November 18
Word Count: 1772
“I suppose now is as good time as any,” Lasser said.
“And I suppose, I’ll come back later,” Snult said as he flew out the window, carrying a half eaten sausage in his claws.
“What’s the worst thing I could do?” Lasser shouted after him.
“I’m not planning to stick around and find out,” the dragon said as he dodged out of sight.
“Wimp!” Lasser called.
Saratin smiled. It was great to see such a friendship, especially since Snult was such a valuable ally. Who knows what would have happened if Snult had been an enemy. They wouldn’t have been able to overpower him, easily. Great dragons were such magical creatures in themselves, that they were quite resistant to the magic of the great mages. Lasser probably could blow up the entire castle and leave Snult uninjured.
“Take hold of my hand,” Saratin said as he began to picture the endless field and the single tree that had become his classroom. He hoped that all the mages would excel at magic the way Mitty did. Her creativity really let her branch out once he taught her the simple skill of traveling.
“Wow,” Lasser said simply as they arrived in that place that was neither here nor there.
“Now, I want you to picture a place. Some place that you know. Then close your eyes and go there.”
“Go there? How?”
“Just will yourself.”
“How do I do that?”
“You’re thinking too much about it. Just close your eyes, get a good picture in your head, and believe you’re there. You’re already halfway there.”
“How can I be halfway to a place that you don’t know I’m thinking of?”
“Because we’re halfway to any place. This isn’t a real place.”
“How can we not be in a real place?” Lasser asked. Suddenly the ground began to shake. Great holes of nothingness opened up into the sky and the grass. The leaves on the tree began to fall.”
“You’d better do it fast, or we really will be in trouble,” Saratin shouted. Lasser’s disbelief was shattering his creation and unmaking it.
“I don’t know how!” Lasser said, jumping over a hole that was opening at his feet.
“Just do what I told you!”
Lasser grabbed Saratin by the front of his cassock. “Take me out of here!”
“Do it yourself!”
As the ground melted under their feet, Lasser squinched his eyes shut and both of them fell. They hit the hard ground and went rolling apart.
“Thank you,” Lasser said as he sat up.
“I didn’t do anything,” Saratin stated as he stood and brushed the leaves off his white clothes. “Where are we?”
“Umm… I thought you brought us here.”
Saratin looked up at the ring of trees, realizing that they were standing in the middle of a clearing where eight huge trees grew in a perfect circle. He recognized their location as soon as Lasser did.
“It’s the Ring of Ancients,” Lasser stated, standing and turning around. “It’s where we first got our powers.”
“It’s where they were first unlocked. We’ve had them since the day we were born.”
“Right. Look, they’re eight trees. That’s one for each of us… and that must be Nelyr’s,” he said, pointing to the only tree that seemed somewhat sickly.
“I think these trees are some how connected with our powers. I don’t know how, exactly, but I do know there used to be twelve ancient trees, just as their used to be twelve mages,” Saratin stated.
“At least we know Lynah is still alive. There are still seven healthy trees.”
“And Nelyr is alive but sick,” Saratin said, staring again at the ill tree. He turned and wandered about the circle, laying his hand on each tree in turn, until he came to one that for some reason, felt right. He couldn’t explain it further than that, but he knew that this was his tree.
“This one’s mine,” Lasser said, touching a tree three to the left of Saratin. “I know it.”
“I understand. If something happens to us, it happens to the tree, but I think the real question is, if something happens to the tree, does it happen to us?”
“I doubt there’s a safe way to test that hypothesis.”
“Very true. Well,” Saratin said with a smile. “Are you ready to take us back to the castle?”
“I can try.”
“No, you can do… otherwise it’s a long walk… and there be dragons in these woods.”
“You wouldn’t do that to me.”
Saratin smiled as he blinked himself to the castle without Lasser. If the ranger didn’t panic he would follow momentarily.
“That was not nice. Not nice at all,” Lasser said as he appeared in one piece.
“I think that’s enough magic lessons for the day. And you can safely tell Snult you didn’t blow anything up.”
“Ha!” was Lasser’s only reply as he sat back down to work on his quest.
Saratin simply waved goodbye and popped out of sight.
Waiting was not one of Lynah’s strong suites, but Iber and the girl were traveling at virtual snails paces. She knew they were on horseback, and had approached the edge of the forest. It would probably only take another fifteen minutes for them to reach the former site of the village where she now stood, but that was fifteen minutes to long. She blinked them ten minutes closer. They didn’t even notice.
