The Sorcerer's Abyss (The Sorcerer's Path) (41 page)

Carrot’s screaming also put motion into Hugo’s legs, but not nearly enough. A force strike impacted his back and slammed him into the nearest wall. Ellyssa then shaped it around him and smashed him into the unyielding surface until his screams stopped.

She then reached down and plucked a small pouch of coins from Rollie’s unconscious body. Ellyssa was about to search Hugo but stopped when she saw the dark stain expanding across the front of his trousers. She did not really need the coin, but she could not pass up the poetic justice of it all.

Ellyssa made it back to the inn without further incident. She climbed the stairs, breathing hard and sweating from racing across the district just in case someone detected her magic usage. She unpacked the box’s contents on the small table and set up the pieces. She soon had water boiling and began adding the items from the herbalist shop just as the book told her to. Andrill had shown her her vulnerability to poisons and she meant to ensure she would not be taken easily again.

CHAPTER 1
4

Ellyssa spent the next few days laying low and keeping off the streets as much as possible. She managed to craft antidotes for lethal as well as tranquilizing poisons. Of course, they could not protect her from every type of poison imaginable, but it was something.

A knock at her door early in the morning startled her. With a spell on her lips, Ellyssa opened the door. Just beyond the doorway stood a man in nondescript clothing. The fluttering in her stomach hinted as to the man’s purpose.

“We have located her,” he said without preamble. “She will be staying in a manor house tonight in the upper merchant’s district. Andrill wanted to inform you so you could prepare. Someone will come for you tonight when the time nears.”

Ellyssa did not answer and the man did not wait for one. He simply turned and vanished down the stairs as soon as he delivered his message. Ellyssa closed the door and sat back down on her bed. Her nerves warred within her, setting her flesh to tingling.

Battle was nothing new to her, but this was the first time she would be deliberately fighting another wizard. Somehow, she doubted this man was an Academy rube like the others. Nor was he going to be concerned with her survival. She needed to be prepared to fight a very difficult battle. Scooting her back against the headboard of her bed, Ellyssa sat cross-legged with her spell book open on her lap and began preparing for tonight.

Ellyssa lost herself in her trance as she ran her list of spells over in her mind, memorizing each word and each weave in exacting detail so she could cast them almost without thought no matter what was happening around her. She replayed them all until they were as familiar to her as her own name.

Time became as indistinct as air as she delved into her magic. She was as startled by the knock on her door as the darkness seeping through her small window. Her legs were stiff from remaining immobile for such a long time and protested each step she took toward the door.

“It is time,” the thief said as soon as Ellyssa opened the door. “Are you prepared?”

Ellyssa nodded. “I just need to grab something to eat on the way out.”

The man nodded in return and said, “Make it something quick. Timing is of the utmost importance.”

He led the way down the stairs. Once in the common room, Ellyssa had Frank retrieve a biscuit with some meat and cheese slipped into the middle. She ate her simple fare as the thief led her through the streets toward the upper merchant’s district.

Of course, the guild thief did not lead them in a direct route, instead navigating through a myriad of alleys and shops. The rough homes and buildings of the common quarter continually improved as they made their way north across the city. More homes were painted here and the streets cleaner and better maintained. Clean but quaint homes became stately manors with stone and wrought iron walls.

It was through the gates of one of these homes her guide led them. Ellyssa first thought the place abandoned, but then she noticed the thief making subtle but deliberate motions with his hand and occasionally clicking his tongue or letting out a short whistle. It was then Ellyssa felt numerous sets of eyes watching her from the shadows. Trees, hedges, and shrubbery decorated the fine lawn and provided an untold number of places for a skilled thief to find refuge.

They walked the stone path leading to the doors of the manor. Her guide rapped out an obvious code upon the glossy, oak doors. Ellyssa heard several latches being thrown before the door opened, at first just a crack, then wide enough to permit them to pass.

A woman in leathers decorated with at least a dozen throwing knives took charge of the young wizard as soon she stepped into the dimly lit foyer. Like the other two thieves she had met today, she did not waste time with words and simply expected Ellyssa to follow without question.

They passed through the foyer and emerged in a large living chamber adequately illuminated by several lamps and a pair of chandeliers. Leaning over a table set near the middle of the room was Andrill, Braxis, and four other men. The men poured over a map appearing to Ellyssa to be a detailed plan of another mansion.

