Nicholas Raven and the Wizards' Web - Volume 1 Read online

  NICHOLAS RAVEN

  AND THE

  WIZARDS’ WEB

  VOLUME 1

  ~ PROLOGUE AND CHAPTERS 1 - 39 ~

  THOMAS J. PRESTOPNIK

  Copyright © 2015 by Thomas J. Prestopnik

  All rights reserved.

  Nicholas Raven and the Wizards’ Web - Volume 1

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a book reviewer who may quote short excerpts of this literary work in a review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events is entirely coincidental.

  Visit Thomas J. Prestopnik’s website at www.TomPresto.com.

  Cover Artist: Kelly McGrogan

  Cover Layout: Ryan McGrogan

  Maps: Thomas J. Prestopnik

  Nicholas Raven and the Wizards’ Web

  Nicholas Raven, a young gristmill accountant, just wanted a little adventure in his life. But he gets more than he bargained for when tumultuous winds of the past sweep him away on a journey he’ll never forget.

  Invisible webs are being spun over the lands of Laparia; webs of war, deceit, revenge and manipulation, all by two corrupt wizards with different objectives. When Nicholas becomes an inconvenience to their plans which pass by his very doorstep, he finds himself unwittingly ensnared in their vindictive schemes.

  After being accused of crimes he didn’t commit, Nicholas reluctantly flees home. But whether by chance or fate, his personal problems collide with the turbulent state of affairs around him, and he soon finds himself on a journey to the far corners of Laparia.

  Against a backdrop of war, kidnapping, mistaken identity and newfound love, Nicholas becomes embroiled in a rescue mission along the shores of a sprawling sea, takes part in a quest to reforge a magic key that could tip the balance of power in a growing war, and is ultimately drawn into the center of the tangled web of intrigue that has plagued his life from the very start.

  For every reader in search

  of an exciting adventure.

  I hope you find one

  inside these pages.

  CONTENTS

  MAPS

  FOREWORD

  PROLOGUE

  PART ONE

  TROUBLE IN KANESBURY

  Chapter 1

  Plans Made

  Chapter 2

  A Trap is Sprung

  Chapter 3

  The Awakening

  Chapter 4

  A Wizard and His Apprentice

  Chapter 5

  The Party

  Chapter 6

  A Thief in the Night

  Chapter 7

  Two Meetings

  Chapter 8

  A Key to a Plan

  Chapter 9

  A Change in Direction

  Chapter 10

  On King’s Road

  PART TWO

  THE ROAD NORTH

  Chapter 11

  A Brief Visit

  Chapter 12

  A Conversation Among Friends

  Chapter 13

  The Plum Orchard Inn

  Chapter 14

  Secrets Revealed

  Chapter 15

  Table Talk

  Chapter 16

  Spies on the Bridge

  Chapter 17

  The Switch

  Chapter 18

  Visitors from the North

  Chapter 19

  Fifty Copper Pieces

  Chapter 20

  The Grasslands

  PART THREE

  MACHINATIONS

  Chapter 21

  The Umarikaya

  Chapter 22

  The Road to Triana

  Chapter 23

  Bread and Soup

  Chapter 24

  The Swamp

  Chapter 25

  A Change in Leadership

  Chapter 26

  An Unwitting Accomplice

  Chapter 27

  The War Council

  PART FOUR

  PRELUDE TO WAR

  Chapter 28

  One Lit Candle

  Chapter 29

  The Medallion

  Chapter 30

  A Secret Mission

  Chapter 31

  Alterations

  Chapter 32

  Silent Pursuit

  Chapter 33

  A Cabin in the Woods

  Chapter 34

  The Clearing

  Chapter 35

  A Loose Tooth

  Chapter 36

  Across the Golden Plains

  Chapter 37

  A Common Bond

  Chapter 38

  On the Battle’s Doorstep

  Chapter 39

  Through the Billowing Fog

  MAPS

  Map One

  The Lands of Laparia

  Map Two

  The Kingdom of Arrondale

  Map Three

  The County of Litchfield

  Map Four

  The Village of Kanesbury

  Each map follows twice.

  First as a two-page spread, and then on a single page.

  FOREWORD

  This novel has been nearly forty years in the making. The first nugget of a story idea, as best I can remember, came to me in autumn 1978 at age fifteen as I walked home from high school one evening down a wooded hilly path with two schoolmates. Though no plot or themes occurred to me then, I recall stars and moonlight through the bony tree branches and the sweet scent of decaying leaves and soil. I observed grassy tracts of land just beyond the woods, imagining a secret gathering of people out there. An army perhaps? A conclave of spies? I don’t remember fleshing out the scene much more at the time, but I decided that that evocative setting would be included somewhere in this epic fantasy I would one day write. I can’t pinpoint a specific scene now in my completed novel that resulted from that walk through the woods above my small city in central New York State, but it ignited something in my imagination and remains my earliest recollection of starting to plan this particular story.

