Close Encounters of the Magical Kind Read online

  “Hmm. I believe I could brew a potion that would help us find this pontal, wherever it may be hiding.”

  “You’re unable to make any potions at the moment,” Gareth reminded him, not bothering to look up as he scribbled notes on where to find certain plants and minerals on a large piece of parchment. “Not until I start replenishing our stock, that is.”

  Shardwyn rose to his feet and waved off his assistant’s concerns.

  “Bah. I have a spare cauldron and an emergency kit full of supplies up in the loft. I just saw it up there before I came down here. Let me see what I can do.”

  After he had left Gareth looked up and found Sarah’s eyes.

  “I know full well what he has up there,” the boy casually told her in a quiet tone. “I’m the one who suggested we should have a backup since he’s so prone to accidents whenever he’s in front of a cauldron. I do hope he doesn’t try anything up there. There’s more wood than stone in the attic.”

  “Do you think he can find one of those flowers?” Sarah hopefully asked.

  Gareth shrugged, “I won’t say it’s impossible, but I will say that it’s highly unlikely. A locator spell is best performed by just that, a spell, not a potion.”

  There was a loud thump, followed immediately by a muffled curse.

  “Well, he found the cauldron,” Gareth sighed. “I predict in less than twenty seconds there will be a crash.”

  Sarah giggled, “You sound so confident.”

  “You haven’t been cooped up in here with him as long as I have,” Gareth scowled, returning his attention to his list of potion ingredients. “It’s a wonder he hasn’t blown up the castle.”

  Steve snorted, drawing a smile from Shardwyn’s apprentice.

  “You think you’re good, huh?” Steve finally said.

  “I can hold my own,” Gareth answered, returning Steve’s smug look.

  “Prove it,” Steve challenged. “See if you can find this flower we’re looking for faster than he can.”

  Gareth sighed, “I really shouldn’t. It isn’t my place. This is Shardwyn’s workshop and he’s entitled to…”

  There was a loud crash. They all heard the telltale sound of broken glass falling to the floor. Sarah laughed.

  “You called that one. What do you think he broke?”

  “There was a crystal tea set up there. I remember seeing it on a small table in the far corner of the attic. Shardwyn said it was a gift from the queen last year. I’m guessing he’s knocked it over.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to help us out?” Sarah asked, giving the boy her friendliest smile she could come up with.

  Gareth walked over to an open doorway with a flight of narrow stone steps visible through it. He stuck his head in and looked up.

  “Shardwyn,” Gareth called, raising his voice, “do you mind if I give it a try while you’re working on your potion? I thought maybe I could approach it from a different angle.”

  “How are you going to make a potion without any ingredients?” Shardwyn’s voice asked, mystified. “There’s enough supplies up here to allow me several tries. I’m sorry, dear boy, I don’t think I have enough for you.”

  “Oh, that’s alright. I suppose I could try something else. That is, if you don’t object.”

  “No objections, dear boy, no objections. I think you’re wasting your time, though.” They all heard the wizard chortle. “I should have my potions ready soon.”

  Gareth immediately turned from the doorway and strode purposefully back towards a row of shelves loaded with books.

  “You two are my witnesses,” the apprentice announced. “He gave me permission to try.”

  Intrigued, Steve followed the boy to the closest shelf.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “As I said, you use a spell to locate something, not a potion. Let’s do this the right way, shall we?”

  Gareth selected a few books, approached a stack of folded papers and selected one. He then knelt down to move several stacks of books off a large trunk. Realizing his hands were full, he wordlessly turned to Sarah to hand her the books he was holding along with the folded parchment. Sarah immediately handed them to Steve, who frowned.

  “Admit it,” Sarah whispered to her husband. “You’re liking him a little bit more now, aren’t you?”

  Steve grunted, but didn’t say anything.

  After rooting around in the trunk for a few seconds Gareth pulled his arm up to reveal he was now clutching a small stone figurine. To Sarah it looked as though it could have been a king in a chess set. Gareth walked back by Steve and, without breaking step, took the parchment from him. He spread it open on an undamaged table and set the figurine down in the middle of it.

