The Guardians: Book One of the Restoration Series (18 page)

Sergeant Latts excused himself, and he left grinning.

Cassandra’s room was decorated nicely, but it was apparent that functionality was more important to her than luxury. The stone walls were lined with book shelves. The floor was bare without any rugs or coverings. To his left was a bar which ran most of the width of the room, effectively splitting the room in
half.
In the half of the room to
Flare’s
left, were several tables. In this half of the room, there were two couches, several chairs, and two more tables.

Directly opposite Flare, was a balcony overlooking the
courtyard.
The balcony doors were open, and the breeze ruffled the deep purple curtains that hung on the door.

There were no torches in the room, but the room was still brilliantly lit.

To his right, was a doorway that had to lead to Cassandra’s
bedchambers.
The thought of her bedchambers sent a chill down his back. He felt his face getting warm, as he started to blush again, and he looked to see if Cassandra noticed.

She had been cooling appraising him, as he had been scanning the room.

“Lady Cassandra, I'll be right outside the door if you need anything.” Flare said.

Cassandra crossed her arms frowning, “First of all, I am not royalty. You will address me as Cassandra. And secondly, I need you in here.”

Flare’s heart skipped a beat.
“In here!?”

“The magical experiments I perform sometimes require a man's strength. I have made arrangements to have my guard stationed inside the room, instead of outside. The sergeant knows this, and has no problems with it.”

“As you wish,” Flare said, taking up position beside the door. Cassandra moved to one of the tables and began reading a large leather bound book.

Cassandra spent several hours preparing and practicing for a magical spell. At first, Flare had found this deeply interesting, but his interest waned over time, and he stood there rocking from foot to foot.

When she was ready, she spoke for the first time in hours, startling him back to attention.
“All right.
I'm ready to begin, but I don't think I will need your help after all. I want you to be quiet and say nothing. Do you understand?”

“Yes, perfectly.”

Enthralled, Flare watched as Cassandra began casting her spell. She used reagents, which she mixed in a small bowl in the middle of the table. While mixing, she spoke slowly and haltingly in a different language. Startled, Flare realized that Cassandra was trying to speak high elven.
Although, her pronunciation was less than perfect.

There were bowls of different sizes scattered across the table. Hour glasses of various sizes sat along the right side of the table. A large book rested in the center of the table. He rose up on his tiptoes, trying to get a better look.

He continued to watch for several hours as Cassandra continued. He had never imagined that magic was so complicated. Cassandra proceeded slowly, using the different sized hour glasses to time different steps in the magic spell.

For the first step of the spell, Cassandra mixed reagents in a bowl and then ignited them. She immediately turned over one of the medium sized hourglasses, and began chanting in high elven, while she kept an eye on the hourglass.

When the last grain of sand dropped from the top half of the hourglass, Cassandra poured a handful of what looked like dust into the bowl.

Flare could only wonder at how valuable the ingredients were. He moved several steps closer trying to get a better look. The small flame in the bowl immediately erupted into a flaming pillar, shooting towards the ceiling. Startled, he jumped backwards, bumping into the wall next to the door. His heart was beating like crazy
.

He quickly looked at Cassandra, hoping that he hadn't disturbed her. Much to his relief, she didn't appear to have noticed. He turned his attention back to the bowl, where the flame turned from yellow, to a bright blue, and finally changed to white.

Flare tore his eyes from the flame, to look at Cassandra’s face. She was still calm. Apparently, everything was happening as she had planned.

Even though the flame was running along the ceiling, it didn’t appear to be burning or scorching it. And for all the flame in the room, the temperature still felt the same as before.

The flame abruptly died out, and Cassandra turned over the smallest hourglass. She stood up and scooped up a large bowl. Then she dumped the white sand from the bowl onto the floor in front of a five foot mirror. She dropped to her knees, right in the middle of the sand, and she began tracing runes and symbols.

She frantically traced the runes, only pausing momentarily to glance at the hour glass. She was still tracing the runes, when the last sand dropped from the top of the hour glass. She grimaced and returned to the table.

For almost two hours, he watched Cassandra perform the steps of the magic spell. Reagents were added to the bowl, and mixed in. Phrases and words of high elven were spoken at various points in the process. At one point she paused for so long, that Flare was beginning to think that the casting was over, until he noticed Cassandra watching the moon. When she was satisfied, she starting again.

Finally, she stood and spoke in a loud voice, “Alundia sezkial desnarrath. Alul dã lateth!
Paloze en-tafille al gedst.
Quintill fa la-cantorri.
Yud xil akto!”
When she finished speaking, she collapsed into a chair. She was covered in sweat, and looked exhausted.

She forced herself back up, with her hands supporting her against the table.
 

Flare was drained just looking at her. “What now? What’s supposed to happen?”

“Well, if everything I did was correct, then I will soon add this tome of magic to my collection. It’s ancient and extremely valuable. I gained it at great personal risk.” Cassandra’s eyes burned with intensity.

“Well how will we know if it worked?”

Her eyes fluttered, almost closing. “In a moment the book should glow a brilliant white. When it does, the spells protecting it have been deactivated. Do you understand?”

“Yes, but this seems awfully complicated just to read a book.”

Cassandra smiled, and brushed back a strand of loose hair. “The magician that once owned this book was very powerful, and he was paranoid about protecting his secrets. Quite a few magicians have died trying to retrieve his spells. It was not easy for me to ...”

