The Village Magician
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Master Wafai wants more than anything
to meet the elusive, all-knowing Simurgh. He feels it’s very
important for his students to learn about magic, even though there is
very little to be found around their tiny village. Of the Simurgh, he
says:
“The Simurgh is a tutelary creature. It is so old,
according to legend, it has seen the world destroyed three times
over. Many believe it has learned so much that
it possesses the knowledge of all the ages―a great teacher and a
guardian. The Simurgh simply are. In the past for all of eternity and
in the future for all of eternity.”
One day, Master Wafai isn’t at his
little school. His four pupils are puzzled and concerned. Why is
their teacher gone without leaving word? A possible answer is found
on a page of the Magicalis Bestialis. The book was left open to the
text describing the Simurgh.
Faizah, a farmer’s daughter and
Wafai’s favorite pupil, knows how much the Master loves the
Simurgh, she immediately believes the open page is a sign that she
and the boys who are also students must seach for the home of the
Simurgh.
The boys scoff at the silly idea, but
agree to searching the nearby mountains for signs of Wafai’s
whereabouts. They only decide to go on the search when they find the
adults in the village are content to send word to the Sultan and have
troops sent to search for the missing teacher.
Excerpt:
Master Wafai sat at
the small table that served him for both dining and desk. One of his
prized books, the Magicalis Bestialis
lay on the table before him, open to
the section on the Simurgh. If only they
were real. Wafai sighed. His advancing
years never dimmed the hope that someday he would know for certain
such magical beasts truly existed.
The stories he had heard of the flying,
fire-breathing horse stabled in the Sultan’s palace, helped to keep
that hope alive. Still, he longed to meet such a creature, to see it
with his own eyes.
He sighed again and stood. He moved
into the bare kitchen and carried a bowl of fruit back to the table.
In this tiny village, there was not much chance of seeing anything
magical. Wafai had long ago accepted the fact he would never be a
great or powerful mage. A competent magician in an average sort of
way, he could cure most common ailments, cast a spell to clear the
air after a sandstorm, find lost livestock, and sometimes water. He
could even generate a few small curses, though he seldom chose to do
so.
Peeling an orange, he stared, unseeing,
at his whitewashed walls, smudged with ochre chalk. His students
provided the greatest joy in his life. A mediocre magician though he
might be, Wafai was a born teacher. His pupils made jokes about him
‘putting on his teaching voice,’ but when he did, they listened.
Although Wafai had always longed to meet a magical creature or two,
what he really wanted was for one or more of his students to have the
opportunities he had missed.
He thought about his three students and
wondered about the new boy. Would any of them become adept? Would any
of them ever meet a flying horse, a demon, or a Djinn? Most of the
village children came to his school only until they were eight or
nine, and then family duties called them away.
Harib, the son of a rich merchant, was
the only one free to do as he pleased. He attended school to be with
his friends. Left mostly to his own devices when his mother died,
Harib had come to the school out of curiosity and boredom. He met
Faizah and Bahaar there, and the three of them soon formed a close
friendship. School was easy for Faizah and Harib, however Bahaar
struggled a bit. They had all mastered the basics of reading and
arithmetic and were now engrossed in learning what they could of the
magical arts.
Wafai looked down at
the Magicalis Bestialis
and picked up an orange pip he had dropped. He closed the book and
put it aside.
Bahaar, too, lived
mostly on his own. Although an indifferent student, he preferred
staying in Wafai’s classroom with his friends to begging in the
streets. Still, he had his strengths―the
fastest runner in the village, he could easily outdistance the
bullies, but his bravado made him face them instead.
Faizah neared the age when Wafai would
reluctantly release her to help take care of her father’s
household, although he knew the girl really wanted to continue her
education. He thought it most unfair that just because she was a
girl, her parents expected her to stay home and help raise her
younger siblings. Soon, it would be time for her to marry and have
children of her own.
With her almond eyes and long dark
hair, she was pretty enough to attract a prince, but with her
parents’ low standing, the best she could do would be to marry a
merchant. Particularly sad, Wafai thought, because of his three
students, Faizah was the only one with a real talent for magic.
This talent provided the reason she was
still in school. The herbs and simple cures she had already learned
from Wafai earned a few extra coins for her family, so her parents
considered Wafai’s classroom a better use of her time than doing
laundry...for now. All too soon, they would take her out of his
school and marry her off to some merchant or farmer.
Such a waste.
* * *
The gods are at war and only a
farmer’s daughter can save the world from Armageddon.
The village magician has gone missing.
His four pupils think he has left a clue to his whereabouts in the
Magicalis Bestialis--the book of magical creatures. They must seek
the help of the elusive Simurgh, the mythical birds who know all the
secrets of the universe.
However, this is not an easy camping
trip into the mountains. Spirits, gods, and demons confront the four
friends, who are not aware they’re being set up by otherworldly
forces for a much larger task.
A farmer’s daughter, Faizah is chosen
to lead the humans in the battle. She must persuade a slave, an
orphan, and a rich merchant’s son to join in the battle on the side
of good. Although divided by Dev, the evil god of war, the teens must
band together to find the Simurgh, rescue their teacher, and stave
off Armageddon.
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