The Road to War ... Part 5

He woke up to seeing two men standing over him and he tried to jump back but the stump he was lying up against prevented him from moving very far. The last thing he remembered was charging on two unsuspecting travellers on horseback. He thought they might be messengers but the number of travellers between Rosh and Grenfell had dwindled since he was assigned raiding duties at this point on the road.

“Who are you?” the bandit asked.

“Right now you can consider us your god” Adam said. “Whether you live or die is in our hands right now.”

“W-w-what!” the bandit exclaimed.

“We know you are working for someone else” Dustin began. “We want to know where we can find him.”

“W-w-what!” the bandit exclaimed again.

Adam hit him over the head again with a piece of a large branch and knocked him out again.

“We’re not going to get very much out of him” Corcoran said.

“We’ll just have to tied him up and drag him with us” Adam said harshly. “I’ll get the rope.”

Adam tied him up and they started back on their way to Rosh. The journey would take a bit longer with the bandit in tow but at least they would have a better chance of find the thieves den with the bandit.

“What are we going to do with him after we get to Rosh?” Dustin asked.

“He won’t be with us when we get to Rosh” Adam said. “When we get to the last clearing before Rosh we are going to let him wake up and leave. He won’t even see us. We’ll follow him back to the thief’s liar and we will worry about the perils of entering the liar when we get to that part. Just be prepared for a fight. Corcoran we are going to need you to stay visible unless you know how to make us all invisible so we can find the leader of this pack of bandits.”

“I can only make one person invisible at a time” Corcoran said as he put his hood up and disappeared. He reappeared right after he took the hood of his cloak off.

“OK let’s get moving” Adam said after tying up the bandit. “We don’t have much of the sun left. We should get to the next clearing soon.”

Come back for more from part 5

The Road to War ... Part 4 continues...

The library was a large vault of magical knowledge. Rows upon rows of book cases; each book case seemed to be overflowing with books. It was a really large library, but it also resided in a large castle. The book cases were lined up on both sides of the chamber with two large tables filled with parchment paper down the centre.

Corcoran got to know his way around the library quite well. He had spent most of his apprenticeship in the library. His focus was at times his own worst enemy; but he managed to fumble through some of the easier spells. Despite studying every day he could not remember more than two spells, a disastrous wizard he was turning out to be.

Kartu had given him a bag to hold all of his scrolls that he scribbled out. It looked as if it could only hold about ten scrolls but he had managed to put more than 30 scrolls in there. Every time Corcoran went to the library he would scribble out a new scroll, sometimes they were quick and easy like his magical fire fingers spell which he had memorized and wrote out every day, others like the invisibility spell which he was mesmerized by took a lot longer to scribe.

Writing was the first thing Kartu had taught him to do. He had excelled at reading and writing. Corcoran could read and write which if he had the time to scribe all of the spells in the library could make him a very dangerous warlock. He merely aspired to be a good wizard with the ability to cast a number of spells without having to rely on scrolls to increase the level of magic he could control.

He had studied for a year and most wizards or apprentices of wizards learn at least two spells in their first three months. Corcoran was far behind the curve, he only knew two spells but he had been able to create many scrolls in his time at the castle. He squirreled them away in his chambers because he knew that if Kartu had found out that he had made so many scrolls he would be dismissed or worse, burned alive with Kartu’s powerful magic.

Corcoran walked over to the bookcase where most of the spells pertaining to the use of the fire element were kept. He pulled out the book of incantations on fire fingers. There were several levels of spells in the book and he was interested in the most powerful spells found in the book. He could never start at the beginning and go through until the end. Studying was a chore he hated doing like taking out the trash; but it was essential if he wanted to become a wizard. So many things get left by the way side when you are in a hurry, this was not something you could breeze through and Kartu knew it.

He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Kartu must be watching he thought. He opened the book to the beginning and started to study it from the beginning fighting his urge to turn right to the back of the book and start scribing.

The Road to War ... Part 4

Corcoran had just finished washing the room where he had botched an experiment. Kartu had been furious when he had walked in to see pieces of Corcoran’s experiment all over the walls. The experiment had ended with a loud crash and the table he had been working on was in splinters spread across the room.

He had been working on what would eventually be the piece of metal on the end of his walking staff. The spell he had been trying to instil in the metal was a fire bolt spell; but his level of training had not been high enough to enchant the metal. Kartu had scolded him severely as he came down from his private chambers to investigate the noise.

Corcoran had been casting from a scroll he had found in his master’s library. Research was a major part of his apprenticeship. Kartu could recite many spells from memory but Corcoran had trouble remembering the simplest spells. Magic did not come easy to him. If were not for the many pieces of parchment paper found in the library he would not be able to cast a single spell with out them. This had infuriated his master.

The metal he was working with was a small amount but after the explosion it seemed like more than he had used. There were pieces of metal beaded up on the walls and the door had small scars from the molten metal all over it. Now that he was done cleaning the room he would have to go and find Kartu to see if there was a lesson for today.

Kartu was up in the black pool room. He had used this room for far-seeing. The door was open and Corcoran could see an image in the black pool, it looked like his home town of Colodia. Corcoran knocked on the open door for fear of the warlock’s wrath if he did not. Kartu waved his hand over the small pool of mysterious liquid and it returned to its normal black appearance.

“Master” Corcoran began, “Do you have a lesson for me today?”

“I think your failed experiment was enough of a lesson for you today.” Kartu responded. “If you must have another lesson today than it shall be in the library. You need to read up on enchanting items before you try it again. Go, read from the books in my library on enchantment and make sure you learn something before you bother me again.”

Corcoran slinked out of the room leaving Kartu to his far-seeing. He did not want to disturb him anymore; just the fact that he had to report to him after cleaning his mess was disturbing to Corcoran. He made his way to the east tower to follow the spiralling stairs down to the second floor of the castle where the library was located.

There were hundreds of books and spells in the library. Parchment paper was stacked in one corner to create scrolls with for using magic above ones casting level. He had hordes and hordes of parchment paper in his own chamber. He needed them to write out each of the spells he could remember every day. He would need to have a scroll for ease of casting. Occasionally a messenger would visit the castle and request a scroll, Kartu would only allow one kind of spell to be sold on a scroll. It was a spell to create a magical fire to aid with starting campfires. It was a low level spell but occasionally for extra three or four pieces of gold Corcoran would hide an extra higher level spell in with the scroll for sale.

If Kartu ever caught him selling these spells he would be expelled for releasing untold power on those who sought it. Kartu was dead set on being the most powerful warlock on the continent.

Corcoran had his objections to Kartu’s way of conducting business; but he dared not let them known. He would find him on the receiving end of a powerful spell that Kartu kept up his sleeve. He was a very underhanded teacher and Corcoran’s slow speed of learning at times angered the warlock.

Part 4 continues....