The Forgotten King (Korin's Journal) (26 page)

I wondered if one of the shady wizards I’d dealt with during the day had sold me out for a few coins or a little favoritism.  If that were the case, I could narrow the list of wizards in the Black Magic District who would’ve done such a thing to all of them.

Finally, I considered that if I were taken into this man’s custody, Til’ and Briscott would undoubtedly come after me and therefore be put at risk.  Briscott was already putting himself at risk for my own safety, but as he’d said, Grayson was after me, not him.  That meant that even if Briscott held him back to give me a head start, it was doubtful that Grayson would do anything more than push Briscott aside and come after me. 

My decision was made. 

Chapter 22

Catch Me if You Can . . . Oh, Hell, You Probably Can

Spinning on my toes, I sprinted towards the nearest alleyway to my left.  Behind me, I heard Grayson let out a not-so-proper curse, followed by a wet thud and a grunt from Briscott.

“Hurry, Korin,” Briscott
yelled, his voice just barely audible. 

I turned my head to see Grayson hopping over a downed Briscott and rushing towards me with one hand tucked in a belt pouch and the other held up towards me. 

“Stop, Korin!” Grayson screamed.  “Do not make this more difficult than it needs to be.”

Fat chance of that
, I thought, nearing the alley between two squat buildings.  Just before I reached it, I felt something whip across the back of my knees, sending me forward to the ground, scraping my hands against the road. 

It wasn’t until I tried to stand that I realized my legs were bound together by an invisible force.  Pressure pushed against my legs from above and the sides, likely from magically concentrated air cast by Grayson.  Behind me, I saw him walking towards me through the rain.  His left hand was still buried in a pouch and assumably grasping whatever he used for his source of magical energy.

“All right, Korin, now—”  Grayson ended his sentence with an “Oof” as Briscott tackled his legs out from under him from behind.  Grayson dropped to the wet road, his concentration broken and with it, his spell.

With my legs free, I jumped to my feet and shot down the alleyway.  Stone gave way to mud between the two buildings.  My boots lacked the traction needed to run through the mud, and I felt like I was losing as much ground as I gained.  I slipped and slid, stumbling over a discarded bucket at one point.  Between the darkness of the alleyway and the constant wall of rain in front of me, I could only run forward and hope for the best.

Hope is for the Morynas-blooded dumb.  He’s the god of hope.

The alleyway dead-ended into a wall.  Of course, I didn’t see the wall until I ran straight into it and fell back on my ass in the mud.  My pride, along with my fear of getting caught by Grayson, got me back to my feet as if nothing had happened.  I turned to slip behind the building to my right, assuming that there was walking space behind it.  Instead, I ran into its side, falling on my ass for a second time.  I didn’t bother checking the other side; the buildings seemed to be built into the wall.  I was trapped.

Even though Briscott had taken down Grayson, he was no match for a wizard. That fact was evidenced as a small, ethereal, white orb lit up the mouth of the alley, floating above Grayson’s hand.  He started towards me, and as he did, the orb shot forward so quickly that it appeared to be a white line stabbing towards me.  It moved too fast for me to react, but once it reached me, it stopped above my head.  It was blindingly bright, and I could barely see anything but white all around me.  Whether the orb’s function was to blind me or to keep me illuminated, it was doing its job pretty damn well.

With nowhere to go and being all but blind, I had very few options.  So I went for the one option that didn’t involve running towards the man trying to apprehend me.  I turned back to the wall at the end of the alley, thankfully able to see it through the bright light that surrounded me. 

Without a thought of looking back, I took one loping step and launched myself towards the wall.  I kicked off of it at an angle with one foot and ricocheted off the building to my right with the other, propelling myself towards the opposite building.  I reached out with both hands and narrowly caught onto the eave of its sloped roof, my fingers fighting for purchase on the slick stone. 

The pain in my fingers, both from my weight and the scrapes from being knocked down by Grayson, was excruciating.  My fear overwhelmed the pain and allowed me the strength to quickly pull myself up onto the roof.  Now out of the alley, the light above me was able to
dispersed a little more.  Though I was still a bit light-blind, I could actually see enough to not go stepping off of the roof and end the chase with a broken leg.

