Free Zoran Chronicles Volume 1 A Dragon in Our Town by Vic Broquard Page B

teacher, that is, she began their education with the simple, useful spells
that one might use around the home or workplace. Spells such as Mend, Warm, Chill,
and Clean were easily learned by everyone in the group, though Zuzanna found them
challenging. Zoran realized that Zuzanna was only going to be able to master the very
beginning spells and would have to be content to be an Adept, which status she greatly
desired.
                 Once they began to tackle the real spells as Bernard called them, things began to
take a fascinating turn, at least as far as Zoran was concerned. When he was getting his
training from Archmage Milos, he was the only student. Now he had the opportunity to
work with his new friends and see how well others mastered the spells. The results he
found surprising and unexpected.
                 Each person seemed to be able to learn only a subset of all possible spells,
excepting himself, strangely enough. Then, perhaps not, he thought; I am a Duska, so
perhaps that has something to do with spell casting. In fact, the ease and speed with
which any given individual mastered a given spell varied in a way he began to find
interesting. So much so, that Zoran began charting each spell that his friends mastered.
                 He was not too surprised to find that Jarka tended to rapidly pick up any spell
that had anything remotely to do with thieving. For example, the Intruder Warning,
Alter Appearance, Charm Another, Understand Foreign Languages, Detection of Magic,
Grow and Shrink, Erase, Gentle Fall, Hold Door, Identify Magical Item, Jump, Wizard
Message, Create Magical Shield, Climb, and Scare spells she excelled at and learned very
rapidly. Whereas with the key beginning attacking spells of Magical Arrow, Flaming
Fingers, and Sleep, Jarka struggled mightily to learn them, nearly giving up on them.
                 Zdenka excelled with any spell that allowed her to exercise a good measure of
control over an object. She readily picked up the Magical Arrow and Sleep spells, along
with such spells as Alter Fires, Grow and Shrink, Gentle Fall, Hold Door, Jump, Fog
Cloud, and Move Object. In fact, she realized that all along she had been using magical
energies to move her arrows to hit the bull’s eye. “Every time I shoot an arrow, if I see it
going off a little, I sort of pushed it back on track. No wonder I always won the archery
contests!” she exclaimed in a rush of realization. On the other hand, she could not seem
to master the creation of illusions at all.
                 Bernard picked up any spell that dealt with animals or of the earth very rapidly,
whereas Karel rapidly caught on to any spell dealing with the air, such as Fly. He also
picked up spells that dealt with animals quickly. Both men found spells that altered
men’s minds nearly impossible to learn, such as Charm Another.
                 Emil and Renata also had a predictable side as well as an unpredictable aspect,
Zoran soon discovered. Unlike the others, the spells that they managed to learn were far
fewer and seemed randomized. For example, while they were able to learn Alter
Appearance, they failed to learn Grow and Shrink, two closely related spells. With these
two, Zoran soon learned that if the spell had anything to do with fire or electrical
charges, these two were certainly among the first to learn it. Strange indeed, he thought
to himself. Well, they are different and come from some distant land, he rationalized for
a time.
                 On into June, this same pattern continued, as they all progressed through the
fundamental spells through what Archmage Nadia called Grade 3. Zoran was very
surprised to find that Emil and Renata were able to cast a Ball of Fire almost as soon as
they read the casting details! Similarly, when these two got to the Lightning Bolt spell,
both picked it up immediately, shocking all of the others, who really had to work