The Sorcerer's Vengeance: Book 4 of the Sorcerer's Path (34 page)

Aggie laughed along with Wolf and waved as the boy and his wolf disappeared back into the forest. The first thing she noticed as she neared the keep was that it looked more like an armed camp preparing for a siege than the school she had heard about. Men and boys manned the walls wearing armor and carrying swords and crossbows. The gates were kept firmly shut and looked less than inviting of strangers.

“Halt, who are you and what is your purpose!” a large boy of perhaps fifteen called down from his place just above the gate.

Aggie looked up at the beardless youth with a scowl. “I’m an ogre and I have come to eat the children, you big lout! What do you think I want?”

The serious-looking young man turned red. “I don’t know, looking at you I would say someone to pre-chew your food for you!”

He was big but he was sharp, Aggie thought to herself. “I heard you were looking for teachers. I thought I would come and apply for a job.”

“Gods, not arms trainer I hope. Master Ewen is mean enough,” the youth mumbled none too quietly, which got a grin out of Aggie.

The boy motioned to someone on the inside and the sally gate opened to allow her entrance. She walked into the compound and looked in wonder. The only building visible above the walls other than the keep was the Church. She looked in surprise at the blacksmith, fletchers, carpenter shops, and what looked to be billets and other living quarters. Over half the structures were made of solid logs and timber though all had slate or clay roofs.

The other thing that amazed her was the number of children she saw, which she was certain did not nearly represent the whole. She turned towards the sound of battle and saw at least sixty youths in three different groups going through battle drills and arms training. Just then, a bell rang and dozens of book-toting children came running out of several of the log buildings that must have been classrooms and ran into another.

The black tower had at most twenty students from novice to adept and only two or three of them were likely to graduate to full wizard. Maggie focused upon the children with her wizard sight as they scampered about the grounds. She identified at least three dozen children with respectable magical potential.

Aggie strode down the wide avenue that led to the keep. The cobbled street did not lead directly there, it doglegged twice to curve around a few stout, stone buildings, and given the look of their recent construction, she seriously doubted that their placement had been accidental. She noticed that most of the stone buildings inside the expansive walls were built along this one wide avenue. Each was built with a flat roof and sported low crenellations from where archers could set up and wreak havoc on any enemy that got through the gates.

The obvious militancy of this
Orphan’s Academy
gave her serious pause and concern for her children that were likely to arrive soon on the ship they managed to get a berth on in Lesser Langdon’s Crossing. She hoped she had not made the mistake of trading one subservient school for another.

She stepped into the portico of the keep and knocked loudly on the sturdy wood and iron door. After a waiting perhaps a minute, the door swung in and a beautiful young woman holding an equally beautiful baby girl greeted Aggie.

“Good day, madam, I am Colleen, how can I help you?” Colleen asked warmly.

“I heard you were looking for some teachers and hoped I might convince you to take me on. I know I’m not much to look at, but my mind is still sharp and I’m sure I have a few good years left in me,” Aggie told the blond woman.

Colleen gave a kind, soft laugh and made room for the older woman to pass. “You will have to speak with my husband, Franklin, about that, but I am sure we would be most glad to have you. We are so busy, especially since the twins came and I had to set aside my own teachings for a time.”

Colleen led Aggie into the main hall and bade her sit on one of the padded sofa’s that adorned the room.

“So what do you teach—, I’m sorry, I did not catch your name,” Colleen asked.

“Agatha, but most folks call me Aggie.”

“What do you teach, Aggie?”

“Oh I have become a good hand in just about everything over the years. I even have a little skill in the dabbling of magic,” Aggie replied.

“Oh that would be wonderful! We are so short on magus instructors. Rusty will be thrilled to have you. I think I hear them coming down the stairs now. We are just breaking for lunch, you must join us,” Colleen insisted.

Rusty and Allister came down the stairs and into the hall where Colleen and her guest were waiting for them. Colleen and Aggie stood up, the former about to introduce the latter, when Aggie spoke out.

