Book Preview - Mage of Merigor

Chapter One

Nathaniel loved strolling through the king’s gardens. Vibrant flowers of every variety bloomed from early spring to late into the fall. Gravel crunched beneath his soft leather boots as he walked the carefully laid-out serpentine paths. The quiet gardens had become a refuge; somewhere he could escape whenever his studies at the collegium became too tedious.

He’d lived here for most of his twenty-five years. Well, not in the gardens, but in the dormitories next to the palace where the Master Mage’s searchers brought all the children gifted in mage craft. Most children, especially the boys, fought to become battle mages revered as both warrior and mage.

Not Nathaniel. His gift, his passion, lay in the scholastic arts. His strength came from knowledge taken from years of sifting through the arcane to find spells long forgotten and buried. He didn’t belong in battle. Other students derided his sword skills as clumsy and mocked his inability to ride horses or run great distances over the hills surrounding the city.

But very few of them had the honor of walking the gardens with the king, who also loved sifting through dusty manuscripts stored in the labyrinth of lesser chambers beneath the royal library. Several years earlier, when Nathaniel had sought out the lower levels after a particularly embarrassing sparring session, he’d barged into what had previously always been a deserted ante-chamber filled from floor to ceiling with useless records of past royal households.

No one ever came to these levels where the mice feasted on decaying parchment, and the smell of rat urine permeated the walls, floors, and even the beams running lengthwise across the entire chamber. He’d rounded a corner and had stopped short when two royal guards standing to each side of the usually deserted chamber turned their heads in his direction.

The nearest guard stepped away from the wall and faced him, looking him up and down, no doubt assessing his skills as a warrior. Nathaniel expected the usual sneer, but this man merely dipped his chin slightly in greeting. “This level is off-limits to students today. The guard at the stairs should have informed you.”

Living so near the palace, Nathaniel had grown accustomed to speaking with palace staff, warriors, and servants alike. “I didn’t pass a guard.”

Turning to the second guard, the first lifted his chin toward the hallway behind Nathaniel.

No words were exchanged, but the second man came to attention and hurried away, presumably to check for the missing guard.

The first continued to block Nathaniel’s way into the chamber. “You need to leave.”

Defying a palace guard for something as trivial as a place to hide from his tormentors would have been ridiculous. He bowed his head, but when he turned to leave, someone within the chamber spoke.

“Darnel, who is it?”

Darnel raised an eyebrow, silently asking for a name.

“I’m Nathaniel Gauthier. From the Collegium.”

A dusty man stepped through the door and strode toward him.

Nathaniel assumed the man worked for the scholar caste. He smiled and pointed at the man’s head. “You have a spider web covering the left side of your head.

The scholar returned the smile and reached up to pull the strands from his mop of brown curly hair.

Darnel stepped forward and looked Nathaniel squarely in the eye. “Sire.”

Confused, Nathaniel at first thought Darnel mistakenly believed him to be royalty. When realization dawned, he quickly lowered himself into a deep, respectful bow. “I’m, I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I didn’t recognize you with all that dust…I mean, I’ve never seen you…” He realized he’d begun to babble, so instead of embarrassing himself further, he turned and headed for the hallway, hoping to make a quick exit.

“Wait, Nathaniel, is it?”

He reluctantly pivoted on his heel to face the king and lowered his head again. “Yes, Sire. Nathaniel Gauthier.”

“Well, Nathaniel Gauthier, why were you coming to this room?”

“I…I sometimes come here to look for lost spells. I’m a mage. A scholastic mage.” He colored and glanced at Darnel, once again expecting a look of disdain.

As he’d done before, Darnel kept his face neutral.

The king rubbed his hands together, trying to brush off the sticky spider’s web. “So, you’re the man who’s been leaving his tracks in the dust. I’ve often come into one of the chambers you’ve vacated and followed your footsteps to see which manuscripts you deem worthy of your attention.”

That day had begun a friendship that had lasted for several years. Even though the king’s skill in battle outshone most of his knights, he enjoyed losing himself in the lower levels almost as much as Nathaniel did.

Earlier in the day, the two of them had discovered a lost manuscript penned by the king’s great-grandfather. They’d studied it for several candle marks, and now, they walked side-by-side in the gardens, discussing the soundness of the conclusions presented within the manuscript’s decaying parchment.

As was his habit, Nathaniel walked with his hands clasped behind his back, listening to the king defend his position on one of the passages. He opened his mouth to comment on an interesting point when a snarling manticore straight from pages of superstitious folklore materialized on the path in front of them.

Nathaniel froze, staring in horror as long strands of spittle dripped from the creature’s foul-smelling mouth. Thick lips curled back to reveal three rows of razor-sharp teeth. He’d never seen a manticore before, but he knew enough to recognize its almost human head, which seemed a grotesque counterpoint to its sculpted, leonine body.

Time slowed as the beast gathered its massive bulk onto its haunches, preparing to attack. If there had been time for him to panic, Nathaniel would have. He’d never seriously studied battle magic and hadn’t a clue how to stop this monster from attacking his beloved king.

In frantic desperation, he pulled in all the magical power he could find. He drained nearby mages and stole every ounce of spirit magic from the plants in the garden. He even called up energy from the depths of the earth.

As the manticore leapt, Nathaniel threw himself in front of the king. He had a moment of shocked surprise when a flaming, demonic wraith flew out from between the jaws of the beast and plunged halfway through his chest.

The massive build-up of power he’d pulled into himself exploded into the ether, obliterating not only himself but both magical beasts as well.