The Young Magician (The Legacy Trilogy) (13 page)

As he opened his eyes again, something drew his attention towards the inn and he noticed a soft light shining from the small window he had found earlier that day. It seemed strange that someone should be awake so late, for it was surely only an hour or two before dawn. Samuel’s curiosity then had the better of him. He went around to the stable side and hopped on top of the barrel, hitching himself up onto the roof. He clambered carefully along the shingles until he could peer across into the window.

Someone was inside. He was lighting all the candles one by one. It was Mr Copperpot, Samuel finally realised, as the man glanced around. When all of the candles were lit, he sat in the middle of the room, crossed his legs and waited. Some time had passed, with Samuel still watching on, when Mr Copperpot straightened his legs out before him and bent his head down until his chin met his knees. He proceeded to go through a number of such strange motions, before squatting right in the middle of the room, where he remained still for some time. Soon, he began moving his hands up and down rhythmically and taking great loud, hissing breaths that Samuel could easily hear from his vantage point. It was no wonder that he was woken with all that noise.

As he did this, Samuel could see the man’s natural shine bloom and intensify and become much more tangible than before. It changed from a vague aura to a distinct fabric of colours made of very many fine and interweaving threads that were ever sliding and rippling. It was the most amazing thing that Samuel had ever seen.

Finally, Mr Copperpot sat down again, crossed his legs and remained completely still for a good time as his glowing surround returned to its normal complacent state. The man then extinguished the candles one by one and silently left the room. Samuel was intrigued, but now felt strangely overcome with exhaustion. He climbed carefully back down from the roof and returned to his bed.

Samuel thought about the strange event all the next day. He peered closely at his own hands and wondered why it was that he could only see the glow around other people and not himself. No one ever talked about the glow much and Samuel was beginning to think that most people could not really see it at all; they just talked as if they could.

‘Can you see my glow?’ Samuel asked Kans as the man was helping him carry in bags of dry feed. Samuel carried the smaller tins of expensive butter-yeast, from which he had been instructed to put a pinch in each horse’s feed to makes its coat shiny and healthy.

‘What nonsense are you talking about, boy?’ Kans asked in his standard intolerant manner.

Samuel placed the tins he carried upon the stack in the storeroom and decided not to continue the conversation with the man any further. He preferred to talk with Kans as little as possible. The balding man peered sidelong at him for the rest of the morning, but said nothing.

‘Does everyone have a light around them?’ Samuel asked of Mr Kelvin as they hovered over pages of sums that evening.

Mr Kelvin seemed to start, but then took the spectacles from his face and sat back in his chair, looking thoughtful. One of the two narrow arms that held his spectacles in place went absent-mindedly into his mouth and he sucked on it. It was a habit that he had developed since beginning Samuel’s tutoring. After a thoughtful moment, he spoke. ‘That’s an interesting and often discussed question, Samuel. All things are composed of and filled with energy, like the warmth you feel on your skin on a sunny day. That’s one form of energy. There are many others that we have discovered and examined or merely theorised upon. It is too complicated to discuss with you now, but energy is always moving; that’s why we call it energy, I suppose. Are you following me?’ Samuel nodded. He thought he did, just a little bit. ‘Good. Now, energy in one place can often affect energy in another place without actually touching it. It’s all to do with harmony and frequencies, but I’ll tell you about those another day.’ Mr Kelvin withdrew his spectacles and let them dangle loosely from his fingers as he quickly thought to himself. ‘Oh, here.’

He thrust his hand into one of his deep pockets and rummaged around until he withdrew a fistful of tiny objects. He poked through the lint and tiny pebbles that were amongst the other curious little objects there until he found what he sought and popped it on the desk before Samuel.

‘Look closely,’ Mr Kelvin instructed.

Samuel did, and saw a small, dark stone of squarish proportions. Stuck to it were several tiny black grains. Mr Kelvin used an edge of paper to knock the grains from the stone. As they fell away and struck the desk, they immediately sprang back and stuck onto the stone. Samuel was astonished.

