Marin, Book 1 (The Xortha Chronicles)

Chapter 6: Rosh

Marin

Chapter 6: Rosh

    Marin finished her meal and rented a room for the night. Havenshire was a simple village, but pleasant. The food was as good as her Ma's and the room was clean. Marin took her books from her backpack and began reading through them again, much as she had done every night she stayed at an inn. There was a spell that conjured a tub of hot water for bathing. Another for washing  clothes and another for drying them. She remembered the teleport spell and wondered how far she could go with it. She studied Teleport being careful to memorize every word. She didn't want to get sent into the center of a cook fire or a rock or tree. No, when she tried this one it was going to be careful and deliberate.

    In the morning Marin gathered her things and went downstairs to the common room to eat. After her meal, she thanked the innkeeper and left. She mounted up on Socks and headed west again. Marin traveled until mid day and stopped to feed and water Socks and have some of her rations for herself.

    A man on horseback heading toward Havenshire stopped and asked how far to the next town. "Havenshire is about 4 leagues east of here." she said, then asked,  "How far is the next town west?"

    "D'Merrith is about 9 leagues west. You'll be hard pressed to make it before nightfall." said the man, then he waved and left.

    Marin sighed, 9 leagues means she will probably be spending a night in her tent and reaching D'Merrith tomorrow. She mounted and headed down the road, this time at a gallop until the suns had set.

    Marin and Socks stopped by a stream and camped. Poor girl. We should have just taken ourtime. We still won't reach town until tomorrow so there was no need to rush. Thought Marin. She pitched her tent and crawled in.

    Marin awoke the next morning with a terrible pain in her back. "I must have slept on a rock," said Marin as she took down her tent. Socks seemed eager to get underway so Marin stowed her things and onward they went.

    They arrived at D'Merrith before mid day and wandered around town stopping at a few shops to look around. Marin inquired about a good, clean inn and was directed to The Smiling Badger. An odd name, she thought, but not unpleasant. Before going to the inn, Marin did a bit of shopping and replenished her rations, oats for Socks, and got some saddle bags and found a shop specializing in books. Marin was beside herself. An entire shop full of books! Just think of the wonders I could find here! She went in and was met by an elderly man, bald atop his head, but had a long, white beard, and he wore spectacles.

    "Hello young lady! I'll bet you are looking for a good love story here,"said the man as he slowly walked to a shelf and took down a book."Try this one. Most girls your age like it so much they read it three or four times!" he smiled as he offered the book to Marin.

    Marin smiled at the old man and said, "No thank you. What I'm actually looking for are books on magic. Do you have any?"

    The shop keepers eye's widened, "Magic, you say? You might want to keep your voice down around here when speaking of that. Last week, a young man came here boasting of being an academy trained mage. Then he got drunk and killed five guards with one spell!" After a pause, the man said, "Well, as it happens, I might have something you'd beinterested in if you are indeed a wizard. Follow me." He led Marin to a back room and took a scroll from his desk drawer. "If you actually know anything of magic, you will know what this is."

    He handed the scroll to Marin and she unrolled it: "Chain Lightning" it read in Dregorian. She began reading the words out loud then suddenly the man snatched the scroll from her. "I'll not have you cast that here! You see, I too, am a wizard, and my name is Rosh. Ages ago, I studied magic in Tharg Calan. From time to time I make scrolls like this and sell them, discretely, to would be wizards."

    "Oh, I see," said Marin. "As you seen for yourself, I can read Dregorian and I've been using magic to earn my keep for the past month." She went on to explain finding the books in her attic and how she studied and practiced.

    "Interesting," said Rosh, "You managed to teach yourself magic from a few dusty tomes. Girl, you must be a genius to have figured out all the nuances of magical incantations and postures."

    Marin opened her backpack and showed Rosh all of her books. "This is what I learned from." Then she pointed to the book she bought from the orc and said, "I got this one later on. Most of the spells in it seem frivolous. Spells for cleaning laundry and brewing tea. That sort of thing."

"I don't know where these books came from," said Rosh as he thumbed through them, " but from what I see here, there is no academy that has written magical texts as simple as these, so far as I know, that is." He pondered a moment. "Would you be interested in selling them?"

    "No!" said Marin, feeling shocked that anyone would even suggest such a thing. "These are all that I have. I read them nightly hoping to find something new each time I open the covers."

Rosh smiled, "Indeed. Well, if it's something new you want, you might try The Academy For The Arcane Arts in ShinTzu. They train people to be the finest battle mages in the known world. Or you could travel away south to Tharg Calan. They teach magic as more of an art than a tool."

When Rosh said "battle mage" her mind was made up. She had seen battle at Highbridge and everything Marin had done with magic, so far, has been in defeating foes. "ShinTzu sounds interesting. How far is it from here?"

"A days ride will get you there by sunsdown." said Rosh. "And if memory serves, the next school term starts in three weeks, if that is your reason for going."

    Marin's mind raced with thoughts of proper magical training. Knowing, now, that there was formal training available, she felt like more of a witch doctor than an actual wizard. She thanked Rosh for his time and help, then remembered his scroll. "Would you be willing to sell that Chain Lightning scroll, by chance?" she asked.

"I normally ask for 100 gold for those, but I'll give it to you for 50," said Rosh.

    Marin winced. It may be a bargain, in his eyes at least, but that was still a lot of coin. She wrestled with herself trying to decide how badly she wanted it. In the end, Marin bought the scroll and added it to her books. She was left with twelve falcons plus a handful of silver and copper coins.

Marin went to The Smiling Badger for a meal and a room. A fine inn indeed. The meal was called "Candied Pork". It had breaded bits of meat with a rich, sweet sauce and was served with steamed rice. She tried a cup of strawberry wine with her meal. This being the first time she tried wine, her head began to spin almost immediately. "Oh my. No wonder Ma and Pa never drank this stuff." Carefully, she made her way to her room and lay down. After an hour or so, her head cleared and she felt pretty good.

Marin opened her backpack and began memorizing her new scroll. This spell was quite difficult to learn. The postures were complicated. Marin thought she would need a chance to practice the spell for sometime before trying it in earnest.