A Sorcerer's Rings, page 3
part #4 of Song of Sorcery Series
“Smaller than Gruntal,” Tobia said. “The Gruntalians don’t permit settlements outside, so their city walls encompass more land.”
If Tobia spoke the truth, Ricky realized that his perception was off. Faulty perceptions could be devastating. He’d been subject to plenty since he came out of Shantyboat Town.
The carriage drove through the areas outside of the city proper. The buildings were presentable, and the roads were paved and wide. Tossa’s old city had had crooked streets that were lined with buildings that needed to be replaced. So far, so good, Ricky thought.
When they came to the walled part of the city, the carriage slowed and joined a line.
“Papers and Ring inspection,” Minnie said.
“Ring inspection?” Ricky needed help with the words.
“You’ll see,” Tobia said.
A man dressed in gray academic robes asked them for their papers. He carried a stool with him.
He looked at Ricky’s identification and let him stand back.
Minnie stood there until the man asked her to sit. The inspector called for a Reader. An old man shuffled towards them and went down on one knee in front of Minnie. He pointed to Minnie’s right foot. She lifted her dress and removed a shoe and a thin white stocking revealing her bare leg.
The man sang in an odd key, and three thin black rings appeared around her leg just above her angle. He motioned Tobia over, who did the same. His servant’s leg had a single band.
“What’s that?” Ricky asked.
“Verification of our progression in the Duterian Rings. I left before I graduated to the Fourth Ring, and Tobia had barely made it to the Second before our unfortunate experience.”
“Does it help to have the tattoos in the city?” Ricky asked once he learned the word for tattoo.
“We can own property inside the city walls. You can’t.” Minnie said.
Ricky looked back at the part of the city on the outside of the wall. “So commoners live there,, and sorcerer’s live inside?”
Minnie nodded. “So the Tower proclaimed when they took in refugees from the Paranty purge four or five hundred years ago,” she said in Parantian.
That brought a frown to Ricky’s face.
“Don’t worry. It wasn’t instantaneous. It was a proclamation of intent, a policy if you will that gradually took place. When we left Duteria over a decade ago, a few commoners still lived inside the walls, but as they moved out or died, sorcerers were given priority to purchase the property in the inner city. It is the same today. I asked.”
“Can I fund a house that you buy, so we can to live in it while I progress through the rings?” Ricky said.
“In Hessilian, young Valian,” Minnie said.
Ricky struggled through the entire sentence.
She smiled. “You are getting better!”
~
A sorcerer had recently died in an old but decent-sized townhouse right across from an entrance to the First Ring. It was available for sale at an exorbitant price. Minnie snapped it up, since Ricky could pay cash for the place. Ricky sat in on the final sales agreement and was surprised he could catch the gist of what Minnie and a representative of the sorcerer’s estate said. He didn’t need to understand the language to admire Minnie’s prowess as a negotiator. In the end, she presented her papers with the physical certification that she had reached the Third Ring. After a trip to the State Bank of Hessilia with the representative, the deed was given to Minnie. The Dastoyas owned a house, and Ricky was listed as lien-holder.
Ricky spent his first few days in Duteria cleaning out their new house. The place had been neglected, and Tobia would be spending months involved with the repairs.
“You live inside the First Ring until you drop out or you graduate to the Second,” Minnie said. “Our house is well-positioned, close to a First Ring entrance that goes all the way through to the Tower.”
They both worked, cleaning the tiny panes of glass in a bedroom that faced the open area looking towards the First Ring. The work wasn’t hard, and it gave Ricky time to fully recuperate from the wounds he had suffered on his last night in Dimani.
“What is going on outside?” Ricky said, looking through the mottled glass.
“Today is a market day. Markets spring up at the First Ring entrances on various days of the week. The vendors just move around the ring so they can sell every day. Another reason for taking this house. Much of what we need appears at our doorstep to buy every week,” she said. “Want to venture out?”
