A Darker Shade of Sorcery - - (leveled readers .txt) 📗

moment on Earth was leaving it in the arms of a hideous demon. But after all, what was he really leaving behind? He had no family, no friends.

The children's home would just assume he'd run away. Who would care that I’d gone?

Tarensen looked up suddenly, as if he'd forgotten Evan was still there.

“Castle-Coterie is on the left, overlooking Veneseron city,” he said. “If you get lost, ask a Master or a fellow Venator.”

Evan stood, scared and in shock. His only solace was that this new life had to be better than his old.

“Tarensen, I've already made my choice. I want to stay here.”

Tarensen nodded, the trace of a smile on his lips.

Evan was going to leave Earth behind. He'd never belonged there anyway. Maybe he'd have better luck here.

*

Kurrlan threw the body of the Dark-Venator to the ground. The man's face, a moment before etched with evil insanity, now looked young and scared. In his final

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moments the Dark-Realmer must’ve realised what Akirandon would do to him once she learned of his failure. Death was probably preferable.

Kurrlan felt no qualms killing him; he'd been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

That was all.

Molten blue lava rolled down ruined rock, trickling into rivers of magma that writhed all over the cavernous nest.

The Dread Lord looked down at the pieces of his fallen servant, then at the remnant of the spider queen, now only a dried, smouldering husk. Rage built within him. Sellatur had betrayed him.

After his first minion had failed, Kurrlan thought he’d use a more intelligent servant to retrieve the boy. Turned out Sellatur was too intelligent. Oh, how Kurrlan wished he could’ve killed Sellatur himself for this treachery.

Kurrlan’s secret, the secret not even Akirandon knew, was now perilously close to being discovered.

His lieutenant spoke, “Do you think the Dark-Realmers know about the boy?”

“No, the trace of his sorcery would have brought them here. But if Akirandon had an inkling another of them lived she'd already have him.

“Remove the bodies,” Kurrlan ordered.

The Dark-Venators were sure to send more of their kind, to seek the one Kurrlan had killed, but Kurrlan could not risk discovery.

His fury would not abate. He'd been mere hours from finally having one of them in his hands. He’d needed that boy. The boy meant everything and now he was in the clasp of those Veneseron fools. They would train him, care for him, they could learn what only Kurrlan knew. He couldn’t let that happen. Kurrlan would wage war on Veneseron to have him in his grasp.

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He summoned another portal and prepared to return to his own realm.

“Send another; our friends in Veneseron will aid you. I must have the child, before it’s too late.”

Chapter 5- Of Venators and Veneseron

When Brooke regained consciousness, she was on the bed in her room. Someone must’ve found her on the floor and put her there. But who?

Padrake, the tall lanky man with the silly moustache? Arantay, who she'd seen jump on the back of a dragon and take to the sky? None of this could be real, least of all the boy with eyes like blood.

She noticed a tray by the door, heaped with unrecognisable food. A kind of meat, not from any animal she recognised, coupled with food resembling bright-blue peas and green potatoes. Next to the tray stood a metal cylinder filled with black liquid.

The meat was tender and succulent and the liquid was surprisingly sweet.

Sunlight streamed in through the window. Brooke realised it must be mid-afternoon already. She got up and walked cautiously over, hoping she didn’t see another dragon.

She saw a sea of teenagers running about on the fields, or else sprawled on the grass in groups, chatting amiably. Obviously, there were other teenagers here, she realised. Arantay, Lok and Tyrell had only been a year or two older than her.

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Padrake had said Brooke was lucky the Venators had found her before the others had. She shuddered to think of who else, or what else, might’ve been looking for her.

She wished no one had come looking at all.

The people outside looked happy. Most wore a blue uniform, whilst some dressed in white. Others wore green or purple. Only a few wore red like Tyrell and Lok had last night.

Last night? Was it only yesterday? It felt like a lifetime ago she'd been at the party with her friends.

My friends, what must they be thinking? What will my family be going through?

She was gone; they'd all be going out of their minds with worry. Well, her family pretended she didn’t exist most of the time. But no, she was sure they would still worry if she disappeared. That’s what families did, no matter how dysfunctional they were. Wasn’t it?

But Padrake said the Masters could alter their memories. They would believe she'd won a place at some boarding academy. If she chose to stay here, that was.

The people outside looked normal enough, she decided. What was I expecting, for them to look like Arantay? No, he was different.

They were all around her age or younger, some of them older by a year or three.

They sat chatting, or running around laughing, like normal teens.

Part of her wanted to meet them. Another part was too scared. Brooke decided to try her door again. Fortunately, it wasn’t locked this time.

Outside was a colossal corridor. The walls and floor were made of a dark green stone. Red carpets ran the length of the corridor and elaborate statues and ornaments adorned the walls. It was hard to believe magic didn’t exist when the place tingled with it.

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Suddenly, a boy dressed in blue turned into the hallway from another passage.