  Shardwyn’s apprentice then reclaimed possession of the books he had selected and began skimming through them, all while mumbling to himself. Sarah leaned over the table to see what was on the paper. It was a map of Lentari. Steve joined her and gazed impassively at the document.

  “What are we doing now?” Steve wanted to know.

  “We’re waiting to see what Gareth is going to do.”

  “There’re some things on this map that I didn’t know existed,” Steve remarked as he gazed down at the map.

  Sarah tapped the water off the western coast of Lentari.

  “I remember hearing the name of this ocean somewhere but had forgotten it. The Erudian Ocean. It has a nice ring to it.”

  “Look at this,” Steve murmured, tapping the country to the south of Lentari. “Straosia. I never knew what this country was called.”

  Gareth batted Steve’s hand away from the map.

  “Don’t touch. I’m about ready.”

  “Dude, tell me you didn’t just bat my hand away.”

  “Hmm? Of course I did. You just watched me do it.”

  Hoping to defuse the situation, Sarah tapped the book she had just seen Gareth reading.

  “What are you going to do? Can you explain it to us?”

  “I’ve created a locator spell and have tied it to this map,” Gareth explained. He picked up the stone figurine and placed it over R’Tal. “The castle will be our starting point. As soon as the spell finds this flower, provided it exists…”

  “It does,” Sarah assured him.

  “…then it’ll move the figurine to its exact location on the map. Then you’ll know where to go.”

  “Do you think this will really work?” Steve wanted to know.

  Gareth shot him a look.

  “Look, I know you don’t trust me. I even understand why and cannot fault you for that. But when it comes to spells I can safely say that I know what I’m doing.”

  “How long will this take?” Sarah asked.

  Gareth shrugged, “I don’t know. It could be instantaneous or it could take a while longer. I’ve never done a search for this flower before so I don’t have any other information than that.”

  The teenager closed his eyes, drew an invisible symbol in the air with his right hand, and softly chanted. The stone figurine, currently sitting on R’Tal, started to emit a soft glow, as though it was lit from within. Gareth smiled as he pointed at the figurine.

  “There. You see? It’s working. As long as the figurine is glowing you’ll know the spell is searching. Once it completes the search and finds this flower then it’ll move the figurine to its location.”

  Steve nodded appreciatively. “Beautiful. Think you’ll find it before Shardwyn?”

  Gareth cast a quick glance at the ceiling.

  “Without a doubt,” he quietly whispered.

  Steve finally cracked a smile at the boy and headed towards the closest window. Sarah followed.

  “Watch out for the broken glass,” Steve cautioned. “Damn stuff is everywhere.”

  “Hey, you’re the one who set off the explosion in here,” Sarah pointed out. “The broken glass is your fault.”

  “I didn’t see you objecting,” Steve countered. “In fact, I was pretty sure I saw that dre
sser over there, the one that looks like a charcoal briquette at the moment, start to move. It looked to me like it was in the process of rising from the ground. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

  Sarah grinned, “Nope. You can’t prove a thing.”

  “Uh huh. My point is, you were just as surprised as I was to learn Gareth was the renegade wizard. I just happened to attack first. My reflexes are just better than yours.”

  Sarah’s eyes widened.

  “Excuse me? Just because you got off a few lucky shots doesn’t mean you have better reflexes than I do.”

  Her husband grinned at her, “I do believe I have been challenged. Well, my dear, challenge accepted.”

  Sarah felt a tap on her shoulder. Gareth was there and he was smiling at her.

  “Told you I could do it.”

  “What? You found it already?”

  “It was just a flower,” Gareth scoffed. “I knew it wasn’t going to be hard to find. Come on, I’ll show you.”

  The boy led them back to the table with the map on it. However, both husband and wife could see that the figurine was no longer glowing and was still sitting directly on R’Tal. Gareth stared at the figure in shock.