By the time they finished their window cleaning, they had dragged Tobia out of the back garden and walked across the street to the field in front of the First Ring, now filled with tents of all kinds surrounding the cobbled road that led directly from the rings.
Ricky grinned. It reminded him of the market close to Shantyboat Town. Gray-robed sorcerers meandered through the little lanes between tents.
“It isn’t appropriate for sorcerers to wear their robes outside the rings when not on Ring business, but the market is a different story,” Tobia said.
Ricky saw that every gray robe had rings on the back like the two guardians of the entrance to the inner city. “What are the circles for, the rings?”
Minnie nodded. “Yellow, Orange, Red, Purple, Blue, and Green for the Tower. It’s represented by a filled-in circle in the center. When you enter the First Ring, you’ll wear a robe with a large yellow ring. When you graduate to the Second Ring, you’ll receive a single ring tattoo on your right leg. It is a spelled tattoo that only appears when someone with the proper song activates it. Only Tower Sorcerers know that spell. Many outsiders have tried to recreate the tattooed rings, but no one had ever succeeded when I left.”
Ricky nodded, understanding most of what Minnie said. Every conversation was a learning experience as Minnie went over her words again.
He paid particular attention to the sorcerers. None were as young as he, and the number of older men and women wearing a single yellow circle surprised him. He remarked on the observation to Minnie.
“Some come to the Rings to learn and never leave. They find a vocation that they enjoy. For some, it is the feeling of the songs they sing; for others, living in the Rings can be an escape from an unhappy home life. Some of the vocations pay enough that allows them to maintain their status. Those never progress very far. You’ll find that life in the Yellow Ring is not like your time spent at Doubli Academy. There are different ‘flows,’ as we call them. Some move quickly from one ring to the next, and others never do. You’ll want to get into a fast flow. Tobia and I can help you there.”
Ricky endured another lengthy Hessilian lesson as they strolled through the market. Minnie sent Tobia out on tiny errands to bring back food and supplies. The vendors sold everything, it seemed to Ricky. Tobia left with arms filled with goods only to return for more. Minnie continued to be free with Ricky’s purse, but Ricky didn’t care. He didn’t have any idea how to run a household, and Minnie was an expert.
They came to an open area crowded with people.
“What is this?” Ricky asked.
“Remember the dueling sites in Gruntal? This is Duteria’s version. Watch,” Tobia said coming up behind Ricky.
Minnie didn’t spend much time clearing up Tobia’s comment in Hessilian.
Two sorcerers entered the square dueling site. The crowd stepped back a bit. They removed their robes and faced each other.
“First to leave the ring loses. If a sorcerer is injured, the sorcerer who does the injuring loses. It is an odd set of rules, but it does keep sorcerers from killing each other,” Tobia said. “Duels are not permitted inside the Rings.”
The first sorcerer sang and called up a whirlwind that surrounded his opponent. Ricky saw a globe form. He recognized it as a shield, but just like a shield with the onslaught of twirling dust, it began to quickly degrade. The protection finally broke down, and the sorcerer left the site coughing, his clothes brown from the dust.
“Can anyone duel?” Ricky said.
“You can beat the winner?”
Ricky shrugged. That was easier than getting another lesson from Minnie. He knew he hadn’t seen other spells, but Ricky could defeat the whirlwind, of that he was sure. He left Minnie and stepped across the little fence that outlined the site.
“He’s only a boy,” one of the comments came to Ricky’s ear. He smiled, as the words were becoming more familiar.
“Only a boy, but still a sorcerer,” Ricky said.
His opponent looked very confident. This would be a simple, quick match, Ricky thought. The sorcerer, who had sported two rings on his robe, wouldn’t be able to deflect like Ricky could, he hoped.
The man used the same song, and Ricky felt the air swirl. He spelled deflection and let the whirlwind buffet the immensely superior shield that Ricky had developed. It didn’t degrade in Ricky’s experience. He walked towards the sorcerer, whose eyes told Ricky he couldn’t believe what was happening.
