The Sorcerer's Return (The Sorcerer's Path) (27 page)

“That sounded like lightning,” Daebian remarked as he listened to ensuing battle outside.

I sense magic at play. It is difficult for me to gauge it with my current limitations, but I sense it is a hedge wizard of some sort. He lacks the structure and control of an Academy trained wizard.

“Zeb does not stand a chance if the pirates have a wizard on board.”

The blood of a mage would greatly increase the power I can share with you.

“Zeb told me to stay here.”

When have you done what you are told? Zeb wants to keep you from harm. I can keep you safe, and Zeb is going to lose this ship and you along with it if the mage is not neutralized quickly. You wanted to meet some pirates. Let us go say hello.

Daebian opened the cabin door and found himself staring into the filthy face of a pirate. The man flashed a gap-toothed grin as he saw the boy barring his way inside in an attempt to find some loot while the battle still raged. His smile vanished when Daebian thrust his dagger into his gut.

The pirate dropped to his knees, looking at Daebian in confusion as Klaraxis absorbed his dwindling life force through the blood washing over the boy’s hand and onto the black gem. Daebian felt his bond with the demon grow as Klaraxis fed off the dying man’s soul.

Zeb looked
at the cabin door past the pirates battering against his defenses and watched Daebian stab the pirate. He tried desperately to fight his way through, but there were too many men between him and the boy.

“Daebian, get back inside and bar the door!” Zeb shouted above the raucous tumult.

Daebian smiled at Zeb, scooped up the pirate’s fallen cutlass, and vanished into the press of bodies. He used Klaraxis’ abyssal power to help him go unnoticed just as he had at the inn. Klaraxis showed him how to bend the shadows to his will and use them to help cloak his form when the simple deception was insufficient to avoid notice. Daebian struck from those shadows with lethal efficiency, killing and critically wounding pirates as he slipped his way across the deck in search of the mage.

The demon’s power and Daebian’s ability to wield it was limited. Several times a pirate took notice of him, but Daebian’s skill with the blade and demonically enhanced speed and strength allowed him
to quickly dispatch his attacker.

Climbing up the mainmast, Daebian grabbed a line connected to the far end
of the yardarm and swung across over the heads of those engaged in the melee and the short expanse of water separating the two ships. Every hair on his body stood on end as a lightning bolt went sizzling past his head just as he dropped to the deck.

“Find the infiltrator!” Daebian heard the mage shout as he crouched behind a wooden crate.

Daebian cloaked his body in shadow and darted around the mainmast as three men ran to the crate with cutlasses and dirks held at the ready. The men cursed as they searched and were unable to find the intruder. Daebian scampered around the deck, ducking behind coils of rope, crates, and masts, striking from the darkness and leaving bodies in his wake.

The mage conjured a bright orb of light
and set it floating over his head. While it did illuminate the darkness-shrouded deck, it also created even deeper shadows in which to hide. The pirates still aboard the frigate scoured the ship in groups of three after seeing several of their fellows fall to Daebian’s guerilla tactics.

Daebian crouched in the dark space between two crates and watched as a group of pirates searched for him just a few feet away. Shaping the shadows to his will, he created a man-shaped silhouette jutting out from the base of the foremast.
When the pirates raced to encircle what they thought was their prey, Daebian leapt out and sunk his dagger in the back on one man and his borrowed cutlass in the second. The third pirate caught an arcane bolt in his chest when Daebian leapt aside as his preternatural senses warned him of the attack. Daebian’s eyes teared from the acrid smoke wafting up from the man’s ruined flesh.

“Where are you, you little rat?” the hedge wizard shouted furiously. “Crawl out of your hiding place and face me like a man!”

“As you wish,” Daebian whispered as he plunged his blade into the man’s back.

Daebian heard Klaraxis sigh in pleasure as
the demon drank in the mage’s life force. The gem hummed like a pleased cat, purring as it lapped up the dying man’s energy. He felt the shadows grow stronger and more substantial. What once felt like shaping and directing smoke became more liquid and easier to grasp and manipulate.

“Your wizard is dead, Captain,” Daebian said, his voice echoing from the shadows all around.

The pirate captain stood next to the ship’s wheel surrounded by half a dozen of his most stalwart crew.

“Where are ya? Show yerself!” the Captain demanded as he turned in a circle in search of the voice.

“I am all around you, Captain.” Human-shaped shadows leapt out from every crack and corner, dancing around the men and taunting them in a chorus of musical voices.

