The Wizard's Curse (Book 2) Read online

  The Sorcerer's Oath – Book Two

  The Wizard's Curse

  1 Monash St,

  Melton South,Victoria, Australia 3338

  www.jennyealey.com

  Published by Eskuzor Publishing 2015

  © Copyright J. J. Ealey 2015

  The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

  ISBN 978-0-9876017-3-5

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favourite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to thank Paddy Mary Stentiford who, from the other side of the world, painstakingly edited my novel with me through all its myriad drafts. I would also like to thank my sister Wendy Ealey who produced the cover design and interior typesetting, Rebecca Singh and my son Burnham Arlidge for painting the mountains and eerie moon and my father, Tim Ealey, for painting the moonlit forest. The front cover is a true family affair.

  Dedication

  For all those children who fight to defy disability or trauma

  in their quest for happiness.

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgements

  Dedication

  Characters

  Part 1: The Infestation

  Part 2: Danton's Trial

  Part 3: The Great West Road

  Part 4: The Grasslands

  Part 5: The Mountainfolk

  Part 6: Midnight

  Part 7: The Trappers

  Part 8: The Curse

  Part 9: The Rest Day

  Part 10: Across the Mountains

  Part 11: Falling Rain

  Excerpt from Book 3: The Lost Forest…

  About the Author

  Characters

  Sorcerers

  Tamadil Royal Family:

  King Markazon (deceased)

  Queen, Markazon’s wife

  King Kosar, eldest son of King Markazon

  Prince Jarand, second son of King Markazon

  Prince Tarkyn, third son of King Markazon

  Courtiers:

  Danton Patronell, Lord of Sachmore, Tarkyn’s friend from childhood

  Andoran and Sargon, friends of Tarkyn at court.

  Stormaway Treemaster, wizard for Prince Tarkyn and King Markazon

  Journeyman Cloudmaker, Prince Jarand’s wizard

  Sergeant Torrigan

  Thieving Family:

  Old Ma

  Gillis, Old Ma’s son

  Tomas, Old Ma’s son

  Morayne, daughter of Tomas

  Charkon, son of Tomas

  Woodfolk

  Wanderers:

  Waterstone

  Sparrow, Waterstone’s daughter

  Autumn Leaves

  Thunder Storm

  Creaking Bough, Thunder Storm’s wife

  Rain on Water, Thunder Storm’s son

  Rustling Leaves

  Grass Wind

  Lapping Water

  Summer Rain, healer

  Falling Rain, Summer Rain’s exiled brother

  Forestals:

  Raging water

  Falling Branch, his son

  Sun Shower, Falling Branch’s wife

  Rainstorm, Falling Branch’s son

  Gatherers:

  Ancient Oak

  Tree Wind

  North Wind

  Running feet

  Mountainfolk:

  Dry Berry

  Woodfolk near Tormadell

  Ancient Elm

  Captured Woodfolk:

  Golden Toad

  Rushwind

  Ibis Wings

  The story so far…

  “Even with the oath, one man against a nation is poor odds.”

  In Eskuzor, land of sorcerers, nineteen year old Prince Tarkyn faces unjust charges by his brother the king and the king’s twin brother Prince Jarand. He escapes, leaving a trail of death and destruction behind him. As he flees the city of Tormadell, a family of thieves first try to rob him then aid him to evade pursuit.

  After days on the run, he wanders into the woodlands in the company of an old wizard, Stormaway Treemaster, only to find himself unable to leave. Woodfolk attack him and he retaliates with threatening displays of magic. But then Tarkyn is horrified to discover that he is the unwelcome, bitterly resented liege lord of these elusive people who fear sorcerers and whose oath to ‘protect, honour and serve him’ has been spellbound to the welfare of their forest. The prince is shocked by the woodfolk’s behaviour in the presence of royalty and clashes with Ancient Oak and several others.

