Can't Look Back (War for Dominance Book 1) (12 page)

“Why?” asked John. “Where is this Mountain of Frost?”

“The Mountain of Frost lies just off the coast of Salidar. We will have to start by going to Harbortown. While it’s unlikely that we will find a ship there that will take us to Salidar, it will be almost impossible to find one anywhere else.”

“I don’t know,” said John. They had been walking for two hours, which had given him plenty of time to think. “Something just doesn’t feel right about this.”

“What do you mean?” asked Ghorza, who was walking alongside him on the forest path the ranger had found.

“I mean, the enemy’s had three years since they stole the crown to work out their plans,” he said. “They know what they’re doing, and we’re fumbling around trying to catch up, right?” John saw her nod in agreement, so he continued. “Don’t you think they would have thought about this Prophecy and put something in place to keep it from happening? Maybe they know more about it or have a different interpretation of it. I mean, they
have
to know the crown is one of the three Items of Power, eh? That’s got to be why they stole it, right? To use it to control the evil races and get them to do the thief’s bidding.”

Ghorza looked uncomfortable. “Well, maybe,” she allowed. “But just because we know about it doesn’t mean the enemy knows about it, too.”

“Come on,” said John. “That’s what the good guys always do in the movies. They underestimate their opponents. We’ve got to be smarter than that.”

“What is this thing you call ‘movies?’” asked Ghorza.

“It’s not important,” said John. “What matters is that we can’t underestimate them. If we know that they have one of the Items of Power, they have to know it, too. They probably knew what it was when they stole it.
That’s why they stole it.
They’ve been using it for crying out loud; they’ve
got
to know what it is. Not only that, they’ve had it for three years. I’ll bet they’ve been looking for the other ones, too, including sending out spies to see if we’ve located any of the others.”

“Nobody knows we have one of the others,” said Dantes, from in front of Ghorza. “We just found out ourselves.”

“See, that’s what I don’t get,” said John. “If nobody knows anything about us or what we’re doing, why have groups of the enemy been told to look for us? How does the enemy even know I’m here? The only people that know who I am are from the Magisterium, and there’s only a very few of them. You must have a leak...a traitor...some turncoat that is giving information to the enemy.”

“Impossible!” said Dantes. “There is no one in the Magisterium that hasn’t been checked out. If there’s a leak, it’s not from within the Magisterium.”

“No, it
has
to be from within the Magisterium,” insisted John. “No one else knew who I was.”

“It’s not possible,” said Ghorza. “There were only four people who knew who you were. The Magistra, Dantes, Vishdink and me. Dantes and I have been with you the whole time, and the enemy is hunting us. It’s not one of us. It’s not the Magistra; she had the spell book. If she was on the other side, she could have given it to them any time she wanted to. And it can’t be Vishdink; he never leaves his lab. Like I said; it’s not possible.”

“It seems impossible, but it’s not,” said John. “It can’t be. Someone else had to know.” He took two more steps and then said, “That’s it! The halfling. He was there when I first came to the Magisterium. He brought me to the Magistra. He must have heard who I was. He’s got to be the traitor.”

“I don’t see how,” said Ghorza. “His family is relatively new to Norlon, but they are upstanding citizens. I mean, his brother is the head of the Merchants’ Guild!”

“The head of the Merchants’ Guild?” asked John. “Is that the same Merchants’ Guild that hired the mercenary unit that turned on our forces at the crucial moment of battle? That one?”

“By the nameless god!” said Dantes. “He’s right. Solim is the one that hired the unit that turned traitor.”

“Solim?” asked John. “That seems familiar. Solim? Solim...Damn it, why didn’t we see it? ‘Solim’ spelled backwards is ‘Milos.’ The head of the Merchants’ Guild is the same person that stole the crown!”

“And he is also the same person that was leading the attack today,” added Lady Ellyn. “He has been behind the enemy’s plan the whole time.”

“Oh, crap,” said John, all of the color draining from his face.

“What is it?” asked Dantes. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“We’re in deep trouble. Milos’ brother was there when the Magistra gave me the spell book and sent us on this quest. He heard everything...they know where we’re going.”

Before Dantes could reply, the ranger came jogging up to the group from wherever he had been scouting. “It’s positive I am that we’re being followed,” said Fitzber.

“How do you know?” asked Lady Ellyn. “I haven’t heard anything.”

“Nor would ye, lassie,” replied the ranger. “Even though your armor is oiled to perfection, it still makes a variety o’ wee little noises that keep you from hearing as well as ye might. Twice during the last hour I heard dog or worg barks from behind us. There’s something behind us that is following us. I’m going to drift back and take a look, if’n you don’t mind. I’ll be catching up with you by sunset.”

