Messenger of the Dark Prophet (The Bowl of Souls: Book Two) by Trevor H. Cooley Read Free Book Online Page A

can’t force this on the students without an order from the council,” the wizard said. “All I can do is suggest it to a few students that need it most. I doubt if I will be able to convince even one to do it.”
     
    Within a week, he had half a dozen students running behind him.
     
    Every morning after the run, Justan would come to the small training area behind the guard’s barracks and practice his sword forms. He became better and better as he was able to match his movements with the newfound agility that had come from his bond with Gwyrtha. As the group in his morning run grew, so did the number of spectators during his sword practice. A few of the guards even took up the challenge and sparred with him.
     
    The guard force at the Mage School consisted of forty men, but only half of them were actually academy graduates. The rest were local men from the guard garrison of the city of Sampo . These local men worked at the school for many reasons, but the biggest reason that they signed up was for the experience of working with the academy graduates. The populous of the Kingdom of Dremaldria looked up to academy-trained warriors as the best in the known world, so these local men were surprised to see a mere Mage School student holding his own against them.
     
    Some of the academy graduates were irritated at being shown up in front of students and fellow guards. Justan wasn’t oblivious to their grumblings, but he was so focused in his determination to improve, that he ignored them. Luckily, Riveren and Zambon were able to calm down their peers and keep the situation in check. There was one thing, however, that he couldn’t help but be nervous about. The stares and whisperings of the other students grew more intense every day.
     
    After finishing his morning exercise and eating a quick breakfast, Justan usually had to hurry to get to his morning class. Since he had come to the school so late in the year, the wizards were doing one-on-one tutoring with him to get him up to speed. The morning class was always long and on some days lasted until lunch.
     
    The teachers of this morning class rotated every week. It seemed as if the entire faculty had heard of Justan’s situation and every one of them wanted to try their hand at solving the puzzle of the interesting young man. Some of the wizards even decided that the best way to find out where his true abilities lay was to skip the preparatory training and try to teach him spells.
     
    Offensive spells were the easiest to learn, so they started with those first. Offensive spells were any kind of magic that affected an object. Everything from healing, to making a storm, to lighting a single candle was considered to be a use of offensive magic.
     
    Every wizard or wizardess that taught Justan came away impressed with his eagerness to learn and how quick he was to catch on to the most difficult concepts. They also left bewildered at his lack of magical control. No matter how hard he tried, he could not handle the simplest offensive spell. In fact, Justan hadn’t been able to produce any outward manifestation of his magic since the day that Locksher had tested him.
     
    The wizards coaxed and teased and tried just about every tactic known to help Justan, but it was as if he had no offensive magic at all. Justan grew frustrated as well, for this was the type of magic that he had figured to be most beneficial. What good would he be on the battlefield as a magic user if he couldn’t strike an enemy with his power or even heal a friend?
     
    Justan struggled until the wizards began trying to teach him defensive magic. Defensive spells were mainly used for negating or changing offensive magic. For instance, a wizard with powerful defensive ability could deflect a fireball or dispel an illusion.
     
    Defensive magic was usually taught last because you had to have an understanding of the way offensive spells worked in order to counter them. Justan was once again the exception.