The Sorcerer's Return (The Sorcerer's Path) (3 page)

“You have already wasted enough of my time. I will get it myself.”

Azerick pointed his staff at the high ceiling and made a circling motion. The hall shuddered as a round section of the ceiling the size of a small dinner table broke free and descended through the floor. Story after story of the tower above sank through the floor as loud, crackling explosions resounded through the Hall of Inquisition from the multiple wards protesting their destruction. The wards protecting the Codex were the most formidable possible and would have withstood Azerick’s sorcery even with the additional power of his staff, but they were not designed to stand against the demonic power lacing his magic. When the rumbling destruction stopped and the dust cleared, the Codex Arcana sat before Azerick on its stone pedestal.

Azerick reached out and casually tucked the tome under his left arm. “My coming here and asking for what is mine was mere courtesy. I would have forgone even that had I not a dire message to convey as well, and I hope my ridiculous display has convinced you to take me seriously. The greatest fight for our existence is dawning
, and we all need to stand together to defeat it. You all have a passing knowledge of The Great Revolution?” he inquired.

Several heads nodded numbly but only Paulina spoke. “We defeated the dragons and gained our freedom.”

“The dragons were merely our part in that great conflict. The true battle lay with the elves and their magic. They took the battle to the beings controlling the dragons. These Scions are the original gods of this world, and they are returning to take back what they feel is theirs. Our gods and elven magic banished them, so they hate magic users like no others. They will destroy all who possess the ability to wield magic along with the vast majority of the races. You see the power I possess. The Scions and their legions will crush me like an insect if I stand alone. I plan to petition The Academy, church, and King Jarvin to prepare for their invasion. You Inquisitors are already battle trained, but it is not enough. You must train with a rigor like no other, every day, and as hard as you can stand. You must be prepared to battle against hundreds of thousands of evil creatures who have no fear of death. To fail means the destruction of all we are, with no future but one of primitive subservience for the few who are allowed to live. Now, someone take me to my apprentice. I have much to do,” he finished darkly.

It took a moment for the Duchess to respond as she tried desperately to
make sense of what the sorcerer said. “Fennrick, please escort Lord Giles to the girl.”

The hall was
quiet and all eyes followed the sorcerer as Fennrick led him from the room. They all sat in stunned silence as they tried to process the enormity of what he had told them. Could it be true? Could they believe the word of a demon?

Fennrick fought to collect his thoughts as he led Lord Giles down the hall toward the prison cells. “I was impressed when you destroyed the doors,
” he said tentatively, “but to take down the wards surrounding the Codex with such apparent ease was particularly disconcerting.”

Azerick grinned. “Blowing apart doors is kind of becoming my thing.”

“I have never heard of the Scions. How do you know of them?”

“Sharellan told me
, and the last remaining creature to have fought them showed me their prison. You are wondering if you can believe me.”

Fennrick took a breath and nodded.

“You need to. There must be something about them located within The Academy archives, no matter how passing the reference or how deeply buried it may be. We all need to be ready for their return, and that means honing our power to its highest level. What would I gain by enticing my enemies to greater power if I am lying?”

“None I can think of, but you proclaim yourself to be a demon lord
, and they are devious beyond the imaginations of most.”

Azerick grunted in agreement.
“You need to heed my warning, Fennrick, and convince the others. Many will doubt me. Probably most, but you must convince them. You must drive your people to train with fervor, for their lives, the lives of their families, and almost every intelligent creature on this world depends on it.”

The
Inquisitor ran his tongue across his teeth in thought and nodded. “Lord Giles, I must tell you that our efforts to induce your apprentice to cooperate with us have taken their toll. She is likely not the same person you remember.”

“I think
many of us are not the people we remember. For good or ill, the events in our lives shape who we are. Some events are by circumstance, others by design. You are worried about retribution?”

“I did my duty, but I took no pleasure in it.”

“I imagine I would have once considered punishing those who hurt my family regardless of their reasons, but so much has happened to me.” Azerick sighed. “I have come to learn that even unpleasant things happen for a reason. It may be that what she has endured needed to happen to shape her, to make her stronger and wiser. It could also be I simply have too much to do to waste my time on revenge.”

Fennrick stopped in front of a stout
door and inserted a key into the lock. “She is in here.”

