The Magic Pawn Series: The Discovery (Volume 1)

Chapter 11: New beginnings- The Barbara Balfour Campus

I could feel my entire body numb after an eight-hour long drive that would end soon, or so Eric said. We were heading for the Barbara Balfour campus and this was going to be my new home. Mystic, Chris and Maggie were also with us.

Some past unfortunate events had made magic school begin at 18 years of age when you are legally an adult; this was something I would be learning more about in history classes. You could not be taught complex magic spells until that age. If used wrongly, magic can become dangerous. Many children and teenagers had been injured or even died from silly games. Normally, even if you are a wizard, there is not much that you can do unless you know spells. Only the greatest wizards, those who you read about in books on the history of magic, have managed to create magic without having to say any spells.

It seems I was one of them and, according to the prophecy, I was destined to do great things and to become a great witch. I wanted to find out what exactly the prophecy said but they dodged that question like a bullet every time I asked, so I dropped it; and anyway, I thought this was silly. I do not believe in prophecies or other stuff like that. But I did not believe in magic either and yet it proved to be real.

Finding me was like finding the needle in the haystack. At first they did not have much except for the words of an old wizard who had been dead for long time; but they did not have anything certain.

So there I was, heading towards a new road, a new life. The Magic Pawn... I felt I was going to hit them when I heard them referring to me like that. I am just Kate. My name is Katelyn Lambert; no Magic Pawn or anything like that. I did not want to hear that because, to be honest, it scared me. It's not easy to find out that you are the most powerful wizard that is born every thousand years. When Meya died, the magic she stole in that crazy ritual, returned to me. But all that power comes with a price. I don't even know what I could start with...maybe with the fact that there was probably a bounty on my head. There were so many who wanted to get their hands on the Magic Pawn. So, I was going to be a target my entire life. I had to hide. No one had to find out who I really was. Moreover, I did not have the slightest idea how to control all this power I had. The magic that flooded me had to be used, else it would become harder and harder to control. That's the reason why Eric and Mystic were so interested in me. Unlike the others, they did not want to exploit my powers, but to help me control them.

There were however people who had a special power and who did not need a specific spell to use the gift they had. It seems that Christine was one of them. She could read people very well and thus she could figure out what their intentions were. This took time, of course, but with a lot of work and focus she could look into people's souls, feel their emotions and figure out when they lied and when they were being honest. Eric had the power to hypnotize wizards and to make them do whatever he wanted them to do. He had tried to do this to me because he thought that I was hiding something and that I refused to tell him the truth. But his power did not work on me. Maybe because I was the Magic Pawn...anyway, I don't understand anything anymore. I had so much to learn. Eric's other special power was slightly more complex and truly painful. He could make you face your deepest fears. It was all an illusion, of course, but one you could die from.

Some others had the gift of controlling one of the four elements of nature: earth, air, water and fire. And there were all sorts of other powers about which I would learn in the campus. Unlike her sister, Maggie did not possess any gift.

Two weeks had passed since the episode in Greece. Mother held a cloth soaked in chloroform over my mouth and nose to make me become unconscious and thus stop the spell. Baldric had run away threatening that I would eventually "be his".

Everybody was now excessively protective of me because of that. This is why Eric and Mystic insisted that they took me to the campus themselves. My every move would be observed. This was just great!