White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) (33 page)

“Do you have to do that here?” Piotr asked. The novice had gone to the zoo to study again. He had told his brother that it relaxed him.

Groaning at the complaint, Niklaus retorted, “That’s the problem. I can’t get the spell to work.

“The others look up to me and I don’t want to let them down. I’ve managed to make the shield, more or less, and even the stone skin; but that doesn’t keep Krevahs from throwing me around using his strength and weight against me.”

The younger twin put his book down and said, “But saying ‘reflex’ over and over is making the animals upset.”

“Then maybe you can help me figure it out, instead of me continually repeating a word that doesn’t seem to work,” Niklaus said a bit annoyed. The animals weren’t going anywhere, so he didn’t see how he could upset them without rattling their cages or something similar.

Sighing, Piotr pointed towards the outer door and said, “I’ll try to help you, but we’d better do it outside. It’s bad enough that they have to be in cages so much, but they don’t need you interrupting their naps and being noisy for no reason.”

“I have reasons.”

“Yeah, but they don’t know that or understand either. You getting frustrated just makes them uncomfortable. Come on.”

Once outside, Piotr took the book from his twin’s hand and read the description on the page. It was surprisingly long. “It’s one word. Why did they need to write two pages describing what you need to think about while casting the spell?”

Walking over to a bench, Niklaus sat looking frustrated, but answered his brother, “The word is just the trigger. Rather than doing all that fancy stuff you do with your fingers or reciting some language that I don’t even remotely understand, they describe what to do in our minds. It’s like loading the crossbow, winding the wire back and setting the catch before pressing the trigger.”

Nodding to his brother, Piotr read the description a second time and closed his eyes. The spell was straightforward, but hard to imagine without doing it as Niklaus mentor had said.

“Reflex,” he called trying to duplicate the spell as he tried to think of his movements. Like his twin, he felt nothing.

Letting out a little breath as the boy thought about the spell, he wondered if seeing the world slow was the concept for equipping his mind. The thought of moving quickly was part of the spell, but the description said the world would slow to his senses and his mind would run faster than normal. At some point, his mind would see the movements of swords or arrows and start his body moving in anticipation of the attacks.

Walking over to a prapple tree, the novice found a fallen prapple from the fall. Winter had frozen the fruit, but it was long past green or red from ripening. It was, however, still solid enough to be used for his experiment.

“I want you to throw this to me as I say, ‘reflex’,” he told his brother as Piotr stepped back and tossed it to the other boy.

“You want me to throw it hard? It will hurt,” Niklaus stated with a little bit of a smirk.

Sighing at the other boy, Piotr ordered, “Just throw it to me normally. I’m doing you the favor. The least you could do is take it seriously.”

Niklaus grumbled at being chastised, but knew that his younger brother was probably right to take it seriously. The only problem was, he had been taking the spell seriously for over a week already with no breakthroughs.

“Reflex,” Piotr called and the prapple was thrown to him in a basic game of catch. Nothing happened again and the twin frowned as he threw it back.

“Well, maybe your way isn’t so wrong. Throw it faster as I call it.”

Giving him a nod, Niklaus waited and threw the fruit as the spell’s word was called. Five more times passed and Piotr’s hands were beginning to hurt as they caught the hard fruit. He had let his brother keep throwing it faster and harder realizing that maybe part of the incentive would be trying to avoid the pain of the increasing dangerous prapple.

“Reflex,” he called as Niklaus threw overhand putting nearly his all into the throw. It was on target but a little high as it went towards his head. Piotr saw his brother’s eyes widen slightly as he realized that his twin might have to duck, which would let the fruit hit the high stone wall behind him. The game of catch and the experiment would be over when it exploded.

To Niklaus’ surprise, Piotr caught it easily. For his twin, the spell had finally worked. The prapple had seemed to slow as had his brother’s movements. His hand moved slowly to his eyes too, but he plucked the prapple out of the air as if it had been lazily tossed to him. There was little pain as he caught the fruit perfectly.

He threw the prapple back to Niklaus watching it roll end over end. His brother’s hands caught the large fruit, but they lifted slowly to his mind and eyes.

“Throw it as hard as you can,” he said hearing his words sounding long and drawn out. Each moment seemed the length of ten and actually made him feel impatient as he watched his brother wind up to throw the prapple. By his face, Niklaus was trying very hard to do as Piotr said; but again the fruit rolled end over end through the air as if it had been tossed slower than anything he had ever seen thrown.

“I’ve got it,” he said hearing his voice oddly dragging across his ears and his hand waved his brother closer looking too slow. His perceptions were quicker than his body could move to adjust to; but with a quick enough mind a body would be moving ahead of a sword or punch before it was fully picking up momentum, he thought.

Touching his twin on the shoulder, he tried to share his perception of the spell in the same way he had with the birds. “Reflex,” he ordered drawing Niklaus into his perception of the world around them.

Pulling back, his brother seemed to move away like he was turning to ice, despite a warmer spring day. “That’s it!” Niklaus proclaimed.

Piotr tried to adjust his mind and sought to turn off the change to his senses. It was surprisingly easy and the boy stepped back to throw the prapple hard at his brother only a few steps away. Normally such a move would be impossible to stop because of the short distance.

“Catch,” he warned though his brother’s body had seemed to move superhumanly fast. Niklaus’ left hand was in front of the prapple almost before it could leave his twin’s hand. Caught like it had been tossed slowly to him, Niklaus lowered the prapple as if he was trying to punch it into the ground to Piotr’s eyes.

“Were you even trying?” the older twin asked and sounded like he was overly excited and talking quickly.

“Yup, now exit out of it by thinking of seeing things normally.”

