The Serpent's Orb Read online

  “It is wizard time,” the guard frowned and said, “Come with me.”

  He tugged on Jack’s vest and paraded the young man through the village to the wizard’s house.

  By the time they reached the house, a small group of village residents was in tow. Did everyone know about what happened? Jack thought to himself. The wizard opened the door before they had a chance to knock.

  “Did you treat someone for a sword wound last night?” the guard asked.

  “I did,” Wizard Tempest said. “That boy was there. He helped me.”

  The guard let go of Jack’s vest. “He helped?”

  The wizard nodded. “If it wasn’t for him, the victim might not have made it.”

  “I want to talk to her.”

  The word ”her” caused the villagers to murmur.

  “I don’t divulge such things. It is against the wizard’s code.”

  The guard blinked. “I haven’t heard of such a thing.”

  “You wouldn’t,” Fasher Tempest said. “I’ll take the boy. I’d like to check him out after last night. He didn’t kill anyone, and from what I could tell, the whole thing was an accident. They happen often enough in your guard duels, I understand.” The wizard grabbed Jack’s hand and led him into the house. “Thank you for bringing him. I didn’t catch his name and would have had to go seeking him.”

  The guard’s face showed the confusion rolling around in his mind. “You do that. If he really did kill someone, no code is going to protect him from the law.”

  “He didn’t,” Wizard Tempest said as he closed the door to his house.

  Jack looked at the wizard still holding his hand. Fasher gave Jack a half-smile and disengaged. “Come into my office.”

  “Thank you,” Jack said.

  The wizard showed Jack to a chair. “Sit and tell me what happened last night.”

  Jack told him the whole story as only he could.

  “That matches the wound. I went out to the clearing and retrieved the armor, and the damage holds up your side of the story, not Penny’s.”

  “Penny?”

  “Penneta goes by Pen or Penny at her house. I am her uncle, and she told me a fib. My brother-in-law wanted to run to the guards to charge you with something, but after I showed him the armor, he knew he was partially at fault. The armor was a birthday gift to placate the girl six months ago. He bought it at a market. The only purpose it served last night was to mask her womanly shape and hair.”

  Jack nodded. “Can I go now?”

  “Not just yet. Where did you learn the Third Manipulation?”

  “What?” Jack asked. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

  “There are five manipulations in most treatises on magic. Healing is part of Manipulation of the Living. You healed the girl, not I.”

  “All I did was hold your hand,” Jack said, getting a bit confused.

  “But your power. I was able to tap into it all.”

  “Is that something special?” Jack asked.

  Fasher nodded. “It might be,” he said. “What are you doing now? Do you work in the village?”

  “I go to extended school, but I don’t know what comes next.”

  “When you are done, come to me. I might have something for you to do.”

  Jack peered at the wizard. “A job? Something to keep me out of the guard?”

  “Perhaps. Don’t worry about last night’s incident, but I don’t think you made any friends at the Ephram’s house.”

  “I lost my friends, is what happened,” Jack said, mostly to himself. “Can I go now?”

  Fasher nodded his head. “I will contact you when I am ready. You said two months?”

  Jack smiled and jerked his head up and down. Fasher showed him out. With nothing better to do, Jack returned to school.

  “You aren’t in jail?” Master Yokel asked as he looked on in disbelief as Jack resumed his seat in the schoolroom.

  “Not at all,” Jack said. “I spoke the truth. The wizard backed up my story.”

  Yokel huffed a bit and then continued his teaching. The other students kept looking at Jack, but at the teacher’s insistence, everyone was soon involved in learning.

  ~

  Ale always tasted better purchased at a high price from one of the village drunks and consumed behind the village’s tiny temple to Alderach. Since the god demanded severe temperance, Jack always thought getting drunk in the back was the rebellious thing to do.