“Hey there, sailor, care to buy a lady a drink?” Aggie called up to them.

Magus Allister’s eyes went wide and nearly fell down the stairs when saw the woman standing below him, but he quickly recovered his composure.

“Sorry, Colleen, does not drink since she is still nursing and I don’t see anyone else around here that would qualify as a lady,” Allister growled.

Aggie smiled at the insult. “I wasn’t talking to you, you old windbag, I was talking to the handsome young hunk next to you that actually looks healthy enough to handle me.”

Rusty’s face burned as red as his hair at being part of the two older people’s verbal sparring.

“By the gods, Aggie, it is you! I thought you were dead by now!” Allister exclaimed as he hurried down the stairs.

Aggie raised her hands above her head and shook her hips. “Far from it tall, grey, and handsome.”

“Uh, you two know each other?” Rusty asked nervously as the old mage embraced the woman.

Allister turned towards Rusty and Colleen, keeping one arm wrapped around Aggie’s trim waist.

“Oh Aggie and I go
way
back,” Allister replied, smiling broadly.

“Don’t tell them how far, Al, a girl has her pride,” Aggie told him with a soft elbow in his side.

“So is she a wizard as well?” Colleen asked.

“One of the best; I taught her everything I know,” Allister answered with a wink.

“And then we made out for the rest of the afternoon. He certainly had nothing to teach me there,” Aggie responded getting a hard laugh from Colleen and sending Rusty’s face back red.

Allister gave the wizard a fake look of irritation. “Despite her low morals and crass personality, she is nearly equal to me when it comes to mage craft.”

 It was Aggie’s turn to look at Allister with a scowl. “I seem to remember being the one that put you out after you set your own robes on fire in class! I would have to have a stroke to be almost your equal, you old windbag.”

“Were you two students at The Academy together?” Rusty asked.

“Hardly, I was his applied magic teacher when he almost burnt down the school trying to impress me,” Aggie told them, this time setting Allister’s ears glowing.

“So other than humiliating me, what brings you here?” Allister asked.

Aggie became more serious as she explained. “I have a number of my more decent children, the ones that were not hopelessly corrupted by those black tower fools, coming in on a ship and I wanted to make sure they would be treated right this time. I couldn’t do much for them at the tower but I’ll be damned if I’ll watch it happen again! Seeing this old windbag here makes me feel a little better about my decision. Seeing the place geared for war had me concerned.”

“I will explain all that later,” Allister said. “So what happened? I take it you broke away from the black tower.”

“More like the tower broke away from me, and everybody else for that matter,” Aggie laughed.

She explained when Allister gave her a quizzical look. “A polite young man came in and cleaned house before demolishing the entire thing. He told most of the students to get to North Haven and check in here. I suspect they will be here in a day or two on a ship I think I heard belonged to the young man that started this place.”

“You saw Azerick? Was he all right? What happened?” they all exclaimed at once.

Aggie lost her humorous smile at that point. “He created quite a stir and some of the archmages got a hold of him, but he got free and let them know in no uncertain terms how he felt about that. He sent the whole tower crashing to the ground, last I saw of him. I am sure he is alive, but is he all right is the real question and that will only be answered in time.”

“Why, what happened to him?” Rusty asked.

“I think that is best left to him to talk about in his own time, young man. I imagine he will be back here soon enough and will need your love and support to keep his spirit bright,” Aggie sincerely told them all.

“He has had a difficult past. We understand he falls into episodes of gloom and bitterness at times if that is what you are speaking of,” Allister told the wizard.

“I am sure he will be fine with friends like this. Someone said something about lunch. Do you have any salami and onions?”

“We need to find you a place to stay,” Colleen said abruptly, not sure where to house the esteemed wizard.

Aggie waved the thought away. “Don’t trouble yourself, sweetheart. I figured I would just shack up with this old goat again, if he thinks he can handle it.”

Allister turned beet red and tried to sputter a reply but failed to form a coherent sentence. Everyone laughed at the archmage’s discomfiture as they all made their way to the kitchens.