“Fiddle dee dee,

Fiddle dee doe,

What can a pirate do,

Against the shadows?

With blades made of the dark,

They’ll stab you through the heart,

And hang your soul from the gallows.

Of gold and riches you were dreamin’,

Of plunder and mayhem you were schemin’
,

But your
luck ran dry,

As your crewmen die,

Because this boat is crewed by a demon.”

“What are you?” the Captain screamed into the night.

“I am a creature full of power and bereft of conscience. I am your nightmare come alive. Do you wish to live, Captain? Recall your men and set sail. Flee while it amuses me to allow you to do so.”

“W-who are you?”

“I am the Prince of Shadows. I lurk in the hearts of evil men, feeding upon the putrescence of their souls. Now take your men and go!”

Beads of sweat ran down the pirate’s face as he raised a whistle to his lips with a trembling hand and blew it shrilly. He blew until his face purpled from the effort and nearly passed out. His crew finally obeyed and began fighting their way back to their ships.
Zeb and his crew did little to prevent them from doing so.

Not wanting to be seen, Daebian slipped over the side and swam back to
Majestic.
Grabbing a boarding line chopped free by one of the retreating pirates, he easily made the climb back to the deck. Balor nearly clubbed him with a belaying pin when he poked his head over the rail.

“
Damn it, boy! Where ya been? I almost brained ya!”

Daebian grabbed Balor’s hand and let himself be helped aboard. “
I went for a swim,” he replied with a grin.

Zeb stormed over and grabbed Daebian’s upper arm in a vice-like grip. “What in the blazes do you think you were you doing?”

Daebian jerked his arm free. “I killed the wizard and made the Captain call off his pirates,” he answered tersely.

“I gave you an order to stay in my cabin!”

“An order which had I followed would have those of us still alive rowing a longboat to the nearest shore, assuming the pirates didn’t just slit our throats and be done with us!”

“Just because you got lucky and it turned out your way don’t mean disobeying my order was right. Ships run on discipline, and when a sailor doesn’t follow orders, especially one as green as you because you think you’re so dang blasted much smarter than everyone else, people die and ships sink!”

“The big difference in thinking something and knowing it are in the results.”

“Boy, you best be glad you aren’t mine
, or I’d put you over my knee right here in front of the entire crew.”

“Let us both be glad I’m not so you don’t foolishly try.”

Zeb clenched his fists as if he were trying to squeeze juice from rocks. “Get to your rack, sailor, and don’t let me see you until we get to Bakhtaran.”

Daebian turned and headed for the crewmen’s berth. He stretched out on his rack and stared at the ceiling. There would be a lot of empty bunks tonight.

You should kill him for belittling you.

“I am not going to kill Zeb.”

Why not? You have punished other for less.

“Because it would cause problems. Besides, in any other situation he would be correct. Crew must obey the Captain without hesitation. It is not his fault he cannot know or appreciate what I am or can do.”

You are too forgiving.

“You are too short-sighted.”

CHAPTER 11

“How is Raijaun progressing in his training?” Azerick asked
Ellyssa.

“He is extremely talented
, and the way he weaves his magic is almost an art form, but he is still holding back. I have tried everything to get him to push himself, but he just won’t do it.”

“It has been nearly a year since Bruneford’s Mill, but I think it still frightens him. He has little trouble with tasks within the laboratory, and many of those require expending enormous power, so it is not as though he lacks the ability.
”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Just keep training him as you have. I will talk with him more, but ultimately I think he will have to overcome it on his own. I do need you to go get Aggie for me before you go back to the field.”

“Okay.”

Ellyssa disappeared and Azerick delved back into the Codex Arcana in an attempt to unlock its mysteries. The amount of knowledge recorded in its pages was mind-blowing, but the true challenge was asking it the right questions. Azerick had been studying the creation of permanent, stable gateways for months, but his attempts to create one had met with mixed success.

“The Little General said you wanted to see me,” Aggie said from the doorway.

Azerick looked up and smiled at the old wizard’s use of Ellyssa’s nickname. “I do. I am struggling with something with which I hope you can help.”

“So the almighty Lord Giles and his magically savant son found a problem they can’t solve, and now they call upon the old crone
to bail them out,” Aggie taunted.

“Pretty much, yes.”

“How long you been wrestling with it?”

“Aggressively
? About three months.”

“It took you three months to overcome your pride and ask for help?”

“Pretty much, yes,” Azerick said sheepishly.

Aggie responded with a knowing grunt. “Typical man. Although I have seen some take half their lives to
ask for help, so I guess you didn’t do too badly. What has you stymied?”

