Free Leximandra Reports, and other tales by Charlotte E. English

Leximandra Reports (and other tales)
     
    By
     
    Charlotte E.
English
     
    Copyright 2011 by
Charlotte E. English
    Cover art
copyright 2012 by Eva Strikkers
     
    All rights
reserved.
     
    Smashwords
Edition.
     
    This ebook is
licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be
re-sold.
     
    This book
includes four short stories featuring characters from the Draykon
Series. An excerpt from the first full-length novel, Draykon, can
be found at the end of the book. All of the stories are set shortly
before the first novel begins.
     

     
     
     
    Table of
Contents

    Mr Warvel's Red
Cloak
    Leximandra
Reports
    Rikbeek Earns His
Keep
    Sigwide and the Bokren
Birds
    Preview of
Draykon
    About the
Author
     
     
     
     
    Mr Warvel’s Red
Cloak

    ‘ Great game! I should never have given up glowball.’ Pitren
Warvel, the picture of youthful health and exuberance, slapped his
quieter friend on the back.
    Edwae Geslin’s
answering smile was weak. ‘You’re only saying that because we
won.’
    ‘ That
doesn’t hurt,’ Tren agreed with untouched cheer. ‘That’s your
doing, of course. You were always the best at the
Academy.’
    ‘ Not
at all,’ Ed demurred. Tren shook his head, smiling, but he didn’t
argue. Ed was shorter then he was, his frame slight and not at all
robust. Self-effacing by nature, he was inclined to interpret these
physical characteristics as grave flaws; but glowball favoured
those with agility, dexterity and strong sorcerous talent as much
as those with brute strength, and in these areas Edwae
excelled.
    ‘ Come
on,’ said Tren. ‘I’ve just got time to catch a bit of the next
game, if we hurry.’
    ‘ Oh?
Someplace else to be?’ Ed followed as Tren made for the door,
weaving his way through the untidy rows of glowball players still
changing out of their games attire.
    ‘ I’m
on Cloak duty tonight,’ Tren said over his shoulder.
    ‘ Oh?
I thought it was Mern’s night?’
    ‘ Had
to go to the infirmary. I’m standing in for her.’ Stepping out into
the air, Tren breathed deep. It was one of those crisp, fresh
nights, invigoratingly clear. The moon, half full, hung low on the
horizon. Tren took careful note of its position.
    ‘ Nothing serious, I hope?’ Ed caught up again as Tren turned
back towards the games fields. The sounds of the game carried far
in the still air: a roar from the crowd followed by a burst of
applause. Tren quickened his step.
    ‘ She
didn’t say,’ he replied with a shrug. ‘Didn’t seem troubled
though.’
    ‘ I’d
have thought you would know.’ Ed cast him a meaningful
glance.
    ‘ Me?
Why?’ Tren climbed up the back of the seating that ringed the
field, perching himself at the top. Ed fell silent as he climbed up
behind him, didn’t speak again until both were seated side-by-side,
watching the game over the heads of the crowd.
    ‘ You
spend a lot of time together,’ Ed said at last, in a neutral
voice.
    ‘ Mern’s not interested in me,’ Tren said with some surprise.
How had Ed got that idea?
    ‘ Course she is, you great oaf.’
    ‘ Rubbish. Oh, that’s Karan Reed,’ he added, his eye settling
on a tall dark-haired girl standing out on the edges of the pitch.
The two teams on the field were both of mixed gender; he recognised
one as the current official team of Glour City’s Sorcery Academy,
though he didn’t know the other.
    ‘ She’s got the measure of the ball,’ Ed said. ‘Look at her
go.’
    Glowball was a
sorcerer’s game. Somewhere out on the pitch was a single tiny
light-globe, powered by sorcery. Its light came and went
intermittently; when unlit, it was essentially invisible on the
darkened field. The players had to use senses other than their eyes
in order to predict the erratic path of the ball - and intercept
it.
    For a few
seconds there had been that hush that fell when the unlit glowball
evaded the efforts of both teams to locate it. The players came to
a temporary halt, all thoughts and senses bent on