The Gathering: The Hole Between Worlds

By John Doyal

A dragon, two wizards, and an assassin travel to the world of Drago, named after the many types of dragons living there. The first objective was to save Magda's aunt and grandmother, but when they find that Drago and Earth have a rift that needs to be repaired or both worlds will destruct, they have to change their goal.

Earth,

• Language: English
• Publisher: WordHouse Book Publishing
• Release date: Aug 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685471491

John Doyal

John Doyal, Creator and Writer/Author of Book Series & "The Magus Council", has worked for major companies, providing computer expertise and financial analysis. He has been in love with the best of science fiction/fantasy since being introduced to Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny while in undergraduate school.

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The Gathering: The Hole Between Worlds

The Magus Council Book Two

Copyright © 2022 John Doyal

This book is a work of fiction. People, places, events, and situations are the products of the authors imagination. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or historical events, are purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission from the publisher or author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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.

ISBN

Paperback: 978-1-68547-147-7

Hardcover: 978-1-68547-148-4

eBook: 978-1-68547-149-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022914572

Printed in the United States of America

101 Foundry Dr,

West Lafayette, IN, 47906, USA

www.wordhousebp.com

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table of contents

Part One

Preface 3

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17 Breaking Threads And Breaking Bread 91

Chapter 18

Part Two

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Part Three

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

PART ONE

camelot island

preface

The winds howled around them, as the small fishing boat tossed like a bobber on the waves. All good reasons for Joseph to be shaking in fright, but he had a better reason. He had been watching them get killed, many, many times, killed. The old fisherman stoically manned the tiller, unaware that he could have taken dozens of small changes from the route or the speed with which they sailed, and they would all be dead… or possibly worse. Jason and Joseph huddled close together by the rails, trying to manage their misery. Jason was probably shaking because of the cold wind. Only two of them on board watched them die: by arrow, catapult ball, drowning, or slit throats; only to see it all over again with slight variation. Just Joseph, and the girl. Joseph wasn’t managing it very well: cold, wet, confused, and trying to not break-down. There, she looked at him again. Every time she looked at him her face glowed. It really glowed, not with the red of embarrassment that Joseph felt, but with … lavender. She probably thought he was giving her moral support, but he was too frightened to lend anyone support.

If he told this to any of his friends, they would think he was nuts, but no one sees the way Joseph sees; magic in all its different aspects: the mages with black and brown and greens swirling around their faces and hands, even an occasional blue mainly from the animal mages, but this was different, a lavender.

Why were they even here? During the Dragon War, they were just kids and they went where they were sent. Joseph was older now, and not just a kid. So, Joseph asked himself, why are they sailing through a storm in a little boat going to a place that two weeks ago they had never even heard of?

Two weeks ago, he had the easy life. The war ended six months earlier, and now he and his friends Jason, Betty, and Lucy returned to the life of apprentices to a wizard too busy to assign much work. Magda had recovered enough to take care of her brood of adolescent dragons. And he was the perfect age: seventeen, too young to have big responsibilities and old enough to be able to go off and have fun with his friends.

That’s when she arrived, a scrawny, disheveled, foreigner of about his age with reddish blond hair, pale skin and freckles. She walked into their village as if she owned the place, dragging her grandfather behind her. There was nothing special about her… he couldn’t keep his eyes off her.

Since the end of the war, it is not all that unusual to see strangers walking into their village. They used to do their best to keep others out, and they still didn’t encourage them. People they didn’t know, came to ask Gavin the wizard for help, often now that they knew where he lives. Or maybe, to get a look at Jason, the hero of the Dragon War. But then life took a detour. After the girl had a private conversation with Gavin for about two hours, Jason was called in for another hour. Then he was sent for.

Gavin looked at him, and then back to the girl. That’s him, she said, and blushed.

Joseph, this is Lena and her grandfather Jeffrey. Go pack, because you and Jason are going on a trip.

And so, they sail through this miserable storm to some unknown island country, all because of what this scraggly girl said to Gavin. But it was more than just some island. It was her island. Joseph had never been there, but visited it many times, visited her many times, when sleeping or not. It was always lavender, and he and Lena would often watch their older selves. None of this made sense, and all of it made sense. He saw magic, and she is some kind of oracle or profit or sear, who sees what might be. She saw that they would be lovers, or might be, and her visions were so strong that he saw them too. That happened to him often five years ago, and a few times since then. Once she showed him this trip. The storm, the boat, the old sailor, Jason and him hiding behind the wood railing to protest ourselves from the wind, and her besides the sailor, her grandfather, giving him instructions because of what she saw, now, what he saw too. May the gods, if there are gods, save them both.

They set sail in midafternoon two days ago. Four hours later the boat made its way through the islands north of the Wizard school and made their way to the rocky shoal. That’s when Joseph first saw lavender ghost ships ahead of them. When one hit some hidden rocks, he seemed to be transport onto the boat as it shattered. Then he was back at the bow of the boat, seeing more ghost ships filling in some of the gaps between the others. When a group of them made it past the shoals the others disappeared and they navigated to where the ghost ships had passed unscathed. When he said that he saw all this, the sailor and Jason did not, just he and Lena.