“When I was captured by the psylings, I saw a gate in the middle of the sea. It transported the entire ship and crew to their city. I want to duplicate it here so we can evacuate the populations of Southport and North Haven to Brightridge and Brelland.”

“You haven’t found anything in the Codex?” Aggie asked, surprised that the god-sent book did not have the answer.

“I found plenty, but the best explained theory can prove to be an insurmountable task without practical experience. I’m sure Ken could tell me how to forge a sword, but the resulting product would likely be a disaster.”

“Your increased wisdom continues to astound me. Transdimensional magic is one of the toughest and most dangerous studies a wizard can delve into. Gates like you are talking about require a multitude of points to perfectly fall in sync, and the farther apart the points, the greater the difficulty.”

Azerick nodded. “It is akin to threading a needle with an arrow from hundreds of miles away.”

“No, it is akin to threading a thousand needles and every shot having to be perfect. There are no retries. One point not in perfect alignment can result in disaster.”

“That is what I have observed with my experiments. The fact Ellyssa was able to make one to take her a few miles to North Haven is
incredible.”

“Lucky would be a better term. She was foolish and had no idea how dangerous and close to disaster she was. She was a hair’s breadth from doing The Academy’s job of executing her for them.”

“Do you think we can pull it off? Aggie, my entire plan hinges on these gates. Without them, I do not think we can survive this.”

Aggie sighed and looked at the ceiling as if silently beseeching the gods for guidance. “We’re really in a mess aren’t we?”

“We are. One in which even my most ardent supporters probably do not fully appreciate.”

“If it were anyone else, I’d sa
y we were all well and truly screwed. But I have seen Raijaun at practice, and his ability to manipulate the subtlest strands of magic is nothing less than astounding. With the two of you, I think we have a shot.”

Azerick and Aggie sat down with Raijaun the next morning and explained what they wanted to attempt. Raijaun nodded along as Azerick laid out what he had learned from the Codex Arcana, and Aggie filled in some of the finer details of creating such a gate.

“Do you think you can join the strands of magic between the two gates?” Azerick asked his son.

“It is possible, but it will not be easy. How big and how far
apart will these gates be?”

“I want to create a small one between here and Southport. There are things happening that will soon require my ability to travel there quickly.”

“That is a very long distance to attempt a stable gateway. The strands cannot bend, which means we will have to take into account the curvature of the world and align the gates almost perfectly on their x and y axis.”

Aggie smiled at the young creature. “Such
a brilliant young man.”

“Can you do it?”

“I understand the math involved. We will need help from one or more of your best engineers to align the stones.”

“It is more than just
the alignment that has to be perfect,” Aggie said. “Each of the runes must be a perfect match on each of the gate pillars as well. This will require the work of a master stone carver and possibly an artist to draw and chisel the sigils.”

The physical work took several painstaking days of drawing out and carving the identical structures. Azerick ordered the stone pillars destined for Southport to be loaded on one of his swifter ships while
he, Raijaun, and a crew of engineers carted the other two pieces into the woods to the south.

Wolf and Ghost emerged from the trees as Raijaun and the engineers studied the complex mathematics written across several pieces of parchment. A team of workers using
a series of levers and ropes positioned the stones as surveyors and engineers called out instructions to make minute shifts in the heavy pillars.

“What are you doing?” Wolf asked as he watched the humans placing the pillars.

“Creating a gate,” Azerick answered.

“I won’t pretend to understand wizards, but what use is a gate without a fence?”

“Not that kind of gate, Wolf. It is a magical gate that will allow me to travel to Southport.”

“I see.
Why is it in my woods?”

Azerick gave the wildling a look but let his possessiveness go. “It works both ways, and I would rather not have unexpected guests showing up in the school.
”

“Why do I have to deal with unexpected guests?” Wolf demanded.

“Because I know no one is going to sneak into your woods without you knowing. Besides, you do not have people who want you dead.”

“That’s true. You should probably take a good look at your people skills.”

“I will take your criticism under advisement.”

Raijaun interrupted the banter. “Father, we have the stones placed as best we can.
You should let me go to Southport instead. It would make aligning them much easier.”

“It is too dangerous. I prefer you stay here. We have the equations and the speaking stones. You can guide us in their alignment from here.”

Azerick thought about Daebian as the ship carried him and the gate pillars toward Southport. He once again considered contacting Zeb to check up on him, but Azerick doubted Daebian would appreciate it. The boy was fiercely independent despite Miranda’s insistence about his desire for his attention. Zeb should be nearing his return run, and Daebian would be back in a couple weeks anyway.

