2011-08-01T07:44:00.000-07:00

The Orbs of Power: The Forest of Nadine

CHAPTER 1: A DYING BREED

Another seer!

Kensa awoke trembling. She sat on her hands to stop the twitching, but the sense was strong. Her hands still shaking, Kensa grasped her necklace that bore a skeleton’s hand holding a black, round pendant. “Relaxare,” she whispered and her hands and breathing relaxed. This one is powerful.

Kensa pulled on a heavy cloak around her olive-skinned shoulders as she hurried out of her chamber, the torches igniting as she entered the hallway. She had to be quick if she wanted to locate this seer. The last sense was over a year ago. She couldn’t afford to miss this one. She trembled again, remembering the Wonder she sensed in him. He had more than enough.

She hurried down her red-carpeted staircase, her long black hair flowing behind her, heading towards her dungeon. Every moment was crucial. The last time she had a sense, she was careless and missed the opportunity. The seer was the weakest one she’d sensed so it wasn’t a big loss, but had used up precious Wonder for it. Not this time. She passed several armored guards who immediately scrambled to attention.

Arriving at the dungeon entrance, a guard fumbled with a set of keys and dropped them to the ground.

Fool.

“So sorry, Overlord, I mean—”

Kensa’s black eyes flashed. “Never speak that title in the open like this.” What a fool! Kensa had warned everyone to stop calling her by that title. It was particularly crucial now that a few fellow members of the Council of Firsts had picked up some suspicions of her.

“Forgive my incompetence your highness, I beg of—“

“Silence! “Listenen.” Kensa whispered, slightly panicked. She listened for several tense moments before feeling relieved. Luckily, no prying ears were listening…this time. Kensa didn’t always have to be so diligent. She had been sloppy –careless even– and Zurin, a fellow member of the Council of Firsts who already held high suspicions of her, started growing uncomfortably curious about her recent activities. He created a new law that each member would be under random surveillance. How she loathed him. She wouldn’t be careless again.

Kensa considered the strong-armed guard as he pulled the four-inch thick metal door open. Obedient guards were rare. She would keep him, but would have his tongue cut out like the others. Examples bred obedience.

As she descended the torch-lit staircase, Kensa wondered which Seer’s Wonder she would use. She couldn’t use Skye, too weak. She would need extra Wonder to pinpoint this seer.

Kensa coveted the sacred powers more than anything, knowing the prophecy that a Seer would recover the most powerful of magical relics, the Orbs of Power. Even though she wasn’t one yet, she was becoming a Seer. She would have the Orbs. She would rule all of Alden.

A few whimpers escaped several of the prison cells as her footsteps found the bottom of the dungeon. She paused, thinking of whom she would drain. I’ll need to be at my best for this one. She walked towards a bolted door at the end of the dim hall with no doorknob.

Kensa’s hands began twitching violently at the thought of draining her victim’s Wonder; however, this would only give a small jolt compared to the one she sensed. She had to have him. His Wonder would finally give her the ability to find the Orbs.

Kensa grasped her pendant and whispered, “offan” and the door clicked open. “Illuminare.” A bright flash shot from the pendant and filled the pitch-black room with light. Only three prison cells were in this confinement.

The door on the right rattled and fingernails screeched down the metal barrier. Kensa walked to the iron door, holding her pendant and shouted, “Desarmen.”

The scraping nails stopped and Kensa whispered through the iron barrier, “I will need some of your Wonder again, Thomas. But don’t worry, you will soon have a neighbor to keep you company.”

CHAPTER 2: NORMAL

Darius awoke clenching his teeth. Another dream! Panic seized him as he scanned the shared room, just to realize he was in bed surrounded by the dark of night, his roommate still asleep.

Whew!

Relief washed the panic off Darius like a hot shower. His dreams usually got him into trouble. They were coming more often now. He was lucky this one was at night, almost normal.

His dreams had started on his fourteenth birthday, two weeks ago. At first the dreams were something his classmates laughed about, but by the third day, the students were getting vicious. Darius could vividly remember what happened to him in fourth period yesterday. How could anyone forget something like that? He awoke in class, screaming something. The class was roaring with laughter.

“Enough children, that’s quite enough!” The teacher’s futile attempts to stop the class from belittling Darius were barely heard above the onslaught of torments.

“Delirious Darius, Delirious Darius,” a few boys behind him were chanting. Delirious Darius became the instant label on the second day of his dreams.

Darius had quickly picked up his math book and run to the door of the classroom, humiliated. As he neared the door, a foot came out and Darius crashed to the ground.

More laughter.

How he hated his dreams. Why did they have to come right in the middle of class? Why couldn’t he be normal?

The question remained.

