Hope (17 page)

Kathryn realized that the white mare was intelligent, but arrogant. The mare expected Kathryn immediately to respond to her command, which if she wasn’t aware of the telepathy, she would have done subconsciously. The mare complained about her enslavement, but expected Kathryn to respond to her orders as if she was
her
slave. She wasn’t sure if the horse was a hypocrite or just ignorant. The bond between a human and a horse wasn’t slavery, but a relationship built upon mutual need, or so she heard on television. The horse provided their transportation while they provided the horse with food, shelter and grooming. Perhaps someone abused the mare, so she believed only what her experience had shown her.

I don’t choose to brush your mane. I’m not your slave either, so I will also not yield to you if I don’t want to do something. Horses are not the slaves of humans, but their friends. You allow us to ride you and we take care of your needs. It’s a relationship based upon mutual respect.

Mutual respect, oh please
. The mare snorted with contempt.
I have no respect whatsoever for humans. I tolerate the females, but that’s only because they’re lighter and I have to get some exercise or I’ll die of boredom. I’ve tired of your company. You may go now.
She turned her back toward Kathryn and began to munch on her grain.

Kathryn scowled at the mare. Nobody treated her like that, let alone a four-legged animal.
You, horse, are arrogant and ignorant. You base all of your knowledge upon what you’ve experienced. You never consider what knowledge others possess that may be beyond yours. You’re selfish and un-useful since you refuse to cooperate with anyone and expect everyone to do everything you want
. Kathryn turned and walked out of the barn while the mare remained silent.

"I don’t know what to do, Lanclor. I know he has the ability, but I can’t seem to teach him how to perform these spells. Given, they’re complicated spells, but they’re well within his skill level. He’s amazing when it comes to ice or wind spells, but when it comes to fire spells..." Garrent held out his hands in defeat.

Lanclor could understand his dilemma. Many of the knights seemed only to be able to excel in certain types of magic. There was nothing in the library about limitations or specializations when it came to magic use. He remembered quite a few knights who could do a level 5 fire spell, but could barely control a level 2 ice spell.

"I don’t know, Garrent. You know this has happened quite often and we’ve never been able to find the answer to the problem."

Garrent nodded and walked over to stare out the window.

His door stood open, so Lady Kathryn tapped on the open door to announce her presence.

"Sir Lanclor, I’d like to speak to you about... Sorry, Sir, I didn’t realize you were busy. I’ll come back at another time."

Saluting, she began to turn away and he flashed a quick glance to Garrent. "You’re not intruding, Lady Kathryn. Sir Garrent and I were talking about some magical issues. What did you want to speak to me about?"

She nodded to Garrent and seemed to relax as he returned her nod. "The white mare, Sir. I was wondering why you didn’t tell me she was telepathic."

"Telepathic? I didn’t know she was. That explains a lot of things." He couldn’t believe it. That meant she was probably descended from the Old Herd. For only two gold crowns! "I guess that means you should be able to talk her into letting other people ride her. Maybe you could help us out with something we were discussing. We’ve found that some knights seem to be better at one type of spell than another type. Have you ever heard of this while reading in the library?"

She seemed surprised at the question, but not as surprised as Garrent. Lady Kathryn looked down as if in thought, then responded. "I believe it’s all in how they ‘think’ the spell, Sir Lanclor. For a while, I wasn’t ‘thinking’ my water spells quite right. I was doing so well with my fire spells and I found I couldn’t seem to master my level 6 water spell for over two months."

Lanclor didn't think Lady Kathryn saw their eyes widen in surprise. She complained about mastering a level 6 water spell in a way that said she had gone even further with her fire spells. Most of the instructors here usually stopped at level 5 spells in the areas of their mastery. The spells higher than level 5 seemed to drain you to the point of collapse if performed too often, which wasn’t an option in battle.

She continued without hesitation. "I always pictured the fire in my head when I performed my fire spells. I tried picturing the water in my head as well, but it didn’t seem to work. I eventually realized that I needed to picture the water and imagine how it would feel and move as well. I didn’t have any problems with the next few levels." She smiled with her eyes as both Garrent and he stared at her.

Lanclor dared to ask the question burning in their minds. "So, what level of fire and water spells are you able to perform now?"

"Well, in the documented spells, I think I’ve gone up to level 10 on each spell, but from those other spells that weren’t spelled correctly, I think I’m up to level 29 fire and only level 20 on the water spells."

Level 29 fire! It seemed as if she thought they would disapprove that she hadn’t mastered the spells at a higher level. She didn’t realize that her misspelled spells had been lost to them for some time. Their Master level knights had to be able to perform level 10 spells in fire, water, ice, wind, and their corresponding shields along with teleportation and motion spells. This could take a decade to master. Lady Kathryn had managed to bypass all of them in less than two cycles. He again wondered whom she Bore.

"What about ice, wind, any shields?" Garrent could remain silent no longer. He thirsted for knowledge of magic as he thirsted for knowledge of history. "How do you deal with the draining issue? Have you ever lost consciousness?"