‘The stone has become magnetised,’ Mr Kelvin informed. ‘The grains are attracted to it because of their metallic properties. Now observe.’

Mr Kelvin then pulled the grains off with his fingers and dropped them onto a thin piece of paper. He then held the paper up and, with his other hand, held the stone to its underside. As he slid the stone up and down under the paper, the tiny grains raced along, following the trail of the stone.

‘See, the energy passes between the two objects without their direct contact. This is
influence over distance
. The energy that exists in our bodies, although it is very different, can often affect other objects similarly, such as the space closely surrounding us. Each person has a natural sphere of influence that surrounds them. It is merely a side effect of our existence. Like the ripples that surround a pebble dropped into a still pool, so our existence affects our environment.’

‘Can you see
my
energy, Mr Kelvin?’ Samuel asked eagerly.

‘Oh, no,’ he laughed, ‘but I’m sure you have some. This particular energy is invisible to the human eye. Some have been said to have the gift of such sight, but they were among myths and legend. Now, enough of such talk. We must finish this division before we completely forget where we are.’ Mr Kelvin began to sort the papers he had disturbed for his demonstration. ‘Now where were we?’ he asked of himself.

That same night, Samuel again awoke and again climbed up onto the stable roof, feeling sure that the tickling in his bones had some meaning. Sure enough, the room was again lit. Mr Geoffries and Mr Copperpot both were there, sitting with legs crossed, completely still except for the matching, rhythmical motion of their chests. The energy that surrounded each man grew and spun with each deep breath, pulsing out and intermingling with the other’s. Samuel fell asleep watching them, and only awoke sometime later when he nearly rolled off the roof. Samuel looked up, but the room was again empty and dark and the night was cold around him. People
did
have an energy around them and only then did the realisation sink into him that he alone, perhaps of all the people in the world, could see it. He had some unique ability that no one else would even believe. As Samuel crept back into his bed, his skin was bristling with goosebumps, but the cold of night had nothing to do with them.

It was some time later when a new rider entered the guesthouse. As expected, he was wearing the same black clothes that the guests were always draped in. He rode his horse directly to the stables and quickly dismounted, ignoring Samuel and rushing inside the inn. Most curious of all was his dark skin. It was not black like ink, as it was said some people were, but he looked tanned, as if he had been working in the sun for hours every day. It was rare to see skin of such a deep colour. After that, there was no sign of the man for the entire day and Mr Kelvin did not even send word of his lesson that evening, which made Samuel think that something important must be happening inside.

Samuel was wide awake all night, filled with some unexplained excitement, when some peculiar sounds from the inn brought him scuttling once more up onto his roof. From his position opposite the window, Samuel found the candles already lit, and the tanned man was moving about and shouting in some form of crazed or drunken dance. He was shouting and throwing his brown arms and legs about, turning circles and dropping to his knees, only to spring up and jump away again. His glow was unlike anything Samuel had ever seen before. Each set of motions set it spinning and pulsing like a nest of angry wasps, a flurry of dazzling lights. The man performed an amazing set of leaps, especially impressive considering the lankiness of his limbs, and then, without warning, stopped dead still and calmly sat down. He crossed his legs and closed his eyes and it took some time for Samuel to realise that nothing else was going to happen. The aura that surrounded the man slowed and steadied, but it remained strong and vital, greater than when Samuel had first seen him in the room. Samuel was curious and, as he dropped from the roof and went to his room, he pondered the man’s movements. He put his face up to the tiny magnetic stone that Mr Kelvin had left for him and pulled the grains from its surface, watching them snap back. He did it a few times, never ceasing to be amazed by the wondrous reaction, before slipping into bed and soon falling asleep.

