THE VROL TRILOGY (23 page)

Looking up, groggy and trying to adjust
his vision, he saw her look down as she softly asked, "Max, is that
girl you fought - is she your mate?"

"Um, no. I mean, yes - no, she is not.
I kind of wish that could be a possibility, but she doesn't care
much for me. Why do you ask?"

Alea took her thumb and
forefinger and gently rubbed the outer edges of his ear (lycan ears
being incredibly sensitive to the touch), while telling him how the
local leader of the vampires, Vladros, killed her mate in battle.
Her husband, 3
^rd
Captain
Morgus, was an experienced and highly-valued leader in the
Dominion, but he was betrayed by a lycan who had allied himself
with the ghouls, and had led her husband into a trap. This made Max
feel sad for her loss, as he was an emotional sort, which was a
rarity for scientists, and the probable cause for him losing his
temper during the mock battle with Jennie.

"Max, my dear young student," she
continued, "As our sessions here are near an end, please know that
you can count on me for anything. Any questions, please call on me,
and if you have any needs, such as the comfort of the company of a
woman, you only need ask."

Max gulped, awkward as ever, and nodded
to his lovely instructor.

###

After completing the third day, Draagh
approached Max and said they would begin an introductory course in
the ways of magic. Max was excited about this, although he was
longing to train more with Jennie, knowing he wouldn't turn into a
homicidal maniac.

That evening, as the three ate their
supper and the two youths excitedly recounted stories of their
training, Draagh informed Jennie that once Max was done with his
magical training he would also teach her some of the magical
arts.

Max looked at Draagh and said, "Hey
Pops, didn't you say that Jennie wasn't a mage?"

"I did indeed say that, did I not? But
as we go on, my son, you will learn that there are magical objects,
and they can be handled by non-mages who have received training in
their various uses. It will be necessary for Jennie to have
knowledge of these things."

Jennie smiled at Draagh,
and then gave Max a cocky grin, believing he wouldn't have that
much more knowledge than him at the end of it
all.



As they sat there talking about
Jennie's favorite training, which was the ancient Japanese art of
karate, Alea strolled by and leaned down, whispering something
inaudible in Max's ear. He looked at his compatriots, and noticed
that Jennie's face contorted slightly, but she regained her
composure immediately, hoping he didn't notice. Max blushed a
brilliant shade of red, blood filling his cheeks.

"Thank you, Alea. I appreciate it, and
I'll… I'll let you know."

Draagh had a mildly surprised look and
said, "Max, it does appear you have gained the admiration of
someone, hmm?"

Max turned away from the two in an
attempt to hide his blushing face, when Jennie abruptly stood up
and strolled over to a table filled with men who were all having an
animated and lively discussion regarding the proper way to behead
vampires. Two of them scooted to either side, making room for her
to sit down. Once she was placed at the table she turned back to
see both Draagh and Max with shocked expressions on their faces.
She then casually turned back to her new tablemates and accepted a
shot glass of some sort of distilled liquor, joining in their merry
festivities.

Draagh looked at his grandson, studying
the young man's face and said "My boy, fret not. This is what women
do when they become jealous."

The young lycan/mage grabbed a piece of
cold beef and started gnawing on it, wearing a face of disdain. But
what amazed Draagh the most was not that Max was perturbed by
Jennie's actions; it was that he ate with his bare
hands.

###

The following morning Max woke up and
looked out the window of his bedchambers, watching the rain drop
gently from the sky. It rained frequently in that part of the
world, but they had been rather lucky to arrive at a time when it
was dry outside. Battle training in the mud generally took longer,
so they were able to shorten their training period by a few days.
Dressing into his training clothes, he exited his room, seeing
Jennie sitting on the ground in the hallway outside her door. She
looked and smelled like she was hung over from the booze she drank
the night before, so he approached her, figuring she was in a
significant amount of pain. Max was one to always think of others,
and most certainly so in Jennie's case.

"Jennie, are you ok? Do you need
anything?"

"Why would I need anything from you?"
she blurted out, jumping up, storming into her room and slamming
the door behind her.

Max had little experience with girls,
but this was something most men never figured out anyway. Knocking
on the door, he said, "Jennie, is it ok? Can I come in? Hey, I'm
your friend. At least I would like to think I am."

She opened the door for him, a
melancholy look lining her face. Then, after allowing him to enter
her room, she suddenly started beating him in the chest with her
clenched fists, poking and punching him out of total
frustration.

"Who the hell do you think you are,
Gunnarsson? You steal our most advanced technology, fly off to
Earth where you meet this weird old wizard, and then practically
kidnap me, taking me to this place full of dog people in the middle
of future nowhere! To make it worse, you beat me in battle. You
bastard! You're just a science dweeb! How can do all these things
while it's so hard for me? It's so freaking hard!"

Jennie began to sob, dropping to her
knees right in front of Max, head hung low and throbbing in pain
due to the unfiltered libations she had consumed the night
before.

Max kneeled down and gently lifted her
face by her chin, looking into her beautiful, tear-filled
eyes.

"Jennie, what is it? How
have I wronged you? We aren't here to compete with each other -
we're here to learn so we can go back to Azul and kill the Vrol.
Didn't you watch the vids on them? They're pure evil, and our
planet will die if we - and that's
both
you and me - don't get our acts
together and learn everything possible."

Jennie fell forward and rested her face
on his shoulder, wetting the fabric of his tunic with her tears. He
had never seen her cry like this, and it killed him inside. Still,
having her so close caused an intense, warm sensation to fill his
empty stomach.

