The Sorcerer's Legacy (9 page)

Jarvin sighed and nodded. “Forgive me. This is all most distressing. Please have your priests remind the people that I am born of a man and a woman just as they are and my father was the king before me. That is all the legitimacy I and the land require.”

“Of course, Your Majesty,” the Bishop replied.

“Tell me what the Church is doing to combat this undead issue and what can I do to assist?”

“I have sent as many priests out as I can spare to consecrate the cemeteries. I have also sent out teams of Solarian’s Light to the most affected areas to lay any undead back to rest. Unfortunately, there are more burial sites than I have priests, and even fewer of Solarian’s Light, so it will take some time.”

Jarvin nodded and turned to the magus. “Magus, can you petition The Academy to send wizards to help the Church put down any undead uprisings?”

“I will certainly send the request but the ranks of at the Academy are rather thin. The war with Sumara has devastated their ranks to the point it could take decades at the very least to recover a shadow of their former numbers.”

“Do what you can and tell them that any help is greatly appreciated. It is bad enough I am plagued with usurpers, I don’t need my people living in fear of something like this as well.”

***

Ellyssa sat under the piercing glare of her master. Azerick paced back and forth, putting his thoughts in order while his apprentice stewed miserably in her seat. When he had first taken her in, he thought he had a bright but shy little girl. That façade crumbled as she became comfortable with him and her new surroundings. She was certainly bright, but she was about as shy as thunderstorm. Precocious did not begin to describe her character.

Azerick stopped his pacing and faced his young pupil. “Tell me what you did wrong.”

Ellyssa though for a moment then answered. “I mixed up the sigil for ice with fire,” she answered with a nervous grin.

Azerick did not return her smile.

“Try again,” he told her crossly.

“I used magic without you being present.”

“And.”

“And I set a tree on fire,” she replied miserably.

“And,” Azerick prompted again.

“I made Wolf clean. But he needed it, he was filthy like always and he smelled bad and he teased me so he deserved it!” she spouted.

Azerick shook his head. “No, but close. You let your temper rule your actions. You reacted out of anger, not out of need or with wisdom. Do you see that now?”

“Yes, Master Azerick.”

She only replied with his title when she knew he was cross with her and she was in trouble, otherwise neither one of them bothered with the honorific.

“You are restricted to the tower for one week and you will write the
ten fundamentals of wizardry
twenty times, and you will do it on your own time, not during class,” Azerick informed her.

Ellyssa’s face turned red. “I’m grounded for a week
and
I have to write the fundamentals? That’s not fair!”

“Perhaps you are right,” Azerick agreed and thought about the punishment. “The punishment is a bit unbalanced considering the full potential for disaster. You will also help Grick catch rats for the next two weeks seeing as you have an overabundance of time and energy.”

“Catch rats! I hate rats and who in the burning abyss is Grick?” she shouted.

“Watch your language, young lady, or it will be a month and Grick is the goblin I hired earlier today to take care of our rat problem.”

“I can’t believe you are going to make me hunt rats, and with a goblin. That is so gross.”

Azerick glared down at his protégé. “It took every man I had working on the keep the rest of the day to put out the fire that you started. Would you like to go and talk to those men about what is fair?”

Ellyssa shook her head.

“Most of them advised me to take a strap to you. That is what they thought would be fair.”

“Fine, I’ll hunt stupid rats with the stupid goblin, but if he eats me you’ll be sorry!”

“Perhaps in time, but not right at this moment,” Azerick replied, eliciting a gasp of shock from his pupil.

Azerick introduced Ellyssa to the rat catcher just after dinner. Ellyssa did not attempt to hide her disgust as she sat across the table from the goblin as they ate. Azerick explained that she was to follow Grick around for two hours each night for the next two weeks. Grick led the girl down the stairs and into the basement level.

They stopped at the foot of the stairs where Grick handed her a lit oil lamp and a wooden rod about three feet long.

“What’s the stick for?” Ellyssa asked brusquely.

“It for whacking rats,” he said, giving the ground a good smack in demonstration.

“Ew gross, I’m not going to hit a rat with a stick!” she complained loudly.

“You rather stomp on rats, maybe ruin pretty shoes?” Grick asked.

“Fine, I’ll use the stick but you better not try to eat me. I’m a wizard too you know,” she warned Grick.

“Pfft, you no wizard, you little girl, read books, set tree on fire,” Grick replied, dismissing her threat.

“How’d you know about the tree?” Ellyssa demanded to know.

“People talk, Grick listen. Nobody pays attention to little goblins.”

“You still better watch out. If I can set a tree on fire you bet I can set a goblin on fire too so you just better not try anything or else!”

“I not eat rotten little girls. Too stringy and meat probably sour.”

“I bet I taste better than a smelly little goblin!” she shouted defensively. “Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice. What are goblins made out of, dead skunks and gopher guts?”

