Rising of a Mage

By J. M. Fosberg

Master Gabrielle of the Wizards Guild looked at the book title: Magical Items and their Creation BY Anwar Alamira. He looked up at Anwar and smiled.

That is the name I will be known by in the magical world, Anwar said.

Gabrielle nodded, sat down and began leafing through the book written by his former apprentice.

When farm boy Anwar discovers he has the ability to use magic he goes to the local wizards guild for help. As apprentice to Master Gabrielle, he soon surpasses his teachers skills and knowledge and becomes a formidable member of the City Guard. While studying the magic arts, he meets Mariah, apprenticed in the art of healing. Anwar discovers that the girl he has fallen in love with will fight by his side with sword, knife and bow. When their city is attacked by a horde of marauding goblins, Anwar becomes a local hero. After the senseless slaughter of his family, Anwar vows to hunt the evil in the world and protect those who cannot protect themselves. Anwar, Mariah and his best friend Jabaal take off in search of knowledge and adventure. It doesn't take long for them to find it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 7, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477256169

J. M. Fosberg

J.M. Fosberg was born in Springfield, Missouri in 1987. He grew up in Belton, Mo, and bounced around the Kansas City area throughout high school. His dad gave him a copy of The Hobbit when he was nine and he’s been losing himself in books ever since. In 2005 he joined the Marine Corps, and started writing his first book Rising of a Mage in 2007 on his second deployment to Iraq. He has an amazing wife named Sara, and three children, daughter Mariah, and sons Logan and Dominic. He has two dogs and three fish tanks. He is currently working on his second book, and the sequel to Rising of a Mage, Gods and Magic which he plans to release in 2013.

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© 2012 by J. M. Fosberg. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/01/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4772-5615-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-5616-9 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Dedication

Special Thanks

Prologue

Chapter One

Anwar

Chapter Two

Mariah

Chapter Three

Recovery

Chapter Four

Introduction to Magic

Chapter Five

A Pair

Chapter Six

The Gift

Chapter Seven

The Duel Duelz

Chapter Eight

Mariah’s Birthday

Chapter Nine

Raiding Party

Chapter Ten

Anwar’s Birthday

Chapter Eleven

New Magic

Chapter Twelve

Magical Items and Their Creation

Chapter Thirteen

The Attack on Kampar

Chapter Fourteen

The Last Days in Kampar

Chapter Fifteen

New Life and New Friends

About The Author

Dedication

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I dedicate this book to my father, Tim Fosberg who introduced me to the world of fantasy, showing me that at any time I could be anyone in any place.

Special Thanks

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Special thanks to Kathleen Lambert for the cover art.

I would also like to thank Jim Parsons for taking my grammatically massacred story and making it readable.

Prologue

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A nwar! He went to the gate to talk to Jabaal. Mariah threw on her coat, strapped on her sword, tucked her bow string in a pocket, and threw her quiver over her shoulder. She grabbed her bow and Anwar’s staff and sprinted to the gate. As she approached the gate she saw guards piling up the stairs onto the walls. No one was firing, which meant the attack was not in range of the walls yet. She had made it before it started. Then she saw Anwar, standing on the wall above the gate. Dozens of magical bolts were flying from each hand, followed by fireballs. Guards all around him were yelling and cheering him on. Well, almost before it started. She bolted to the stairs nearest the gate. She pushed her way through the guards until she was on the wall next to Anwar. He looked down at her and smiled. She handed him his staff.

Ah yes, thank you, my love. Then his barrage began anew, dozens of bolts flying from his hand and mirror of those flowing from his staff.

There were thousands of goblins coming toward the city. This didn’t make sense. Goblins were not organized like this. Where had so many come from? She watched as Anwar’s killed hundreds. They were just under five hundred paces from the wall when she saw the first of the city’s defences. Well, besides Anwar of course. Catapults began throwing huge boulders into the oncoming rush of goblins. Anwar continued to throw his magic. Goblins were falling dozens at a time. Mariah saw more fireballs and magic bolts hit the oncoming rush. She followed them. A few hundred feet down the wall stood Master Gabrielle with three other wizards. The four of them were nearly matching the onslaught that Anwar was throwing. The invading force was two hundred paces from the wall. Now Mariah reached into her pocket, pulled out her bow string and strung her bow. She heard the first command before she had taken the first arrow from her quiver. Loose! Hundreds of arrows flew into the air falling into the mass of goblins. She heard it again. Loose! She fired her first arrow and it was lost in the air with hundreds of arrows. Hundreds of goblins fell again. She nocked another arrow. Loose! She fired again and hundreds more fell.

