Visions of Chaos Read online

  Visions of Chaos

  Book 1 of the Divinity Seeds Series

  Copyright Des Pensable 2015

  Published by Des Pensable at Smashwords

  Smashwords Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favourite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  About the Title

  A divinity seed is a small piece of divine knowledge forbidden to mortals.

  Cover Design

  Cover design by Renee Barratt, www.TheCoverCounts.com

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 Mark of the Beast

  Chapter 2 Family Secrets

  Chapter 3 Facit Dodecoid

  Chapter 4 Slip Sliding Away

  Chapter 5 Welcome to Mudrun

  Chapter 6 High Wizard Featherdown

  Chapter 7 The Fountain

  Chapter 8 The Hatchery

  Chapter 9 Suspicions

  Chapter 10 Chaos Matter

  Chapter 11 Surprises

  Chapter 12 Picnic by the Sea

  Chapter 13 Decisions

  Chapter 14 The Ruin

  Chapter 15 Hunting

  Chapter 16 The Cave

  Chapter 17 Jacintra

  Chapter 18 The Ambush

  Chapter 19 Fate Steps in

  Chapter 20 The Tempest

  Chapter 21 Questions and Answers

  Chapter 22 Trouble in Twin Towers

  Chapter 23 A Visit from Granddad

  Chapter 24 Crin City

  Chapter 25 Aquitain vs Snowbelle

  Chapter 26 Travelling

  Chapter 27 The Little People

  Chapter 28 Games within Games

  Chapter 29 The Mask Strikes Again

  Chapter 30 The Barra Ritual

  Chapter 31 Quiet Before the Storm

  Chapter 32 The Trap

  Chapter 33 Mind Battles

  Chapter 34 The Passion Flower

  Chapter 35 The Temple Puzzle

  Chapter 36 Preparing for a Siege

  Chapter 37 The Skirmish

  Chapter 38 The Betrayal

  Chapter 39 What am I Quab?

  Glossary

  About the Author

  Connect with Des Pensable

  Chapter 1 Mark of the Beast

  It was hot and humid on the edge of the market square where Rob Theolaur stood watching the crowd. A drop of sweat streaked down the side of his face stopping cautiously on the edge of his chin before plunging to the ground leaving a star shaped splash in the dust.

  He paused for a moment more to watch a bare-chested street entertainer juggling three knives and a flaming torch. Nearby a waist high storyteller dressed in a tattered green dragon costume exhaled miniature puffs of fire to an audience of laughing children. Market days in Panmagica always had a carnival atmosphere and he could have watched the sights and drank in the ambiance for ages; but he was here for a purpose.

  ‘Over there,’ he shouted to his two bodyguards as he pointed to a green and white canvas covered market stall.

  He launched himself at the crowd and fought his way through the sea of faces and closely packed bodies with his guards struggling to keep up. A tattooed woman draped with a large snake blocked his way. She offered small bottles of miraculous potions. He shook his head and waved her aside. A food vendor waved small pieces of greasy meat on long thin sticks in his face and he pushed them away abusing the man.

  Small black flies were already out in great numbers, buzzing annoyingly around his face and eyes, but there wasn’t enough room to use his flyswat.

  ‘Damn this heat!’ he said to no one in particular.

  The magically induced breeze had failed to eventuate again. The city engineers blamed the new high-rise buildings for changing the airflow patterns but didn’t seem to have an answer to the problem. So everyone just had to smile and tolerate it. The crowd seemed happy but the merchants’ patience was a little strained.

  Rob wouldn’t have been there at all, had he not earlier received a message that his cousin was expected back today. He would normally have been busy in his workshop repairing magical items. However, he wanted to buy her a small gift to celebrate her return. She was more like a sister than a cousin. He had missed her greatly, and was really pleased that she had finished her training and was returning home.

  Finally he reached his objective to find a dazzling display of amulets, brooches, belt buckles and rings. The jewellery had been spread out lavishly on wooden trays lined with black silk, and sparkled with an unnatural beauty.

  He muttered a few strange words and his eyes glowed briefly with a dull shade of purple. He could now see that many of the pieces contained a simple glamour to enhance their beauty and presumably hide their defects. One or two were in the form of miniature dragons, and these captured his interest.

  Algrin the merchant mopped small beads of salty water from his forehead then moved hopefully over to Rob with a polished smile.

  ‘Good day, milord. What can this humble servant do for such an esteemed wizard as yourself on a glorious morning like this one?’

  ‘I’m looking for a gift for a female friend. I was hoping for something interesting, but all of these goods you’re displaying are enhanced by deceptive glamours to cover up their faulty workmanship,’ said Rob.

  ‘Have you any other amulets similar to these dragon designs, but of better quality?’

  ‘You have a discerning eye for one so young, milord. I have some miniature fire dragon amulets that might interest you. I’m told they were crafted somewhere in the Yith empire by master artisans using their strange, alien magic.’

  Algrin produced a black velvet bag from under his robe and tipped out three small, finely detailed silver dragon shaped amulets into a cloth and laid them on a polished wooden tray, placing it on the bench top before Rob. These pieces were of far superior workmanship.

