Read Dark Tidings: Ancient Magic Meets the Internet Book 1 Online

Authors: Ken Magee

Tags: #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fantasy, #Paranormal & Urban, #Teen & Young Adult

Dark Tidings: Ancient Magic Meets the Internet Book 1 (10 page)

BOOK: Dark Tidings: Ancient Magic Meets the Internet Book 1
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Chapter 19 - The Flight

Madrick knew they were in serious trouble and they needed to put a decent distance between them and the scene of The Black Bear incident.

“We need the next spell.”

“Let me sleep for a while. I need some rest. I can’t take any more pain,” complained Tung. “Making spells still hurts me bad. My head feels like it’s been mashed by a landslide.”

“Your head has indeed taken a pounding, but not all of it was due to the spell making. I can tell you that much of your pain was self inflicted through your own stupidity,” said Madrick unsympathetically. “But that can’t be helped now. You’ve got to create a spell which will help us get many miles from this place and you need to do it straight away because I can guarantee Mifal’s men are hot on our heels. All this is happening because you’re an idiot. Your idiocy has put us in great danger. You need to make things better.”

Tung reluctantly pulled out the Scroll; anything was better than having to listen to the old man moaning. He slowly went through the routine. As the spell infiltrated his being, his body flopped like a rag doll and, this time, Madrick caught his head as he fainted and laid it gently on the ground. Then he had a change of heart, so he lifted Tung’s head a few feet off the ground and dropped it roughly.

“You deserve that,” he said to the unconscious face which lay below him.

Tung drifted back into consciousness and hardly had time to feel the throbbing pain in his head before Madrick was badgering him to describe the picture. He searched his head and found, amongst the throbbing pain, an image; an image of a golden goblet filled with red liquid.

“That’s an easy one. It’s just a golden wine goblet, not of any interest to us. You need to create it now so we can move on and find something useful”

Tung dutifully followed his orders, he was in no state to argue. He said the spell and, to Madrick’s credit for not holding a grudge too long, he caught him properly this time as his head headed for the hard earth.

Tung was unconscious so he didn’t see the blinding flash which heralded the arrival of a magnificent, golden goblet filled with luscious red wine, fit for a king. More alcohol was exactly what they didn’t need right now, particularly an unending supply of it. Madrick knew this goblet would continually refill itself, so he dropped it
surreptitiously
into the ditch by the road before Tung was alert enough to work out exactly what was happening.

“Next spell,” demanded Madrick. “Come on. There’s no time to waste. Next spell please.”

Over the next couple of hours Tung created six more unhelpful spells. It was like being back in Mifal’s dungeon; they were under severe time pressure and the useless spells just kept on coming.

Then, like the last time, their luck changed. As Tung described the image, Madrick became more and more excited. He clapped his hands and made strange but happy guttural noises. Tung didn’t know what he’d created, but he knew it was good so he punched the air while he waited for Madrick to explain how his latest inception was going to be their salvation.

Madrick couldn’t contain his delight and he started his strange little dance again. This time he wasn’t restricted by cell walls, strewn banquet food or a mad stallion. This time he had room to express himself and so he did; with gusto. It was even stranger than before; it was bordering on the bizarre.

Eventually he calmed down. The dance stopped and he hugged Tung.

“You have done it again, my friend. This time you’ve created the Wings Spell. This enchantment will give you the wings of a giant eagle, the wings of an angel, wings that will allow us to fly away from this place. Once you lift off into the sky, the wings will be with you until your feet touch the earth again. We can be miles from this sinful town and our pursuers will have no trail to follow. We’ll be gone without a trace.”

“Gone? Great, where are we going to go to?”

“We’ll know when we get there,” said Madrick rather profoundly. “Anywhere is better than where we are right now.”

As soon as the spell was said, Tung sprouted magnificent, magical wings. They were a wondrous sight to behold and they gave him the look of an angel, albeit an angel who’d recently been out on the tear.

“Hang on,” he said as he lifted off into the sky clutching Madrick to his chest.

As they swept through the air, they marvelled at the sights below them. It was spectacular as they glided high over the trees and soared above the great lakes.

“Nice one, Tung, we’ve made a clean getaway. They’ll never catch us now.”

Fifteen minutes later all three groups of pursuers arrived almost simultaneously at their take-off spot … well, two groups plus Gravalar.

