The Master's Chair (The Chronicles of Terah) (48 page)

“There would be more to it than that. Most sorcerers can handle deflecting arrows, but the test would be how well a sorcerer handles multiple tasks. How would he fare if he had to defend against another sorcerer as well? You would probably have to get directly involved if you wanted to find out, and at the same time, you would have to provide protection for the army as well as the spectators.”

“I can’t do all of that by myself!” Kevin gasped.

“
Not yet, but you will be able to. That reminds me, I’ve invited my friends to come back in early January for a second round of war games. I thought it might be a good idea for all of you to have some experience fighting a group that was backed up by magic, so I’ve asked Jonquin to come in January, too.”

Chris frowned. “Isn’t it a bit risky letting another sorcerer know that Kevin’s here?”

Darrell nodded in agreement. “From what we’ve heard, there’s probably quite a bit of money being offered for information about where he is, and that’s assuming that Jonquin doesn’t want to kill him himself.”

Glendymere looked confused for a second and then he said,
“You’re thinking Jonquin’s human. He’s not. He’s a dragon.”

“You mean we’re going to have to go up against a dragon?” Darrell sputtered.

“No, Kevin will be going up against a dragon. All you will have to worry about are the elves and dwarves. It should be quite a lot of fun.”

“You do have the strangest idea of fun,” Chris muttered.

Glendymere ignored him and continued,
“But before we can start preparing for the games in January, we need to get ready for the ones that are going to take place in November. Now, if there are no more questions, let’s get back to work.”
Glendymere stood up and stretch out his wings.

“I have one more quick question,” Theresa said. “You keep saying ‘he’. Women can be sorcerers too, can’t they?”

Glendymere nodded.
“Yes, of course. Actually there are several on the council. Anything else? Good. Now, I want to try something a little more interesting today.”
A large stick popped up from the ground and traced a circle about thirty feet wide in the dirt.
“I would like for Joan, Chris, and Karl to spread out around the circle and shoot arrows towards Kevin. Then I want Darrell, Theresa, and Steve to try to cross the circle and reach Kevin. I don’t care whether you spread out, or if you try to rush the circle together, but try to get in. Kevin, I want you to collect the arrows and stack them next to that boulder, and at the same time, prevent anyone from crossing that circle.”

“Isn’t that a little risky? I mean, what if we hit one of the three who are trying to cross the circle?” Joan asked as she picked up her bow.

“Don’t worry. Kevin won’t let that happen,”
Glendymere said.

“You’ll make sure no one gets hit if I miss an arrow, right?”
Kevin asked mentally.

“
Of course, but it does no harm for them to think that you’re doing it all yourself. After all, someone has to have confidence in you, and right now that someone doesn’t seem to be you,”
Glendymere answered Kevin privately.
“See if you can put on a show while you’re defending the circle. Go out there and, as Chris says, ‘Strut your stuff!’”

~ ~ ~ ~

While Kevin and Chris were eating lunch that afternoon, Kevin said, “You know when Glendymere was talking about the sorcery competitions this morning? He mentioned rescue missions, remember?”

“Yes?”

“Well, one of the skills he brought up was the ability to support someone else while flying.”

“Yeah, I noticed that, too,” Chris said hesitantly.

“I’ve never tried to do that.”

“Let me guess,” Chris said with deep sigh, “You want to try it now, right?”

“Well, I need to learn how to do it.”

“And you’re thinking I’m going to agree to let you experiment with me?”

“I know how to catch you if you fall.”

“That may be true, but I don’t much care for the idea of falling in the first place,” Chris said. “Look, your first attempts at something aren’t usually all that successful. Let’s start with something else, like maybe a big rock. Then once you’ve got the hang of it, we’ll give it a try. But when we do, I want Glendymere around.”

“Why?”

“Backup, just in case you happen to have a moment of panic when you drop me.”

“I don’t freeze up as bad as I used to,” Kevin argued. “But if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll try flying with a rock after we finish eating, and if that goes well, we’ll get Glendymere back out here and see how it goes with a person.”