CHAPTER
17

Azerick watched the still pouting sand dragon sitting across from him on the other side of the small fire he made from the dry, scrubby plants that often blew across the desert, driven along by the winds like a herd of antelope.

Sandy had not spoken to him since their disagreement earlier that day, preferring to trot alongside or just ahead of Azerick and Horse. The sorcerer was astounded at the little dragon’s stamina. Despite her awkward gait, she never asked to stop and rest and never lagged behind Horse, even at a trot.

“Sandy, I have been thinking about what you said, about your instincts, and I think you may be right. It was unfair of me to judge you so harshly knowing that you are descended of the mightiest predators in the land,” Azerick conceded. “However, you must overcome those instincts at times for the sake of safety and discretion.”

Sandy looked at Azerick through the bright orange flames. “Does that mean you apologize?”

 “Yes,” Azerick replied after a short pause.

“Does that mean I can have a sugar cube?”

“I suppose,” Azerick allowed with a grin.

Sandy drew herself up haughtily. “Very well, even though we sand dragons are the fiercest of our kind and implacable enemies, momma always said that we must be forgiving when someone realizes the errors of his ways and confesses his fault. You may give me a sugar cube now as a token of reparation.”

Azerick was unable to contain his laughter at the little dragon’s hauteur. Great bellows of laughter escaped unimpeded from deep within his belly as he rolled over onto his side holding his stomach.

“Why are you laughing? I am quite serious!” Sandy insisted indignantly. “This is a standard gift for admission of guilt among my kind and you are mocking it! If you do not stop laughing at me, it is going to cost you two sugar cubes and the price of forgiveness goes up from there!”

Sandy’s outrage only caused Azerick to laugh even harder. Sandy stood up and swung her heavy tail into the sand in pique, sending a large spray of sand to wash over the prone sorcerer and nearly extinguished their fire.

Azerick finally got his laughter somewhat under control and pulled out a pair of sugar cubes. He sidled around the dying fire, still chuckling, and gave them to the irritated dragon. Azerick fell asleep chuckling to himself under Sandy’s green-eyed glare.

It took several days of travel before they left the dry desert behind and began approaching Southport from the southeast. The pair avoided roads and traffic as much as possible, but as the terrain began changing the further north they traveled it became more difficult for them to avoid the more heavily traveled roads.

By the time they were within two days ride of Southport, traveling by anything other than the roads was nearly impossible. The land and hills were too thickly wooded and overgrown to try to ride through without tripling their travel time on their way to North Haven.

Fortunately, Sandy found that she was able to burrow into the denser dirt of the northern terrain much like she did the sands she was more accustomed to, albeit with more difficulty. Instead of being able to dive below the earth almost as if it were water as she could do in sand, it took several seconds for her to completely submerge herself beneath the damp soil. Sandy complained bitterly at the slow pace it took to tunnel through the dark earth.

“Ugh, what is this horrible substance,” Sandy complained bitterly the first time she had to hide from an approaching traveler.

“It is called dirt, Sandy.”

“Dirt. The name is as disgusting as its substance.”

Azerick found that Sandy’s amazing burrowing ability lay far beyond just her sharp claws and muscular body. When asked, Sandy replied that she simply makes the dirt or sand move out of the way as she propels herself along with her powerful legs and hard talons. She complained that the dirt was more stubborn and refused to move as quickly as the sand did and was sure it was simply being rude to her.

The pair met a large contingent of the king’s soldiers a little over a day from Southport. The military force was not moving swiftly and Sandy had plenty of time to hide herself.

Azerick and Horse stood patiently off the road as the approaching force drew near. He hoped that they would continue past without bothering him but those hopes were quickly dashed as three men brought their warhorses to a trot and rode up next to him.

“Good day to you, traveler,” one of the men greeted him as they drew near.

Azerick marked him as an officer by his red cape and plumed helmet.

“I am Captain Cooper, an officer under King Jarvin’s standard.”

Azerick inclined his head in greeting. “Good day to you, Captain. You and your men are a little far from home are you not?”