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

some other monstrous amalgamation. Padrake’s training illusions training couldn’t prepare her for this. This was a real demon! A dark green monster pinning her unconscious neighbour to the ground with two sharp pincers. Brooke watched horrified as the pincers sank deep into his back and the disgusting creature leered over his head. Its sucker of a mouth hovered over the boy, ready to feast.

Abruptly the fear that froze her shattered, the demon was going to kill him.

Before she knew exactly how she'd done it, a lightning bolt stormed from her hands. It hit the monster with a crack that sent it rolling down the corridor.

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Before Brooke could reach her neighbour, the demon returned, rearing up on six legs. Screaming, she sent another bolt at the beast. The demon was flung backwards, hitting the wall at the end of the hallway before sliding to the floor.

Brooke hurried over to the unconscious boy, sure he was dead. She placed her hands on his back, wracking her brain for all Taretta had told her.

In her mind’s eye she pictured the inside of his body, became one with it. She set to healing the dreadful wound in his back and found a festering one on his leg. She felt her sorcery draining rapidly as she worked. Her hands trembled from the effort and, bizarrely, the veins in her left forearm turned black.

Finally, his wounds were healed and Brooke slumped over, exhausted.

He burst awake, gulping as if he’d been underwater.

“Hey, I’m Brooke. Are you okay?” That was a stupid question, of course he wasn’t.

He stared at her for a second, “Uh, I’m Evan,” he rasped. He continued to look at her incredulously until his head snapped back to the demon, which was rising yet again.

Evan leapt to his feet even as the demon screeched and hurtled towards them.

Brooke’s magic was depleted, she’d used it all healing. They were going to die, they were…

Green fire burst from Evan’s hands, a torrent so powerful it filled the corridor and consumed the demon. Within moments, the monster was nothing more than ash.

Brooke looked at Evan in disbelief. His power over the fire element was astonishing.

He met her stare, looking stunned himself at what he'd done.

“Nice to meet you,” he stammered.

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*

Several loud bangs erupted around them as other Novices, awoken by the uproar, came streaming from their rooms.

“What the hell happened?” Jed asked in panic.

“Ushk, was it a demon?” Blake yelled.

Before Evan could answer, Tarensen burst into view, accompanied by a wheezing Gettelung.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Gettelung gasped. “We thought we sensed a demon’s aura.”

“There was a demon here you fool.” Tarensen took one look at the ashes by their feet Evan and Brooke’s feet, before ordering, “with me, now.”

He and Brooke hurried after the master, leaving the other stunned Novices by their doors as Gettelung attempted to calm them down. A lump of nausea had formed in Evan’s throat and anxiety bubbled in his stomach.

So this is my neighbour. He couldn’t help staring at the girl who’d saved his life.

She looked more athletic than he was, with big amber eyes that stared at him curiously. She looked half Hispanic, her dark gold skin contrasting with his own pasty complexion.

He managed to form a timid smile which probably closer resembled a grimace.

He’d always been intensely nervous around girls, plus he was shivering violently, no doubt a side-effect of his fire spell.

Tarensen didn’t speak until they entered his quarters, where he asked them both,

“Are you hurt? Do you need to go to our Infirmary?”

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Evan looked down at himself. Through all the confusion he hadn’t realised he’d been healed.

“Evan was, but I healed him, sir,” said Brooke hesitantly.

Tarensen glanced at her, then double-took as Brooke sat down. “Gods, in this light you're almost the spitting image of Luis Herak.”

“Who?”

“A legendary Realmer long ago, but it's irrelevant, my apologies.” Tarensen moved on. “Back to the demon, what happened to it?”

“I-I…” Evan gasped. He turned to Brooke, remembering how serious his wounds had been.

“You- you saved me. Thank you.”

Brooke nodded, blushing. “You saved me too. You’re the one who killed…”

“You killed the demon, by yourself?” Tarensen cut in.

“Yeah. After I healed Evan, he cast the most powerful fire spell I’ve seen.”

Evan still couldn’t believe what he’d done himself.

“It seems you have an aptitude for fire magic, Umbra,” said Tarensen. Evan thought he almost sounded impressed.

Tarensen turned to Brooke, “And you for healing. No Novice has been able to heal a demon wound before.”

Brooke blushed a shade deeper.

“Explain,” Tarensen’s tone turned brisk again. “Veneseron is enchanted against demons entering this realm. Where did it come from?”

“It…it was in my room.”

Tarensen’s eyes flashed murderously. “Why,” he whispered to himself, “why would they send a demon just to kill you?”

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“They?” Evan asked. Someone wanted me dead! Cold dread enveloped him.

“It could have been a rogue, but I think not,” Tarensen continued, then he stared hard at Evan. “Both Dark-Venators and demon Dread Lords recruit lesser demons to serve them, but I don’t know why either force would send a minion after you.”

Evan just looked at Tarensen in confusion.

“I saved you from another demon when we first met, remember?”

As if I could forget something like that!

