Wizard's Resolve by Jim Hodgson

Author:Jim Hodgson [Hodgson, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

Wagast noticed that he’d begun to feel old. That made sense, given that he indeed was old, but he felt even older than usual as he opened the door to the tower in Dilara and stepped inside. The smells of dinner perked him up a bit, as did Yonca’s peck on his cheek.

“How’s my wizard trainer this evening?” she asked.

“Some of them are a bloody disaster,” Wagast said. “Literally, in one case.”

“Oh, my. What happened?”

“One of the new apprentices formed an excellent fireball. Small, but hot.”

“That sounds good,” Yonca said. “Isn’t it?”

“Only trouble was that he formed it and shot it into another apprentice’s leg. Had to heal the poor boy on the spot.” Wagast sighed, sat down at the table.

“We all start somewhere,” Yonca observed.

“True, but we used to start one at a time with direct supervision. Now that they’re trying to start as a clump … I don’t know.”

Yonca gave him a look. “We have accepted the challenge of swelling the ranks of Dilara’s wizards. We sent representatives out into the community to raise our profile. Now it’s working and you’re moaning about it?”

“I’ll have you know,” Wagast said, sitting up straight, “That is precisely what I’m doing.”

Yonca gave a little snort. She was quiet a moment. “And the queen?”

Wagast sighed again. “She will recover,”

“How soon?”

Wagast shrugged. “The arrow pierced her heart. Had I not been standing right there to give her a potion she would have died before she had time to fall.”

“We are going to need her,” Yonca said.

Wagast looked up. “You know something?”

Yonca shook her head. “I don’t know, but I can guess.”

Wagast frowned. “How long do we have?”

“A year, perhaps less. It depends how far that fool Gerent Ormuz goes.”

Wagast grunted. It wasn’t enough time to properly train even a handful of wizards. He needed an army of them.

“I worry that war will come soon and our king will be too busy being concerned about his wounded wife to lead us,” Yonca said.

“That worries me too,” Wagast said. “But she can only heal as fast as she can heal. Apprentices can only learn as fast as they can learn.”

Yonca sat at the table with a couple of bowls of soup that smelled positively delicious. “Well,” she said. “At least two old wizards can still have a bite to eat before bed.”

Wagast smiled. “True enough.”

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