The Wizard And The Dragon (7 page)

It
looked too close to a dragon to me and I screamed. The monster shrieked back.
Tower arched his body forward and threw the gems at it. He continued with the
motion with his other hand, springing it forward and sending a fireball
hurtling after the gems as they all soared into the monster.

The
fireball consumed the gems as it seared through them, gaining intensity as it
absorbed their power. It seemed to hang in the air as it expanded, as if the
energy it was unleashing slowed the fire for a moment. Then, all at once, the
ball of fire snapped forward into the monster’s head. There was a flash of
light and heat and I fell to the floor.

When I opened my
eyes I wasn’t sure if I had been unconscious or just dazed for a few moments.
It felt like the room was moving and something was shaking me, pressing into my
back. I thought it was Tower seeing if I was alive and I turned my head to face
him.

Two
long legs were protruding out of the jail cell and scraping at me on the floor.
I recoiled from them and wanted to scream. The spider hissed as I shuffled away
and it pressed itself tightly against the bars and stretched its legs out
further. I was far enough away that I was safely out of its reach but I was
still horrified at the massive limbs reaching out for me. Each of them was
easily double the length of my entire body.

The
room had a layer of dust on it that hadn’t been there when I had seen the
explosion. A quick glance at the tunnel entrance showed me that it had
collapsed into the room but the damage of the blast didn’t stop there. Part of
the roof had fallen and cracks ran through the rest of it. The floor around the
tunnel looked like a gash had been dealt to it. Rocks and boulders laced with
crystals and gems had spilled into the cellar, caking everything with dust in
the process. I saw parts of the monster that Tower had aimed his spell at
sticking out from the rubble. I was certain it was dead but I couldn’t bring
myself to check.

I
found Tower on his back at the foot of the stairs. I placed my hands on his
shoulders and shook him gently at first. When I felt him stir I shook him
harder. The spider let out another angry hiss from across the room and the
hairs of the back of my neck shot up. I gripped Tower’s shirt and pulled him
and then let him drop. He landed with a thud on the stone floor and his eyes
flew open.

He
inhaled sharply through his nose and sat up immediately. He saw the results of
the cave-in around the room and dived toward the sealed off tunnel before he
was even steady on his feet. I watched him tumble as he ran. He put his hand on
the stacked rocks as if it was something he needed to touch to make sure was
real and actually happening.

When
he turned around he looked furious. It was the first time I saw him angry since
I came to the tower. It was a frightening, fierce look and I backed away from
him as he stomped around the room. I couldn’t understand what he could be so
upset about. Even though the tunnel had been blocked, plenty of gem-rich stones
had been loosened into the room.

Tower
opened his mouth as if he was about to say something. He stopped, reconsidered,
and then let out a low, guttural sound. It was something between a cry and a
growl. His eyes locked onto the spider across the room, at its arms still
groping futilely out of the bars, and I saw something in him snap.

Whatever
emotion he was feeling had sobered him from the effects of his fall. He stepped
gingerly in range of the spider’s legs. The creature swiped at him, and he
dodged it effortlessly with a turn of his head. Before the spider could recover
from the loss of balance from missing its strike, Tower shot an arm out and
grabbed the leg with his right hand. He gripped it firmly, his hand just barely
big enough to wrap around the entire width of it.

The
spider wailed and took another swipe with its other leg. Tower didn’t have to
dodge this one. His free hand met it mid-swing, grappled onto it, and twisted
it roughly. The spider cried out and backed up from the bars of the cage until
the back portion of it was pressed against the wall behind it.

Tower
never let go. His mouth opened to bare his teeth at the spider and he twisted
his hands again. I heard something crunch. It wasn’t a loud noise, but the
scream that came out of the cage was near deafening. The monster seemed to have
given up fighting back and was trying more to pull its legs back into safety. I
thought that Tower had made his point but he still didn’t let go. He wasn’t
finished.

His
teeth gnashed together and I saw the same expression cross his face as he had
when he was usually concentrating on a spell. The spider felt its effects
before I noticed them, and its cries were now a constant noise in the room.