  “What? What happened? It moved, I swear it!”

  Gareth picked the small stone figure up and set it over an area of the forest east of Avin.

  “It was right about here. You have to believe me!”

  “I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy,” Steve muttered. “Nothing ever is.”

  Gareth replaced the figurine and began chanting once more, only this time it was in a forced rush. Trying her best not to smile, Sarah headed back towards the open window. There were too many nasty burnt smells lingering in the air from the explosion and she craved fresh air. She took her husband’s hand in her own.

  “Do you think either of them will be able to find the flower?”

  “Gareth seemed pretty sure that he found it before,” Steve told her. “He may be a kid but he clearly knows what he’s doing. I’d like to think it’s only a matter of time before…”

  “Hah!” Gareth exclaimed, rushing over to their position by the window. “I found it. Again. I made sure of it this time.”

  “Alrighty then,” Steve said, turning back towards the map and the table. “Let’s see where this thing is.”

  However, by the time they had returned to the map they were dismayed to see the stone figurine had reverted back to its inert self and was once more over R’Tal.

  “What is going on?” Gareth cried, dumbfounded. “That’s twice now!”

  “Let’s assume you did find it,” Sarah began. “Was it...”

  “I did find it,” Gareth grumbled as he glared at the stone figure. “Several times.”

  “Did it move to the same place as before?” Sarah wanted to know.

  Gareth shook his head, “That’s the odd thing about it. My original spell must have been off. The figurine was in a slightly different place. It’s almost as if… if… wait. Wait a moment.”

  “What?” Sarah asked, curious. “What is it?”

  Gareth didn’t answer. He returned to the shelves of books and selected another title. He was skimming through its contents by the time he had made it back to the map table.

  “That has to be it. It’s the only explanation. Well, there’s only one way to find out.”

  “What’s going on?” Steve whispered in Sarah’s ear.

  “I’m not sure. I do think Gareth is on to something. Look, he’s chanting. I think he’s trying again.”

  Sure enough, the tiny stone figure began glowing. This time husband and wife decided to wait by the table to see if anything happened. After 30 seconds of uncomfortable silence the stone chess piece started to move. It finally stopped at a point several inches west of Avin.”

  “Didn’t you say it was to the east of Avin before?” Steve asked, curious.

  Gareth nodded, “Aye, I did. That’s because it was. I saw it!”

  “Well, it’s not there now, so we should…”

  Steve trailed off as he and Sarah stared at the map with a look of astonishment on their faces. Gareth, on the other hand, had a smug, victorious look on his.

  The figurine was moving.

  “I added a locomotion layer to the spell,” Gareth explained as they watched the stone figure slowly inch its way across the map. “I suspected that maybe the flower was moving and that was what’s been causing my spell to fracture apart. So I updated the locator marker – the stone figure there – to keep moving should the target also be on the move. I really should have done that the first time.”

  “How in the world can a flower be moving?” Steve demanded. He pointed at the map. “When’s the last time you saw a flower traipse across the countryside? There’s gotta be some explanation we’re overlooking here.”

  “Maybe it was eaten by an animal and we’re now watching its progress across the kingdom?” Sarah suggested.

  Steve shook his head, “Nuh uh. Look at that thing go. It might be only inching across the map for us but if you think about it in scale, that speed looks to be faster than a dragon can fly. I don’t think there’s anything that can move faster than a dragon.”

  Shardwyn reappeared, holding a metal chalice with some type of bubbling liquid in it. He held it victoriously up in the air.

  “Behold! This will not only locate your elusive flower, Lady Sarah, but will also conjure it here, all in one fell swoop!”

  The liquid in the goblet continued to boil away, as though it was still suspended over a hot fire. Sarah gave the goblet a wary glance.

  “Is it safe, Shardwyn? It doesn’t smell very good.”

  “Good potions are always known by their scent, Lady Sarah. The more foul the smell, the more powerful the potion.”

  Gareth frowned and leaned forward to inspect the contents of the goblet.

