The Sorcerer's Scourge (43 page)

“No.”

“What was that?”

“I said no!” Ellyssa screamed. “I will not murder! You want me to defend the Vila, I will. You want me to fight in some battle somewhere, I will. But I will not murder! Not like this!”

“You still resist. You still disobey. Don’t you understand yet? The more you disobey, the more I must punish you and the longer your training will take. You will kill this man today. Tomorrow you will kill another and another until you can do whatever you are told without thought or hesitation.”

Misha sent a wave of pain through the link that connected them. Ellyssa instantly fell to the ground; writhing in so much agony that she could not even form a scream. It felt like her blood was on fire and thousands of long needles were piercing her flesh. After what seemed an eternity, the pain stopped and Ellyssa lay gasping for breath upon the ground.

“Kill him.”

Ellyssa shook her head defiantly. “Never.”

The pain flared once again, and this time Ellyssa did manage a scream. On and on she screamed. She never realized how much air her lungs could hold and for how long she could continue a scream without drawing a breath. Her throat was raw and her lungs burned and demanded air, but still she screamed. When the pain finally stopped, she wept and gasped for breath as her muscles continued to convulse.

The dirt and sand clung to her face, her tears and saliva acting as an adhesive until her body produced more and washed it away. She sobbed so hard that she lost what little food had been in her stomach.

“How long do I have to punish you? How much pain must you endure to assuage your conscience before you kill him? We both know you will kill him. You only force me to hurt you so that when you do, you can feel better about yourself in the end. You can then convince yourself that you had done everything you could to prevent his death. Do you think he cares how you feel about yourself after you kill him? Of course not. So why put yourself through all this nonsense? It serves no purpose.”

Ellyssa knew she was right and hated her for it. Hated herself for it. She slowly picked herself up from the ground and stood on shaking legs. She turned and faced the man still on his knees. He began to shake and sob as he beheld the death that stared at him through the young girl’s eyes.

“No, please I have a family! I didn’t do anything wrong! Please!”

Ellyssa channeled the Source and raised her hands. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

She could barely call out the words of the spell and form the weave past her own quavering voice and shaking hands. She pulled in her concentration, shut down her emotions as best she could, and struck the man down with a stroke of lightning. The clap of thunder it produced seemed to echo in her ears long after the sound dissipated.

“Very good, child. But you resisted, disobeyed. Worst yet, you apologized.” Misha sent a fresh wave of agony through the link. “Never apologize.”

Another wizard slave stepped into the pit and whispered something to Misha. Misha ceased Ellyssa’s punishment as she listened to the message. The man turned and walked away.

“Stand up and dust yourself off. Something occurs outside the gates and I wish you too observe with me.”

Ellyssa took one last look at the body that lay smoking upon the pit floor. Whatever hope or desire to resist had died with that man in the pit. Ellyssa did as she was bid and numbly followed the wizard from the pit. Thankfully, Misha sent for a palanquin as Ellyssa was barely able to walk from the pit as they made their way into the city and towards the high wall that surrounded it.

***

“There it is!” Wolf shouted. “It looks like it’s headed to that city.”

Sandy twisted her head around and looked at Wolf. “I know. I can see better than you, you know. My tail can see better than you can!”

“Yeah, well it also thinks better than your head!”

“You’re pretty mouthy for a creature this high up and don’t have wings.”

“What’s your point?” Wolf demanded.

“My point is that is a long drop.”

“That’s a good point. See if you can land behind that dune to the east without killing us.”

“Hey! My last few landings were just fine!” Sandy exclaimed.

“I’m not complaining. The deer paste was delicious.”

“I crushed one antelope on my first try! Let it go already!”

Sandy veered to the east before they got too close to the city and landed almost gracefully behind a large sand dune. Wolf could just make out the metal behemoth trudging towards the city, certain to gain the attention of the men guarding the walls within the next few minutes. Several people outside the city had already seen the construct and gave it a very wide berth.

“Ok. I seriously doubt they are just going to let that thing stroll into the city. Ghost and I will run up to the gates and duck inside when that thing distracts everyone. I’ll find Ellyssa and bring her back here. Can you carry both of us?”

Sandy swung her big head left and right. “No way. I have a hard enough time getting off the ground with just you on my back.”

“Hm. Ok. You carry her to Langdon’s Crossing and come back for me. If needs be, you can keep hopping us one at a time back to the school.”

“So I basically get to fly to North Haven twice? Hooray for me!” Sandy said sarcastically.

“First of all, you need the exercise. Secondly, it would be like four times. Don’t forget, you have to go back each time for the other person as well as fly us both to North Haven. You know, for claiming to be this super smart dragon, you are really bad at math.”

“What would a wild little savage like you know about math?” Sandy demanded to know.

“It’s just like our eating contest. You eating fifty pounds of food is like me eating five pounds of food because you weigh ten times more than me! You lost by virtue our differential mass!”

“That was not the bet! The bet was that I could eat more than you could. Period!”

“It was implied!” Wolf insisted vehemently.