Cassandra suddenly straightened up, the color draining from her face. Her eyes focused on something that was roughly halfway between them.

“What’s the ...” An explosion of light and wind cut off the question he was about to ask.

An oval shaped disk of light hung suspended in the middle of the room. The disk was generating winds that were swirling in a circular motion. The winds were starting to resemble a tornado. Books and papers were flying about the room, and with a start, Flare realized the winds were increasing.

A book went flying through the room, entered the disk of light, and emerged unscathed from the other side of the disk.

Cassandra came around the left side of the table, and hollered across the room. “Get out, or the winds will suck us in.”

The winds were already making it hard for him to stand, so he grabbed hold of the door with his left hand, to steady himself.
“Hurry!”
He shouted back at Cassandra.

Cassandra skirted the disk, giving it a wide berth. The winds were increasing, and she was having a difficult time keeping her balance.

She was about even with the disk, just about to pass it, when an enormously thick book slammed into the back of her head, knocking her to the ground.

“Damn!”
Even holding on to the door, he was having a hard time maintaining his balance.

A stool flew through the air, and Flare instinctively reached out and swatted it away. But in doing so, he released his hold on the door.

He immediately fell prone on the floor, hoping that the winds wouldn’t be able to move him.

Cassandra was still lying on the floor, but he could see that the winds were starting to slowly drag her towards the disk.

Acting without thinking, Flare put his right foot against the wall and lunged toward the magician.

The force of his lunge propelled him between Cassandra and the disk. The pull of the winds were stronger that he had realized, and started pulling him slowly towards the disk.

Grabbing Cassandra around the waist, Flare pulled her to him. He dug the toes of his boots into the floor, and with the fingernails of his left hand, tried to hold onto one of the cracks between the blocks in the floor.

They continued to slide toward the disk, and Flare could think of nothing to stop their momentum.

He was starting to panic, when his eyes came back to the cracks in the floor. He pulled the knife from its sheath on its belt, and drove the knife down into the crack. Then wrapping his left arm around the knife, he held on to Cassandra with his right.

Flare said a silent prayer, hoping the knife would be enough to save their lives.

The winds had increased beyond belief. Books, papers, magical instruments, and furniture were flying around the room.

Flare’s arm was aching with the strain of holding both of them. The strain was becoming too much as the winds increased, and he didn’t know how much longer he could hold on.

The disk shimmered and disappeared with a loud pop. In the moment it disappeared, the winds seemed to reverse with equal force. Flare and Cassandra were tossed in the opposite direction, and landed hard on the block floor. He landed first, and Cassandra came down hard on top of him, knocking the breath from his lungs.

The books and the other assorted heavier instruments slammed down hard. The papers settled easier.

They lay there for several moments, breathing hard. He was starting to worry about her, when a low moan escaped her lips.

“What happened?” Cassandra asked.

“You hit your head, so I had to save you.”

“Save me, how?”

“I drove my knife between the cracks in the floor, and used it to hold us away from the disk, until it disappeared. Are you all right?”

Cassandra sat up slowly and touched her head. “My head hurts, but I'll be okay.
Thanks to you.”
She smiled, and what a smile it was. Right then and there, he was quite sure that her smile had melted men’s hearts before.

“Do you want me to get a healer for you?”

“No. I’ll be fine, but please help me to the bedroom.”

Flare carried the magician to the other door he had noticed earlier. Her bedroom, unlike the outer room, was lavishly decorated. There were thick carpets, beautiful paintings, and a huge bed that rested on a dais in the middle of the room.

Flare stood Cassandra down beside the bed. She wobbled, but remained standing. When she almost fell, He quickly grabbed her by the arm to support her.

“Thank you,” She said smiling “I guess I needed your help, after all.”

She smiled at him as he helped her into bed, and pulled a blanket up to her chin.

“If you're okay, then I will start straightening up the outer room,” Flare said.

“No!” Cassandra exclaimed, sitting back up. “You must not touch anything out there. My magical supplies are also protected by spells. They can kill you just by touching them. All I want you to do is stand guard at the door, and I’ll clean it up later. Do you understand?” Her eyes burned with such a fire, that he almost took a step backwards.

“Yes,” he said hesitantly, “I understand.
Anything else?”

Cassandra smiled, lying back down on the bed.
“No, but thank you.
You saved my life, and you have my thanks. Please stand guard outside my quarters for the remainder of your watch.”

He smiled and left the room. Walking through the rubble that had been her outer room made him grimace.
He had the shakes for several moments as the excitement of the events hit him.

Flare was relieved of his guard duties when the sun came up, and he stumbled back to his barracks.
 
Half of the squad had beaten him back, and they wasted no time collapsing into bed. He was asleep before the rest of the squad even struggled in.

After about four hours of sleep, the soldiers were awoken by Sergeant Latts beating two small swords together. “Wake up!” The sergeant shouted.

The soldiers, blurry eyed and weary, quickly got to attention at the end of their bunks.

Sergeant Latts looked them up and down with a nasty smile on his face, “You got five minutes to get your uniforms on and get outside.”

The squad drilled with the other squads, in regiment formation. The main emphasis of the practice was to improve the ability of the squads to function as a team, and to follow orders as a large group.

The practice lasted until sundown, at which time the squad was dismissed, and given four hours of free time. Most of the squad, including Flare, used this time to sleep.