SORCERER (The Elemental Magic Series Book 1) (20 page)

"I like you Alec but I have to be careful and do the right thing for my family. If I knew my parents approved of you we could possibly....." She broke off suddenly serious, her face turning red in embarrassment.

"I'll meet you down there. I get it, OK. You’re a noble and I'm not." Alec said getting out of the bed.

"Wait, please Alec. I really do like you." She told him. “I just need to make sure my father approves!”

He grabbed his clothes and went down to the bathroom feeling fairly stupid. She was a noble and he was nothing but some backwoods farmer’s boy. He smacked his hand to his forehead. Stupid! He grabbed his bag that held his shaving supplies and stood in front of the mirror by the sink carefully running the blade across his cheek when Christi popped in the door startling him enough to make him slice into his cheek.

"Damn!" he said as he grabbed his cheek. He started healing it right away.

"Oh I'm sorry Alec. You’re always getting hurt because of me." Tears started to fall down her cheeks.

"Christi I really need to get ready and I've got guard duty soon," he told her realizing he didn’t have time for a shower.

"Alright Alec. I'll talk to you later then, OK?" She sniffed then wiped her cheeks dry.

"Yah sure," was his only reply as she ducked back out of the room. Alec quickly finished and got dressed before leaving the bathroom to find Beth talking to Christi.

"Oh I'd wondered where you were Christi. I saw your door open last night but you weren't in it," Beth said. Looking from him to her and back again. "You weren't in your room at all." Her mouth dropped open then she smiled looking Alec up and down.

"Alec, you better run up and get your stave while I talk to Beth." Christi pretty much ordered him. He was more than happy to do it.

"Beth it's not what you think. Well it is, but it isn't. I like him well enough and such but he's not..." the conversation trailed off with her closing the door.

"It's OK Christi. I won't tell anyone, it's none of my business."

Alec quickly grabbed his stave and found Christi by herself waiting for him in the parlor.

"We're fine. Beth understands and will keep it to herself," She told him seeing the look on his face.

"Alright, I’ve guard duty, then breakfast. I need to meet with Peter so I can go to the hearing."

"What hearing? I haven't heard of any hearing, and people tell me things," she asked.

"They're trying the guys who jumped me, I guess."

Alec went to relieve one of the guys back gate and found he was off duty for the day pending the hearing. He didn’t know what was wrong but felt like something was about to happen. He shook his head trying to clear it of the feeling. Alec returned to the tower as Christi was finishing clean up from the night before.

She followed him as he headed to breakfast. Alec ate plenty of food being hungry from all the excitement that morning and the day before.

He barely said two words to Christi as she went around with him. He had a bad feeling something was wrong. With the thoughts of how she’d reacted to Beth and what he’d heard kept running through his head, and he found himself more and more irritated that she would lead him on and such. She obviously knew the ins and outs of her station and what was allowed and what wasn't.

Was kissing him and acting like she wanted to do things with him some joke or because she had nothing better to do. Alec was just too confused and resigned himself to finishing the book about etiquette as soon as possible.

They met with Peter in time to go to the hearing. Christi was allowed to go as Peter's guest. As they walked, Peter told him to be polite and answer the questions truthfully.

Alec had to hand over his stave to the guard outside the administration building. He got a pat on the back from Bill who was stationed at the entrance to the room where the hearing was to be held.

Travis and his buddies were already there, all healed up from their injuries. They stood to one side and Peter, Christi and he stood on the other facing a raised platform holding five chairs behind a long desk.

A man rapped a steel shod staff on the ground announcing the council and telling them to be seated.

A man called the Head Master sat in the center seat. He stood and read the charges. The four friends of Travis were charged with assault and Travis was charged with soliciting an assault as well as assault. They went on to charge Alec with excessive force in defense. Alec paled when the charges were read against him and Peter put a hand on his shoulder as Christi held his hand tight in hers.

He wanted to yell at them that he was only defending himself, but managed to keep it bottled up.

The Head Master said he and the other council members had reviewed all the evidence and the statements from each party as well as thoughts from the clerics who had administered care to the injured. He asked if there were any final statements from any of the accused.

Peter stepped forward and said "I would put forth a motion to dismiss charges against my student this being the second assault against him. He feared for his life and acted with non-lethal force."

The Head Master indicated that Peter should tell the council of the first assault, which he did. When asked if what Peter said was the full truth. Alec nodded his agreement.

Travis was asked if the first assault was true. He didn't refute it but told them it was a simple hazing and without the knowledge of Alec's secondary lessons, things got out of control and escalated when he'd physically injured one of their group.

The council put their heads together and deliberated amongst themselves for several minutes with the Head Master writing several things down.

When finished three of the council seemed pleased, the Head Master and Master James did not. Alec’s stomach sank.

The Head Master stood and told the accused to stand. Peter stood with Alec.

Travis's friends were each fined two gold and suspended from the school for one month. They were ordered to leave before six bells the next day. Travis was then fined ten gold, eight of which would go to Alec for the pain he had suffered. He was suspended for one month and an additional two weeks, this being his second disciplinary hearing, and was told to be gone by six bells as well.

To Alec the Head Master apologized for the shortcomings of the other students to the obvious displeasure of three councilmen.

He read the sentience for Alec. "You are hereby ordered to be given ten lashes and to report to the front gate in one hour. You are also suspended for the period of two weeks. Be gone from the school grounds by six bells tonight." He then announced the hearing concluded.