Chapter 20 - Just Good Friends

Faith and Suzie lived together in a small flat in North Acton, a relatively nice commuter suburb of London. It was quite a trek into the city centre where she worked, but she was close to a tube station which brought her, without changing trains, to Bank station. From there it was just a short walk to the IIBE headquarters building. She could have found a place which was handier, but she was delighted to have the opportunity to live with her best friend.

She’d lived with Suzie for about four months now, but they’d been friends since childhood, having met at secondary school. They’d hit it off more or less immediately partly because they were two out of only three children who received free school meals. They both came from poor families so they never had the latest fashions, accessories or gadgets. In fact, they often came to school in hand-me-down clothes and they were teased mercilessly about it.

There was one incident, early on in their relationship, which cemented the friendship. Suzie was being tormented by a group of older children in the playground after school. That in itself was a fairly common occurrence and the girls had agreed that their best defence was to ignore the unpleasantness as much as possible.

The ringleader was an extremely nasty boy called Brian Clarke. He’d spearheaded the harassment over the last few months; harassment which became ever more offensive as time went on. What started as unpleasant teasing evolved into overt bullying. It had only been verbal up to now, but on this particular day it turned physical.

Clarke had started pawing at Suzie’s clothes. He was pulling at them with his finger and thumb, turning up his nose as if was holding something dirty between his fingers.

“Tramp, tramp, tramp,” he shouted in her face.

The watching children joined in the chant.

“Tramp, tramp, tramp.”

Spurred on by the support, Clarke pulled hard at her cardigan and it ripped as he tugged it off her. She tried to hold on, but the harder she resisted, the more he pulled and the more it ripped. Eventually she let go and he held the tattered garment above his head like a trophy. Suzie completely lost it and without thinking slapped his face, hard. He reacted immediately, knocking her to the ground with two full force punches to the side of her head and then like every good bully would do, he kicked her twice while she was down. The crowd of onlookers were silenced as they watched Clarke stand over her, posing like a victorious boxer. The suddenness and viciousness of the violence was shocking; things had gone way too far this time. However no one did anything, they were all too afraid of Clarke. No one wanted to speak up in case they became the next victim.

Faith arrived just in time to witness the kicks. She pushed her way through the crowd and raced towards Clarke. She was approaching him from behind so he didn’t see her although he may have sensed the mood change in the crowd of spectators. She had no idea what she was going to do, until she got to him.

She pulled hard at his trousers and they, along with his underpants, came down past his knees. He stood stunned, still in the boxer pose with his fists above his head. It was now a ridiculous stance; a boxer with no boxers. The crowd erupted with laughter. The girls pointed and the boys jeered. Clarke’s face turned a strange puce colour; the colour of deep embarrassment tinged with rage. He pulled up his trousers and without even reacting to Faith, pushed his way through the crowd to begin the futile search for his dignity. As he left, the sound of the crowd cheering and laughing taunted him. Any respect he’d gained through his bullying was gone and gone forever.

As he walked away he vowed he’d get those two girls. He’d have his revenge, in his own good time and in private.

Faith helped her friend up. Other children came over to see if they could make her feel better. Wow, it seemed everyone hated the bully as much as they did but people had been too scared to say. A new dynamic emerged. Faith and Suzie became popular with their classmates and no longer figures of fun. They both made lots of other friends, although none of them ever rivalled their own special relationship.

Brian Clarke was expelled shortly afterwards for stealing homework books from Faith. She’d reported him and that just fuelled his growing resentment. Because of his appalling record, no school would take him so he ended up being home tutored which left him with too much time on his hands. He hung about outside the school every so often, looking for an opportunity to hurt Faith, but she was always with friends; she seemed to have so many friends now. Maybe school wasn’t the right place, but he knew his time would come. He could wait.

Even though things had worked out well for the girls, they realised how much they hated being different. They realised how much they hated being the underdogs. They realised how much they hated being poor. They vowed to do everything and anything to change things. They wanted money. They were determined to become rich.

That was a long time ago, but it had paved the way for them to be best friends for more than eight years now. Faith’s recent travels meant they hadn’t seen much of each other for a while. Even though they’d kept in touch via email, it was no substitute for having regular girlie chats about love, life and everything.

“Tell me about the new man in your life.”

“OK, if you promise not to make fun of me. This guy is special.”

“I promise… probably.”

