The Winter Letter (9 page)

“Sire, they have some sort of m-m-magic,” The creature replied. “We have nothing to fight back with since we surrendered our powers to you. We can not defeat them without it.”

“Magic? There is more?” The Prince was suddenly rubbing his hands together with a wild look in his eyes. “It’s mine! I will take it all!” The Prince looked down at the servant, who was kissing the floor. “Filth, I believe it is time you are relieved of your duty. I will take care of this myself.”

The servant whimpered loudly, but before he could move bolts of orange lightning shot from all ten fingers and fried the creature where he lay.

Will grimaced. 

The scene faded to a large field surrounded by volcanoes and mountains. The Prince was standing in the middle of the field surrounded by thousands of warriors, like a pin marking the center of a bullseye. Motionless bodies lay scattered about in the space between the prince and those surrounding him. The prince was grinning smugly.

At that moment one of the men charged, and a group opposite, seeing him go, did the same. There was a flash of orange light, a loud explosion (like thunder sounds when it knocks on your door), then every one of the warriors flew up and away. When they hit the ground none of them moved. 

The Prince laughed loudly. “Give me your power! Bow your knee!” he bellowed.

Another man, with a large ax, charged silently at the Prince from behind. This time alone. The Prince was still laughing, barking out defiances, right up until his attacker’s ax fell. At the last moment he spun, seizing the large warrior by the throat. He lifted the man until his feet were searching for the ground. 

“You attack me,” the Prince said quietly. “This is my world and you attack me!” The Prince’s ten rings began to glow angry red, and a wind began to blow from the volcanic mountains surrounding the battlefield. The blond man struggled for a moment, but then his hair began to fall out and his skin blackened, quickly charring. His scream faded as he crumbled to ash and blew away with the wind.

“You cannot challenge me in my own world you fools! Now bow, before I get angry!”

It only took a second before knees started hitting the ground. Then, as if the mighty army was a field of dominos, they lowered themselves and surrendered all of their magic.

The scene faded to black as the Prince looked down at his new subjects and lifted his chin in pride. 

Professor Book returned. “The destruction of the world was so terrible that news of it reached the Kingdom above the stars, and the King of All himself came to confront the Prince. When he and his strongest guards arrived the world was on the verge of death. The plants refused to yield their fruits; the waters of the rivers had stopped flowing and turned sour; and the animal world shared a plague with the accursed people. The dark magic had taken its toll.”

The image faded back in. 

The King of All and his entourage of ten foot tall guards stood on the banks of a motionless river. The river was dead with dead fish covering its dead banks. The King’s appearance was bright, too bright to stare at, but through the brightness his anger was evident, but it wasn’t an anger like that of the Prince, but rather the opposite kind, not a look of rage and pride, but of heartbreak and love. The King slid his dagger from its sheath, and without hesitation he jabbed the knife into his own palm. Instantly blood began seeping from his closed fist. 

The King lifted his wound out over the river and let a few drops fall. The glowing red hit the brown river, each drop stretching like ink in water, then the water began, starting at the drops and widening in every direction, to turn from brown to clear and move downstream. The river was flowing again, and as soon as the new clean water touched the banks fresh growth sprang up. Every dead fish flopped back to life. New life was in the creator’s blood.

The scene faded to men and woman drinking, and splashing, and smiling, then it faded again to the Prince seated on a throne at the top of a massive stair overlooking the dead world.

“What are you doing here? This is my world now!” the Prince yelled down as the King of All and his guards approached. “You’re no longer the King of All, but the King of a
lmost 
All
!
” The Prince laughed hideously at his own joke. The guards of the King reached for their swords, but the King lifted his hand and they calmed. The Prince leapt to his feet, pacing back and forth with predator eyes, screaming down the stair leading up to the platform where his throne sat. “What is it mighty King of Almost All?! Did you not give this world to my father? Is it not ours!” he taunted. The King said nothing. “Don’t you like what I’ve done with the place?”

