The Master's Chair (The Chronicles of Terah) (38 page)

“If you wish. I can’t do this often though. It takes a lot of concentration to hold a visual image. In the meantime, I’ll always be close by,” Yvonne said as she stood up and reached for her son’s hand.

Kevin cupped his hands around hers. “I’d like to spend some time with you, talking to you. I’d like to get to know you. Have you always been nearby? Why haven’t you ever come to me before?”

“A spirit is confined to the world where the body died. I thought about having Badec transport me to Earth right before I died so I could watch over your childhood, but to be honest, I thought you might need me more once you returned to Terah, so I stayed here. I hope I made the right choice.” Yvonne’s aura was beginning to fade.

“You did. I need you here. I made it through childhood just fine,” Kevin said.  “You’re starting to fade. Does that mean that you have to go now?”

“Yes, son. I’ve held this image for about as long as I can. Take care,” Yvonne said as the shimmering light closed around her, dimmed, and then vanished from the room.

~ ~ ~ ~

Thursday morning Chris was waiting for the coffee to perk when Kevin walked into the kitchen. He looked ten years younger than he had at dinner the night before. There was a sparkle in his eyes and a spring in his step. Chris nodded and said, “You’re in a good mood this morning. Anything happen with the stone or candle?”

“No, not yet,” Kevin answered as he cut a large slice of bread and began spreading strawberry preserves on it. “I just slept better last night than I have in quite some time.”

“Your good mood wouldn’t have anything to do with your visitor last night would it?” Chris said with a grin.

Kevin didn’t answer immediately. He leaned against the table, eating his bread and thinking. He decided that he might as well tell Chris. “How much do you know?”

“Not much. I just know that when I went to my room last night there was a faint glow under your door and a very feminine voice coming from inside.”

“Chris, I’m going to tell you what happened, but I’m not sure that I’m going to tell the others just yet, so keep this between us for now, okay?”

“Sure.”

“Yvonne came to see me last night.”

“Yvonne?” Chris asked. “As in your mother?”

Kevin nodded. “We had a good talk. Unfortunately, she couldn’t stay very long. There are a lot of questions I would like to ask her.”

“I thought your mother was dead,” Chris said slowly.

“She is. When I said that she came, I meant her spirit.”

Chris stopped slicing the bread he was fixing for his breakfast, turned, and stared at Kevin. Finally he asked, “What did she look like? Was it like a ghost?”

“Kind of. There was a sort of glow around her, but she didn’t float or anything, and I couldn’t see through her like they show in the movies. She was standing when she first appeared, and then again right before she vanished, but most of the time she sat on the chair at my desk. We talked, just as if she had been … I don’t know … human I guess. It was just like talking to you.”

“Did she say anything that I need to know about?” Chris asked. He was curious, but he didn’t want to pry. He poured a large mug of coffee for each of them and handed Kevin’s to him.

“Actually there are a couple of things you’d be interested in. One, Badec had been trying to get the council to take a stand against slavery before he got sick,” Kevin said, and then he took a long, slow swallow of coffee.

“Darrell would love to hear that. So would the others.”

“I know. We’ll tell them later, but I’m not ready to share this with everyone yet. The other thing she told me is that she’s pretty sure Badec’s coma did not come from natural causes. She feels fairly certain that someone was trying to get him out of the way.” Kevin stopped for a moment, sighed, and added, “She didn’t come right out and say so, but I got the feeling that she’s not expecting him to recover.”

“Then I guess it’s going to be up to you to find the people responsible, isn’t it?”

“Eventually, I guess. But I can’t get sidetracked with that right now. Are you about ready to go? I’m anxious to get over there and get started.”

“Give me about ten minutes and I’ll be ready to leave. Have another cup of coffee.” Chris picked up the pot to top off both of their mugs. “What’s your rush this morning anyway?”

“I don’t know. I’m just ready to get going.”

~ ~ ~ ~

When Chris and Kevin knocked on Glendymere’s door, they got an immediate response.
“I’m out in the valley. Come on out and join m
e.
”

They stopped by their room just long enough to drop off the torches and their lunch bag and then headed down the hall to the mouth of the cave. When they stepped out into the sunlight, they saw Glendymere gliding on air currents as he circled the canyon a couple of hundred feet above the ground. He looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself.

