CHAPTER TWO
Koral awoke with a start. At first, she could not figure out where she was but soon realized she had fallen asleep beside Eric, the book between them. She glanced down at the book and saw that the pages were still blank. Moving herself off the bed, she went toward his window. It was another beautiful day, and she could not wait to see Gillock. Shaking Eric awake, she ran off to her room to get ready. Today, the test was definitely going to take place, and she wanted to be ready for anything. After the morning meal, they went straight to the stable. Neither one said anything to the other as they got their horses ready. Both were quite nervous, more so than the previous day, and they wanted firm answers about the book. The ride out to the field was quiet and uneventful, although neither would have noticed if anything were amiss. When they arrived, there was no sign of Gillock.
“I guess we are early,” muttered Eric with annoyance.
Koral nodded. “I guess we will have to sit and wait for him,” she said, moving down from Swift. She pulled the book out of her saddlebag, sat down and began flipping through it. She could sense the magic within it. Eric decided to practice some of the fighting moves Payton had taught him.
After a while, Eric’s patience began to wane. “Where is he?” he asked.
“I do not know,” answered Koral.
Eric was about to give his own answer when he noticed something moving in the trees. “Koral, do you see something in the forest?”
Koral raised her head, and then jumped up. “I see the forest moving!”
Suddenly, the trees started to move toward them. As they drew closer, the twins were able to make out faces in the bark. They both watched, stunned, as the branches transformed into pointed weapons.
“What are we going to do?” yelled Eric, keeping an eye on the advancing trees.
“I guess we are going to have to fight them,” answered Koral.
“Maybe this is our test. But how do we fight trees?” he asked.
Koral ran for her sword. “Well, this is the only way I know how to fight!” she yelled, running towards them.
The trees began to advance quickly and before they could figure out a strategy, the trees attacked. Eric and Koral were very well versed in the art of sword fighting, but neither had ever had to put the knowledge to use against real foes. The fight started clumsily, both making easy mistakes. It appeared luck was on their side, though, as the trees were inept at fighting. Eric, noticing the trees clumsiness, started to remember some things which Payton had told him. Getting his wits about him, he charged the trees. He was slashing and chopping everything he could see, but it was all in vain. More and more trees just kept advancing.
Koral was having problems as well. She had become surrounded and noticed the limbs had changed into different weapons. Eric ducked to miss a club-shaped limb, but it caught Koral square in the chest. Koral had the wind knocked out of her, but otherwise did not feel any pain. Shaking off the blow, she realized her sword was knocked from her hand, and began to crawl on the ground looking for it. In the distance, she noticed the gleaming from the blade and moved toward it. When she drew near, something caught her attention in the forest. Every time Eric chopped off a branch from a tree, another one emerged from the forest. This is why there were some many, they were reproducing. Koral ran toward Eric, trying to avoid severing any branches.
“Eric stop!” she yelled. “You are just making more of them by cutting off their limbs.”
“So how do we fight them?” he yelled back.
“I do not know,” she answered, arriving beside him. “Just move back toward the centre of the clearing and maybe we can figure this out.”
Slowly they backed away from the advancing trees, turning away the blows and trying to avoid making any cuts. They had almost reached the middle when some clouds rolled in, and there was a rumble of thunder. The two turned and looked at each other, both wearing a confused expression. When they turned back to face the trees, a bolt of lightning came from the clouds. It landed between them and the trees, knocking both Eric and Koral off their feet. Eric scrambled to get up and noticed the trees were avoiding the spot where the lightning had scorched the earth. “I know what to do,” he hollered to Koral. Not waiting for a response he ran toward the trees and threw down his sword.
Koral gathered herself and stood, watching Eric as he ran away from her. She thought she heard him chanting something, and he began to sway his arms back and forth. Koral, felt the hairs on her neck stand up, and started to move closer to him. The air appeared to have a sizzling sound to it. Just as she drew near, there was a loud WHOOSH and the trees went up in flames. Koral could not believe what she was seeing. The faces of the trees appeared to be screaming in pain, and as fast as all of this had started, it was over. They disappeared from in front of them, reappearing in the forest, back to normal. Eric, exhausted, collapsed to the ground.
The clouds which had blown in, were now gone and Eric suspected it was Gillock’s doing. He heard Koral yell his name, then felt her arms around him, but could not respond. The spell had taken more out of him than he had expected. Eric felt the ground under his head and assumed Koral had laid him down. He was feeling quite dizzy and decided to close his eyes and rest. The last thing Eric heard before drifting off was the distant sound of a galloping horse, which appeared to be drawing nearer.
Gillock watched the twins approach the clearing. Judging by their expressions, he gathered they had not been able to unlock the secrets of the book. Not that he had expected them to. It had been a diversion to get them to, at the very least, think about magic. Gillock sat and listened to them, and of course was not surprised by Eric's impatience. After sending out several searching spells, Gillock was quite relieved to discover that no Magima had followed them today.
When some time had passed, Gillock decided to set his test into motion. Quietly chanting his spell, the trees around him began to move. He decided this would be a simple test; nothing too complicated, and was not at all surprised to see Eric start slashing right away. He was, however, disappointed to hear Koral suggest it. Just when it looked like the twins were getting the upper hand, Gillock changed the weapons of the trees. Eric and Koral reacted accordingly, still clumsily slashing and chopping away. He almost stopped the test when Koral was hit, but decided to see how she would handle it. Gillock was quite stunned when he saw Koral unharmed, except for maybe losing her breath for a moment. “She has more power than I thought,” he muttered to himself. When they started to retreat, Gillock decided he would have to give them a bit of a hand. Calling up a minor storm, he tried to show Eric what to do and was pleasantly surprised when it worked. Watching as Eric cast his spell, Gillock became worried. The spell he cast was very powerful one, which he should not have been able to do. Once the trees were back to normal, Gillock left his hiding place and rode off toward the twins.