Niklaus started to laugh, a little too quickly to be normal; but a moment later he shook his head and said at a normal rate of speed, “You sounded funny like that. I could definitely feel it though. How did you do that?”

“The book said the mind moved quickly and the body followed, so I just needed to get my mind to cooperate and there it was.”

Shaking his head amazed by his younger brother, Niklaus stepped closer to the tree and found a stick a little longer than his arm. Passing it to Piotr he said, “Let me try it again. I want to see if I can make the spell work without your help now.”

“The book warns not to use the spell too often each day, although it mentioned if the spell ran out as opposed to stopping it early,” the younger brother warned hesitantly. They had figured out the spell, but were too new to it to understand how often would be too often for using the magic.

Nodding as he took in his brother’s opinion, Niklaus said, “Reflex!”

A split second later, the boy said, “Try to hit me with the stick.”

His words were coming quickly and Piotr knew that he had managed the spell on his own this time. Though the stick would be painful if he hit Niklaus, the novice understood why his brother wanted him to try his hardest.

Starting with an overhand swing, the boy tried to hit his twin on the head. Niklaus managed to shift to the side dodging it easily. Though the wizard trainee was no swordsman, the two boys had played around at being soldiers as kids. Both could swing the sticks and even block each other’s attack much of the time. When they tried their hardest, they often wound up with welts. Niklaus had no stick to block his younger brother though.

Swing after swing came at Niklaus, but he either shifted to the side or skipped back out of range. His eyes seemed to watch every inch of a swing and the stick never seemed close to hitting him. Finally he caught the stick, moving his hand with it effortlessly. The older boy didn’t even seem to feel any pain as he caught the stick and didn’t let it through to strike his hand so much as he plucked it from his twin.

“Good enough, thanks, little brother,” the boy said with a smile. “It is almost too easy that way. My body felt slow to me, but compared to each move you made I could start moving before your arm really began its swing.”

“You’re welcome, now maybe I can get back to my studying in peace.”

Chuckling at him in turn, Niklaus replied, “I don’t know how you can study in there. The animals are so noisy.”

“Only when you are stirring them up!” Piotr complained back in frustration.

They returned to the zoo through the doorway and Piotr noted the quiet noises of animals contentedly resting in their cages. His book was still sitting where he had left it as he moved to take his seat once more.

“I wish that I could do that mind to mind thing with the animals. They seem to really like you, since you get to know them better than most people can,” the cadet said and squatted down to look at Lyras, the lynx. It was a beautiful animal that most who visited liked to look at closer.

“As far as I know the spell is a wizard level one, but maybe since we are related you might be able to figure it out,” Piotr admitted.

Changing to a seated position cross legged on the floor, Niklaus made a triangle like he had seen his brother do before and looked up at him sitting in the chair. “You kind of make this triangle thingy and then what?”

“I look through the triangle trying to catch its eyes. Without it looking at me, it is much harder. Then I imagine moving towards the animal. Once my mind touches it, my perception changes to its view, and then I can either let it move as it wants or I can try to influence it.

“It took me awhile to make Bandit do what I wanted him to, but eventually I could make the rabbit turn around and go back home or to a berry patch.”

Laughing quietly, Niklaus shook his head saying, “I still can’t believe you named that rabbit.”

“It just seemed accurate.”

A nod as the laughing lapsed into quiet led to Niklaus looking through the triangle at Lyras.

“Just imagine my mind moving to his when his eyes are looking at me?” he questioned as the lynx had been watching him intently since he had sat in front of the cage.

“Pretty much,” Piotr replied bemused with his brother’s sudden interest in his magic. Of course, he could imagine that his brother would like to use it to spy on girls again, if he could figure it out.

“Mind to mind,” Niklaus mumbled wondering if, unlike his brother, a set of words or a single word would trigger such a spell. It was a wizard spell and there was none like it in the mage book, which seemed very thin compared to the multitude of books the novice wizards carried.

Lyras blinked and he blinked in turn. If he could figure out how to be like the cat, would that mean he was better than just an average battle mage? Well, that was a little presumptuous of course, but if his brother could work with animals, why couldn’t he?

“Mind to mind,” he repeated as if it was a mantra. Feeling a bit odd, his hands suddenly lowered. His posture shifted and the cadet had to put his hands down to steady him before toppling forward. He was dizzy and still the lynx’s eyes stared at him. Mind to mind, why couldn’t his mind switch to the animal?

Piotr fell back in surprise off of his chair, but when his brother tried to ask him what had happened, all he heard was a strange cat growl. Looking to Lyras, he wondered if the lynx had drowned him out. To his eyes they were on the same level and Niklaus looked at Piotr who had managed to pick himself up, but was on his hands and knees looking at his older twin.

“Niklaus? Is that still you?”

What kind of question was that, his twin wondered? In response he tried to ask Piotr what was the matter and heard the strange cat growl as if it was trying to talk for him.

Lyras was pacing in his cage watching him intently. What was the dumb thing doing in there? Niklaus looked down and saw paws. A new fear came to him and the boy wondered if his brother’s magic had managed to backfire. Did Piotr know how to change into an animal and not just communicate with their minds?

He growled at his brother and Piotr put out his hands as if to ward him off, though he didn’t look fearful of being attacked.

“Ok, something went wrong, Niki. Don’t panic, but you changed into a lynx,” the boy stated trying to sound calm though his eyes betrayed him. His scent told Niklaus that he was anything but calm, which suddenly made the twin wonder how he knew such a thing.

As the idea sunk in, the boy who was now a lynx thought about this strange new opportunity. He stood on all fours and leaped forward down the aisle between the cages. Running towards the far wall, the new lynx slid to a stop letting his rear end connect with the wall as his paws slid on the smooth stone floor.