The building that I stood upon was of the typical architecture of most every structure of the Black Magic District.  The one-story building, including the roof, was made from seamless tan stone, completely unblemished.  The roof was slightly sloped, rising up into a rounded peak. 

I assumed that the stone structures in the Black Magic District, as well as all of Auslin, were most likely created using magic.  Even if the homes and businesses had been carved from single, large rocks from the nearby Glacial Mountains, they still should’ve had some kind of visible wear from age.  That, and I’d never seen any type of stone that matched the appearance of the buildings and roads of Auslin.

Not wanting to be knocked off the roof by another blast of magic, I ran to the wall that lined the back of the alley.  The light stayed over my head and illuminated a fairly large circle around me.  Though thankful for the ability to see where I was going as I sprinted through the rain, I realized the true purpose of the light: it would serve as a beacon to Grayson or any other member of the Wizard Guard who was out to capture me.  As long as the brilliantly bright light hovered over me, hiding would be difficult. 
Stupid Grayson.

Pushing aside my concerns about the light in order to focus solely on escaping, I started running down the wall.  Its top was about as wide as my outstretched arms.  Closely spaced buildings lined both sides of the wall, their backs seamlessly connected to it with their roofs simply rising away from its edge.  The wall seemed to stretch on forever as I
sprinted its length.

The downpour was showing no sign of relenting.  Lightning cut silver-blue rents through the sky, the accompanying thunder muting my wet footsteps.  Despite the light shining down on
me, the near-freezing rain threatened to blind me as it blew into my eyes.  If not for my heart speeding from exertion and fear, the cold and wet would’ve been debilitating. 

When I finally reached the end of the wall, I turned sharply onto the last roof stemming from its opposite side.  The light above me illuminated another one-story building beside it, separate from the wall and just an alley away.  Without the luxury of having time to hesitate, I leapt over the gap without thinking and landed on the next roof.  My landing was anything but graceful.  My feet planted firmly on the stone, but my forward momentum was too strong, and I tumbled forward, rolling down the slope of the roof. 

As if I hadn’t already been in a panic at being chased by a wizard, here I was tumbling towards a one-story drop.  My backpack and scabbarded sword made this a very uncomfortable ordeal.  The roof being made of stone didn’t help either.  In an attempt to keep myself from a painful—if not fatal—fall to the ground, I flattened out my body, stomach down.  My pained fingers clawed against the stone as I tried to stop myself from sliding. 

They failed.

My body slid from the edge of the roof, my fingers failing to grasp the eave.  The light hovering above me illuminated my outstretched arms as my fingers broke free.  Time slowed.  I could see Grayson running down the wall, a light of his own bobbing above his head, keeping him visible as he neared.  I didn’t have very long to think about how he was about to succeed in his chase, me being only a couple of moments away from lying helpless on the ground.

However, if I believed in the gods, I’d say that one of them had been watching over me.  Instead of continuing to fly backwards until I landed on the ground, my back slammed into the wall of a neighboring building.  My backpack cushioned the blow as I bounced forward and miraculously landed on my feet in yet another alleyway.  The force of such an abrupt landing sent pain shooting through my legs and hips, but nothing felt broken or even sprained.  Having landed on the sodden ground of the alley had kept me from injury. 

It took a few moments of being stunned by my fortune to realize that Grayson’s light shone from the peak of the roof I’d fallen from.  I hightailed it out of the alley, taking my own accursed light with me.  My body violently twisted to the side as if being shoved.  I didn’t have to look back to know that I was back in Grayson’s view and that he’d attempted—and failed—to use a magical gust of wind to incapacitate me. 

I
did
have to look forward, though, to know that there was something ahead of me just waiting to bring me to a crashing halt.  Somehow, I noticed raindrops sluicing down the front of some sort of invisible barrier that was just slightly taller than me.  Maybe my senses were heightened from panic.  Maybe I was just that damn good.  I’d like to think the latter is correct. 

Miraculously, I was able to dodge around the barrier without losing traction and careening into it.  It was only a couple paces wide, most likely a concentrated wall of air, given that this Grayson fellow seemed to like using air-related spells on me. 

