Catalyst (Book 1) (10 page)

“Hellsfire!” Master Stradus rushed to me. “Are you all right?”

I shook my head. My sweat poured to the ground, and I gasped for air.

“How nice to see you after all these years, Wizard,”
the maleika said, glaring at my master with its one eye.

“You?”
Master Stradus said.
“I remember you. I owe you.”

“You owe me?”
it said.
“You owe me? It’s
I
that owes you. I have only one eye thanks to you. Time hasn’t been kind to you, old man. Remember what happened last time? Let’s see how well your pupil fares now.”
The air in the room thickened as the maleika gathered in power.

“No!” Master Stradus said. He conjured a gust of air, pushing the maleika back towards the wall and keeping it in an invisible cage of air. It fought against the cage, unleashing wisps of power at it. “Hellsfire, finish the ritual quickly. This is no ordinary maleika. Drink the potion and say the words while I hold it back. You must use a great deal of energy on this one. No matter how strong it is and how hard it fights, it’s still a maleika. You summoned it here, and it must obey the rules of magic.”

Master Stradus struggled against the maleika. He used his staff to focus his power. The inside of the globe swirled. Dark blue, spinning round and round.

“Do it quickly!”

I mustered what reserves of strength I had left. I forced the potion down, focusing on all the parts of mana I used to summon the creature. What was left of my fire blazed, heightening the spell. My body swayed, and stars appeared in front of my eyes. The room spun. I couldn't tell if it was because of what I saw, or my master's spell. The maleika resisted my mana, but Master Stradus kept it occupied. I cried out,
“Maleika, I summoned thee and now I banish thee. Go back where you belong!”

A bright hole tore into this world. It laughed as its transparent body began to fade.
“It’s not over yet, Wizard. I’ll have my revenge.”
Master Stradus roared and sent a whirlwind of lightning at it.
The maleika's ghostly face smirked at Master Stradus before it dissolved like fog on a summer morning’s day.

Master Stradus came over to me and put a hand on my shoulder. “Are you all right, Hellsfire?”

“I-I don’t feel so good…Master.”

The pain flared into my head and sides. I shivered and wrapped my arms across my body. My stomach growled until it erupted and I spewed up my dinner, heaving all over the floor. The fire within me disappeared, replaced by coldness. Chills overtook me, and I curled into a ball, unable to stop shivering.

Master Stradus bent down and turned me over. He placed his warm hands over my forehead and chest. His pupils became white, and his hands glowed, filling with the power of white mana. The warmth melted into me until I stopped shaking and tasting my own vomit.

“Thank you,” I whispered. I closed my eyes.

“Don't sleep. Not yet.” Master Stradus extended his magical senses. Magical needles pricked me. “That damned thing. It put a curse on you. You’ll live, but we must hurry before the spell gets worse. Let’s go to my garden.”

Master Stradus helped me up. I wiped drool and vomit off my face with the sleeve of my tunic. We made our way to the garden, me using Master Stradus as a crutch. He gave me his staff while he prepared a potion to counteract the maleika's spell. I leaned on the staff, using its power to help stabilize me.

“Master…how did you know-w-w that ma-ma-maleika?” My teeth chattered and I couldn’t stop them.

Master Stradus looked up and away. When he didn't move or say anything for several long moments, I let the subject drop. I had pressured him before when I asked to do the ritual, and he got angry with me. Considering the line I had crossed by doing it anyway, I had no right to expect him to talk about it again.

His voice was quiet, but his words had the weight of a storm. “I'm only going to tell you this once, Hellsfire, and not because I want to, but because I must. You need to learn that when I tell you not to do something, you must not do it.”

I opened my chattering mouth to say something, but it was as if he read my mind.

“I know being here is very hard for you. I know you've left your loved ones and you sometimes feel trapped in this place. I understand that and know what it's like to be away from them. But unlike me, you weren't dragged away and forced to become a wizard.”

I stared at him and raised an eyebrow.

“But that's a story for a different time and not one I'm going to tell you now.”

His voice got quiet and small. “In my arrogance, before the Great Barrier, I thought I was skilled enough to take an apprentice even though my training wasn’t technically complete. Tara said she always wanted to be a witch, and she wanted to protect her mother in case the war came to them. Against my better judgment, I decided to teach her what little I could before I left for the war. What harm could there be in teaching someone basic magic?” Master Stradus sighed. “I was a fool.

“I suppose the real reason was that Tara looked up to me. I didn’t want to let her down. She was much younger than you are now—about ten or eleven—with beautiful blond hair. She often came to see me, constantly smiling and asking questions. She was like an annoying little sister, but I sensed there was a great power in her waiting to be released.” He created a flame and boiled the pieces of a plant in a liquid over the fire.

“What…happened…to her?” I looked with fascination at my now-pale hands.

“Don’t worry, my boy, I’m almost done. As I was saying, I had her perform the same ritual you did just now. It went quite well, but in the back of my mind, I sensed something wasn’t completely right. I should have listened to myself.” Master Stradus picked up the bowl and said,
“Oh spirits, please alleviate the curse that was put upon the boy. Bless this potion.
Here, drink this.”

The potion was warm and sweet, and I guzzled it. It was far better than the potion I had drunk earlier to summon that one-eyed freak. It took a few moments, but I stopped shaking, my body warmed up, and my stomach and head stopped swirling. I smiled and took a deep breath, watching the goose bumps disappear from my arms.

