The Phoenix Ring (The Thunderheart Chronicles Book 1) (5 page)

              The Great Wars, at their heart, were a series of battles and skirmishes that took place over two ten year periods.  However, in order to understand the Great Wars, we must look back twenty years before this dark era.  The three continents of Sortiledge were ruled by all three races, much as the modern day council, with one major difference.  Each and every potential council member was entrusted with the care of one phoenix egg.  In order to become a true member, the egg had to be hatched, which could take up to ten years.

              At about the same time the last bit of Sortiledge was being explored, and the three races began to search for new lands to settle.  A dwarven ship named Destiny manned by human and elven sailors sailed north to the continent that we now know as the Nefarious Lands.  This new land seemed to be a haven where the three races could live and prosper as Sortiledge became smaller and smaller. There was only one problem.  It was already inhabited.

              And so the conquest of the Nefarious Lands began.  At first the council held back, but as time went by they became more and more involved in the offense.  Thus began the first period of the war.  For ten years the three races pushed further into the Nefarious Lands, with little regard for the goblins, trolls, dragons, and other creatures and races pushed out of their way. 

              Then the council made a mistake.  More and more criminals were emerging everywhere, and there was not enough room to keep them in Sortiledge and there were too many to simply execute.  So the council began to send them to the Nefarious Lands, in camps surrounded by walls with guards on all sides.  A young wizard named Malcommer, a potential council member that had smashed his phoenix egg, was also thrown into the new world, but he was different.  He gathered everyone in his camp together, and somehow they all managed to escape, leaving the guards with their throats cut.  He then freed another camp, and another, until the council stopped the entire camp system.

              But it was already too late.

              The second ten year period began when Malcommer hired an assassin to kill one council member.  In the first five years, ten of the twenty council members and their phoenixes were killed, as well as every phoenix outside of the council.  Only one council member was initiated at this time, Marcus Thunderheart.

              Over the next four years every council member was slaughtered except for Marcus, and Malcommer built an army that he used to almost take Sortiledge, but was stopped at a crucial point by Thunderheart.  He retreated to the Nefarious Lands where he prepared another, much larger army.  While the army was on the voyage to Sortiledge, Thunderheart's Phoenix, by unknown means, managed to expend all of its power to create a line of mountains in the ocean.  Tragically, Thunderheart and his phoenix died in the resulting wave of power.  The mountains that the phoenix created are now known as DragonBack Range.  They form the most solid barrier between the Nefarious Lands and Sortiledge, and are also the home of the last known dragon clans. 

              There are rumors, however, that Thunderheart may have transferred his
Arror
, or life magic, to his ring, which currently resides at Fort Phoenix. 

              Malcommer himself was killed in the resulting inferno.  There are rumors, however, that he had friends that will one day come back to take Sortiledge.

              Aidan looked up from the book, the rest of the section was a detailed account of what he had already read.  Timothy was snoring on top of his bed, with drool hanging out of his mouth.  Aidan closed the book and blew out the candle.

              He fell asleep dreaming of his mother, surrounded in flames.

              The next three weeks were a blur for Aidan.  He and Timothy spent most of their time in the library, and the rest of it in the training area.

              Aidan also found that Timothy was extremely superstitious.  He would throw a pinch of salt over his shoulder every morning, and Aidan even caught him laying coins around his bed at night so that he could "find" them in the morning.

              Aidan began to realize that magic was far more complex than it looked when a village bard performed it as a show. Timothy, however, seemed to have no problem grasping the idea of magic. 

              The smaller boy mainly helped Aidan work on his coming evaluation.  "I already have a master that has picked me, so I do not need to worry about it.  You, on the other hand, need to impress.  Every adult wizard and warlock is allowed to have three apprentices.  Master Edwin already has three, but my master only has me, so maybe he will pick you too."

              The most memorable event of that time occurred two weeks after Aidan arrived.

              The two boys were going on one of their many walks through the camp when Timothy stopped short.

              "You haven't seen Marcus Thunderheart's ring yet, have you?" 

              "No," Aidan replied, looking up from his book. 

              "Oh, you're going to love this," Timothy said, turning left.

              The ring was in the center of the camp, on a pedestal with a huge glass bubble covering it.  The Soulrock inside was a pulsating white, and the metal in the ring appeared to be red.  The image of a phoenix was etched faintly across the top.

              "Nine of the most powerful wizards and one warlock have tried to put this on since Marcus died.  None of them made it.  They finally put it here to end the temptation.  This glass is enchanted not to be broken from the outside, but the inside is fairly fragile.  If someone were to call the ring and it responded strongly enough, it would break the glass."

              They just stared at the ring for a half hour until the sun started to set. 

              As they left, Aidan could have sworn the ring tilted a little towards him.

              The week before the evaluation the two boys were sitting in room thirty-seven when Timothy sat up.

              "I found it!"  he yelled, falling off his bed.

              "What?" Aidan said, more than a little startled.

              "I've been looking for a spell that will really blow them away for you, and I have a perfect one.  Actually, this is a curse, but it will work."

              "Wait, I'm not cursing anybody, that's evil!"  Aidan said, thinking of the way elders would mumble about curses when a child died or milk went sour too early.