  Tonight, however, Jack wasn’t in the mood for thumbing his nose at the cow god, but having a serious talk with his friends. He waited, and waited some more. He took a swig from the crock of ale that he spent too much money on. They weren’t going to show. The boys had abandoned him, especially that weaselly Dabbitt Jenner. Dabbitt’s father worked for the mayor, so Jack originally thought the elder Jenner didn’t want his son to be involved, but now that Dabbitt didn’t show along with the rest, Jack had been thrown under the cart by his friend.

  “What are you doing here?” a voice called from the dark.

  “I am invisible,” Jack said. He had taken more than enough sips of the crock to satisfy his friends and him.

  “Drunk,” the voice said.

  Jack heard a finger snap, and a flame the size of the torch burned in front of his face.

  “Ah, the Winder kid. Come in. You have penance to perform tonight.”

  The flame showed a priest, complete with the traditional horned skullcap. The priests knew enough magic not to mess with them. “Dabbitt Jenner ratted on me?”

  “What did you do to him?” the priest said.

  “Lots of things,” Jack said. And it was true. The five friends played tricks on each other all the time, but Jack always thought his tricks were the best. Maybe they were, and it was finally payback time.

  “Come inside.”

  Jack followed him, and soon they stood in front of the golden form of Alderach: a cow, sitting on a throne, smiling through a human face. Jack always imagined the pleasant aspect of Alderach was a female face, and the angry side was a man with larger horns representing Alderach becoming a bull. In his current state, he didn’t know which aspect peered at him in the village temple.

  “Drink this,” the priest said.

  Jack drained the cup. He felt woozy and fell to the floor, but a whiff of vinegar woke him up. His mind had cleared up. “What is that stuff?”

  The priest chuckled. “A common rat potion. We buy it from the apothecary. Full strength will knock a rat out cold, and then we can remove it from the temple. A dilution of half water and half potion will put a man to sleep, but the smell of vinegar will wake both rat and man up. Do you feel more sober?”

  “As sober as a hitching post,” Jack said. Everybody used the phrase, but he couldn’t puzzle out why.

  “Good,” the priest said. “You will kneel in front of Alderach for two hours, and then you will be permitted to return home.”

  “My parents won’t know?”

  The priest shook his head making the horns wave back and forth. “Tonight’s meeting will be between you, me, and Alderach,” the priest said looking up at the god.

  Jack dropped to his knees and began to plan his revenge. After an hour, his thoughts turned to Wizard Tempest. “You know a bit about magic, don’t you?”

  The priest had been reading a scroll. “I do, yes.”

  “What are the manipulations? Wizard Tempest said something to me about them.”

  “There are five manipulations: Physical, Mental, Living, Metaphysical, and Internal. Physical is mastery over physical things.” The priest snapped his fingers and produced another torch. “Mental is mastery over illusions of sight, sound, and other distortions of the senses.”

  “So if I wanted to be invisible?”

  “No one can become invisible, but those who manipulate the mind can make you think they aren’t there. With the alcohol smell still on your clothes, you would need to manipulate at least two senses. The third is Living. This is
our limit. We, as priests of Alderach, can practice the Third but can go no farther. Healing is a third level manipulation. One can bring things into sharper physical focus.”

  “Like bring someone back from the dead?”

  The priest smiled. “Not quite, but if a person is at death’s door, ready to depart this world for Alderach’s bosom, a powerful Third Manipulation might bring him back. There is a dark side to Living, which is death, and I won’t talk about that inside the temple. The fourth is Metaphysical. I never thought that was the right name for it, but most magicians use that manipulation for communication.”

  “Telepathy is real?” Jack said.

  “You aren’t as dim as you look,” the priest said. “If a wizard is very powerful, he can send and sense real moods with the Fourth Manipulation. The last is Internal. It is where a magician reaches the point where they can enhance themselves: long life, great strength, that kind of stuff, only for the wizard. The great abomination is shape changing. It is a great heresy,” the priest said. “A priest can be taught the basics up to the Third Manipulation, but as I said, the rest is forbidden.”

