In which a wizard makes a mistake

The first Chapter

Chapter I

In which a wizard makes a mistake

 

“There you go,” the old man whispered to his bird. It twittered a carefree reply. The old man fed his bird a handful of seeds and lay back tiredly into his large, green armchair. He stared into the black stone fireplace. It was an enormous fireplace, almost as tall as a grown man and a little more than that wide. The flames danced heartily this way and that. Soon, the old man was asleep.
He had not been sleeping twenty minutes when he was awoken by a rather loud knock on his door.

 

“Open up in the name of King Elroy!” a loud, rather arrogant sounding voice shouted at the door. The old man stood up slowly. He walked calmly across the vast stone room toward his great arched door. Upon opening it, he saw two of the king’s soldiers. They were wearing long, blue, satin cloaks clasped with the king’s emblem. They both had wavy brown hair, but one was obviously much more experienced. He had age lines around his pale green eyes, and he stood in a way that suggested he was used to command. The other was a bit shy looking, barely out of his teens. He had intense blue eyes that the old man knew had seen and known too much for one so young. The soldiers appeared to be in some sort of hurry.

 

“Tempus?” the elder soldier said in a clear tenor voice. “It is said that you know more of the people in the kingdom than any other man. We are in desperate need of a hero. Zachary has left in search of some mysterious artifact. The princess has been kidnapped, and the castle is under attack. The army cannot hold it back much longer. We fear the king will be killed and his kingdom taken over.”

 

“What do you want me to do about it?” the old man asked, irritated that he had been awoken for something so trivial.

 

“Kingdoms come and go, but sleep for me is hard to find. Now, if you will excuse me, I would like to attempt to go back into the sleep from which I was so rudely awakened.”

 

“How can you sit there and sleep? Your king is in danger!” the older soldier said sternly.

 

“First of all, the princess has not been kidnapped; she ran away. Secondly, Zachary is just looking for attention. He’s never done anything dangerous in his entire life and could never accomplish such a task as you mentioned.”

 

“Please,” the young man spoke up nervously, his intense blue eyes gazing shyly up at the old man. “You have to help us.”

 

“I see that you are very emotionally attached to something or someone in this kingdom, perhaps a young wife or a lover?” the old man said quietly gazing into the young boys worried eyes. The young boy blushed slightly.

 

“No,” he lied.

 

“I see,” the old man said, without mentioning that he could see lies as clearly as one can see night from day. He knew well that soldiers in training were not allowed to fall in love, and he thought that a ridiculous law indeed, for it was human nature to love.

 

“Very well,” the old man said, remembering vaguely how it felt to be young. He stood aside, motioning the soldiers to enter his vast hall.

 

“What are your names?” the old man asked quietly.

 

“I am Warren, and this is Jonah,” the older soldier replied.

 

“Very well,” the old man said. “Please sit.” He pointed out two chairs that Jonah was sure had not been there before. The old man turned his armchair away from the fire to face them.

 

“Soon, the wizard, Pyralis, will be on his way to a distant world in search of one who possesses magic because he needs an apprentice.”

 

“Pyralis is crazy!” Warren interrupted. “Everyone knows he is not a real wizard!”

 

“Be silent,” the old man said looking amused. “Pyralis is, in fact, an extremely powerful wizard. He is very wise with his powers, and that is why he does not use them to entertain the royal family. He is only interested in more important matters. Anyway, back to the matter at hand. There is, in fact, a young girl who will cross the path of Pyralis, and she is very important to these happenings which worry you…

 

***

 

Megan was just thinking about how long it was going take her to complete her math assignment when someone knocked on the door. She was not expecting company; neither were her mother or father as far as she knew. She brushed a light brown strand of her wavy shoulder-length hair behind her ear. Then, she closed her bright blue eyes in agitation because she had no wish to stand up and answer the door in the middle of a fraction problem.

 

“Coming!” Megan finally shouted and walked to the door. After she opened it, she decided that this person must have the wrong address. He was a tall man, darkly clad in a black velvet cloak. He had a rather grotesque looking scar reaching down from the top of his left cheek bone and into his scraggly black goatee, which was long enough to touch the collar of his cloak. His blue-gray eyes were clouded with a white film. His head had a majestic tilt to it, and his greasy black hair reached all the way down to his waist. He had a long nose, which gave him an air of authority. He was also holding a staff that Megan decided must be for feeling the way in front of him because he appeared to be blind in both eyes. Upon further inspection, Megan noticed that his cloak was embroidered intricately with many dark gray dragons, and the elegant detail and precision amazed her.

 

“May I help you?” Megan asked nervously.

 

“I am looking for a certain Andrew Walton. He is to be my new apprentice,” the man’s voice was a firm, slow drawl.

 

“Oh,” Megan said relieved that he did have the wrong address. “He lives two streets away from here on 8th street.”

