The Mage E-Book

Joseph P Hradisky Jr

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

Ages ago the realms of magic and science were separated because of the idea the two were one and the same. It was done with the warning of what would happen if they were brought together again. The demon king, with help from human mages, brings the two realms together again. This merge, to invade the earth realm along with all the others, proves to be nearly a total disaster for the earth. The mage Jonathan Tanner Thomas (Jon Tom) is dragged into this because the demon king knows he is a danger to the invasion. Long before the merge they had tried to kill him but always failed. Now, after the merge, he has come into powers they had not thought was possible. Jon Tom is the only one who can prevent the demon king's invasion.

Leseprobe

Joseph P Hradisky Jr

The Mage

The Ithaca Saga Book 1

I dedicate this book to my wonderful wife Terri, my two sons Alec and Ian, and would like to thank Joss Ware to opening my eyes so that I could write a book like this.BookRix GmbH & Co. KG80331 Munich

The Mage

The Mage

Book 1 of the Ithaca Saga

By Joseph P Hradisky Jr

Look for The Fighter, Book Two, and Dragons of South Hill, Book Three.

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my wonderful wife Terri, my two sons Alec and Ian, and would like to thank Joss Ware to opening my eyes so that I could write a book like this.

Ages ago the realms of magic and science were separated because of the idea the two were one and the same. It was done with the warning of what would happen if they were brought together again. The demon king, with help from human mages, brings the two realms together again. This merge, to invade the earth realm along with all the others, proves to be nearly a total disaster for the earth. The mage Jonathan Tanner Thomas (Jon Tom) is dragged into this because the demon king knows he is a danger to the invasion. Long before the merge they had tried to kill him but always failed. Now, after the merge, he has come into powers they had not thought was possible. Jon Tom is the only one who can prevent the demon king’s invasion.

This is a work of fiction. The names of the places are real but the characters are fictitious and resemble no persons living or dead

This is the property of Joseph P Hradisky Jr. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1.

The desert had become nigh on impossible to travel. No stars were shining down for the last three hours as Jon Tom paused to get his bearings. There was something very wrong, He could even feel the approach of something, a dark presence. Looking up he saw the massive, boiling thunder clouds. But this wasn’t enough to account for the darkness. Looking around he still hesitated, the few landmarks he could see told him nothing about where he was. But this wasn’t the only distraction. He didn’t have to turn to look where his traveling companion was. He could feel her, sense her, as if there were a connection between them.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

This connection he had felt right from the beginning when Jon Tom had answered his door over two weeks ago. “Princess?”

Of course he had recognized the Princess Sara Adela Sanders. It had been ten years since the realm of science, and the realm of magic, merged again. Her father, Jefferson Sanders, had somehow managed to gather a force, of humans, to take a stand on the Ithaca College (IC) campus. Day by day Sander’s forces repelled all the dark fortress attacks while managing to keep rescuing as many humans as they could in the area. These additions greatly increased his forces to the point where the onslaught, of attacks, started to taper down. Allowing for more successful rescues. Until the attacks stopped completely.

Sometime during the cleanup, fortification, of the campus the survivors started referring to Jefferson Sanders as King Sanders. By the time anyone thought about this it was too late and the reference stayed. Within a year a wall, ten foot high by 4 foot thick, surrounded the campus. The new sports arena became the headquarters of the military. The left tower became the offices of the governing body while the right tower was turned into the offices of the mage’s council. By the time Jon Tom had arrived, 18 months later, a twenty mile area around the campus was secure.

When Jonathan Tanner Thomas, Jon Tom for short, arrived he was a little upset at there being a king but soon learned it was just their title for president. The whole place was being run on the democratic format of old. So much so that along with the military there was a separate civilian police force. This section had taken over the area where the IC police force had called home. And, of course, the Hammond Health Center was being used as the medical section. His arrival was only a few days after everyone in the Sander’s family, except Princess Sara, had been killed by a suicide group of monsters.

