The Enchanter of Rangel: Child of War Book 1 (6 page)

Xander found Sam surrounded by two men with their swords drawn out. Sam still had his old sword but was favoring his arm a lot. Xander quickly jumped into the battle and began battling with one of the two opponents. In a matter of minutes Xander had his opponent disarmed and was about to give the final blow when one of the bandits robbed him of his victory.

“Put that sword down real slow” said a bandit as he held an arrow to Sam’s neck. “Back over to that cliff over there and I won’t kill this piece of trash.”

Xander slowly put his sword down as he backed up towards the cliff. Looking down Xander could see the handle of Sam’s sword covered with long dead leaves. Xander walked towards it, trying to formulate a plan if the bandits attacked. Taking a quick peek over the edge, Xander’s hope of surviving the fall was quickly dashed as he could see
their were plenty of jutting rocks all the way down to the bottom where Xander doubted anyone could survive the fall into the Ivy river, which was known to be deadly to even the most accomplished swimmer. The bandit unhanded Sam and tossed him to the side, and began to advance on Xander. Xander seeing his chance picked up Sam’s sword and pointed it towards his attacker. The bandit froze as Sam picked up Xander’s sword and advanced on the bandit until he was next to Xander.

“I guess this is it huh? It’s been nice knowing you Xander” said Sam.

“Stop talking like that Sam, I can take this guy. Just get behind me, I’ll protect you.” Said Xander, while switching the sword from hand to hand, in an effort to intimidate the bandit.

“But then who is going to protect you boy?” Said the Bandit as Sam grabbed Xander
from the back and threw him down the steep cliff.

CHAPTER

“So let me get this straight, Death’s Hand was done in by his own people? You must have done something to the guy for him to act that way.”
Said Durgard.

“I admit he took me by surprise.”
Said Xander flatly.

“You sound like you were some sort of miracle swordsman in your youth. We all know it was them damn swords that made you so great.” Said
Durgard as his earlier fear of Xander started to vanish. None of that is gonna matter though once you are staring across the arena at the Lion Heart.”

“Well if you were thrown off a cliff you said was impossibly deep, how in the hells did you survive?” said Zellon.

“Luck was with me that day, luck was with me” said Xander.

“Well we all would have been better off if you died right then and there!” said
Durgard.

“Don’t pay him any
attention, now that you are unarmed he is a big talker. So how did luck help you out? Said Zellon

“Well I fell off the cliff, crashed through some trees and happened to land in a small sort of cave on the cliff face, best part it was covered in moss” said Xander.

“Hell that does sound like luck” said Zellon.

“I sure didn’t think so when it happened I hit my head and blacked out, that cave though is where
my journey really started at.”

CHAPTER

Xander felt the rays of the morning sun and heard birds chirping although way too loud. Xander head hurt as he sat up gingerly from the hole he had fallen into surprised he did not break anything from Sam’s betrayal. Checking his belongings, all he had kept was the rusty old sword of Sam’s.

“Just great Xander, you only been training for this your whole life and in less than a week you take everything your mom told you and threw it out the window. Now I got no food, no water all my money is in that stupid wagon because I can’t follow simple directions! No trust anybody on the wagon she said, did I listen, of course not. Now I’m stuck here hoping no highwaymen find me because all I got to protect myself is this stupid beat up sword!” Xander shouted, feeling sorry for himself as he then picked up the sword and was going to throw it when he noticed the sword was much lighter than it should have been. Upon further inspection Xander could see the sword had some strange lines etched into it. The book! Xander quickly dug into his boot and saw he still had his dad’s book! Searching the other boot he still at least had his dagger, that and the old sword at least meant he could protect himself somewhat.

“Well Xander you couldn’t wait to be left alone to see if you had any
skill, looks like my wish was granted. Just great.” Xander said as he grabbed his dagger and began using the tip to etch the lines the book told him into a nearby branch. Xander then gripped the symbol tight and imagined an invisible force leaving his body and pouring into the branch. After a short while Xander had no luck and just felt the headache he had just begin to recede. Xander thought maybe he didn’t try hard enough and really squeezed the branch as he concentrated as hard as he could on the branch. After what seemed to be an hour and still nothing. “Well no magic book for me then” Xander said to himself disappointed. Xander picked up the branch thinking at least it was a good walking stick and began to climb out of the small hole he fell into. Reaching to the top of the hole, he could see looked down the side of the cliff and thought it he was lucky to fall into that hole. At least he landed on soft moss instead of hitting every rock on the way down and splashing into the water where he most likely would have drowned. Looking up he could see nothing but the trees he crashed into when he was pushed off of side thankful as they probably saved his life and allowed him to fall into the small hole. Seeing no way out, Xander quickly strapped the branch on his back and began to climb toward the trees. Finally reaching the trees Xander climbed pass them and could see he didn’t fall far from the top of the cliff. Xander quickly got to the top and looked around at the area and could see tracks leading from the area he fought Sam in. Xander followed the tracks until he saw where the wagon was stopped before they left him. Not knowing his way around, Xander sighed and followed the wagon tracks, hoping it would lead him to Meadow and thankful the moist spring ground was perfect for preserving tracks.