  Before the woodfolk have taken adequate measures to protect him, bounty hunters capture Tarkyn. A misunderstanding of the prince’s magic by the woodfolk lead to him being severely injured during his escape. While Tarkyn lies unconscious, Stormaway, disguised as the prince, draws the bounty hunters far from the forest.

  For more than a week, the prince lies unconscious, while one woodman, Waterstone, stays by his side talking quietly to him and bringing him back to an awareness of his surroundings. As he recovers, Tarkyn, raw from his brothers’ betrayal and wary of the woodfolk’s resentment, gradually develops an uneasy friendship with Waterstone.

  Woodfolk can hold conversations and send images mentally to each other. Sorcerers and wizards don’t have these special powers, but gradually, Tarkyn discovers that he can receive and send images and feelings, but not words. In fact, Tarkyn’s strong feelings sometimes transmit to other people without his knowledge or control.

  When a hunting party of the king and his brother enter the woods, Tarkyn’s reaction to seeing his brothers overwhelms Waterstone’s daughter, Sparrow, and she blacks out. Although Tarkyn looks after her as she recovers, Waterstone is furious, hurling threats at the prince and trying to attack him. This flouting of the oath causes an area of forest to be seriously damaged before Tarkyn finds a way to curtail the destruction by actually giving Waterstone permission to attack him.

  Summer Rain, the healer, tells Tarkyn that her brother, Falling Rain, had been exiled twelve years ago by the woodfolk for revealing their presence to the king and that the woodfolk are divided on whether he should ever be allowed to return.

  Struggling with the politics surrounding the prince and the potential damage his own anger could cause, Waterstone almost abandons his friendship with Tarkyn, but decides to persevere.

  Tarkyn offers to help to repair the forest, amazing Waterstone that sorcery could have more than martial uses. While Tarkyn is holding up branches for woodfolk to bind into place, Stormaway returns and rails at the prince for not behaving in a manner due to his station, until Tarkyn treats him to a dose of royal hauteur. Later that evening, Stormaway tells him that the bounty hunters had been Andoran and Sargon, Tarkyn’s erstwhile friends. As Tarkyn wanders down near the river thinking about this further betrayal, an attacking wolf is stopped by Waterstone’s arrow. Then, from a viewpoint (viewing point?) above him in the trees, Tarkyn sees another wolf approaching behind the woodman. Tarkyn shouts a warning and uses shafts of magic to kill the wolf.

  Tarkyn’s ability to trust has been so badly damaged by his brothers’ and friends’ betrayal, that Waterstone allows Tarkyn free access to his memories to establish his own trustworthiness. However, Tarkyn delves too far causing Waterstone to flee. He is confronted by Autumn Leaves who intervenes angrily on his friend Waterstone’s behalf.

  S
tormaway lets slip that he had used mind power on Falling Rain, which then expiates Falling Rain’s guilt. As reparation for a wrong done by sorcerers, Tarkyn resolves to trek across the mountains to find Falling Rain and bring him back to the fold.

  Tarkyn discovers that, unlike the woodfolk, he can also share images and emotions with birds and animals and uses this discovery as a reason to approach Waterstone and repair the rift between them. As he talks with Waterstone and Autumn Leaves, it becomes increasingly obvious to Tarkyn that the egalitarian woodfolk have a very different concept of service from him and that he must work out how much to modify his expectations.

  While he is mulling this over, an eagle gives him its view over the forest of an impending, large-scale wolf attack. Tarkyn warns the woodfolk and allows them the use of his powers.

  Soon after the wolf attack has been averted, Stormaway notices green shoots appearing on Tarkyn’s walking staff and upon investigation, finds that the trees Tarkyn helped to repair have recovered unnaturally fast. Much to his embarrassment, Tarkyn learns that his newly discovered powers of healing and communing with animals define him as a legend in the woodfolk lore; the guardian of the forest, who appears among the woodfolk to aid them in times of great strife.

  The celebrations of the advent of the Forest Guardian go late into the night but next morning, Tarkyn and the woodfolk consider where the source of the danger might be. The survival of the woodfolk depends on their ability to stay hidden. They work out that a hunting party will be coming to find the wolves they killed but instead, will find the dismembered, cleaned wolf carcases that will betray the woodfolk’s existence.

