Wizard (Troy Sanders Trilogy Book 1)

14: Surprise Underneath the Ground

I got through dinner as fast as I could so that Vic and I could get down to the surprise; whatever the hell that turned out to be.

After we left the dining hall, she led me to a hidden passage in the school wall that led underground, walking down until we arrived at what looked like a pass beneath the school.

“This is not the part where you kill me, is it?” I asked in an attempt to make joke; although the moment those words left my lips, I wondered if she could.

“Very funny,” she returned, smiling at me in a manner that it was anything but. “I brought you down here so that I can teach you advanced magic tricks. You already know the basics so why not go further?”

Yeah, my magic trick. I ran my fingers through my hair when I remembered what had caused that feat. “So, tell me more about this school,” I said in an attempt to rid myself of the strange feeling that now plagued me.

“Well, what do you wanna know?” she asked.

“Everything.”

“Okay,” she began, suddenly in tour guide mood. “Firewalt's year one and two are just to learn basics, it's by year three that a wizard chooses if he wants to learn light or dark magic. If light, they stay at Firewalt; and if dark, they get transferred to a school of dark arts. Blackhead, very far from here, is the most prominent among the dark arts' schools. People literally call it the Dark Firewalt.”

“Wow!” I said; that was largely enlightening.

“So, I taught you something,” she said, “now you have answer a question in return.”

“Quiz away, teacher.”

“So, can you guess what where we are is called?”

“Oliver’s pass?” I returned, laughing at the possibility of it being true; seemed everything in that school was dedicated to the guy.

“Nice try, Troy, but no,” she replied, laughing alongside me. “It’s actually called Laila’s pass.”

“Laila.”

“Yes. Laila Firewalt is the founder and first head of Firewalt school of magic. She owned all the land that the school is now located on and history even said she was the one who had discovered this very pass that we’re standing in; a pass that was rumoured to run the entire length and breadth of this entire area.”

“And this place is?” I asked as soon as she had concluded her story; no one ever really did tell me that.

“Sanctuary,” she replied.

“Sanctuary,” I repeated, very confused. “That doesn’t sound like somewhere I’ve seen on any map.”

“Because it’s not,” she returned, shrugging like she hadn’t just told me that I was in a place that didn’t exist on the map. “You see, Sanctuary is a metapore. A metapore is somewhere that’s still a part of the earth but more magic-oriented. They’re usually created by a wizard’s spell, set aside so that the magic community can live and go about their business freely within them. There are about ten metapores known in the magic world; all of them housing everything from magic schools, to law firms, magic malls, and even one, called the Pinnacle, is home to the Council of magic. A spell guarding the metapores makes sure that no one without the right resources can find it. Hence, why we use the special carriages to get here.”

“Wow!” I said for the second time that night; there was definitely a lot I didn’t know about the magic world, like how we were inside a frigging pocket dimension- I mean, could you believe that?

But Vic was done playing teacher and she dragged me forward. “Come on,” she said, skipping ahead all cheerily as we went.

We got to a place that looked like a cave inside the pass; and very dark too. “I don’t like going into dark places,” I quickly said before she suggested anything like that, which, knowing that girl like I did, wasn't far behind.

“Me too,” she replied, and snapping her fingers, torches, which I didn’t know were there before, became lit.

The torches revealed a narrow gloomy passageway and I suddenly had the urge to just dash up to my room and cower under the bed. But no such luck for me as Victoria already clutched my hand tightly and pulled me down the passageway.

We finally arrived at the end of the cave where it was so spacious I began to wonder how deep underground we really were.

While I watched, Victoria attempted to light what looked to be a really big lamp. “Flames,” she commanded and a ball of fire appeared in front of her which she sent towards the lamp. But the fire made no impact on the lamp; its wick weren’t even blackened a little.

“Troy, it seems this lamp wants to be adamant tonight,” she called to me. “I’ll need to combine my magic with yours to be able to light it up.”

Not really knowing what was about to happen, I went over to her side and she asked us to hold hands. She spoke some words in what sounded like rapid fire Latin and immediately, I felt some kind of energy flow from me to her and back. Looking down, I saw that our hands had begun to glow with a red light and though I had the urge to pull away, I held tightly on.

And then, lifting our hands towards the lamp, she commanded again, “Flames.” But only a white smoke appeared this time.

“Seriously, Troy!” she shouted at me, smacking me hard in the stomach, “You were supposed to say flames. How do you think combination works?”