"I haven’t been focusing on the shields, but have been looking more into offensive spells." She quickly glanced Lanclor's way and he nodded to indicate he had shared her Sights with Garrent. They had not yet scheduled a time to speak with her about her library research. Maybe now would be a good time to do that. "My ice is at around level 11 just because I’ve been focusing so much on my fire and water spells." She seemed embarrassed to admit her "lack" of studying. "I haven’t worked with wind much, only level 3. I still don’t understand how it can be more useful than a fire spell. I consider it more of a defensive than offensive spell."

Lanclor thought their silence confused her. She stood stiffly, as if awaiting some rebuke. He refused to let her believe her success over their failure was a reason for reprimand. "I think, Lady Kathryn, you may have to meet with us and share what you’ve learned. Many of the spells you speak of have been lost to us for a long time.

"Perhaps you can teach us some of them, or help some of the other knights master the art of learning the spells. I think you have a different approach to learning the spells than what our instructors teach. You may hold the key to us learning the Lost spells and ending the Daemon War."

After Lady Kathryn departed, Garrent closed the door and seated himself in front of Sir Lanclor's desk. "Whom do you think she Bears?"

"I honestly don’t know. I don’t remember any women with as high a magic level."

"It’s not unheard of for a woman to Bear a male. You know that."

"That’s true. I guess it’s so rare that I never even considered it. We can guess all we want, but we’ll have to wait for the Judgment to occur for her before we’ll know anything. That can only occur after she has Announced. You know as well as I that it could take cycles before she’s even aware that she Bears. "

"Oh, I know that, Lanclor. I only suggest that you try to include her in more of our discussions so we can judge for ourselves that she Bears nobody evil. Given her Sights and actions thus far, I don’t think she Bears anyone evil, but sometimes evil can hide behind many masks. That, we both know too well."

He nodded his agreement. Both Garrent and he had taken a potential Soulbearer under their wings. Borith had shown great promise until the night before he was to Announce. Borith had decided go to the local brothel to celebrate the special occasion. In the Knighthood, it wasn’t dishonorable to visit a brothel as long as the knights used some form of pregnancy protection. He chose the best woman in town, but she wasn’t a fan of Borith’s sexual aggression.

After Borith satisfied himself and the woman was severely injured, she cast some type of curse upon him which any lesser witch could remove. Instead of accepting the curse and having it removed later, he used a spell of Manipulation and forced the woman and the rest of the brothel women to throw themselves out the window along with some Royal Guardsmen who had tried to stop him.

Spells of Manipulation were strictly forbidden, as was murder. The Knighthood Stripped Borith of his title and Blocked him before banishing him. He disappeared from his cell before the knights could brand him with the murderer’s mark and escort him to the wild lands. Nobody had seen him since.

"I hope more than anything that Lady Kathryn bears nobody evil," Lanclor said as he realized what could happen. "I don’t think we could ever stop someone who could cast a level 29 fire spell."

Garrent’s eyes widened. "You’re right. No knight here would know a powerful enough fire shield spell to block it. I hope and pray it’ll never come to that."

"You and I both."

Kathryn entered the room and looked around, trying to figure out where in the world she should sit. She was here to tell the knight instructors that they were ignorant and she had all of the answers with her Lost Spells corrections
.
Sure, they’ll be so happy to hear that.

Glancing around, she saw many instructors looking at her with disbelief. She wasn’t sure if it was her wing color or the fact that she was a first-cycle knight giving them a lecture on magic. Luckily, Sir Garrent saved her from her discomfort and motioned her to the seat on his right. She only noticed they were on a pair of raised chairs when she had to climb a step to take her seat.

Around them, she only saw a few knights she recognized. The rest were helmeted strangers emanating impatience to get back to their duties. Many had their arms crossed, which on this world shouted
we have more important things to do than this
.

The room quieted as Sir Garrent spoke. "I thank everyone for coming today. I know you have many things to do, but I believe this takes precedence over them. Lady Kathryn has been researching the Lost Books and has found misspellings. She has corrected these spellings and has performed many of the Lost Spells. I’ll leave it up to her to demonstrate. Lady Kathryn?" He motioned her to rise as he sat down.

She hesitantly rose from her seat and pushed all of her awful memories of oral exams from Earth from her mind. "I’m sure that many of you think this is a waste of time, so I’ll get right to the point. I apologize ahead of time if I offend anyone." After she removed her helmet, there were several gasps of surprise, either by her appearance or by the action itself, she wasn’t sure
.

I know that the vast majority of you balk at the removal of my helmet during this meeting, but it’s the only way to show you that I’m indeed using the Communication spell.

She paused to let that sink in. Every eye in the room widened in surprise and arms were uncrossed. She had their attention.

Sir Lanclor explained to me that this spell was one that has been lost too long. I’ve been going through the Lost Spells and I’ve corrected only a small portion of them. Some I dare not demonstrate in a crowded room. You can’t imagine how hot a level 20 fire spell can
be
in a small room. I had to wear my helmet everywhere just to hide my missing eyebrows.
This brought out a few chuckles, most likely from those with such experiences.

I’ve written a list of the spells I’ve corrected and Sir Garrent will make a copy for anyone who wants one. Sir Garrent and I have agreed that it will be best to learn these spells on a one-on-one basis until everyone learns how to control the spell. Otherwise, we may all be Communicating our personal conversations to the rest of the Knighthood.