“Eric, wake up,” came a voice in his head. Eric opened his eyes to see his sister and Gillock hovering over him. “Can you speak?”
Eric slowly sat up. “Yes, I am fine now.”
Koral sat back. “Good to hear. What was that anyway?”
Eric looked at his sister, then to Gillock and realized things had now been set in motion, as he had been told they would. Jumping to his feet Eric said, “I am sorry Koral, but I cannot explain it. I have to go.”
He turned away from them and ran toward his horse. Koral was going to chase after him, but Gillock stopped her. “Let him be. A lot has just happened with him and he needs to deal with it. Now, let’s go get Swift and head back to the palace. We have much to do.”
Reluctantly, Koral agreed and slowly made her way to her horse. When everything was gathered, they headed toward the castle.
Koral sat in silence, but sensed Gillock wanted to discuss something. Her assumption was confirmed a few minutes later.
“What do you know of the prophecy, Koral?” asked Gillock.
“I have heard about it my entire life, but father never rea
lly wanted us to remember what it said. I guess he did not want us to draw attention to ourselves. All I know, it is about twins, and they will return magic to the world.”
“The beginning says ‘In their sixteenth year the twins, sun and moon, shall be separated by betrayal but shall be found in the light’. Does this mean anything to you?” he questioned.
“No,” said Koral, flatly.
Gillock sighed. “It means one of you will betray the other. It's this one action which will set the prophecy into motion.”
Koral stopped. “You think Eric will betray me?”
Gillock turned to face her. “Yes, his sneaking off means something, but I’m not exactly sure what. Something is blocking me from seeing. I do know you need to watch him very carefully.”
“I will not believe my brother would do something to betray me,” said Koral, her voice rising.
“I don’t think he would do it intentionally, Koral. None the less you need to be watchful.”
“I cannot believe Eric would do anything to hurt me.”
Gillock nodded. “I don't expect you to. I just want you to be careful.”
Koral turned away, “I will.”
“There's something else you must know. In order for the prophecy to happen, you and Eric must use your abilities. Eric has shown his. He's the sun. You must be the moon, which means your strongest ability will be to manipulate water. This doesn't mean you aren't capable of other feats, it just means your main ability. Both of your special powers must be used in returning magic to Melarandra.”
Koral stopped Swift. “Did you know about Eric’s abilities,” she stated.
Gillock stopped his mount. “Yes. Though I didn't know he was this far along in his studies. I knew he had been borrowing my books, but I didn't realize what he was doing with them. He’s quite powerful, which makes him very dangerous.”
“Why would he be dangerous?” questioned Koral, resuming their pace?
“He doesn’t know how to control his magical abilities. This was quite apparent after his display in the forest.”
Koral nodded. “I see. He fainted, which shows he cannot handle doing that type of spell, at least not yet.”
“Exactly. He has great potential, but he must learn to harness it and channel it properly or it could destroy him. Being a wizard of the sun means Eric is capable of manipulating fire, and this is a very powerful form of magic.”
Koral did not know what to make of everything. “Well, we best be getting back to the castle. Eric is probably already there.”
Gillock agreed and they resumed their ride.
Eric was embarrassed and confused. He knew he was capable of manipulating fire, but what he had created frightened him. The power and the fury behind it had caused him to faint, something which had never happened before. Eric knew he had to get away from Koral before she could start asking questions. Eric rode back to the castle as fast as his horse could take him. He knew this was what Nak had been preparing him for. This is the great power which would alienate him from his family. Eric knew he now had to make a choice, one he was not going to like. By the time he arrived at the castle, he had made his mind up. Now all he had to do is explain it to Koral. In the stable, he did not even bother to unsaddle Blade. He was going to be leaving in the morning and figured the quicker the exit the better.
Running up to his room Eric decided it would be best to just leave Koral a note. She would only try to get him to change his mind. Writing the note, he felt a sense of grief pass over him. Pushing his emotions aside, he finished writing it, and went about packing his bag.
Koral had arrived back at the castle moments later, but sensing Eric probably just wanted to be left alone, she went straight to her room to change for dinner. Eric heard her go towards her room and was grateful he did not have to face his sister tonight. His older sister, Brin, arrived at his room moments later. “Dinner is going to be later this evening. Father has been working on the plans for the festival and is running late.”
“That is fine, Brin. I do not really feel very well, so I do not think I will be coming down to dinner tonight.”
Brin just shrugged her shoulders. “Suit yourself. I will let mother know.”
Eric watched as she went down the hallway. Once she was gone, he left his room. He needed to signal his friends he would be leaving tomorrow. Everything was in place.
One thing Gillock had discussed yesterday that he had been wrong about, was friends. Eric had made new friends months ago, and they were beings to whom he could discuss his problems, and gifts, with. They knew all about his abilities and the prophecy and they were waiting outside the castle walls. He was certain no one suspected a thing, which will make leaving much easier. All Eric could do is return to his room and get some rest. He had a feeling things were not going to go so well once he left the safety of the castle.