Mind Forged: Book One of the Enchanters of Xarparion (18 page)

Maya was
sobbing, cradling Winya in her hands in an attempt to comfort her. I found that I was crying as well; hell we all were. I slid into the chair next to Maya and she threw her arms around me and cried on my chest. “Why didn’t you all run, you never stood a chance against that many.”

“
Sweet one, someone had to buy them the time to run. I knew that we would fall, but I also believed in my girls. They may have had the numbers but the fortress was far more than a castle, seventy of us had no trouble manning the walls. It was a brilliantly conceived stronghold; there were cliffs on three sides so they only had one way in, and we were located on the peak of the mountain. There is a river that runs down the main walls. The beings that built Sky Raven were very good at their task. In the end, they redirected the river to split into a ‘T’ shape in front of our main walls. If you fell in, the current would quickly pull you over the falls to your death. Without the river, we never would have lasted as long as we did. We lasted three days. Three days and four thousand of their men dead. But I was down to seven of my girls.”

“
Then the army retreated. I thought that we had one more round in us before we would fall, but it never came. Hours passed, then a day and nothing came. Our army should have been there long ago, but there was no sign of them. The eight of us used the same tunnel that we sent the queen out in hopes to find them again safe. But I was never ready for what was at the end. We emerged into the sunlight to be met with a blood-covered battlefield and the heads of my sisters on pikes.”

“
The duke responsible for this had captured the queen and princess and took them to our capital, where he forced the queen to marry him and named himself king. I gave my last girls a choice, try and start a new life or help me gut that pig. They all voted to join me without a second thought. We fought our way back into our city by using underground tunnels that are only for the guard. I didn’t take long to retake the keep, even with our few numbers. But we were too late; the duke had already killed the queen and the princess before we arrived. Naturally, we still killed him for it, as well as all his staff. But we had failed, the queen was dead, the princess was dead, and the city was still under foreign control. Even if we did leave, we had nowhere to go. Most of us only knew battle. So my last seven girls did the only thing they knew how to do. They marched out and took as many of those bastards as they could with them to hell.”

“
I was not so noble. I could not bear what I had done. If I hadn’t sent them out that tunnel, the queen may still have lived. I promised her that I would protect her daughter at all cost and that I would die before I would ever let her be taken. But I failed. I had no one left to protect and, therefore, no purpose. I prayed to the gods that they send me a second chance in the afterlife and I vowed that I would not pass on until I completed my task, but they did not answer. Then I took my own life.”

Maya has run out of tears
, but I could still feel her shaking; she still hadn’t lifted her head from my chest.

“
I haven’t told that to anyone in hundreds of years. I’m glad you can’t see me in the state I’m in, I look worse than Rosa.”

“
But what about Alex?”

“
Sorry, I’m almost there. Death was not quite what I was expecting; no molten lava or angels, no, just a lot of gray. It was like being in a big gray room with no walls, you just walk for miles. There were a few people there, as well; some were even my girls. But as time went on, they all gave up their desire to return and moved on. Many more years passed and I was starting to give up as well, but then I saw something odd. Lots of people were gathered around a glowing green portal. I watched as a handsome young man talked with all the people around him, asking questions, and dismissing them after hearing the answers. After a few minutes, everyone had moved on and I was the last one left. He asked me what my dream was, and I told him ‘to protect a princess for all my life’. The strange boy just smiled and offered me his hand.
To be honest, I was baffled. He turned down several men who were far greater warriors than I ever was, yet he wanted me. I later learned more about Maya and happily agreed to take the responsibility. So from the way I see it, Alex has given me everything that I ever wanted in return for having to live in a sword. I could like that, he gave me a new life and with it, my new name.”

“
But why did you agree to protect me, I’m not a princess?”

“
No, but you are a queen, that worked fine for me.”

“
I’m not a queen! Where did you get that idea
?”

“
Not yet you aren’t. But a kind female voice once told me that I would serve the queen of my land once more someday, and here we are.”

“
And you told Alex all of this before he bound you?”

“
Yes I did, and then some. We also made a deal that he has already honored. I would also guess that he knew about you being a queen as well. He didn’t look at all surprised when I said it.”

Everyone turned to me, expecting some grand plan or something
. The truth was that I did know but I don’t know why I did.

Rosa must have been reading my mind again because she
stepped in. “Yes, he knew, but that’s not important right now. Winya, I feel awful for what happened to you in your past life, but I’m glad you’re with us. You already saved Maya’s life once, so I have no doubts about you. And I am also sorry, but I must turn this discussion around. Maya, with your place burnt to the ground, you will be staying in the third room upstairs.”