He opened the
door and stepped back. Azerick looked into the room and barely recognized the wretch sitting limply on a pallet and staring vacantly at the floor. Ellyssa’s hair was matted and filthy, as was the rest of her. Her eyes were sunken and ringed with dark circles, and her whole body looked frail and emaciated. Her once fiery and defiant spirit now looked to have been shattered. Azerick hoped not irreparably. She needed that spirit to perform the duty he was going to lay upon her.

Ellyssa looked up and her entire
countenance changed in an instant. Rage suffused her body when she spied Azerick’s image in the doorway. Fennrick and his cronies had long been using illusions to manipulate and break her spirit. She had fallen for their lies in the beginning, but as more people she knew visited, she finally saw through the veils and understood their intent. But this was the first time they had used Azerick against her, and it was more than she could bear.

Ellyssa leapt from her meager bed with her hands twisted into claws
. Tiny sparks of electricity arced between her fingers despite the wards against magic placed upon the room. “How dare you! You have no right!” Ellyssa shrieked as she tried to physically rip Azerick’s image off the imposter's face.

Azerick grasped her wrists and held her as easily as a small child. “Ellyssa, it’s me. I am back. It is time to go home.”

Ellyssa looked at Fennrick standing sheepishly behind Azerick. She stepped back when Azerick let go of her. Her gaze was drawn to the Codex and his staff tucked beneath his arm. She knew the Codex was real. Not only could she see it, but she could hear the book whispering to her even now.

“H-how is this possible? I killed you,” she declared as tears sprang to her eyes.

Azerick smiled down at his ward. “You were always good, kid, but you were never that good. My death was the result of my own choices and the designs of the gods. Had I not come for you, I am certain Sharellan would have orchestrated another method for my demise.”

Ellyssa took a tentative step
forward. “It’s really you?”

“It is. We need to go now. We have much to do.”

Ellyssa rushed forward, wrapped her arms around Azerick, and wept loudly into his shirt. “I’m so sorry!”

“For what, soaking this
shirt? It will dry.”

Ellyssa coughed out a laugh as Azerick led her away. “Are we going home?”
 

“Soon, but first we must go get my son before we leave.”

Ellyssa looked up at Azerick in surprise. “Daebian is here?”

Azerick shook his head. “No, my other son.”

Ellyssa stopped to consider this next shocking revelation. “What have you been doing while you were gone? Or should I ask,
who
have you been doing?”

Azerick laughed loudly. “It’s a long story, and I do not have time to explain it now. We need to be away from here quickly. There is much to do
, and I need your help to do it.”

“Help to do what?”

“Not much,” he replied as he strode down the corridor. “Just save the world.”

CHAPTER 2

“Your son is in a brothel?” Ellyssa asked
disbelievingly as they approached the house of disrepute.

“In these times, it was the most
reliable place I could think of.”

A shrill cry split the air from somewhere within. Azerick bolted through the doors and up the stairs
, following the source of distress with Ellyssa chasing hastily behind. Azerick burst through the door and found Raijaun clinging to the ceiling in the corner of the room. The brothel Madam cowered against the far wall of the room covered in the spilled contents of the empty skin lying in front of her.

“You failed to add blood to the milk,” Azerick said.

“I-I’m sorry!” the woman wailed. “I couldn’t bring myself to do it!”

Azerick
faced his angry son. “Raijaun, come down this instant, and stop your tantrum. That is no way to behave. You have terrified this woman who only wanted to take care of you. Come apologize,” he said firmly.

Raijaun dropped to the floor and
looked at his feet. Ellyssa stared at the creature and said nothing, but she had plenty of questions for later. Azerick turned back to the frightened woman.

“You already have your payment. We will be leaving shortly. You may go.”

“W-what of the spell upon the bag?”

“Other than the locational, there was no spell.”

The woman looked unconvinced but fled the room. Getting away from the terrifying man and his pet demon was far more important than wealth at the moment.

Azerick faced Ellyssa. “We both have many questions, but they must wait for now. We need to be away from this place immediately.”

Azerick slashed the air with his staff, slicing open a portal to somewhere outside. He pulled Ellyssa and his son through the rift and stepped into the rocky, open terrain of the desert. Ellyssa swooned heavily and her knees nearly buckled from the disorientation. When she caught her balance, she looked behind her and saw the city lying at least a mile away.

“So far,” she whispered.

“Steady yourself,” Azerick advised. “We must gate several more times to put as much distance between us and the city as we can.”

Before Ellyssa could ask why, Azerick ripped open another portal and pulled them
through. When Ellyssa was able to focus her eyes once more, she could barely make out the tallest towers in Argoth. Azerick’s gate spells easily took them five times farther than anything she had ever made or even heard was possible. He was already opening a third gate and pushing them through.