Ricky bent down to be theatrical, for he considered a Duterian form of performance sorcery, and lifted his arms as he deflected his opponent from the ground and pushed him out of the ring. The man had no defense for Ricky’s action, and he began to wheel his arms to stave off the inevitable loss.
Ricky waved to an appreciative crowd. He stepped out of the ring.
“That was easy,” Ricky said.
“It won’t always be,” Minnie said.
An older, short Tower Sorcerer walked up to Ricky. “Raise your pant leg,” he demanded.
Ricky obliged and pushed down his sock.
The man rose, his eyes wide. “You are unranked!”
“I’ll be entering the First Ring in a week or so,” Ricky tried to say. Minnie had to clean up his sentence.
“Parantian?” the sorcerer said in Ricky’s language.
“I am,” Ricky said.
“Parantians shouldn’t know a Tower spell,” the man said.
“Tower spell?”
“It was one song that you used to defeat him, right?”
Ricky nodded. “I call it deflection.”
“That name is as good as any other. You have more tricks up your sleeve?”
“I have come to the Rings to learn more tricks,” Ricky said.
“Good luck, young man. You are probably eager to reach the Tower. Realize it will take you many years to do so. An exceptionally talented sorcerer takes a year or more per ring. But your age counts against you, for the young are too young to wait. I doubt you will last to the Third Ring before frustration makes you withdraw from the rings, but then I never thought to see a sorcerer so ably pushed out of the ring.” The sorcerer walked through the crowds and disappeared from Ricky’s sight.
Ricky stepped out of the crowd towards their house. “I think we are done here,” Ricky said.
“You may be, but I’m not, and don’t talk in Parantian,” Minnie said. “Get yourself some food on the way out and don’t get into trouble.”
Ricky nodded, getting most of what Minnie said. Tobia gave him a little wave as he left. His little duel had left him hungry. He had passed some street vendors and decided it was time to test what Duteria had to offer. As he juggled three different items, the sorcerer whom he had defeated walked up to him.
“Why did you embarrass me?” he said in broken Parantian. The sorcerer’s Parantian was better than Ricky’s Hessilian.
“I don’t know the rules. I thought I would try my hand. I’m sorry if you are disappointed by your defeat. I would be, too.” Ricky leaned over to see three rings on the back of his robe.
“I heard you talking to the Tower Sorcerer. What did he say?”
“That I probably wouldn’t make it as far as you. Young sorcerers get bored and wander off, it seems,” Ricky said. “Do you want a bite of one of these? I can’t eat them all.”
The man stepped back. “You are so casual for one so young.”
Ricky looked at the First Ring. “We are outside the rings. Can’t we be friends?”
“I don’t see why not. I’ll take the fried biscuit.” He took a breadstick drizzled with an orange glaze of some kind. Ricky hadn’t tasted it and didn’t know if it was sweet or savory. “Where did you learn that spell?” he said. “The Tower sorcerer said it was a Tower spell.”
“I didn’t learn it in Duteria. I found an ancient Parantian book and learned the concept from that.”
“Do you still have the book?” the sorcerer said a little too breathlessly.
Ricky now knew why he was so friendly. “No, it wasn’t mine to keep.”
“Teach it to me. I’ll pay you.”
Ricky was in over his head, talking to this sorcerer.
“No, I—”
“Is this man bothering you?” the short Tower sorcerer from before said to Ricky.
Ricky exhaled, not realizing how tense he had become. “No, but he wants something that is not mine to give,” Ricky said.
“Secrets?” the short man said to the other sorcerer. “We have rules against that, right?”
Ricky’s erstwhile opponent nodded to the Tower sorcerer.
The short man turned to Ricky. “Spells are earned, not purchased inside and outside the rings in Duteria, young man.”
Ricky nodded. He watched the Third Ring sorcerer leave them. The man dropped the uneaten fried biscuit next to a tent as he walked away.
“You have much to learn, but it appears that you are not entirely ignorant. Do you live close by?”
