The Sorcerer's Vengeance: Book 4 of the Sorcerer's Path (35 page)

The captain furrowed his brow in a sign of frustration. “Aye, we have been patrolling the roads around Argoth but Duchess Paullina has enough men at arms to deal with most any incursion being so close to the border of Sumara. Word reached me that there were still sporadic raids happening along this route so I took my men this way to secure the roads. Apparently something has happened to cause Duke Ulric’s vigilance to lapse,” Captain Cooper intoned almost under his breath. “Have you perchance seen or heard anything during your travels? Seen any large groups of men or raided towns or farms?”

Azerick shook his head. “Sorry, Captain, I rode from out of the desert and avoided the roads much for that very reason. The only people I have seen are a few travelers and merchant trains. A few of them spoke of depredations but nowhere near the scale of earlier this year.”

Strike him down and destroy his men. He suspects you of something,
the demon urged from deep within his mind.
They want to chain you, make you a prisoner once more. They are weak. Destroy them!

Shut up, demon, and get back in your cage,
Azerick replied scornfully and mentally shoved the demon lord further into the recesses of his mind.

Captain Cooper sighed in frustration. “If I could just find where they are hiding and get within striking range! I haven’t enough cavalry for a decisive victory and I cannot catch them dragging along my infantry.” The captain shook his head. “Well, I’ll catch them eventually. Good travels to you, sir.”

 “Good hunting to you, Captain,” Azerick returned with another nod of his head.

Azerick stood by the side of the road until the army was well past before calling for Sandy to come out of hiding. Twenty feet from the roadside, a mound of earth rose up like a giant, breaching molehill. Sandy pulled herself out of the ground and shook vigorously, sending a spray of dirt and globs of mud in every direction.

“This stupid dirt is ruining my scales!” she complained bitterly. “Sand has the decency to stay on the ground where it belongs and even helps shine my scales. This stuff is like a parasite!”

“You will clean up soon enough. It looks like rain before the day is out,” Azerick told her as she rolled in the long wild grass in an effort to remove the contaminant.

Azerick quickly learned that Sandy was fastidiously clean and could not bear anything that dulled her brilliant scales.

The sorcerer was correct, it started raining less than two hours later, and even though it did wash away the dirt, Sandy simply found another thing to complain about. It was late winter bordering on spring and the rain was still cold and bitter.

The sorcerer had hoped to enter Southport for at least a few hours to see if he could learn anything of what was transpiring in the land, but he found the gates of the great city locked to nearly all non-residents. A long line of angry merchants, caravans, and travelers shouted at the guards and demanded entrance so that they could sell and trade their wares and return home before the summer runs, but their shouts and pleadings were met with only stony stares and threats by the city guard.

Many of the merchants swore to take their goods to North Haven even though it meant risking late snows and getting stranded in the northern city instead of returning from whence they came. Better to sell their goods in North Haven and spend an extra couple of weeks there than return home with wagonloads of useless goods and no coin.

Azerick and Sandy kept a brisk pace as they rode towards home. Although she never complained of fatigue, her nonstop griping about the cold and dampness of the north was beginning to grate on the sorcerer’s nerves.

A few days out of North Haven, Azerick finally relented to renting a room at the same small town that he had stayed in with Lady Miranda and her remaining entourage after the bandit attack. It had an outside stairway so Azerick was able to sneak Sandy into the room after dark where they enjoyed a fresh meal and a blazing fire. Sandy lay so close to the fireplace that Azerick was afraid she might be burned, but it apparently had no ill effect on her as she rested contentedly on a pile of blankets.

They had to leave early the next morning before the townsfolk began stirring so no one would see the small dragon and make a fuss, but Azerick was becoming less concerned with discovery the closer they got to home.

An unusually late snow began falling later that afternoon. Sandy was initially curious and stared at the gently descending flakes in wonder, licking them off her snout as they settled onto her scales. She was not unfamiliar with the cold. Deserts got extremely frigid in the winter months but the air was so dry that it almost never snowed. However, the snow soon lost its initial appeal and simply gave her another thing to carp about.