Lynah exalted in the fact of how easy it was to manipulate the world around her, and how stupid Iber was not to notice. The other great mages had been right about one thing though. She was no longer a princess. A princess was a piddlely powerless thing compared to what she was now. Lynah would no longer be a prize to be won by powerful men. She was power. Her whole body was tingling with potential. She couldn’t wait until Saratin tried to teach her a few little tricks to mollify her. She would rub his nose in the dirt. Literally.
But she took Brother Ilden’s counsel seriously. Only the truly stupid showed their hand before they were ready to play their cards. She could be patient, when she had to be. Years of sitting up straight in a chair for hours on end with a faux smile on her face had taught her how to play at one thing, and train her mind on something else. She had a goal… and it was not to snub Iber and the crazy girl.
“We’re here! We’re here. Oh look! Home! I used to live right over there. My house.”
“I thought you said it was further in,” Iber stated, but Vyna was off her horse and twirling around.
“Here, here, here, and here,” she said, the people in her head obviously excited. “Now! Now! Let me out! Stop wasting time. I want legs!”
She ran towards Iber, holding out the necklace.
“Okay, okay,” Iber said. Neither one of them had noticed Lynah leaning against a tree.
“Please, please, get a move on!”
“Let me concentrate!” Iber said. Vyna put her hand over her mouth. Iber took the necklace in his hands and stared at it for a moment. It was quite clear he had no idea of how to take it off. He reached to the back of the chain and pulled on the clasp.
“It’s stuck.”
“It’s not stuck, you twit, it’s magic. Unhook it!”
“Umm…” Iber peered at it again. “Maybe some poetry will do it,” he said. He muttered to himself. “clasp, wasp. No. Necklace, breakfast. Nope. Chain bane insane. That will probably work.”
“Perhaps I might be of assistance.” Lynah finally said. The two jumped, and Iber dropped the necklace back on her neck with a thump.
“Oh, it’s just you.” Iber said, letting go of the hilt of his sword. He looked puzzled. “What are you doing here? How did you get here anyway?”
“I traveled here,” she said from the tree, then blinked herself in close to behind Vyna, “to help you out.”
“Oh. Saratin taught you how to travel.”
“Saratin taught me nothing. He hasn’t taught you anything either, has he?”
“Well, he’s been busy.”
“Oh? So he makes you ride across the countryside through dragon infested woods, when he could have blinked you here in a second.”
“He said he didn’t know enough about where the village was in order to get there with any accuracy.”
“Well, I got here, didn’t I? But then, I’m also not the one that voted Saratin as our fearless leader.”
“I hate to interrupt… but if you could…” Vyna said, once again holding out the necklace.
Lynah reached over and unclasped it. There was a burst of light, and when it faded, a village stood where there had only been empty forest, a few moments before. Vyna one eye and peered around, as if searching for the voices in her head.
“They’re gone! It’s just me in here!” She grabbed Lynah into a huge hug. She didn’t let go for quite a long time.
“We’re here! Look Digly! I’ve got a body again!” People began to emerge from the doors and alleys behind the streets. Everyone was celebrating. Someone brought out a fiddle and a pipe and they began dancing. Young and old alike waltzed unevenly, but no less than enthusiastically.
They all seemed too busy exploring their old selves to notice that Vyna had collapsed onto the ground. Iber picked her up and brought her into the nearest house. Lynah followed.
“I’m okay,” Vyna said. “I’m just tired.”
“Well, you should be after keeping so many people in your head,” Iber said. “That probably deserves a poem or two.”
“They’ve forgotten what the old woman said last night,” Vyna said.
“She was probably a fake anyway,” Iber tried to reassure her.
An man entered the house, and called out “Vyna! We’re having a feast, and it won’t be a party without the guest of honor. And don’t worry. I’ve checked out the calca tree, and there’s calca just littering the ground. No more rationing. No more starving. Everything can go back to the way we were. We’ll grow and flourish, all because of you!” He ran back out the door.
“Who was that?” Lynah asked.
“My grandfather. He was the one who put the necklace around my neck in the first place.”
“Iber, will you take me away from the village. I don’t want to be here for much longer. I’ve lived with them for a hundred years. I don’t want to spend another day with them.”