The storm had started as a light rain. Since nothing seemed to be going on, Jason and Joseph covered up as best they could. Joseph did not think that Lena’s grandfather was worried, because he did not see any of her ghost ships. Then he heard Lena’s groan. Looking towards her, he saw her crumpled to the deck, so he called her name. She looked at him, and the world disappeared. Instead, he saw a pirate ship boarding their vessel with all but Lena dead. Then a flash, and in fast motion three pirate ships bore down on their boat, spewing arrows causing us to all to be hiding behind edge of the boat. Everything was now sped up, and one after another encounter all ending in disaster, no matter whether we turned and ran or if we tried to sneak passed them. They always saw the ship’s sails and the pirate ships were at least twice as fast. Joseph scuttled over to her, shook her, and said, Lower the sails. We will remain silent, and Jason will keep us safe. Then he crawled over to Jason. We need to walk through an enemy camp, and not be seen. Jason did not know what was going to happen, but he knew what Joseph was asking. He had a talent for being overlooked, not invisibility, but he could make himself irrelevant to guards. Joseph had seen him casually walk into and back out of the enemy camp in the Dragon war.

Fifteen minutes later, four pirate ships passed them. They came within hearing range, but in the dark and rain, no one noticed the little boat whose only motion was being rocked by the waves. Twenty minutes after they passed, the Lena and her grandfather raised the sail enough to move farther away from them.

Jason, do you have any of your sticks that you store magic in. I think Lena is dragging and will need more energy if she is going to have to be on watch through the night. Jason handed Joseph a couple of sticks, about three quarters of an inch thick and about eight inches long, which Joseph took over to Lena. Handing the sticks to the girl, he said, Hold one or both of these anytime you begin to get worn out. They will feed you power when you need it. Jason loaded them, and he is as powerful as anyone I know. Lena took the sticks, but kept looking at him as if she was looking at a crazy man. But then she looked down at the sticks, and replied, Wow.

The storm kept getting stronger. All through the night the two boys huddled by the side of the boat, rapped in soggy blankets, holding on to anything they could. The wind was howling, the waves were larger than the boat, and torrents of rain hit in squalls that lasted about fifteen minutes at a time.

There was one more incident in the night. Once again Joseph found himself on a purple ship and he heard splashing, getting louder, until he could make out thirty-foot long creatures playing in the waves, and occasional tails wider than the frolicking creatures, lifting out of the water, and spurts of purple water as high as their mast. They are merks. They are not aggressive, but they are enormously strong, said the purple Lena standing next to him. Suddenly, the thirty-foot frolickers dived over their ship from the side, incidentally killing half the people on the boat and leaving the rest to drown.

Then he was on another purple boat, in amongst the monstrous adult merks as they tried to sail between them. After fifteen minutes of this, one of the tails must have hit the side of the boat, making it rock and the bottom crack open. Lena’s other boats were able to sail routes that avoided these non-aggressive creatures all together; so, Lena had her grandfather sail on one of the safe courses.

Joseph thought the sky lightening some, but the waves had gotten worse. The noise got louder… was that surf? Jason screamed back to him while pointing ahead to the right. Joseph, land!

Lena scrambled to her feet and tottered out to her grandfather, where between holding on to him and the supports around the wheel, she could avoid toppling. She was having some sort of conversation consisting of screaming and pointing. Then for the next twenty minutes her grandfather headed straight toward the craggy coast.

As a dark drizzly dawn lighted the sky they could see that they were headed straight for oblivion, through rocky outcroppings straight toward a wall of stone where the storm driven waves danced up the cliffs, just to bounce back to try again. And to add to the strangeness, a purple streak went from Lena’s feet, across the deck, and then to the railing where Joseph crouched. Right there in front of him, he saw a lavender image of himself… himself and Lena. Was it grabbing, holding, or fighting with her? Meanwhile he was seeing what looked like fifty ghost ships heading for the shore, one after another floundering: either into the rocks, or flipping on its side, or smashing into the shore.

Thirty seconds before their obvious doom, Lena screamed Now and her grandfather turned the wheel hard to the left, straight towards a closer rocky out cropping. Forty feet from this barrier a wave hit the boat broad side flinging Lena towards the railing, followed by Joseph’s leap, grabbing and swinging her and causing them both to slam to the deck, with her on his lap, but her momentum took them crashing into the railing. With what traction Joseph could muster, he fought to hold them against the railing with his arms making a cocoon to hold her. For the next two minutes they sat there, just clinging to each other. She was trembling, burrowing her head into his shoulders.

Gradually her shaking slowed and they became aware of the world around them. The waves were gone, the gale was muted, the rocking of the boat was almost gentile. Somehow, they had entered a small stream, and soon were tying up to a small dock.

Lena turned in his arms, gave Joseph a long kiss and said, Thanks. She then got up and wobbled off the boat. Jason was smiling as he helped Joseph to his feet. Fortunately, he didn’t say anything.

As he left the boat, Joseph asked Lena’s grandfather, you must be a great sailor to make it into the entrance through that storm.

I’m a good sailor, but I would never try that stunt. I would have waited out at sea for it to calm down some. But Lena said that we needed to go in now, and that we would make that turn safely. Then after a pause he continued, She’d know.

CHAPTER 1

the bonfire

Jason and Joseph were led by Amy and Brit to what they called the village. This lack of an official name might seem strange, but since Jason and Joseph refer to their own town as ‘their village’, they asked no questions.

This is our cottage. You two will be staying with us until other arrangements are made.

After showing them the main rooms of the cottage, Amy took them to a small room with two beds. We were told that you are very tired from your trip, so get some sleep, before your outing this afternoon. With that she left before they had a chance to ask questions, but the small beds’ attraction was too great for them to worry about anything else.

"Time to wake up. Come join us for some dinner, but you’ll have