“You just cannot let anything go, can you?”

“Sure I can. I let you go and eat yourself round didn’t I?”

“That’s it! You think I eat a lot? How about I eat you next?” Sandy said, showing her sharp teeth.

Wolf scoffed, “Yeah, like you would eat someone.”

“I have before.”

“When have you ever eaten a person?” Wolf demanded to know.

“When those people attacked the school and got into the tower.”

“You did not eat anyone, you big liar!”

“I bit a guy and I tasted it so it counts.”

Wolf’s face twisted in a look of disgust. “How did it taste?”

“It was bad. It was really bad. If any of those stories about dragons eating people are true, I’m almost positive it was to either prove a point or they had lost a bet. There is no way you could acquire a taste for that. People are just gross.”

“Ok. I can’t let things go, you’re fat, and people are gross. None of that gets Ellyssa out. Maybe Ellyssa and I can get a boat in Langdon’s crossing to take us north. Azerick owns like half the ships sailing the ocean. There’s bound to be one somewhere close by.”

“Fine, but be careful and don’t get caught. How are you going to find her anyway?”

Wolf thought for a moment. “I have no idea. Maybe Ghost can get whiff of her. Besides, she’s a wizard. There aren’t too many people that could hold her. She might be loose right now running amok in the city. I’m surprised the whole place isn’t burned down already. Look at how much damage she causes on accident. Could you imagine what she could do if she was mad?”

“So what do I do?”

“Just hide here in the sand until I get back.”

“I can definitely do that,” Sandy said, groaning in delight as she sank beneath the sand. “Oh, sand, how I have missed you.”

Wolf and Ghost loped across the hot sands until they reached the northeastern corner of the wall. They then kept to the shadow at the base and crept towards the northern gate. Wolf and Ghost reached the gate at almost the same instant the guards on the inside started pouring out. A dozen men and women thundered out to meet the oncoming juggernaut that was about a half-mile away and closing quickly.

Eight horsemen whirled stout ropes over their heads as they approached the golem, hoping to capture the construct intact so that the wizards could study it and possibly gain control over it. It would make a fine prize for His Greatness. The Sumaran were fantastic riders and flung their lassos with a practiced hand.

Two of the corded loops dropped over the golem’s thick head while two captured its right arm and one snagged its left. The others either missed or were fouled by the ones that had landed. The Sumarans tragically underestimated the strength and the speed of the golem. Its movements were neither slow nor ponderous. The golem jerked its right arm inward as the riders backed their horses up to put tension on the ropes. It was a fatal mistake.

The awesome strength of the construct pulled both riders and horses to the ground with contemptible ease. It lashed out with the arm ending in a massive sword, easily severing the other three ropes. The metal monstrosity charged one of the fallen men and cleaved him in half with a single stroke. Seeing that the construct would not be easily subdued, the wizards launched a flurry of fire, lightning, and strikes of arcane power against it, but the wards Azerick had woven into the creature were strong and it shrugged off the magical attacks with little apparent harm.

The golem charged the other fallen man who was desperately trying to regain his saddle. He had just gained his seat when the golem reached him and swung with a powerful overhand chop. Desperate to avoid the blow, the man leaned back in the saddle while trying to spur his mount into a gallop. He was too slow. By avoiding the blow, the blade whisked by in front of him, narrowly missing his head and cut through saddle, legs, and horse with one fell swipe.

The golem immediately spun towards the wizards and charged with a speed that nearly matched that of the mages’ horses for a short distance. Although the horses were slightly faster and able to maintain their speed better than the construct, they would eventually tire and the golem would not. If the mages failed to bring the golem down quickly, it could very well defeat their small party and cause an untold amount of damage before a larger group of wizards could destroy it.

The soldiers fired arrows at the golem to regain its attention while the wizards spread apart. It was now a game of cat and mouse, cat and mice actually, as the golem chased the harassing humans who used every bit of their skill and luck to avoid the creature’s devastating blows.

“Keep it occupied and away from us!”
Bheram
shouted to the soldiers as they tried to remain out of reach of the unstoppable killing-machine. He then told his fellows, “We must work an unbinding.”

The other three mages nodded and began performing the unbinding magic. Even working together, Azerick’s skill and the magic he used in its construction were very formidable and the mages struggled to unravel the magical weavings that held the creature together and gave it a semblance of life.

Another guard failed to avoid a charge and he and his mount fell prey to the merciless and emotionless swinging blade. A loud shrieking of protesting steel rang out across the landscape as the four wizards finally managed to pierce the golem’s magical defenses. It shuddered as the wizards pulled at the strands of magic holding it together thread by thread. Another squeal of metal, sounding almost like a cry of pain, rang out as chunks of steel fell to the sand. In another few moments, it was over.

Wolf darted inside the gates, not bothering to watch the battle unfold. It was too far away to see much anyway. He was wondering how he would ever find Ellyssa in a city this crowded and chaotic when he spotted her atop the wall standing next to a woman in matching robes.