Tower’s
hands were glowing, and it was then that I realized what he was doing. His
hands were shock white and the area on the spider’s legs where he gripped,
previously a dark green and black, looked red hot. The air around the contact
was distorted with the intensity of the heat that Tower was focusing through
his hands and into the spider. Its legs were being burned away.

“Stop,”
I said. “Tower, please stop.”

He
turned his head at me and looked like he didn’t recognize me, as if he had
never seen me before in his life. Despite how angry he looked in his eyes I
could see that he was also confused.

“No,
I don’t stop,” he stated firmly.

The
cries from the spider became worse. I thought the noises it had made before
were inhuman but they were nothing to what it was making now. There were
snarls, snaps, and clicks, all with the undercurrent gasping and labored
breathing that sounded like a thick, heavy liquid being boiled away.

“Please
stop. This is wrong.”

“It
doesn’t matter!” he roared. “I do this! I kill it! I burn it away to nothing
but ash. This is what I do. I’ve seen it.”

“Why?”

“Because
he’s dead.”

“Who’s
dead?”

“My
familiar. He died when I went back in there without you.”

Tower
turned away from me and back to the spider. I tried to comprehend what the
little figure made of fire could have meant to him but I couldn’t. I moved
forward and set a hand on Tower’s arm. I could feel the heat radiating from his
hands and it was uncomfortably hot even that far away.

“Don’t.
The spider didn’t do it,” I said.

I
felt the heat lessen slightly but it didn’t stop. I looked up and saw the
conflicting choices play out in Tower’s eyes as he glanced between the spider
and me. The heat lessened a little more and a look of disbelief crossed his
face. Again it looked like something snapped within him and he released the
legs of the spider. They retracted back into the cage like a released spring
and the sound of its tortured throes subsided.

Tower
was looking at me as if he was seeing something impossible. The rage on his
face faded with the glow in his hands. Sweat was dripping from his forehead
now, as if it had waited until the heat he was channeling through his body
stopped before it appeared.

His
eyes were closed and he looked like he was trying to work through some problem
in his head. A few minutes passed before he marched away from me and to the
stairs. I was still trying to process what had just happened. Questions were
ready to burst out of me. I rushed up the stairs behind him.

“Tower!
What happened?”

He
didn’t answer.

“You
said he died. How? Was it the monster?”

He
still didn’t answer.

His
larger height made keeping up with him impossible. When I broke from the
stairway and into the main room of the tower he was already at the bottom of
the spiral staircase. I saw that it was late evening now. We must have been
unconscious for a few hours. The water running through the tower twinkled in
the walls.

“Tower!”

He
looked at me but didn’t stop climbing the stairs. He brushed a hand through the
air toward our dining table and the magic suspension around the roast pig
platter vanished. He continued walking like he had done nothing at all.

“Eat
what you like and then go to sleep.”

He
had not spoken harshly but he hadn’t sounded friendly either. The way he
slammed his door shut left me feeling abandoned. I picked at the food until it
was cold and unappealing. I knew I should have been hungry but I had no
appetite.

Before
bed I went up to Tower’s floor. I almost gathered enough nerve and courage to knock
when I thought better of it. He had told me to go sleep. My body ached from all
of the little injuries I had received that day. I had only discovered them when
I finally stopped to eat.

Despite
how the day had ended I felt tired. I slowly made my way down the stairs and
into my room. Weary and miserable, I lay down on the bed and tried to sleep.

* * *

The next day came
and went without seeing Tower out of his room. I knocked on his door but
received no answer. I heard him moving and muttering around inside and didn’t
dare go in without his invitation. I remembered his warnings well.

I
braved the cellar room for water. The spider seemed to regard me suspiciously
but made no movement to reach me through the bars. I saw that there was a
bucket of water inside the cage and what looked to be food scraps. I guessed
that Tower must have came out of his study some time during the night.

Caged
or not, a monster was still a monster and made me nervous. I took the water
with me upstairs and didn’t go back down for the rest of the day.

