The Wizard And The Dragon (4 page)

Tower
lowered his hands and we both assessed the finish result. The food looked
frozen but oddly didn’t look cold. It looked more like it was trapped in glass.
He directed me to place my hand on the barrier and I did so, finding it to be
neither warm nor cold. I couldn’t feel the heat coming through from the food.

“How?”
I asked.

“Maybe
later I’ll think of a way to explain it to you. Follow me now.”

We walked up the
stairs. Tower took each step casually close to the open edge while I kept at
the wall. We passed the first door that led to my room and continued going up.
Half way up the tower when we came to the second door and stopped.

“My
room and study are in here. If you ever need me this is where I’m most likely
to be. Always knock first. If I’m in the middle of a new spell and you come in
at the wrong time things might, well, explode.”

I
looked up with wide eyes and he grinned at me.

“I’ll
show you around inside there one day. Let’s keep moving,” he said while he
turned back to the stairs.

We
passed a few more doors as we climbed and Tower explained that each one was
empty and unused like my room. My legs were aching by the time we reached the
top of the tower and I couldn’t bring myself to look over the edge. There was a
final door at the top that I guessed opened out onto the roof.

I
looked at Tower when he didn’t open the door and found him crouched against the
wall. He had his hands against the stone and I knelt next to him to see what he
was looking at.

“Did
you notice this as we climbed up here?”

I
leaned in closer to see his hands. There was a channel that was carved into the
stonework in the wall. I put one of my fingers against the stone below it and
traced it to my right and found that it continued down along the stairs,
declining at the same pace as each step did. The channel was fairly deep and
had been worked at such an angle that a ridge was on the lower portion of it.

“It
follows the stairs all the way down to the bottom,” Tower explained. “And look
here.”

I
followed his finger to the door and noticed that the channel continued into its
frame. I was more interested now and I eagerly followed him outside and onto
the roof.

We
had stepped outside for only a few seconds before I realized my mistake. The
roof was mostly empty and reached above the trees. The sky was open all around
me and the sun was bright and warm and I was terrified to look at it. I felt
more exposed and vulnerable than I did running through the forest the night
before.

I
tried to convince myself that the tower was magical and could remain unseen to
animals and monsters. I believed there was such a spell, it made sense
considering how I hadn’t seen such a huge building, but I doubted that it could
fool a dragon. Still I forced myself to stay put and not run back inside. I
didn’t want to look cowardly in front of Tower.

There
was a small part of the tower that jutted out from the roof that the door was
built into. There was a barrel next to it but the rest of the roof was empty.
Tower waved me to stand next to him and I slowly shifted on my feet.

“Watch
now. Follow the groove in the wall,” he said and traced it with his finger. It
stopped abruptly at one section of the wall and he pressed his hand against it.
The stone compressed to his touch and he slid it upwards, revealing it to be a
thin slab rather than a full stone.

There
was a compartment hidden behind it and I saw the same channel continue into it
and end at a large bowl shape that had dug into the bottom of the stone. I
couldn’t work out what I was looking at and frowned.

Tower
turned from me and faced the barrel now. There was a tap on the closest side of
it and rain water came spilling out of it after he turned it. I made a face at
it and couldn’t think of any possible use for dirty rain water on the roof.

“Did
we drink that?”

He
laughed and shook his head.

“No,
but watch.”

He
stuck a hand in his pocket and took out three small gemstones, the same kind as
the one he had used to create our breakfast. These stones were a lot brighter
than the previous one, and were a variety of colors. One was white, one was a
particularly vibrant blue, and the final was black. He held them in one hand
and cupped his free hand in the stream of water.

He
stretched out his hand to me so I could see the water. It was murky and a
little dark. He passed his other hand over the pooled water and dropped the
gemstones into it. A few seconds passed before I saw the reaction. The white
and blue gems became pale and began to glow, while the black gem became even
darker.

