Ennara and the Fallen Druid [Ennara #1]

Chapter Two - A Wizard Visits

"The Gods' Ascent!" Kithe nudged Ennara on the stairs over the farmhouse living room and kitchen. She listened intently to hear more of the conversation below. The boy's brown eyes opened wide and freckles blanched out of his cheeks.

Her father and mother murmured something in response to her aunt's declaration.

"I've sent for Tork. Perhaps he will see how to stop the curse before it spreads to us all. In the meantime, getting more poison is of highest importance. I will leave for the journey as soon as I gather supplies and hire a horse."

"Of course," Lir said. "And I will accompany you."

"No, you won't," Aunt Marsaili replied. "It is essential that you stay here and use the poison remaining in my inventory to protect Ennara and Aenor and the village."

Aenor mumbled something in agreement.

"Could Ennara protect the farm? You've been training her for years. Surely she knows a light spell-" Lir objected.

"I've been teaching her theory only! You know I'm not a wizard. No," Aunt Marsaili said, "she hasn't had any practice. She isn't ready. You must stay, Lir."

Ennara had been studying magic with her aunt since she was four years old. Her parents believed one day she'd be a powerful wizard and that she had some great destiny. Legends said caul children were adept with spells, destined for heroic acts, and carried protection against drowning. In Lan, nothing could be more valuable than safe passage on the seas except, perhaps, use of potent magic.

When she was born, the midwife marked her immediately with the caul tattoo in accordance with King Rothust's Regulations for Seafaring and Magical Use. Her parents paid the midwife their entire savings to keep the child's caul secret. Since then Aunt Marsaili, an alchemist, had trained the girl in every lore she could find that could even remotely be used for magical development.

A chair scraped across the kitchen floor. Her aunt continued, "Tork will be here in less than a week if all goes well. He will offer additional security. If necessary, you can track and find me then."

Ennara had met Tork several times. He was an old friend of the family, having met her father and uncle when they were teens. He came two or three times a year to visit and usually stayed a few days.

Ennara's leg was cramping. Her feathery bangs fell onto her nose and threatened to make her sneeze. She tucked the yellow strands behind an ear and shifted to one foot to stretch the insolent appendage. The floorboards creaked as soon as her knee released its tension. Kithe screwed up his face in an attempt to make her laugh. She pressed her finger to her lips. Like a crane sitting on the shore of Lake Coeur in January, she tucked the leg under her body. She would not allow a loose-lipped floor to give their surveillance away!

Whenever Tork arrived, it seemed she was always in the middle of a lesson. He would observe her aunt's tutorial then quiz Ennara on what she'd learned since he'd seen her last. Sometimes he'd take notes and leave them behind to instruct Aunt Marsaili.

Ennara last saw him in the autumn at her tenth birthday party. Her parents held a big celebration for her on the harvest moon. Aunt Marsaili had been there, and Kithe with his parents, the innkeeper and his wife. The blacksmith and his daughter and many other people she knew from the village came. The twins from the neighboring farm and their parents were there, as well as the entire Hillman family, who brought two fiddles, a guitar, and a flute. They'd played music all night long. The family had celebrated a bountiful harvest and a decade of happy and fruitful years with their caul child.

It was at that party she'd first understood Tork was a wizard. She knew he was a scholar from the quizzes he gave her and suspected he knew magic. That evening, he gave her a gift from distant Icelan. He called it "fireworks" and said special alchemists made them. Ennara had wondered how the firework alchemists were different from her aunt. Sparkling patterns of red, purple, green, blue, and gold had filled the sky. Tork had made the lights come alive and fly around the stars in the form of fairies, goblins, flowers, and ships.