The Weaving of Wells (Osric's Wand, Book Four) (2 page)

“Ha!” Osric laughed and ruffled the hair on top of Gus’s head. “If it weren’t for that attitude, and my lack of understanding of this blasted Wand-Maker gift, we may have figured this out a long time ago. Don’t look at me that way. You will see in just a few moments that I am right.”

“I’ll look at you any way I damned well please. Now, are you going to get to it, or am I going to have to spell your mouth shut until I figure it out on my own?”

“We both shared fault in the lack of discovery, so I’ll try to share this with you as quick as possible. How did Pebble describe his finding me in the rubble?”

“He found you in a hollow, basically without a scratch on you. You were understandably a bit ragged looking, but you weren’t injured seriously. Why do you ask?” Even through his greying fur and scars, Gus looked annoyed at the teaching tone in Osric’s voice. His voice reinforced the emotion for those who couldn’t see him.

“What state were my clothes in at the time, Pebble?”

The young pup smiled to be included in such a momentous day. “You were dusty and your shirt had rided up on you.” His playful understanding brought a smile and a nod from Osric.

“And remind me again about the times you examined me in an attempt to discover the truth behind what was going on?” Osric turned his attention back to Gus.

“I examined you on many occasions,” he replied.

“Yes, but tell me when. Where were we when you examined me?”

“I examined you twice in the Caves of D’pareth, then again just before we left Braya after freeing the dragons from their cages, on multiple occasions within the barracks over the last few months, and at the Grove of the Unicorns. Oh, and I examined you on the first night after we left Stanton when you noticed the power growth for the first time due to the Anduro Amulet that Bridgett wears.”

“No, you didn’t examine me on that day!” Osric was unable to contain his excitement as he knelt in front of Gus. “And if you had, at least the mystery of my wand would have been solved.”

“But now your wand is destroyed, so I don’t see why we are having this conversation.” Gus began to look uncertain, sensing that the end of the conversation was at hand.

“Has it been destroyed? The wand you created was an incredible wand, but was it the wand of the prophecy? Think, Gus.”

“I’ve examined you on multiple occasions, so don’t try to tell me that you are the wand; that’s just plain silly.”

“You’re going to kick yourself when you see, Gus,” Bridgett chimed in.

“Well, I’ll be an enchantress’s puppet,” Kenneth exclaimed.

“We’s gots a magic wand. They’s gots to figures it out. Riddles and rhymes, till we runs outa time,” Pebble sang playfully.

“Pebble, the one who looks when he’s not supposed to. Come here Pebble!” Osric could barely contain himself for another moment, but Kenneth and Bridgett had both realized and looked for themselves at different points in the verbal byplay he was sharing with Gus.
How much longer until Gus looks with all the hints I have given him?
Osric wondered as he rubbed Pebble’s belly, to the young pup’s delight.

“The trouble, Gus, is that you were always looking at me or at the wand you created. There was always another wand. I’ll ask you again: What does it take to initiate a power lock?”

“You grasp a wand and light the tip. Then the cycle is locked in until it is over, or death, or the wand breaks.” Gus narrowed his eyes even further.

“Are you sure?” Osric smiled, toying with Gus. He hadn’t had many opportunities to show that he knew more than the famous Wand-Maker, and to Gus’s disdain, Osric was enjoying the moments he had left.

“Of course I’m sure. Now, where are you going with this, boy?”

“Kenneth, can you help me with a little experiment?”

“I don’t know. I have heard the stories of that power lock, and Jane may never forgive me if I say yes to something so personal.” He threw his hands up in mock protest.

“The only thing I’ll hold against you is remaining a
child
when I want my hunter to be a brave man,” Jane answered, stepping through the crowd and pushing him forward.

“All right.” Kenneth stepped forward sheepishly in mock rebuke.

“Okay, you have just been trapped under a collapsing palace, and you find yourself waking up lying face up on a cold stone floor.

Kenneth dropped to the ground, playing the role he was given.

“You find yourself wandless, dusty, dirty, and with your shirt riding halfway up your body,” Osric bellowed in his most impressive theater voice.
I can’t believe I spent so many sleepless nights examining the wrong wand!
Osric thought.