  But even with that, Nicholas Raven and the Wizards’ Web wouldn’t have come to fruition were it not for an earlier discovery I had made in 1975, forty years ago this spring. Then, I had learned about and read J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, in that order, and became hooked on the books and amazed by the vast scope of their plot, characters and geography. I had read them several times through over those next few years with much enjoyment and soon after decided that I wanted to write my own epic tale someday. And while I experimented with various story forms and genres back then, including a first attempt at a fantasy novel which only made it to seven chapters, it wasn’t until autumn 1978 when I began collecting the snippets of plotlines, settings and characters that would slowly form the foundation of Nicholas Raven’s story.

  Beginning in April 2011, I began posting monthly updates on my website about various aspects of writing this book, but here I will just highlight the stages of its creation. My first outline, handwritten in a spiral notebook, was completed in July 1988 over the preceding ten year period which covered most of my high school days and continued on a few years after graduating college. A slightly revised second draft was finished in September 1988. I was twenty-five at the time, and though happy with the outline, I knew that I wasn’t ready to write the story yet. First, I wanted to hone my writing skills, convinced that if I
had attempted this novel back then that I would end up with a poorly executed version. Second, I wasn’t intellectually or emotionally ready to handle such a huge task, reasoning that I needed to face a few more years of life’s rigors to mature and get in the proper frame of mind. In retrospect, it was a wise decision.

  Though the story was always in my thoughts as I wrote other books, it wasn’t until almost eleven years later that I finally felt ready to tackle this project so dear to my heart. I began writing Chapter 1 in June 1999 but quickly moved away from the keyboard to draw four maps for the story, knowing I would need them to properly maneuver my way around the lands I had created. I also took a little time to again revise my outline between June 1999 and February 2000. It wasn’t until March 2000 that I fully jumped back into the writing process, and over the next eight years I had completed the prologue and the first twenty chapters (Parts One and Two), finishing that chunk of the book in late January 2008. It was a very slow writing pace, however, because during that time I also revised and self-published two previously written children’s novels and then wrote two more. This was my Endora trilogy fantasy series (The Timedoor, The Sword and the Crown and The Saving Light) and Gabriel’s Journey.

  Guessing that I’d be old and decrepit by the time I finished the book if I continued at this pace, I decided that I would devote 2009, 2010 and part of 2011 entirely to its completion, figuring that it would be more than enough time to reach the end of the first draft. But for the rest of 2008, I promised myself that I would first write my Christmas novella, A Christmas Castle, an idea I had begun planning in January 2000 and was eager to start. And so I did. It wasn’t until the end of January 2009, after once more revising parts of my outline, that I again continued writing Nicholas Raven and the Wizards’ Web, eager to begin Chapter 21 after a one year respite.

  I remember sitting down at my desk early on that gray, late January morning, ready to write Chapter 21, the first chapter in Part Three of the book. At that time, the outline was divided into eighty chapters, so there were sixty more to complete, a mountainous task, to say the least. Looking at the project as a whole, a small part of me briefly wondered how I could ever reach the end. So I just dived into it, typing one word at a time, completing one sentence at a time and eventually piling one paragraph on top of another. And as one month dissolved into the next and each chapter fell into place, a little over two years passed by. Spring 2011 had finally arrived, the time I had first estimated when the book would be completed. But I was nowhere near finished with it, reaching only to the end of Part Eight.

  The total chapter count had now passed eighty and would continually change and eventually reach 120 after the last draft of the outline was completed and other, longer chapters were split into two (and in one instance, split into three) for a better story presentation. From early May to mid September of 2011, I wrote what were then Chapters 79 through 85, finishing another section, Part Nine. My next task, writing Part Ten, proved to be the most challenging and grueling part of completing this novel.

  At the time, Part Ten comprised eight chapters (86 though 93), a section which brought most of my characters and plotlines to a conclusion before things were to be wrapped up in Part Eleven. But what I had outlined on paper, which had so far survived several revisions, was far different from what I would eventually write over the following year. My original version of the story’s conclusion, imagined over thirty years ago, was not going to make the cut. So I tinkered with the outline once again–big time.