“Azerick, please…” Ellyssa tried to protest before being shoved through.

This time, Ellyssa did fall as she stumbled through the gate. She braced herself on her hands and knees as she tried vainly to heave out a nonexistent meal.

“Azerick, please, no more. I can’t take another one,” she pleaded.

Azerick looked back in the direction of Argoth and sat on a boulder while Raijaun turned in circles with his arms outstretched, enjoying the dizziness caused by the gate travel.

“All right, we can wait here for a bit, but we need to move away soon.”

Ellyssa rolled over and propped her back against another boulder. “Why? I thought Duchess Paulina let me go?”

“She gave me what I demanded because she had no reasonable options at the time. She is as an ambitious and covetous woman as they come. Now that she has had time to think and prepare, she will foolishly begin to reassess her options and will act to recover the Codex.”

“Can we beat them if they come after us?”

“The outcome of any battle is
largely based upon proper preparation,” Azerick explained. “They will have the superiority of numbers and even raw power, particularly since I cannot bring my full power to bear without risking losing control. I also do not want to kill them.”

“Why not? They’ll kill you to get the Codex back
, won’t they?” Ellyssa demanded.

“Probably, but they aren’t convinced of the danger I warned them about.
Humans are just too short-term thinking.”

“You said we had to save the world. I thought you were joking.”

Azerick smiled and shook his head. “No, I am not much for jokes these days. We are all in a great deal of danger.”

“From what?”

“An ancient foe, banished by the gods, is returning. They will annihilate nearly every intelligent race on the planet if we do not stop them.”

“Can’t the gods destroy them, or at least banish them again?” Ellyssa asked.

“It will be a war between gods, and the old gods are stronger. They will need our help to have a chance at victory, and that means I need every man, woman, and wizard to fight with me. That is why I cannot simply kill the Inquisitors or The Academy wizards who will invariably resist what I tell them. I need to beat them soundly without killing them, at least not many of them, and hope it is enough of a deterrent to keep them from trying to take the Codex by force. As the only ones able to use it to its fullest, it must remain with us so that we can prepare for the final battle.”

Talk of a war between gods made Ellyssa feel very small and insignificant.
“How could I possibly help with that?”

“First, I need you to help me keep Raijaun out of trouble and teach him some basics, like manners, reading, and writing. I’m not ready to return home right away. I need to write a training doctrine for
my students to follow. Once that is complete, you will use it to take over the training of the school.”

If Ellyssa had not been sitting, she certainly would have fallen over. “What? I can’t take over the school! I’m not even a full wizard!”

“Tell me how you ended up branded a criminal and stuck in the Inquisitor’s prison.”

Ellyssa sighed and looked shamefully at her feet. “I don’t know. I blamed myself for your dying, like everyone else. At least that’s how I thought. I started having nightmares when I went to sleep, and then they were even coming when I was awake. Sandy said it was because the man who took me captive was still alive and I couldn’t feel safe again until he was dead.”

“It sounds like Sandy has gotten wise while I was gone.”

“Yeah, and as big as a house,” Ellyssa said with a smile.

“So what did you do?”

“
I started looking for him, for Captain Jake, and killing slavers when I found them. I made a real mess. The Academy sent some idiots to bring me in. They failed.”

“Quite a feat f
or someone of your inexperience.”

“They knew I had the Codex and that it spoke to me
, so they couldn’t risk killing me,” she explained grimly.

“All the same, it takes some strength and very clever use of magic to defeat even wizards who aren’t battle trained. So they failed and
sent the Inquisitors after you.”

“
Right, but I trounced them the first time we met too. They got me after your friend Andrill betrayed me in Southport.”

“I see. Would you like to make a stop in Southport and deal with Andrill?” Azerick asked.

Ellyssa sighed and shook her head. “No. Andrill did what he thought he had to do. Chasing revenge only made everything worse. The Academy is now running the school, and I got thrown into prison where I would still be if you had not rescued me again. It’s not worth it.”

“It sounds like Sandy is not the only one who has grown in both size and wisdom.”

“Well, five years of absolute torment will do that.”