  “Oh,” Jack said. “So that is why you don’t get along with wizards?”

  “We have a good enough relationship with the new man, Fasher Tempest, but the Raker Falls wizard before him was an awful man.” The priest chuckled again. “I shouldn’t be telling you that.”

  Jack shook his head. “It’s all right. I never liked old man Porson, either. Father didn’t, as well.”

  The priest looked at the hourglass. “Another quarter-hour and you can creep out of here. No more drinking behind the temple.”

  Jack nodded. “I promise.” He realized after he said the words, he meant it. He could find other places to sneak an ale if he needed to, or he could wait for ten weeks when he would be eighteen and able to buy alcohol himself. He guessed he didn’t have any friends left to drink with, anyway.

  Chapter Three

  ~

  T wo months later, Jack stood with the other sixteen members of the extended school for graduation. The others had jobs and even offers to attend the University of Dorkansee. He was there as punishment, but he had performed as well as the others. He had to, or his father would have expelled him from Raker Falls.

  Master Yokel and the headmaster droned on and on about what value their education would provide. Jack figured he would be the most learned citizen guard in Raker Falls before he returned to planing boards for his father.

  He looked out at the assembled parents and families of the other students and spotted Wizard Tempest standing in the back. Jack hoped the wizard still had a job for him, but he guessed the man had forgotten their conversation back when Jack had nearly killed his niece, Penneta Ephram.

  He guessed he had never seen the girl around the village. He never did get a good look at her face, anyway. The little sister always turned her nose up at him if he chanced to see her in the market or around the village.

  Clapping by proud parents returned Jack’s thoughts to the present. He smiled and waved along with the other graduates. The headmaster handed out certificates, and that was that. Jack stepped off the platform in the front of the school’s assembly hall and walked over to his parents. None of his siblings had bothered to come. They were all working at their jobs or tending their children. He had two brothers and two sisters, all much older than him. None of them were particularly proud that Jack was forced to attend the extra school.

  “I have to get back to work,” Jack’s father said. “You can have the rest of the day off.”

  His mother patted Jack on the back. “Aymee has her oldest down with a fever, so I will visit my ailing grandson. You have a good day, dear.”

  And with those two comments, Jack was left alone in the hall with nowhere to go and nothing to do. All his work keeping up with his schoolmates who actually had futures was over, and the parchment in his hand meant nothing. He sighed and was tempted to tear up his certificate.

  “A word, young Winder,” Fasher Tempest said to Jack. “I offered you a job, remember?”

  Jack nodded, hoping for unexpectedly good news.

  “Alas, the position of apprentice went to another,” the wizard said, “but I need a helper.”

  “What is the difference?” Jack asked.

  “The apprentice is trained to succeed me as Raker Falls’ wizard. The helper will assist me with any special projects that I need to have done. I have some in mind that will involve some travel if you are up to it.”

  “Travel? On my own?” Jack asked.

  “You are eighteen, aren’t you?”

  “In a few weeks.”

  “That would be good enough. You will help around my practice, and when you are available, you can sit in on my tutoring sessions with my new apprentice.”

  “And the pay?” Jack asked.

  “The same as the apprentice, if you wish,” the wizard said. “There is one condition. I want you to show me that your ability to manipulate wasn’t a fluke.”

  “You want a demonstration? I can do that.”

  “I have my own methods, but if you want to perform something, feel free to show me. Would tomorrow be too early?”

  “No, no. I can tell my parents and the guard?”

  The wizard nodded his head. “Ah, the guard. If I hire you, I will provide a letter you can take to them.”

  Jack breathed a sigh of relief. “I will be at your house midday.”

  Fasher Tempest laughed. “No. You will show up an hour after dawn and be ready to work.”

  Jack grinned. “Yes, sir.” He could tell that Fasher Tempest didn’t suffer fools, and Jack hoped he could show the wizard that he was no fool.

  “Enjoy the rest of your day. Your extended schooling will only help you in your work.”