“Don’t get caught,” warned Dantes.

“Don’t trouble your wee red mind about it,” said Fitzber. “I’m the epitome o’ caution.”

He mumbled a few words and then faded from sight as John watched, his colors blending in with the foliage. “Was that an invisibility spell?” John asked.

“No,” said Ghorza. “Invisibility is an air-based spell. He just did some sort of ranger earth-based camouflage spell that allows him to blend in with the background. I hope he’s of a high enough level to throw in some anti-odor protection, too.”

“He did say that he thought there were dogs behind us, eh?” asked John.

“Yes he did,” replied Ghorza.

“Then I hope so, too.”

“I smell rabbit,” said Ghorza.

“Rabbit?” asked Dantes.

“Yes, rabbit,” said Ghorza. “Someone up ahead of us is cooking rabbit.” She paused. “It smells delicious, too.”

“Should we continue on?” asked John. “If there’s someone in front of us, shouldn’t we try to go around them?”

“Well, they obviously aren’t worried about being found,” said Dantes. “It has to be someone that doesn’t know there’s a war on, so we should probably tell them. Still, we should be careful and watch out for the enemy.”

Dantes slowed his pace. A short way ahead, he could see where the path through the forest opened up into what was probably a clearing or a glade. He approached the end of the forest cautiously, watching where he set his feet so that he didn’t make any noise.

In the center of a large, 100 foot-wide clearing, he observed a small, nondescript figure sitting by a fire. “I was wondering if you’d make it here before nightfall,” said Fitzber without looking up.

“You’re lucky we didn’t announce our presence with a fireball or three,” said Dantes, walking into the clearing. From his new vantage point, he saw that Fitzber was rotating several large rabbits on a spit over a crackling fire. Ghorza was right; they did smell good. “You know you can smell those cooking a long way away, right?”

“Aye, indeed I do,” replied Fitzber, with a smile. “You can’t hide the smell o’ a good hare cooking.” 

“So we are not being followed, after all?”

“Oh, indeed we are,” replied Fitzber. “There are about 15 orcs trailing us, as well as 6 worgs and a halfling that appears to be in charge o’ them.” He looked at Lady Ellyn. “One o’ the orcs is a shaman.”

“
What!
” said Dantes. “There are orcs,
with a shaman
, trailing us
with worgs
, and you have a campfire going? They will home right in on us. They won’t even need the worgs—the orcs will be able to find us with just their own noses.”

“Oh, aye, indeed they will,” replied Fitzber. “I expect that they’ll be here in about two hours, which will give us time to eat and prepare for them.”

“But there are 20 of them and only six of us,” said John, “and I don’t know how to fight. I don’t even have a weapon!”

“That’s true,” said Lady Ellyn. “We will have to rectify that when we get to Harbortown. Without a weapon and some training, you will be a hindrance on the way to the Mountain of Frost.”

“And with a weapon and some training,” added Father Telenor, “you’ll just be an annoyance.”

“Let’s focus on getting us
to
Harbortown first,” said Dantes. He turned back to Fitzber. “I take it you have a plan?”

“Oh, aye,” agreed Fitzber. “I wouldn’t have hurried to get here if’n I didn’t.”

“Why didn’t you rejoin us sooner?” asked Ghorza. “We could have gone further and faster if we’d known they were following us.”

“Aye, but then you would have messed up your trail and tired yourselves out unnecessarily. As it is, you laid a nice trail, moving quickly but unhurriedly. Your trail makes it look like you don’t know you’re being followed. The campfire confirms it, and makes a nice beacon for the orcs to follow right to camp. Straight on, without worrying so much about looking to the sides. That’s what I hope will happen anyway.” Fitzber poked one of the rabbits with his knife. “They’re done. Let’s eat and talk about what we want to do,” he said, pulling a rabbit off the spit. “I expect that they’ll send the worgs in first...”

“I’m not going to be very helpful with this,” said John, indicating the dagger that Lady Ellyn had given him. “I don’t know how to use it very well, and I don’t think it will be much good against giant wolves or orcs with swords in any event.”

“There’s not much to using it,” said Father Telenor. “Make sure you hold onto the round end and stick the pointy end into the orcs. Be careful; it is really sharp.”

“Yeah, I think I got that part,” said John. “What I really meant was that if you teach me how to cast spells, I might be more of a help than a hindrance.”

“It takes years of preparation to be a good mage,” said Dantes. “What you need to know cannot be crammed into one hour of instruction.”