“He seems to be in a good mood this morning, too,” Chris said with a grin. “You know, that does look like fun.”

“It is. Want to go for a ride?”
Glendymere asked.

“Uh, no. I think I’ll keep my feet on the ground for now, but I might take you up on it later,” Chris said, laughing at his own cowardice.

“All right, but it’s your loss.”
Glendymere circled down and settled gently on the ground in front of them.
“Kevin, I thought we’d take a trip today.”

“Where are we going?” Kevin asked.

“In search of a storm to play in. Come on, climb on up. Sit between two of the spines on my neck and hold onto the chain I wear around my neck. It’ll feel a bit awkward at first, but it’s not any harder than riding Xantha.”
Glendymere knelt and extended his foreleg so that Kevin could scramble up his arm to his massive shoulders and then on up to his neck.

While Kevin was getting settled, Glendymere said to Chris,
“Blalick will be along in a few minutes. He said something about the two of you installing a stove somewhere in the caverns this morning. We’ll be back around lunchtime.”

Then Glendymere asked Kevin if he was settled, and when Kevin said yes, he rose, stretched his wings, and slowly and gracefully ascended into the sky, disappearing beyond the canyon walls. Chris walked back inside the huge entrance hall to wait for Blalick.

Kevin could tell that Glendymere was flying in a southerly direction but he had no way of estimating how fast they were traveling. All he knew was that they were flying a lot faster than he had ever flown with Xantha. After a while, Kevin saw storm clouds in the distance over what looked like desert canyon lands.

Glendymere slowed down as they approached the clouds, circled for a few minutes looking for a good place to land, and finally settled on a barren butte a couple of miles from the clouds and directly in their path. When Kevin climbed down, Glendymere told him to stand near the edge of the cliff and watch the storm.

Kevin took a couple of steps towards the cliff and watched the wind swirl the clouds around. When the rain began, it looked like someone had dropped a dark gray translucent cloth from the bottom of the clouds to the ground. A few minutes later he saw the lightning begin as the storm intensified.

“Now, I want you to join with the storm. Feel its power, its strength, become one with the wind,”
Glendymere said.

“How? How do I do that?” Kevin turned to face Glendymere.

“Don’t worry about how. Don’t even think about what you’re trying to do. Just give yourself over to your instincts and let it happen,”
Glendymere answered gently.

Kevin turned back to the storm, took one step closer to the side of the cliff, closed his eyes and tried to erase all thoughts from his mind and just feel. After a few minutes, he became aware of a sensation of rising, of floating above the ground, of racing with the wind. He felt pockets of cool air clashing with hot gusts of wind. The rain slashed at his body as the fury of the storm washed over him. Lightning darted all around him, leaving him with a tingling sensation.

As the storm intensified, he felt cut off from everything and everyone, isolated in the core of the swirling winds. He surrendered his senses to the power of the storm and felt the energy surge through him, building inside him. He had no idea how long he remained in the center of the storm. It could have been a minute or a day. There was no sensation of past or future, only the moment at hand.

Then the storm began to wane, and after a few minutes, Kevin became aware of his surroundings again. He was surprised to find that he was still standing on the butte not more than ten feet from Glendymere. His hair, his clothing, and the ground where he was standing were all perfectly dry. He turned to Glendymere with a look of awe in his eyes.

“Magnificent storm. Did you enjoy it?”
Glendymere asked.

“I don’t know what to say. It was the most incredible experience I’ve ever had,” Kevin said, almost in a whisper.

“And there are a lot more experiences out there waiting for you that are just as incredible as that one.”
Glendymere stood quietly for a few minutes to let Kevin savor the feeling. Then he said,
“I felt a change in you this morning. I thought you were ready for this. I hope you don’t mind, but I scanned your memories to see what caused the change. Yvonne is a delightful woman. I’m glad you finally met her.”

