The Sorcerer's Abyss (The Sorcerer's Path) (44 page)

“Then I will deal with him.”

Faralynn led the bulk of her forces back down the blocked tunnel in search of another side passage that would lead to the main aqueduct. Within minutes, a runner approached her.

“Faralynn, we spotted lanterns ahead.”

“Are there any other passages that will allow us to avoid them?” the guild boss asked.

“No. There is a passage ahead that should take us around the area of the collapse, but we will not reach it before Andrill’s people.”

“All right, it is time for me to deal with this popinjay once and for all.”

Faralynn stormed forward, forcing her people to follow in her furious wake. The guild boss stalked down the dank corridors, her progress lit only by a dim, shielded light. She spotted the wane illumination of a shuttered lamp ahead a few minutes later.

“Andrill, is that you?” she shouted at the dark shapes huddled around the lamp.

“It is. Have you decided to surrender and face the judgment of the houses?” Andrill asked.

“Hardly. The passage ahead has collapsed. We can battle here and cut each other to pieces, or you and I can settle this between ourselves.”

Andrill pondered Faralynn’s offer. They could battle it out here in a final stand, but it would be a bloody affair with no guarantee of success. Neither could he allow Faralynn and her people to withdraw since she had far greater forces to call upon than he did, which would make resumption of hostilities untenable.

“All right, you and I,” Andrill responded, accepting the personal challenge. “Winner allows the loser’s people to depart in peace with no promises made after that.”

“Agreed.”

Both guild bosses began slowly moving toward each other until Andrill suddenly stopped. “Oops, bootlace is untied.”

Andrill knelt and grabbed the laces. Braxis’ crossbow quarrel passed over his head so close it ruffled Andrill’s hair. Faralynn cursed as she spun away and heard one of her men let out grunt followed by the dull thud of his body striking the ground behind her.

“Always the treacherous snake, Andrill!” the woman shouted.

Andrill looked up from his boot. “Better a live snake than a dead bitch.”

Faralynn made to hurl another insult but the blood welling up in her throat cut off her words. She pressed a hand to the minor cut on her hip and looked at the fresh blood on it. Faralynn spit out a gob of blood to curse the man, but the extraordinarily virulent poison had already set in and was rapidly dissolving her organs.

As Faralynn’s corpse struck the ground, and before her followers could react, Andrill called out to them. “Think before you choose to throw your lives away for a dead woman. Did you hear the explosion a moment ago? That was the death of your wizard.”

Andrill knew it was a bluff, but it was one he was willing to make to prevent more bloodshed—especially his own. “It’s time to go back to the old guild ways where an industrious man or woman could rise to be the boss of their own house and not be pressed under the thumb of another. Go back down the passage and we will leave you to determine your own fates. Continue to fight us, and we will seal those same fates here and now.”

There were mutterings and more than a few curses issuing from the darkness as the thieves debated a course of action. Valor in defeat won out as the thieves slunk back into the darkness of the passage from which they came. Andrill led his people to the side tunnel Faralynn was trying to gain in hopes of finding a way back to street level.

***

Ellyssa lay on the ground pressed against the building and watched as the wizard prepared a spell to snuff out the pathetic candle of her existence. There was little she could do to prevent it. No spell she could conjure strong enough to defeat the ward she could see glimmering like a soap bubble around his body before he unleashed arcane fury upon her.

Still, she refused to lie back and let death take her without fighting until the last breath left her body forever. Ellyssa reached into her jacket and pulled out one of the darts she had favored since hunting rats as a punishment when she was a little girl. She flicked the dart with expert aim and used a trickle of the Source to help speed its way despite knowing the futility of the gesture.

Rhys watched the dart leave her hand and smirked, knowing the pathetic thing would never breach his ward. Ellyssa watched as her dart seemed to fly as if it were taking a languid swim through water. The wizard made the final form of his weave and was about to unleash his spell when something appeared to distract him.

The mage turned his head with a look of surprise and confusion on his face. Ellyssa’s dart slipped through the ward and stuck him in the side of his neck. Rhys grabbed the projectile and tore it from his flesh, eliciting a spray of blood from the severed artery. He collapsed before his confusion ever resolved itself into understanding the cause of his death.

Ellyssa did not attempt to move from where she lay. Her body demanded she stay still while her mind was engaged in trying to understand what had happened. Something had distracted the wizard enough to cause his ward to falter, but she had seen nothing or no one that could have done it. Wards required very little concentration to maintain. Unless something occurred to weaken it, her dart should never have been able to breach it.

