Halfwizard (Book 2 of the Troy Sanders Trilogy)

11: What was Past and What was to Come

“Welcome to your other half, Troy Sanders.”

I opened my eyes but instead of being on the cold hard ground, I was on a warm, soft bed. I looked up at the ceiling and knew without a doubt that I was at the school infirmary; guess I must have hit the ground harder than I thought.

I wanted to move but couldn’t. It was as though a heavy load pressed me firmly to the bed. Oh my God! I must be paralyzed, I screamed in my head; or even worse, dead. “Somebody help me!” I tried to shout but my voice came out as a whimper.

Vic rushed to my side; she must have been at my side all along but I couldn’t see her because I didn’t turn. “Calm down Troy, it’s just a relaxation spell,” she said with a lot of reassurance, but there was still worry etched on her face.

Francesca entered at that moment, cast a spell which I supposed was to “un-relax” me before asking, “Exactly what happened to you, Troy?”

“I...” Wait a minute, I couldn’t tell her that I was flung against the wall like a ragdoll by a man who was only supposed to exist in my dreams, could I? “I slipped and hit my head on the floor,” I decided to say instead.

“You slipped, hit your head on the floor and became unconscious for almost a day,” she repeated. Yeah, she wasn’t believing that story. And I couldn’t fault her; even I knew that explanation was weak.

“That’s what happened,” I still returned firmly.

“Well, if you’re up for it, you and I should take a ride,” she said as if she wasn’t just doubting me a second ago.

I was feeling better- in fact, a lot better than I believe I should feel in under a day- so I nodded affirmative.

The ride didn’t take long but it felt like an eternity as none of us made a sound and believe me, that silence was accusing.

“Wait here,” Francesca finally said when we reached a foresty area of the school and she dismounted from her horse.

She took a few steps forward before touching the air and I saw it ripple like the surface of a water body. She muttered a few words in a language I was sure as hell wasn’t Latin- or any other that I knew, for that matter- and went through the ripple; disappeared literally into thin air.

“Wow!” Vic and I exclaimed simultaneously. I was as sure as hell that she hadn’t seen anything like that before; and if she was amazed, I was super-amazed.

Suddenly, a portal came into view and I saw Francesca urge us forward from the other side.

“A cloaking spell!” gasped Vic, very excited. “A very powerful cloaking spell.”

She and I walked in through the portal and everything around me immediately began to feel very familiar. But it wasn’t until I actually stopped and looked around that I knew why. I was in the Shroud.

“Welcome to the Shroud,” echoed Francesca.

“Wow!” exclaimed Vic again. “I’ve read a lot about this place but never thought it actually existed.” I had to say I had never seen her so excited over anything before.

I realized that everything in the Shroud was just as I had dreamed it, contributing to the fact that there was still a lot unsolved about my supposed nightmares. Francesca led us to a place I knew so well; the destroyed Alcamax.

“This Alcamax is the oldest here, existed almost at the same time the Shroud was created,” explained Francesca. “I believe that the Shroud was created specifically to house this particular Alcamax.”

“What do you think the Alcamax held?” I asked. Obviously, I already knew what it imprisoned; but I was still a little bit curious about what others knew about him.

“I don’t know,” she replied, “but whatever it was isn’t to be taken lightly.”

“So, why did you choose us to come with you?” asked Vic then; funny, I had forgotten that she was present with Francesca and I for a second there. “I thought the Council was supposed to be handling this kind of situation.”

“Because I trust you more than the Council,” she replied. “Besides, if anything is about to go wrong, we have to be the first to be aware of it and be prepared to respond as appropriate.”

Now, it was my turn to doubt. Remember Francesca was the one apprehensive about telling me what she was really thinking the other day; and now she was showing me the Shroud. There was definitely more to that.

“We’ll be prepared,” I replied firmly anyway. If she was thinking this whole “I trust you” routine would make me open up, she had definitely missed her mark; nothing short of a hellish torture could break me. “I’ll be prepared,” I said again just to reinforce my resolution, “I’ll be prepared.”

I had never seen a place so packed before; not even when the Mayor of Krestwick offered everyone a free ticket to come watch the local baseball championship final.

“Don’t worry, Troy,” Cole said when he saw me fidgeting uncontrollably, “everything is going to go smoothly.”

“Easy for you to say, you’re in front of the crowd all the time,” I returned. "This is all new for me."

“Oh come on! Don’t be such a big baby.” He punched me playfully on the arm- that seemed to be a norm with that guy.

I placed my red and gold cloak well over my suit- everything about me seemed to be screaming Firewalt- and walked out to the podium, almost fainting when I saw the immensely cheering crowd.

Almost every wizard from the other magic schools were present. Even the heads of the schools were included. This Ventelum championship must be the biggest event of the year in all the magic schools, I thought to myself.

After the cheering had stopped- or at least, reduced to the minimum- I stepped onto the podium. “Good evening, everyone,” I began- good enough, right?- “We’re here to-”

“To watch history being made,” interrupted someone from the crowd. I looked up to see Stan walking towards me- of course, who else but my half-brother could be that rude and insolent?

“I’m here today to challenge the Valorwizard of Firewalt to a duel!” he shouted but then reduced his voice to its minimum for the next part. “Or are you chicken, halfshell?”

I knew why he had decided to challenge me in front of everyone; beat me in that duel and my reputation as valorwizard was over- I was a Sanders too, remember? I knew how we thought.

“I don’t think you should get hurt over something that you can’t even get anything out of, Stan,” I said. Yeah, unfortunately, I still had to be the reasonable brother even if I didn’t want to be.

“But I can,” he replied. “Remember the deal?”

“Alright, if that’s how you’re willing to play, I’ll fight you,” I finally conceded. If I kept trying to reason with him, he might probably spell it out for everyone that I had placed everything I had on a bet with my “I just met you but I dislike you more than the devil himself” half-brother; definitely not the kind of reputation I wanted.

I looked at him and saw something I hadn’t see before; an evil determination; and it was directed at me. It was starting to look like even more than the man from my nightmare, I might have to fear Stan Sanders more.