Glendymere knelt for Kevin to climb back up. As soon as Kevin was seated, he rose into the sky and soared off to the north. After a while, he continued,
“And I’m glad that you’ve come to terms with your doubts. We’ll talk more about that later, but you’re right, the only way you’re going to get through this without either killing another sorcerer or getting killed yourself is to be so good that no one would be willing to risk challenging you.”

“Do you think I can do it?”

“I don’t know. Possibly. Your elven blood gives you an advantage in the raw talent area, but the real key is hard work. You’ll have to practice and practice, and then when it’s perfect, you’ll have to practice some more, and it won’t end until you pass the Master’s Chair on to your heir. But for now, take it one day at a time and don’t try to look too far ahead. Let me worry about the future.”

~ ~ ~ ~

By the time Kevin and Glendymere returned to Willow Canyon, Blalick and Chris were almost finished installing the stove. It was a small potbellied stove with room on top for either a coffee pot or a saucepan, but not both. They had put it in a corner so that a natural crevice could be used for the chimney.

Glendymere raised his eyebrows and said,
“You know, if you wanted hot water, all you had to do was say so. I’m sort of the original furnace.”

Kevin laughed and Chris said, “I never even thought of that. Oh well, at least this way we won’t have to bother you when we want a cup of coffee.”

Then Glendymere yawned carefully and settled down for his afternoon nap while Kevin and Chris went to their room for lunch. While they were eating, Kevin told Chris about the storm and how its power seemed to surge through him. “It was almost like I was part of the storm, not just in it. I’ve never felt anything quite like it. I felt the rain all around me, but when I came out of it, I was completely dry. It was almost like my mind was there but my body wasn’t. Really weird, but amazing.”

After lunch, he sat down at the table and focused his attention on the candle for over an hour with no luck. Then they tried the seeing eye, but that was futile, too. After a short stretch break, Kevin sat back down at the table with the pebble in front of him and concentrated on it for another hour. By then it was getting close to 5:00.

Chris pulled his chair out across the table from Kevin, sat down, leaned back, and stretched his legs out under the table. “Give it a rest. You’ve been at this all afternoon. You accomplished one task today; you joined with the wind. Be happy with that and let’s knock it off for today.”

“I just feel so frustrated,” Kevin said in exasperation. “This morning was the most exhilarating experience of my life. I felt like I could do anything, but now … I just don’t know what else I’m supposed to do. How do you make a pebble move anyway?”

“You’re probably trying too hard. It can’t be that tough or no one would ever get the hang of it. Maybe if you relax a bit,” Chris suggested.

“Relax?! I suppose you think that stone will just move by itself, huh?” Kevin flicked his hand towards the pebble, and the pebble flew off the table, straight into the middle of Chris’s forehead. “Chris! Are you okay?” Kevin sputtered as he jumped up from his chair.

Chris just sat there, stunned. He gingerly felt his forehead with his fingertips, and then looked at them to see if there was any blood on them. When he realized that he wasn’t bleeding, he started rubbing the spot where the pebble hit and grinned, “Well, you just accomplished the second of the tasks. You definitely moved that pebble!”

“I did, didn’t I?” Kevin said in a dazed voice as he sank back down in his chair. “But how? What did I do that worked?”

“Well, for one thing, you weren’t concentrating so hard. You were talking to me. What did you see in your mind right before it flew off the table?” Chris asked.

Kevin thought for a minute, and when he spoke, he was talking to himself more than to Chris. “When I said ‘move by itself,’ I got a mental image of the stone taking off – almost just like it did.”

“Okay, there’s your answer. Just imagine that same thing again, only wait until I move out of the way this time. I think I’ll stand behind you. It should be safe enough there,” Chris said as he got up and walked over behind Kevin. “Go on, try it again.”

“I’m afraid to. I’m afraid that that was just a fluke and it’ll never happen again,” Kevin admitted.

“So what have you got to lose? It never happened before, did it? Go ahead. Just picture your hand reaching out for it and pushing it along. Don’t try to force it. Be gentle,” Chris said quietly.

Kevin turned back to the table and took a deep breath. This time he didn’t try to block out all other thoughts. He didn’t lose sight of everything else around him like he had done every time before. He just pictured the stone moving along the table. After a few seconds, the small stone scooted along the table for about six inches.