The Sorcerer's Scourge (24 page)

“I will check out there. Thank you, Agnes.”

“You can thank me by getting out of the way,” Agnes told him.

Azerick promptly obeyed and darted out of the kitchen door leading outside. He navigated through the multitude of buildings and eventually found the small sally port set near the northeast corner of the wall. Three boys walking the wall spied his approach and waved. There were never less than ten sentries walking the wall ever since the siege, and often as many as twice that number.

“Hoy, Master Azerick!” one of the young men near the gate called down.

“Good morning, gentlemen,” Azerick returned. “Have you seen Ellyssa? She may have come through with Roger and Sandy about an hour ago.”

“Yeah, they came through earlier. Is she in trouble again?” the young guardsman asked with a grin.

Azerick was not sure why, but there seemed to be a special tension between many of the martial students and his apprentice. There was always a rivalry between the magus and martial students. He had first thought it was simply something at The Academy, but the same thing appeared here almost immediately after both training schools were developed. He was uncertain why so many of the fighters took such enjoyment in seeing his apprentice punished. Knowing her, she had said some unflattering things after being knocked on her backside during her mandatory melee training.

Every magus student had to practice with a weapon, most often the staff, but anything the student chose for two hours twice a week. Every martial student had to learn magical theory and how best to defend against an enemy wielding magic. Even The Academy did not teach that.

“I am afraid not. Sorry to disappoint you,” Azerick answered as he stepped through the small gate.

“You may want to know the passphrase so the next shift let’s you back in.”

Azerick had a feeling the young guard was toying with him, but asked anyway. “What is the passphrase?”

The young man grinned down and replied, “Steel is real but magic is tragic!”

Azerick smiled as both young men broke into fits of laughter. He left the two boys laughing atop the wall and headed northeast to a spot he knew Wolf and Ellyssa liked to frequent. It took him nearly half an hour of steady walking before he neared the clearing and heard several voices ahead. The talking ceased the instant Azerick stepped out of the trees and into the glade.

A large, flat boulder the size of a respectable dining table held the remnants of their breakfast. Although all eyes turned towards Azerick as soon as he broke from the trees, only Wolf and Ghost looked unsurprised. Nothing seemed to happen in their woods without their knowledge. Ellyssa evicted the strongest reaction as she spun around and practically glared at him.

“We weren’t doing anything wrong! We were just talking and Roger and I will be back before classes start,” Ellyssa exclaimed defensively.

Azerick always thought of himself as a master at holding grudges, but Ellyssa’s ability to maintain resentment bordered on legendary. Her problem was that she focused on her punishments so much that she completely forgot the reason why she was reprimanded in the first place.

Azerick tried not to take it personally, but her remark stung. “I am not here to punish you. I have to leave for a while and I wanted to give you something before I go.”

Now it was Ellyssa’s turn to feel bad for her waspishness. She would not trade her life or Azerick for anything in the world, but she still thought about her own parents selling her. Despite the necessity and logic she used to try to understand why they did what they had done, it still hurt, and when things went wrong like they did with the wardrobe or the other mistakes she made that got her into trouble, that pain and uncertainly renewed itself.

   She wanted to tell Azerick she was sorry. She wanted tell him she was sorry for snapping at him and that she was sorry for using magic that almost got people hurt and a dozen other things that had gotten her into trouble. But her pride simply would not allow it. It was her pride that enabled her to leave her family with a stranger without crying and to face a terrifying ghost without running in fear. Her overwhelming pride was her source of strength when all else seemed to go wrong.

“What is it?” she asked a bit more softly.

Azerick pulled the silver chain and pendant from his pocket and fastened it around her slender neck. He pulled her long blond hair over the chain and smiled down at her.

“It is a wizard mark. It is tied to the golem I have been working on these past months. If you are ever in great danger, and I mean truly life-threatening, simply break the chain and the golem will find you no matter where you are and defend you.”

“Do you really think I will need it?” Ellyssa asked as she studied the pendant.

“I hope not. But there are things happening in the kingdom, and you or someone else at the school may need it. I pray it does not come to that, but I would rather be prepared. That is also why I have ordered that no students leave the school once I depart.”

Ellyssa let the pendant drop and hang against her chest. “I can’t go into the city?”

“No. It is a dangerous time right now and I need everyone to stay together behind the safety of the school walls.”

“But Alonzo Janovin is coming to North Haven! He’s the greatest bard in the kingdom and I wanted to see him!” Ellyssa complained loudly.

“I am sorry, but you will have to wait for another time.”

“But I haven’t been in trouble for weeks! You are here to punish me and I didn’t even do anything! I hate this stupid place and I hate you and your stupid punishments!” Ellyssa railed in fury and ran from the grove.

Azerick sighed at both Ellyssa’s anguish at being denied something she had her heart set on and feeling as though he had done something wrong. Perhaps he was being overprotective, but there were troubling things happening on many fronts and he simply could not defend everyone against them all.

