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

don’t serve the demons,” Evan blurted out. “You didn’t let the demons inside Veneseron, you’re not… the traitor, you can’t be.”

“Never judge a book by its cover,” Jed chuckled. “There’s much you have to learn, but don’t worry, my master will tell you everything. He’s a powerful Dread Lord, it’s best not to keep him waiting.”

Jed took a step forward but Evan instinctively raised Ruaden.

“C’mon now, Evan, you aren’t gonna kill your best mate, are you?”

Before Evan could reply Jed had snatched a dagger from his robe and attacked.

Evan was too slow. The dagger buried itself into his side, right up to the hilt.

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He stumbled back, Ruaden clattered to the floor. Evan saw a red stain growing larger and larger on his shirt. He fell onto his bed, his vision swimming. It felt like he’d been stung by a bee, not stabbed by his best friend.

His body was shutting down, blood was leaking all over the sheets.

Evan felt himself falling unconscious, or maybe he was dying. Jed stood over him, beaming eerily.

“Hush Evan, my master will want you alive.”

As he bent down to pull the dagger out, Jed’s body blurred at the edges. Abruptly he flickered into shadow and back again, before finally disappearing with a pop.

Evan bolted upright, the wound and his pain erased. Sintian chuckled from his seat in the corner of Evan’s room.

“Relax Umbra, it’s just an immensely powerful illusion, I knew I could do it,” he boasted.

“Wha…why the hell would you do that, you sicko?”

“Your little demon problem inspired me. I needed to see if my new spell would work. I’ve been practising especially. That ward spell on your door was pathetic by the way.”

Evan leaped off the bed. He was so angry; he’d been so terrified, traumatised. He threw a fireball, in that moment he wanted to hurt Sintian badly. Sintian evaded the fireball, however, and it smashed into Evan’s wall, obliterating the paintwork.

“Calm down, Umbra, can’t you take a joke?” Sintian spoke calmly, simultaneously attempting to create a cage of air around Evan.

But Evan’s rage fuelled him and he used his own air sorcery first, throwing and pinning Sintian against the door. Sintian’s calm wavered now.

“Okay Evan, I’m…”

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The door flew open and Evan ceased casting magic instantly. Sintian fell straight into Tarensen, who seized him by the collar.

“You think I wouldn’t have this room monitored after the first attack? Foolish child.”

“I’m no child,” Sintian snapped.

Tarensen ignored him, saying to Evan, “Apologies, Umbra. Sintian has behaved heinously. He’ll get the Uqari coils for a month for this.”

Evan didn’t know what to say, yet he saw fear in Sintian for the first time.

“No… you can’t. I’m sorry, Master, I…”

Tarensen hauled him into the hallway and out of sight.

The disruption had caused other Novices to come out of their rooms. Evan wandered out to meet them, still full of fury and shock.

“What the hell happened this time,” said Jed. The real Jed. Evan felt bizarre staring at him.

“The coils?” Brooke whispered.

“Bracelets that block your sorcery once locked on,” said Elijah, “the harshest punishment for a Venator.”

A myriad of faces looked to Evan. After he’d told them all what had happened, every face had whitened.

Jed was uncharacteristically lost for words. Eventually he said, “I’d never betray you to demons, dude. And I wouldn’t serve one either, they’re all pretty ugly. But man, your bedroom has seen a lot of action, hasn’t it mate?”

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Chapter 20- Twisted Youth

The forest was peaceful, trees whispering in the soft wind as Brooke hurried between them.

She gazed around wearily. Of course she wasn’t completely alone, several brownies scampered about whilst a gnome and a pixie chattered idly, but she was paranoid she would run into Falawn again.

Evan had looked a lot better at breakfast, but Brooke could tell he was still shaken up after Sintian’s cruel trick. She was glad Stray was being punished and sincerely hoped it wouldn’t make Evan’s paranoia worse.

Sunlight spilled in every direction as she entered the next glade, Brooke smiled as she saw him.

Arantay crouched in the distance, his hands clasped over something.

As Brooke emerged through the trees she crushed leaves underfoot, the sound was barely audible but Arantay's head snapped round, searching for the intruder in his enclosure; a white tiger defending his domain.

His eyes softened when he saw it was her.

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“You’re making a habit of visiting my home,” he said, amusement in his tone.

“I needed to talk to you about yesterday, about the demons. I also wanted…to see you.”

She watched as Arantay placed the four headed frog in the hollow of a tree.

“What are you doing?”

“Nursing him back to health,” Arantay replied, “He had a run in with an Ammit or a Chimera, I sucked the poison out, little fellow should be fine now.”

“So,” he stood up to face her, “what do you want to know?”

“Well the whole Fortress is buzzing about it. Everyone’s in shock, Tarensen’s furious and Evan’s acting weird. I don’t blame him, it must be awful what he’s going through. Evan said he and Cera would've died if it wasn’t for you-”

“Or worse,” Arantay interrupted, his mild amusement evaporated.

“Worse?”

