The Sorcerer's Vengeance: Book 4 of the Sorcerer's Path (36 page)

“Oh I have known since I first saw you,” Allister told her. “I just did not voice it for fear of feeding your already overgrown ego.”

“Pfft, such a pittance could hardly make an impression on that beast,” Aggie dismissed with a grin and a wave of her hand.

“Cripes, Azerick,” exclaimed Rusty, “every time you leave you bring back something crazy. First it was a minotaur, then hundreds of orphans, now a dragon and a magus with an entire library in her pocket. What else have you dragged back with you?”

 “You do not want to know,” Azerick responded with all seriousness.

Aw, come on. What’s the matter, you don’t want to introduce me to your friends?

Shut up demon. I can smell your breath even in my head.

Laughter filled Azerick’s thoughts until he pushed them deeper down.

“I thought Zeb was going to have you beat this time, but the dragon makes it too close to call,” Rusty was saying.

Azerick brought his attention back to the physical world. “What do you mean?”

“We have another houseguest you need to meet. Her name is Hati. Zeb found her when he was up north and brought her home so Allister could remove a mark of possession from her,” Rusty explained.

“Someone made her a mind slave up north?” Azerick ask incredulously, just the thought of which spiked his anger.

“Yeah and a lot of other stuff too. You’ll have to come downstairs and see.”

Azerick followed Rusty downstairs while Aggie and Allister checked out the library and made some final arrangements.

Colleen was sitting in a chair near the fire knitting near Lord Ebenezer Crowley who was in his usual immobile place just in front of the blazing hearth.

“Colleen,” Rusty called to his wife as he and Azerick descended the stairs, “have you seen Hati?”

Colleen looked up from her knitting and replied. “I think she was going out to the stables.”

“Ok, thanks.”

Hati stroked the muzzle of one of the horses as it stuck its large head out over the half-door. Eislanders had a few large draft breeds but they were used only as working animals since the environment they lived in simply could not support very many of them and she used every chance she could to get near them.

Being near the gentle but powerful animals and being able to touch them calmed her nerves and let her forget about her deformity for a time. The horses did not look at her strangely or judge her. She had not tried to fly yet, partly out of fear and largely out of self-consciousness. She was already so different from everyone else she did not want to stand out even more by flying around in the sky like a big mutant bird.

The ones who knew were always so nice to her, especially Colleen, but she was still ashamed and afraid of how she looked. No matter how nice everyone was, she could still see in their eyes that they knew she was different. She knew she was being paranoid but after a lifetime of being teased and ridiculed for being different, it was hard to feel any other way.

The horse suddenly grabbed the large cloak she always kept tied around her shoulders and threw its head back, pulling it off her, and exposing her wings. She tried to snatch the cloak back before anyone saw her, but a gasp of surprise snapped her head around and looked at the small boy that tended the stables, his eyes as big around as saucers and his mouth gaping open.

Peck stared in amazement at her and she could only watch his face as the rudeness of staring conflicted with his amazement, but he could not take his eyes off her.

“It’s ok, I won’t hurt you,” Hati tried to reassure the stableboy as her face burned and her stomach twisted out of fear and humiliation.

She finally snatched her cloak back from the horse who probably thought it a grand joke to play on the woman and quickly tried to wrap it back around her shoulders and cover her wings. Her taloned fingers made it difficult and the horse had snapped the cord that tied it in place.

“Please don’t be afraid. I’ll go away.”

“I’m not afraid,” Peck finally said as he overcame his surprise. “Are they real?”

“Yes, they’re real,” Hati replied, looking at the floor of the stables.

“Can I touch them?”

“You want to touch them?”

Peck’s face burned bright red. “I’m sorry, that was probably really rude of me to ask.”

“No, that’s ok, I guess you can touch them if want,” Hati said, surprised that the boy did not seem frightened of her.

Peck walked over and tentatively stroked the huge feathers on the side of one of her wings. “They’re really pretty. I wish I had wings.”

“Why would want that? You would be so different from everyone else. Wouldn’t you be afraid of people hurting you?”