“Normally not,” said Ghorza, from where she was preparing her spells and equipment. “Still, he has shown himself to have a natural affinity to magic that goes beyond anything I’ve ever seen.” She walked over to where John was sitting at the edge of the clearing flipping through the Magistra’s spell book. “In order to cast a spell, a mage has to prepare it first. The way you do that is to find a nice, quiet area to study, like you have already done. Then you choose the spell that you are going to cast, find it in your spell book and speak the spell up to the trigger phrase.”

“Trigger phrase?” asked John. “What’s that?”

“The trigger phrase is the last word or two of the spell. You will see it underlined in your book, but you will also know it as you get to it.” She paused, thinking. “Casting a spell is like shooting a crossbow. You
do
know what a crossbow is, right?” John nodded. “Before you can shoot a crossbow, you have to arm it by pulling back the bowstring. That is the same as speaking the opening part of the spell. When the bowman gets the bowstring back far enough, there is a ‘click’ as the line snaps into place. A spell works the same way. When you get to the ‘set’ part, you will feel the spell settle in your mind. At this point, the spell is armed. You only need to memorize the trigger phrase and then speak it when you are ready to cast the spell.”

“So I don’t have to say the whole spell all at once in order to cast it?”

“That is correct. While you
do
have to say the whole spell, and say it correctly, you don’t have to say the whole spell all at once. You speak the spell up to the trigger phrase and then stop. Then, when you are ready, you merely say the trigger phrase, and the spell casts.”

“Cool,” said John. “I wondered how anyone could cast some of these in combat, as most of them seem kind of long. My guess is that having someone trying to kill you while you are casting a spell would be very distracting.”

“Having someone trying to kill you makes it extremely difficult to cast even the trigger phrase,” said Dantes. “That is why it takes time to become a mage. Part of the training is to have people beat on you while you are trying to cast a spell. Devils prepare by having other devils stab them with white hot pokers if they take too long. Avoiding that kind of pain can be
very
focusing, to say the least.”

“Okay, I get that,” said John. “Having battled the trolls, I understand a little more about combat than when I first got here. All I’m saying is that it’s got to be helpful if you don’t have to say the whole spell.”

“There are also time and mana limitations to spell casting,” added Ghorza. “Most spells will only stay ready for about eight hours. After that, they fade away and the first parts have to be re-spoken. You also can’t memorize more spells than you have the mana to cast.”

“Why not?” asked John.

“Because you can’t,” replied Ghorza. “It’s just the way it works. You can only memorize the spells allotted to you by your level.”

“How many can I memorize?”

“The number of spells per level is dependent on your rank,” replied Ghorza. “A first rank mage is normally able to memorize two first level spells. I have no idea what you will be able to memorize.”

“Why not?”

“Two reasons,” answered Ghorza. “First, you have the Spell Book of Aran-Than. That
should
cause you to function as a third rank mage. If so, you would have three first level spells and a second level spell available. Second, I can’t judge your ability because I don’t know how it works when someone can cast more than one type of elemental spell. I don’t know if that will give you extra spell capacity. It seems like it might, as you appeared to have more mana than you should have had for casting cantrips.” She shrugged. “I think the only way we’re going to find out how many spells you can memorize is to have you learn some.”

“Ok!” said John. This was the moment he had been looking forward to ever since he found out that he could cast spells. He was going to learn to cast real spells and become a mage.

“I would start out with something easy to cast and control,” said Dantes.

“Agreed,” said Ghorza.

“How about ‘Magic Missile?’” John said, pointing to the page. “That goes where it’s aimed, right?”

“That’s not an air-based spell,” said Ghorza, “so I can’t read what the book says; however, I believe that is true.”

“Yes,” confirmed Dantes, “Magic Missile goes where it is aimed. Unless a counter-spell blocks it, it will hit your target. It won’t do much damage, but it doesn’t miss. That is probably a good one to start with. I would also try the spray- and ray-based spells.”

“Spray and ray?” asked John.

“There are first-level spray spells for most of the elements; I know for sure that there are ones for fire, acid and ice. They send out an elemental spray that damages any of your enemies that get caught in its cone. They don’t do that much damage, but they’re quick and easy, and they hit from a decent distance. There’s also an electrical one, but I think you have to touch your enemy to use it, so that is probably not a good beginning combat spell. We want to keep the enemy away from you, as you can’t cast spells very well with a sword stuck through your gut.”

“Umm, no, that’s the kind of the thing I’d like to avoid,” said John.

“Good,” said Dantes. “I don’t know if Father Telenor has a raise dead spell or not, but I’d rather not have to find out. The ray spells work like the spray spells, but they are second level; they are more concentrated and cause more damage. I know there is a fire-based one called ‘Scorching Ray;’ you’d have to look up the other elemental ones because I don’t have them in my spell book.”

“Would it be better to just memorize several of the same one?” asked John. “If the fire-based spray spell works well, shouldn’t I just memorize it as many times as I can?”

