A Storm in the Making

Chapter 32--The Wizards Rule

When I think back to those six long months at Hermitage Castle, I wonder how my family and I survived.  The things to learn simply staggered our imaginations.  The study of Dardara alone—its history, culture, races, flora and fauna and the danger each of them posed to us—overwhelmed us. 

     The physiological changes in our bodies the crystals wrought, frightened us, surprised us, freaked us out, or sometimes grossed us out, by turns, depending on the change itself.   For instance, Andrew dreamed about flying one night, and woke up screaming in horror when he found his feet had turned into eagle claws.  Needless to say it wasn’t long before he could change into a raptor at will, which he thought was cool, then; until he realized he had to learn how to fly.  

      On the other hand, Uncle’s disappointment at being unable to change forms, made him grouchy and unbearable to be around for a while.  However, he cheered up when he discovered he could translocate anywhere he chose and we couldn’t—though I did eventually developed the ability. 

According the Hermits, I would develop every single talent.  The unpredictability of them, and my inability to use them when they came on me without warning, caused me a whole washtub of problems.  All the Hermits could teach any of us about abilities was theory.  Talking about, and having to deal with, an ability was two different animals.

     Our personal training proved to be another kettle of fish altogether.  Grueling. No other word came close to expressing what it was like.  Nothing came easy.  Our day started early and ended late.  I had wished never to see that lavender sky and twin suns again the first day I arrived on Dardara.  Well, I got my wish.  I never saw the sun now.  

     My first class started at 6 Am with Varak.  I had never been good with languages.  I nearly failed simple high school Spanish.  Now Varak expected me to conjugate Latin verbs at the butt-crack of dawn before I was even awake.  That put me in a foul mood every morning. By the time class ended at 8 and I stumbled off to First Meal, Uncle nor my brothers dared even look at me for fear of getting their heads bit off.  It seemed I could only take pleasure in others discomfort these days. 

     I watched the exuberance die, day by day in Andrew’s green eyes so like my own, as our training drug on. There were days I actually gleaned satisfaction from it. What kind of person did that make me?

 Andrew was not a morning person either.  Vorst, who had descended from Nordic Vikings, was teaching Andrew how to wield the broad sword.  Andrew came to First Meal with some part of his anatomy bandaged every morning for several months.  Thankfully he had Healing with Natos right after First Meal.  I envied him.  I wish my wounds could have been dealt with so easily.

     Uncle never complained about his class.   He had hand to hand combat training with Jung first thing.  Jung surprised us our first day at the castle.  We hadn’t realized there was a fourth Wizard, until we met the little Chinaman. He hadn’t been there the day we were tested.  Already it seemed like a lifetime ago now.

Jung was the Martial Arts expert, and the only one of the Hermits who had originally came from earth.  Jung said he had been on Dardara so long, though, he that he could hardly remember what earth had been like.  Frankly I found it hard to comprehend a life that long.   

 I found myself smirking at poor Uncle every morning.  Jung often had Uncle sitting down slowly and cautiously, and a few times Uncle groaned in spite of his best efforts not to.  I didn’t bother to hold back my snickers when he did.  Was I becoming evil when I could find humor in Uncle’s pain?

     Luke did better than any of us.  He was a morning person.  He had spell-casting as his first lesson.  Luke had one up on us with that.  He had taken Latin his first year in college when he was going through his “I’m going to be a doctor” faze.

      I soon came to the conclusion that spell-casting wasn’t as physically or mentally demanding as the rest of our classes. Either that or he was just naturally more gifted than us.  No matter the cause, the rest of us absolutely loathed him by the end of the first week. 

     I raised a sardonic eyebrow at Uncle when he went so far as to threaten Luke one morning, swearing he would break Luke’s hand if he had to watch him flick his wrist one more time reaching for the bread.  Andrew agreed to hold him down.  I laughed at all three of them.  At last I had found something funny about the situation we were in. 

     Our separate classes went on until 6PM-- but our day wasn’t over yet.  After Last Meal, we met together for our final class of the day in the Great Hall.  This was an informal class that Varak, Jung, Vorst, and Natos jointly taught. 

They mostly answered our questions about Dardarian Religion, Governments, Dardara’s monetary system, the different races, and any other subject that came up during those evening sessions.

     By eight PM, we could do barely stumble up the stairs to our rooms and fall into bed.  I was too tired by that time to be derisive of anyone.  It was just as well.  I think they would have done me bodily harm for my shrewish ways by that time of day.  Like I said before, it was a hard six months.

     If the classes were difficult, however, the Hermits at least tried to make up for it with food.  We ate a lot of strange food nowadays, but always in abundance.  Gradually we adjusted to our new diet without all the embarrassing trips to the latrine.  There was no danger of us going hungry at the castle—even if we were a little unsure of what exactly we were eating.

      The Hermits also kindly ordered an entire new wardrobe for each of us.  If our clothes were basically the ever-present robes and pants, they were at least decorated with finely-detailed embroidery, in the shape of elaborate runes, with protection spells woven into them.  It was no surprise that my clothing was much more heavily embroidered than Uncle, Luke and Andrew’s, under the guise of me being a girl. 

Though plain, all of our clothing was made from the finest materials available on Dardara, including our sturdy new sandals.  I no longer had to go barefoot.

     I wasn’t sure if the Hermits were rich or great conjurors, or a mixture of both, but they spared no expense on us.  I was even supplied with a nightgown and under things when I requested them, though the Hermits were puzzled why I wanted them. Unlike my brothers and Uncle, and the rest of Dardara, I did not like sleeping in the buff.   

     Compared to the rest of the inhabitants of Witches Isle, we were living like royalty--literally.  We earned every stitch of clothing we wore and every bite we put in our mouths, however.  Varak, Jung, Vorst, and Natos were relentless.  They never spared themselves or us.

If one of the Wizards was keeping Andrew occupied, another would keep Luke and Uncle busy.  As a result, my uncle and brothers were totally unaware that I was the true recipient of the lessons. The Hermits were enjoying their little intrigue much more than they should be, I thought.  Their intrigue made me feel like I was lying to my family.  It was only to spare them, that I was able to keep quiet.  It caused a rift between us, though, as I wasn’t always able to act natural around them.

We kept to this grueling schedule eight days a week--literally.

Here’s a little Dardarian trivia for you-- A Dardarian week is ten days long.  Yep.  They stuck in three extra days into earth’s familiar weekdays.  Ramaday was wedged in there between Monday and Tuesday which always made me feel like I was living through Monday twice.   Ashtox was between Tuesday and Wednesday.  Martox was between Wednesday and Thursday.  Martox became the new hump day for us. 

According to the Dardarian calendar, there were four weeks to the month.  Ten months to the year.  It took Dardara 400 days to make a complete rotation around their binary star known as the Twins.

Thankfully they didn’t mess with the weekends.  Good old Saturday and Sunday stayed the same without any extra days thrown in.  We could have used another weekend day, too, just to rest. 

I never thought it would be a pleasure going to school on Saturday, but I began to look forward to it just to see a different face.  On Saturdays, they invited guest speakers from the monastery to lecture the four of us together. We covered such subjects as Dardarian History, botany and zoology.  That’s where I’m learning all my trivia from….like I care about any of that.  What I really looked forward to, as you can imagine, was a chance to ask about Julius.