Can't Look Back (War for Dominance Book 1) Read online

  “Why not?” asked John.

  “Because you can’t,” replied Ghorza. “It’s just the way it works. You can only memorize the spells allotted to you by your level.”

  “How many can I memorize?”

  “The number of spells per level is dependent on your rank,” replied Ghorza. “A first rank mage is normally able to memorize two first level spells. I have no idea what you will be able to memorize.”

  “Why not?”

  “Two reasons,” answered Ghorza. “First, you have the Spell Book of Aran-Than. That should cause you to function as a third rank mage. If so, you would have three first level spells and a second level spell available. Second, I can’t judge your ability because I don’t know how it works when someone can cast more than one type of elemental spell. I don’t know if that will give you extra spell capacity. It seems like it might, as you appeared to have more mana than you should have had for casting cantrips.” She shrugged. “I think the only way we’re going to find out how many spells you can memorize is to have you learn some.”

  “Ok!” said John. This was the moment he had been looking forward to ever since he found out that he could cast spells. He was going to learn to cast real spells and become a mage.

  “I would start out with something easy to cast and control,” said Dantes.

  “Agreed,” said Ghorza.

  “How about ‘Magic Missile?’” John said, pointing to the page. “That goes where it’s aimed, right?”

  “That’s not an air-based spell,” said Ghorza, “so I can’t read what the book says; however, I believe that is true.”

  “Yes,” confirmed Dantes, “Magic Missile goes where it is aimed. Unless a counter-spell blocks it, it will hit your target. It won’t do much damage, but it doesn’t miss. That is probably a good one to start with. I would also try the spray- and ray-based spells.”

  “Spray and ray?” asked John.

  “There are first-level spray spells for most of the elements; I know for sure that there are ones for fire, acid and ice. They send out an elemental spray that damages any of your enemies that get caught in its cone. They don’t do that much damage, but they’re quick and easy, and they hit from a decent distance. There’s also an electrical one, but I think you have to touch your enemy to use it, so that is probably not a good beginning combat spell. We want to keep the enemy away from you, as you can’t cast spells very well with a sword stuck through your gut.”

  “Umm, no, that’s the kind of the thing I’d like to avoid,” said John.

  “Good,” said Dantes. “I don’t know if Father Telenor has a raise dead spell or not, but I’d rather not have to find out. The ray spells work like the spray spells, but they are second level; they are more concentrated and cause more damage. I know there is a fire-based one called ‘Scorching Ray;’ you’d have to look up the other elemental ones because I don’t have them in my spell book.”

  “Would it be better to just memorize several of the same one?” asked John. “If the fire-based spray spell works well, shouldn’t I just memorize it as many times as I can?”

  “It depends on the situation,” said Dantes. “Sometimes, you will be going up against creatures that have a weakness to a certain element. In that case, it would probably be better to load up on a certain type of spell. If your opponent doesn’t have a particular weakness that you know of, you might want to have a broad range of spells available. You might find that one works better than the others, which would be good information to have for your next fight against that type of creature. Also, getting hit by one element after another might cause additional system-shock damage.”

  “There are other considerations that go into the decision making, too,” he added, “but much of that discussion revolves around various tenets of arcane philosophy that we don’t have time for now. One quick example is my list of spells. As a devil-spawn, my spells with flame effects are more potent than if they were cast by you. Even against creatures that are resistant to fire, my spells are still sometimes effective due to their concentrated nature. Against creatures that are susceptible to fire?” He smiled, and John could see him reliving past battles. “They don’t stand a chance.”

  “So I should try a little something from all of them?” asked John.

  “Yes,” said Ghorza. “I think Dantes’ advice is good. Try the sprays and rays.”

  “Okay,” John said. He went back to paging through the book, this time with a purpose and a happy smile on his face. He stopped on one labeled ‘Spray of Flames.’ In neat, crisp handwriting it read:

  Spray of Flames

  Evocation

  Level: 1

  Mana Cost: 1

  Components: Verbal and Somatic

  Range: Short/Cone AOE

  Duration: Instantaneous

  Description: Winter wolves threatening to put a chill on

  your day? Warm things up with a spray of flames.