“I’m already different. I’m small, I’d rather be with the horses than most people, and before I came here I was often picked on. But if had wings I could just fly away whenever anyone was mean. That’s why I like riding the horses so much. I know it’s the closest I’ll ever get to really flying. Whenever something bothers me, I just jump on and ride real fast, leaving all the bad stuff behind.”

It was then that Hati truly realized why she had asked the old wizard not to take her wings. He had told her that he could not do it himself but it could probably be done and she had not pushed for it. She wanted to fly, to be able to leave any troubles she had on the ground far below her. She would be free, free to do anything, go anywhere and if someone did not like her or would not accept her she would just fly on and leave them behind.

“But if you kept flying away you would not have any friends,” Hati said.

“I have friends here. They wouldn’t care if I flew or not. If other people somewhere else didn’t like me I could always come home and they would be here for me,” Peck explained.

Rusty and Azerick strode into the barn at that moment. Despite the warning and everything he had seen before, Azerick could not help the look of astonishment that crossed his face.

“Hati, this is Azerick. He is the one that actually owns this place,” Rusty said as he introduced them.

Hati tried again to cover herself with her cloak but only managed to drop it on the ground when it slipped from her uncooperative fingers.

She managed a small curtsey and nearly choked on her words from fright and embarrassment. “Good day, sir, I am sorry for my intrusion to your home.”

Azerick smiled warmly and he picked Hati’s cloak up from the ground. “I’m just the owner, Hati. It is everyone’s home, including yours. It is very nice to meet you and it is no intrusion. You are quite welcome here.”

***

After stripping Rusty and Allister of every bit of information about what had happened while he had been away, Azerick spent the next several days simply resting, relaxing, and readjusting to the semi-chaotic life of being back at his school.

Sandy quickly made friends with everyone in the keep. Even the territorial cooks enjoyed it when she popped her head into the kitchen looking for a snack to feed her rapidly growing body.

It was late in the evening a few days after he had returned when strange sounds coming from the floor above his own caught his attention. Closing the book he studied, Azerick crept up the stairs to investigate.

The noises were coming from Ellyssa’s room, followed by the sounds of children’s laughter. Azerick knew that anytime that many kids were laughing there was almost certainly some sort of mischief in the making. He cracked open the door and poked his head into the room.

“What is going on in here? What were those noises?” Azerick asked.

Ellyssa, Roger, Sandy, and a few other children sat in a large circle on the floor, dressed in their nightclothes, and gave him guilty stares until Ellyssa finally confessed.

“We were having a burping contest,” Ellyssa answered with an impish grin.

“A burping contest,” Azerick repeated flatly.

“Not me, Azerick,” Sandy interjected. “I’m a lady and momma says that ladies don’t—oh hold on.”

Sandy stretched out her neck and tail until they were parallel with the floor and let out a ten-second belch that rattled the shutters and made the door handle in Azerick’s hand vibrate.

“Whoa! Did you hear that?” Sandy asked proudly. “What?” she demanded as she glared at Azerick, daring him to reproach her.

Azerick shook his head and returned to his room, gales of laughter following him all the way back down the stairs. As the evening grew late, Azerick set aside his book and dimmed the luminous glass globe that provided the light for his room. The howling winds of an approaching storm quickly lulled him into sleep.

“Azerick? Psst, Azerick?”

The sorcerer’s eyelids fluttered open and looked into the large green eyes set in Sandy’s wedge-shaped head.

“Are you awake?” she whispered tentatively.

“What is it, Sandy?” Azerick drowsily asked.

“There is a loud storm outside.”

Azerick turned his attention to the shuttered window, heard the high-winds, and the loud peal of thunder.

“I thought you might be scared so I came down here to see if you needed my company,” Sandy told him nervously.

“No, I’m fine, Sandy.”

“Oh, ok then,” Sandy replied solemnly.

Azerick saw the crestfallen look in the dragon’s eyes and understood what she was really asking. Sandy was frightened but her draconic pride would never allow her voice it. Another peal of thunder rattled the shutters.

“On second thought, this is a bad one,” Azerick said as he looked at the window. “Would you mind staying here with me tonight?”

