The Enchanter of Rangel: Child of War Book 1 (4 page)

“I am not just any man, I answer to
the Queen, I am a Hero of The Land and I’ll have you strung up and whipped on the spot!” Gowan said growing redder in the face.

“That won’t be necessary Captain, this witch is my guest, let me at least show her some hospitality” Maxine said as she sat down on the couch they kept in the sitting area and motioned for Sharon to take the opposite side. “So what do I owe the honor of your visit today Sharon?”

Sharon still shaken up by her treatment from Gowan slid past him into the living area and took a seat.

“I am
making sure your son fulfills his commitment to the Queendom, Iess you try and back out of it.”

“And you had nothing better to do in your busy life than to ens
ure my son doesn’t fall through the cracks?” Maxine said with contempt in her voice.

“Ah dearie, that is my only job, I check on all of you magic users who were exiled. I mean we wouldn’t want you switching allegiances or shirking your duty to the crown now would we?”

“And yet this is the first time I have seen you since I founded this place.”

“I get busy sometimes, well I have come for your ‘son’ and I will be off
, and don’t worry I’ll make sure he is placed somewhere proper for his station, perhaps mucking out my stalls?”

Maxine then stood up off the couch so that she towered over the still sitting Sharon. “My son is not one of your slaves, he better receive the same opportunity as everyone else or I’ll know about it, and I’ll come for you.”

“Ooh, temper, temper. How are you even going to uphold a threat like that, it’s not like you can just leave this place.”

“I want you to keep telling yourself that
Sharon, there will be no place a liar like you can hide. I do not know or care what started our rivalry, just know old woman that I can finish it quickly.”

“We shall see dear Maxine, now if you’ll excuse me I came to gather your son with the rest of them and we’ll be on our way. Do come along boy, you wouldn’t want to be seen as
unloyal and end up in the arena would you?” The older woman then stood after slipping a smile to Maxine and made her way out of the door. Maxine then turned to face her son.

“Xander, I do not trust that woman but she will have to give you a fair chance, at least on the surface. Do not trust any of the other boys you are traveling with, some of them may be in her employ. I did not expect her to show up after all these years but we have already
gone over the simple test you will face. Whether you have your father’s talents or not, do not make friends or underestimate that woman or those like her. The world will strip away the innocence you have been given by being raised here.  I’m going to miss you baby but we have prepared for this day long enough. Let’s not have any crying and good byes, just come hug your mother and I’ll see you later, don’t forget to write.”

Xander hugged his mother and went to his room to gather his things. Xander’s belongings for the most part were already packed, his mother constantly made sure he had all high quality items before he departed. Although his gear could not be expected to last the entire
24 years, it would more than make his life comfortable. He had enough gold to replace anything that was broken, his mother being wise enough to save most of her stipend so he could use it. Nothing Xander had was luxurious by far, but it was made of high quality material and was more than functional, from his hardened leather boots to his small leather tent. Xander slipped the small book his father had gifted him into one of his boots and stuck a dagger into the other before he put on his pack. With a small crossbow tied to his hip, a larger longbow on his pack along with an extra sword, Xander looked as heavily armed as any soldier he had ever come across. Xander left his room and headed towards his mother’s room. He could hear her trying to silently cry to herself and opened the door. A few hugs later Xander was on his way out of the only home he had ever known, perhaps for the last time.

Xander left his home to find Captain
Gowan waiting for him, holding a small package. “Alright whelp, you don’t need to worry about your ma none because unlike the rest of these lads I can be stationed wherever I want for how long I want so I’ll make sure she is just fine. I don’t trust that woman you’ll be riding with but let me tell you what I have found out about her from those down trodden boys she brought with her. She joined up with the wagon about 4 days ago. That wagon you saw earlier was other boys from towns around this way on their way to fulfill their commitment. Only a couple are armed since most of their fathers were farmers and such and there are a couple of other red heads in there so at least you will stand out together. They were not going to come get you at all since Riley is way out of the way but that Devil woman met them and made sure they turned around to get you, apparently you know there is some bad blood between hers and yours. Her main reason though was rumor has it is that’s how she gets her slaves; she takes em from new recruits. She has a small farm four days out from here that supplies food to the government. She sends the best of the bunch to her farm where they will always be found lazy or uncontrollable. From there it’s either slaving for her or out in the arena, pick your poison. You watch yourself laddie, here is a little something from me.”

Xander
unwrapped the small package and found parchment along with two small writing quills and a bottle of ink.

“Many of you I can’t wait to be a soldier types grab any weapon they can find but fail to remember the basics, trust me, letters from home makes the long days seem shorter.
You will travel about a week to the city of Meadow where you will be tried and then given your job for the next 24. Now get a move on before they take off without you.”

CHAPTER

Xander climbed into the back of the wagon and looked at the other boys sitting down. His earlier count was way off as he could see no more than 10 people total in the wagon. Looking around he saw the other reds as Xander thought of themselves sitting together away from the rest of the group who eyed them and him although if they eyed them with contempt or fascination Xander could not tell. Xander took his pack off his back but thought better about taking his sword off, the driver of that Sharon lady’s carriage couldn’t be far away and he was already attacked by him once, and that was before Xander got him set on fire.

Settling in Xander noticed only two other boys had any kind of weapon with them at all, one huge boy had what looked like some sort of tree branch shaped into a club or something and one of the red h
aired boys had a rusty beat up sword. Xander could feel the wagon move as it headed out of Riley, with Lady Sharon’s carriage right behind them.

