Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #11 February 2015 | Page 34

a sleek and powerful black wolf. Its long fangs dripped
with a mixture of poison and saliva. The girl opened
her mouth to scream but no sound was forthcoming.
Her death was mercifully quick as the wolf tore out her
throat.
As the wolf ripped apart her body and gorged itself,
it didn’t notice the forgotten and still-uncovered glass
ball on the table, which momentarily flashed with a
chilling blue light.
More History Lessons
After lunch was cleared away, Manfred stood and
cleared his throat. The room came slowly to silence.
Twelve faces stared at him expectantly from points
around the huge circular table. Velacourt remained,
though his handmaidens had been asked to leave.
Rheanna now sat alone, her guards too having left the
chamber. Manfred looked at them one by one over the
metal rims of his spectacles, meeting their gaze, grabbing their attention, locking them to his will.
Simon was the last to be locked in. He was drawn into
the wizard’s gaze and found himself lost in the pale
green pools of his eyes, swimming in a velvety softness.
A voice spoke quietly in his mind, “Pay attention, heed
what I say, do not interrupt or question until I have finished.” Simon trusted the wizard implicitly. He knew he
had no cause to fear him and so he allowed the voice
to work its magic. If only my university lecturers could
learn this technique, he thought as the wizard broke
contact. Simon thought he saw a momentary smile
flash onto Manfred’s face before it stiffened into a stern
visage.
Manfred stood before them. He was clothed all in
white, his long white hair and beard adding to the
purity he projected. He held his staff in his right hand
and an ancient scroll in his left. Every person present
that day was indelibly affected by him. They all spoke
in awe of the vision in white, glowing with power,
strong and ancient. They remembered the multi-hued
staff glowing with the same power and the strength of
his voice. They never forgot the words that he spoke;
they were burned into their minds. Yet, when he sat
down afterwards and he released them from his spell,

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they saw a small, \