The King of All stared hard at his mocker, examining. Then his brow lowered, and from deep within he released a roar that cracked the massive marble staircase. The walls of the black palace rocked, the black columns cracked, and the throne split in its middle. The shout tossed the evil prince back into his broken chair. His appearance blurred, as if he was paint being smeared, and before he could breathe another blasphemous word his spirit was ripped right out of his body. He blew up and out of 
his
 world to float bodiless in the vastness of space, forever.

Will shouted in triumph as the Prince faded into the darkness. The tree, who was napping, started and knocked a bird, who was also napping, to the ground.

The Narrator continued. “This terrible story is a warning. Magic, although enjoyable, is not a toy. Never try to obtain any dark magic and never use it to harm. There are inescapable consequences to those who use their power to bring pain and death to others. Do you understand these things?” Professor Book asked.

“Yes sir, I think so.”

“Wonderful! Any more questions?”

“Umm, sir, what about the poem?”

“Oh yes, yes; I nearly forgot.”

The book flipped itself to its last page. There the poem that every magi must learn was written.

Years shall pass and breath shall too,

but this magic of magi can never undo

either of these, so act with the wise;

use only to serve and to please the skies,

or in the wink of a star the King of All will arrive,

and none shall stand, no evil shall survive.

For with this power comes a call to peace,

or all magic you posses shall surely cease.

So today these words of mine do bind,

This I know: This magic He gives, it is His, not mine.

Will read the poem aloud word for word as each line appeared a sentence at a time. When he was finished the Professor spoke. “Any more questions, William?”

“No sir,” Will answered.

“Very well. Learn this well my young friend. I’ll leave you to it. Good bye.”

Will recited the poem aloud a few more times until he was confident he knew it. When he shut book the light sucked back into its thick leather covers. He had not noticed it had gotten so late. The sun was low, winding down from its day’s work. He leaned back against the tree and pondered all he had read. Magic was real, but there was a great responsibility with it. He wondered if he was ready. He wondered if he could obey the rules. He wondered if his parents would approve. Just as the sun was finally ready to clip its strings and fall into the horizon Wohie came bouncing along to lead Will to the ceremony. Will stuffed the big book into his Dad’s travel bag, which surprisingly fit perfect, and followed closely behind the ever grinning Wohie. 

Twelve
The Ceremony

Wohie, still bouncing, led Will on a trail of stones through the ever thickening forest. Often, as they went, a deep voice would call from seemingly nowhere. 

“Hello Wohie,” the voice would say. 

“Hi-ya!” she would reply, smiling at a nearby tree.

Some of the trees had moss hanging from their highest branches all the way to the ground, and they spoke more softly, which made Will suspect they were lady trees. And sure enough Wohie greeted each with, “Hello Madam!”, to which the kind madam tree would return “Hello Deary.”

A few times Will and Wohie met traveling animals along the way. Each time, in honorable humility, the animal bowed slightly at the neck and moved to the left, giving way to Will and Wohie. Will, himself trying to make room, would move in the same direction. The result looked like a dance. First the animal to the left and Will to the right, perfectly mirroring the action. Then it was back to the left and back to the right. Wohie laughed every time, without offering any help whatsoever. To Will everyone walked on the wrong side of the path, but every fox, and frog, and flying fish (I suppose going from one pond to another) knew Will was the one on the wrong side, but would dare not risk embarrassing him by saying so.

As Wohie led the path grew hilly. Up and down they went through very peaceful woods, but never for a moment was it quiet, not with Wohie there. 

“Well Willy, if you’re gonna be part of this team you need to know all about us,” she said.

“Umm. What?” 

“Yeah, you’re gonna have to know it all, from start to finish.”

“Oh boy.”

“What’d ya say Willy?”

“Nothing.”

“Okay let’s see; where should I start? The beginning!”

Will rolled his eyes.

