.

"Nothing."
Said Mwazo, master of his own type of wizardry. "I almost, no, nothing.
But there was something there."

"What
were all those pictures, sir? Lord Mwazo?" Koren asked innocently.

"Pictures?"
Paedris looked up sharply.

Mwazo leaned
forward eagerly. "Koren? You saw something? What was it?"

"It
was," Koren fought for the proper words, "not something, sirs. It was
more like
everything
. Everything, all at once. So fast, it all blurred
together. Men on horses, and fighting, and skeletons, and fields of flowers,
and sunshine and storms, and farmers bringing in crops, and people dancing,
celebrating something, and, and, darkness, and something horrible.
Horrible." He shuddered. "Also I think I saw the ocean, sirs, islands
in the ocean. And mountains, tall mountains with their tops covered in ice,
even at in summer time."

"Mwazo?"
Paedris inquired with a raised eyebrow. "What does this mean?"

"It
means," the loremaster said with a deliberate look at Paedris, "that
my fortune cards are still unable to see the future." He turned to Koren.
"I'm sorry, Koren, sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't. It is
nearly time for dinner, why don't you run over to the kitchens and see what
they're preparing for us?"

Koren knew
when the wizards wanted to talk in private. "Yes, sirs." he bowed
slightly, and left. If he was disappointed to not know more of his future, it
didn't show, for he was still trying to recall more of the amazing images he'd
seen.

"Lord
Salva," Mwazo said after Koren had gone back down the stairs, "perhaps
it is time to see your fortune."

"You
think that will work?"

"I think
it will help me understand what Koren's fortune means."

It didn't help
Paedris, for the fortune card remained perfectly, frustratingly blank, as it
had for everyone recently. Beginning, Mwazo recalled, twelve years ago, the
ability of wizards to see the future, or to be more accurate, to see which
possible futures were most likely to occur, had begun to fade. Within the last
five years, the fortune cards had been blank, completely blank. Except today,
except Koren's future.

"Hmmm.
Blank again, as always." Paedris said in disappointment.

"Not
quite." Mwazo announced, holding the card up to his eyes, and examining it
from various angles. "There is something there. Two images, very faint,
fading in and out, like they are trying to form, but the spirits yet lack the
power."

"Which
images?"

Mwazo
carefully put the cards back in the box. "I would rather not tell you,
yet, about one, for I very well could be wrong, and lead us all down the wrong
path. About the other, I can say, with very little certainty, mind you, that I
think, I get the impression that it is a crown."

"A
crown?" Paedris looked puzzled. For all his wizardly power, he lacked the
loremaster's insight into the arcane spirit world. "A crown is in my
future?" The Don Salva family was sort of nobility in his home lands, but
it had been many, many years since Paedris had been there, and many before that
since he'd last exercised any of the legal powers of a Don. When he'd departed La
Murta to fight the enemy in Tarador, he had left his lands to his children,
except for leaving a large part of the olive groves to the townspeople.