TWO HEADS TWO SPIKES (The Pearl of Wisdom Saga) (22 page)

The men got up to go collect Ali-Samuel’s winnings.

“So what is it you are suggesting, we kill him?” Ali-Ster sarcastically asked.

“No, of course not, maybe you could talk to him too. A public affirmation of a change to you as the heir to Donegal will help restore some of the kingdom’s reputation. You will be surprised at how the farthest reaches of the world know a great deal about the happenings in Donegal.” Ali-Samuel collected a handful of gold. “Thank you my good man, better luck next time.”

They kept walking as Ali-Ster said, “But I don’t even want to be King of Donegal. What do I know about ruling a kingdom?”

“A lot more than Ali-Varis, I would hope. You need a good council, not those shit buckets I saw at the meeting today. I am shocked they didn’t attack each other for the riches I brought the King. Thunder and Lightning together. And it just so happens that I have the perfect Falconer for your council,” he said with another smirk.

“Let me guess, you?” Ali-Ster said.

“No, I think I am a perfect fit for the role of foreign chancellor, don’t you?” Ali-Samuel asked with a coy smile.

“Then who?”

“My father,” he said with the biggest grin of the day.

Finally, their excursion through the Frozen Forest was almost over. From this vantage point on the hilltop, Russell could see the white, foamy waters of the Salty Sea. Russell and Dragon-Eyes had been walking through the frigid woods for weeks. A short cut turned into a long one when a heavy storm slowed them down considerably. The Imp Wizard told him that they were close to the school. Russell wanted to be done with the frozen trek and cracked a smile when he spotted some fresh grass. Leaving the permanent freeze behind, the pair entered a big open field. Directly ahead of the two men, there appeared a giant snowball in the green pasture. It looked like it was rolling toward them.

Russell dropped the bags, drew his sword, and pushed the Imp Wizard behind him. As the white blob came closer, three black spots became visible on it. They were two eyes and a nose. It was a snow-bear rushing at the two men.

Russell held his sword tight as the wizard spoke, “Just stare him down. Show no fear and the bear will not harm us.”

“Easy for you to say,” Russell uttered as a quick peak behind him revealed the Imp was now backing up.

“Look directly at him, not me. Do not swing your sword or it will kill us both,” the wizard said as he backed up some more.

It sounded so simple. But with a six-hundred pound beast bearing down on him, every bone in Russell’s body wanted to turn and run. His knees started shaking a bit, but he stood his ground. Unfortunately, the bear was picking up speed as it closed in.

RUN. Swing your sword. Do something, anything
.

All of his senses told him to take action, but he just stood and stared into the eyes of the oncoming animal. Suddenly the bear pulled up, and walked slowly toward Russell.

“Just stay behind me, my friend.”

“Will do,” said the Imp from what sounded like a fair distance away.

The bear walked right up to Russell, got right in front of his face, and let out a deafening roar. The force snapped Russell’s head back. Then the beast opened its mouth, exposing sharp teeth, and licked Russell Seabrook’s nose. The bear suddenly opened its mouth again, only to yawn, and then took off into the frozen woods. Other than the soggy tongue and terrible breath, that was the best result he could have hoped for. His heartbeat started to slow back down a bit and the lump in his throat disappeared.

He turned around to see the wizard about ten feet behind, smiling. “You passed yet another test, my boy.”

“Test? What if that bear had ripped my head off? Were you going to test the bear while he ate me? That’s it, I suppose,” an irked Russell stated as he breathed heavily from the near death experience.

“Oh relax; I had total control of that whole situation,” the Imp Wizard cleverly said.

“From ten feet behind me?” Russell quickly questioned.

Dragon-Eyes firmly said, “Alright, that’s enough. You should be happy. You conquered fear by standing up to the bear. You will be tested by the cruel wench of fear many more times, but you showed courage. Away we go now.”

They headed down one mountain but another barred their way to the northern coast of Waters Edge. The Imp said that they were close, but they wouldn’t arrive until after dark as daylight was fading fast.

