Chapter XV

It was freezing cold outside. Lucius was trying to warm himself up by stamping his feet and moving his arms. Suddenly, he noticed several nobles in the crowd. "What are they doing in the building full of wounded people?" he thought to himself and followed them.

Entering the yard, the nobles headed towards the building. It was obvious they were not there to make peace. They pushed the door roughly and stormed into the building.

Their sudden appearance startled the people in the room. After a brief awkward silence, the doctor, whom he had seen somewhere, asked the nobles what they were doing there. The answer was strict:

"In the name of the nobles and the governor of the city, we demand to see the wizard, as we know, he is being treated here."

"Following the commander's orders, no one, but doctors may visit the wizard."

"You are in Mondelay and as I am the governor, no one can go against my wish!" shouted the nobleman, distinguished by his well-built body.

"Sir, I am sorry, but I cannot disobey the commander's orders," the doctor replied calmly.

The governor said nothing, stepped back, and told something to his people. Who took out their weapons hidden in their clothes and moved towards the doctor.

Nobody knew how everything would end, if not the loud sharp voice cutting the air around.

"That's enough!" this voice made everyone freeze on the spot. Lucius guessed who it might have belonged to.

The wizard was slowly descending on the wide stairs of the Palace. He was covered in bandages from the waist down and calmly strolled down holding on to the banister. The silence once again consumed the place. Even the wounded stopped moaning. Despite obvious suffering from deep wounds, despite the pain, the wizard must have been through, one could feel such dignity, style in every move he made the people could not take their eyes off him, haunted by the power the man had over them.

"As I understand, you want to see me so urgently that you were ready to kill people for that," he told the noblemen in his chilly voice. The guardsmen were holding their weapons up, still staring at the wizard in awe. The wizard walked toward the governor, who now stared at the wizard as if he had swallowed his tongue.

The noblemen were looking at each other flustered and did not even dare to move. The wizard stopped in front of the governor.

"What did you want to tell me?" he had a calm but cold voice.

The entire hall was silent, absorbing each of the words. The governor also noticed it and finally muttered out whether they could talk somewhere else.

The wizard looked around the hall and before the governor replied; the door was banged open again, and the officers stormed into the building. Then the army divided into two parts and gave way to a well-built man of medium height. Lucius heard someone whisper he was a commander.

"What are you doing here?" the commander asked the noblemen sternly.

"I am the ruler of the city and where and when I go is only my business!" replied the governor, fuming. 'You allowed all and sundry to enter my city, you did not lock the doors despite our constant demands, you never notified us about the fights in the city, you don't inform us about your plans and now you ban us from entering somewhere? Don't you think you are taking over? Have you forgotten I am still the authority?'

"My soldiers are shedding blood in the city. People starve to death, the kids are dying in the arms of their parents, the streets are covered in blood, people are going insane. You are sitting cozily inside your wall, enjoying yourselves at the fire, while my soldiers are sacrificing themselves and find frozen kids in every street. How you dare to rebuke me?" shouted the commander in reply.

"How dare you talk to me like that?" the governor's face reddened with rage. He continued yelling some words. As a reply, the Commander also started shouting. Some officers followed him and the entire hall was in pandemonium. The tension was increasing. The soldiers also unsheathed their swords, and no one knows how everything would have ended if not the wizard.

"Enough!" this word silenced the hall. However, this was not just a shout, it was much more. A strange feeling which sent shivers down his spine overwhelmed Lucius. Others must have felt the same way. This must have been the reason everybody froze suddenly so that you could hear a pin drop.

As soon as the wizard started talking, Lucius realized he was talking in an unfamiliar language for the people of Mondelay, but somehow every word he was saying was still understandable and sounded like ringing a bell in the heart of every listener, although he never raised his voice.

The wizard said that the fight here was ridiculous compared to the danger they loomed ahead. If they continued in that way, everybody would die. He was certain that the only way to survive was to stay within the wall of the town, as the people beyond the wall would face an inevitable death in the hands of the red-eyed soldiers who were about to attack the city. Therefore, everybody should be allowed in. The wizard added people were not fully secure within the gate either, as the red-eyed monsters could also break in, so they had to survive the attack until the help arrived. For that, however, they needed a food supply and many people capable of fighting.