  ‘I’m only a simple merchant and can only believe what I have been told, but many of my customers have sworn that the charms hidden within these amulets have changed their lives. They are known to warm the hearts of young women and induce them to acts of great passion. I’m sure that one of these would make an excellent gift for your friend.’

  ‘I’m not sure that my cousin would be overly enthusiastic about getting passionate with me,’ said Rob, chuckling, while his two bodyguards grinned at the suggestion.

  ‘One never knows the effect that this type of magic might have on a young woman, milord. Perhaps she will change her outlook towards you. Cousins have been known to favour cousins before today.’

  Rob was amused by the thought as he reached out to pick up one of the dragon brooches for a closer inspection, but as he did so something strange happened. His fingers appeared to meld together, leaving his hand looking more like the flipper of a turtle. Embarrassed, then suddenly annoyed at this indignity, he hastily withdrew the offending hand and hid it behind his back.

  ‘What sort of trickery are you up to merchant? I’m not in a mood for jokes,’ growled Rob sternly.

  Algrin was not quite sure of what to think. He had noticed the change in Rob’s hand. He was now suspicious, and inclined to think that that the wizard was up to some type of deception. With the heat and humidity his patience was thin.

  Anger rose swiftly in Rob as he backed away, examining his flipper-like hand with the other and wondering how the merchant had done it. He should have felt the vibration
al tingle that accompanies magical activity. His reaction now gave him a look of guilt, causing the merchant to slip his hand inside the neck of his robe to grip a small spherical amulet of crystal that hung on a chain about his neck. He evidently hoped this would protect him from any malicious magic.

  One of his bodyguards noticed Rob's angry expression.

  ‘Calm down, my Lord. It is not good for you to become too excited. You must use forbearance.’

  For several seconds Rob and the merchant stood glaring at each other, until their concentration was broken by a nearby shout.

  ‘You there lad! Come here!’ commanded a loud masculine voice. Suddenly a bare-footed young boy broke into a run a few paces to the right of Rob, ducking and weaving through the crowd.

  ‘Catch him!’ yelled the town's watch sergeant as his two assistants raced off after the boy. The crowd stopped momentarily to observe the chase, then resumed its chaotic journey.

  Rob’s feet were solidly anchored to the cobblestone road as he sought to control his anger, still pondering the strange transformation of his hand. His mind was jerked suddenly back to his surroundings when he felt the pressure of a hand on his shoulder, and someone behind him said ‘You there lad!’ in a voice mimicking that of the watch sergeant.

  His heart missed a beat and anger surged again as he spun around to face whoever had the temerity to touch him, only to see a smiling young woman of his own age with a brown leather bag slung over one shoulder.

  She had short-cropped raven hair and the purple tattoo of a warrior on her light tan face. Her clothes were more those of a traveller, a loose long sleeved olive shirt tucked into darker green masculine pantaloons that vanished into knee-high brown leather boots. Attached to the side of each boot was a dagger of the type that might be thrown or wielded. On her wrists, partially covered from view by her loose shirtsleeves, she wore a pair of brown leather bracers inlaid with small glowing figures of tortoises carved finely from mother-of -pearl.

  ‘By the Powers, I thought ... Melanie, it’s good to see you.’

  Melanie’s smiling expression changed to one of concern as she took in the angry expression on his face, but looking into his eyes she relaxed and hugged him briefly.

  ‘What’s wrong Rob?’ she asked with a hint of worry in her voice.

  ‘Someone’s played a trick on me,’ he said, looking suspiciously at her and tucking his new flipper under his left arm to hide it.

  ‘Calm down Rob, it’s not good for you. You must use forbearance. There’s a tavern at the end of the street. Let’s go there and sit down for a while,’ she suggested with some perplexity, and taking his good left arm she towed him along, fighting her way through the crowd. The two bodyguards followed them, grinning like gargoyles. They knew her well. It was quite possible that whatever had happened to Rob’s hand might have been one of her practical jokes.

  Algrin the merchant followed them away from his stall for several paces, watching them suspiciously as they wove their way through the crowd to the tavern. He was curious about the young wizard, and wanted another glimpse of his malformed hand. He should have been less worried about Rob and Melanie and more diligent about his stall, for behind him, one of the street vagrants who was loathe to pass up such an opportunity, slipped in and pocketed the three fire dragon amulets that Rob had shown an interest in.

  Wiping his clammy brow as he fought his way back through the crowd to his stall, he was thinking that perhaps he was wrong about the young wizard, when he noticed the missing amulets. He cursed loudly at having been tricked by the young pair into leaving his goods unprotected.

  ‘I’ll fix those thieving young bastards,’ he thought angrily to himself as he called over a young lad he knew and handed him a coin to deliver a hastily scribbled message.

  Upon their arrival at the tavern, Rob sent his bodyguards home with Melanie’s bag and found a dimly lit booth in the back of the room. He called for a jug of ale and for a moment observed the motley bunch around them to see if anyone had an undesirable interest in them. The place was poorly ventilated and reeked of a sour, unpleasant aroma indicative of unwashed bodies and spilt beer. Nearby were two black clad men who whispered together while looking about furtively, as if worried about something or someone.