“We discovered a name of one who, perhaps, is behind these attacks, but we don’t know his orders. They might have been to kill, or to take Evan into their own realms.

Evan would’ve suffered horrors worse than death if that'd happened.”

“But it didn’t, thanks to you.”

“I was merely in the right place at the right time. Any other Venator would have done the same.”

“But- weren’t you scared?”

“I’ve fought too many demons over the years. I feel anger and disgust more than fear.”

Brooke was about to speak again but Arantay asked, “You wanted to see me, why?”

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She felt herself blushing. “I…I was just wondering whether we’re training tonight.” She glanced up at the sky instinctively.

Lancinations of light streamed down from the twin suns into the clearing, highlighting Arantay’s face, the only skin visible, wrought intricately by his dark veins.

“Because,” she continued, “I don’t care how the sun makes you look. I don’t care that you're half elf, or half vampire, a mixture of both or neither. I don’t care what you are, all I know is…”

She hesitated, not wanting to say anything stupid. She wasn’t in love with him. No, she didn’t know him well enough yet, besides, she’d never been in love and didn’t know how it felt. There was lust there, definitely, and the strongest attraction she’d ever felt for anyone else before. He was the most beautiful creature she'd ever seen, but it wasn’t just his looks, he was so kind, but also mysterious, she yearned to learn more.

“All I know is, I really enjoy training with you and don’t want it to stop just because you think you’ll scare me away,” she finished breathlessly.

He stared at her curiously, and then he was in front of her, moving faster than she could follow. Brooke’s body surged with magnetic emotion as he stood so close.

“You mean that?”

“Yes,” she said instantly.

Her breath came in sharp as Arantay lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it gently.

The feel of his lips against her skin was electric, the feeling spread up her whole arm, flooding through her.

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He let go of her hand and looked up at her. Their eyes met, his sparkling pools of liquid ruby looking deep into her own amber. She felt herself leaning in before she knew what she was doing.

A colossal shadow suddenly enveloped the clearing, accompanied by the deafening beating of vast wings.

Both of them looked away from each other and upwards.

Brooke reeled back, then realised what it was.

Arantay’s dragon hovered above them. As magnificent as his master, the dragon was a spectacle to behold.

Brooke had seen it once before, and seen others in the city, but up close it blew her mind all over again.

The enormous beast descended, filling every inch of the clearing. With scintillating scales, terrific talons, gleaming teeth and lambent yellow eyes the dragon inspired awe.

“Thank you for what you said,” Arantay repeated, “but I’m afraid I cannot leave the forest. Tarensen has bid me to guard it against any future attacks,” remorse filled his voice. “I cannot leave here until the danger has passed.”

“Oh,” disappointment flooded through her, “okay, I understand.”

Arantay mounted his dragon fluidly.

“We fly above the trees, scouring the forest in case they return,” he explained, stroking the dragon lovingly.

“Did you order him to you?” she asked, wondering how the dragon had known to find his master.

“No.” Arantay smiled. “No one orders Daggenite to do anything.”

They rose steadily; Daggenite’s serrated wings ripping through the air.

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Brooke watched them go, the two ultimate predators, as one with the enchanted forest as they were to one another.

She was filled with a sense of longing, wondering when she would see Arantay again.

*

As Brooke walked back through the forest, she found herself in an area she'd never been before. Here the dense undergrowth writhed with a dozen narrow ravines.

Veneseron forest had to be as big as the Boreal forest in Canada she'd visited once.

Everyone knew it was inhabited by thousands of creatures and was easy to get lost in.

In Archives they were told how the fairies would lead you back to the Fortress if you asked. Gettelung warned them to beware the Wisps though, as they’d lead you only deeper into the woods. If a Venator did go missing in the forest, Brooke expected the Masters could track them down easily enough.

Brooke didn't have Illusion for another hour so she decided to follow the water, just for a little bit. She'd heard about water-wyverns that supposedly lived here and wanted to get a glimpse of them.

She didn’t encounter many creatures this time, apart from the cheeky-looking gnome giggling at her from atop a giant mushroom. As their eyes met the gnome blew a raspberry at her.

The streams soon converged and widened into a river which flowed into a bright green pond, set in a grove of lilac trees.

What she saw in the pond, however, surprised Brooke more than any mystical animal could have.

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Lok sat on a rock wearing only breeches and the boots he was lacing up, his bare torso dripping.

“Hey?”

Lok's head snapped round at her voice, he tensed before realising who it was.

“You hang out here too?” she asked, walking along the ponds edge.

“Course. It's noisy everywhere else. This is the only quiet place.”

“I wouldn't have thought you liked the quiet.”

Lok shrugged, the familiar cheeky smile unfurling across his face. “Maybe it's just the skinny dipping I like then.”

“You swim here, naked?”

“Yeah, the naiads love checking me out, just like you are now.”

Indeed, she hadn't failed to notice his body. He wasn't particularly muscular, but incredibly toned, with barely an ounce of fat on him. His skin appeared more