The wizard said that now the officers were collecting food in the town and when they had collected as much as they could and when the people had entered the wall of the city, the gates would be closed. This had to happen sooner than later. If not, then all of them would be doomed.

As soon as the wizard stopped talking, the hall was silent again. He did not say who would come to help them or what kind of help they would be receiving. Lucius asked nothing. He was not sure whether this was for fear or any other reason, although he could understand that the power of the wizard over the people was enormous. First, the governor turned around and left together with his people, then the commander heeled him with his officers. While the wizard was talking to the doctor, the latter answered briefly and pointed at Lucius. Although nobody had uttered a single word before, after this all people shouted and talk excitedly. The wizard approached Lucius:

"Are you Lucius?"- The wizard asked softly, oozing the warmth. Lucius nodded slightly.

"Take me to your friends, please," said the wizard, and Lucius realized it was difficult for him to talk. The wizard must have been weak and Lucius accompanied him to the room of his friends.

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Some guest was leaving the room when they reached it. This meant that everybody was up, including Laili, and all of them were talking simultaneously. Lucius opened the door and entered the room, although this did not affect the people in the room much- nobody paid attention to him but Michael, who just acknowledged Lucius' entrance by looking up at him. However, everybody noticed the entrance of the wizard. Michael even tried to get up and if the wizard had not gestured not to, he would have got up. The wizard asked about the health of other patients and put two of his fingers on their foreheads. Lucius was not sure what that meant but the wizard said thoughtfully that all would be alright (The wizard did the same to Lucius, although nobody was sure about the reason the wizard needed to check Lucius' health-he was perfectly healthy).

"The spot on my forehead that you touched is still hot," Lucius told the wizard. He did not expect the wizard to answer him, but he was wrong. The wizard explained this simple and magical trick that allowed him to learn a lot of things about the present condition of the person.

The wizard could learn a lot of information by listening to the hidden energy of a person, including whether their life was in danger.

This small lesson in magic arts made such a huge impression on Lucius (and not only on him) that he wished he could do the same. He imagined how much easier it would be for him to treat people. Especially the words 'a lot of things, made his imagination run wild, and he even believed the simple touch also possessed the healing powers.

Uriel was daring enough to ask the wizard about the fate of the city and he wanted to know the truth about what were the chances to save it and the citizens.

As the wizard said, the crucial part played the food and how much they could live off of the supply. How would all these people live together inside the city wall?

"What about the red-eyed monsters, when should we expect them to arrive?" this question by Uriel must have been the hardest to answer.

Lucius had never seen the creatures who were to blame for this slaughter. However, the tension that followed the question made it obvious that all the people in the room were terrified of them.

"It's impossible to predict when they will enter the city, but somehow I've feeling that they will appear this very evening." A long pause followed his words. Michael broke this pause with his question: 'What makes you think this won't happen this afternoon?"

Lucius was surprised at how easily the boys could communicate with the wizard and how plainly he answered their questions as if they were long-term friends.

"I don't think they will, but, of course, it is possible," answered the wizard. "That's why I am trying to speed up the process of the citizens entering the city and the soldiers gathering the food. If the red-eyed ones come to the gate before we manage to lock it..." the wizard did not finish his words, everyone easily guessed what he was going to say- they had no chance of surviving if they let the creatures enter the city.

"So you think they won't come out during the daylight!?" Uriel voiced another question.

"As I observed, the daylight irritates their eyes. They can see the surroundings pretty well in the evening, but their eyes hurt when the light is strong. This does not mean that they cannot fight during the day and they won't disturb us."

"For how long will we have to stay within the gate if we lock it on time and who is coming to help us out?" Lucius finally dared to ask those two questions he felt he had to ask from the very start.

"Around ten days. We'll have to defend the city for ten days. I have already sent the signal and they are definitely going to help us," answered the wizard.

"Who are they?" Lucius repeated the question.

The wizard did not reply. He only looked back into the boy's eyes. He had dark chocolate eyes. His gaze made Lucius think of a deep, bottomless lake whose depths one could easily get lost in. No matter how hard one tried, these eyes would always find the truth.

"Who will come to help us?" Michael, who was torn between curiosity, impatience, and timidity, asked the same question again.