The
food on the table showed further evidence of Tower’s activities. It was still
warm enough to eat and I forced myself to consume as much as possible before it
got cold. I had no idea how long it would be until he came out again.

I
spent most of the day on the roof of the tower. I had grown to trust that the
dragon wouldn’t find me despite being so high. Even so I didn’t dare go outside
and leave the tower. The thought of being out alone still frightened me.

Winter
was still a few months away but it was already starting to get colder. I
enjoyed keeping track of the gemstones shrinking in the water bowl, like ice
melting away. Sometimes pieces would crumble away in a show of sparks that lit
up the water. The purple gem that completed the cycle poured with water as if
it was being drenched in an unseen rain. It was hypnotic and peaceful to look
at.

I
always closed the slab that sealed off the water compartment. I didn’t know
what effect the colder weather might have on the water.

A
few more days passed in a similar way. Each night I tried to stay awake as long
as I could to catch Tower outside of his room. I would stare at the ever
burning flame of the candle, still lit from my first night, and will myself to
keep my eyes open. Each morning I would wake up to the same burning flame and
find that Tower had been out and busy during the night.

I
wasn’t sure if he was actively avoiding me or if the timing was merely a
coincidence.

Nearly
a week went by before I finally saw him. I walked out of my room in the morning
and found him sitting at our dining table in his usual chair. He had moved the
table into the center of the room and had moved my chair to sit at the corner
closest to his own. He watched me as I walked down to the table and took my
seat.

“I’m
sorry,” I blurted out before he had a chance to say anything.

He
cocked an eyebrow at me and smiled. “What for?”

“The
spider. For interrupting. You looked mad.”

His
smile had eased me a little but not entirely.

“Ah,”
he said. “There’s no need for apologies. I was angry, very angry, but not at
you. Nor the spider, really. It was just the closest thing I could lash out at.
My friend had just died in the mines. Killed by the creature that chased after
me.”

“Friend?”
I spoke the word slowly, dragging the pronunciation of each syllable. “Your
familiar. He is your friend?”

“Well,
he isn’t anymore,” he said with a sad smile. “You’ve spoken about a wizard that
lived in your village. What did he teach you about magic?”

“Nothing.
He never had a reason to speak to me.”

“Most
users of magic are capable of creating, or summoning, a familiar. Some are an
essence of a thing, or the embodiment of an element such as water or
air—picture a small person made of water, water that is alive and thinking and
acting with a will of its own. Some are animals, occasionally endowed with a
significantly higher intelligence than normal for their species. I’ve also read
of inanimate objects being brought to life, sustained by magic in the same way
we use it to make food.

“Some
magic users have a familiar as a tool, or an extension of themselves. Others,
like myself, see a familiar as a companion or a friend. You only saw him once
and I kept the two of you apart because of his appearance. In time I think you
will be comfortable with fire and you would have eventually met him.

“You
would have liked him,” Tower looked at the table as he spoke. “He was a good
friend.”

I
didn’t know what to say. Tower’s eyes were glazed and he was taking a moment to
steady himself. I sat mutely with my hands in my lap. I couldn’t imagine a
creature made of fire without fear seeping into my chest. To me, fire was a
consuming, chaotic, uncontrollable force and not something that could be
befriended. I still felt sad for Tower, even if I couldn’t understand.

“You
were alone this week,” he said, breaking the silence. “I wanted some time alone
to mourn my friend but I should have told you before now. For that I am sorry.
There was a second reason, however. It’s about what you did with the spider.”

“I
said I was sorry. I meant it,” I stammered out.

“No,”
he said softly. “You affected the spell and the outcome of that encounter. You
acted and used some innate ability when you touched my arm. I spent part of
this week preparing for that.”

“I
don’t understand. Preparing for what?”

“To
teach you. I have never taught anyone before and I needed to plan some of the
lessons out.”

“Teach
me what?” I asked, still not understanding.

“Magic.
To teach you magic. If you’re willing to learn.”

“What?”

“Magic.”

I
gawked at him. “I am not a wizard.”