“It depends on the situation,” said Dantes. “Sometimes, you will be going up against creatures that have a weakness to a certain element. In that case, it would probably be better to load up on a certain type of spell. If your opponent doesn’t have a particular weakness that you know of, you might want to have a broad range of spells available. You might find that one works better than the others, which would be good information to have for your next fight against that type of creature. Also, getting hit by one element after another might cause additional system-shock damage.”

“There are other considerations that go into the decision making, too,” he added, “but much of that discussion revolves around various tenets of arcane philosophy that we don’t have time for now. One quick example is my list of spells. As a devil-spawn, my spells with flame effects are more potent than if they were cast by you. Even against creatures that are resistant to fire, my spells are still sometimes effective due to their concentrated nature. Against creatures that are susceptible to fire?” He smiled, and John could see him reliving past battles. “They don’t stand a chance.”

“So I should try a little something from all of them?” asked John.

“Yes,” said Ghorza. “I think Dantes’ advice is good. Try the sprays and rays.”

“Okay,” John said. He went back to paging through the book, this time with a purpose and a happy smile on his face. He stopped on one labeled ‘Spray of Flames.’ In neat, crisp handwriting it read:

Spray of Flames

Evocation

Level: 1

Mana Cost: 1

Components: Verbal and Somatic

Range: Short/Cone AOE

Duration: Instantaneous

Description: Winter wolves threatening to put a chill on

your day? Warm things up with a spray of flames.

A previous owner had also scribbled a note in the margin that read, ‘Warning: do not cast this spell in front of the king’s tapestries or anything else he finds valuable. He doesn’t have a sense of humor regarding their accidental destruction.’

 “This spell is fire-based,” said John, looking up at Dantes. “Can you explain it to me so that I understand what I need to know about it?”

Dantes looked down at the book. “Yes, this is an excellent one to start with. In fact, it was one of the first ones I learned.” He chuckled when he read the note. “It seems even the illustrious Aran-Than had accidents when he was first learning magic.” He looked up. “This spell is quite simple. What do you not understand?”

“Take me through it, please. For example, what’s an evocation?”

“An evocation spell taps into a source of power to create the desired effect. Basically, it creates something from nothing. In this case, it calls forth a spray of flames, without drawing that energy from your body. There is a wide variety of evocation spells, and many of them cause great amounts of damage.”

“Got it,” said John. “I guess that ‘verbal’ means that I have to say something, but what is a somatic component?”

“You’re right; the verbal component means that there is a spoken incantation. Say someone casts a silence spell on you; if you can’t say the trigger phrase, you can’t cast the spell. The somatic portion means that there are also some very specific hand motions that have to be performed; you can see the drawings below the spell that indicate what you’re supposed to do. If you don’t do them correctly, such as if someone hits you or you are wearing armor, the spell can be ruined. If that happens, the spell might not cast, or it may cast incorrectly.” John nodded, so he continued. “Some spells also have material or focus components. A material component is a physical substance or object that is destroyed by the casting process. If you don’t have the required item in your inventory, you can’t cast the spell. For example, I need a tiny ball of bat guano and a bit of sulfur to cast a fireball.”

“Bat guano?” asked John. “That’s gross. Do you have to collect it yourself?”

“Either that or pay someone to do it for you.” He shrugged. “You get used to it. The last item is a focus item, which is a prop of some sort. Unlike a material component, the focus item isn’t destroyed when the spell is cast, so it can be used again. One example is a cleric’s symbol of faith, which is an item of divine focus. A priest needs his holy symbol to cast most of his spells.”

“Okay,” said John, “I think I understand. Can you help me with the fire-based ones, so that I understand how to say the words and do the gestures?”

“Yes I can,” replied Dantes. “You are on your own for the ones that aren’t fire-based. All I will see in your spell book is a smear of illegible writing and blurred pictures. If you can’t cast the spell, you won’t be able to tell what it says.”

“It’s time to get into position,” Fitzber said a short time later as the sun touched the horizon. The group stood up and moved to their designated positions.

“You go to battle well-armed,” said Lady Ellyn, looking at the scimitar hanging at Ghorza’s side.

“I’ve found that it’s better to go into combat well-armed rather than not,” agreed Ghorza.

“More to the point,” said Father Telenor, “I think Lady Ellyn is saying that we have never seen a mage carry a sword.”

“I’m guessing you’ve never been to the orc lands either, eh?” asked Ghorza.

“No, I haven’t,” said Father Telenor.

“If you had, you would understand,” replied Ghorza. “A sword keeps working when mana runs dry. It’s kept me alive on many occasions when I would otherwise have been at my opponents’ mercy.”