“This had better be the end of the show or I’m going to ask for my money back,” Gus spoke in flat tones with a hopeless expression on his face.

“Wait, if he’s supposed to be me, let’s complete the costume!” Osric unfastened his sheath and helped Kenneth fasten it to his right hip as he lay on the ground. “When you least expect it, something bites you. You try to draw your sword, but there isn’t room under all the rubble.” Kenneth complied with the stage directions, struggling with the sword, his face a grimace of dramatic fear. “Then,” Osric continued narrating, “a handsome prairie dog pup scurries through an opening and brings you a new Gus wand.”

With a quick motion, Osric took Gus’s wand away and handed it to Pebble, who dutifully carried out his role in the reenactment.

“Oh, look! I’ve been given a Gus wand! It’s a bit small for a human, don’t you think?” Kenneth gazed teasingly at Gus. The crowd was growing as the conversation continued, and it seemed as though the entire Aranthian population was joining in the laughter with two of their most beloved acting out the scene in such a childish display. Gus was not amused.

“We’ll forgo pointing out that this is a different wand than the one I was given, Kenneth. Soon everyone will see that it didn’t matter anyway. Now, where were we?”

“You were given a Gus wand.” Gus narrowed his eyes.

“Yes, that’s right. Then Pebble reminds you that you have forgotten one important step in the ownership of a new wand by saying…” Osric pointed at Pebble.

“Yous gotsta lit the tip!”

Kenneth initiated the spell to light the tip of the wand

Gus’s eyes went wide in surprise as both of his ears and his tail twitched uncontrollably. Osric leaned into his ear and whispered the last few lines as two distinct white lights began to emanate from the location where Kenneth lay. One light came from the Gus wand, and the other from Legati, connected to the spell by its contact with his bare torso.

“Let’s get an accurate count of how many breaths the lock lasts this time. One… Two… Three… Four… Five… Six… Seven… Eight… Nine… Ten…”

* * *

“One hundred and fifty-four!” Gus shouted with a great deal of excitement as Kenneth attempted to sit upright. “I never thought that was possible! And the light that shot out from it could have easily blasted a hole in a solid wall like it did in the collapsed palace. Somebody hand me the sword, quick!”

Osric helped Kenneth to his feet and began to unstrap the hilt from his side.

“I haven’t even looked at it myself yet. It just occurred to me when I was given the sword. It was a power lock from two wands, and one of them was the wand of the prophecy. I knew it, I just knew it.” Osric smiled and laid the sword he had carried since his father had died in front of Gus.

“How is it possible that you never knew your father’s sword was also a wand?” There was an almost playful tone to Gus’s voice. “You’ve been carrying that for half your life.”

“I think the unicorn that rescued me from the rubble is behind it becoming a wand. If my father had known this was a wand then he may have sold it during some of the lean years to buy us food.”

“Ah, well let’s see if your suspicions are correct. I’ve always wanted to get some answers to my questions about the unicorns. I knew it wasn’t the wand I gave you!” Gus smiled up at him.

“I’ve always wanted to see what you two are talking about as it was happening.” Kenneth stepped forward, followed shortly by Bridgett and then Pebble.

“There’s more than enough room,” Osric replied as he looked down and activated the Wand-Maker gift. What he saw was altogether as new as it was familiar.

Unlike the wands that Gus made, it was made of what looked like circular rings that decreased in size as they tapered away from the hilt of the sword. There were none of the typical linkings of strands to form a structure. Instead, the strange rings shared a common shaft that ran through the very center of the wand, and each of the individual rings was a distinctly different color. The structure was remarkably similar to another wand that Osric had looked at not too long ago, except that in this wand there were dozens of individual rings.

“Pebble, why does this wand look so much like one of your wands?” Gus inquired, but it was Kenneth who answered.

“He’s the one that knows, but I think he is a bit too young to understand the significance of what he knows.”

“Known, but not known.” Gus smiled.

“All things are new to the young.” Osric spoke with appreciation.

“Some of the hints he would give us in that blasted game I taught him are starting to make sense now.” A genuine joy radiated from Gus as he looked at Osric with an uncharacteristically youthful smile.

“Yes, I believe you are right.” Osric nodded in agreement. Then he leaned in close and whispered in Gus’s ear, “And I think I’d like to know how he came up with his wand design too. Why don’t you ask him?”