Brooke considered darting back into her room, but he’d already spotted her. The boy looked at her in surprise as he approached.

“Hello,” he said.

“Hi,” Brooke said uncertainly.

“You’re new, right?” He took in her clothes. She was wearing the same jeans and black vest top she’d worn to the warehouse party.

“Err-” She struggled, feeling incredibly out of place.

The boy had stopped in front of her, bemused. He looked around her age. His eyes were a bright tawny, contrasting with his dark skin and the braids pulled back to the nape of his neck, embellished at the ends by multicoloured beads.

“You’re a Novice Venator,” he stated.

“Um, I’m Brooke.”

“No, Novice is your rank,” he laughed.

“Oh,” Brooke said, feeling her cheeks flush red.

“I’m Elijah Gold, Apprentice Venator.” His accent was British, but flavoured with Ghanaian.

“Why am I a Novice?” Brooke asked.

Elijah blinked. “How long have you been here?”

“Um…since today.”

“Now it makes sense. Hasn’t anyone told you about the training ranks?”

“No.”

“Have you spoken to anyone?”

“Er, this guy called Padrake.”

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“Trust Master Padrake to leave out information,” Elijah smiled. “He likes to talk, but rarely does he say anything useful. Novice, Apprentice, Mid-Realmer, High-Realmer and Arch-Realmer are the ranks.”

“God, everything is so odd here,” Brooke vented. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Yeah, it’s hard at the start, but you wait, you’ll love it here.”

“I doubt that.”

“How about I show you around a bit?” Elijah beamed. “I was heading to Ethanc’s anyway. You’ll need someone to show you where everything is. There are about two hundred chambers in the Fortress you need to watch out for.”

She stared at him with raised eyebrows.

“Oh you know,” he waved a hand airily, “rooms that transport you to other worlds, rooms that are living and breathing, or ones that trap you there until the Masters set you free.”

He walked on, beckoning her to follow.

Brooke faltered, unsure.

“C’mon,” Elijah urged.

She exhaled heavily, then shut her door and followed him.

*

“Phew.” Elijah wiped his head in-between explanations as they walked. “I’ll almost be glad when summer’s over.”

“Why isn’t it?” Brooke asked. It had been autumn at home.

“Oh, our seasons last nine months here.”

Elijah laughed at her expression.

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“Anyway, as I was saying, Veneseron Fortress is like a cross between a school and a training facility. I’ve been here years myself. All my family are Venators. For ages I thought I’d never be one. I had a weak aura and couldn’t do anything magical. Then a year ago I set Xavier’s hair on fire by accident. It was the happiest day of my life.”

“But why is this happening to me now?” Brooke asked, partly distracted by the beautiful tapestries and paintings on the walls, depicting landscapes where the sky was green and the grass black, or cities floating in the sky or underwater. Something Padrake had said about other worlds made Brooke uneasy.

“Didn’t Lanky Larry tell you anything?” Elijah said, exasperated. “Sorcery is dormant though, until you hit puberty. It’s rare for it to be triggered when you’re really young or an adult.”

Brooke observed Elijah as they walked, looking for some bizarre quality to his appearance like Arantay or Padrake had. Part of herself still told her this was all a mistake, she was a normal person, yet Elijah looked normal too. He wasn’t different to anyone else she’d met, apart from the fact he lived in another world full of sorcery, and that he could use magic of course.

Elijah carried on speaking. “Don’t worry if you haven’t actually performed sorcery yet. That’s why the Masters are here, they’ll teach you everything you need to know.”

“What if I don’t want to know?”

“Are you saying you don’t want to learn magic?” he asked in disbelief.

“Well, I guess…” she trailed off, shrugging.

Elijah blinked at her, nonplussed, his eyes like two golden coins. He shook his head and continued down the corridor. As they turned into another passageway Brooke was surprised to see it was flooded with teenagers, all of them chatting loudly

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as they made their way to and fro. Elijah took it in his stride, engaging many of them in conversation:

“Tristan, long time no see.”

“Hey Hazim, nice to see you got rid of that Orc acne.”

“Shakara, you're back. How was your mission? I heard you and Byron were helping the fae in their war with the harpies.”

The other teens greeted Elijah in turn, many of them staring at Brooke curiously.

“This is going to be worse than being the new girl at school, isn’t it?”

“Naa. We get new recruits all the time, more than ever recently. You’re the fifth this month. Besides, at school they don't teach you how to behead demons and ride dragons.”

Brooke watched as a large cluster of boys moved down the corridor, passing a larger group of girls as they turned the corner. “Just how many kids are there?”

“Oooh, quite a few,” Elijah said. “I believe there's seven hundred Novices right now. I’d guess a thousand Apprentices for sure, almost eight hundred Mid-Realmers, five hundred High-Realmers and three hundred Arch-Realmers.”

“How do you fit them all in?” she asked, amazed.

Elijah chuckled. “Well each