How many are there? Anwar had taken hundreds, the arrows had taken hundreds, the other wizards had laid hundreds down but still thousands were coming.

Loose! She fired; hundreds more fell. Loose! Again. Loose! Again. Fire at will! The force was at the wall now. Anwar raised his staff and a wall of fire erupted at the base of the wall. Nearly a hundred goblins died. The gap was filled in less than a minute with a hundred more. Ladders were being placed on the walls. A huge fire ball came flying towards them. It was aimed straight for Anwar; guards all around him dove away, but just before it hit him, it winked out. Anwar was smiling? There you are. Anwar turned and saw that all of Captain Anthony’s raiding party was standing next to him now, firing arrows down into the crowd below. He cast a magical shield over each one.

You got this? he asked Captain Anthony.

Where are you going?

It seems they have a very powerful wizard out there who needs to be stopped.

Captain Anthony just nodded. Anwar disappeared. Mariah was there with Captain Anthony’s group now. They continued to fire down into the enemy at the wall. Guards who did not have bows or had spent there arrows were running along the wall pushing ladders away sending the goblins on them and under them to their deaths. Others pulled empty ladders up over the wall. Mariah saw a dozen ogres with huge shields marching through the goblin army toward the gate. Dozens of arrows bounced off those shields to no avail.

Captain Anthony shouted To the Gate!

Mariah fired one more arrow and turned to follow him. A dozen other guards without bows ran after the famous raiding party. Many of the guards who were now running out of arrows took up there places keeping the ladders off the wall. A few goblins were making it onto the wall in different places. They were cut down in quick order, the ladders they made the wall on begin pushed away again, but a few guards were wounded or killed in each of these skirmishes. Mariah felt the ground rumble as the ogres outside slammed their battering ram against the gate the first time. Captain Anthony was standing in the front, sword drawn. The rest of the party stood with nocked arrows. After the tenth time the Ogres had slammed the battering ram into the gate, the huge wooden barrier holding the doors together started to give. As the battering ram slammed against the gate again, the wood nearly broke in half and the gate was forced inward leaving a foot wide gap. Five arrows flew through that gap followed by five more. There were loud shrieks of pain on the other side of the door that could only have come from the huge ogre. There was a few seconds pause as new ogres took up the place at the front of the battering ram to replace those who had gone down and then Mariah heard the impact of the battering ram and then the loud cracking noise of the barrier breaking away. Captain Anthony yelled, BREACH! THE GATE’S BEEN BREACHED.

As the gate was forced open, Mariah fired another arrow into the face of the first ogre she saw, another took it in the chest. She saw that two other ogres went down. The rushed forward to fill the entrance and fight the huge beast and goblins. Guards were running down the stairs to fall in behind them and fortify the gate. Mariah threw her first dragon dagger into the face of one ogre; her second took another beast in the cheek and buried itself to the hilt. The monster stumbled back a few steps but did not go down. Her third dagger, a rose dagger, followed the second, taking the beast in the eye. It toppled to the ground, crushing three unlucky goblins that could not get out from under him. Captain Anthony was standing in front of another huge ogre, ducking and parrying the powerful swings of its huge club. He was scoring hits, but nothing that would bring the thing down. She took her last dagger in one hand, her sword in the other, and joined in the madness. All of Captain Anthony’s group were pairing up against the huge ogres and the rest of the guards were happy to face the much smaller foe forcing their way into the entrance of the city. Mariah ran past the ogre Captain Anthony was standing against alone, running her sword across the back of its leg, hamstringing it, as her dagger hand went forward, driving the blade into a goblin’s throat, which sprayed her with the foul smelling blood. As the ogre howled in pain and fell to its knees, Captain Anthony drove his sword through the thing’s chest. Mariah spared a glance, and saw Victor and Ezekiel bring down the last of the ogres. The guards of the city, filled with renewed vigor as they saw the last of the giant things meet its death, began pushing forward. Soon they were outside the gate, more guards pouring out, arrows still coming down from the wall. The tide was turning.

Anwar appeared behind the army where three men stood. Two were huge men, taller than Anwar and nearly as wide, with blackened armor. The third was an older man whose hair was now more gray then black. He was wearing a black robe with a black dragon patch over his left breast. The black dragons? What do the black dragons want with Kampar?

