Death Or Fortune (35 page)

'You would not live long enough to know I
failed
.' I turned back towards the window and looked out.  Wondering
if we would be able to escape before Ramanthus returned, wondering if we would
still be there when the armies of Xcavere came marching in the open front gate.
 The dragon had said something about losing his mate to elves.  I
assumed that the dragons were hiding in the forest to the west in Sanctuary.
 Perhaps they would keep Ramanthus away long enough.  Right then it
became a waiting game.  At any rate we were stuck until Lomark was ready
and our time was quickly running out.

     The wizard
Khross observed his student with great care.  He was years behind others
of his age but he was still progressing.  While he was gifted, that much
was clear, there was something off about him.  He tended to be emotional
at times.  Perhaps it was just his age, at twenty years old he should have
been long past the years of having to be taught magic. Yet Khross felt
Ramanthus had a good heart, despite the rumors about him.  Rumors that he
had fallen in love with a brothel whore and that she had a child by him.
 For the most part, Khross ignored the back alley talk.  No matter
how others protested, he would not overlook someone with the gift that needed
to be molded.  Even if he had younger students that were more advanced
than Ramanthus.  Yes, while he felt that Ramanthus would never achieve any
level of greatness he did have it in him to do good work.  Minor yet still
good work.

    
"Ramanthus boy, I want to ask you a question, think long and hard before
you answer."

     "Very
well Master Khross." he said while looking up from his spell book.

     "What
do you want to do with your life?" Ramanthus raised a single eyebrow and
looked at his mentor. As he opened his mouth Khross raised a single finger.
"Think before you speak young man. At your age you should have already set
out into the world. Down the path towards your desires. One year from now I
will administer your final test to you. From then on you will be on your own.
What is it that you will do after that, you must have some idea?"

     "I do
master, you gave me the idea not too long ago." Ramanthus started to
twitch and fidget in on his stool.

     "Well
go ahead boy, let me hear it."

     "You
told me that inside each person there is a type of energy, a soul.  While
our bodies are all different, we all have that same energy inside of us.
 Every creature great and small has this energy inside of them.  An
evil man is still evil stripped of his flesh.  His energy is the same no
matter the vessel it is contained in. What if there was a way to tap into that
energy, control it. Change who a person is by removing that part of the energy
that makes him evil. They would be the same but the desire to do things like
killing for the sake of killing would be gone.  I believe if you tap into
that we can make people feel love for their fellow man.  We could bind the
people together in love and unity." The more his student spoke, the
greater the chill Khross felt.

     "You
would deny man his free will? Who are you to control how a man feels or acts?
There is a balance to the world boy. Tip the scales too far to either side and
you can upset the whole cart. Also, what you speak of comes very close to the
realm of necromancy. You know I will not allow you to study this, it is
forbidden in my home." Khross tried to hide his anger with his student but
he could hear it in his own words.

     "Not
all men should have free will master, not with what I have seen.  Some men
are no better than a monster.  Take dragons for example, if they get to
close to or start killing humans, people will hire hunters to kill the dragon.
 What if we could change the beast so he wouldn't have the desire to hurt
man, they are intelligent and have a soul just like you or I.  We could
change the monster so instead of living in conflict with man, it would desire
harmony with man."

    
"Boy!" Khross could only shake his head. "If I know one thing it
is this. A hungry dragon is just that, no amount of magic will change that.
 I think you would be better off keeping your sights set on something you
are capable of.  The things you speak of, the nature of the beast and man.
 This is the realm of the gods.  You have the spark but I do not see
the power in you to reach those heights."

    
"NO!" Ramanthus shouted at his master. "I can and I will, you
will not stop me. You don’t know what it is like to live with a boot on your
neck. You know what it is like in Toryth Vol.  I lost my entire family
there due to the whim of some overlord." Khross watched as his student
started to pull an item from his robes.  He wasn't sure of what he was
seeing at first, then it dawned on him just what it was.  He remembered
when he brought it home so many years ago.

     "What
are you doing with that boy, you are going to hurt yourself!" Khross was
in shock, he had never seen his student like this in the three years he had
known him.