Sandy’s complaining paled in comparison to the demon’s near-constant whisperings, urgings, and nagging. Every traveler they passed the demon urged him to kill. Klaraxis would say that he was a spy or another assassin sent to kill him. He told Azerick that he could see into the stranger’s heart and knew the evil within and that the man or woman would kill others if Azerick did not stop him.

Once, the demon caught Azerick inattentive and projected an image of the Rook’s face onto a passing traveler. He then gently prodded Azerick into action. The sorcerer bit his spell off mid casting, realizing what was happening just a split second before he incinerated an innocent man.

Azerick mentally lashed the demon, used his soulname to inflict pain, and banished him to the point of almost non-existence. Even then, Klaraxis’s laughter echoed in his mind for several seconds. Azerick knew he could not rid himself of the demon and had serious doubts whether anyone else could either. The demon was part of him now, their souls deeply intertwined.

Two days later, they crested the hill that gave them a spectacular view of North Haven, the valley, and sea far in the distance. Sandy gasped in wonderment at the sight that spread out before them for miles in every direction. Even Azerick could not help but smile in appreciation of the spectacular view.

As the late morning ground inexorably into early afternoon, Azerick and Sandy took a leisurely pace up the newly cobbled road that led to the keep despite Azerick’s anxiousness to be home again. Home, even now it felt so strange to feel so comfortable here.

“Azerick!” Wolf’s shrill call suddenly broke the tranquility of the moment. “You’re back! What is that?” Wolf asked in astonishment as he and Ghost broke out of the nearby wood line to the travelers’ right.

“This is Sandy. She is a sand dragon,” Azerick answered.

“Wow, a dragon! Does it talk?” Wolf asked.

Sandy took an exaggerated sniff at Wolf. “Does it bathe?”

Wolf held his belly as he doubled over in laughter. “I like her, she reminds me of Ellyssa.”

“I must really meet this human girl that everyone finds so beautiful,” Sandy responded, mistaking Wolf’s meaning.

Wolf badgered Azerick with a slew of unending questions until Sandy became the focal point of the half-elf’s inquiries.

As they drew nearer the keep, Azerick was astounded at the changes that had been wrought while he had been gone. The towering church with its magnificent stained glass immediately drew his eye. The peaks of other wooden building poked up over the surrounding walls as well. What their purpose was, Azerick could only hazard a guess. Most likely more living quarters if he were to render an assumption.

The gates were open to allow the seasons’ few remaining workmen to come and go unimpeded but were under the watchful eye of several young men and a few older ones manning the walls. To the east, he spied worked parcels of land just waiting for the snows to stop so they could be planted and a couple of small log homes, their chimneys sending white plumes of wood smoke into the crisp air.

Several calls of greeting rang out as he, Sandy, Wolf, and Ghost entered the gates. The students that were not in school rushed to see him, especially when word got around about what looked like a small dragon accompanying him.

Sensing Sandy’s unease, Azerick slid off Horse’s back and laid a reassuring hand on her back as they walked amongst the astonished crowd. Ellyssa, Roger, and a few of their closest friends broke through the throng of people. Ellyssa surprised Azerick by rushing forward and wrapping her arms tightly around his waist.

“Azerick, is that a dragon?” his apprentice asked excitedly.

He guessed Ellyssa was technically his former apprentice since her magical talent likely exceeded his ability to teach her much within the bounds of her own type of spell casting.

“Her name is Sandy and she is a sand dragon. She will be staying with us for a while.”

Ellyssa smiled broadly and moved closer to the young dragon. “Hi, Sandy, I’m Ellyssa.

“Hello, Ellyssa, nice to meet you,” Sandy responded politely then looked over at Azerick. “I suppose she is cute for a human, but she lacks the brilliancy of my scales to compare the two of us. It is like comparing a lovely candle to the glory of the sun.”

Azerick only smiled and shook his head at Ellyssa’s questioning look.

Rusty, Allister, and Colleen came out of their classrooms to greet him, releasing their students for the rest of the day. Azerick avoided their many questions until he could get safely inside.

