Broken Mage by D.W. Jackson Read Free Book Online Page B

back up. He wanted to
just jump in and see what happened but his better judgment won the
battle. While he could hold the spell for a good time, sooner or
later he would need to take a break. He had brought gems and a
small supply of metal with him. If he made some enchanted rings
with the new shield spell it would give him a chance to rest even
if he found himself in a place without air.
    It took what he believed to be two days
to get everything ready. He had made five rings though he hadn’t
tested them. They each had two gems since he had been unable to
make the new spell work as an individual enchantment. It was hard
to tell how long they would last but there had only been minor
changes in the shield composition to force it to keep out
everything. He still believed it should last a good two to three
hours before it began to wane.
    Looking down into the dark water Thad
took one final breath to steady his nerves and stepped over the
edge. He didn’t fall straight down as he expected, as he forgot
about the enchantment on his right foot that had him bobbing in and
out of the water like a piece of driftwood.
    Laughing at his own ineptitude Thad
turned off the enchantment to his foot and let the water pull him
down. It was an odd feeling being pulled under the water without
any ever touching him. He had made his shield so it stayed close to
his body to keep from wasting excess energy so the water was simply
inches away yet he remained dry.
    He was pulled along in the darkness for
a long time. His new spell seemed to be working as expected as he
hadn’t had any trouble breathing so far. The only trouble he ran
into was when he could feel the weakening of his first ring. He
hadn’t anticipated changing out his rings while he was still
floating in the water. No matter how fast he was there would still
be a brief moment where the water would be able to reach him. That
didn’t seem bad on its own but if he was completely submerged when
the second ring was activated the water would be trapped inside
with him.
    Thad didn’t have a long time to find a
way around his current predicament so he did the first thing that
came to mind. He cast a shield around his entire body around the
one already encompassing it. Turning off one shield ring he quickly
activated the next then let his own magical shield go. It had
worked perfectly and he was still dry with a new ring powering his
protection. He still had three rings left and didn’t want to use
them unless he had to, in the event he was forced to sleep while
still underwater.
    When his second ring was about halfway
through its magical reserve the underground river began to slow
down. And within moments he found himself able to stand once again.
Using one of his rings to illuminate the area Thad found himself in
a wide cavern where the water had pooled into a large underground
lake. He couldn’t see the walls of the cavern but that meant very
little with his limited vision.
    Thad continued on walking on top of the
water. The main problem he faced was that without a point of
reference it was hard to tell what direction he was heading. For
all he knew he was walking in circles. When he finally found a
small section of rock that jutted from the water big enough for him
to lay on he decided it was a good time to stop and
rest.
    As far as he was concerned the day had
been a success. He was no closer to an exit as far as he knew but
his new spells had worked perfectly. So far he had to fight for
every little piece of magic he had learned but lately it had come
much more naturally to him. As long as he could figure out the
principles the spell worked on it was easy to recreate
it.
    As much as he enjoyed using his magic
he wished he had a fresh supply of wood to make a raft. While he
was resting he picked up a small stone and tried to change it
enough so that it would float but no matter what he tried the rock
refused to stay above the water. He didn’t really expect the spell
to work but it