The Sorcerer's Scourge (42 page)

“It is the loss of your advantage, Bishop,” Azerick replied coldly. “These things are living flesh and blood, and your clerics will be of no more use against them than they would any other mortal creature. We have to join our forces. Do you think this is the only place this is happening?”

“What do you mean?”

“You saw the mists come. You saw it wash over you and you can bet it continued through the pass and over the mountains. How far do you think it went? North Haven, Brelland, Brightridge? It could have traveled all the way to the southern tip of Sumara for all we know, and it is raising these dead everywhere it touches.”

“Gods above, could it be?” the priest whispered in fright. “Very well. I will do as you say, but our alliance shall stand only as long as these creatures threaten the realm. There will be a reckoning, Jarvin. You will not sit the throne whilst I draw breath.”

“Glad to know we are in agreement,” the King coldly responded.

The Bishop nodded. “I can commune with my head clergy from here and shall issue the order. I will need only a moment undisturbed.”

The Bishop bowed his head for several moments then looked up. “It is done. My people are fighting their way here. Those things. My colleague told me hundreds of them struck our lines, targeting those of my order. We lost two Chosen to them before they could affect a new defense.”

“Whoever is controlling them knows that your priests pose the greatest obstacle to the undead and likely created these
ragmen
, as a friend of mine called them, to kill them,” Azerick surmised.

“Can we stop them all?”

“We have to, or all of Valeria may be lost.”

CHAPTER
17

Ellyssa stood in the training pit wearing her black and purple robes just as she had every day for the past two weeks. Misha had furnished her with a spell book and taken her to the training pit to test her abilities and put her through training exercises that consisted of launching spells at targets or testing her magical strength against some of the other wizards.

It was not unusual for her training sessions to last twelve hours or more. When she lacked the strength to form even the simplest of spells, Misha would give her a series of mundane tasks. Most of them were mental exercises such as puzzle solving and complex mathematical equations that she said exercised and strengthened her mind.

Sometimes she was posed with a series of riddles or simply given orders to complete tedious tasks such as carrying buckets of water across the training pit, emptying them into other buckets, and repeating it for hours on end. Failure to obey or complete any task as quickly as the chain mistress deemed appropriate resulted in excruciating pain.

She hated the thought of being a slave, but it could have been worse. In the beginning, she had resisted any command anyone gave her, but that only resulted in her chain mistress punishing her until she complied. Ellyssa quickly learned that it was far better to swallow her pride and do as she was told. She lived in a nice enough room and ate well when she obeyed. As long as she performed well, her only pain and exhaustion came from the tasks themselves.

She was certain that she only needed to make do until Azerick returned and came to her rescue. Every day, she fantasized about his coming for her. On the days that Misha punished her, he came in blasting holes in the palace walls and struck down Misha and Vali Mushadan. Other times, he simply stepped out of one his magical gates and whisked her away back to the school where she could be with her friends.

Ellyssa missed Roger, Wolf, and Sandy. She knew she aggravated them sometimes, but they were her best friends. She had other friends as well and she missed them all. No one was friends here. The mages rarely talked to each other unless it was about magic, and the other servants and slaves did not talk to the wizards at all unless asked a question or given a command.

Curiosity mingled with dread as Misha strode onto the pit floor pushing a man ahead of her. She cut the cords binding the man’s hands together then dropped the knife at his feet.

“What is going on?” Ellyssa asked.

“It is time to raise your training to a new level,” Misha replied emotionlessly. “He is going to try to kill you. If he succeeds, he will go free.”

“You want me to stop him?”

“I want you to kill him.”

Ellyssa had killed before, but that was in defense of her home against soldiers and the slavers trying to capture her. This was different. This was contrived. This man did not want to kill her any more than she wanted to be a prisoner, or so she thought.

“I won’t do it!”

“Yes you will. You will kill or you will die. You will do as you are told or you will die.”

Ellyssa whipped her head back and forth. “No, you won’t let me die. You want me for my power.”

Misha folded her arms. “Your power is useless if you will not obey without question and without hesitation. I will break you or I will kill you. You should know that I have never failed to break someone. I was His Greatness’s first wizard and I broke nearly all of the others. You will be no different.” Misha nodded to the man and the dagger at the man’s feet. “Pick it up and kill her. Succeed and you shall go free and your crimes forgiven.”

The man cautiously retrieved the blade from the sand and looked from it to the chain mistress. She gave him a barely perceptible nod and he turned his gaze to the young girl standing a few yards away.

“Sorry, kid,” the man said as he advanced on her.

At first, Ellyssa thought the man was apologizing for having to kill an eleven-year-old girl. It took only a moment for her to realize that he was apologizing for her having to kill him. He obviously recognized the robes she wore and knew her to be a wizard. He knew that the Vila would sacrifice a hundred commoners like him for the chance to add another mage to his ranks. He likely knew that even a young mage was capable of lethal magic and that Misha would never allow him to kill her even if he got the chance despite what she had said.

