The Circles of Magic Read online

  Copyright © 2021 by Gabriela Fišerová

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Also by Gabriela Fišerová

  About the Author

  1

  Edwyr leaned against the thick trunk of a tree. His bow was in one hand, an arrow in the other, as he tried to avoid as much of the ferns growing all around the large tree roots as possible. Even though he couldn’t see the scalewing right now, he knew the beast was somewhere around here, and any little noise could betray his location and make it either attack him or fly away.

  He couldn’t speak for his two human companions, but Edwyr himself could possibly handle if the beast attacked. However, it flying away would be unfortunate. The scalewing had attacked their town several times already, and while it had only killed livestock so far, which was a problem itself, it might not be long before it hurt someone. Or worse.

  Edwyr looked around cautiously, trying to either spot Lanna, Arbane, or the beast they were hunting. When he’d come here a decade ago, Edwyr had never thought a human could be as stealthy and silent as an elf, but he’d been proven wrong many times since he’d started working with them. Simply the idea of humans fighting threats like this without magic had seemed utterly absurd to him at the time, but Lanna and Arbane had proven their extreme competence time and time again.

  Edwyr finally noticed Lanna in a dark corner of the jungle, mostly hidden behind ferns, tall mushrooms, and other vegetation that was around every corner here. Despite the distance between them, she managed to lock her dark eyes with his, proceeding to point a finger in front of her before slowly starting to move further into the jungle.

  Edwyr gave a nod, walking around the tree carefully before hiding behind the next, continuing as his eyes scanned the trees on his left. Arbane had to be somewhere over there, but he couldn’t see him. Edwyr wished they could stay together and attack the scalewing from one direction, but if they did that the beast would be able to escape much more easily. They had used this tactic before, though, and it had always worked. They had never hunted a scalewing, but hopefully that shouldn’t matter too much.

  When he finally managed to catch a glimpse of Arbane, Edwyr turned his full attention ahead of him, trying to spot the scalewing instead. Or at least hear its movements. And surely enough, after traversing more of the jungle and its ever-present vines, thorns, and roots, there was a distant growling—angry and loud, followed by a wet, sickening sound.

  The noises continued, getting louder and more sickening as the three of them stalked deeper into the jungle. And after a moment Edwyr was finally close enough to see the scalewing, its dark green scales glinting even in the limited light of the surroundings.

  Edwyr grimaced at the sight of it and the blood dripping from its maw. He hadn’t seen a scalewing outside of illustrations in books before, and he didn’t remember it having quite so many horns and spines along its back. The beast kept ripping into what seemed to be the remains of a no longer recognizable animal with its claws, spreading its wings whenever it bit into a piece of flesh it couldn’t immediately pull out.

  Before they’d found the creature Edwyr had assumed the fact that the scalewing only stood on two legs might work in their favor, but seeing the size and sharpness of the claws was truly challenging that theory. Not to mention the mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, and the tail. They would have to kill it from a distance, or not at all.

  He nocked an arrow, pulling the bowstring back as far as it would go as the scalewing continued gorging itself, clearly not having noticed their presence. It most likely couldn’t smell them through all the blood, but they couldn’t count on that lasting forever. They needed to use the element of surprise while they had it.

  Edwyr looked first over at Arbane and then at Lanna, who had taken up positions a bit ahead, surrounding the scalewing. They both also had their bows in hand, drawn, but they were waiting for him to take the first shot since he was the best archer.

  Gripping the bow more tightly, Edwyr raised it, aiming right for the scalewing’s head. He wished he could aim for the eyes, as that would be the most ideal target, but he couldn’t get a good enough look at it with the scalewing constantly moving as it devoured the cadaver.

  Breathing in and holding his breath, Edwyr took his final aim before letting the arrow fly. But it didn’t reach its mark. Before it could hit, the scalewing moved its entire body. Edwyr’s eyes widened as the scalewing roared in agony when the arrow buried itself in its neck, before rising to its full height and looking directly at him.

  Edwyr barely managed to jump out of the way before the beast could rip him apart. He was on his feet again a second later, not wanting to give the scalewing an easy opportunity to kill him, but by then it had already switched targets.

  Hearing the shouting of his friends, he ran towards the creature again by sheer instinct, horrified when he saw it charge at them, its huge wings spread out. Using his supernatural reflexes, he raised his bow and took a quick shot at the beast’s wing. They couldn’t let it fly away.

  As the scalewing roared again, Edwyr felt a grim sense of accomplishment as he quickly tried to disable the other wing as well. He only managed to graze the creature’s belly, however, as it turned around to rush him again.

  It would have likely killed him then, if not for Lanna’s arrow piercing the beast’s side. The scalewing howled, whirling around and smacking its tail into a tree with a loud crack. Edwyr had another arrow ready before he even thought about it, but he froze when he saw the scalewing using its head to throw Arbane away and into a tree.