Looking at Darius, no one would pick him out of the crowd: plain brown hair, brown eyes, and average height for a fourteen-year-old boy. No crazy wart or mole growing on his nose, no third ear or eye, not one indication that he was crazy.

Darius heard a snort from his roommate, Jax, the only real friend he had. He stood by Darius regardless of what others said.

Ruben will want to know about this one. The last few weeks Darius had been sharing his dreams with his grandfather who had taken an interest in them. Darius would rather wait until morning, but Ruben wanted him to share his dreams when they were fresh.

Darius slid out of bed, put on a green cloak and tiptoed to the door.

Through the dark he crept down the 200-year-old stairs of his school, taking precaution to avoid the creaky ones.

Seeing was next to impossible, but it was not an issue; he had walked the path many times in the lonely hours of dark. Tiptoeing to a side door he laid his hand on the brass knob, but paused, knowing the door’s age. The wooden door moaned as he pulled and immediately Darius froze.

Did anyone hear that? Rules were heavily enforced by way of kitchen duty. The little free time Darius had seemed to be filled with scrubbing dishes or mopping floors. Darius felt a chill run down his back, like someone was watching him. He relied on his senses. His grandfather stressed the importance of listening to them.

After a minute of silence, he again pulled the handle, this time not pushing his luck. His patience was soon rewarded. The opening was just wide enough for him to squeeze through.

He closed the door just as carefully, and bolted to the nearest brush, which concealed a hidden path. Pausing, he scanned behind him to see if he were being followed, and jogged towards his grandfather Ruben’s cottage.

Arriving at his grandfather’s offered no comfort while the feeling that someone was watching him still lingered.

He whipped around to confront the rustling noise behind him. “Wh-who…who’s there?”

Nothing.

Why am I so on edge?

A dark figure leapt from the shadows, grabbing Darius and lifting him off his feet. Darius shrieked.

A roaring laugh came from the crazy old man holding Darius dangling.

“Ruben!” Darius yelped in rage as he was dropped onto his back.

“Oh, you should have seen the look on your face!” His grandfather was bending over, holding his stomach.

“I wasn’t scared for a second!” Darius’ shrill voice trembled, “I knew you were there!”

His grandfather didn’t seem to be listening or caring for that matter. “Oh, I got you good, boy,” the old man cackled.

Darius had to bite his tongue to keep himself from lashing out. He had come all the way out here in the cold, breaking school rules, on this idiot’s wishes and this was how he treated him? Like a child? That’s all he thought of him…that’s what everyone thought of him…this disturbed child that anyone could tease whenever they wanted. He stormed through the door of the cottage, toward the kitchen.

Darius could hear Ruben following. “I could hear you a mile away.”

Now he wants to lecture me? Darius sank into the farthest chair and stared into the crevices of the kitchen table, tuning his grandfather out. He just lectures me. When am I ever going to be good enough?

“You must be vigilant.” Ruben sat down across the table. “What dreams have you had, boy?”

The whole reason his grandfather wanted him to come down in the middle of the night was to share his dreams with him. It seemed odd that he wouldn’t just want him to wait until the next day…like any normal person. However, if there was anything his grandfather wasn’t, was normal. He lived alone in the woods. Most people lived in the village, safely behind the secure stonewalls, but not his grandfather. He wanted to be close to the school for some reason. Probably because of Darius…he would go over to his grandfather’s a lot. Ruben would teach him…things. Mostly about dueling and how to pass his school lessons, but since Darius started having these dreams, Ruben had been really curious about them. Darius hated his dreams. Why did he have them? Why did Ruben care so much about his dreams?

“If you are to keep up with your training, you mustn’t be weighed down with these dreams.”

“Why do I even have them?”

“We’ve gone over this time and time again—you are different.”

That was the last thing Darius wanted to hear. He was extremely curious which got him into a ton of trouble, but nothing out of the ordinary…until these dreams. The last few weeks had shown everyone just how different he was.

“Well, maybe I don’t want to be different. Maybe I just want to be normal like everyone else.”

Ruben’s face seemed to sadden. It wasn’t like he was frowning or anything, it just seemed like he was a bit…disappointed. “It’s a bit late for this. We should continue this tomorrow.”

A shot of guilt tugged at Darius. But what he really wanted to know was what his dream meant. He’d never cared about what they meant, but now he had to know.

“Grandpa it, it was about a green ball this time.”

To Darius’ surprise, Ruben whirled around, with eyes wide, and, as if he hoped he had heard wrong, asked, “What did you say, boy?”

Darius’ mouth was hanging slightly at the reaction of his grandfather. “It was about a glowing green ball.”

The old man sat back down at the table, this time next to Darius, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Tell me precisely what happened.” His blue eyes were fixed on Darius.