“Thank you, Master.”

“I’m just glad you’re better,” he said. “If that maleika had had more time it would have done worse.” Master Stradus sighed. “I suppose I should get back to my story.”

I handed his staff back to him and said, “You don’t have to.”

He grabbed it with a shaky hand. “No. I want to. I should.” He gazed into the distance. “After the ritual, we ate and went to sleep. During the night, the maleika attacked me, draining me of my life force and taking my magic. It was much stronger than any maleika I had encountered before. I was able to get that cursed thing off but I couldn't banish it.” His voice became hoarse and his face tightened. “As I should have.

“I told Tara to run for cover while I worked on a stronger spell. But she was too stubborn. She thought we’d be able to finish it off together. The thing was too quick, and smothered her head.”

Just as it had done to me. I shivered. I had a feeling this story wasn’t going to end as well as mine.

“I was afraid to attack it while it was on her, so I tried to finish the ritual again.” Master Stradus's focus rested on me, his blue eyes piercing me. “If something goes wrong, retrace your steps, use your strongest mana, and finish the spell again.”

I nodded.

“Good. I said the banishing words, pouring all my strength into them, and it loosened its grip. I used the rest of my strength to summon a holy lightning bolt, nailing it right in the eye. The maleika howled and howled until it vanished. I hoped it had died when it went back to the Netherrealm, but I was never sure.” Master Stradus was quiet for a few moments. He stroked the globe on his staff, staring off into the distance. I could see the muscles in his jaw working as he tried to contain his feelings.

“I rushed over to Tara to check if she was still” —he paused and swallowed— “alive. She looked one last time into my eyes, and then she was gone. I tried desperately to heal her with my magic. I had none left.”

Master Stradus’s cloudy eyes were heavy with regret and remembrance. I now understood why he was so hard on me in lessons, and why he got upset when I tried to undo his web. He didn't want anything to happen to me. I was a fool to keep disobeying him. I had needed a reminder that magic, no matter how simple it may seem, was a great responsibility and should be taken seriously. No matter how badly I wanted to see my mother and how much I missed her, she would be disappointed to know the risk I took to do it.

“After I buried Tara,” he continued, “I became so enraged that I summoned maleika after maleika, trying to find the one that killed her. I never found it. The other maleika either couldn’t, or wouldn’t, tell me what I needed to know. I…lost my temper and killed dozens of innocent maleika. It wasn’t their fault she was dead. It was mine.” The globe on top of Master Stradus's staff darkened. His hands reddened as he tightened his grip. I watched as the globe swirled and his power continued to build. The air around us became heavy and violent.

Master Stradus took a deep breath. His power dissipated as he calmed himself. “I continued to summon one every year on the anniversary of her death in hopes I’d be lucky. I never saw it again until now.”

Master Stradus's blue eyes focused on me again, and his voice became firm. “While you're in this mountain and under my tutelage, I expect you to do everything I say. It's not because I enjoy telling you what to do. Magic is very dangerous, Hellsfire. Even if you think you're doing everything right, things can still go wrong.”

“But I wanted to see my mother.” I bit my lip and looked down in shame when I saw how exasperated he looked. “I'm sorry. You're right. I shouldn't have performed the ritual after you said no.”

“Quite right.” His eyes softened. “I was terrified when I saw the same maleika doing the same thing it did so many years ago.” He placed his hand on my shoulder. “I'm glad to see you're all right now, my boy.”

I nodded. “Me too.” I couldn't resist the impulse to hug him, burying myself in his sky blue robes.

Master Stradus's muscles tightened in surprise. He relaxed and returned the hug. We embraced for several long moments before he broke it. He cleared his throat. “I don't want you to do anything like that again, Hellsfire.”

“I won't.”

“I'm serious.”

Our eyes met, and I said, “So am I.”

“Good. Now, all things considered, you did a good job.”

“I did?”

“Yes. You successfully summoned a maleika. If it hadn’t been that one, things might have gone better. I promise you, you'll get to summon more to check on your mother and those you care about.”

“Thank you, Master.”

“Now go to bed. It's late.”

I yawned and put a hand to my mouth. I left him and walked to the door. “Good night, Master.”

“Good night, Hellsfire. One last thing.”

I stopped and turned to face him, holding the door open. “Yes?”

“Sleep well while you can. Tomorrow, you have to get up early and sweep the entire cave.”

----

Before that day, I never knew Master Stradus had a pupil before me, but I suppose it was natural. He had lived for a millennium, or close to it, and I never fully realized all the things he must have gone through. He must have had some great adventures, yet he also must have witnessed many tragic events.

Coming to the White Mountain, I had thought I was only going to learn to control my powers so I wouldn't hurt anyone again. But as I mastered it, I found I enjoyed using my gift of magic. I no longer thought of it as a curse.

I understood the basics of magic and what it could do, but I had never thought of the pain it could bring. Not just in hurting someone, but in
not
being able to do something. Master Stradus's lesson taught me that. No matter how much power I had, it might not be enough. I might also live longer than those I cared about, powerless to do anything except watch them grow old and die. Being a wizard was a far grander undertaking than I originally thought, but also far more daunting. And there was still that prophecy about me, which he never gave me any more details about.