“
Secondly, I have started a plan to find the traitor in our academy. For a long time now, the Headmaster and I have been looking into a few things. It appears that someone here is moving a lot of supplies and other equipment one would need to train wizards.”

“
What do you mean?” I asked.

She
sighed. “From what I have gathered, someone is trying to open another school.”

That
caught us all by surprise. “But why? What would they need another academy for?” asked Maya.

Rosa
shook her head. “No, this one will be nothing like our school. Based on what I have found, the new school’s purpose will be combat, and only combat. I have found boxes and boxes of copied books being sent to this new place and not one of them is for healers, research or anything that doesn’t have to do with killing. Whoever is making this new place only wants wizards for their power. And if they only see wizards as weapons, then I would say they intend to use them for war.”

Maya
nodded. “And if they are going to do that, then they will need to get rid of the only people who could stop them, and that would be the wizards of Xarparion.”

“
Exactly. But from what I know, they still need a lot more funding, and the best way from them to get it is coming up soon. So I will need you to do something for me, Alex. I need you to win the tournament coming up.”

“
Win the what?”

She
smiled. “It’s a duel, of course. Wizard vs. wizard in one-on-one combat.”

“
How am I to beat wizards in combat if I can’t cast spells?”

“
Don’t be silly, I know you can’t cast spells. What you can do is bring any gear you want as long as you can carry it in with you.”

That got me thinking
. “So you want me to fight wizards with hammer and shield?”

“
Yes, and some very good armor as well.”

Maya seemed to like the idea the most
; the thought of kicking wizard butt seemed to get her spirits out of the dumps. “That would be amazing! I could have fun with this!”

“
I’m sorry, Maya, but you can’t enter; you need to be a wizard. So for now, we need to step up the preparation, starting the day after tomorrow. The rest of today you recover - Rosa’s orders.”

“
Why not now?”

“
Alex, you silly boy. Tomorrow is your birthday!”

I had completely forgotten
. It’s funny how time flies.

Rosa quickly left
, saying that she was late for a meeting with the Headmaster, leaving the three of us alone. Well, more like two of us. Nia had flown off in search of food when Rosa ended her speech. I turned back to Maya and hoped she wasn’t mad at me anymore.

“
Can you forgive me?”

She didn
’t say anything, just looked at me with her wonderful green eyes. Then she nuzzled me with her face against my throat and whispered, “As long as you forgive me for not trusting in you. It will never happen again.”

“
I already have. I knew that talk would be a hard one for you to accept from the start.”

“
Hmm, then tell me about this queen thing.”

“
I really don’t know anything about it.”

“
That’s not what Winya said, and she hasn’t lied to me yet.”

“
Ok, I had a dream that you became queen of a new kingdom.”

She looked hard at me
. “And where were you in this dream? Are you sure it was a dream? Not some magical vision of the future?”

“
Well, you were in white and silver armor with a red cape and riding a unicorn. As you rode along a causeway, you were being saluted by golden angels.”

“
Ok, that sounds like a dream to me.”

Alex

The next morning I was in for a rude awakening, literally. The sun was nowhere to be seen, yet Rosa busted down the door and woke me anyway.

“
Get up! We have a big day today and we have to hurry or we will be late.” She marched over to Nia’s bed to shout at her as well. “Nia! Time to get up!” She yanked the blanket off the poor pixie, sending her spinning like a sleepy top off the side of her bed.

“
What’s going on, Rosa? Why are you even awake? How are you awake?”

She
smiled. “It’s easy to get up early if you never went to bed. Now, both of you get dressed in clean robes. Nia, you can pick out a nice dress instead, if you would like. Now hurry up!”

The door to Maya
’s new room cracked opened and she stood there half asleep in her nightgown, holding Winya in sword form at the ready. I must admit that I was now suddenly interested. Even half asleep, she was gorgeous; oh, and did I mention in a nightgown!

“
What’s with all the noise, are we under attack?”

“
Ah, Maya, I was just waking Alex so we can get on the road in time.”

Personally
, I don’t think she heard any of that, because her next statement was, “Oh good, I thought the bunnies started their assault on Carrot Mountain.” I looked at Nia and we both just shrugged. What do you say to something like that, ‘sorry the radishes had reinforcements’?

She turned to head back to bed but Rosa
slipped between her and the door. “You’re coming, too.”