”Word has it that you know how to use magic?” Princess Sara looked at him down her nose. At least he thought it was the way she was looking at him. She saw the shabby clothes, the run down look of his room, and wondered if what she had heard about him was wrong. “Why haven’t you found quarters in the mage’s tower? I was also told you haven’t joined them yet, why? And why haven’t you asked me in?”

Jon Tom pictured her stamping her foot in a temper tantrum, when she said the last. For a long moment he just stared at her. After a few seconds he noticed the armed guard, behind the princess, start to get impatient. Ignoring the princess he spoke to the guard. “Here’s a thought for you. I won’t use magic to beat the both of you senseless. Just give me one good reason, just one.”

Suddenly a soft hand slapped him across the face. Princess Sara raised her hand again. “You are ignoring me.”

”And you would be right. I feel for you on the loss of your family but I was just about to leave.” He was sure he could see a pout forming on her lips. And what nice, kissable, lips they were. Refocusing he looked at the bigger of the two guards.

”And where are you going? Dinner? Bath? A manners improvement seminar?” Princess Sara was having a lot of trouble with this arrogant man. If she could have had her way she would already be on her way to find the dark lord Paccar. There was no help here.

Jon Tom smiled. Right now she was being a baby but with time she would grow up. Checking his solar powered watch Jon Tom found he had to leave now to make his appointment. “Campus. I was about to leave this area heading west to meet up with two friends who need my help.”

”We can lock him up till he agrees to stay, Princess.” The bigger guard smiled in anticipation of wiping the smile off the vile magic user’s face.

”No Larry, I don’t think that he will be needed.” Princess Sara looked long at the annoying man. “Besides I do believe if you did he would still find a way out. No, let’s stop this nonsense and get back to my plan.”

Princess Sara was in the process of turning to leave when Jon Tom reached out to stop her. As soon as his fingertips touched her shoulder a powerful vision blinded him. Unmoving he saw the dark lord Paccar clearly. Saw he was already too late to save his friends Sam and Pete. The dark lord had lured them into a trap. Most of all he now knew exactly where Paccar was and where he was going to next. He could hear the dark lord laughing at killing two more human mages. Soon, Paccar said, soon there will be no more to protect them. And then it was gone. All gone. Now his plan to get the old high school gang together again took a hard hit. As the vision passed he heard the guard, Larry, say something.

”No, Larry, wait. I’ve seen this before. Randy Smith, the mage council leader, looked like this when he was having a vision. “Princess Sara looked with new respect for Jon Tom. Of the nearly two hundred mages, that Smith had known, only he had the ability. “What did you see?”

”Two of my team, that I was in the process of forming, who are the reason I was leaving just now to meet, are dead.” Anger clouded Jon Tom’s face. But, for a moment, Princess Sara thought she had seen something else. Guilt? Remorse? She wasn’t sure. It was too brief for her to be really positive she seen anything. “I have to go. Why don’t you get the mage’s council to help you?”

”Because they’re all dead.” It was such a simple statement that it almost made her look human. “and, please, could you take your hand off my shoulder?”

At first Jon Tom thought he had been imagining it but, since the touch, he thought he could still feel a connection between them. Though he did like the feel of her shoulder he had no thought of keeping it there longer than needed. “What?”

Princess Sara turned to say more to Jon Tom when she realized he was halfway across the room from her. And, yet, she could still feel where his hand had been. What bothered her more was it had felt good. She didn’t want it to feel good. “Nothing. So what are you going to do now?”

”Now?” Jon Tom hesitated only for a few seconds. “Now we go kill the dark lord Paccar. That’s what we’re going to do now.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Jon Tom felt the pull of their connection. He had not realized he had turned to stare at her. For a moment he wasn’t sure if he was in that rental room or looking for a place to camp for the night. In either case he couldn’t help but admire her sweet figure. She was just a little over five-seven, long black hair, not too slender with nice, shapely hips and double c breasts that pleaded to be caressed. It didn’t help that the clothes she wore left little to the imagination as to what they covered. And the way she looked at him, when she thought he wasn’t paying attention, made his blood run hot with desire. There was something in her gaze. The way she moved. The moistness of her lips. With each flash of lightning he was drawn to them. Nothing short of kissing them would quench his desire. With each flash of lightning it grew stronger. With each flash….. Suddenly a flash of lightning gave him enough light to see the small rock formation they could take shelter for the night.