  “Arbane!” Lanna yelled, horror on her face as she ran to where her husband was lying on the ground, groaning. But Edwyr wasn’t taking his eyes off the creature for even a moment. His arrow was flying towards the scalewing before he knew it, striking its neck. It turned to him again, snarling and stomping. It looked much less steady on its feet now.

  As it ran at him again, Edwyr had just enough time to roll to the side. The beast’s surprise at him moving out of the way so quickly lasted just long enough for Edwyr to take aim once more. And with one precise shot, he finally managed to do what he’d tried when attacking the scalewing the first time—hit its brain through its eye.

  The scalewing howled one last time before falling forward, breaking branches as it went before hitting the ground with a loud thud.

  Edwyr stood in front of its corpse as he tried to catch his breath, his hand still clenched around his bow. But as soon as he heard Arbane’s groan, he immediately ran to him and Lanna, who was helping Arbane stand up.

  “Are you—”

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” Arbane replied, giving Edwyr a pained smile. There was a bloody cut on his forehead, but the bleeding already seemed to be slowing considerably. Arbane was leaning on Lanna, who was keeping an arm around his shoulde
rs. Judging by her scowl, she didn’t seem to appreciate Arbane making light of his injury, but the man did seem like he was going to be okay soon.

  Still, Edwyr couldn’t help but feel guilt stir within him. A normal elf would be able to heal Arbane magically with barely any effort. But not Edwyr. And he never felt more ashamed of that fact than during situations like this.

  “It isn’t your fault, Edwyr,” Lanna told him, giving him a look that was both sympathetic and a little impatient. Apparently, after knowing each other for years, Lanna could easily figure out what was on Edwyr’s mind. It was endearing if a little annoying.

  Lanna sighed, giving her husband a worried look, which Arbane replied to with a dazed-looking smile. “I’m sorry I panicked.”

  Edwyr hadn’t even thought to criticize her for that. He must have truly gotten integrated into human society to understand such an emotional reaction. A proper elf would comment on it immediately, and with no regard for anyone’s feelings. But even though it tended to cause more problems, Edwyr preferred the human way of doing things. Not that he had much choice.

  “It’s nice to know you worry about me still,” Arbane said, laughing, but he very quickly stopped when he winced and grimaced in pain. Lanna shook her head, smiling to herself. She had a few small cuts on her cheek and nose, but none of them looked serious. Good.

  “Okay, enough of that. We need to get you to the healer.”

  Edwyr wasn’t sure calling the alchemist in town a healer was technically correct, but he had already brought that up once, and everyone had ignored him the first time, so he kept it to himself. The healer could still do more than Edwyr could, so he had no right to complain, anyway.

  Arbane nodded, grimacing as he looked over at the scalewing. “Are we sure it’s dead?”

  “It is dead.” Edwyr didn’t need to check to know as much. His shot had been precise, and the scalewing was not known self-resurrecting abilities. Unless this was some kind of new species, which was highly unlikely.

  “Should we take its head to hang over the fireplace? What do you think, honey?”

  Lanna laughed loudly, looking relieved as she kissed Arbane on the cheek. “Definitely not.”

  Edwyr slung his bow onto his back and joined Lanna, pulling Arbane’s arm around his neck and helping him walk out of the dense jungle they had found themselves in.

  Now that they weren’t trying to stay silent and unseen, it was almost nice. The air was fresh and warm, and there was the singing of birds in the distance. Edwyr didn’t even remember hearing that while hunting the scalewing, but he knew it had to have been there. Unfortunately, he also knew there were a lot of other creatures in the jungle who would not be quite as harmless. Just because the most dangerous beast had been dealt with didn’t mean that the danger had passed.

  “That was a great shot, by the way,” Arbane told him, grinning again. How the man always managed to be in a good mood had always been beyond Edwyr. Practically the only time Arbane was angry was when Lanna was in danger, or someone was being rude to her.

  “I mean, I didn’t see you take it because I was….” Arbane looked down at himself, and his bloodstained leather armor. “Otherwise occupied. But I’m sure it was great.”

  Edwyr appreciated the thought, though he knew that Arbane was just trying to make him feel better about his deficiencies. Not to mention that his superior abilities with a bow and weapons in general had little to do with his skill, and more to do with him being an elf. And compared to other elves—

  No, this was not a good thought process, and he needed to stop.

  “Are you going to brood for a few days now because of this? Like last time?” Arbane asked, giving Edwyr a concerned look. He clearly didn’t mean to mock the elf, but Edwyr couldn’t help but feel offended anyway. He scowled, choosing to keep his eyes trained at the ground to avoid tripping over a root or a wine.

  “If I had magic—”

  “Then you wouldn’t even be here because no matter how many times we asked, the elves have never sent anyone to help us,” Lanna cut in, shaking her head in annoyance. Edwyr wasn’t sure if she was annoyed with him, or the High Elven Council for ignoring them, but she was right about what she’d said.