“
Oh, fun…wait, what?”

“
Get dressed. We’re going on a trip.”

Rosa dragged Maya into her room and slammed t
he door, leaving me and Nia staring at the door with no idea what was going on. She turned to me and asked “Alex, you have any idea what’s she’s planning?”

“
Nope, you?”

“
Not a clue. But we better get dressed before she comes back. At least I get to wear a dress today,” Nia said cheerily. I washed up and threw on a clean robe, then pondered a few minutes before deciding to bring along my war hammer and a small buckler, just in case. A half-hour later we were being marched through the silent roads of Xarparion. Rosa told us to leave the talking to her and keep quiet until we were outside the walls. A funny thing happened when we got to the guards at the south gate. They took one look at me and opened the gate with no questions; they even escorted us past the second wall without any questions or stopping either. Once past the final wall, we were free to talk again.

“
Well, that was weird.”

Maya was walking beside me in her long
cape with the full hood up. “Not really. You’re kind of a celebrity among the guardsmen.”

“
I am? What for?”

“
Well, for starters, you are a smith, and that’s always a good thing to them. Second, you’re an enchanter of weapons.” She smiled proudly. “And third, you’re the only one who can match me in a duel. You have no idea what it was like when they found that out. I had to order extra laps to get them to stop asking me to bring you in to show them.”

“
I wouldn’t mind if you ever want me to.”

“
Really? I mean, I never thought you would want to help me train a bunch of recruits.”

“
I have no problem with that, but I will say that the main reason would be to spar with you more. Have you noticed that the more we duel, the more it feels like an intricate dance rather than a fight?”

She
smiled saucily and gave me a hip check, which accidently hurled Nia off my shoulder. Thankfully, she was just awake enough to recover before hitting the ground.

“
I am so sorry, Nia, I forgot that you were up there.”

“
Don’t worry about it, Maya. I’ll just sit on his big head from now on, and then you can beat Alex all you want,” she said, yawning grumpily.

We walked for a
n hour or so before we got to the same portal that I came through the first day I came to Xarparion. It looked so strange back then, but now I know how it works, and that Rosa was the one who made them so many years ago. Maya seemed very relaxed and happy being out of the city and even commented that this was her favorite area when she joined the guards for perimeter patrols.

“
Alright everyone, this is it. Maya, you may want to keep your hood up for now and, Nia, you should stay in Alex’s pocket until we reach our destination.” Rosa commanded.

Nia
climbed into one of my pockets that was big enough so she could stand up and still look out if she wanted. Maya raised her hood back in place and took my hand.

“
So we’re going through that?”

“
Yes, it’s a portal to my home village.”

“
I’ve been almost up to it many times but never this close before. We have to jump into a pool of water to get there?”

“
Trust me; it’s not as bad as it looks. Didn’t you use one to get to Xarparion?”

“
Of course not, I had to walk.” Ouch, we were weeks away from anything that even resembled a village.

I placed my hand on her head over her hood
and then did the enchantment that I learned from watching Rosa so that she would look human.

“
What was that for? Not that I don’t like a pat on the head, but still...”

“
I copied the enchantment that Rosa used on your dress, only this one only works when your hood is up.”

“
That will be nice to have, thanks.”

I heard the end of a sigh from Rosa
. “You know, sometimes I feel that you’re getting this enchanting way too easily. That one took me months to learn and you got it instantly from just watching me do it once.”

“
I can’t help that I have the best teacher in the world. If anything, you should blame your excellent mentoring skills.”

She
smiled, “You’re darn right. Now come on, it’s time for a swim.”

We started to
wade into the pool. I had Nia stay in my pocket so she wouldn’t freak out; scared hyper-powered pixies are not fun. Sadly, I couldn’t do the same for Maya. She had a death grip on my arm and looked in no mood to be here.

“
Would now be a bad time to say that I never learned to swim?”

“
No swimming needed, just walking.”

“
Good. I also don’t care if I hurt you, I’m not letting go. If I get sucked down a whirlpool or swallowed by a giant fish, I’m taking you with me,” she gritted.

I
smiled, “That’s entirely fair from my standpoint.”

We passed through without
any problems. Nia apparently didn’t listen and poked her head out to take a look. Strangely, she seemed to love the experience and demanded to do it again. Maya looked like she was going to be nauseous.

“
Let’s never do that again.”

“
Well, unless you would enjoy walking back, we kind of have to,” I countered mildly.