Initially
I thought the water was becoming clear, but I soon realized that it was glowing
along with the gems. A few moments later I saw that the water was being filled
with that light, brimming with fragments of it. They sparkled like hundreds of
tiny stars

“Here.
Try holding them,” he said.

He
parted his fingers just enough so only the water drained away. The gems
reverted back to their previous state. I held my hands out and cupped them
together. He placed the stones in them.

Both
of my hands could barely hold the water that only one of Tower’s did, and I
held my hands under the tap for only a second. I gazed down at them and watched
them react in the same way they had in his hand, only I also felt the water
warm up as it grew brighter. It felt like the water vibrated around the gems
and sent a pleasurable tingle up my forearms.

“How
does it work? Are you making this happen?” I asked excitedly. I had all but
forgotten how afraid I had been a few minutes before.

“I
only got it started. The gems are the source of magic. Here, place them into
the bowl.”

I
did as he asked and watched the water continue to shimmer in the stone
compartment in the wall.

I
found myself judging Tower again as he strained to drag the water barrel closer
to the wall. I was trying to work out how this wizard was so different than the
one we had in our village. That man had been old and thin, with barely any
muscle or fat as though the magic melted any sign of health from his bones. On
the other hand, Tower was strong and looked more like the swordsmen that
guarded our walls than someone who cast spells.

When
he was finished the barrel pressed against the wall and the tap was directly
over the stone bowl. It suddenly dawned on me what the channel was for, and
that the water would glow all the way down along the stairs of the tower.

“Most
of magic is about manipulating energy, and the potential of that energy,” Tower
explained as the water began to run through the stones. “Gems are a form of
that energy, trapped and compressed tightly as layers of solid matter over
thousands of years.”

“Okay,”
I looked at him without a single sign of comprehension. I was too young to
understand or follow what he was saying, no matter how interested I was. He
must have realized this and smiled and placed a hand on top of my head.

“I’ll
think of a better way to explain it later. For now, just think of the gems like
trapped sunlight. I made a tiny hole in each of them with a spell and now the
sunlight is leaking out. So when we do this,” he pointed to the stream of water
falling against the gems. “The water will absorb that sunlight and carry heat
and light down throughout the tower. Do you understand?”

“Yes,”
I said. “Why wasn’t it on before, though? Didn’t you get cold?”

“I’ve
been alone here for a long time. I keep in my room mostly, where it’s easier to
heat just one room. With you here now I think it’s worth it. We’ll have to
change these gems every so often, but that won’t be a problem.”

“Where
do you get the gems from?”

“Ha!”
He grinned at me. “So many questions, which I’m sure will make you have even
more questions. I will show you one day, I promise. For now I need you to do
something. We don’t want to flood the tower, so go back downstairs and yell up
to me when the water gets all the way down so I know to turn the tap off.”

I
turned immediately to the door, excited to help and be part of a magic spell in
any way. I was a few steps from the door when Tower called to me.

“Wait.
Not so fast. Here,” he dug around in his pocket again and produced another gem.
This one was at least double the size of the others, and was a deep purple. It
was the most striking of any I had seen so far. He held it out to me.

“Take
this with you. When the water gets to the bottom, it should drip out onto the
floor. Where the drips land you should find a small impression on the floor—a
small dent. This gem should fit perfectly into it. Place it there when you get
down.

I
cradled the gem carefully on my way down the tower, both fascinated and
frightened by the magic that was held within it. At each doorway I stopped to
let the water catch up and build to more than a trickle. I watched to see how
it would flow passed each door and discovered that the channel dropped down
into the floor and would continue from there. It would stretch out horizontally
back into the wall and then revert back to its spiral following the stairs.

The
water was glowing the entire time I walked along with it. When I reached the
lowest door, the one that led to my room, I had gotten too far ahead of the
stream and knelt down to wait for it. I ran my finger along the water when it
reached me and found that it was warmer than when I had held it on the roof.
There were dust particles, dirt, and grime that had been swept up in the water
that dulled the glow of the light. I guessed that it would take some time until
the channel was washed clean.

