Master of the Five Magics by Lyndon Hardy

Author:Lyndon Hardy
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy, Magic, Quest, Sorcery, Wizard, Adventure, Alchemy, Science Fiction
Publisher: Lyndon Hardy
Published: 2016-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

ON THE trail northward beyond the village, Alodar paused to catch his breath. Back the way he had come there was no dust cloud of pursuit. He reached in his pack for the sphere, now quite cold and brought it to eye level. The opaque darkness was gone. In its place gleamed a sparkling transparency. But unlike the one Duncan had taken, the center of this sphere held a single eye, lidded closed. It was tiny, like the shielding hand, delicately sculptured with fine detail. Small wrinkles wove across the lid, and minute spike-like hairs curled in a precise line along its bottom edge.

Alodar blinked in surprise and spun the sphere around, looking for one of the magical symbols he had expected to see. He shook the orb violently, as if to rearrange the contents, but the closed eye did not change.

Duncan had escaped with a hand of protection, and what king would not give a treasure to be safe from any mortal blow? At the very least, Alodar had expected a magical object of equal value. But all he had to show for outwitting the safeguards of the guild was yet another mystery. He was no nearer his rightful heritage or his true place in life than the day before the gates of the Iron Fist slammed shut. In bitter disappointment, he thrust the sphere back into his pack and scowled at the ground.

He rested for a few minutes in silence, and then sat erect and gazed up the trail. It would return him to Ambrosia, but what did he have to show the queen to turn her head from the others? A mere bauble that could have been fashioned by a jeweler.

The eye did not even provide an imitation of magic. Nothing of what he had read in the library told of magical eyes, either closed or staring full open. Such a logo would be more appropriate for a sorcerer than the ritual of a magician.

Alodar startled at where his thoughts were going. He withdrew the sphere a second time and brought it again to eye level. Surprised at what impulse directed his actions he sat unmoving, concentrating on the tiny eye. For several full minutes, nothing happened. Then, he felt weak tendrils of strange shadows rising from the depths of his mind.

His eyes blurred out of focus, and a hazy image formed in his thoughts. As if stroked by a gentle feather, floating snatches of a distant scene pushed into place. He saw a barren landscape, dominated by a single thrusting crag. Stunted and gnarled shrubs fought a strong wind to retain their meager leaves, and the sun hung low in the sky. Alodar felt himself drawn inside the huge monolith, into a tomblike cavern carved from solid rock. In the very center was a coffin sealed with a thick glass lid.

He gasped as the shock of recognition dissolved the scene like a stone thrown into a reflecting pond. He looked about and saw only the empty trail and the hills that contained the magicians’ guild.

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