She thought that over for a second
and made a decision. “Walking it is. I’d say we would get back in about six months, but it could be fun, just the two of us. By the way, what are we doing in your village?”

Rosa clamp
ed her hands down on each of our shoulders. “Come now, Maya, even Alex has figured it out. We’re going to see his family for his birthday!”

Maya froze in place
. The look on her face was one of pure horror. “You’re taking me to his parents? But, Rosa, I’m not ready for that! What am I going to say to them? How do I convince them that I’m not a monster?”

Rosa wrapped
her in her arms and whispered in her ear, “There is nothing to worry about. I have looked into Alex’s mind, and I think you will be surprised at the reaction that you will get.”

“
But what if they don’t like me?”

“
They will love you, just wait and see.”

Coming out of the keep portal
, we walked through town. I noticed that the townspeople I knew were keeping their heads down and ignoring me, most even seemed afraid. I could hear a number of them whispering questions about what kind of wizard wore white. I was starting to think that something was wrong, but then I remembered I was seeing the odd, symbiotic relationship that Xarparion had with Foalshead from the other side of the aisle, and that was a sobering sight. We arrived at my old house on the outskirts of town to find that it had changed a lot. It was now larger, recently painted and had new windows. All in all, it was now one of the nicer-looking houses in Foalshead. The shed for the forge was even rebuilt and expanded.

I
anxiously knocked on the door, really hoping that my parents were home and that this trip was not a waste. I also felt like I needed them to meet my master and friends. But those fears vanished when my mother opened the door. She looked a little more gray-haired than my mind’s eye remembered, and the laugh lines were deeper, but she still wore the same simple work dress and sweater as always. She stood there with no expression at all, just stared at me.

“
Um, hello. Mom, are you ok?”

“
It
is
you.” She wrapped me in a hug. As much as I wanted to hug her back, I had to keep my arms between us to protect Nia from getting squished. “You have no idea how much I missed you. I was starting to think you would never come back!”

“
Can we come inside so I can introduce my friends?”

She then
realized that there were, in fact, others with me and started fussing with embarrassment. “I am so sorry, everyone, please come inside!”

She l
ed us inside to the living room. Again, there were some improvements from the last time I saw it; some new chairs, the old cracked pine mantle had been replaced with a solid new oak one. I found myself cataloging where everything was and what was new.

“
Honey, come quick, Alex is home!”

My
dad came in from one of the back rooms, wiping his hands on a towel. He looked me up and down with an approving nod and shook my hand firmly.

“
You look good, son.”

“
Thanks, Dad. But please, let me introduce everyone.” I stood next to Rosa and stepped her forward a bit. Through the link, I could tell even she was nervous. “This is Primus Rosa. You both met her before, and she’s my master, teacher, adviser and stand-in over-protective mother.” She elbowed me in the side.

“
It’s so nice to meet both of you again. I’ve heard so much about the stories of his youth. It’s nice to finally be able to thank the ones who shaped him into such a fine young man.”

My mother blushed
, and my father brushed the complements away like they were common facts.

“
He is twenty now, and from the looks of it, I’d say he is now a real man.

“
Compared to me, he’s just a baby.”

The two of them looked confused
, so I pulled her hair out of the way so they could see her ears. “She’s an elf and about seven hundred years old. We will talk more about that later. Right now, I’d like to introduce someone else.”

I undid the button on my pocket and carefully helped Nia
climb out. Seconds later, she was sitting in the palm of my hands waving at my parents, trying to look cute and succeeding at it, too.

“
This is Nia. As you can tell, she is a pixie. She is our friend, as well as my bodyguard.”

My
parents were stunned, but not from never having seen a pixie. No, I could tell they just never thought they would see one again. My mother started firing off question after question so fast that I don’t even know what she was talking about. Nia was even more confused than I was. She looked up at me in a plea for help.

“
Mother, please calm down, there will be time for questions later.”

“
I’m sorry, you’re right. But she’s just so cute!”

Lastly
, I turned to Maya who was looking both confused and terrified at the same time. I put my arm around her to try and comfort her; I still didn’t know why she was so scared of my family. I whispered into her ear. “Are you ok?”

“
Alex, why aren’t they afraid of Nia?” she whispered.

“
My family has some experience with forest folk. Don’t worry; I think you will find that they will like you even more than Nia.”

She was even more confused now
. I coaxed her from out behind Rosa and closer to my parents.

“
Alex, don’t tell them that you’re courting her, she needs to do it herself,”
Winya whispered in my head.

“
Mom, Dad, this is Maya.”