  The fourth draft of my outline is filled with tiny, handwritten paragraphs to replace much of what I wrote for Part Ten (which itself was eventually split into Parts Ten and Eleven). My notes from decades ago presented a more perfunctory ending to the main story and didn’t incorporate the newer themes I had developed. Also, now that my geography was established, I had to make a few changes to get some of my characters to where they were supposed to be in a logical way. This proved to be a good thing as I was able to eliminate one unnecessarily complicated chapter when I reworked the story, but other, better scenes were also introduced.

  So September 2011 through September 2012, including about another month afterward for editing, was both writing heaven and hell for me–creatively stimulating when the new and improved ideas fell into place, yet a mentally agonizing process at times to build the pathway to those new ideas. Nearly every day I was imagining my maps and where my characters were going and what they needed to do, revising ideas along the way and taking a few unexpected turns. It was an exhausting year of writing, yet rewarding as well since I believe the time and pains I had taken to improve the story has paid off. On my website posts (Update #18 - September 25, 2012), I wrote that Part Ten of this book turned out to be 498 pages long before my first edit of this section, took a year and a week to write, and contained five more chapters than originally planned. I still get worn out thinking about that year of writing but am very happy with the result. I hope that whoever reads this book will have an enjoyable and memorable experience as well.

  Finally, I would like to thank a few people who helped me as I wrote and prepared this book for publication. To my sister-in-law, Jan, who read the first edited draft while continually sending me notes regarding plot, characters, grammar and the like over many months of reading, offering far more than a general overview of the book for which I had asked; to my nephew, Nathan, for reading the same draft and sending me a detailed critique and a list of helpful suggestions; to my niece, Kelly, for drawing many draft cover sketches and the lovely web and moon artwork for each volume and for refining my original ideas; to my nephew, Ryan, for formatting all three cover layouts, finding the perfect typeface to go along with the story and creating the beautiful background colors and cover effects; to my mom, for offering words of encouragement as we talked about the book from time to time over coffee at her kitchen table, and to my dad, who I believe was with us there in spirit; to Professor J. R. R. Tolkien, whose words and wonderful stories inspired this writer forty years ago; to family members and friends who have kindly inquired about the progress of this book over these many years; and to God above for giving me the ability, patience and perseverance to fulfill this lifelong dream. My unending and heartfelt thanks to all.

  Thomas J. Prestopnik

  June 6, 2015

  NICHOLAS RAVEN

  AND THE

  WIZARDS’ WEB

  VOLUME 1

  ~ PROLOGUE AND CHAPTERS 1 - 39 ~

  PROLOGUE

  Fifty years ago...

  They’ll forever regret the day I return.

  The wizard Vellan pulled the wolf skin cloak tightly about his shoulders as he trudged through the desolate brush lands. Bitter winds of New Autumn chilled him to the bone despite the blinding sunlight that stabbed through breaks in the ashen clouds. The Gable Mountain Range lay three days behind in the west. Vellan prided himself that he hadn’t once glanced back in the direction where his foolish and faithless companions still resided. Yet his black thoughts contemplated a day far in the future when he would again stare them down from the sacred hilltop of Ulán with vengeance and crushing might at his side. A day he would proudly show his fellow wizards what they could have achieved had they abandoned their fear, timidity and lack of vision and stood by his side. A day he would finally destroy them.

  In time. All in good time.

  Vellan clutched an oak staff, pounding it on the hard grassy ground with each step. A clear crystal globe the size of his fist was mounted on top, reflecting the blood red color of falling leaves. The wizard’s staff was his most prized possession, something he had owned for just over half of his twenty-eight years. How joyful he had been to receive it on his thirteenth birthday, indicating that he was accepted into the wizards’ order to begin his training. He had proudly used the staff ever since during his many travels abroad. So let the others disagree with his views now, expelling him from their order and driving him out of the valley. What did they know? But they would never get
his staff back. Vellan had refused to turn it over when they banished him. And though his training in the magic arts was still not finished, he knew he could teach himself what little remained. He didn’t need further instruction from the other wizards, convinced he was well beyond their skills and parochial mindset. Why, he could teach them! And he vowed to one day take the magic arts to such lofty levels that they could never imagine.

  Blind fools! They have the world at their hands yet refuse to grasp it.

  Vellan sighed wearily, caressing his whiskered face. He had grown tired of revisiting the arguments which had churned endlessly in his mind these last three days. He walked faster, his heavy cloak swaying behind him, his long black hair blowing in the breeze. Though he had wandered many miles from home in a valley tucked among the Gable Mountains where his fellow wizards resided, he only now approached the true end of their realm. The Mang River snaking just ahead through the brush lands marked the eastern border of the lands where he had spent nearly his entire life.