“I was brought here by my big brother Seth when I was just a baby. Been here my whole life, the only girl ya know. Makes me wonder what happened to the rest of us gals. But anyway, Seth and I lived in the old City of Andrias until the raiders came. I don’t remember of course, I was just a baby, but Seth told me he carried me the whole way until he met Master Jared. Wait, you know who MJ is right?”

“MJ?”

“Yeah, Master Jared.”

“Oh. Yeah, Gatnom told me.”

“Good. Well MJ taught Seth Magic, and then Seth performed the ceremony on me. He wasn’t suppose to, me being too young and all, but he wanted me to be able to protect myself. He did it right before he left for the tournament, bout four years ago. I was eight or nine or ten, I don’t know.”

“He went to the tournament?” Will asked. “How did he do?”

“They got second! Even being so young! Lord Markus brought him right into his Elite Knights! That’s the highest ranking Magi in the Under-Kingdom, just below Markus’s personal Guard. He was ranked three steps below Lord Markus himself, just below MJ!”

“That’s cool.”

“Yeah, but just a little while after the tournament the Elite Knights were on a training exercise, and they came across one of King Mel’s strongest Magi, Lord Eleazar” 

Wohie stopped and looked at Will, pausing for effect. Will wiped a band of sweat from his brow. The terrain was getting more and more rocky, and it seemed Mt. Highness was growing even taller as they ascended into its foothills.

“Everyone thought Lord Eleazar was dead, having not been seen for years and all, but there he was, tracking through the woods alone.”

“What happened?”

“The knights figured it was their duty to try and capture him, and they were sure all of them together could handle one single knight, but they were way wrong.”

Wohie waited on Will to ask.

“Yeah? Then what?”

“Then… they attacked! But, Lord Eleazar was stronger than they ever imagined. By the end of the fight he had stunned the entire first and second rank of the Elite Knights and took their magic; only two escaped. Seth was one and the other ran away and never came back. Seth returned to the Arena and reported what happened to Master Jared. For that he was promoted and given special training. Now, he’s supposed to be on some sort of secret mission, but he won’t tell me what. I asked him a dozen different times in our letters, but nope. He says it is too important.” Wohie mimicked her brother’s voice on the
too important
part. “He’s been gone for too long. As soon as I heard Gatnom was going to the War-Games I made myself a part of the team. He didn’t want it at first, but I don’t listen sometimes. I’ll do whatever I can to see Big Bro again. I miss him bad. 

“I remember this one time...”

Wohie talked until she chased off the day. Slowly all the green went grey, then thick black. When Will got a chance he spoke up. He had been doing his best to follow the sound of Wohie’s ceaseless talking, but was tripping over everything capable of being a stumbling block.

“Wohie?”

“Yeah, Willy?”

“How can you see?”

“What do you mean?”

“What do you mean, what do I mean?”

“Huh?”

“I can’t see! It’s dark.” 

There was short pause.

“Oh! Sorry Willy. Let me see...” Will heard a whisper. “Present the pathway.” 

At that, a white light appeared and grew until Will could see Wohie holding open the compact mirror that hung from her wrist. In the end it was shining much too bright to look at with bare eyes. 

“That better?”

Will squinted. “Yeah.” 

“All of my family can see at night just like it’s daytime. Sorry, sometimes I forget.”

“No problem, how much—wait, you can see at night?”

“Yeah. It’s rare though.”

“That’s cool. Is it magic?”

“Nope, just got good eyes.”

“Oh... uh, how much farther?”

“Just up a few small hills and we’re there!”

Thirty minutes later Will felt like a victim. Just a few hills — yeah right. Small, whatever! All the hills must have gotten together and decided to go only up from this point on. Up and up and up the two walked, until the trail was so steep it felt more like climbing than walking. Will had to stop a few times, but Wohie continued to bounce along with her mouth running about the same speed as her feet. She even called him
old man
one time while he was catching his breath. Will just glared at her. 

After another thirty minutes Wohie squealed, “We’re here!” She snapped shut her mirror, dousing the light. Up ahead Will could see the outlines of short bodies around a campfire.