The Sorcerer's Abyss (The Sorcerer's Path) (38 page)

The building fronts exploded into the street where a fierce wind created a vortex of swirling timber and stone. Every home and building front exploded inward, torn from the main structure by the massive vacuum and followed in her wake like rushing water. The fury of the tempest forced Inquisitors Forrest and Tamara to end their chase and reinforce their wards before the flying materials shredded them.

When the massive assault stopped, the two inquisitors found themselves near the end of the street facing the brick wall of a large building. The buildings and homes along the street were in ruins, their entire street-side walls lying scattered across the avenue. The two wizards looked in the only two directions the girl could have run.

“Well, she had to go left or right,” Inquisitor Tamara said.

“Unless I gated in behind you,” came Ellyssa’s cold voice directly to their rear.

Ellyssa struck before the two mages could turn around, the force of her strike hurling them through the air to smash into the brick wall a full thirty feet from where she stood. Seeing both inquisitors dazed beyond coherency, Ellyssa left the pair twitching and moaning as she ran down the street to her right.

She had barely taken half a dozen steps when something struck her from behind and sent electricity coursing through her body, numbing her limbs and senses. Ellyssa cursed through the pain and surprise at her own stupidity. She had made a fundamental error in any battle, losing count of the number of enemies she faced. There had been another man with the woman in the first contest and the two men in the street she tricked into striking at each other for total of four not three.

Ellyssa felt the ground lift up from beneath her and begin folding itself around her body in an earthen and quarried stone cocoon. She thought quickly. She needed to keep an arm free if she was going to have any chance of defending herself. The swelling earth raised her from the ground and pressed her against the side of a building. The dark silhouette of a man slowly resolved into Inquisitor Fennrick as he sauntered closer.

“I will give you credit. You are a very clever girl. A shame you wasted your talents on murder,” he said and stopped perhaps a score of feet away.

Ellyssa glared down at the man. “It was not murder! Every man I killed was a pirate or a slaver, and both warrant immediate execution under the King’s law!”

“As does your actions under Academy Law. The difference is you will get the trial denied those men.”

“They chose their fate when they chose their profession, just as you chose yours when you attacked me.”

Ellyssa cast her spell with a final flick of the wrist of her free hand. She opened a gate directly beneath Fennrick’s feet and placed the exit less than twenty feet over his head. The inquisitor let out a short bark of surprise as he fell, and fell, and continued to fall, picking up speed as he dropped through the portals. Within seconds, he was traveling at such a rate he had to close his eyes against the wind.

Without Fennrick focusing on the spell holding her against the wall, Ellyssa was able to dispel it. Her earthen shackles crumbled into loose dirt and stone and deposited her onto the street. She stepped toward the falling wizard and shouted so he could hear her over the wind blasting past his ears.

“I will tell you what I told those other fools: leave me alone before someone gets hurt.”

She then used her magic to give the inquisitor a nudge, making him spin on every axis imaginable. Ellyssa conjured another gate and disappeared onto a nearby roof.

Tamara and Forrest reached the scene a moment before Inquisitor Mills stumbled in, still trying to shake off his bludgeoning. All three looked upon the scene in amazed wonderment.

“By the gods, I never would have thought of that,” Inquisitor Tamara gasped.

Inquisitor Mills stifled a smile. “The girl is clever, I’ll grant her that.”

“If you all are finished gawking, get me out of this before I sick up all over myself!” Fennrick shouted then clamped his jaws shut.

He was far more concerned with what would happen to him when the spell expired and he struck the cobblestones at a speed no man has likely ever before traveled. The other three inquisitors looked at their comrade and each other, trying to decipher the riddle before them.

“Need I remind you speed is of paramount importance here?” Fennrick called out between clenched teeth.

“I have an idea,” Inquisitor Tamara declared. “You two be ready to catch him.”

The lady mage conjured her own gate and slipped it between the one cast by the rogue wizard. Fennrick fell into the new gate entrance and launched skyward as he rocketed straight up out of Tamara’s exit portal. He could not help but open his eyes and marvel at the expansive black vista hundreds of feet below him. Miles of street lamps outlined the avenues of the wealthier districts, and he could take them all in with a single glance from his terrifying height. Then he once again plummeted toward the ground.

It was all too much and he released a shrill scream lasting several seconds until he felt magic envelop him like a gentle hand. Fennrick let out several ragged gasps as he felt himself slow until he came to a near halt a few tens of feet above the cobblestone street. Mills and Forrest then guided him the rest of the way down where Fennrick promptly staggered to the nearest wall and sank into a sitting position.