A driving, sideways rain greeted the men as they arrived in the area known as Morningdale. Not many people lived in this area; it was mostly filled with religious refugees called the Daughters of Darkness. The name was originally meant to mock the Faith of Eternal Light but it had given them a stigma of demon worshippers. There wasn’t anything worth taking in this land so they didn’t worry about invasion. The land was a series of hills and mountains that presented rough growing conditions and most of the inhabitants lived simply.

“There it is,” pointed the Imp.

Carved into the side of a hill was the school. The façade had doors and entrances that tunneled straight into the giant mass of earth. There were three stories of buildings stacked on top of each other with something Russell couldn’t identity, on a fourth floor. The soaked men arrived at the ground floor and Russell knocked heavily.

The door slowly squeaked open and a beautiful woman in a long black dress greeted them. She looked past him and her smile landed on Dragon-Eyes. Russell immediately noticed her lovely looks.

“Hello, old friend, I wondered if we would ever see you again. Then I saw you just the other day in my ball. You were standing in that very spot you are right now.”

She had luscious dark lips, and deep-brown skin that looked silky smooth. The sorceress had curly black hair that hung past her knees.

Her green eyes twinkled as she spoke, “Who is your handsome friend?”

“His name is Russell Seabrook, and this is Gamelda,” said the Imp Wizard.

It was a quick introduction from Dragon-Eyes at best. Russell extended his hand, Gamelda placed hers in it, and he kissed her hand.

“Did you come for some love potion?” Gamelda playfully asked with a wink.

Russell blushed. Other than Ali-Pari he had little experience with women. Gamelda led the guys down a short hallway and into a room off to the right that looked like a work shop.

There were candles of many different colors burning around the room. They were as tall as the half man and kept the room well lit. There were thirteen women busy with various activities. When they caught sight of Dragon-Eyes, all of them ran up and surrounded him.

“I can’t believe you are finally back.” “We missed you so much,” a few of the girls excitedly said.

The ladies varied in age from about twenty to forty. After only a short interval of small talk, the ladies returned to their duties.

The tallest woman was making more candles. She poured hot wax from a kettle into giant molds. Protective gloves covered most of her arms as she carefully transferred the blue liquid.

Another woman sifted through bunches of fresh herbs to burn for their rituals. The Daughters used many different combinations to achieve a variety of desired results. She mixed several blends, while another female scribed the mix of herbs and marked the location of it on her chart. They had a rectangular storage cabinet and a grid on the paper to keep track of the different herbal blends.

Other women were stirring big cauldrons of some steamy surprise that Russell didn’t recognize. Off in the far corner, a pale ghostly-looking woman with short hair extracted poisonous snake venom into a clear jar. She grabbed a snake right behind its head and held its mouth up to a jar. The four-foot snake tried to bite the jar and spit the venom right into the bottom. A closer look revealed about ten deadly snakes in the corner. Russell lived in a hot area of Waters Edge so he knew that almost all of those snakes could kill you with just one bite. They weren’t even confined but they instinctively stayed near the pale lady. When she finished, she tossed the rattlesnake aside, grabbed a water moccasin and steadily repeated the process. She was fearless in her approach and Russell thought that perhaps the snakes respected that.

“Now if you ever get bit by one of them, we have the antidote to help you survive. Those go for a lot of coin, especially overseas in Gama Traka where there are one-hundred snakes for every man,” the Imp Wizard told him.

The walls were covered with a plethora of symbols that Russell didn’t understand. They appeared to be chiseled in vertical rows. There were stars, circles, triangles, squares and other shapes he had never seen before.

“Let’s go up to our floor,” suggested Dragon-Eyes.

“Lovely,” responded Gamelda and Russell had no choice but to follow. A labyrinth of steps took them to the top floor.

Now this definitely looked like a wizard’s quarters. There were book shelves stuffed to capacity and papers were scattered everywhere. Some had only words and others had sketched designs, some even with star patterns and drawings on them. A fire roared off to the side of the room and a cauldron hung above it, brewing some unknown contents. There were tiny, red jars everywhere that may have been the snake venom. He saw a marvelous carpet on the floor with a purple, red and black design that looked like a raven. An owl was perched in the window and went “
who who”
non-stop, seemingly excited about the little man’s return.