  A cloud of foul pipe smoke wafted over to them and Rob coughed and spluttered, resenting this violation to his lungs. There was a low murmur of hushed voices but nobody seemed interested in them, so he relaxed a little and returned his attention to Melanie. He gave an almost imperceptible signal with his hand. She understood his gesture and nodded slightly in assent.

  His eyes glowed a dull purple colour momentarily as he created a mindlink between them. They could now talk, send mental pictures and feelings to each other in safety using mindspeak, a form of mind magic.

  Mind wizards, the practitioners of mind magic, had an internal font of magic they called their source and were feared for their abilities to control and manipulate peoples’ minds. They were rare in this city as the consortium of religious groups known as the Unity of Wisdom which governed the small city-state of Panmagica had outlawed the practice of this type of magic.

  ‘It’s really lovely to have you back . I’m surprised at how fast the last few weeks have gone. Did you learn much from the shield master?’ asked Rob through the mindlink.

  ‘Rob, it was great! You would have loved it there. I found the food a bit spicy at first but I grew accustomed to it. The brew was magnificent and the people really nice and very hospitable. I didn’t get much time for sightseeing, as the weather was pretty horrible and we had a busy training schedule. We were also snowed in most of the time.

  ‘The strangest thing was the night sky. All the stars were different and the world had two moons. We were in a town by the edge of a sea that was a hundred leagues across. You could smell it in the air and the sounds of the snow birds woke you every morning with their screeches.

  ‘Master Nello, my instructor was really lovely. At first he was very formal and awkward. He finally admitted that he wasn’t used to teaching women his special fighting techniques, as few women took up arms in their society. He said his methods needed a strong arm and steady legs and I was too lightly built. However, after the first couple of training sessions where I thrashed his best assistant at sword fighting, he changed his mind and we got on well from then on.

  ‘He first taught me the main techniques with his unusual type of shield and then we worked on how to blend it all together with my style of dagger and short sword fighting. He had a pair of his special shields made for me and we practiced and modified the technique for my light build every day for weeks, until I could do it in my sleep.’

  ‘That’s wonderful Melanie; now tell me, how did you pull that trick on me? I couldn’t feel any magic being used at all, and you know how sensitive I am to it.’

  ‘What trick Rob?’

  ‘The one where you made my fingers all meld together into a flipper,’ said Rob, as he pulled out his hand from under his arm to show her. However, he found his fingers had returned to their normal state.

  ‘What are you talking about? It looks normal to me,’ said Melanie with an impish grin. ‘It sounds like someone in the marketplace has played some sort of illusion trick on you, but I swear it wasn’t me this time.’

  Melanie returned to the topic of her trip and talked on about the place for ages, showing him mental images of some of the people and places; but Rob was only partially paying attention. He was also trying to work out how someone had disguised the magic so well that he couldn’t feel it. He was still highly suspicious that Melanie might have done it, and was concerned that he had not seen through it. Previously, he had always been able to perceive illusions for what they were. This one had looked and felt so real.

  They chatted for more than an hour, warmly enjoying each other’s company, exchanging memorable images and feelings through the mindlink with ease, while quenching their thirst with two jugs of ale
.

  ‘And how are you, Alpha?’ asked Melanie, momentarily glancing up at the top of Rob’s hat. ‘Aren’t you going to talk to me?’

  ‘Hello Melanie ,’ replied Alpha. ‘You two seemed to be so excited at seeing each other, I didn’t want to interrupt.’

  Alpha, was a rough cut emerald, as large as a walnut, camouflaged with a simple glamour to look like an ordinary pebble. It was Rob’s memcrystal, an extremely useful little magical construct, given life by having a small piece of Rob’s own mind embedded into it.

  Sitting on top of Rob’s hat, Alpha was a sentinel with a 360-degree view, watching and listening for trouble. It was akin to the familiars often used by wizards, but less obvious and considerably more reliable. It could communicate with him and others using mindspeak.

  Eventually, Rob and Melanie finished chatting, left the tavern and started home down one of the narrow streets filled with cheap bars and food stalls, towards the more respectable area where their grandfather’s magic equipment shop was located. They light heartedly strolled along conversing mentally and not paying much attention to anything around them, until Alpha sounded an alarm.

  ‘Warning! Possible trouble behind! . The lane across the street looks clear!’

  They turned and saw a group of six men who looked to have an unhealthy interest in them, approaching rapidly. Rob grabbed Melanie’s arm and ran with her across the street to the entrance to the narrow lane, but as he did his anger surged. His legs folded underneath him as if they were made of rubber and he collapsed heavily, using his arms to cushion the fall.

  He screamed in rage, sending a huge pulse of emotion through the mindlink. It scared Melanie for a few moments. She pulled free and spun around to face their attackers, shouting though the mindlink.

  ‘By the Powers Rob, control yourself or someone might get hurt! Please use forbearance; I’ll take care of these idiots.’