With the narrowness of the barrier, it seemed that whatever Grayson was using to power his magic had limitations.  Also, given that I was pretty damn breathless, he had to be nearing exhaustion as well.  All I was doing was running, and I was a fairly athletic man.  This guy was running
and
casting spells, the equivalent of running a footrace up a mountain with a live goat strapped to your back.  Yeah, it’s a weird comparison, but Max made it once, so I’m sticking with it.  If I was nearing the end of my rope, this guy had to be dangling from a frayed thread by two fingers. 

Having passed the barrier, I charged down the street.  Before I could swell with the pride of having eluded Grayson’s spell, I felt the air around me grow colder.  The rain became sleet and pelted stingingly against my hands and face.  In my stupidity, I chalked the change up to the upcoming winter.  Why I thought it could be normal for the temperature to abruptly drop and for rain to become sleet so quickly, I’ll never know.  By the time I realized that the sleet was only concentrated in a small area, my feet flew out from under me as they skidded across a sheet of ice.

I landed on my back, my backpack’s contents jabbing painfully into my flank.  The sound of shattering glass came from under me as my lantern broke inside my backpack.  My body slid down the street a few paces before landing outside the sheet of ice Grayson had magically created. 

Something seemed off during that single moment I lay stunned on the ground, though I couldn’t put my finger on it.  Not one to be kept down, however, I attempted to jump back to my feet and prove to Grayson that his spells couldn’t stop me.  My attempt was cut short as my nose and forehead slammed into
another invisible barrier just inches above my face.  The recoil from the impact knocked my head back against the road.  Icy tears stung my eyes.  Before you try to judge me, slam your own nose into a wall and see how dry your eyes are afterwards. 

The sleet became rain again, stopping inches from my face and trickling across the barrier holding me down.  Then I realized that the lack of rain touching me was what had felt wrong when I'd first hit the ground. 

The light that Grayson had cast above me hovered directly over my face, making it hard to see anything else.  As I looked back, I could faintly see another white glow bobbing slowly towards me, Grayson a dark shadow underneath.  He was taking his time now that I’d been immobilized. 

I closed my eyes and let out a resigned sigh. 
Was Til’ okay?  Would he and Briscott come after me?  What would happen if they did?  If I was somehow the only one who could stop Raijom, what would happen if the Wizard Council had me locked away? 

“Don’t move,” a strangely familiar voice hissed at my side.  My eyes shot open, and my head turned to see a robed man crouched beside me, his clothing untouched by rain.  His hood was raised, but I could see his sunken-cheeked face with its ice-pick nose and recessed eyes.  His
bony hands were held over the barrier surrounding me.  I couldn’t put a name to him, but I recognized him as one of the dozens of shady wizards I’d encountered earlier in the day. 

“I said don’t move,” he growled, shutting his eyes in concentration.  I kept my head perfectly still, hoping that he was there to help me.

Suddenly, the light above me winked out, dropping us into darkness.  At first I thought I was just adjusting to the absence of Grayson’s magic, but then I noticed that there was simply no light at all.  The nearby streetlamps had been extinguished, and there were no lit windows anywhere nearby.  Grayson let out a startled yelp in the near distance, and I realized that his light, too, had disappeared.

The man beside me gripped my cloak in a fist and, with a strength that belied his seeming frailty, jerked me to my feet.  “Follow me,” he rasped.  I had to rely on the sound of his wet footsteps in order to keep up with him in the darkness.  At some point I heard Grayson shout something that was lost in a booming crash of thunder. 

There was no way I could keep track of every corner we turned and every muddy alleyway we sped down.  It was all I could do to just keep up with the gaunt wizard.  Streetlamps and windows were dark on the streets around us, making me suspect that he’d cast a spell that somehow extinguished all lights within a certain distance around him.  As the rain began to let up, my suspicions were confirmed in that I could see the glow of white streetlamps and orange window lights in the distance.

The crescent moon periodically peeked through the clouds, briefly allowing me to see that I was still behind the man, but the stars remained hidden as if hiding from the thunder that still rumbled through the night.  I wished I could hide with them.  Preferably somewhere warm with a nice roaring fire.  After a little sleep, I could worry about all the other concerns in my life.  Alas, the stars were far away from the world and could do whatever they wanted.  I, being a part of the world, didn’t have that luxury.