TST (2 page)

Several shouts of protest erupted from the accused student wizards but the headmaster quickly hushed them.

“I was watching from the cover of the trees and when I saw all three preparing spells to cast at Azerick I cast a flame jet between them and disrupted their casting.”

“He set our shirts on fire and burned me!” one of the boys protested but was immediately told to be quiet.

Rusty continued. “Azerick turned back to Travis who was back on his feet and pointing his wand at him. Azerick told him to put the wand away and admit defeat. Travis told him that he had him now and was going to kill him, then me. Again, Azerick warned him not to use his wand or he would be sorry. Travis didn’t listen and triggered his wand. When he did, it blew up, killed him, and did all the damage you saw in the clearing.”

“It sounds like Azerick knew that the wand was going to malfunction. Is that true, Franklin?” The headmaster asked.

“Yes, Headmaster, Azerick cast a spell on it one day after Travis and his friends beat him up in the halls, but he didn’t know it would react so violently. He told me he thought it would just break.”

“Do you know why Azerick met Travis in the clearing last night?”

“He told me that he had stopped Travis from raping a girl the night of the ball and Travis challenged him,” Rusty replied coldly as the room burst into shocked mutterings.

“Objection, Headmaster, that is hearsay! Three other witnesses have discounted that accusation and the girl refuses to speak of it!” Lord Beaumonte defended his dead son.

“Lord Beaumont is correct. Without another actual witness, anything this Azerick allegedly said must be discounted until he appears to give his own testimony,” Chief Inspector Lazlo affirmed.

“Do you know where he went after the incident, Franklin?”

“No, Headmaster, he refused to tell me or even hint as to where he was going or what he was going to do.”

“Would you tell us if he had told you?”

“No, Headmaster, not even under the threat of torture,” Rusty swore, meaning every word of it.

“Well, let us just see about that, young man!” Lord Beaumonte threatened.

Magus Allister rose from his chair once again, his anger evident on his wrinkled face.

“Threaten one of my students again, Lord Beaumonte, and any relation or protection you may enjoy from the duke will not be sufficient to protect you!” Magus Allister promised with a rare show of true fury.

Travis’s father hastily backed away, pointing a quaking finger at the old wizard. “My son is murdered in your academy and now one of your own instructors dares to threaten me! This is intolerable! I demand he be arrested at once!”

The chief inspector looked from the duke’s cousin to the very formidable and supremely angry archmage and decided it would be best to handle the situation diplomatically.

“My Lord, I’m sure we are all terribly upset at everything that has happened. Tempers are of course running high, but I am certain the Magus does not truly wish to cause harm to anyone. Let us just control ourselves as best we can and see that justice is served,” a very nervous Lazlo said, tying to smooth over the ruffled feathers of the powerful men in attendance. “Given all the testimony we have heard, I feel it is best to hand this case over to the magistrate for further review. We can do nothing right now until the accused is located anyhow.”

“There may be nothing you can do, but I assure you that my resources do not lack your magistrate’s limitations!” Lord Beaumonte shouted as he left the meeting, slamming the door behind him.

“What is going to happen now, sir?” Rusty asked.

“It is in the hands of the magistrate’s office now, Franklin. At this time, you are considered nothing more than a witness. Any punishment that would normally be incurred from casting offensive spells with intent to cause harm to another student or citizen will be dismissed given the mitigating circumstances,” Headmaster Dondrian assured him. “Let it be known however, that any aggression between you four young men will not be tolerated and will be grounds for immediate dismissal from the Academy. Is that understood?”

The young wizards all swore that it was and Rusty shuffled out of the headmaster’s office with his head down and returned to his own room. Magus Allister came and let himself in after knocking about an hour later.

“How are you, Franklin?” the Magus asked.

“I don’t know. I’m scared and I’m worried about Azerick.”

“I’ll be honest with you; of all the young men I have ever met in my very long life, Azerick is the last person I would worry about. If anyone can come out of this on top, it will be him. Did he ever tell you of how I met our young friend?”

Rusty and the old wizard laughed themselves to tears as the Magus detailed the accounts of their first few encounters. Both young wizard and old were holding their stomachs, afraid they were about to burst open by the time Magus Allister decided to leave his student in peace.

“By the way, don’t you dare repeat what I said,” he said with a wink.

Rusty promised that his secret was safe with him and went back to thinking of his friend but with a bit more hope for his success than he previously had.

*****

Azerick was now several days out to sea. His new friend, Balor, had refreshed his memory on everything his father had taught him about sailing and several things besides and was quickly gaining the acceptance of the crew. He was busy checking sail lines and ensuring everything was secured to the deck when a call sounded from the crow’s nest.

“Sails, four points off the starboard bow!” shouted the warning from the observer.

Azerick scanned the horizon and finally made out the white sails against the blue sky.

“Unknown vessel on a definite intercept course! Make that two ships!” cried the lookout.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” the captain said as he came up behind his new crewmember.

“Who do you think it is, what do they want?” Azerick asked.