  As they prepare to face this threat, Waterstone’s resentment of the oath surges up, leading to a fight between Tarkyn and himself. As a result, one of Tarkyn’s previously broken ribs punctures his lung and only his healing powers as Guardian of the Forest, supplemented by the life force of the woodfolk, save him. Tarkyn then realises that he can also draw on the power of the forest through the trees to heal himself.

  After helping the woodfolk to avoid a hunting party of wolves and armed men on horseback, Tarkyn then discovers that the woodfolk he is with have been concealing the existence of others of their kin from him. He feels betrayed especially by Waterstone and using an owl as a guide, leaves them to find his way to a community of oathless woodfolk.

  He offers this community of woodfolk, the forestals, the opportunity to kill him, to release their kin from the oath and to ensure that oathbound woodfolk do not have to fight oathless woodfolk to protect him. The forestals are suspicious and hostile but decide their honour will not allow them to help their kin to betray their oath. So they cannot kill the prince. During this process, Tarkyn finds a feisty ally in a rebellious young woodman, Rainstorm.

  Autumn Leaves trudges into the forestal’s firesite and with Rainstorm’s help, faces a resistant Tarkyn. When Autumn Leaves explains that all woodfolk are sworn to conceal to their kin, Tarkyn accepts the need for their duplicity, but is left feeling separate from them.

  His resigned acceptance of his ongoing isolation, unbeknownst to Tarkyn, rolls around the woodfolk camp, causing the forestals to reconsider their attitude to him. During the following week, woodfolk gather from all parts of the forest to discuss the unknown threat. In recognition of his demonstrated commitment to them, the woodfolk decide to make Tarkyn a member of the woodfolk nation in a ceremony in which Waterstone and he become blood brothers. Tarkyn discovers that this also makes him Ancient Oak’s brother and Sparrow’s uncle.

  Tarkyn’s unreserved acceptance by the woodfolk is short lived. The next day, when another group of oathbound woodfolk arrive who have not spent any time with Tarkyn, the resentment against him surges up again. Eventually, the prince decides to assert his authority temporarily but unequivocally in the interests of protecting the woodfolk in the face of the impending threat, reasoning that he intends to leave the next day anyway so it won’t matter if he upsets a few people temporarily.

  However, the next morning an enormous magic driven storm threatens to cause widespread flooding and to force the woodfolk onto the open higher ground. Tarkyn harnesses the power of the forest to channel magic into Stormaway who orchestrates the dissipation of the storm.

  Using Tarkyn’s suggestions from the night before, the woodfolk discover that three of their kin are missing and are possibly being held prisoner by sorcerers. A power play amongst rival factions ensues where decisions are being made more on the basis of whether they support Tarkyn rather than on the issues themselves. Tarkyn confronts the worst of the factions and neutralises their antagonism.

  Once the course of action had been decided, Tarkyn uses a mind link with a mouse to reconnoitre the sorcerer’s encampment. The woodfolk are gravely shaken when he discovers that the woodfolk are indeed being held at the encampment and at least some people from outside the forest know of their existence.

  Meanwhile, a strong sense of unease prompts Tarkyn to link up with an eagle owl, which spots a shadowy figure skulking in the woods near the firesite. Tarkyn recognises the figure as a palace guard. The woodfolk capture the guard, who turns out to be Danton, Tarkyn’s erstwhile friend. But having been betrayed before, the prince is wary of trusting him. Tarkyn, the wizard and the woodfolk work together through a night of vigilance to confirm the guard’s loyalty to the prince. When they are satisfied, the woodfolk allow him to stay in the woods with them, but Danton brings the expectations and protocols of the Royal Court with him, leading to disputes between several woodfolk and himself and causing Tarkyn to re-evaluate his relationships with the woodfolk. .