  “Shardwyn, that’s not exactly true. I, er, what is that smell? What did you use?”

  “Firtendril, luchfern, blacklarch, and a pinch of algallocust.”

  “Blacklarch? We don’t have any. It was all old. Too volatile. I threw it out. How did you get it?”

  “Found it in the rubbish bin, dear boy. It still has plenty of potency left in its leaves.”

  Gareth groaned, “Shardwyn, that’s the problem. Blacklarch gets stronger as it ages. It will get to the point that it becomes too strong. That’s why I threw it out!”

  Right on cue the goblet in Shardwyn’s hand began frothing harder. With a look of surprise on his face, the wizard stared at his goblet.

  “Well, I’ll be. Look at that! If I didn’t know any better then I’d say it was about to –”

  Gareth snatched the goblet out of Shardwyn’s hands and thrust it into Sarah’s.

  “Get it out of here! Hurry!!”

  The goblet vanished. A few seconds later they heard a distant explosion. Steve looked out the window at the nearby eastern shore. The Sea of Koralis was visible, as was a large plume of dark gray smoke that was rapidly dissipating.”

  “You sent it out over the water,” Steve said, nodding. “Nice one, babe.”

  “I didn’t know what else to do with it,” Sarah admitted. “Spontaneous teleporting is not something I’m good at.”

  “I’m sorry, Lady Sarah,” Gareth apologized. “I wasn’t too sure what to do with it, either. Can you imagine what would have happened to us if you hadn’t been here?”

  “I would have just tossed it out the window,” Shardwyn harrumphed. “These walls are strong. My tower can withstand practically any blast.”

  “Dude, what if there had been someone out there?” Steve protested, growing angry. “Soldiers are always on patrol around here. How would you have felt if you had hurt someone?”

  Shardwyn poked his head out the window and peered down.

  “Hmm, perhaps you have a point, young sir. I should have considered that possibility. I will be careful in the future. Fear not, dear boy. All I ne
ed to do is find some fresh blacklarch and we’re back in business. In fact, I do believe there’s some by…” Shardwyn trailed off as he spotted the map with the stone figurine inching across the surface. “What have we here? Mister Gareth, what is all this mess?”

  “This mess,” Gareth sputtered, trying valiantly to keep from losing his temper, “is a multi-layered spell. I have found Lady Sarah’s plant, only it appears to be on the move. What do you think, Shardwyn? Could someone else have found it and harvested it before us?”

  Shardwyn pulled a chair over to the table to study the phenomenon closer. He pulled his pale green pointed cap off his head, wiped his spectacles on the hat’s soft velvety surface, and replaced both items. He turned to look at his apprentice and shrugged.

  “Truth be told, my very young apprentice, I’m not really sure. Perhaps I could write a spell that could check to see if any other organisms are in close proximity. That would indicate whether or not it’s been harvested.”

  “Or eaten,” Steve added, nodding his approval.

  Gareth laid a hand on Shardwyn’s shoulder and gripped it tightly.

  “Tell you what, I’ve already got my spell working. It’s presently using four different layers. With your permission I’ll add a fifth layer to see if the flower has been compromised.”

  “Why yes,” Shardwyn smiled, beaming his approval and patting Gareth’s hand patronizingly, “you do that. That would be good practice for you.”

  Sarah giggled softly and glanced at the young teenager. Gareth shot her a look, rolled his eyes, and set to work. The stone figure stopped inching across the map and quickly slid over to R’Tal, where it fell still. Gareth’s eyes closed and he took several deep breaths. A few seconds later he started to softly chant.

  Sarah leaned forward, eager to hear what the boy was saying only to discover the words were too soft to hear. She took her husband’s hand, blew him a kiss as soon as he looked her way, and settled down to wait. She was uncertain how long it would take Gareth to make the change. She could always…

  Gareth’s eyes opened. He looked over at Sarah and smiled at the two of them. Then the youth’s eyes found Shardwyn’s and a look of concern swept over his features. Gareth noticed he was being watched and quickly composed himself.