“I never would have thought to use a simple gate spell in such an offensive manner,” Forrest remarked as Fennrick regained his composure.

“Such a clever girl. She would have made a fantastic inquisitor,” Mills nodded in agreement.

Fennrick stood up on shaky legs. “She is not clever; she is brilliant, too brilliant and too strong for us to take by force with the restriction of taking her alive.”

“Yes, particularly when she is under no such restraint,” Tamara agreed.

“She could have killed Fennrick,” Forrest pointed out.

“Indeed, yet she did not, and I plan to make her regret her decision,” Fennrick hissed.

Ellyssa ran along the roofs as far as she could before climbing down and fleeing through the streets. She kept to the shadows, alleys, and took a circuitous route back to the inn where she rented a room. She thought of the buildings she damaged and wondered if she should go back and make restitution to the owners. Let The Academy pay for it! It was their fault anyway.

She snuck in through the inn’s kitchen. Pain flared across her back and reminded Ellyssa of the injury she had taken in the battle. Herbalism and alchemy were never her strong suits, but she knew enough to treat some minor wounds. She rooted around the kitchen and found an onion and some chamomile. She chopped up the onion with a kitchen knife then crushed it with a rolling pin.

Ellyssa scooped the mix into a clean cloth and quietly made her way up the stairs to her room. She paused outside her door and examined her wards. From what she could tell, no one had passed through them while she was out. She fished the small key from her pocket, unlocked the door, and stepped into its dark interior. The oil lamp on the table flared to life with the snap of her fingers.

She winced when she pulled her shirt off over her head and it rubbed against the throbbing welt and blister raised across her back. Ellyssa laid the towel on her bed, spread the onion and chamomile concoction, and pressed her back onto it by lying down. She then tied the compress in place and breathed a sigh of relief as it extinguished the searing, throbbing heat.

Ellyssa replayed the battle in her mind. This group was different from the others. They seemed to know how to fight. She was certain they too had underestimated her and made mistakes, but it was not for lack of skill. The fact they apparently wanted her alive, wanted the book more likely, was the only reason she probably emerged victorious.

She was not sure what to do now. They also seemed to be wearing some kind of uniform as well. The Academy must have sent a more capable group. This was going to make her job more difficult. She wondered if she could avoid them. She also wondered how they had found her. It was obvious they had set themselves up to ambush her, so they must have known where she was.

If they were adept at capturing wizards, they probably had a way to detect latent magical signatures. She had been cloaking herself in an illusion all day. She had been doing that for almost the entire time she was in Southport. She also used magic to deal with some people and interrogate them for information about Captain Jake. Ellyssa reasoned she had been leaving a magical scent throughout the city for weeks, especially around the docks, and like bloodhounds, they had sniffed her out.

Fear shot through her as she thought about the wards on her room. Ellyssa relaxed, knowing many of the wards cast on her room were specifically crafted to prevent detection from all manner of inquiry. The book gave them to her and she knew they were good. It was a good thing she was exhausted. Otherwise, the stress of having to deal with this new threat would have kept her awake. Ellyssa’s injury forced her to sleep on her stomach, which was something else to irritate her to no end, but even that could not keep her awake for long.

Morning came with the intrusiveness of a siege. The sun breeched her consciousness as it poured through the window and was about as welcome as enemy infantry. Ellyssa was determined to continue to fight to the bitter end, but the rumbling in her stomach forced her to accept the sun’s terms of surrender. She was still dressed in yesterday’s clothes with the exception of her ruined shirt, so Ellyssa donned a new one and followed the smell of food downstairs with one last hateful look at the sun promising resumption of hostilities later.

“Hey, girl, rough night?” the innkeeper asked with far too much exuberance.

“Food!” Ellyssa demanded as she found an empty table, which she promptly dropped her head onto with a dull thud.

Frank the innkeeper showed up a minute later with a plate of food, dropping it in front of the sleeping girl hard enough to wake her. Ellyssa looked up and tried to glare her displeasure, but Frank was a kindly man who always smiled at her. He did probably think she was a prostitute since he made a point of informing her he ran a clean inn and did not tolerate any sordid activities shortly after she rented the room. Ellyssa promised there would be nothing of the sort and let the man think what he wanted.

“You’re looking especially radiant today,” Frank said. “Sleep well?”

“Ha ha,” Ellyssa replied dryly. “I hear the Duke is looking for a new jester. Perhaps you should go apply.”

“I think a smart girl like you can find better work that won’t keep you out so late.”

“I think you should—oh, I’m too tired to play this game today,” Ellyssa mumbled.