The Warded Box Read online

  [AH1]

  By

  Guy Antibes

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Epilogue

  Map of Corand & Tesoria

  Wizard’s helper Character List

  Excerpt of the third book in the Wizard’s helper series – Grishel’s Feather

  Copyright Page

  Author’s Note

  A Bit About Guy

  Books by Guy Antibes

  Copyright ©2019 Guy Antibes. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without the permission of the author.

  ~

  This is a work of fiction. There are no real locations used in the book; the people, settings, and specific places are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual persons, locations, or places are purely coincidental.

  Published by CasiePress LLC in Salt Lake City, UT, May 2019.

  www.casiepress.com

  Cover Design: www.ebooklaunch.com

  Book Design: Kenneth Cassell

  Editing: Amy Hoffman

  Primary Reader: Beverly Cassell

  ~

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  ~

  I am dedicating this book and this series to my long-time editor, Judy Robins, whose cancer came back with a vengeance as I was finishing up The Serpent’s Orb. She started working with me during the Power of Poses series. The heroes that she helped bring to life, Trak, Pol, Ricky, and Sam, are sad with Judy’s passing, as am I.

  — Guy Antibes

  The Warded Box

  Chapter One

  ~

  “G et Fasher and me some lunch,” Penny Ephram, the wizard’s apprentice, said. “I am being tutored, and you aren’t.”

  Jack Winder shook his head. At least Fasher had ended his punishment of having to wear the white tabard of a wizard’s helper in the wizard’s house as of two days ago. Two months was more than enough time to endure Penny’s relentless hounding. Fasher had never told her that a wizard’s helper was a rare kind of wizard and that he actually ranked far above Penny, but Jack would be the last to tell her.

  She kept insisting how lowly he was. Fasher had never told her what a wizard’s helper did. Her constantly getting it wrong made him smile.

  “And where will I get lunch this late in the afternoon? Only the two pubs are open. Will you choose one?” Jack asked.

  “Just get us some food and make sure you bring enough to have some yourself,” Fasher Tempest said, walking into Jack’s workroom.

  “Yes, sir,” Jack said. He proceeded to the pub that he had begun frequenting, now that he was eighteen years old and able to drink on his own.

  He liked the food better there anyway. There were too many distractions at the pub his father went to, namely gambling and women who made their living being companionable. It wasn’t that Jack was a prude, but after his experience retrieving the Serpent’s Orb and everything that went with that experience, he had moderated his behavior a little, but he didn’t know why.

  The pub owner was polishing the bar along with the barkeep, an older woman with a saltier tongue than her employer. “Lunch again?” the owner said.

  Jack smiled and nodded. “I can wait. Fix something that Fasher would like.” Fasher had begun frequenting Jack’s favorite pub while Jack had sought the Serpent’s Orb.

  The barkeep smiled. “You need a little whisker washer while you wait?” she said while she grabbed a mug and filled it up with ale.

  Jack felt the stubble on his chin. The woman had such a polite way of saying he needed a shave. He would have to ignore her. He grew the stubble to needle Penny Ephram, and it worked beautifully this morning, he thought as he sipped and rubbed his face.

  On the way back to Fasher Tempest’s house, Jack basked in the faint glow of an alcoholic haze. Fetching lunch at the pub was another thing that she thought was a punishment. Jack giggled a bit at the thought.

  He returned just as Penny’s session ended. They ate in Jack’s workroom at the table across from his desk.

  “I have another errand for you to perform,” Fasher said.

  Jack leaned across to where his tabard was hanging.

  “No, another traveling errand,” Fasher said.

  The wizard surprised Jack. He didn’t think the man trusted him after he returned from retrieving the Serpent’s Orb in Lajia. Jack still hadn’t told Fasher the story. They had a truce of sorts, since Jack had to wear the orb around his neck to recharge it. Fasher had guessed it would take five years, and Jack had expected to wait that long until he would be sent off again.

  After lunch, Jack passed Penny’s desk on the way to Fasher’s office. He received the dirty look he normally did. He certainly wouldn’t mind a break from that relentless glare.

  “Close the door and sit.”

  Jack smiled. Penny hated to see the door closed when he and Fasher had their training sessions that weren’t really that often.

  “I don’t suppose you have ever been to Tesoria?” Fasher said.

  Jack shook his head. “My traveling experience has been north of Raker Falls. Tesoria is south.”

  “I am aware of that,” Fasher said drily.

  Jack sighed. The wizard had been short with him ever since he had returned from Lajia.

  “I have a message, a warded message, that you must deliver to the Tesorian grand wizard in Wilton. The Tesorian Wizards Guild’s headquarters are not in Gameton, the capital.”

  “I took geography in extended school and know Tesoria better than I did Lajia.”

  Fasher shrugged. “You will meet a Tesorian wizard at Underville. He will be your guide in Tesoria.”