“So that makes three reds, you guys all related or something?” said the boy with the club.

“Nah most likely we are what was left when the war ended” Xander said as he tried to lighten the mood.

“Well you don’t worry about that driver none Red, he attacked them two over there too. I guess he just hates your type.” The boy said offering his hand. “My name is Rolle” he said as he shook Xander’s hand.

“Well met Rolle, I’m Xander” as he returned his shake, Xander could tell Rolle was a worker, his hands were rough and had heavy calluses all throughout his palm. While Xander certainly had his fair share from all the swordplay and general soldiering he did his grip was not as strong as the other boy.

“We got a bit to go before we get where we goin
g and since you are the last we picked up we might as well get to know each other.” Said Rolle. Xander decided he like Rolle right away, true he had never met only a handful of kids his age during a rare trip into a small village east of his home Rolle seemed different, he was a born leader.

“We are expected to catch our own food until we get to the big city, since that woman back there took all of our provisions. Our first good meal in days was when we picked you up since none of us know how to hunt and if we did I am not going to be able to sneak up on a hibernating bear with my size and that red over there is way too slow to catch a deer.”

“I’m okay at hunting Rolle” Xander said suddenly happy his trip was going better than expected. I can shoot the wings off a fly if he stands still long enough.”

“Well you don’t look like have many arrows Mr. Fancy Sword” the red haired kid with the sword spoke up. “And you don’t look like much of a hunter to me; I bet you can’t even use that sword. Beating up on that old fool back there is
easy; a real fight wouldn’t be so.”

“Well if I remember it correctly
Sam, ‘that old fool’ had you on the ground about to gut you proper before our Rolle conked him on the head.” said the other red haired boy.

The whole wagon bursted out in laughter sharing an inside joke that Xander thought it was one of those you just had to be there moments. “Well that was because I tripped over a rock, I could have taken him though
, you’ll see.” Said Sam.

“You better stay clear of that old man you idiot, that Witch will fry you in a heartbeat and make you one of her slaves digging ditches, chopping wood and eating porridge for the rest of your life. I told you what I know about her.”
Said Rolle.

“And how did the lumberjack’s son get this information exactly, my mother said he never heard anything like that and I asked her right after you told me.” Sam said trying to live down his earlier embarrassment.

“My older brother warned me about her when he came for a visit. You better put your head down and try not to stick out. You are going to need more than that old sword if you are going to join the Army.”

“How do you know what I want to do, I could want to be a miner for all you know!” Sam said raising his voice a little.

Rolle grinned before he started talking, “If you were wanting to be a miner you wouldn’t be clutching that junk like it’s about to suddenly disappear.”

“Well it’s better than carrying a beat up branch around and proclaiming it to be a club!” Sam said as he turned his head signaling he had nothing more to say.

Rolle looked down at his club and remained silent. Xander could tell the comment struck home and attempted to lighten the mood. Looking at the other red haired boy next to Sam he began to speak. “Yall say we have to hunt for our own food but only two of you have weapons, what do the rest of you hunt with?”

“We don’t, we starve! None of us are hunters anyway, our driver knows how to trap but we are never anywhere long enough for one of his traps to actually work. Mostly we eat whatever nuts or berries are on the ground. I am not looking forward to surviving a week on nothing but water.”

“Well I can make us some spears using my sword if that would help. They wouldn’t be very good other than a couple of uses, but that’ll keep any highway men off of us.” Xander said trying to be helpful. He could see the other boys faces light up at the mention of weapons though Xander was sure not many highwaymen would operate this close to the border.

“First time we stop I’ll see what I can find to help you. I’m Paddy by the way” the other boy said as he shook Xander’s hand.

Xander smiled and used the lull in conversation to peek at what was really on his mind, his father’s gift. Xander dug the small book out from his boot and opened it up.

To my son from your father, Erik Alexander O’Malley

I have no idea if you will survive my heir and if you are reading this I have not. I want to let you know no matter what you hear I loved your mother and I love you.
I am assuming you are a male child since you are reading this. One of the first enchantments I learned was how to make my words invisible to the female eye, a necessary move during my war with Rangel. This book contains most of the knowledge I have about being what I call myself an enchanter. The first thing I want you to remember is this, if you have the talent or not, enchantments are not permanent. Depending on the material some enchantments last longer than others. But before we put the cart before the horse, all Magic users have something I call ether. With my experiments with your mother and other witches, I have determined they can release their ether into the atmosphere, making them capable of amazing feats. These women can bring forth fire to devastating effect, cause wind to blow and bend water to their will. I have seen some of them actually fly son. You and I, if you are lucky, cannot perform such feats by ourselves but we can imbue other objects to preform them for us. Depending on your skill some things you can enchant so that anyone can use them, others will absolutely need someone with a connection to the ether, namely an enchanter since your mother did not seem able to operate some of my inventions. My time as an enchanter was not long, but I learned some pretty powerful tricks in my time though. My swords. My swords by now you should have even heard of them, able to deeply into shields, armor, bone or whatever. But I am rambling again first I have a simple test to determine if you are an enchanter like myself. Before I invaded your homeland I searched far and wide for another enchanter to no avail. So here is the test, on the back of this book you will find a peculiar looking spiral. I want you to find a quiet place and somehow etch this on some object. I want you to focus pouring your soul into the symbol once you finish. I know this sounds hard but I do not know a better way to explain it. Reading the rest of this book will prove difficult if you cannot do this, as the next pages have a symbol in the upper left hand corner that will need to be activated before you are allowed to read on.