Azerick stared into the distance and whispered, “Five years.” He brought his attention back
to his apprentice. “All those things are why you are the best qualified to take over the teaching of my new curriculum. Rusty is good, but he is purely Academy trained. Allister and Aggie are both powerful beyond measure, but I don’t think either of them is willing to push the students the way they must. Josh and the other former Black Tower students are probably as close to being familiar with what needs to be done as anyone can be, but they have not had the real world combat experience you have had. I know you have suffered a great deal these last few years, but I need you to be strong for me. Can you do it?”

Ellyssa desperately wanted to deny it as she fought to control her fear and sense of unworthiness. She knew she could do this. She knew what it was like to fight for her life, and that was what
Azerick needed her to teach the others.

“I can do it.”

“Don’t look so fatalistic. You have the easy job.”

“If taking over the school is the easy job, I’m afraid to ask what would be a hard one.”

“I have to convince The Academy to accept it also. Now tell me about these Academy wizards in my school.”

“I don’t know much except what Wolf told me
. Some man named Harvey is in charge now. They didn’t shut it down, even though Harvey would love to do just that. Several wizards from The Academy came with him and took over teaching. Wolf thought there was going to be a battle. The Academy brought a lot of wizards and soldiers with them, and Duchess Mellina was furious. She brought her soldiers in behind them, but they all decided not to fight.”

“So, Allister had a defensible position with the enemy between two strong forces. What would you have done?”

Ellyssa studied the ground as she thought. “I would not have given up the school. I would have tried to convince them to leave. If they would not, I would have fought them.”

“People would have died. Probably a lot of people.”

“Better to die than let someone walk all over you, telling you that you are unworthy or inferior. That’s what The Academy thinks of us, that we aren’t good enough to be wizards.”

Azerick nodded and smiled. “That is why you are the one to take over training. Allister and the others bel
ieve in peace at all costs when we are at a time where we must believe in freedom at any cost. We are facing a battle like no other. Even the Great Revolution cannot compare to the number of people who will fight and die for their right not just to exist, but exist as a free people able to choose their own destinies. Come, we need to move again,” he said as he rose to his feet.

Ellyssa stood with a sigh. “I wish we would have had the time to get something to eat before
we left the city. I’m starving.”

“I wish we would have had the time f
or you to take a bath. You reek,” Azerick quipped as he wrenched open another gate.

***

Duchess Paulina gulped down the last of her wine and hurled the empty glass against the wall. She grabbed the bottle from the table and, upon finding it empty as well, sent it flying after the glass. Fennrick ducked to avoid the flying shards as he stepped into Elias’ office.

“This is beyond intolerable!” the Duchess railed once more.

Elias jumped up from his chair and began searching a cabinet. “I am certain I have more wine somewhere, Your Grace.”

Paulina grabbed a stylus case from his desk and began beating him in the head with it. “Not the wine, you simpleton! How can a man walk in here, destroy my hall, free a prisoner condemned to death, and walk out with the most important artifact in the kingdom?”

“He was not exactly a man, Your Grace!” Elias cried out from beneath his protective arms.

“I don’t care if he was Solarian himself! A score of
Inquisitors filled that hall, and all they could do was cower and wet themselves!”

“
Your Grace, we were not prepared!”

“Then you had best get prepared!” The Duchess spun toward Fennrick. “Fennrick,
ready as many Inquisitors as you can, and go get my book. I no longer care about the girl. She has proven less than useless.”

“I think not, Your Grace,” Fennrick replied.

“Excuse me?” Paulina exclaimed incredulously.

“You have no idea what we face
, none of us do, and I will not throw away the lives of my people for your selfish desires. Lord Giles was correct, you truly are a fool.”

“You forget yourself,
Inquisitor!” the Duchess raged.

“No, Your Grace, we have all forgotten ourselves, and I think it is time
I remind The Hall of who we are,” Fennrick replied forcefully. “We have forgotten our real mission to protect the realm and now bow to your desires, defy The Academy by hoarding artifacts, and torture children.”

Shaking with outrage, the Duchess spun on Elias. “Elias, order your man to obey me this instant!”

“Fennrick, have you lost your mind? Prepare a full company of Inquisitors to recovery the Codex!”

“Elias, the only thing I will recover for you is
a rough hewn staff. If you are unsure of what to do with it, I was given a detailed set of instructions that I am more than happy to share with you.”

“You are insubordinate,
Inquisitor! I will have you expelled from the order!”

“And you are the moron your precious Duchess continually proclaims you to be. I think we both know the only reason I do not have your job is that after seeing how
it has pushed you to twist and corrupt our order, I no longer want it. Now, if you will excuse me, I have better things to do than waste my time with fools.”