  “Why don’t I just give him the message?”

  Fasher shook his head and looked out the window. “The message is warded. There is a Second Manipulation spell that only you can break. I can’t entirely trust Lark Handercraft, the wizard, to deliver it to the grand wizard. I suspect he has other loyalties, but there is another reason for his being your guide that you don’t have to know about.”

  At least Fasher was warning him that Jack would be heading for disappointment in one thing or another on this errand. But he would get to travel again, and Jack missed the excitement of being on the road.

  “When do I leave?” Jack asked.

  “Two days. I have to ward the message to key it to you like the objects of power when you left for Dorkansee.”

  “Will I get any new objects of power?” Jack asked.

  “You may take the wand and the orb since it needs years of power. The sword is too valuable for this particular task, and you won’t n
eed a seeker cube or anything, since Lark Handercraft will guide you.”

  ~

  Jack stared at Takia’s Cup sitting on his dresser. He had been arguing with himself for the last quarter hour about taking it and decided against packing the potent object of power. He would take his own sword, which had been repaired. It would give him access to Takia’s fire, but if he needed a copious amount, it was a one-shot weapon. Jack hoped that wouldn’t happen.

  The wizard manual would definitely come with him. He had withstood the temptation to read it, electing to learn the basics from Fasher, but if he needed help, he could only rely on himself. He grabbed his pack after stuffing in the manual and walked to Fasher’s house. A horse stood out front. Jack wondered who had visited, since it wasn’t a horse from Raker Falls. Jack knew them all.

  “Are you ready?” Fasher asked after Jack walked into the office. “No time frame, but make it as quick as you can.” He motioned the door shut. “I shudder to think what the paperwork will be like when you return.” Fasher opened a drawer to his desk and pulled out a box.

  “The message is in there?” Jack asked.

  “In a manner of speaking,” Fasher said. “When you break the spell, the box will appear in its real form as a folded scroll. The message is on there, and you will not break the seal by yourself. It is to be done jointly with the grand wizard. Can you try to do as I ask, this time?”

  Jack kept his temper. “I did do as you asked the last time. I just needed to do more to succeed.”

  “Keep the more down to a minimum,” Fasher said.

  “I will, sir,” Jack said. He looked at the horse standing outside. “Who is visiting you?”

  “No one. The horse that you keep gazing at is the one you will use. Try to return it intact. It isn’t a village horse; none of them are suitable.”

  “I understand,” Jack said. He agreed with the wizard about the quality of horses in the village.

  Fasher pushed the warded message and a purse across his desk. “There you go. If I were smart, I would give you a month to return, but I have lost a good deal of my intelligence since I hired you.”

  Now Fasher sounded like his father, but after two months of working with Fasher, his bark was worse than his bite. If he didn’t trust Jack, he would have found another way to deliver the message.

  Chapter Two

  ~

  T hree days later, Jack walked on the elevated wooden walkways of Underville. The little river that seemed to amble through town often overflowed its banks, so all the buildings were built above the floods. Jack thought it a little odd. He had learned about changing the path of rivers in extended school, and Underville River seemed to be a good candidate, but what would he know?

  The river hadn’t flooded for a while, so the air was filled with dust tossed up by horses, carts, and carriages. Jack asked for directions to the address where Lark Handercraft lived. It looked like it was a boarding house of some kind. Horses were tied up outside the three-story house.

  Since people walked in and out, Jack didn’t knock and walked in. He stopped a man on the way out. “I’m looking for Lark Handercraft.”

  “They are in rooms 22 and 23.”

  “They?” Jack asked.

  The man nodded but didn’t say another word on the way out. The first floor had 1’s in front of the numbers, so that meant Handercraft was on the second floor. He found room 22 and knocked on the door.

  “Yes?” a girl about his age said.

  She was incredibly beautiful. Jack gazed at her auburn hair and her pretty face with a sprinkling of freckles.

  “Yes?” she said again, a little impatiently.

  Jack guessed she had been gawked at before. If he had ever seen a girl who punched him in the gut with her looks, this was the one. “I’m looking for Lark Handercraft,” Jack said. “I am from Fasher Tempest, the wizard.”

  Her face brightened, making her even more attractive. “You are the helper.” She said it as a fact.

  “That is I. Wizard Handercraft is to guide me in Tesoria.”

  “We will accompany you,” the girl said. “I am Ralinn Bonarin, his apprentice.”

  Jack tore his gaze away from her. He had to remind himself that staring was impolite. Jack struggled to say, “I am Jack Winder of Raker Falls.”

  Ralinn Bonarin told Jack to go across the street to an inn where Lark and Ralinn would meet him for dinner. Their boarding house did not put up people overnight, but the pub would. Lark was still out but would be returning soon.

