Children of the Sun and Moon (3 page)

“So dragons
were a key to magic?” asked Koral, enamoured by the entire
conversation.

Gillock smiled.
“They were very important to the balance of magic. In fact, I had
befriended one myself. They were very close to us wizards. They
felt we were the only humans worthy of their friendship. This was
mostly because we were almost as intelligent as they were.
Unfortunately, they were caught in the war. Used as pawns by the
wizards and almost all were destroyed along with their wizard
counterparts. Any found after, were slaughtered on sight. The day
they said they could not find any more dragons was a dark day
indeed.”

Koral and Eric
could see the tears in Gillock’s eyes. Obviously, the wizard’s
dragon friend had been very close to him.

Regaining his
composure, Gillock continued. “Now you must understand this. Both
of you possess magic. You’ll need to harness your abilities if you
are going to fulfil the prophecy.”

Eric smiled,
and muttered under his breath, “I am going to be the greatest hero
of all time.”

Gillock heard,
but pretended not to. “The prophecy fulfilment is upon us. You’ll
need to be ready when the time comes.”

“For what?”
asked Koral.

“I’m not sure,
exactly, but something will happen soon which will set the second
stage of the prophecy in motion. The first, as I’m sure you are
aware, was your birth.”

Gillock watched
the twins take everything in. It looked to be a lot for Koral to
deal with, but Eric appeared unusually calm and this bothered
Gillock. Eric appeared to understand everything he had just said
without question.

“Now, take the
book back to the castle and study it. We will meet here at the same
time tomorrow. I must go now, but I promise to be here to
administer your final test.” Then he walked up to his horse and
rode off to the west.

Koral and Eric
just stared at the book. It just looked like an ordinary book, but
was tied shut with a rope. “I guess we take that off at home,” said
Eric.

“Yes, I guess
we do,” Koral iterated.

Seeing that
Eric obviously was not going anywhere near it, Koral picked it up.
“Well, we should get home and see what this says.”

Eric just
nodded and they both jumped on their horses and headed toward the
castle.

The entire ride
back Koral could sense someone was watching them, but she could
never figure out where it was coming from. “Do you feel it?” asked
Koral.

“It is just the
Maget soldier following us,” Eric responded, knowing exactly what
she was meaning. “You would think you would be used to it by now.
They have had one following us since we could go off on our
own.”

“I guess,” said
Koral, unconvincingly. Koral’s uncertainty was making Eric uneasy.
It was not very often she showed she was scared of something. “We
should pick up the pace,” he suggested. “The sooner we get home the
sooner we can figure out that book.”

Koral agreed
and pushed Swift to go faster.

They would have
quickened their pace sooner had they known it was not a Maget
soldier sent to watch them, but a Magima. Watching from the bushes,
Tarowen saw the twins pace quicken. The Magima wondered how it was
they could have eluded him for so long and then conveniently show
up right in front of him. Not sensing any magic, he just followed
them back toward the castle. When they neared, he turned and headed
for the tiny quarters which had been set up for the visiting Magima
for the festival. He had a report to fill out, but had no idea how
to explain the twins’ ability to hide from him. Tarowen decided it
would be best to wait until General Traug arrived and discuss it
with him then. Shaking his sandy blond head, he realized he was
suddenly feeling very tired and just wanted to go to sleep.

Gillock, spying
the young Magima, decided Tarowen should forget all about the twins
and their ability to elude him, and take a nap. He had been lucky
it was just a young wizard sent to follow them. A more experienced
one would have detected his spell. It was quite unusual for the
Order to have an actual Magima follow the twins. “Maybe Traug has
received information, and is concerned,” he thought to himself. It
did not matter, he had much to prepare and did not need a Magima
snooping around. Knowing the general would be arriving in a few
days, Gillock had to hurry with the twin’s magical training.
Everything was happening far too quickly and Gillock knew he was
helpless to slow it in the slightest. Not wanting to waste any more
time on a

Magima, he
quickly put the spell on Tarowen and headed to his room in the
castle. With the help of a minor spell, Gillock went to his room
undetected. He did not want the twins, or anyone else figuring out
he was there. There was too much to be done and no time to do it in
so the twins had to figure out the book on their own.