  A previous owner had also scribbled a note in the margin that read, ‘Warning: do not cast this spell in front of the king’s tapestries or anything else he finds valuable. He doesn’t have a sense of humor regarding their accidental destruction.’

  “This spell is fire-based,” said John, looking up at Dantes. “Can you explain it to me so that I understand what I need to know about it?”

  Dantes looked down at the book. “Yes, this is an excellent one to start with. In fact, it was one of the first ones I learned.” He chuckled when he read the note. “It seems even the illustrious Aran-Than had accidents when he was first learning magic.” He looked up. “This spell is quite simple. What do you not understand?”

  “Take me through it, please. For example, what’s an evocation?”

  “An evocation spell taps into a source of power to create the desired effect. Basically, it creates something from nothing. In this case, it calls forth a spray of flames, without drawing that energy from your body. There is a wide variety of evocation spells, and many of them cause great amounts of damage.”

  “Got it,” said John. “I guess that ‘verbal’ means that I have to say something, but what is a somatic component?”

  “You’re right; the verbal component means that there is a spoken incantation. Say someone casts a silence spell on you; if you can’t say the trigger phrase, you can’t cast the spell. The somatic portion means that there are also some very specific hand motions that have to be performed; you can see the drawings below the spell that indicate what you’re supposed to do. If you don’t do them correctly, such as if someone hits you or you are wearing armor, the spell can be ruined. If that happens, the spell might not cast, or it may cast incorrectly.” John nodded, so he continued. “Some spells also have material or focus components. A material component is a physical substance or object that is destroyed by the casting process. If you don’t have the required item in your inventory, you can’t cast the spell. For example, I need a tiny ball of bat guano and a bit of sulfur to cast a fireball.”

  “Bat guano?” asked John. “That’s gross. Do you have to collect it yourself?”

  “Either that or pay someone to do it for you.” He shrugged. “You get used to it. The last item is a focus item, which is a prop of some sort. Unlike a material component, the focus item isn’t destroyed when the spell is cast, so it can be used again. One example is a cleric’s symbol of faith, which is an item of divine focus. A priest needs his holy symbol to cast most of his spells.”

  “Okay,” said John, “I think I understand. Can you help me with the fire-based ones, so that I understand how to say the words and do the gestures?”

  “Yes I can,” replied Dantes. “You are on your own for the ones that aren’t fire-based. All I will see in your spell book is a smear of illegible writing and blurred pictures. If you can’t cast the spell, you won’t be able to tell what it says.”

  “It’s time to get into position,” Fitzber said a short time later as the sun touched the horizon. The group stood up and moved to their designated
positions.

  “You go to battle well-armed,” said Lady Ellyn, looking at the scimitar hanging at Ghorza’s side.

  “I’ve found that it’s better to go into combat well-armed rather than not,” agreed Ghorza.

  “More to the point,” said Father Telenor, “I think Lady Ellyn is saying that we have never seen a mage carry a sword.”

  “I’m guessing you’ve never been to the orc lands either, eh?” asked Ghorza.

  “No, I haven’t,” said Father Telenor.

  “If you had, you would understand,” replied Ghorza. “A sword keeps working when mana runs dry. It’s kept me alive on many occasions when I would otherwise have been at my opponents’ mercy.”

  Chapter 31

  “Something is wrong,” said Rubic, looking over the lip of the hill at the campsite below. “This soon after the battle, they wouldn’t make camp and not post a guard, would they?”

  “No, they would not,” Khazatch replied. “Certainly, I would not, anyway.” He looked again, using his ability to see into the infrared. Although more limited than many of the other races, the orcs had developed it when they lived underground, and many of them were still able to see the differences in heat. He scanned the camp again. “Wait. There is one guard, but he’s hard to see because he’s on the other side of the campfire.” Khazatch slid a few feet to the left to get a better look that was less impeded by the fire. “How many were there supposed to be?”

  “They left with five. They had the devil, the half-orc, the outlander, the paladin and the cleric.”