“Let’s just see how the rock goes for now,” Chris mumbled.

“Chicken,” Kevin teased.

“You got that right!”

After Kevin flew around for half an hour with the rock by his side, Chris pointed to a log about six feet long and asked Kevin to try flying with that next. After Kevin circled the canyon with the log a few times, Chris could come up with no more valid objections, so he reluctantly agreed to let Kevin fly him over the valley, provided Glendymere would come back outside to back Kevin up.

Glendymere quickly chimed in that he was on his way. Then he said,
“Chris, I haven’t been able to get you to fly with me and now you’re going up with Kevin. Should I be insulted?”

“No, I still don’t want to fly, but you said that sorcerers need to be able to support someone else in flight, and I don’t see a whole lot of volunteers standing in line out here.”

“Guess you have a point there,”
Glendymere said with a bit of a snort.
“But don’t worry. Between the two of us, I feel sure we can take care of you.”

“Yeah, well …”

“What is it about flying anyway? Are you afraid of heights?”

“Yes and no. I’m not really afraid of heights, I’m afraid of falling from heights. And floating through the air seems like a mighty good way to fall,” Chris answered.

“I won’t drop you. Just relax and don’t start fighting me when we lift off,” Kevin said as he stepped over beside Chris. “Okay, we’re going to lift off now. Let me do all the work.”

They began to slowly rise. When they were about twenty feet off the ground, Kevin said, “Now we’re going to start going sideways. Don’t try to do anything, just let me do it,” and they began to float over towards the stream.

Chris had closed his eyes as soon as he felt himself lifting off the ground. He slowly opened one eye and sort of peeked out to see where he was. There was no reassuring pressure on the bottom of his feet, but it wasn’t as bad as he had expected. Finally he worked up enough courage to look around. “Hey, this is sort of neat. I guess this is what’s known as a ‘bird’s eye view,’ huh?”

“Not exactly. If you’d really like a bird’s eye view of this canyon, I can take you up higher,” Kevin said with a grin.

“No, no. This is high enough. But it is sort of nice. I could get used to this.”

“Good. I need the practice and you need to get over your aversion to flying with me. You never know when you might need to do it for real. Let’s plan to fly around the canyon after lunch everyday for a while, and when you’re comfortable with it, we’ll go up higher,” Kevin said. “But for now, I guess we need to land and get back to work.”

~ ~ ~ ~

A couple of weeks later, Glendymere and Kevin flew to a nearby valley where a local farmer had begun clearing the land in hopes of tilling the area before the snows set in. He was having trouble with some old tree trunks and large boulders, so he had offered Blalick a fourth of next year’s harvest if he’d help him. When Blalick mentioned it in passing, Glendymere saw an opportunity for Kevin to get a little experience in the more mundane tasks that sorcerers are expected to handle, as well as a little practice throwing energy bolts. He told Blalick that he and Kevin would take care of it.

They reached the valley shortly after dawn. Glendymere pointed out the boulders and stumps that needed to be removed.
“Any sorcerer could clear this field, but a good sorcerer would leave it ready for the plow. When you blow up a boulder or a tree trunk, don’t leave chunks of it scattered around for the farmer to have to clear. Hit them again and again, until they’re dust. That’s how you build a reputation, by taking care of the little things, the details.”

Then Glendymere flew back up to the top of one of the surrounding mountains to take a nap while Kevin cleared the field.

Around lunchtime Kevin flew up to join him. He sat down beside the dragon and opened the bag that contained his lunch and a jug of water.

“Glendymere, can I ask you a question?” Kevin said quietly.

“Sure.”

“Why did you agree to tutor me? Do you do that a lot?”

“No. You’re only the fifth human sorcerer that I’ve agreed to help, and the first three were on Earth. After I came to Terah, I decided not to do it anymore,”
Glendymere said.
“About forty years ago, a young man about your age sent me a letter requesting an audience. It was Badec. In the letter he said that he had something very important that he needed to discuss with me. I was intrigued, so I agreed to see him. When he came to my cave, he asked me to train him as a sorcerer. Usually the father makes apprenticeship arrangements, so I asked him why he was doing this himself. He said that when he had approached his father with the idea, Nolan had told him that if he wanted me, he’d have to arrange it himself.”

