Hunt of the Bandham (The Bowl of Souls: Book Three) (31 page)

“But can’t you do the same thing without a blade?” Justan asked. “And from farther away?”

“Don’t be so unimaginative, Edge.” Master Coal looked perturbed. “How far have you seen a spiritual bond stretch? With a dagger connected to you by spirit magic, you don’t have to be close to it. You could be two days ride from here and I could still attack you with a spell if you touched my dagger.”

“Why hasn’t anyone told me of this?” Justan asked in frustration.

“It isn’t something that the
Mage
School
tells students about. They have enough people clamoring to get in to the Bowl of Souls as it is. They don’t need extra incentive. Besides, it gives us an advantage in tight situations if our enemies don’t know we have that particular trick available,” the wizard explained. “As for you, I think that your naming caught everyone off guard and you left so quickly that no one had the chance to tell you about it.”

“I see . . . but wait, you said there is one more. What is the other bond I have?”

“Well, I would have mentioned it to you days ago, but I had been waiting for you to bring it up. It has to do with that rune on your chest,” the wizard said pointing in a slightly accusing manner.

Justan’s hand went up to the mysterious scar on his chest that after over a year was still encrusted in frost. He could feel the coldness of it through the fabric of his shirt. “Really?”

“Sorry to bring it up that way,” Coal said, looking a bit embarrassed. “I saw it while I was healing you when they first brought you here. I ask you every day if you have any questions for me hoping that you would bring it up, but you never mention it. Since you have been so secretive, I figured that it is something quite private to you. I understand if you don’t wish to speak of it and if you wish, I will not bring it up again, but I must admit I am quite curious.”

“Oh . . . I haven’t been avoiding talking to you about it. It’s just that I have Professor Locksher at the Mage School looking into it for me and I . . . guess that I didn’t think you could help.” In actuality, he had thought to bring it up on occasion. But there had always been something more pressing on his mind. “Besides, the frost rune is just . . . there. It does nothing. Sometimes I don’t think about it for weeks at a time.”

“It does nothing?” The wizard seemed quite surprised. “Surely . . . Tell me, Edge. How did you get this rune?”

Justan relayed the story of his encounter with the Scralag. The creature’s frightening appearance still gave him shivers. He couldn’t forget its beady eyes and mouthful of sharp curving teeth . . . “The symbol has been there ever since. No one can tell me what it is for.”

“And this creature that you met, the Scralag? Did you ever find out what it is?”

“Well, Professor Locksher called it a frost elemental. Supposedly the book it gave me might help decipher what the rune is supposed to mean. He was off in another country looking into it for me the last I heard. I wonder if he found anything . . .”

“Edge, you don’t understand. The bond tying you to that rune isn’t like the bond to your bow or your dagger. It’s hard to explain but this bond is every bit as solid and strong as your bonds with Fist and Gwyrtha, which means that what ever is hidden within that rune is alive. If it’s just a marking or a message or a spell, it is unlike anything I have ever seen.”

“You mean . . .” Justan’s mind reeled. “You mean, the Scralag put some . . . living thing inside me?”

Justan withdrew his fingers from the frosted rune on his chest. The idea that the hideous creature had bonded something to his magic was frightening. How could he have been living with something like this so long, sleeping with it even, and not known it was there?

“Whatever is inside the scar is a living thing to be sure,” Master Coal replied. “It’s also your first true bonded I’m afraid.”

“My first bonded?” Justan frowned. He didn’t like the Scralag taking that position. The status of first bonded had always belonged to Gwyrtha in his heart.

He tried to feel at the scar through the bond, but it was like nothing was there. “How could that be? It does not feel like a . . . being. The scar doesn’t communicate with me. It just . . . sits there.”

“And yet the bond is real,” Master Coal said with certainty.

“But it didn’t feel like a bonding when it touched me. I didn’t feel the pain in my head. It was just like a scary dream,” Justan pressed.

“Awakenings are sometimes that way, Edge.”

“Well this-. Wait. Awakening?” Justan asked, struggling to keep track of all the new information. As sometimes happened with Master Coal, the knowledge came fast and it was easy to feel overwhelmed. He needed to start taking notes.

“When a wizard first begins to show his power, he can’t control it. Since he doesn’t know what is or isn’t possible, strange things can happen. That is what we call an ‘awakening’,” Master Coal explained. “Some set their houses on fire. Some heal people and don’t know how they did it. Some do incredible things that can’t be explained or replicated. Myself for instance . . . my awakening was quite strange.

“When I was twelve, I stole a pie from my neighbor’s windowsill. I had quite the child’s crush on her back then. Polla, her name was. She was very lovely and made the most delicious desserts. The children in our town used to be able to smell her cookies from a mile away. Delicious, oh even thinking about them still makes my mouth water.” Coal smiled and leaned back in his chair as he spoke, the memory fresh in his mind.

“This particular pie smelled heavenly. It was a tartberry pie, which unbeknownst to me was her husband’s favorite recipe. I remember how hot it was in my hands, almost uncomfortably so. Her husband saw me sneaking off with it and started yelling. He was a large, strong man and the look in his eyes was frightening. I dropped the pie and ran as quickly as I could. The pie was ruined and that made him even more furious. He chased after me and I could hear him gaining. He was fast and I was a gawky twelve-year-old. There was no way I could escape.