“His name is Michael Phillips. Well, you knew that already. He’s one of the computer experts at the office although he’s definitely not a geek. He knows lots of technical gobbledegook but he’s not a bore about it. He’s a real whizz-kid and he does really cool… whizz-kiddery stuff.”

“Whizz-kiddery? You so just make up words.”

“We’ve had some great times together already and we actually have lots in common. I’m getting to really like him… a lot.”

“Has anything happened yet?” asked Suzie with a mischievous wink.

“No. This is a proper platonic relationship. You know, love from the neck up.”

“I’m really happy for you, I am. It’s great that you’ve found someone special, but don’t you dare forget about me. I missed you when you were away and I don’t want to lose you again… and definitely not to a boy.”

“Don’t worry, we’re friends forever,” said Faith.

“Friends forever,” said Suzie as she gave her a warm hug.

They talked on for ages. Faith listed some of the things she and Michael had in common, like their taste in music, food loves, their sense of humour and their attitude to relationships. She always liked to chat to Suzie about things which mattered to her and she’d missed their little natters desperately during her travels. She liked the fact she could tell her friend anything and she knew Suzie felt the same way. Since they were children, the pair had shared everything and they’d never kept secrets from each other; until IIBE.

Faith had described her job in IIBE as a boring receptionist. She said it was the fact that she could be posted anywhere in the world which kept her interested and excited about it. It seemed a little strange to Suzie because a receptionist job was never going to make Faith rich and she knew just how much she craved that. Making money had been her obsession since the Brian Clarke incident, but as always she accepted without question what her friend told her.

Faith justified not sharing the other ‘little details’ about her job by telling herself she wasn’t lying, she was merely not mentioning some of the extra duties she performed.

Chapter 21 - Long Eye

The pursuers had all followed much the same route. Mifal’s men had started at The Black Bear tavern where they’d bribed and threatened the locals until they found out the direction in which the pair had fled. They had to endure many fantastical stories from a bevy of drinkers who all claimed to be key players in the previous night’s events. Most of the men sampled the wonderful chicken stew before they moved on. It was tasty, but unusual in that virtually every meat on the planet tasted of chicken, yet this tasted of something which was just a little bit different.

The wizards independently and surreptitiously watched the proceedings by mingling in the crowd, although wizards didn’t mingle well. They always stuck out like a sore thumb, however years of experience told the man in the street to completely ignore them, otherwise you could end up with an outbreak of warts or pig’s ears, or something a lot worse.

So mingle they did, ‘unnoticed’ by the crowd, while they watched. Why should they put themselves out if Mifal’s men were doing the hard work anyway? Anyway, who wanted to talk to this rat bag of humanity?

From the tavern, they’d used all their senses and skills to follow the trail to the barn where Tung and Madrick had slept. Then, using logic and a little bit of trial and error, they’d tracked them the short distance to this spot where they all now stood.

The three groups arrived at the spot from slightly different directions. They eyed each other suspiciously. Everyone knew they were all after the same thing. In particular, the opposing wizards stared at each other with intense malice, but a battle wasn’t in any of their interests. Not yet anyway. Mifal’s men had no idea who these strangers were, but some deep instinct told them they weren’t to be messed with.

Independently they all surveyed the scene.

Mifal’s men made little sense of the landscape. In fact all they noted was a pile of charred clothes and the burnt out patch of grass by the roadside which had been the result of an ineptly used Fire Spell. Mifal’s captain, who was commanding the soldiers, wanted to abandon the search and go home. There was something dangerous about the strangers and he wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

“The men we were hunting must have accidentally set fire to themselves and burned to death. Let’s have a quick look around and then get out of here.”

A cursory search of the nearby area revealed nothing of interest. The captain decided there was no more to see so he left the scene and returned to Mifal to make his report.

It was different for Gravalar, Stanverital and Devligrate. They appraised the scene with much more educated eyes. They spotted the golden goblet and the endless flow of wine which poured onto the ground from it. They noted the hoof prints made by a large herd of cattle. This was unusual because generally cattle weren’t found in these parts. They observed the luscious corn field which was also out of character for the area. In fact, they identified the evidence of at least eight spells. They realised this was no ordinary scroll they were chasing; there were either multiple scrolls or, unbelievably, it could be the mythical Spell Spell scroll.

The two Black Wizards huddled for a tactical discussion

“The trail seems to end here. Time for some magic, I think.”