She spotted movement at the massive crater in the street and tried to get on her feet as several dark shapes crawled out of it like roaches through a crack in the kitchen floor.

Andrill’s voice hissed through the night like a passing arrow. “Ellyssa, is that you?”

Ellyssa waved and slumped back down against the wall. The figures ran toward her in a crouch born of habit. She recognized Andrill and Braxis first, then the wide face of Trevor as they came near.

“Looks like you got him good,” Andrill remarked as he stepped past Rhys’ body.

“Did you help?” Ellyssa asked shakily.

Andrill cocked his head to the side. “Help how? No, we just got here. Why do you ask?”

Ellyssa raised her arm for help getting up. “No reason,” she said as Andrill pulled her to her feet.

“We need to clear off the streets. It will take some time for the power vacuum to gain equilibrium again. We can wait out the fighting in my hideout. The streets are not going to be safe for a few days.”

Ellyssa could already see several orange halos dotting the sky, and the bitter smoke of burning wood assailed her senses. Andrill led her and his group of thieves one way while Trevor took another group in a separate direction. After traversing several blocks, Andrill decided it was best to travel the rest of the way underground. Whether it was because of the battles raging above, or he did not want her to see any street accesses near his lair, she did not know.

The smell of smoke instantly lost the battle for supremacy to the fetid water of the sewers. Luckily, there were walkways built into the tunnels that kept them from having to slog through the waste. Ellyssa decided this would be a bad place to be during heavy rains as she figured the water level could easily rise high enough to drown the walkways and anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves in the dank waterways.

After what felt like an eternity of navigating the gloomy, rank tunnels, they stopped at what appeared to be a dead end. One of the thieves felt around the solid wall and Ellyssa heard a click. A section of the wall swung open and Andrill guided Ellyssa inside. Just as she crossed the threshold, she felt something sting her on the back of her neck. Ellyssa slapped at the irritant and pulled out a tiny dart.

Ellyssa immediately felt a tingling rapidly spreading down her neck and across her back. Without hesitation, she reached into the small pocket inside her jacket and pulled out a steel vial filled with the antivenom she cooked up in case of such treachery. She was exhausted, but with her anger at Andrill’s betrayal fueling her magic, Ellyssa was certain she had more than enough strength to make him and his thieves pay dearly.

She flipped the cork out with her thumb, but before she could bring the contents to her lips, a powerful force slammed into her chest and crushed her against the wall. The stone melted, ran over her out-flung hands and arms, and resolidified. Four figures covered in black cloaks stepped out of the darkness.

“Very good, Andrill,” Inquisitor Fennrick said. “I hope you were able to achieve your goals as well, not that I honestly care.”

“Faralynn and her wizard are dead,” Andrill replied flatly.

“Good for you. Do you have the other half of our arrangement?”

Andrill made a beckoning motion with his left hand and a thief stepped forward with a leather satchel. Andrill took the satchel and passed it to the wizard. Ellyssa entered a new state of rage when she saw Fennrick slip her precious book out of the leather sleeve.

A thousand hateful things sprang to her mind and she was about to unleash them all upon Fennrick and Andrill. She looked at the thief’s face, saw the scrapes and bruises that were not nearly as fresh as those from tonight’s battle, and recalled his earlier words:
Some people are reluctant to give information or provide assistance, but everyone has their breaking point.

Ellyssa realized the thief had not betrayed her willingly, but it was small comfort when she saw the Codex in Fennrick’s grasp. She was not even sure if it was enough for her to spare the thief’s life if she managed to escape yet another capture. Andrill met her eyes and apparently read her thoughts.

“It may come as little comfort, but I will make good on my promise. I will give you Captain Jake, for whatever good it may do you wherever it is they are taking you.”

“How nice,” Fennrick said drolly. “I see the honorable thief still keeps his word, whenever it is not too inconvenient to do so.”

Andrill turned his eyes on the inquisitor. “Fennrick, you caught me in a time of weakness, but that state is not to be much longer. I do not recommend you ever step foot in Southport again.”

Fennrick responded with a smirk and stepped toward his captive. Extending a finger, he touched its tip to Ellyssa’s forehead and spoke a word of magic. Ellyssa’s head jerked back and the world fell into blackness.