Sandy’s head perked up at the request but quickly resumed a nonchalant pose. “I suppose I could. Ellyssa is sound asleep and snoring so she should be fine on her own.”

Azerick’s bed groaned in protest as the not so little dragon climbed up and lay at the foot. Fortunately, Azerick’s bed was a large affair, constructed for him by a team of carpenters last year, and sported a huge, over-stuffed mattress. He could tell that Sandy had already grown some since he had first found her. She was at least a foot longer and several inches taller; the size of a very large dog but significantly heavier.

Sandy curled up at the end of the bed and tucked her snout under her tail. Azerick saw that she was shivering, but whether from cold or fright he did not know so he took an extra quilt and threw it over the top of her body. Times like these reminded him that she really was just a small child of her species despite her advanced learning and impressive mind.

Zeb, Toron, and Balor returned from Sumara with more than just young mages. They brought with them numerous soft and warm white furs, one big enough to cover even the largest of beds. Zeb presented Colleen with a long coat made of smaller, suppler white furs that she absolutely loved.

“I am surprised to see that you brought so many of the furs back for us this time. Not that I am complaining, but I thought they were your big money makers,” Azerick said to Zeb as they all sat around the dining table drinking tea and coffee.

“I wouldn’a had nearly so many but Southport had her port closed to all incoming ships and I wasn’t about to try and make my own overland caravan to get them to Brelland or Brightridge, what with all the stories of bandits prowling the roads,” Zeb explained.

“I saw that Southport had its gates shut and closed to land traffic but the port as well? That seems mighty odd to me,” Azerick replied in consternation.

“Aye, what’s even stranger was we got close enough to see several large ships at anchor in the port before we were chased off by threat of attack. They were big affairs and heavily armed as if they were expecting an attack.”

“Or preparing to launch an attack of their own,” Toron put in.

Rusty asked, “Who would Southport want to attack?”

The minotaur shook his huge horned head. “I would not know, but if a nation or group is going to launch an assault, the last thing you want is for anyone to get away and warn the target.”

“That would explain the restricted gates and closed port,” Azerick responded.

“I know my dad said that Ulric has had his sights on the crown for a long time,” Rusty said.

Allister scoffed. “You can’t reach Brelland by ship.”

Azerick made up his mind. “We can conjecture all day long about Ulric’s intent but none of us knows what he is planning. Regardless, my instincts are telling me he is up to something. I want the guard doubled after dark and manned by grown men and older students. You can use no more than two of the younger ones to act as runners only. I know it is cold and miserable so let us put out plenty of braziers and fuel and erect some overhead covers.”

“Did you make any connection between Ulric, the assassin, or Dundalor’s armor during your recent escapades?” Allister asked.

Azerick shook his head. “No, Baneford said that a wizard from the black tower had him searching for the armor. The assassin that I believe murdered my father, and tried to kill me as well, was also connected to that same scorpion’s nest, but I could find nothing to indicate Ulric had any dealings with them. Travis’s father was the one who hired the Rook to kill me because of his son’s death and had nothing to do with the armor. It was purely personal.”

Azerick looked pointedly at Aggie. “Speaking of the black tower; how is it that you came to be part of that less than pleasant bunch?”

Allister’s face darkened at Azerick’s question and he too looked hard at Aggie. “Indeed, in my excitement of seeing you again, I completely forgot about that bit and how you just up and disappeared from The Academy one day.”

The old magess let out a long sigh before answering. “It came to the senior council that several wizards were building a new tower and reestablishing their black order. The council decided it would be best if they had someone on the inside to keep an eye on them. It was decided that I would be their mole. I reported directly to the headmaster, Arkam back in those days, and then to Dondrian when he ascended the position. For a long time there was little to report as they seemed to keep mostly to themselves and did not appear to be trying to regain power in the kingdom.  That started to change about ten years ago. I told Dondrian that it looked like the tower was giving aid to a usurper but it was seemingly indirect. Then I got wind of them actively aiding in the recovery of Dundalor’s armor. I continued to inform Dondrian of this, but he never acted on it as far as I could tell.”