The Sorcerer's Scourge (12 page)

“Griff, how are you?” she asked warily, knowing there was at least one more vampire out there hiding in the darkness.

“Not so good, babe,” Griff wheezed, turned, and fell towards Samone.

Dropping her shield but maintaining her grip on her sword, Samone grabbed Griff and guided his bulk to the floor. It was there, in the light cast by her enchanted shield, that she saw the handle of the knife sticking out of Griff’s chest.

“Hold on, Griff! I got you!” Samone cried out and called to upon Solarian’s aid once more.

Her free hand glowed with healing power. As she lowered it towards Griff’s wound, pain flared through her back and a sword blade erupted from her chest. Despite the horrible wound, Samone dove forward, tucked into a roll, and sprang back up, sword held ready despite her rapidly failing strength.

Eldon stood a few feet away, smiling triumphantly with his bloody blade gripped loosely in his hand. He flicked his blade invitingly at the Paladin who was barely able to keep on her feet much less defend herself.

Landrin sprang out of the dark corridor, slammed Samone into the wall, and pressed himself against her. As he leaned into her, he grabbed her sword in one hand and pulled a vial of holy water from her belt with the other.

“Trust me, my nightingale,” he whispered into her ear.

Eldon approached from behind. “Finally, Landrin! I had almost given up hope for you. Kill her for me. I give her to you.”

Landrin pulled his head back just far enough to look the paladin in the eyes then looked back at Eldon. Samone feebly raised her hand and called upon Solarian’s deliverance. Her holy symbol blazed brightly in her hand, catching Eldon unprepared. The elder vampire reeled back and Landrin lunged, smashing the vial of holy water against his master’s face as the holy aura weakened Eldon’s control over him for just a moment.

Both vampires cried out in pain when the holy water splashed upon them. Landrin ignored the burning and brought Samone’s blade around in a whistling arc, striking Eldon’s head from his shoulders before dropping the sword to the ground as the hilt burned his hand as badly as the holy water had.

Past the blazing pain in his hands, Landrin felt his mind clear as Eldon’s compulsion died along with him. Jacinth felt it as well and stepped out of the shadows, a dagger held before her defensively.

“We’re free now, Landrin,” she said. “Let us feed on the woman and make our own way. You know I have always had strong feelings for you.”

Landrin looked at his ravaged hands then up at Jacinth.

“I have always had strong feeling for you as well,” he replied as she smiled and stepped closer, “hatred, loathing, and disgust being just a few of them.”

Landrin spoke arcane words of power and released a jet of flame at Jacinth, catching and engulfing her completely. She screamed in agony as Landrin stepped after her while she rolled and flailed around in an attempt to smother the fire, but Landrin continued to pour power into the spell until Jacinth was nothing more than a pile of ash with a few bones poking out of it.

He turned back to the paladin still huddling against the wall. “Are you going to be all right?”

Samone managed a nod. “I think so. I was able to heal the injury some. What about you?”

Landrin looked at his hands. The skin on both of them was blistered, blackened, and raw. The pain was unimaginably intense yet he relished such a human sensation.

“Charred but I should recover.”

“You are very lucky. Solarian must still look upon you with a small amount of favor. Touching my sword like that should have destroyed you almost immediately,” Samone informed him. “Perhaps that is why you never went fully over.”

Landrin nodded as he thought about her words. “I have prayed every day since Eldon turned me. I had thought Solarian had abandoned me. Perhaps I just needed to be tested.”

“He tests us all.” Samone looked at Eldon’s body. “He said he had almost given up on you. Have you never killed before?”

Landrin thought back to the night he crawled out of his grave. “Once, the first night I awoke, but he was no innocent. He thought to rob me, to kill me. It still fills me with dread. Ever since then, I have only had what the other brought back. Eldon made me drink their blood. At least now, I can do as I choose. I can choose how to feed or if I wish to exist at all. I will have to think and pray upon it.”

“I am sworn to destroy your kind,” Samone told him.

“I know, and as you well should. There is no place in this world for our kind. We can do nothing but bring pain. Such things should not exist.”

“I lost my dearest friends tonight, but we all gladly give our lives to our service. If not for you, we would have all died and failed our mission. I will allow you to go this one time. Leave the city forever. The next time we meet, I will destroy you.”

Landrin nodded his understanding. “I need a few days to prepare. Perhaps if Solarian has not truly abandoned me, he will give me guidance. Maybe I have fulfilled my role. If such is the case, I might remain here and let you put me to rest.”

Samone stood unsteadily to her feet. “You have three days. I must return with help to recover my comrades. Do not let me see you again, or I will destroy you.”

Samone recovered her sword and shield and walked shakily down the dark passage towards the life-giving light above.

CHAPTER
5

Ellyssa and Roger crouched upon the drop cloth as they painted the wall of the main hall where the water had marred it. Ellyssa spent a good portion of yesterday morning hanging and beating the water out of all the carpets. The rest of the day, she and Roger spent shoveling out the filthy water from the stables.

