Chapter 48: Sorcery Practice

The area immediately behind the stables and taproom was roughly square, for the two conjoined buildings ran in an L-shape, with the bunkhouse running alongside the road, and the main length of the stables building being perpendicular, away from the road.

Looking around, Alcar noticed a rear door and a couple of windows on the near side of the stables building, and wondered whether Etienne would look out and see him. If the little halfling was even still in the stables.

Hopefully, if nothing else, he was making sure that travel essentials such as the chest full of food and the length of rope were safe, as well as securely tied to the horse. To the pony, Alcar mentally corrected himself. To Shiela.

There was grass a few inches covering the area, with mature trees growing at the far side where he now stood, and now Alcar began to walk tentatively across the area, with Brutus at his side.

As he walked, Alcar held his robes up slightly; he didn’t feel that he knew enough about the fauna of the plains of Dathmir to be sure whether there wouldn’t be significant dangers lurking in the grass or the trees – dangerous bugs, spiders, snakes or birds.

Why didn’t they teach kids that sort of thing in class?

Without such information, he would just have to hope for the best, and hope that Brutus would alert him to anything too significant.

“Sit there, boy.”

As Brutus obediently seated himself at the foot of a tall elm, Alcar cleared his throat, trying to clear and calm his mind in order to mentally prepare for his spell-casting practice. He needed to get the hang of these incantations, he was sure of that much.

It could be the case, he also realized, that using his sorcery now would drain him of what little power he possessed. If it worked that way – like a barrel that needed to refill. That was a risk, for sure. But at the same time, he needed to begin to gain some control over what he was doing, if he was to be any use at all to the group on the rest of their quest.

That was paramount.

And he really wanted to succeed – to make it to their destination safely, to find the Viperstar Codex, and most of all to impress his master.s

Focusing his eyes on rock that protruded from the grass just to his left, Alcar spotted a striped caterpillar, and decided that it would make a passably good test subject for his first practice. After all, he didn’t want to be seen wandering around with blue-glowing eyes for the rest of the morning.

What did it matter if a bug did so? It was a harmless way to try the incantations.

Leaning his staff against the rock and crouching down, Alcar first gazed at his thumb and forefinger, and again muttered, ”Rac al manuhka“.

Sure enough, the familiar glow of light appeared at the point where he had been looking. It was coming easier to him now – there was no doubt about it. But the little ball of power bobbled in his hand unpredictably, as if keen to get away.

Brutus whimpered.

Not wanting to delay any more – or to attempt to divide the energy ball into smaller parts – Alcar threw it directly at the caterpillar, expecting to see the creature’s little bug-eyes glowing bright blue, like he had seen Etienne’s do.

At first, it appeared to be working as expected. However, perhaps because of a mismatch between the amount of energy and the size of the creature, the caterpillar’s entire body swiftly began to spark with energy, electrical arcs fizzing around its entire length.

“Shit...! Dissipate now, come on!” urged Alcar, wafting just above the creature with his hand as if to raise up the energy and fling it away.

Instead, the animal rose up into the air, and hung suspended just below the fingertips of his right hand, connected by an invisible force. It hung there for a moment, glaring at him with eyes that were distinctly blue. He shook it, but there it stayed. Brutus had now crawled several feet away, and lay down on his belly, and Alcar could understand why.

Panicking slightly, Alcar pondered for a moment how he could get rid of the creature. The destructive spell that he had used in the forest crossed his mind, but he rapidly dismissed the idea. He was surrounded by trees and wooden buildings.

No.

But he had to try something...

What were the other incantations in the book again? He tried to recall the. Rac al something.... Sintreta, that was it. It stuck in Alcar’s mind because it had sounded to him like getting a treat after committing a sin.

Now, he glared at the hovering caterpillar, focused hard on it, and said, “Rac al sintreta!”

At exactly the same moment, Alcar heard Olynka’s voice from across the area.

“Hey,” she called. “What are you up to?”

But Alcar was still focused on the caterpillar. And the creature was now getting distinctly bigger. Its body was swelling. Its glowing blue eyes went from pinpricks to the size of buttons to the size of radishes. Soon the entire animal was closer to the size of a cat than a caterpillar... and still it hung suspended under Alcar’s extended right arm. He could feel its weight, but did not know how to get rid of it.

“What the hell is that?” hissed Olynka, beginning to run over.

“Shit, shit!” said Alcar. “Come on! I don’t deserve this.” The caterpillar rotated once more under his hand, and then glared at him with a ferocious hiss. It appeared to be deeply disgruntled to find itself an unwilling experimental subject, and Alcar felt sure that it would take a bite out of him as soon as it was able to reach.

Fully panicking now, Alcar could think of nothing else to do but to try one of the other incantations in the hope that it would reverse the damage done.

As Olynka came up to him, he reached into his robes and pulled out the book, holding it out to her. “Take this,” he cried. “Find the last written couple of pages... chapter 3. Please, my friend – find it! I need to get rid of this thing, and fast.”

“You can say that again,” she murmured, flicking through the pages. “Man, this is some weird stuff. Gorba... Was it written by a goblin?”

“I dunno... Yes, maybe. The book’s from Master Maluhk.”

“Huh! Okay, okay... I think I have found it. What, wait... does this bit mean that they were forming a gateway in Dathmir city?”

“Please, Ola, just let me see the page,” Alcar replied. Still holding out his right arm with the spinning beast underneath it, he glanced down at the page she was holding open, and caught sight of the words he had seen before. “Uh... that one sounds kinda final,” he murmured, focusing on one incantation in particular.

”Zek du manuhka!“

He spoke the latter phrase with gusto, only vaguely aware of a thumping and a roaring noise off to his left. Now wasn’t the moment to look around.

The incantation did seem to be doing something, at least. The spinning giant caterpillar had stopped writhing and hissing now, and instead was gently shaking, its abdomen rhythmically pulsing. In addition, a spinning, shimmering area had appeared around it on all sides, and as Alcar and Olynka watched on, a dark, smoking circle materialised just behind the creature’s rear end. Then, with one last hiss, the animal was sucked in entirely, and at least Alcar found his connection with it broken.

“Thank the gods!” he muttered, shaking his right arm which was aching from holding the creature up and away from him.

The small, shimmering black portal that he had summoned wasn’t gone yet, however...

“Now close that thing, man!” yelped Olynka, her eyes as wide as walnuts.

“But I don’t know how!”

But this time, at least, fate was smiling on Alcar. The black gateway fizzled and crackled, and quickly began to shrink without any further intervention. A few seconds later, a small, round, dark object flew through it and landed on the grass, and then with a fizzing noise and a strong smell of sulfur, the circle disappeared entirely.

Panting despite the fact that he had barely moved, Alcar took a step back, looking around to check on Brutus, and noticing again and a banging and enraged yelling from the direction of the stables.

It was then that he saw Etienne come barrelling through the back door of the stable, with a half-dressed knight chasing after him, rage etched into the warrior’s pinched white face.

“Alcar – run for your life!” yelled Etienne.