“Well, it’s my first day in class, Vic,” I rubbed my stomach- God, that girl could hit like a Mack truck.

She didn’t appear sorry about her misconception about my magic knowledge; but she did explain it to me afterwards. After I had gotten the lesson, we tried again and this time I shouted, “Flames!” alongside her- you do not wanna go through that ordeal twice, trust me.

A big ball of fire appeared on command and we sent it to the lamp; lighting it this time. It was really a cool sight, I had to admit; but not as cool as what I saw next.

There was some kind of crystal deposited all around the cave which made the light reflect into all parts of the cave. There was also some sort of underground waterfall in the cave which had the same kind of crystals strewn all around them, bathing the water in gold as it raced off a cliff and down to its bed below where more laid- talk about the golden lake huh?

Victoria was practically full of joy as she ran up ahead and began to get out of her clothes.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“We’re jumping into the water,” she returned, giving me a “Duh!” expression

“But you said you were going to be teaching me advance magic.”

“And I am,” she returned. “Trick one, Troy: live life!”

She had already stripped down to her underwear then and began to run towards the cliff; pulling me with her cloak and all. There's no way in hell I'm jumping off what looked like a cliff with that girl! I screamed to myself; the cliff we were supposed to be jumping off was at least eight feet high- and I did grossly underestimate when it came to calculating heights- into a water that we didn't even know how dangerous it was considering all those crystals deposited all over it. We could end up killing ourselves and it would all be Victoria's fault; and mine too for allowing her talk me into that foolish escapade.

“How would we get out?” I asked, going for a more pressing fear.

“Levitation, silly,” she said like I should already know; this girl always seemed to forget that it was my first month with magic. “It’s easy Troy, trust me.”

But trusting Vic, especially when she was in one of her crazy moods, wasn't something I could do and so, I tried vehemently to stop her from getting me near the edge; in vain, I might add, which was quite surprising considering that I was almost twice her size; and she didn’t even look all that strong to begin with.

She was about to push me over when we suddenly heard footsteps from down the passageway. “Someone’s coming,” I said as if it wasn’t obvious enough; I guess my fear hadn’t let me go at that time.

Victoria made some quick hand gestures and her clothes immediately appeared on her body. She snapped her fingers and all the lights became extinguished. Well, all except the big lamp.

“Extinguish,” she commanded and I saw a gust of wind rush at the flames; but no impact.

“What’s happening?”

’I don’t know,” she replied, “I think we might need to combine powers again to extinguish it.”

“Why don’t you just try water, it’s still fire after all,” I suggested. I couldn’t just sit around combining powers while some unknown people bust me.

She controlled some water and sprayed it on the lamp; but all the flames did was turn green and burn even brighter. We didn’t bother to try again or with a larger portion of water in the fear of what might happen; whatever was wrong with that lamp, water wasn’t its solution.

The footsteps became much louder as they got closer and so, we hid behind a rock.

While we were hiding, a faint breeze suddenly blew in from no direction and I perceived Vic’s honey shampoo; and like always, the churning followed. I looked over at her hanging really tight to my chest- the rock was not an ideal hiding place for two people, believe me- and she looked up at me, her clear blue eyes glittering like a sapphire in the little light that entered the cave; they actually always looked beautiful whenever they weren't filled with craziness or mischief. And then, my eyes drifted to her lips and I immediately started imagining tasting ripe strawberries.

We heard the footsteps and she involuntarily huddled closer to me, as if we weren’t close enough before. Her top was really soft so I felt her body without so much obstruction; plus, she still wore her bum shorts and her knees kept brushing against mine. I tried, really tried, but some inappropriate thoughts managed to filter through my mind.

What the hell, Troy! I suddenly caught myself and shook the mental cobwebs off of me angrily. I was down in an underground cave with one of the school's most powerful nutjobs, about to get caught, and my crazy mind still had the time to run in that kind of direction; that was really beneath me

Throwing all caution to the wind, I stood up and shouted at the lamp, “Just die!”

Immediately, the lamp extinguished and the place was already dark before the footsteps reached that compartment of the cave; their owner presumably confused at what just happened.

I couldn’t see Vic’s face but I was sure she was as surprise as I was. “How did you do that? ” she asked.

“No idea,” I replied, and it was no lie.

We waited until the person- or people, whoever might have owned those footsteps- left. And then we raced up to our rooms without so much as a “By your leave” when we parted.

Somehow, I knew that my thoughts of Victoria and me extinguishing the fire were connected. It began to seem like the more I tried to get away from that girl, the more I became tied to her.