The old man gave Anwar a crazed smile. The same thing the dragons want everywhere. CHAOS! Lightning shot from both of his hands but was absorbed by Anwar’s shield. Anwar shot three fireballs one at each of his opponents. Each was stopped by a magical barrier before it hit. Anwar fired three more as he closed the distance. The shields were strong, but they would not stop his staff. The two warriors in black stepped forward as a bolt of lightning shot between them, and was absorbed by Anwar’s shield. A huge broadsword came in high from his left as the other man’s slash came low to the right. Anwar surprised them by leaping forward over the low swing and knocking away the high. He spun around and away from the reverse swing of the low attack and placed the man who was just getting the heavy sword back up in front of him, between himself and the second warrior. Another magical attack hit his barrier. Anwar continued to manoeuver, keeping the first opponent between himself and the second warrior. He blocked a couple of powerful attacks that were not fast enough. Then Anwar took a step back and as the man lunged forward attempting to drive the great sword into his chest, Anwar swung his staff, loosing his grip as the staff slid through his fingers. He was holding the small end of his staff as the enchanted clawed end slammed through the magical barrier and caved in the side of the man’s helmed head. The man fell to the ground dead, the tip of his sword, just inches from Anwar’s chest, falling away. The second opponent leaped over the first bringing his sword straight down on Anwar in an attempt to cut him in half. Anwar leapt to the side, intending to slam his staff into the man’s chest but, as his foot came down on a large rock, his ankle rolled and he felt it snap as he fell to the ground, taking a nasty gash in his hip. The warrior corrected wildly. The warrior rushed in, thinking the battle won. Anwar swung his staff with all the strength he could muster while lying on his back. He shattered the magical barrier and the man fell to the ground, leg broken. Anwar loosed a single bolt of lightning into the man’s chest. His body when taut, his chest bent upward away from the ground and then he lay still. The powerful but arrogant wizard of the black dragon, thinking his opponent helpless, he began to let loose spell after spell, attempting to break through the young wizard’s shield. Lightning followed by fire followed by ice slammed into Anwar’s shield.

Chapter One

Anwar

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Anwar was a fourteen year old boy. His curly light brown hair brushed his shoulders. His dark blue eyes were deeply set in his large slightly squared forehead—an inherited trait. His mother’s grandfather was a hill giant and, though it was not immediately obvious to anyone who had not spent time with giant folk, there were some inherited traits. Aside from his above-average size, his forehead was wide and slightly squared, his shoulders were wide, and connected with a neck that was more like a small tree trunk. He spent his days working his family farm, his skin tanned a dark olive color. As he wandered through the woods near his home he picked up a walking stick. He engulfed himself in an imaginary battle. He was battling trolls and goblins. He swung the stick at the head of a huge troll, smacking it into a tree. His reverse swing took out the nearest goblin, uprooting a small bush. As his imaginary battle raged on Anwar felt his body begin to tingle. His tightly corded muscles began to bulge, his long hair stood up as if he had been struck by lightning. He felt something driving him. He knew that there was more in store for him in life then working his family farm. With renewed determination, his body flowing with unfamiliar energy, he continued the imaginary battle. As he swung his staff at the nearest troll he screamed out, Alamira! The staff made contact with the nearest tree. His body began to convulse with the unfamiliar energy. There was a loud crack and a flash of light. His vision began to blur then fade. He fell to the ground unconscious.

When Anwar awoke it was nearly dark and the tree he had struck was broken and had fallen to the ground. Filled with excitement and a touch of guilt at the destruction of the tree, Anwar headed home. Never destroy any living thing without cause, his father always said. But how could he have knocked that tree down with only that staff he had picked up in the woods? The excitement of what he had done and the energy he had felt excited him. He had to hurry home, though; if he did not get back before the sun went down, his mother would have his hide.

Anwar lived in a small farm house similar to all of those nearby. It had three bedrooms a small kitchen where his father cooked, because women were meant to do the cleaning and cooking of desserts, but real meals were made by men, his father had told him. His father had built this house and started farming the land while his mother was pregnant with his older brother Cannen. Cannen was nineteen now and much bigger and stronger the Anwar. Anwar admired his brother Cannen who was six feet tall and a solid two hundred pounds, but Anwar knew he would be bigger than his brother and knew that there was more to life for him then being a simple farmer. Anwar