I
raced down the stairs and regained my lead on the water. On the final few steps
I traced along the end of the channel and followed it into the wall and down
into the floor. Sure enough there was a small slot that looked to be the
perfect size for the gem I carried. I placed it carefully inside and jerked my
hand back when it seemed to snap in place, as if the floor pulled and latched
onto it.

The
water took a few minutes to reach the bottom and I sat on the floor, legs
crossed, and waited for it. The water came out in scattered drips at first, and
I watched with singular interest as the droplets fell from the channel and down
onto the purple gem. The stone didn’t seem to be doing anything that I could
see and I began to worry that I did something wrong.

A
minute or two passed and I realized that the water should have filled up the
hole and be threatening to soak my boots. I couldn’t bring myself to touch the
gem but I felt around the slot and found it to be dry. The gem didn’t look like
it was glistening or submerged in water either.

I
gasped when I worked out what it was doing. The gem was catching the water and
making it vanish. I got on my feet and took a deep breath, preparing my lungs
to shout as loud as I possibly could up the tower.

“The
water is here!” I roared and my voice echoed and bounced up the walls.

I
heard something respond to my shout but I couldn’t make it out clearly. I held
my breath and focused on my hearing, trying to block out the sound of the
running water. I could feel my pulse in my ears. I heard the sound again and my
pulse became frantic when I realized what it was.

The
sound wasn’t from Tower. The sound came from the wooden door across the room.

I
turned my head slowly, as if I could ease the scare and not be startled by not
snapping my eyes to it and having its image leap out at me. Out of the corner
of my eye I saw the door and found that it was still closed. A small sensation
of relief ran through me before I heard the noise again. I dug my fingernails
into my palms and tried my best not to imagine what sort of
things
Tower
had meant.

The
noise was like a rush of air and in that moment I hoped it was the wind. I
stepped backwards onto the stairway and the sound seemed to react to my
footstep. Something was breathing behind the door. Something had stuck its head
into the gap below the door and was inhaling, trying to smell what was in here
to eat.

“TOWER!”
I screamed, even louder than I had yelled before, and broke into a run up the
stairs.

Something
close to a squeal came from behind the door and I felt a shiver run down my
back as if to push me faster up the steps. The stairs were a little too big for
me to run up properly and I lowered myself toward them, using my hands on the
steps above me to pull and propel myself up further. I hadn’t heard the door
break or open but I didn’t want to be anywhere near it when it did.

I
launched myself from the last step and crashed through the doorway and onto the
roof. My eyes reeled from losing balance as I tried to find Tower. He was
standing by the water barrel and regarding me strangely.

“Is
the water there?”

“No!
Yes! There’s something down there!”

He
cocked his head at me. I saw him turn the tap of the water off. Behind him, I
saw that a second purple gem had been put into a similar slot above the bowl in
the wall. Water trickled down out of it, seemingly from nowhere, and into the
bowl, keeping it full and running down the channel through the tower. It had
created a loop with the other gem.

I
couldn’t calm myself enough to appreciate the magic. I scrambled to my feet and
got away from the door. I wanted to be near Tower in case whatever the
thing
was got through the door and clawed its way up the stairs to us.

“What
happened?”

“I
shouted! When the water! And then the door. I didn’t go near it, I promise.
Something is behind it! It made a noise, then I screamed, and another noise. I
ran!”

Tower’s
face tensed and he marched to the door. I heard his steps begin down the stairs
and then abruptly stop. I crept to the doorway and poked my head through and
saw that he was leaning over the stairs. He must have seen something at the
bottom because a look of confusion covered his face, as though he couldn’t
understand what he was seeing.

I
stepped into the tower and he snapped his head at me from the sound of my
footstep. He raised a hand to his face and placed a finger over his lips. He
kept his eyes on me as he took a single step down the stairs, moving his legs
deliberately to make no noise. He extended his hand to me and I tried my best
to mimic his actions.