“Wonderful, our secret weapon has arrived,” Andrill said. Ellyssa took a place next to the table.

Ellyssa looked at Andrill and Braxis and said, “It looks like you started the battle early,” commenting on the cuts and bruises evident on both men’s faces.

Andrill gave his usual charming smile. “Some people are reluctant to give information or provide assistance, but everyone has their breaking point.”

“This is our secret weapon?” a large, thick-necked man asked as if Ellyssa’s presence were a joke.

“I assure you, Trevor, she is quite formidable,” Andrill replied. “Have you heard of the Witch of North Haven?”

Trevor looked at Ellyssa as if he were sizing up a horse before placing a bet. “This slip of a girl?”

“This slip of a girl has killed dozens of slavers, sank their ships, and battled several Academy wizards at once and prevailed. If Faralynn has shown us anything, it is not to judge one’s strength by simple body mass.”

“I hope you are right,” the house leader replied.

Andrill turned his attention back to her. “Ellyssa, this is Trevor, another house leader whom I trust enough to help in this endeavor. Understand this is going to be an enormous operation. We have hundreds of our members poised to strike at nearly every one of Faralynn’s chapter houses. Our job is to take out Faralynn and her wizard. Our targets are always together and currently in a manor a few blocks from here. We know from experience the wizard is able to detect our presence the instant we come near any place in which they are residing. It is probably the biggest factor in our inability to bring Faralynn down.”

“He would definitely have the place warded,” Ellyssa confirmed.

“Precisely, and that is where you come in. We need you to get us past those wards so we can get close enough to strike before kicking the hornet’s nest. Until now, any spies I sent anywhere Faralynn resided were killed before they got near the house. Can you get us closer?”

Ellyssa chewed her lip as she thought. “Most wizards cast wards in layers. A full block is stretching even an alarm ward thin, so it probably won’t be that complex. Unless he is exceptionally masterful, I should be able to breach it without detection. The problem will be the inner wards. Those are bound to be harder, and even if I can dismantle them, doing so without his knowledge could be challenging.”

Andrill nodded as he followed along. “If you can get us up to the doors, it should be sufficient to give us a chance. At that point, your job is to neutralize the wizard before he incinerates us all. Without his interference, we will have a much more level playing field.”

“Faralynn will probably be thinking the same thing and send her wizard after me, so it shouldn’t be too hard to separate the two of them.”

“You have a good head for tactics,” Andrill commended.

“I had a good teacher.”

Trevor interjected, “Our people are in position and waiting on our signal. Best we get ourselves placed as well.”

“Ready?” Andrill asked.

Ellyssa swallowed down her nervousness and twitched her head in an affirmative. Several men and a few women closed ranks behind them as they led the way out of the manor and onto the street. Ellyssa took the lead since no one knew precisely where the boundary to the wizard’s wards lay.

Dark shapes flitted across rooftops and down alleys as the party moved toward Faralynn’s redoubt with as much stealth as nearly a hundred bodies could make. Ellyssa sent very subtle tendrils of detection magic ahead of her in hopes of sensing the ward without alerting its creator.

Andrill warned her in a whisper they were drawing close to Faralynn’s mansion. A moment later, Ellyssa held up a hand, stopping everyone in their tracks. It was a weak ward and easy to disassemble without alerting the wizard who created it. Andrill made a slight motion and a woman in her thirties immediately appeared at his side.

“How many lookouts have we crossed?” Andrill asked the woman.

“Seven,” she answered, “all neutralized.”

They had already killed seven people? Ellyssa never heard a sound, nor had anyone around her given any indication they had known any hostiles were nearby. Yet the only person who appeared the least bit surprised by this information was Ellyssa.

“Ellyssa, we will need to move with a great deal of stealth from here out,” Andrill told her.

They weren’t already? Ellyssa quickly gained a newfound respect for these thieves. They obviously honed their skills every bit as much as she did to the point where it too was almost magical to her thinking.

“Stick near to me and do exactly as I tell you.”

Ellyssa nodded and moved as quietly as she could. Andrill directed her toward shadows looking no different to her from any other stretch of road or walkway. He pointed to where she should step and how to bend her body to conform to whatever they were currently using for concealment.

They stopped before reaching the end of the street opening in front of a long, stone and wrought iron wall. Ellyssa stretched her probing magic out across the street and lightly brushed against the ward surrounding the entire complex.