Zoran Chronicles Volume 1 A Dragon in Our Town (43 page)

            
Poor Zoran, all he could do was to continually support her and help calm her
fears. Six advanced students of Archmage Oldrich were still here and Zdenka was now
going to be their teacher, though Nadia had promised to help her with anything she
might need. Indeed, Archmage Nadia had spent a good deal of time with Zdenka,
instructing her on what to do. Marek was still the door warden, though he hoped to work
on his topmost spells this year. Perhaps this would be the year that he achieved
Archmage status; he certainly hoped for it. He’d also volunteered to help her out with
the other students, which she greatly appreciated.

            
Making matters worse, she could not just go to the Stodgy Inn by herself to
conduct her Picking. Since she was now a baroness, she would be a prime target for
Zoran’s enemies. If they could get to her, they could use her to get to him. Thus, the
Archmages and Mages worked out a plan. Jarka would cast Invisible and take up a
station behind where Zdenka would be seated, guarding her rear. Karel would be
Invisible and perched just above the door to the inn, surveying and studying all who
entered the inn on Saturday. Zoran and the twins, also Invisible, would station
themselves near her, yet out of the way of those in the inn. Finally, they put all of the
protection spells possible on her, before she went into the inn on Saturday. Bernard had
already gone into the inn the night before and was pretending to be spending the night
there. He would be scouting out all of those staying at the inn and be sitting at the bar
during the Picking.

            
“Well, here I go,” Archmage Zdenka said to Mage Marek on Saturday morning as
ten o’clock approached.

            
“You will do fine, Archmage,” he said softly and encouragingly. She cast her spell
and stepped into the center of the Stodgy Inn. A dozen had come for this year’s picking,
eight young women and four young men. Most of the men of Brn were now engaged in
the fortress construction and its supporting tasks. The pay was so good that few could
refuse this golden opportunity to make double their usual income this year.

            
Zdenka walked to the middle of the room and made her announcement. “Hello
everyone. I am Baroness Archmage Zdenka Vladislov. Once again, it is Picking Time,
when we accept new students into our magic school. This year because of the extensive
construction that is going on, I will be accepting only four students. If the construction
has subsided next year, I will accept the usual dozen. If you are not chosen this year,
please try again next year. Age is not a factor to gain entry into Brn Tower. Now then,
those of you who wish to apply, see me at yonder table, one at a time please.” She walked
to the very same table at which Nadia had sat and chosen her.

            
One by one the hopeful young teens came up to her. She noticed that a pair of
twin girls was present; both had long brown hair and oval faces. She found it difficult to
tell them apart. Their clothes were in a terrible state, a patchwork of patches. That they
came from a very poor family was more than obvious. Yet, as the first one sat nervously
before her, she could see that they were clean.

            
“And what is your name?” she asked.

            
“Markéta Tehov, your Archmage-ship,” she replied timidly, totally uncertain just
how to address Zdenka.

            
“I’m glad that you decided to come for the Picking. Now then, I have a little
situation to describe to you and then I will ask you some questions about it.” Markéta
nodded, fingering her long brown hair with long slender fingers. She guessed that
Markéta was perhaps fourteen.

            
“You enter a room only to find a table with a bag containing one thousand gold
coins in it. Sitting at the table is a young man who is bleeding badly from a sword
wound. You see no sword in the room. Cowering against the back of the room is young
mother shielding a small child. What do you do?”

            
“Oh my, so much gold. I’ve never seen more than one gold coin that my mother
once had. What do I do? He’s going to die if we cannot stop the bleeding. I can use part
of my dress to make a bandage somehow. I have to get him to the doctors. Is there a
doctor anywhere nearby?” she replied, compassion flowing from her eyes.

            
“Very good, Markéta. You are chosen. Please take a seat over by that man at the
bar. His name is Mage Barnard.”

            
“Oh! Really? Me? Accepted? Oh thank you, thank you. Oh, please, you must pick
my sister too, please? We are never parted,” she begged.

            
“Well, that depends on her. She will get the same opportunity as everyone else.”
Markéta seemed satisfied and moved over to Bernard, who began talking with her.

            
Her sister came next. “Hi, what is your name?”

            
“Karina Tehov, your Archmage-ship,” she replied in an nearly identical tone of
voice. Zdenka asked the same questions of her.

            
Much to Zdenka’s surprise, Karina’s reply was word for word, emotion for
emotion the same as Markéta’s! Quite amazed, she said, “Well, your answer is identical
to your sister’s. You are also chosen, but how is it that your answers are so identical?”

            
“We always know exactly what the other is thinking, your Archmage-ship,” she
replied timidly, as if perhaps she had done something wrong.

            
“Fascinating, Karina. We must talk about this at length. Please go join your sister
with Mage Bernard.”

            
A boy answered that he would take the gold and then go in search of a doctor and
use the money to pay the doctor. Zdenka cast her Forget spell on him and politely asked
him to try again next year when she would be taking more students.

            
A bit later, she chose a fifteen year old girl with short black hair and an infectious
smile. Her name was Jitka Liten and was already a seamstress, but wanted to see if she
could learn magic as well. The last person to come up to her was Gustav Tava, a lad who
had turned sixteen. His father had trained him as a blacksmith. He was well-muscled,
but had found smithing not to his liking. Now he had a chance to learn magic, which he
hoped that he would like. He too was chosen.