              "No, no, no," Timothy replied.  "Curses and spells are just the opposite of each other.  Spells add magic to an object or person, curses take magic away.  Curses often have negative effects, and so myths have started to spread about them.  Neither are good or bad.

              "This particular curse is the base of all curses. It just takes away one person's magic.  Normally it's very easy to block, but with enough power the user can take away another sorcerer's magic for a few hours.  If you could manage to take away a wizard's or even warlock's magic with this curse, then there's no telling how many powerful sorcerers would want to take you on."

              Aidan stood up and looked at the page Timothy was talking about.

              It was called the leeching curse, and was very simple, just three words long. 
Mahor yok wenne
. Magic come out.

              "The stronger the curse the better the effect.  It normally does not suck all the magic out of someone, but you might be strong enough to make every single spell useless.  Here, try it on me,"  Timothy said, pulling a rowan wand out from under his bed and throwing it to Aidan.

              Aidan pointed the wood at Timothy and closed his eyes.

              "
Mahor yok wenne
,"  he said a little nervously.

              He felt the power leave him in a torrent.  Somewhere along the way there was some resistance, like a pile of dirt swept away in a raging flood.

              Aidan opened his eyes.  Timothy was on the floor.

              The taller boy dropped to his knees.

              "Are you all right?"  he asked.

              "Yeah, I'm fine."  Timothy said, rolling over.  "I just never thought I could miss magic so bad.  I guess this is what being an
amogh
feels like.  Hand me that rowan if you haven't burned it yet."

              Aidan passed over the wand, and Timothy pointed it at the fireplace.

              "
Ingo.  Ingo!"
  he said.

              There wasn't even a spark.

              "Well, you can do that spell.  But I'm not going through that again, if you wanna practice we're going to have to find some other idiots who think they can fight you and win.  Shouldn't be too hard, most of the mages have big heads."

              Aidan stared at his hands.

              "Congratulations mate, you're a mage!" Timothy said with a forced smile.

              But Aidan couldn't help wondering if he was a mage or a monster.

              Over the next six days Aidan managed to find three different mages that thought they could withstand his "Leeching Curse."  All of them ended up on the floor, completely drained.

              Timothy was not much help to Aidan after his overly successful attempt at the Leeching Curse.  He would disappear for an hour at a time and then show up for five minutes, only to get called away by his master.  Aidan really didn't have a problem with it though, it gave him time to think.

              He had been debating what to tell his mother since he arrived, but it was not until the day before his evaluation that he realized he could write her.

              He wrote a simple letter describing, in short, angry, words, a little about where he was and what he was doing.  He then took the letter to the adult dormitories.

              Unlike the mages and apprentices that had to stay in dormitories in groups of two to four, the adults each had their own set of rooms within an odd pyramid shaped building.  The inside of the building was a long hallway that opened up on either side to different quarters for each adult wizard or warlock. 

              Malachi's quarters were third from the end of the hall.  Aidan knocked lightly and stepped in.

              The inside of the office was unlike anything Aidan had expected.  The walls were completely lined with shelves, on top of which sat cages that held every type of creature imaginable.  The center of the room held a small desk with a stack of paper on it and a quill that seemed to be writing by itself.  Malachi was standing to the left, dropping what appeared to be little bits of chicken into a glass cage. 

              "Marvelous, aren't they," he asked without turning around.

              When Aidan stepped closer he saw that the inhabitants of the cage were little lizards just a few inches long.  Every time a piece of chicken would touch the floor one would run forward and spew flame from its mouth until the meat was charred.  Then it would take the chicken to a corner of the cage and ravenously devour it.

              "Are they baby dragons?" Aidan asked, backing away a little.

              "No, nothing so amazing as that," Malachi answered. "They are fire salamanders, some of the few left in this kingdom.  The dwarves keep a few in volcanoes, but they don't do so well here without heat. 
Ingo!
"

              Aidan jumped back, alarmed, as the inside of the cage was swept in white flames.  The salamanders were running around gleefully in the bottom, appearing almost to suck up the heat.  The old warlock picked up one of the salamanders, which immediately bit his finger and spat flames all over it.

              The old man just laughed and put the salamander down, his finger unmarked.

              Malachi looked at Aidan, who was edging closer to the door.

              "If you want to send a letter, then you will have to go see master Bartemus.  I gave up on all that paperwork long ago.  I much prefer animals.  Don't I, Mr. Cuddles!"  He said, pulling the top off a wire cage that held what appeared to be a very angry hedgehog. 

              "Er, right."  Aidan said, backing out of the room.

              "Tell Barty I said hi.  Oh, Cuddles, don’t- Ow!"

              The door shut in Aidan's face.  He walked a few feet to the right and rapped on the wood before stepping inside. 

              This office was far simpler than Malachi's.  There was a nearly identical desk and chair in the center, but there the similarities ended.  The walls were drab and the light dim.  In fact there only appeared to be one decoration in the room, an old egg shaped stone with swirling red and white stripes sat on the desk surrounded by stacks of parchment.  It was held in a silver stand, and appeared almost to glow.  Aidan knew from his studies that it was a dead phoenix egg.

              Master Bartemus looked up as Aidan walked in.