 

“Indeed,” the tall man said. “I am sorry to have bothered you.”

 

“It’s no problem,” Megan muttered as she began to close the door.

 

“Would you happen to have any water?” the tall man asked. This bothered Megan because she wanted very much to close the door on this strange man and finish her homework as quickly as possible.

 

“I think so,” Megan answered. “Wait here. I’ll be back in a second.” Megan rushed to the kitchen in order to quickly get the strange man a glass of water, so he would be on his way. She took a glass from the cupboard and poured water into it as swiftly as humanly possible, but when she came back to the door, the man was gone.

 

“Whew,” Megan uttered a sigh of relief. She walked into the room where her homework would be waiting for her, untouched and alone.

 

“Do you have my water?” she heard the tall man’s lazy drawl. She looked around to find him sitting in one of the brown leather armchairs with his staff perched sideways on his lap. She noticed that there was a rather beautiful jewel in the top of his staff, and that his staff, like his cloak, was covered with carvings of dragons. Megan handed the cup over reluctantly.

 

“It’s rude to come into people’s houses without being invited,” Megan remarked uneasily.

 

“It is equally rude not to invite people into your house when they are obviously tired and standing on your doorstep,” the man said. “We are now, as you would say, even.” Megan rolled her eyes. Who did this man think he was? As if in answer to her unasked question, the man stated, “I am Pyralis, and what is your name, young one?”

 

“Megan Cole,” Megan replied cautiously. The man took a long, grotesque sounding gulp of water.

 

“Thank you for your hospitality,” Pyralis drawled.

 

“You’re welcome,” Megan whispered wishing this man would just leave. Pyralis drank the last of the water and stood up. He looked much taller and more intimidating inside.

 

“I’d best be on my way,” Pyralis began walking towards the door. He walked slowly, pausing every other step to lean on his staff. Megan opened the door hoping nothing would distract Pyralis on his slow route to the door. Nothing did, and he left.

 

“I hope he never comes back,” Megan thought aloud. “What a rude man.”
That evening, as Megan was sweeping the sidewalk in front of her house, she heard a noise. It sounded like someone murmuring to himself but not in English or in any language Megan had ever heard before. She looked up curiously. Hobbling angrily down the road was Pyralis. He had his familiar walking stick in one hand and a spherical red crystal in the other hand. He seemed to be murmuring to the crystal as if it could understand every word.

 

“He’s crazy,” Megan whispered under her breath. As Pyralis came closer, she noticed that he appeared to be shimmering, and his eyes seemed to have small fires deep within them. Megan couldn’t move for astonishment. She had never seen anything like it. Megan had always been a little too curious for her own good, and she began to walk slowly toward Pyralis, trying to see if the shimmer effect was a trick of the light.

 

When Megan was about two meters away from Pyralis, he began to flicker on and off like a light in a storm. Suddenly, her broom fell through her hand and onto the ground. She looked down to realize that she was flickering on and off in the same manner as Pyralis. Then, everything turned dark. Megan heard a loud roar of thousands upon thousands of voices talking all at once in hundreds of different languages. She tried to cover her ears, but discovered with a shock that she couldn’t find them. Megan felt the ground slip beneath her feet, but instead of falling to the grainy cement, Megan was pushed by some sort of wind. She felt as though she was moving so fast that she lost all sense of time or space. She tried to close her eyes, but couldn’t feel whether or not she had succeeded. There was a deafening sound CRACK, and Megan woke up lying on soft, silky moss. Looking around, she appeared to be in some sort of forest swamp. Vines waved softly from the branches of large trees, which overlooked the many greenish puddles and small lakes. The ground was moist and soft, and above her stood Pyralis. He did not seem to notice her at all. He put the crystal somewhere in his cloak.

 

Megan stood up, and Pyralis jumped back, apparently surprised that someone was there.

 

“Where am I?” Megan demanded. “What have you done to me? I feel so dizzy.” She stumbled a little.

 

“I have done nothing to you!” Pyralis said, astonished. “I must have made a mistake in my transporting spell, but wizards of my experience and years just don’t make mistakes. That doesn’t… What the…”

 

“There are no such things as wizards!” Megan screamed. “You probably kidnapped me!”

 

“Why would I kidnap you?” Pyralis asked. “You would be of no use to me, and you’re quite annoying…”

 

***

 

Tempus finished telling Megan’s story and shifted slightly in his seat with some afterthought that he had decided to leave out.

 

“What does that have to do with anything?” Warren asked irritably.

 

“It has to do with everything you were just talking about.” Tempus said calmly, closing his eyes and drifting into the sleep that he had been missing for twelve days.

 

“What?” Warren shouted at Tempus, but his shouts fell upon deaf ears. Tempus was already over 200 miles away.