“Everybody, this is Sandy. She is a young sand dragon who recently lost her mother and will be staying with us for some time.”

As Azerick quickly introduced everyone, Sandy committed all of their names to her formidable memory. Each person welcomed her warmly to her new home. Aggie strode through the crowd and stroked the dragon’s neck.

“You poor dear. What is your name?” she asked.

“Sandy,” she replied, wondering if the older woman was forgetful or something.

Aggie smiled and her eyes twinkled with mirth. “Sandy is hardly a proper name for such a beautiful creature as you, dear. What is your real name?”

Sandy hissed out the name her mother had bestowed upon her at her hatching.

“Now that is a lovely name, and quite apt I would say. You do have the most brilliant scales,” Aggie replied warmly.

“You speak dragon?” Azerick asked in surprise.

“Oh, I have picked up quite a few odd bits of knowledge in my wanderings.”

“The woman is so old she’s probably half dragon herself,” Allister teased with a mirthful snort.

Aggie turned towards the old mage and feigned crossness. “I would rather be half a dragon than a complete ass like you, you old goat!” Aggie hiked up her skirts to her thigh. “Look at those gams. I have the legs of a woman half my apparent age.”

“Half her age but twice her size!” Allister guffawed loudly.

His laughs were suddenly choked off by his beard that was now coiled around his throat and squeezing like a python. Allister clawed at his animated whiskers, trying to break their vice-like grip.

“Blast you, woman, can’t you take a little joke?” the magus demanded sorely as he untangled his beard.

“Of course I can. I’ve been putting up with one since I got here and quite frankly that joke was old when the elves were young,” she shot back.

“It is nice to see that you made it, revered grandmother, though you look considerably different than when we first met,” Azerick said with a small bow.

“Oh, still the polite one aren’t you? It’s just Aggie to my friends and that old, used up scarecrow that calls himself a wizard.”

“I take it you two know each other,” Azerick surmised from their banter.

Aggie slipped an arm through Allister’s who tried to glare at her but could not keep the smile from creeping onto his wizened face. “Oh yes, we go way back.”

“Did Joshua and the others make it all right?”

Rusty answered Azerick’s question. “Yes, he and several others arrived just yesterday. Three of them are quite talented and are willing to teach a class for the younger or less skilled students. Allister and Aggie will work with them to improve their skills.”

“That is very good to hear.” Azerick turned to Ellyssa. “Why don’t you and your friends take Sandy to get something to eat and then maybe get to know each other better up in your room?”

 “Ok, come on, Sandy, let’s go raid the kitchen.”

“I heard that!” Wolf crowed and urged everyone through the doors of the dining hall.

When all of the youngsters were gone, Azerick turned back towards Aggie. “I wish I had a library worthy to replace the one you had at the black tower.”

“Oh that reminds me! In all the hubbub I completely forgot about my library. Let me see what I can set up.”

Everyone was forced to hurry after the wizard as she bounded youthfully up the stairs to the landing where the library was located. She stepped into the room and stopped.

“You call this a library? I have more books stacked next to my privy than this,” Aggie stated sourly.

“Yes, we have been meaning to greatly expand it, but with the construction and getting the classes together, none of us found the time to seek out more and make it a proper library,” Azerick explained with embarrassment as they all looked at the single bookcase that was only about three quarters full.

“Of course, each of the students has their own textbooks and materials,” Rusty added.

“Well this just won’t do at all,” Aggie muttered and began an incantation.

Several square objects appeared, hovering a few feet over the floor of the library and began unfolding themselves. When the two-dimensional items finished unfolding they looked like masterfully created paintings of bookshelves full of thick tomes and books. Another gesture placed them where she wanted them where they took on depth and settled onto the floor.

Fully stocked bookshelves now lined every inch of available wall space with several others standing in the open areas of the library.

“Wow,” was all Azerick was able to utter at the impressive display.

“I agree, wow.” Rusty concurred.

Allister hugged Aggie with one arm around her shoulders. “You are an amazing woman.”

“Of course I am. I’ve been telling you that for—a long time. It’s about time you realized it.”