  “The one I can see is small, so it must be the outlander. Wait, they must have added someone else to their group, because I see five more heat sources in their bedrolls. There are six total.”

  “What do you recommend?” asked Rubic.

  “Have the troops circle the camp, and then have the shaman cast a Hold Person spell on the guard. Send in the worgs, followed by the rest of the platoon.”

  “I agree,” said Rubic. “Do it.”

  Khazatch gave the hand signals and the rest of his platoon deployed. When they were in place, he moved forward slowly with the shaman until they were in range of the guard. The shaman cast two spells, saying the words so quietly that Khazatch, who was standing next to him, could barely hear them. The first was cast on the patrol leader, helping him resist fire. When fighting a teufling, it was a wise precaution. The second was cast at the guard, after which the shaman nodded, indicating that the guard was held immobile. Khazatch gave the owl hoot to signal the attack.

  The worgs raced into camp, followed by the orcs. As they entered the circle of light cast by the campfire, the orcs screamed their battle cry to help disorient their foes as they woke. The worgs gave a scream of their own, but theirs was one of pain as the ground grew spikes all around them. The orcs’ screams of defiance turned to confusion as the undergrowth developed a mind of its own, and vines started wrapping themselves around the orcs’ legs. The orcs were entangled, their motion slowed.

  “They know we’re coming!” yelled Khazatch, jumping back from several vines that reached out to grab him. “Rally to me!” He moved back outside the Entangle spell’s area of effect; the rest of the patrol wasn’t so lucky.

  Chapter 32

  The mages watched as their enemies raced into the camp. “Now!” said Ghorza, who had the best night vision of the group.

  “Globus Incendi!” commanded Dantes, and a bead of fire sprang from his pointer claw. The fireball traveled to the center of camp, growing slightly en route, before detonating with a low roar over the campfire. The worgs that had attacked the sleeping forms in their bed rolls were all roasted by the fireball. Most of the orcs were still outside the main blast area, though, and were only singed by the flames. The fireball also burned the covers off of the forms ‘sleeping’ by the fire...rocks, which had been heated by Dantes to give the illusion of body heat.

  The sixth worg attacked Fitzber, who didn’t move as the wolf raced toward him. As he had expected, he was held in place by the shaman’s Hold Person spell.

  Any time now, Telenor, he thought as he watched the worg lope toward him, saliva dripping from its fangs. Fitzber had plenty of experience hunting worgs on the frontier; he knew it wouldn’t be distracted by his lack of movement. Although some bears wouldn’t attack if you played dead, worgs would just chew on you until they got the reaction they were looking for.

  “Obstupefece!” commanded Telenor, removing the paralysis.

  Fitzber felt life come back to his limbs and shook out his arms. Although he hadn’t been held long, he knew he needed to get the cast right the first time, or he would be dead, buried beneath a wolf that weighed three times as much as he did. “Empathia Feri!” he commanded, casting a Wild Empathy spell that befriended the charging worg. As the beast gathered itself to spring on him, Fitzber saw the worg’s eyes glaze over, and the animal went into a head-first tumble as the expected pounce didn’t happen. Fitzber stepped out of the way as it crashed past and then took a step over to it to scratch it behind its ear. “The green ones want to hurt us and our pack,” Fitzber said. “Let’s go kill them.”

  The worg bounced up from the ground and oriented on the closest orc. Nothing was allowed to hurt a member of its pack, and killing was not only something that the worg understood very well, but also something that it liked doing. A lot. It raced forward while Fitzber picked up his bow. The orc saw the worg racing toward it but didn’t give it a second thought as it stumbled forward toward the patrol leader. He turned away from the worg, so he didn’t see the giant wolf spring. It leapt onto his back, and the orc barely had time to feel the worg break his neck as it slammed him face first into the ground.

  The rest of the companions dropped from the trees on the opposite side of the campfire from Fitzber and Telenor, and Lady Ellyn sprinted toward the patrol leader and the shaman, helped along by one of Ghorza’s Haste spells. Telenor raced from the other side of the camp to join her.