     "You
will not stop me." Ramanthus felt a calm come over him as he lifted the
wand in his hand.  He saw his master start to cast a spell but it didn't
matter.  He was too late to do anything now as lightning jumped from the
rod into the old wizard’s chest. "No one will stop me, not you or anyone
else." Again he unleashed the lightning into the old man, driving him back
into a wall. The final thing Khross saw was the calm look on his student’s
face, just before the third and final lightning bolt tore into his body.  Ramanthus
looked down at his dead teacher, smelling the burnt flesh reminded him of how
his own mother died.  Setting the wand of lightning bolts aside he bent
down next to his master. "I am sorry master." he said as his body
hitched forward with a sob.  The tears rolling down his face over what he
had done.  No matter how necessary it was.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Krumk
roared as he pounded on his cage. The ogre did not understand what had
happened. He went to sleep after eating that dwarf and woke up in a cage. He
knew he was in a wagon, he could feel it moving but the tarp over the cage kept
him from seeing who was holding him. He tried several times to break out of the
cage but the door was too strong. He could not even make it tip over. While he
continued to struggle against his confinement for several hours, he at last
gave up. He decided that it would be better to wait. Better to save his
strength to fight later. Yes, much later Krumk would be ready to fight. He
hoped it was a dwarf that had him, he was starting to get hungry again. So
Krumk squatted down in his cage and waited for his chance to be free. As it got
dark and the temperature started to fall, Krumk smiled a bit. Cave, he though,
full of dwarves and other tasty bits to eat. His mouth started to water over
the prospect. It had been a long time since he had eaten a female dwarf. They
were always fat and tender.

     When the
tarp came off the cage Krumk was confused. A large stone table covered with
different objects, books were stacked all over the place. When Krumk saw the
man in the white robe he was really confused and just a little disappointed.
Humans never had enough fat on them for Krumk. This human was thin and funny
looking. Not that it mattered, Krumk knew it was only a matter of time. Human
would get too close, Krumk would break him in half. It was then that Krumk
smelled something he did enjoy to eat. When the funny looking human came over
to the cage with the cat Krumk almost broke free of the cage. When the cage
door once again held, he let out another roar of rage. Rage against the human,
rage against his hunger and just rage over being locked in a cage.

     "I am
sorry about this. Can you talk?" Ramanthus asked the ogre.

    
"Krumk talk, Krumk kill skinny man." Spittle flew from the lips of
the ogre as he screamed at the wizard.

     
"If you behave I will give you this." he said holding up the cat.
Krumk squinted at the skinny man. After a while the promise of the cat became
too much for Krumk, he backed away from the cage door and sat down again. His
hunger would not go away. Slowly the wizard approached the cage with the
clearly terrified cat. As the wizard forced half of the cat into the cage,
Krumk leaned forward and snatched it. Quickly ripping the poor animal in half,
Krumk sat and stared at the wizard as he sucked out the warm parts. "I
will not let you go hungry Krumk, we could be great friends. If you are good I
will give you another cat later." Krumk squinted at the wizard again with
bits of cat guts hanging from his lips. He would have been happy to kill the
wizard but the cat was good. Licking the blood from his lips, he nodded his
head at the wizard.

    
"Krumk good, Krumk eat cat."

     "Yes,
very good Krumk.  I won't be able to let you out of the cage, I am sorry
about this.  Last time I tried to let a test subject out, well let’s just
say it did not turn out very well.  Still, I have made quite a bit of
progress this last year.  I believe my wand of attunement is now correctly
working.  If this works you will not feel a thing at all." Krumk
watched the wizard move around the cave doing this or that.  He did not
trust the skinny man at all.  Yet he promised more cat, Krumk wasn't sure
what to do.  So he continued to watch as the wizard picked up a long
wooden box near one of the piles of books.  He carried the box over to the
stone table and set it down.

     "This
is my wand of attunement." the wizard said as he pulled an object out of
the box. Three feet long made of a light colored wood with a strange glowing
ball near the top. "Now watch what I do now. I want you to see that this
will not hurt you at all." The wizard then pulled out a second cat from a
crate on the far side of the cave.  He walked near the cage holding the
cat up in one hand, the wand in the other.  Krumk started to lick his
lips, hoping the fat orange cat would be his soon.