  When the prince stops a fight between Danton and Rainstorm, the young woodman turns his attack on Tarkyn. The wind thrashing through the trees makes Tarkyn realise that Rainstorm and the oathless woodfolk have somehow become subject to the sorcerous oath. Despite their friendship with Tarkyn, Rainstorm and Waterstone are both horrified when they find out that the oath has spread and it is decided to keep it from the others until after the rescue of the imprisoned woodfolk.

  The woodfolk all insist that Tarkyn should not take part in the rescue because they must ensure they protect him. Since Tarkyn has also vowed to protect the forest, he cannot risk them refusing his orders and destroying the forest. So he does not insist on going with them but agrees to take part from a distance.

  Danton and Stormaway infiltrate the sorcerers’ camp, in preparation for the woodfolk mounting a rescue. They run into Sargon and Andoran, and Danton is forced to assume a disloyalty to Tarkyn to maintain his role in the rescue plot. Firstly Stormaway, and then Tarkyn and the woodfolk, suspect Danton of duplicity. Once Stormaway is reassured, the wizard and Danton concoct a series of unpleasant revenges on Sargon and Andoran, involving hallucinogens, itching powders and slow working non-lethal poisons.

  During the lead up to the raid, Tarkyn discovers that Waterstone’s objections to using horses stems from a fear he has of them. In the ensuing discussion, it becomes apparent that Danton’s possible betrayal and accumulation of people’s adverse reactions to the oath have distressed Tarkyn. Waterstone gives Tarkyn an unequivocal assurance of his enduring commitment to him, as both friend and brother, and Rainstorm bravely goes swimming with him in an icy creek to cheer him up.

  Using their own deadly accurate hunting skills and Tarkyn’s abilities to guide animals from a distance, the woodfolk knock out the boundary guards and throw the chained woodfolk onto remotely guided horses that carry them safely in the woods. But while everyone else has escaped, Tarkyn receives a strong, fear-filled image that makes him realise that Autumn Leaves has been captured by Andoran and Sargon. Tarkyn translocates into the sorcerer’s encampment to rescue him. When he returns, he faces the woodfolk’s ire for putting himself at risk but makes it clear to them that he will no longer allow them to dictate to him.

  Because Danton has been so convincing in playing his part as friend of Andoran and Sargon, Tarkyn and the woodfolk lose faith in him and take him captive. D
anton refuses to defend himself and insists that they trust him. Tarkyn relents and Danton then avers that Tarkyn is the only true hope for the future of Eskuzor, a sentiment that Stormaway reiterates.

  Part 1: The Infestation

  “And yet, my lord....” Low and intense Stormaway’s voice came from behind him as it reverberated around the gathering. “Your destiny is written in the stars and lives deep inside the trees of the forest. It has been clear from the day of your birth for all who have knowledge of such things to see. Your father and I always knew. That’s why you had to be protected. You are not only the Guardian of the Forest. You are the one true hope for the future of all Eskuzor.”

  Chapter 1

  Tarkyn whirled around to face the wizard, his long black hair flying out behind him. “No, Stormaway. I can’t be.”

  When the wizard made no reply, the prince pressed home his point, “I will not pit myself against the king. I have never wanted the throne. You know that. The intrigue would be more than I could stand.” He glanced around at the woodfolk who stood silently watching him. “Besides, I would not ask these people to go to war against my own brothers, especially when the countryside is littered with people who would turn me in for the price on my head.” Tarkyn scowled. “The whole concept is preposterous.”

  The wizard shrugged, “I did not say you had to wrest the throne from your brother. I said you were the one true hope for Eskuzor. I do not know how the prophecy will evince itself. But in the life of a prince, your own wishes are not always paramount. If, one day, you had to assume the monarchy, I know you would put your personal preferences aside for the sake of your people.”

  “But not at the expense of my people.” Tarkyn swept an arm around him, “Anyway, I cannot see how having me on the throne would do anything to forward the welfare of the woodfolk, except perhaps to relieve them of my presence.” He gave a wry smile. “But I am vain enough at this point to think that they no longer have a vested interest in getting rid of me.”