Sandy cleared her throat and broke the awkward silence that permeated the grove after Ellyssa’s very vocal departure. “Do I have to stay inside too?”

Azerick smiled fondly at the not-so-little dragon. “You are the size of a pony—a pony with very sharp claws and teeth. I think you can take care of yourself. Still, don’t go too far.”

“Don’t expect me to go live in that stone prison,” Wolf said with a huff and crossed his arms in defiance.

“I would have better luck telling Ghost what to do.”

The big, black wolf responded with a short sneeze that sounded a great deal like a snort of derision.

Azerick sighed and turned back to return to the citadel. He wondered if he could put his and Ellyssa’s relationship back on track. She had been so full of wonder and eager when he had first taken her in and started teaching her magic. She still craved the learning, but she seemed steadfast in avoiding the wisdom needed to be responsible. It seemed that she no longer looked upon him with the same awe she once did. Now he was just the disciplinarian that punished her when she misbehaved.

He would need to do something special for her when he got back. He could not directly teach her how to cast magic, but there were many other aspects of magic he could involve her in more. He was so used to isolating himself that he never thought about how she felt when he locked himself in laboratory for days on end. Once he had reached his ability to improve her use of magic, he had handed her off to Allister. She probably felt some rejection for that. Azerick could not blame her. First her parents were forced to part with her, and then he became so involved with the school and his own problems that she probably felt abandoned once again.

Azerick realized then that he needed to learn how to give of himself and his time. He was going to be a father soon. An actual father and not just a surrogate parent for an already grown child. That was it then. When he got back, he would take more time for Ellyssa, Miranda, and the baby when it came. He just hoped he could overcome all of his emotional hang-ups to be the husband and father his family needed him to be.

Don’t worry. You will always have me to help raise our son properly
, Klaraxis’s voice invaded his thoughts.

The demon whose soul resided within Azerick had grown very good at laying dormant for days and weeks at a time, coming out only to taunt him or influence his moods and behavior when he was most vulnerable.

Shut up, demon. You will have nothing to do with my family, ever. And what makes you think it is a boy?

Stupid sorcerer. I am already part of your family and our son. I know because I helped create him. Our spirits are joined and inseparable in all things. In all things, human. Never forget that.

I will destroy you and myself before I ever let you anywhere near my family!
Azerick raged and used his will along with Klaraxis’s soulname to punish him and drive him deep into the shadows of his mind.

By the time Azerick reached the walls of the keep, he felt better about how he would deal with his family despite the demon’s taunting. He had not been gone that long and recognized the same pair of young guardsmen standing above the small postern gate.

“We saw Ellyssa. She didn’t look too happy,” one said as they both grinned. “I thought she wasn’t in trouble?”

“She wasn’t and still is not, although she seems to have convinced herself otherwise,” Azerick responded and tried to open the small gate but found it locked. “Can you open the gate?”

“You have to say the passphrase!” the boy called down, hooting in laughter.

“You really need me to say it?”

“You could always go all the way around like Ellyssa did. I got five coppers says you can’t get as far as she did us still hear you cursing!”

Azerick felt bad for Ellyssa knowing she had already been in a foul mood before dealing with these two practical jokers, but he could not help but smile. Wall duty was as dull as it came, and whatever helped keep them attentive was a good thing. Still, he could not have them think they could so easily manipulate the master of the school. He easily called upon the Source, shaped his gate spell, and stepped through to emerge on the inside of the wall.

“I told you he’d cheat! You owe me a silver sword,” one of the pair proclaimed loudly and held out his hand for the coin.

“Damn! That’s a week’s pay!” the other protested but dug into a pouch tied to his belt.

Azerick called back up to the pair. “Steel is real but magic is tragic.”

Alex emerged from a small belvedere built at the corner of the wall. “And that, boys, is a double cheat.”

Both young soldiers cursed as they each handed over a silver coin. “How’d you know he’d double cheat?”

“When it comes to wizards or sorcerers, if you give them two choices they will always create a third,” their commander educated them.

Azerick knew Alex would let the two earn their coin back through a little extra work so he did not need to tell him how he felt about the boys gambling, especially with their commander. He reached his room without spotting his erstwhile apprentice and hoped she had gone straight to her class. He found Miranda already packing away several articles of Azerick’s warmest clothing into a trunk.

“Are you in that big a hurry to get rid of me?” Azerick asked as he snuck up behind his wife and wrapped his arms around her waist.

Miranda stopped what she was doing, leaned back against her husband, and covered his hands with her own. “I want you to be comfortable and safe. It would be terrible if you froze any of your bits off.”

“We definitely would not want that, unless you are set on having only the one child.”

“I was talking about fingers and toes, you pig,” Miranda laughed, twisted in his arms, and playfully punched him in the chest. “Did you give Ellyssa the pendant?”

Azerick released his hold and began picking through the clothing Miranda had lain out onto the bed. “I did, but somehow I came off being a tyrant again. I do not understand how to talk to her anymore. Is it normal for children to grow so fast and change so much, or is it just around me?”