The Imp Wizard stood on his tiptoes to grab an odd looking amulet from the wall.

“What is that?” asked Russell.

“Just a little carrying vessel and good luck charm. It has kept me safe while danger lurked in every corner,” he said with a half-smile as he kissed the special container.

It was a sculpted wooden man. He looked like he was hanging from a string with his legs crossed at the bottom, like he was sitting down. His light amber face had a crazy look on it and two mother of pearl eyes with tiny black centers stared back at Russell. The wizard showed him that when you pulled the oversized face, it came apart and revealed a hollow interior that could be used for storage. Dragon-Eyes hung it around his neck and held it to stop it from swinging.

“So how long are we going to be here?” Russell queried of his new mentor.

“Well, that depends entirely on you. We will see how long it takes for you to develop the skills needed for this journey. Gamelda and I will try to teach you all that we can before we leave for the Pearl Islands,” the wizard said as he leaned back in a small custom-made chair.

“Hopefully, I can teach you to see what hasn’t happened yet. I will try to pass as much knowledge on to you as I can, Russell Seabrook,” Gamelda said with a smile that captivated him.

“Once you reach the point that you are ready for the next step of the journey, we will leave,” Dragon-Eyes said.

“What if I never do?” Russell asked.

“Oh, you will, my sweet thing,” Gamelda said in a soothing voice while she stroked his face.

“You will, my boy. You need to trust in yourself and understand that you have great gifts already,” the Imp reassuringly told him.

“Such as…?” Russell hesitated.

The Imp Wizard immediately said, “Bravery and brawn. You take swift, decisive action and you have the body frame to back it up. Bravery and brawn will take you very far, but brains will thrust you over the threshold. I have faith in you, Russell. You simply need to have faith in yourself,” the Imp could see Russell already responding from the positive reinforcement.

“Alright, I guess I have always doubted myself,” Russell said with slightly more confidence.

He looked over to see Gamelda smiling at him and that instantly made him feel more confident.

“Well that stops now. We shall relax tonight and start when the sun comes over the mountain on the morrow. We only have one final thing to do before we officially start your voyage,” Dragon-Eyes said delicately.

“And what is that?” Russell pensively asked.

“We need to cleanse all your un-pure thoughts. We will do so by shearing your head and face. The face shouldn’t present a problem, but those lovely locks will have to go, I am afraid.”

The remaining members of the Colbert family gathered in Camelle’s room in Riverfront. Word around the city was that everyone from Mattingly had died, even Mariah. Camelle has been inconsolable since the news arrived. Riceros felt terrible, but it was hard to cheer people up with only written words and gestures. The boy tried anyway, only to catch a quick glimpse of a smile that faded back into grief. They sat around a small wooden table on stools.

Ruxin reported, “So we made sure to guard the wall and coastline heavily at today’s meeting. Lord Dunston and Lord Kane have a group of men making rounds to gather support for the cause. With soldiers already stationed around the wall and sea, we shall need little back up, we believe.”

He was only fifteen but had been handling this situation like a grown man. Riceros noticed that Ruxin had grown up immensely since the ambush and he acted more like their father by the day.

Riceros still hadn’t really come to grips about losing his father, sister and brother in Brehan. He cried when he heard the news and a few random times when he saw things that reminded him of them. But he still felt deep down that he should have been sadder. It triggered something in Riceros that he rarely experienced, anger. There weren’t a lot of things that fired up Riceros, but he had experienced more anger than sadness over the slaughter of his family. Although he had to deal with his own setbacks, the Colberts rarely suffered strife and lived peacefully. Riceros wasn’t sure if he was dealing with the pain properly.

He thought he was dreaming when he saw Brehan enter the room with blood splattered on his face and clothes. He looked as ghastly as expected after being gone over a week.

“Brehan,” shrieked Camelle as she ran to hug him.

He looked different to Riceros, almost broken.

Brehan spoke in a softer voice than usual, “Hello all, I have failed you.”

Riceros was giving him a hug from behind as his mother said, “You did not fail us,
OUR
King failed us. The one Jon was paying respect to.”