"The guardians of the Temple of fire," said the wizard drily, "They are the closest to the city." Lucius felt the wizard was not particularly happy about their probable arrival.

"Who are the guardians of the Temple of fire?" asked Angela. It was the first time she said a word, "I have never heard of the Temple of Fire."

"There are lots of things you don't know my dear," said the wizard, and Lucius guessed this was the end of the conversation. He proved to be right.

The wizard said goodbye to everybody, wished them to get better soon as they all needed their strengths to defend the city, and left the room.

The kids were alone and as soon as the wizard left; they started passionate debates about the Fire Temple. They tried to guess what it was and to what extent it was connected to magic, whether there were other temples like it too, or it was the only one, what was its function and who its guardians were, or why would a temple need a guardian, or was that just a name for some kind of cult?

After mentioning the cult, they all started discussing which religion this temple might belong to.

The official religion of Mondelay worshipped Rahail, but Lucius' village had its own god, a pagan idol, whose sculpture was secretly hidden in every house as worshipping him openly was illegal.

According to Uriel, gods like that were frequently worshiped in other villages, but neither they nor Rahail had any direct connection with the fire. As he said, in a remote kingdom, far from Al-Moravid, in the mountainous part, people worshipped fire as a symbol of closeness to god and that temple could have been situated there. The place was so far from Mondelay that made it impossible to reach them in ten days.

Uriel's argument, compared to others, seemed quite credible and realistic, but Michael did not agree with him and said the magic could not have been taught there. Uriel believed, however, that magic could not be learned unless it was an inborn skill.

After discussing the topic for a while, Lucius insisted on their describing to him what had happened to them in the tavern and after that.

Nobody really wanted to discuss this topic, but they could not refuse either, so during the next half an hour, they listened to Uriel's and Michael's stories (sometimes, Angela also filled in gaps). Lucius heard a lot of new things. He learned about the incredible powers of the wizard, which he used against the red-eyed monsters, about his magic and swordfight the boys had never seen before, about his swiftness and quick reactions and masterly skills he used to fight off the red-eyed monsters.

"But, if those monsters were so strong, how did you kill one of them?" asked Lucious.

"First, we got lucky as our opponent was one-armed, plus he did not use a sword, he must have thought we were too weak for him, but I cut his other arm off and then killed him with the help of Michael'.

"We thought he was dead, but we were wrong," Angela added.

"Second time, yes," continued Blondy (Lucius could feel that he found it too stressful to recall the moment). "The whole tavern was on fire. It was difficult to breathe. The dead whom the wizard had brought back were all glowing yellow and tried to catch the red-eyed monsters so that they would turn into ashes together with them. We were looking for the exit from the hall when we saw the wizard fall and the monster run towards him; That monster was no smaller than the beast himself! I knew, if the wizard died, we would all share his fate, so I ran to help him, but Michael got to him first, fortunately, there was a sword on the floor, he grabbed it and posed it to attack the adversary."

"I grabbed the sword with both hands but the strike was so strong that it threw me on the floor," said Michael, "When falling, I glimpsed the red-eyed guardsman sweeping away by the wave created by the wizard. The next thing I remember is Uriel trying to pick me up while I still grabbed my sword and that guardsman running towards me."

"The wizard was fighting against others and had no time for us then, that's when Michael and I got wounded," said Angela.

"If not Uriel, he would have killed us both. I don't know how he managed, but before the guardsman hit me, he just cut his head off," Michael added.

"It was just luck! Michael was on the floor, the red-eyed was about to thrust the sword into him. I was lying on the floor quite far from Michael. The guardsman knew he could kill Michael and then easily attack me before I could even jump up and get to him. I knew that too, so I did what I had to do - I threw the sword at him, though I was entirely hopeless about the success. I did not really expect throwing the sword at him would change anything," said Uriel calmly, "everything happened in a second."

"The sword saved my life," Michael finished the story. Lucius imagined what they had gone through a few hours ago. He could also realize what they had to go through the next ten days.

"You all were really lucky that day," said Lucius. "Now try to sleep, you need to gather your strength," Lucius went to the door to find out if they had locked the gate or not, but the tension and emotions made him feel so tired that he went back to the bed and fell asleep on the floor...