The tanned man came to Samuel early the next day and asked with a calm voice for his horse to be readied. He was patient and pleasant and his black cloak was of a fine material, which led Samuel to think that he was an important man. Samuel even thought his features looked familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before, but, even with such a striking colour to him, Samuel could not remember precisely where.

‘Excuse me, Sir?’ Samuel asked.

The man was startled for a moment, as if he had become lost in his thoughts and had forgotten Samuel was there. ‘Yes? What is it?’ There was some kind of accent in his words that was very different to the local folk.

‘Excuse my curiosity, but you seem very familiar to me. You remind me of someone I saw a long time ago. Have you ever been to Stable Waterford?’ Samuel asked.

‘Why, yes. I often pass through there,’ he replied, bearing a kind smile. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘When I lived there, I saw a man who looked much as you do, Sir, though perhaps much taller. He was dressed quite strangely in purple and he performed tricks in the market and he was dark skinned, just like you.’

The man laughed and he nodded. ‘Yes, that sounds like me, although I suspect it was some time ago. I have not grown much taller in recent years and so I think it is more likely that you have grown quite a bit. And fancy meeting you here! This is quite a surprise.’

‘Were you poor then?’ Samuel asked. ‘I remember everyone giving you some money. I thought you were a beggar.’

Again the man laughed. ‘You have a good memory, young friend. In some places, I must sometimes travel in disguise. Also, I enjoy entertaining the common folk. People look forward to seeing me and enjoy seeing my tricks as much as I enjoy performing them. I would enjoy talking with you more, but I must hurry. Perhaps, in the future, we can continue the matter. Are you finished?’

Samuel remembered himself and offered the reins to the man.

‘What is your name, young man?’ the tanned fellow asked. The lines and slight wrinkles on his face told Samuel that he must be a genuine and kind man, for his smiles had marked him forever, as scowls and worry often marked others.

‘Samuel, Sir.’

‘Well then, Samuel. I am Lomar,’ he added with a smile as he mounted his horse, ‘and I hope we can speak together again some day.’

Samuel nodded, and Lomar began away, urging his mount towards the front gate, which Kans was holding open impatiently. As he passed through, the lights around Lomar seemed to seethe about him and then they quelled themselves again as he passed out into the street.

When Samuel was next sent into town, he wandered around the markets until, as usually happened, he found Mr Joshua leaning against a wall and waiting for him. Somehow, the man always knew when Samuel was coming.

‘What news, young man?’ Mr Joshua asked.

‘Some nights, the men will sit in a candle-filled room for hours on end, and other nights they chant and shout and move around,’ Samuel said. Mr Joshua looked very interested. ‘It’s all very strange. And last night a man named Lomar came and he leapt around like this!’

Samuel began to re-enact Lomar’s actions, jumping to and fro, but Mr Joshua held up his hands. ‘Stop that!’ he hissed urgently, before slipping back into his usual calm composure. ‘Please, don’t attract attention. You can’t do these things in the open.’

Several passers-by were looking at Samuel curiously. Samuel did not understand, but he nodded dumbly. ‘And this morning,’ he continued, ‘he left in a real hurry.’ Mr Joshua was obviously pleased with the information. ‘And Mr Kelvin is teaching me some geometry.’

‘That’s wonderful, Samuel. Mr Kelvin is a good man to spend his time with you. An education is a valuable thing and knowledge is invaluable. I could have done with better schooling myself. Good work, Samuel. Try to come back within a week and tell me more about all this. It seems you are starting to get to the bottom of things.’

Mr Joshua gave Samuel some more coins before patting him on the back and disappearing into the tides of passing people. Samuel happily wandered towards the markets to finish his chores, jingling his weighty pocket. There was a dress that he knew Jessicah would just love.

The days always seemed fine and sunny at the Burning Oak. Of course, the winters had their share of rain, but Samuel always seemed to be catching himself looking up at the sky—clear and blue or filled with stars. He was never particularly hot or particularly cold and he had every comfort that he imagined he could need.