            
Just as Zdenka was about to tell the four what to do next, Archmage Karel’s
Message spell contacted all of the mages. “Help outside. Got me an assassin red-handed.
Little help, please, Jarka!” Instantly, the Invisible spells cancelled, surprising the four
new students and the bar keeper himself.

            
“Stay here kids. Bernard, guard them. Karel’s captured an assassin outside the
inn. Be right back!” Zdenka exclaimed, and joined Jarka, Renata, Emil, and Zoran as
they raced to the inn’s doors.

            
Outside, Karel had a man entrapped in a mass of sticky Webs from his spell. Six
of his hawks were perched on the horse rail nearby. The man’s eye sockets were bloody
and empty, hawk claw marks covered his bearded face. “Hawks helped me out. He’s now
more or less harmless as he can’t see. Jarka, what do we do with him? I don’t want to get
poisoned.” Karel was more than angry. He’d spared no punches stopping the assassin
from entering the inn — that was abundantly clear!

            
Jarka cleverly and cautiously removed the assassin’s daggers and short sword.
She checked his boots and pant legs, disarming him of his two concealed throwing
daggers. “Who sent you to kill Baroness Archmage Zdenka?” she spat on the wed-tangled man, thrashing about in terror and pain.

            
“None’o you damn business,” he screamed, wildly trying to free himself.

            
“Should we torture him to find out?” Karel asked. “I can figure out some painful
means!”

            
Zoran laughed, “I’m sure you can, Karel. No, I have a better way, the Duska way.”

            
“No!” the man screamed, his voice going up an octave in high pitched terror!

            
Everyone looked at Zoran. He realized that none knew what he was talking about,
but that the assassin did. “A Duska can read men’s minds, though I have never done it
yet. I guess there is always a first time for everything. Here goes.” He wanted to put his
dear friends and wife at ease about this revelation of a Duska skill. They might suddenly
believe that he had been probing their minds all along.

            
Zoran concentrated. However, something was very different about his mental
skills now. Admittedly, he’d not used anything but his Shadow Walking, communication
ability, and danger warning skills for a very long time. Still, something was vastly
different. At first, everything in his mind turned sky blue, the color of his Circle’s thread.
Peculiar, he thought. Then, he focused on the man before him and to his surprise he
found that he could easily slip into the man’s mind and thoughts! He’d learned how to
do this from his sisters, but it had always required his utmost concentration. Even then,
the images and thoughts were faint and hard to decipher. Now, the images were vividly
real; the man’s thoughts, quite clear!

            
“Ah, he was sent on behalf of Kazimir by Bogdan. He was supposed to kill
Zdenka,” Zoran reported to his friends.

            
Jarka spat on him once more. “Bastard. Death is too good for you!”

            
“What do we do with him? We cannot turn him loose,” Zdenka asked, torn
between the man’s injuries and the fact that he had been intent on killing her.

            
“We need to send Bogdan a clear message!” Karel angrily declared. “I know, let
me remove his arms too and bandage them up. Then, we send him back to Bogdan!”

            
Unable to stomach the retribution being put forth, Zdenka went back inside to
her new students. Emil said quietly, “It is too dangerous for you to Shadow Walk to
Bogdan’s castle. Your Uncle would have a fit. Please allow Renata and me to return him
to Bogdan on Rehor.”

            
“Okay, thanks, Karel, Emil, Renata. Well done all of you.” He went back inside to
check on how Zdenka was handling this attempt on her life. Karel was true to his anger.
Two quick whacks and the man’s arms were removed below his elbows. A quick pair of
tourniquets stopped his bleeding. The twins changed into their normal dragon forms.
Emil picked up the man in his claws, and the two dragons swooped gracefully into the
sky and then disappeared. Meantime, Karel and Jarka cleaned up the mess.

            
When they were done, the twins returned. Renata said, “That’s done. We took the
opportunity to test out our fire breaths once more.”

            
Emil chuckled, “We gave the Baron a wake up call and burned quite a few of his
men in the process.” Karel laughed loudly, and they all went inside to escort the new
students and the others back to the tower.

            
Meanwhile inside, Zdenka was quite shaken by the assassination attempt. “I am
truly sorry, Zdenka, to have brought this down on you,” Zoran consoled her.

            
“I know you are. I knew what I was getting into when I married you. I do so love
you, Zoran. It’s just the awfulness is only now coming home to me. I will be okay. I am
just glad that my new students didn’t have to see it. I’m okay.”

            
A bit later, Zdenka began introducing her new students to life in her tower. One
of the first actions she did was obtain new dresses for the twins. By late afternoon, all
four were beginning their initial studies of the history of magic and of Adapazan. She
now spent her time with the older students.

            
Meantime, Karel and Zoran held a discussion with the engineers on the fortress
construction. Karel had come up with a bright idea several days ago. Zoran held a
conference with his friends, and all agreed that it was a brilliant one. Now the two set
about seeing how it may be accomplished. Essentially, Karel had suggested, “Look. We
have dragons protecting us, but let’s not put all of our eggs in one hen house. We know
that there are other kinds of dragons on Voss. What happens if Kazimir or Bogdan gets
their hands on some of them and sends them here to attack our new castle and
fortifications? We have seen the damage that the teens can do to stone with just their
bodies. Remember how they nearly caved in the exit from Mikolas’ castle? Well, suppose
our fortifications get attacked by some other dragons. We ought to build in some
additional protections.”