  Disappointed he couldn’t extend his time with the girl; Jack walked his horse across the street into the pub’s stable yard. He looked across the street, but the wizard’s rooms faced the back. He sighed and secured a room for the night, smiling as he did so. Tanner was the one to rent rooms during his trip to secure Fasher’s Serpent’s Orb, but Jack had learned how to do it.

  He still had an hour or two to spare before the agreed upon time, so he wandered around Underville, clomping on the elevated sidewalks. The town was bigger than Raker Falls, but then that was to be expected. Underville was an actual crossroads for one of the major roads heading south into Tesoria along with another road that went east for a few days before plunging into Kadellia. Jack remembered that country, which sat side by side with Tesoria, as the one that had invaded Corand some time ago when Tanner and Helen, his escorts to Lajia, met Fasher Tempest in that war.

  The window display of a general store caught his eye. He stepped inside and bought some candy to keep his spirits up on the road. He didn’t have any during his trip to Lajia, and Jack could have used a lift from time to time. He spotted a knife, but it looked much like the cheap sword his father had purchased for him on his eighteenth birthday.

  That prompted him to find a weapons shop in the town. He asked, and it seemed that a weapons maker at the south end of town sold the best knives and swords. Jack had plenty of time, so he sauntered along the street to the end of town and found a compound built up from ground level by large rocks creating a foundation. The weapons maker seemed to be doing some better thinking than his neighbors by not building his business on stilts.

  He climbed up rock steps and entered the building. No one was in the shop, but he heard clanging outside the side door. Jack watched a man and an apprentice at work. He folded his arms and watched them pound a billet into a long block. The weapons smith shoved the block into the fire and looked up at Jack.

  “Sorry,” the man said. “An occupational hazard, not hearing people in my shop. What can I do for you?”

  “I want a belt knife. I have everything else I need,” Jack said.

  The weapons smith looked at Jack’s sword. “I’ve never seen one of those before. Would you mind if I examined it?”

  Jack shook his head and drew it from the scabbard.

  “Not made in Corand; I can see that,” he said looking closely at the surface of the sword and then holding it out. “Mind if I copy the shape? I’ll give you a very generous discount on a knife. Where did you get it? You don’t see craftsmanship like this very often.”

  “I bought it in Lajia,” Jack said. “It was made by an industrious family. I didn’t see another like it in the country.”

  The man took out a large scrap of parchment and began measuring and sketching. “I can sell something that looks like this, but this weapon has a bit of magic in it.”

  Jack blushed. “Are you a wizard?”

  The man laughed. “A good smith is always better if he can use the First Manipulation to help him with his work. This is a wizard’s object of power?”

  “That part of it, I made myself,” Jack said.

  The smith raised his eyebrows. “You are, what, eighteen? Nineteen?”

  “Eighteen,” Jack said. “I’m a wizard’s helper for my master.”

  “A wizard’s servant or a real wizard’s helper?”

  Jack blushed again. “A real wizard’s helper, but I’m not very experienced.”

  “Experienced enough t
o have learned how to imbue a masterpiece like this sword. Are you adept with this?”

  “My spells are better than my swings,” Jack said. “I’m afraid I’m a mediocre swordsman.”

  The smith looked at it again. “I can see the guard has had some work done on it.”

  “I damaged it in Lajia,” Jack said.

  “That you did. Whoever fixed it could have done a better job. I’ll do a better job than him if you let me have it overnight. I’d like to test it some more. Leave me five shillings, and I will match a knife to this blade. Is that a deal?” the man asked.

  The cheap knife in the general store was four shillings. It would certainly be a great deal. “Will it come with a sheath?”

  “If you don’t mind used.” The weapon maker’s eyes drifted to the scabbard. “That has seen some repairs, too. I can match them up well enough if you give me an extra shilling.”

  Jack handed him the coins. “When tomorrow?” he asked.

  “Just before midday,” the man said.

  Jack left him running his hand along the guard. The wand at his side would protect him for less than a day, he thought, as he continued to walk back across town to the inn. His thoughts turned back to the lovely Ralinn Bonarin, and when he stepped into the common room, there she was with a man that, save for his black hair, could have been her brother.

  Ralinn said something to Lark Handercraft, and the man stood up. He looked to be about Tanner’s age but was shorter and slighter. Jack looked down at him.

  “Jack Winder?” the wizard said, extending his hand.

  After nodding, Jack shook the man’s hand and joined them at the table. “I am, and you must be Lark Handercraft.”

  The man gave him a ready smile. “Fasher said you were young, but you are a tall eighteen-year-old.”

  Jack grinned. “Don’t let my height fool you. I act as young as any other my age. There are those,” Jack thought of Penny Ephram, “who think I act much younger.”

  “Ralinn said you had a handsome sword,” Lark said as he looked at Jack’s waist.