Ricky nodded. “I do. My friends and I purchased a house on the ring road.” Ricky pointed out his townhouse.
“They are sorcerers?”
“One left while in the Fourth Ring, the other before he graduated from the Second. They had to be sorcerers to buy a house in the inner city.”
The sorcerer smiled. “So they did, so they did. I’ll accompany you to your house. Shall we?”
The Tower sorcerer let Ricky munch on his street treats while they walked.
“We just moved in, so the house isn’t particularly presentable.”
The older man looked up at the facade. “Willet Volavoy lived here for nearly thirty years. I understand he left it a mess.”
“He was a Tower Sorcerer like you?”
“Not like me,” the man said, “but he did make it to the Tower at age forty. That’s when he bought this house. He had spent so much time in the Rings that he didn’t want to live in the Tower. I don’t blame him, since I did the same thing.”
Ricky showed him in. Minnie had made the sitting room the first priority and Tobia hadn’t just dumped what they bought at the market in the front room, so he offered a seat to the sorcerer.
“My name is Kened Gostok. I originally came from Gruntal. There are a lot of magicians born in Gruntal, and many end up in Duteria.”
“I am Hendrico Valian, but people call me Ricky.”
Gostok’s eyes brightened. “Some sorcerers object to nicknames, but I’m not one of them. Feel free to call me Kened when I am outside.” He looked around the sitting room. “I can already feel a big difference, although it’s been half-a-year since I last set foot in this house. Willet was somewhat older.” He sat on the edge of his seat and squinted at Ricky.
“Are you considered a prodigy where you are from?”
Ricky nodded. “I was asked to come to Duteria sooner than later by two former Parantian Ring sorcerers. You might know one of them, Mirano Bespa.”
“The White?”
“I don’t know what white represents,” Ricky said.
“He is a healer?”
Ricky nodded. “He is very good.”
“Bespa would be Tower material if he chose, but healing was his calling. If you have proclivities for healing, you learn at the Ring Hospital, which is outside the rings. If he says you are ready to enter the Rings, then you are. Did he give you some kind of document to present?”
Ricky ran upstairs and brought the invitation down. Kened read the face of the document and then turned it over and hummed a spell, creating more writing.
Kened glanced at Ricky. “You didn’t know about this?” He continued to read. “You have a glowing recommendation. It details some of your abilities, so I can see why Bespa didn’t want to have others read this. Sorcerers can be jealous. I must admit that is a fault I fall into from time to time, but not in your case.”
The admission of jealousy set off a warning bell in Ricky’s mind. He had, with painful naiveté, let Kened Gostok into his house.
“Why did you want to talk to me?” Ricky asked.
“A very good question, Ricky. I was interested how a Parantian so young would come to Duteria. We don’t allow minors into the Rings, as a rule, but rules are made to be broken, some say.” He waved the invitation. “This says we would be fools to send you away. Your talent would have made attending the University of Sealio problematic for you. I’ll write my own note, for all to see, by the way, on the front. That may help you get settled.”
Kened pulled out a pen of some kind and hummed, a spelled writing instrument. Ricky wondered what it did, but that might be Tower sorcery, as well.
“There,” he presented the modified invitation to Ricky.
“You are a Tower councilor?” Ricky said, seeing the title under Kened Gostok’s name.
“Don’t worry, there are thirty of us. It is part of my duties to monitor the market at this portal, for you see, I’m a neighbor. My own dwelling is only a few streets away. Not so close to this portal as yours, but in easy walking distance.” Kened stood up and straightened out his robe. “I’ve bothered you long enough. I’m sure I’ll see you again. I take back what I said in the market about your dropping out at the Third Ring. From what Bespa said, you should make it through all Five Rings in less than five years. The Tower may require more work to enter, but we can save that aspect for a future time.”
Ricky showed him out the door and watched him head back into the market area. He sat back in the sitting room, wondering what would really happen in the very near future when he entered the First Ring.
~~~
Chapter Four
~