“Goblins made out of rotten little children who don’t behave. A woods fairy fly through window, make you sleep with magic, then burry you under rotten tree stump where you wake up as goblin,” Grick told her seriously.

“Nuh-uh, you just made that up.”

Grick shook his head. “No, it true. Why you think goblins live in holes in ground. Grick was little boy right here in North Haven. He never did chores or what parents told him and always talked back. One day, he throw horse dung at rich lady in white dress for fun. Grick run fast so no get caught, but woods fairy know and takes him away that night. He say he was sorry but it too late,” Grick finished with a sniffle.

“You don’t think the woods fairy will come for me tonight do you? I wasn’t that bad and I said I was sorry,” Ellyssa asked nervously.

“No, fairy no come this time,” Grick leaned towards her and gave her a sniff. “But you getting pretty rotten. You gots maybe one or two more chances. Depend on how bad you are.”

“I’ll kill rats and I’ll write my lessons, I promise, and I won’t use magic again without permission!”

“That good, maybe not too late for you like too late for poor Grick. Come, I see rat.”

Grick led Ellyssa deeper into the basement rooms, which were quite extensive. They spread out to cover a considerably greater area than the tower and keep section above. Some of the timbers had gotten sodden and crumbled over the ages and would need to be replaced, but most of the rooms were still sound, having been protected from the elements by the ground and structures above.

Grick shined the bulls-eye lantern on a rat that ran along the wall just ahead. “There rat, go whack it!”

Ellyssa darted after the fleeing rat, and with a small squeal of distaste, brought her wooden rod down on the vermin’s back. The rat began flailing about and screeching in a high-pitched wail of pain.

“It’s not dead! What do I do now?” she cried, putting her hands over her ears.

“Whack it again!” Grick ordered.

With another shout of revulsion, she brought the stick down on the rat again and again until it stopped moving and ceased its wailing. Ellyssa had tears in her eyes as Grick stepped up and dropped the dead rat into the large burlap bag he carried.

“You do ok. Next time you hit rat harder,” the goblin advised.

Grick had set out some food earlier that day in hopes of drawing the creatures out. His bait was proving effective and it did not take long to find more rats.

Grick directed the light of his lantern at another of the creatures. “There, this time you hit hard.”

Ellyssa followed the goblin’s advice and put all her might into the swing against the next rat. Entrails burst out of the slain creature’s side and spattered onto her shoes and small droplets of blood speckled her face.

“Oh gross!” she shrieked.

“You whack that one too hard,” Grick pointed out unnecessarily.

“Ew, it’s on my shoe!” Ellyssa moaned.

“That ok, you gots lots of time to get it right,” Grick reassured her.

Ellyssa rolled her big hazel eyes. “Oh thanks, that makes me feel a lot better.”

“You welcome,” Grick replied with a sly grin.

By the time her duty was over, the burlap bag was heavy with slain rats. Grick made her go dump it outside the wall before she went to her room and spent the next hour writing out the
ten fundamentals of wizardry.

Her fingers covered in ink, she went downstairs to the bath chamber where an iron bathtub stood a few inches over the floor on iron feet. She made sure the plug was in the bathtub and pulled a on a chain that dangled down from a large metal pipe jutting down from the ceiling. The pipe led to a large wooden water tank built above the main room of the keep. The top of the water tank had a roof that shaped like a flattened funnel so it could capture the rainfall and fill the tank. Since it was not the rainy season, dozens of laborers spent nearly a week filling up the reservoir with buckets using the large well in the courtyard.

The chain was attached to a lever that opened a valve in the pipe. The opened valve released a torrent of water, which quickly filled the tub. Ellyssa removed the lid that covered the large pan built into the floor filled with a slow burning oil and lit it with a long candle. The oil flared to life and began its job of heating the water with its orange and blue flames.

Since she was not that big, she only filled the tub up about halfway and it did not take long for the flames to heat the water to a comfortable temperature. Ellyssa stayed in tub until after it was time for her to go to bed, scrubbing her skin until it turned red in an effort to remove icky taint of rat smashing.

As if rebuilding the tower and teaching his apprentice magic were not enough work, Azerick had to play parent to a willful child. He wondered if he had made the right choice. Had he simply destroyed the spirit, he would have nothing to do but direct the workers and pursue his own studies. He would not have to care for anyone else—no responsibilities, no worries, and no punishments. He would have no one, and that made him realize that although it was not the easy decision, he made the right decision.

Between dealing with the child, preparing his vault, and casting the teleport spell, Azerick was exhausted. He needed to go into the city tomorrow and visit the minister of labor now that he could afford to hire more workers.

As lovely a city as North Haven was, every visit reminded him why he chose to live in a decrepit tower miles away.

“Ah, Master Giles, so good to see you again,” Lord Randall beamed as he stepped out of his office upon being notified by his secretary that the sorcerer had returned.