Untitled Starfell #2 (Starfell #2) - Dominique Valente Page 0,51
The Testaments of Wol.
She watched as Silas tried to prise it open with a knife. He then tried to steam it open, perhaps thinking it was glued shut. When this failed, he seemed to think for a long time, and then Willow gasped as he took a penknife from his robes and slit his palm. He touched the title with his blood, waiting expectantly. The book seemed to glow red for a moment, shimmering in an almost violent haze, and then, at last, it opened. On the first page it said, The private journal of Wollace Humperdink, the Greatest Sorcerer of Starfell.
And suddenly the shadows faded, and once again Willow saw nothing before her but the echo of Nolin Sometimes’s moon garden.
Willow blinked. ‘That really happened?’ she asked. She felt creeped out by the blood, which, unlike the rest of the shadows, had glowed oddly red.
The queen nodded. ‘Yes. Silas read the thousand-year-old journal of the so-called “god”, Wol, who was in fact nothing more than a magician named Wollace Humperdink who reinvented himself after the world believed he was destroyed by the elths. He fooled many men and gathered them as his followers – the Brothers of Wol – and they spread word that magic was unnatural and evil, promising to cleanse the world of it. But Wol’s secret plan was to keep all of that magic for himself, so he could become the sole sorcerer of Starfell.’
Willow felt uneasy. In Wolkana, when Silas had claimed that the Brothers had been lied to for years, and that the true goal of the war had been to hoard the magic for themselves, she hadn’t known whether to believe him. She certainly hadn’t realised that Wol had never been a god at all. She’d heard of that old magician, Wollace Humperdink, but she’d never put the two together before.
The queen went on. ‘The Brothers failed to completely eradicate magic a thousand years ago. That we all know. But this memory reveals something catastrophic – that Wol recorded the tale of how he stole the magic of Starfell, so that if he could not complete his mission, one day a worthy successor might finish the task.’
Willow panicked. ‘But – but if that’s true Sometimes would’ve said something! He would have warned everyone after he had this vision!’
The queen shook her head. ‘He didn’t understand the relevance of the memory. Wol didn’t spell it out in plain language – he was more careful than that. But I pieced this memory together with the other clues I’ve gathered from my sources, and I learnt the truth. Even now, as we speak, Silas seeks vengeance for his thwarted plans, and this time he intends to go to extremes to ensure that he is never defeated again!’
Willow felt as if she’d been doused in ice. ‘What is he going to do?’
‘Don’t you understand, child? He is uncovering Wol’s method – a terrible ritual that will allow him to rip out all the magic from Starfell! If he succeeds, he will take every last thread of magic from every witch and wizard, every elf and elth, every enchanted creature and plant, from the forest of Wisperia, and my queendom of souls. It will ALL be HIS.’
Willow gasped, horrified, as she tried to imagine her family, and every magical person or creature she knew, drained of their magic …
‘Unless I act now!’ cried Umbellifer. ‘Do you see now how I might need a man who can read the past – by reading the memories of everyone he comes across – and a woman who sees the future? Don’t you see what assets they will be in fighting this new war? With these skills, I will be able to work out the enemy’s weaknesses, identify traitors and predict their next moves! And you, child – you are more powerful than you realise. Your magic is growing. You have already thwarted Silas once, and I believe I can use your powers to fight him again.’
‘Y-you’re wrong – my powers are broken! They don’t work,’ protested Willow. ‘There must be another way to prevent the war – you don’t need to keep us here!’
The queen shook her head. ‘This is the only way.’
With that, Umbellifer commanded the shadowy mists again, and they swirled round all three of them, whisking Willow, Sometimes’s prone body and the queen back to the forest floor below.
When they landed, Willow barely had time to steady herself before the queen snapped her fingers, and a shadowy figure