“It’s not fair you got in trouble,” Ellyssa told Roger for probably the hundredth time in the last two days. “I did it, not you. I’m sorry you got in trouble. Azerick should not punish you for what I did.”

Roger had been hearing Ellyssa’s attempt at relieving her guilt for the past two days and was tired of it. He stuck his brush in the paint and turned on her.

“You still don’t get it do you?” he asked in frustration. “Other than not beating you with a stick, he did exactly what he should have done! You do whatever you please without thinking about what might happen to someone else. Until you learn that your actions can hurt others, you are going to keep on doing what you want. You play with magic as if it is a toy. You have no respect for it or what it can do.”

Ellyssa’s face turned red and her heart raced. Blood pounded in her temples as her anger boiled over.

“I don’t know what magic can do? I’ve been studying magic longer than you and I can kick your butt any day of the week!” she shouted defensively.

“You really think you know more than me?” Roger asked and took several paces back and coaxed the Source into his body as he pulled a few hairs from his head and piece of string from a pouch. “Let’s see what you know. Go on, give me go.”

Ellyssa tore at the Source like a furious swordsman yanking his blade from its scabbard to hew down a foe. Grabbing a component from her own pouch, she shaped the swirling, angry torrent of energy into a spell of significant power. She was so angry that she did not consider what would happen if Roger did not shield himself quickly or strongly enough to block the power of her spell. At this moment, all she wanted to do was show him she was right.

Roger smirked at the girl’s typical overreaction and sent a tiny bit of power through the string and hair in his hand. The brush he had thrust into the bucket of paint flew up and slapped Ellyssa in the face. Blinded, Ellyssa completely lost focus on her spell as she tried to wipe the paint from her eyes. Another trickle of power and the canvas cloth she stood upon leapt up and engulfed her. She looked like a butterfly with just her head emerging from her cocoon.

Roger walked up to her as she glared and fumed over her ignominious defeat. “Being stronger does not mean being more knowledgeable or better.”

Roger grabbed his brush and bucket of paint, gave Ellyssa a small push, and went upstairs to work alone. Ellyssa screeched and flailed about on the floor as she wormed her way out of the canvas. Once free, she leapt to her feet, cleared her eyes, and was about to stalk angrily up the stairs for a rematch when she saw Azerick looking at her from the top of the basement steps.

She opened her mouth but closed it without a sound when Azerick simply shook his head in disappointment and disappeared back down the stairs. All anger left her in that moment. She could handle his anger and even Roger’s victory, but the look of disappointment in Azerick’s eyes was too much. She slumped down with fresh tears washing twin clean streaks through the paint on her face and returned to painting the wall.

***

Brother Thomas released the last of his students for the day. He took a few minutes setting out a few things for services tomorrow before kneeling beneath the big stained glass window for evening prayers.

He thought about his novitiates, particularly his three Chosen. He still could not believe his luck having three Chosen in his church. Especially considering he was barely out of seminary himself. He should have sent at least the three Chosen to seminary in Brightridge long ago, but there had been so much going on with the attack and building the new church.

He sighed as he realized much of that was simply an excuse to keep them with him a while longer. He enjoyed teaching the children, and being amongst the Chosen made him feel a little closer to Solarian. As Thomas knelt and prayed for Solarian’s forgiveness for his selfishness, he felt the warm glow of the sun wash over his back as it streamed through the stylized window set in the lower portion of the steepled roof.

It took only a moment for him to realize this was wrong. Every church of Solarian was built with the golden window facing east to capture the first rays of the morning sun. It was nearly evening and the sun was just setting behind the solid stone wall of his church.

Thomas’s body quivered in fear, excitement, adoration, and a mix of almost every emotion a human being could experience. Unless the church had caught fire, there were only two possible explanations. Either someone was playing a terrible trick on him, or he was being graced with the presence of his god.

“You may look upon me, my faithful servant,” an impossibly powerful and kind voice said to him.

Thomas had to take several deep breaths before he mustered the strength to accept the invitation. When he finally marshaled the courage to look up, he nearly threw himself onto the floor in prostration.  Standing before him was the sun itself if it had taken on the form of a man in resplendent plate armor. He could barely make out the form through its blazing glory.

“Be at ease, Thomas,” Solarian said kindly. “We have much to discuss.”

The amazed priest could only nod his understanding.

“You have done very well. You have fulfilled the task I set upon you and more. However, there is more I would have of you.”

“Command me, My Lord,” Thomas managed to gasp out.

“I sent you a dream to come to North Haven and to build a church and you did. I sent you three Chosen to care for and teach, and you did. Three children who knew almost nothing of me I set above nearly all other, yet never did you ask why. Never did you question why three homeless children were Chosen and not you.”

“Such things are not for me to question, Your Luminescence. I swore to follow and obey, not to question,” Brother Thomas answered dutifully.

Solarian gave a deep chuckle. “Yet so many have questioned. There is a great darkness spreading over the land. An evil beyond imagining is coming and those that follow the light must be prepared. Now is your time to rise to the occasion.”