  Jack watched the wizard depart. Now he had to come up with a demonstration, but he was at a loss. He could create a torch with flame and other typical tricks everyone knew how to do, but what would be like a third-level manipulation? He walked out of the school for the last time and past the temple of Alderach when an idea struck him.

  He would find a rat to drench in the rat killer the priest told him about and revive it with vinegar. He’d have to do some misdirection, but Jack was confident he could perform a trick that would look like bringing the rat back to life.

  He smiled at the thought and spent the rest of the day assembling his props.

  ~

  Jack showed up on time with his bag of tricks and knocked on the wizard’s door. A vaguely familiar face looked down at him.

  “What are you doing here?” the young woman asked.

  Jack squinted his eyes and realized he was looking at Penneta Ephram. She wore a dark blue robe and looked down at him with an imperious gaze.

  “I have an appointment with Wizard Tempest,” Jack said.

  “That he does, Penny. Let Jack Winder in, if you don’t mind.”

  She frowned. “I do mind. He killed me once, and I won’t let him do it again,” she said.

  “I didn’t kill you. You ran right into my sword. If you couldn’t see, you should have doffed the helm.”

  Penny pursed her lips. “Then the duel would have been over.”

  “And you might not have come so close to death, niece. It was Jack who really saved your life. If he hadn’t brought you to your parent’s house, you would have been buried two months ago,” the wizard said. “Step aside, apprentice.”

  Penny scowled at Jack and did what Fasher instructed.

  “You brought a bag?” the wizard said.

  “My demonstration,” Jack said.

  Fasher gave Jack a puzzled look and showed him to a disheveled workroom at the back of the house.

  “I never bothered to straighten this room up when I moved in. Nothing in here is important to me, so demonstrate away,” the wizard said.

  Jack opened up his bag and pulled out a limp rat.

  Penny screeched. “What are you doing bringing that vermin i
nto the house!”

  “You may leave, niece,” Fasher said calmly with a smile on his face. “Proceed, Winder.”

  Jack nodded. “This rat is dead. Now watch.”

  Jack had practiced the next move all night long. He had a small swatch of cloth soaked with vinegar in an oiled pouch in his bag. He palmed it and stuck it to his palm and waved it over the rat. The animal began to twitch and leapt from Jack’s hand.

  “You aren’t supposed to do that!” Jack said to the animal. He pointed his finger at the rat, and it stopped in mid-air wriggling and squeaking. Jack moved it back into the bag. “I’m sorry about that,” Jack said.

  The wizard sat back, amazed. “You’ve never been trained in the First Manipulation?”

  Jack shook his head. “No. But I demonstrated the Third.”

  Fasher Tempest laughed. “You mean that little parlor trick with the rat potion? I’ve seen it before, but not in Raker Falls. You came up with that on your own, did you?”

  “Trick?” Jack’s face turned hot. He was caught, and now he’d lose his chance to get out of the guard.

  “Of course. Didn’t you think I wouldn’t smell the vinegar? I use the same stuff around the house.”

  “I suppose I won’t get the job?”

  “I’d hire you for the entertainment!” Fasher said. “You passed my test because of the way you so easily caught the rat in mid-air and levitated it into the bag. I’m sure my reflexes aren’t as fast as yours. That is a solid First Manipulation talent.” He leaned over and spoke softly, “Penny can’t do such a thing yet, but don’t tell her. She is a bit sensitive about her magic, and if you were smart in those kinds of things, and I’m not so sure you are, you won’t flaunt such a thing around her.”

  “Does that mean I’m hired?” Jack asked, not believing the wizard’s words.

  “It does, and you will wear white around the village.”

  “What does white stand for?”

  Fasher grinned. “It signifies a wizard’s helper.”

  ~

  Jack showed his father the letter verifying his employment with Fasher Tempest.

  “A helper,” his father snorted. “You’d rather be a servant than do honest work in my woodshop?”