They arrived at
the castle without incident. The odd feeling Koral had disappeared
when the wall of Castle Klayhern came into view. When they arrived
at the stables, Tolly was waiting to take the horses from them.
Grateful not to have to worry about the horses, the two and ran off
towards Eric's room. They flew up the stairs to his room, threw off
their outer garments, and just stared at the book. Neither wanted
to touch it, let alone open it.

“Well, I guess
we have to start sometime,” stated Eric, opening the book. However,
to both of their dismay, the pages were blank.

“What kind of
joke is Gillock playing!” said Koral, exasperated. “Why would he
stress the importance of this book if there was not anything in
it?”

Eric flopped
down on his bed. “I do not know, Koral, but this is not right.”

Koral began to
flip through the pages, desperately searching for something. “Maybe
the words are hidden and we have to figure out how to see
them.”

Eric sat up,
“Maybe, but we do not know enough about magic to unlock something
like this.”

Koral agreed.
From the time the twins were little they could do simple tricks,
but always hid them from people. She did not have the expertise to
do something like this, and figured neither did Eric.

“I guess we
should just leave it then,” said Eric.

Koral shook her
head. “No, we need to try and figure this out.” Sitting down beside
Eric on his bed, they both began looking through the book. After
hours of staring at empty pages, both fell asleep.

CHAPTER TWO

Koral awoke
with a start. At first, she could not figure out where she was but
soon realized she had fallen asleep beside Eric, the book between
them. She glanced down at the book and saw that the pages were
still blank. Moving herself off the bed, she went toward his
window. It was another beautiful day, and she could not wait to see
Gillock. Shaking Eric awake, she ran off to her room to get ready.
Today, the test was definitely going to take place, and she wanted
to be ready for anything. After the morning meal, they went
straight to the stable. Neither one said anything to the other as
they got their horses ready. Both were quite nervous, more so than
the previous day, and they wanted firm answers about the book. The
ride out to the field was quiet and uneventful, although neither
would have noticed if anything were amiss. When they arrived, there
was no sign of Gillock.

“I guess we are
early,” muttered Eric with annoyance.

Koral nodded.
“I guess we will have to sit and wait for him,” she said, moving
down from Swift. She pulled the book out of her saddlebag, sat down
and began flipping through it. She could sense the magic within it.
Eric decided to practice some of the fighting moves Payton had
taught him.

After a while,
Eric’s patience began to wane. “Where is he?” he asked.

“I do not
know,” answered Koral.

Eric was about
to give his own answer when he noticed something moving in the
trees. “Koral, do you see something in the forest?”

Koral raised
her head, and then jumped up. “I see the forest moving!”

Suddenly, the
trees started to move toward them. As they drew closer, the twins
were able to make out faces in the bark. They both watched,
stunned, as the branches transformed into pointed weapons.

“What are we
going to do?” yelled Eric, keeping an eye on the advancing
trees.

“I guess we are
going to have to fight them,” answered Koral.

“Maybe this is
our test. But how do we fight trees?” he asked.

Koral ran for
her sword. “Well, this is the only way I know how to fight!” she
yelled, running towards them.

The trees began
to advance quickly and before they could figure out a strategy, the
trees attacked. Eric and Koral were very well versed in the art of
sword fighting, but neither had ever had to put the knowledge to
use against real foes. The fight started clumsily, both making easy
mistakes. It appeared luck was on their side, though, as the trees
were inept at fighting. Eric, noticing the trees clumsiness,
started to remember some things which Payton had told him. Getting
his wits about him, he charged the trees. He was slashing and
chopping everything he could see, but it was all in vain. More and
more trees just kept advancing.