“I was running. I remember someone was chasing me, trying to take this green ball I was holding. As I ran, this guy was catching up too fast. I knew that I would have to confront him, but not before I delivered the ball…somewhere.”

As Darius talked he watched his grandfather curiously. Ruben’s eyes grew more and more serious until he stared down at the table, frowning, from his chair. After Darius finished, Ruben kept staring in silence. His grandfather never reacted like this. He was always interested and sometimes he wrote down a few notes, but never like this. “So, what do you think?” Darius asked, almost afraid to disturb his thoughts.

Ruben sat motionless, muttering under his breath as if he were repeating what Darius had just said. After another minute he said, “Nothing. It’s…it’s nothing for you to worry about. I want you to just forget about it. I’ll take you back to the school.”

Darius’ mouth hung. Nothing? Ruben always told him what he thought of his wild dreams, usually wanting him to stay a little longer to have some cherry cider. “What is it?” Darius’ curiosity was peaked.

“I told you not to worry about it. Come, I’ll take you back to the school.”

Darius gritted his teeth. He hated when his grandfather withheld what he was thinking. He did that a lot, especially recently.

“When you are ready, I will explain everything.”

Darius raised an eyebrow. “Ready? Ready for what?”

“I’ve said enough. We’ll continue this some other time.”

Darius eyed his grandfather suspiciously. He had always talked about Darius being special, but what he said this time was different. Almost like he had revealed something he had been hiding. Ready for what? “Does it have something to do with my dreams?”

Ruben stared at Darius, like he wanted to tell him everything but all he said was, “It’s just not the time yet,” with such finality that Darius stopped his questions.

Ruben looked at Darius and put his hand on Darius’ head and said, “I think you are getting pretty tired. You look like you need some more rest.”