As Xander walked he wondered what everyone thought about his disappearance. Were they in on it? He doubted Rolle was involved but then again he thought Sam was harmless, just jealous of his swords. Xander did not know his next move when he reached Meadow but figured he needed to find someone in charge to place him properly, with any luck that Sharon lady would be long gone and no one would stand in his way of joining the army. Bored as he was walking, Xander pulled the old sword out of his sheath and studied the lines etched into it. Running his hands over them he thought the sword could not have been made from Rangelian Steel and seemed to be tin or some other lightweight metal. Whatever it was it probably was cheap to make but couldn’t have held up well during and actual sword
fight, and he doubted it could penetrate even light leather armor even if given a clean blow. Xander figured the lines etched on it must have given it some type of strength, but whatever it gave it was long since gone now. Xander could see the lines were in some type of pattern although he had never seen anything like it in the books he had read, when it suddenly hit him! Xander was not supposed to focus on the object, but on the symbols instead! Xander quickly found the lines he scratched on the branch and focused on the symbol when he felt a sharp pain shoot up his arm. Xander quickly dropped the branch and examined his arm. Xander figured he did something wrong and tried it again. This time he focused with all of his might about an unseen force leaving his body and this time the pain was twice as intense. Xander cursed to himself and ripped the book out of his boot. Turning to the last page he read he quickly turned to the next page and saw the lines and symbols. Putting his hand over it he focused on it and words started to appear on the page.

Sorry son, I probably should have warned you about the pain, but since I might not be around to give you any when you need it, consider this a little pay back! The test was made that way so no one could hide the fact if they were an enchanter like
myself. Now that you are one I will tell you what all those lines and swirls mean, namely it is ancient elven. To enchant, you do not need to know elven, if I could do it all over again I would invent my own alphabet, something I implore you to do now. I do not know why and language works it just does. The thing that imbues power is what you are thinking as you pour your ether into an object. If everyone could read and know what enchantment you have placed on something you have lost the element of surprise. Imagine setting a trap for your enemy that is easily by passed because you announced to them that it was a trap and what it would do. Once you figure that out, know that some enchantments can be used by anyone, like my swords. And some enchantments can only be used by an enchanter, like this book for instance. General enchantments are easier to make than enchanter specific items, but they have a very short lifespan. My swords for instance, only lasted for a two or three months at most before I had to recharge them. The personal swords I carried lasted a lot longer but were enchanter specific. I made them out of a very lightweight but easily damaged material. It would be useless to a normal person or even a Rangelian Witch, but in my hand it was much stronger and able to withstand almost anything.

Know that your enchanting is limited by the amount of ether supply you have, similar to the way ether affects the witches, namely those with a larger store can cast spells that others can’t. I had a special eyepiece that could see the individual ether stores of individuals I found in an old book once. I tried to recreate it to no avail, I figure who ever made it had a larger store of ether than I possessed. When I measured my ether against your mother’s I could see although she was not remarkable for a witch, she had more than tripled mine.
The strange thing that I discovered was although she could replenish her ether with a little rest and sleep, it did not fill all the way back up like mine did. I think their dwindling supply of ether is the reason witches die younger than their none magical counterparts. In the following pages are all the enchantments I made, and some that I had theories about. I figured some either did not work because it was too fantastic (I once tried to enchant a child’s stuffed bear to life!) or I did not possess enough strength to do so (I am sure making a flying machine of some type is feasible). During periods of stress you should consult the last page in this book. In any case I do not have much more knowledge to pass to you, I love you son.

P.S. Although I was known for warfare, my favorite enchantment by far was my cloak. I made it so it retained the dryness and heat of the day I made it. If I have to spell it out for you, while wearing it I never got wet, never got hot or cold. You should experiment to see for yourself.

Xander thought to himself about the old sword he carried. He thought it was too poorly made to be used as any type of weapon but maybe it was an old sword of his fathers. Xander grabbed the sword by its hilt, now looking closer he could see there was ancient elven on the hilt. Xander focused on the lines and the sword jerked slightly for a second but other than that it still felt way too light to Xander. Looking along the blade he also could see writing but thought it was in a strange place, holding unto a weapon from that spot would likely get your fingers sliced off if anything. Still Xander figured it couldn’t hurt and placed his hand over the elven writing and focused his power into it. A bright flash momentarily blinded Xander but when he regained his eyesight the sword had repaired itself!

“By the Gods!” Xander screamed to no one in particular. Swing the sword around, Xander still thought it felt too light but who was he to argue, he was holding one of his father’s blades! Xander continued to walk following the wagon tracks and figured this was a secret best kept to himself. He would tell his mother about it when he saw her again or possibly in a vague letter hoping she could figure it out. After walking most of the day Xander began to fell hungry.

“What good is being an enchanter, I can’t enchant food into my mouth” Xander thought to himself as he gazed at the last rays of the sun. Up
ahead Xander saw two people approaching him on horseback. Silently cursing to himself for leaving his crossbow on his pack and letting his longbow get taken, Xander put his hand on the hilt of his sword. It was too late to run and although Xander knew he was a decent swordsman, mounted opponents were difficult to attack, especially if they carried a pike or other long weapon. As the travelers reached him, Xander could see at least they were not the highwaymen he had read so much about from various Soldiers throughout the years.

Both riders seemed to be female which Xander did not know if that was good or bad. Their horses at first glance were no war ponies; these things seemed shorter than any of the horses back in Riley. They also had stubby legs, while they could outrun him Xander was sure, but he wasn’t in any danger of being trampled. Upon closer inspection he could see both females kept their long black hair tied behind them. Xander could see no weapons on either of them and judging from the fact they did not wear the robes his mother and that Sharon lady had, he doubted they had any magical powers which to speak. Although they looked similar now Xander could see one of them was obviously older perhaps the mother of the younger one.

“You there boy, why are you skulking about the countryside?” said the younger of the two.

Xander just kept his hand on his weapon and walked by them.

“Are you deaf boy, answer me now or I shall have the watch deal with you!” Xander could hear her yell at him.