That is what he kept telling Miranda every time she asked him to look in on their son. He kept making excuses, most of them involving not having the time and assuring her Daebian was fine and in good hands with Zeb. He wondered how badly he was botching his job as a husband and father and if he could ever repair the damage.
There would be a great deal of rebuilding when this war was over, his marriage and the relationship with his family among them.

Azerick fed arcane power into the wind and willed it to speed him to Southport. It was a subtle type of magic, one he could maintain for hours with little concentration.
It was just enough to distract him from his morose thoughts.

The schooner carried no other cargo, so clearing Southport’s customs was a swift affair.
The crew loaded the heavy pillars onto a wagon drawn by a team of sturdy draft horses. Azerick’s team had barely cleared the docks when a contingent of wizards led by Headmaster Florent barred their path.

“Lord Giles, I would know what business you have in Southport,” the Headmaster said without preamble.

Azerick looked at the dozen wizards with Headmaster Florent and assumed there was several more hiding nearby. “I own the largest shipping company in the kingdom. It occasionally requires my attention. I would know what business it is of yours.”

“You represent an arcane threat to The Academy and the kingdom. That makes it my business.”

“I am trying to protect the kingdom. The only threat to it is your stubborn refusal to prepare for its defense,” Azerick countered.

“I refuse to kowtow to the likes of you and your grand delusions. The Academy is prepared to deal with whatever threat arises
. If you step foot on Academy grounds, we will consider it a hostile act and act accordingly.”

“I have no intention of visiting The Academy. My business lies elsewhere. Now, unless you wish to strain our relationship any further, I request that you remove yourselves from my path and let me go about that business.”

Maureen turned her eyes to the canvas-covered cargo on the wagon. Azerick knew she was examining it for traces of magic, but she would not find any. He would not imbue them with power until they were in place.

“I warn you, Lord Giles, do not approach The Academy.”

“Of course, Headmaster, you know how much I appreciate a good warning.”

The Headmaster glared at Azerick for several moments before turning and walking away with her contingent.
Azerick waited a few minutes before ordering his men to move out. He knew Maureen was having him watched, so he chose a route that would take him through some narrow streets with little traffic. It would force anyone watching him to follow or risk losing them in the city.

The two wizards waited until Azerick and his group turned the corner before entering the street and follow
ing. It was not an easy feat to disappear with a laden wagon, so there was no need to shadow them closely. As the wizards cautiously made their way down the narrow street, a pair of large men entered the confining passageway and blocked their egress.

“Well now, it looks like we found us a couple fancy lads,” one of the men said. “Are you two out for a nice walk together then?”

“We are on official Academy business. You had best not interfere and be on your way if you know what’s good for you,” one of the wizards warned.

The thug raised his hands. “Oh, we don’t want no trouble with The Academy.”

“Good, you’re smarter than you look.”

“Aye, but they might.”

The two mages slapped at the back of their necks as something stung them just before they dropped to the ground.

“Well now, let’s see what goodies they got under them fancy
clothes,” the speaker chuckled. The four men lifted everything of value with practiced hands. “Come to think of it, I bet them clothes would fetch a nice price.”

Azerick and his crew reached a lesser gate at the
outer northeast wall. A man in fine clothing and sporting a fancy hat large enough to look ridiculous on anyone else pushed off the wall and fell in step next to Azerick.

“Andrill,” Azerick greeted.

“Azerick Sir.”

“I have not seen anyone from The Academy pathetically trying to follow me for some time. I assume you got my message?”

“Indeed I did. Still flouting authority I see.”

“There are occasion
s in which authority requires flouting.”

Andrill chuckled. “It’s a shame you followed such a disreputable path. You would have made a fine thief.”

“We cannot all find a virtuous life like yourself.”

“How is your apprentice these days?”

“She went through an ordeal, but I think she came out better for it. She is quite resilient.”

“I trust she fou
nd some appreciation in my gift? I had hoped it would assuage some of the hard feelings between us.”

“I think she understands. She has achieved a measure of wisdom through her trials.”

“And what about you?”

“I understand. If I did not, you would be dead now.”

Andrill responded with a nod. During the course of his life, he had been threatened by some of the most dangerous men and women from the highest and lowest elements of society, but none had ever filled him with such certainty of being able to fulfill that threat. It was in that moment Andrill truly understood that this was no longer the angry boy he had met those years ago, but a man who knew precisely who and what he was.