Gus stood right where he was and cocked his head to the right, asking, “Pebble, where did you get your inspiration for your wands?” A singular tremor shook his right ear.

“Osric’s wand, silly.” Pebble smiled.

“Well, I have to admit I was hoping for a bit more, but since he’s known all along, I guess it makes sense.” Gus shrugged, looking up exasperated.

“I thought there’d be more too.” Osric returned the expression.

“I couldn’t have done it without the unicorns helping me, though. I didn’t have Osric’s wand to look at always. Plus, it was tough trying to figure out how to do it the same way as his. It’s still not perfect, ’cause those strands are hard to get at from below. They had to tell me how to do it five times before I got one right. Then it was easy, but I still can’t make ’em quite like Osric’s!” Pebble bounced around in excitement.

Osric and Gus both stood there, slack jawed and silent, waiting for more. Had Pebble really stated that unicorns had taught him how to make the wand? As far as the brightest minds on Archana were concerned, unicorns could not speak. Not only did he indicate that they had instructed him in wandcraft, but that they had done it five times.

“Who told you how to do it five times?” Kenneth was the one to break the silence.

“The unicorns,” Pebble responded with the exaggerated impatience of a child. “You might hear me better over by them.” He motioned for Kenneth to move next to Osric and Gus.

“I think he’s picking up some of your mannerisms.” Kenneth directed his statement toward Gus.

“I’m sorry?” Gus leaned in with his right ear.

“I said I think he’s picking up some of your mannerisms.”

“Not you, I’m talking to the boy.” Gus scowled, yet a smirk remained on his face. It was as if he just couldn’t manage to say it with a straight face. “You said the unicorns told you how to make these wands?”

Both of his ears twitched madly and his thin frame held in a tremendous amount of energy that looked ready to explode. Gus’s entire body leaned toward Pebble in anticipation of the next few words.

“Yes!” He sighed. “The unicorns taught me how to make the wands. Goodness! You need to pay better attention, Pa. I already said it twice.”

“You are correct,” Gus spoke slowly as he chose his next words. “Now, how exactly did you get the unicorns to speak?”

“I never said they spoke. Their mouths can’t make words, silly. They talk to the insides, like the dragons talk to each other, except for dragons can talk to us too.” Pebble pointed to his ears. “But you have to be polite or unicorns won’t say nothin’—not a peep. I told you that when we was at the Grove of the Unicorn.” He said the last in exasperated annoyance.

“I don’t remember you telling me any of that.” Gus shook his head, more for the lack of attention he had paid his son than from disbelief.

“You tried to see their wands and they hid them from you. Then I told you to ask ’em first like you always told me.” Pebble shrugged.

“I have most certainly told you to ask before you look into anyone with your gift, but you rarely listened,” Gus said.

“Well the unicorns are so pretty that I looked
at
them first, before I looked
in
them.” Pebble shrugged again matter-of-factly. “I said, ‘Hello, you are pretty,’ and she said ‘thanks.’ We talked for a bit before I asked to see her magics. Since I was so polite she said I could. But I never looked at anyone without asking since. Well, no one but all us here. I wanted to play games and you all said you would, so it was fair to look at you.”

“I could see how you might think that.” Gus bowed respectfully towards his son. Then he smirked a joyous smirk.

Not since his promotion to Contege, shortly before the attack on the palace, had Osric felt such satisfaction. By his guess, it had been far longer for the ex–world’s greatest Wand-Maker—it was undeniable that Pebble had surpassed his father as the best. Gus beamed with tremendous excitement as he gazed as his pup. All of the onlookers attempted to hold in their sniggers, and a few unsuccessful mouths let loose an uproar at Gus’s frivolous approach to his son.

Gus leapt at his son with gaiety. Both prairie dogs erupted with laughter as they tumbled about. Despite his youth, Pebble had nearly doubled in size since they had departed on their adventure almost a year earlier. Gus’s thin frame kept disappearing beneath the chubby ball of laughter.

The cackles continued for some time as a visible load lifted from the small group of friends. Bridgett smiled as a happy tear slid down her cheek. Then her expression grew concerned and she leaned to whisper in Osric’s ear.