We were forced to be indoors more of the time so our lessons increased in length and variety. Almost all of my previous lessons had been in the midst of multiple interruptions; this was the first time for long sessions. As usual, I got each lesson the first time through but it became fascinating to me what happened when the others made mistakes. Usually the magic just failed, but once in a while there was an unexpected result.

One lesson was to be ready to escape when the chance came if we were tied up. There was a spell to say that would untie knots while still looking like they were tied. (Of course it couldn't work if you were gagged as well.) Each of us would have our wrists tied and then say the spell until we could make it work every time. Krager really mangled one of the words of the spell. Usually this just caused the spell to fail, but this time the rope disappeared.

Krager had come because of an interest in exploring rather than becoming a sailor or a wizard. He wasn't really wizard material but Malcolm thought it would be permissible to teach him some of the simpler defensive magic because he seemed to be quite a good person at heart. It took him a lot of practice but if the magic wasn't too difficult he eventually learned. It seemed that the stronger natural aptitude, the better wizard one could become, just like any other skill.

Malcolm had him try the spell again but he just couldn't get the word the same.

I had a try at it and managed to say the word just as Krager had and the rope disappeared. Malcolm very much wanted to know what had happened to the rope, so he put a finding spell on a piece and I did it again. It ended up that all three pieces of rope were on the floor under the table we were gathered around, all of them untied. No one could imagine why; if they were going to just fall off, why not on the table, if they went through the table, why not the floor too?

I was beginning to feel there might be a pattern to the mistakes and the results. I suspected that if I could understand the pattern it might make it much easier to develop new magic and greatly enhance the magic we already knew. From that time on I began to pay closer attention to the mistakes that had unexpected results and to try some variations myself. I figured it might take a long time since there were so few mistakes that didn't just cause the spell to fail.

There were a great many kinds of magic. Most of what Malcolm and Tintinel taught us was voice magic, gesture magic and thought magic. Thought magic was a very small category because it was so hard to teach and pass on. It was what Olu used to modify tree growth and accomplished wizards used to detect magic in people. Thought magic had now become much easier to learn with the tree spirits to help us, for when we were in the tree, so to speak, we communicated thought to thought even if it seemed like we were speaking.

The nice thing about these magics was that there was no need for physical things. The magic that made things larger on the inside than the outside required physical apparatus and potions to produce; when the process was finished the magic was within the object such as Malcolm's tent and backpack. Potion magic included liquids, gasses and powders. Apparatus magic required strange mechanisms, wands, or solid objects in which all or some of the magic was embedded. This included magic swords, shields, chambers, cloaks, boots or anything else that produced a magic effect of some kind.

Of course there were magics that required two or more of the pure categories, but these were rarer because they took far more research to perfect. The most common of these was the word and gesture combination. Next was powders or potions that required a word or gesture to invoke. Magics that required more than two categories were very rare indeed.

With each session teaching magic we had at least the same amount of time devoted to ethics, usually more time. It was drummed into us that any selfishness or dishonesty would quickly lead a wizard to become as evil as Bolgar. Wizards were very careful about who they took as apprentices. There was no magic way to assess character but many potential wizards could be ruled out just by finding out their background. Then, during the years of apprenticeship, if trouble appeared the master would stop teaching and set a magical marker on the former apprentice so no other good wizard would be fooled. If the apprentice wanted to continue, he or she would have to find an evil wizard and that could be very dangerous for they could use the potential wizard's life to enhance their own powers.

We had to be taught diligently because it wasn't always clear what was right in a given situation. Doing something wrong by mistake was not as bad and doing it on purpose, but one must quickly see the mistake and go the other way. It was a lot harder to restore good character than it was to ruin it.

This was why there was an absolute prohibition on using animals or any intelligent race for magic, much more if it caused them any discomfort or damage. Bolgar gained power from torture, both physical and mental and that was a horror no one with any decency wanted to participate in.

Bolgar! We knew he planned to take over the world soon. We still didn't know when, only that it was at least six months away and we hadn't a clue how he intended to do it. So far we had found no evidence that he had any influence in this part of the world - or even any knowledge of it. But we still wouldn't know Bolgar even existed if Vriim and Resik had not escaped to tell us. Bolgar was so subtle and careful that there was little evidence of his plots even very near his headquarters.

Sola-Proom and his people were working hard to penetrate Bolgar's secrecy, but it was taking time because it would be a great disaster if they were discovered. The Gnomes were busy exploring the deserted caves we'd found but there were still great mysteries there. Speaking of mysteries - still no one had found out what had happened to the priests from my village and Tintinel's arrival on this side of the world was still a mystery. At least Mrs. Penny and Victorius were all right and the training of the gnomes and others in tree popping was accelerating. But we were surrounded in clouds of mystery and it didn't seem that the clouds were showing much sign of parting soon.

Thankfully the clouds above us promised to part soon according to Olu. It was still autumn and the real winter storm season was some way off. We hoped to find the Great Tree before the weather got too bad but the trip back to Garnet Bay would probably be much more difficult. Of course we were not at all sure that the place we were heading was where the Great Tree was, but it was our only hope at the moment. Everyone thought it was a good hope.

Read Part Twenty-Two 

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