    
"Amboaeo" Ramanthus said pressing the wand into the cat’s side.
 Krumk saw the light change colors but nothing else happened.
 "Krumk, I want you to stick your foot out of the cage. If you want
the cat, you have to do this for me." Krumk did not trust the skinny man,
he did not trust magic. Yet in the end, his hunger won out and Krumk stuck his
foot out of the cage as far as he could. "Coagmentatio." Ramanthus
said as he pressed the glowing wand against the ogre’s foot.  He felt
nothing but watched the dancing light at the end of the wand.  When the
wand let off a single bright flash Krumk quickly pulled his foot back into the cage.
 A few spots floated in his vision but he did not feel anything.
 When Ramanthus set the big, fat orange cat on the floor, Krumk leaned
forward to watch it.  The cat looked around the cave and then looked up at
the wagon, Ramanthus could see the beginning of a twisted smile on the ogres
face.  As the cat jumped into the wagon, the smile got even bigger.

    
"Kiki!" Krumk said as the cat pressed its wide body past the bars of
the cage.  Now it was Ramanthus turn to smile as he watched the cat walk
into the ogre’s hands.  Like a mother with a new born baby the ogre picked
up the cat and started to pet it.  While the wizard was silent, he was
cheering in his head.  This was the break through that he had been waiting
for, working for over the past five years.  Setting the cat down in his
lap Krumk continued to softly pet the cat, soon the only sound from the cage
was the soft feline purr.  Satisfied over his initial success Ramanthus
returned the wand to its case.  Yet, the test was not complete.  He
had to know if it would last.  Turning on his heal Ramanthus walked out of
the cave back out into the day light where his horse was waiting.  Quickly
mounting he rode back into town.  He wanted to get back before the sun was
down, his friend was expecting him at the inn.

     Even for a
late afternoon the streets of Westheath were thick with people.  There was
some kind of buzz in the air, folks were excited for some reason or another.
 Ramanthus had not a care in the world at that moment.  He caught
whispers of some tragedy, an unholy terror.  All of it was ignored by him,
he just continued on to the Star Fall Inn.  It was there that Ramanthus
found his dwarven friend Baylor.  After a quick count of the empty ones,
Baylor seemed to be into his tenth mug of ale, not that this shocked Ramanthus.
 The young dwarf could drink for days and still manage to fight off a
horde of creatures after.  Yet Ramanthus saw something new in his friend’s
eyes, a sadness that wasn't there before.  He wondered if Baylor knew of
Zeran yet. This thought gave the wizard a slight chill of fear.

    
"Ram!" Baylor said with a slight hitch in his voice. "Sit down
my friend, I've some bad news for ya." Ramanthus looked at the dwarf with
a raised eyebrow and hesitated for a moment before sitting down. "Did you
hear yet? Do you know what has happened?"

     "No,
what are you talking about?"

    
"Toryth Vol, seems there was another change of power. People were fleeing
as fast as they could but not many made it.  A lich by the name of Xcavere
has taken over the entire kingdom. Where his army goes, death follows.
 Not just the people lad, everything is dead or dying in the wake of his
power.  I've never heard of anything like it.  People here are scared
Ram, I know that was your homeland.  I am sorry my friend." Ramanthus
felt a cold chill settle around his heart. While all of his family at home was
gone, he still had friends there.  People he cared about.  How could
they have let this happen he asked himself?  What kind of cruel twist of
fate was this?         "Hey, have
you seen where my brother ran off to? Zeran hasn't been here all day."
Ramanthus didn’t have the heart to tell Baylor that his brother had been
sacrificed to the greater good.  The two friends then sat in silence for
hours, seemingly on end.

     At some
point Baylor stumbled up to his room, yet Ramanthus stayed behind.  Lost
in thought over what had become of his homeland.  When the light of
morning began to pour in the windows Ramanthus got to his feet.  Leaving
the inn behind he once again mounted his horse and headed off to the hidden
cave he had been working in for the past six months.  He walked into the
cave to find the ogre sleeping, curled up in a ball next to the cat who seemed
more than content to lie next to the horrid beast and clean itself.  He
watched the pair in the cage as he went to one of the many chests of items he
had stored here.  Most of the items he had found in his adventures with
the two dwarven brothers, yet there were some that he kept after the death of
his teacher, Khross.  There was one item he needed, one of the wands that
Khross had locked away where his young students would never find them.
 Only one of his students ever had.