  It was true that before coming here, Edwyr had never thought he’d find living with humans to be a mostly okay experience. In fact, he’d found the idea rather demeaning back before he’d known what his fate would be. An elf’s magic didn’t manifest itself until they were around fifteen years old so he’d gotten just enough time to plan for a future that would be taken away from him.

  Because he was Cursed.

  Edwyr didn’t spend too much time thinking about that anymore, but during moments like this when magic could have been very useful, it was difficult not to ponder what could have been.

  “Who needs them?” Arbane grinned at him again, though Edwyr couldn’t help but notice a hint of hostility in his eyes. He wasn’t surprised by that, though. Arbane didn’t like elves very much, mostly due to their superior attitude, which Edwyr couldn’t fault him for. He also suspected that Arbane, much like many other humans, was at least mildly put off by their appearance, namely the fact that an elf’s eyes were entirely black, aside from the iris. But at least Arbane liked Edwyr, which was good enough for him.

  “We’re all our town needs,” Arbane continued. “There hasn’t been a threat we couldn’t defeat.”

  “That’s because a threat like that would kill us,” Lanna joked, readjusting her grip on Arbane’s back.

  “Ah, but you forget the age-old tactic of running away.”

  Back when Edwyr had met Lanna and Arbane, this sort of exchange would have disturbed him to the core. He’d had trouble understanding how they could make light of things like this, but now he found himself smiling as he listened to them continue on like this.

  He was relieved when they managed to leave the jungle without any trouble, reaching the grassy fields that were just outside of it. By this point, Arbane seemed to have already gotten better enough to mostly walk by himself, though neither Lanna nor Edwyr stopped supporting him as they made their way to their squawkers.

  Edwyr still wasn’t sure if he liked the human name for the feathered, four-legged beasts that served as their mounts, but he couldn’t deny that it was very apt.

  The town of Sunwood wasn’t that far away from the jungle, but it was still too far to simply walk there, while at the same time it was too close to be spared the attacks of the creatures who lived in it. There seemed to be an incident at least once a month, usually more than that, but miraculously, no one had ever been killed since Edwyr had moved here. It was sort of staggering to think about, but he was of course happy about it.

  Edwyr was very relieved to see their squawkers safe and sound. They had left them by a cluster of trees at the edge of the jungle, which was usually safe for short periods of time, but whenever they left them behind, the elf couldn’t help but worry about them.

  After helping Arbane climb onto his squawker, Edwyr walked up to his own, running his hand over her forehead. Tempest shook her head, making her dark green feathers ruffle, and pressed her head into the palm of his hand. Edwyr finally felt some of the tension drain out of him as he climbed onto the squawker’s back.

  He kept an eye on Arbane as they made their way home, just in case something went wrong on the way. The sun was slowly starting to set as the tall wall protecting Sunwood appeared on the horizon. Edwyr breathed in the fresh, evening air, closing his eyes for a moment. He always felt like a heavy weight had been taken off his shoulders after a successful hunt, even after doing it for so long. Edwyr didn’t doubt anyone’s abilities but hunting down some of the most dangerous beasts the continent of Otheron had to offer wasn’t exactly a safe occupation, and any of these missions could result in their deaths.

  As they reached the familiar wooden houses, they separated, with Lanna and Arbane riding their squawkers to the healer who lived on the other side of town, and Edwyr turning le
ft to where his house was located on the opposite side. They would meet at the tavern soon, as was customary, despite Arbane’s injury. They always did.

  Edwyr nodded to the few people he passed, Tempest’s claws clicking on the stone path as she eagerly made her way up the hill. The elf barely had to direct where she was going as she knew perfectly well what the destination was. He even had to slow her down a little to avoid crashing into someone. Tempest must have been under the assumption he’d give a treat once they got home. And she was definitely right about that, despite him knowing full well she’d had all the grass she could eat while they’d hunted in the jungle.

  Tempest came to a halt in front of the door of Edwyr’s house, waiting for the elf to climb off her before making her way over to her stable that was adjacent to the house. It was mostly an extension of the roof with a few wooden beams and a pile of hay, but she seemed to like it, and given how warm it always was, she only truly needed protection from the rain.

  Edwyr had originally tried to keep her at the local stable when she had been given to him by Arbane—though where he had gotten an extra squawker from was still a mystery—and Tempest had not liked being there at all. He still wasn’t sure if she didn’t like being around other squawkers, or if she simply preferred being outside, but Edwyr didn’t mind if she’d rather stay here.

  When he took off her saddle and bridle and put them away, he felt the corners of his mouth twitch as Tempest settled herself down on her hay, staring at him and flicking one of her long, feathered ears. He wasn’t sure if that was a gesture of impatience, but it always came across that way.

  Edwyr took his key out of his pocket and put it in the keyhole, but as he tried to turn it, his eyes widened as he noticed the door was already unlocked. He stood there for a second, frowning. He distinctly remembered locking the door before they’d left, which left him with only one possibility—someone must have broken in.