The Tower of Sorcery

"She married father," Je

"I would think that it is," the Sorceress said in a mild, calm voice, touched with amusement. "You are brother and sister?"

"Yes ma'am," Tarrin replied respectfully.

"I can see the resemblence," she said.

"Not many people can," Je

"On the contrary, I ca

"It's an amulet," Je

"Not what it is, child, what the symbol means," the woman elaborated.

"No," they both said, almost in unison.

"It is the symbol of my order," she told them, pulling the chain over her head and holding the ivory object in her hand. "We call it the shaeram. It represent the seven spheres of Sorcery. Earth, air, fire, water, the power of the mind, the power of the Goddess, and the seventh sphere, which is the power of confluence."

"Con-flewence?" Je

"It means the power of joining, of unity," she said with a smile. She held out the amulet to them. "Here, take it. Hold it in your hands, and tell me what you feel."

Je

"What's the matter?" Tarrin asked quickly.

"It's hot!" she said loudly.

"Hot?" Tarrin said. He put his hand near the amulet. "I don't feel any heat," he said, then he put his hand on it. The instant he did so, it felt like he'd grabbed a piece of stock out of Master Karn's forge. "Ahh!" he hissed, yanking his hand back and shaking it violently to cool it. "How do you wear this thing without getting branded?" he asked the Sorceress crossly. Je

"Here, let me see," she said calmly. Je

His skin was severely blistered wherever it touched the ivory.

"It burned you," she breathed in surprise. She put her hand over Tarrin's seared fingers, and Tarrin suppressed the desire to yank it away when he felt something flow into his hand. The throbbing pain eased, and then was gone, washed away by some sort of sensation that was warm and icy at the same time, and not entirely pleasant. She let his hand go, and he gawked at it. His fingers were smooth, pink skin, and showed no signs that anything had happened to them.

"How did you do that?" he asked in shock as she took Je

"My name is Dola

They both just stared at her.

"The young one is a bit too young," the knight said.

"No matter," she replied. "I am amazed that neither of them have done anything. She needs instruction before she has an accident." She put the ivory amulet back around her neck, tucking the device back under her bodice.

"What are you talking about?" Tarrin asked.

"Both of you, you have tremendous potential," she said, pursing her lips. Then she noticed the slightly confused looks she was getting. "Both of you have the natural talent to be Sorcerers, to be katzh-dashi," she explained. "Tremendous potential. The shaeram burned you. I have never seen that happen before."

Je

"That means that both of you must come to the Tower of Six Spires, in Suld, and undergo formal training," she replied. "Soon. Now."

"Now?" Je

"Je

"There is no need to look so surprised," she said gently. "Nor is there reason to be frightened. I will speak to your parents, and let them know what has happened. Then we will all sit down somewhere quiet and discuss what must be done."

Tarrin put his arm around Je

"I was surprised," she said a bit ruefully, and then their voices were lost in the din. He didn't notice the knight stop and look back at them.

"But I wanted to be a knight," he said numbly, putting his chin on the top of his sister's head.

They had been missing quite a while. Tarrin was still sitting with Je

Sorcery. Although his father had many times told tales of the Sorcerers of Suld, Tarrin had never really paid much attention to them. His father had worked with them in the past, and his stories and impression of them was very good. Tarrin had been raised to believe that Sorcerers and Sorcery were good things, and that the katzh-dashi deserved to be treated with honor. But never, even in his wildest fantasies, had he ever considered the possibility that he would be capable of using Sorcery. That was a power for special people, the people in the stories. Although it existed, he never dreamed that it would affect him so personally.

Poor Je

The others seemed to sense that something was wrong with the Kaels, but they did not intrude. Tarrin thought somewhere in the back of his mind that they knew that this would happen to some family. Every time a Sorcerer arrived, parents began to worry about ever seeing their children again. Last year, Timon Darby was taken to learn Sorcery in the Tower, and Leni Darby, his mother, had moped around, not speaking a single word, for over three months. Timon had visited last month, and he looked well from the glimpse that Tarrin got of him. What made it seem so bad was that the Sorcerers wanted both of them, that his mother's sense of loss would be that much worse with having to let go of both her grown child and her adolescent child.

"Tarrin?"

Tarrin turned. Elke Kael was standing there with his father and the Sorceress, the knight standing a bit behind them. It was obvious that his mother had been crying. Eron looked somber and serious.