Koral was
having problems as well. She had become surrounded and noticed the
limbs had changed into different weapons. Eric ducked to miss a
club-shaped limb, but it caught Koral square in the chest. Koral
had the wind knocked out of her, but otherwise did not feel any
pain. Shaking off the blow, she realized her sword was knocked from
her hand, and began to crawl on the ground looking for it. In the
distance, she noticed the gleaming from the blade and moved toward
it. When she drew near, something caught her attention in the
forest. Every time Eric chopped off a branch from a tree, another
one emerged from the forest. This is why there were some many, they
were reproducing. Koral ran toward Eric, trying to avoid severing
any branches.

“Eric stop!”
she yelled. “You are just making more of them by cutting off their
limbs.”

“So how do we
fight them?” he yelled back.

“I do not
know,” she answered, arriving beside him. “Just move back toward
the centre of the clearing and maybe we can figure this out.”

Slowly they
backed away from the advancing trees, turning away the blows and
trying to avoid making any cuts. They had almost reached the middle
when some clouds rolled in, and there was a rumble of thunder. The
two turned and looked at each other, both wearing a confused
expression. When they turned back to face the trees, a bolt of
lightning came from the clouds. It landed between them and the
trees, knocking both Eric and Koral off their feet. Eric scrambled
to get up and noticed the trees were avoiding the spot where the
lightning had scorched the earth. “I know what to do,” he hollered
to Koral. Not waiting for a response he ran toward the trees and
threw down his sword.

Koral gathered
herself and stood, watching Eric as he ran away from her. She
thought she heard him chanting something, and he began to sway his
arms back and forth. Koral, felt the hairs on her neck stand up,
and started to move closer to him. The air appeared to have a
sizzling sound to it. Just as she drew near, there was a loud
WHOOSH and the trees went up in flames. Koral could not believe
what she was seeing. The faces of the trees appeared to be
screaming in pain, and as fast as all of this had started, it was
over. They disappeared from in front of them, reappearing in the
forest, back to normal. Eric, exhausted, collapsed to the
ground.

The clouds
which had blown in, were now gone and Eric suspected it was
Gillock’s doing. He heard Koral yell his name, then felt her arms
around him, but could not respond. The spell had taken more out of
him than he had expected. Eric felt the ground under his head and
assumed Koral had laid him down. He was feeling quite dizzy and
decided to close his eyes and rest. The last thing Eric heard
before drifting off was the distant sound of a galloping horse,
which appeared to be drawing nearer.

Gillock watched
the twins approach the clearing. Judging by their expressions, he
gathered they had not been able to unlock the secrets of the book.
Not that he had expected them to. It had been a diversion to get
them to, at the very least, think about magic. Gillock sat and
listened to them, and of course was not surprised by Eric's
impatience. After sending out several searching spells, Gillock was
quite relieved to discover that no Magima had followed them
today.

When some time
had passed, Gillock decided to set his test into motion. Quietly
chanting his spell, the trees around him began to move. He decided
this would be a simple test; nothing too complicated, and was not
at all surprised to see Eric start slashing right away. He was,
however, disappointed to hear Koral suggest it. Just when it looked
like the twins were getting the upper hand, Gillock changed the
weapons of the trees. Eric and Koral reacted accordingly, still
clumsily slashing and chopping away. He almost stopped the test
when Koral was hit, but decided to see how she would handle it.
Gillock was quite stunned when he saw Koral unharmed, except for
maybe losing her breath for a moment. “She has more power than I
thought,” he muttered to himself. When they started to retreat,
Gillock decided he would have to give them a bit of a hand. Calling
up a minor storm, he tried to show Eric what to do and was
pleasantly surprised when it worked. Watching as Eric cast his
spell, Gillock became worried. The spell he cast was very powerful
one, which he should not have been able to do. Once the trees were
back to normal, Gillock left his hiding place and rode off toward
the twins.

“Eric, wake
up,” came a voice in his head. Eric opened his eyes to see his
sister and Gillock hovering over him. “Can you speak?”