“At one point I remember his fingers brushing my back and at that moment I wanted more than anything to be able to fly away. The next thing I knew, I was on the roof of my house, with no idea how I had gotten there. Did I create a portal? Did I fly? I still don’t know. I have never been able to replicate it with any magical spell. It drives me mad just thinking about it sometimes, but there you have it. My neighbor told the local authorities what I had done and a week later
Mage
School
representatives were on my doorstep.”

“Awakening . . .” Justan sat back in amazement. Another lingering mystery was solved in his mind. “That may explain how I was able to pull energy from the crowd during the tests at the
Battle
Academy
. But . . . how could I have done what I did even with bonding magic? And Valtrek saw it. He said he could see me pulling energy from the crowd. He can’t see spiritual magic so I had to have been using a mix of elemental magic and spiritual magic at the same time. Is that even possible?”

“Yes, of course it is. I have never seen it done the way you describe, but we mix the two magics together all the time. You did it yourself with Fist, using spiritual magic as a tunnel to bring your elemental magic through the bond. In fact, that is how I am going to teach you to use your magic to heal your bonded,” Master Coal said with a twinkle in his eye. He stood from his chair. “And that brings us to what your lesson will be on today. Come, take a walk with me, Edge.”

It took Justan a moment to catch up to what Master Coal had said. He stood and followed the wizard half way to the door before the grin hit his face. He stopped in his tracks.

“Really? You can teach me to heal them?”

“Yes. Don’t dawdle now. We are a bit late as it is. Qyxal is probably already waiting for us.” The master headed out the door.

Justan caught up to him on the garden path. “Where are we going?”

“The infirmary. With your offensive limitations, you cannot do the ideal thing, which is practice on outsiders first. You are simply going to have to watch as Qyxal and I heal. Pay close attention to the ways in which we use magic to effect different changes upon the body.

“Of course, sir,” Justan said, eager to learn. Lately he had been feeling like the benefits of the bond were weighted too heavily in his favor. Now there was a way that he could be truly useful to his bonded.

The infirmary was on the far side of the lodge against the wall of the keep. It was a many-windowed long wooden structure that had been painted a bright white. With as many laborers as Master Coal employed, there were bound to be injuries from time to time. He took care of any ill or wounded people from the farms in the area, so the place always had a few patients in it.

Qyxal was waiting outside the building when they arrived.

“Why is it that every infirmary I see is painted white?” Justan asked the elf as they approached the building.

Master Coal laughed. “It looks cleaner that way, Edge. Patients feel better in a clean environment.”

 Qyxal added, “Besides, it’s easier for us to know when it’s clean. Any dirt or blood stands out.”

They entered the infirmary and Master Coal started by explaining how each magic element interacted with different parts of the body’s chemistry. Justan had learned all of this in his classes at the
Mage
School
, but hearing it again with the new perspective he had with the bond was quite interesting.

There were three men that had been injured in the fields that day waiting for treatment and another man that had been ill for some time. Coal had Justan watch with his mage sight as he and Qyxal healed the men, paying close attention to the intricate movements of the elements.

The three wounded men were ready to leave in short order and would be back at work the next morning. The sick man was a different story. He was a laborer from a farm on the edge of the community who had eaten some contaminated food and contracted parasites. Master Coal used a form of the magnifying technique that Master Latva had shown Justan his first day at the
Mage
School
and created a floating image above the man to show Justan the little creatures in the man’s digestive system. They were like tiny worms latched on to the insides of his intestines by their teeth. Master Coal was waiting for an herbal medicine to come in for the man that would help flush them out of his system.

“Why can’t you just go in with your mage sight and use small amounts of fire to kill each one individually?” Justan asked.

“They are too small, Edge,” Qyxal explained. “Tiny injuries can be repaired if you stimulate the tissues in the general area, but to kill individual parasites, you would have to be able to see them much more clearly than is possible by using regular healing magic. If you tried to do it anyway, there is a large risk that you could miss or overdo it and burn the inside of the patient.”

 “But when I am looking into Fist or Gwyrtha through the bond, I can see even the tiniest things very clearly,” Justan said.

“That is an advantage of the bond,” Master Coal explained. “If Samson or Bettie had these parasites, there are any number of techniques I could use to get rid of them. But while examining a patient from the outside you can not get as clear a picture. Now there are several healers at the
Mage
School
much more talented than Qyxal and I that could do it, but in this case, we have to use more traditional methods.”

Justan thought back to the floating vision that Master Coal had given him when showing the parasites. “I could see them quite clearly with the technique you just used.”

“It takes a lot of concentration to bring up that image,” Master Coal said. “It would not be possible for me to do that and use healing techniques at the same time.”

“So what if you brought the vision up for Qyxal and had him use it to pinpoint the parasites precisely with his magic?” Justan asked. Qyxal and Master Coal looked at each other and the wizard shook his head in astonishment. Justan saw the look and figured they must be getting frustrated at his questions. “Sorry, I am just trying to learn and I tend to think out loud at times like these.”

“No, Edge, it isn’t that,” Master Coal said with a chuckle. “You are asking a very apt question. Honestly, I don’t know why we hadn’t thought of trying that.”

“It could work,” Qyxal added, giving Justan an approving nod. “But it would take some time.”