Hope by Sam Rook Page A

volunteered him to be the thief. His master either had great faith in his abilities or wished to be rid of him.
    The Chamber stretched on for a few hundred feet. When he reached the end, he held his breath. The Orb stood before him, floating above a raised dais. Black and spherical in shape, it spun as if someone had thrown a ball and willed it to spin in one place. He sensed an odd spell. Any casual observer would have dismissed the spell as the one causing it to spin, but he was far from casual. Something just wasn’t right.
    He extended his dagger toward the spinning sphere. It passed through the Orb and he stood there in astonishment. Reaching out with his left hand, it passed through as well. An illusion. Impossible! The Order was going to love this. They had searched for the Orb for almost a century. Someone had beaten them to it. It would have been hilarious if he hadn’t based the rest of his entire existence on obtaining the Orb and returning to Earth. He had to find out who had it.
    He ran his hands through his black hair in frustration. Sighing, he removed the canvas sack from his belt and knelt among the wealth. The gold coins quickly filled the sack and he shouldered the burden, leaving his sword arm free. He retraced his steps and disappeared into the dark catacombs. The mercenaries’ painful groans echoed behind him. Their headaches would be the least of their problems when the Council found out they had failed. Borith shook his head. Maybe it would have been kinder if he’d killed them.

Chapter 13
     
     
    Hal and Kathryn sat in the Common room and listened to the Av’lorish conversations going on around them.
    "Do you think this is right, Hal? Learning the language through a spell, I mean. I feel like a cheater." She looked down at her hands, unable to look him in the eye.
    "We can’t survive on this world and still have a chance of learning enough to return home if we don’t even speak the common language. If you want to, we can tell one of the instructors or we can just wait long enough so it appears we’ve learned the language on our own. I think the latter would be the best. I don’t think it matters anyway. They told us we should learn the language, but they didn’t even offer us a teacher. We used our own method."
    Most of the conversations around them involved the upcoming Assessments. Next week, they would find out if they made it into the Knighthood. She wasn’t great with a sword, but she could perform all sword and formation drills without a problem. Sir Lanclor had already declared their entire group as passing the weapons portion of the Assessment. Now, they only needed to demonstrate their magical ability.
    They had a few days to relax before the beginning of the Assessment. The Magical Assessment spanned three days at the end of the week. The first day consisted of a written assessment of their knowledge of the ten spells, including the pronunciation, purpose and any precautions for each spell. Half of the group would perform the individual demonstration of each spell in front of the entire group, one at a time. She would join her study group and a few others to demonstrate their knowledge on the last day of the Assessment.
    The next few days passed quickly as everyone hurried to prepare for the Assessments like students cramming for a final exam. Their group was calm, while the tempers flared for the rest of the candidates whom had trouble performing the spells. Kathryn offered to help some of them, but the majority refused any help from an Earthling. Those who welcomed her help ended up joining the study group—now up to 15—and progressed rapidly toward their goal.
    The first round of magical demonstrations only welcomed seven new knights out of 25. Kathryn had the honor of presenting first the next day. Assessor Jakara crossed his arms and sat among several other knights at a long table facing an upraised platform. The rest of the Assessors sat in silence awaiting the arrival