“At the time I thought it was a servant of Velkarath hoping to recruit you.

Velkarath was created in parody of Veneseron, home to the Dark-Venators. But they shouldn’t be a worry to you this early in your training. Of course, you’re not the first person Velkarath has attempted to capture. Many Dark-Venators were children like you, before being discovered and corrupted. But this is the first case a demon has entered Veneseron to kill or capture one of our own…”

Brooke asked, “So, instead of Veneseron finding us, these other people could have?”

“Yes, and if that had happened you’d either be dead, or one of them,” said Tarensen grimly.

Evan shuddered. He thought back to the first demon he’d seen. He was sure Sellatur had meant to kill him. He couldn’t begin to imagine these Dark-Venators and their Velkarath.

“Why would they single you out?” Tarensen asked aloud, peering at Evan, as if he could provide an answer.

“Perhaps it was a mistake,” he suggested weakly.

“How did the monster get in?” Tarensen resumed talking to himself. “Unless it serves a terribly powerful Dread Lord, or the Masters of Velkarath have finally found

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a way… No! I suspect it had help from the inside, which is the only way our enchantments could've been broken. Someone within Veneseron is to blame.”

Both Evan and Brooke paled at this.

“I must contact Vanderain,” Tarensen muttered.

“Who’s Vanderain?” Brooke whispered to him.

“The master of all Veneseron. He created this world, and he’s lived forever or something,” Evan whispered back.

Brooke’s eyes widened. “How can you live forever?”

Tarensen ceased his muttering and looked at the two of them again.

“I suspect you both drained yourselves of magic, you’ll awake tomorrow feeling lethargic and weak. It’ll probably last all day. As you continue to train this ailment will affect you less. But as you grow more powerful so will the spells you wield. Your body will let you know if you’re using too much. Sometimes it‘s unavoidable. Three Arch-Realmers recently had the flu for a week after wielding copious amounts of magic to defeat a Dread Lord.”

“Great,” Brooke muttered. “I can’t wait to feel like death tomorrow, I already feel dizzy from my healing spell.”

“As I mentioned,” said Tarensen, “no Novice has been able to cure a demon wound.” He turned to Evan. “Nor has a Novice ever been able to kill a demon before.”

He looked at them both appreciatively. “You may go.”

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Chapter 10- Screaming Blue Murder

The sky was a blanket of darkness, stitched with stars and swaddling the moons.

The azure, emerald and magenta orbs sat serenely amongst their starry fellows, regarding the two newest Venators as they walked through the stronghold.

Evan hadn’t been outside the castles at night before. Not only were several statues walking around with torches in their hands, the bright green river that snaked through the fields was luminous.

“A glow-in-the-dark river. Magic is insane,” Brooke murmured.

His head was filled with horrible images of the demon. Worry gnawed at him as he mulled over what Tarensen said. Dark-Venators! Dread Lords! And either, or both, could be hunting me!

“Thanks again,” he mumbled.

“I think I’m still in shock, it just doesn’t seem possible does it?”

Her question may have been rhetorical, but Evan answered anyway. “Nothing has since I saw my first demon. But I guess anything is possible here.”

“What if it happens again, what if more demons manage to get inside Veneseron?”

Evan stared up at the sky, thinking of an answer. At night, the sky was invaded by ever-changing constellations. Scarlet and sapphire stars had formed into an axe wielding warrior beheading a cyclops, the one yellow star as the monster’s eye, three red stars as drops of blood.

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He shrugged. “Hopefully this one just got lucky. The Masters will be on the lookout now.” Evan realised his words were to convince himself more than Brooke.

He was the one they, whoever they were, wanted after all.

What did I do?

Is it something to do with my past, my parents? He didn’t know anything about them, and nor did he want too. When he was younger he’d been curious. When Gran had finally given into his pestering and told him the truth however, he realized he was better off without them.

Evan remembered the day vividly. He'd just been beaten up by the group of bullies who’d haunted him when he lived in the countryside with Gran. As the group had lain into him that particular day, Evan had wished so hard for a big brother to come to his rescue, or better still a father who would’ve always been there to look out for him.

He'd staggered home and pleaded with Gran to tell him the truth, but discovered it wasn’t one he wanted to hear. Gran told him she’d found Evan not far from her home.

She’d been walking in the New Forest when she spotted a baby underneath an oak tree. Gran said there wasn’t even a blanket. He was just a newborn, she couldn’t believe it. Another few hours and he would've died.

He pushed the memory away. Gran had been his one and only parent, and he wanted nothing to do with the ‘parents’ that had abandoned him in a forest.

Silence hung between them on the rest of their walk, until they reached the corridor to their rooms and Elijah and Jed hurried forwards.

“Are you hurt?” Elijah yelled at Brooke as Jed simultaneously shouted, “Crikey mate, what was that?”

“Settle down now, settle down.” Gettelung addressed the Venators clamouring in the corridor.

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Izekiel and Xavier were milling around one of the windows, apprehensively watching