Stanverital took out a faded scroll from his cloak and read the spell quickly. It was the Long Eye Spell which would give him a short period of extraordinary vision. He scoured the surroundings and within a few seconds he spotted a gathering of peasants cowering in the distance. They were staying a healthy distance away, although no doubt they’d be plundering the area once the wizards were gone. There was corn and a herd of beef for starters.

He moved on with his sweep and had soon scanned three hundred and sixty degrees around him. There was no sign of the thieves. Then he turned his eyes to the sky and searched the heavens. Again he began to scan three hundred and sixty degrees to make sure he missed nothing. After a few seconds, he stopped his sweep and stared intently into the blue yonder. There, far in the distance, he saw the flying men; one with great white wings and the other holding on for dear life.

“Devligrate, I see them,” he said as he directed the wizard’s gaze to the fleeing flyers

All Devligrate could see was a tiny speck in the sky, but he understood immediately what Stanverital wanted him to do. He pulled out the two scrolls he’d stowed in his jacket.

He selected the Thunderball Spell. He cupped his hands in front of him and said the spell. A throbbing and humming thunderball appeared; he had to use all his strength and concentration to restrain it in his trembling grip. He carefully aimed at the dot in the sky and then released the tiny ball of concentrated sound. It soared, at the speed of sound naturally, towards the fleeing speck.

Tung and Madrick were blissfully unaware of what was happening on the ground behind them. They were too busy congratulating themselves on their escape and enjoying the view of the countryside which few people had ever seen. By the time they heard the cacophonous roar of the thunderball it had already grazed the tip of one of the great wings, before speeding off high into the atmosphere.

Tung immediately lost control and began to spiral to the ground. He flapped furiously to stay aloft, but the turbulence had broken Madrick’s grip on him and the old man started to slip away. Tung knew he could let the old man drop and quickly regain control and keep fleeing. He could be gone and free. Or he could risk his own safety and grab the old man.

Even Tung wasn’t sure why he decided to save Madrick; it was totally out of character. Maybe this old fool meant more to him than he realised. Maybe he had become the father figure which Tung had always craved. Or maybe he realised the Spell Spell would kill him if he didn’t have Madrick to guide him.

Tung grabbed Madrick’s arm just as his clutching fingers slipped from his torso. The manoeuvre completely unbalanced the aerodynamics and again the pair started a gravity dictated spiralling descent towards the hard ground. Tung regained some control before they hit the ground; it was enough to break the fall and stop them from breaking their bones.

After the beauty of flying high over the green earth the touchdown wasn’t a graceful affair. The very moment his feet hit the ground, his marvellous wings retracted instantaneously into his body and this further unbalanced him. He performed an extremely ungraceful somersault over the top of Madrick and bashed his head hard on a protruding boulder. He was getting used to these head smashes so he recovered surprisingly quickly. His recovery would have been even quicker had he not been hindered by the dreadful ale hangover and the old man who was still half clinging to his chest and arm. Both men slumped thankfully, albeit awkwardly, onto terra firma.

They had no idea what had shot them out of the sky, but they knew it had to be something to do with their pursuers. They thought they’d flown free, after all, there were now a good few miles between them and the feather filled tavern, but they had clearly not shaken off their hunters. At least the flight had given them some breathing space and a decent head start. They picked themselves up and ran.

Stanverital watched the scene in the sky with his Long Eye and described it to Devligrate. He congratulated him on his thunderball accuracy at such an extreme distance. Gravalar was standing close by, eavesdropping on the conversation. They all knew their prey was miles away and, to make matters worse, they’d flown over a great lake which would take many days to go round. At least they’d slowed them down for now and they knew what direction they were headed. They also knew they’d need more men and resources if they were to track down and capture these fugitives. If they had the Scroll then they were much more potent enemies than had first been thought. They’d powerful magic at their disposal and they knew how to use it.

As the reality dawned on each of them, they stood in awe contemplating how close they’d come to winning the prize of all prizes for their respective sides. They gave each other a final eyeing before heading back to report to their masters.

Just before he left, Gravalar secretly concealed the golden ever-refilling goblet under his robe. No point in letting a good thing go to waste he thought as he swigged the best wine he’d ever tasted in his life. This unfortunate act, along with too many more swigs on the journey home, meant that the Black Wizards got back to base well before he did. This gave them a crucial lead in devising a cunning plan, the consequence of which would shape the world for the next one thousand years.

BOOK: Dark Tidings: Ancient Magic Meets the Internet Book 1
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