“Why didn’t my grandfather want you to tutor him?”

“Nolan and I had been friends for years and he would have been embarrassed to ask me to tutor his son. With a human sorcerer, he could strike a bargain, pay him in some way for his time and trouble, but what can a human offer a dragon? He would have felt like he was taking advantage of our friendship and putting me in an awkward position if I didn’t want to do it. Anyway, I told Badec that I’d have to think about it. He said he’d wait for my decision, no matter how long it took. I’m still not sure why I said yes, but about a year later I sent word that I would accept him as a student when he reached his twenty-fifth birthday.”
Glendymere stood up and stretched his huge wings.
“I could hardly refuse Badec’s request that I also tutor his son when he came to see me right after Yvonne’s death. I could see how devastated he was. I figured it was the least I could do, so I agreed. Now, are you ready to go back to Willow Canyon? Or are you just taking a break?”

“No, I’m done. Let’s go,” Kevin said as he tied his lunch bag to his sash and rose in the air to fly home beside Glendymere.

~ ~ ~ ~

Later that week, Glendymere told Kevin and Chris that he had a job for Kevin to do in another canyon. There had been a rockslide during a sudden downpour the day before, and one of the few roads in the area was blocked.

“This is another typical job for a sorcerer, and I thought you could use the experience. Come on, climb on board, Chris. It’s time you flew with me.”
Glendymere knelt down and extended one of his forearms so that Chris could climb up on his back. When Chris was settled, Glendymere said,
“Don’t worry. Just hold onto my chain. You’ll be fine,” and gently rose into the air.

When they reached the canyon, Glendymere and Chris landed on top of the cliff on the opposite side of the canyon from the rockslide. The rocks had formed a six-foot high barrier across the narrow road that ran between the small river and the canyon wall. A few of the boulders had rolled into the river, but not enough to obstruct the flow of water.

As soon as Kevin landed on the road, he heard the unmistakable sound of a rattlesnake. He quickly looked around to his left where the sound seemed to be coming from, and right there in the rocks, not more than five feet away from him, was the grandfather of all rattlers, a monstrous snake, coiled and ready to strike.

“Yikes!” Kevin screeched, and he was suddenly fifty feet down the road, heart pounding and feeling faint, but well out of reach of the snake.

“I see you’ve figured out how to translocate,”
Glendymere observed.
“Very good. That might come in handy later.”

“What are you talking about?” Kevin asked, gasping for breath.

“The way you just jumped away from that snake. That’s translocation.”

“Are you under the impression that I did that on purpose? All I know is that when I saw that snake, I thought I was dead.”

“That’s all right. Now that we know you can do it, you’ve just got to figure out how to control it.”

“You make it sound so easy,” Kevin said as he crept up the road towards the rock pile. “Where’d that snake go?”

“Oh, don’t worry about him. You scared that poor rattler so bad he won’t come out of his lair for days. Just try not to hurt him while you’re cleaning up this mess,”
Glendymere said as he stretched out in the sun.

“Right, my biggest worry right now is going to be hurting that poor rattler!”

“As it should be.”

Kevin shook his head and carefully began floating the boulders away to clear the road.

Chris quietly asked Glendymere, “You knew the snake was there, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you warn Kevin? He really could have gotten hurt.”

Glendymere shook his head and said,
“That snake wasn’t going to bite. He’s a friend of mine. My only worry was that Kevin might hurt him.”

“Did you set it up?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I wanted to see if Kevin could translocate, and I found out that he can. Right now it only works when he’s scared, but at least that’s something.”

Chris slowly nodded his head. Then he settled down beside Glendymere to wait for Kevin to finish clearing the rockslide. A little more than two hours later, Kevin joined them on top of the cliff wall.