Chapter 2.

The desert had been dark but was getting too much darker to travel by this night. The only light being the overabundance of sheet lightning flashes. Jon Tom could not figure out what the cause of it was. There was more to the darkness than the impending storm. He knew something bad was out in the darkness. He could feel the presence. The prickle on the back of his neck, where the hair stood on end, was caused by more than the electrical charge in the air. In the night sky, where the moon should have been, all he could make out were the dark thunder clouds. A roiling mass of energy just waiting for the right moment to be released. To do the destruction it so eagerly wanted. Jon Tom knew it would be very bad when the storm did break.

"It looks as if we are going to be traveling the desert by day for awhile." Jon Tom looked at Sara Sanders, "As for tonight I think that hollow at the base of the stone pile will be the safest place."

Sara didn't say a word, instead she just picked up the reins of her horse to head to the place Jon Tom had pointed out. She wasn't a mute per say but she had watched her family killed by a fiend of the chaos lord. Since then the only conversation she had was to ask Jon Tom if he would help. Her only goal was to find, and destroy, the Dark Castle, or the death of dark lord Paccar, so she would have vengeance for her family. From then on she had not spoken a sound, not even to cry out, in the night, when the nightmares came to haunt her sleep. That was before the journey had started. Since then she found her eyes, as well as her thoughts, constantly straying to him. The first night, after leaving the last outpost, Jon Tom had taken his shirt off. She could see the muscles ripple beneath dark chest hair. She had trouble not running up to him to run her fingers through it. His hair, so unruly atop his head was just so tempting. So in need of her hands. Playing with the dark curls. Enough, she snapped at herself while pulling her thoughts back under control. Sara was able to look away before he looked at her.

Almost

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was the same look she kept giving him as they made their way through the mage’s tower. There was very little damage to the building. But none of the council were recognizable anywhere. Jon Tom needed whatever magic supplies he could find.

The silence was intense. No one, since the guard who survived the attack, had been in the tower. What made the silence even more eerie was Princess Sara not saying a word. He could see the horror in her eyes. With the thought he could see something else but wasn’t sure. As much as he wanted just to stare at her he needed to take apart the attack. Dissect it like the old forensic scientists. Jon Tom knew the more he could learn, the better he would be later on.

At first Princess Sara thought how terrible this man was. He had no heart. The obscene deaths inflicted here did not have any affect on him. But as he moved carefully through the rooms, the care, respect, he showed for the dead. Yet, what was the most amazing, was the amount of information he learned. Between the physical evidence, and the use of spells to identify each puddled remains, Jon Tom pieced together close to everything that had happened. His only problem was how had they gotten there? And…she could still feel his hand on her shoulder. The warmth. Care. Sadness he felt as he saw his friends killed. But why was there a connection here. Prior to all this she was going to wed a longtime friend. They had shared a lot but she could not ever remember there being a connection like this. Pain flowed through her heart at this thought.

”Why are you doing this?” his voice floated softly to her. With it there seemed whispers of something more. Promises which only he could fulfill. A something deeper that floated by on butterfly wings and was gone. But it just wasn’t Jon Tom’s voice she heard. She also heard Edward Ward’s voice.

Princess Sara understood what he was questioning. Not the why of going after the evil coming from the dark castle. But why was she going. She just wasn’t sure if she could convince Edward Ward, her fiancé, that she needed to go. All she could tell him was what she had been saying right after learning of the mage council’s demise. “Because I have to.”

Edward did try to understand. Tried very hard. Could not. “You can’t go. Not only that you shouldn’t. In fact I have learned there is a mage, just arrived two days ago, you could hire. He can go and you can stay.”

Princess Sara could not believe what Edward was saying. “Are you telling me what to do?”

The anger in her eyes should have warned Edward to be careful of what he said. He ignored it. “Yes, yes, I am.”