  Dantes’ second fireball erupted in the closest concentration of orcs, killing several of them outright and burning two more that dove to the side. It also served to alert the orcs to the group’s location. “Get them!” yelled Khazatch. “Kill the casters. I will take care of the paladin.” The nine remaining orcs turned and charged the mages.

  John had never been attacked by anything that intended to do him harm, much less things that were armed with swords and battle axes, and he felt his knees go weak. He couldn’t think of any of the trigger phrases that he had labored to memorize just an hour earlier; all he could think about was running. John’s eyes twitched to Dantes on his right. The teufling was gesturing in preparation for casting a spell. He looked to the left and saw that Ghorza was doing similarly.

  “Molaris!” Dantes shouted, and two force missiles shot out from him. They started small, but then grew to almost a foot in diameter. The missiles hit the leading orc in the chest and face and exploded; what was left of the orc wasn’t pretty. The dead orc fell backward, missing most of its head.

  “Segniter!” Ghorza commanded. A crackling black ray shot out of her hand to strike two of the orcs behind the one that Dantes killed. As John watched, they seemed to shrivel and grow old as their life force was pulled from them. Their movements slowed, and they fell to their knees, gasping for breath.

  “Don’t just stand there, do something,” grunted Dantes. “Cast Magic Missile, if you can’t think of anything else.”

  John snapped out of his daze. He remembered the pictures in the spell book, how the movements went and... “Missilis Magici!” he commanded, and two missiles jumped from his finger at the next orc in line. Smaller than the ones that Dantes cast, the missiles sped unerringly to their target and hit the orc in the chest, knocking him backward. The orc wasn’t dead, but he didn’t appear to be an immediate threat any more.

  “Dormi!” shouted Ghorza, casting a Sleep spell at one of the remaining orcs. Nothing happened; the orc kept coming. Ghorza drew her scimitar as the orc
s were almost on them.

  “Scorching Ray on three,” said Dantes. “One...two...three!” As one, Dantes and John both commanded, “Fluxum Ignis!” and a stream of fire blasted forth from their outstretched fingers. The two cones of fire overlapped in a wave of blazing destruction that washed over the charging orcs. The orcs screamed, sounding like squealing pigs. Three of them didn’t make a sound; they fell dead. The other two orcs pushed their dead bodies out of the way and leaped to attack the defenseless casters.

  The first orc carried a battle axe, and it swung at Dantes and John. Both casters dove out of the way of the killing blow. John fell to the ground, and the orc took a step toward him, raising the battle axe over his head. Before he could chop down, he suddenly lurched, and the battle axe fell backward out of his hands to land on the ground behind him. His eyes rolled up into his head, and he fell forward onto John, an arrow sticking out of his back.

  The second orc swung his sword at Ghorza, intending to take her head off. Having grown up with orcs, she recognized the attack and used her scimitar two-handed to block it, the two swords clanging together sharply. As the orc’s sword rebounded, she let go of her sword with one hand, pointed at the orc and commanded, “Dormi!” The orc fell to the ground and lay still. After a moment, it started snoring.

  Lady Ellyn approached the orc leader and his shaman with a speed born of Haste, while Father Telenor came as fast as he could to join her from the other direction. The shaman gestured behind the orc, and Khazatch momentarily glowed. Lady Ellyn had fought enough orcs to know that the platoon leader had just received a Protection from Good spell; he would now be harder to hit. She slowed, both to allow Father Telenor to catch up as well as to catch her breath. Running in armor was tiring, especially when Hasted.

  The shaman gestured again with his staff, and Lady Ellyn was plunged into darkness. Stupid orcs, thought Lady Ellyn; they can never do anything honorably. She tried to back out of the darkness, but was unable; the shaman had cast it on her. She knew that while she was disabled, both of the orcs would attack Father Telenor, hoping to remove his support. “Inveni Malum!” she said, casting a Detect Evil. Sure enough, she could see two forms through the darkness, both circling her, one on either side. Based on where they had started, she was fairly certain the one on the right was the leader, so she backpedaled to the right to cut him off.