Darius wanted to complain, but found that his eyes were heavy. He suddenly felt an unnatural wave of exhaustion overtake him. The room started spinning and Darius felt his eyes closing. When he tried to open them again he found himself in bed, in his room.

~~~~~~

Knock, knock, knock! “Six a.m., everyone up,” boomed the principal, Ms. Beasy.

Darius felt so groggy and tired that he was tempted to fall back asleep. No…I’d better not. The consequences of sleeping in jogged his memory. He rolled out of bed and immediately jumped back in. “Ooh!” The floor was ice. “Brrr!” Darius shivered.

A short snort from across the room told Darius that Jax was still sleeping.

“Morning, Jax!” A hump on the other bed twitched for a moment, and proceeded to snore again.

“Oh, no, you don’t!”

Darius launched his pillow at the lump. Whomp!

“Hey! Cut it out, Darius!” he whined.

“You know what will happen if we’re late to wake up call.”

“Mmm…comin’,” Jax groaned.

Darius scrambled out of bed. The more he stayed in, the more tempting it would be to fall back asleep. He was not going to be late to wake up…again—last time he had to scrub the entire school’s dishes for the day.

Darius crossed the small, rectangular room to an old, beat up chest where he kept his clothes. The hinges whined as he reached inside. To his surprise, the green cloak he had worn to Ruben’s cottage during the night lay neatly folded on top of everything else. The memory of his late night’s visit flooded his mind as he pulled out his brown shoes, black trousers, and button-up white shirt. I wonder why Ruben was so hesitant to—

Snort! A rumble came from Jax’s bed.

“Jax, what are you doing? I’m not getting dish duty again!” Darius leapt onto Jax’s bed, landing right on top of him.

“Ooof! Hey, get off!” The lump tightened its grip on the covers.

Darius started ripping blankets off, “Come on, Jax, get up!”

Jax leapt up and tackled Darius to the ground. “I’m up man.”

Jax was at least fifty pounds heavier than Darius and easily pinned him to the ground.

“Okay, I give!” Darius groaned rubbing his shoulder, which had smashed into the wooden plank floor.

Jax rolled off Darius, a smirk on his short, round face. “Yeah, you just remember that.”

“Okay, you big oaf, let’s get going. No more dish duty for us.” Darius stumbled back to his wooden chest in the corner of the room.

Jax scratched his large belly which hung out of his tank-top nightshirt as he moseyed over to a mirror by his wooden chest and brushed his scraggily brown hair.

“I hate my uniform,” Darius complained as he pulled up his pants.

“Not as much as I hate mine!” Jax was trying to put on some pants, considerably too small for him.

Darius turned to see Jax toppled over trying to squeeze into his pants.

“Finally,” Jax looked exasperated, as he finally pulled the zipper up.

“Jax, you really need to get some bigger—”

“Ah, man!” The button from Jax’s pants flew off and hit a wall. “These things are made like…like…grick dung! What am I going to do now?” In the middle of Jax’s pants was a two-inch tear revealing his underwear.

“Oh, you’ve done it now.”

“Shut it, Darius. Beasy’ll kill me.”

“Oh, not yet, she won’t. Let’s try to pin it or something.”

Knock, knock, knock! “Darius and Jax, you’re late again. That means mess duty,” a deep, grumpy voice barked.

After Ms. Beasy’s footsteps disappeared down the hall, Jax punched the bed. “I hate that ol’ hag.”

“You and me both.” Darius dreaded what his grandfather would say when another mess duty note would appear on his front step. Ruben knew Darius’ curiosity got him into trouble, however, since his dreams started, he had been in two fights, overslept four times, and Ms. Beasy seemed hyper-aware of anything he was doing.

Darius scrambled to get his shoes on, and Jax pinned his pants. Darius pulled the squeaky door open, rushed down the long hallway, and turned towards the rickety staircase. The smell of porridge washed over them as they hurried down the stairs. They turned a corner into a large cafeteria, filled with classmates eating breakfast.

“Darius and Jax, come here now.” The enormous, walrus-looking woman with bright red ears stood at the front of the cafeteria, clad in a purple robe.

“She looks livid,” Darius whispered as they walked towards her.

“She’s a blob,” Jax whispered back.

Darius did everything he could to suppress a snort as they approached her. He knew he wouldn’t be smiling after she got done with them, but Jax always made him laugh.

Glaring at the boys, Ms. Beasy scolded in a deep voice, “You are late for the fifth time. That means mess duty. Except, today is going to be different.” She paused as if trying to build suspense. “I have a special task for you two.”

Darius felt a knot grow in his stomach. The last time she had a “special task” for a student named Terran ce for misbehaving, they didn’t see him for the entire day, and when they did see him, he said Beasy threatened to beat him if he told. Darius knew she was enjoying this moment.

Ms. Beasy bent down close to Darius and Jax, laying her heavy, long-nailed fingers on their shoulders. “Did you hear me clearly?” she spat. Her breath hit Darius like a train. A mixture of sour milk and tobacco slammed his nose, taking everything Darius had in him to not throw up in her face.

“Y…ye...yeah…Ms. Beasy,” Darius sputtered.

She eyed him intensely. Darius’ eyes started watering. Darius once blinked when she stared at him, and she gave him cleaning detention. She had accused him of hiding something from her.

“And how about you, Jaxter?”

“Uh…yeah, I heard ya…” Jax’s face was a light shade of green.

“Report to my office after third session!” she shouted, alerting the entire hall to their punishment. Ms. Beasy glared at the students who were staring at the scene, and instantly they all turned back to their breakfast, pretending they hadn’t heard a thing. Ms. Beasy huffed, then turned and waddled off, out of the cafeteria.

Darius’ stomach turned, not for losing free time, but what his grandfather might say to him when he got the notification of his detention. Last time he lectured Darius for over an hour on how he should be better than the rest. Losing focus at school was unacceptable.

“Man,” Jax whispered to Darius as they walked to the breakfast line, “that’ll take all of our free time in fourth session, guaranteed.”

“Yeah…what a grick.”

“Yeah, well, it’s rumored that she is one,” Jax chuckled.

“I’m starting to believe it.”

“More like a bullfrog turned walrus!” Jax smirked as he puffed out his cheeks and furrowed his brow.

Darius snorted. It felt good to laugh, especially after losing free time.

“So, you gonna be ready for classes today?” Jax asked cautiously.

Darius frowned, “I hope so. I never know when I’m going to have another…you know…”

“Have you talked to your grandpa about it?”

Last night flooded into Darius’ mind. “Umm, not really…”

“Maybe it was just those few times? Maybe it will be different today?”

“Yeah, maybe…” Darius knew it wasn’t true. His dreams were intensifying. They were coming more often and felt more realistic. He might have enjoyed the dreams, if they didn’t come during his classes. The dreams all shared a common theme: wizards and magic. Darius had no magical abilities. The International Council of Wizards made sure every child was tested in his or her seventh year. Any sign of ability would be apparent by that age. Any child showing the signs was sent to the wizarding school in Alden Central. Darius was severely disappointed, but wasn’t surprised. No student from Boris Charter had ever passed the magical tests in the school’s history.

Ms. Beasy walked back into the cafeteria and made her way towards the kitchen.

“Well, at least you don’t waddle when you walk,” Jax put his hand up to his mouth and pointed two of his fingers down like tusks.

Darius laughed and they cracked jokes about Beasy and Jax’s zipper the rest of breakfast.

Darius tried to relax, but in the back of his mind, he knew his grandfather was holding back something important about his dreams. Why were they all about wizards and magic? What gnawed at Darius the most was the last thing he’d said to him: “You’re not ready.” Ready for what?

YA Fantasy Only!