As he took several cautious steps towards her, Ellyssa could tell that was not going to keep him from trying. Ellyssa called to the Source and immediately felt the reassurance of its eager reply. She channeled the magic into the air around her just as she had in the alley. A vortex of spinning wind and sand interposed itself between her and the man fighting for his freedom and chance at life—albeit a very small one.

He attempted to shield his nose and eyes from the stinging grit her spell whipped about with enough force to scour away at least a few layers of skin and sprinted off to the right in hopes of evading the blasting wind and sand. Ellyssa channeled and directed the flow of energy that kept the vortex alive and kept it between herself and her foe. The man tried to bull his way through it, but a shift in the energy sent a gust of wind into him hard enough to knock him to the ground.

“What are you doing, child?” Misha called out. “The more strength you expend in prolonging this battle the weaker you become. Do you want this man, this criminal, to kill you? He has killed others, you know. You avoid killing him out of some misguided sense of morality. Do you think he struggles with that same emotion? I assure you, he does not.”

Ellyssa tried to ignore the woman, but she knew she was right. At least the part about wasting her strength. It took far more energy to sustain a spell than it did to call, shape, and release it. This single spell was already fatiguing her, and she knew she could not keep it up much longer. If she held it as long as she could, she would have no strength to cast another. At least nothing that would kill him.

In that moment, Ellyssa knew Misha had won. She knew she would have to kill this man and it sickened her. She had heard a few bits and pieces of what Azerick had gone through in the hands of the mind reapers, but not until now was she fully able to understand how that had felt, and how it must have affected him.

With tears of anger and sadness in her eyes, Ellyssa dropped the spell. The man immediately sprinted towards her, his knife held low in preparation to strike, but Ellyssa was already channeling the energy for another spell. She raised her hand over and behind her head then flung it forward.

A line of sand formed behind her and launched forward like a whip, but instead of snapping and lashing the man that charged her, it hardened into a long spear of sandstone. The man met the spear at a run at nearly the same instant it solidified and impaled himself upon it. The long shaft held him upright as the far end fell and braced against the ground. Then the stone reverted back to sand and he fell face first to the floor.

Misha clapped and crowed with the most enthusiasm Ellyssa had ever seen from the woman. “Well done, child! What an incredibly clever spell. Ordinarily, I would punish you for resisting me, but that was so amusing I think I will simply let you punish yourself with guilt. Do not worry, I will train that annoying trait from you soon enough. I always do.”

The chain mistress left Ellyssa alone in her room; the day’s training at an end. She wept for what seemed like hours before a servant brought a tray of food to her since she had chosen not to go to dinner. The food was as rich and delectable as always, but what little bit she could force herself to eat tasted like ashes in her mouth. As she picked at a few pieces of fruit and vegetables, the thought of eating meat made her nearly vomit, she thought of Azerick.

She figured he and the army should have reached End’s Run at least a week ago. Had the battle already begun? Was it over? Was he already on his way home? It would take about two weeks to return to North Haven. How long would it take him to find out where she was? Would he even be able to since Misha destroyed the pendant? Assuming he could still trace her, it would take nearly three weeks to get here by ship. If he left right away.

Would he bother? She had been nothing but trouble this past year or two. She knew he thought of her much like his own daughter, but Miranda was pregnant now. Soon he would have a real child of his own to worry about. Would he risk himself just for her when he had a real family to care for now?

Of course he would. He loved her. He loved all of them even though he did not like to show it. Maybe he did not know how to show it. Ellyssa could already feel how having to kill someone affected her. She tried to imagine what it would feel like magnified several fold. She would have to learn to shut down her emotions or the pain and sorrow of what she was forced to do would drive her mad. This was what Azerick had worked so hard to protect her and the others from ever having to experience, and she threw it back in his face. She had let him down. Maybe she was better off if he did not come. Maybe this was where she belonged.

Self-pity was an exhausting emotion and she finally fell into a sleep filled with nightmares. The gnawing of her belly woke her the next morning, but she found she still had no appetite. She managed to drink a glass of juice and simply waited for Misha to come get her for the day’s training. It was nearly an hour before her chain mistress arrived and took her to the training pit.

“You have skipped two meals. I recommend that you do not allow your despondency to affect your appetite. You will need all the nourishment you can get as your training advances. It is fortunate that today you should not find it nearly as taxing as yesterday.”

That was good. Ellyssa had not slept well and had come far short of replacing the energy she had expended killing the prisoner yesterday. It sounded like today was going to be spent practicing forms, or maybe some simple target practice.

Misha deposited her on the pit floor once again then disappeared. Ellyssa’s stomach dropped when she emerged a few minutes later with another bound prisoner. She forced the man to his knees then stepped away. This time there was no sign of a knife or any other weapon. She had not even cut the ties binding his wrists.

“We know you will kill to defend yourself. Most anyone will. Now you will learn to kill out of duty. I command you to kill this man.”

Ellyssa’s mouth gaped open as she tried to form words of protest. This was not a battle it was an execution. It was pure and simple murder. The difference between defending herself and this was a world apart. This went beyond cruel. It was sadistic, and she knew there would be no coming back. If she did this, she was broken. Misha will have won and she would be lost. Maybe forever.