Max stood up and gently took her under
her arms, lifting her, and then brushed her bangs out of her eyes.
"Hey Jennie, come with me and let's go learn magic. You're already
awesome with swords. We can do this together, and if there's some
way you can learn more I'll be there for you, ok?"

Jennie gave Max a weak smile and they
both left her room. Once in the hallway, he said, "Draagh has an
excellent hangover cure. Would you like one?"

She again nodded her head
enthusiastically and responded, "Don't
ever
let me drink that shit again,
ok?"

"I promise," he said, and smiled as
they walked down the hallway.

###

Many hundreds of kilometers away, in a
decrepit, disintegrating castle that was barely held together by
earthen cement and the blood of unfortunate, murdered lycans, three
pale, grotesquely twisted soldiers, all dressed in dried-out black
leather, half-carried/half-dragged a man into the dank, musty
antechambers on the first level. Rotten, gangrenous patches of skin
hung from his exposed muscular tissue, having nearly been burnt off
from the sun. He appeared to be dead at first glance. The leader of
this group cautiously approached his king and kneeled before
speaking.

"My Lord, we found this in the western
forest, near a clearing. He is vampire, though he does not yet
understand his change."

Lord Vladros sat behind a massive,
gothic desk, looking at the wretched creature they had just dragged
inside.

"Does he speak?" asked
Vladros.

"Yes, my liege. He said his name is
Ryder, but is disoriented, most probably from the death orb, and he
seems near the end of his life," responded the same
soldier.

Lord Vladros looked at the man a little
further while flicking away some dead skin from his pale, twisted
face.

"Ryder? That name does not sound like
one of strength. Throw him in the dungeon until I decide his
fate."

The soldiers bowed and
backed out of the antechambers, dragging the near-corpse with
them.



"Oh, and give him some blood. I want
him alive for questioning later."

Chapter 15 - Let's Learn Magic

Max and Jennie met Draagh in the main
hall, where he was seated at a massive, wooden table, put there
specifically for their use. He had a number of manuscripts on the
table, as well as two lit candles, and assorted, ordinary-looking
objects.

"Good morning, my children!" shouted
Draagh, causing Jennie to shudder, her headache having increased in
intensity. "Here, my young friend, drink this. It is a little
concoction I invented some 23,000 years ago to help a
particular-"

"Shut up!" wailed Jennie, interrupting
the old mage. "My head aches."

She sat down and threw back her head,
chugging Draagh's potion, as the wizard gave Max a wink and a
mischievous grin. Within seconds she gained a look of relief, the
ill effects of her night of drunken revelry instantly disappearing.
Feeling much better, she showed Draagh an embarrassed grin along
with her apt attention.

Draagh looked at the two and gave them both a
glowing smile.

"Jennie," he said, "I was going to hold
off on teaching you the ways of magic, as your practical
application of the art will be limited in comparison to Max. This
is because he has most of the genetic qualities required of a
Primulus-caste mage. What changed my mind was the fact that our
young friend had a little discussion with me last night at dinner.
You know, when you were partying like it was the end of the
universe with those amazingly handsome lycan soldiers."

Jennie went red in the face, not only
because Draagh had pointed out who she was with, but also that she
had no idea Max had spoken to Draagh regarding her studying magic
along with him.

"So, I have decided that we three shall
study together," he continued, while wearing a grin of complete
satisfaction. Draagh then went on to explain the very basics of
magic.

"Magic is made possible by
energy. Well, not exactly energy, but we will call it that as it
certainly fits my explanation of what magic is - or of what it is
not. Anyway, I digress. It is a specific form of energy which
enables beings that are attuned to it to call on a variety of
functions that are, for the most part, called cantuses. These are
also archaically known as
spells
. There are varying types of
cantuses - some simple and others more complex. Just as the
structure of a language provides for simple and compound verbal
conjugations, so does magic for cantuses. Now one need not know a
whole lot for the simple cantuses, except how to call them. Then,
ambient energy in the air, in the form of sound waves, calls on
these forces to do what is requested."

Both Jennie and Max watched
Draagh with great interest as he continued. "Depending on where you
are in the universe, the cantuses will be in different languages.
Of course, we could not expect the Kartovians to have any effective
form of magic, as their words are extremely long. I could build a
house by hand, with hammer and nail before a Kartovian minor-mage,
if one existed, could recite the cantuses to perform the very same
task. The cantuses you shall use are in a form of the Latin
language. So, for example, Max, I want you to say
graveincantatio liber
,
while holding your hand out, palm facing upwards and feel the
pressure of gently lifting up this book. You must concentrate on
the book."

Max did as Draagh instructed, and
proceeded to throw the book out of the room, prompting both Draagh
and Jennie to burst out laughing.

"I could feel it! It was like a light
pressure on my palm! That was amazing! Oh, was that book
important?" asked Max.

Well, only if you wish to further your
studies, as that was your basic lessons book," stated Draagh,
prompting all three to snicker.

"Ok, my son. I shall correct your
errant cantus. Watch closely." Draagh then held out his hand and
the book went flying back into the room, with the spine landing
perfectly in his palm. Max and Jennie both sat stunned.

"Draagh," asked Max, "how is it that I
have to say words, but you don't? Is it because you're as old as
dirt?"

Draagh gave the two a silly grin and
said, "Much older, my boy. Yes, much older indeed. So let us
continue. Jennie, now it is your turn, but for you, this little
device is necessary."