“It’s pirates or I’m a one legged milk maid. Ready the scorpios and deck catapults, every man to the armory to draw swords and crossbows!”

Men scrambled everywhere across the deck and into the rigging with cutlasses stuck through their belts and gripping crossbows.

“I hope you aren’t afraid of a fight, boy.”

“No, sir, not at all,” Azerick said with confidence.

“Then you better be ready to fight like a demon because we are outnumbered, outgunned, and it’s win or die out here.”

Azerick crossed to the armory, thrust a couple of dirks through his belt, and retrieved his staff.
You are not as outgunned as you may think, Captain. I bet they do not have a sorcerer on their ship
.

He just hoped he would be enough to turn the battle to their favor. Azerick would only use magic if forced. The general populace was wary of magic and sailors were more superstitious than most.

As the two ships cut towards the
Sea Star,
Azerick was able to make out more details. Both were two masted schooners but carrying extra sail for speed. They were lighter ships than the
sea star
but sported a catapult on the bow and scorpios along the rail. Captain Zeb ordered deck shields locked in place. The deck shields were simply thick, iron-banded wooden shields that slid into slots on the deck and tied to the railings to provide cover from projectiles.

The men scrambled to follow the captain’s orders and crouched behind the shields with their crossbows cocked and ready. The minutes turned to hours as Zeb tried to avoid the pirates but the wind favored their foes. The pirate vessels began flinging chain into the rigging in an attempt to foul the lines and rend holes into the sails to slow them down the moment they closed within range. The sailors aboard the
Sea Star
returned
fire with their own catapult but the pirates continued to gain.

When the first pirate vessel came within a hundred yards, the captain ordered his men to loose their crossbows at will. Dozens of quarrels flew from the
Sea Star
like a swarm of angry hornets. Azerick saw a couple pirates brought down by the fusillade then the pirates returned the assault. There were more pirates on the enemy ship than on the
Sea Star
and there were two of them.

“Pull us to port; do not let them catch us between them!” Zeb ordered.

Azerick could see that the second ship was trying to maneuver to the other side of them. If the pirate vessels were able to catch the
Sea Star
between them, they were sure to be torn to shreds in the flanking assault. The
Sea Star
swung hard to port, cutting straight across the path of the second enemy ship but lost a lot of precious wind and fell closer to the pirate ships.

“Prepare to repel boarders!” Captain Zeb shouted as the ships closed to within fifty yards.

Azerick stepped up from behind one of the shields as the captain tried to pull him back down.

“What are you doing, you fool? Get down!”

“Don’t worry, Captain, I know what I’m doing,” Azerick said with more confidence than he felt.

He wanted to wait but Azerick knew they were grossly outnumbered and hesitating would only result in more of his crew’s death.

Several crossbow bolts flew at the offered target but dropped harmlessly to the deck as they struck the magical shield Azerick had cast on himself. Captain Zeb and the nearby Balor’s face looked on in shock at what should have been a very dead young man. Their faces shifted to downright awe as Azerick raked a bolt of lightning across the deck of the closest pirate ship.

The lightning tore into the pirates, scattering those nearby and set fire to spare sailcloth and wooden crates. He then launched a barrage of magical bolts and sent two more pirates falling heavily to the deck. The crew of the
Sea Star
quickly snapped out of their shock, took advantage of the pandemonium on board the other ship, and fired their crossbows, scorpios, and catapult once again.

“Swing that cat towards the second ship and keep them on their toes!” Captain Zeb instructed while the rest of his crew kept firing at the spell-stricken pirate ship.

Azerick let loose with another round of magical darts followed by a second bolt of lightning. The second lightning bolt cracked the forward mast and set it aflame. As it burned, the weakened wood split and toppled to the deck, igniting several more fires, trapping and crushing several of the milling pirates below. Azerick and most of the crew turned their attention to the second ship that was close enough now that it started to hurl grappling lines in an attempt to try to board the
Sea Star
and overwhelm her crew.

The young sorcerer released another last lightning bolt, possibly his last given his fatiguing body, at the pirate vessel to great effect. Most of the pirates had been crowding the rails, ready to swing over on ropes and run across boarding planks as soon as they were able to draw the two ships together. Over a dozen pirates fell to the powerful blast but Azerick refused to give them even a moment of respite.

He sent a barrage of magical bolts into the faces of three pirates, immediately followed by a magical lancing strike that speared through one pirate and killed a second one behind him.

The sailors aboard the
Sea Star
loosed their crossbows at nearly pointblank range at the pirates as Azerick sent a gout of fire similar to the one that Rusty had used during his duel with Travis. Between the crossbow bolts, the devastating magical assault, and the burning wreck of the first pirate ship, the pirates of the second ship lost their nerve. They threw down their weapons and begged for mercy from their would-be victims.

“Take their weapons and set them in longboats, see that they have fresh water, and a bit of food. If they run out, they can damn well eat each other. You other men, put out that fire over there before we lose our prize,” the captain ordered seeing a pile of tar-cured hemp rope burning near the mast, a victim of one of Azerick’s spells.