Alec stood there dumbfounded. He couldn’t believe it. Just for defending himself he had been given the most severe sentence. Part of him wanted to run and the other part just wanted to curl up into a ball.

Master James and the Head Master came over to where Alec was standing with his mouth open.

"Sorry son, those other three idiots blocked us. We were trying to keep you off the whipping post." The Head Master patted his shoulder.

"Where's he going to go?" James asked no one in particular.

"He can go to Kingston and stay at an inn with the gold from Travis," Peter said. "I'll loan it to him till it's transferred."

He took Alec by the arm and led him back to the tower as Christi held his other arm looking like she was about to cry. Peter told Alec to go pack some things, but that he wasn't allowed to take his robes, and then to meet him in the parlor.

Alec threw off his robe and dug his old clothes out of the trunk along with the two extra changes. He got dressed and stuffed the others into his pack along with the book he was reading. The clothes weren't too bad. They stayed a little too high above his ankles and the shirt was tighter than he remembered but they were all he had. This was it. This was what he’d been feeling since he’d woken up. He was trying his hardest not to think about the lashes he would be getting very soon.

Alec belted on his knife and turned as Christi came in to his room. She threw herself into his arms crying that it wasn't fair.

He let her hug him then pushed her away gently telling her he had to hurry. They'd heard four bells on the way to the tower. She followed him downstairs to the parlor to wait for Peter. He grabbed his personal things from the bathroom as they passed it.

Peter came down shortly after. He handed Alec a pouch telling him there was eight gold worth in it and to be carefully of pick pockets in the city. He then put a book and letter in his hands explaining that the book was basic magic practices and had fair descriptions on how the spells worked. The other was a letter of introduction to an inn called the Cracked Pot. He was told they'd give him a long term room at a good rate. Stowing the book in his pack, Alec thanked his teacher and stepped out of the tower with Christi on his heels to head for the gates and the lashes he knew were coming.

Chapter 21

Feeling as if Christi had been toying with him for the past several weeks and with the unjust punishment he received from the council, he felt ready to explode with the anger that was building inside of him.

He saw Christi had followed him out, and knowing he had time to get to the gates, he rounded on her determined to get at least some sort of an answer out of her.

"So were you just stringing me along knowing there couldn't ever be anything else between us? Or was it all just some big joke to you? I’m sure you knew for a fact that I had no idea what a noble was allowed to do or not. Hells, I told so myself, but you just kept playing me like a harp," he fired the questions off without giving her a chance to actually answer each one getting more and more angry each minute.

"No, please Alec, you have to believe me. I do like you, a lot. I even wrote my parents asking if there was any way we could be together. My mother said she was waiting for my father to return so they could discuss it. Please don't leave like this," she pleaded with him as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry Christi. I just don't know how much more of this I can take. Those others jumped me twice now and I'm the only one who gets whipped after trying to defend myself." His voice softened as he realized it wasn't her who was trying to hurt him and that his anger over the whole thing was affecting how he acted toward her.

She may actually have feelings for him too. Ten weeks together had given him feelings for her after all. With nothing else to lose he chose to believe her, right or wrong. Alec wrapped his arms around her till she stopped crying and they started walking toward the gates. He was still upset and wasn't very sure of Christi's explanation even if he did have feelings for her.

He wondered how long it would take him to get to Kingston on foot, at least double what it had taken on horseback if he hurried or even if he was willing to come back to the school. Was it even worth it?

"When you get to Kingston, look up my mother. She wanted to meet you and I'm sure you'll get along great. Just ask any of the guards and they should be able to point you in the right direction," she told him.

"I will, once I get settled."

They came to the gates. Only one of them was open like normal. A man held a coiled whip and motioned to two large guardsmen when he came in sight. The two men took him by the arms and led him to the closed gate binding each of his arms to the gate after removing his shirt. He stood there against the smooth wood of the gate feeling a cool breeze blow across his back from left to right.

"Here bite on this. It helps," One of the guards told him as a leather wrapped wood rod was forced between his teeth.

Alec heard a faint whistle followed by an immediate streak of pain beneath his right shoulder blade and then across to the other side. He bit down hard trying not to scream, but hearing one come out anyway. Each lash felt just as searing as the next as he tried not to scream out.

Rumor had it that after the first two or three they all just blended together and became numbing. But Alec knew he felt and would remember each individual lash like it was the first until it was finally over.

Someone cut him loose from the gate and he dropped to the ground on his knees. He looked up seeing Christi kneeling in front of him.

"You have to heal yourself. Please Alec, you can do it." She told him as she held his face in her hands. Tears ran steadily down her cheeks.

Alec took a deep breath and closed his eyes pulling a fair amount of his power and spreading it over his entire back, healing it as best he could after being so traumatized from all that had happened.

The lashes on his back healed over leaving thin white lines where they use to be.

Ignoring the ache in his muscles Alec clenched his jaw and rose to his feet then walked out the gate determined to make it to Kingston before nightfall.

Christi just stood and watched as he walked away. She wasn't so sure he would be coming back.

She turned and ran away from the gates heading for Master Stolle's building to find her brother. It took almost twenty minutes for her to find them near the stables. As she got close enough she saw Allen, Bill, and Erik with some others gathered around Master Stolle talking. When they were through talking she stopped Allen and told him everything with a tear streaked face.

She told him what had happened including Alec being mad at her, thinking she had intentionally deceived him. She also confessed to him that she thought she was falling for Alec.